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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Michael O'Halloran, by Gene Stratton-Porter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Michael O'Halloran
+
+Author: Gene Stratton-Porter
+
+Posting Date: August 16, 2012 [EBook #9489]
+Release Date: December, 2005
+First Posted: October 5, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MICHAEL O'HALLORAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan Lane, Richard Prairie and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                _MICHAEL_
+
+                              _O'HALLORAN_
+
+                         _Gene Stratton-Porter_
+
+                          Copyright 1915, 1916
+
+_Contents_
+
+PAGE
+
+I.     Happy Home in Sunrise Alley II.    Moccasins and Lady Slippers
+III.   S.O.S. IV.    "Bearer of Morning" V.     Little Brother VI.
+The Song of a Bird VII.   Peaches' Preference in Blessings VIII.  Big
+Brother IX.    James Jr. and Malcolm X.     The Wheel of Life XI.
+The Advent of Nancy and Peter XII.   Feminine Reasoning XIII.  A Safe
+Proposition XIV.   An Orphans' Home XV.    A Particular Nix XVI.   The
+Fingers in the Pie XVII.  Initiations in an Ancient and Honourable
+Brotherhood XVIII. Malcolm and the Hermit Thrush XIX.   Establishing
+Protectorates XX.    Mickey's Miracle
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+_Happy Home in Sunrise Alley_
+
+
+"_Aw_ KID, _come on! Be square!_"
+
+"_You look out what you say to me._"
+
+"_But ain't you going to keep your word?_"
+
+"_Mickey, do you want your head busted?_"
+
+"_Naw! But I did your work so you could loaf; now I want the pay you
+promised me._"
+
+"_Let's see you get it! Better take it from me, hadn't you?_"
+
+"_You're twice my size; you know I can't, Jimmy!_"
+
+"_Then you know it too, don't you?_"
+
+"_Now look here kid, it's 'cause you're getting so big that folks will
+be buying quicker of a little fellow like me; so you've laid in the sun
+all afternoon while I been running my legs about off to sell your
+papers; and when the last one is gone, I come and pay you what they
+sold for; now it's up to you to do what you promised._"
+
+"_Why didn't you keep it when you had it?_"
+
+"_'Cause that ain't business! I did what I promised fair and square; I
+was giving you a chance to be square too._"
+
+"_Oh! Well next time you won't be such a fool!_"
+
+Jimmy turned to step from the gutter to the sidewalk. Two things
+happened to him simultaneously: Mickey became a projectile. He smashed
+with the force of a wiry fist on the larger boy's head, while above
+both, an athletic arm gripped him by the collar.
+
+Douglas Bruce was hurrying to see a client before he should leave his
+office; but in passing a florist's window his eye was attracted by a
+sight so beautiful he paused an instant, considering. It was spring;
+the Indians were coming down to Multiopolis to teach people what the
+wood Gods had put into their hearts about flower magic.
+
+The watcher scarcely had realized the exquisite loveliness of a
+milk-white birch basket filled with bog moss of silvery green, in which
+were set maidenhair and three yellow lady slippers, until beside it was
+placed another woven of osiers blood red, moss carpeted and bearing
+five pink moccasin flowers, faintly fined with red lavender; between
+them rosemary and white ladies' tresses. A flush crept over the lean
+face of the Scotsman. He saw a vision. Over those baskets bent a girl,
+beautiful as the flowers. Plainly as he visualized the glory of the
+swamp, Douglas Bruce pictured the woman he loved above the orchids.
+While he lingered, his heart warmed, glowing, his wonderful spring day
+made more wonderful by a vision not adequately describable, on his ear
+fell Mickey's admonition: "Be square!"
+
+He sent one hasty glance toward the gutter. He saw a sullen-faced
+newsboy of a size that precluded longer success at paper selling,
+because public sympathy goes to the little fellows. Before him stood
+one of these same little fellows, lean, tow-haired, and blue-eyed,
+clean of face, neat in dress; with a peculiar modulation in his voice
+that caught Douglas squarely in the heart. He turned again to the
+flowers, but as his eyes revelled in beauty, his ears, despite the
+shuffle of passing feet, and the clamour of cars, lost not one word of
+what was passing in the gutter, while with each, slow anger surged
+higher. Mickey, well aware that his first blow would be all the
+satisfaction coming to him, put the force of his being into his punch.
+At the same instant Douglas thrust forth a hand that had pulled for
+Oxford and was yet in condition.
+
+"Aw, you big stiff!" gasped Jimmy, twisting an astonished neck to see
+what was happening above and in his rear so surprisingly. Had that
+little Mickey O'Halloran gone mad to hit _him?_ Mickey standing back,
+his face upturned, was quite as surprised as Jimmy.
+
+"What did he promise you for selling his papers?" demanded a deep voice.
+
+"Twen--ty-_five_," answered Mickey, with all the force of inflection in
+his power. "And if you heard us, Mister, you heard him own up he was
+owing it."
+
+"I did," answered Douglas Bruce tersely. Then to Jimmy: "Hand him over
+twenty-five cents."
+
+Jimmy glared upward, but what he saw and the tightening of the hand on
+his collar were convincing. He drew from his pocket five nickels,
+dropping them into the outstretched hand of Douglas, who passed them to
+Mickey, the soiled fingers of whose left hand closed over them, while
+his right snatched off his cap. Fear was on his face, excitement was in
+his eyes, triumph was in his voice, while a grin of comradeship curved
+his lips.
+
+"Many thanks, Boss," he said. "And would you add to them by keeping
+that strangle hold 'til you give me just two seconds the start of him?"
+He wheeled, darting through the crowd.
+
+"Mickey!" cried Douglas Bruce. "Mickey, wait!"
+
+But Mickey was half a block away turning into an alley. The man's grip
+tightened a twist.
+
+"You'll find Mickey's admonition good," he said. "I advise you to take
+it. 'Be square!' And two things: first, I've got an eye on the Mickeys
+of this city. If I ever again find you imposing on him or any one else,
+I'll put you where you can't. Understand? Second, who is he?"
+
+"Mickey!" answered the boy.
+
+"Mickey who?" asked Douglas.
+
+"How'd I know?" queried Jimmy.
+
+"You don't know his name?" pursued Douglas.
+
+"Naw, I don't!" said the boy.
+
+"Where does he live?" continued Douglas.
+
+"I don't know," answered Jimmy.
+
+"If you have a charge to prefer, I'll take that youngster in for you,"
+offered a policeman passing on his beat.
+
+"He was imposing on a smaller newsboy. I made him quit," Douglas
+explained. "That's all."
+
+"Oh!" said the officer, withdrawing his hand. Away sped Jimmy; with him
+went all chance of identifying Mickey, but Bruce thought he would watch
+for him. He was such an attractive little fellow.
+
+Mickey raced through the first alley, down a street, then looked
+behind. Jimmy was not in sight.
+
+"Got _him_ to dodge now," he muttered. "If he ever gets a grip on me
+he'll hammer me meller! I'm going to have a bulldog if I half starve to
+buy it. Maybe the pound would give me one. I'll see to-morrow."
+
+He looked long, then started homeward, which meant to jump on a car and
+ride for miles, then follow streets and alleys again. Finally he
+entered a last alley that faced due east. A compass could not have
+pointed more directly toward the rising sun; while there was at least
+half an hour each clear morning when rickety stairs, wavering
+fire-escapes, flapping washes, and unkept children were submerged in
+golden light. Long ago it had been named. By the time of Mickey's
+advent Sunrise Alley was as much a part of the map of Multiopolis as
+Biddle Boulevard, and infinitely more pleasing in name. He began
+climbing interminable stairs. At the top of the last flight he unlocked
+his door to enter his happy home; for Mickey had a home, and it was a
+happy one. No one else lived in it, while all it contained was his.
+
+Mickey knew three things about his father: he had had one, he was not
+square, and he drank himself to death. He could not remember his
+father, but he knew many men engaged in the occupation of his passing,
+so he well understood why his mother never expressed any regrets.
+
+Vivid in his mind was her face, anxious and pale, but twinkling; her
+body frail and overtaxed, but hitting back at life uncomplainingly. Bad
+things happened, but she explained how they might have been worse; so
+fed on this sop, and watching her example, Mickey grew like her. The
+difficult time was while she sat over a sewing machine to be with him.
+When he grew stout-legged and self-reliant, he could be sent after the
+food, to carry the rent, and to sell papers, then she could work by the
+day, earn more, have better health, while what both brought home paid
+the rent of the top room back, of as bad a shamble as a self-respecting
+city would allow; kept them fed satisfyingly if not nourishingly, and
+allowed them to slip away many a nickel for the rainy day that she
+always explained would come. And it did.
+
+One morning she could not get up; the following Mickey gave all their
+savings to a man with a wagon to take her to a nice place to rest. The
+man was sure about it being a nice place. She had told Mickey so often
+what to do if this ever happened, that when it did, all that was
+necessary was to remember what he had been told. After it was over and
+the nice place had been paid for, with the nickels and the sewing
+machine, with enough left for the first month's rent, Mickey faced life
+alone. But he knew exactly what to do, because she had told him. She
+had even written it down lest he forget. It was so simple that only a
+boy who did not mind his mother could have failed. The formula worked
+perfectly.
+
+_Morning: Get up early. Wash your face, brush your clothes. Eat what
+was left from supper for breakfast. Put your bed to air, then go out
+with your papers. Don't be afraid to offer them, or to do work of any
+sort you have strength for; but be deathly afraid to beg, to lie, or to
+steal, while if you starve, freeze, or die, never, never touch any kind
+of drink_.
+
+Any fellow could do that; Mickey told dozens of them so.
+
+He got along so well he could pay the rent each month, dress in whole
+clothing, have enough to eat, often cooked food on the little gasoline
+stove, if he were not too tired to cook it, and hide nickels in the old
+place daily. He had a bed and enough cover; he could get water in the
+hall at the foot of the flight of stairs leading to his room for his
+bath, to scrub the floor, and wash the dishes. From two years on, he
+had helped his mother with every detail of her housekeeping; he knew
+exactly what must be done.
+
+It was much more dreadful than he thought it would be to come home
+alone, and eat supper by himself, but if he sold papers until he was
+almost asleep where he stood, he found he went to sleep as soon as he
+reached home and had supper. He did not awaken until morning; then he
+could hurry his work and get ahead of the other boys, and maybe sell to
+their customers. It might be bad to be alone, but always he could
+remember her, and make her seem present by doing every day exactly what
+she told him. Then, after all, being alone was a very wonderful thing
+compared with having parents who might beat and starve him and take the
+last penny he earned, not leaving enough to keep him from being hungry
+half the time.
+
+When Mickey looked at some of the other boys, and heard many of them
+talk, he almost forgot the hourly hunger for his mother, in
+thankfulness that he did not have a father and that his mother had been
+herself. Mickey felt sure that if she had been any one of the mothers
+of most other boys he knew, he would not have gone home at all. He
+could endure cold, hunger, and loneliness, but he felt that he had no
+talent for being robbed, beaten, and starved; while lately he had fully
+decided upon a dog for company, when he could find the right one.
+
+Mickey unlocked his door, entering for his water bucket. Such was his
+faith in his environment that he relocked the door while he went to the
+water tap. Returning to the room he again turned the key, then washed
+his face and hands. He looked at the slip nailed on the wall where she
+had put it. He knew every word of it, but always it comforted him to
+see her familiar writing, to read aloud what to do next as if it were
+her voice speaking to him. Evening: "Make up your bed." Mickey made
+his. "Wash any dirty dishes." He had a few so he washed them. "Sweep
+your floor." He swept. "Always prepare at least one hot thing for
+supper." He shook the gasoline tank to the little stove. It sounded
+full enough, so he went to the cupboard his mother had made from a
+small packing case. There were half a loaf of bread wrapped in its
+oiled paper, with two bananas discarded by Joe of the fruit stand. He
+examined his pocket, although he knew perfectly what it contained.
+Laying back enough to pay for his stock the next day, then counting in
+his twenty-five cents, he had forty cents left. He put thirty in the
+rent box, starting out with ten. Five paid for a bottle of milk, three
+for cheese, two for an egg for breakfast.
+
+Then he went home. At the foot of the fire-escape that he used in
+preference to the stairs, he met a boy he knew tugging a heavy basket.
+
+"Take an end for a nickel," said the boy.
+
+"Thanks," said Mickey. "It's my time to dine. 'Sides, I been done once
+to-day."
+
+"If you'll take it, I'll pay first," he offered.
+
+"How far?" questioned Mickey.
+
+"Oh, right over here," said the boy indefinitely.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "Cross my palm with the silver."
+
+The nickel changed hands. Mickey put the cheese and egg in his pocket,
+the milk in the basket, then started. The place where they delivered
+the wash made Mickey feel almost prosperous. He picked up his milk
+bottle and stepped from the door, when a long, low wail that made him
+shudder, reached his ear.
+
+"What's that?" he asked the woman.
+
+"A stiff was carried past to-day. Mebby they ain't took the kids yet."
+
+Mickey went slowly down the stairs, his face sober. That was what his
+mother had feared for him. That was why she had trained him to care for
+himself, to save the pennies, so that when she was taken away, he still
+would have a home. Sounded like a child! He was halfway up the long
+flight of stairs before he realized that he was going. He found the
+door at last, then, stood listening. He heard long-drawn,
+heart-breaking moaning. Presently he knocked. A child's shriek was the
+answer. Mickey straightway opened the door. The voice guided him to a
+heap of misery in a corner.
+
+"What's the matter kid?" inquired Mickey huskily.
+
+The bundle stirred, while a cry issued. He glanced around the room.
+What he saw reassured him. He laid hold of the tatters, beginning to
+uncover what was under them. He dropped his hands, stepping back, when
+a tangled yellow mop and a weazened, bloated girl-child face peered at
+him, with wildly frightened eyes.
+
+"If you'd put the wind you're wastin' into words, we'd get something
+done quicker," advised Mickey.
+
+The tiny creature clutched the filthy covers, still staring.
+
+"Did you come to '_get_' me?" she quavered.
+
+"No," said Mickey. "I heard you from below so I came to see what hurt
+you. Ain't you got folks?"
+
+She shook her head: "They took granny in a box and they said they'd
+come right back and '_get_' me. Oh, please, please don't let them!"
+
+"Why they'd be good to you," said Mickey largely. "They'd give you"--he
+glanced at all the things the room lacked, then enumerated--"a clean
+bed, lots to eat, a window you could be seeing from, a doll, maybe."
+
+"No! No!" she cried. "Granny always said some day she'd go and leave
+me; then they'd '_get_' me. She's gone! The big man said they'd come
+right back. Oh don't let them! Oh hide me quick!"
+
+"Well--well--! If you're so afraid, why don't you cut and hide yourself
+then?" he asked.
+
+"My back's bad. I can't walk," the child answered.
+
+"Oh Lord!" said Mickey. "When did you get hurt?"
+
+"It's always been bad. I ain't ever walked," she said.
+
+"Well!" breathed Mickey, aghast. "And knowing she'd have to leave you
+some day, your granny went and scared you stiff about the Home folks
+taking you, when it's the only place for you to be going? Talk about
+women having the sense to vote!"
+
+"I won't go! I won't! I'll scratch them! I'll bite them!" Then in swift
+change: "Oh boy, don't. Please, please don't let them '_get_' me."
+
+Mickey took both the small bony hands reaching for him. He was so
+frightened with their hot, tremulous clutch, that he tried to pull
+away, dragging the tiny figure half to light and bringing from it moans
+of pain.
+
+"Oh my back! Oh you're hurting me! Oh don't leave me! Oh boy, oh _dear_
+boy, please don't leave me!"
+
+When she said "Oh dear boy," Mickey heard the voice of his mother in an
+hourly phrase. He crept closer, enduring the touch of the grimy claws.
+
+"My name's Mickey," he said. "What's your?"
+
+"Peaches," she answered. "Peaches, when I'm good. Crippled brat, when
+I'm bad."
+
+"B'lieve if you had your chance you could look the peaches," said
+Mickey, "but what were you bad for?"
+
+"So's she'd hit me," answered Peaches.
+
+"But if me just pulling a little hurt you so, what happened when she
+hit you?" asked Mickey.
+
+"Like knives stuck into me," said Peaches.
+
+"Then what did you be bad for?" marvelled Mickey.
+
+"Didn't you ever get so tired of one thing you'd take something that
+hurt, jus' for a change?"
+
+"My eye!" said Mickey. "I don't know one fellow who'd do that, Peaches."
+
+"Mickey, hide me. Oh hide me! Don't let them '_get_' me!" she begged.
+
+"Why kid, you're crazy," said Mickey. "Now lemme tell you. Where
+they'll take you _looks_ like a nice place. Honest it does. I've seen
+lots of them. You get a clean soft bed all by yourself, three big hot
+meals a day, things to read, and to play with. Honest Peaches, you do!
+I wouldn't tell you if it wasn't so. If I'll stay with you 'til they
+come, then go with you to the place 'til you see how nice it is, will
+you be good and go?"
+
+She burrowed in the covers, screeching again.
+
+"You're scared past all reason," said Mickey. "You don't know anything.
+But maybe the Orphings' Homes ain't so good as they look. If they are,
+why was mother frightened silly about them getting _me?_ Always she
+said she just _had_ to live until I got so big they wouldn't 'get' me.
+And I kept them from getting me by doing what she told me. Wonder if I
+could keep them from getting you? There's nothing of you. If I could
+move you there, I bet I could feed you more than your granny did, while
+I know I could keep you cleaner. You could have my bed, a window to
+look from, and clean covers." Mickey was thinking aloud. "Having you to
+come home to would be lots nicer than nothing. You'd beat a dog all
+hollow, 'cause you can talk. If I could get you there, I believe I
+could be making it. Yes, I believe I could do a lot better than this,
+and I believe I'd like you, Peaches, you are such a game little kid."
+
+"She could lift me with one hand," she panted. "Oh Mickey, take me!
+Hurry!"
+
+"Lemme see if I can manage you," said Mickey. "Have you got to be took
+any particular way?"
+
+"Mickey, ain't you got folks that beat you?" she asked.
+
+"I ain't got folks now," said Mickey, "and they didn't beat me when I
+had them. I'm all for myself--and if you say so, I guess from now on,
+I'm for you. Want to go?"
+
+Her arms wound tightly around his neck. Her hot little face pressed
+against it.
+
+"Put one arm 'cross my shoulders, an' the other round my legs," she
+said.
+
+"But I got to go down a lot of stairs; it's miles and miles," said
+Mickey, "and I ain't got but five cents. I spent it all for grub.
+Peaches, are you hungry?"
+
+"No!" she said stoutly. "Mickey, hurry!"
+
+"But honest, I can't carry you all that way. I would if I could,
+Peaches, honest I would."
+
+"Oh Mickey, dear Mickey, hurry!" she begged.
+
+"Get down and cover up 'til I think," he ordered. "Say you look here!
+If I tackle this job do you want a change bad enough to be mean for me?"
+
+"Just a little bit, maybe," said Peaches.
+
+"But I won't hit you," explained Mickey.
+
+"You can if you want to," she said. "I won't cry. Give me a good crack
+now, an' see if I do."
+
+"You make me sick at my stummick," said Mickey. "Lord, kid! Snuggle
+down 'til I see. I'm going to get you there some way."
+
+Mickey went back to the room where he helped deliver the clothes
+basket. "How much can you earn the rest of the night?" he asked the
+woman.
+
+"Mebby ten cents," she said.
+
+"Well, if you will loan me that basket and ten cents, and come with me
+an hour, there's that back and just a dollar in it for you, lady," he
+offered.
+
+She turned from him with a sneering laugh.
+
+"Honest, lady!" said Mickey. "This is how it is: that crying got me so
+I went Anthony Comstockin'. There's a kid with a lame back all alone up
+there, half starved and scared fighting wild. We could put her in that
+basket, she's just a handful, and take her to a place she wants to go.
+We could ride most of the way on the cars and then a little walk, and
+get her to a cleaner, better room, where she'd be taken care of, and in
+an hour you'd be back with enough nickels in your pocket to make a
+great, big, round, shining, full-moon cartwheel. Dearest lady, doesn't
+the prospect please you?"
+
+"It would," she said, "if I had the cartwheel now."
+
+"In which case you wouldn't go," said Mickey. "Dearest lady, it isn't
+business to pay for undone work."
+
+"And it isn't business to pay your employer's fare to get to your job
+either," she retorted.
+
+"No, that beats business a mile," said Mickey. "That's an _investment_.
+You invest ten cents and an hour's time on a gamble. Now look what you
+get, lady. A nice restful ride on the cars. Your ten cents back, a
+whole, big, shining, round, lady-liberty bird, if you trust in God, as
+the coin says the bird does, and more'n that, dearest lady, you go to
+bed feeling your pinfeathers sprouting, 'cause you've done a kind deed
+to a poor crippled orphing."
+
+"If I thought you really had the money--" she said.
+
+"Honest, lady, I got the money," said Mickey, "and 'sides, I got a
+surprise party for you. When you get back you may go to that room and
+take every scrap that's in it. Now come on; you're going to be enough
+of a sporting lady to try a chance like that, ain't you? May be a gold
+mine up there, for all I know. Put something soft in the bottom of the
+basket while I fetch the kid."
+
+Mickey ran up the stairs.
+
+"Now Peaches," he said, "I guess I got it fixed. I'm going to carry you
+down; a nice lady is going to put you in a big basket, then we'll take
+you to the cars and so get you to my house; but you got to promise,
+'cross your heart, you won't squeal, nor say a word, 'cause the police
+will 'get' you sure, if you do. They'll think the woman is your ma, so
+it will be all right. See?"
+
+Peaches nodded. Mickey wrapped her in the remnants of a blanket,
+carried her downstairs and laid her in the basket. By turning on her
+side and drawing up her feet, she had more room than she needed.
+
+"They won't let us on the cars," said the woman.
+
+"Dearest lady, wait and see," said Mickey. "Now Peaches, shut your
+eyes, also your mouth. Don't you take a chance at saying a word. If
+they won't stand the basket, we'll carry you, but it would hurt you
+less, while it would come in handy when we run out of cars. You needn't
+take coin only for going, dearest lady; you'll be silver plated coming
+back."
+
+"You little fool," said the woman, but she stooped to her end of the
+basket.
+
+"Ready, Peaches," said Mickey, "and if it hurts, 'member it will soon
+be over, and you'll be where nobody will ever hurt you again."
+
+"Hurry!" begged the child.
+
+Down the long stairs they went and to the car line. Crowded car after
+car whirled past; finally one came not so full, it stopped to let off
+passengers. Mickey was at the conductor's elbow.
+
+"Please mister, a lame kid," he pleaded. "We want to move her. Please,
+please help us on."
+
+"Can't!" said the conductor. "Take a taxi."
+
+"Broke my limousine," said Mickey. "Aw come on mister; ain't you got
+kids of your own?"
+
+"Get out of the way!" shouted the conductor.
+
+"Hang on de back wid the basket," cried the woman.
+
+With Peaches laid over her shoulder, she swung to the platform, and
+found a seat, while Mickey grabbed the basket and ran to the back
+screaming after her: "I got my fare; only pay for yourself." Mickey
+told the conductor to tell the lady where to leave the car. When she
+stepped down he was ready with the basket. Peaches, panting and in cold
+perspiration with pain, was laid in it.
+
+"Lovely part of the village, ain't it, lady?" said Mickey. "See the
+castles of the millyingaires piercing the sky; see their automobiles at
+the curb; see the lovely ladies and gents promenading the streets
+enjoying the spring?"
+
+Every minute Mickey talked to keep the woman from noticing how far she
+was going; but soon she growled: "How many miles furder is it?"
+
+"Just around a corner, up an alley, and down a side street a step.
+Nothing at all! Nice promenade for a spry, lovely young lady like you.
+Evening walk, smell spring in the air. 'Most there now, Peaches."
+
+"Where are ye takin' this kid? How'll I ever get back to the car line?"
+asked the woman.
+
+Mickey ignored the first question. "Why, I'll be eschorting you of
+course, dearest lady," he said.
+
+At the point of rebellion, Mickey spoke. "Now set the basket down right
+here," he ordered. "I'll be back in no time with the lady-bird."
+
+He returned in a few minutes. Into her outstretched palm he counted
+twenty-two nickels, picked the child from the basket, darted around a
+corner calling, "Back in a minute," and was gone.
+
+"Now Peaches, we got some steps to climb," he said. "Grip my neck tight
+and stand just a little more."
+
+"I ain't hurt!" she asserted. "I like seein' things. I never saw so
+much before. I ain't hurt--much!"
+
+"Your face, your breathing, and the sweating on your lips, is a little
+disproving," said Mickey, "but I'll have to take your word for it,
+'cause I can't help it; but it'll soon be over so you may rest."
+
+Mickey climbed a flight, then sat down until he could manage another.
+The last flight he rested three times. One reason he laid Peaches on
+the floor was because he couldn't reach the bed. After a second's pause
+he made a light, and opened the milk bottle.
+
+"Connect with that," he said. "I got to take the lady back to the cars."
+
+"Oh!" cried the connected child. "Oh Mickey, how good!"
+
+"Go slow!" said Mickey. "You better save half to have with some bread
+for your supper. Now I got to leave you a little bit, but you needn't
+be afraid, 'cause I'll lock you in. Nobody will '_get_' you here."
+
+"Now for the cars," said Mickey to his helper.
+
+"What did them folks say?" she asked.
+
+"Tickled all over," answered Mickey promptly.
+
+"That bundle of dirty rags!" she scoffed.
+
+"They are going to throw away the rags and wash her," said Mickey.
+"She's getting her supper now."
+
+"Sounds like lying," said the woman, "but mebby it ain't. Save me, I
+can't see why anybody would want a kid at any time, let alone a reekin'
+bunch of skin and crooked bones."
+
+"You've known folks to want a dog, ain't you?" said Mickey. "Sure
+something that can think and talk back must be a lot more amusing. I
+see the parks are full of the rich folks dolling up the dogs, feeding
+them candy and sending them out for an airing in their automobiles; so
+it's up to the poor people to look after the homeless children, isn't
+it?"
+
+"Do you know the folks that took her?"
+
+"Sure I do!" said Mickey.
+
+"Do you live close?" she persisted.
+
+"Yes! I'm much obliged for your help, dearest lady. When you get home,
+go up to the last attic back, and if there is anything there you want,
+help yourself. Peaches don't need it now, while there's no one else.
+Thank you, and good-bye. Don't fly before your wings grow, 'cause I
+know you'll feel like trying to-night."
+
+Mickey hurried back to his room. The milk bottle lay on the floor, the
+child asleep beside it. The boy gazed at her. There were strange and
+peculiar stirrings in his lonely little heart. She was so grimy he
+scarcely could tell what she looked like, but the grip of her tiny hot
+hands was on him. Presently he laughed.
+
+"Well fellers! Look what I've annexed! And I was hunting a dog! Well,
+she's lots better. She won't eat much more, she can talk, and she'll be
+something alive waiting when I come home. Gee, I'm _glad_ I found her."
+
+Mickey set the washtub on the floor near the sleeping child, and
+filling the dishpan with water, put it over the gasoline burner. Then
+he produced soap, a towel, and comb. He looked at the child again, and
+going to the box that contained his mother's clothing he hunted out a
+nightdress. Then he sat down to wait for the water to heat. The door
+slammed when he went after a bucket of cold water, and awakened the
+girl. She looked at him, then at his preparations.
+
+"I ain't going to be washed," she said. "It'll hurt me. Put me on the
+bed."
+
+"Put you on my bed, dirty like you are?" cried Mickey. "I guess not!
+You are going to be a soaped lady. If it hurts, you can be consoling
+yourself thinking it will be the last time, 'cause after this you'll be
+washed every day so you won't need skinning alive but once."
+
+"I won't! I won't!" she cried.
+
+"Now looky here!" said Mickey. "I'm the boss of this place. If I say
+wash, it's _wash!_ See! I ain't going to have a dirty girl with mats in
+her hair living with me. You begged me and begged me to bring you, now
+you'll be cleaned up or you'll go back. Which is it, back or soap?"
+
+The child stared at him, then around the room.
+
+"Soap," she conceded.
+
+"That's a lady," said Mickey. "Course it's soap! All clean and sweet
+smelling like a flower. See my mammy's nice white nightie for you? How
+bad is your back, Peaches? Can you sit up?"
+
+"A little while," she answered. "My legs won't go."
+
+"Never you mind," said Mickey. "I'll work hard and get a doctor, so
+some day they will."
+
+"They won't ever," insisted Peaches. "Granny carried me to the big
+doctors once, an' my backbone is weak, an' I won't ever walk, they all
+said so."
+
+"Poot! Doctors don't know everything," scorned Mickey. "That was _long_
+ago, maybe. By the time I can earn enough to get you a dress and shoes,
+a doctor will come along who's found out how to make backs over.
+There's one that put different legs on a dog. I read about it in the
+papers I sold. We'll save our money and get him to put another back on
+you. Just a bully back."
+
+"Oh Mickey, will you?" she cried.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "Now you sit up and I'll wash you like Mammy
+always did me."
+
+Peaches obeyed. Mickey soaped a cloth, knelt beside her; then he
+paused. "Say Peaches, when was your hair combed last?"
+
+"I don't know, Mickey," she answered.
+
+"There's more dirt in it than there is on your face."
+
+"If you got shears, just cut it off," she suggested.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey.
+
+He produced shears and lifting string after string cut all of them the
+same distance from her head.
+
+"Girls' shouldn't be short, like boys'," he explained. "Now hang your
+head over the edge of the tub and shut your eyes so I can wash it," he
+ordered.
+
+Mickey soaped and scoured until the last tangle was gone, then rinsed
+and partly dried the hair, which felt soft and fine to his fingers.
+
+"B'lieve it's going to curl," he said.
+
+"Always did," she answered.
+
+Mickey emptied and rinsed the tub at the drain, then started again on
+her face and ears, which he washed thoroughly. He pinned a sheet around
+her neck, then she divested herself of the rags. Mickey lifted her into
+the tub, draped the sheet over the edge, poured in the water, and
+handed her the soap.
+
+"Now you scour, while I get supper," he said.
+
+Peaches did her best. Mickey locked her in and went after more milk. He
+wanted to add several extras, but remembering the awful hole the dollar
+had made in his finances, he said grimly: "No-sir-ee! With a family to
+keep, and likely to need a doctor at any time and a Carrel back to buy,
+there's no frills for Mickey. Seeing what she ain't had, she ought to
+be thankful for just milk."
+
+So he went back, lifted Peaches from the tub and laid her on the floor,
+where he dried her with the sheet. Then he put the nightdress over her
+head, she slipped her arms in the sleeves, and he stretched her on his
+bed. She was so lost in the garment he tied a string under her arms to
+hold it, and cut off the sleeves at her elbows. The pieces he saved for
+washcloths. Mickey spread his sheet over her, rolled the bed before the
+window where she could have air, see sky and housetops, then brought
+her supper. It was a cup of milk with half the bread broken in, and a
+banana. Peaches was too tired to eat, so she drank the milk while
+Mickey finished the remainder. Then he threw her rags from the window,
+and spread his winter covers on the floor for his bed. Soon both of
+them were asleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+_Moccasins and Lady Slippers_
+
+
+"No messenger boy for those," said Douglas Bruce as he handed the
+florist the price set on the lady slippers. "Leave them where people
+may enjoy them until I call."
+
+As he turned, another man was inquiring about the orchids; he too
+preferred the slippers; but when he was told they were taken, he had
+wanted the moccasins all the time, anyway. The basket was far more
+attractive. He refused delivery, returning to his waiting car smiling
+over the flowers. He also saw a vision of the woman into whose sated
+life he hoped to bring a breath of change with the wonderful gift. He
+saw the basket in her hands, and thrilled in anticipation of the
+favours her warmed heart might prompt her to bestow upon him.
+
+In the mists of early morning the pink orchids surrounded by rosemary
+and ladies' tresses had glowed and gleamed from the top of a silvery
+moss mound four feet deep, under a big tamarack in a swamp, through the
+bog of which the squaw plunged to her knees at each step to uproot
+them. In the evening glow of electricity, snapped from their stems, the
+beautiful basket untouched, the moccasins lay on the breast of a woman
+of fashion, while with every second of contact with the warmth of her
+body, they drooped lower, until clasped in the arms of her lover, they
+were quite crushed, then flung from an automobile to be ground to pulp
+by passing wheels.
+
+The slippers had a happier fate. Douglas Bruce carried them reverently.
+He was sure he knew the swamp in which they grew. As he went his way,
+he held the basket, velvet-white, in strong hands, swaying his body
+with the motion of the car lest one leaf be damaged. When he entered
+the hall, down the stairs came Leslie Winton.
+
+"Why Douglas, I wasn't expecting you," she said.
+
+Douglas Bruce held up the basket.
+
+"Joy!" she cried. "Oh joy unspeakable! Who has been to the tamarack
+swamp?"
+
+"A squaw was leaving Lowry's as he put these in his window," answered
+Douglas.
+
+"Bring them," she said.
+
+He followed to a wide side veranda, set the basket on a table in a cool
+spot, then drew a chair near it. Leslie Winton seated herself, leaning
+on the table to study the orchids. Unconsciously she made the picture
+Douglas had seen. She reached up slim fingers in delicate touchings
+here and there of moss, corolla and slipper.
+
+"Never in all my days--" she said. "Never in all my days--I shall keep
+the basket always, and the slippers as long as I possibly can. See this
+one! It isn't fully open. I should have them for a week at least.
+Please hand me a glass of water."
+
+Douglas started to say that ice water would be too cold, but with the
+wisdom of a wise man waited; and as always, was joyed by the waiting.
+For the girl took the glass and cupping her hands around it sat talking
+to the flowers, and to him, as she warmed the water with heat from her
+body. Douglas was so delighted with the unforeseen second that had
+given him first chance at the orchids, and so this unexpected call,
+that he did not mind the attention she gave the flowers. He had reasons
+for not being extravagant; but seldom had a like sum brought such
+returns. He began drawing interest as he watched Leslie. Never had her
+form seemed so perfect, her dress so becoming and simple. How could
+other women make a vulgar display in the same pattern that clothed her
+modestly? How wonderful were the soft coils of her hair, the tints
+paling and flushing on her cheeks, her shining eyes! Why could not all
+women use her low, even, perfectly accented speech and deliberate
+self-control?
+
+He was in daily intercourse with her father, a high official of the
+city, a man of education, social position, and wealth. Mr. Winton had
+reared his only child according to his ideas; but Douglas, knowing
+these things, believed in blood also. As Leslie turned and warmed the
+water, watching her, the thought was strong in his mind: what a woman
+her mother must have been! Each day he was with Leslie, he saw her do
+things that no amount of culture could instil. Instinct and tact are
+inborn; careful rearing may produce a good imitation, they are genuine
+only with blood. Leslie had always filled his ideal of a true woman. To
+ignore him for his gift would have piqued many a man; Douglas Bruce was
+pleased.
+
+"You wonders!" she said softly. "Oh you wonders! When the mists lifted
+in the marshes this morning, and the first ray of gold touched you to
+equal goldness, you didn't know you were coming to me. I almost wish I
+could put you back. Just now you should be in such cool mistiness,
+while you should be hearing a hermit thrush sing vespers, a cedar bird
+call, and a whip-poor-will cry. But I'm glad I have you! Oh I'm so glad
+you came to me! I never materialized a whole swamp with such vividness
+as only this little part of it brings. Douglas, when you caught the
+first glimpse of these, how far into the swamp did you see past them?"
+
+"To the heart--of the swamp--and of my heart."
+
+"I can see it as perfectly as I ever did," she said. "But I eliminate
+the squaw; possibly because I didn't see her. And however exquisite the
+basket is, she broke the law when she peeled a birch tree. I'll wager
+she brought this to Lowry, carefully covered. And I'm not sure but
+there should have been a law she broke when she uprooted these orchids.
+Much as I love them, I doubt if I can keep them alive, and bring them
+to bloom next season. I'll try, but I don't possess flower magic in the
+highest degree."
+
+She turned the glass, touching it with questioning palm. Was it near
+the warmth of bog water? After all, was bog water warm? Next time she
+was in a swamp she would plunge her hand deeply in the mosses to feel
+the exact temperature to which those roots had been accustomed. Then
+she spoke again.
+
+"Yes, I eliminate the squaw," she said. "These golden slippers are the
+swamp to me, but I see you kneeling to lift them. I am so glad I'm the
+woman they made you see."
+
+Douglas sat forward and opened his lips. Was not this the auspicious
+moment?
+
+"Did the squaw bring more?" she questioned.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "Pink moccasins in a basket of red osiers, with the
+same moss, rosemary and white tresses. Would you rather those?"
+
+She set down the glass, drawing the basket toward her with both hands.
+As she parted the mosses to drop in the water she slowly shook her head.
+
+"One must have seen them to understand what that would be like," she
+said. "I know it was beautiful, but I'm sure I should have selected the
+gold had I been there. Oh I wonder if the woman who has the moccasins
+will give them a drink to-night! And will she try to preserve their
+roots?"
+
+"She will not!" said Douglas emphatically.
+
+"How can you possibly know?" queried the girl.
+
+"I saw the man who ordered them," laughed Douglas.
+
+"Oh!" cried Leslie, comprehendingly.
+
+"I'd stake all I'm worth the moccasins are drooping against a lavender
+dress; the roots are in the garbage can, while the cook or maid has the
+basket," he said.
+
+"Douglas, how can you!" exclaimed Leslie.
+
+"I couldn't! Positively couldn't! Mine are here!"
+
+The slow colour crept into her cheek. "I'll make those roots bloom next
+spring; you shall see them in perfection," she promised.
+
+"That would be wonderful!" he exclaimed warmly.
+
+"Tell me, were there yet others?" she asked hastily.
+
+"Only these," he said. "But there was something else. I came near
+losing them. While I debated, or rather while I possessed these, and
+worshipped the others, there was a gutter row that almost made me lose
+yours."
+
+"In the gutter again?" she laughed.
+
+"Once again," he admitted. "Such a little chap, with an appealing
+voice, while his inflection was the smallest part of what he was
+saying. 'Aw kid, come on. Be square!' Oh Leslie!"
+
+"Why Douglas!" the girl cried. "Tell me!"
+
+"Of all the wooden-head slowness!" he exclaimed. "I've let him slip
+again!"
+
+"Let who 'slip again?'" questioned Leslie. "My little brother!"
+answered he.
+
+"Oh Douglas! You didn't really?" she protested.
+
+"Yes I did," he said. "I heard a little lad saying the things that are
+in the blood and bone of the men money can't buy and corruption can't
+break. I heard him plead like a lawyer and argue his case straight. I
+lent a hand when his eloquence failed, got him his deserts, then let
+him go! I did have an impulse to keep him. I did call after him. But he
+disappeared."
+
+"Douglas, we can find him!" she comforted.
+
+"I haven't found either of the others I realized I'd have been
+interested in, after I let them slip," he answered, "while this boy was
+both of them rolled into one, and ten more like them."
+
+"Oh Douglas! I'm so sorry! But maybe some other man has already found
+him," said Leslie.
+
+"No. You can always pick the brothered boys," said Douglas. "The first
+thing that happens to them is a clean-up and better clothing; then an
+air of possessed importance. No man has attached this one."
+
+"Douglas, describe him," she commanded. "I'll watch for him. How did he
+look? What was the trouble?"
+
+"One at a time," cautioned the man. "He was a little chap, a white,
+clean, threadbare little chap, with such a big voice, so wonderfully
+intoned, and such a bigger principle, for which he was fighting. One of
+these overgrown newsboys the public won't stand for unless he is in the
+way when they are making a car, had hired him to sell his papers while
+he loafed. Mickey----"
+
+"'Mickey?'" repeated Leslie questioningly.
+
+"The big fellow called him 'Mickey'; no doubt a mother who adored him
+named him Michael, and thought him 'like unto God' when she did it. The
+big fellow had loafed all afternoon. When Mickey came back and turned
+over the money, and waited to be paid off, his employer laughed at the
+boy for not keeping it when he had it. Mickey begged him 'to be square'
+and told him that 'was not business'--'_not business_,' mind you, but
+the big fellow jeered at him and was starting away. Mickey and I
+reached him at the same time; so I got in the gutter again. I don't see
+how I can be so slow! I don't see how I did it!"
+
+"I don't either," she said, with a twinkle that might have referred to
+the first of the two exclamations. "It must be your Scotch habit of
+going slowly and surely. But cheer up! We'll find him. I'll help you."
+
+"Have you reflected on the fact that this city covers many square
+miles, of which a fourth is outskirts, while from them three thousand
+newsboys gathered at the last Salvation Army banquet for them?"
+
+"That's where we can find him!" she cried. "Thanksgiving, or Christmas!
+Of course we'll see him then."
+
+"Mickey didn't have a Salvation Army face," he said. "I am sure he is a
+free lance, and a rare one; besides, this is May. I want my little
+brother to go on my vacation with me. I want him now."
+
+"Would it help any if I'd be a sister to you?"
+
+"Not a bit," said Douglas. "I don't in the very least wish to consider
+you in the light of a sister; you have another place in my heart, very
+different, yet all your own; but I do wish to make of Mickey the little
+brother I never have had. Minturn was telling me what a rejuvenation
+he's getting from the boy he picked up. Already he has him in his
+office, and is planning school and partnership with a man he can train
+as he chooses."
+
+"But Minturn has sons of his own!" protested Leslie.
+
+"Oh no! Not in the least!" exclaimed Douglas. "Minturn has sons of his
+_wife's_. She persistently upsets and frustrates Minturn's every idea
+for them, while he is helpless. You will remember she has millions; he
+has what he earns. He can't separate his boys, splendid physical little
+chaps, from their mother's money and influence, and educate them to be
+a help to him. They are to be made into men of wealth and leisure.
+Minturn will evolve his little brother into a man of brains and
+efficiency."
+
+"But Minturn is a power!" cried the girl.
+
+"Not financially," explained Douglas. "Nothing but money counts with
+his wife. In telling me of this boy, Minturn confessed that he was
+forced, _forced_ mind you, to see his sons ruined, while he is building
+a street gamin as he would them, if permitted."
+
+"How sad, Douglas!" cried Leslie. "Your voice is bitter. Can't he do
+something?"
+
+"Not a blooming thing!" answered Douglas. "She has the money. She is
+their mother. Her character is unimpeachable. If Minturn went to
+extremes, the law would give them to her; she would turn them over to
+ignorant servants who would corrupt them, and be well paid for doing
+it. Why Minturn told me--but I can't repeat that. Anyway, he made me
+eager to try my ideas on a lad who would be company for me, when I
+can't be here and don't wish to be with other men."
+
+"Are you still going to those Brotherhood meetings?"
+
+"I am. And I always shall be. Nothing in life gives me such big returns
+for the time invested. There is a world of talk breaking loose about
+the present 'unrest' among women; I happen to know that the 'unrest' is
+as deep with men. For each woman I personally know, bitten by 'unrest,'
+I know two men in the same condition. As long as men and women are
+forced to combine, to uphold society, it is my idea that it would be a
+good thing if there were to be a Sisterhood organized; then the two
+societies frankly brought together and allowed to clear up the
+differences between them."
+
+"But why not?" asked the girl eagerly.
+
+"Because we are pursuing false ideals, we have a wrong conception of
+what is _worth while in life_," answered the Scotsman. "Because the
+sexes except in rare, very rare, instances, do not understand each
+other, and every day are drifting farther apart, while most of the
+married folk I know are farthest apart of all. Leslie, what is it in
+marriage that constrains people? We can talk, argue and agree or
+disagree on anything, why can't the Minturns?"
+
+"From what you say, it would seem to me it's her idea of what is worth
+while in life," said Leslie.
+
+"Exactly!" cried Douglas. "But he can sway men! He can do powerful
+work. He could induce her to marry him. Why can't he control his own
+blood?"
+
+"If she should lose her money and become dependent upon him for
+support, he could!" said Leslie.
+
+"He should do it anyway," insisted Douglas.
+
+"Do you think you could?" she queried.
+
+"I never thought myself in his place," said Douglas, "but I believe I
+will, and if I see glimmerings, I'll suggest them to him."
+
+"Good boy!" said the girl lightly. And then she added: "Do you mind if
+I think myself in her place and see if I can suggest a possible point
+at which she could be reached? I know her. I shouldn't consider her
+happy. At least not with what I call joy."
+
+"What do you call joy?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Being satisfied with your environment."
+
+Douglas glanced at her, then at her surroundings, and looking into her
+eyes laughed quizzically.
+
+"But if it were different, I am perfectly confident that I should work
+out joy from life," insisted Leslie. "It owes me joy! I'll have it, if
+I fight for it!"
+
+"Leslie! Leslie! Be careful! You are challenging Providence. Stronger
+men than I have wrought chaos for their children," said a warning
+voice, as her father came behind her chair.
+
+"Chaos or no, still I'd put up my fight for joy, Daddy," laughed the
+girl. "Only see, Preciousest!"
+
+"One minute!" said her father, shaking hands with Douglas. "Now what is
+it, Leslie? Oh, I do see!"
+
+"Take my chair and make friends," said the girl.
+
+Mr. Winton seated himself, then began examining and turning the basket.
+"Indians?" he queried.
+
+"Yes," said Douglas. "A particularly greasy squaw. I wish I might
+truthfully report an artist's Indian of the Minnehaha type, but alack,
+it was the same one I've seen ever since I've been in the city, and
+that you've seen for years before my arrival."
+
+Mr. Winton still turned the basket.
+
+"I've bought their stuff for years, because neither Leslie nor her
+mother ever would tolerate fat carnations and overgrown roses so long
+as I could find a scrap of arbutus, a violet or a wake-robin from the
+woods. We've often motored up and penetrated the swamp I fancy these
+came from, for some distance, but later in the season; it's so very
+boggy now. Aren't these rather wonderful?" He turned to his daughter.
+
+"Perfectly, Daddy," she said. "Perfectly!"
+
+"But I don't mean for the Creator," explained Mr. Winton. "I am
+accustomed to His miracles. Every day I see a number of them. I mean
+for the squaw."
+
+"I'd have to know the squaw and understand her viewpoint," said Leslie.
+
+"She had it in her tightly clenched fist," laughed Douglas. "One, I'm
+sure; anyway, not over two."
+
+"That hasn't a thing to do with the _art_ with which she made the
+basket and filled it with just three perfect plants," said Leslie.
+
+"You think there is real art in her anatomy?" queried Mr. Winton.
+
+"Bear witness, O you treasures of gold!" cried Leslie, waving toward
+the basket.
+
+"There was another," explained Douglas as he again described the osier
+basket.
+
+Mr. Winton nodded. He looked at his daughter.
+
+"I like to think, young woman, that you were born with and I have
+cultivated what might be called artistic taste in you," he said.
+"Granted the freedom of the tamarack swamp, could you have done better?"
+
+"Not so well, Daddy! Not nearly so well. I never could have defaced
+what you can see was a noble big tree by cutting that piece of bark,
+while I might have worshipped until dragged away, but so far as art and
+I are concerned, the slippers would still be under their tamarack."
+
+"You are begging the question, Leslie," laughed her father. "I was not
+discussing the preservation of the wild, I was inquiring into the state
+of your artistic ability. If you had no hesitation about taking the
+flowers, could you have gone to that swamp, collected the material and
+fashioned and filled a more beautiful basket that this?"
+
+"How can I tell, Daddy?" asked the girl. "There's only one way to
+learn. I'll forget my scruples, you get me a pair of rubber boots, then
+we'll drive to the tamarack swamp and experiment."
+
+"We'll do it!" cried Mr. Winton. "The very first half day I can spare,
+we'll do it. And you Douglas, you will want to come with us, of course."
+
+"Why, 'of course,'" laughed Leslie.
+
+"Because he started the expedition with his golden slippers. When it
+come to putting my girl, and incidentally my whole family, in
+competition with an Indian squaw on a question of art, naturally, her
+father and one of her best friends would want to be present."
+
+"But maybe 'Minnie' went alone, and what chance would her work have
+with you two for judges?" asked Leslie.
+
+"We needn't be the judges," said Douglas Bruce quietly.
+
+"We can put this basket in the basement in a cool, damp place, where it
+will keep perfectly for a week. When you make your basket we can find
+the squaw and bring her down with us. Lowry could display the results
+side by side. He could call up whomever you consider the most artistic
+man and woman in the city and get their decision. You'd be willing to
+abide by that, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Surely, but it wouldn't be fair to the squaw," explained Leslie. "I'd
+have had the benefit of her art to begin on."
+
+"It would," said Mr. Winton. "Does not every artist living, painter,
+sculptor, writer, what you will, have the benefit of all art that has
+gone before?"
+
+"You agree?" Leslie turned to Douglas.
+
+"Your father's argument is a truism."
+
+"But I will know that I am on trial. She didn't. Is it fair to her?"
+persisted Leslie.
+
+"For begging the question, commend me to a woman," said Mr. Winton.
+"The point we began at, was not what you could do in a contest with
+her. She went to the swamp and brought from it some flower baskets. It
+is perfectly fair to her to suppose that they are her best art. Now
+what we are proposing to test is whether the finest product of our
+civilization, as embodied in you, can go to the same swamp, and from
+the same location surpass her work. Do I make myself clear?"
+
+"Perfectly clear, Daddy, and it would be fair," conceded Leslie. "But
+it is an offence punishable with a heavy fine to peel a birch tree;
+while I wouldn't do it, if it were not."
+
+"Got her to respect the law anyway," said Mr. Winton to Douglas. "The
+proposition, Leslie, was not that you do the same thing, but that from
+the same source you outdo her. You needn't use birch bark if it
+involves your law-abiding soul."
+
+"Then it's all settled. You must hurry and take me before the lovely
+plants have flowered," said Leslie.
+
+"I'll go day after to-morrow," promised Mr. Winton.
+
+"In order to make our plan work, it is necessary that I keep these
+orchids until that time," said Leslie.
+
+"You have a better chance than the lady who drew the osier basket has
+of keeping hers," said Mr. Winton. "If I remember I have seen the
+slippers in common earth quite a distance from the lake, while the
+moccasins demand bog moss, water and swamp mists and dampness."
+
+"I have seen slippers in the woods myself," said Leslie. "I think the
+conservatory will do, so they shall go there right now. I have to be
+fair to 'Minnie.'"
+
+"Let me carry them for you," offered Douglas, arising.
+
+"'Scuse us. Back in a second, Daddy," said Leslie. "I am interested,
+excited and eager to make the test, yet in a sense I do not like it."
+
+"But why?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Can't you see?" countered Leslie.
+
+"No," said Douglas.
+
+"It's shifting my sense of possession," explained the girl. "The
+slippers are no longer my beautiful gift from you. They are perishable
+things that belong to an Indian squaw. In justice to her, I have to
+keep them in perfect condition so that my work may not surpass hers
+with the unspeakable art of flower freshness; while instead of thinking
+them the loveliest thing in the world, I will now lie awake half the
+night, no doubt, studying what I can possibly find that is more
+beautiful."
+
+Douglas Bruce opened his slow lips, taking a step in her direction.
+
+"Dinner is served," announced her father. He looked inquiringly toward
+his daughter. She turned to Douglas.
+
+"Unless you have a previous engagement, you will dine with us, won't
+you?" she asked.
+
+"I should be delighted," he said heartily.
+
+When the meal was over and they had returned to the veranda, Leslie
+listened quietly while the men talked, most of the time, but when she
+did speak, what she said proved that she always had listened to and
+taken part in the discussions of men, until she understood and could
+speak of business or politics intelligently.
+
+"Have you ever considered an official position, Douglas?" inquired Mr.
+Winton. "I have an office within my gift, or so nearly so that I can
+control it, and it seems to me that you would be a good man. Surely we
+could work together in harmony."
+
+"It never has appealed to me that I wanted work of that nature,"
+answered Douglas. "It's unusually kind of you to think of me, and make
+the offer, but I am satisfied with what I am doing, while there is a
+steady increase in my business that gives me confidence."
+
+"What's your objection to office?" asked Mr. Winton.
+
+"That it takes your time from your work," answered Douglas. "That it
+changes the nature of your work. That if you let the leaders of a party
+secure you a nomination, and the party elect you, you are bound to
+their principles, at least there is a tacit understanding that you are,
+and if you should happen to be afflicted with principles of your own,
+then you have got to sacrifice them."
+
+"'Afflict' is a good word in this instance," said Mr. Winton. "It is
+painful to a man of experience to see you young fellows of such great
+promise come up and 'kick' yourself half to death 'against the pricks'
+of established business, parties, and customs, but half of you do it.
+In the end all of you come limping in, poor, disheartened, defeated,
+and then swing to the other extreme, by being so willing for a change
+you'll take almost anything, and so the dirty jobs naturally fall to
+you."
+
+"I grant much of that," Douglas said, in his deliberate way, "but
+happily I have sufficient annual income from my father's estate to
+enable me to live until I become acquainted in a strange city, and have
+time to establish the kind of business I should care to handle. I am
+thinking of practising corporation law; I specialized in that, so I may
+have the pleasure before so very long of going after some of the men
+who do what you so aptly term the 'dirty' jobs."
+
+"A repetition of the customary chorus," said Mr. Winton, "differing
+only in that it is a little more emphatic than usual. I predict that
+you will become an office-holder, having party affiliations, inside ten
+years."
+
+"Possibly," said Douglas. "But I'll promise you this: it will be a new
+office no man ever before has held, in the gift of a party not now in
+existence."
+
+"Oh you dreamers!" cried Mr. Winton. "What a wonderful thing it is to
+be young and setting out to reform the world, especially on a permanent
+income. That's where you surpass most reformers."
+
+"But I said nothing about reform," corrected Douglas. "I said I was
+thinking of corporation law."
+
+"I'm accustomed to it; while you wouldn't scare Leslie if you said
+'reform,'" remarked Mr. Winton. "She's a reformer herself, you know."
+
+"But only sweat-shops, child labour, civic improvement, preservation of
+the wild, and things like that!" cried Leslie so quickly and eagerly,
+that both men laughed.
+
+"God be praised!" exclaimed her father.
+
+"God be _fervently_ praised!" echoed her lover.
+
+Before she retired Leslie visited the slippers.
