My sister and I were talking about things and agreed that we could no without gifts and a special dinner. But when we thought about the house in darkness on Christmas eve, I felt my eyes filling with tears and looked away. My sister began to weep quietly.

I looked over toward the fireplace. My eyes came to rest on Grandma's rocking chair. I thought of Grandma and wondered what she would have us do in this dreadful time. As the thoughts entered my mind, I saw the rocking chair begin to move ever so slowly forward and then back. I tapped my sister and pointed to the rocker. We were amazed to watch the chair pick up speed until it rocked in Grandma's old familiar rhythm.

Suddenly, I understood, jumped up and shouted, "Grandma's nest egg!" loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. I ran into the kitchen, expecting my parents to be as excited as I was. My father looked at me sadly and told me that my parents had found Grandma's nest egg a few days earlier. It was only a few pennies, not enough to be of any real help.

Crestfallen, I went back to sit by my sister. In a few minutes, the rocker began to move again. This time it swiveled just enough to knock over Grandma's sewing basket that still sat, lovingly preserved, by her favorite chair. It seemed to us both that the tin button box which always rested at the bottom of the sewing basket was moved by an unseen hand out of the basket and onto the floor.

My sister walked to the overturned basket and picked up the tin button box. She carried it back to the couch, opened it and carefully looked inside. She moved the buttons in the box from side to side with her finger. She stopped suddenly, saying that she felt something odd in the bottom of the tin. Then she dumped the whole thing on the floor.

At the bottom was one of my grandmother's linen hankies. My sister removed the hankie and opened it. Inside were two five-dollar bills and a note.