Granny twinkled with delight. She had never told Maida, but she did not need to tell her, that Dicky was her favorite.
“And then the grown people who came, Granny! First Arthur’s father on his way to work, then Mrs. Lathrop and Laura—they bought loads of things, and Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Doyle and even Mr. Flanagan bought a hockey-stick. He said,” Maida dimpled with delight, “he said he bought it to use on Arthur and Rosie if they ever hooked jack again. Poor Miss Allison bought one of Arthur’s ‘cats’—what do you suppose for?”
Granny had no idea.
“To wind her wool on. Then Billy came at the last minute and bought everything that was left. And just think, Granny, there was a crowd of little boys and girls who had stood about watching all day without any money to spend and Billy divided among them all the things he bought. Guess how much money they made!”
Granny guessed three sums, and each time Maida said, triumphantly, “More!” At last Granny had to give it up.
“Arthur made five dollars and thirty cents. Dicky made three dollars and eighty-seven cents. Rosie made two dollars and seventy cents.”
After dinner that night, Maida accompanied Rosie and Dicky on the Christmas-shopping expedition.
They went first to a big dry goods store with Dicky. They helped Dicky to pick out a fur collar for his mother from a counter marked conspicuously $2.98. The one they selected was of gray and brown fur. It was Maida’s opinion that it was sable and chinchilla mixed.
Dicky’s face shone with delight when at last he tucked the big round box safely under his arm. “Just think, I’ve been planning to do this for three years,” he said, “and I never could have done it now if it hadn’t been for you, Maida.”
Next Dicky took the two little girls where they could buy razors. “The kind that goes like a lawn-mower,” Rosie explained to the proprietor. The man stared hard before he showed them his stock. But he was very kind and explained to them exactly how the wonderful little machine worked.