The Dark Is Rising

On Christmas Eve day, Will and his father and brothers get a Christmas tree from the Dawsons’ farm. Will wants to warn Dawson that his dairy maid Maggie is a servant of the Dark. When James asks where Maggie is, Mr. Dawson says that she had an illness in the family and had to leave. Will deduces that Dawson knows what Maggie is.

The family brings the tree home and begins to decorate. At the bottom of their old box of tree ornaments, Will finds a collection of wooden initials carved by farmer Dawson—one for each member of the family except Will. His ornament was a cross quartered by a circle, but it is missing from the box. Will wonders if someone took it to try to get power over him, but the Dark can’t use Signs of the Light in their magic. Will finds an ornament shaped like the letter T, which doesn’t match any of his siblings’ initials. His mother tells them about Tom, the Stantons’ first baby, who died after only three days. The birth of Tom means that Will is actually the couple’s seventh son, not the sixth.

In the evening, Will goes caroling with his family.