大学英语精读-1 Unit Five: A Miserable，Merry Christmas -2

Only my stocking was empty; it hung limp; not a thing in it; and under and around it -- nothing.

My sisters had knelt down, each by her pile of gifts; they were crying with delight, till they looked up and saw me standing there looking so miserable.

They came over to me and felt my stocking: nothing.

I don't remember whether I cried at that moment, but my sisters did.

They ran with me back to my bed, and there we all cried till I became indignant.

That helped some. I got up, dressed, and driving my sisters away, I went out alone into the stable, and there, all by myself, I wept.

My mother came out to me and she tried to comfort me.

But I wanted no comfort. She left me and went on into the house with sharp words for my father.

My sisters came to me, and I was rude. I ran away from them. I went around to the front of the house, sat down on the steps, and, the crying over, I ached. I was wronged, I was hurt.

And my father must have been hurt, too, a little. I saw him looking out of the window.

He was watching me or something for an hour or two, drawing back the curtain so little lest I catch him, but I saw his face, and I think I can see now the anxiety upon on it, the worried impatience.

After an hour or two, I caught sight of a man riding a pony down the street, a pony and a brand-new saddle; the most beautiful saddle I ever saw, and it was a boy's saddle.

And the pony! As he drew near, I saw that the pony was really a small horse, with a black mane and tail, and one white foot and a white star on his forehead.