Finally Christmas Eve had come. As every year, Miss Prusselius had tried to fill the day with as many activities as possible - because experience has shown that Christmas Eve in the home was the most difficult time for all the children who still had families but could not be with them. Drying tears was inevitable at Christmas, but Miss Prusselius had managed every year to make it a great day for every child.

After the school performance ended in the morning with great applause, lunch was eaten, the last presents were wrapped and placed under the tree, the festive wardrobe was put on, the Christmas carols were sung and the poems were recited - one could finally, finally move on to the cozy part and unpack the presents. In the midst of all the "Oh!" S and "Show me!" S and all the rustling wrapping paper, the "Thank you very much too!" , and between all the empty and half-full boxes lying around, Mr. Johansen suddenly led an unexpected visitor.

It was the teacher. She was carrying a fairly large gift, wrapped in brightly colored paper. "I really got another one!"
The children surrounded her. "May I stop?" - "What did it actually cost?" - "Can we go straight away?"
"Wait, wait - what's going on here?" Miss Prusselius hid her surprise with a reasonably strict "Since when have we no longer greeted guests with 'Good evening'?" When the children had caught up with the greeting, they had caught up again. "Who is the huge package for?"
"For Pippi!"
"You know, when she's all alone at Villa Kunterbunt tonight!"
"And we thought maybe you wouldn't give anyone anything, wouldn't that be sad?"
"And she always gives something to all children!"
"May we go and bring her to her, please?"
"We have all pooled the money from our piggy banks!"
"We'll be back very quickly!" It bubbled up. Miss Prusselius could only nod weakly. She was speechless.

But Mr. Johansen didn't want to hear about it. "No one leaves the house tonight until they dance around the Christmas tree!" He managed to look very serious about it. "Of course you two too!"
And so everyone, the children, Mr. Johansen himself, the Svenssons, Miss Prusselius and the teacher had to honor the tradition and dance around the tree before the children made their way to the Villa Kunterbunt and Pippi Longstocking with the package.

After that, peace finally fell.
The adults sat on the sofa and Mrs. Svensson took a large pot of punch from the kitchen. "Oh, how stupid of me. I forgot the raisins! Would you both go and fetch them, please? "

Miss Prusselius had the vague feeling of being sent away, but that was only fine with her because she wanted to speak to the teacher alone.

"Don't you have to be with your parents? Did you argue?"
"No, no.", The teacher smiled so broadly that it could have been a lie. "I said I'm still invited. They understand that already. "
"Where are you still invited?"
"Well, here - I hope? Or does that bother you? "The teacher suddenly sounded worried. "I mean, I had to give the gift."

"No, I don't mind at all." That was the whole truth. "I'm just, well, surprised. To be honest, I think it's really nice that you are there ... because ... I ... ", she searched for words and then rather said something else quickly. "I can give you your present right now. Wait!"
Miss Prusselius hurried to get it. Would the others relieve them of looking for the raisins for so long? She was back in the kitchen in a few minutes.

"May I open it right away?"
"Naturally."
It was the beautiful red cloth. The teacher bit her lip with joy as she put it on.

"That was really unreasonable of you! It's so expensive! "She fell around the neck of Miss Prusselius and didn't let go of her.
"I know." Miss Prusselius looked as if she had received high praise. "But I listened to you well: everyone should get something unreasonable for Christmas, not just the children. It is absolutely worth the money. By the way, it wasn't so unreasonable. I actually find it pretty reasonable to give warm winter clothes to people you like. "She made no move to release herself from the hug.

"By the way, what was in the package you brought?"
"A trumpet."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Yes exactly. A trumpet. Apparently, you're not the only one worried about Pippi made Christmas. Annika Settergren got what she wanted yesterday and the children decided to put them together. You told me this morning before the play. I just added the rest and bought it. "

Miss Prusselius's eyes widened.
"But such an instrument is really very expensive! And the children certainly didn't have too much in their piggy banks, even if everyone put it together! "
"And on top of that, I don't think Pippi is going to take hours seriously," added the teacher. "It's really thoroughly unreasonable." She sounded quite proud.

"You are such a good person, you know that?" Miss Prusselius leaned her forehead against that of the teacher.
"Not quite as good as you think. You know, actually it wasn't a present for Pippi. "
"Rather?"
"To you. You said that if Pippi didn't have one, you wouldn't be really happy about Christmas. But I wanted you to be happy. So it's actually my present for you. "

And Miss Prusselius couldn't help kissing the teacher. And the teacher kissed back.
When they were finished, she laughed softly: "What should Mrs. Svensson think when she comes and wonders why we still haven't found the stupid raisins?"
Miss Prusselius had to smile too. "I think we should really go now. Otherwise someone else is worried. "

Perhaps Mr. Johansen and the Svenssons were really worried because when the two women finally came with the raisins, nobody said a word. No one commented on why they had stayed in the kitchen for so long or the beautiful cloth the teacher was wearing now. Mr. Johansen and Mr. Svensson gave each other a glance, then Mrs. Svensson, who pretended not to notice. Instead, she poured the raisins into the hot wine, very busy, and then served them to everyone.

Finally, she cleared her throat. "Are you going to stay a little longer?" She asked the teacher when she handed her the cup. The teacher took the cup and looked at Miss Prusselius. Mr. Johansen and Mr. Svensson puffed hard on their mulled wine. The tension was palpable.

And then Miss Prusselius said something that was a bit unreasonable. It was dangerous because it could cause a lot of problems and it was not very polite to say it without asking beforehand. But she managed to say it was no big deal at all.

"Oh yes, she stays overnight tonight."

And maybe that was not so unreasonable, because suddenly everyone raised their toes and smiled and found that a completely reasonable idea.