rs
who says he has something for you both."

"For us!" exclaimed the children, starting up.

"Yes: your mother sent me to tell you. He says he was told to say as
how he had a May-basket for you."

"A May-basket, Delia? What! All lovely flowers like those I told you
about?" cried the little girl.

"Sure, child, and how could I see what was inside, and it so carefully
done up?" answered Delia, evasively.

They did not question further, but rushed downstairs to see for
themselves.

In the kitchen waited a foreign-looking man, with swarthy skin, and
thin gold rings in his ears. On the floor beside him was a large,
rough packing-basket.

"_That_ a May-basket!" exclaimed Abby, hardly able to restrain the
tears of disappointment which started to her eyes.

"_Si, signorita_," replied the man.

Her frown disappeared. It was certainly very nice to be addressed by
so high-sounding a title. She wished she could get Delia to call her
_signorita_. But no; she felt sure that Delia never would.

"Pshaw! It's only a joke!" said Larry, after a moment. "Somebody
thinks this is April-fool Day, I guess."

"Have patience for a leetle minute, please," said the man, as he cast
away the packing bit by bit. The children watched him with eager
interest. By and by he took out a little bunch of lilies of the
valley, which he handed to Abby with a low bow. Next he came to
something shrouded in fold after fold of tissue-paper.

"And here is the fairest lily of them all," he said, in his poetic
Italian fashion.

"What can it be, mother?" asked the little girl, wonderingly.

Mrs. Clayton smiled. "It is from Sartoris', the fine art store where
you saw the beautiful pictures last week; that is all I know about it,"
she replied.

The man carefully placed the mysterious object on the table.

"It is some kind of a vase or an image," declared Larry.

"Why, so it is!" echoed Abby.

In another moment the tissue veil was torn aside, and there stood
revealed a beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin.

"Oh!" exclaimed Larry, in delight.

"How lovely!" added his sister.

The image was about two feet high, and of spotless Parian, which well
symbolized the angelic purity it was intended to portray. To many,
perhaps, it might appear simply a specimen of modeling, but little
better than the average. However, those who looked on it with the eyes
of faith saw before them, not so much the work itself, as the ideal of
the artist.