+
+"I'd like to know," she said softly, as she touched a bronze striped
+calyx, "I'd like to know how I am to penetrate your location, and find
+and fashion anything to outdo you and the squaw, you wood creatures
+you!" Then she bent above the flowers and whispered: "Tuck this in the
+toe of your slipper! Three times to-night it was in his eyes, and on
+his tongue, but his slowness let the moment pass. I can 'bide a wee'
+for my Scotsman, I can bide forever, if I must; for it's he only, and
+no other."
+
+The moccasins soon had been ground to pulp and carried away on a
+non-skid tire while at three o'clock in the morning a cross,
+dishevelled society woman, in passing from her dressing room to her
+bed, stumbled over the osier basket, kicking it from her way.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+_S.O.S._
+
+
+Mickey, his responsibility weighing upon him, slept lightly and
+awakened early, his first thought of Peaches. He slipped into his
+clothing and advancing peered at her through the grayness. His heart
+beat wildly.
+
+"Aw you poor kid! You poor little kid!" he whispered to himself as he
+had fallen into the habit of doing for company. "The scaring, the
+jolting, the scouring, and everything were too much for you. You've
+gone sure! You're just like them at the morgue. Aw Peaches! I didn't
+mean to hurt you, Peaches! I was _trying_ to be good to you. Honest I
+was, Peaches! Aw----!"
+
+As his fright increased Mickey raised his voice until his last wail
+reached the consciousness of the sleeping child. She stirred slightly,
+her head moving on the pillow. Mickey almost fell, so great was his
+relief. He stepped closer, gazing in awe. The sheared hair had dried in
+the night, tumbling into a hundred golden ringlets. The tiny clean face
+was white, so white that the blue of the closed eyes showed darkly
+through the lids, the blue veins streaked the temples and the little
+claws lying relaxed on the sheet. Mickey slowly broke up inside. A big,
+hard lump grew in his throat. He shut his lips tight and bored the
+tears from his eyes with his wiry fists. He began to mutter his
+thoughts to regain self-control.
+
+"Gee kid, but you had me scared to the limit!" he said. "I thought you
+were gone, sure. Honest I did! Ain't I glad though! But you're the
+whitest thing! You're like----I'll tell you what you're like. You're
+like the lily flowers in the store windows at Easter. You're white like
+them, and your hair is the little bit of gold decorating them. If I'd
+known it was like that I wouldn't a-cut it if I'd spent a month
+untangling it. Honest I wouldn't, kid! I'm awful sorry! Gee, but it
+would a-been pretty spread over mother's pillow."
+
+Mickey gazed, worshipped and rejoiced as he bent lower from time to
+time to watch the fluttering breath.
+
+"You're so clean now you just smell good; but I got to go easy. The
+dirt covered you so I didn't see how sick you were. You'll go out like
+a candle, that's what you'll do. I mustn't let even the wind blow cold
+on you. I couldn't stand it if I was to hurt you. I'd just go and lay
+down before the cars or jump down an elevator hole. Gee, I'm glad I
+found you! I wouldn't trade you for the smartest dog that's being rode
+around in the parks. Nor for the parks! Nor the trees! Nor the birds!
+Nor the buildings! Nor the swimming places! Nor the automobiles! Nor
+nothing! Not nothing you could mention at all! Not eating! Nor seeing!
+Nor having! Not no single thing--nothing at all--Lily!
+
+"Lily!" he repeated. "Little snow white lily! Peaches is a good name
+for you if you're referring to sweetness, but it doesn't fit for
+colour. Least I never saw none white. Lily fits you better. If you'd
+been a dog, I was going to name you Partner. But you're mine just as
+much as if you was a dog, so I'll name you if I want to. Lily! That's
+what God made you; that's what I'm going to call you."
+
+The God thought, evoked by creation, remained in Mickey's heart. He
+glanced at the sky clearing from the graying mists of morning, while
+the rumble of the streets came up to him in a dull roar.
+
+"O God, I guess I been forgetting my praying some, since mother went.
+I'd nothing but myself and I ain't worth bothering You about. But O
+God, if You are going to do any _big_ things to-day, why not do some
+for Lily? Can't be many that needs it more. If You saw her yesterday,
+You must see if You'll look down now, that she's better off, she's
+worlds better off. Wonder if You sent me to get her, so she would be
+better off. Gee, why didn't You send one of them millyingaires who
+could a-dressed her up, fed her and took her to the country where the
+sun would shine on her. Ain't never touched her, I bet a liberty-bird.
+But if You did the sending, You sent just me, so she's _my_ job, an'
+I'll do her! But I wish You'd help me, or send me help, O God. It's an
+awful job to tackle all alone, for I'm going to be scared stiff if she
+gets sick. I can tell by how I felt when I thought she was gone. So if
+You sent me God, it's up to You to help me. Come on now! If You see the
+sparrows when they fall, You jest good naturedly ought to see Lily
+Peaches, 'cause she's always been down, and she can't ever get up,
+unless we can help her. Help me all You can O God, and send me help to
+help her all I can, 'cause she can use all the help she can get, and
+then some! Amen!"
+
+Mickey took one of Peaches' hands in his.
+
+"I ain't the time now, but to-night I got to cut your nails and clean
+them, then I guess you'll do to start on," he said as he squeezed the
+hand. "Lily! Lily Peaches, wake up! It's morning now. I got to go out
+with the papers to earn supper to-night. Wake up! I must wash you and
+feed you 'fore I go."
+
+Peaches opened her eyes, drawing back startled.
+
+"Easy now!" cautioned Mickey. "Easy now! Don't be scared. Nobody can
+'get' you here! What you want for breakfast, Flowersy-girl? Little Lily
+white."
+
+An adorable smile illumined the tiny face at the first kindly awakening
+it ever had known.
+
+"_You_ won't let them 'get' me, will you?" she triumphed.
+
+"You know it!" he answered conclusively. "Now I'll wash your face, cook
+your breakfast, and fix you at the window where maybe you can see birds
+going across. Think of that, Lily! Birds!"
+
+"My name's Peaches!" said the child.
+
+"So 'tis!" said Mickey. "But since you arrived to such bettered
+conditions, you got to be a lady of fashion. Now Peaches, every single
+kid in the Park is named _two_ names, these days. Fellow can't have a
+foot race for falling over Mary Elizabeths, and Louisa Ellens. I can't
+do so much just to start on, 'cause I can't earn the boodle; fast as I
+get it, you're going to line up; but nachally, just at starting you
+must begin on the things that are not expensive. Now names don't cost
+anything, so I can be giving you six if I like, and you are a lily, so
+right now I'm naming you Lily, but two's the style; keep your Peaches,
+if it suits you. Lily just flies out of my mouth when I look at you."
+
+This was wonderful. No cursing! No beating! No wailing over a lame-back
+brat to feed. Mickey _liked_ to give her breakfast! Mickey named her
+for the wonderful flower like granny had picked up before a church one
+day, a few weeks ago and in a rare sober moment had carried to her.
+Mickey had made her feel clean, so rested, and so fresh she wanted to
+roll over the bed. With child impulse she put up her arms. Mickey
+stooped to them.
+
+"You goin' to have two names too," she said. "You gotter be fash'nable.
+I ist love you for everythin', washin', an' breakfast, an' the bed, an'
+winder, an' off the floor; oh I just love you _sick_ for the winder,
+an' off the floor. You going to be"--she paused in a deep study to
+think of a word anywhere nearly adequate, then ended in a burst that
+was her best emanation--"lovest! Mickey-lovest!"
+
+She hugged him closely, then lifted her chin and pursed her lips.
+Mickey pulled back, a dull colour in his face.
+
+"Now nix on the mushing!" he said. "I'll stand for a hug once a day,
+but nix on the smear!"
+
+"You'd let a dog," she whimpered. "I ain't kissed nothin' since granny
+sold the doll a lady gave me the time we went to the doctor's, an' took
+the money to get drunk on, an' beat me more'n I needed for a change,
+'cause I cried for it. I think you might!"
+
+"Aw well, go on then, if you're going to bawl," said Mickey, "but put
+it there!"
+
+He stepped as far back as he could, leaned over, and swept the hair
+from his forehead, which he brought in range of her lips. He had to
+brace himself to keep from flinching at their cold touch and
+straightened in relief.
+
+"Now that's over!" he said briskly. "I'll wash you, and get your
+breakfast."
+
+"You do a lot of washin', don't you?" inquired Peaches.
+
+"You want the sleep out of your eyes," coaxed Mickey.
+
+He brought the basin and a cloth, washing the child's face and hands
+gently as was in his power.
+
+"Flowersy-girl," he said, "if you'd looked last night like you do this
+morning, I'd never tackled getting you here in the world. I'd thought
+you'd break sure."
+
+"G'wan kid," she said. "I can stand a lot. I been knocked round somepin
+awful. She dragged me by one hand or the hair when she was tight, and
+threw me in a corner an' took the"--Peaches glanced over the bed,
+refusing to call her former estate by the same name--"took the _place_
+herself. You ain't hurting me. You can jerk me a lot."
+
+"I guess you've been jerked enough, Lily Peaches," he said. "I guess
+jerkin' ain't going to help your back any. I think we better be easy
+with it 'til we lay up the money to Carrel it. He put different legs on
+a dog, course he can put a new back on you."
+
+"Dogs doesn't count only with rich folks 'at rides 'em, an' feeds 'em
+cake; but where'll you find 'nother girl 'at ull spare her back for me,
+Mickey-lovest?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Gee, Lily!" he cried. "I didn't _think_ of that--I wish I hadn't
+promised you. Course he could _change_ the backs, but where'd I get
+one. I'll just have to let him take mine."
+
+"I don't want no boy's back!" flashed Peaches. "I won't go out an' sell
+papers, an' wash you, an' feed you, an' let you stay here in this nice
+bed. I don't want no new back, grand like it is here. I won't have no
+dog's back, even. I won't have no back!"
+
+"Course I couldn't let you work and take care of me, Lily," he said.
+"Course I couldn't! I was just thinking what I _could_ do. I'll write a
+letter and ask the Carrel man if a dog's back would do. I could get one
+your size at the pound, maybe."
+
+Peaches arose at him with hands set like claws.
+
+"You fool!" she shrieked. "You big damn fool! '_A dog's back!'_ I
+won't! You try it an' I'll scratch your eyes out! You stop right now on
+backs an' go hell-bent an' get my breakfast! I'm hungry! I like my
+back! I will have it! You----"
+
+Mickey snatched his pillow from the floor, using it to press the child
+against hers. Then he slipped it down a trifle at one corner and spoke:
+
+"Now you cut that out, Miss Chicken, right off!" he said sternly. "I
+wouldn't take no tantrums from a dog, so I won't from you. You'll make
+your back worse acting like that, than beating would make it, and
+'sides, if you're going to live with me, you must be a lady. No lady
+says such words as you used, and neither does no gentleman, 'cause I
+don't myself. Now you'll either say, 'Mickey, please get me my
+breakfast,' and I'll get you one with a big surprise, or you'll lay
+here alone and hungry 'til I come back to-night. And it'll be a whole
+day, see?"
+
+"'F I wasn't a pore crippled kid, you wouldn't say that to me," she
+wailed.
+
+"And if you wasn't 'a poor crippled kid,' you wouldn't say swearin's to
+me," said Mickey, "'cause you know I'd lick the stuffin' out of you,
+and if you could see yourself, you'd know that you need stuffin' in,
+more than you need it out. I'm 'mazed at you! Forget that you ever
+heard such stuff, and be a nice lady, won't you? My time's getting
+short and I got to go, or the other kids will sell to my paper men,
+then we'll have no supper. Now you say, 'Mickey, please get my
+breakfast,' like a lady, or you won't get a bite."
+
+"'Mickey, please get my breakfast,'" she imitated.
+
+Mickey advanced threateningly with the pillow.
+
+"Won't do!" he said. "That ain't like no lady! That's like _me_. You'll
+say it like _yourself_, or you won't get it."
+
+She closed her lips, burying her face in her own pillow.
+
+"All right," said Mickey. "Then I'll get my own. If you don't want any,
+I'll have twice as much."
+
+He laid the pillow on the foot of the bed, saying politely: "'Scuse me,
+Lily, till I get _me_ a bottle of milk."
+
+Soon he returned and with his first glimpse of the bed stood aghast. It
+was empty. His eyes searched the room. His pallet on the floor outlined
+a tiny form. A dismayed half smile flashed over his face. He took a
+step toward her, and then turned, getting out a cloth he had not used
+since being alone. Near the bed he set the table and laid a plate,
+knife, fork and spoon. Because he was watching Peaches he soon
+discovered she was peeking out at him, so he paid strict attention to
+the burner he was lighting.
+
+Then he sliced bread, put on a toaster, set the milk on the table,
+broke an egg in a saucer, and turned the toast. Soon the odours filled
+the room, also a pitiful sound. Mickey knew Peaches must have hurt
+herself sliding from the bed, although her arms were strong for the
+remainder of her body. She had no way to reach his pallet but to roll
+across the floor. She might have bruised herself badly. He was amazed,
+disgusted, yet compassionate. He went to her and turned back the
+comfort.
+
+"You must be speaking a little louder, Lily," he said gently. "I wasn't
+quite hearing you."
+
+Only muffled sobbing. Mickey dropped the cover.
+
+"I want my breakfast," said a very small voice.
+
+"You mean, 'Mickey, please _get_ my breakfast,' Flowersy-girl," he
+corrected gently.
+
+"Oh I hurt myself so!" Peaches wailed. "Oh Mickey, I fell an' broke my
+back clear in two. 'Tain't like rollin' off my rags; oh Mickey, it's so
+_far_ to the floor, from your bed! Oh Mickey, even another girl's back,
+or yours, or a dog's, or anybody's wouldn't fix it now. It'll hurt for
+days. Mickey, why did I ever? Oh what made me? Mickey-lovest, please,
+please put me back on the nice fine bed, an' do please give me some of
+that bread."
+
+Mickey lifted her, crooning incoherent things. He wiped her face and
+hands, combed her hair, and pushed the table against the bed. He broke
+toast in a glass and poured milk over it. Then he cooked the egg and
+gave her that, keeping only half the milk and one slice of bread. He
+made a sandwich of more bread, and the cheese, put a banana with it,
+set a cup of water in reach, and told her that was her lunch; to eat it
+when the noon whistles blew. Then he laid all the picture books he had
+on the back of the bed, put the money for his papers in his pocket, and
+locking her in, ran down Sunrise Alley fast as he could.
+
+He was one hour late. He had missed two regular customers. They must be
+made up and more. Light, air, cleanliness, and kindness would increase
+Peaches' appetite, which seemed big now for the size of her body.
+Mickey's face was very sober when he allowed himself to think of his
+undertaking. How would he make it? He had her now, he simply must
+succeed. The day was half over before Mickey began to laugh for no
+apparent reason. He had realized that she had not said what he had
+required of her, after all.
+
+"Gee, I'm up against it," said Mickey. "I didn't s'pose she'd act like
+that! I thought she'd keep on being like when she woke up. I never
+behaved like that."
+
+Then in swift remorse: "But I had the finest mother a fellow ever had
+to tell me, while she ain't had any one, and only got me now, so I'll
+have to tell her; course I can't do everything at once. So far as that
+goes, she didn't do any worse than the millyingaires' kids in the park
+who roll themselves in the dirt, bump their own heads, and scream and
+fight. I guess my kid's no worse than other people's. I can train her
+like mother did me; then we'll be enough alike we can live together,
+and even when she was the worst, I liked her. I liked her cartloads."
+
+So Mickey shouldered the duties of paternity, and began thinking for
+his child, his little, neglected, bad, sick child. His wits and feet
+always had been nimble; that day he excelled himself. Anxiety as to how
+much he must carry home at night to replace what he had spent in moving
+Peaches to his room, three extra meals to provide before to-morrow
+night, something to interest her through the long day: it was a
+contract, surely! Mickey faced it gravely, but he did not flinch. He
+did not know how it was to be done, but he did know it must be done.
+"_Get_" her they should not. Whatever it had been his mother had feared
+for him, nameless though the horror was, from _that_ he must save Lily.
+Mickey had thought it must be careless nurses or lack of love.
+Yesterday's papers had said there were some children at one of the
+Homes, no one ever visited; they were sick for love; would not some
+kind people come to see them? It must have been _that_ she feared. He
+could not possibly know it was the stigma of having been a charity
+child she had been combating with all her power.
+
+They had not "got" him; they must not "get" his Lily; yet stirrings in
+Mickey's brain told him he was not going to be sufficient, alone. There
+were emergencies he did not know how to manage. He must have help.
+Mickey revolved the problem in his worried head without reaching a
+solution. His necessity drove him. He darted, dodged and took chances.
+Far down the street he selected his victim and studied his method of
+assault as he approached; for Mickey did victimize people that day. He
+sold them papers when they did not want them. He bettered that and sold
+them papers when they had them. He snatched up lost papers, smoothed
+and sold them over. Every gay picture or broken toy dropped from an
+automobile he caught up and pocketed for her.
+
+A woman stumbled alighting from a passing car. Mickey dropped his
+papers and sprang forward. Her weight bore him to the pavement, but he
+kept her from falling, and even as he felt her on her feet, he snatched
+under the wheels for her purse.
+
+"Is that all your stuff, lady?" he asked.
+
+"Thank you! I think so," she said. "Wait a minute!"
+
+To lend help was an hourly occurrence with Mickey. _She_ had been most
+particular to teach him that. He was gathering up and smoothing his
+papers several of which were soiled. The woman opened the purse he had
+rescued, taking therefrom a bill which she offered him.
+
+"Thanks!" said Mickey. "My shoulder is worth considerable to me; but
+nothing like that to you, lady!"
+
+"Well!" she said. "Are you refusing the money?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I ain't a beggar! Just a balance on my shoulder
+and picking up your purse ain't worth an endowment. I'll take five
+cents each for three soiled papers, if you say so."
+
+"You amazing boy!" said the woman. "Don't you understand that if you
+hadn't offered your shoulder, I might now be lying senseless? You saved
+me a hard fall, while my dress would have been ruined. You step over
+here a minute. What's your name?"
+
+"Michael O'Halloran," was the answer.
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"Sunrise Alley. It's miles on the cars, then some more walking,"
+explained Mickey.
+
+"Whom do you live with?"
+
+"Myself," said Mickey.
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"All but Peaches," said Mickey. "Lily Peaches."
+
+"Who is Lily Peaches?"
+
+"She's about so long"--Mickey showed how long--"and about so wide"--he
+showed how wide--"and white like Easter church flowers. Her back's bad.
+I'm her governor; she's my child."
+
+"If you won't take the money for yourself, then take it for her,"
+offered the woman. "If you have a little sick girl to support, you
+surely can use it."
+
+"Umm!" said Mickey. "You kind of ball a fellow up and hang him on the
+ropes. Honest you do, lady! I can take care of myself. I know I can,
+'cause I've done it three years, but I don't know how I'm goin' to make
+it with Lily, for she needs a lot. She may get sick any day, so I ain't
+sure how I'm going to manage well with her."
+
+"How long have you taken care of her?"
+
+"Since last night," explained Mickey.
+
+"Oh! How old is she?" Questions seemed endless.
+
+"I don't know," answered Mickey. "Her granny died and left her lying on
+rags in a garret. I found her screeching, so I took her to my castle
+and washed her, and fed her. You should see her now."
+
+"I believe I should!" said the woman. "Let's go at once. You know
+Michael, you can't care for a _girl_. I'll put her in one of the
+beautiful Children's Homes--"
+
+"Now nix on the Children's Homes, fair lady!" he cried angrily. "I
+guess you'll _find_ her, 'fore you take her! I found her first, and
+she's _mine!_ I guess you'll _find_ her, 'fore you take her to a
+Children's Home, where the doctors slice up the poor kids for practice
+so they'll know how to get money for doing it to the rich ones. I've
+_annexed_ Lily Peaches, and you don't '_get_' her! See?"
+
+"I see," said the woman. "But you're mistaken----"
+
+"'Scuse crossing your wire, but I don't think I _am_," said Mickey.
+"The only way you can know, is to have been there yourself. I don't
+think you got that kind of a start, or want it for kids of your own. My
+mother killed herself to keep me out of it, and if it had been so
+grand, she'd _wanted_ me there. Nix on the Orphings' Home talk. Lily
+ain't going to be raised in droves, nor flocks, nor herds! See? Lily's
+going to have a home of her own, and a man to take care of her by
+herself."
+
+Mickey backed away, swallowing a big lump in his throat, and blinking
+down angry tears.
+
+"'Smorning," he said, "I asked God to help me, and for a minute I was
+so glad, 'cause I thought He'd helped by sending _you_, so you could
+tell me how to do; but if God can't beat _you_, I can get along by
+myself."
+
+"You _can't_ take care of a girl by yourself," she insisted. "The _law_
+won't allow you."
+
+"Oh can't I?" scoffed Mickey. "Well you're mistaken, 'cause I am! And
+getting along bully! You ought to seen her last night, and then this
+morning. Next time I yell for help, I won't ask to have anybody sent,
+I'll ask Him to help me save our souls, myself. Ever see that big,
+white, wonderful Jesus at the Cathedral door, ma'am, holding the little
+child in His arms so loving? I don't s'pose He stopped to ask whether
+it was a girl, or a boy, 'fore He took it up; He just opened his arms
+to the first _child_ that _needed_ Him. And if I remember right, He
+didn't say: 'Suffer little children to be sent to Orphings' Homes.'
+Mammy never read it to me _that_ way. It was suffer them to come to
+'Me,' and be took up, and held tender. See? Nix on the Orphings' Home
+people. They ain't in my class. Beaucheous lady, adoo! Farewell! I
+depart!"
+
+Mickey wheeled, vanishing. It was a wonderful exhibition of curves,
+leaps, and darts. He paused for breath when he felt safe.
+
+"So that's the dope!" he marvelled. "I can't take care of a girl? Going
+to take her away from me? I'd like to know _why?_ Men all the time take
+care of women. I see boys taking care of girls I know their mothers
+left with them, every day--I'd like to know _why_. Mother said I was to
+take care of _her_. She said that's what men were made _for_. 'Cause
+_he didn't_ take care of her, was why she was glad my father was
+_dead_. I guess I know what I'm doing! But I've learned something! Nix
+on the easy talk after this; and telling anybody you meet all you know.
+Shut mouth from now on. 'What's your name, little boy?' 'Andrew
+Carnegie.' 'Where d'you live?' 'Castle on the Hudson!' A mouth just
+tight shut about Lily, after this! And nix on the Swell Dames! Next one
+can bust her crust for all I care! I won't touch her!"
+
+On the instant, precisely that thing occurred, at Mickey's very feet.
+With his lips not yet closed, he knelt to shove his papers under a
+woman's head, then went racing up the stone steps she had rolled down,
+his quick eye catching and avoiding the bit of fruit on which she had
+slipped. He returned in a second with help. As the porter lifted the
+inert body, Mickey slid his hands under her head, and advised: "Keep
+her straight!" Into one of the big hospitals he helped carry a blue and
+white clad nurse, on and on, up elevators and into a white porcelain
+room where they laid her on a glass table. Mickey watched with
+frightened eyes. Doctors and nurses came running. He stood waiting for
+his papers. He was rather sick, yet he remembered he had five there he
+must sell.
+
+"Better clear out of here now!" suggested a surgeon.
+
+"My papers!" said Mickey. "She fell right cross my feet. I slid them
+under, to make her head more pillowlike on the stones. Maybe I can sell
+some of them."
+
+The surgeon motioned to a nurse at the door.
+
+"Take this youngster to the office and pay him for the papers he has
+spoiled," he ordered.
+
+"Will she--is she going to----?" wavered Mickey.
+
+"I'm not sure," said the surgeon. "From the bleeding probably
+concussion; but she will live. Do you know how she came to fall?"
+
+"There was a smear of something on the steps she didn't see," explained
+Mickey.
+
+"Thank you! Go with the nurse," said the surgeon. Then to an attendant:
+"Take Miss Alden's number, and see to her case. She was going after
+something."
+
+Mickey turned back. "Paper, maybe," he suggested, pointing to her
+closed hand. The surgeon opened it and found a nickel. He handed it to
+Mickey. "If you have a clean one left, let this nurse take it to Miss
+Alden's case, and say she has been assigned other duty. See to sending
+a substitute at once."
+
+Every paper proved to be marked.
+
+"I can bring you a fresh one in a second, lady," offered Mickey. "I got
+the money."
+
+"All right," she said. "Wait with it in the office and then I'll pay
+you."
+
+"I'm sent for a paper. I'm to be let in as soon as I get it," announced
+Mickey to the porter. "I ain't taking chances of being turned down," he
+said to himself, as he stopped a second to clean the step.
+
+He returned and was waiting when the nurse came. She was young and fair
+faced; her hair was golden, and as she paid Mickey for his papers he
+wondered how soon he could have Lily looking like her. He took one long
+survey as he pocketed the money, thinking he would rush home at once;
+but he wanted to fix in his mind how Lily must appear, to be right, for
+he thought a nurse in the hospital would be right.
+
+The nurse knew she was beautiful, and to her Mickey's long look was
+tribute, male tribute; a small male indeed, but such a winning one; so
+she took the occasion to be her loveliest, and smile her most
+attractive smile. Mickey surrendered. He thought she was like an angel,
+that made him think of Heaven, Heaven made him think of God, God made
+him think of his call for help that morning, the call made him think of
+the answer, the beautiful woman before him made him think that possibly
+_she_ might be the answer instead of the other one. He rather doubted
+it, but it might be a chance. Mickey was alert for chances for Peaches,
+so he smiled again, then he asked: "Are you in such an awful hurry?"
+
+"I think we owe you more than merely paying for your papers," she said.
+"What is it?"
+
+Again Mickey showed how long and how wide Lily was. "And with hair like
+yours, and eyes and cheeks that would be, if she had her chance, and
+nobody to give her that chance but just me," he said. "Me and Lily are
+all each other's got," he explained hastily. "We're _home_ folks. We're
+a family. We don't want no bunching in corps and squads. We're nix on
+the Orphings' Home business; but you _must know_, ma'am--would you, oh
+would you tell me just how I should be taking care of her? I'm doing
+everything like my mother did to me; but I was well and strong. Maybe
+Lily, being a girl, should have things different. A-body so beautiful
+as you, would tell me, wouldn't you?"
+
+Then a miracle happened. The nurse, so clean she smelled like a drug
+store, so lovely she shone as a sunrise, laid an arm across Mickey's
+shoulders. "You come with me," she said. She went to a little room, and
+all alone she asked Mickey questions; with his eyes straight on hers,
+he answered. She told him surely he could take care of Lily. She
+explained how. She rang for a basket and packed it full of things he
+must have, showing him how to use them. She told him to come each
+Saturday at four o'clock, as she was going off duty, and tell her how
+he was getting along. She gave him a thermometer, and told him how to
+learn if the child had fever. She told him about food, and she put in
+an ointment, instructing him to rub the little back with it, so the bed
+would not be so tiresome. She showed him how to arrange the pillows;
+when he left, the tears were rolling down Mickey's cheeks. Both of them
+were so touched she laid her arm across his shoulder again and went as
+far as the elevator, while a passport to her at any time was in his
+pocket.
+
+"I 'spect other folks tell you you are beautiful like flowers, or
+music, or colours," said Mickey in farewell, "but you look like a
+window in Heaven to me, and I can see right through you to God and all
+the beautiful angels; but what gets me is why the other one had to bust
+her crust, to make you come true!"
+
+The nurse was laughing and wiping her eyes at the same time. Mickey
+gripped the basket until his hands were stiff as he sped homeward at
+least two hours early and happy about it. At the last grocery he
+remembered every word and bought bread, milk, and fruit with care "for
+a sick lady" he explained, so the grocer, who knew him, used care.
+Triumphing Mickey climbed the stairs. He paused a second in deep
+thought at the foot of the last flight, then ascended whistling to let
+Peaches know that he was coming, then on his threshold recited:
+
+"_One't a little kid named Lily,
+  Was so sweet she'd knock you silly,
+Yellow hair in millying curls,
+  Beat a mile all other girls._"
+
+She was on his bed; she was on his pillow; she had been lonely; both
+arms were stretched toward him.
+
+"Mickey, hurry!" she cried. "Mickey, lemme hold you 'til I'm sure!
+Mickey, all day I didn't hardly durst breathe, fear the door'd open an'
+they'd '_get_' me. Oh Mickey, you won't let them, will you?"
+
+Mickey dropped his bundles and ran to the bed. This time he did not
+shrink from her wavering clasp. It was delight to come home to
+something alive, something that belonged to him, something to share
+with, something to work and think for, something that depended upon him.
+
+"Now nix on the scare talk," he comforted. "Forget it! I've lived here
+three years alone, and not a single time has anybody come to 'get' me,
+so they won't you. There's only one thing can happen us. If I get sick
+or spend too much on eating, and don't pay the rent, the man that owns
+this building will fire us out. If we, _if we_" Mickey repeated
+impressively, "pay our rent regular, in advance, nobody will _ever_
+come, not _ever_, so don't worry."
+
+"Then what's all them bundles?" fretted Peaches. "You ortn't a-got so
+much. You'll never get the _next_ rent paid! They'll 'get' me sure."
+
+"Now throttle your engine," advised Mickey. "Stop your car! Smash down
+on the brakes! They are things the city you reside in furnishes its
+taxpayers, or something like that. I pay my rent, so this is my
+_share_, and it's things for you: to make you comfortable. Which are
+you worst--tiredest, or hungriest, or hottest?"
+
+"I don't know," she said.
+
+"Then I'll make a clean get-a-way," said Mickey. "Washing is cooling;
+and it freshens you up a lot."
+
+So Mickey brought his basin again, bathing the tired child gently as
+any woman could have done it.
+
+"See what I got!" he cried as he opened bundles and explained. "I'm
+going to see if you have fever."
+
+Peaches rebelled at the thermometer.
+
+"Now come on in," urged Mickey. "Slide straight home to your base! If
+I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to right. You can't lay here
+eating wrong things if you have _fever_. No-sir-ee! You don't get to
+see in any more of these bundles, nor any supper, nor talked to any
+more, 'til you put this little glass thing under your tongue and hold
+it there just this way"--Mickey showed how--"three minutes by the
+clock, then I'll know what to do with you next. I'll sit beside you,
+and hold your hands, and tell you about the pretty lady that sent it."
+
+Mickey wiped the thermometer on the sheet, then presented it. Peaches
+took one long look at him and opened her lips. Mickey inserted the
+tube, set the clock in sight, and taking both her hands he held them
+closely and talked as fast as he could to keep her from using them. He
+had not half finished the day when the time was up. If he had done it
+right, Peaches had very little, if any, fever.
+
+"Now turn over so I can rub your back to make it all nice and rested,"
+he said. "And then I'll get supper."
+
+"I don't want my back rubbed," she protested. "My back's all right now."
+
+"Nothing to do with going to have it rubbed," said Mickey. "It would be
+a silly girl who would have a back that wouldn't walk, and then
+wouldn't even try having it doctored, so that it would get better. Just
+try Lily, and if it doesn't _help_, I won't do it any more."
+
+Peaches took another long look at Mickey, questioning in nature, then
+turned her back to him.
+
+"Gosh, kid! Your back looks just like horses' going to the fertilizer
+plant," he said.
+
+"Ain't that swearin's?" asked Peaches promptly.
+
+"First-cousin," answered Mickey. "'Scuse me Lily. If you could see your
+back, you'd 'scuse worse than that."
+
+"Feelin' ull do fer me," said Peaches. "I live wid it." "Honest kid,
+I'm scared to touch you," he wavered.
+
+"Aw g'wan!" said Peaches. "I ain't goin' screechin' even if you hurt
+awful, an' you touch like a sparrer lookin' for crumbs. Mickey, can we
+put out a few?"
+
+"For the sparrows? Sure!" cried Mickey. "They're the ones that God sees
+especial when they fall. Sure! Put out some in a minute. Still now!"
+
+Mickey poured on ointment, then began softly rubbing it into the
+dreadful back. His face was drawn with anxiety and filled with horror.
+He was afraid, but the nurse said this he should do, while Mickey's
+first lesson had been implicit obedience. So he rubbed gently as he was
+fearful; when Peaches made no complaint, a little stronger, and a
+little stronger, until he was tired. Then he covered her, telling her
+to lie on it, and see how it felt. Peaches looked at him with wondering
+eyes.
+
+"Mickey," she said, "nothin" in all my life ever felt like that, an'
+the nice cool washin' you do. Mickey-lovest, nex' time I act mean 'bout
+what you want to do to me, slap me good, an' hold me, an' go on an'
+_do_ it!"
+
+"Now nix on the beating," said Mickey. "I never had any from my mother;
+but the kids who lost sales to me took my nickels, and give me plenty.
+You ought to know, Lily, that I'm trying hard as I can to make you feel
+good; and to take care of you. What I want to do, I think will make you
+_better_, so I'm just nachally going to _do_ it, 'cause you're mine,
+and you got to do what I say. But I won't say anything that'll hurt you
+and make you worse. If you must take time to think new things over, I
+can wait; but I can't hit you Lily, you're too little, too sick, and I
+like you too well. I wish you'd be a lady! I wish you wouldn't ever be
+bad again!"
+
+"Hoh I feel so good!" Peaches stretched like a kitten. "Mickey, bet I
+can walk 'fore long if you do that often! Mickey, I just love you, an'
+_love_ you. Mickey, say that at the door over again."
+
+"What?" queried Mickey.
+
+"'One't a little kid named Lily,'" prompted Peaches.
+
+Mickey laughed and obeyed.
+
+Neatly he put away all that had been supplied him; before lighting the
+burner he gave Lily a drink of milk and tried arranging both pillows to
+prop her up as he had been shown. When the water boiled he dropped in
+two bouillon cubes the nurse had given him, and set out some crackers
+he had bought. He put the milk in two cups, and when he cut the bread,
+he carefully collected every crumb, putting it on the sill in the hope
+that a bird might come. The thieving sparrows, used to watching windows
+and stealing from stores set out to cool, were soon there. Peaches, to
+whom anything with feathers was a bird, was filled with joy. The odour
+of the broth was delicious. Mickey danced, turned handsprings, and made
+the funniest remarks. Then he fixed the bowl on a paper, broke the
+crackers in her broth, growing unspeakably happy at her delight as she
+tasted it.
+
+"Every Saturday you get a box of that from the Nurse Lady," he boasted.
+"Pretty soon you'll be so fat I can't carry you and so well you can
+have supper ready when I come, then we can----" Mickey stopped short.
+He had started to say, "go to the parks," but if other ladies were like
+the first one he had talked with, and if, as she said, the law would
+not let him keep Peaches, he had better not try to take her where
+people would see her.
+
+"Can what?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Have the most fun!" explained Mickey. "We can sit in the window to see
+the sky and birds; you can have the shears and cut pictures from the
+papers I'll bring you, while I'll read all my story books to you. I got
+three that She gave me for Christmas presents, so I could learn to read
+them----"
+
+"Mickey could I ever learn to read them?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Mickey. "Surest thing you know! You are awful smart,
+Lily. You can learn in no time, and then you can read while I'm gone,
+so it won't seem long. I'll teach you. Mother taught me. I can read the
+papers I sell. Honest I can. I often pick up torn ones I can bring to
+you. It's lots of fun to know what's going on. I sell many more by
+being able to tell what's in them than kids who can't read. I look all
+over the front page and make up a spiel on the cars. I always fold my
+papers neat and keep them clean. To-day it was like this: 'Here's your
+nice, clean, morning paper! Sterilized! Deodorized! Vulcanized!'"
+
+"Mickey what does that mean?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Now you see how it comes in!" said Mickey. "If you could read the
+papers, you'd _know_. 'Sterilized,' is what they do to the milk in hot
+weather to save the slum kids. That's us, Lily. 'Deodorized,' is taking
+the bad smell out of things. 'Vulcanized,' is something they do to
+stiffen things. I guess it's what your back needs."
+
+"Is all them things done to the papers?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Well, not _all_ of them," laughed Mickey, "but they are starting in on
+_some_ of them, and all would be a good thing. The other kids who can't
+read don't know those words, so I study them out and use them; it
+catches the crowd for they laugh, and then pay me for making them. See?
+This world down on the streets is in such a mix a laugh is the scarcest
+thing there is; so they _pay_ for it. No grouchy,
+sad-cat-working-on-your-sympathy kid sells many. I can beat one with a
+laugh every inning."
+
+"What's 'inning,' Mickey?" came the next question.
+
+"Playin' a side at a ball game. Now Ty Cobb----"
+
+"Go on with what you say about the papers," interrupted Peaches.
+
+"All right!" said Mickey. "'Here's your nice, clean morning paper!
+Sterilized! Deodorized! Vulcanized! I _like_ to sell them. You _like_
+to buy them! _Sometimes_ I sell them! Sometimes I _don't!_ Latest war
+news! Japan takes England! England takes France! France takes Germany!
+Germany takes Belgium! Belgium takes the cake! Here's your paper! Nice
+clean paper! Rush this way! Change your change for a paper! Yes, I
+_like_ to sell them----' and on and on that way all day, 'til they're
+gone and every one I pick up and smooth out is gone, and if they're
+torn and dirty, I carry them back on the cars and sell them for pennies
+to the poor folks walking home."
+
+"Mickey, will we be slum kids always?" she asked.
+
+"Not on your tin type!" cried Mickey.
+
+"If this is slum kids, I like it!" protested Peaches.
+
+"Well, Sunrise Alley ain't so slummy as where you was, Lily," explained
+the boy.
+
+"This is grand," said Peaches "Fine an' grand! No lady needn't have
+better!"
+
+"She wouldn't say so," said Mickey. "But Lily, you got something most
+of the millyingaire ladies hasn't."
+
+"What Mickey?" she asked interestedly.
+
+"One man all to yourself, who will do what you want, if you ask pretty,
+and he ain't going to drag you 'round and make you do things you don't
+like to, and hit you, and swear at you, and get drunk. Gee, I bet the
+worst you ever had didn't hurt more than I've seen some of the swell
+dames hurt sometimes. It'd make you sick Lily."
+
+"I guess 'at it would," said the girl, "'cause granny told me the same
+thing. Lots of times she said 'at she couldn't see so much in bein'
+rich if you had to be treated like she saw rich ladies. She said all
+they got out of it was nice dresses an' struttin' when their men wasn't
+'round; nelse the money was theirn, an' nen they made the men pay. She
+said it was 'bout half and half."
+
+"So 'tis!" cried Mickey. "Tell you Lily, don't let's ever _be_ rich!
+Let's just have enough."
+
+"Mickey, what is 'enough?'" asked Peaches.
+
+"Why plenty, but not too much!" explained Mickey judicially. "Not
+enough to fight over! Just enough to be comfortable."
+
+"Mickey, I'm comf'rable as nangel now."
+
+"Gee, I'm glad, Lily," said Mickey in deep satisfaction. "Maybe He
+heard my S.O.S. after all, and you just being _comfortable_ is the
+answer."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"_Bearer of Morning_"
+
+
+"Douglas," called Leslie over the telephone, "I have developed nerves."
+
+"Why?" inquired he.
+
+"Dad has just come in with a pair of waist-high boots, and a scalping
+knife, I think," answered Leslie. "Are you going to bring a blanket and
+a war bonnet?"
+
+"The blanket, I can; the bonnet, I might," said Douglas.
+
+"How early will you be ready?" she asked.
+
+"Whenever you say," he replied.
+
+"Five?" she queried.
+
+"Very well!" he answered. "And Leslie, I would suggest a sweater, short
+stout skirts, and heavy gloves. Do you know if you are susceptible to
+poison vines?"
+
+"I have handled anything wild as I pleased all my life," she said. "I
+am sure there is no danger from that source; but Douglas, did you ever
+hear of, or see, a massasauga?"
+
+"You are perfectly safe on that score," he said. "I am going along
+especially to take care of you."
+
+"All right, then I won't be afraid of snakes," she said.
+
+"I have waders, too," he said, "and I'm going into the swamp with you.
+Wherever you wish to go, I will precede you and test the footing."
+
+"Very well! I have lingered on the borders long enough. To-morrow will
+be my initiation. By night I'll have learned the state of my artistic
+ability with natural resources, and I'll know whether the heart of the
+swamp is the loveliest sight I ever have seen, and I will have proved
+how I 'line up' with a squaw-woman."
+
+"Leslie, I'm now reading a most interesting human document," said
+Douglas, "and in it I have reached the place where Indians in the heart
+of terrific winter killed and heaped up a pile of deer in early day in
+Minnesota, then went to camp rejoicing, while their squaws were left to
+walk twenty-eight miles and each carry back on her shoulder a deer
+frozen stiff. Leslie, you don't line up! You are not expected to."
+
+"Do you believe that, Douglas?" asked the girl.
+
+"It's history dear, not fiction," he answered.
+
+"Douglas!" she warned.
+
+"Leslie, I beg your pardon! That was a slip!" cried he.
+
+"Oh!" she breathed.
+
+"Leslie, will you do something for me?" he questioned.
+
+"What?" she retorted.
+
+"Listen with one ear, stop the other, and tell me what you hear," he
+ordered.
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"Did you hear, Leslie?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"I heard something, I don't know what," she answered.
+
+"Can you describe it, Leslie?"
+
+"Just a rushing, beating sound! What is it Douglas?"
+
+"My heart, Leslie, sending to you each throbbing stroke of my manhood
+pouring out its love for you."
+
+"Oh-h-h!" cried the astonished girl.
+
+"Will you listen again, Leslie?" begged the man.
+
+"No!" she said.
+
+"You don't want to hear what my heart has to say to you?" he asked.
+
+"Not over a wire! Not so far away!" she panted.
+
+"Then I'll shorten the distance. I'm coming, Leslie!"
+
+"What shall I do?" she gasped. She stared around her, trying to decide
+whether she should follow her impulse to hide, when her father entered
+the room.
+
+"Daddy," she cried, "if you want to be nice to me, go away a little
+while. Go somewhere a few minutes and stay until I call you."
+
+"Leslie, what's the matter?" he asked.
+
+"I've been talking to Douglas, and Daddy, he's coming like a charging
+Highland trooper. Daddy, I heard him drop the receiver and start.
+Please, please go away a minute. Even the dearest father in the world
+can't do anything now! We must settle this ourselves."
+
+"I'm not to be allowed a word?" he protested.
+
+"Daddy, you've had two years! If you know anything to say against
+Douglas and haven't said it in all that time, why should you begin now?
+You couldn't help knowing! Daddy, do go! There he is! I hear him!"
+
+Mr. Winton took his daughter in his arms, kissed her tenderly, and left
+the room. A second later Douglas Bruce entered. Rushing to Leslie he
+caught her to his breast roughly, while with a strong hand he pressed
+her ear against his heart.
+
+"Now you listen, my girl!" he cried. "You listen at close range."
+
+Leslie remained quiet a long second. Then she lifted her face,
+adorable, misty eyed and tenderly smiling.
+
+"Douglas, I never listened to a heart before! How do I know what it is
+saying? I can't tell whether it is talking about me or protesting
+against the way you've been rushing around!" "No levity, my lady," he
+said grimly. "This is serious business. You listen while I interpret. I
+love you, Leslie! Every beat, every stroke, love for you. I claim you!
+My mate! My wife! I want you!"
+
+He held her from him, looking into her eyes.
+
+"Now Leslie, the answer!" he cried. "May I listen to it or will you
+tell me? _Is_ there any answer? What is _your_ heart saying? May I hear
+or will you tell me?"
+
+"I want to tell you!" said the girl. "I love you, Douglas! Every beat,
+every stroke, love for you."
+
+Early the next morning they inspected their equipment carefully, then
+drove north to the tamarack swamp, where they arranged that Leslie and
+Douglas were to hunt material, while Mr. Winton and the driver went to
+the nearest Indian settlement to find the squaw who had made the other
+basket, and bring her to the swamp.
+
+If you have experienced the same emotions you will know how Douglas and
+Leslie felt when hand in hand they entered the swamp on a perfect
+morning in late May. If you have not, mere words are inadequate.
+
+Through fern and brake head high, through sumac, willow, elder,
+buttonbush, gold-yellow and blood-red osiers, past northern holly, over
+spongy moss carpet of palest silvery green up-piled for ages, over
+red-veined pitcher plants spilling their fullness, among scraggy,
+odorous tamaracks, beneath which cranberries and rosemary were
+blooming; through ethereal pale mists of dawn, in their ears lark songs
+of morning from the fields, hermit thrushes in the swamp, bell birds
+tolling molten notes, in a minor strain a swelling chorus of sparrows,
+titmice, warblers, vireos, went two strong, healthy young people newly
+promised for "better or worse." They could only look, stammer, flush,
+and utter broken exclamations, all about "better." They could not
+remotely conceive that life might serve them the cruel trick of "worse."
+
+Leslie sank to her knees. Douglas lifted her up, set her on the firmest
+location he could see, adoring her with his eyes and reverent touch.
+Since that first rough grasp as he drew her to him, Leslie had felt
+positively fragile in his hands. She smiled at him her most beautiful
+smile when wide-eyed with emotion.
+
+"Douglas, why just now, when you've waited two years?" she asked.
+
+"Wanted a degree of success to offer," he answered.
+
+Leslie disdained the need for success.
+
+"Wanted you to have time to know me as completely as possible."
+
+Leslie intimated that she could learn faster.
+
+"Wanted to have the acknowledged right to put my body between yours and
+any danger this swamp might have to offer to-day."
+
+"Exactly what I thought!" cried she.
+
+"Wise girl," commented the man.
+
+"Douglas, I must hurry!" said Leslie. "It may take a long time to find
+the flowers I want, while I've no idea what I shall do for a basket. I
+saw osiers yellow and red in quantities, but where are the orchids?"
+
+"We must make our way farther in and search," he said.
+
+"Douglas, listen!" breathed Leslie.
+
+"I hear exquisite music," he answered.
+
+"But don't you recognize it?" she cried.
+
+"It does seem familiar, but I am not sufficiently schooled in music----"
+
+The girl began softly to whistle.
+
+"By Jove!" cried the man. "What is that Leslie?"
+
+"Di Provenza, from Traviata," she answered. "But I must stop listening
+for birds Douglas, when I can scarcely watch for flowers or vines. I
+have to keep all the time looking to make sure that you are really my
+man."
+
+"And I, that you are my woman. Leslie, that expression and this
+location, the fact that you are in competition with a squaw and the
+Indian talk we have indulged in lately, all conspire to remind me that
+a few days ago, while I was still a 'searcher' myself, I read a poem
+called 'Song of the Search' that was the biggest thing of its kind that
+I have yet found in our language. It was so great that I reread it
+until I am sure I can do it justice. Listen my 'Bearer of Morning,' my
+'Bringer of Song----'"
+
+Douglas stood straight as the tamaracks, his feet sinking in "the
+little moss," while from his heart he quoted Constance Skinner's
+wonderful poem:
+
+"_I descend through the forest alone. Rose-flushed are the willows,
+stark and a-quiver, In the warm sudden grasp of Spring; Like a woman
+when her lover has suddenly, swiftly taken her. I hear the secret
+rustle of little leaves, Waiting to be born. The air is a wind of love
+From the wings of eagles mating---- O eagles, my sky is dark with your
+wings! The hills and the waters pity me, The pine-trees reproach me.
+The little moss whispers under my feet, "Son of Earth, Brother, Why
+comest thou hither alone?" Oh, the wolf has his mate on the
+mountain---- Where art thou, Spring-daughter? I tremble with love as
+reeds by the river, I burn as the dusk in the red-tented west, I call
+thee aloud as the deer calls the doe, I await thee as hills wait the
+morning, I desire thee as eagles the storm; I yearn to thy breast as
+night to the sea, I claim thee as the silence claims the stars. O
+Earth, Earth, great Earth, Mate of God and mother of me, Say, where is
+she, the Bearer of Morning, My Bringer of Song? Love in me waits to be
+born, Where is She, the Woman?_
+
+"'Where is she, the Woman?' The answer is 'Here!' 'Bearer of Morning,'
+'Bringer of Song,' I adore you!"
+
+"Oh Douglas, how beautiful!" cried Leslie. "My Man, can we think of
+anything save ourselves to-day? Can we make that basket?"
+
+"It would be a bad start to give up our first undertaking together," he
+said.
+
+"Of course!" she cried. "We must! We simply must find things. Father
+may call any minute. Let go my hand and follow behind me. Keep close,
+Douglas!"
+
+"I should go before to clear the way," he suggested.
+
+"No, I may miss rare flowers if you do," she objected.
+
+"Go slowly, so I can watch before and overhead."
+
+"Yes!" she answered. "There! There, Douglas!"
+
+"Ah! There they are!" he exulted.
+
+"But I can't take them!" she protested.
+
+"Only a few, Leslie. Look before you! See how many there are!" he said.
+
+"Douglas, could there be more wonderful flowers than the moccasins and
+slippers?" she asked.
+
+"Scarcely more wonderful; there might be more delicate and lovely!"
+
+"Farther! Let us go farther!" she urged.
+
+Her cry closed the man's arms around her.
+
+Then there was a long silence during which they stood on the edge of a
+small open space breathlessly worshipping, but it was the Almighty they
+were now adoring. Here the moss lay in a flat carpet, tinted deeper
+green. Water willow rolled its ragged reddish-tan hoops, with swelling
+bloom and leaf buds. Overflowing pitcher plants grew in irregular beds,
+on slender stems, lifting high their flat buds. But scattered in groups
+here and there, sometimes with massed similar colours, sometimes in
+clumps and variegated patches, stood the rare, early fringed orchis,
+some almost white, others pale lavender and again the deeper colour of
+the moccasins; while everywhere on stems, some a foot high, nodded the
+exquisite lavender and white showy orchis.
+
+"Count!" he commanded.
+
+Leslie pointed a slender finger indicating each as she spoke: "One,
+two, three--thirty-two, under the sweep of your arms, Douglas! And
+more! More by the hundred! Surely if we are careful not to kill them,
+the Lord won't mind if we take out a few for people to see, will He?"
+
+"He must have made them to be seen!" said Douglas.
+
+"And worshipped!" cried the girl.
+
+"Douglas, why didn't the squaw----?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Maybe she didn't come this far," he said. "Perhaps she knows by
+experience that these are too fragile to remove. You may not be able to
+handle them, Leslie."
+
+"I'm going to try," she said. "But first I must make my basket. We'll
+go back to the osiers to weave it and then come here to fill it. Oh
+Douglas! Did you ever see such flower perfection in all your life?"
+
+"Only in books! In my home country applied botany is a part of every
+man's education. I never have seen ragged or fringed orchids growing
+before. I have read of many fruitless searches for the white ones."
+
+"So have I. They seem to be the rarest. Douglas, look there!"
+
+"There" was a group of purple-lavender, white-lipped bloom, made by
+years of spreading from one root, until above the rank moss and beneath
+the dark tamarack branch the picture appeared inconceivably delicate.
+
+"Yes! The most exquisite flowers I ever have seen!"
+
+"And there, Douglas!" She pointed to another group. "Just the shade of
+the lavender on the toe of the moccasin--and in a great ragged mass!
+Would any one believe it?"
+
+"Not without seeing it," he said emphatically.
+
+"And there, Douglas! Exactly the colour of the moccasins--see that
+cluster! There are no words, Douglas!"
+
+"Shall you go farther?" he asked.
+
+"No," she answered. "I'm going back to weave my basket. There is
+nothing to surpass the orchids in rarity and wondrous beauty."
+
+"Good!" he cried. "I'll go ahead and you follow."
+
+So they returned to the osiers. Leslie pondered deeply a few seconds,
+then resolutely putting Douglas aside, she began cutting armloads of
+pale yellow osiers. Finding a suitable place to work, she swiftly and
+deftly selected perfect, straight evenly coloured ones, cutting them
+the same length, then binding the tip ends firmly with raffia she had
+brought to substitute for grass. Then with fine slips she began
+weaving, gradually spreading the twigs while inwardly giving thanks for
+the lessons she had taken in basketry. At last she held up a big,
+pointed, yellow basket.
+
+"Ready!" she said.
+
+"Beautiful!" cried Douglas.
+
+Leslie carefully lined the basket with moss in which the flowers grew,
+working the heads between the open spaces she had left. She bent three
+twigs, dividing her basket top in exact thirds. One of these she filled
+with the whitest, one with stronger, and one with the deepest lavender,
+placing the tallest plants in the centre so that the outside ones would
+show completely. Then she lifted by the root exquisite showy orchis,
+lavender-hooded, white-lipped, the tiniest plants she could select and
+set them around the edge. She bedded the moss-wrapped roots in the
+basket and began bordering the rim and entwining the handle with a
+delicate vine. She looked up at Douglas, her face thrilled with
+triumph, flushed with exertion, her eyes humid with feeling, while he
+gazed at her stirred to the depth of his heart with sympathy and the
+wonder of possession.
+
+"'Bearer of Morning,' you win!" he cried triumphantly. "There is no use
+going farther. Let me carry that to your father, and he too will say
+so."
+
+"I have a reason for working out our plan," she said.
+
+"Yes? May I know?" he asked.
+
+"Surely!" she answered. "You remember what you told me about the
+Minturns. I can't live in a city and not have my feelings harrowed
+every day, and while I'd like to change everything wrong, I know I
+can't all of it, so what I can't cope with must be put aside; but this
+refuses, it is insistent. When you really think of it, that is so
+_dreadful_, Douglas. If they once felt what we do now, could it _all_
+go? There must be something left! You mention him oftener than any
+other one man, so you must admire him deeply; I know her as well as any
+woman I meet in society, better than most; I had thought of asking them
+to be the judges. She is interested in music and art; it would please
+her and be perfectly natural for me to ask her; you are on intimate
+terms with him from your offices being opposite; there could be no
+suspicion of any ulterior motive in having them. I don't know that it
+would accomplish anything, but it would let them know, to begin with,
+that we consider them friends; so it would be natural for them to come
+with us; if we can't manage more than that to-day, it will give us
+ground to try again."
+
+"Splendid!" he said. "A splendid plan! It would let them see that at
+least our part of the world thinks of them together, and expects them
+to be friends. Splendid!"
+
+"I have finished," said Leslie.
