ach other's hands. They laughed very
softly to themselves as though they knew pleasant things that no one
else knew.

_My_ hand would have felt pretty lonely if I hadn't had the little gold
pencil to carry.

I felt pretty tired. I walked pretty far behind.

I decided that when I grew up I'd be a Writer! So that no matter what
happened I'd always have a gold pencil in my hand and _couldn't_ be
lonely!

THE GIFT OF THE PROBABLE PLACES

My Mother says that everybody in the world has got some special Gift.
Some people have one kind and some have another.

I got my skates and dictionary-book last Spring when I was nine. I've
always had my freckles.

My brother Carol's Gift is Being Dumb. No matter what anybody says to
him he doesn't have to answer 'em.

There was an old man in our town named Old Man Smith.

Old Man Smith had a wonderful Gift.

It wasn't a Christmas Gift like toys and games. It wasn't a Birthday
Gift all stockings and handkerchiefs.

It was the _Gift of Finding Things_!

He called it "The Gift of the Probable Places."

Most any time when you lost anything he could find it for you. He didn't
find it by floating a few tea-leaves in a cup. Or by trying to match
cards. Or by fooling with silly things like ghosts. He didn't even find
it with his legs. He found it with his head. He found it by thinking
very hard with his head.

People came from miles around to borrow his head. He always charged
everybody just the same no matter what it was that they'd lost. One
dollar was what he charged. It was just as much trouble to him he said
to think about a thimble that was lost as it was to think about an
elephant that was lost.--I never knew anybody who lost an elephant.

When the Post Master's Wife lost her diamond ring she hunted more than a
hundred places for it! She was most distracted! She thought somebody had
stolen it from her! She hunted it in all the Newspapers! She hunted it
in all the stores! She hunted it all up and down the Village streets!
She hunted it in the Depot carriage! She hunted it in the Hired Girl's
trunk! Miles and miles and miles she must have hunted it with her hands
and with her feet!

But Old Man Smith found it for her without budging an inch from his
wheel-chair! Just with his head alone he found it! Just by asking her a
question that made her mad he found it! The question that made her mad
was about her Baptismal name.--Her Baptismal name was Mehetabelle
Euphemia