"Oh, Ma! I'll bet that is Mrs. O'Dowd now!" gasped Mary.
"It can't be! She'd not track us down so quick as this," replied Mrs. McGregor, flustered and half rising.
"Most likely it's the Christmas tree, Mother," Tim suggested. "They promised to send it early this afternoon."
Again came the knock.
"I'm half afraid to open the door lest it be Julie," faltered Mrs. McGregor. "Be still a minute, all of you, till I think what I'll say to her."
But when, amid a tense hush, the door was finally opened, neither Julie O'Dowd nor the watched-for Christmas tree was on the threshold. Instead they saw a holly-decked basket so exactly a replica of the one they had given away that a cry of disappointment greeted it.
"She's sent it back!" cried Mary.
"She was offended and wouldn't take it!" murmured Mrs. McGregor. "I feared as much."
"But that isn't our basket, Mother," Carl said. "This is much bigger. Besides, we had no apples or candy bags in the one we sent."