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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43569 ***
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs=
+and italic text is surrounded by _underscores_.]
+
+
+BOBBY IN SEARCH OF A BIRTHDAY
+
+
+BY
+
+LEBBEUS MITCHELL
+
+[Illustration]
+
+COVER AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+BY JOSEPH PIERRE NUYTTENS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    CHICAGO
+    P. F. VOLLAND & CO.
+    1916
+
+
+
+
+    Copyright 1916
+    P. F. VOLLAND & CO.
+    CHICAGO, U. S. A.
+
+    All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER I
+    Once When Bobby Wasn't Left Behind.
+
+    CHAPTER II
+    The Boy With Eight Birthdays.
+
+    CHAPTER III
+    Hunting for the Thing You Mustn't Think About.
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+    The Lady Who Likes Little Boys.
+
+    CHAPTER V
+    The Man With the Pocketful of Quarters Reappears.
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+    The Borrowed Birthday.
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+    "All the Perquisites Pertaining Thereto."
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+    "Fathers and Mothers and Things Like That."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+BOBBY IN SEARCH OF A BIRTHDAY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ONCE WHEN BOBBY WASN'T LEFT BEHIND
+
+
+Bobby North went out into the front yard by the iron gate between the
+two tall stone columns to watch the horses and wagons and 'mobiles
+traveling up and down that invitingly dusty and mysterious road that he
+was forbidden ever to set foot upon.
+
+He knew he could crawl under the gate, he was so little, and raise
+clouds of dust by dragging his feet in the road as two small boys did
+who passed by and stopped to gaze in wonder at Bobby and at the big
+brick house set back in the yard among some trees. He wondered if the
+Supe'tendent would _really_ send him to bed without anything to eat if
+he disobeyed her just this once and slipped under the gate, out into
+the road for as many as forty or a dozen minutes.
+
+He was afraid she _really_ might, and was standing with face pressed
+against the iron bars of the gate when a man drove up back of him with
+a buggy jammed as full as it would hold of boys and girls from the Home.
+
+"Bobby North!" cried the sharp, irritated voice of the Supe'tendent.
+"How many times must I tell you to keep away from that gate!"
+
+He turned clear around and saw on the porch the tall, thin figure of
+the Supe'tendent. The man in the buggy jumped out to open the gate.
+Bobby stepped back from the graveled road, for he knew by experience
+that it is always safer, if you are a small boy, to keep out of the way
+of grown-up folks--_then_ they can't scold you for doing something you
+mustn't, or not doing something you should, even when you had never
+_thought_ of doing either one.
+
+He looked up longingly at the buggy load of boys and girls who were
+going to explore the mysteries of that delightfully dusty road and not
+coming back for maybe forty or a dozen days. Bobby was used to being
+left behind and stepped further away, but without taking his lonely
+eyes off those more fortunate children.
+
+When the man had opened the gate, he stopped and looked at Bobby and
+then at the Supe'tendent on the porch. He came directly towards Bobby
+as he kept backing away, caught him up in his arms and tossed him into
+the lap of the lady who sat on the front seat!
+
+"You'd like a whole week in the country, too, wouldn't you?" said the
+man.
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+Bobby was so surprised that that was all he could think of to say.
+
+"I'm afraid he will be too much trouble for you," called the
+Supe'tendent. "He's so young."
+
+Bobby steeled his heart and started to climb down from the lady's lap,
+but his lower lip twitched in spite of his effort to keep it steady.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed the man, as he led the horses out into the
+road, shut the gate, jumped into the seat by the woman and drove
+off in a cloud of dust. He didn't seem to be at all afraid of the
+much-to-be-feared Supe'tendent!
+
+Bobby was so glad to be riding away from the Home that he thought he
+almost _liked_ the Supe'tendent this once, and looked back and waved
+good-bye to her. She stood there stiff and angry and did not reply.
+
+Thus it came about that Bobby North had his first trip away from the
+Home that he could remember. The week at Mr. and Mrs. Robert Eller's
+in the country was a glorious time--days to be remembered by all the
+red letters on the playing blocks that were sometimes given him on a
+Sunday to keep him quiet.
+
+Besides the calves and little pigs, the clover field and the daisies in
+the yard, there was the two-months' old puppy that Mr. Eller's little
+boy told him was a St. Bernard. It soon became the chief delight of
+this puppy to chase Bobby about the yard and trip him and then, when he
+fell headlong, to lick his hands and face affectionately with a moist,
+red tongue. The man never once objected to his playing with the awkward
+and much-to-be-desired puppy all day long.
+
+He was an answer to ardent and secret prayer, this Man Who Lets You
+Play with the Puppy, and Bobby looked up to him with a great deal of
+awe; his words carried the weight of authority. He seemed to understand
+what small boys want, to know that the greatest of all treasures, a
+real live puppy, is good for them.
+
+Thus the happy days in the country passed like magic.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BOY WITH EIGHT BIRTHDAYS
+
+
+One afternoon the puppy was not to be found anywhere. Bobby returned to
+the front yard at Mr. Eller's, after a vain search for his playmate,
+and found that _that_ day was a very special occasion.
+
+The grown-ups, and the children, too, were celebrating something which
+seemed to be called a "birthdays." It belonged to Richard, the small
+son of the Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy. It was the boy's
+eighth birthdays, and he was very proud of that fact.
+
+There was ice-cream--enough so that Bobby's dish was heaped full a
+second time without asking and before he had quite finished the first
+helping--and cake and two big red and white apples for each child.
+Bobby was still munching contentedly away at his first apple, the other
+clutched tightly in his left hand, when Richard's mothers led the
+children into the house to see the "presents."
+
+There was quite an array of them--enough Bobby decided for all eight
+birthdays and he vaguely wondered if all eight of them had come on that
+one day. There was a baseball, and a bat, a dozen marbles--"glassies"
+Richard called them, presents it seemed from his fathers; a nice, new,
+starchy white blouse with blue trousers, a gift from his mothers. Then
+there was a pair of high boots with a copper plate on the point of each
+toe, sent him by his Uncle John in the city.
+
+Last of all there was something out at the barn which was to be sold
+when "they" grew up and help to buy something for Richard some day
+which his fathers never had--"an edge-cation."
+
+"They" proved to be six little pigs with curly tails and squealy
+voices. Bobby wondered if Richard wouldn't grow up before they did, he
+was so much bigger, and then what would become of his edge-cation?
+
+He fell to wondering about this thing called a birthdays. As near as he
+could make out, it was a very special day on which everybody--at least
+your fathers and mothers, if you had such possessions--unaccountably
+gave you playthings that you had always wanted, such as "glassies" and
+baseballs and, yes, little curly-tailed pigs that were to help buy you
+an edge-cation.
