"I hope so," said Claire with a queer little smile. "Now, Rosanna, I want you to promise on your Scout Honor that you will not interrupt me."
"Word of honor!" promised Rosanna.
"Remember!" warned Claire. "Well, there was once a girl, a Girl Scout, who was very troubled and unhappy. And she had a perfectly horrid disposition and every time she went into a tantrum or had the blues she excused herself by thinking that because her dear mother was thought to be insane, she was going to be so too, and she never tried to control herself. She wouldn't make friends, and 'most hated other girls because she thought they were so much luckier than she was. Oh, Rosanna, she treated her darling daddy just awfully. She feels so ashamed when she thinks of it."
Rosanna opened her mouth, but Claire laid her hand over it.
"Remember!" she warned. "So she met, through the Girl Scouts, a girl who tried to be her friend. And the bad, sad girl grew to see how much better it was to be gentle and keep her temper under control. Then one day Rosanna—for that was the nice girl's name—discovered the reason why this girl's mother was sick and why her poor head had gone wrong. She found out why Claire's mother could not speak or remember anything and why she sat all day and stared and stared into space, and never knew her little girl any more.
"Well, anyway, now Claire's mother is well, all well, and just as sweet and bright and loving as ever, and so happy! But surely not so happy as Claire is to have her mother back.
"And once, Rosanna, a wise old man who must have looked into the future, gave Claire a gold box to give to the one who should give to Claire a 'gift beyond price.' My mother is that, Rosanna. The Mandarin's box is yours!"
Claire drew a packet from her pocket and laid it in Rosanna's lap. Rosanna clasped her hands over it. "Oh, Claire!" was all she could say at first. Then, "But it was the doctor's operation that cured her; it belongs to him."
Claire shook her red head and smiled. "No, it is yours by rights. All the doctors failed to discover the injury to her head. The box is yours, dear, dear Rosanna! Open it and see what the old Mandarin has hidden there."
Rosanna undid the paper and exclaimed over the wonderful carven casket. But Claire urged her to open the box, and with a nail file Rosanna broke the fine cords that held the seal. She pressed the tiny knob on the front, and the glittering cover sprang open. A little object wrapped in silk lay inside. It proved to be a queer carved figure seated on a sort of stool. It was exquisitely colored and overlaid in parts with gold leaf, and the funny brown face wore a beaming smile. A large cloak of gold leaf enveloped it, and this had a ruby set in the front like a large clasp.