“It might mean being gone on Christmas Day,” Miss Gordon admitted soberly. “So far, the plan is not definite.”
“Then if we were gone, we wouldn’t get any Christmas presents,” said Sunny, losing her happy smile.
“That part would be taken care of, I assure you,” Miss Gordon declared. “Naturally, I can’t expect you to say whether you would be willing to leave Rosedale, when I haven’t told you where the troop would go.”
The Brownies looked somewhat relieved and waited anxiously for their leader to continue.
Miss Gordon, however, realized that she had said almost too much.
“I can’t tell you any more about the plan until we meet again,” she said. “Until then, I’ll merely ask you all to think very seriously of the question I have raised. If the answer should be ‘yes’--well, who knows?”
Connie’s birthday came on Thursday. The little girl rolled out of bed and went down to breakfast feeling rather blue.
“Happy birthday, dear,” said her mother, giving her a kiss.
“Why, Mother,” laughed Connie, suddenly feeling quite cheerful, “I thought you had forgotten. And Daddy too!”
“Look beside your plate if you think that,” teased her father.
Connie ran into the breakfast room. Beside her plate was a small package wrapped in tissue paper.
“It’s a birthday present, isn’t it?” she said, untying the pink ribbon. Of course she knew it was.
“A gift for the nicest little girl in the world,” declared her mother, smiling.
Connie couldn’t guess what her parents had given her. She pulled away the tissue paper and a ring popped out. On it was a design of a dancing Brownie, and her own initials.
“Oh, a Brownie ring!” cried Connie, doing a dance of her own on the carpet. “Just what I wanted!”
Connie was very proud of her new birthday ring. She showed it to the mailman when he brought the morning letters, and to the Brownies at school.
Only one thing bothered Connie. She had received no package from her Grandmother and Grandfather Williams. When she returned home at three o’clock, she asked her mother if a gift had arrived.
“Do you suppose they forgot my birthday, Mother?”
Mrs. Williams replied she was quite certain they hadn’t. She thought the package possibly had been delayed in the mail and might arrive the next day.