+
+He decided he wanted a birthdays, but didn't know the least thing
+about how to go about it to get one. He determined to ask and went
+immediately to Richard who, having eight birthdays of his own, must be
+an authority on the matter.
+
+"Where did you get your birthdays?" he asked in what he thought was a
+very loud voice, but apparently it wasn't for Richard said "Huh?" and
+for a moment stopped trying to straighten the curls out of the tails of
+the little pigs. Bobby repeated his question and added wistfully:
+
+"Never had none."
+
+"You have, too," said Richard.
+
+"Ain't not," said Bobby resolutely.
+
+"You have, too," repeated Richard.
+
+Bobby fell silent under that assertion and tried to remember when
+anybody had ever given him presents. He could recall no such occasion.
+Then an explanation came to him.
+
+"P'raps," he suggested timidly, "you only have birthdays when you have
+fathers and mothers and things like that."
+
+"Everybody has birthdays," said Richard from the lofty peak of his
+superior years.
+
+Bobby again remained silent and Richard, to add the final, crushing
+blow, gave further information.
+
+"Everybody has fathers and mothers, _some_ time."
+
+"P'raps I'm not big enough yet to have fathers and mothers and
+birthdays. How big will I have to be?"
+
+Richard snorted in derision.
+
+"_They_ have _you_," he said and turned his attention to straightening
+out the curls from his pigs' tails.
+
+Bobby did not understand, but felt that somehow he was in the wrong,
+and he went off a ways by himself and took the first comforting bite
+out of his other apple, carefully choosing the side with the most red
+on it.
+
+After a time Richard convinced himself that the kink was a part of the
+pig's tail and stopped trying to uncurl it. Then his eye fell on Bobby
+and he scowled fiercely.
+
+"Everybody has birthdays," he said. "What you done with yours?"
+
+"Not done nothing with it," replied Bobby. Then, after a time, "Never
+had none."
+
+"Papa," called Richard to the Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy,
+"Bobby says he hasn't got a birthday. Everybody has birthdays, haven't
+they, papa?"
+
+Mr. Eller was talking with his wife and paid no attention.
+
+"Everybody has birthdays, haven't they, papa?" This time Richard yelled
+so loud his father couldn't help hearing.
+
+"Yes, of course," he replied carelessly.
+
+"There, I told you so!" said Richard.
+
+"Ain't not," insisted Bobby stubbornly, and hunted out another red spot
+on his apple.
+
+Richard seemed to take Bobby's words as a personal affront.
+
+"Papa, he has too, hasn't he, papa?"
+
+"Has what?" asked Mr. Eller impatiently.
+
+"Bobby has too a birthday, hasn't he?"
+
+"Everybody has a birthday," replied his father.
+
+"I told you so! I told you so!" chanted Richard, skipping about. "Bobby
+North has lost his birthday! Bobby North has lost his birthday and
+don't know where to find it!"
+
+"Ain't not," repeated Bobby and his lower lip began to twist up.
+"Wouldn't lose a 'portant thing like a birthdays."
+
+Mr. Eller and his wife approached the children. That capable woman put
+her hand on Bobby's head.
+
+"Haven't they ever celebrated your birthday at the Home?" she asked.
+
+"Perhaps they don't know when it is," Mr. Eller suggested in a low
+voice to his wife.
+
+"Couldn't lose it, could I?" appealed Bobby to the Man Who Lets You
+Play with the Puppy.
+
+"Some children lose their birthday before they are big enough to know
+what it is," comforted Mr. Eller.
+
+"Bobby North has lost his birthday and don't know where to find it!"
+chanted Richard in derision.
+
+"Ain't not," repeated Bobby dismally.
+
+"That will do, Richard," said Mr. Eller severely. "Go and play
+pump-pump-pull-away with the other children."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Richard and went obediently off, turning back only
+once to make a face at the boy who had lost his birthday.
+
+"Never mind, Bobby," said Mr. Eller. "You'll find it some day."
+
+"When I get growed up?"
+
+"Perhaps sooner. I'll see the Superintendent. We may be able to find it
+for you."
+
+"Could _I_ find it if I hunted and hunted all day long, like the
+spoon?" queried Bobby eagerly.
+
+The Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy laughed.
+
+"Don't worry about your birthday, Bobby. You'll stumble across it some
+day when you are walking along and not thinking about it."
+
+"It won't matter if you don't, dear," said Mrs. Eller. "Folks will love
+you just the same."
+
+"No'm," said Bobby skeptically, replying to her first statement, and
+retiring under a tree to puzzle over the matter and consume the rest of
+the apple. The other children were playing their games and Mr. and Mrs.
+Eller soon went into the house.
+
+Bobby decided that the lady, Richard's mothers, didn't know the
+importance of a birthdays, whereas _nothing_ could be more important.
+Birthdays brought little boys all the things they had always wanted,
+like "glassies" and baseball bats and little pigs. He knew he wanted
+the "glassies" and the bat and wasn't quite sure but that he might
+want the pigs to help buy an edge-cation when he grew to be as big as
+Richard's fathers who said he wished that he had one.
+
+If he had really lost his birthdays _himself_, he might find it as
+he did the spoon which he lost in the yard one day. The Supe'tendent
+made him hunt and hunt for it till he couldn't see for the water in
+his eyes. And then, suddenly, he stepped on it when he wasn't thinking
+about it and bent it all twisty-like. What if he should step on his
+birthdays and bend it just as he had the spoon? He must be very careful
+where he stepped. Didn't the Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy say
+he would find his birthdays some time when he was walking along and not
+thinking about it?
+
+He wanted very much to find his birthdays; so he must be up and about
+it. He would start at once; he might find it before night and would
+show that Richard that he _did_ know where to find his birthdays. He
+knew that he could walk ever so far, but was not so sure that he could
+keep from thinking about what he was looking for. It was worth trying
+anyway. If only he might step on his birthdays! He must be careful
+though not to step on it with all his weight and bend it as he did the
+spoon--it might be harder to straighten it out.
+
+He rose and started for the road. The other children were too busy with
+their playing to notice him. Stepping lightly, with eyes fixed on the
+ground, Bobby trudged out through the yard into the road.
+
+So he started out on his strange quest.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HUNTING FOR THE THING YOU MUSN'T THINK ABOUT
+
+
+When he had gone a long way, Bobby crossed the road and crawled under
+the fence into the field beyond. He tried so hard not to think about
+the thing he was searching for that he forgot all about the fact that
+it had been hours since dinner and that the sun's bedtime could not be
+so very far off. One can't remember _everything_ when trying so hard
+not to think of _one_ thing. He _wasn't_ thinking of that--only of the
+presents Richard had received, and _that_ wasn't the same!
