CHAPTER XI

_How the Magic Book Helped at School_

THE Good Crow, Caw Caw, must have been very busy writing letters and making things that Saturday, for hardly had the children sat down to luncheon, and hardly had Henry undone his napkin than—out dropped a crow letter. Oh, oh, my! How funny!

And hardly had Jimsi lifted her napkin to take it out of the ring than lo—there, under it, was another crow letter. Oh, oh, _my_!

And then, as Mother took Katherine’s napkin to fasten it on there appeared a crow letter addressed to Katherine lying on the luncheon cloth.

“Did you ever!” whistled Henry. “I thought your crow was never going to write to me again, Aunt Phoebe.”

“I didn’t say that,” twinkled Aunt Phoebe’s voice. “I said you’d better look out. Beside that, Henry dear, the crow knows that you and Mother and Katherine have to go back to the city tonight. You’ve got to go back to school on Monday.”

“Oh, dear,” moaned Henry. “I want to stay here.”

“Me, too,” lisped Katherine.

“Isn’t Jimsi coming home with us?” urged Henry. “She looks all right. I don’t think she looks sick any more. She doesn’t act so.”

“I feel all right,” admitted Jimsi. “I don’t need to take naps any more while I stay, Aunt Phoebe. Mother said so. I don’t want Mother and Henry and Katherine to go back because I shall miss them, but I’d just as lieve not go back to school yet. I like to be with you, Aunt Phoebe, and I do love the Good Crow’s Happy Shop and the Magic Book! My book’s really growing quite thin. I’ll soon need another—how’ll I ever do without a Magic Book when this is gone?”

“Soon Christmas will be coming,” said Mother. “You’ll come home just before Christmas, Jimsi dear. And I think Aunt Phoebe’ll come with you. After Christmas, you’ll be going back to school again, and there’ll be an end to bad medicine and the peppermints that come after it.”

“Hooray!” whooped Henry.

Jimsi, however, was doubtful. She didn’t care to lose freedom that she had been having. Yet she liked school. “I’ll be glad the medicine’s gone, but I’ll want Aunt Phoebe and her crow play ever so much,” she declared. “I’m having such a good time here—and there is Joyce.”

“Well,” smiled Mother, “don’t borrow trouble. Today there is a whole long afternoon to play with Henry and Joyce and Katherine. And you have none of you read your crow letters yet.”

“I was keeping mine for the desert,” joked Jimsi. “Henry, you found your letter first, so you read yours first.”

Henry was deep in a slice of bread and butter, but he put it down and took up the sheet he had laid down when they had begun discussing Jimsi’s going-home. He read:

“DEAR BAD BOY:

You deserved to be punished for having laughed at me to-day but I know it was just fun so I’ll forgive you and, just because you were so naughty, I will give you something useful to do. I won’t tell you about any new play this time. You don’t deserve it!

I’m going to tell you something you can do for Aunt Phoebe: she has some books that she wants to have covered very neatly in paper. I should advise you to cover some of your school-books the same way when you go back to school. It saves the books and keeps the covers fresh. (I know you like to keep yours and sell them when you go into the next class.)

This is what you do: you take the book you wish to cover and lay it flat with cover open upon a sheet of thin wall paper taken from the Magic Book.

Next, you fold the paper to one side cover, making it all flat and very neatly turning the edges of the paper over one cover. Cut the paper at each corner of the book to help fold more easily. Fold in under the back of your book the extra strip that is not needed at the back of the cover.

If you have fancy labels that may be glued on, paste them on the front cover and write the name of the book as well as your own name on them.

_Your funny Crow._

P. S.

You’ll find five books of Aunt Phoebe’s that need new fresh covers. They are in The Happy Shop on the shelf beside the crow mail-box.

_C. C._”

“What a good idea,” declared Mother. “I think I’ll have some books to cover when I get home, too, Henry.”

“But what are we going to do, Aunt Phoebe, my Magic Book is getting so thin? There aren’t many more pages in it—only about twenty. I counted. How’m I going to get another—and Henry wants one, too.”

“Oh, everybody who wants a Magic Book can very easily have one,” declared Aunt Phoebe. “Just go to some store where they do paper-hanging and ask if you can have an old sample book of last year’s styles in wall paper. The styles change almost every year. Every year the men have new books of styles. Their shop is full of them. These old ones are useless when the new ones come in and the paperhangers are glad to get rid of the old paper books. Most always, these are thrown away. Even if you lived away off in the country, there would be some town near-by where you could get a sample-book of wall paper, if you were to ask. And if any child wants one, there are more than enough pretty Magic Books in the world to go around—more than one apiece.”

