"I am coming to see for myself on Thursday afternoon. In the meantime, please accept the accompanying Christmas remembrance, with the hope that you are having a happy holiday, in spite of having to spend it away from home.
"Your old playfellow,
"Robert Pendleton."
"What do you s'pose it is?" asked Patty, as she addressed herself to unknotting the gold cord on the box.
"I hope it's either flowers or candy," Harriet returned. "Miss Sallie says it isn't proper to—"
"Looks to me like American Beauty roses," suggested Kid McCoy.
Patty beamed.
"Isn't it a lark to be getting flowers from a man? I feel awfully grown up!"
She lifted the cover, removed a mass of tissue paper, and revealed a blue-eyed, smiling doll.
The three girls stared for a bewildered moment, then Patty slid to the floor, and buried her head in her arms against the bed and laughed.
"It's got real hair!" said Harriet, gently lifting the doll from its bed of tissue paper, and entering upon a detailed inspection. "Its clothes come off, and it opens and shuts its eyes."