Before she could do so, the woman drove rapidly away.
Vevi watched the car until it was out of sight. As far as she could see, Mrs. Gabriel did not turn off the main highway.
“She could have taken me farther, but she didn’t want to,” Vevi thought resentfully. “She just wanted to get rid of me.”
Picking up the bag of tulip bulbs, the little girl trudged slowly on toward home. The sack seemed heavier than ever now.
Before she had gone half a block, it seemed to her that her arm would break.
Vevi paused beside a fence to rest. She noticed that the canvas bag had the numerals 67543 stamped on the canvas. Also in black letters were printed the name of a city in Holland.
“That’s funny,” reflected Vevi. “I thought Hanny gave me an old bag without any markings on it. I guess I didn’t notice very well.”
Picking up the bag once more, she started on. Every few yards she had to shift it to the other hand. Even so, she began to wish she never had tried to carry the bulbs home.
“I should have waited for Mr. Van Der Lann,” she thought. “I never knew culls could be so heavy.”
Now the joke actually was on Vevi. Though she did not suspect it, the bag of bulbs Hanny had given her was at this moment being carried away in Mrs. Gabriel’s car.