A few days after Thanksgiving the gift that he had planned was finished.
It was a big, burl-maple box, designed after the hope chests that he saw advertised in magazines.

The wood was rare, cut in heavy slabs, polished inside and out, dove-tailed corners with ornate brass bindings, hinges and lock, and hand-carved feet.

On the inside of the lid cut on a brass plate was the inscription, "Ruth Langston, Christmas of Nineteen Hundred and Ten.

David." Then he began packing the chest.

He put in the finished candlesticks and a box of candleberry dips he had made of delightfully spiced wax, coloured pale green.