There were not very many of
them, a ten cent piece, a quarter, half a dollar and an old silver
six-pence. And he had been saving them up a long, long time.
"Well," said Jack to himself, soberly, "there aren't enough to buy
mother a silk dress, but I think I'll ask Cousin Susy, if she won't
spend my money and get up a birthday party for the darling little
mother. A birthday cake, with, let me see, thirty-six candles, that'll
be a lot, three rows deep, and a big bunch of flowers, and a book.
Mother's never had a birthday party that I remember. She's always been
so awfully busy working hard for us, and so awfully tired when night
came, but I mean her to have one now, or my name's not Jack."
Away went Jack to consult Cousin Susy.
He found her very much occupied with her dressmaking, for she made new
gowns and capes for all the ladies in town, and she was finishing up
Miss Kitty Hardy's wedding outfit. With her mouth full of pins, Cousin
Susy could not talk, but her brown eyes beamed on Jack as she listened
to his plan. At last she took all the pins out of her mouth, and said:
"Leave it all to me, Jack. We'll give her a surprise party; I'll see
about everything, dear. Whom shall we ask?"
"When thou makest a dinner or a supper," said Jack, repeating his golden
text of the last Sunday's lesson, "call not thy friends, nor thy
kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again and a
recompense be made thee.
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