Roger had planned to send a great many valentines to the girls and
boys he knew. There were beautiful valentines in the toy shop window,
red satin hearts in little heart-shaped boxes, painted post card
valentines, and little card-board figures holding baskets of flowers.
Roger had been saving his allowance for four weeks and he was quite
sure that he had enough money to buy a valentine for the little girl
next door, and one for the little girl across the street, and one for
the boy on the next block, and one for the boy who lived upstairs.
So, quite early the day before Saint Valentine's Day, Roger decided to
go out and buy his valentines.
Just as he was about to start, though, he heard a sound from the
playroom. _Peep, peep, peep_. Oh, it was Roger's pet canary who was
calling to him, "Wait a moment, little master! You have forgotten to
feed me."
Roger knew that he must not buy valentines if his pet bird was
hungry. He found that it needed fresh water to drink, and the cage
needed cleaning too. When he had done all this and filled the seed
box, his mother called him.
"I want two yards more of lace like this for the baby's dress, Roger.
Will you please go down to the store and buy it for me?"
"Oh, yes!" Roger said, for he thought that he should be able to go on
down to the toy store and buy his valentines at the same time. But
just as he was going out of the door his mother spoke again. "Come
right home, Roger, just as quickly as you can. I want to finish the
baby's dress so that she can wear it this afternoon when I take her
over to Aunt Lucy's."
Roger got the lace and hurried home with it, but he couldn't get the
valentines then. He had to amuse the baby while his mother sewed on
the lace.
"I can go for the valentines this afternoon," Roger thought. But right
after luncheon mother dressed the baby and started out for Aunt Lucy's
house.
"I may not be back until five o'clock, Roger," his mother said as she
kissed him good-bye. "You won't leave dear grandmother alone a minute,
will you?"
"No, mother," Roger said, but he could have cried, for he knew now
that he could not buy his valentines at all.
Grandmother lost her spectacles several times, and dropped her
knitting ball several more times, and wanted Roger to take her for a
walk, so he was very busy all the afternoon. He was glad to be busy
for he felt very badly indeed about having no valentines to send. All
the children to whom he had planned to send valentines had sent
valentines to him the year before. The children were his loved
playmates and he knew that Saint Valentine's Day was the holiday for
telling one's love.
He did not let his dear grandmother know how sorry he was, though, and
after a while it was five o'clock, and his mother came home.
"Has Roger been a good boy?" she asked his grandmother.
"As good as gold," grandmother said. "He has just warmed my heart all
the afternoon."
"Well, I thought he would," his mother said. "Oh, I almost forgot
something, Roger. I have a surprise for you up in the attic."
She went up to the attic and came back with a box in her hand.
"I meant to give these to you this morning, Roger," she said. "I found
them in an old trunk when I was cleaning the attic last week. They
are just as good as new and much prettier than the ones in the shops
now, I think. They are the valentines that I had when I was a little
girl."
Oh, such beautiful valentines as filled the valentine box! There were
enough so that Roger could take one to every child in the neighborhood
on the morning of Saint Valentine's Day.
His mother had been right about these pretty, old-fashioned
valentines. They were nicer than any in the toy shop. Roger spread
them all out on the library table, and looked at them. Suddenly he
found out something queer about the valentines; they made him feel as
if he had been playing Saint Valentine all day.
Some of the valentines had cunning little paper windows that pulled
out and showed tiny gold birds inside. They made Roger think of his
pet canary that he had fed that morning.
Some of the valentines were bordered and trimmed with gilt, and
silver, and white paper lace. It made Roger think of the lace he had
bought for his mother.
A great many of the valentines were in the shape of hearts, or there
were hearts hung from them, or hearts on them that could be pulled out
and would stand alone. They made Roger think of what his dear
grandmother had said,
"Roger has warmed my heart all the afternoon."
"Hurrah for the valentine box!" Roger said as he began putting
valentines in envelopes. He felt most unusually happy.