"now, what comes next?" miss terry rummaged in the box until her fingers met something odd-shaped, long, and smooth-sided. with some difficulty she drew out the object, for it was of good size.
"h'm! the old noah's ark," she said. "i wonder if all the animals are in there."
she lifted the cover, and turned out into her lap the long-imprisoned animals and their round-bodied chief. mrs. noah and her sons had long since disappeared. but the ark-builder, hatless and one-armed, still presided over a menagerie of sorry beasts. scarcely one could boast of being a quadruped. to few of them the years had spared a tail. from their close resemblance in their misery, it was not hard to believe in the kinship of all animal life. she took them up and examined them curiously one by one. finally she selected a shapeless slate-colored block from the mass. "this was the elephant," she mused. "i remember when tom stepped on him and smashed his trunk. 'i guess i'm going to be an expressman when i grow up,' he said, looking sorry. tom was always full of his jokes. now i'll try this and see what happens to the ark on its last voyage."
just then there was a noise outside. an automobile honked past, and miss terry shuddered, recalling the pathetic end of the flanton dog, which had given her quite a turn.
"i hate those horrid machines!" she exclaimed. "they seem like juggernaut. i'd like to forbid their going through this street."
she crowded the elephant with noah and the rest of his charge back into the ark and closed the lid. "i can't throw this out of the window," she reflected. "they would spill. i must take it out on the sidewalk. land! the fire's going out! that girl doesn't know how to build fires so they will keep."
she laid the noah's ark on the table, and going to the closet tugged out several big logs, which she arranged geometrically. about laying fires, as about most other things, miss terry had her own positive theories. taking the bellows in hand she blew furiously, and was presently rewarded with a brisk blaze. she smiled with satisfaction, and trotted upstairs to find her red knit shawl. with this about her shoulders she was prepared to brave the december frost. down the steps she went, and deposited the ark discreetly at their foot; then returned to take up her position behind the curtains.
there were a good many people passing, but they seemed too preoccupied to glance down at the sidewalk. they were nearly all hurrying in one direction. some were running in the middle of the street.
"they are in a great hurry," sniffed miss terry disdainfully. "one would think they had something really important on hand. i suppose they are going to hear the singing. fiddlestick!"
a man hastened by under the window; a woman; two children, a boy and a girl, running and gesticulating eagerly. none of them noticed the noah's ark lying at the foot of the steps.
miss terry began to grow impatient. "are they all blind?" she fretted. "what is the matter with them? i wish somebody would find the thing. i am tired of seeing it lying there."
she tapped the floor impatiently with her slipper. just then a woman approached. she was dressed in the most uncompromising of mourning, and she walked slowly, with bent head, never glancing at the lighted windows on either side.
"she will see it," commented miss terry. and sure enough, she did. she stopped at the doorstep, drew her skirts aside, and bent over to look at the strange-shaped box at her feet. finally she lifted it but immediately she shivered and acted so strangely that miss terry thought she was about to break the toy in pieces on the steps or throw it into the street. evidently she detested the sight of it.
just then up came a second woman with two small boys hanging at her skirts. they were ragged and sick-looking. there was something about the expression of even the tiny knot of hair at the back of the woman's head which told of anxious poverty. with envious curiosity she hurried up to see what a luckier mortal had found, crowding to look over her shoulder. the woman in black drew haughtily away and clutched the noah's ark with a gesture of proprietorship.
"go away! this is my affair." miss terry read her expression and sniffed. "there is the christmas spirit coming out again," she said to herself. "look at her face!"
the black-gowned woman prepared to move on with the toy under her arm. but the second woman caught hold of her skirt and began to speak earnestly. she pointed to the noah's ark, then to her two children. her eyes were beseeching. the little boys crowded forward eagerly. but some wicked spirit seemed to have seized the finder of the ark. angrily she shook off the hand of the other woman, and clutching the box yet more firmly under her arm, she hurried away. once, twice, she turned and shook her head at the ragged woman who followed her. then, with a savage gesture at the two children, she disappeared beyond miss terry's straining eyes. the poor woman and her boys followed forlornly at a distance.
"they really wanted it, that old noah's ark!" exclaimed miss terry in amazement. "i can scarcely believe it. but why did that other creature keep the thing? i see! only because she found they cared for it. well, that is a happy spirit for christmas time, i should say! humph! i did not expect to find anything quite so mean as that!"
