"But after all," said Bess, "it was only fun for us."
In the second place Uncle William was so pleased with the five old ladies that a charming idea came into his head. After a consultation with Miss Brown, he sent them one Saturday afternoon a note and a big bundle. Here is the note:
My dear little Friends: I was delighted the other night to find that your small fingers were already learning to be useful, and I take the liberty of giving them some more work to do. I know an old colored woman who, after spending most of her life in taking care of little children, is now paralyzed, and can only lie in bed. Nothing pleases her so much as bright colors, so I want you to make her a gay afghan. She will not mind any uneven stitches if they happen to put in, and will be very proud of it.
I send the yarn of which to make it. There are to be five stripes, one for each of you.
Hoping that you will enjoy the work, and at the same time the thought that it is to please a poor old invalid, I am affectionately your friend,
William S. Hazeltine.
The bundle when it was unrolled was found to contain some of the oddest-looking balls of yarn that ever were seen.
"I think he must have wound them himself," remarked Louise, shaking her head over the lumpy, unsymmetrical ball she held.
However, Miss Brown said the shape did not matter, and work was begun, with great interest. Dora was the first to make a discovery, perhaps because she could knit more rapidly than the others. One of the lumps in her ball proved to be caused by something rolled in tissue paper. Feeling sure that this was the key to one of Uncle William's surprises, they looked on eagerly while she pulled the paper off and found a gold thimble with her name on it. Not long after Elsie found a tiny pair of scissors. Never had any work been so delightful! It usually happened that some one of the gay balls yielded a prize each Saturday afternoon. Sometimes only a big sugar plum, but oftener something pretty and useful. A tiny book of texts, a dainty handkerchief rolled into smallest compass, rings of twisted gold with the letters M.K. on bangles attached to them,—these were some of the things found in the wonder balls, for that is what they are called in Germany, where Mr. Hazeltine first heard of them.
"It is so exactly like him, I thought he must have invented it himself," said Dora.