+
+"I quite agree," answered Douglas. "No one could do better. That is the
+ultimate beauty of the swamp made manifest. There is the horn! Your
+father is waiting."
+
+A surprise was also waiting. Mr. Winton had not only found the squaw
+who brought the first basket, but he had made her understand so
+thoroughly what was wanted that she had come with him, while at his
+suggestion she had replaced the moccasin basket as exactly as she could
+and also made an effort at decoration. She was smiling woodenly when
+Leslie and Douglas approached, but as Leslie's father glimpsed and
+cried out over her basket, the squaw frowned, drawing back.
+
+"Where you find 'em?" she demanded.
+
+"In the swamp!" Leslie nodded backward.
+
+The squaw grunted disapprovingly. "Lowry no buy 'em! Sell slipper! Sell
+moccasin! No sell weed!"
+
+Leslie looked with shining eyes at her father.
+
+"That lies with Lowry," he said. "I'll drive you there and bring you
+back, and you'll have the ride and the money for your basket. That's
+all that concerns you. We won't come here to make any more."
+
+The squaw smiled again, so they started to the city. They drove
+straight to the Winton residence for the slippers. While Mr. Winton and
+the squaw went to take the baskets to Lowry's and leave Douglas at his
+office, Leslie in his car went to Mrs. Minturn's.
+
+"Don't think I'm crazy," laughed Leslie, as Mrs. Minturn came down to
+meet her. "I want to use your exquisite taste and art instinct a few
+minutes. Please do come with me. We've a question up. You know the
+wonderful stuff the Indians bring down from the swamps to sell on the
+streets and to the florists?"
+
+"Indeed yes! I often buy of them in the spring. I love the wild white
+violets especially. What is it you want?"
+
+"Why you see," said Leslie, looking eagerly at Mrs. Minturn, "you see
+there are three flower baskets at Lowry's. Douglas Bruce is going to
+buy me the one I want most for a present, to celebrate a very important
+occasion, and I can't tell which is most artistic. I want you to
+decide. Your judgment is so unfailing. Will you come? Only a little
+spin!"
+
+"Leslie, you aren't by any chance asking me to select your betrothal
+gift, are you?"
+
+Leslie's face was rose-flushed smiling wonderment. She had hastily
+slipped off her swamp costume. Joy that seemed as if it must be
+imperishable shone on her brightly illumined face. With tightly closed,
+smile-curved lips she vigorously nodded. The elder woman bent to kiss
+her.
+
+"Of course I'll come!" she laughed. "I feel thrilled, and flattered.
+And I congratulate you sincerely. Bruce is a fine man. He'll make a big
+fortune soon."
+
+"Oh I hope not!" said Leslie.
+
+"Are you crazy?" demanded Mrs. Minturn. "You said you didn't want me to
+think you so!"
+
+"You see," said Leslie, "Mr. Bruce has a living income; so have I, from
+my mother. Fortunes seem to me to work more trouble than they do good.
+I believe poor folks are happiest, they get most out of life, and after
+all what gives deep, heart-felt joy, is the thing to live for, isn't
+it? But we must hurry. Mr. Lowry didn't promise to hold the flowers
+long."
+
+"I'll be ready in a minute, but I see where Douglas Bruce is giving you
+wrong ideas," said Mrs. Minturn. "He needs a good talking to. Money is
+the only thing worth while, and the comfort and the pleasure it brings.
+Without it you are crippled, handicapped, a slave crawling while others
+step over you. I'll convince _him!_ Back in a minute."
+
+When Mrs. Minturn returned she was in a delightful mood, her face
+eager, her dress beautiful. Leslie wondered if this woman ever had
+known a care, then remembered that not long before she had lost a
+little daughter. Leslie explained as they went swiftly through the
+streets.
+
+"You won't mind waiting only a second until I run up to Mr. Bruce's
+offices?" she asked.
+
+He was ready, so together they stopped at Mr. Minturn's door. Douglas
+whispered: "Watch the office boy. He is Minturn's Little Brother I told
+you about."
+
+Leslie nodded and entered gaily.
+
+"Please ask Mr. Minturn if he will see Miss Winton and Mr. Douglas
+Bruce a minute?" she said.
+
+An alert, bright-faced lad bowed politely, laid aside a book and
+entered the inner office.
+
+"Now let me!" said Leslie. "Good May, Mr. Minturn!" she cried.
+"Positively enchanting! Take that forbidding look off your face. Come
+for a few minutes Maying! It will do you much good, and me more. All my
+friends are pleasuring me to-day. So I want as good a friend of Mr.
+Bruce as you, to be in something we have planned. You just must!"
+
+"Has something delightful happened?" asked Mr. Minturn, retaining the
+hand Leslie offered him as he turned to Douglas Bruce.
+
+"You must ask Miss Winton," he said.
+
+Mr. Minturn's eyes questioned her sparkling face, while again with
+closed lips she nodded. "My most earnest congratulations to each of
+you. May life grant you even more than you hope for, and from your
+faces, that is no small wish to make for you. Surely I'll come! What is
+it you have planned?"
+
+"Something lovely!" said Leslie. "At Lowry's are three flower baskets
+that are rather bewildering. I am to have one for my betrothal gift,
+but I can't decide. I appealed to Mrs. Minturn to help me, and she
+agreed; she is waiting below. Mr. Bruce named you for him; so you two
+and Mr. Lowry are to choose the most artistic basket for me, then if I
+don't agree, I needn't take it, but I want to see what you think.
+You'll come of course?"
+
+Mr. Minturn's face darkened at the mention of his wife, while he
+hesitated and looked penetratingly at Leslie. She was guileless,
+charming, and eager.
+
+"Very well," Mr. Minturn said gravely. "I'm surprised, but also
+pleased. Beautiful young ladies have not appealed to me so often of
+late that I can afford to miss the chance of humouring the most
+charming of her sex."
+
+"How lovely!" laughed Leslie. "Douglas, did you ever know Mr. Minturn
+could flatter like that? It's most enjoyable! I shall insist on more of
+it, at every opportunity! Really, Mr. Minturn, society has missed you
+of late, and it is our loss. We need men who are worth while."
+
+"Now it is you who flatter," smiled Mr. Minturn.
+
+"See my captive!" cried Leslie, as she emerged from the building and
+crossed the walk to the car. "Mr. Bruce and Mr. Minturn are great
+friends, so as we passed his door we brought him along by force."
+
+"It certainly would require that to bring him anywhere in my company,"
+said Mrs. Minturn coldly.
+
+The shock of the cruelty of the remark closed Douglas' lips, but it was
+Leslie's day to bubble, so she resolutely set herself to heal and cover
+the hurt.
+
+"I think business is a perfect bugbear," she said as she entered the
+car. "I'm going to have a pre-nuptial agreement as to just how far work
+may trespass on Douglas' time, and how much belongs to me. I think it
+can be arranged. Daddy and I always have had lovely times together, and
+I would call him successful. Wouldn't you?"
+
+"A fine business man!" said Mr. Minturn heartily.
+
+"You could have had much greater advantages if he had made more money,"
+said Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"The advantage of more money--yes," retorted Leslie quickly, "but would
+the money have been of more advantage to me than the benefits of his
+society and his personal hand in my rearing? I think not! I prefer my
+Daddy!"
+
+"When you take your place in society, as the mistress of a home, you
+will find that millions will not be too much," said Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"If I had millions, I'd give most of them away, and just go on living
+about as I do now with Daddy," said Leslie.
+
+"Leslie, where did you get bitten with this awful, common--what kind of
+an idea shall I call it? You haven't imbibed socialistic tendencies
+have you?"
+
+"Haven't a smattering of what they mean!" laughed Leslie. "The 'istics'
+scare me completely. Just _social_ ideas are all I have; thinking home
+better than any other place on earth, the way you can afford to have
+it. Merely being human, kind and interested in what my men are doing
+and enjoying, and helping any one who crosses my path and seems to need
+me. Oh, I get such joy, such delicious _joy_ from life."
+
+"If I were undertaking wild-eyed reform, I'd sell my car and walk, and
+do settlement work," said Mrs. Minturn scornfully.
+
+Then Leslie surprised all of them. She leaned forward, looked beamingly
+into the elder woman's face and cried enthusiastically: "I am positive
+you'd be stronger, and much happier if you would! You know there is no
+greater fun than going to the end of the car line and then walking
+miles into the country, especially now in bloom-time. You see sights no
+painter ever transferred even a good imitation of to canvas; you hear
+music--I wish every music lover with your trained ear could have spent
+an hour in that swamp this morning. You'd soon know where Verdi and
+Strauss found some of their loveliest themes, and where Beethoven got
+the bird notes for the brook scene of the Pastoral Symphony. Think how
+interested you'd be in a yellow and black bird singing the Spinning
+Song from Martha, while you couldn't accuse the bird of having stolen
+it from Flotow, could you? Surely the bird holds right of priority!"
+
+"If you weren't a little fool and talking purposely to irritate me,
+you'd almost cause me to ask if you seriously mean that?" said Mrs.
+Minturn.
+
+"Why," laughed Leslie, determined not to become provoked on this her
+great day, "that is a matter you can test for yourself. If you haven't
+a score of Martha, get one and I'll take you where you can hear a bird
+sing that strain, then you may judge for yourself."
+
+"I don't believe it!" said Mrs. Minturn tersely, "but if it were true,
+that would be the _most wonderful experience_ I ever had in my life."
+
+"And it would cost you only ten cents," scored Leslie. "You needn't
+ride beyond the end of the car line for that, while a woman who can
+dance all night surely could _walk_ far enough, to reach any old
+orchard. That's what I am trying to _tell_ you. Money in large
+quantities isn't necessary to provide the _most interesting_ things in
+the world, while millions don't bring happiness. I can find more in
+what you would class almost poverty."
+
+"Why don't you try it?" suggested Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"But I _have!_" said Leslie. "And I enjoy it! I could go with a man I
+love as I do Daddy, and make a home, and get joy I never have found in
+society, from just what we two could do with our own hands in the
+woods. I don't like a city. If Daddy's business didn't keep him here, I
+would be in the country this minute. Look at us poor souls trying to
+find pleasure in a basket from the swamp, when we might have the whole
+swamp. I'd be happy to live at its door. Now try a basket full of it.
+There are three. You are to examine each of them carefully, then write
+on a slip of paper which you think the _most artistic_. You are not to
+say things that will influence each other's decisions, or Mr. Lowry's.
+I want a straight opinion from each of you."
+
+They entered the florist's, and on a glass table faced the orchids, the
+slippers, the fringed basket, and the moccasins. Mr. Winton and the
+squaw were waiting, while the florist was smiling in gratification, but
+the Minturns went to the flowers without a word. They simply stood and
+looked. Each of the baskets was in perfect condition. The flowers were
+as fresh as at home in the swamp. Each was a thing of wondrous beauty.
+Each deserved the mute tribute it was exacting. Mrs. Minturn studied
+them with gradually darkening face. Mrs. Minturn repeatedly opened her
+lips as if she would speak, but did not. She stepped closer and gently
+turned the flowers and lightly touched the petals.
+
+"Beautiful!" she said at last. "Beautiful!"
+
+Another long silence.
+
+Then: "_Honestly Leslie, did you hear a bird sing that strain from
+Martha?_"
+
+"Yes!" said Leslie, "I did. And if you will go with me to the swamp
+where those flowers came from, you shall hear one sing a strain that
+will instantly remind you of the opening chorus, while another renders
+Di Provenza Il Mar from Traviata."
+
+The lady turned again to the flowers. She was thinking something deep
+and absorbing, but no one could have guessed exactly what it might be.
+Finally: "I have decided," she said. "Shall we number these one, two,
+and three, and so indicate them?"
+
+"Yes," said Leslie a little breathlessly.
+
+"Put your initials to the slips and I'll read them," offered Douglas.
+Then he smilingly read aloud: "Mr. Lowry, one. Mrs. Minturn, two. Mr.
+Minturn, three!"
+
+"I cast the deciding vote," cried Leslie. "One!"
+
+The squaw seemed to think of a war-whoop, but decided against it.
+
+"Now be good enough to state your reasons," said Mr. Winton. "_Why_ do
+you prefer the slipper basket, Mr. Lowry?"
+
+"It satisfies my sense of the artistic."
+
+"Why the fringed basket, Mrs. Minturn?"
+
+"Because it contains daintier, more wonderful flowers than the others,
+and is by far the most pleasing production."
+
+"Now Minturn, your turn. Why do you like the moccasin basket?"
+
+"It makes the deepest appeal to me," he answered.
+
+"But why?" persisted Mr. Winton.
+
+"If you will have it--the moccasins are the colour I once loved on the
+face of my little daughter."
+
+"Now Leslie!" said Mr. Winton hurriedly as he noted Mrs. Minturn's
+displeased look.
+
+"Must I tell?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said her father.
+
+"Douglas selected it for me, so I like it best."
+
+"But Leslie!" cried Douglas, "there were only two baskets when I
+favoured that. Had the fringed orchids been here then, I most certainly
+should have chosen them. I think yours far the most exquisite! I claim
+it now. Will you give it to me?"
+
+"Surely! I'd love to," laughed the girl.
+
+"You have done your most exquisite work on the fringed basket," said
+Mrs. Minturn to the squaw.
+
+"No make!" said she promptly, pointing to Leslie.
+
+"Leslie Winton, did you go to the swamp to make that basket?" demanded
+Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Yes," answered Leslie.
+
+"Did you make all of them?"
+
+"Only that one," replied Leslie.
+
+"Why?" marvelled the lady.
+
+"To see if I could go to the tamarack swamp and bring from it with the
+same tools and material, a more artistic production than an Indian
+woman."
+
+"Well, you have!" conceded Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"The majority is against me," said Leslie.
+
+"Majorities mean masses, and masses are notoriously insane!" said Mrs.
+Minturn.
+
+"But this is a small, select majority," said Leslie.
+
+"Craziest of all," said Mrs. Minturn decidedly. "If you have finished
+with us, I want to thank you for the pleasure of seeing these, and
+Leslie, some day I really think I shall try that bird music. The idea
+interests me more than anything that I have ever heard of. If it were
+true, it would indeed be wonderful, it would be a new experience!"
+
+"If you want to hear for yourself, make it soon, because now is nesting
+time; not again until next spring will the music be so entrancing. I
+can go any day."
+
+"I'll look over my engagements and call you. If one ever had a minute
+to spare!"
+
+"Another of the joys of wealth!" said Leslie. "Only the poor can afford
+to 'loaf and invite their souls.' The flowers you will see will delight
+your eyes, quite as much as the music your ears."
+
+"I doubt your logic, but I'll try the birds. Are you coming Mr.
+Minturn?"
+
+"Not unless you especially wish me. Are these for sale?" he asked,
+picking up the moccasins.
+
+"Only those," replied the florist.
+
+"Send your bill," he said, turning with the basket.
+
+"How shining a thing is consistency!" sneered his wife. "You condemn
+the riches you never have been able to amass, but at the same time
+spend like a millionaire."
+
+"I never said I was not able to gain millions," replied Mr. Minturn
+coldly. "I have had frequent opportunities! I merely refused them,
+because I did not consider them legitimate. As for my method in buying
+flowers, in this one instance, price does not matter. You can guess
+what I shall do with them."
+
+"I couldn't possibly!" answered Mrs. Minturn. "The only sure venture I
+could make is that they will not by any chance come to me."
+
+"No. These go to baby Elizabeth," he said. "Do you want to come with me
+to take them to her?"
+
+With an audible sneer she passed him. He stepped aside, gravely raising
+his hat, while the others said good-bye to him and followed.
+
+"Positively insufferable!" cried Mrs. Minturn. "Every one of my friends
+say they do not know how I endure his insults and I certainly will not
+many more. I don't, I really don't know what he expects."
+
+Mr. Winton and Douglas Bruce were confused, while Leslie was
+frightened, but she tried turning the distressing occurrence off with
+excuses.
+
+"Of course he intended no insult!" she soothed. "He must have adored
+his little daughter and the flowers reminded him. I am so much obliged
+for your opinion and I shall be glad to take you to the swamp any time.
+Your little sons--would they like to go? It is a most interesting and
+instructive place for children."
+
+"For Heaven's sake don't mention children!" cried Mrs. Minturn. "They
+are a bother and a curse!"
+
+"Oh Mrs. Minturn!" exclaimed Leslie.
+
+"Of course I don't mean _quite_ that; but I do very near! Mine are
+perfect little devils; all the trouble James and I ever had came
+through them. His idea of a mother is a combined doctor, wet-nurse and
+nursery maid, while I must say, I far from agree with him. What are
+servants for if not to take the trouble of children off your hands?"
+
+Leslie was glad to reach the rich woman's door and deposit her there.
+
+As the car sped away the girl turned a despairing face toward Douglas:
+"For the love of Moike!" she cried. "Isn't that shocking? Poor Mr.
+Minturn!"
+
+"I don't pity him half so much as I do her," he answered. "What must a
+woman have suffered or been through, to warp, twist, and harden her
+like that?"
+
+"Society life," answered Leslie, "as it is lived by people of wealth
+who are aping royalty and the titled classes."
+
+"A branch of them--possibly," conceded Douglas. "I know some titled and
+wealthy people who would be dumbfounded over that woman's ideas."
+
+"So do I," said Leslie. "Of course there are exceptions. Sometimes the
+exception becomes bigger than the rule, but not in our richest society.
+Douglas, let's keep close together! Oh don't let's ever drift into such
+a state as that. I should have asked them to lunch, but I couldn't. If
+that is the way she is talking before her friends, surely she won't
+have many, soon."
+
+"Then her need for a real woman like you will be all the greater,"
+answered Douglas. "I suppose you should have asked her; but I'm
+delighted that you didn't! To-day began so nearly perfect, I want to
+end it with only you and your father. Will he resent me, Leslie?"
+
+"It all depends on us. If we are selfish and leave him alone he will
+feel it. If we can make him realize gain instead of loss he will be
+happier than he is now."
+
+"I wish I hadn't felt obliged to reject his offer the other night. I'm
+very sorry about it."
+
+"I'm not," said Leslie. "You have a right to live your life in your own
+way. I have seen enough of running for office, elections and
+appointments that I hate it. You do the work you educated yourself for
+and I'll help you."
+
+"Then my success is assured," laughed Douglas. "Leslie, may I leave my
+basket here? Will you care for it like yours, and may I come to see it
+often?"
+
+"No. You may come to see me and look at the basket incidentally," she
+answered.
+
+"Do you think Mrs. Minturn will go to the swamp to listen to those
+birds?" he asked.
+
+"Eventually she will," answered the girl. "I may have to begin by
+taking her to an orchard to hear a bird of gold sing a golden song
+about 'sewing, and mending, and baby tending,' to start on; but when
+she hears that, she will be eager for more."
+
+"How interesting!" cried Douglas. "'Bearer of Morning,' sing that song
+to me now."
+
+Leslie whistled the air, beating time with her hand, then sang the
+words:
+
+"_I can wash, sir, I can spin, sir, I can sew and mend, and babies
+tend._"
+
+"Oh you 'Bringer of Song!'" exulted Douglas. "I'd rather hear you sing
+that than any bird, but from what she said, Nellie Minturn won't care
+particularly for it!"
+
+"She may not approve of, or practise, the sentiment," said Leslie, "but
+she'll love the music and possibly the musician."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+_Little Brother_
+
+
+"Now what am I going to do yet to make the day shorter, Lily?" asked
+Mickey.
+
+"I guess I got everything," she answered. "There's my lunch. Here's my
+pictures to cut. Here's my lesson to learn. There's my sky and bird
+crumbs. Mickey, sometimes they hop right in on the sheet. Yest'day one
+tried to get my lunch. Ain't they sassy?"
+
+"Yes," said Mickey. "They fight worse than rich folks. I don't know why
+the Almighty pays attention if they fall."
+
+"Mebby nobody else cares," said Peaches, "and He feels obliged to
+'cause He made 'em."
+
+"Gee! You say the funniest things, kid," laughed Mickey as he digested
+the idea. "Wonder if He cares for us 'cause He made us."
+
+"Mebby he didn't make us," suggested Peaches.
+
+"Well we got one consoling thing," said Mickey. "If He made any of
+them, He made us, and if He didn't make us, He didn't none of them,
+'cause everybody comes in and goes out the same way; She said so."
+
+"Then of course it's so," agreed Peaches. "That gives us as good a
+chance as anybody."
+
+"Course it does if we got sense to take it," said Mickey. "We got to
+wake up and make something of ourselves. Let me see if you know your
+lesson for to-day yet. There is the picture of the animal--there is the
+word that spells its name. Now what is it?"
+
+"Milk!" answered Peaches, her eyes mischievous.
+
+Mickey held over the book chuckling.
+
+"All right! There is the word for that, too. For being so smart, Miss
+Chicken, you can learn it 'fore you get any more to drink. If I have
+good luck to-day, I'm going to blow in about six o'clock with a slate
+and pencil for you; and then you can print the words you learn, and
+make pictures. That'll help make the day go a lot faster."
+
+"Oh it goes fast enough now," said Peaches. "I love days with you and
+the window and the birds. I wish they'd sing more though."
+
+"When your back gets well, I'll take you to the country where they sing
+all the time," promised Mickey, "where there are grass, and trees, and
+flowers, and water to wade in and----"
+
+"Mickey, stop and go on!" cried Peaches. "Sooner you start, the sooner
+I'll get my next verse. I want just norful good one to-night."
+
+She held up her arms. Mickey submitted to a hug and a little cold dab
+on his forehead, counted his money, locked the door and ran. On the car
+he sat in deep thought, then suddenly sniggered aloud. He had achieved
+the next installment of the doggerel to which every night Peaches
+insisted on having a new verse added as he entered. He secured his
+papers, and glimpsing the headlines started on his beat crying them
+lustily.
+
+Mickey knew that washing, better air, enough food, and oil rubbing were
+improving Peaches. What he did not know was that adding the interest of
+her presence to his life, even though it made his work heavier, was
+showing on him. He actually seemed bigger, stronger, and his face
+brighter and fuller. He swung down the street thrusting his papers
+right and left, crossed and went up the other side, watching closely
+for a customer. It was ten o'clock and opportunities with the men were
+almost over. Mickey turned to scan the street for anything even
+suggesting a sale. He saw none and started with his old cry, watching
+as he went: "I _like_ to sell papers! _Sometimes_ I sell them!
+Sometimes I _don't_----!"
+
+Then he saw her. She was so fresh and joyous. She walked briskly. Even
+his beloved nurse was not so wonderful. Straight toward her went Mickey.
+
+"I _like_ to sell papers! _Sometimes_ I sell them! Sometimes I _don't!_
+Morning paper, lady! Sterilized! Deodorized! Vulcanized! Nice _clean_
+paper!"
+
+The girl's eyes betokened interest; her smiling lips encouraged Mickey.
+He laid his chin over her arm, leaned his head against it and fell in
+step with her.
+
+"_Sometimes_ I sell them! Sometimes I _don't!_ If I _sell_ them, I'm
+happy! If I don't, I'm _hungry!_ If you _buy_ them, you're happy!
+Pa--per?--lady."
+
+"Not to-day, thank you," she said. "I'm shopping, so I don't wish to
+carry it."
+
+Mickey saw Peaches' slate vanishing. It was a beautiful slate, small so
+it would not tire her bits of hands, and its frame was covered with
+red. His face sobered, his voice changed, taking on unexpected
+modulations.
+
+"Aw lady! I thought _you'd_ buy my paper! Far down the street I saw you
+_coming_. Lady, I like your gentle _voice_. I like your pleasant
+_smile!_ You don't want a nice _sterilized_ paper?--lady."
+
+The lady stopped short; she lifted Mickey's chin in a firm grip,
+looking intently into his face.
+
+"Just by the merest chance, could your name be Mickey?" she asked.
+
+"Sure, lady! Mickey! Michael O'Halloran!"
+
+Her smile became even more attractive.
+
+"I really don't want to be bothered with a paper," she said; "but I do
+wish a note delivered. If you'll carry it, I'll pay you the price of
+half a dozen papers."
+
+"Gets the slate!" cried Mickey, bouncing like a rubber boy. "Sure I
+will! Is it ready, lady?"
+
+"One minute!" she said. She stepped to the inside of the walk, opened
+her purse, wrote a line on a card, slipped it in an envelope, addressed
+it and handed it to Mickey.
+
+"You can read that?" she asked.
+
+"I've read worse writing than that," he assured her. "You ought to see
+the hieroglyphics some of the dimun-studded dames put up!"
+
+Mickey took a last glimpse at the laughing face, then wheeling ran.
+Presently he went into a big building, studied the address board, then
+entered the elevator and following a corridor reached the number.
+
+He paused a second, glancing around, when he saw the name on the
+opposite door. A flash passed over his face. "Ugh!" he muttered.
+"'Member now--been to this place before! Glad she ain't sending a
+letter to _that_ man." He stepped inside the open door before him,
+crossed the room and laid the note near a man who was bending over some
+papers on a desk. The man reached a groping hand, tore open the
+envelope, taking therefrom a card on which was pencilled: "Could this
+by any chance be your Little Brother?"
+
+He turned hastily, glancing at Mickey, then in a continuous movement
+arose with outstretched hand.
+
+"Why Little Brother," he cried, "I'm so glad to see you!"
+
+Mickey's smile slowly vanished as he whipped his hands behind him,
+stepping back.
+
+"Nothin' doing, Boss," he said. "You're off your trolley. I've no
+brother. My mother had only me."
+
+"Don't you remember me, Mickey?" inquired Douglas Bruce.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "You made Jimmy pay up!"
+
+"Has he bothered you again?" asked the lawyer.
+
+"Nope!" answered Mickey.
+
+"Sit down, Mickey, I want to talk with you."
+
+"I'm much obliged for helping me out," said Mickey, "but I guess you
+got other business, and I know I have."
+
+"What is your business?" was the next question.
+
+"Selling papers. What's yours?" was the answer.
+
+"Trying to be a corporation lawyer," explained Douglas. "I've been here
+only two years, and it is slow getting a start. I often have more time
+to spare than I wish I had, while I'm lonesome no end."
+
+"Is your mother dead?" asked Mickey solicitously.
+
+"Yes," answered Douglas.
+
+"So's mine!" he commented. "You _do_ get lonesome! Course she was a
+good one?"
+
+"The very finest, Mickey," said Douglas. "And yours?"
+
+"Same here, Mister," said Mickey with conviction.
+
+"Well since we are both motherless and lonesome, suppose we be
+brothers!" suggested Douglas.
+
+"Aw-w-w!" Mickey shook his head.
+
+"No?" questioned Douglas.
+
+"What's the use?" cried Mickey.
+
+"You could help me with my work and share my play, while possibly I
+could be of benefit to you."
+
+"I just wondered if you wasn't getting to that," commented Mickey.
+
+"Getting to what?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"Going to do me good!" explained Mickey. "The swell stiffs are always
+going to do us fellows good. Mostly they do! They do us good and brown!
+They pick us up a while and make lap dogs of us, then when we've lost
+our appetites for our jobs and got to having a hankerin' for the fetch
+and carry business away they go and forget us, so we're a lot worse off
+than we were before. Some of the fellows come out of it knowing more
+ways to be mean than they ever learned on the street," explained
+Mickey. "If it's that Big Brother bee you got in your bonnet, pull its
+stinger and let it die an unnatural death! Nope! None! Good-bye!"
+
+"Mickey, wait!" cried Douglas.
+
+"Me business calls, an' I must go--'way to my ranch in Idaho!" gaily
+sang Mickey.
+
+"I'd like to shake you!" said Douglas Bruce.
+
+"Well, go on," said Mickey. "I'm here and you're big enough."
+
+"If I thought it would jolt out your fool notions and shake some sense
+in, I would," said Douglas indignantly.
+
+"Now look here, Kitchener," said Mickey. "Did I say one word that ain't
+so, and that you don't know is so?"
+
+"What you said is not even half a truth, young man! I do know cases
+where idle rich men have tried the Little Brother plan as a fad, and
+made a failure of it. But for a few like that, I know dozens of
+sincere, educated men who are honestly giving a boy they fancy, a
+chance. I can take you into the office of one of the most influential
+men in this city, right across the hall there, and show you a boy he
+liked who has in a short time become his friend, an invaluable helper,
+and hourly companion, and out of it that boy will get a fine education,
+good business training, and a start in life that will give him a better
+chance to begin on than the man who is helping him had."
+
+Mickey laughed boisterously, then sobered suddenly.
+
+"'Scuse me, Brother," he said politely, "but that's most _too funny_
+for any use. Once I took a whirl with that gentleman myself. Whether he
+does or not, I know the place where he ought to get off. See? Answer me
+this: why would he be spending money and taking all that time for a
+'newsy' when he hardly knows his own kids if he sees them, and they're
+the wickedest little rippers in the park. Just _why_ now?"
+
+Douglas Bruce closed the door; then he came back and placing a chair
+for Mickey, he took one opposite.
+
+"Sit down Mickey," he said patiently. "There's a reason for my being
+particularly interested in James Minturn, and the reason hinges on the
+fact you mention: that he can't control his own sons, yet can make a
+boy he takes comfort in, of a street gamin."
+
+Mickey's eyes narrowed while he sat very straight in the chair he had
+accepted.
+
+"If he's made so much of him, it sort of proves that he _wasn't_ a
+gamin. Some of the boys are a long shot closer gentlemen than the guys
+who are experimenting with them; 'cause they were born rich and can
+afford it. If your friend's going to train his pick-up to be what _he_
+is, then that boy would stand a better chance on his own side the curb.
+See? I've been right up against that gentleman with the documents, so I
+know him. Also her! Gee! 'Tear up de choild and gimme de papers' was
+meant for a joke; but I saw that lady and gentleman do it. See? And she
+was the prettiest little pink and yellow thing. Lord! I can see her
+gasping and blinking now! Makes me sick! If the boy across the hall had
+seen what I did, he'd run a mile and never stop. Gee!"
+
+Douglas Bruce stared aghast. At last he said slowly: "Mickey, you are
+getting mighty close the very thing I wish to know. If I tell you what
+I know of James Minturn, will you tell me what you know and think?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey readily. "I got no reasons for loving him. I
+wouldn't convoy a millying to the mint for that gentleman!"
+
+"Mickey, shall I go first, or will you?"
+
+"I will," replied Mickey instantly, "'cause when I finish you'll save
+your breath. See?"
+
+"I see," said Douglas Bruce. "Proceed."
+
+"Well, 'twas over two years ago," said Mickey, leaning forward to look
+Bruce in the eyes. "I hadn't been up against the game so awful long
+alone. 'Twas summer and my papers were all gone, and I was tired, so I
+went over in the park and sat on a seat, just watching folks. Pretty
+soon 'long comes walking a nice lady with a sweet voice and kind eyes.
+She sat down close me and says: 'It's a nice day.' We got chummy-like,
+when right up at the fountain before us stops as swell an automobile as
+there is. One of the brown French-governess-ladies with the hatchet
+face got out, and unloaded three kids: two boys and a girl. She told
+the kids if they didn't sit on the benches she socked them on hard, and
+keep their clothes clean so she wouldn't have to wash and dress them
+again that day, she'd knock the livers out of them, and walked off with
+the entrance policeman. Soon as she and Bobbie got interested, the kids
+began sliding off the bench and running around the fountain. The girl
+was only 'bout two or three, a fat toddly thing, trying to do what her
+brothers did, and taking it like the gamest kid you ever saw when they
+pushed her off the seat, and tripped her, and 'bused her like a dog.
+
+"Me and the woman were getting madder every minute. 'Go tell your
+nurse,' says she. But the baby thing just glanced where nurse was and
+kind of shivered and laughed, and ran on round the fountain, when the
+big boy stuck his foot out so she fell. Nursie saw and started for her,
+but she scrambled up and went kiting for the bench, and climbed on it,
+so nurse told her she'd cut the blood out of her if she did that again,
+then went back to her policeman. Soon as she was gone those little
+devils began coaxing their sister to get down and run again. At last
+she began to smile the cunningest and slipped to the walk, then a
+little farther, and a little farther, all the time laughing and
+watching the nurse. The big boy, he said: 'You ain't nothing but a
+_girl!_ You can't step on the edge like I can and then step back!' She
+says: 'C'n too!' She did to show him, and just as she did she saw that
+he was going to push her, then she tried to get back, but he did push,
+and over she went! Not real in, but her arms in, and her dress front
+some wet.
+
+"She screamed while the little devil that pushed her grabbed her,
+pretending to be _pulling her out_. Honest he did! Up came nurse just
+frothing, and in language we couldn't understand she ripped and raved.
+She dragged little pink back, grabbed her by the hair and cracked her
+head two or three times against the _stone!_ The lady screamed, and so
+did I, and we both ran at her. The boys just shouted and laughed and
+the smallest one he up and kicked her while she was down. The policeman
+walked over laughing too, but he told nurse that was _too rough_. Then
+my lady pitched in, so he told her to tend to her business, that those
+kids were too tough to live, and deserved all they got. The nurse
+laughed at her, and went back to the grass with the policeman. The baby
+lay there on the stones, and never made a sound. She just kind of
+gasped, and blinked, and lay there, till my lady went almost wild. She
+went to her and stooped to lift her up when she got awful sick. The
+policeman said something to the nurse, so she came and dragged the kid
+away and said, 'The little pig has gone and eaten too much again, and
+now I'll have to take her home and wash and dress her all over,' then
+she gave her an awful shake. The policeman said she'd better cut that
+out, because it _might_ have been the bumping, and she said 'good for
+her if 'twas.' The driver pulled up just then and he asked 'if the brat
+had been stuffin' too much again?' She said, 'yes,' and the littlest
+boy he said, 'she pounded her head on the stone, good,' and the nurse
+hit him 'cross the mouth till she knocked him against the car, and she
+said, 'Want to try _that_ again? Open your head to say _that_ again,
+and I'll smash you too. _Eating too much made her sick_.' She looked at
+the big boy fierce like so he laughed and said, 'Course eating too much
+made her sick!' She nodded at him and said, 'Course! You get two dishes
+of ice and two pieces of cake for remembering!' then she loaded them in
+and they drove away.
+
+"My lady was as white as marble and she said, 'Is there any way to find
+out who they are?' I said, 'Sure! Half a dozen!' 'Boy,' she said, 'get
+their residence for me and I'll give you a dollar.' Ought to seen me
+fly. Car was chuffing away, waiting to get the traffic cop's sign when
+to cut in on the avenue. I just took a dodge and hung on to the extra
+tire under the top where nobody saw me, and when they stopped, I got
+the house number they went in. Little pink was lying all white and
+limber yet, and nurse looked worried as she carried her up. She said
+something fierce to the boys, the big one rang and they went inside. I
+saw a footman take the girl. I heard nurse begin that 'eat too much'
+story, then I cut back to the park. The lady said, 'Get it?' I said,
+'Sure! Dead easy.' She said, 'Can you take me?' I said, 'Glad to!'
+
+"She said, 'That was the dreadfullest sight I ever saw. That child's
+mother is going to know right now what kind of a nurse she is paying to
+take care of her children. You come show me,' she said, so we went.
+
+"'Will you come in with me?' she asked and I said, 'Yes!'
+
+"Well, we rang and she asked pleasant to see the lady of the house on a
+little matter of important business, so pretty soon here comes one of
+the dimun-studded, fashion-paper ladies, all smiling sweet as honey,
+and asked what the business was. My nice lady she said her name was
+Mrs. John Wilson and her husband was a banker in Plymouth, Illinois,
+and she was in the city shopping and went to the park to rest and was
+talking to me, when an automobile let out a nurse, and two boys and a
+lovely little pink girl, and she give the number and asked, 'was the
+car and the children hers?' The dimun-lady slowly sort of began to
+freeze over, and when the nice lady got that far, she said: 'I have an
+engagement. Kindly state in a _few_ words what you want.'
+
+"My lady sort of stiffened up and then she said: 'I saw, this boy here
+saw, and the park policeman nearest the entrance fountain saw your
+nurse take your little girl by the hair, and strike her head against
+the fountain curb three times, because her brother pushed her in. She
+lay insensible until the car came, and she has just been carried into
+your house in that condition.'
+
+"I could see the footman peeking and at that he cut up the stairs. The
+dimun-lady stiffened up and she said: 'So you are one of those
+meddling, interfering country jays that come here and try to make us
+lose our good servants, so you can hire them later. I've seen that done
+before. Lucette is invaluable,' said she, 'and perfectly reliable.
+Takes all the care of those dreadful little imps from me. Now you get
+out of here.' And she reached for the button. My lady just sat still
+and smiled.
+
+"'Do you really think I'd take the trouble to come here in this way if
+I couldn't _prove_ I had seen the thing happen?' she asked.
+
+"'God only knows what you country women would do!' the woman answered.
+
+"'We would stand between our children and beastly cruelty,' my lady
+said. 'Your child's _condition_ is all the proof my words need. You go
+examine her head, and feel the welt on it; see hew ill she is and you
+will thank me. Your nurse is _not_ reliable! Keep her and your children
+will be ruined, if not killed.'
+
+"'Raving!' sneered the dimun-lady. 'But I know your kind so I'll go, as
+it's the only way to get rid of you.'
+
+"Now what do you think happened next? Well sir, 'bout three minutes in
+walked the footman and salutes, sneering like a cat, and he said:
+'Madam's compliments. She finds her little daughter in perfect
+condition, sweetly sleeping, and her sons having dinner. She asks you
+to see how quickly you can leave her residence.'
+
+"The woman looked at me so I said: 'It's all over but burying the kid
+if it dies; come on, lady, they'd be _glad_ to plant it, and get it out
+of the way.' So I started and she followed, and just as he let me out
+the door I handed him this: 'I saw you listen and cut to tell, and I
+bet you helped put the kid to sleep! But you better look out! She gave
+it to that baby too rough for any use!'
+
+"He started for me, but I flew. When we got on the street, the lady was
+all used up so she couldn't say anything. She had me call a taxi to
+take her to her hotel. I set down her name she gave me, and her house
+and street number. I cut to a Newsies' directory and got the name of
+the owner of the palace-place and it was Mrs. James Minturn. Next
+morning coming down on the cars I was hunting headliners to make up a
+new call, like I always do, and there I saw in big type, 'Mr. and Mrs.
+James Minturn prostrate over the sudden death of their lovely little
+daughter from poisoning, from an ice she ate.' I read it every word.
+Even what the doctors said, and how investigation of the source of the
+ice came from was to be made. What do you think of it?"
+
+"I have no doubt but it's every word horrible truth," answered Douglas.
+
+"_Sure!_" said Mickey. "I just hiked to the park and walked up to the
+cop and showed him the paper, and he looked awful glum. I can point him
+out to you, and give you the lady's address, and there were plenty more
+who saw parts of it could be found if anybody was on the _kid's_ side.
+Sure it's the truth!
+
+"Well I kept a-thinking it over. One day about three weeks later, blest
+if the same car didn't stop at the same fountain, and the same nurse
+got out with the boys and she set them on the same bench and told them
+the same thing, and then she went into another palaver with the same
+p'liceman. I looked on pretty much interested, and before long the boys
+got to running again and one tripped the other, and she saw and come
+running, and fetched him a crack like to split his head, and pushed him
+down still and white, so I said to myself: 'All right for you. Lady
+tried a lady and got nothing. Here's where a gentleman tries a
+gentleman, and sees what he gets.'
+
+"I marched into the door just across the hall from you here, and faced
+Mr. James Minturn, and gave him names, and dates, and addresses, even
+the copper's name I'd got; and I told him all I've told you, and
+considerable more. He wasn't so fiery as the lady, so I told him the
+whole thing, but he never opened his trap. He just sat still and stony,
+listened till I quit, and finally he heaved a big breath and looked at
+me sort of dazed like and he said: 'What do you want, boy?'
+
+"That made me red hot so I said: 'I want you to know that I saw the
+same woman bust one of your _boys_ a good crack, over the head, a few
+minutes ago.'
+
+"That made him jump, but he didn't say or do anything, so I got up and
+went--and--the same woman was in the park with the same boys yesterday,
+and they're the biggest little devils there. What's the answer?"
+
+"A heartbroken man," said Douglas Bruce. "Now let me tell you, Mickey."
+
+Then he told Mickey all he knew of James Minturn.
+
+"All the same, he ought to be able to do something for his own kids,
+'stead of boys who don't need it _half_ so bad," commented Mickey. "Why
+honest, I don't know one street kid so low that he'd kick a little
+girl--after she'd been beat up scandalous, for his meanness to start
+on. Honest, I don't! I don't care what he is doing for the boy he has
+got, that boy doesn't need help half so much as his _own_; I can prove
+it to you, if you'll come with me to the park 'most any morning."
+
+"All right, I'll come," said Douglas promptly.
+
+"Well I couldn't say that they would be there this minute," said
+Mickey, "but I can call you up the first time I see they are."
+
+"All right, I'll come, if it's possible. I'd like to see for myself. So
+this gives you a settled prejudice against the Big Brother movement,
+Mickey?"
+
+"In my brogans, what would it give you?"
+
+"A hard jolt!" said Douglas emphatically.
+
+"Then what's the answer?"
+
+"That it is more unfair than I thought you could be, to deprive me of
+my Little Brother, because you deem the man across the hall unfit to
+have one. Do I look as if you couldn't trust me, Mickey?"
+
+"No, you don't! But neither does Mr. James Minturn. He _looks_ as if a
+fellow could get a grip on him and pull safe across Belgium hanging on.
+But you know I said the _same woman_----"
+
+"I know Mickey; but that only proves that there are times when even the
+strongest man can't help himself."
+
+"Then like Ulhan I'd trot 1:54-1/2 to the judge of the Juvenile Court,"
+said Mickey, "and I'd yell long and loud, and I'd put up the _proof_.
+That would get the lady down to brass tacks. See?"
+
+"But with Mrs. Minturn's position and the stain such a proceeding would
+put on the boys----"
+
+"Cut out the boys," advised Mickey. "They're gold plated, staining
+wouldn't stick to them."
+
+"So you are going to refuse education, employment and a respectable
+position because you disapprove of one man among millions?" demanded
+Douglas.
+
+"That lets me out," said Mickey. "_She_ educated me a lot! No day is
+long enough for the work I do right now; you can take my word for it
+that I'm respectable, same as I'm taking yours that you are."
+
+"All right!" said Douglas. "We will let it go then. Maybe you are
+right. At least you are not worth the bother it requires to wake you
+up. Will you take an answer to the note you brought me?"
+
+"Now the returns are coming in," said Mickey. "Sure I will; but she is
+in the big stores shopping."
+
+"I'll find out," said Douglas.
+
+He picked up the telephone and called the Winton residence; on learning
+Leslie was still away, he left a request that she call him when she
+returned.
+
+"I would spend the time talking with you," he said to Mickey, "if I
+could accomplish anything; as I can't, I'll go on with my work. You
+busy yourself with anything around the rooms that interests you."
+
+Mickey grinned half abashed. He took a long survey of the room they
+were in, arose and standing in the door leading to the next he studied
+that. To him "busy" meant work. Presently he went into the hall and
+returned with a hand broom and dust pan he had secured from the
+janitor. He carefully went over the floor, removing anything he could
+see that he thought should not be there, and then began on the room
+adjoining. Next he appeared with a cloth and dusted the furniture and
+window seats. Once he met Douglas' eye and smiled. "Your janitor didn't
+have much of a mother," he commented. "I could beat him to his base a
+rod."
+
+"Job is yours any time you want it."
+
+"Morning papers," carrolled Mickey. "Sterilized, deodorized,
+vulcanized. I _like_ to sell them----"
+
+Defeated again Bruce turned to his work and Mickey to his. He
+straightened every rug, pulled a curtain, set a blind at an angle that
+gave the worker more light and better air. He was investigating the
+glass when the telephone rang.
+
+"Hello, Leslie! It certainly was! How did you do it? Not so hilarious
+as you might suppose. Leslie, I want to say something, not for the
+wire. Will you hold the line a second until I start Mickey with it? All
+right!
+
+"She is there now, Mickey. Can you find your way?"
+
+"Sure!" laughed Mickey. "If you put the address on. She started me from
+the street."
+
+"The address is plain. For straightening my rooms and carrying the
+note, will that be about right?"
+
+"A lady-bird! Gee!" cried Mickey. "I didn't s'pose you was a plute! And
+I don't s'pose so yet. You want a Little Brother bad if you're willing
+to _buy_ one. This number ain't far out, and I wouldn't have sold more
+than three papers this time of day--twenty-five is about right."
+
+"But you forget cleaning my rooms," said Douglas.
+
+Mickey grinned, his face flushed.
+
+"Me to you!" he said. "Nothing! Just a little matter of keeping in
+practice. Good-bye and be good to yourself!"
+
+Douglas turned to the telephone.
+
+"Leslie!" he said, "I'm sending Mickey back to you with a note, not
+because I had anything to say I couldn't say now, but because I can't
+manage him. I pretended I didn't care, and let him go. Can't you help
+me? See if you can't interest him in something that at least will bring
+him back, or show us where to find him. Certainly! Thank you very much!"
+
+When Mickey delivered the letter the lovely young woman just happened
+to be in the hall. She told him to come in until she read it, to learn
+what Mr. Bruce wanted. Mickey followed into a big room, looked around,
+then a speculative, appreciative gleam crossed his face. He realized
+the difference between a home and a show room. He did not know what he
+was seeing or why it affected him as it did. Really the thought that
+was in his mind was that this woman was far more attractive, but had
+less money to spend on her home, than many others. He missed the
+glitter, but enjoyed the comfort, for he leaned back against the chair
+offered him, thinking what a cool, restful place it was. The girl
+seemed in no hurry to open the letter.
+
+"Have trouble finding Mr. Bruce?" she asked.
+
+"Easy! I'd been to the same building before."
+
+"And I suppose you'll be there many times again," she suggested.
+
+"I'm going back right now, if you want to send an answer to that
+letter," he said.
+
+"And if it requires none?" she questioned.
+
+"Then I'm going to try to sell the rest of these papers, get a slate
+for Lily and go home."
+
+"Is Lily your little sister?" she asked.
+
+Mickey straightened, firmly closing his lips. He had done it again.
+
+"Just a little girl I know," he said cautiously.
+
+"A little bit of a girl?" she asked.
+
+"'Bout the littlest girl you ever saw," said Mickey, unconsciously
+interested in the subject.
+
+"And you are going to take her a slate to draw pictures on? How fine! I
+wish you'd carry her a package for me, too. I was arranging my dresser
+this morning and I put the ribbons I don't want into a box for some
+child. Maybe Lily would like them for her doll."
+
+"Lily hasn't any doll," he said. "She had one, but her granny sold it
+and got drunk on the money."
+
+Mickey stopped suddenly. In a minute more he would have another
+Orphans' Home argument on his hands.
+
+"Scandalous!" cried Leslie. "In my room there is a doll just begging to
+go to some little girl. If you took it to Lily, would her granny sell
+it again?"
+
+"Not this morning," said Mickey. "You see Miss, a few days ago she lost
+her breath. Permanent! No! If Lily had a doll, nobody would take it
+from her now."
+
+"I'll bring it at once," she offered "and the ribbons."
+
+"Never mind," said Mickey. "I can get her a doll."
+
+"But you haven't seen this one!" cried Leslie. "You save your money for
+oranges."
+
+Without waiting for a reply she left the room, presently returning with
+a box and a doll that seemed to Mickey quite as large as Peaches. It
+had a beautiful face, hair, real hair that could be combed, and real
+clothes that could be taken off. Leslie had dressed it for a birthday
+gift for the little daughter of one of her friends; but by making haste
+she could prepare another. Mickey gazed in bewilderment. He had seen
+dolls, even larger and more wonderful than that, in the shop windows,
+but connecting such a creation with his room and Peaches required
+mental adjustments.
+
+"I guess you better not," he said with conviction.
+
+"But why not?" asked Leslie in amazement.
+
+"Well for 'bout fifty reasons," replied Mickey. "You see Lily is a poor
+kid, and her back is bad. That doll is so big she couldn't dress it
+without getting all tired out; and what's the use showing her such
+dresses, when she can't have any herself. She's got the best she ever
+had, and the best she can have right now; so that ain't the kind of a
+doll for Lily--it's too big--and too--too gladsome!"
+
+"I see," laughed Leslie. "Well Mickey, you show me what would be the
+right size of a doll for Lily. I'll get another, and dress it as you
+say. How would that do?"
+
+"You needn't!" said Mickey. "Lily is happy now."
+
+"But wouldn't she _like_ a doll?" persisted Leslie. "I never knew a
+girl who didn't love a doll. Wouldn't she _like_ a doll?"
+
+"'Most to death I 'spect," said Mickey. "I know she said she cried for
+the one her granny sold, 'til she beat her. Yes I guess she'd _like_ a
+doll; but I can get her one."
+
+"But you can't make white nighties for Lily to put on it to take to bed
+with her, and cunning little dresses for morning, and a street dress
+for afternoon, and a party dress for evening," tempted the girl.
+
+"Lily has been on the street twice, and she never heard of a party.
+Just nighties and the morning dress would do, and there's no use for me
+to be sticking. If you like to give away dolls, Lily might as well have
+one, for she'd just--I don't know what she would do about it," conceded
+Mickey.
+
+"All right," said Leslie. "I'll dress it this afternoon, and tomorrow
+you can come for it in the evening before you go home. If I am not
+here, the package will be ready. Take the ribbons now. She'd like them
+for her hair."
+
+"Her hair's too short for a ribbon," said Mickey.
+
+"Then a headband! This way!" said Leslie.
+
+She opened a box and displayed a wonderment of ribbon bands, and bits
+of gay colour.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Mickey. "I couldn't pick up that much brightness for her
+in a year!"
+
+"You save what you find for her?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "You see Miss, things are pretty plain where she
+is, so all the brightness I can take her ain't going to hurt her eyes.
+Thank you heaps. Is there going to be any answer to the letter?"
+
+"Why I haven't read it yet!" cried the girl.
+
+"No! A-body can see that some one else is rustling for your grub!"
+commented Mickey.
+
+"That's so too," laughed Leslie. "Darling old Daddy!"
+
+"Just about right is he?" queried Mickey, interestedly.
+
+"Just exactly right!" said Leslie.
+
+"Gur-ur-and!" said Mickey. "Some of them ain't so well fixed! And he
+that wrote the note, I guess he's about as fine as you make them, too!"
+
+"He's the finest man I ever have known, Mickey!" said the girl
+earnestly.
+
+"Barring Daddy?" suggested Mickey.
+
+"Not barring anybody!" cried she. "Daddy is lovely, but he's Daddy! Mr.
+Bruce is different!"
+
+"No letter?" questioned Mickey, rising.
+
+"None!" said the girl. "Come to-morrow night. You are sure Lily is so
+very little, Mickey?"
+
+"You wouldn't call me big, would you?" he asked. "Well! I can lift her
+with one hand! Such a large doll as that would be tiring and confusing.
+Please make Lily's _more like she's used to_. See?"
+
+"Mickey, I do see!" said Leslie. "I beg your pardon. Lily's doll shall
+not tire her or make her discontented with what she has. Thank you for
+a good idea."
+
+Mickey returned to the street shortly after noon, with more in his
+pocket than he usually earned in a day, where by expert work he soon
+disposed of his last paper. He bought the slate, then hurried home
+carrying it and the box. At the grocery he carefully selected food
+again. Then he threw open his door and achieved this:
+
+"_Once a little kid named Peaches, Swelled my heart until it eatches.
+If you think I'd trade her for a dog, Your think-tank has slipped a
+cog!_"
+
+
+Peaches laughed, stretching her hands as usual. Mickey stooped for her
+caress, scattering the ribbons over her as he arose. She gasped in
+delighted amazement.
+
+"Oh! Mickey! Where did you ever? Mickey, where did you get them?
+Mickey, you didn't st----?"
+
+"You just better choke on that, Miss!" yelled Mickey. "No I didn't
+st----! And I don't st----! And nothing I ever bring you will be
+st----! And you needn't ever put no more st's---- at me. See?"
+
+"Mickey, I didn't _mean_ that! Course I know you _wouldn't!_ Course I
+know you _couldn't!_ Mickey, that's the best poetry piece yet! Did you
+bring the slate?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey, somewhat mollified, but still injured. "I must
+have dropped it with the banquet!"
+
+Peaches pushed away the billow of colour, taking the slate. Her fingers
+picking at the string reminded Mickey of sparrow feet; but he watched
+until she untied and removed the paper which he folded to lay away. She
+picked up the pencil, meditating.
+
+"Mickey!" she said. "Make my hand do a word!"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "What do you want to write first, Flowersy-girl?"
+
+Peaches looked at him reproachfully.
+
+"Course there wouldn't be but _one_ I'd want to do first of all," she
+said. "Hold my hand tight, and big and plain up at the top make it
+write, 'Mickey-lovest.'"
+
+"Sure," said the boy in a hushed voice. He gripped the hand, bending
+above her, but suddenly collapsed, buried his face in her hair and
+sobbed until he shook.
+
+Peaches crouched down, lying rigidly. She was badly frightened. At last
+she could endure it no longer.
+
+"Mickey!" she gasped. "Mickey, what did I do? Mickey, don't write it if
+you don't _want_ to!"
+
+Mickey arose, wiping his face on the sheet.
+
+"You just bet I want to write that, Lily!" he said. "I never wanted to
+do anything _more_ in all my life!"
+
+"Then why----?" she began.
+
+"Never you mind 'why' Miss!" said Mickey.
+
+Grasping her hand, he traced the words. Peaches looked at them a long
+time, then carefully laid the slate aside. She began fingering the
+ribbons.
+
+"Let me wash you," said Mickey, "and rub your back to rest you from all
+this day, then I'll comb your hair and you pick the prettiest one. I'll
+put it on the way she showed me, so you'll be a fash'nable lady."
+
+"Who showed you Mickey, and gave you such pretties?"
+
+"A girl I carried a letter to. After you're bathed and have had supper
+I'll tell you."
+
+Then Mickey began work. He sponged Peaches, rubbed her back, laid her
+on his pallet, putting fresh sheets on her bed and carefully preparing
+her supper. After she had eaten he again ran the comb through her
+ringlets, telling her to select the ribbon he should use.
+
+"No you!" said Peaches.
