Sentence:  No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or.... And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such <WSD>holidays</WSD> as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural (US English: vacation).