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A GREAT SECRET
People were beginning to think and talk about Christmas. There was a pleasant stir in the air of something mysterious and delightful about to happen. Mamma and Aunt Vi were often together in Aunt Vi’s “snuggery” up-stairs, and what they were consulting about nobody ventured to ask; some uncommonly fine present for each of the children, no doubt.
One day Aunt Vi, who was sewing in the back parlor, looked up from her work, and said,—
“Jimmy-boy, do you think you could go to the store and buy me some blue sewing-silk like this pattern?”
And she held up a bit of blue satin.
“Why don’t you ask me, Auntie?” exclaimed Edith, dropping the doll she was dressing in a new tea-gown. “Boys don’t know the difference between a skein of silk and a clothes-line.”
Aunt Vi secretly thought that she could trust Jimmy better than Edith, but she did not like to say so.
“Then you may get me the silk, if you will, Edith; two spools.”