+
+Mickey squinted, so exacting was the work of deciding. Red he discarded
+with one sweep against her white cheeks; green went with it; blue
+almost made him shudder, but a soft warm pink pleased him, so Mickey
+folded it into the bands in which it had been creased before, binding
+it around Peaches' head as Leslie had shown him, then with awkward
+fingers did his best on a big bow. He crossed the room and picked up a
+mirror which he held before her reciting: "Once a little kid named
+Peaches, swelled my heart----"
+
+Peaches took the mirror, studying the face intently. She glanced over
+her shoulder so Mickey piled the pillows higher. Then she looked at
+him. Mickey scrutinized her closely.
+
+"You're clean kid, clean as a plate!" he assured her. "Honest you are!
+You needn't worry about that. I'll always keep you washed clean. _She_
+was more particular about that than anything else. Don't you fret about
+my having a dirty girl around! You're clean, all right!"
+
+Peaches sighed as she returned the mirror. Mickey replaced it, laid the
+slate and ribbons in reach, washed the dishes, then the sheets he had
+removed, and their soiled clothing. Peaches lay folding and unfolding
+the ribbons; asking questions while Mickey worked, or with the pencil
+tracing her best imitations of the name on the slate. By the time he
+had finished everything to be done and drawn a chair beside the bed, to
+see if she had learned her lesson for the day, it was cool evening. She
+knew all the words he had given her, so he proceeded to write them on
+the slate. Then told her about the big man named Douglas Bruce and the
+lovely girl named Leslie Winton, also every word he could remember
+about the house she lived in; then he added: "Lily, do you like to be
+surprised better or do you like to think things over?"
+
+"I don't know," said Peaches.
+
+"Well, before long, I'll know," said Mickey. "What I was thinking was
+this: you are going to have something. I just wondered whether you'd
+rather know it was coming, or have me walk in with it and surprise you."
+
+"Mickey, you just walk in," she decided.
+
+"All right!" said Mickey.
+
+"Mickey, write on the other side of my slate what you said at the door
+to-night," she coaxed. "Get a little book an' write 'em all down.
+Mickey, I want to learn all of them, when I c'n read. Lemme tell you.
+You make all you c'n think of. Nen make more. An' make 'em, an' make
+'em! An' when you get big as you're goin' to be, make books of 'em, an'
+be a poet-man 'stead of sellin' papers."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I'd just as lief be a poet-man as not! I'd write
+a big one all about a little yellow-haired girl named Lily Peaches, and
+I'd put it on the front page of the _Herald!_ Honest I would! I'd like
+to!"
+
+"Gee!" said Peaches. "You go on an' grow hel--wope! I mean hurry! Hurry
+an' grow up!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+_The Song of a Bird_
+
+
+"Leslie," said the voice of Mrs. James Minturn over the telephone, "is
+there any particular time of the day when that bird of yours sings
+better than at another?"
+
+"Morning, Mrs. Minturn; five, the latest. At that time one hears the
+full chorus, and sees the perfect beauty. Really, I wouldn't ask you,
+if I were not sure, positively sure, that you'd find the trip worth
+while."
+
+"I'll be ready in the morning, but that's an unearthly hour!" came the
+protest.
+
+"It is almost unearthly sights and sounds to which you are going,"
+answered Leslie. "And be sure you wear suitable clothing."
+
+"What do you call suitable clothing?"
+
+"High heavy shoes," said Leslie, "short stout skirts."
+
+"As if I had such things!" laughed Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Let me send you something of mine," offered Leslie. "I've enough for
+two."
+
+"You're not figuring on really going in one of those awful places, are
+you?" questioned Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Surely!" cried Leslie. "The birds won't sing to an automobile. And you
+wouldn't miss seeing such flowers on their stems as you saw at Lowry's
+for any money. It will be something to tell your friends about."
+
+"Send what I should have. I'd ride a llama through a sea of champagne
+for a new experience."
+
+Mrs. Minturn turned from the telephone with a contemptuous sneer on her
+face; but Leslie's gay laugh persisted in her ears. Restlessly she
+moved through her rooms thinking what she might do to divert herself,
+and shrinking from all the tiresome things she had been doing for years
+until there was not a drop of the fresh juice of life to be extracted
+from them.
+
+"I'm going to take a bath, go to bed early and see if I can sleep," she
+muttered. "I don't know what it is that James is contemplating, but his
+face haunts me. Really, if he doesn't be more civil, and stop his
+morose glowering when I do see him, I'll put him or myself where we
+won't come in contact. He makes it plain every day that he blames me
+about Elizabeth. Why should he? He couldn't possibly know of the call
+of that wild-eyed reformer. So unfortunate that she should come just at
+that time too! Of course hundreds of children die from spoiled milk
+every summer, the rich as well as the poor. I'll never get over
+regretting that I didn't finish what I started to do; but I'd scarcely
+touched her in her life. She always was so pink and warm, and that
+awful whiteness chilled me to the soul. I wish I had driven, forced
+myself! Then I could defy James with more spirit. That's what I
+lack--_spirit!_ Maybe this trip to the swamp will steady my nerves!
+Something must be done soon, and I believe, actually I believe he is
+thinking of doing it! Pooh! What _could_ he do? There isn't an
+irregularity in my life he can lay his fingers on!"
+
+She rang for her maid and cancelling two engagements for the evening,
+went to bed, but not to sleep. When she was called early in the
+morning, she gladly arose, and was dressed in Leslie Winton's short
+skirts, a waist of khaki, and high shoes near enough her size to be
+comfortable. Her bath had refreshed her, a cup of hot coffee stimulated
+her, and despite the lack of sleep she felt better than she had that
+spring as she went down to the car. On the threshold she met her
+husband. Evidently he had been out all night on strenuous business. His
+face was haggard, his eyes bloodshot, while in both hands he gripped a
+small, square paper-wrapped package. They looked at each other a second
+that seemed long to both, then the woman laughed.
+
+"Evidently an accounting is expected," she said. "Leslie Winton at the
+door and the roll of music I carry should be sufficient to prove why I
+am going out at this hour. You heard us make the arrangement. Thank
+Heaven I've no interest in knowing where you have been, or what your
+precious package contains."
+
+His expression and condition frightened her.
+
+"For the weight of a straw overbalance," he said, "only for a hint that
+you have a soul, I'd freeze it for all time with the contents of this
+package."
+
+"A threat? You to me?" she cried in amazement.
+
+"Verily, Madam," he said. "I wish you all the joy of the birds and
+flowers this morning."
+
+"You've gone mad!" she cried.
+
+"Contrarily, I have come to my senses after years of insanity," he
+said. "I will see you when you return."
+
+She stood bewildered, watching him go down the hall and enter his
+library. That and his sleeping room were the only places in the house
+sacred to him. No one entered, no one, not even the incorrigible
+children, touched anything there. She slowly went to the car, trying to
+rally to Leslie's greeting, struggling to fix her mind on anything
+pointed out to her as something she might enjoy.
+
+At last she said: "I don't know what is the matter with me Leslie.
+James is planning something, I haven't an idea what; but his grim,
+reproachful face is slowly driving me wild. I'm getting so I can't
+sleep. You saw him come home as I left. He talked positively crazy, as
+if he had the crack of doom in his hands and were prepared to crack it.
+He said he 'would see me when I came back.' Indeed he will--to his
+sorrow! He will be as he used to be, or we will separate. The idea,
+with scarcely a cent to his name, of him undertaking to dictate to me,
+_to me!_ Do you blame me Leslie? You heard him the other day! You know
+how he insulted me!"
+
+Leslie leaned forward, laying a firm hand in a grip on Mrs. Minturn's
+arm.
+
+"Since you ask me," she said, "I will answer. If you find life with Mr.
+Minturn insufferable, an agony to both of you, I _would_ separate, and
+_speedily_. If it has come to the place where you can't see each other
+or speak without falling into unpleasantness, then I'd keep apart."
+
+"That is exactly the case!" cried Mrs. Minturn. "Oh Leslie, I am so
+glad you agree with me!"
+
+"But I haven't finished," said Leslie, "you interrupted me in the
+middle. If you are absolutely sure you can't go on peaceably, I would
+stop; but if I once had loved a man enough to give my life and my
+happiness into his keeping, to make him the father of my children, I
+would not separate from him, until I had exhausted every resource, to
+see if I couldn't in some possible way end with credit."
+
+"If you had been through what I have," said Mrs. Minturn, "you wouldn't
+endure it any longer."
+
+"Perhaps," said Leslie. "But you see dear Mrs. Minturn, I am
+handicapped by not knowing _what_ you have been through. To your world
+you appear to be a woman of great wealth, who does exactly as she
+pleases and pays her own bills. You seem to have unlimited money,
+power, position, leisure for anything you fancy. I'll wager you don't
+know the names of half the servants in your house; a skillful
+housekeeper takes the responsibility off your hands. You never are seen
+in public with your children; competent nurses care for them. You don't
+appear with your husband any more; yet he is a man of fine brain,
+unimpeachable character, who handles big affairs for other men, and
+father says he believes his bank account would surprise you. He has
+been in business for years; surely all he makes doesn't go to other
+men."
+
+"You know I never thought of that!" cried Mrs. Minturn. "He had nothing
+to begin on and I've always kept our establishment; he's never paid for
+more than his clothing. Do you suppose that he has made money?"
+
+"I know that he has!" said Leslie. "Not so fast as he might! Not so
+much as he could, for he is incorruptible; but money, yes! He is a
+powerful man, not only in the city, but all over the state. Some of
+these days you're going to wake up to find him a Senator, or Governor.
+You seem to be the only person who doesn't know it, or who doesn't care
+if you do. But when it comes about, as it will, you'll be so proud of
+him! Dear Mrs. Minturn, please, please go slowly! Don't, oh don't let
+anything happen that will make a big regret for both."
+
+"Leslie, where did you get all this?" asked Mrs. Minturn in tones of
+mingled interest and surprise.
+
+"From my father!" answered Leslie. "And from Douglas Bruce. Douglas'
+office is across the hall from Mr. Minturn's; they meet daily, and from
+the first they have been friends. Mr. Minturn took Douglas to his
+clubs, introduced him and helped him into business, so often they work
+together. Why only yesterday Douglas came to me filled with delight.
+Mr. Minturn secured an appointment for him to make an investigation for
+the city which will be a great help to Douglas. It will bring him in
+contact with prominent men, give him big work and a sample of how
+mercenary I am--it will bring him big pay and he knows how to use the
+money in a big way. Douglas knows Mr. Minturn so well, and respects him
+so highly, yet no one can know him as you do----"
+
+"That is quite true! I live with him! I know the real man!" cried Mrs.
+Minturn.
+
+"How mean of you!" laughed Leslie, "to distort my reasoning like that!
+I don't ask you to think up all the little things that have massed into
+one big grievance against him; I mean stop that for to-day, out here in
+the country where everything is so lovely, and go back where I am."
+
+"He surely has an advocate! Leslie, when did you start making an
+especial study of Mr. Minturn?"
+
+"When Douglas Bruce began speaking to me so frequently of him!"
+answered Leslie. "Then I commenced to watch him and to listen to what
+people were saying about him, and to ask Daddy."
+
+"It's very funny that every one seems so well informed and so
+enthusiastic just at the time when I feel that life is unendurable with
+him," said Mrs. Minturn. "I can't understand it!"
+
+"Mrs. Minturn, try, oh do try to get my viewpoint before you do
+anything irreparable," begged Leslie. "Away up here in the woods let's
+think it out! Let's discuss James Minturn in every phase of his nature
+and see if the big manly part doesn't far outweigh the little
+irritations. Let's see if you can't possibly go to the meeting he wants
+when we return with a balance struck in his favour. A divorced woman is
+always--well, it's disagreeable. Alone you'd feel stranded. Attempt
+marrying again, where would you find a man with half the points that
+count for good, to replace him? In after years when your children
+realize the man he is, how are you going to explain to them why you
+couldn't live with him?"
+
+"From your rush of words, it is evident you have your arguments at
+hand," said Mrs. Minturn. "You've been thinking more about my affairs
+than I ever did. You bring up points I never have thought of; you make
+me see things that would not have occurred to me; yet as you put them,
+they have awful force. You haven't exactly said it, but what you mean
+is that you believe _me_ in the wrong; so do all my friends. All of you
+sympathize with Mr. Minturn! All of you think him a big man worthy of
+every consideration and me deserving none."
+
+"You're putting that too strong," retorted Leslie. "You are right about
+Mr. Minturn; but I won't admit that I find you 'worthy of no
+consideration at all,' or I wouldn't be imploring you to give yourself
+a chance at happiness."
+
+"'Give myself a chance at happiness!'"
+
+"Dear Mrs. Minturn, yes!" said Leslie. "All your life, so far, you have
+lived absolutely for yourself; for your personal pleasure. Has
+happiness resulted?"
+
+"Happiness?" cried Mrs. Minturn in amazement. "You little fool! With my
+husband practically a madman, my children incorrigible, my nerves on
+edge until I can't sleep, because one thought comes over and over."
+
+"Well you achieved it in society!" said Leslie. "It's the result of
+doing exactly what you _wanted to!_ You can't say James Minturn was to
+blame for what you had the money and the desire to do. You can't think
+your babies would have preferred their mother to the nurses and
+governesses they have had----"
+
+"If you say another word about that I'll jump from the car and break my
+neck," threatened Mrs. Minturn. "No one sympathizes with me!"
+
+"That is untrue," said Leslie. "I care, or I wouldn't be doing what I
+am now. And as for sympathy, I haven't a doubt but every woman of your
+especial set will weep tears of condolence with you, if you'll tell
+them what you have me. There is Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Farley, and a
+dozen women among your dearest friends who have divorced their
+husbands, and are free lances or remarried; you can have friends enough
+to suit you in any event."
+
+"Fools! Shallow-pated fools!" cried Mrs. Minturn. "They never read
+anything! Their idea of any art would convulse you! They don't know a
+note of real music!"
+
+"But they are your best friends," interposed Leslie. "What then is
+their attraction?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know!" said Mrs. Minturn. "I suppose it's unlimited
+means to follow any fad or fancy, to live extravagantly as they choose,
+to dress faultlessly as they have taste, freedom to go as they please!
+Oh they do have a good time!"
+
+"Are you sure that they didn't go through the same 'good time' you are
+having right now, before they lost the men they loved and married, and
+then became mothers who later deliberately orphaned their own children?"
+
+"Leslie, for God's sake where did you learn it?" cried Mrs. Minturn.
+"How can you hit like that? You make me feel like a--like a----! Oh
+Lord!"
+
+"Don't let's talk any more, Mrs. Minturn," suggested Leslie. "You know
+what all refined, home-loving people think. You know society and what
+it has to offer. You're making yourself unhappy, while I am helping
+you, but if some one doesn't stop you, you may lose the love of a good
+man, the respect of the people worth while, and later of your own
+children! See, here is the swamp and this is as close as we can go with
+the car."
+
+"Is this where you found the flowers for your basket?"
+
+"Yes," said Leslie.
+
+"No snakes, no quicksands?"
+
+"Snakes don't like this kind of moss," answered Leslie; "this is an old
+lake bed grown up with tamaracks and the bog of a thousand years."
+
+"Looks as if ten thousand might come closer!"
+
+"Where you ever in such a place?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Never!" said Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Well to do this to perfection," said Leslie, "we should go far enough
+for you to see the home life of our rarest wild flowers and to get the
+music full effect. We must look for a high place to spread this
+waterproof sheet I have brought along, then nestle down and keep still.
+The birds will see us going in, but if we make ourselves inconspicuous,
+they will soon forget us. Have you the score?"
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Minturn. "Go ahead!"
+
+Leslie had not expected Mrs. Minturn's calm tones and placid acceptance
+of the swamp. The girl sent one searching look the woman's way, then
+came enlightenment. This was a stunt. Mrs. Minturn had been doing
+stunts in the hope of new sensations all her life. What others could
+do, she could, if she chose; in this instance she chose to penetrate a
+tamarack swamp at six o'clock in the morning, to listen to the notes of
+a bird.
+
+"I'll select the highest places and go as nearly where we were as I
+can," said Leslie. "If you step in my tracks you'll be all right."
+
+"Why, you're not afraid, are you?" asked Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Not in the least," said Leslie. "Are you?"
+
+"No!" said Mrs. Minturn. "One strikes almost everything motoring
+through the country, in the mountains or at sea, and travelling. This
+looks interesting. How deep could one sink anyway?"
+
+"Deeply enough to satisfy you," laughed Leslie. "Come quietly now!"
+
+Grasping the score she carried, Mrs. Minturn unconcernedly plunged
+after Leslie. Purposely the girl went slowly, stooping beneath
+branches, skirting too wet places, slipping over the high hummocks,
+turning to indicate by gesture a moss bed, a flower, or glancing upward
+to try to catch a glimpse of some entrancing musician.
+
+Once Leslie turned to look back and saw Mrs. Minturn on her knees
+separating the silvery green moss heads and thrusting her hand deeply
+to learn the length of the roots. She noticed the lady's absorbed face,
+and the wet patches spreading around her knees. Leslie fancied she
+could see Mrs. Minturn entering the next gathering of her friends,
+smiling faintly and crying: "Dear people, I've had a perfectly new
+experience!" She could hear every tone of Mrs. Minturn's voice saying:
+"Ferns as luxuriant as anything in Florida! Moss beds several feet
+deep. A hundred birds singing, and all before sunrise, my dears!" When
+Mrs. Minturn arose Leslie went forward slowly until she reached the
+moccasin flowers, but remembering, she did not stop. The woman did. She
+stooped and Leslie winced as she snapped one to examine it critically.
+She held it up in the gray light, turning it.
+
+"Did you ever see--little Elizabeth?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Leslie.
+
+"Do you think----?" She stopped abruptly.
+
+"That one is too deep," said Leslie. "The colour he saw was on a
+freshly opened one like that."
+
+She pointed to a paler moccasin of exquisite pink with red lavender
+veining. Mrs. Minturn assented.
+
+"He can't forget anything," she said, "or let any one else. He always
+will keep harping."
+
+"We were peculiarly unfortunate that day," said Leslie. "He really had
+no intention of saying anything, if he hadn't been forced."
+
+"Oh he doesn't require forcing," said Mrs. Minturn. "He's always at the
+overflow point about her."
+
+"Perhaps he was very fond of her," suggested Leslie.
+
+"He was perfectly foolish about her," said Mrs. Minturn impatiently. "I
+lost a nurse or two through his interference. When I got such a
+treasure as Lucette I just told her to take complete charge, make him
+attend his own affairs, and not try being a nursery maid. It really
+isn't done these days!"
+
+Leslie closed her lips, moving forward until she reached the space
+where the ragged boys and the fringed girls floated their white
+banners, where lacy yellow and lavender blooms caressed each other,
+there on the highest place she could select, across a moss-covered log,
+she spread the waterproof sheet, and seating herself, motioned Mrs.
+Minturn to do the same. She reached for the music and opening it ran
+over the score. Her finger paused on the notes she had whistled, while
+with eager face she sat waiting.
+
+Mrs. Minturn dropped into an attitude of tense listening. The sun began
+dissipating the gray mists and heightening the exquisite tints on all
+sides. Every green imaginable was there from palest silver to the
+deepest, darkest shades; all dew wet, rankly growing, gold tinted and
+showing clearer each minute. Gradually Mrs. Minturn relaxed, made
+herself comfortable as possible, then turned to the orchids of the open
+space. The colour flushed and faded on her tired face, she nervously
+rolled the moccasin stem in her fingers, or looked long at the delicate
+flower. She was thinking so intently that Leslie saw she was neither
+seeing the swamp, nor hearing the birds.
+
+It was then that a little gray singer straying through the tamaracks
+sent a wireless to his mate in the bushes of borderland, in which he
+wished to convey to her all there was in his heart about the wonders of
+spring, the joy of mating, the love of her, and their nest. He waited a
+second, then tucking his tail, swelled his throat, and made sure he had
+done his best.
+
+At the first measure, Leslie thrust the sheet before Mrs. Minturn,
+pointing to the place. Instantly the woman scanned the score, then
+leaned forward listening. As the bird flew, Leslie faced Mrs. Minturn
+with questioning eyes. She cried softly: "He did it! Perfectly! If I
+hadn't heard I never would have believed."
+
+"There is another that can do this from Verdi's _Traviata_." Leslie
+whistled the notes. "We may hear him also."
+
+Again they waited. Leslie realized that Mrs. Minturn was not listening,
+and would have to be recalled if the bird sang. Leslie sat silent. The
+same bird sang, and others, but to the girl had come the intuition that
+Mrs. Minturn was having her hour in the garden, so wisely she remained
+silent. After an interminable time she arose, making her way forward as
+far as she could penetrate and still see the figure of the woman, then
+hunting an old stump, climbed upon it and did some thinking herself.
+
+At last she returned to the motionless figure. Mrs. Minturn was leaning
+against the tamarack's scraggy trunk, her head resting on a branch,
+lightly sleeping. A rivulet staining her cheeks from each eye showed
+where slow tears had slipped from under her closed lids. Leslie's heart
+ached with pity. She thought she never had seen any one seem so sad, so
+alone, so punished for sins of inheritance and rearing. She sat beside
+Mrs. Minturn, waiting until she awakened.
+
+"Why I must have fallen asleep!" she cried.
+
+"For a minute," said Leslie.
+
+"But I feel as if I had rested soundly a whole night," said Mrs.
+Minturn. "I'm so refreshed. And there goes that bird again. Verdi to
+take his notes! Who ever would have thought of it? Leslie, did you
+bring any lunch? I'm famished."
+
+"We must go back to the car," said Leslie.
+
+They spread the waterproof sheet on the ground where it would be
+bordered with daintily traced partridge berry, and white-lined plantain
+leaves, and sitting on it ate their lunch. Leslie did what she could to
+interest Mrs. Minturn and cheer her, but at last that lady said: "Thank
+you dear, you are very good to me; but you can't entertain me to-day.
+Some other time we'll come back and bring the scores you suggest, and
+see what we can really hear from these birds. But to-day, I've got the
+battle of my life to fight. Something is coming; I should be in a
+measure prepared, and as I don't know what to expect, it takes all the
+brains I have to figure things out."
+
+"You don't know, Mrs. Minturn?" asked Leslie.
+
+"No," she said wearily. "I know James hates the life I lead; he thinks
+my time wasted. I know he's a disappointed man, because he thought when
+he married me he could cut me out of everything worth while in the
+world, and set me to waiting on him, and nursing his children. Every
+single thing I have done since, or wanted or had, has been a
+disappointment to him. I know now he never would have married me, if he
+hadn't figured he was going to make me over; shape me and my life to
+suit his whims, and throw away my money to please his fancies. He's
+been utterly discontented since Elizabeth was born. Why Leslie, we
+haven't lived together since then. He said if I were going to persist
+in bringing 'orphans' into the world, babies I wouldn't mother myself,
+or wouldn't allow him to father, there would be no more children. I
+laughed at him, because I didn't think he meant it; but he did, so that
+ended even a semblance of content. Half the time I don't know where he
+is, or what he is doing; he seldom knows where I am; if we appear
+together it is accidental; I thought I had my mind made up to leave
+him, and soon; but what you say, coupled with doubts I had myself, have
+set me to thinking, till I don't know. I hate a scandal. You know how
+careful I always have been. All my closest friends have jeered me for a
+prude; there isn't a flaw he can find, there has been none!"
+
+"Certainly not," said Leslie. "Every one knows that."
+
+"Leslie, you don't know, do you?" asked Mrs. Minturn. "He didn't say
+anything to Bruce, did he?"
+
+"You want an honest answer?" questioned Leslie.
+
+"Of course I do!" cried Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Douglas did tell me in connection with Mr. Minturn joining the
+Brotherhood and taking a gamin from the streets into his office, that
+he said he was scarcely allowed to see his own sons, not to exercise
+the slightest control, so he was going to try his theories on a Little
+Brother. But Douglas wouldn't mention it, only to me, and of course I
+wouldn't repeat it to any one. Mr. Minturn seemed to feel that Douglas
+thought it peculiar for a man having sons, to take so much pains with a
+newsboy; they're great friends, so he said that much to Bruce."
+
+"'He said that much----'" scoffed Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Well, even so, that is very little compared with what you've said
+about him to me," retorted Leslie. "You shouldn't complain on that
+score."
+
+"I suppose, in your eyes, I shouldn't complain about anything," said
+Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"A world of things, Mrs. Minturn, but not the ones you do," said Leslie.
+
+"Oh!" cried Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"I think your grievance is that you were born in, and reared for,
+society," said Leslie, "and in your extremity it has failed you. I
+believe I can give you more help to-day than any woman of your age and
+intimate association."
+
+"That's true Leslie, quite true!" exclaimed Mrs. Minturn eagerly. "And
+I need help! Oh I do!"
+
+"You poor soul, you!" comforted Leslie. "Turn where you belong! Turn to
+your own blood!"
+
+"My mother would jeer me for a weakling," said Mrs. Minturn. "She has
+urged me to divorce James, ever since Elizabeth was born."
+
+"I didn't mean your mother," said Leslie. "I meant closer relatives, I
+meant your husband and sons."
+
+"My husband would probably tell me he had lost all respect for me,
+while my sons would very likely pull my hair and kick my shins if I
+knelt to them for sympathy," said Mrs. Minturn. "They are perfect
+little animals."
+
+"Oh Mrs. Minturn!" cried Leslie amazed. "Then you simply must take them
+in charge and save them; they are so fine looking, while you're their
+mother, you are!"
+
+"It means giving up life as I have known it always, just about
+everything!" said Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Look at yourself now!" said Leslie. "I should think you would be glad
+to give up your present state."
+
+"Leslie, do you think it wrong to gather those orchids?"
+
+"I think it unpardonable sin to _exterminate_ them," answered Leslie.
+"If you have any reason for wanting a few, and merely gather the
+flowers, leaving the roots to spread and bloom another year, I should
+say take them."
+
+"Will you wait in the car until I go back?" she asked.
+
+"But I wish to be alone," said Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"You're not afraid? You won't become lost?"
+
+"I am not afraid, and I will not lose myself," said Mrs. Minturn. "Must
+I hurry?"
+
+"Take all the time you want," said Leslie.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when she returned, her hands filled with a
+dripping moss ball in which she had embedded the stems of a mass of
+feathery pink-fringed orchids. Her face was flushed with tears, but her
+eyes were bright, her step quick and alert.
+
+"Leslie, what do you think I am going to do?" she cried. Then without
+awaiting a reply: "I'm going to ask James to go with me to take these
+to Elizabeth, to beg him to forgive my neglect of her; to pledge the
+rest of my life to him and the boys."
+
+Leslie caught Mrs. Minturn in her arms. "Oh you darling!" she exulted.
+"Oh you brave, wonderful girl!"
+
+"After all, it's no more than fair," Mrs. Minturn said. "I have had
+everything my way since we were married. And I did love James. He's the
+only man I have ever really wanted. Leslie, he will forgive me and
+start over, won't he?"
+
+"He'll be at your feet!" cried Leslie.
+
+"Fortunately, I have decided to be at his," said Mrs. Minturn. "I've
+reached the place where I will even wipe James Jr.'s nose and dress
+Malcolm, and fix James' studs if it will help me to sleep, and have
+only a tinge of what you seem to be running over with. Leslie, you are
+the most joyous soul!"
+
+"You see, I never had to think about myself," said Leslie. "Daddy
+always thought for me, so there was nothing left for me to spend my
+time and thought on but him. It was a beautiful arrangement."
+
+"Leslie, this is your car, but won't you dear, drive fast!" begged Mrs.
+Minturn.
+
+"Of course Nellie!" exclaimed the girl.
+
+"Leslie, will you stand by me, and show me the way, all you can?" asked
+Mrs. Minturn anxiously. "I'll lose every friend I have got; my house
+must be torn down and built up from the basement on a new system, as to
+management; and I haven't an idea _how_ to do it. Oh, I hope James can
+help me."
+
+"You may be sure James will know and can help you," comforted Leslie.
+"You'll be leaving for the seashore in a few days; install a complete
+new retinue, and begin all fresh. Half the servants you keep, really
+interested in their work, would make you far more comfortable than you
+are now."
+
+"Yes, I think that too!" agreed Mrs. Minturn eagerly. "Some way I feel
+as if I were turning against Lucette. I never want to see her again,
+after I tell her to go; not that I know what I shall do without her.
+The boys will probably burn down the house, and where I'll find a woman
+who will tolerate them, I don't know."
+
+"Employ a man until you get control," suggested Leslie. "They are both
+old enough; hire a man, and explain all you want to him. They'd be
+afraid of a man."
+
+"Afraid!" cried Mrs. Minturn. "They are afraid of Lucette! I can't
+understand it. I wonder if James----"
+
+"Poor James!" laughed Leslie. "Honestly Nellie, don't impose too much
+of your--your work on him. Undertake it yourself. Show him what a woman
+you are."
+
+"Great Heavens, Leslie, you don't know what you are saying!" cried Mrs.
+Minturn. "My only hope lies in deceiving him. If I showed him the woman
+I am, as I saw myself back there in that swamp an hour ago, he'd take
+one look, and strangle me for the public good."
+
+"How ridiculous!" exclaimed Leslie. "Why must a woman always rush from
+one extreme to the other? Choose a middle course and keep it."
+
+"That's what I am telling you I must do," said Mrs. Minturn. "Leslie,
+it is wonderful how I feel. I'm almost flying. Do you honestly think it
+is possible that there is going to be something new, something
+interesting, something really worth while in the world for me?"
+
+"I know it," said Leslie. "Such interest, such novelty, such joy as you
+never have experienced!"
+
+With that hope in her heart, her eyes filled with excitement, Nellie
+Minturn rang her bell, ran past her footman and hurried up the stairs.
+She laid her flowers on a table, summoned her maid, then began throwing
+off her hat and outer clothing.
+
+"Do you know if Mr. Minturn is here?"
+
+"Yes. He----" began the maid.
+
+"Never mind what 'he.' Get out the prettiest, simplest dress I own, and
+the most becoming," she ordered. "Be quick! Can't you see I'm in a
+hurry?"
+
+"Mrs. Minturn, I think you will thank me for telling you there is an
+awful row in the library," said the maid.
+
+"'An awful row?'" Mrs. Minturn paused.
+
+"Yes. I think they are killing Lucette," explained the maid. "She's
+shrieked bloody murder two or three times."
+
+"Who? What do you mean?" demanded Mrs. Minturn.
+
+She slipped on the bathrobe she had picked up, and stood holding it
+together, gazing at the maid.
+
+"Mr. Minturn came with two men. One was a park policeman we know. They
+went into the library and sent for Lucette. There she goes again!"
+
+"Is there any way I could see, could hear, what is going on, without
+being seen?"
+
+"There's a door to the den from the back hall, and that leads to the
+library," suggested the maid.
+
+"Show me! Help me!" begged Mrs. Minturn.
+
+As they passed the table the orchids hanging over the edge caught on
+the trailing robe and started to fall. Mrs. Minturn paused to push them
+back, then studied the flowers an instant, and catching up the bunch
+carried it along. She closed the den door after her without a sound,
+and creeping beside the wall, hid behind the door curtain and peeped
+into the library. There were two men who evidently were a detective and
+a policeman. She saw Lucette backed against the wall, her hands
+clenched, her eyes wild with fear. She saw her husband's back, and on
+the table beside him a little box, open, its wrappings near, its
+contents terrifying to the woman.
+
+"To sum up then," said Mr. Minturn in tones she never before had heard:
+"I can put on oath this man, who will be forced to tell what he
+witnessed or be impeached by others who saw it at the same time, and
+_are ready to testify to what he said;_ I can produce the boy who came
+to tell me the part he took in it; I have the affidavit and have just
+come from the woman who interfered and followed you here in an effort
+to save Elizabeth; I have this piece of work in my hands, done by one
+of the greatest scientists and two of the best surgeons living.
+Although you shrink from it, I take pleasure in showing it to you. This
+ragged seam is an impress of the crack you made in a tiny skull lying
+in a vault out at Forest Hill."
+
+He paused, holding a plaster cast before the woman.
+
+"It's a little bit of a thing," he said deliberately. "She was a tiny
+creature to have been done to death at your hands. I hope you will see
+that small pink face as I see it, and feel the soft hair in your
+fingers, and--after all, I can't go on with that. But I am telling you,
+and showing you exactly what you are facing, because you must go from
+this house with these men; your things will be sent. You must leave
+this city and this country on the boat they take you to, and where you
+go you will be watched; if ever you dare take service handling a
+_child_ again, I shall have you promptly arrested and forced to answer
+for the cold-blooded murder of my little daughter. Live you must, I
+suppose, but not longer by the torture of children. Go, before I
+strangle you as you deserve!"
+
+How Mrs. Minturn came to be standing beside her husband, she never
+afterward knew; only that she was, pulling down his arm to stare at the
+white cast. Then she looked up at him and said simply: "But Lucette
+didn't murder her; it was I. I was her mother. I knew she was beaten. I
+knew she was abused! I didn't stop my pleasure to interfere, lest I
+should lose a minute by having to see to her myself! A woman did come
+to me, and a boy! I knew they were telling the truth! I didn't know it
+was so bad, but I knew it must have been dreadful, to bring them. I had
+my chance to save her. I went to her as the woman told me to, and
+because she was quiet, I didn't even turn her over. I didn't run a
+finger across her little head. I didn't call a surgeon. I preferred an
+hour of pleasure to taking the risk of being disturbed. I am quite as
+guilty as Lucette! Have them take me with her."
+
+James Minturn stepped back, gazing at his wife. Then he motioned the
+men toward the door, so with the woman they left the room.
+
+"Lucette just had her sentence," he said, "now for yours! Words are
+useless! I am leaving your house with my sons. They _are_ my sons, and
+with the proof I hold, you will not claim them. If you do, you will not
+get them. I am taking them to the kind of a house I deem suitable for
+them, and to such care as I can provide. I shall keep them in my
+presence constantly as possible until I see just what harm has been
+done, and how to remedy what can be changed. I shall provide such
+teachers as I see fit for them, and devote the remainder of my life to
+them. All I ask of you is to spare them the disgrace of forcing me to
+_prove_ my right to them, or ever having them realize just _what_
+happened to their sister, and _your_ part in it."
+
+She held the flowers toward him.
+
+"I brought these----" she began, then paused. "You wouldn't believe me,
+if I should tell you. You are right! Perfectly justified! Of course I
+shall not bring this before the public. Go!"
+
+At the door he looked back. She had dropped into a chair beside the
+table, holding the cast in one hand, the fringed orchids in the other.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+_Peaches' Preference in Blessings_
+
+
+"_God ain't made a sweeter girl 'An Lily, at keeps my heart a-whirl. If
+I was to tell an awful whopper, I'd get took by the cross old copper._"
+
+Thus chanted Mickey at his door, his hands behind him. Peaches
+stretched both hers toward him as usual; but he stood still, swinging
+in front of him a beautiful doll, for a little sick girl. A baby doll
+in a long snowy dress and a lace cap; it held outstretched arms, but
+was not heavy enough to tire small wavering hands. Peaches lunged
+forward until only Mickey's agility saved her from falling. He tossed
+the doll on the bed, and caught the child, the lump in his throat so
+big his voice was strained as he cried: "Why you silly thing!"
+
+With her safe he again proffered it. Peaches shut her eyes and buried
+her face on his breast.
+
+"Oh don't let me see it! Take it away!"
+
+"Why Lily! I thought you'd be crazy about it," marvelled Mickey.
+"Honest I did! The prettiest lady sent it to you. Let me tell you!"
+
+"Giving them up is worser 'an never having them. Take it away!" wailed
+Peaches.
+
+"Well Lily!" said Mickey. "I never was stuck up about my looks, but I
+didn't s'pose I looked so like a granny that you'd think _that_ of me.
+Don't I seem man enough to take care of a little flowersy-girl 'thout
+selling her doll? There's where I got your granny skinned a mile. I
+don't booze, and I never will. Mother hammered that into me. Now look
+what a pretty it is! You'll just love it! I wouldn't take it! I'd lay
+out anybody who would. Come on now! Negotiate it! Get your flippers on
+it!"
+
+He was holding the child gently and stroking her tumbled hair. When he
+put her from him to see her face, Mickey was filled with envy because
+he had been forced to admit the gift was not from him. He shut his lips
+tight, but his face was grim as he studied Peaches' flushed cheeks and
+wet eyes, and noted the shaking eagerness for the doll she was afraid
+to look at. He reached over and put it into her arms, then piled the
+pillows so she could see better, talking the while to comfort her.
+
+"Course it is yours! Course nobody is going to take it! Course you
+shall _always_ have it, and maybe a grown-up lady doll by Christmas.
+Who knows?"
+
+In utter content Peaches sank against the pillows, watching Mickey,
+while she gripped the baby.
+
+"Thank you, Mickey-lovest," she said. "Oh thank you for this Precious
+Child!"
+
+"You got to thank a lady about twice my height, with dark hair, pink
+cheeks, and beautiful dresses. She's got a big rest house, a lover man,
+and an automobile I wish you could see, Lily," he said.
+
+"If I was on the rags in the corner, I'd have this child--wouldn't I?"
+scoffed Peaches, still clutching the doll, but her gaze on Mickey.
+"What happened was, 'at she _liked you_ for something, and _give_ you
+the baby, so you brought it to me. Thank you Mickey, for this Precious
+Child!"
+
+Peaches lifted her lips. Mickey met them more obsessed than before.
+Then she turned away, clasping the doll. Mickey could see that the
+tears were slipping from under the child's closed lids, but her lips
+were on the doll face, so he knew she was happy. He stole out to bring
+in his purchases for supper, and begin his evening work. He gave
+Peaches a drink, her daily rub, cleaned the room without making dust as
+the nurse had shown him, and brought water. He shook his fist at the
+faucet.
+
+"Now hereafter, nix on the butting in!" he said belligerently. "Mebby I
+couldn't have got _that_ doll, but I could have got one she'd have
+_liked_ just as well, and earned it extra, in one day. There's one
+feature of the Big Brother business that I was a little too fast on.
+He's the finest man that ever wanted me, while his rooms are done
+shameful. I could put a glitter on them so he could see himself with
+the things he has to work with, and he said any time I wanted it, the
+job was mine. It wouldn't be cheating him any if I took it, and did
+better work than he's getting, and my steady papers are sure in the
+morning; that would be sure in the afternoon, and if I cut ice with a
+buzz saw, I might get through in time to pick up something else before
+coming home, and being sure beats _hoping_ a mile, yes ten miles! Mebby
+I'll investigate that business a little further, 'cause hereafter I
+provide for my own family. See? Lily was grand about it. Gee! she's
+smart to think it out that way all in a minute. But by and by she's
+going to have a lot of time to think. Then she'll be remembering about
+the lady I got to tell her of 'stead of _me_, as she _should!_ Guess
+I'll run my own family! I'll take another look at cleaning that office.
+There ain't any lap-dog business in a job, and being paid for it, if
+you do it well."
+
+Mickey turned the faucet and marched up the stairs with head high and
+shoulders square. His face was grave while he worked, but Peaches was
+so happy she did not notice. When he came with her supper she kissed
+the doll, then insisted on Mickey kissing it also. Such was the state
+of his subjugation he commenced with "Aw!" and ended by doing as he was
+told. He even helped lay the doll beside Peaches exactly as her fancy
+dictated, and covered it with her sheet, putting its hands outside.
+Peaches was enchanted. She insisted on offering it a drink of her milk
+first, and was so tremulously careful lest she spill a drop that Mickey
+had to guide her hand. He promised to wash the doll's dress if she did
+have an accident, or when it became soiled, and bowed his head meekly
+to the crowning concession by sitting on the edge of the bed, after he
+had finished his evening work, and holding the doll where she could see
+it, exactly as instructed, while he told her about his wonderful
+adventure.
+
+"Began yesterday," explained Mickey. "You know I told you there was
+going to be a surprise. Well this is it. When the lady gave me the
+ribbons for you, she told me to come back to-night, and get it. Course
+I _could_ a-got it myself. I _would_ a-got it for Christmas----"
+
+"Oh Mickey-lovest, does Christmas come here?"
+
+"Surest thing you know!" said Mickey. "A fat stocking full of every
+single thing the Nurse Lady tell Santa Claus a little--a little
+flowersy-girl that ain't so strong yet, may have, and a big lady doll
+and a picture book."
+
+"But I never had no stockings," said Peaches.
+
+"Well you'll have by _that_ time," promised Mickey.
+
+"Oh Mickey, I'm so glad I want to say a prayin's 'at you found _me_,
+'stead of some other kid!" exulted Peaches.
+
+"Yes Miss, and that's one thing I forgot!" said Mickey. "We'll _begin_
+to-night. You ain't a properly raised lady unless you say your prayers.
+I know the one _She_ taught me. To-night will be a good time, 'cause
+you'll be so thankful for your pretty ribbons and your baby, that
+you'll just love to say a real thankful prayer." "Mickey, I ain't goin'
+to say prayin's! I just _said_ I was," explained Peaches. "I never said
+none for granny, 'cause she only told me to when she was drunk."
+
+"No and you never had a box of ribbons to make you look so sweet, or a
+baby to stay with you while I'm gone. If you ain't thankful enough for
+them to say your prayers, you shouldn't have them, nor any more, nor
+Christmas, nor anything, but just--_just like you was_."
+
+Peaches blinked, gasped, digested the statements, then yielded wholly.
+
+"I guess I'll say them. Mickey when shall I?"
+
+"To-night 'fore you go to sleep," said Mickey.
+
+"Now tell me about the baby," urged Peaches.
+
+"Sure! I _was!_ I _could_ a-got it myself, like I was telling you; but
+the ones in the stores have such funny clothes. They look so silly. I
+knew I couldn't wash them and of course they'd get dirty like
+everything does, and we couldn't _have_ them dirty, so I thought it
+over, and I said to Mickey-boy, 'if the Joy Lady is so anxious to get
+the baby, and sew its clothes herself, why I'll just let her,' so I did
+_let_ her, but it took some time to make them, so I had to wait to
+bring it 'til tonight. I was to go to her house after it, and when I
+got there she was coming home in her car from a long drive, and gee,
+Lily, I wish you could have seen her! She's the prettiest lady, and the
+most joyous lady I ever saw."
+
+"Prettier than the Nurse Lady?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Well different," explained Mickey. "Nurse Lady is all gold like the
+end of Sunrise Alley at four o'clock in the morning. This lady has dark
+hair and eyes. Both of them are as pretty as women are made, but they
+are not the same. Nurse Lady is when the sun comes up, and warms and
+comforts the world; but the doll-lady is like all the stars twinkling
+in the moonlight on the park lake, and music playing, and everybody
+dancing. The doll-lady is joy, just the Joy Lady. Gee, Lily, you should
+have seen her face when the car stopped, while I was coming down the
+steps."
+
+"Was she so glad to see you?" asked Peaches.
+
+"'Twasn't me!" said Mickey. "'Twas on her face _before_ she saw me. She
+was just gleaming, and shining, and spilling over joy! She isn't the
+kind that would dance on the street, nor where it ain't nice to dance;
+but she was dancing inside just the same. She pulled me right into that
+big fine car, so I sat on the seat with her, and we went sailing, and
+skating, and flying along and all the boys guying me, but I didn't
+care! I like to ride in her car! I never rode in a car like that
+before. She went a-whizzing right to the office of the big man, where
+maybe I'll work; I guess I'll go see him tomorrow, I got a hankering
+for knowing what I'm going to _do_, and _where_ I'm going to be paid
+for it. Well she went spinning there, and she said 'you wait a minute,'
+then she ran in and pretty soon out she came with him. His name is Mr.
+Douglas Bruce, and I guess it would be a little closer what _She'd_
+think right if I'd use it. And hers he calls her by, is Leslie. Ain't
+that pretty? When he says 'Leslie' sounds as if he kissed the name as
+it came through. Honest it does!"
+
+"I bet he says it just like you say 'Lily!'"
+
+"I wonder now!" grinned Mickey. "Well he came out and what she had told
+him, set him crazy too. They just talked a streak, but he shook hands
+with me, and she said, 'You tell the driver where to go Mickey,' and I
+said, 'Go where, Miss?' and she said, 'To take you home,' and I said,
+'You don't need!' and she said, 'I'd like to!' and I saw she didn't
+care _what_ she did, so I just sent him to the end of the car line and
+saved my nickel, and then I come on here, and both of them----"
+
+"What?" asked Peaches eagerly.
+
+Mickey changed the "wanted to come to see you" that had been on his
+lips. If he told Peaches that, and she asked for them to come, and they
+came, and then thought he was not taking care of her right, and took
+her away from him--then what?
+
+"Said good-bye the nicest," he substituted. "And I'm going to see if
+she wants any more letters carried as soon as my papers are gone in the
+morning, and if she does, I'm going to take them, and if one is to him,
+I'm going to ask him more about the job he offered me, and if we can
+agree, I'm going to take it. Then I can buy you what you want myself,
+because I'll know every day exactly what I'll have, and when the rent
+is counted out, and for the papers, all the rest will be for eating,
+and what you need, and to save for your new back."
+
+"My, I wisht I had it now!" cried Peaches. "I wisht I could a-rode in
+that car too! Wasn't it perfeckly grand Mickey?"
+
+"Grand as any king," said Mickey.
+
+"What is a king?" asked Peaches.
+
+"One of the big bosses across the ocean," explained Mickey. "You'll
+learn them when you get farther with your lessons. They own most all
+the money, and the finest houses, and _all the people_. Just _own_
+them. Own them so's they can tell good friends to go to it, and _kill_
+each other, even _relations_."
+
+"And do they _do_ it?" marvelled Peaches.
+
+"Sure they do it!" cried Mickey. "Why they are doing it _right now!_ I
+could bring a paper and read you things that would make you so sick you
+couldn't sit up!"
+
+"What kind of things, Mickey?"
+
+"About kings making all the fathers kill each other, and burn down each
+other's houses, and blow up the cities, and eat all the food
+themselves, and leave the mothers with no home, and no groceries, and
+no stove, and no beds, and the bullets flying, and the cities burning,
+and no place to go, and the children starving and dying--Gee, I ain't
+ever going to tell you any more, Lily! It's too awful! You'd feel
+better not to know. Honest you would! Wish I hadn't told you anything
+about it at all. Where's your slate? We got to do lessons 'fore it gets
+so dark and we are so sleepy we can't see."
+
+Peaches proudly handed him the slate. In wavering lines and tremulous
+curves ran her first day's work alone, over erasures, and with
+relinings, in hills and deep depressions, which it is possible Mickey
+read because he knew what it had to be, he proudly translated,
+"Mickey-lovest." Then the lines of the night before, then "cow" and
+"milk." And then Mickey whooped because he faintly recognized an effort
+to draw a picture of the cow and the milk bottle.
+
+"Grand Lily!" he cried. "Gee, you're the smartest kid I ever knew!
+You'll know all I do 'fore long, and then you'll need your back, so's
+you can get ready to go to a Young Ladies' Sem'nary."
+
+"What's that?" interestedly asked Peaches.
+
+"A school. Where other _nice_ girls go, and where you learn all that I
+don't know to teach you," said Mickey.
+
+"I won't go!" said Peaches.
+
+"Oh yes you will, Miss," said Mickey. "'Cause you're my family, so
+you'll do as I say."
+
+"Will you go with me?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Sure! I'll take you there in a big au----Oh, I don't know as I will
+either. We'll have to save our money, if we _both_ go. We'll go on a
+_street_ car, and walk up a grand av'noo among trees, and I'll take you
+in, and see if your room is right, and everything, and all the girls
+will like you 'cause you're so smart, and your hair's so pretty, and
+then I'll go to a boys' school close by, and learn how to make poetry
+pieces that beat any in the papers. Every time I make a new one I'll
+come and ask, 'Is Miss Lily--Miss Lily Peaches----' Gee kid, _what's
+your name?_"
+
+Mickey stared at Peaches, while she stared back at him.
+
+"I don't know," she said. "Do you care, Mickey?"
+
+"What was your granny's?" asked Mickey.
+
+"I don't know," answered Peaches.
+
+"Was she your mother's mother?" persisted Mickey.
+
+"Yes," replied Peaches.
+
+"Did you ever see your father?" Mickey went on.
+
+"I don't know nothing about fathers," she said.
+
+Mickey heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"Well! _That's_ over!" he said. "_I_ know something about fathers. I
+know a lot. I know that you are no worse off, not knowing _who_ your
+father was than to know he was so _mean_ that you are _glad_ he's dead.
+Your way leaves you _hoping_ that he was just awful nice, and got
+killed, or was taken sick or something; my way, there ain't no doubts
+in your mind. You are plumb sure he wasn't decent. Don't you bother
+none about fathers!"
+
+"My I'm glad, Mickey!" cried Peaches joyously.
+
+"So am I," said Mickey emphatically. "We don't want any fathers coming
+here to butt in on us, just as we get your back Carreled and you ready
+to start to school."
+
+"Can I go without a _name_ Mickey?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Course not!" said Mickey. "You have to put your name on a roll the
+first thing, then you must be interdooced to the Head Lady and all the
+girls."
+
+"What'll I do Mickey?" anxiously inquired Peaches.
+
+"Well, for smart as you are in some spots, you're awful dumb in
+others," commented Mickey. "What'll you do, saphead? Gee! Ain't you
+_mine?_ Ain't you my _family?_ Ain't _my name_ good enough for you?
+Your name will be Miss Lily Peaches O'Halloran. That's a name good
+enough for a Queen Lady!"
+
+"What's a Queen?" inquired Peaches.
+
+"Wife of those kings we were just talking about."
+
+"Sure!" said Peaches. "None of them have a nicer name than that!
+Mickey, is my bow straight?"
+
+"Naw it ain't!" said Mickey. "Take the baby 'til I fix it! It's about
+slipped off! There! That's better."
+
+"Mickey, let me see it!" suggested Peaches.
+
+Mickey brought the mirror. She looked so long he grew tired and started
+to put it back, but she clung to it.
+
+"Just lay it on the bed," she said.
+
+"Naw I don't, Miss Chicken--O'Halloran!" he said. "Mirrors cost money,
+and if you pull the sheet in the night, and slide ours off, and it
+breaks, we got seven years of bad luck coming, and we are nix on
+changing the luck we have right now. It's good enough for us. Think of
+them Belgium kids where the kings are making the fathers fight. This
+goes where it belongs, then you take your drink, and let me beat your
+pillow, and you fix your baby, and then we'll say our prayers, and go
+to sleep."
+
+Mickey replaced the mirror and carried out the program he had outlined.
+When he came to the prayer he ordered Peaches to shut her eyes, fold
+her hands and repeat after him:
+
+"'Now I lay me down to sleep'"----
+
+Peaches' eyes opened.
+
+"Oh, is it a poetry prayer, Mickey?" she asked.
+
+"Yes. Kind of a one. Say it," answered Mickey.
+
+Peaches obeyed, repeating the words lingeringly and in her sweetest
+tones. Mickey thrilled to his task.
+
+"'I pray the Lord my soul to keep'"----he proceeded.
+
+"What's my soul, Mickey?" she asked.
+
+"The very nicest thing inside of you," explained Mickey. "Go on!"
+
+"Like my heart?" questioned Peaches.
+
+"Yes. Only nicer," said Mickey. "Shut your eyes and go on!"
+
+Peaches obeyed.
+
+"'If I should die before I wake'"----continued Mickey.
+
+Peaches' eyes flashed open; she drew back in horror.
+
+"I won't!" she cried. "I won't _say_ that. That's what happened to
+granny, an' I saw. She was the awfullest, an' then--the men came. I
+_won't!_"
+
+Mickey opened his eyes, looking at Peaches, his lips in a set line, his
+brow wrinkled in thought.
+
+"Well I don't know what they went and put _that_ in for," he said
+indignantly. "Scaring little kids into fits! It's all right when you
+don't _know_ what it means, but when kids has been through what we
+have, it's different. I wouldn't say it either. You wait a minute. I
+can beat that myself. Let me think. Now I got it! Shut your eyes and go
+on:
+
+"If I should come to live with Thee----"
+
+"Well I ain't goin'!" said Peaches flatly. "I'm goin' to stay right
+here with you. I'd a lot rather than anywhere. King's house or
+anywhere!"
+
+"I never saw such a kid!" wailed Mickey. "I think that's pretty. I like
+it heaps. Come on Peaches! Be good! Listen! The next line goes: 'Open
+loving arms to shelter me.' Like the big white Jesus at the Cathedral
+door. Come on now!"
+
+"I _won't!_ I'm goin' to live right here, and I don't want no big white
+Jesus' arms; I want _yours_. 'F I go anywhere, you got to lift me
+yourself, and let me take my Precious Child along."
+
+"Lily, you're the worst kid I ever saw," said Mickey. "No you ain't
+either! I know a lot worse than you. You just don't understand. I guess
+you better pray something you _do_ understand. Let me think again. Now
+try this: Keep me through the starry night----"
+
+"Sure! I just love that," crooned Peaches.
+
+"Wake me safe with sunrise bright," prompted Mickey, and the child
+smilingly repeated the words. "Now comes some 'Blesses,'" said Mickey.
+"I don't know just how to manage them. You haven't a father to bless,
+and your mother got what was coming to her long ago; blessing her now
+wouldn't help any if it wasn't pleasant; same with your granny, only
+more recent. I'll tell you! Now I know! 'Bless the Sunshine Lady for
+all the things to make me comfortable, and bless the Moonshine Lady for
+the ribbons and the doll.'"
+
+"Aw!" cried Peaches, staring up at him in rebellion.
+
+"Now you go on, Miss Chicken," ordered Mickey, losing patience, "and
+then you end with 'Amen,' which means, 'So be it,' or 'Make it happen
+that way,' or something like that. Go to it now!"
+
+Peaches shut her eyes, refolded her hands and lifted her chin. After a
+long pause Mickey was on the point of breaking, she said sweetly:
+"Bless Mickey-lovest, an' bless him, an' bless him million times; an'
+bless him for the bed, an' the window, an' bless him for finding the
+Nurse Lady, an' bringing the ribbons, an' the doll, an' bless him for
+the slate, an' the teachin's, an' bless him for everything I just love,
+an' love. Amen--hard!"
+
+When Peaches opened her eyes she found Mickey watching her, a
+commingling of surprise and delight on his face. Then he bent over and
+laid his cheek against hers.
