"I've got just exactly ninepence three-farthings. I wish it was a lot more. I do love Ivy."
The Vicar pulled out his purse.
"I think we'll make it a trifle more, and then you can get something bigger. There is a farthing first, and now you have tenpence. And here are two pennies, which will make a shilling. And two threepenny bits, so you have one and sixpence. And here is a sixpence, so now you have two shillings. And here is a shilling, so now you have three shillings."
"Oh, Uncle John, how beautiful! Oh, thank you! But I did mean it to be all my very own present."
"I'm giving the money to you, and you shall give it to her. Won't that do?"
"Yes—I think it will," meditated Hecla. "But I'll tell her it wasn't all properly my very own, because she might think it was, you know."
"Do as you like, little one. You can't be too honest. Only choose something that Ivy will like. She's not very well yet, and you have to be gentle with her."
Hecla nodded. "I know! Auntie Millicent told me."
An hour later, she and Elisabeth started for the toy-shop. There was only one big toy-shop in the town, and to this they bent their steps, Elisabeth as usual walking staidly, and Hecla dancing and frisking like a little colt.
"I wonder what I shall choose. I do wonder what I shall choose," she kept saying. "What do you think Ivy would like, Elisabeth? Don't you think a box of soldiers in lovely red coats would be best?"