“Oh, the mischief,” laughed Aunt Phoebe, “I do believe the crow has been here! Jimsi, was that why you were coughing, you sinner! I think you must have seen the crow leave it. Well, you wait! There’s a surprise coming to you, young lady!” And she tore open the letter. “I’ll read it to you, aloud, Jimsi,” she said. “Shall I?”
It was part of crow play to pretend one hadn’t any knowledge at all of having been the one to write crow letters that one saw afterwards. So Jimsi listened to the round-robin as Aunt Phoebe soberly read it and exclaimed how very lovely the note-paper was. When she came to the pattern, she was really delighted. “How clever of the crow,” she laughed. “I was wanting a new embroidery pattern and here the thoughtful crow has brought it. How kind of him!” She said she was going to transfer it to some linen right away. She was so interested that they went to look over Jimsi’s Magic Book to see if there were embroidery patterns and stencil designs in that as well as in the little lame girl’s book.
Yes, there were. The two of them became so interested that nap-time almost passed. A whole fifteen minutes went by without either Aunt Phoebe or Jimsi’s knowing it. When the little desk clock gave a faint chime of two Aunt Phoebe jumped. “Oh, dear!” she exclaimed. “I must be off. Oh, Jimsi, how could you let me stay! Oh, you didn’t know—well, run right upstairs and take that nap and don’t come down till half-past three, remember!” With that Aunt Phoebe dashed into her cloak and hat. “I had a most important engagement to meet somebody! Oh, dear!” And she was gone.
Jimsi walked upstairs and took off her dress and put on her kimono. As her hand snuggled under her pillow, it met something long and hard. Jimsi grasped it and drew forth—a crow present! It was a stick of peppermint candy. She couldn’t go to sleep at first. She lay there with the peppermint stick wondering what the crow’s splendid surprise was going to be. She couldn’t guess at all. Finally, she remembered that she was honor-bound to go to sleep. Of course, one can’t always go to sleep when one wants to, but Jimsi began to try hard. She covered her head with the comforter and cuddled into a more cosy position. She shut her eyes and then, the first thing she knew, Aunt Phoebe was bending over her saying, “Wake up, Jimsi! Wake up! You’ve had an extra long nap and crow has been to The Happy Shop and left you a surprise!”
So Jimsi jumped into her dress and tore down the front stairs two steps at a time. Oh, she knew it was going to be a splendid surprise—perfectly splendid! But she really wasn’t expecting the kind of a surprise that awaited her, for as she opened the doors of The Happy Shop who should pop up from behind a screen but Mother and Henry and little sister Katherine! Oh, Oh!
What a hugging there was! Why, they had to hug twice around and even Henry, who didn’t like to be kissed, seemed so happy to see Jimsi that he had to kiss her, too! How lovely and how lovely and how lovely! Oh, what fun! Now, Mother and Henry and Jimsi’s little sister could all see The Happy Shop and help find play in the Magic Book. Hadn’t Jimsi just been longing to have them all right there! Hadn’t she written them long letters about it! Oh, this was almost too good to be true!
“But how did you happen to come?” inquired Jimsi. “Doesn’t Henry have to go to school?”
“Well, we all wanted to see our Jimsi,” Mother explained. “I couldn’t come without Katherine, and Henry wanted to see you so badly that I decided one day out of school wouldn’t hurt if he made up the work. So you can show us the crow plays and the Magic Book, Jimsi!”
“I want to see Crow!” urged little sister Katherine. So Jimsi took them to the shelf in Aunt Phoebe’s study where her big crow perched on the twig. The shelf was so high that baby Katherine thought the crow was really alive. He didn’t look stuffed. Even Henry was almost deceived. “Isn’t he really true?” he kept asking.
“Of course he’s true,” returned Jimsi. “Haven’t we always played crow ever since we can remember?”