Mrs. Wiggs held it at arm's-length and, squinting her eyes, read:
"Home of an Island."
"That ain't what the man called it," said Lovey Mary.
"Oh, it don't matter 'bout the name. It's a beautiful book, jes matches my new tidy. You couldn't 'a' pleased me better."
"I didn't have money enough to go round," explained Lovey Mary, apologetically, "but I bought a dozen lead-pencils and thought I'd give them round among the children."
"Ever'thing'll be terrible wrote over," said Miss Hazy.
The last bundle was done up in tissue-paper and tied with a silver string. Lovey Mary gave it to Mrs. Wiggs when Miss Hazy was not looking.
"It's a red necktie," she whispered, "for Billy."
When the train for the North pulled out of the station one Saturday afternoon it bore an excited passenger. Lovey Mary, in a new dress and hat, sat on the edge of a seat, with little Robert on one side and Tommy on the other. When her nervousness grew unbearable she leaned forward and touched Mrs. Redding on the shoulder:
"Will you please, ma'am, tell me when we get there?"
Mrs. Redding laughed. "Get there, dear? Why, we have just started!"