+
+"You fool little kid," he whispered tenderly. "You precious fool little
+flowersy-kid! You make a fellow love you 'til he nearly busts inside.
+Kiss me good-night, Lily."
+
+He slipped the ribbon from her hair, straightened the sheets, arranged
+as the nurse had taught him, laid the doll as Peaches desired, and then
+screened by the foot of the bed, undressed and stretched himself on the
+floor. The same moon that peeped in the window to smile her broadest at
+Peaches and her Precious Child, and touched Mickey's face to wondrous
+beauty, at that hour also sent shining bars of light across the veranda
+where Leslie sat and told Douglas Bruce about the trip to the swamp.
+
+"I never knew I could be so happy over anything in all this world that
+didn't include you and Daddy. But of course this does in a way; you, at
+least. Much as you think of, and are with, Mr. Minturn, you can't help
+being glad that joy has come to him at last. Why don't you say
+something, Douglas?"
+
+"I have been effervescing ever since you came to the office after me,
+and I find now that the froth is off, I'm getting to the solid facts in
+the case, and, well I don't want to say a word to spoil your joyous
+day, but I'm worried, 'Bringer of Song.'"
+
+"Worried?" cried Leslie. "Why? You don't think he wouldn't be pleased?
+You don't think he might not be--responsive, do you?"
+
+"Think of the past years of neglect, insult and humiliation!" suggested
+Douglas.
+
+"Think of the future years of loving care, reparation and joy!"
+commented Leslie.
+
+"Please God they outweigh!" said Douglas. "Of course they will! It must
+be a few things I've seen lately that keep puzzling me."
+
+"What have you seen, Douglas?" questioned Leslie.
+
+"Deals in real estate," he answered. "Consultations with detectives and
+policemen, scientists and surgeons."
+
+"But what could that have to do with Nellie Minturn?"
+
+"Nothing, I hope," said Douglas, "but there has been a grimness about
+Minturn lately, a going ahead with jaws set that looks ugly for what
+opposes him, and you tell me they have been in opposition ever since
+they married. I can't put him from my thoughts as I saw him last."
+
+"And I can't her," said Leslie. "She was a lovely picture as she came
+across the silver moss carpet, you know that gray green, Douglas, her
+face flushed, her eyes wet, her arms full of those perfectly beautiful,
+lavender-pink fringed orchids. She's a handsome woman, dearest, and she
+never looked quite so well to me as when she came picking her way
+beneath the dark tamarack boughs. She was going to ask him to go with
+her to take her flowers to Elizabeth, and over that little white casket
+she intended--Why Douglas, he couldn't, he simply couldn't!"
+
+"Suppose he had something previously worked out that cut her off!"
+
+"Oh Douglas! What makes you think such a thing?"
+
+"What Minturn said to me this morning with such bitterness on his face
+and in his voice as I never before encountered in man," Douglas
+answered.
+
+"He said----?" prompted Leslie.
+
+"This is my _last_ day as a _laughing-stock_ for my fellowmen!
+To-morrow I shall hold up my head!"
+
+"Why didn't you tell me that _before?_"
+
+"Didn't realize until just now that you and she hadn't _seen_ him--that
+you were acting on presumption.
+
+"I'm going to call her!" cried Leslie.
+
+"I wouldn't!" advised Douglas.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"After as far as she went to-day, if she had anything she wanted you to
+know, wouldn't she feel free to call you?"
+
+"You are right," conceded Leslie. "Even after to-day, for me to call
+would be an intrusion. Let's not talk of it further! Don't you wish we
+could take a peep at Mickey carrying the doll to the little sick girl?"
+
+"I surely do!" answered Douglas. "What do you think of him, Leslie?"
+
+"Great! Simply great!" cried the girl. "Douglas you should have heard
+him educate me on the doll question."
+
+"How?" he asked interestedly.
+
+"From the first glimpse I had of him, the thought came to me, 'That's
+Douglas' Little Brother'" she explained. "When you telephoned and said
+you were sending him to me, just one idea possessed me: to get what you
+wanted. Almost without thought at all I tried the first thing he
+mentioned, which happened to be a little sick neighbour girl he told me
+about. All girls like a doll, and I had one dressed for a birthday gift
+for a namesake of mine, and time plenty to fix her another. I brought
+it to Mickey and thought he'd be delighted."
+
+"Was he rude?" inquired Douglas anxiously.
+
+"Not in the least!" she answered. "Only casual! Merely made me see how
+thoughtless and unkind and positively vulgar my idea of pleasing a poor
+child was."
+
+"Leslie, you shock me!" exclaimed Douglas.
+
+"I mean every word of it," said the girl. "Now listen to me! It _is_
+thoughtless to offer a gift headlong, without considering a second, is
+it not?"
+
+"Merely impulsive," replied Douglas.
+
+"Identically the same thing!" declared Leslie. "Listen I said! Without
+a thought about suitability, I offered an extremely poor child the gift
+I had prepared for a very rich one. Mickey made me see in ten words
+that it would be no kindness to fill his little friend's head with
+thoughts that would sadden her heart with envy, make her feel all she
+lacked more keenly than ever; give her a gift that would breed
+dissatisfaction instead of joy; if that isn't vulgarity, what is?
+Mickey's Lily has no business with a doll so gorgeous the very sight of
+it brings longing, instead of comfort. It was unkind to offer a gift so
+big and heavy it would tire and worry her."
+
+"There _are_ some ideas there on giving!"
+
+"Aren't there though!" said Leslie. "Mickey took about three minutes to
+show me that Lily was _satisfied_ as she was, so no one would thank me
+for awakening discontent in her heart. He measured off her size and
+proved to me that a small doll, that would not tire her to handle,
+would be suitable, and so dressed that its clothes could be washed and
+would be plain as her own. Even further! Once my brain began working I
+saw that a lady doll with shoes and stockings to suggest outdoors and
+walking, was not a kind gift to make a bedridden child. Douglas, after
+Mickey started me I arose by myself to the point of seeing that a
+little cuddly baby doll, helpless as she, one that she could nestle,
+and play with lying in bed would be the proper gift for Lily. Think of
+a 'newsy' making me see _that!_ Isn't he wonderful?"
+
+"You should have heard him making me see things!" said Douglas. "Yours
+are faint and feeble to the ones he taught me. Refused me at every
+point, and marched away leaving me in utter rout! Outside wanting you
+for my wife, more than anything else on earth, I wanted Mickey for my
+Little Brother."
+
+"You have him!" comforted the girl. "The Lord arranged that. You
+remember He said, 'All men are brothers,' and wasn't it Tolstoy who
+wrote: 'If people would only understand that they are not the sons of
+some fatherland or other, nor of governments, but are sons of God?' You
+and Mickey will get your brotherhood arranged to suit both of you some
+of these days."
+
+"Exactly!" conceded Douglas. "But I wanted Mickey at hand now! I wanted
+him to come and go with me. To be educated with what I consider
+education."
+
+"It will come yet," prophesied Leslie. "Your ideas are splendid! I see
+how fine they are! The trouble is this: you had a plan mapped out at
+which Mickey was to jump. Mickey happened to have preconceived ideas on
+the subject, so he didn't jump. You wanted to be the king on the throne
+and stretch out a royal hand," laughed Leslie. "You wanted to lift
+Mickey to your level, and with the inherent fineness in him, have him
+feel eternal love and gratitude toward you?"
+
+"That sounds different, but it is the real truth."
+
+"And Mickey doesn't care to be brother to kings, he doesn't perceive
+the throne even; he wants you to understand at the start that you will
+_take_, as well as _give_. Refusing pay for tidying your office was his
+first inning. That 'Me to you!' was great. I can see the accompanying
+gesture. It was the same one he used in demolishing my doll. Something
+vital and inborn. Something loneliness, work, the crowd, and raw life
+have taught Mickey, that we don't know. Learn all you can from him.
+I've had one good lesson, I'm receptive and ready for the next. Let's
+call the car and drive an hour."
+
+"That will be pleasant," agreed Douglas.
+
+"Anywhere in the suburbs to avoid the crowds," was Leslie's order to
+her driver.
+
+Slowly, under traffic regulations, the car ran through the pleasant
+spring night; the occupants talking without caring where they were so
+long as they were together, in motion, and it was May. They were
+passing residences where city and country met. The dwellings of people
+city bound, country determined. Homes where men gave so many hours to
+earning money, then sped away to train vines, prune trees, dig in warm
+earth and make things grow. Such men now crossed green lawns and talked
+fertilizers, new annuals, tree surgery, and carried gifts of fragrant,
+blooming things to their friends. Here the verandas were wide and
+children ran from them to grassy playgrounds; on them women read or sat
+with embroidery hoops or visited in small groups.
+
+"Let's move," said Leslie. "Let's coax Daddy to sell our place and come
+here. One wouldn't ever need go summering, it's cool and pleasant
+always. I'd love it! There's a new house and a lawn under old trees, to
+shelter playing children; isn't it charming?"
+
+"Quite! But that small specimen seems refractory."
+
+Leslie leaned forward to see past him. In an open door stood a man
+clearly silhouetted against the light. Down the steps sped a screaming
+boy about nine. After him ran another five or six years older. When the
+child saw he would be overtaken, he headed straight for the street; as
+the pursuer's hand brushed him, he threw himself kicking and clawing.
+The elder boy hesitated, looking for an opening to find a hold. The car
+was half a block away when Leslie turned a white face to Douglas and
+gasped inarticulately. He understood something was wrong so signalled
+the driver to stop.
+
+"Turn and pass those children again!" ordered Leslie.
+
+As the car went by slowly the second time, the child still fought, the
+boy stepped back, while James Minturn with grim face, bent under the
+light and by force took into his arms the twisting, fighting boy.
+
+"Heaven help him!" cried Douglas. "Not a sign of happy reconciliation
+there!"
+
+Leslie tried to choke down her sobs.
+
+"Oh Nellie Minturn! Poor woman!" she wailed.
+
+"So _that's_ what he was doing!" marvelled Douglas. "A house he has
+built to suit himself; training his sons personally, with the
+assistance of his Little Brother. That boy was William. I see him in
+Minturn's office every day."
+
+"Oh I think he might have given her a chance!" protested Leslie.
+"Remember how she was reared! Think what a struggle it was for her even
+to contemplate trying to be different."
+
+"Evidently she was too late!" said Douglas. "He must have been gone
+before you returned from the swamp."
+
+"I'm going back there and tell him a few things! I think he might have
+waited. Douglas, I'm afraid he did wait! She said he told her he wanted
+to talk with her when she came back--and oh Douglas, she said he had a
+small box and he threatend to 'freeze her soul with its contents!'
+Douglas, _what_ could he have had?"
+
+"'Freeze her soul!' Let me think!" said Douglas. "I met Professor
+Tickner and Dr. Wills coming from his offices a few days ago, while
+he's just back from a trip that he didn't tell me he was taking----
+
+"You mean Tickner, the scientist; Wills, the surgeon?"
+
+"Yes," answered Douglas.
+
+"But those children! Aren't they perfectly healthy?"
+
+"They look it! Lord, Leslie!" cried Douglas, "I have it! He _has_ made
+good his threat. He has frozen her soul! What you want to do is to go
+to her, Leslie!"
+
+"Douglas, tell me!" she demanded.
+
+"I can't!" said Douglas. "I may be mistaken. I think I am not, but
+there is always a chance! Drive to the Minturn residence," he ordered.
+
+They found a closed dark pile of stone.
+
+"Go past that place where the children were again!" said Leslie.
+
+The upper story was quiet. Outlined by veranda lights the massive form
+of James Minturn paced back and forth under the big trees, his hands
+clasped behind him, his head bowed, and he walked alone.
+
+"Douglas, I'm going to speak to him. I'm going to tell him!" declared
+Leslie.
+
+"But you're now conceding that _she_ saw him!" Douglas pointed out.
+"Then what have you to tell him that she would not? If she couldn't
+move him with what she said, and while you don't know his side, what
+could you say to him?"
+
+"Nothing," she conceded.
+
+"Precisely my opinion," said Douglas. "Remember Leslie I am a little
+ahead of you in this. You know _her_ side. I know all you have told me
+of her, also I know what he has told me; while putting what I have
+seen, and heard at the office, and him here with the boys, in a house
+she would consider too plebeian for words----"
+
+"No Douglas. No! She is changed!" cried Leslie. "Completely changed, I
+tell you! She said she would wipe Malcolm's nose and fix James'
+studs----"
+
+"Mere figures of speech!" remarked Douglas.
+
+"They meant she was ready to work with her own hands for happiness,"
+said Leslie indignantly.
+
+"I think she's too late!" said Douglas. "I am afraid she is one of the
+unhappiest women in the world to-night!"
+
+"Douglas, it wrings my heart!" cried Leslie.
+
+"Mine also, but what can we do?" he answered. "For ten years, she has
+persisted in having her way, you tell me; what could she have expected?"
+
+"That he would have some heart," protested Leslie. "That he would
+forgive when he was asked, as all of us are commanded to."
+
+"Does it occur to you that he might have confronted her with something
+that prevented her from asking?" suggested Douglas. "She may never have
+reached her flowers and her proposed concessions."
+
+"What makes you think so?" queried Leslie.
+
+"What I see and surmise, and a thing I know."
+
+"What can I do?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Nothing!" Douglas said with finality. "If either of them wants you,
+they know where to find you. But you're tired now. Let's give the order
+for home."
+
+"Shan't sleep a wink to-night!" prophesied Leslie.
+
+"I was afraid of that!" exclaimed Douglas. "There may be a message
+there for you that will be a comfort."
+
+"So there may be! Let's hurry!" urged the girl.
+
+There was. They found a brief, pencilled note.
+
+DEAR LESLIE:
+
+_After to-day, it was due you to send a word. You tried so hard dear,
+and you gave me real joy for an hour. Then James carried out his
+threat. He did all to me he intended, and more than he can ever know. I
+have agreed to him taking full possession of the boys, and going into a
+home such as he thinks suitable. They will be far better off, and since
+they scarcely know me, they can't miss me. Before you receive this, I
+shall have left the city. I can't state just now where I am going or
+what I shall do. You can realize a little of my condition. If ever you
+are tired of home life and faintly tempted to neglect it for society,
+use me for your horrible example. Good-bye,_
+
+NELLIE MINTURN.
+
+Leslie read this aloud.
+
+"It's a relief to know that much," she said with a deep breath. "I
+can't imagine myself ever being 'faintly tempted," but if I am, surely
+she is right about the 'horrible example.' Douglas, whatever did James
+Minturn have in that box?"
+
+"I could tell you what I surmise, but so long as I don't _know_ I'd
+better not," he answered.
+
+"As our mutual friend Mickey would say, 'Nix on the Swell Dames,' for
+me!" said Leslie determinedly.
+
+"Thank God with all my heart!" cried Douglas Bruce.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+_Big Brother_
+
+
+"I've no time to talk," said Douglas Bruce, as Mickey appeared the
+following day; "my work seems too much for one man. Can you help me?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey, wadding his cap into his back pocket. Then he
+rolled his sleeves a turn higher, lifted his chin a trifle and stepped
+forward. "Say what!"
+
+It caught Douglas so suddenly there was no time for concealment. He
+laughed heartily.
+
+"That's good!" he cried. Mickey grinned in comradeship. "First, these
+letters to the box in the hall."
+
+"Next?" Mickey queried as he came through the door.
+
+"This package to the room of the Clerk in the City Hall, and bring back
+a receipt bearing his signature."
+
+Mickey saluted, laid the note inside the cover of a book, put it in the
+middle of the package, and a second later his gay whistle receded down
+the hall.
+
+"'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will
+not depart from it,'" Douglas quoted. "Mickey has been trained until he
+would make a good trainer himself."
+
+In one-half the time the trip had taken the messenger boys Douglas was
+accustomed to employing, Mickey was back like the Gulf in the Forum,
+demanding "more."
+
+"See what you can do for these rooms, until the next errand is ready,"
+suggested Douglas.
+
+Mickey began gathering up the morning papers, straightening the rugs,
+curtains and arranging the furniture.
+
+"Hand this check to the janitor," said Douglas. "And Mickey, kindly ask
+him if two dollars was what I agreed to pay him for my extras this
+week."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey.
+
+Douglas would have preferred "Yes sir," but "Sure!" was a permanent
+ejaculation decorating the tip of Mickey's tongue. The man watching
+closely did not fail to catch the flash of interest and the lifting of
+the boy figure as he paused for instructions. When he returned Douglas
+said casually: "While I am at it, I'll pay off my messenger service.
+Take this check to the address and bring a receipt for the amount."
+
+Mickey's comment came swiftly: "Gee! that boy would be sore, if he lost
+his job!"
+
+"Messenger Service Agency," Douglas said, busy at his desk. "No boy
+would lose his job."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mickey comprehendingly. His face lighted at the
+information. Next he carried a requisition for books to another city
+official and telephoned a cafe to deliver a pitcher of lemonade and
+some small cakes, and handed the boy a dime.
+
+"Why didn't you send me and save your silver?"
+
+"I did not think," answered Bruce. "Some one gets the tip, you might as
+well have had it."
+
+"I didn't mean me _have_ it, I meant you _save_ it."
+
+"Mickey," said Douglas, "you know perfectly I can't take your time
+unless you accept from me what I am accustomed to paying other boys."
+
+"Letting others bleed you, you mean," said Mickey indignantly. "Why I'd
+a-been glad to brought the juice for five! You never ought to paid
+more."
+
+"Should have paid more," corrected Douglas.
+
+"'Should have paid more,'" repeated Mickey. "Thanks!"
+
+"Now try this," said Douglas, filling two glasses.
+
+"'Tain't usual!" said Mickey. "You drink that yourself or save it for
+friends that may drop in."
+
+"Very well!" said Douglas. "Of course you might have it instead of the
+boy who comes after the pitcher, but if you don't like it----"
+
+"All right if that's the way!" agreed Mickey.
+
+He retired to a window seat, enjoyed the cool drink and nibbled the
+cake, his eyes deeply thoughtful. When offered a second glass Mickey
+did not hesitate.
+
+"Nope!" he said conclusively. "A fellow's head and heels work better
+when his stomach is running light. I can earn more not to load up with
+a lot of stuff. I eat at home when my work is finished. She showed me
+that."
+
+"She showed you a good many things, didn't She?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "She was my mother, so we had to look out for
+ourselves. When you got nothing but yourself between you and the wolf,
+you learn to fly, and keep your think-tank in running order. She knew
+just what was coming to me, so She _showed_ me, and _every single thing
+She said has come, and then some!_"
+
+"I see!" said Douglas. "A wise mother!"
+
+"Sure!" agreed Mickey. "But I guess it wouldn't have done either of us
+much good if I hadn't remembered and kept straight on doing what she
+taught me."
+
+"You are right, it wouldn't," conceded Douglas.
+
+"That's where I'm going to climb above some of the other fellows,"
+announced Mickey confidently. "Either they didn't have mothers to teach
+them or else they did, and forget, or think the teaching wasn't worth
+anything. Now me, I _know_ She was right! She always _proved_ it! She
+had been up against it longer than I had and She knew, so I am going to
+go right along doing as She said. I'll beat them, and carry double at
+that!"
+
+"How double, Mickey?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"I didn't mean to say that," he explained. "That was a slip. There's
+a--there's something----something I'm trying to do that costs more than
+it does to live. I'm bound to do it, so I got to run light and keep my
+lamps polished for chances. What next, sir?"
+
+"Call 9-40-X, and order my car here," said Douglas.
+
+He bent over his papers to hide his face when from an adjoining room
+drifted Mickey's voice in clear enunciation and suave intonation: "Mr.
+Douglas Bruce desires his car to be sent immediately to the Iroquois
+Building."
+
+His mental comment was: "The little scamp has drifted to street lingo
+when he lacked his mother to restrain him. He can speak a fairly clean
+grade of English now if he chooses."
+
+"Next?" briskly inquired Mickey.
+
+"Now look here," said Douglas. "This isn't a horse race. I earn my
+living with my brains, not my heels. I must have time to think things
+out; when your next job arrives I'll tell you. If you are tired, take a
+nap on that couch in there." "Asleep at the switch!" marvelled Mickey.
+
+He went to the adjoining room but did not sleep. He quietly polished
+and straightened furniture, lingered before bookcases and was at
+Douglas' elbow as he turned to call him. Then they closed the offices
+and went to the car, each carrying a load of ledgers.
+
+"You do an awful business!" commented Mickey. "Your car?"
+
+"Yes," answered Douglas.
+
+"You're doing grand, for young as you are."
+
+"I haven't done it all myself, Mickey," explained Douglas. "I happened
+to select a father who was of an acquisitive turn of mind. He left me
+enough that I can have a comfortable living in a small way, from him."
+
+"Gee! It's lucky you got the Joy Lady then!" exclaimed Mickey. "Maybe
+you wouldn't ever work if you didn't have her to scratch for!"
+
+"I always have worked and tried to make something of myself," said
+Douglas.
+
+"Yes, I guess you have," conceded Mickey. "I think it shows when a man
+does. It just shows a lot on you."
+
+"Thank you, Mickey! Same to you!"
+
+"Aw, nix on me!" said Mickey. "I ain't nothing on looks! I ain't ever
+looked at myself enough that if I was sent to find Michael O'Halloran I
+mightn't bring in some other fellow."
+
+"But you're enough acquainted with yourself that you wouldn't bring in
+a dirty boy with a mouth full of swearing and beer," suggested Douglas.
+
+"Well not this evening!" cried Mickey. "On a gamble that ain't my
+picture!"
+
+"If it were, you wouldn't be here!" said Douglas.
+
+"No, nor much of any place else 'cept the gutters, alleys, and the
+police court," affirmed Mickey. "That ain't my style! I'd like to
+be--well--about like you."
+
+"You are perfectly welcome to all I have and am," said Douglas. "If you
+fail to take advantage of the offer, it will be your own fault."
+
+"Yes, I guess it will," reflected Mickey. "You gave me the chance. I am
+to blame if I don't cop on to it, and get in the game. I like you fine!
+Your work is more interesting than odd jobs on the street, and you pay
+like a plute. You're being worked though. You pay too much. If I work
+for you it would save you money to let me manage that; I could get you
+help and things a lot cheaper, then you could spend what you save on
+the Joy Lady, making her more joyous."
+
+"You are calling Miss Winton the Joy Lady?"
+
+"Yes," said Mickey. "Doesn't she just look it?"
+
+"She surely does," agreed Douglas. "It's a good title. I know only two
+that are better. She sows happiness everywhere. What about your Lily
+girl and her doll?"
+
+"Doll doesn't go. That's a Precious Child!"
+
+"I see! Lily is a little girl you like, Mickey?"
+
+"Lily is the littlest girl you ever saw," answered Mickey, "with a bad
+back so that she hasn't ever walked; and she's so sweet--she's the only
+thing I've got to love, so I love her 'til it hurts. Her back is one
+thing I'm saving for. I'm going to have it Carreled as soon as I get
+money, and she grows strong enough to stand it."
+
+"'Carreled?'" queried Douglas wonderingly.
+
+"You know the man who put different legs on a dog?" said Mickey. "I
+often read about him in papers I sell. I think he can fix her back. But
+not yet. A Sunshine Nurse I know says nobody can help her back 'til she
+grows a lot stronger and fatter. She has to have milk and be rubbed
+with oil, and not be jerked for a while before it's any use to begin on
+her back."
+
+"And has she the milk and the oil and the kindness?"
+
+"You just bet she has," said Mickey. "Her family tends to that. And she
+has got a bed, and a window, and her Precious Child, and a slate, and
+books."
+
+"That's all right then," said Douglas. "Any time you see she needs
+anything Mickey, I'd be glad if you would tell me or Miss Winton. She
+loves to do kind things to little sick children to make them happier."
+
+"So do I," said Mickey. "And Lily is _my_ job. But that isn't robbing
+Miss Joy Lady. She can love herself to death if she wants to on
+hundreds of little, sick, cold, miserable children, in every cellar and
+garret and tenement of the east end of Multiopolis. The only kind thing
+God did for them out there was to give them the first chance at
+sunrise. Multiopolis hasn't ever followed His example by giving them
+anything."
+
+"You mean Miss Winton can find some other child to love and care for?"
+asked Douglas.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey emphatically. "It's hands off Lily. Her family is
+taking care of her, so she's got all she needs right now."
+
+"That's good!" said Bruce. "Here we unload."
+
+They entered a building and exchanged the books they carried for others
+which Douglas selected with care, then returning to the office, locked
+them in a safe.
+
+"Now I am driving to the golf grounds for an hour's play," said
+Douglas. "Will you go and caddy for me?"
+
+"I never did. I don't know how," answered Mickey.
+
+"You can learn, can't you?" suggested Douglas.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I've seen boys carrying golf clubs that hadn't
+enough sense to break stone right. I can learn, but my learning might
+spoil your day's sport."
+
+"It would be no big price to pay for an intelligent caddy," replied
+Douglas.
+
+"Mr. Bruce, what price is an intelligent caddy worth?"
+
+"Our Scotch Club pays fifty cents a game and each man employs his own
+boy if he chooses. The club used to furnish boys, but since the Big
+Brother movement began, so many of the men have boys in their offices
+they are accustomed to, and want to give a run over the hills after the
+day's work, that the rule has been changed. I can employ you, if you
+want to serve me."
+
+"I'd go to the _country_ in the car with you, every day you play, and
+carry your clubs?" asked Mickey wonderingly.
+
+"Yes," answered Douglas.
+
+"Over real hills, where there's trees, grass, cows and water?"
+questioned Mickey.
+
+"Yes," repeated Douglas.
+
+"What time would we get back?" he asked.
+
+"Depends on how late I play, and whether I have dinner at the club
+house, say seven as a rule, maybe ten or later at times."
+
+"Nothing doing!" said Mickey promptly. "I got to be home at six by the
+clock every day, even if we were engaged in 'hurling back the enemy.'
+See?"
+
+"But Mickey! That spoils everything!" cried Douglas. "Of course you
+could work for me the remainder of the day if you wanted to, and I
+could keep my old clubhouse caddy, but I want _you_. You want the ride
+in the country, you want the walk, you _need_ the change and
+recreation. You are not a real boy if you don't want that!"
+
+"I'm so real, I'm two boys if _wanting_ it counts, but it doesn't!"
+said Mickey. "You see I got a _job_ for evening. I'm promised. I'd
+rather do what you want than anything I ever saw or heard of, except
+just this. I've given my word, and I'm depended on. I couldn't give up
+this work, and I wouldn't, if I could. Even golf ain't in it with this
+job that I'm on."
+
+"What is your work Mickey?"
+
+"Oh I ain't ever exactly certain," said Mickey. "Sometimes it is one
+thing, sometimes it is another, but always it's something, and it's
+work for a party I couldn't disappoint, not noways, not for all the
+golf in the world."
+
+"You are sure?" persisted Douglas.
+
+"Dead sure with no changing," said Mickey.
+
+"All right then. I'm sorry!" exclaimed Douglas.
+
+"So am I," said Mickey. "But not about the job!"
+
+Douglas laughed. "Well come along this evening and look on. I'll be
+back before six and I'll run you where we did last night, if that is
+close your home."
+
+"Thanks," said Mickey. "I'd love to, but you needn't bother about
+taking me home. I can make it if I start at six. Shall I take the
+things back to the cafe?" "Let them go until morning," said Douglas.
+
+"What becomes of the little cakes?"
+
+"Their fate is undecided. Have you any suggestions?"
+
+"I should worry!" he exclaimed. "They'd fit my pocket. I could hike
+past the hospital and ask the Sunshine Lady; if she said so, I could
+take them to Lily. Bet she never tasted any like them. If it's between
+her and the cafe selling them over, s'pose she takes the cake?"
+
+Mickey's face was one big insinuating, suggestive smile. Douglas' was
+another.
+
+"Suppose she does," he agreed.
+
+"I must wrap them," said Mickey. "Have to be careful about Lily. If
+she's fed dirty, wrong stuff, it will make fever so her back will get
+worse instead of better."
+
+"Will a clean envelope do?" suggested Douglas.
+
+"That would cost you two cents," said Mickey. "Haven't you something
+cheaper?"
+
+"What about a sheet of paper?" hazarded Douglas.
+
+"Fine!" said Mickey, "and only half as expensive."
+
+So they wrapped the little cakes and closed the office. Then Douglas
+said: "Now this ends work for the day. Next comes playtime."
+
+"Then before we begin to play we ought to finish business," said
+Mickey. "I have been thinking over what you said the other day, and
+while I was right about some of it, I was mistaken about part. I ain't
+changing anything I said about Minturn men and his sort, and
+millyingaire men and their sort; but you ain't that kind of a man----"
+
+"Thank you, Mickey," said Douglas.
+
+"No you ain't that _kind_ of a man," continued Mickey. "And you are
+just the kind of a man I'd _like_ to be; so if the door ain't shut,
+guess I'll stick around afternoons."
+
+"Not all day?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"Well you see I am in the paper business and that takes all morning,"
+explained Mickey. "I can always finish my first batch by noon, lots of
+times by ten; from that on to six I could work for you."
+
+"Don't you think you could earn more with me, and in the winter at
+least, be more comfortable?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Winter!" cried Mickey, his face whitening.
+
+"Yes," said Douglas. "The newsboys always look frightfully cold in
+winter."
+
+"Winter!" It was a piteous cry.
+
+"What is it, Mickey?" questioned Bruce kindly.
+
+"You know I _forgot_ it," he said. "I was so took up with what I was
+doing, and thinking right now, that I forgot a time ever was coming
+when it gets blue cold, and little kids freeze. Gee! I almost wish I
+hadn't thought of it. I guess I better sell my paper business, and come
+with you all day. I _know_ I could earn more. I just sort of _hate_ to
+give up the papers. I been at them so long. I've had such a good time.
+'I like to sell papers!' That's the way I always start my cry, and I
+do. I just love to. I sell to about the same bunch every morning, and
+most of my men know me, and they always say a word, and I like the rush
+and excitement and the things that happen, and the looking for chances
+on the side----"
+
+"There's messenger work in my business."
+
+"I see! I like that! I like your work all right," said Mickey. "Gimme a
+few days to sell my route to the best advantage I can, and I'll come
+all day. I'll come for about a half what you are paying now."
+
+"But you admit you need money urgently."
+
+"Well not so urgently as to skin a friend to get it--not even with the
+winter I hadn't thought of coming. Gee--I don't know just what I am
+going to do about that."
+
+"For yourself, Mickey?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"Well in a way, yes," hesitated Mickey. "There are things to _think_
+about! Gee I got to hump myself while the sun shines! If you say so,
+then I'll get out of the paper business as soon as I can; and I'll
+begin work for you steady at noon to-morrow. I've seen you pay out over
+seven to-day. I'll come for six. Is it a bargain?"
+
+"No," said Douglas, "it isn't! The janitor bill was for a week of
+half-done work. The messenger bill was for two days, no caddying at
+all. If you come you will come for not less than eight and what you
+earn extra over that. I don't agree to better service for less pay. If
+you will have things between us on a commercial basis, so will I."
+
+"Oh the Big Brother business would be all right--with you," conceded
+Mickey, "but I don't just like the way it's managed, mostly. God didn't
+make us brothers no more than he did all men, so we better not butt in
+and try to fix things over for Him. Looks to me like we might cut the
+brother business and just be _friends_. I could be an awful good
+_friend_ to you, honest I could!"
+
+"And I to you Mickey," said Douglas Bruce, holding out his hand. "Have
+it as you will. Friends, then! Look for you at noon to-morrow. Now we
+play. Hop in and we'll run to my rooms and get my clubs."
+
+"Shall I sit up with your man?" asked Mickey.
+
+"My friends sit beside me," said Douglas. Mickey spoke softly: "Yes,
+but if I watched him sharp, maybe I could get the hang of driving for
+you. Think what a lump that would save. When I'm going, I'd love to
+drive, just for the fun of it."
+
+"And I wouldn't allow you to drive for less than I pay him," said
+Douglas.
+
+"I don't see why!" exclaimed Mickey.
+
+"When you grow older and know me better, you will."
+
+While the car was running its smoothest, while the country Mickey had
+not seen save on rare newsboy excursions, flashed past, while the
+wonder of the club house, the links, and the work he would have loved
+to do developed, he shivered and cried in his tormented little soul:
+"Gee, how will I ever keep Lily warm?" Douglas noticed his abstraction
+and wondered. He had expected more appreciation of what Mickey was
+seeing and doing; he was coming to the realization that he would find
+out what was in the boy's heart in his own time and way. On the home
+run, when Douglas reached his rooms, he told the driver to take Mickey
+to the end of the car line; the boy shyly interposed to ask if he might
+go to the "Star of Hope Hospital," so Douglas changed the order.
+
+Mickey's passport held good at the hospital. The Sunshine Nurse
+inspected the cakes and approved them. She was so particular she even
+took a tiny nibble of one and said: "Sugar, flour, egg and
+shortening--all right Mickey, those can't hurt her. And how is she
+to-day?"
+
+"Fine!" cried Mickey. "She is getting a lot stronger already. She can
+sit up longer and help herself better, and she's got ribbons, the
+prettiest you ever laid eyes on, that a lady gave me for her hair, and
+they make her pink and nicer; and she's got a baby doll in long clean
+white dresses to snuggle down and stay with her all day; and she's got
+a slate, and a book, and she knows 'cow' and 'milk' and my name, and
+to-day she is learning 'bread.' To-morrow I am going to teach her
+'baby,' and she can say her prayer too nice for anything, once we got
+it fixed so she'd say it at all."
+
+"What did you teach her, Mickey?"
+
+"'Now I lay me,' only Lily wouldn't say it the way She taught me. You
+see Lily was all alone with her granny when she winked out and it
+scared her most stiff, so when I got to that 'If I should die before I
+wake,' line, she just went into fits, and remembering what I'd seen
+myself, I didn't blame her; so I changed it for her 'til she liked it."
+
+"Tell me about it, Mickey?" said the nurse.
+
+"Well you see she has a window, so she can see the stars and the sun.
+She knows them, so I just shifted the old sad, scary lines to:
+
+"_Guard me through the starry night, Wake me safe with sunshine
+bright!_"
+
+"But Mickey, that's lovely!" cried the nurse. "Wait till I write it
+down! I'll teach it to my little people. Half of them come here knowing
+that prayer and when they are ill, they begin to think about it. Some
+of them are old enough to worry over it. Why you're a poet, Mickey!"
+
+"Sure!" conceded Mickey. "That's what I'm going to be when I get
+through school. I'm going to write a poetry piece about Lily for the
+first sheet of the _Herald_ that'll be so good they'll pay me to write
+one every day, but all of them will be about her."
+
+"Mickey, is there enough of such a little girl to furnish one every
+day?" asked the nurse.
+
+"Surest thing you know!" cried Mickey enthusiastically. "Why there are
+the hundred gold rings on her head, one for each; and her eyes, tender
+and teasy, and sad and glad, one for each; and the colour of them
+different a dozen times a day, and her little white face, and her lips,
+and her smile, and when she's good, and when she's bad; why Miss,
+there's enough of Lily for a book big as Mr. Bruce's biggest law book."
+
+"Well Mickey!" cried the girl laughing. "There's no question but you
+will write the poetry, only I can't reconcile it with the kind of a
+hustler you are. I thought poets were languid, dreamy, up-in-the-clouds
+kind of people."
+
+"So they are," explained Mickey. "_That_ comes later. First I got to
+hustle to get Lily's back Carreled and us through school, and ready to
+_write_ the poetry; then it will take so much dreaming to think out
+what is nicest about her, and how to say it best, that it would make
+any fellow languid--you can see how that would be!"
+
+"Yes, I see!" conceded the nurse. "Mickey, by Carreling her back, do
+you mean Dr. Carrel?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Mickey. "You see I read a lot about him in the papers I
+sell. He's the biggest man in the _world! He's bigger than emperors and
+kings!_ They--why the biggest thing they can _do_ is to kill all their
+strongest, bravest men. He's so much bigger than kings, that he can
+take men they shoot to pieces and put them together again. Killing men
+ain't much! Anybody can do killing! Look at him making folks live!
+_Gee, he's big!_"
+
+"And you think he can make Lily's back better?"
+
+"Why I _know_ he can!" said Mickey earnestly. "That wouldn't be a
+patching to what he _has_ done! Soon as you say she is strong enough,
+I'm going to write to him and tell him all about her, and when I get
+the money saved, he'll come and fix her. Sure he will!"
+
+"If you could get to him and tell him yourself, I really believe he
+would," marvelled the nurse. "But you see it's like this, Mickey: when
+men are as great as he is, just thousands of people want everything of
+them, and write letters by the hundreds, and if all of them were read
+there would be time for nothing else, so a secretary opens the mail and
+decides what is important, and that way the big people don't always
+know about the ones they would answer if they were doing it. He's been
+here in this very hospital; I've seen him operate once. Next time a
+perfectly wonderful case comes in, that is in his peculiar line, no
+doubt he will be notified and come again. Then if I could get word to
+you, and you could get Lily here, possibly--just possibly he would
+listen to you and look at her--of course I can't say surely he
+would--but I think he would!"
+
+"Why of course he would!" triumphed Mickey. "Of course he would! He'd
+be tickled to pieces! He'd just love to! Any man would! Why a white
+little flowersy-girl who can't walk----!"
+
+"If you could reach him, I really think he would," said the nurse
+positively.
+
+"Well just you gimme a hint that he's here, and see if I don't get to
+him," said Mickey.
+
+"Is there any place I'd be certain to find you quickly, if a chance
+should come?" she asked. "One never can tell. He might not be here in
+years, but he might be called, and come, to-morrow."
+
+"Why yes!" cried Mickey. "Why of course! Why the telephone! Call me
+where I work!"
+
+"But I thought you were a 'newsy!'" said the nurse.
+
+"Well I was," explained Mickey lifting his head, "but I've give up the
+papers. I've graduated. I'm going to sell out tomorrow. I'm going to
+work permanent for Mr. Douglas Bruce. He's the biggest lawyer in
+Multiopolis. He's got an office in the Iriquois Building, and his call
+is 500-X. Write that down too and put it where you can't lose it. He's
+just a grand man. He asked about Lily to-day. He said any time he'd do
+things for her. Sure he would! He'd stop saving the taxpayers of
+Multiopolis, and take his car, and go like greased lightning for a
+little sick girl. He's the grandest man and he's got a Joy Lady that
+puts in most of her time making folks happy. Either of them would! Why
+it's too easy to talk about! You call me, I take a car and bring her
+scooting! If I'd see Lily standing on her feet, stepping right out like
+other folks, I'd be so happy I'd almost bust wide open. Honest I would!
+If he _does_ come, you'd try _hard_ to get me a chance, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I'd try as hard for you as I would for myself Mickey; I couldn't
+promise more," she said.
+
+"Lily's as good as fixed," exulted Mickey. "Why there is that big easy
+car standing down in the street waiting to take me home right now."
+
+"Does Douglas Bruce send you home in his car?"
+
+"Oh no, not regular! This is extra! Work is over for to-day so we went
+to the golf links; then he lets his man take me while he bathes and
+dresses to go to his Joy Lady. Gee, I got to hurry or I'll make the car
+late; but I can talk with you all you will. I can send the car back and
+walk or hop a 'tricity-wagon."
+
+"Which is a street car?" queried the nurse.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey.
+
+"Well go hop it!" she laughed. "I can't spare more time now, but I
+won't forget, Mickey; and if he comes I'll keep him till you get here,
+if I have to chain him."
+
+"You go to it!" cried Mickey. "And I'll begin praying that he comes
+soon, and I'll just pray and pray so long and so hard, the Lord will
+send him quick to get rid of being asked so constant. No I won't
+either! Well wouldn't that rattle your slats?"
+
+"What, Mickey?" asked the nurse.
+
+"Why don't you _see?_" cried Mickey.
+
+"No, I don't see," admitted the girl.
+
+"Well I do!" said Mickey. "What would be square about that? Why that
+would be asking the Lord to make maybe some other little girl so sick,
+the Carrel man would be sent for, so I'd get my chance for Lily. That
+ain't business! I wouldn't have the cheek! What would the Lord _think_
+of me? He wouldn't come in a mile of _doing_ it. I wouldn't come in ten
+miles of having the nerve to ask him. I do get up against it 'til my
+head swims. And there is _winter_ coming, too!"
+
+The nurse put her arm around Mickey again, and gently propelled him
+toward the elevator.
+
+"Mickey," she said softly, her lips nipping his fair hair, "God doesn't
+give many of us your clear vision and your big heart. I'd have asked
+him that, with never a thought of who would have to be ill to bring Dr.
+Carrel here. But I'll tell you. You can pray _this_ with a clean
+conscience: you can ask God if the doctor _does_ come, to put it into
+his heart to hear you, and to examine Lily. That wouldn't be asking ill
+for anyone else so that you might profit by it. And dear laddie, don't
+worry about _winter_. This city is still taking care of its taxpayers.
+You do your best for Lily all summer, and when winter comes, if you're
+not fixed for it, I will see what your share is and you can have it in
+a stove that will burn warm a whole day, and lots of coal, _plenty_ of
+it. I know I can arrange that."
+
+"Gee, you're great!" he cried. "This is the biggest thing that ever
+happened to me! I see now what I can ask Him on the square; so it's
+_business_ and all right; and Mr. Bruce or Miss Leslie will loan me a
+car, and if you see about the stove and the coal the city has for
+me"--in came Mickey's royal flourish--"why dearest Nurse Lady, Lily is
+as good as walking right now! Gee! In my place would you tell her?"
+
+"I surely would," said the nurse. "It will do her good. It will give
+her hope. Dr. Carrel isn't the only one who can perform miracles; if he
+_doesn't_ come by the time Lily is strong enough to bear the strain of
+being operated, we can try some other great man; and if she is shy, and
+timid from having been alone so much, expecting it will make it easier
+for her. By the way, wait until I bring some little gifts, I and three
+of my friends have made for her in our spare time. I think your
+mother's night dresses must be big and uncomfortable for her, even as
+you cut them off. Try these. Give her a fresh one each day. It is going
+to be dreadfully hot soon. When she has used two, bring them here and
+I'll have them washed for you."
+
+"Now nix on that!" said Mickey. "You're a shining angel bright to sew
+them for her, I'm crazy over them, but I wash them. Mother showed me.
+That will be _my_ share. I can do it fine. And they _will_ be better!
+She's so lost in mother's, I have to shake them to find her!"
+
+They laughed together, then Mickey sped to the sidewalk and ordered the
+car back.
+
+"I've been too long," he said. "Nurse Lady had some things to tell me
+about a little sick girl and I was glad to miss my ride for them. Mr.
+Bruce will be ready by now. You go where he told you."
+
+"I got twenty-seven minutes yet," said the driver. "I can take you at
+least almost there. Hop in."
+
+"Mither o' Mike!" cried Mickey. "Is _that_ all there is to it? Gee, how
+I'd like to have a try at it."
+
+"Are you going to be in Mr. Bruce's office from now on?" asked the
+driver.
+
+"If I can sell my paper line," answered Mickey.
+
+"Got a good route?" inquired the man.
+
+"Best of any boy in my district," said Mickey. "I _like_ to sell
+papers. I got it down fine!"
+
+"I guess you have," said the driver. "I know your voice, and everybody
+on your street knows that cry. Your route ought to be worth a fair
+price. I got a kid that wants a paper start. What would you ask to take
+him over your round and tell the men you are turning your business over
+to him, and teach him your cries?"
+
+"Hum-m-m-m!" said Mickey. "My cry is whatever has the biggest headlines
+on the front page, mixed in with a lot of joyous fooling, and I'd have
+to see your boy 'fore I'd say if I could teach him. Is he a clean kid
+with a joyous face, and his anatomy decorated with a fine large hump?
+That's the only kind that gets my job. I won't have my nice men made
+sore all day 'cause they start it by seeing a kid with a boiled-owl
+face."
+
+"You think a happy face sells most papers?"
+
+"Know it!" said Mickey, "'cause I wear it on the job, and I get away
+with the rest of them three times and coming. Same everywhere as with
+the papers. A happy face would work with your job, if you'd loosen up a
+link or two, and tackle it. It may crack your complexion, if you start
+too violent, but taking it by easy runs and greasing the ways 'fore you
+cut your cable, I believe you'd survive it!"
+
+Mickey flushed and grinned in embarrassment when people half a block
+away turned to look at his driver, and the boy's mouth opened as a
+traffic policeman smiled in sympathy when he waved his club, signalling
+them to cross. Mickey straightened up reassured.
+
+"_Did you get that?_" he inquired.
+
+"I got it!" said the driver. "But it won't ever happen again. McFinley
+has been on that crossing for five years and that's his first smile on
+the job."
+
+"Then make it your business to see that it ain't his _last!_" advised
+Mickey. "There's no use growing morgue lines on your mug; with all May
+running wild just to please you and the man in the moon; loosen up, if
+you have to tickle your liver with a torpedo to start you!"
+
+"You brass monkey!" said the driver. "You climb down right here, before
+I'm arrested for a plain drunk."
+
+"Don't you think it," called Mickey. "If you like your job, man, cotton
+up to it; chuckle it under the chin, and get real familiar. See? Try
+grin, 'stead of grouch just one day and watch if the whole world
+doesn't look better before night."
+
+"Thanks kid, I'll think it over!" promised the driver.
+
+Mickey hurried home to Peaches. He hid the cake and the hospital box
+under the things he bought for supper and went to her with empty hands.
+He could see she was tired and hungry, so he gave her a drink of milk,
+and proceeded to the sponge bath and oil rub. These rested and
+refreshed her so that Mickey demanded closed eyes, while he slipped the
+dainty night-robe over her head, and tied the pink ribbon on her curls.
+Then he piled the pillows, leaned her against them and brought the
+mirror.
+
+"Now open your peepers, Flowersy-girl, and tell me how Miss O'Halloran
+strikes you!" he exulted.
+
+Peaches took one long look. She opened her mouth. Then she turned to
+Mickey and shut her mouth; shut it and clapped both hands over it; so
+that he saw the very act of strangling a phrase he would have condemned.
+
+"That's a nice lady!" he commented in joy. "Now let me tell you! You
+got four of these gorgeous garments, each one made by a different
+nurse-lady, while she was resting. Every day you get a clean one, and I
+wash the one you wore last, careful and easy not to tear the lacy
+places. Ain't they the gladdest rags you ever saw!"
+
+Peaches gasped: "Mickey, I'll bust!"
+
+"Go on and bust then!" conceded Mickey. "Bust if you must; but don't
+you dare say no words that ain't for the ladiest of ladies, in that
+beautiful, softy, white dress."
+
+Peaches set her lips, stretching her arms widely. She sat straighter
+than Mickey ever had seen her, lifting her head higher. Gradually a
+smile crept over her face. She was seeing a very pinched, white little
+girl, with a shower of yellow curls bound with a pink ribbon tied in a
+big bow; wearing a dainty night dress with a fancy yoke run with pink
+ribbons tied under her chin and at her elbows. She crooked an arm,
+primped her mouth, and peered at the puffed sleeves, then hastily
+gulped down whatever she had been tempted to say.
+
+Again Mickey approved. Despite protests he removed the mirror, then put
+the doll in her arms. "Now you line up," he said. "Now you look alike!
+After you get your supper, comes the joy part for sure."
+
+"More joyous than this?" Peaches surveyed herself.
+
+"Yes, Miss! The joyousest thing of all the world that could happen to
+you," he said.
+
+"But Mickey-lovest!" she cried in protest. "You know--_you know_--what
+_that_ would be!"
+
+"Sure I know!" said Mickey.
+
+"I don't believe it! It never could!" she cried.
+
+"There you go!" said Mickey in exasperation. "You make me think of them
+Texas bronchos kicking at everything on earth, in the Wild West shows
+every spring. Honest you do!"
+
+"Mickey, you forgot my po'try piece to-night!" she interposed hastily.
+
+"What you want a poetry piece for with such a dress and ribbon as you
+got?" he demanded.
+
+"I like the po'try piece _better_ than the dress or the ribbon," she
+asserted positively.
+
+"You'll be saying better than the baby, next!"
+
+"Yes, an' better than the baby!"
+
+"You look out Miss," marvelled Mickey. "You got to tell true or you
+can't be my family."
+
+"Sure and true!" said Peaches emphatically.
+
+"Well if I ever!" cried Mickey. "I didn't think you was _that_ silly!"
+
+"'Tain't silly!" said Peaches. "The po'try pieces is _you!_ 'Tain't
+silly to like _you_ better than a dress, and a ribbon, or a Precious
+Child. I want my piece now!"
+
+"Well I've been so busy to-day, I forgot your piece, said Mickey.
+"'Nough things have happened to make me forget my head, if 'twasn't
+fast. I forgot your piece. I thought you'd like the dress and the
+joyous thing better."
+
+"Then you _didn't_ forget it!" cried Peaches. "You thought something
+else, and you thought what ain't! So there! I _want_ my po'try piece!"
+
+"Well do you want it worse than your supper?" demanded Mickey.
+
+"Yes I do!" said Peaches.
+
+"Well use me for a mop!" cried Mickey. "Then you'll have to wait 'til I
+make one."
+
+"Go on and make it!" ordered the child.
+
+"Well how do you like this?"
+
+"_Once a stubborn little kicker, Kicked until she made me snicker. If
+she had wings, she couldn't fly, 'Cause she'd be too stubborn to try._"
+
+A belligerent look slowly spread over Peaches' face.
+
+"_That's_ no po'try piece," she scoffed, "an' I don't like it at all,
+an' I won't write it on my slate; not if I never learn to write
+anything. Mickey-lovest, please make a _nice_ one to save for my book.
+It's going to have three on ev'ry page, an' a nice piece o' sky like
+right up there for backs, and mebby--mebby a cow on it!"
+
+"Sure a cow on it," agreed Mickey. "I saw a lot to-day! I'll tell you
+after supper. Gimme a little time to think. I can't do nice ones right
+off."
+
+"You did that one right off," said Peaches.
+
+"Sure!" answered Mickey. "I was a little--a little--per_voked!_ And you
+said that wasn't a _nice_ one."
+
+"And so it wasn't!" asserted Peaches positively.
+
+"If I have a nice one ready when I bring supper, will that do?"
+questioned Mickey.
+
+"Yes," said Peaches. "But I won't eat my supper 'til I have it."
+
+"Now don't you get too bossy, Miss Chicken," warned Mickey. "There's a
+surprise in this supper like you never had in all your life. I guess
+you'd eat it, if you'd see it."
+
+"I wouldn't 'til I had my po'try piece."
+
+In consideration of the poetry piece Mickey desisted. The inference was
+too flattering. Between narrowed lids he looked at Lily. "You fool
+sweet little kid," he muttered. Then he prepared supper. When he set it
+on the table he bent over and taking both hands he said gently:
+
+"_Flowersy-girl of moonbeam white, Golden head of sunshine bright,
+Dancing eyes of sky's own blue, No other flower in the world like you._"
+
+"Get the slate!" cried Peaches. "Get the slate! Now _that's_ a po'try
+piece. That's the best one yet. I'm going to put that right under the
+cow!"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I think that's the best yet myself. You see, you
+make them come better every time, 'cause you get so much sweeter every
+day."
+
+"Then why did you make the bad one?" she pouted.
+
+"Well every time you just yell 'I won't,' without ever giving me a
+chance to tell you _what_ I'm going to do, or why," explained Mickey.
+"If only you'd learn to wait a little, you'd do better. If I was to
+tell you that Carrel man was at the door with a new back for you, if
+you turn over and let him put it in, I s'pose you'd yell: 'I won't!'"
+
+The first tinge of colour Mickey had seen, almost invisibly faint,
+crept to the surface of Peaches' white cheek.
+
+"Just you try it, Mickey-lovest!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Finish your supper, and see what I try."
+
+Peaches obeyed. She had stopped grabbing and cramming. She ate slowly,
+masticating each morsel as the nurse told Mickey she should. To-night
+he found her so dainty and charming, as she instinctively tried to be
+as nice as her dress and supper demanded, that he forgot himself, until
+she reminded him. Then he rallied and ate his share. He presented the
+cakes, and while they enjoyed them he described every detail of the day
+he thought would interest her, until she had finished. He told her of
+the nurse and the dresses and when she wanted to see the others he
+said: "No sir! You got to wait till you are bathed and dressed each
+evening, and then you can see yourself, and that will be more fun than
+taking things all at once. You needn't think I'm coming in here _every_
+night with a great big lift-the-roof surprise for you. Most nights
+there won't be anything for you only me, and your supper."
+
+"But Mickey, them's the nicest nights of all!" said Peaches. "I like
+thinking about you better than nurse-ladies, or joy-ladies, or my back,
+even; if it wasn't for having supper ready to _help_ you."
+
+"There you go again!" exclaimed Mickey. "Cut that stuff out, kid!
+You'll get me so broke up, I won't be fit for nothing but poetry, and
+that's tough eating; there's a lot must come, 'fore I just make a
+business of it. Now Miss, you brace up, and get this: the Carrel man
+has been in this very burg. See! Our Nurse Lady at the 'Star of Hope'
+has watched him making some one over. Every time anybody is brought
+there with a thing the matter with them, that he knows best how to
+cure, the big head knifers slip it over to him, so he comes and does it
+to get practice on the job. He _may_ not come for a long time; he
+_might_ come to-morrow. See?"
+
+"Oh Mickey! Would he?" gasped Peaches.
+
+"Why sure he would!" cried Mickey with his most elaborate flourish.
+"Sure he would! That's what he lives for. He'd be tickled to pieces to
+make over the back of a little girl that can't walk. Sure he would!
+What I ain't sure of is that you wouldn't gig back and say, 'I won't!'
+if you had a chance to be fixed."
+
+Peaches spoke with deliberate conviction: "Mickey, I'm most _sure_ I've
+_about_ quit that!"
+
+"Well, it's time!" said Mickey. "What you got to do is to eat, and
+sleep, and be bathed, and rubbed, and get so big and strong that when I
+come chasing up the steps and say, 'He's here, Lily, clap your arms
+around my neck and come to the china room and the glass table and be
+fixed,' you just take a grip and never open your head. See! You can be
+a game little kid, the gamest I ever saw, you will then, Lily, won't
+you?"
