“Well”—he looked again at the display—“that brown packing paper is kinda ugly.”

“Papa!” she said, rolling her eyes at his teasing. He grinned, and she felt something like a warm bubble expanding in her heart. There had been so few smiles between them since Mama’s death, and today they had already exchanged two.

“After dinner, I’d like to take the wagon and go out of town a ways,” Hanna said. “I’m going to dig up some prairie rose bushes and put them in the window well. So that will make it look nice, and there will be refreshments. But is there—can you think of anything else we could do, to make the opening really special?”

His habitual frown returned immediately. “You always want too much,” he said.

“I just think we should do something different. The shop in Los Angeles, did you and Mama ever—I mean, I remember the parties, but I don’t remember much about them—”

Papa snapped his fingers. “You put me in mind of something,” he said, his eyes bright once again. “A raffle. Sometimes it takes money to make money. The prizes will cost us some. But a raffle will bring in people who might not come otherwise.”

A raffle! He explained how it would work. There would be a box on the counter where people could put their visiting cards as they entered the shop. When the box was full of cards, Papa would draw one at random; the person whose name was on the card would win a prize.

“We’ll have the drawing mid-morning, maybe around ten or so, before folks leave to go home for their dinners. Let’s have”—he paused for a moment—“three winners, maybe? Your mama loved a raffle. She always wanted us to put up more prizes—I remember once I had to talk her down from nine.”

That sounded so like Mama. “How about five?” Hanna suggested. “Three small prizes, one medium, and a grand prize.”

“Five’s good.”

“Can I choose the prizes, Papa?”

“Suits me. Just show me what you pick out. I don’t want you losing your head and giving away the whole shop.”

Hanna examined the display counter, shelves, and drawers. Then she looked through every cupboard and cabinet in the storeroom and made her choices.

A packet of a dozen needles in various sizes. A string of assorted buttons. A cheerful posy of colored ribbons. Those would be the small prizes.