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Natalie laughed Nancy was still, at sixteen, awake before dawn on Christ; Nancy still said the word "presents" with all the uninhibited glee of a four-year-old--even if the presents weren't for her, and that was one of the nice things about Nancy

She opened the gifts in the living room at home, and her es, one by one, and arranged them on Natalie's head By the third she was festooned with curled-ended bows, yellow, green, and pink, and felt like the Alice in Wonderland illustration of the Dutchess' baby in its huge ruffled cap She felt self-indulgent and silly, as if she had been sipping chaile silver necklace, a sht at the end of a smooth-linked chain She held it over her hands and remembered how, as a child, she had tried once to capture a small waterfall, in vain Then she fastened the clasp at the back of her neck and smiled at her sister

Aunt Helen was on a Mediterranean cruise; she had sent a package All four of the inadvertently at the top of the television The package was too small to be another panther

"I could save it till last," Natalie suggested

"No, get it over with," said Nancy practically "Save Mom and Dad's till last"

"I wonder if it's membership in the exotic-fruit-of-the- a year when they had dutifully unpacked, month afterthings that they had pondered and then sent down the disposal

"Hey!" said Natalie in pleased surprise, holding it up "Look!" It was a leather-bound medical dictionary

Her father exhaled in startled relief "She's mellowed," he said "At last"

Kay Aro, indeed, had mellowed It had mellowed all over the inside of the box in which it had been packed, during its month as exotic fruit, and had dripped, as they carried it, noses averted, to the sink

"No," said Natalie "Aunt Helen's okay" She opened the cover of the book and read the inscription that her father's sister had written She grimaced "Well, she's semi-okay"

"Semi-Horrible Aunt Helen," said Nancy "What did she write?"

"Just one of her pronouncements," Natalie said "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"No," said her father "But read it anyway"

Natalie stood, faced them, and tried to assume Aunt Helen's pinched-mouth voice "'It is not a field for a woman,' she read, 'but since you have chose Medicine, you have ht, Nancy," said Dr Ar "She's my sister, but she's seested Natalie's h Well, it's a nice dictionary"

("Well," she had said once, "it's the nicest green ceraive it that")

"Open Tallie's," said Nancy impatiently "Open Tallie's"

They said it every Christmas, every birthday: open Tallie's, open Tallie's

Tallie Chandler was Natalie's only living grandparent The sculptor, her mother's mother, lived in a Boston apartment in the winter, and spent her summers on an island off the coast of Maine By car and boat, she was only five hours away; but there was nothing, not even a granddaughter's graduation, that would take her fro had explained once, laughing, "but only because we scheduled it for the weekend before she was leaving Boston, and we had it at her aparts, the box rapped in off-white tissue paper that had been block-printed with an abstract design in blue and green

"She's incredible,""Look at that, Kay She did that paper by hand She should have signed it You could fra s, "every meal we had--every meal--looked like a still life that should have a fra her arranging breakfast on four plates We were in Italy at the tiet who And I asked her why she was taking so long I was hungry She laughed, and said she was just perfecting the symmetry before she served it"

"Open it," said Nancy

Natalie set the paper aside carefully and opened the box She gasped

It was a s, perfectly cast piece of bronze sculpture It was abstract, but there was all of nature in it It could have been a gull at sunrise, ; it could have been the thick, unopened leaves of a deep-forest wild plant in early spring Natalie turned it gently in her hands, and it caught the sun In the base, Tallie had etched her signature

A small white card had fallen from the box Natalie picked it up and read aloud, "Natalie dearest I have titled this piece 'Commence you joy May all Co you joy Tallie"

"You know," said Dr Ar after a moment, "that's worth a fortune"

Natalie held the sculpture and stroked its perfect curved lines with her hand "It would be worth a fortune," she said, "even if it weren't worth a fortune"

She set it on the coffee table so that the sun, coed its shadow into a curved ie on the polished pine

"Now I'll open yours" She sift was a small box When Natalie removed the paper, she saw the department store label on the cardboard box, and some familiar Scotch-tape marks on the sides "Moave Dad on Father's Day!"

"Well," heris environmentally sound"