“I can’t,” said Teddy. “I haven’t any money except what’s in my bank, but I’ll ask Hannah and maybe she will.”
So saying he ran into the kitchen. The clock was ticking on the wall, and the room smelled of fresh-baked bread, but it was empty. Opening the door of the stairway, Teddy called, “Hannah! Hannah!” There was no answer; it all seemed strangely still upstairs. “She must have gone out,” Teddy said to himself.
When he went back to the outside door the old Italian had put down her basket and was sitting on the step beside it. She did not seem at all surprised when he told her he could not find anyone. “You not find anyone, and you not have money,” she said. “Then I tell you what I do; you put your hand in dis baskit, and I give you what you take; I make what you call ‘present.’”
“Will you really?” cried Teddy.
“Yis,” said the little old woman, smiling, and her smile was just like the smile of the Counterpane Fairy.
“And you’ll give me whatever I take?”
“Yis,” said the little old woman again.
Teddy put his hand in under the cover and caught hold of something hard and cold. He pulled and pulled at it, and out it came; it was a little iron shovel.
“You take something more,” said the little old woman. Teddy hesitated, but when he looked at her again he saw that she really meant it, so he put his hand in and this time he pulled out a large iron key.
“Now try once more,” said the little old woman, and this third time it was a rat-trap baited with cheese, that Teddy drew from the basket.