+
+"Sure!" she promised. "I'll just grab you and I'll say, 'Go Mickey, go
+h----!"
+
+"Wope! Wope there lady!" interposed Mickey. "Look out! There's a
+subm'rine coming. Sink it! Sink it!"
+
+"Mickey what's a subm'rine?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Why it's like this," explained Mickey. "There's places where there's
+water, like I bring to wash you, only miles and miles of it, such a
+lot, it's called an ocean----"
+
+"Sure! 'Crost it where the kings is makin' people kill theirselves,"
+cried Peaches.
+
+"Yes," agreed Mickey. "And on the water, sailing along like a lady, is
+a big, beautiful ship. Then there's a nasty little boat that can creep
+under the water. It slips up when she doesn't know it's coming, and
+blows a hole in the fine ship and sinks her all spoiled. But if the
+nice ship sees the subm'rine coming and sinks it, why then she stays
+all nice, and isn't spoiled at all. See?"
+
+"Subm'rines spoil things?" ventured Peaches.
+
+"They were just _invented_ for that, and nothing else."
+
+"Mickey, I'll just say, 'Hurry! Run fast!' Mickey, can you carry me
+that far?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"No, I can't carry you that far," admitted Mickey. "But Mr. Douglas
+Bruce, that we work for after this, will let me take his driver and his
+nice, easy car, and it will beat streetcars a mile, and we'll just go
+sailing for the 'Star of Hope' and get your back made over, and then
+comes school and everything girls like. See?"
+
+"Mickey, what if he never comes?" wavered Peaches.
+
+"Yes, but he _will!_" said Mickey positively.
+
+"Mickey, what if he should come, an' wouldn't even _look_ at my back?"
+she pursued.
+
+"Why, he'd be _glad_ to!" cried Mickey. "Don't be silly. Give the man
+some chance!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+_James Jr. and Malcolm_
+
+
+Nellie Minturn returned to her room too dazed to realize her suffering.
+She had intended doing something; the fringed orchids reminded her. She
+rang for water to put them in, while her maid with shaking fingers
+dressed her, then ordered the car. The girl understood that some
+terrible thing had happened and offered to go with the woman who moved
+so mechanically she proved she scarcely knew what she was doing.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Minturn. "No, the little soul has been out there a long
+time alone, her mother had better go alone and see how it is."
+
+She entered the car, gave her order and sank back against the seat.
+When the car stopped, she descended and found the gates guarding the
+doors of the onyx vault locked. She pushed her flowers between the
+bars, dropping them before the doors, then wearily sank on the first
+step, leaning her head against the gate, trying to think, but she could
+not. Near dawn her driver spoke to her.
+
+"It's almost morning," he said. "You've barely time to reach home
+before the city will be stirring."
+
+She paid no attention, so at last he touched her.
+
+"You, Weston?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, Madam," he said. "I'm afraid for you. I ventured to come closer
+than you said. Excuse me."
+
+"Thank you Weston," she answered.
+
+"Let me drive you home now, Madam," he begged.
+
+"Just where would you take me if you were taking me home, Weston?"
+
+"Where we came from," he replied.
+
+"Do you think that has ever been a home, Weston?"
+
+"I have thought it the finest home in Multiopolis, Madam," said the
+driver in surprise.
+
+She laughed bitterly. "So have I, Weston. And to-day I have learned
+what it really is. Help me, Weston! Take me back to the home of my
+making."
+
+When he rang for her, she gave him an order: "Find Mr. John Haynes and
+bring him here immediately."
+
+"Bring him now, Madam?" he questioned.
+
+"Immediately, I said," she repeated.
+
+"I will try, Madam," said Weston.
+
+"You will bring him at once if he is in Multiopolis," she said with
+finality.
+
+Weston knew that John Haynes was her lawyer; he had brought him from
+his residence or office at her order many times; he brought him again.
+At once John Haynes dismissed all the servants in the Minturn
+household, arranged everything necessary, and saw Mrs. Minturn aboard a
+train in company with a new maid of his selection; then he mailed a
+deed of gift of the Minturn residence to the city of Multiopolis for an
+endowed Children's Hospital. The morning papers briefly announced the
+departure and the gift. At his breakfast table James Minturn read both
+items, then sat in deep thought.
+
+"Not like her!" was his mental comment. "I can understand how that
+place would become intolerable to her; but I never knew her to give a
+dollar to the suffering. Now she makes a princely gift, not because she
+is generous, but because the house has become unbearable; and as usual,
+with no thought of any one save herself. If the city dares accept, how
+her millionaire neighbours will rage at disease and sickness being
+brought into the finest residence district! Probably the city will be
+compelled to sell it and build somewhere else. But there is something
+fitting in the reparation of turning a building that has been a place
+of torture to children, into one of healing. It proves that she has a
+realizing sense."
+
+He glanced around the bright, cheerful breakfast room, with its
+carefully set, flower-decorated table, at his sister at its head, at a
+son on either hand, at a pleasant-faced young tutor on one side, and
+his Little Brother on the other; for so had James Minturn ordered his
+household.
+
+Mrs. Winslow had left a home she loved to come at her brother's urgent
+call for help to save his boys. The tutor had only a few hours of his
+position, and thus far his salary seemed the attractive feature. James
+Jr. and Malcolm were too dazed to be natural for a short time. They had
+been picked up bodily, and carried kicking and screaming to this place,
+where they had been dressed in plain durable clothing. Malcolm's bed
+stood beside Little Brother's in a big sunny room; James' was near the
+tutor's in a chamber the counterpart of the other, save for its
+bookcases lining one wall.
+
+There was a schoolroom not yet furnished with more than tables and
+chairs, its floors and walls bare, its windows having shades only. When
+worn out with the struggle the amazed boys had succumbed to sleep on
+little, hard, white beds with plain covers; had awakened to a cold bath
+at the hands of a man, and when they rebelled and called for Lucette
+and their accustomed clothing, were forcibly dressed in linen and khaki.
+
+In a few minutes together before they were called to breakfast, James
+had confided to Malcolm that he thought if they rushed into William's
+back with all their strength, on the top step, they could roll him
+downstairs and bang him up good. Malcolm had doubts, but he was willing
+to try. William was alert, because as many another "newsy" he had known
+these boys in the park; so when the rush came, a movement too quick for
+untrained eyes to follow swung him around a newel post, while both boys
+bumping, screaming, rolled to the first landing and rebounded from a
+wall harder than they. When no one hastened at their screams to pick
+them up, they arose fighting each other. The tutor passed and James
+tried to kick him, merely because he could. He was not there either,
+but he stopped for this advice to the astonished boy: "If I were you I
+wouldn't do that. This is a free country, and if you have a right to
+kick me, I have the same right to kick you. I wouldn't like to do it.
+I'd rather allow mules and vicious horses to do the kicking; still if
+you're bound to kick, I can; but my foot is so much bigger than yours,
+and if I forgot and took you for a football, you'd probably have to go
+to the hospital and lie in a plaster cast a week or so. If I were you,
+I wouldn't! Let's go watch the birds till breakfast is called, instead."
+
+The invitation was not accepted. The tutor descended alone. As he
+stepped to the veranda he met Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Well?" that gentleman asked tersely.
+
+Mr. Tower shook his head. He was studying law. He needed money to
+complete his course. He needed many things he could acquire from James
+Minturn.
+
+"It's a problem," he said guardedly.
+
+"You draw your salary for its solution," Mr. Minturn said tartly. "Work
+on the theory I outlined; if it fails after a fair test, we'll try
+another. Those boys have got to be saved. They are handsome little
+chaps with fine bodies and good ancestry. What happened just now?"
+
+"They tried to rush William on the top step. William evaporated, so
+they took the fall themselves."
+
+"Exactly right," commented Mr. Minturn. "Get the idea and work on it.
+Every rough, heartless thing they attempt, if at all possible, make it
+a boomerang to strike them their own blow; but you reserve blows as a
+last resort. There is the bell." Mr. Minturn called: "Boys! The
+breakfast bell is ringing. Come!"
+
+There was not a sound. Mr. Minturn nodded to the tutor. Together they
+ascended the stairs. They found the boys hidden in a wardrobe. Mr.
+Minturn opened the door, gravely looking at them.
+
+"Boys," he said, "you're going to live with me after this, so you're to
+come when I call you. You're going to eat the food that makes _men_ of
+boys, where I can see what you get. You are going to do what I believe
+best for you, until you are so educated that you are capable of
+thinking for yourselves. Now what you must do, is to come downstairs
+and take your places at the table. If you don't feel hungry, you
+needn't eat; but I would advise you to make a good meal. I intend to
+send you to the country in the car. You'll soon want food. With me you
+will not be allowed to lunch at any hour, in cafes and restaurants. If
+you don't eat your breakfast you will get nothing until noon. It is up
+to you. Come on!"
+
+Neither boy moved. Mr. Minturn smiled at them.
+
+"The sooner you quit this, the sooner all of us will be comfortable,"
+he said casually. "Observe my size. See Mr. Tower, a college athlete,
+who will teach you ball, football, tennis, swimming in lakes and
+riding, all the things that make boys manly men; better stop sulking in
+a closet and show your manhood. With one finger either of us can lift
+you out and carry you down by force; and we will, but why not be
+gentlemen and walk down as we do?"
+
+Both boys looked at him; then at each other, but remained where they
+were.
+
+"Time is up!" said Mr. Minturn. "They've had their chance, Mr. Tower.
+If they won't take it, they must suffer the consequences. Take Malcolm,
+I'll bring James."
+
+Instantly both boys began to fight. No one bribed them to stop, struck
+them, or did anything at all according to precedent. They raged until
+they exposed a vulnerable point, then each man laid hold, lifted and
+carefully carried down a boy, placing him on a chair. James instantly
+slid to the floor.
+
+"Take James' chair away!" ordered Mr. Minturn. "He prefers to be served
+on the floor."
+
+Malcolm laughed.
+
+"I don't either. I slipped," cried James.
+
+"Then excuse yourself, resume your chair, and be mighty careful you
+don't slip again."
+
+ James looked at his father sullenly, but at last muttered, "Excuse me,"
+and took the chair. With bright inflamed eyes they stared at their
+almost unknown father, who now had them in his power; at a woman they
+scarcely knew, whom they were told to call Aunt Margaret; at a strange
+man who was to take Lucette's place, and who had a grip that made hers
+seem feeble, and who was to teach them the things of which they knew
+nothing, and therefore hated; and at a boy nearer their own size and
+years, whom their father called William. Both boys refused fruit and
+cereal, rudely demanding cake and ice cream. Margaret Winslow looked at
+her brother in despair. He placidly ate his breakfast, remarking that
+the cook was a treasure. As he left the table Mr. Minturn laid the
+papers before his sister, indicating the paragraphs he had read, then
+calling for his car he took the tutor and the boys and left for his
+office. He ordered them to return for him at half-past eleven, and with
+minute instructions as to how they were to proceed, Mr. Tower and
+William drove to the country to begin the breaking in of the Minturn
+boys.
+
+They disdained ball, did not care for football, improvised golf clubs
+and a baseball were not interesting, further than the use of the clubs
+on each other, which was not allowed. They did not care what the
+flowers were, they jerked them up by the roots when they saw it annoyed
+Mr. Tower, while every bird in range flew from a badly aimed stone.
+They tried chasing a flock of sheep, which chased beautifully for a
+short distance, then a ram declined to run farther and butted the
+breath from Malcolm's small body until it had to be shaken in again.
+They ran amuck and on finding they were not pursued, gave up, stopping
+on the bank of a creek. There they espied tiny shining fish swimming
+through the water and plunged in to try to capture them. When Mr. Tower
+and William came up, both boys were busy chasing fish. From a bank
+where they sat watching came a proposal from William.
+
+"I'll tell you fellows, I believe if we could build a dam we could
+catch them. Gather stones and pile them up till I get my shoes off."
+
+Instantly both boys obeyed. Mr. Tower and William stripped their feet,
+and rolled their trousers. Into the creek they went setting stones,
+packing with sod and muck, using sticks and leaves until in a short
+time they had a dam before which the water began rising, then
+overflowing.
+
+"Now we must wait until it clears," said William.
+
+So they sat under a tree to watch until in the clean pool formed they
+could see little fish gathering. Then the boys lay on the banks and
+tried to catch them with their hands, and succeeded in getting a few.
+Mr. Tower suggested they should make pools, one on each side of the
+creek, for their fish, so they eagerly went to work. They pushed and
+slapped each other, they fought over the same stone, but each
+constructed with his own hands a stone and mud enclosed pool in which
+to pen his fish. They were really interested in what they were doing,
+they really worked, also soon they were really tired, they were really
+hungry. With imperative voice they demanded food.
+
+"You forget what your father told you at breakfast," said Mr. Tower.
+"He knew you were coming to the country where you couldn't get food.
+William and I are not hungry. We want to catch these little fish, and
+see who can get the most. We think it's fun. We can't take the car back
+until your father said to come."
+
+"You take us back right now, and order meat, and cake, and salad and
+ice cream, lots of it!" stormed James.
+
+"I have to obey your father!" said Mr. Tower.
+
+"I just hate fathers!" cried James.
+
+"I'll wager you do!" conceded Mr. Tower.
+
+James stared open mouthed.
+
+"I can see how you feel," said Mr. Tower companionably. "When a fellow
+has been coddled by nurses all his life, has no muscle, no appetite
+except for the things he shouldn't have, and never has done anything
+but silly park-playing, it must be a great change to be out with men,
+and doing as they do."
+
+Both boys were listening, so he went on: "But don't feel badly, and
+don't waste breath hating. Save it for the grand fun we are going to
+have, and next time good food is before you, eat like men. We don't
+start back for an hour yet; see which can catch the most fish in that
+time."
+
+"Where is Lucette?" demanded James.
+
+"Gone back to her home across the ocean; you'll never see her again,"
+said Mr. Tower.
+
+"Wish I could a-busted her head before she went!" said James
+regretfully.
+
+"No doubt," laughed Mr. Tower. "But break your own and see how it feels
+before you try it on any one else."
+
+"I wish I could break yours!" cried James angrily.
+
+"No doubt again," agreed the tutor, "but if you do, the man who takes
+my place may not know how to make bows and arrows, or build dams, or
+anything that's fun, while he may not be so patient as I am."
+
+"Being hungry ain't fun," growled Malcolm.
+
+"That's your own fault," Mr. Tower reminded him. "You wouldn't eat.
+That was a good breakfast."
+
+"Wasn't a thing Lucette gave us!" scoffed James.
+
+"But you don't like Lucette very well," said Mr. Tower. "After you've
+been a man six months, you won't eat cake for breakfast; or much of it
+at any time."
+
+"Lucette is never coming back?" marvelled Malcolm.
+
+"Never!" said Mr. Tower conclusively.
+
+"How soon are we going home?" demanded James.
+
+"Never!" replied Mr. Tower. "You are going to live where you were last
+night, after this."
+
+"Where is Mamma?" cried Malcolm.
+
+"Gone for the summer," explained Mr. Tower.
+
+"I know. She always goes," said James. "But she took us before. I just
+hate it. I like this better. We make no difference to her anyway. Let
+her go!"
+
+"Ain't we rich boys any more?" inquired Malcolm.
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Tower. "That is your father's business. I
+think you have as much money as ever, but from now on, you are going to
+live like men."
+
+"We won't live like men!" cried both boys.
+
+"Now look here," said Mr. Tower kindly, "you may take my word for it
+that a big boy almost ten years old, and another nearly his age, who
+can barely read, who can't throw straight, who can't swim, or row, or
+walk a mile without puffing like an engine, who begins to sweat over
+lifting a few stones, is a mighty poor specimen. You think you are
+wonders because you've heard yourself called big, fine boys; you are
+soft fatties. I can take you to the park and pick out any number of
+boys half your size and age who can make either of you yell for mercy
+in three seconds. You aren't boys at all; if you had to get on your
+feet and hike back to town, before a mile you'd be lying beside the
+road bellowing worse than I've heard you yet. You aren't as tough and
+game as half the girls of your age I know."
+
+"You shut your mouth!" cried James in rage. "Mother'll fire you!"
+
+"It is you who are fired, young man," said the tutor. "Your mother is
+far away by this time. She left you boys with your father, who pays me
+to make _men_ of you, so I'm going to do it. You are big enough to know
+that you'll never be men, motoring around with nurses, like small
+babies; eating cake and ice cream when your bones and muscles are in
+need of stiffening and toughening. William, peel off your shirt, and
+show these chaps how a man's muscle should be."
+
+William obeyed, swelling his muscles.
+
+"Now you try that," suggested Mr. Tower to James, "and see how much
+muscle you can raise."
+
+"I'm no gutter snipe," he sneered. "I'm a gentleman! I don't need
+muscle. I'm never going to work."
+
+"But you've just been working!" cried the tutor. "Carrying those stones
+was work, and you'll remember it took both of you to lift one that
+William, who is only a little older than you, James, moved with one
+hand. You can't _play_ without working. You've got to pull to row a
+boat, or hold a horse. You must step out lively to play tennis, or
+golf, or to skate, while if you try to swim without work, you'll drown."
+
+"I ain't going to do those things!" retorted James.
+
+"No, you are going to spend your life riding in an automobile with a
+nurse, feeding you cake!" scoffed the tutor.
+
+William shouted and turned a cart wheel so flashingly quick that both
+boys jumped, James' face coloured a slow red, so the tutor took hope.
+
+"I see that makes you blush," he said. "No wonder! You should be as
+tough as leather, and spinning along this creek bank like William.
+Instead you are a big, bloated softy. You carry too much fat for your
+size, while you are mushy as pudding! If I were you, I'd show my father
+how much of a man I could be, instead of how much of a baby."
+
+"Father isn't a gentleman!" announced Malcolm. "Lucette said so!"
+
+"Hush!" cried Mr. Tower. "Don't you ever say that again! Your father is
+one of the big men of this great city: one of the men who think, plan,
+and make things happen, that result in health, safety and comfort for
+all of us. One of the men who is going to rule, not only his own home,
+but this city, and this whole state, one of these days. You don't
+_know_ your father. You don't know what men say and think of him. You
+do know that Lucette was fit for nothing but to wash and dress you like
+babies, big boys who should have been _ashamed_ to let a woman wait on
+them. You do know that she is on her way back where she came from,
+because she could not do her work right. And you have the nerve to tell
+me what she said about a fine man like your father. I'm amazed at you!"
+
+"Gentlemen don't work!" persisted Malcolm. "Mother said so!"
+
+"I'm sorry to contradict your mother, but she forgot something," said
+Mr. Tower. "If the world has any gentlemen it surely should be those
+born for generations of royal and titled blood, and reared from their
+cradles in every tradition of their rank. Europe is full of them, and
+many are superb men. I know a few. Now will you tell me where they are
+to-day? They are down in trenches six feet under ground, shivering in
+mud and water, half dead for sleep, food, and rest, trying to save the
+land of their birth, the homes they own, to protect the women and
+children they love. They are marching miles, being shot down in cavalry
+rushes, and blown up in boats they are manning, in their fight to save
+their countries. _Gentlemen don't work!_ You are too much of an idiot
+to talk with, if you don't know how gentlemen of birth, rank and by
+nature are working this very day."
+
+The descent on him was precipitate and tumultuous.
+
+"The war!" shouted both boys in chorus. "Tell us about the war! Oh I
+just love the war!" cried Malcolm. "When I'm a man I'm going to have a
+big shiny sword, and ride, and fight, and make the enemy fly! You ought
+to seen Gretchen and Lucette fight! They ain't either one got much hair
+left."
+
+The tutor could not help laughing; but he made room for a boy on either
+side of him, and began on the war. It was a big subject, there were
+phases of it that shocked and repulsed him; but it was his task to undo
+the wrong work of ten years, he was forced to use the instrument that
+would accomplish that end. With so much material he could tell of
+things unavoidable, that men of strength and courage were doing, not
+forgetting the boys and the _women_. William stretched at his feet and
+occasionally made a suggestion, or asked a question, while James and
+Malcolm were interested in something at last. When it was time to
+return, neither wanted to go.
+
+"Your father's orders were to come for him at half-past eleven,"
+reminded Mr. Tower. "I work for him, so I must obey!"
+
+"Nobody pays any attention to father," cried James. "I order you to
+stay here and tell of the fighting. Tell about the French boy who
+wouldn't show where the troops were."
+
+"Oh, I am to take orders from you, am I?" queried Mr. Tower. "All
+right! Pay my salary and give me the money to buy our lunch!"
+
+James stood thinking a second. "I have all the money I want," he said.
+"I go to Mrs. Ranger for my money. Mother always makes her give me what
+I ask for."
+
+"You have forgotten that you have moved, and brought only yourselves,"
+said Mr. Tower. "Your mother and the money are gone. Your father pays
+the bills now, and if you'll watch sharp, you'll see that things have
+changed since this time yesterday. Every one pays all the attention
+there is to _father_ now. What we have, and do, and want, must come
+from him, and as it's a big contract, and he's needed to help manage
+this city, we'd better begin thinking about father, and taking care of
+him as much as we can. Now we are to obey him. Come on William. It's
+lunch time, and I'm hungry."
+
+The boys climbed into the car without a word, and before it had gone a
+mile Malcolm slipped against the tutor and shortly thereafter James
+slid to the floor, tired to insensibility and sound asleep. So Mr.
+Minturn found them when he came from his office. He looked them over
+carefully, wet, mud-stained, grimy, bruised and sleeping in exhaustion.
+
+"Poor little soldiers," he said. "Your battle has been a hard one I
+see. I hope to God you gained a victory."
+
+He entered the car, picked up James and taking him in his arms laid the
+tired head on his breast, leaning his face against the boy's hair. When
+the car stopped at the new house, the tutor waited for instructions.
+
+"Wake them up, make them wash themselves, and come to lunch," said Mr.
+Minturn. "Afterward, if they are sleepy, let them nap. They must
+establish regular habits at the beginning. It's the only way."
+
+Dashes of cold water helped, so William and the tutor telling each
+other how hungry they were, brought two boys ready to eat anything, to
+the table. Cake and cream were not mentioned. Bread and milk, cold
+meat, salad, and a plain pudding were delicious. Between bites James
+studied his father, then suddenly burst forth: "Are you a gentleman?"
+
+"I try to be," answered Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Are you running this city?" put in Malcolm.
+
+"I am doing what I can to help," said his father.
+
+"Make Johnston take me home to get my money."
+
+"You have no home but this," said Mr. Minturn. "Your old home now
+belongs to the city of Multiopolis. It is to be torn up and made over
+into a place where sick children can be cured. If you are ever too ill
+for us to manage, we'll take you there to be doctored."
+
+"Will mother and Lucette be there?" asked James.
+
+Malcolm nudged his brother.
+
+"Can't you remember?" he said. "Lucette has gone across the ocean, and
+she is never coming back, goody! goody! And you know about how much
+mother cares when we are sick. She's _coming_ the other _way_, when
+anybody is _sick_. She just hates sick people. Let _them_ go, and get
+your _money!_"
+
+Thus reminded, James began again, "I want to get my money."
+
+"Your money came from your mother, so it went with your home, your
+clothes, and your playthings," explained Mr. Minturn. "You have none
+until you _earn_ some. I can give you a home, education, and a fine
+position when you are old enough to hold it; but I _can't give you
+money. No one ever gave me any. I always had to work for mine. From now
+on you are going to live with me, so if you have money you'll have to
+go to work and earn it_."
+
+Both boys looked aghast at him. "Ain't we rich any more?"
+
+"No," said Mr. Minturn. "Merely comfortable!"
+
+James leaned back in his chair, twisting his body in its smooth linen
+covering. He looked intently at the room, table and people surrounding
+it. He glanced from the window at the wide green lawn, the big trees,
+and for an instant seemed to be listening to the birds singing there.
+He laid down his fork, turning to his brother. Then he exploded the
+bomb that shattered the family.
+
+"Oh damn being rich!" he cried. "I like being _comfortable_ a _lot_
+better! Malcolm, being rich has put us about ten miles behind where we
+ought to be. We're baby-girl softies! We wouldn't a-faced the guns and
+_not_ told where the soldiers were, _we'd_ a-bellered for cake. Brace
+up! Let's get in the game! Father, have we got to go on the street and
+hunt work, or can you give us a job?"
+
+James Minturn tried to speak, then pushing back his chair left the
+table precipitately. James Jr. looked after him doubtfully. He turned
+to Aunt Margaret.
+
+"Please excuse me," he said. "I guess he's choked. I'd better go pound
+him on the back like Lucette does us."
+
+Malcolm looked at Aunt Margaret. "Mother won't let us work," he
+announced.
+
+"It's like this Malcolm," said Aunt Margaret gently. "Mother had charge
+of you for ten years. The women she employed didn't train you as boys
+should be, so mother has turned you over to father. For the next ten
+years you will try _another_ plan; after that, you will be big enough
+to decide how you want to live; but now I think you will just love
+father's way, if you will behave yourself long enough to find out what
+fun it is."
+
+"Mother won't like it," said Malcolm positively.
+
+"I think she does dear, or she wouldn't have gone and left you to try
+it," said Aunt Margaret. "She knew what your father would think you
+should do; if she hadn't thought he was _right_ she would have taken
+you with her, as before."
+
+"I just hate being taken on trains and boats with her. So does James!
+We like the dam, the fish, and we're going to have bows and arrows, to
+shoot at mark.
+
+"And we are going to swim and row," added William.
+
+"And we are going to be soldiers, and hurl back the enemy," boasted
+Malcolm, "ain't we Mr. Tower?"
+
+"Indian scouts are more fun," suggested the tutor.
+
+"And there is the money we must earn, if we've _got_ to," said Malcolm.
+"I guess father is telling James how. I'll go ask him too. Excuse me,
+Aunt Margaret!"
+
+"Of all the surprises I ever did have, this is the biggest one!" said
+Aunt Margaret. "I was afraid I never could like them. I thought this
+morning it would take years."
+
+"There is nothing like the receptivity and plasticity of children,"
+said the tutor.
+
+Later James Minturn appeared on his veranda with a small boy clinging
+to each hand. The trio came forth with red eyes, but firmly allied.
+
+"Call the car, if you please, William," said Senior. "I am going to
+help build that dam higher, and see how many fish I can catch for my
+pool."
+
+Malcolm walked beside him, rubbing his head caressingly across an arm.
+"We don't have to go on the streets and hunt," he announced. "Father is
+going to find us work. While the war is so bad, we'll drink milk, and
+send what we earn to boys who have no father. The war won't take our
+father, will it?"
+
+"To-night we will pray God not to let that happen," said Aunt Margaret.
+"Is there room in the car for me too, James? I haven't seen one of
+those little brook fish in years!"
+
+James Jr. went to her and leaned against her chair. "I got three in my
+pool. You may see mine! I'll give you one."
+
+"I'd love to see them," said Aunt Margaret. "I'll go bring my hat. But
+I think you shouldn't give the fish away, James. They belong to God. He
+made their home in the water. If you take them out, you will kill them,
+and He won't like that. Let's just look at them, and leave them in the
+water."
+
+"Malcolm, the fish 'belong to God,'" said James, turning to his
+brother. "We may play with them, but we mustn't take them out of the
+water and hurt them."
+
+"Well, who's going to take them out of the water?" cried Malcolm. "I'm
+just going to scoot one over into father's pool to start him. Will you
+give him one too?" "Yes," said James Jr.
+
+"The next money I earn, I shall send to the war; but the first time I
+rake the lawn, and clean the rugs, I'll give what I earn to father, so
+he will have more time to play with us. Father is the biggest man in
+this city!"
+
+"It may take a few days to get a new regime started," said father,
+"I've lived only for work so long; but as soon as it's possible, my day
+will be so arranged that some part of it shall be yours, boys, to show
+me what you are doing. I think one day can be given wholly to going to
+the country."
+
+With an ecstatic whoop they rushed James Minturn, whose wide aching
+arms opened to them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+_The Wheel of Life_
+
+
+"What are your plans for this summer, Leslie?" asked Mr. Winton over
+his paper at breakfast.
+
+"The real question is, what are yours?"
+
+"I have none," said Mr. Winton. "I can't see my way to making any for
+myself. Between us, strictly, Swain has been hard hit. He gave me my
+chance in life. It isn't in my skin to pack up and leave for the
+sea-shore or the mountains on the results of what he helped me to, and
+allow him to put up his fight _alone_. If you understood, you'd be
+ashamed of me if I did, Leslie."
+
+"But I do understand, Daddy!" cried the girl. "What makes you think I
+don't? All my life you've been telling me how you love Mr. Swain and
+what a splendid big thing he did for you when you were young. Is the
+war making business awfully hard for you men?"
+
+"Close my girl," said Mr. Winton. "Bed rock close!"
+
+"That is what cramps Mr. Swain?" she continued.
+
+"It is what cramps all of us," said Mr. Winton. "It hit him with
+peculiar force because he had made bad investments. He was running
+light anyway in an effort to recoup. All of us are on a tension brought
+about by the result of political changes, to which we were struggling
+to adjust ourselves, when the war began working greater hardships and
+entailing millions of loss and expenses."
+
+"I see, and that's why I said the real question was, 'what are your
+plans?'" explained Leslie, "because when I find out, if perchance they
+should involve staying on the job this summer, why I wanted to tell you
+that I'm on the job too. I've thought out the grandest scheme."
+
+"Yes, Leslie? Tell me!" said Mr. Winton.
+
+"It's like this," said Leslie. "Everybody is economizing,
+shamelessly--and that's a bully word, Daddy, for in most instances it
+is shameless. Open faced 'Lord save me and my wife, and my son John and
+his wife.' In our women's clubs and lectures, magazines and sermons,
+we've had a steady dose all winter of hard times, and economy, and I've
+tried to make my friends see that their efforts at economy are
+responsible for the very hardest crux of the hard times."
+
+"You mean, Leslie--?" suggested Mr. Winton eagerly.
+
+"I mean all of us quit using eggs, dealers become frightened, eggs soar
+higher. Economize on meat, packers buy less, meat goes up. All of us
+discharge our help, army of unemployed swells by millions. It works two
+ways and every friend I've got is economizing for herself, and with
+every stroke for herself she is weakening her nation's financial
+position and putting a bigger burden on the man she is trying to help."
+
+"Well Leslie--" cried her father.
+
+"The time has come for women to find out what it is all about, then put
+their shoulders to the wheel of life and push. But before we gain
+enough force to start with any momentum, women must get together and
+decide what they want, what they are pushing for."
+
+"Have you decided what you are pushing for?"
+
+"Unalterably!" cried the girl.
+
+"And what is it?" asked her father.
+
+"My happiness! My joy in life!" she exclaimed.
+
+"And exactly in what do you feel your happiness consists, Leslie?" he
+asked.
+
+"You and Douglas! My home and my men and what they imply!" she answered
+instantly. "As I figure it, it's _homes_ that count, Daddy. If the
+nation prospers, the birth rate of Americans has got to keep up, or
+soon the immigrants will be in control everywhere, as they are in
+places, right now. Births imply homes. Homes suggest men to support
+them, women to control them. If the present unrest resolves itself into
+a personal question, so far as the women are concerned at least, if you
+are going to get to primal things, whether she realizes it or no, what
+each woman really _wants_ she learns, as Nellie Minturn learned when
+she took her naked soul into the swamp and showed it to her God--what
+each woman _wants_ is her man, her cave, and her baby. If the world is
+to prosper, _that_ is woman's work, why don't you men who are doing big
+things _realize_ it, and do yourselves what women are going to be
+forced from home to _do_, mighty soon now, if you don't!"
+
+"Well Leslie!" cried Mr. Winton.
+
+"You said that before Daddy!" exclaimed the girl. "Yet what you truly
+want of a woman is a home and children. Children imply to all men what
+I am to you. If some men have not reared their children so that they
+receive from them what you get from me, it is time for the men to
+_realize_ this, and change their methods of _rearing_ their daughters
+and sons. A home should mean to every man what your home does to you.
+If all men do not get from their homes what you do, in most cases it is
+_their own fault_. Of course I know there are women so abominably
+obsessed with self, they refuse to become mothers, and prefer a cafe,
+with tangoing between courses, to a home; such women should have first
+the ducking stool, and if that isn't efficacious, extermination; they
+are a disgrace to our civilization and the weakest spot we have. They
+are at the bottom of the present boiling discontent of women who really
+want to be home loving, home keeping. They are directly responsible for
+the fathers, sons, brothers, and lovers with two standards of morals. A
+man reared in the right kind of a home, by a real mother, who goes into
+other homes of the same kind, ruled by similar mothers, when he leaves
+his, and marries the right girl and establishes for himself a real
+home, is not going to go _wrong_. It is the sons, lovers, and husbands
+of the women who refuse home and children, and carry their men into a
+perpetual round of what they deem pleasure in their youth, who find
+life desolate when age begins to come, and who instantly rebel
+strongest against the very conditions they have made. I've been
+listening to you all my life, Daddy, and remembering mother, reading,
+thinking, and watching for what really pays, and believe me, _I've
+found out_. I gave Nellie Minturn the best in my heart the other day,
+but you should see what I got back. Horrors, Daddy! Just plain horrors!
+I said to Douglas that night when I read him the letter I afterward
+showed you, that if, as she suggested, I was 'ever faintly tempted to
+neglect home life for society,' in her I would have all the 'horrible
+example' I'd ever need, and rest assured I shall."
+
+"Poor woman!" exclaimed Mr. Winton.
+
+"Exactly!" cried Leslie. "And the poorest thing about it is that _she_
+is not to _blame_ in the least. You and my mother could have made the
+same kind of a woman of me. If you had fed me cake instead of bread; if
+you had given me candy instead of fruit; if you had taken me to the
+show instead of entertaining me at home; if you had sent me to summer
+resorts instead of summering with me in the country, you'd have had
+another Nellie on your hands. The world is full of Nellies, but where
+one woman flees too strict and monotonous a home, to make a Nellie out
+of herself, ten are taken out and deliberately moulded, drilled and
+fashioned into Nellies by their own parents. I have lain awake at
+nights figuring this, Daddy; some woman is urging me every day to join
+different movements, and I've been forced to study this out. I know the
+cause of the present unrest among women."
+
+"And it is--?" suggested Mr. Winton.
+
+"It is the rebound from the pioneer lives of our grandmothers! They and
+their mothers were at one extreme; we are at the widest sweep of the
+other. They were forced to enter the forest and in most cases defend
+themselves from savages and animals; to work without tools, to live
+with few comforts. In their determination to save their children from
+hardships, they lost sense, ballast and reason. They have saved them to
+such an extent they have _lost_ them. By the very method of their
+rearing, they have robbed their children of love for, and interest in,
+home life, and with their own hands sent them to cafes and dance halls,
+when they should be at their homes training their children for the
+fashioning of future homes. I tell you, Daddy----"
+
+"Leslie, tell me this," interposed Mr. Winton. "Did you get any small
+part of what you have been saying to me, from me? Do you feel what I
+have tried to teach you, and the manner in which I have tried to rear
+you, have put your love for me into your heart and such ideas as you
+are propounding into your head?"
+
+"Of course, Daddy!" cried the girl. "Who else? Mother was dear and
+wonderful, but I scarcely remember her. What you put into the growth of
+me, that is what is bound to come out, when I begin to live
+independently."
+
+"This is the best moment of my life!" said Mr. Winton. "From your birth
+you have been the better part of me, to me; and with all my heart I
+have _tried_ to fashion you into such a woman for a future home, as
+your mother began, and you have completed for me. Other things have
+failed me; I count you my success, Leslie!"
+
+"Oh Daddy!" cried the happy girl.
+
+"Now go back to our start," said Mr. Winton. "You have plans for the
+summer, of course! I realized that at the beginning. Are you ready to
+tell me?"
+
+"I am ready to ask you," she said.
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Winton. "I appreciate the difference. Surely a
+man does enjoy counting for something with his women."
+
+"Spoiled shamelessly, dearest, that's what you are," said Leslie. "A
+spoiled, pampered father! But to conclude. Mr. Swain helped you. Pay
+back, Daddy, no matter what the cost; pay _back_. You help _him_, I'll
+help _you!_ My idea was this: for weeks I've foreseen that you wouldn't
+like to leave business this summer. Douglas is delving into that
+investigation Mr. Minturn started him on and he couldn't be dragged
+away. He's perfectly possessed. Of course where my men are, like Ruth,
+'there will be I also,' so for days I've been working on a plan, and
+now it's all finished and waiting your veto or approval."
+
+"Thrilling, Leslie! Tell quickly. I'm all agog!"
+
+"It's this: let's not go away and spend big sums on travel, dress, and
+close the house, and throw our people out of work. Do you realize,
+Daddy, how long you've had the same housekeeper, cook, maid and driver?
+Do you know how badly I'd feel to let them go, and risk getting them
+back in the fall? My scheme is to rent, for practically nothing, a log
+cabin I know, a little over an hour's run from here--a log cabin with
+four rooms and a lean-to and a log stable, beside a lake where there is
+grand fishing and swimming."
+
+"But Leslie----" protested Mr. Winton.
+
+"Now listen!" cried the girl. "The rent is nominal. We get the house,
+stable, orchard, garden, a few acres and a rented cow. The cabin has
+two tiny rooms above, one for you, the other for Douglas. Below, it has
+a room for me, a dining-room and a kitchen. The big log barn close
+beside has space in the hay-mow for the women, and in one side below
+for our driver, the other for the cars. Over the cabin is a grapevine.
+Around it there are fruit trees. There is a large, rich garden. If I
+had your permission I could begin putting in vegetables tomorrow that
+would make our summer supply. Rogers----"
+
+"You are not going to tell me Rogers would touch a garden?" queried Mr.
+Winton.
+
+"I am going to tell you that Rogers has been with me in every step of
+my investigations," replied Leslie. "Yesterday I called in my household
+and gave them a lecture on the present crisis; I found them a
+remarkably well-informed audience. They had a very distinct idea that
+if I economized by dismissing them for the summer, and leaving the
+house with a caretaker, what it would mean to _them_. Then I took my
+helpers into the car and drove out the Atwater road--you know it well
+Daddy, the road that runs smooth over miles of country and then instead
+of jumping into a lake as it seems to be going to, it swings into
+corduroy through a marsh, runs up on a little bridge spanning the
+channel between two lakes, lifts to Atwater lake shore, than which none
+is more lovely--you remember the white sand floor and the clean water
+for swimming--climbs another hill, and opposite beautiful wood, there
+stands the log cabin I told you of, there I took them and explained.
+They could clean up in a day; Rogers could plant the garden and take
+enough on one truck load, for a beginning. We may have wood for the
+fireplace by gathering it from the forest floor. Rogers again!"
+
+"Are you quite _sure_ about Rogers?"
+
+"Suppose you ride with him going down and ask him yourself," suggested
+Leslie. "Rogers is anxious to hold his place. You see it's like this:
+all of them get regular wages, have a chance at the swimming, rowing,
+gardening and the country. The saving comes in on living expenses. Out
+there we have the cow, flour, fish, and poultry from the neighbours,
+fresh eggs, butter and the garden--I can cut expenses to one-fourth;
+lights altogether. Moonshine and candles will serve; cooking fuel,
+gasoline. Daddy will you go to-night and see?"
+
+"No, I won't go to-night and see, I'll go swim and fish," said Mr.
+Winton. "Great Heavens, Leslie, do you really mean to live all _summer_
+beside a lake, where a man can expand, absorb and exercise? I must get
+out my fishing tackle. I wonder what Douglas has! I've tried that lake
+when bass were slashing around wild thorn and crab trees shedding
+petals and bugs. It is man's sport there! I like black bass fishing. I
+remember that water. Fine for swimming! Not the exhilaration of salt,
+perhaps, but grand, clean, old northern Indiana water, cooled by
+springs. I love it! Lord, Leslie! Why don't we _own_ that place? Why
+haven't we homed there, and been comfortable for years?"
+
+"I shall go ahead then?" queried Leslie.
+
+"You shall go a-hurry, Miss, hurry!" cried Mr. Winton. "I'll give you
+just two days. One to clean, the other to move; to-morrow night send
+for me. I want a swim; and cornbread, milk, and three rashers of bacon
+for my dinner and nothing else; and can't the maids have my room and
+let me have a blanket on the hay?"
+
+"But father, the garden!" cautioned Leslie.
+
+"Oh drat the garden!" cried Mr. Winton.
+
+"But if you go dratting things, I can't economize," the girl reminded
+him. "Rogers and I have that garden down on paper, and it's _late_ now."
+
+"Leslie, don't the golf links lie half a mile from there?"
+
+"Closer Daddy," said the girl, "right around the corner."
+
+"I don't see why you didn't think of it before," he said. "Have you
+told Douglas?"
+
+"Not a word!" exclaimed Leslie. "I'm going to invite him out when
+everything is in fine order."
+
+"Don't make things fine," said Mr. Winton. "Let's have them rough!"
+
+"They will be rough enough to suit you, Daddy," laughed Leslie, "but a
+few things have got to be done."
+
+"Then hurry, but don't forget the snake question."
+
+"People are and have been living there for generations; common care is
+all that is required," said Leslie. "I'll be careful, but if you tell
+Bruce until I am ready, I'll never forgive you."
+
+Mr. Winton arose. "'Come to me arms,'" he laughed, spreading them wide.
+"I wonder if Douglas Bruce knows what a treasure he is going to
+possess!"
+
+"Certainly not!" said Leslie emphatically. "I wouldn't have him know
+for the world! I am going to be his progressive housekeeping party, to
+which he is invited every day, after we are married, and each day he
+has got a new surprise coming, that I hope he will like. The woman who
+endures and wears well in matrimony is the one who 'keeps something to
+herself.' It's my opinion that modern marriage would be more
+satisfactory if the engaged parties would not come so nearly being
+married, for so long before they are. There is so little left for
+afterward, in most cases, that it soon grows monotonous."
+
+"Leslie, where did you get all of this?" he asked.
+
+"I told you. From you, mostly," explained the girl, "and from watching
+my friends. Go on Daddy! And send Rogers back soon! I want to begin
+buying radish seed and onion sets."
+
+So Leslie telephoned Douglas Bruce that she would be very busy with
+housekeeping affairs the coming two days. She made a list of what would
+be required for that day, left the maids to collect it, and went to buy
+seeds and a few tools; then returning she divided her forces and
+leaving part to pack the bedding, old dishes and things absolutely
+required for living, she took the loaded car and drove to Atwater Lake.
+
+The owner of the land, a cultured, refined gentleman, who spoke the
+same brand of English used by the Wintons, and evinced a knowledge of
+the same books, was genuinely interested in Leslie and her plans. It
+was a land owner's busiest season, but he spared a man an hour with a
+plow to turn up the garden, and came down himself and with practiced
+hand swung the scythe, and made sure about the snakes. Soon the maids
+had the cabin walls swept, the floors scrubbed, the windows washed, and
+that was all that could be done. The seeds were earth enfolded in warm
+black beds, with flower seeds tucked in for borders. The cut grass was
+raked back, and spread to dry for the rented cow.
+
+When nothing further was to be accomplished there, they returned to
+Multiopolis to hasten preparations for the coming day. It was all so
+good Leslie stopped at her father's office and poured a flood of
+cloverbloom, bird notes and water shimmer into his willing ears.
+
+She seldom went to Douglas Bruce's offices, but she ran up a few
+moments to try in person to ease what she felt would be disappointment
+in not spending the evening with her. The day would be full far into
+the night with affairs at home, he would notice the closing of the
+house, and she could not risk him spoiling her plans by finding out
+what they were, before she was ready. She found him surrounded with
+huge ledgers, delving and already fretting for Mickey. She stood
+laughing in his doorway, half piqued to find him so absorbed in his
+work, and so full of the boy he was missing, that he seemed to take her
+news that she was too busy to see him that night with quite too
+bearable calmness; but his earnestness about coming the following night
+worked his pardon, so Leslie left laughing to herself over the surprise
+in store for him.
+
+Bruce bent over his work, praying for Mickey. Everything went wrong
+without him. He was enough irritated by the boy who was not Mickey,
+that when the boy who was Mickey came to his door, he was delighted to
+see him. He wanted to say: "Hello, little friend. Come get in the game,
+quickly!" but two considerations withheld him: Mickey's manners were a
+trifle too casual; at times they irritated Douglas, and if he took the
+boy into his life as he hoped to, he would come into constant contact
+with Leslie and her friends, who were cultured people of homing
+instincts. Mickey's manners must be polished, and the way to do it was
+not to drop to his level, but to improve Mickey. And again, the day
+before, he had told Mickey to sit down and wait until an order was
+given him. To invite him to "get in the game" now, was good
+alliteration; it pleased the formal Scotch ear as did many another
+United States phrase of the street, so musical, concise and packed with
+meaning as to become almost classic; but in his heart he meant as
+Mickey had suspected, "to do him good"; so he must lay his foundations
+with care. What he said was a cordial and cheerful, "Good morning!"
+
+"Noon," corrected Mickey. "Right ye are! Good it is! What's my job?
+'Scuse me! I won't ask that again!"
+
+"Plenty," Douglas admitted, "but first, any luck with the paper route?"
+
+"All over but killing the boy I sold it to, if he doesn't do right. I
+ain't perfectly crazy about him. He's a papa's boy and pretty soft; but
+maybe he'll learn. It was a fine chance for me, so I soaked it."
+
+"To whom did you sell, Mickey?" asked Douglas.
+
+"To your driver, for his boy," answered Mickey. "We talked it over last
+night. Say, was your driver 'the same continued,' or did you detect
+glimmerings of beefsteak and blood in him this morning?"
+
+"Why?" asked Douglas curiously.
+
+"Oh he's such a stiff," explained Mickey. "He looks about as lively as
+a salted herring."
+
+"And did you make an effort to enliven him, Mickey?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Mickey. "The operation was highly successful! The patient
+made a fine recovery. Right on the job, right on the street, right at
+the thickest traffic corner, right at 'dead man's crossing,' he let out
+a whoop that split the features of a copper who hadn't smiled in years.
+It was a double play and it worked fine. What I want to know is whether
+it was fleeting or holds over."
+
+"It must be 'over,' Mickey," said Douglas. "Since you mention it, he
+opened the door with the information that it was a fine morning, while
+I recall that there was colour on his face, and light in his usually
+dull eyes."
+
+"Good!" cried Mickey. "Then there's some hope that his kid may go and
+do likewise."
+
+"The boy who takes your route has to smile, Mickey?"
+
+"Well you see most of my morning customers are regulars, so they are
+used to it," said Mickey. "The minute one goes into his paper, he's
+lost 'til knocking off time; but if he starts on a
+real-wide-a-wake-soulful smile, he's a chance of reproducing it, before
+the day is over, leastwise he has _more_ chance than if he never
+smiles."
+
+"So it is a part of the contract that the boy smiles at his work?"
+questioned Douglas.
+
+"_It is so!_" exclaimed Mickey. "I asked Mr. Chaffner at the _Herald_
+office what was a fair price for my route. You see I've sold the
+_Herald_ from the word go, and we're pretty thick. So he told me what
+he thought. It lifted my lid, but when I communicated it to Henry,
+casual like, he never batted an eye, so I am going to try his boy 'til
+I'm satisfied. If he can swing the job it's a go."
+
+"Your customers should give you a vote of thanks!"
+
+"And so they will!" cried Mickey. "You see the men who buy of me are
+the top crust of Multiopolis, the big fine men who can smile, and open
+their heads and say a pleasant word, and they like to. It does them
+good! I live on it! I always get my papers close home as I can so I
+have time coming down on the cars to take a peep myself, and nearly
+always there are at least three things on the first page that hit you
+in the eye. Once long ago I was in the _Herald_ office with a note to
+Chaffner the big chief, and I gave him a little word jostle as I passed
+it over. He looked at me and laughed good natured like, so I handed him
+this: 'Are you the big stiff that bosses the make-up?' He says,
+'Mostly! I can control it if I want to.' 'All right for you,' I said.
+'I live by selling your papers, but I could sell a heap more if I had a
+better chance.' 'Chance in what way?' said he. 'Building your first
+page,' said I. He said, 'Sure. What is it that you want?' 'I'll show
+you,' said I. 'I'll give you the call I used this morning.' Then I cut
+loose and just like on the street I cried it, and he yelled some
+himself. 'What more do you want?' he asked me. 'A lot,' I said. 'You
+see I only got a little time on the cars before my men begin to get on,
+and my time is precious. I can't read second, third, and forty-eleventh
+pages hunting up eye-openers. I must get them _first_ page, 'cause I'm
+short time, and got my pack to hang on to. Now makin'-up, if you'd
+a-put that "Germans driven from the last foot of Belgian soil," first,
+it would a-been better, 'cause that's what every living soul wants.
+Then the biggest thing about _ourselves_. Place it prominent in big
+black letters, where I get it quick and easy, and then put me in a
+scream. Get me a laugh in my call, and I'll sell you out all by myself.
+Folks are spending millions per annum for the glad scream at night,
+they'll pay just the same morning, give them a chance. I live on a
+laugh,' said I, to Chaffner. He looked me over and he said: 'When you
+get too big for the papers, you come to me and I'll make a top-notch
+reporter out of you.' 'Thanks Boss,' said I, 'you couldn't graft that
+job on to me, with asphaltum and a buzz saw. I'm going to be on your
+front page 'fore you know it, but it's going to be a poetry piece that
+will raise your hair; I ain't going to frost my cake, poking into
+folks' private business, telling shameful things on them that half
+kills them. Lots of times I see them getting their dose on the cars,
+and they just shiver, and go white, and shake. Nix on the printing
+about shame, and sin, and trouble in the papers for me!' I said, and he
+just laughed and looked at me closer and he said, 'All right! Bring
+your poetry yourself, and if they don't let you in, give them this,'
+and he wrote a line I got at home yet."
+
+"Is that all about Chaffner?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Oh no!" said Mickey. "He said, 'Well here is a batch of items being
+written up for first page to-morrow. According to you, I should give
+"Belgian citizens flocking back to search for devastated homes," the
+first place?' 'That's got the first place in the heart of every man in
+God's world. Giving it first place is putting it where it belongs.'
+'Here's the rest of it,' said he, 'what do you want next?' 'At the same
+glance I always take, _this_,' said I, pointing to where it said,
+'Movement on foot to eliminate graft from city offices.' 'You think
+that comes next?' said he. 'Sure!' said I. 'Hits the pocketbook! Sure!
+Heart first! Money next!' 'Are you so sure it isn't exactly the
+reverse?' asked he. 'Know it!' said I. 'Watch the crowds any day, and
+every clip you'll see that loving a man's country, and his home, and
+his kids, and getting fair play, comes _before_ money.' 'Yes, I guess
+it does!' he said thoughtful like, 'least it _should_. We'll make it
+the policy of this paper to put it that way anyhow. What next?' 'Now
+your laugh,' said I. 'And while you are at it, make it a scream!' 'All
+right,' he said, 'I haven't anything funny in yet, but I'll get it. Now
+show me where you want these spaced.' So I showed him, and every single
+time you look, you'll see Mr. _Herald_ is made up that way, and you
+ought to hear me trolling out that Belgian line, soft and easy,
+snapping in the graft quicklike, and then yelling out the scream. You
+bet it catches them! If I can't get that kid on to his job, 'spect I'll
+have to take it back myself; least if he can't get on, he's doomed to
+get off. I gave him a three days' try, and if he doesn't catch by that
+time, he never will."
+
+"But how are you going to know?" asked Douglas.
+
+"I'm going down early and follow him and drill him like a Dutch
+recruit, and he'll wake up my men, and interest them and fetch the
+laugh or he'll stop!"
+
+"You think you got a fair price?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Know it! All it's worth, and it looks like a margin to me," said
+Mickey.
+
+"That's all right then, and thank you for telling me about the papers,"
+said Douglas. "I enjoyed it immensely. I see you are a keen student of
+human nature."
+
+"'Bout all the studying I get a chance at," said Mickey.
+
+"You'll have opportunity at other things now," said Douglas. "Since you
+mention it, I see your point about the papers, and if that works on
+business men going to business, it should work on a _jury_. I think
+I've had it in mind, that I was to be a compendium of information and
+impress on a judge or jury what I know, and why what I say is _right_.
+You give me the idea that a better way would be to impress on them what
+_they_ know. Put it like this: first soften their hearts, next touch
+their pockets, then make them laugh; is that the idea?"
+
+"Duck again! You're doing fine! I ain't made my living selling men
+papers for this long not to know the big boys _some_, and more. Each
+man is different, but you can cod him, or bluff him, or scare him, or
+let down the floodgates; some way you can put it over if you take each
+one separate, and hit him where he lives. See? Finding his dwelling
+place is the trouble."
+
+"Mickey, I do see," cried Douglas. "What you tell me will be invaluable
+to me. You know I am from another land so I have personal ways of
+thinking and the men I'm accustomed to are different. What I have been
+centring on is myself, and what I can do."
+
+"Won't work here! What you got to get a bead on here is the _other
+fellow_, and how to _do_ him. See?"
+
+"Take these books and fly," said Douglas. "I've spent one of the most
+profitable hours of my life, but concretely it is an hour, and we're
+going to the Country Club to-night and may stay as long as we choose
+and we're going to have a grand time. You like going to the country,
+don't you?"
+
+"Ain't words for telling," said Mickey, gathering his armload of books
+and racing down the hall.
+
+When the day's work was finished, with a load of books to deliver
+before an office closed, they started on the run to the club house.
+Bruce waited in the car while Mickey sped in with the books, and
+returning, to save opening the door and crossing before the man he was
+fast beginning to idolize, Mickey took one of his swift cuts across the
+back end of the car. While his hand was outstretched and his foot
+uplifted to enter, from a high-piled passing truck toppled a box, not a
+big box, but large enough to knock Mickey senseless and breathless when
+it struck him between the shoulders. Douglas had Mickey in the car with
+orders for the nearest hospital, toward which they were hurrying, when
+the boy opened his eyes and sat up. He looked inquiringly at Douglas,
+across whose knees he had found himself.
+
+"Wha--what happened?" he questioned with his first good indrawing of
+recovered breath.
+
+"A box fell from a truck loaded past reason and almost knocked the life
+out of you!" cried Douglas.
+
+"'Knocked the life out of me?'" repeated Mickey.
+
+"You've been senseless for three blocks, Mickey."