+
+He trudged on till his short legs grew weary, always looking down at
+the ground and stepping, oh, so lightly! He was startled when a big
+gruff voice suddenly boomed out right in front of him:
+
+"Hullo, Bub! What're you doin' out here?"
+
+Bobby was so astounded that he blurted out the truth without thinking.
+
+"Hunting for my birthdays."
+
+"Huntin' for your birthday, huh? Well, now, what do you think of that,
+Steve?" And the rough, bearded man who had spoken to him, winked
+prodigiously at the youth who was helping him mend a broken place in
+the fence.
+
+"Where'd-ja lose it?" asked the youth.
+
+"Don't know," confessed Bobby.
+
+"That's a funny thing to lose," said the rough, bearded man. "Sure you
+had one?"
+
+"Don't perzactly 'member," replied Bobby. Then a dreadful thought came
+to him: he was _thinking_ about his birthdays! "Please, I musn't not
+think about it."
+
+The bearded man burst out laughing.
+
+"You're a funny codger! Huntin' for something you mustn't think about!
+What do you think of that, Steve?"
+
+Steve didn't think very highly of the matter, Bobby was sure from the
+way he laughed.
+
+"Does your mother know you're out?" asked Steve, and in turn exchanged
+another prodigious wink with the man with whiskers.
+
+"Ain't not got any mothers," said Bobby.
+
+"Oh," said the bearded man in a different voice, "you're one of the
+kids old man Eller has out to his place."
+
+"Yes'm," Bobby admitted and began to back away. These men were making
+fun of him and he felt uncomfortable, and they had made him _think_
+of his birthdays! He had taken only a few backward steps when a big
+pleasant voice behind him made him jump.
+
+"Quite a ways from home, aren't you, son?"
+
+"I'm hunting my----," but Bobby remembered just in time and stopped.
+"Yes'm," he added and turned to look up into a pair of friendly blue
+eyes and at lips that smiled under a blond mustache that curled up at
+the ends. The man put a hand on Bobby's shoulder and drew him closer.
+
+"Lost, are you? Well, we'll soon fix that. What is your name?"
+
+"No'm," said Bobby, trying to answer the man's questions in order.
+
+"No'm! That's a funny name!" exclaimed the man and laughed till his
+eyes all crinkled up.
+
+"No'm's not my name!" laughed Bobby. "No'm, I'm not lost, I'm
+hunting----" Again he remembered just in time and stopped.
+
+"That's a secret, is it? Is your name, too?"
+
+"Bobby North," he replied and smiled up at this man who laughed at him
+without making fun of him.
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"Way off--_there_," replied Bobby, pointing over the tops of the trees.
+
+"Oh, up there! You've chosen a fine home--"
+
+"He's one of the kids at Eller's place, Mr. Anning," interrupted the
+man with the whiskers.
+
+"He's huntin' for his birthday which he was careless enough to lose,"
+added Steve.
+
+"Was not care-_less_!" Denied Bobby and that unsteady lower lip began
+to tremble.
+
+"Of course you were not careless," said the man with the mustache.
+"Somebody just forgot to tell you. Here, take this."
+
+He put his hand in his pocket and drew it out full of money. He
+selected a large shining white piece and put it in Bobby's hand.
+
+"Here's a quarter for you. Now it will soon be sundown and you'd better
+make tracks for Mr. Eller's. Know how to find it?"
+
+"Thank you," said Bobby, clutching the quarter and not forgetting what
+the Supe'tendent told him to say whenever anybody gave him anything.
+Then, after a time, he remembered the man's question and he replied to
+it. "Yes'm."
+
+"That's it--that house way over there on the other side of the road,"
+said the man. "Keep your eyes on the house and you can't miss it."
+
+"Yes'm," said Bobby and started off.
+
+"Here," called the man, "Wait a minute. Here's a quarter for you." He
+drew out another handful of money and selected another shining white
+quarter, only it was not so shiny as the other one. "Now skeedaddle for
+Mr. Eller's."
+
+Forgetting to thank the man for the second quarter, Bobby started off,
+keeping his eyes fixed on the house. When he had gone a long ways he
+turned and looked back. The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters waved to
+him, and Bobby, after waving, too, set resolutely onwards for the house
+far off across the road.
+
+Now it's hard to remember just what you a going to do when one is a
+very little boy and has just been given two whole quarters all for his
+very own, particularly if the disturbing thought _will_ come to you
+that you can have lots and lots of quarters and other things given to
+you if you have birth--the thing you musn't think about.
+
+That reminded Bobby; he was sure that he hadn't stepped on _It_ while
+he wasn't thinking or he would have felt it under his foot as he
+did the spoon. Perhaps it might be somewhere along this mysterious,
+inviting white road, all covered with dust and lined with trees and
+bushes, that wound away further than anyone could see. It might be just
+beyond that turn; there where the meadow lark went sailing happily up
+into the sky. He would go there and look.
+
+Dragging his toes in the dust to see if his lost birthdays might be
+covered up there, Bobby gained the turn in the road, and the next one,
+and the one beyond that, and still trudged on, his short legs aching
+and stumbling. He _wasn't_ thinking about the thing he musn't think
+about! Why didn't he feel it under his feet? Perhaps because the water
+wasn't in his eyes so he couldn't see, as it had been when he stepped
+on the spoon. He began to fear he couldn't go much farther. Still he
+kept on.
+
+Then suddenly the sun went entirely to bed. Bobby began to be
+frightened for he had never been out all alone with the darkness.
+When it's all dark, little boys can't tell what other things may be
+about. His lip began to tremble and now the water _did_ come into his
+eyes. That interested him; it was so when he stepped on the spoon; it
+might be that he would find his--what he was looking for--now, and he
+stumbled on through the dust and the gathering darkness towards the
+next turn in the road.
+
+As he toiled on, he became conscious of a gentle purring sound behind
+him that kept getting louder and louder. He was almost at the turn when
+there came a fierce honking right behind him. Blinded by the water in
+his eyes, he could but dimly see a great black mysterious object almost
+on him when he turned. He was too frightened to move. The thing came to
+a sudden stop just a few feet from him and he saw that it was only a
+'mobile. A rough, young voice cried:
+
+"Don't you know enough to get out of the road when you hear a car
+coming, you little--"
+
+"James! You might have struck him!" cried a sweet, frightened voice
+from the body of the 'mobile. "We ought not to have tried to make home
+without having the lights on."
+
+"Don't stand there in the way like a----" the rough, young voice began,
+but the woman's voice interrupted:
+
+"The child is crying! Open the door, James."
+
+Before he knew what she was going to do, the lady was kneeling right
+in the dust of the road by his side. She put her arms about him and
+drew his head against her breast. It was so soft and warm there and so
+_safe_ that Bobby cried all the harder for very relief and his arms
+stole about the neck of the lady until his fingers got tangled in her
+soft hair.
