In this way, five minutes at least would be taken up in everybody's looking for everybody else, which was just sufficient time to allow my uncle to find his umbrella and lose his hat.

Then, at last, the group reassembled in the hall, the drawing-room clock would commence to strike nine.

It possessed a cold, penetrating chime that always had the effect of confusing my uncle.

In his excitement he would kiss some of the children twice over, pass by others, forget whom he had kissed and whom he hadn't, and have to begin all over again.

He used to say he believed they mixed themselves up on purpose, and I am not prepared to maintain that the charge was altogether false.
To add to his troubles, one child always had a sticky face; and that child would always be the most affectionate.
If things were going too smoothly, the eldest boy would come out with some tale about all the clocks in the house being five minutes slow, and of his having been late for school the previous day in consequence.