Anne hesitated. Something told her not to open the box, but how could she help it with dozens of her friends waiting eagerly to see what was in it?
"Hurry up, Anne, aren't you curious to see what it is?" some one called.
"It looks like flowers," said another.
"Or candy," observed a third.
And still Anne's fingers lingered on the bow of red ribbon. Was there anyone in the world who could be sending her a box that night? Certainly not her mother nor her sister, nor any of her friends who had exchanged presents in the morning. Mrs. Gray evidently had not sent it and there was no one else in her small list of friends who would have taken the trouble.
"Anne, you funny child, don't you see we are all waiting impatiently?" said Grace at last.
Anne slipped off the ribbons and opened the package. In the box was some object, carefully done up in more tissue paper.
"It looks like a mummy," exclaimed Hippy.
Untying the wrappers, Anne held up to the curious view of the others a large doll.
At first she hardly comprehended what it was and held it out at arms' length looking at it wonderingly. It was dressed as a man in a black suit with a long Prince Albert coat, very crudely made on close inspection, but still cut and fitted to give the right effect. The face had been cleverly changed with paint and putty, and pinned on the head was a black felt hat, constructed out of the crown of an old one evidently, in which had been sewn some lank black hair.