+
+A slow horror spread over Mickey's face.
+
+"Wha--what was you going to do?" he wavered.
+
+"Running for a hospital," said Douglas.
+
+"S'pose my head had been busted, and I'd been stretched on the glass
+table and maybe laid up for days or knocked out altogether?" demanded
+Mickey.
+
+"You'd have had the best surgeon in Multiopolis, and every care,
+Mickey," assured Douglas.
+
+"Ugh!" Mickey collapsed utterly.
+
+"Must be hurt worse than I thought," was Douglas' mental comment. "He
+couldn't be a coward!"
+
+But Mickey almost proved that very thing by regaining his senses again,
+and immediately falling into spasms of long-drawn, shuddering sobbing.
+Douglas held him carefully, every moment becoming firmer in his
+conviction of one of two things: either he was hurt worse or he
+was----He would not let himself think it; but never did boy appear to
+less advantage. Douglas urged the driver to speed. Mickey heard and
+understood.
+
+"Never mind," he sobbed. "I'm all right Mr. Bruce; I ain't hurt. Not
+much! I'll be all right in a minute!"
+
+"If you're not hurt, what _is_ the matter with you?"
+
+"A minute!" gasped Mickey, as another spasm of sobbing caught him.
+
+"I am amazed!" cried Douglas. "A little jolt like that! You are acting
+like a coward, Mickey!"
+
+The word straightened Mickey.
+
+"Coward! Who? Me!" he cried. "Me that's made my way since I can
+remember? Coward, did you say?"
+
+"Of course not, Mickey!" cried Douglas. "Excuse me. I shouldn't have
+said that. But it is unlike you. What the devil _is_ the matter with
+you?"
+
+"I helped carry in a busted head and saw the glass table once," he
+cried. "Inch more and it would a-been my head--and I might have been
+knocked out for days. O Lord! What will I _do?_"
+
+"Mickey you're not afraid?" asked Douglas.
+
+"'Fraid? Me? 'Bout as good as coward!"
+
+"What is the matter with you?" demanded Douglas.
+
+Mickey stared at him amazedly.
+
+"O Lord!" he panted. "You don't s'pose I was thinking about _myself_,
+do you?"
+
+"I don't know what to think!" exclaimed Douglas.
+
+"Sure! How could you?" conceded Mickey.
+
+He choked back another big dry sob.
+
+"Gimme a minute to think!" he said. "O God! What have I been doing? I
+see now what I'm up against!"
+
+"Mickey," said Douglas Bruce, suddenly filled with compassion, "I am
+beginning to understand. Won't you tell me?"
+
+"I guess I got to," panted Mickey. "But I'm afraid! O Lord, I'm so
+afraid!"
+
+"Afraid of me, Mickey?" asked Douglas gently now.
+
+"Yes, afraid of you," said Mickey, "and afraid of her. Afraid of her,
+more than you."
+
+"You mean Miss Winton?" pursued Douglas.
+
+"Yes, I mean Miss Winton," replied Mickey. "I guess I don't risk her,
+or you either. I guess I go to the Nurse Lady. She's used to folks in
+trouble. She's trained to know what to do. Why sure! That's the thing!"
+
+"Your back hurts, Mickey?" questioned Douglas.
+
+"My back hurts? Aw forget my back!" cried Mickey roughly. "I ain't
+hurt, honest I ain't."
+
+Douglas took a long penetrating look at the small shaking figure, then
+he said softly: "I wish you wanted to confide in me, Mickey! I can't
+tell you how glad I'd be if you'd trust me; but if you have some one
+else you like better, where is it you want to be driven?"
+
+"_Course_ there ain't any one I _like_ better than you, 'cept----" he
+caught a name on the tip of his tongue and paused. "You see it's like
+this: I've been to this Nurse Lady before, and I know exactly what
+she'll say and think. If you don't think like I do, and if you go and
+take----"
+
+"Gracious Heaven Mickey, you don't think I'd try to take anything you
+wanted, do you?" demanded Douglas.
+
+"I don't know _what_ you'd do," said Mickey. "I only know what one
+Swell Dame I struck wanted to do."
+
+"Mickey," said Douglas, "when I don't know what you are thinking about,
+I can't be of much help; but I'd give considerable if you felt that you
+had come to trust me."
+
+"Trust you? Sure I trust you, about myself. But this is----" cried
+Mickey.
+
+"This is about some one else?" asked Douglas casually.
+
+Mickey leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his head bent with
+intense thinking.
+
+"Much as you are doing for me," he muttered, "if you really care, if it
+makes a difference to you--of course I can _trust_ you, if you _don't_
+think as I do!"
+
+"You surely can!" cried Douglas Bruce. "Now Mickey, both of us are too
+shaken to care for the country; take me home with you and let's have
+supper together and become acquainted. We can't know each other on my
+ground alone. I must meet you on yours, and prove that I'm really your
+friend. Let's go where you live and have supper."
+
+"Go where I live? You?" cried Mickey.
+
+"Yes! You come from where you live fresh and clean each day, so can I.
+Take me home with you. I want to go dreadfully, Mickey. Please?"
+
+"Well, I ain't such a cad I'm afraid for you to see how I live," he
+said. "Though you wouldn't want to come more than once; that ain't what
+I was thinking about."
+
+"Think all you like, Mickey," said Douglas. "Henry, drive to the end of
+the car line where you've gone before."
+
+On the way he stopped at a grocery, then a cafe, and at each place
+piles of tempting packages were placed in the car. Mickey's brain was
+working fast. One big fact was beginning to lift above all the others.
+His treasure was slipping from him, and for her safety it had to be so.
+If he had been struck on the head, forced to undergo an operation, and
+had lain insensible for hours--Mickey could go no further with that
+thought. He had to stop and proceed with the other part of his problem.
+Of course she was better off with him than where she had been; no sane
+person could dispute that; she was happy and looking improved each day
+but--could she be made happier and cared for still better by some one
+else, and cured without the long wait for him to earn the money? If she
+could, what would be the right name for him, if he kept her on what he
+could do? So they came at last as near as the car could go to Mickey's
+home in Sunrise Alley. At the foot of the last flight Mickey paused,
+package laden.
+
+"Now I'll have to ask you to wait a minute," he said.
+
+He ascended, unlocked the door and stepped inside. Peaches' eyes
+gleamed with interest at the packages, but she waved him back. As
+Mickey closed the door she cried: "My po'try piece! Say it, Mickey!"
+
+"You'll have to wait again," said Mickey. "I got hit in the back with a
+box and it knocked the poetry out of me. You'll have to wait 'til after
+supper to-night, and then I'll fix the grandest one yet. Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, if the box hit hard, Mickey," conceded Peaches.
+
+"It hit so blame hard, Miss Chicken, that it knocked me down and
+knocked me out, and Mr. Bruce picked me up and carried me three blocks
+in his car before I got my wind or knew what ailed me."
+
+Peaches' face was tragic; her hands stretched toward him. Mickey was
+young, and his brain was whirling so it whirled off the thought that
+came first.
+
+"And if it had hit me _hard_ enough to bust my head, and I'd been
+carried to a hospital to be mended and wouldn't a-knowed what hurt me
+for days, like sometimes, who'd a-fed and bathed you, Miss?"
+
+Peaches gazed at him wordless.
+
+"You close your mouth and tell me, Miss," demanded Mickey, brutal with
+emotion. "If I hadn't come, what would you have done?"
+
+Peaches shut her mouth and stared while it was closed. At last she
+ventured a solution.
+
+"You'd a-told our Nurse Lady," she said.
+
+Mickey made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Hospitals by the dozen, kid," he said, "and not a chance in a hundred
+I'd been took to the 'Star of Hope,' and times when your head is
+busted, you don't know a thing for 'most a _week_. What would you _do_
+if I didn't come for a week?"
+
+"I'd have to slide off the bed if it killed me, and roll to the
+cupboard, and make the things do," said Peaches.
+
+"You couldn't get up to it to save your life," said Mickey, "and
+there's never enough for a week, and you couldn't get to the
+water--what would you _do?_"
+
+"Mickey, what would I do?" wavered Peaches.
+
+"Well, I know, if you don't," said Mickey, "and I ain't going to tell
+you; but I'll tell you this much: you'd be scared and hurt worse than
+you ever was yet; and it's soon going to be too hot for you here, so I
+got to move you to a cooler place, and I don't risk being the only one
+knowing where you are another day; or my think-tank will split. It's
+about split now. I don't want to do it, Miss, but I got to, so you take
+your drink and lemme straighten you, and wash your face, and put your
+pretties on; then Mr. Douglas Bruce, that we work for now, is coming to
+see you and he's going to stay for supper--Now cut it out! Shut right
+up! Here, lemme fix you, and you see, Miss, that you act a _lady_ girl,
+and don't make me lose my job with my boss, or we can't pay our rent.
+Hold still 'til I get your ribbon right, and slip a fresh nightie on
+you. There!"
+
+"Mickey----" began Peaches.
+
+"Shut up!" said Mickey in desperation. "Now mind this, Miss! You belong
+to _me!_ I'm taking care of you. You answer what he says to you pretty
+or you'll not get any supper this night, and look at them bundles he
+got. Sit up and be nice! This is a party!"
+
+Mickey darted around arranging the room, then he flung the door wide
+and called: "Ready!"
+
+Douglas Bruce climbed the stairs and entered the door. As Mickey
+expected, his gaze centred and stopped. Mickey began taking packages
+from his hands; still gazing Douglas yielded them. Then he stepped
+forward when Mickey placed the chair, and said: "Mr. Douglas Bruce,
+this is Lily. This is Lily Peaches O'Halloran. Will you have a chair?"
+He turned to Peaches, putting his arm around her as he bent to kiss her.
+
+"He's all right, Flowersy-girl," he said. "We _like_ to have him come.
+He's our friend. Our big, nice friend who won't let a soul on earth get
+us. He doesn't even want us himself, 'cause he's got _one_ girl. His
+girl is the Moonshine Lady that sent you the doll. Maybe she will come
+some day too, and maybe she'll make the Precious Child a new dress."
+
+Peaches clung to Mickey and past him peered at her visitor, and the
+visitor smiled his most winning smile. He recognized Leslie's ribbon,
+and noted the wondrous beauty of the small white face, now slowly
+flushing the faintest pink with excitement. Still clinging she smiled
+back. Wordless, Douglas reached over to pick up the doll. Then the
+right thought came at last.
+
+"Has the Precious Child been good to-day?" he asked.
+
+Peaches released Mickey, dropping back against her pillows, her smile
+now dazzling. "Jus' as _good!_" she said.
+
+"Fine!" said Douglas, straightening the long dress.
+
+"An' that's my slate and lesson," said Peaches.
+
+"Fine!" he said again as if it were the only adjective he knew. Mickey
+glanced at him, grinning sympathetically, "She does sort of knock you
+out!" he said.
+
+"'Sort' is rather poor. Completely, would be better," said Douglas.
+"She's the loveliest little sister in all the world, but she doesn't
+resemble you. Is she like your mother?"
+
+"Lily isn't my sister, only as you wanted me for a brother," said
+Mickey. "She was left and nobody was taking care of her. She's my find
+and you bet your life I'm going to _keep_ her!"
+
+"Oh! And how long have you had her, Mickey?"
+
+"Now that's just what the Orphings' Home dame asked me," said Mickey
+with finality, "and we are nix on those dames and their askings. Lily
+is _mine_, I tell you. My family. Now you visit with her, while I get
+supper."
+
+Mickey pushed up the table, then began opening packages and setting
+forth their contents. Watching him as he moved swiftly and with
+assurance, his head high, his lips even, a slow deep respect for the
+big soul in the little body began to dawn in the heart of Douglas
+Bruce. Understanding of Mickey came in rivers swift and strong, so
+while he wondered and while he watched entranced, over and over in his
+head went the line: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." With
+every gentle act of Mickey for the child Douglas' liking for him grew.
+When he went over the supper and with the judgment of a nurse selected
+the most delicate and suitable food for her, in the heart of the
+Scotsman swelled the marvel and the miracle that silenced criticism.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+_The Advent of Nancy and Peter_
+
+
+When Leslie began the actual work of closing her home, and loading what
+would be wanted for the country, she found the task too big for the
+time allotted, so wisely telephoned Douglas that she would be compelled
+to postpone seeing him until the following day.
+
+"Leslie," laughed Douglas over the telephone, "did you ever hear of the
+man who cut off his dog's tail an inch at a time, so it wouldn't hurt
+so badly?"
+
+"I have heard of that particular dog."
+
+"Well this process of cutting me out of seeing you a day at a time
+reminds me of 'that particular dog,' and evokes my sympathy for the
+canine as never before."
+
+"It's a surprise I am getting ready for you Douglas!"
+
+"It _is_ a surprise all right," answered Douglas, "and 'Bearer of
+Morning,' I have got a surprise for you too."
+
+"Oh goody!" cried Leslie. "I adore surprises."
+
+"You'll adore this one!"
+
+"You might give me a hint!" she suggested.
+
+"Very well!" he laughed. "Since last I saw you I have seen the
+loveliest girl of my experience."
+
+"Delightful! Am I to see her also?"
+
+"Undoubtedly!" explained Douglas. "And you'll succumb to her charms
+just as I did."
+
+"When may I meet her?" asked Leslie eagerly.
+
+"I can't say; but soon now."
+
+"All right!" agreed the girl. "Be ready at four tomorrow."
+
+Leslie sat in frowning thought a moment, before the telephone; then her
+ever-ready laugh bubbled. "Why didn't I think of it while I was
+talking?" she wondered. "Of course Mickey has taken him to visit his
+Lily. I must see about that wrong back before bone and muscle harden."
+
+Then she began her task. By evening she had a gasoline stove set up,
+the kitchen provisioned, her father's room ready and arrangements
+sufficiently completed that she sent the car to bring him to his dinner
+of cornbread and bacon under an apple tree scattering pink petals
+beside the kitchen door, with every lake breeze. Then they went fishing
+and landed three black bass.
+
+Douglas Bruce did not mind one day so much, but he resented two. When
+he greeted Mickey that morning it was not with the usual salutation of
+his friends, so the boy knew there was something not exactly right. He
+was not feeling precisely jovial himself. He was under suspended
+judgment. He knew that when Mr. Bruce had time to think, and talk over
+the situation with Miss Winton, both of them might very probably agree
+with the woman who said the law would take Lily from him and send her
+to a charity home for children.
+
+Mickey, with his careful drilling on the subject, was in rebellion.
+_How_ could the law take Lily from him? Did the law know anything
+_about_ her? Was she in the _care_ of the law when he found her?
+Wouldn't the law have allowed her to _die_ grovelling in filth and
+rags, inside a few more hours? He had not infringed on the law in any
+way; he had merely saved a life the law had forgotten to save. Now when
+he had it in his possession and in far better condition than he found
+it, how had the law _power_ to step in and rob him?
+
+Mickey did not understand, while there was nothing in his heart that
+could teach him. He had found her: he would keep her. The Orphans' Home
+should not have her. The law should not have her. Only one possibility
+had any weight with Mickey: if some one like Mr. Bruce or Miss Winton
+wanted to give her a home of luxury, could provide care at once, for
+which he would be forced to wait years to earn the money; if they
+wanted her and the Carrel man of many miracles would come for them; did
+he dare leave her lying an hour, when there was even hope she might be
+on her feet? There was only one answer to that with Mickey, but it
+pained his heart. So his greeting lacked its customary spontaneity.
+
+By noon Bruce was irritable, while Mickey was as nearly sullen as it
+was in his nature to be. At two o'clock Bruce surrendered, summoned the
+car, and started to the golf grounds. He had played three holes when he
+overtook a man who said a word that arrested his attention, so both of
+them stopped, and with notebooks and pencils, under the shade of a big
+tree began discussing the question that meant more to Douglas than
+anything save Leslie. He dismissed Mickey for the afternoon, promising
+him that if he would be ready by six, he should be driven back to the
+city.
+
+Mickey wanted to be alone to concentrate on his problem, but people
+were everywhere and more coming by the carload. He could see no place
+that was then, or would be, undisturbed. The long road with grassy
+sides gave big promises of leading somewhere to the quiet retreat he
+sought. Telling the driver that if he were not back by six, he would be
+waiting down the road, Mickey started on foot, in thought so deep he
+scarcely appreciated the grasses he trod, the perfume in his nostrils,
+the concert in his ears. What did at last arouse him was the fact that
+he was very thirsty. That made him realize that this was the warmest
+day of the season. Instantly his mind flew to the mite of a girl, lying
+so patiently, watching the clock for his coming, living for the sound
+of his feet.
+
+Mickey stopped, studying the landscape. A cool gentle breeze crossed
+the clover field beside the way, refreshing him in its passing. He
+sucked his lungs full, then lifted his cap, shaking the hair from his
+forehead. He stuffed the cap into his pocket, walking slowly along,
+intending to stop at the nearest farmhouse to ask for water. But the
+first home was not to Mickey's liking. He went on, passing another and
+another.
+
+Then he came to land that attracted him. The fences were so straight.
+The corners so clean where they were empty, so delightful where they
+were filled with alder, wild plum, hawthorn; attractive locations for
+the birds of the bushes that were field and orchard feeders. Then the
+barn and outbuildings looked so neat and prosperous; grazing cattle in
+rank meadows were so sleek; then a big white house began to peep from
+the screen of vines, bushes and trees.
+
+"Well if the water here gives you fever, it will anywhere," said
+Mickey, and turning in at the open gate started up a walk having flower
+beds on each side. There was a wide grassy lawn where the big trees
+scattered around afforded almost complete shade. Mickey never had seen
+a home like it closely. He scarcely could realize that there were
+places in the world where families lived alone like this. He tried to
+think how he would feel if he belonged there. When he reached the place
+where he saw Lily on a comfort under a big bloom-laden pear tree, his
+throat grew hard, his eyes dry and his feet heavy. Then the screen to
+the front door swung back as a smiling woman in a tidy gingham dress
+came through and stood awaiting Mickey.
+
+"I just told Peter when he came back alone, I bet a penny you'd got off
+at the wrong stop!" she cried. "I'm so glad you found your way by
+yourself. But you must be tired and hot walking. Come right in and have
+a glass of milk, then strip your feet and I'll ring for Junior."
+
+For one second Mickey was dazed. The next, he knew what it must mean.
+These people were the kind whom God had made so big and generous they
+divided home and summer with tenement children from the big city thirty
+miles away. Some boy was coming for a week, maybe, into what exactly
+filled Mickey's idea of Heaven, but he was not the boy.
+
+"'Most breaks my heart to tell you," he said, "but I ain't the boy
+you're expecting. I'm just taking a walk and I thought maybe you'd let
+me have a drink. I've wanted one past the last three houses, but none
+looked as if they'd have half such good, cool water as this."
+
+"Now don't that beat the nation!" exclaimed the woman. "The Multiopolis
+papers are just oozing sympathy for the poor city children who are wild
+for woods and water; and when I'd got myself nerved up to try one and
+thought it over till I was really anxious about it, and got my children
+all worked up too, here for the second time Peter knocks off plowing
+and goes to the trolley to meet one, and he doesn't come. I've got a
+notion to write the editor of the _Herald_ and tell him my experience.
+I think it's funny! But you wanted water, come this way."
+
+Mickey followed a footpath white with pear petals around the big house
+and standing beside a pump waited while the woman stepped to the back
+porch for a cup. He took it, drinking slowly.
+
+"Thank you ma'am," he said as he handed it back, turning to the path.
+
+Yesterday had weakened his nerve. He was going to cry again. He took a
+quick step forward, but the woman was beside him, her hand on his
+shoulder.
+
+"Wait a minute," she said. "Sit on this bench under the pear tree. I
+want to ask you something. Excuse me and rest until I come back."
+
+Mickey leaned against the tree, shutting his eyes, fighting with all
+his might. He was too big to cry. The woman would think him a coward as
+Mr. Bruce had. Then things happened as they actually do at times. The
+woman hurriedly came from the door, sat on the bench beside him, and
+said: "I went in there to watch you through the window, but I can't
+stand this a second longer. You poor child you, now tell me right
+straight what's the matter!"
+
+Mickey tried but no sound came. The woman patted his shoulder. "Now
+doesn't it beat the band?" she said, to the backyard in general. "Just
+a little fellow not in long trousers yet, and bearing such a burden he
+can't talk. I guess maybe God has a hand in this. I'm not so sure my
+boy hasn't come after all. Who are you, and where are you going? Don't
+you want to send your ma word you will stay here a week with me?"
+
+Mickey lifted a bewildered face.
+
+"Why, I couldn't, lady," he said brokenly, but gaining control as he
+went on. "I must work. Mr. Bruce needs me. I'm a regular plute compared
+with most of the 'newsies'; you wouldn't want to do anything for me who
+has so much; but if you're honestly thinking about taking a boy and he
+hasn't come, how would you like to have a little girl in his place? A
+little girl about _so_ long, and _so_ wide, with a face like Easter
+church flowers, and rings of gold on her head, and who wouldn't be half
+the trouble a boy would, because she hasn't ever walked, so she
+couldn't get into things."
+
+"Oh my goodness! A crippled little girl?"
+
+"She isn't crippled," said Mickey. "She's as straight as you are, what
+there is of her. She had so little food, and care, her back didn't seem
+to stiffen, so her legs won't walk. She wouldn't be half so much
+trouble as a boy. Honest, dearest lady, she wouldn't!"
+
+"Who are you?" asked the woman.
+
+Mickey produced a satisfactory pedigree, and gave unquestionable
+references which she recognized, for she slowly nodded at the names of
+Chaffner and Bruce.
+
+"And who is the little girl you are asking me to take?"
+
+Mickey studied the woman and then began to talk, cautiously at first.
+Ashamed to admit the squalor and the awful truth of how he had found
+the thing he loved, then gathering courage he began what ended in an
+outpouring. The woman watched him, listening, and when Mickey had no
+further word: "She is only a tiny girl?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+"The littlest girl you ever saw," said Mickey.
+
+"Perfectly helpless?" marvelled the woman.
+
+"Oh no! She can sit up and use her hands," said Mickey. "She can feed
+herself, write on her slate, and learn her lessons. It's only that she
+stays put. She has to be lifted if she's moved."
+
+"You lift her?" queried the woman.
+
+"Could with one hand," said Mickey tersely.
+
+"You say this young lawyer you work for, whose name I see in the
+_Herald_ connected with the investigation going on, is at the club
+house now?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Mickey.
+
+"He's coming past here this evening?" she pursued.
+
+Mickey explained.
+
+"About how much waiting on would your little girl take?" she asked next.
+
+"Well just at present, she does the waiting on me," said Mickey. "You
+see, dearest lady, I have to get her washed and fix her breakfast and
+her lunch beside the bed, and be downtown by seven o'clock, and I don't
+get back 'til six. Then I wash her again to freshen her up and cook her
+supper. Then she says her lesson, her prayers and goes to sleep. So you
+see it's mostly _her_ waiting on _me_. A boy couldn't be less trouble
+than that, could he?"
+
+"It doesn't seem like it," said the woman, "and no matter how much
+bother she was, I guess I could stand it for a week, if she's such a
+little girl, and can't walk. The difficulty is this: I promised my son
+Junior a boy and his heart is so set. He's wild about the city. He's
+going to be gone before we know it. He doesn't seem to care for
+anything we have, or do. I don't know just what he hoped to get out of
+a city boy; but I promised him one. Then I felt scared and wrote Mr.
+Chaffner how it was and asked him to send me a real nice boy who could
+be trusted. If it were not for Junior--Mary and the Little Man would be
+delighted."
+
+"Well never mind," said Mickey. "I'll go see the Nurse Lady and maybe
+she can think of a plan. Anyway I don't know as it would be best for
+Lily. If she came here a week, seems like it would kill me to take her
+back, and I don't know how she'd bear staying alone all day, after she
+had got used to company. And pretty soon now it's going to get so hot,
+top floors in the city, that if she had a week like this, going back
+would make her sick."
+
+"You must give me time to think," said the woman. "Peter will soon be
+home to supper. I'll talk it over with him and with Junior and see what
+they think. Where could you be found in Multiopolis? We drive in every
+few days. We like to go ourselves, and there's no other way to satisfy
+the children. They get so tired and lonesome in the country."
+
+Mickey was aghast. "They _do?_ Why it doesn't seem possible! I wish I
+could trade jobs with Junior for a while. What is his work?"
+
+"He drives the creamery wagon," answered the woman.
+
+"O Lord!" Mickey burst forth. "Excuse me ma'am, I mean----Oh my! Drives
+a real live horse along these streets and gathers up the cream cans we
+pass at the gates, and takes them to the trolley?"
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"And he'd give up _that_ job for blacking somebody's shoes, or carrying
+papers, or running errands, or being shut up all summer in a big hot
+building! Oh my!"
+
+"When will you be our way again?" asked the woman. "I'll talk this over
+with Peter. If we decided to try the little girl and she did the
+'waiting' as you say, she couldn't be much trouble. I should think we
+could manage her, and a boy too. I wish you could be the boy. I'd like
+to have _you_. I've been thinking if we could get a boy to show Junior
+what it is he wants to know about a city, he'd be better satisfied at
+home, but I don't know. It's just possible it might make him worse. Now
+such an understanding boy as you seem to be, maybe you could teach
+Junior things about the city that would make him contented at _home_.
+Do you think you could?"
+
+"Dearest lady, I _get_ you," said Mickey. "_Do I think I could?_ Well
+if you really wished me to, I could take your Junior to Multiopolis
+with me for a week and make him so sick he'd never want to see a city
+again while his palpitator was running."
+
+"Hu'umh!" said the lady slowly, her eyes on far distance. "Let me
+think! I don't know but that would be a fine thing for all of us. We
+have land enough for a nice farm for both boys, and the way things look
+now, land seems about as sure as anything; we could give them a farm
+apiece when we are done with it, and the girl the money to take to her
+home when she marries--I would love to know that Junior was going to
+live on land as his father does; but all his life he's talked about
+working in the city when he grows up. Hu'umh!"
+
+"Well if you want him cured of that, gimme the job," he grinned. "You
+see lady, I know the city, inside out and outside in again. I been
+playing the game with it since I can remember. You can't tell me
+anything I don't know about the lowest, poorest side of it. Oh I could
+tell you things that would make your head swim. If you want your boy
+dosed just sick as a horse on what a workingman gets in Multiopolis
+'tween Sunrise Alley and Biddle Boulevard, just you turn him over to me
+a week. I'll fix him. I'll make the creamery job look like 'Lijah
+charioteering for the angels to him, honest I will lady; and he won't
+ever _know_ it, either. He'll come through with a lump in his neck, and
+a twist in his stummick that means home and mother. See?"
+
+The woman looked at Mickey in wide-eyed and open-mouthed amazement:
+"Well if I ever!" she gasped.
+
+"If you don't believe me, try it," said Mickey.
+
+"Well! Well! I'll have to think," she said. "I don't know but it would
+be a good thing if it could be done."
+
+"Well don't you have any misgivings about it being done," said Mickey.
+"It's being _done_ every day. I know men, hundreds of them, just
+scraping, and slaving and half starving to get together the dough to
+pull out. I hear it on the cars, on the streets, and see it in the
+papers. They're jumping their jobs and going every day, while hundreds
+of Schmeltzenschimmers, O'Laughertys, Hansons, and Pietros are coming
+in to take their places. Multiopolis is more than half filled with
+crowd-outs from across the ocean now, instead of home folks' cradles,
+as it should be. If Junior has got a hankering for Multiopolis that is
+going to cut him out of owning a place like this, and bossing his own
+job, dearest lady, cook him! Cook him quick!"
+
+"Would you come here?" she questioned.
+
+"Would I?" cried Mickey. "Well try me and see!"
+
+"I'm deeply interested in what you say about Junior," she said. "I'll
+talk it over to-night with Peter."
+
+"Well I don't know," said Mickey. "He might put the grand kibosh on it.
+Hard! But if Junior came back asking polite for his mush and milk, and
+offering his Christmas pennies for the privilege of plowing, or driving
+the cream wagon, believe me dear lady, then Peter would fall on your
+neck and weep for joy."
+
+"Yes, in that event, he would," said the lady, "and the temptation is
+so great, that I believe if you'll give me your address, I'll look you
+up the next time I come to Multiopolis, which will be soon. I'd like to
+see your Lily before I make any promises. If I thought I could manage,
+I could bring her right out in the car. Tell me where to find you, and
+I'll see what Peter thinks."
+
+Mickey grinned widely. "You ain't no suffragette lady, are you?" he
+commented.
+
+"Well I don't know about that," said the lady. "There are a good many
+things to think of these days."
+
+"Yes I know," said Mickey, "but as long as everything you say swings
+the circle and rounds up with Peter, it's no job to guess what's most
+important in your think-tank. Peter must be some pumpkins!"
+
+"Come to think of it, he is, Mickey," she said. "Come to think of it, I
+do sort of revolve around Peter. We always plan together. Not that we
+always _think_ alike: there are some things I just _can't_ make Peter
+see, that I wish I _could;_ but I wouldn't trade Peter----"
+
+"No I guess he's top crust," laughed Mickey.
+
+"He is so!" said the woman. "How did you say I could reach you?"
+
+"Well, the easiest way would be this. Here, I'll write the number for
+you."
+
+"Fine!" said the woman. "I'll hurry through my shopping and call
+you--when would it suit you best?"
+
+"Never mind me," said Mickey. "For this, I'll come when you say."
+
+"What about three in the afternoon, then?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Mickey. "Suits me splendid! Mostly quit for the day then.
+But ma'am, I don't know about this. Lily isn't used to anybody but me,
+she may be afraid to come with you."
+
+"And I may think I would scarcely want to try to take care of her for a
+week, when I see her," said the woman.
+
+"You may think that now, but you'll change your mind when you see her,"
+said Mickey. "Dearest lady, when you see a little white girl that
+hasn't ever walked, smiling up at you shy and timid, you won't be any
+more anxious for Orphings' Homes and Charity Palaces to swallow her up
+than I am; not a bit! All I must think of is what Lily will say about
+coming. She's never been out of my room since I found her, and she
+hasn't seen any one but Mr. Bruce, so she'll be afraid, and worried.
+_Seeing her_ is all I ask of _you!_ What I'm up against is what she's
+going to say; and how I'm going to take her _back_ after a week here,
+when it will be hotter there and lonesomer than ever."
+
+"You surely give one things to think about," commented the woman.
+
+"Do I?" queried Mickey. "Well I don't know as I should. Probably with
+Peter, and three children of your own, and this farm to run, you are
+busy enough without spending any of your time on me."
+
+"The command in the good book is plain: 'Bear ye one another's
+burdens,'" quoted the woman.
+
+"Oh yes! 'Burdens,' of course!" agreed Mickey. "But that couldn't mean
+Lily, 'cause she's nothing but joy! Just pure joy! All about her is
+that a fellow loves her so, that it keeps him laying awake at nights
+thinking how to do what would be _best_ for her. She's mine, and I'm
+going to _keep_ her; that's the surest thing you know. If I take you to
+see Lily, and if I decide to let you have her a few days to rest her
+and fresh her up, you wouldn't go and want to put her 'mong the
+Orphings' Home kids, would you? You wouldn't think she ought to be took
+from me and raised in a flock of every kind, from every place. Would
+you lady?"
+
+"No, I wouldn't," said the lady. "I see how you feel, and I am sure I
+wouldn't want that for one of mine."
+
+"Well, there's no question about her being _mine!_" said Mickey. "But I
+like you so, maybe I'll let you _help_ me a _little_. A big boy that
+can run and play doesn't need you, dearest lady, half so much as my
+little girl. Do you think he does?"
+
+"No, I think the Lord sent you straight here. If you don't stop I'll be
+so worked up I can't rest. I may come to-morrow."
+
+Mickey arose, holding out his hand.
+
+"Thank you dearest lady," he said. "I must be getting out where the car
+won't pass without my seeing it."
+
+"You wait at the gate a minute," she said, "I want to send in a little
+basket of things to-night. I'll have it ready in a jiffy."
+
+Mickey slowly walked to the gate. When the woman came with a basket
+covered with a white cloth, he thanked her again; as he took it he
+rested his head against her arm, smiling up at her with his wide true
+eyes.
+
+"A thing I can't understand is," he said, "why when the Lord was making
+mothers, he didn't cut all of them from the same piece he did you. I'll
+just walk on down the road and smell June beside this clover field. Is
+it yours?"
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"Would you care if I'd take just a few to Lily? I know she never saw
+any."
+
+"Take a bunch as big as your head if you want them."
+
+"Lily is so little, three will do her just as well; besides, she's got
+to remember how we are fixed, so she needn't begin to expect things to
+come her way by baskets and bunches," said Mickey. "She's bound to be
+spoiled bad enough as it is. I can't see how I'm going to come out with
+her, but she's mine, and I'm going to keep her."
+
+"Mickey," laughed the woman, "don't you think you swing around to Lily
+just about the way I do to Peter?"
+
+"Well maybe I do," conceded Mickey.
+
+"What kind of a car did you say Mr. Bruce has?"
+
+"Oh the car is dark green, and the driver has sandy hair; and Mr.
+Bruce--why you'd know him anywhere! Just look for the finest man you
+ever saw, if you are out when he goes by, and that will be Mr. Douglas
+Bruce."
+
+"I guess I'll know him if I happen to be out."
+
+"Sure lady, you couldn't miss him," replied Mickey.
+
+Carefully holding his basket he went down the road. The woman made
+supper an hour late standing beside the gate watching for a green car.
+Many whirled past, then at last one with the right look came gliding
+along; so she stepped out and raised her hand for a parley. The car
+stopped.
+
+"Mr. Douglas Bruce?" she asked.
+
+"At your service, Madam!" he answered.
+
+"Just a word with you," she said.
+
+He arose instantly, swung open the car door, and stepping down walked
+with her to the shade of a big widely branching maple. The woman looked
+at him, and said flushing and half confused: "Please to excuse me for
+halting you, but I had a reason. This afternoon such an attractive
+little fellow stopped here to ask for a drink in passing. Now Peter and
+I had decided we'd try our hand at taking a city boy for a week or so
+for his vacation, and twice Peter has left his work and gone to the
+trolley station to fetch him, and he failed us. I supposed Peter had
+missed him, so when I saw the boy coming, just the first glimpse my
+heart went right out to him----"
+
+"Very likely----" assented Mr. Bruce.
+
+"He surely is the most winning little chap I ever saw with his keen
+blue eyes and that sort of light on his forehead," said the woman.
+
+"I've noticed that," put in the man.
+
+"Yes," she said, "anybody would see that almost the first thing. So I
+thought he was the boy I was to mother coming, and I went right at the
+job. He told me quick enough that I was mistaken, but I could see he
+was in trouble. Someway I'd trust him with my character or my money,
+but I got to be perfectly sure before I trust him with my children. You
+see I have three, and if ever any of them go wrong, I don't want it to
+be because I was _careless_. I thought I'd like to have him around
+some; my oldest boy is bigger, but just about his age. He said he might
+be out this way with you this summer and I wanted to ask him in, and do
+what I could to entertain him; but first I wanted to inquire of you----"
+
+"I see!" said Douglas Bruce. "I haven't known Mickey so long, but owing
+to the circumstances in which I met him, and the association with him
+since, I feel that I know him better than I could most boys in a longer
+time. The strongest thing I can say to you is this: had I a boy of my
+own, I should be proud if Mickey liked him and would consider being
+friends with him. He is absolutely trustworthy, that I know."
+
+"Then I won't detain your further," she said.
+
+Mickey, cheered in mind and heart, had walked ahead briskly with his
+basket, while as he went he formulated his plans. He would go straight
+to the Sunshine Nurse, tell her about the heat and this possible chance
+to take Lily to the country for a week, and consult with her as to what
+the effect of the trip might be, and what he could do with her
+afterward, then he would understand better. He kept watching the clover
+field beside the way. When he decided he had reached the finest, best
+perfumed place, he saw a man plowing on the other side of the fence and
+thought it might be Peter and that Peter would wonder what he was doing
+in his field, so Mickey set the basket in a corner and advanced.
+
+He was wonderfully elated by what had happened to him and the
+conclusions at which he had arrived, as he came across the deep grasses
+beside the fence where the pink of wild rose and the snow of alder
+commingled, where song sparrows trilled, and larks and quail were
+calling. He approached smiling in utter confidence. As he looked at the
+man, at his height, his strong open face, his grip on the plow, he
+realized why the world of the little woman revolved around Peter.
+Mickey could have conceived of few happier fates than being attached to
+Peter, so he thought in amazement of the boy who wanted to leave him.
+Then a slow grin spread over his face, for by this time Peter had
+stopped his horses and was awaiting him with an answering smile and
+hand outstretched.
+
+"Why son, I'm glad to see you!" he cried. "How did I come to miss you?
+Did you get off at the wrong stop?"
+
+Mickey shook his head as he took the proffered hand.
+
+"You are Peter?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I'm Peter," confirmed the man.
+
+"Well you're making the same mistake your pleasant lady did," explained
+Mickey. "She thought I was the boy who had been sent to visit you, so
+she gave me the glad hand too. I wish I was in his shoes! But I'm not
+your boy. Gee, your lady is a nice gentle lady."
+
+"You're all correct there," agreed Peter. "And so you are not the boy
+who was to be sent us. Pshaw now! I wish you were. I'm disappointed.
+I've been watching you coming down the road, and the way you held
+together and stepped up so brisk and neat took my eye."
+
+"I been 'stepping up brisk and neat' to sell papers, run errands, hop
+cars, dodge cars and automobiles, and climbing fire-escapes instead of
+stairs, and keeping from under foot since I can remember," laughed
+Mickey. "You learn on the streets of Multiopolis to step up, and watch
+sharp without knowing you are doing it."
+
+"You're a newsboy?" asked Peter.
+
+"I was all my life 'til a few days ago," said Mickey. "Then I went into
+the office of Mr. Douglas Bruce. He's a corporation lawyer in the
+Iriquois Building."
+
+"Hum, I've been reading about him," said Peter. "If I ever have a case,
+I'm going to take it to him."
+
+"Well you'll have a man that will hang on and dig in and _sweat_ for
+you," said Mickey. "Just now he's after some of them big office-holders
+who are bleeding the taxpayers of Multiopolis. Some of these days if
+you watch your _Herald_ sharp, you're going to see the lid fly off of
+two or three things at once. He's on a hot trail now."
+
+"Why I have seen that in the papers," said Peter. "He was given the job
+of finding who is robbing the city, by James Minturn; I remember his
+name. And you work for him? Well, well! Sit down here and tell me about
+it."
+
+"I can't now," said Mickey. "I must get back to the road. His car may
+pass any minute, and I'm to be ready. Your pleasant lady said I might
+take a few clover flowers to my little sick girl, and just as I came to
+the finest ones in the field, I saw you so I thought maybe I'd better
+tell you what I was doing before you fired me."
+
+"Take all you want," said Peter. "I'd like to send the whole field,
+larks and all, to a little sick girl. I'd like especial to send her
+some of these clowny bobolink fellows to puff up and spill music by the
+quart for her; I guess nothing else runs so smooth except water."
+
+"I don't know what she'd say," said Mickey gazing around him. "You see
+she hasn't ever walked, so all she's seen in her life has been the
+worst kind of bare, dark tenement walls, 'til lately she's got a high
+window where she can see sky, and a few sparrows that come for crumbs.
+This!"--Mickey swept his arm toward the landscape--"I don't know what
+she'd say to this!"
+
+"Pshaw, now!" cried Peter. "Why bring her out! You bring her right out!
+That's what we been wanting to know. Just what a city child would
+_think_ of country things she'd never seen before. Bring her to see us!"
+
+"She's a little bit of a thing and she can't walk, you know," explained
+Mickey.
+
+"Poor little mite! That's too bad," lamented Peter. "Wonder if she
+couldn't be doctored up. It's a shame she can't walk, but taking care
+of her must be easy!"
+
+"Oh she takes care of herself," said Mickey. "You see she is alone all
+day from six 'til six; she must take care of herself, so she studies
+her lesson, and plays with her doll--I mean her Precious Child."
+
+"Too bad!" said Peter. "By jacks that's a sin! Did you happen to speak
+to Ma about her?"
+
+"We did talk a little," admitted Mickey. "She was telling me of the
+visitor boy who didn't come, and your son who doesn't think he'll want
+to stay; so we got to talking. She said just what you did about wanting
+to see how a city child who hadn't ever seen a chicken, or a cow, or
+horse would act----"
+
+"Good Lord!" cried Peter. "_Is_ there a child in Multiopolis who hasn't
+ever seen a little chicken, or a calf?"
+
+"Hundreds of them!" said Mickey. "I've scarcely seen a cow myself. I've
+seen hens and little chickens in shop windows at Easter time----"
+
+"But not in the orchard in June?" queried Peter.
+
+"No, 'not in the orchard in June!'" said Mickey.
+
+"Well, well!" marvelled Peter. "There's nothing so true as that 'one
+half doesn't know how the other half lives.' I've heard that, but I
+didn't quite sense it, and I don't know as I do yet. You bring her
+right out!"
+
+"Your pleasant lady talked about that; but you see bringing her out and
+showing her these things, and getting her used to them is _one_ thing;
+then taking her back to a room so hot I always sleep on the
+fire-escape, and where she has to stay all day alone, is _another_. I
+don't know but so long as she must go _back_ to what she has now, it
+would be better to _leave_ her there."
+
+"Humph! I see! What a pity!" exclaimed Peter. "Well, if you'll be
+coming this way again, stop and see us. I'll talk to Ma about her. We
+often take a little run to Multiopolis. Junior wouldn't be satisfied
+till we got a car, and I can't say we ain't enjoying it ourselves. What
+was that you were saying about my boy not thinking he'll stay?"
+
+"_She_ told me," said Mickey, "about the city bug he had in his system.
+Why don't you swat it immediate?"
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Peter.
+
+"Turn him over to me a week or two," suggested Mickey. "I can give him
+a dose of working in a city that will send him hiking back to home and
+father."
+
+"It's worth considering," said Peter.
+
+"I know that what I got of Multiopolis would make me feel like von
+Hindenberg if I had the job of handling the ribbons of your creamery
+wagon; and so I know about what would put sonny back on the farm,
+tickled 'most to death to be here."
+
+"By gum! Well, I'll give you just one hundred dollars if you'll do it!"
+exclaimed Peter. "You see my grandfather and father owned this land
+before me. We've been on the plowing job so long we have it reduced to
+a system, so it comes easy for me, and I take pride and pleasure in it;
+I had supposed my boys would be the same. Do you really think you could
+manage it?"
+
+"Sure," said Mickey. "Only, if you really mean it, not now, nor ever,
+do you want son to _know_ it. See! The medicine wouldn't work, if he
+knew he took it."
+
+"Well I'll be jiggered!" laughed Peter. "I guess you could do it, if
+you went at it right."
+
+"Well you trust me to do it right," grinned Mickey. "Loan me sonny for
+a week or two, and you can have him back for keeps."
+
+"Well it's worth trying," said Peter. "Say, when will you be this way
+again?"
+
+"'Most any day," said Mickey. "And your lady said she'd be in
+Multiopolis soon, so we are sure to have a happy meeting before long. I
+think that is Mr. Bruce's car coming. Goodbye! Be good to yourself!"
+
+With a spring from where he was standing Mickey arose in air, alighted
+on the top rail of the division fence, then balancing, he raced down it
+toward the road. Peter watched him in astonishment, then went back to
+his plowing with many new things on his mind. Thus it happened that
+after supper, when the children were in bed, and he and his wife went
+to the front veranda for their usual evening visit, and talk over the
+day, she had very little to tell him.
+
+As was her custom, she removed her apron, brushed her waving hair and
+wore a fresh dress. She rocked gently in her wicker chair, while her
+voice was moved to unusual solicitude as she spoke. Peter also had
+performed a rite he spoke of as "brushing up" for evening. He believed
+in the efficacy of soap and water, so his body, as well as his
+clothing, was clean. He sat on the top step leaning against the pillar
+where the moonlight emphasized his big frame, accented the strong lines
+of his face and crowned his thick hair, as Nancy Harding thought it
+should be, with glory.
+
+"Peter," she said, "did you notice anything about that boy, this
+afternoon, different from other boys?"
+
+"Yes," answered Peter slowly, "I did Nancy. He didn't strike me as
+being _one_ boy. He has the best of three or four concealed in his lean
+person."
+
+"He's had a pretty tough time, I judge," said Nancy.
+
+"Yet you never saw a boy who took your heart like he did, and neither
+did I," answered Peter.
+
+Mickey holding his basket and clover flowers was waiting when the car
+drew up, and to Bruce's inquiry answered that a lady where he stopped
+for a drink had given him something for Lily. He left the car in the
+city, sought the nurse and luckily found her at leisure. She listened
+with the greatest interest to all he had to say.
+
+"It's a problem," she said, as he finished. "To take her to such a
+place for a week, and then bring her back where she is, would be harder
+for her than never going."
+
+"I got that figured," said Mickey; "but I've about made up my mind,
+after seeing the place and thinking over the folks, that it wouldn't
+_happen_ that way. Once they see her, and find how little trouble she
+is, they're not people who would send her back 'til it's cool, if
+they'd want to then. And there's this, too: there are other folks who
+would take her now, and see about her back. Have I got the right to let
+it go a day, waiting to earn the money myself, when some one else,
+maybe the Moonshine Lady, or Mr. Bruce, would do it _now_, and not put
+her in an Orphings' Home, either?"
+
+"No Mickey, you haven't!" said the nurse.
+
+"Just the way I have it figured," said Mickey. "But she's mine, and I'm
+going to _keep_ her. If her back is fixed, I'm going to have it done. I
+don't want any one else meddling with my family. You haven't heard
+anything from the Carrel man yet?"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"My, I wish he'd come!" cried Mickey.
+
+"So do I," said the nurse. "But so far Mickey, I think you are doing
+all right. If she must be operated, she'd have to be put in condition
+for it; and while I suspect I could beat you at your job, I am positive
+you are far surpassing what she did have."
+
+"Well I know that too," said Mickey. "But surpassing nothing at all
+isn't going either far or fast. I must do something."
+
+"If you could bring yourself to consent to giving her up----" suggested
+the nurse.
+
+"Well I can't!" interposed Mickey.
+
+"Just for a while!" continued the nurse.
+
+"Not for a minute! I found her! She's mine!"
+
+"Yes, I know; but----" began the nurse.
+
+"I know too," said Mickey. "Gimme a little time." He studied the
+problem till he reached his grocery. There he thriftily lifted the
+cloth to peep, and with a sigh of satisfaction pursued his way.
+Presently he opened his door, to be struck by a wave of hot air and to
+note a flushed little face and drawn mouth as he went into Peaches'
+outstretched arms. Then he delivered the carefully carried clover and
+the following:
+
+"_I got these from a big, pink field bewildering, That God made
+a-purpose for cows and childering. Her share is being consumed by the
+cow, Let's go roll in ours right now._"
+
+"Again!" demanded Peaches.
+
+Mickey repeated slowly.
+
+"How could we?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Easy!" said Mickey.
+
+"'Easy?'" repeated Peaches.
+
+"Just as easy!" reiterated Mickey.
+
+"Did you see it?" demanded Peaches.
+
+"Yes, I saw it to-day," said Mickey. "It's like this: you see some
+folks live in houses all built together, and work at selling things to
+eat, and wear, and making things, and doing other work that must be
+done like doctors, and lawyers, and hospitals; _that's a city_. Then to
+_feed them_, other folks live on big pieces of land; the houses are far
+apart, with streets between, and beside them the big fields where the
+wheat grows for our bread, and our potatoes, and the grass, and the
+clover like this to feed the cows. To-day Mr. Bruce didn't play long,
+so I went walking and stopped at a house for a drink, and there was the
+nicest lady; we talked some and she give me our supper in that pretty
+basket; and she sent you the clovers from a big pink field so sweet
+smelly it would 'most make you sick; and there are trees through it,
+and lots of birds sing, and there are wild roses and fringy white
+flowers; and it's quiet 'cept the birds, and the roosters crowing, and
+the wind comes in little perfumery blows on you, and such milk!"
+
+"Better 'an our milk?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Their milk is so rich it makes ours look like a poorhouse relation,"
+scoffed Mickey.
+
+"Tell me more," demanded Peaches.
+
+"Wait 'til I get the water to wash you, you are so warm."
+
+"Yes, it's getting some hot; but 'tain't nothing like on the rags last
+summer. It's like a real lady here."
+
+"A pretty warm lady, just the same," said Mickey.
+
+Then he brought water and leaving the door ajar for the first time, he
+soon started a draft; that with the coming of cooler evening lowered
+the child's temperature, and made her hungry. As he worked Mickey
+talked. The grass, the blooming orchard, the hen and her little downy
+chickens, the big cool porch, the wonderful woman and man, the boy whom
+they expected and who did not come; and then cautiously, slowly, making
+sure she understood, he developed his plan to take her to the country.
+Peaches drew back and opened her lips. Mickey promptly laid the
+washcloth over them.
+
+"Now don't begin to say you 'won't' like a silly baby," he said. "Try
+it and see, then if you don't like it, you can come right back. You
+want to ride in a grand automobile like a millyingaire lady, don't you?
+All the swells go away to the country for the summer, you got to be a
+swell lady! I ain't going to have you left way behind!"
+
+"Mickey, would you be there?" she asked.
+
+"Yes lady, I'd be right on the job!" said Mickey. "I'd be there a lot
+more than I am here. You go the week they wanted that boy, and he
+didn't come; then if you like it, I'll see if they won't board you, and
+you can have a nice little girl to play with, and a fat, real baby, and
+a boy bigger than me--and you should see Peter!"
+
+Peaches opened her lips, Mickey reapplied the cloth.
+
+"Calm down now!" he ordered. "I've decided to do it. We got to hump
+ourselves. This is our _chance_. Why there's milk, and butter, and
+eggs, and things to eat there like you never tasted, and to have a cool
+breeze, and to lie on the grass----"
+
+"Oh Mickey, could I?" cried Peaches.
+
+"Sure silly! Why not?" said Mickey. "There's big fields of it, and the
+cows don't need it all. You can lie on the grass, or the clover, and
+hear the birds, and play with the children. I'll take a day and get
+things started right before I leave you to come to work, like I'll have
+to. When I come at night, I'll carry your outdoors; why I'll take you
+down to the water and you can kick your feet in it, where it's nice and
+warm; all the time you can have as many flowers as your hands will
+hold; and such bird singing, why Lily Peaches O'Halloran, there are
+birds as red as blood, yes ma'am, and yellow as orange peel and light
+blue like this ribbon and dark blue like that--hold still 'til I fix
+you--and such singing!"
+
+"Mickey, would you hold me?" wavered Peaches.
+
+"Smash anybody that lays a finger on you, unless you say so," said
+Mickey promptly.
+
+"And you'd stay a whole day?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Sure!" cried Mickey.
+
+"An' if I was afraid you'd bring me back?" she went on.
+
+"Sure! Right away!" he promised.
+
+"An' they wouldn't anybody 'get' me there?"
+
+"'Way out there 'mong the clover?" scoffed Mickey. "Why it's _here_
+they'll '_get_' you if they are going to. Nobody out there _wants_ you,
+but me."
+
+"Mickey, when will you take me?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Before so very long," promised Mickey. "You needn't be surprised to
+hear me coming with the nice lady to see you any day now, and to be
+wrapped in a sheet, and put in a big car, and just scooted right out to
+the very place that God made especial for little girls. To-night we put
+in another blesses, Lily. We'll pray, 'Bless the nice lady who sent our
+supper,' won't we?"
+
+"Yes Mickey, and 'fore you came I didn't want any supper at all, and
+now I _do_," said Peaches.
+
+"You were too warm honey," said Mickey. "We'll just fix this old hot
+city. We'll run right away from it. See? Now we'll have the grandest
+supper we ever had."
+
+Mickey brought water, plates, and forks, and opened the basket. Peaches
+bolstered with her pillows cried out and marvelled. There was a quart
+bottle of milk wrapped in a wet cloth. There was a big loaf of crusty
+brown country bread. There was a small blue bowl of yellow butter, a
+square of honey even yellower, a box of strawberries, and some powdered
+sugar, and a little heap of sliced, cold boiled ham. Mickey surveyed
+the table.
+
+"Now Miss Chicken, here's how!" he warned. "I found you all warm and
+feverish. If you load up with this, you'll be sick sure. You get a cup
+of milk, a slice of bread and butter, some berries and a teeny piece of
+meat. We can live from this a week, if the heat doesn't spoil it."
+
+"You fix me," said Peaches.
+
+Then they had such a supper as they neither one ever had known, during
+which Mickey explained wheat fields and bread, bees and honey, cows and
+clover, pigs and ham, as he understood them. Peaches repeated her
+lesson and her prayers and then as had become her custom, demanded that
+Mickey write his last verse on the slate, so she might learn and copy
+it on the morrow. She was asleep before he finished. Mickey walked
+softly, cleared the table, placed it before the window, and taking from
+his pocket an envelope Mr. Bruce had given him drew out a sheet of
+folded paper on which he wrote long and laboriously, then locking
+Peaches in, he slipped down to the mail-box and posted this letter:
+
+DEAR MISTER CARREL:
+
+_I saw in papers I sold how you put different legs on a dog. I have a
+little white flowersy-girl that hasn't ever walked. It's her back. A
+Nurse Lady told me at the "Star of Hope" how you came there sometimes,
+and the next time you come, I guess I will let you see my little girl;
+and maybe I'll have you fix her back. When you see her you will know
+that to fix her back would be the biggest thing you ever did or ever
+could do. I got a job that I can pay her way and mine, and save two
+dollars a week for you. I couldn't pay all at once, but I could pay
+steady; and if you'd lose all you have in any way, it would come in
+real handy to have that much skating in steady as the clock every week
+for as long as you say, and soon as I can, I'll make it more. I'd give
+all I got, or ever can get, to cure Lily's back, and because you fixed
+the dog, I'd like you to fix her. I do hope you will come soon, but of
+course I don't wish anybody else would get sick so you'd have to. You
+can ask if I am square of Mr. Douglas Bruce, Iriquois Building,
+Multiopolis, Indiana, or of Mr. Chaffner, editor of the_ Herald, _whose
+papers I've sold since I was big enough._
+
+MICHAEL O'HALLORAN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+_Feminine Reasoning_
+
+
+With vigour renewed by a night of rest Leslie began her second day at
+Atwater Cabin. She had so many and such willing helpers that before
+noon she could find nothing more to do. After lunch she felt a desire
+to explore her new world. Choosing the shady side, she followed the
+road toward the club house, but one thought in her mind: she must
+return in time to take the car and meet Douglas Bruce as she had
+promised.
