A Place to Hang the Moon

In December, the WVS holds a clothing swap so the growing evacuee and village children can get clothes that fit. Miss Carr also announces that the evacuees will put on a Nativity Play for the town as a goodwill gesture. Edmund is cast as the star, Anna as an angel, and William as a shepherd, even though Frances wanted them to play Mary and Joseph.

The siblings continue to spend their afternoons in the library next to the fire, which is preferable to their straw pallets and threadbare blankets in Mrs. Griffith’s frigid house. Soon after the clothing swap, Anna discovers she caught nits from her new coat. She starts crying, ashamed, although William assures her it is not her fault and he will take care of her.

When they tell Mrs. Müller, she is adamant about taking that responsibility off William’s shoulders. She visits the pharmacist for supplies and combs out Anna’s nits. Edmund asks Mrs. Müller if she has children or a husband. She says she does have a husband but sounds sad. She tells them that her husband is German and came to England after the Great War. When the new war broke out, he went home under the auspices of checking on his family.