The Package With No Name

Mabel found the package behind the Mail Station's sorting bench.

It was small, wrapped in blue paper, and tied with yellow string.

There was no name.

No address.

No delivery label.

Only a little silver star tucked beneath the string.

“Well,” Mabel said, “you are making things interesting.”

She placed it on the Lost Label shelf.

An hour later, Juniper arrived with the morning mail cart.

“What's that?”

“A package waiting for somebody to recognize it.”

Juniper bent closer.

On the blue paper was a pale floury fingerprint.

“A bakery clue!”

“Perhaps,” said Mabel. “We can ask without opening it.”

Mrs. Claus examined the package.

“I recognize the paper. I sent some to the craft workshop yesterday.”

“Did you leave the fingerprint?”

“I leave many fingerprints,” she said. “Most of them are on biscuits.”

She gave them a biscuit each, which was excellent for investigating.

At the workshop, Tansy recognized the silver star.

“That came from our craft trays.”

“Who wrapped the package?” Juniper asked.

“We used that paper at yesterday's gift-making afternoon. Lots of elves were here.”

Oren pointed at the yellow string.

“I cut that! The person who asked for it was wearing green mittens.”

Half the Village owned green mittens.

Juniper looked at Mabel.

“This mystery has become very mitteny.”

They visited the Ranch, where green mittens hung beside the door.

Rowan checked the package.

“I haven't lost one. But someone borrowed our little bell stamp yesterday.”

Mabel turned the package carefully.

There, near a folded corner, was a tiny stamped bell.

At last, a useful new clue.

“Who borrowed it?”

“Pip. He said he was making something for a person who worked while he slept.”

Juniper nearly dropped her biscuit.

“The night shift!”

They found Pip just outside his cottage, shaking snow from a blanket.

His eyes widened when he saw the package.

“You found it!”

“You made it?” Mabel asked.

Pip nodded.

“I was bringing it to the Mail Station when my hat blew off. I put the package down while I chased the hat. Then I forgot where I'd put it.”

“And the name?”

“I was going to ask you for a label.”

“Who is it for?”

“Nell.”

Mabel fetched one from her pocket.

Pip wrote Nell's name, slowly and carefully.

By evening, the little blue package waited beside the night-shift lantern.

Nell found it when she came to work.

“For me?”

Pip stood near the door with Juniper and Mabel.

“Open it,” he said.

Inside was a small knitted pouch with a silver star sewn to the front.

“It's for your lantern tools,” Pip explained. “Mrs. Claus helped with the sewing. I picked the cloth.”

Nell slipped her tiny brush inside. There was room for her screwdriver too.

“It fits.”

“And there's another part.”

At the bottom was a picture Pip had drawn: two elves beside a glowing lamppost.

Nell looked at it for a long moment.

Then she tucked it safely into her coat.

Juniper grinned.

“We followed flour, a star, green mittens, and a bell.”

“That sounds like a very unusual recipe,” Nell said.

“Mostly it produced biscuits,” Mabel replied.

Pip handed Nell her lantern.

As she headed down the path, the silver star on her new pouch caught the light.

The Lost Label shelf was empty again.

For exactly twelve minutes.

Then Mabel found a red envelope addressed to:

THE ELF WITH THE HAT.

She sighed.

“Juniper?”

From the next room came a hopeful voice.

“Will we need more biscuits?”