In this chapter, we learn that the messenger is on his way to deliver yet another gift to the child. This time, however, the child's father has left the gift for her. The messenger asks the child where the gift came from, and the child tells him that her father left it next to her bed when she woke up. The child asks the messenger to take a look at the gift, but the messenger tells her that it is not his job to make the child "the agent of fate" . He says that the gift causes small ripples in a person's life, and sometimes acts as a "fork in the road." The messenger tells the child that he does not need the gift at the moment, and that he only does it when it is "some thing you dont need at the present time." The child wonders where her father got the gift and wonders where it came from. He tells the messenger that he is an "old hag" , and wonders why the messenger did not eat breakfast as he usually does. He then asks the woman running the library if she has seen alvie. The woman says that she does not see him today, but that she thinks he is popular with the children because he keeps them occupied all day, during their vacation. She tells the woman to ask the messenger if the children have been too loud, and he says that it has been too much since the first day.