+
+"I _do_ believe the child is lost," said the lady and gathered Bobby up
+in her arms and carried him into the 'mobile. "Light the lamps, James,"
+she added from the depths of the black-cushioned seat.
+
+James, who wore a pair of big glasses that almost hid his face, turned
+on the lights, and, through his tears, Bobby soon saw two beams of
+light spurt out on the road ahead.
+
+"Tell me your name, won't you?" begged a low voice close to Bobby's ear.
+
+He struggled to control his sobs enough to answer.
+
+"I like little boys," added the voice coaxingly.
+
+"B-B-Bob-b-by," he said at last, nestling closer in those protecting
+arms.
+
+"He's so tired he's falling asleep," said the voice which was the
+sweetest Bobby had ever heard.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE LADY WHO LIKES LITTLE BOYS
+
+
+The next thing Bobby knew, he woke up to find himself sitting in a
+great big, soft red chair in a great big, red room with as many as
+forty or a dozen red-shaded lights, with a strange lady kneeling in
+front of him. He looked into her eyes, puzzled at finding she was not
+the Supe'tendent.
+
+"You don't remember one thing that happened, do you?" laughed the lady.
+
+"Yes'm," said Bobby after a pause, smiling sleepily back at her.
+"You're the Lady Who Likes Little Boys."
+
+"You darling!" murmured the lady and squeezed Bobby until he could
+hardly breathe. "Tell me where you live."
+
+"There," and he pointed hesitatingly towards the top of the door.
+"N-No, that way. Don't know." The knowledge that he was lost came to
+him and that lower lip began to twitch tremulously.
+
+"Never mind, dear, I'll find your home. What is your father's name?"
+
+Bobby's big brown eyes opened wide and he stared at her unblinking for
+a while.
+
+"Got none," he answered at last.
+
+"Then your mother. What is her name?"
+
+"Got none," he repeated.
+
+"But she must have a name. Tell me what you call her when she sits by
+your bed at night and kisses you and tucks you in," coaxed the lady.
+
+Bobby sat up straight.
+
+"Do mothers do that?"
+
+"Why, yes. Don't you know?" And the lady kissed Bobby.
+
+"No'm," said Bobby wistfully.
+
+"She must be worried frantic because you don't come home. Tell me about
+her so I can find her and tell her you are not lost."
+
+"Got no mothers," said Bobby after a long pause.
+
+"Who are you? What's the rest of your name?"
+
+"Bobby North, little imp."
+
+The lady didn't like that: she almost frowned.
+
+"You're not _that_ at all. Who ever told you so?"
+
+"Supe'tendent at the Home said so."
+
+"Oh," said the lady, taking in her breath quickly, "then you're--"
+
+The Lady Who Likes Little Boys stopped: then she put her arms about
+Bobby and squeezed till he squirmed.
+
+"Yes'm," said Bobby timidly, trying to breathe.
+
+"How did you come to be wandering alone along the road?"
+
+Bobby looked at her for a long time without moving an eyelash.
+
+"Please, will telling be thinking about it?"
+
+"Not if you whisper it close in my ear."
+
+Bobby took his courage in both hands, placed his lips close to her ear,
+shut both eyes tight, and whispered all in a breath:
+
+"Wanted to find my birthdays which I lost before when I was too little
+to know what it was."
+
+"Your birthdays!" The lady was so surprised that the smile faded from
+her lips. "Have you lost _that_?"
+
+"Hunted and hunted all day," said Bobby. "And I _didn't_ think about
+it----Not _very_ much."
+
+"Why didn't you think about it? Can't you tell me?"
+
+Bobby opened his eyes wide.
+
+"'Cause if you don't think about it maybe I'll step on it like the
+spoon."
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"The Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy."
+
+"Who is he? Don't you remember his name?"
+
+"No'm," said Bobby after a long struggle to think. "To-day is his
+birthdays."
+
+"The Man's Who Lets You Play with the Puppy?"
+
+"His little boy's. He has eight of them and presents, glassies, and a
+bat, and little pigs to help buy you an edge-cation."
+
+A delicious drowsiness crept all over Bobby till his eyelids went all
+tickly and prickly and he rubbed both fists into them.
+
+"You're all tired out," said the lady, "and hungry, too. I'm going to
+get you something to eat and put you to bed. Would you like to be my
+little boy tonight?"
+
+For reply, Bobby flung both arms about her neck and squeezed with all
+his might until he squeezed a sob right out of her throat. She took him
+up in her arms and carried him out into a room with a big shiny red
+table with two red chairs by it. Then she rang a bell and soon a girl
+with a little white apron came in.
+
+"Sarah, bring me a glass of milk, some bread and butter and jam."
+
+"Why does that girl wear a little white apron?" asked Bobby. "Is she a
+'tendant?"
+
+"No, she's the maid," replied the lady.
+
+The girl seemed hardly to have had time to leave the room before she
+was back, bringing on a tray the bread, the milk, two little cakes of
+butter and a dish all ready to run over with red jam. The lady put
+lots and lots of butter on the bread, besides all the jam it could
+hold without running over the edges, and watched Bobby eat it all up.
+She didn't tell him to pick up the crumbs,--just kept smiling at him
+and asked if he could eat another piece. Of course he could! But, as
+it happened, he couldn't, for he hadn't eaten half of it when the
+prickling in his eyelids got so bad he had to close them.
+
+When he opened his eyes again, he was in a little white bed in a little
+white room, and there--it couldn't be! He rubbed the sleep out of his
+eyes. Yes, it was! A little train with an engine and a whole string of
+cars! He looked around.
+
+In one corner of the room stood a baseball bat with a catcher's glove,
+and there on the little stand by the window was a box all full of
+marbles, "glassies" and agates and many other kinds. He felt queer and
+looked down at himself and found he no longer had on his own clothes
+but a nice clean nighty.
+
+"What made you wake, dear?"
+
+He twisted his head and there sat the Lady Who Likes Little Boys,
+smiling at him.
+
+It took him a long time to think of the reason.
+
+"Please, I forgot 'Now I lay me'."
+
+"Will you say it to me, right here at my knees?"
+
+Bobby climbed out of the bed, knelt by the lady, laid his head on her
+knees and repeated the sleep-forgotten prayer. He looked up when he
+had finished and found the lady had covered her face with both hands.
+Perhaps she was saying her "Now I lay me," and Bobby kept still for a
+long time. Finally he squirmed around for another look at the train of
+cars.
+
+The lady must have known that he was through, for he felt gentle hands
+on his shoulders.
+
+"Who taught you that?" she asked.
+
+"The 'tendant with the blue and white dress."
+
+"It's--it's beautiful," said the lady in a voice that sounded very much
+like Bobby's when he had water in his eyes.
