“Lan’ sakes!  Do tell!” cried Dinah.

“And we found Miss Pompret’s dishes!” broke in Nan.

“And we’re going to get the hundred dollars reward,” added Bert. “’Cept, of course, if they aren’t the right ones you can have ’em for souvenirs, Dinah.”

“Bress yo’ heart, honey lamb!  Dinah’s got all she wants when yo’ all come back.  Now I go an’ git somethin’ to eat!”

The children—­at least Nan and Bert—­were so eager to have Miss Pompret see the two dishes that they hardly ate any of the good things Dinah provided.  They wanted to go at once and call on the dear, old-fashioned lady, but their father and mother made them wait.

At last, however, when they had all rested a bit, Mr. Bobbsey took Nan and Bert with him and went to call on Miss Pompret.  The dishes, carefully washed by Mrs. Bobbsey, were carried along, wrapped in soft paper.

“Oh, I am glad to see my little friends again,” said Miss Pompret, as she greeted Nan and Bert.  “Did you have a nice time in Washington?”

“Yes’m,” answered Bert.  “And we brought you—­”

“We found your missing sugar bowl and pitcher!” broke in Nan.  “Anyhow, we hope they’re yours, and we paid the old man a dollar and thirty-four cents and—­”

“You—­you found my sugar bowl and pitcher!” exclaimed Miss Pompret, and Mr. Bobbsey said, afterward, that she turned a little pale.  “Really do you mean it—­after all these years?”

“Well, they look like your dishes,” said Mr. Bobbsey.  “The children saw them in a second-hand store window, and went in and bought them.  I hope, for your sake, they are the right pieces.”

“I can soon tell,” said the old lady.  “There is not another set like the ancient Pompret china in this country.  Oh, I am so anxious!”

Her thin, white hands, themselves almost like china, trembled as she unwrapped the pieces.  And then, as she saw them, she gave a cry of joy and exclaimed: 

“Yes!  They are the very same!  Those are the two pieces missing from my set!  Now it is complete!  Oh, how thankful I am that I have the Pompret china set together again!  Oh, thank you, children, thank you!” and she threw her arms about Nan and kissed her, while she shook hands with Bert, much to that young boy’s relief.  He hated being kissed.

“Are you sure these are the two pieces from your set?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.

“Positive,” answered Miss Pompret.  “See?  Here is the blue lion in the circle of gold, and initials ‘J.  W.’  There can be no mistake.  And now how did you find them?”

Bert and Nan told, and related how Billy had bargained for the two pieces.  They all wondered how the second-hand man had come by them, but they never found out.

Miss Pompret carefully placed the sugar bowl and pitcher in the glass-doored closet with her other pieces.  She looked at them for several seconds.  They matched perfectly.

“Now, once more, after many years, my precious set of china is together again,” she murmured.