It was as if a dweller in a Harlem flat had been presented with a hippopotamus.
The maker of the mill looked about him, plainly seeking a place to deposit his burden.
"'Tisn't anything much," he said, hastily.

"I--I'm real glad for you to have it." He was about to put it on top of the cookstove, in which there was a roaring fire, but Mrs.Armstrong, by a startled exclamation and a frantic rush, prevented his doing so.

So he put it on the table instead.

Barbara thanked him profusely.

She was overjoyed; there were no comparisons with hippopotami in HER mind.