+
+He looked up and saw there was water in _her_ eyes! Suddenly he felt
+queer inside and knew something without having been told.
+
+"Is the train your little boy's?"
+
+"Yes, dear. This was his room."
+
+"And his bed?"
+
+"Yes; everything in the room was his."
+
+"Where is your little boy?"
+
+It was quite a long time before she replied and then it was so low
+Bobby scarcely heard.
+
+"He's gone away."
+
+"When did he go away?"
+
+That seemed a very hard question to answer.
+
+"Three months ago," said the lady at last, her fingers at her throat as
+though to help the words come out.
+
+"When's he coming back?"
+
+The question this time was still harder to answer.
+
+"He's never coming back . . . never till I . . . go for him. He was
+sick a long time . . . until God had pity on him and took him home."
+
+"Are you going for him tonight?" asked Bobby in that new, diffident
+voice.
+
+"No, dear. I can't go for a long, long time."
+
+"Not till he gets growed up?"
+
+The Lady Who Likes Little Boys put a handkerchief to her eyes before
+she answered.
+
+"Not . . . not till God sends for me."
+
+Bobby remained silent till his eyes fell on the box of marbles.
+
+"Can I play with the marbles till he comes back?"
+
+"Yes, dear, tomorrow when you've had your sleep out."
+
+Then Bobby looked at the little train again and fell to wondering;
+perhaps this boy, too, had birthdays. He turned to the lady.
+
+"Did your little boy have birthdays?"
+
+"Yes, dear. Day after tomorrow is his birthday."
+
+"Are you going to cel'brate it?"
+
+"Yes . . . in my heart." It was just a whisper that Bobby barely heard.
+
+"How many birthdays did he have?"
+
+"Seven."
+
+Bobby considered that. The little boy whose fathers was the Man Who
+Lets You Play with the Puppy had eight birthdays and the little boy
+whose mothers was the Lady Who Likes Little Boys had seven. But _her_
+little boy had gone away. Perhaps he wouldn't mind letting him have
+just one of his birthdays.
+
+"Would he let me have just _one_ of his birthdays?"
+
+The lady remained perfectly still and did not answer. Bobby added
+wistfully:
+
+"Just till I see what it's like? P'raps I wouldn't want it any more. If
+I _did_ like it, then I could go on hunting for the birthdays I lost."
+
+He knew before she spoke that _her_ little boy wouldn't let him have
+one of his birthdays.
+
+"Not his. I couldn't. Don't. . . . There, dear, go to sleep now and
+I'll. . . ."
+
+She didn't finish what she was saying, but went quickly out, carrying
+her handkerchief to her face. Bobby was too tired to be very much
+disappointed, so tired that he fell asleep almost before the swishing
+of her dress had ceased to sound in his ears.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MAN WITH THE POCKETFUL OF QUARTERS REAPPEARS
+
+
+The Lady Who Likes Little Boys went quickly into another room and took
+down from a closet shelf a little suit of clothes and gave way to
+tears, hugging the empty clothes desperately to her heart.
+
+After a time, a big man with a brown mustache whose ends curled up,
+came into the room, looked down pityingly at her, then took her up in
+his arms like a little tired child and held her silently while she wept
+her heart out.
+
+"You mustn't take his things out, Alice," said the man. "Not yet."
+
+"I can't bear it, Alfred. I want him! I won't try not to think of him!"
+
+Mr. Anning placed his wife gently in a chair and began to tell her
+about meeting a small boy in the field who was hunting for something he
+must not think about.
+
+"For the birthdays he lost before he was big enough to know what it
+was?" said his wife smiling through her tears.
+
+"Do you know him? Who is he?" asked Mr. Anning eagerly.
+
+For answer, his wife took him by the hand and led him into the little
+white room where Bobby lay fast asleep. Mr. Anning bent quickly over
+him and exclaimed:
+
+"Why, it's the very same! The little fellow who lost his birthdays! And
+in Edward's room. Now I understand, dear, why----"
+
+"It was not that," interrupted his wife, and covered her eyes with
+her hand. "He asked for just _one_ of Edward's birthdays so he could
+find out what it was like. And I couldn't give it to him, Alfred! I
+couldn't!"
+
+"Poor little chap," said her husband. Then he took his wife by the hand
+and led her out of the little white room.
+
+They entered the red room just as Sarah, the maid, ushered in Mr.
+Eller. He was very much disturbed and spoke quickly.
+
+"I'm sorry to trouble you, Mr. Anning, but one of the children from the
+Home is lost. I wonder if you would take your car and----"
+
+"Was he a little boy of five?" interrupted Mrs. Anning.
+
+"The boy who had lost his birthdays?" questioned her husband.
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Eller. "Have you found him?"
+
+"He is upstairs fast asleep."
+
+"You don't know what a relief that is!" sighed Mr. Eller. "My wife is
+nearly distracted at the thought that he may be wandering about in the
+woods or the fields."
+
+"We'll bring him over in the morning," said Mr. Anning.
+
+"I think I'd better take him with me," said Mr. Eller. "It will calm
+Mary to have him right under her eyes with the other children."
+
+"I know how she feels," said Mrs. Anning. "I will get him ready."
+
+After he had been asleep for a long, long while, Bobby woke to find
+himself dressed in his own clothes and in the arms of the Lady Who
+Likes Little Boys. She was speaking.
+
+"He is so tired and sleepy, Mr. Eller. It's a pity to wake him. I wish
+you would let me have him until morning."
+
+"My wife's worried sick by his disappearance," replied a voice that was
+familiar to Bobby. He turned his head about to see. It was the Man Who
+Lets You Play with the Puppy. In the doorway stood another man, a big
+man with a mustache whose ends curled up. He came forward, smiling at
+Bobby, and held out his hand.
+
+"Well, young man, I didn't expect to see you again so soon, and in my
+own house, too."
+
+Bobby didn't know quite what to say to that although he was sure the
+man was not making fun of him, so he said nothing.
+
+"You haven't forgotten me already, have you?" continued the man.
+
+"No'm," smiled Bobby. "You're the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters."
+
+"Right you are!" laughed the man and, to prove it, drew out a handful
+of coins from his pocket, selected a quarter and pressed it into
+Bobby's palm.
+
+The lady kissed Bobby good-bye while the man looked pleadingly at her.
+
+"I can't, Alfred! I can't!" she said all choked up, and Bobby wondered
+what had made her cry.
+
+"No, of course, you can't, Alice, I understand."
+
+The Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy took Bobby from the Lady and
+carried him out. Bobby looked back and saw the Man with the Pocketful
+of Quarters put his arm about the Lady Who Likes Little Boys.
