She looked critically at the Noah, and at Shem, Ham and Japheth; a little undecided as to which was which, so similar were they in every respect save as to the colours of their long one-piece gowns.
She stood them in a row on the table. “That’s Philip,” looking at one of them; “that’s Little Billee; that’s Kit, and the yellow one is Chick Channing. I’ve come to like Chick a lot,—more’n Kit, I believe. Now, let’s see. S’pose I had to lose one of these four forever; which could I best spare.”
The game grew exciting. Patty, sitting on one foot, leaned toward the table, middle finger-tip caught against her thumb, ready to snap the least desirable into limbo.
“Sorry,” she said, “but old Kit must go.” She snapped her fingers, and luckless Kit flew across the room.
Patty’s face fell. “It’s a hard world! But I’m going to fight this thing to a finish. And there’s no use mincing matters, if another had to go—it would, of course, be Chick.”
Another flick of her slender fingers, and Channing flew up in the air and landed on the high mantel.
“Now then,” and Patty knew that a momentous decision lay before her. There remained Philip and Bill Farnsworth.
Patty clasped her hands, rested her chin upon them and stared at the brown and red-coated gentlemen still standing before her.
“Phil is such a dear,” she reasoned, as if trying to convince herself; “and he certainly does worship the ground I walk on. But there’s something about Bill—dear Little Billee! I wonder what it is about him—And he did save my life—I think I like him for his strength. I never saw anybody so strong—he always makes me think of Sir Galahad;—‘His strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure.’ Little Billee’s heart is pure,—pure gold. I—somehow, I know it by a sort of intuition. And yet, Phil—oh, Philip is a gentleman, of course, I know that, but Bill is nature’s nobleman—well any way, just at this minute, I like Little Billee better than anybody in the world! So, there now!”
With a well-aimed flick of her fingertips, Patty set Philip spinning, and it was a week later that she found him in her work-basket.