They went into class. Suddenly in the midst of her conjugating of a Latin verb, a thought came to Ermelinda—Oh, how about the coat for Stella’s little sister? She would find out! At noon, she found Stella, eating lunch upon a bench. “Say, Stella,” she began, “we’re friends. Tell me, did you get it—that coat for your little sister?”
Then Stella told her. No! There was no coat. She couldn’t get that work. The little sister had colds and Stella was worried. As they talked, Stella told Ermelinda just how bitterly blue everything was. They parted as the bell rang for classes.
After school, Ermelinda labored over a letter that it was rather fun to write. She worked hard because of the fact that she was trying to disguise her handwriting. The letter was from Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother to Stella and inside the envelope, sealed with a blue bird seal, Ermelinda put the money! Then she sent the letter inside another to her editor in the city and asked her to mail it there. She told her Cinderella’s fairy had asked her to send this letter to somebody who mustn’t know where the Fairy Godmother lived. And the editor mailed the letter in the city. So the deed was done.
It was about three or four days afterwards that Stella came upon Ermelinda studying hard, her head in a book. “I want to tell you, you were so interested,” she beamed. “My little sister’s got the coat, only I didn’t really give it to her myself. The money came in a letter that was mailed in the city. It was ever such a dear letter and signed by Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. I think it must have been from a real fairy, somehow, but I don’t know who could have known about the coat—I don’t know anybody else who might have sent it, unless it was a real fairy!”
“I’m glad your little sister has the coat,” Ermelinda chuckled.
The Directory Santa Claus