+
+Bobby did not see the 'mobile drive up toward evening of the next day
+for he was out in the yard at Mr. Eller's playing with the St. Bernard
+puppy. He was running with all his might, the puppy right at his heels,
+when he looked up and saw the Lady Who Likes Little Boys coming swiftly
+towards him. He stopped quite still for a time, then ran with all his
+might right into her arms and tangled his fingers among the soft hair
+at the back of her neck.
+
+"Oh, Bobby, I just can't let you go back to the . . . Home, without
+your first knowing what a birthdays is."
+
+"Have you found it? Is it mine?" asked Bobby eagerly.
+
+"Not yours, Bobby. My little boy is going to lend you--one of his."
+
+Bobby squirmed in delight.
+
+"Day after tomorrow?"
+
+"Tomorrow," smiled the lady.
+
+"When will that be?"
+
+"Soon, dear. I'll tell you when it comes."
+
+Bobby remained in thought for a long while.
+
+"Your little boy won't be mad at you?"
+
+"No, Bobby. He was always generous--just like his father." Then she
+said something that Bobby decided was addressed to herself and not to
+him. "I can't be less generous."
+
+Bobby squeezed her neck until his arms ached. Then he remembered
+something she had just said.
+
+"Did your little boy have fathers, too?"
+
+"Yes. He's waiting in the car. Let's go to him, will you? Mrs. Eller is
+going to let you spend the night with us."
+
+Holding hands, they went out through the yard, while the deserted puppy
+sat on his haunches and stared forlornly after his little playmate who
+did not even look back.
+
+When they got to the car, there sat the Man With the Pocketful of
+Quarters! So _that_ was the fathers of the little boy who was going to
+lend him a birthdays!
+
+"Well, son," said the man as they solemnly shook hands, "we're going to
+show you what a real birthdays is."
+
+"Yes'm?" queried Bobby as he was lifted into the 'mobile.
+
+"Sure thing. It will be birthday all day long, from the moment you
+open your eyes until the Sandman comes."
+
+Bobby snuggled happily at the side of the lady in the back seat, while
+the car sped swiftly on towards the house with the little white room
+with the little train and a whole string of little cars.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BORROWED BIRTHDAY
+
+
+"Is it tomorrow now?" asked Bobby eagerly as he awoke the next morning
+in the little white room and found the Lady Who Likes Little Boys
+bending over him.
+
+"Yes, this is day-after-tomorrow."
+
+"Your little boy's birthday?"
+
+The reply was a long time in coming.
+
+"It's your birthday this time, dear."
+
+"For all day and always?"
+
+"For all day long."
+
+Bobby felt of himself all over and then announced wistfully:
+
+"It doesn't not feel any different, having birthdays--not yet."
+
+"Wait, Bobby, until you have had your bath and breakfast, then maybe it
+will be different."
+
+Bobby didn't mind the bath this time at all, only he was in a
+tremendous hurry to get through with it, and when he was seated at the
+table he scampered through breakfast very quickly without being scolded
+once. He did not even notice that the girl with the little white apron
+did not bring him things to eat as she had the night before. He was
+back in the red room with the forty or a dozen red-shaded lights, now
+all put out, shaking hands with the Man With the Pocketful of Quarters,
+when the maid came into the room and said:
+
+"It's all ready now, sir."
+
+"All right, Sarah," replied the man and the girl left the room.
+
+"We're going to start out _this_ birthday right, son."
+
+"Yes'm," said Bobby, watching him with eyes that sparkled expectantly.
+
+"Up in the room where you slept," continued the man, "are a lot of
+things that small boys like. I want you to go up there alone and look
+them over. Then you are to pick out the _one_ thing that you want most
+of all--just one. That will be yours for keeps."
+
+"'Glassies' or the bat or the train?" asked Bobby.
+
+"It's just _one_ thing for now," interposed the lady. "There will be--"
+
+"Don't give me away, Alice," pleaded the man.
+
+Bobby wondered how she _could_ give away the Man With the Pocketful of
+Quarters, but soon forgot that thinking about more important matters.
+
+"Or little pigs to buy an edge-cation with curly tails?" pursued Bobby.
+
+The man burst out into a big laugh that filled the room.
+
+"I haven't a doubt but what you'll have a curly-tailed edge-cation all
+right, Bobby, when the time comes, pigs or no pigs."
+
+"Yes'm," smiled Bobby not knowing quite what the man meant.
+
+"Come," said the lady. "I'll go as far as the door with you."
+
+And that was as far as she _did_ go. Her hand slipped gently over
+Bobby's straight blond hair and lingered there before she pushed him
+into the room and closed the door between them.
+
+Bobby stopped at the head of the little bed which had already been made
+up, and looked carefully about the room. There was the enchanting train
+all ready to get up steam to carry him away into that strange land
+where red Indians tomahawk little boys, or where pirates dig all day in
+the white sand making places to hide yellow gold in. And there on the
+bed was the box of marbles, "glassies," agates and all, and a little
+blue sailor suit, and a baseball bat, and a whole row of quarters, and
+there--
+
+Bobby's eyes opened wide and he made a jump for the thing that was
+almost hidden in the pocket of the sailor suit. It _couldn't_ be, and
+yet it _was_! The shiningest, white-handled pocket knife a boy ever
+had! He counted the blades; there were three of them, but not one of
+them could he open. He sat down on the floor and tried and tried to
+open those blades, oblivious to everything else.
+
+Before very long he became aware of a barely audible scratching sound.
+It was soon followed by a high-pitched whine. Bobby looked eagerly all
+about; a strange excitement thrilled his blood, but didn't see anything
+that _could_ make such a noise.
+
+At last he leaned clear over until his head almost touched the floor
+and looked under the bed. Way down at the foot of it was something
+in a basket, that moved. Bobby watched fascinated, hardly daring to
+breathe. The whining came again. Then the dearest little black nose was
+lifted above the edge of the basket and two soft brown eyes looked into
+Bobby's.
+
+Bobby shouted and the puppy yelped at the same instant. Bobby,
+forgetting that he could walk around the bed, crawled under it. The
+puppy tried just as hard to come to him. It managed to get half way out
+of the basket when Bobby's face came down against its black nose. Puppy
+and boy mingled affection and gratitude.
+
+The puppy's ugly face and wide-apart bow-legs were at that moment
+the most beautiful things in the world to Bobby. Even birthdays were
+forgotten and he hugged and patted that worshipping creature for a
+long, long time before recollection of the Lady Who Likes Little Boys
+caused him to crawl hastily out from under the bed, burst through the
+door, and tear wildly downstairs to the red room, the puppy clutched to
+his heart.
+
+The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters sat at the table in the corner,
+talking to the Lady. They both looked up.
+
+"Well, son, is that what you want most?"
+
+"Yes'm," smiled Bobby. "Is it _all_ mine?"
