WHO COULD HAVE SENT IT?
THAT afternoon the front door of the Vicarage had a busy time of it, and the old housekeeper-cook, Mrs. Maggs, had a busier. No sooner did she get into her kitchen than she had to walk out again.
"There wasn't no getting anything done," she declared. "One had need to be made of two, ta answer that there bell, and keep everything going besides."
For the girl was after some rough cleaning and therefore was not presentable for the front door. Still, though Mrs. Maggs complained a little, she was as much pleased as anybody could be, that more money should flow in for the lifeboat. Whether she cared very greatly or no for the lifeboat, she did care for anything that made the Vicar happy, and this lifeboat lay very near to his heart.
First came a succession of notes, or little packages, containing coins; small coins, most of them, perhaps, but none the less welcome for that! Half-a-crown, two shillings, three shillings, one shilling, a sixpenny piece—one after another dropped in, done up in paper or in an envelope; each with name or initials attached, and each given in "for the lifeboat collection." Each in succession was carried by Mrs. Maggs to the study, to gladden the Vicar with fresh hope.
He was trying to get an hour's work over his next Sunday morning's sermon; but the effort seemed likely to be a fruitless one. Note after note arrived, and had to be opened; and then people began to arrive.
Miss Perkins was the first. She had brought ten shillings, and she expressed herself glad to give the extra donation, but she didn't want her name down nor anything said.
"It ain't that I'm making believe to be humble," she avowed with delightful frankness; "but I don't want a lot of talk made, nor the neighbours all wondering however in the world I can manage it. And it isn't nobody's business, except my own."
"You are sure you can afford so much, Miss Perkins?" The Vicar put this question involuntarily. He knew that Miss Perkins had a penniless niece dependent on her.
"I'll make shift to afford it somehow," Miss Perkins responded grimly. "I ain't going to have none of them drownded men laid to my score!" And there was the sound of a suspicious sniffle.