Chapter 1 A MISERABLE¹ CHRISTMAS
'I do think these Christmas holidays have been the worst we've ever had,' said Dick.
'Jolly bad luck on old George, coming to stay with us for Christmas - and then us all going down withthose awful colds and coughs,' said Julian.
'Yes - and being in bed on Christmas Day was horrible,' said George. 'The worst of it was I couldn'teat anything. Fancy not being hungry on Christmas Day! I never thought that would happen to me!'
'Timmy was the only one of us who didn't get ill,' said Anne, patting him. 'You were a pet, Tim, whenwe were in bed. You divided your time between us nicely.'
'Woof!' said Timmy, rather solemnly. He hadn't been at all happy this Christmas. To have four of thefive in bed, coughing and sneezing, was quite unheard of!
'Well, anyhow, we're all up again,' said Dick. 'Though my legs don't really feel as if they belong tome yet!'
'Oh - do yours feel like that too?' asked George. 'I was quite worried about mine!'
'We all feel the same,' said Julian, 'but we shall be quite different in a day or two - now we're up.
Anyway - we go back to school next week - so we'd better feel all right!'
Everyone groaned³ - and then coughed. 'That's the worst of this germ we've had, whatever it is,'
said George. 'If we laugh - or speak loudly - or groan² - we start coughing. I shall go completely madif I don't get rid of my cough. It keeps me awake for hours at night!'
Anne went to the window. 'It's been snowing again,' she said. 'Not much - but it looks lovely. Tothink we might have been out in it all last week. I do think it's too bad to have holidays like this.'
George joined her at the window. A car drew up outside and a burly, merry-looking man got out andhurried up the steps to the front door.
'Here's the doctor,' said Anne. 'I bet he'll say we're all quite all right to go back to school next week!'
In a minute or two the door opened and the doctor came into the room, with the mother of Julian,Dick and Anne. She looked tired - and no wonder! Looking after four ill children and a mostmiserable dog over Christmas had not been an easy job!
2'Well, here they are - all up and about now!' said Mrs. Barnard. 'They look pretty down in the mouth,don't they?'
'Oh - they'll soon perk⁴ up,' said Dr. Drew, sitting down and looking at each of the four in turn.
'George looks the worst - not so strong as the others, I suppose.'

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