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Our time was limited because I wished to get back to the baby before the afternoon raids. We couldn't find Happy's leash, and had to lead him away on a piece of string. We were followed by Germaine's other dogs and our cats, and had to chase them back again. Mrs. Clift was greatly relieved when we returned and gave me a cup of cocoa. Sunday morning Mr. Spence gave us a talk on the 23rd Psalm. It had been a theme Psalm to us and here it came again. "The Lord is my Shepherd." A few days before Christmas, I went out before the early bombing and got from a neighboring flower garden two pots of poinsettias and a potted Christmas tree. The children cut white paper and made white paper chains for the tree, and a white star, and we had a few pencils and pictures which we wrapped in white paper so that there was a present for everyone. I had brought a doll for Molly from Felix Villas-also a new dress for the baby and a toy piano for Celene and had pulled Clyde's teddy out of a hole in a trunk to surprise him. Mr. Spence bought a doll for Celene and a small car for Clyde when he was down town, so we didn't lack for presents. Early Christmas morning, we went outside Mrs. Clift's door and sang "While Shepherds watched their flocks by night." Our Christmas dinner was rice, bean curd, salt fish and for a very special treat, a spoonful of mince meat from a jar that Ma Lien Ching brought from the refrigerator at Felix Villas. The troops had helped themselves to the rest and I was glad of it. There were no facilities for making pies, but we ate the mince with a spoon. That afternoon there had been a long pause in the firing. Late in the afternoon Ma came in to say we had surrendered. He was in ordinary clothes. He had been ordered by his head Chinese warden to change. They had dropped their uniforms in a lorry.
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