“And we came home in Mr. Parkney’s sleigh,” finished Sunny Boy.  “Have you any letters for me, Mr. Harris?”

“Two for your mother, and a paper for your daddy,” said Mr. Harris slowly.  “And—­let—­me—­see—­” He began to go over his letters again, very slowly.  “Let—­me—­see—­” he said again.  “Oh, here it is!  I thought I’d lost it.  Are you Arthur Bradford Horton?  You are?  Well, Sunny Boy, here’s a nice, big, square white letter for you.  And I’m glad the blizzard didn’t blow you away.”

Sunny Boy took his letter eagerly, mumbled “thank you,” and ran upstairs as fast as he could go.

“Oh, Mother, look!” he shouted.  “I have a letter!  It’s addressed to me from somebody.  Did Aunt Bessie write to me?”

“Open your letter and read it,” said Mrs. Horton laughingly.

Sunny Boy took the paper knife she gave him and cut the envelope as he had seen his daddy do.

“It isn’t a letter; it’s a Christmas card,” he said in disappointment.

“Oh, no, precious, no one would sent you a Christmas card in January,” declared Mrs. Horton.  “See, dear, it is an invitation to a party.  Oliver Dunlap is eight years old next week and he is going to have a birthday party.  Won’t that be fun!”

Sunny Boy was glad Oliver had sent him an invitation to his party and not a Christmas card.  He spent the greater part of the afternoon writing an answer to the letter.  First he wrote it in pencil, and when he had shown the pencil copy to Mother and Harriet and Aunt Bessie (who came to lunch and to see if Sunny Boy was quite well after his snow storm experience) and they had all said it was a very nice answer indeed, he copied it in ink.  He had to do this five times before it satisfied him.  Sunny Boy would not send a letter to Oliver with the tiniest spot of ink on it, and he was willing to do a thing over and over and over to get it right.  Before he had finished putting the stamp on the envelope—­Harriet said Sunny Boy shook the house when he put a stamp on a letter, and indeed he thumped it as though he were pounding with a brick—­Nelson and Ruth Baker came over to see him.

“Did you get lost yesterday?” asked Nelson.  “When did you get home?  We only had one session in school.”

Nelson went to the public school and he had to go to school in the afternoon unless the principal decided to have only one session, as he often did when it stormed.

“Are you going to Oliver’s party?” said Ruth.  “We are.  What are you going to take him?”

Sunny Boy could tell Nelson all about getting lost and when he came home, and he could explain to Ruth that he was going to Oliver’s party.  But he could not tell her what birthday gift he meant to take Oliver, because he hadn’t thought about it.

He asked Mother, after Nelson and Ruth had gone home, and she said they would go down town some afternoon before the party and find something nice.