noon of the Wednesday
before Christmas
`` We 'll ask grandmother to let us have the car to go and get her ; it 's so much more fun than the train , '' proposed Ethel Brown . `` Um , glorious . '' The attic rang with the Ethels ' delight -- at which they looked back afterwards with some wonder . The Rosemont schools closed for the holidays at noon of the Wednesday before Christmas , so all the Mortons and Dorothy were free to avail themselves of Mrs. Emerson 's offer of her car to bring Katharine from Hoboken . It was a pleasant custom of the family to regard any guests as belonging not to one or another member in particular but to all of them . All felt a responsibility for the guest 's happiness and all shared in any amusement that he or she might give . According to this custom , not the Ethels alone went to meet Katharine , but Helen and Roger and Dorothy , too .