"My goodness!" she exclaimed, "he's wet through. Come with me at once," and she dragged the unwilling boy into another room. In a short time they returned, Alan looking a comical figure, dressed in a pair of knickerbockers many sizes too large for him, and a man's flannel shirt and coat. Marjory at once decided that these garments must have belonged to the mysterious husband in foreign parts.
Alan looked red and uncomfortable after Mrs. Shaw's ministrations, but Marjory said, "That's better. Now come and sit by the fire," pretending not to notice anything peculiar in his appearance. To tell the truth, he was nothing loath to sit by the cheerful blaze, for he had begun to feel cold and miserable as soon as Curly was all right, but he would have done anything rather than say so.
Mrs. Shaw's kitchen was cleaner than some people's dining-rooms. There was not a speck of dust anywhere, and not a thing out of its place. Her guests were amused to see their dinner come straight from the various pots and pans on the fire; but never was a meal eaten with a better appetite, and after the first shyness wore off, the party was a very merry one.
Marjory noticed that Mrs. Shaw looked often at Blanche, and with an expression of tenderness which her face never wore for other people. Half sad, half tender, the look was, and Marjory wondered what it could mean.
After dinner was over, Blanche asked if they might go to the parlour and see the curiosities.
"I wonder if you'll get anything this Christmas," she remarked.
"Maybe," was the short reply.
Nearly every part of the world was represented in this little farm parlour. Here were corals and shells from the South Sea Islands; wonderfully carved ivory from India and China; a tiny nugget of gold from California; Indian arrow-heads, beads, and baskets. In fact, had she known it, Mrs. Shaw really possessed a good and valuable collection. Alan was handling what appeared to be a square block made of beautifully-polished wood, and he asked what it was.
"It's only a specimen block of various Australian woods," was the reply.
"But see, they're not glued together in any way. Perhaps it's a puzzle, and they all come apart." And he turned it over and over with boyish curiosity and interest.