“I wouldn’t wonder,” she said, “if your mother could get you a little red coat out of that, Phronsie. Yes, you shall wear it, dear.”
“Oh, I’m going to. I’m going to wear it.” Phronsie gave a gleeful little shout and capered up and down the garret floor. “Put it on, I want it on,” she begged, coming back to stand quite still.
“Oh, Phronsie, you can’t wear it now,” cried Polly, with shining eyes, at the thought of the little red coat that was to be made. “It would drag on the floor.”
“Never mind,” said Mrs. Henderson. So she put the old red woollen cape over Phronsie’s shoulders, and it fell all around her, just as Polly had said, dragging on the floor. But Phronsie beamed perfect satisfaction, and she didn’t want it taken off until the minister’s wife said she would fold it up all ready to be taken home to Mrs. Pepper, which she did, and laid it in one of the broken-backed chairs. Then Phronsie sat down beside it to lay a soft little hand on it, and watch it, while Mrs. Henderson and Polly turned to the trunk again.
There seemed to be no end to the things that were in that trunk,—an old waistcoat with brass buttons was drawn tenderly out, belonging to Stephen Hinsdale himself, and laid down beside the books and some old fans, and a high broken-toothed comb, and a piece of carved ivory.
“That,” said the parson’s wife, “was brought from India. I remember old Aunt Sally letting me play with it when I wasn’t much older than Phronsie.”
“Oh, may I hold it?” begged Polly, putting out a trembling hand.
“Of course you may, Polly,” said Mrs. Henderson, dropping it in her hand, “and once I thought I’d lost it down the well.”
“O dear me!” exclaimed Polly, dropping the hand holding the carved bit of ivory to her lap.
“Yes, it was a dreadful moment.” And the parson’s wife drew a long sigh even now after all those years. “You see, I was naughty, and took it out in the yard to play, and another little girl who had come over to see me wanted a drink of water, and I wouldn’t put down the piece of ivory, I was so afraid she’d snatch it, and I was helping to pull up the bucket when the little carved bit slipped right out of my hand.”