+
+"Head, body and tail," replied the man.
+
+"It knew me!" exulted Bobby.
+
+The man and the lady exchanged laughs.
+
+"He's all boy," said the man. "Made of the right stuff."
+
+The lady patted the man's shoulder and looked away.
+
+"Come here, son, and tell me what you think about birthdays."
+
+Bobby marched close up to the man.
+
+"Wish it was mine."
+
+The wistful note in his voice made the lady's hands fly out to him.
+
+"Oh, you like it, do you?" asked the man. "Well, this birthday has only
+just started."
+
+"Yes'm," said Bobby and hugged the squirming puppy till it licked his
+ear.
+
+"Here's another quarter for you. That's four quarters--quite a sum for
+a small boy."
+
+Bobby took one hand off the puppy long enough to accept the quarter.
+
+"What have you done with the others, Bobby?" asked the lady.
+
+He fished them out of the pocket of his blouse and held all four out in
+the palm of his hand.
+
+"That makes a dollar, son. That's a whole lot of money for a boy only
+five years old."
+
+That set Bobby to wondering.
+
+"Is it lots of money for a little boy with _seven_ birthdays?" he asked.
+
+"You can just bet your boots it is. A boy can buy all sorts of things
+with a dollar."
+
+As he spoke, the man pulled a great, round white piece of money out of
+his pocket, thereby revealing to Bobby that his pockets contained other
+things besides quarters, and making him forget that four quarters _is_
+an awful lot of money even for a boy with seven birthdays.
+
+"Know what this is?" asked the man.
+
+"Money," replied Bobby.
+
+"How much money?"
+
+"A grown-up quarter," hazarded Bobby at length.
+
+"It's a dollar," replied the man, "and is worth just as much as the
+four quarters. Would you rather have your money all in one piece? I'll
+give you the dollar for the four quarters."
+
+Bobby hesitated in perplexity and the Lady came to his rescue.
+
+"Take the big piece, Bobby. It's not so easy to lose and easier to find
+if you do lose it."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ALL THE PERQUISITES PERTAINING THERETO
+
+
+Bobby obediently exchanged the four quarters for the dollar despite the
+frantic efforts of the puppy to see what was going on. The dollar was
+heavy in his hand and it was very thick. Bobby felt quite wealthy, able
+to buy all sorts of things, an edge-cation or . . . or perhaps even
+birthdays! His eyes grew big and round.
+
+The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters had just said a moment before
+that a boy could buy all sorts of things with a dollar. And a dollar is
+lots of money even to a boy with seven birthdays! In his excitement
+Bobby almost dropped the puppy, retaining his hold on that delight
+by one leg only. His eyes sparkled with the intensity of the desire
+lighted in them.
+
+"Is it enough to buy a birthdays?" he asked, stammering in his
+eagerness.
+
+The lady gasped at the question and the man was too staggered to do
+anything at first; finally he exploded into that huge laughter which
+always seemed to Bobby to fill the room. He didn't mind the laughter
+for he knew the man was not making fun of him.
+
+"I don't know, Bobby," said the man when he had stopped laughing. "I've
+never heard of anybody selling his birthday. You might try and see."
+
+Bobby turned at once to the Lady Who Likes Little Boys.
+
+"Your little boy ain't not never coming back," he fairly stammered in
+his excitement. "Would he sell me a birthdays?"
+
+And he held out the round, shining dollar.
+
+The lady shrank back from him and went suddenly all white. Bobby knew
+he had done something wrong, but couldn't for the life of him imagine
+what it was.
+
+The father of the boy with seven birthdays went quickly to his wife.
+
+"He's got grit and perseverance," said the man. "A birthday looks good
+to him and he won't give up till he gets one. It would make him happy
+as a king, Alice."
+
+She hid her face on his shoulder.
+
+"I can't, Alfred. Don't ask that."
+
+Bobby didn't understand what it was _she_ couldn't do, but felt that he
+had in some way hurt her and his lower lip began to move unsteadily.
+
+"It's only day-after-tomorrow, Alice," pleaded the man.
+
+"It's Edward's," replied the Lady. "You have no heart or you
+couldn't. . . ."
+
+The man looked at Bobby and then said in a low voice to his wife:
+
+"Day-after-tomorrow is never to-day."
+
+Bobby's heart smote him anew, for he saw water running down the Lady's
+face as she lifted her head. It had all been caused by his wanting a
+birthdays. Very well, he would pretend he didn't want a birthdays any
+more; then perhaps the water would go out of the Lady's eyes.
+
+"Don't want a birthdays," he announced with a suspicious dolefulness in
+his voice. "It doesn't not feel good."
+
+"Look at him, Alice," said the man.
+
+Bobby didn't want the Lady to see the water in _his_ eyes, so he tried
+to rub it out, but the tightly clutched dollar got in the way, and the
+lady must have seen what he was doing, for she simply rushed at Bobby
+and gathered him, puppy, dollar and all, into her arms and kissed him
+forty or a dozen times and held his face against her wet cheek.
+
+"Birthdays can't be bought, Bobby, but you shall have one all of your
+very own. I'll _give_ you one."
+
+"Don't not want any," whimpered Bobby.
+
+"Not if _I_ give you one?" asked the lady, wiping the water out of her
+eyes. "We'll give you our little boy's."
+
+Bobby kept perfectly still and in that stillness a miracle was
+performed; that trembling lip of his, without stopping its trembling,
+was transformed into a joyful smile. And when the Lady saw it, _she_
+smiled too.
+
+"I've been selfish and . . . rebellious," said her sweet, low voice
+right at his ear, but she was looking up at the Man with the Pocketful
+of Quarters when she said it.
+
+The man blew his nose and made such a loud noise that it startled Bobby
+and the Lady. They looked into one another's face and then began to
+smile like persons sharing a happy secret that no one else knew.
+
+"I'll draw it up on paper, son," said the man, "and then if you ever
+lose it again, whoever finds the paper will know _that_ birthday
+belongs to you and return it."
+
+He went to the writing desk in one corner of the room, took paper, pen
+and ink and began to write. When all the water had gone out of the eyes
+of Bobby and the Lady, they went over to watch the man who was writing
+away rapidly and smiling to himself.
+
+"There you are," he said at last, with a concluding flourish, and
+handed the paper to his wife. She smiled as if it hurt her to read what
+he had written, and pressed Bobby more closely to her.
+
+"Now we must sign it," said the man.
+
+With another flourish, he wrote his name on the paper. His wife's lip
+trembled just like Bobby's as she signed it. Then the man took Bobby
+on his lap and guided his hand in making a big cross, and then wrote
+something himself above and below the mark Bobby made.
+
+"Is that a birthdays?" asked Bobby.
