And really, I am glad to say that this was Cricket’s last serious piece of forgetfulness. She set herself with all her might and main to conquer her fault, and tried as she had never tried before. She regularly remembered to bring home both her bundle and her change when she was sent on an errand. She posted letters promptly. She remembered various messages that were given to her for her mamma; and on one occasion she even got up in the middle of the night, and went to papa with some word which had been given to her for him during the day, and which she had forgotten.
So she improved steadily. I do not mean to say that she never forgot or neglected anything again, for she certainly did; but she would usually recall the forgotten thing in time to set it straight. She understood now that no half-way trying will conquer any fault, and nothing outside will help one to do it until a person makes up his mind to do it himself.
Weeks after, there arrived for Cricket, one evening after dinner, a mysterious package. The family were all in the sitting-room, where they usually gathered for a time, after dinner, before they separated to their various duties or pleasures. Cricket opened it amid much wondering on the part of the others, as well as on her own.
It was a long thing, and when Cricket got it free from all its wrappings, what do you think she found? An oddly curved piece of hard wood, nearly a yard long, pointed at both ends, about four inches wide in the middle, and half an inch thick.
“What in the world is this queer-looking thing?” Cricket asked, holding it up in both hands in great amazement.
“A boomerang, my dear,” answered Donald. “For memorabil.”
“For what?”
“Memorabil. That means to remember something by. Tie it up with pretty little blue ribbons, and hang it in your room, my dear, as girls always do with their trinkets. When you look at it, you’ll remember the famous occasion when you learned not to forget, for you’re getting to be as reliable as a district messenger boy. We can give you an errand now with forty-nine chances out of a hundred that it will be done. Next summer I’ll teach you how to throw this. I’ve taken lessons on purpose.”
And the boomerang hangs on Cricket’s wall to this day.