"I bet you a thousand dollars I be first in my class when I graduate. Say, have the others got a lot more than Elnora?"
"I think not."
"Well, Uncle Wesley said to find out if I could, and if she didn't have as much as the rest, he'd buy till she did, if it took a hundred dollars. Say, you ought to know him! He's just scrumptious! There ain't anybody anywhere finer 'an he is. My, he's grand!"
"I'm quite sure of it!" said the Bird Woman. "I've often heard Elnora say so."
Billy strutted around the table admiringly.
"I bet you nobody can beat this!" he boasted. Then he stopped, thinking deeply. "I don't know, though," he began reflectively. "Some of them are awful rich; they got big families to give them things and wagon loads of friends, and I haven't seen what they got. Now, maybe Elnora is getting left, after all!"
He lifted an anxious little freckled face to the Bird Woman. She cleared her throat.
"Don't worry, Billy," she said. "I will watch and if I find Elnora is 'getting left' I'll buy her some more things myself. But I'm sure she is not. She has more beautiful gifts now than she will know what to do with, and others will come. Tell your Uncle Wesley his girl is bountifully remembered, very happy, and she sends her dearest love to all of you. Now you must go, so I can help her dress. You will be there to-night to see her, of course?"