+
+"No," replied the Lady, "it's just proof that we have given you a
+birthday. If anybody ever doesn't believe you have one, just show him
+that, and he'll know that you have."
+
+"I'll read it to you, son," said the man and proceeded to read in a
+big, booming voice:
+
+"Done at Our House this Second Day of August, 1916. We, Alfred and
+Alice Anning, do hereby and herewith give and convey to Bobby North,
+Day-After-Tomorrow, which on every Second Day of August becomes
+To-Day, to be his very own birthday forever. _This_ Day-After-Tomorrow
+is his fifth birthday; the next one will be his sixth. No one can
+take this birthday from him because it is ours to give. Whenever
+Day-After-Tomorrow comes, the aforesaid Bobby North is to have his
+birthday with a celebration and all the perquisites pertaining thereto.
+In witness whereof our signatures are herewith attached.
+
+                              Signed:  Alfred Anning
+                                       Alice Anning.
+                     Bobby North
+  Accepted by
+                   His =X= Mark."
+
+"There, I guess that's all ship-shape and tight enough so water can't
+leak through," said the man and offered the paper to Bobby. He accepted
+it gravely, as one should in such important matters, then smiled up at
+the Lady whose lip still twitched curiously. He looked thoughtfully at
+the paper in his hand.
+
+"A birthdays and perk--perk--"
+
+"And all the perquisites pertaining thereto," said the man, helping him
+out.
+
+"What is perk-_wiz_its?" Bobby asked.
+
+"Perk-_wiz_its," replied the man gravely, "are the things that go with
+birthdays, a celebration, marbles, cake and ice cream, pocket knives,
+pigs and pups. Why, look at that pup!"
+
+Bobby looked and the puppy had the precious bit of paper in his mouth
+and was trying to swallow it!
+
+The man opened the puppy's mouth and rescued Bobby's birthdays.
+
+"I was only just in time," he confided to Bobby. "A second later and
+that dog would have swallowed it. Then where would your birthdays have
+been?"
+
+Bobby took time to consider. In due course he arrived at a decision.
+
+"Long's the puppy's mine, I'd have the birthdays, too."
+
+He joined in the laughter of his two friends without quite knowing why.
+
+"Keep the paper in your pocket, Bobby. If the dog eats it you couldn't
+prove to anybody that you had a birthday. Now we are going to continue
+the celebration."
+
+All day long that celebration lasted and Bobby was so happy and excited
+and had so many good things to eat and so many wonderful things to do
+that he didn't know where the hours had gone when the man said the day
+was almost over and that it was time to take him back to Mr. Eller's.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FATHERS AND MOTHERS AND THINGS LIKE THAT
+
+
+The Lady Who Likes Little Boys took Bobby into the house to get him
+ready while the man was bringing the 'mobile out to the gate. The car
+was waiting long before the Lady had Bobby ready. She was very slow
+about it; first she held him tight and ran her fingers through his
+hair; then she put his hat on, and took it off to smooth his hair
+again. Next she brushed his clothes. Finally she put the puppy in his
+arms and gathered up all the presents which Bobby was to take with him.
+
+There came a sudden honking from the waiting 'mobile, the Lady hastily
+kissed Bobby, put on his hat for the last time, and led him out of
+the house. She helped Bobby into the car and very slowly arranged his
+presents about him in the back seat. Then, reluctantly, she closed the
+door.
+
+"Aren't you coming with us, Alice?" asked the man. "The ride will do
+you good."
+
+"No," she replied, "the day is over for me.
+
+"Why, the sun hasn't not gone to bed--_quite_," said Bobby, for the
+edge of the round, red ball in the West had not yet touched the horizon.
+
+"All right, son, we're off," said the man and honked the horn, and the
+wheels began to go slowly 'round.
+
+"Wait, Alfred!" called his wife in an unsteady voice and her hands went
+out quickly towards Bobby.
+
+The 'mobile came to a sudden stop, the Lady opened the door and
+snatched Bobby out and to her breast.
+
+"I can't let you go, Bobby. They wouldn't celebrate your birthday at
+the Home. They wouldn't know how."
+
+"I'm afraid it wouldn't be much like a birthday there; not after this
+one," said the man.
+
+The Lady put Bobby down and he seized the opportunity to readjust his
+hold on the puppy and to look into his blouse pocket to see if the
+precious bit of paper was still there.
+
+"May I, Alfred?" he heard the Lady Who Likes Little Boys saying to the
+man in the 'mobile.
+
+"Alice!" cried the man. "I love you a thousand times better than ever!"
+
+That seemed a very funny sort of answer to Bobby; there was no sense in
+it. He looked up and found the Lady's arms held out to him.
+
+"Bobby, would you like to stay with us and be _my_ little boy? Then,
+every year when your birthday comes, we could celebrate it together."
+
+Bobby's eyes glistened. He looked from her to the man and back again.
+They were both smiling at him.
+
+"Will you be my mothers, then?"
+
+"Yes, dear, I'll be your mother."
+
+Then, forgetting all about the puppy, which fell to the ground with a
+surprised little yelp, Bobby rushed to the Lady Who Likes Little Boys
+and threw his arms passionately about her neck as she knelt to receive
+him. They both squeezed just as hard as they could and the Lady
+laughed and cried and then laughed again.
+
+Bobby sighed with complete happiness. He had found a birthdays
+and already that magical thing was bringing him all sorts of
+presents--puppies and perk-_wiz_its and "glassies" and mothers and
+perhaps curly-tailed little pigs to buy him an edge-cation. He hugged
+the Lady again.
+
+"Well, son, you seem to like mothers."
+
+Bobby looked up and saw that the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters had
+climbed out of the 'mobile and was standing over them.
+
+"Yes'm," replied Bobby and twined his fingers in the soft hair at the
+back of the Lady's neck.
+
+"And fathers, too?" smiled the lady.
+
+Bobby drew back and looked at her with shining eyes.
+
+"Have I fathers, too?"
+
+"Yes, dear. You will love him because he likes little boys, too."
+
+Bobby thought that over, then looked up with a shy smile at the man.
+
+"The Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy?" he asked.
+
+"No, dear," said his mothers, "not that man--The Man with the Pocketful
+of Quarters. Will you shake hands with him?"
+
+"Why _he's_ the Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy, too!" said Bobby,
+anticipating the fact.
+
+"Already he's found me out!" laughed the man.
+
+Smilingly, Bobby held out his hand to his fathers.
+
+
+THE END
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 32, "did'nt" changed to "didn't" (I _didn't_ think about)
+
+Page 52, "and" changed to "an" (things, an edge-cation)
+
+Page 53, "fathers" changed to "father" (The father of the boy)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Bobby in Search of a Birthday, by Lebbeus Mitchell
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43569 ***