A beautiful mat bordered with her own choice of bright colors, a
clothes-basket made by Matthias, and in the latter three pairs of
beautifully-knitted wool stockings for Louis.
"Peg spun dis wool," said Matthias, "an' de stockins is good: dis
baskit," he added despairingly, "I tried my bes' to put some sky color
on, but I reckin ef de bluin' bottle had jes' spill over it 'twould do
more colorin' and better too. May de Lord help ye to live an' war it
out, and then I'll make another."
"That was a good speech," said Louis, and we shook hands with these two
white-hearted friends, and they also passed on out of sight, leaving me
still at the mercy of the coming.
It seemed to me there could be nothing more to come, when a loud "baa,
baa" started us, and Ben appeared, leading the whitest little lamb you
ever saw. He had tied a blue ribbon about its neck, and it trotted along
up to us as if pleased with the novelty of its situation.
"Your namesake and my gift," said Ben. I was truly surprised, but
thanked him heartily, and the friends about us laughed immoderately.
This caused the lamb to look for some way out, and Ben went with it at a
quick pace, shouting back, "I raised Emily myself, and she's a beauty."
The next surprise was from Hal and Mary--two pieces from the hand of my
artist brother, "Love's Fawn," and "Aunt Hildy." Duplicates of these
were at that time hastening across the water with Mr. Hanson, who was
anxious to take a venture over for Hal.
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