“Well, I’m going to try to get one on my way home from school Monday,” said Henry. “I pass by a paperhanger’s shop. I’ve seen the books in his window, but I never knew they could be used for play before crow told Jimsi of The Happy Shop.”

“I’ll get one there when I come home, too,” Jimsi laughed.

“Me, too!” cooed Katherine, though she only understood dimly what it was they were talking about. She had been begging Mother to read her letter aloud.

“Well, you read Katherine’s letter first, Mother dear,” urged Jimsi. “I’ll wait because Katherine is so little she gets impatient. What does Katherine’s letter say?”

Then, Mother read:

“DEAR BABY:

You can do something quite as well as the big boys and girls. You can make book-markers! You can cut strips of pretty paper and fold them together to look like ribbons. Paste pretty pictures on them and snip the ends in two points. I’m sure Mother would like a book-marker and Henry and Jimsi could use some for school-books.

You try to make them. I think Jimsi’ll help you.

Your loving friend, _Crow._

P. S.

There is a book-marker I made. It is with the books to be covered on the shelf of The Happy Shop and it is for _you_.”

Well, of course, Katherine wanted the book-marker and, of course, Henry, being the man of the family, ran to get it for Mother. It was indeed a pretty book-marker and quite easy enough for a baby like Katherine to cut. It looked like a ribbon. All one needed to do to make a book-marker like it was to cut a strip of paper and fold it and paste it together tight. Then a picture was pasted in the center on one side to ornament it and the ends of the paper were snipped evenly in points. Aunt Phoebe admired crow’s handiwork, and after it had been passed all around the table, and after it had come back to Katherine again, they asked Jimsi to read _her_ crow letter.

“DEAR LITTLE GIRL:

Hello:

I thought of something nice that you can do with your paper from the Magic Book. You can frame pictures. It is easy to frame pictures, if you use glue and have a sheet of glass to fit your picture. This is the way to do it.

Put the glass with your picture under it right on top of your Magic Book. Have the glass on the white side of the wall paper. Draw all around the edge of the flat glass with a pencil. This will show you the size to cut from your sheet of wall paper. You must add a half-inch or full inch to each side of this measurement before cutting out.

When this is done, fold the sides of the paper over your glass. Begin with the long sides. Glue these to the glass and then fold over the short ends of the paper the same way. Put some weight on top of the picture and let all dry carefully. See that all glue is used so sparingly that it does not muss the pretty paper.

After the paper is dried to the glass, paste on each corner some small flower or rosebud to finish and cover the corner folds. Paste a hanger at the back of the picture and you are through with your work. You can frame pictures for your own room this way and you can make dainty little gifts this way too. Save all the pretty pictures you find to use like this.

I won’t tell you any more today. I’m telling you a great deal because, you see, I want you and Henry and Katherine to enjoy the Magic Book as much as possible before train-time.

Your own _Caw Caw._”

That, too, was voted a good idea. Henry raced to the table in The Happy Shop to see what was there and he found a pretty picture framed just like that. Oh, it really was lovely, it _was_!

But the crow left no more letters for anybody that lunch time, even though Aunt Phoebe made believe that she thought _she_ ought to have one. She even got up and looked under her chair and made everybody laugh by saying in such a disappointed way, “Oh, Caw Caw _must_ have forgotten me!” But right then and there, Jimsi remembered that she had been trusted with a crow letter to Aunt Phoebe—the one from Joyce in the little basket. She had left it by mistake in her room when she hurried down to lunch after brushing her hair.

“Please, Aunt Phoebe,” she begged. “I know he didn’t forget you. May I go and look—”

Mother must have understood for she let Jimsi go to hunt. And then when she came flying back, how Mother did enjoy the joke. And Aunt Phoebe did like her basket and _her_ letter.

As there was no more horrid nap-time now after lunch, the children ran over to spend the whole long afternoon with the little lame girl. Henry carried his books to be covered; Jimsi carried her picture to show; Katherine took the book-marker. It was a jolly party that filed home about five o’clock after all the fun. Henry had to give crow calls all the way home up the street to Aunt Phoebe’s house.

And then—Oh, dear! All too soon came train time. And Mother, Henry and Katherine were gone.

As Aunt Phoebe bent over Jimsi’s pillow that night, she whispered, “Feel under it, dearie.” And right under the pillow was—what do you think? You couldn’t guess. It was a candy kiss, and it said, “Good night, Crow.”