“It’s books, Tom, I know,” said Jimmy, pounding the bundle with his hand; “unfasten it, won’t you?”
“Wait a minute,” replied Tom, “until I see what Miss Mason says.”
So carefully cutting the end of the envelope (Miss Mason’s letters were never roughly handled), he drew the letter out and glanced over the contents.
“Jimmy,” he said, as he finished and turned toward the boy with a very touched face, “I think you must read this letter to pay you for bringing me such good news.” So he gave him the precious words.
Jimmy knew what a treat that was, and that there was not another person on the place to whom Tom would have shown it, so he thanked him earnestly as he took it.
“My dear Tom,” she wrote, “I am about sending you a bundle of books for your Sunday-school; so I thought I would forward a letter with them, for fear you would be too much surprised. I wrote, not long ago, to some of my Northern friends, and among other things I told them of your work for Jesus on the Sutherland Plantation. In answer to my letter the books I send you came. How gladly I forward them you can easily imagine. I have been thinking for a long time how much you needed them, and how I should like to send you a bundle. Well, here they are then, and I feel sure you will not forget to thank ‘the Giver of every good and perfect gift,’ for it is he who sent them.
“I opened the bundle to put in two or three lesson-books, and I have marked in the arithmetic and grammar the lessons of your class for the next month. I hope Jimmy is well, and that your work is progressing. Martha says, ‘Oh, Miss Mason, I am so glad for Tom!’ and I can tell you there is another one who is glad, and that is Tom’s old teacher,
“R. Mason.”
“Now, Jimmy,” said Tom as the boy finished and handed him back the letter with a pleased smile, “come with me and we will unpack it.”
“You don’t want me, Tom, I am sure,” replied Jimmy, holding back reluctantly.