+
+She felt elated that she had so planned her summer as to spend it with
+her father, while of course it was going to be delightful to have her
+lover with her. So going she came to a most attractive lane that led
+from the road between tilled fields, back to a wood on one side, and
+open pasture on the other. Faintly she heard the shouts of children,
+and yielding to sudden impulse she turned and followed the grassy path.
+A few more steps, then she stopped in surprise. An automobile was
+standing on the bank of a brook. On an Indian blanket under a tree sat
+a woman of fine appearance holding a book, but watching with smiling
+face the line of the water, which spread in a wide pool above a rudely
+constructed dam, overflowing it in a small waterfall.
+
+On either bank lay one of the Minturn boys, muddy and damp, trying with
+his hands to catch something in the water. Below the dam, in a blue
+balbriggan bathing suit, stood James Minturn, his hands filled with a
+big piece of sod which he bent and applied to a leak. Leslie untied the
+ribbons of her sunshade and rumpling her hair to the light breeze came
+forward laughing.
+
+"Well Mr. Minturn!" she cried. "What is going to become of the
+taxpayers of Multiopolis while their champion builds a sod dam?"
+
+Whether the flush on James Minturn's face as he turned to her was
+exertion, embarrassment, or unpleasant memory Leslie could not decide;
+but she remembered, after her impulsive greeting, that she had been
+with his wife in that early morning meeting the day of the trip to the
+swamp. She thought of many things as she went forward. James Minturn
+held out his muddy hands as he said laughingly: "You see I'm not in
+condition for our customary greeting."
+
+"Surely!" cried Leslie. "It is going to wash off, isn't it? If from
+you, why not from me?"
+
+"Of course if you want to play!" he said.
+
+"Playing? You? Honestly?" queried Leslie.
+
+"Honestly playing," answered the man. "The 'honestest' playing in all
+the world; not the political game, not the money game, not anything
+called manly sport, just a day off with my boys, being a boy again.
+Heavens Leslie, I'm wild about it. I could scarcely sleep last night
+for eagerness to get started. But let me make you acquainted with my
+family. My sister, Mrs. Winslow, a friend of mine, Miss Leslie Winton;
+my sons' tutor, Mr. Tower; my little brother, William Minturn; my boys,
+Junior and Malcolm."
+
+"Anyway, we can shake hands," said Leslie to Mrs. Winslow. "The habit
+is so ingrained I am scandalized on meeting people if I'm forced to
+neglect it."
+
+"Will you share my blanket?" asked Mrs. Winslow.
+
+"Thanks! Yes, for a little time," said Leslie. "I am greatly interested
+in what is going on here."
+
+"So am I," said Mrs. Winslow. "We are engaged in the evolution of an
+idea. A real 'Do-the-boy's-hall.'"
+
+"It seems to be doing them good," commented Leslie.
+
+"Never mind the boys," said Mr. Minturn. "I object to such small men
+monopolizing your attention. Look at the 'good' this is doing me. And
+would you please tell me why you are here, instead of disporting
+yourself at, say Lenox?"
+
+"How funny!" laughed Leslie. "I am out in search of amusement, and I'm
+finding it. I think I'm perhaps a mile from our home for the summer."
+
+"You amaze me!" cried Mr. Minturn. "I saw Douglas this morning, and
+told him where I was coming, but he never said a word."
+
+"He didn't know one to say on this subject," explained Leslie. "You see
+I rented a cabin over at Atwater and had my plans made before I told
+even father what a delightful thing was in store for him."
+
+"But how did it happen?"
+
+"Through my seeing how desperately busy Daddy and Douglas have been all
+spring, Daddy especially," replied Leslie. "Douglas is bad enough, but
+father's just obsessed, so much so that I think he's carrying double."
+
+"I know he is," said Mr. Minturn. "And so you made a plan to allow him
+to proceed with his work all day and then have the delightful ride,
+fishing and swimming in Atwater morning and evening. How wonderful! And
+of course Douglas will be there also?"
+
+"Of course," agreed Leslie. "At least he shall have an invitation. I'm
+going to surprise him with it this very evening. How do you think he'll
+like it?"
+
+"I think he will be so overjoyed he won't know how to express himself,"
+said James Minturn. "But isn't it going to be lonely for you? Won't you
+miss your friends, your frocks, and your usual summer round?"
+
+"You forget," said Leslie. "My friends and my frocks always have been
+for winter. All my life I have summered with father."
+
+"How will you amuse yourself?" he asked.
+
+"It will take some time each day to plan what to do the next that will
+bring most refreshment and joy; I often will be compelled to drive in
+of mornings with orders for my house-keeping, and when other things are
+exhausted, I am going to make an especial study of wild-bird music."
+
+"That is an attractive subject," said Mr. Minturn. "Have you really
+made any progress?"
+
+"Little more than verifying a few songs already recorded," replied
+Leslie. "I hear smatterings and snatches, but they are elusive, while
+I'm not always sure of the identity of the bird. But the subject is
+thrillingly tempting."
+
+"It surely is," conceded Mr. Minturn. "I could see that Nellie was
+alert the instant you mentioned it. Come over here to the shade and
+tell me how far you have gone. You see I've undertaken the boys'
+education. Malcolm inherits his mother's musical ability to a wonderful
+degree. It is possible that he could be started on this, and so begin
+his work while he thinks he's playing."
+
+Leslie walked to the spot indicated, far enough away that conversation
+would not interrupt Mrs. Winslow's reading, and near enough to watch
+the boys; she and Mr. Minturn sat on the grass and talked.
+
+"It might be the very thing," said Leslie. "Whatever gives even a faint
+hope of attracting a boy to an educational subject is worth testing."
+
+"One thing I missed, I always have regretted," said Mr. Minturn, "I
+never had educated musical comprehension. Nellie performed and sang so
+well, and in my soul I knew what I could understand and liked in music
+she scorned. Sometimes I thought if I had known only enough to
+appreciate the right thing at the right time, it might have formed a
+slender tie between us; so I want the boys both to recognize good music
+when they hear it; but they have so much to learn all at once, poor
+little chaps, I scarcely see where to begin, and in a musical way, I
+don't even know how to begin. Tell me about the birds, Leslie. Just
+what is it you are studying?"
+
+"The strains of our famous composers that are lifted bodily for
+measures at a time, from the song of a bird or indisputably based upon
+it," answered Leslie.
+
+"Did you and Nellie have any success?"
+
+"Indeed yes! We had the royal luck to hear exactly the song I had
+hoped; and besides we talked of many things and Nellie settled her
+future course in her mind. When she went into the swamp alone and came
+out with an armload of lavender fringed orchids she meant to carry to
+Elizabeth, and her heart firmly resolved to begin a new life with you,
+she told me she felt like flying; that never had she been so happy."
+
+Leslie paused, glancing at James Minturn. He seemed puzzled: "I don't
+understand. But nothing matters now. Tell me about the birds," he said.
+
+"And it is what you admit you don't understand that I must tell you
+of," said Leslie. "I've been afraid, horribly afraid you didn't
+understand, and that you took some course you wouldn't have taken if
+you did. What happened in the swamp was all my fault!"
+
+"The birds, Leslie, tell me of the birds," commanded James Minturn.
+"You can't possibly know what occurred that separated Nellie and me."
+
+"No, I don't know your side of it; but I do know hers, and I don't
+think you do," persisted Leslie. "Now if you would be big enough to let
+me tell you how it was with her that day, and what she said to me, your
+mind would be perfectly at rest as to the course you have taken."
+
+"My mind is 'perfectly at rest now as to the course I have taken,'"
+said Mr. Minturn. "I realize that a man should meet life as it comes to
+him. I endured mine in sweating humiliation for years, and I would have
+gone on to the end, if it had been a question of me only, but when the
+girl was sacrificed and the boys in a fair way to meet a worse fate
+than hers, the question no longer hinged on me. You have seen my sons
+during their mother's regime, when they were children of wealth in the
+care of servants; look at them now and dare to tell me that they are
+not greatly improved."
+
+"Surely they are!" said Leslie. "You did right to rescue them from
+their environment; all the fault that lies with you so far is, that you
+did not do from the start what you are now doing. The thing that haunts
+me is this, Mr. Minturn, and I must get it out of my mind before I can
+sleep soundly again--you will let me tell you--you won't think me
+meddling in what must be dreadful heartache? Oh you won't will you?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Mr. Minturn, "but it is prolonging heartache to
+discuss this matter, and wasting time better used in the building of a
+sod dam--indeed Leslie, tell me about the birds."
+
+"I will, if you'll answer one question," said Leslie.
+
+"Dangerous, but I'll risk it," replied Mr. Minturn.
+
+"I must ask two or three minor ones to reach the real one," explained
+the girl.
+
+"Oh Leslie," laughed Mr. Minturn. "I didn't think you were so like the
+average woman."
+
+"A large number of men are finding 'the average woman' quite
+delightful," said Leslie. "Men respect a masculine, well-balanced,
+argumentative woman, but every time they love and marry the impulsive,
+changeable, companionable one."
+
+"Provided she be endowed with truth, character, and common mother
+instinct enough to protect her young--yes--I grant it, and glory in
+it," said Mr. Minturn. "I can furnish logic for one family, and most
+men I know feel qualified to do the same."
+
+"Surely!" agreed Leslie. "You were waiting for Nellie the night she
+came from the tamarack swamp with me, and she told me you had a little
+box, and that with its contents you had threatened to 'freeze her
+soul,' if she had a soul. I'll be logical and fair, and ask but the
+_one_ question I first stipulated. Here it is: did you wait until you
+made sure she had a soul, worthy of your consideration, before you
+froze it?"
+
+James Minturn's laugh was ugly to hear.
+
+"My dear girl," he said. "I made sure she had _not_ three years ago."
+
+"And I made equally sure that she had," said Leslie, "in the tamarack
+swamp when she wrestled as Jacob at Peniel against her birth, her
+environment, her wealth, and triumphed over all of them for you and her
+sons. I can't go on with my own plan for personal happiness, until I
+know for sure if you perfectly understand that she came to you that
+night to confess to you her faults, errors, mistakes, sins, if need be,
+and ask you to take the head of your household, and to help her fashion
+each hour of her life anew. Did she have a chance to tell you all this?"
+
+"No," said Mr. Minturn. "But it would have made _no difference,_ if she
+had. It came too late."
+
+"You have not the right to say that to any living, suffering human
+being!" protested Leslie.
+
+"I have a perfect right to say it to her," said Mr. Minturn. "A right
+that would be justified in any court in the world, either of lawyers or
+people."
+
+"Then thank God, Nellie gets her trial higher. He will understand, and
+forgive her."
+
+"You don't know what she did," said Mr. Minturn. "What she stood before
+me and the officers of the law, and admitted she did."
+
+"I don't care what she did! There were men forgiven on the cross;
+because they sincerely repented, God had mercy on them, so He will on
+her, and what's more, He won't have any on _you_, unless you follow His
+example and forgive when you are asked, by a woman who is as deeply
+repentant as she was."
+
+"Her repentance comes too late," said Mr. Minturn with finality. "Her
+error is _not reparable_."
+
+"There is no such thing as true repentance being too late," insisted
+Leslie. "You are distinctly commanded to forgive; you have got to do
+it! There is no error that is reparable. Since you hint tragedy, I will
+concede it. If she had been directly responsible for the death of her
+child, it was a mistake, criminal carelessness, but not a thing
+purposely planned; so she could atone for it by doing her best for you
+and the boys."
+
+"Any mother who once did the things she did is not fit to be trusted
+again!"
+
+"What nonsense! James Minturn, you amaze me!" said Leslie. "That is a
+little too cold masculine logic. That is taking from the whole human
+race the power to repent of and repair a mistake."
+
+"There are some mistakes that cannot be repaired!"
+
+"I grant it," said Leslie. "There are! _You are making one right now!_"
+
+"That's the most strictly feminine utterance I ever heard," said Mr.
+Minturn, with a short laugh.
+
+"Thank you," retorted Leslie. "The compliment is high, but I accept it.
+I ask nothing better at the hands of fate than to be the most feminine
+of women. And I've told you what I feel forced to. You can now go on
+with your plans, knowing they are exactly what she had mapped out,
+hastily, but surely. She said to me that she must build from the
+foundations, which meant a new home."
+
+"You are fatuously mistaken!" said Mr. Minturn.
+
+"She said to me," reiterated Leslie forcefully, "that for ten years she
+had done exactly what she pleased, lived only for her own pleasure, now
+she would do as _you_ dictated for a like time, live your way--I never
+was farther from a mistake in my life. If you think it doesn't take
+courage to tell you this, and if you think I enjoy it, and if you think
+I don't wish I were a mile away----"
+
+"I still maintain I know the lady better than you do," said Mr.
+Minturn. "But you are wonderful Leslie, and I always shall respect and
+honour you for your effort in our behalf. It does credit to your head
+and heart. I envy Douglas Bruce. If ever an hour of trial comes to you,
+I would feel honoured for a chance to prove to you how much I
+appreciate----"
+
+"Don't talk like that!" wailed Leslie. "It's all a failure if you do!
+Promise me that you will _think this over_. Let me send you the note
+Nellie wrote me before she went away. Won't you try to imagine what she
+is suffering to-day, in the change from what she went to you hoping,
+and what she received at your hands?"
+
+"Let me see," said James Minturn. "At this hour she is probably
+enduring the pangs of wearing the most tasteful afternoon gown on the
+veranda of whatever summer resort suits her variable fancy, also the
+discomfiture of the woman she induced to bid high and is now winning
+from at bridge. I am particularly intimate with her forms of suffering;
+you see I judge them by my own and my children's during the past years."
+
+"Then you think I'm not sincere?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Surely, my dear girl!" said Mr. Minturn. "With all my heart I believe
+you! I know you are loyal to her, and to me! It isn't _you_ I
+disbelieve, child, it is my wife."
+
+"But I've told you over and over that she's changed."
+
+"And I refuse to believe in her power to undergo the genuine and
+permanent change that would make her an influence for good with her
+sons, or anything but an uncontrollable element in my home," said Mr.
+Minturn. "Why Leslie, if I were to hunt her up and ask her to come to
+my house, do you think she would do it?"
+
+"I know she would be most happy," said Leslie.
+
+"Small plain rooms, wait on herself, children over the house and lawn
+at all times--Nellie Minturn? You amuse me!" he said.
+
+"There's no amusement in it for me, it is pitiful tragedy," said
+Leslie. "She is willing, she has offered to change, you are denying her
+the opportunity."
+
+"You don't think deeply enough!" said the man. "Suppose, knowing her as
+I do, I agreed to her coming to my house. Suppose I filled it with
+servants to wait on her, and ruin and make snobs of the boys; it could
+only result in a fiasco all around, and bring me again to the awful
+thing I have been through once, in forcing a separation. The present is
+too good for the boys, and now they are my first consideration."
+
+"So I see," said Leslie. "Nellie isn't getting a particle and she _is_
+their mother, and once she really awakened to the situation, she was
+hungry to mother them, and to take her place in their hearts. I don't
+know where she is, but feeling as she did when we parted, I know she's
+not at any summer resort playing bridge at this minute."
+
+"You are a friend worth having, Leslie; I congratulate my wife on so
+staunch an advocate," said James Minturn. "And I'll promise you this:
+I'll go back to the hateful subject, just when I felt I was free from
+it. I'll think on both sides, and I'll weigh all you've said. If I see
+a glimmering, I will do this much--I will locate her, and learn how
+genuine was the change you witnessed, and I rather think I'll manage
+for you to see also. Will that satisfy you?"
+
+"That will make me radiant, because the change I witnessed was genuine.
+I know that wherever Nellie is to-day and whatever she is doing, she is
+still firm as when she left me in her desire for reparation toward you
+and her sons. Please think fast, and find her quickly."
+
+"Leslie, you're incorrigible! Go bring Douglas to his surprise. He has
+a right to be happy."
+
+"So have you," insisted Leslie. "More than he, because you have had
+such deep sorrow. Good-bye."
+
+Then Leslie took leave of the others, returned to the cabin, and
+hurried to her room to dress for her trip to bring her lover. Douglas
+Bruce was waiting when she stopped at the Iriquois and his greeting was
+joyous. Mr. Winton was cordial, but Douglas noticed that he seemed
+tired and worried, and inquired if he were working unusually hard. He
+replied that he was, and beginning to feel the heat a little.
+
+"Then we will drive to the country before dinner to cool off," said
+Leslie, seeing her opportunity.
+
+Both men agreed that would be enjoyable. After a few minutes of casual
+talk they relaxed while making smooth passage over city streets and the
+almost equally level highways of the country. At the end of half an
+hour Douglas sat upright, looking around him.
+
+"I don't recognize this," he said. "Have we been here before, Leslie?"
+
+"I think not," she answered. "I don't know why. It is one of my best
+loved drives. Always before we have taken the road to the club house,
+or some of its branches."
+
+They began a gentle ascent, when directly across their way stretched
+the blue water of a lake.
+
+"Is here where we take the plunge?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"No indeed!" answered Leslie. "Here we speed until we gather such
+momentum that we shoot across the water and alight on the opposite bank
+without stopping. Make your landing neatly, Rogers!"
+
+"Why have we never been here before?" marvelled Douglas. "I don't
+remember any other road one-half so inviting. Just look ahead here! See
+what a beautiful picture!" He indicated a vine of creeping blackberry
+spreading over gold sand, its rough, deeply serrated leaves of most
+artistic cutting, with tufts of snowy bloom surrounding dark-tipped
+stamens in their centres.
+
+"Isn't it!" answered Mr. Winton. "You know what Whitman said of it?"
+
+"I'm not so well read in Whitman as you are."
+
+"Which is your distinct loss," said Mr. Winton. "It was he who wrote,
+'A running blackberry would adorn the parlours of Heaven.'"
+
+"And so it would!" exclaimed Douglas. "What a frieze that would make
+for a dining-room! Have you ever seen it used?"
+
+"Never," answered Leslie, "or many other of our most exquisite forms of
+wild growth."
+
+"What beautiful country!" Douglas commented a minute later as the car
+sped from the swamp, ran uphill, and down a valley between stretches of
+tilled farm land on either side, sloping back to the lakes now growing
+distant, then creeping up a gradual incline until Atwater flashed into
+sight.
+
+"Man! That's fine!" he said, rising in the car to better admire the
+view, at which Leslie signalled the driver to run slower. "I don't
+remember that I ever saw anything quite so attractive as this. And if
+ever water invited a swimmer--that white sand bed seems to extend as
+far into the lake as you can see. Jove! Wasn't that a black bass under
+that thorn bush?"
+
+Leslie's eyes were shining while her laugh was as joyous as any of the
+birds. He need not say more. There was a bathing suit in his room; in
+ten minutes he could be cleaving the water to the opposite shore and
+have time to return before dinner. The car sped down where the road ran
+level with the water. A flock of waders arose and circled the lake. On
+the right was the orchard, the newly made garden, the tiny cabin with
+green lawn, hammocks swinging between trees, Indian blankets spread,
+and the odour of cooking food in the air. The car stopped, Douglas
+sprang out and offered his hand as he saw Leslie intended descending.
+She took the hand and kept it in her left. With her right she included
+woods, water, orchard and cabin.
+
+"These are my surprise for you," she said. "I am going to live here
+this summer, and keep house for you and Dad while you run and reform
+the world. Welcome home, Douglas!"
+
+He slowly looked around, then at Mr. Winton.
+
+"Do you believe her?" he asked incredulously.
+
+"Yes indeed! Leslie has the faculty of making good. And I'm one day
+ahead of you. She tried this on me last night. Hurry into your bathing
+suit; we'll swim before dinner, and then we'll fish. It was great going
+in this morning! I'm sure you'll enjoy it!"
+
+"Enjoy it!" cried Douglas. "Here is where the paucity of our language
+is made manifest."
+
+Too happy herself for the right word, Leslie showed Douglas to his
+room, with its white bed, and row of hooks, on one of which hung the
+bathing suit; then she went to put on her own, and they hurried to the
+lake.
+
+"You are happy here, Leslie?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Never in my life have I been so happy as I am this moment," said
+Leslie, skifting the clear water with her hands while she waited for
+her father before starting the swim to the opposite shore. "I've got
+the most joyous thing to tell you."
+
+"Go on and tell, 'Bearer of Morning,'" he said. "I am so delighted I'm
+maudlin."
+
+"Right over there, on the road to the club house, while 'seeking new
+worlds to conquer' this afternoon, I ran into James Minturn wearing a
+bathing suit, to his knees in mud and water, building a sod dam for his
+boys."
+
+"You did?" cried Douglas.
+
+"I did!" said Leslie. "Here's the picture: a beautiful winding stream,
+big trees like these on the banks, shade and flowers, birds, and air
+a-plenty, a fine appearing woman he introduced as his sister, a Minturn
+boy catching fish with his bare hands on either bank, the brother
+Minturn must have adopted legally, since he gave him his name----"
+
+"He did," interrupted Douglas. "He told me so----"
+
+"I was sure of it," said Leslie. "And an interesting young man, a
+tutor, bringing up more sod; the boys acted quite like any other
+agreeably engaged children--but Minturn himself, looking like a man I
+never saw before, down in the sand and water building a sod dam--a sod
+dam I'm telling you----"
+
+"I notice what you are telling me," cried Douglas. "It is duly
+impressing me. 'Dam' is all I can think of."
+
+"It's no wonder!" exclaimed Leslie.
+
+"What did he say to you?" queried Douglas.
+
+"It wasn't necessary for him to say anything," said Leslie. "I could
+see. He is making over his boys and in order to do it sympathetically,
+and win their confidence and love, he is being a boy himself again. He
+has the little chaps under control now. There are love and admiration
+in their tones when they speak to him, while they _obey_ him. Think of
+it!"
+
+"It is something worth thinking of," said Douglas. "He was driven to
+action, but his methods must have been heroic; for they seem to have
+worked."
+
+"Yes, for him and the boys," said Leslie, "but they are not all his
+family."
+
+"The remainder of his family always has looked out for herself to the
+exclusion of everything else in life, you have told me; I imagine she
+is still doing it with wonderful success," hazarded Douglas.
+
+"It amazes me how men can be so unfeeling."
+
+"So you talked to him about her?"
+
+"I surely did!" asserted Leslie.
+
+"And I'll wager you wasted words," said Douglas.
+
+"Not one!" cried the girl. "He will remember each one I spoke. If I
+don't hear of him taking some action soon, I'll find another occasion,
+and try again. He shall divide the joy of remaking those boys with
+their mother."
+
+"She will respectfully--I mean disdainfully, decline!"
+
+"You don't believe she was in earnest in what she said to me then?"
+asked the girl.
+
+"I am quite sure she was," he answered, "but a few days of her former
+life with her old friends will take her back to her previous ways with
+greater abandon than ever. You mark my words."
+
+"Bother your words!" cried Leslie emphatically. "I tell you Douglas, I
+went through the fire with her. I watched her soul come out white.
+Promise me that if ever he talks to you, you won't say anything against
+her."
+
+"It would be a temptation," he said. "Minturn is a different man."
+
+"So is she a different woman! Come on Dad, we are waiting for you,"
+called Leslie. "What kept you so?"
+
+"A paper fell from my pocket, so I picked it up and in glancing at it I
+became interested in a thought that hadn't occurred to me before, and I
+forgot. You must forgive your old Daddy; his hands are about full these
+days. Between my job for the city, and my own affairs, and those of a
+friend, I have all I can carry. Now let me forget business. I call this
+great of the girl. And one of the biggest appeals to me is the bill of
+fare. I had a dinner for a king last night. What have we to-night?"
+
+"But won't anticipation spoil it?" she asked.
+
+"Not a particle," he declared.
+
+"It's the fish we caught last night, baked potatoes, cress salad from
+Minturn's brook, strawberries from Atwaters, cream from our rented cow,
+real clover cream, Mrs. James says, and biscuit. That's all."
+
+"Glory!" cried Mr. Winton. "Doesn't that thrill you? Let's head for the
+tallest tamarack of the swamp and then have a feast."
+
+On the opposite bank they rested a few minutes, then returned to
+dinner. Afterward, with Rogers rowing for Mr. Winton, and Leslie for
+Douglas, they went bass fishing. When the boats passed on the far shore
+Leslie and Douglas had three, and Mr. Winton five. This did not prove
+that he was the better fisherman, only that he worked constantly; they
+lost much time in conversation which interested them; but as they
+enjoyed what they had to say more than the sport, while Leslie only
+wished them to take the fish they would use, it was their affair. The
+girl soon returned to the Minturns and secured a promise from Douglas
+that if Mr. Minturn talked with him, at least he would say nothing to
+discourage his friend about the sincerity of his wife's motives.
+Leslie's thoughts then turned to the surprise Douglas had mentioned.
+
+"Oh, that pretty girl?" he inquired casually.
+
+"Yes, Lily," she said. "Of course Mickey took you to see her! Is she
+really a lovable child, and attractive? Could you get any idea of what
+is her trouble?"
+
+Douglas carefully reeled while looking at Leslie with a speculative
+smile. "You refuse to consider an attractive young lady of greater
+beauty than I have previously seen?" he queried.
+
+"Absolutely! Don't waste time on it," she said.
+
+"You'll have to begin again and ask me one at a time," he laughed.
+"What was your first?"
+
+"Is she really a lovable child?" repeated Leslie.
+
+"She most certainly is," said Douglas. "I could love her dearly. It's
+plain that Mickey adores her. Why when a boy gives up trips to the
+country, the chance to pick up good money, in order to stand over,
+wash, and cook for a little sick girl, what is the answer?"
+
+"The one you have given--that he adores her," conceded Leslie. "The
+next was, 'Is she attractive?'"
+
+"Wonderfully!" cried Douglas. "And what she would be in health with
+flesh to cover her bones and colour on her lips and cheeks is now only
+dimly foreshadowed."
+
+"She must have her chance," said Leslie. "I was thinking of her to-day.
+I'll go to see her at once and bring her here. I will get the best
+surgeon in Multiopolis to examine her and a nurse if need be; then
+Mickey can come out with you."
+
+"Would you really, Leslie?" asked Douglas.
+
+"But why not?" cried she. "That's one of the things worth while in the
+world."
+
+"I'd love to go halvers with you," proposed Douglas. "Let's do it! When
+will you go to see her?"
+
+"In a few days," said Leslie. "The last one was, 'Could you get any
+idea of what is the trouble?'"
+
+"Very little," said Douglas. "She can sit up and move her hands. He is
+teaching her to read and write. She had her lesson very creditably
+copied out on her slate. She practises in his absence on poems Mickey
+makes."
+
+"Poems?"
+
+"Doggerel," explained Douglas. "Four lines at a time. Some of it is
+pathetic, some of it is witty, some of it presages possibilities. He
+may make a poet. She requires a verse each evening, so he recites it,
+then writes it out, and she uses it for copy the next day. The finished
+product is to have a sky-blue cover and be decorated either with an
+English sparrow, the only bird she has seen, or a cow. She likes milk,
+and the pictures of cows give her an idea that she can handle them like
+her doll----"
+
+"Oh Douglas!" protested Leslie.
+
+"I believe she thinks a whole herd of cows could be kept on her bed,
+while she finds them quite suitable to decorate Mickey's volume," said
+Douglas.
+
+"Why, hasn't she seen anything at all?"
+
+"She has been on the street twice in her life that she knows of,"
+answered Douglas. "It will be kind of you to take her, and cure her if
+it can be done, but you'll have to consult Mickey. She is his find, so
+he claims her, belligerently, I might warn you!"
+
+"Claims her! _He has her?_" marvelled Leslie.
+
+"Surely! In his room! On his bed! Taking care of her himself, and doing
+a mighty fine job of it! Best she ever had I am quite sure," said
+Douglas.
+
+"But Douglas!" cried Leslie in amazement.
+
+"'But me no buts,' my lady!" warned Douglas. "I know what you would
+say. Save it! You can't do anything that way. Mickey is right. She _is_
+his. He found her in her last extremity, in rags, on the floor in a
+dark corner of an attic. He carried her home in that condition, to a
+clean bed his mother left him. Since, he has been her gallant little
+knight, lying on the floor on his winter bedding, feeding her first and
+most, not a thought for himself. God, Leslie! I don't stand for
+anything coming between Mickey and his child, his 'family' he calls
+her. He's the biggest small specimen I ever have seen. I'll fight his
+cause in any court in the country, if his right to her is questioned,
+as it will be the minute she is taken to a surgeon or a hospital."
+
+"How old is she?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Neither of them knows. About ten, I should think."
+
+"How has he managed to keep her hidden this long?"
+
+"He lives in an attic. The first woman he tried to get help from
+started the Home question, and frightened him; so he appealed to a
+nurse he met through being connected with an accident; she gave him
+supplies, instructions and made Lily gowns."
+
+"But why didn't she----?" began Leslie.
+
+"She may have thought the child was his sister," said Douglas. "She's
+the loveliest little thing, Leslie!"
+
+"Very little?" asked Leslie.
+
+"Tiny is the word," said Douglas. "It's the prettiest sight I ever saw
+to watch him wait on her, and to see her big, starved, scared eyes
+follow him with adoring trust."
+
+"Adoration on both sides, then," laughed Leslie.
+
+"You imply I'm selecting too big words," said Douglas. "Wait till you
+see her, and see them together."
+
+"It's a problem!" said Leslie.
+
+"Yes, I admit that!" conceded Douglas, "but it isn't _your_ problem."
+
+"But they can't go on that way!" cried Leslie.
+
+"I grant that," said Douglas. "All I stipulate is that Mickey shall be
+left to plan their lives himself, and in a way that makes him happy."
+
+"That's only fair to him!" said Leslie.
+
+"Now you are grasping and assimilating the situation properly,"
+commented Douglas.
+
+When they returned to the cabin they found Mr. Winton stretched in a
+hammock smoking. Douglas took a blanket and Leslie a cushion on the
+steps, while all of them watched the moon pass slowly across Atwater.
+
+"How are you progressing with the sinners of Multiopolis?" asked Mr.
+Winton of Douglas.
+
+"Fine!" he answered. "I've found what I think will turn out to be a big
+defalcation. Somebody drops out in disgrace with probably a
+penitentiary sentence."
+
+"Oh Douglas! How can you?" cried Leslie.
+
+"How can a man live in luxury when he is stealing other people's money
+to pay the bills?" he retorted.
+
+"Yes I know, but Douglas, I wish you would buy this place and plow
+corn, or fish for a living."
+
+"Sometimes I have an inkling that before I finish with this I shall
+wish so too," replied he.
+
+"What do you think, Daddy?" asked Leslie.
+
+"I think the 'way of the transgressor is hard,' and that as always he
+pays in the end. Go ahead son, but let me know before you reach my
+office or any of my men. I hope I have my department in perfect order,
+but sometimes a man gets a surprise."
+
+"Of course!" agreed Douglas. "Look at that water, will you? Just beyond
+that ragged old sycamore! That fellow must have been a whale. Isn't
+this great?"
+
+"The best of life," said Mr. Winton, stooping to kiss Leslie as he said
+good-night to both.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+_A Safe Proposition_
+
+
+When Mickey posted his letter, in deep thought he slowly walked home.
+That night his eyes closed with a feeling of relief. He was certain
+that when Peter and his wife and children talked over the plan he had
+suggested they would be anxious to have such a nice girl as Lily in
+their home for a week. He even went so far as the vague thought that if
+they kept her until fall, they never would be able to give her up, and
+possibly she could remain with them until he could learn whether her
+back could be cured, and make arrangements suitable for her. In his
+heart he felt sure that Mr. Bruce or Miss Leslie would help him take
+care of her, but he had strong objections to them. He thought the
+country with its clean air, birds, flowers and quiet the best place for
+her; if he allowed them to take her, she would be among luxuries which
+would make all he could do unappreciated.
+
+"She wasn't born to things like that; what's the use to spoil her with
+them?" he argued. "Course they haven't spoiled Miss Leslie, but she
+wasn't a poor kid to start on, and she has a father to take care of
+her, and Mr. Bruce. Lily has only me and I'm going to manage my family
+myself. Pretty soon those nice folks will come, and if she likes them,
+maybe I'll let them take her 'til it's cooler."
+
+Mickey had thought they would come soon, but he had not supposed it
+would be the following day. He went downtown early, spent some time
+drilling his protege in the paper business, and had the office ready
+when Douglas Bruce arrived an hour late. During that hour, Mickey's
+call came. He made an appointment to meet Mr. and Mrs. Peter Harding at
+Marsh & Jordan's at four o'clock.
+
+"Peter must have wanted to see her so bad he quit plowing to come,"
+commented Mickey, as he hung up the receiver. "He couldn't have
+finished that field last night! They're just crazy to see Lily, and
+when they do, they'll be worse yet; but of course they wouldn't want to
+take her from me, 'cause they got three of their own. I guess Peter is
+the safest proposition I know. Course he wouldn't ever put a little
+flowersy-girl in any old Orphings' Home. Sure he wouldn't! He wouldn't
+put his own there, course he wouldn't mine!"
+
+"Mickey, what do you think?" asked Douglas as he entered. "I've moved
+to the country!"
+
+Mickey stared. Then came his slow comment: "Gee! The cows an' the
+clover gets all of us!"
+
+"I can beat that," said Douglas. "I'm going to live beside a lake where
+I can swim every night and morning, and catch big bass, and live on
+strawberries from the vines and cream straight from the cow----"
+
+"I thought you'd get to the cow before long."
+
+"And you are invited to go out with me as often as you want to, and you
+may arrange to have Lily out too! Won't that be fine?"
+
+Mickey hesitated while his eyes grew speculative, before he answered
+with his ever ready: "Sure!"
+
+"Miss Winton made a plan for her father and me," explained Douglas.
+"She knew we would lose our vacations this summer, so she took an old
+cabin on Atwater, and moved out. We are to go back and forth each
+morning and evening. I never was at the lake before, but it's not far
+from the club house and it's beautiful. I think most of all I shall
+enjoy the swimming and fishing."
+
+"I haven't had experience with water enough to swim in," said Mickey.
+"A tub has been my limit. You'll have a fine time all right, and thank
+you for asking me. I think Miss Winton is great. Ain't it funny how
+many fine folks there are in the world? 'Most every one I meet is too
+nice for any use; but I don't know any Swell Dames, my people are just
+common folks."
+
+"You wouldn't call Miss Winton a 'Swell Dame,' then?"
+
+"Well I should say nix!" cried Mickey. "You wouldn't catch her motoring
+away to a party and leaving her baby to be slapped and shook out of its
+breath by a mad nurselady, 'cause she left it herself where the sun
+hurt its eyes. She wouldn't put a little girl that couldn't walk in any
+Orphings' Home where no telling what might happen to her! She'd fix her
+a Precious Child and take her for a ride in her car and be careful with
+her."
+
+"Are you quite sure about that Mickey?"
+
+"Surest thing you know," said Mickey emphatically. "Why look her
+straight in the eyes, and you can tell. I saw her coming away down the
+street, and the minute I got my peepers on her I picked her for a
+winner. I guess you did too."
+
+"I certainly did," said Douglas. "But it is most important that I be
+perfectly sure, so I should like to have your approval of my choice."
+
+"I guess you're kidding now," ventured Mickey.
+
+"No, I'm in earnest," said Douglas Bruce. "You see Mickey, as I have
+said before, your education and mine have been different, but yours is
+equally valuable."
+
+"What shall I do now? 'Scuse me, I mean--what do I mean?" asked Mickey.
+
+"To wait until I'm ready for you," suggested Douglas.
+
+"Sure!" conceded Mickey. "It's because I'm used to hopping so lively on
+the streets."
+
+"Do you miss the streets?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"Well not so much as I thought I would," said Mickey, "'sides in a way
+I'm still on the job, but I guess I'll get Henry's boy so he can go it
+all right. He seems to be doing fairly well; so does the old man."
+
+"Have you got him in training too?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Oh it's his mug," explained Mickey impatiently. "S'pose you do own a
+grouch, what's the use of displaying it in your show window? Those
+things are dangerous. They're contagious. Seeing a fellow on the street
+looking like he'd never smile again, makes other folks think of their
+woes, so pretty soon everybody gets sorry for themselves. I'd like to
+see the whole world happy."
+
+"Mickey, what makes _you_ so happy to-day?"
+
+"I scent somepin' nice in the air," said Mickey. "I hear the rumble of
+the joy wagon coming my way."
+
+"You surely look it," declared Douglas. "It's a mighty fine thing to be
+happy. I am especially thinking that, because it looks like this last
+batch you brought me has a bad dose in it for a man I know. He won't be
+happy when he sees his name in letters an inch high on the front page
+of the _Herald_."
+
+"No, he won't," agreed Mickey, his face dulling. "That _comes in my
+line_. I've seen men forced to take it right on the cars. Open a paper,
+slide down, turn white, shiver, then take a brace and try to sit up and
+look like they didn't care, when you could see it was all up with them.
+Gee, it's tough! I wish we were in other business."
+
+"But what about the men who work hard for their money, not to mince
+matters, that these men you are pitying steal?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mickey. "But there's a big bunch of taxpayers, so
+it doesn't hit any _one_ so hard. It's tough on them, but honest, Mr.
+Bruce, it ain't as tough to lose your coin as it is to lose your glad
+face. You can earn more money or slide along without so much; but once
+you get the slick, shamed look on your show window, you can't ever wash
+it off. Since your face is what your friends know you by, it's an awful
+pity to spoil it."
+
+"That's so too, Mickey," laughed Bruce, "but keep this clearly in your
+mind. _I'm not spoiling any one's face_. If any man loses his right to
+look his neighbour frankly in the eye, from the job we're on, it is
+_his_ fault, not _ours_. If men have lived straight we can't find
+defalcations in their books, can we?"
+
+"Nope," agreed Mickey. "Just the same I wish we were plowing corn,
+'stead of looking for them. That plowing job is awful nice. I watched a
+man the other day, the grandest big bunch of bone and muscle, driving a
+team it took a gladiator to handle. First time I ever saw it done at
+close range and it got me. He looked like a man you'd want to tie to
+and stick 'til the war is over. If he ever has a case he is going to
+bring it to you. But where he'll get a case out there ten miles from
+anybody, with the bluest sky you ever saw over his head, and black
+fields under his feet, I can't see. Yes, I wish we were plowing for
+corn 'stead of trouble."
+
+"You little dunce," laughed Douglas. "We'd make a fortune plowing corn."
+
+"What's the difference how much you make if something black keeps
+ki-yi-ing at your heels 'bout how you make it?" asked Mickey.
+
+"There's a good strong kick in my heels, and the 'ki-yi-ing' is for the
+feet of the man I'm after."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mickey, "but 'fore we get through with this I just
+got a hunch that you'll wish we had been plowing corn, too."
+
+"What makes you so sure, Mickey?" said Douglas.
+
+"Oh things I hear men say when I get the books keep me thinking,"
+replied Mickey.
+
+"What things?" queried Douglas.
+
+"Oh about who's going to get the axe next!" said Mickey.
+
+"But what of that?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Why it might be somebody you know!" he cried. "When you find these
+wrong entries you can't tell who made them."
+
+"I know that the man who made them deserves what he gets," said Douglas.
+
+"Yes, I guess he does," agreed Mickey. "Well go on! But when I grow up
+I'm going to plow corn."
+
+"What about the poetry?" queried Douglas.
+
+"They go together fine," explained Mickey. "When the book is finished,
+I'd like clover on the cover better than the cow; but if Lily wants the
+live stock it goes!"
+
+"Of course," assented Douglas. "But when she sees a real cow she may
+change her mind."
+
+"Right in style! Ladies do it often," conceded Mickey. "I've seen them
+so changeful they couldn't tell when they called a taxi where they
+wanted to be taken." "Mickey, your observations on human nature would
+make a better book than your poetry."
+
+"Oh I don't know," said Mickey. "You see I ain't really got _at_ the
+poetry job yet. I have to be educated a lot to do it right. What I do
+now I wouldn't show to anybody else, it's just fooling for Lily. But I
+got an address that gives me a look-in on the paper business if I ever
+want it. I ain't got at the poetry yet, but I been on the human-nature
+job from the start. When you go cold and hungry if you don't know human
+nature--why you _know_ it, that's all!"
+
+"You surely do," said Douglas. "Now let's hustle this forenoon, and
+then you may have the remainder of the day. I am going fishing."
+
+"Thank you," said Mickey, "I hope you get a bass as long as your arm,
+and I hope the man you are chasing breaks his neck before you get him."
+
+Mickey grinned at Douglas' laugh, and went racing about his work, then
+he helped on his paper route until four, when he hurried to his meeting
+with Nancy and Peter.
+
+"When everybody is so nice if you give them any show at all, I can't
+understand where the grouchers get their grouch," muttered Mickey, as
+he hopped from one toe to the other and tried to select the car at the
+curb which would be Peter's.
+
+"Hey you!" presently called a voice from one of them. Mickey sent a
+keen glance over a boy who had come up and entered the car.
+
+"Straw you!" retorted Mickey, landing on the curb in a flying leap.
+
+"Is your name Mickey?" inquired the boy.
+
+"Yep. Is your father's name Peter?" asked Mickey.
+
+"Yep. And mine is Peter too. So to avoid two Peters I am Junior. Come
+on in 'til the folks come."
+
+Formalities were over. Mickey laughed as he entered the car and
+straightway began an investigation of its machinery. Now any boy is
+proud to teach another something he wants to know and does not, so by
+the time the car was thoroughly explained any listener would have
+thought them acquaintances from birth.
+
+"Hurry!" cried Junior when his parents came. "I want to get home with
+Mickey. I want him to show me----"
+
+"Don't you hurry your folks, Junior," said Mickey, "I'll show you all
+right!"
+
+"Well it's about time I was seeing something."
+
+"Sure it is," agreed Mickey. "Come on with me here, and I'll show you
+what real boys are!"
+
+"Say father, I'm coming you know," cried Junior. "I'm tired poking in
+the country. Just look what being in the city has made of Mickey."
+
+"Yes, just look!" cried Mickey, waving both hands and bracing on feet
+wide apart. "Do look! Your age or more, and about _half_ your beefsteak
+and bone."
+
+"But you got muscle. I bet I couldn't throw you!"
+
+"I bet you couldn't either," retorted Mickey, "'cause I survived
+Multiopolis by being Johnny _not_ on the spot! I've dodged for my life
+and my living since I can remember. I'm champeen on that. But you come
+on with me, and I'll get you a job and let you try yourself."
+
+"I'm coming," said Junior. Then remembering he was not independent he
+turned to his mother. "Can't I take a job and work here?"
+
+Mrs. Harding braced herself and succumbed to habit. "That will be as
+your father says."
+
+Junior turned toward his father, doubt in his eye, to receive a shock.
+There was not a trace of surprise or disapproval on the face of Peter.
+
+"Now maybe that would be the best way in the world for you to help me
+out," he said. "You see me through planting and harvest and then I'll
+arrange to spare you, and you can see how you like it till fall. But
+you are too young to give up school and I don't agree to interrupting
+your education."
+
+Mrs. Harding entered the car. "Now Mickey," she said as she distributed
+parcels, "you sit up there with Peter and show him the way, and we will
+go see if we want to undertake the care of your little girl for a week."
+
+"Drop the anchor, furl the sail, right here," directed Mickey when they
+reached Sunrise Alley. "You know I told you dearest lady, about how
+scared my little girl is, having seen so few folks and not expecting
+you; so I'll have to ask you to wait a few minutes 'til I go up and get
+her used to your being here and then I'll have to sort of work her up
+to you one at a time. I 'spect you can't hardly believe that there's
+anything in all the world so small, and so white, that's lived to have
+the brains she has, and yet hasn't seen the streets of this city but
+for a short ride on a street-car twice in her life, and hasn't talked
+to half a dozen people. She may take you for a bear, Peter; you will be
+quiet and easy, won't you?"
+
+"Why Mickey," said Peter, "why of course, son!"
+
+Mickey bounded up the stairs and swung wide his door. Again the awful
+heat hit him in the face. He swallowed a mouthful, hastily shutting the
+door. "It's hard on Lily," was his mental comment, "but I guess I'll
+just _save_ that for Mr. and Mrs. Peter. I think a few gulps of it will
+do them good; it will show them better than talking why, once she's
+_out_ of it, she shouldn't come back 'til cold weather at least, if at
+all. Yes I guess!"
+
+"Most baked honey?" he asked, taking her hot hands.
+
+"Mickey, 'tain't near six," she panted.
+
+"No it's two hours early," said Mickey. "But you know Flowersy-girl,
+I'm going to take _care_ of you. It's getting too hot for you. Don't
+you remember what I told you last night?"
+
+"'Bout laying on the grass an' the clover flowers?"
+
+"Exactly yes!" said Mickey. "'Fore we melt let's roll up in this sheet
+and go, Lily! What do you say?"
+
+"Has--has the red-berry folks come?" she cried.
+
+"They're downstairs, Lily. They're waiting."
+
+Peaches began climbing into his arms.
+
+"Mickey, Mickey-lovest, hold me tight," she panted. "Mickey, I'm scairt
+just God-damned!"
+
+"Wope! Wope lady! None of that!" cried Mickey aghast. "The place where
+you're going there's a _nice little girl_ that never said such a word
+in all her life, and if she did her mammy would wash the badness out of
+her mouth with soap, just like I'll have to wash out yours, if you
+don't watch. You can't go in the big car, being held tight by me, else
+you promise cross your heart never, not never to say that again."
+
+"Mickey, will soapin' take it out?" wailed Peaches.
+
+"Well my mammy took it out of _me_ that way!"
+
+"Mickey get the soap, an' wash, an' scour it all out now, so's I can't
+ever. Mickey, quick before the nice lady comes that has flower fields,
+an' red berries, an' honey 'lasses. Mickey, hurry!"
+
+"Oh you fool little sweet kid," he half laughed, half sobbed. "You fool
+little precious child-kid--I can't! There's a better way. I'll just put
+on a kiss so tight that no bad swearin's will ever pop out past it.
+There, like that! Now you won't ever say one 'fore the nice little
+girl, and when I want you not to so bad, will you?"
+
+"Not never Mickey! Not never, never, never!"
+
+"The folks can't wait any longer," said Mickey. "Here quick, I'll wash
+your face and comb you, and get a clean nightie on you, and your
+sweetest ribbon."
+
+"Then it's pink," declared Peaches, "an' Mickey, make me a pretty girl,
+so's the nice lady will like me to drink her milk."
+
+"Greedy!" said Mickey. "How can I make you pretty when the Lord didn't!"
+
+"Ain't I pretty any at all?" queried Peaches.
+
+"Mebby you would be if you'd fatten up a little," said Mickey
+judicially. "Can't anybody be pretty that's got bones sticking out all
+over them."
+
+"Mickey, is the girl where we are going pretty?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mickey. "I haven't seen her. She's a fine little
+girl, for she's at home taking care of her baby brother so's that her
+mammy can come and see if you are _nice enough_ to go to her house and
+not _spoil_ her children. See?"
+
+Peaches nodded comprehendingly.
+
+"Mickey, I won't again!" she insisted. "I said not never, never, never.
+Didn't you _hear_ me?"
+
+"Yes I heard you," said Mickey, applying the washcloth, slipping on a
+fresh nightdress, brushing curls, and tying the ribbon with fingers
+shaking with excitement and haste. "Yes I heard you, but that stuff
+seems to come awful easy, Miss. You got to be careful no end. Now, I'm
+going to bring them. You just smile at them, and when they ask you,
+tell them the right answer _nice_. Will you honey? Will you _sure?_"
+
+"Surest thing you know," quoted Peaches promptly.
+
+"Aw-w-w-ah!" groaned Mickey. "That ain't right! Miss Leslie wouldn't
+ever said that! You got that from me, too! I guess I better soap out my
+mouth 'fore I begin on you. 'Yes ma'am,' is the answer. Now you
+remember! I'll just bring in the lady first."
+
+"I want to see Peter first!" announced Peaches.
+
+"Well if I ever!" cried Mickey. "Peter is a great big man, 'bout twice
+as big as Mr. Bruce. You don't either! You want to see the nice lady
+first, 'cause it's up to _her_ to say if she'll take care of you. She
+may get mad and not let you go at all, if you ask to see Peter _first_.
+You want to see the nice lady first, don't you Lily?"
+
+"Yes, if I got to, to see the cow. But I don't!" said Lily. "I want to
+see Peter. I like Peter the _best_."
+
+"Now you look here Miss Chicken, don't you start a tantrum!" cried
+Mickey. "If you don't see this nice lady first and be pretty to her,
+I'll just go down and tell them you _like_ lying here roasting, and
+they can go back to their flower-fields and berries. See?"
+
+Peaches drew a deep breath but her eyes were wilful. A wave of heat
+seemed to envelop them.
+
+"Sweat it out right now!" ordered Mickey. "When people do things for
+you 'cause they are sorry for you, it's up to you to be polite, to pay
+back with manners at least. See?"
+
+Peaches' smile was irresistible: "Mickey, I feel so p'lite! I'll see
+the nice lady first."
+
+"Now there's a real, sure-enough lady!"
+
+Mickey stooped to kiss Peaches again, take a last look at the hair
+ribbon, and straighten the sheet, then he ran; but he closed in the
+heat quickly as he slipped through the doorway. A few seconds later
+with the Harding family at his heels he again approached it. There he
+made his second speech. He addressed it to Peter and Junior.
+
+"'Cause she's so little and so scared, I guess the nice lady better go
+in first, and make up with her. Then one at a time you can come, so so
+many strangers won't upset her."
+
+Peter assented heartily, but with a suffocating gesture removed his
+coat, so Junior followed his example. Mickey cut short something about
+"extreme heat" on the lips of Mrs. Harding by indicating the door, and
+opening it. He quickly closed it after her, advancing to Peaches.
+
+"Lily, this is the nice lady I was telling you of who has got the bird
+singing and the flower-fields----" he began. Peaches drew back, her
+eyes wide with wonder and excitement, but her mind followed Mickey's
+lead, for she shocked his sense of propriety by adding: "and the good
+red berries."
+
+But Mrs. Harding came from an environment where to have "good red
+berries," spicy smoked ham, fat chickens and golden loaves constituted
+a first test of efficiency. To have her red berries appreciated did not
+offend her. If Peaches had said "the sweetest, biggest red berries in
+Noble Country," the woman would have been delighted, because that was
+her private opinion, but she was not so certain that corroboration was
+unpleasant. She advanced, gazing at the child unconsciously gasping the
+stifling air. She took one hurried glance at the room in its scrupulous
+bareness, with waves of heat pouring in the open window, and bent over
+Peaches.
+
+"Won't you come out of this awful heat quickly, and let us carry you
+away to a cool, shady place? Dear little girl, don't you want to come?"
+she questioned.
+
+"Is Mickey coming too?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Of course Mickey is coming too!" said the lady.
+
+"Will he hold me?"
+
+"He will if you want him to," said Mrs. Harding, "but Peter is so much
+bigger, it wouldn't tire him a mite."
+
+Mickey shifted on his feet and gazed at Peaches; as her eyes sought
+his, the message he telegraphed her was so plain that she caught it
+right.
+
+"Mickey is just awful strong," she said. "I'll go if he'll hold me. But
+I want to _see_ Peter! I _like_ Peter!"
+
+"Why you darling!" cried the nice lady.
+
+"And I like Junior, that Mickey told me about, and your nice little
+girl that I mustn't ever say no sw----"
+
+Mickey promptly applied the flat of his hand to the lips of the
+astonished child.
+
+"And you like the little girl and the fat toddly baby----" he prompted.
+
+"Yes," agreed Peaches enthusiastically, twisting away her head, "and I
+like the milk and the meat--gee, I like the _meat_, only Mickey
+wouldn't give me but a tiny speck 'til he asked the Sunshine Nurse
+Lady."
+
+"You blessed child!" cried Nancy Harding. "Call Peter quickly!"
+
+Mickey opened the door and signalled Peter and Junior.
+
+"She likes you. She asked for you. You can both come at once," he
+announced, holding the door at a narrow crack until they reached it,
+both red faced, dripping, and fanning with their hats. Peter gasped for
+air.
+
+"My God! Has any living child been cooped in this all day?" he roared.
+"Get her out! Get her out quick! Get her out first and talk afterward.
+This will give her scarlet fever!"
+
+A shrill shout came from behind the intervening lady who arose and
+stepped back as Peaches raised to her elbow, and stretched a shaking
+hand toward Peter.
+
+"Gee, Peter! You get your mouth soaped out first!" she cried. "Gee,
+Peter! I _like_ you, Peter!"
+
+Peter bent over her and then stooping to her level he explored her with
+astonished eyes, as he cried: "Why child, you ain't big enough for an
+exclamation point!" Peaches didn't know what an exclamation point was,
+but Mickey did. His laugh brought him again into her thought.
+
+"Mickey, let's beat it! Take me quick!" she panted. "Take me first and
+talk afterward. Mickey, we just love these nice people, let's go drink
+their milk, and eat their red berries."
+
+"Well Miss Chicken!" said Mickey turning a dull red.
+
+The Harding family were laughing.
+
+"All right, everybody move," said Peter. "What do you want to take with
+you Mickey?"
+
+"That basket there," he said. "And that box, you take that Junior, and
+you take the Precious Child, and the slate and the books dearest
+lady--and I'll take my family; but I ain't so sure about this, lady.
+She's sweaty now, and riding is the coolingest thing you can do. We
+mustn't make her sick. She must be well wrapped."
+
+"Why she couldn't take cold to-day----" began Peter.
+
+"You and Junior shoulder your loads and go right down to the car," said
+Mrs. Harding. "Mickey and I will manage this. He is exactly right about
+it. To be taken from such heat to the conditions of motoring might----"
+
+"Sure!" interposed Mickey, dreading the next word for the memories it
+would awaken in the child's heart. "Sure! You two go ahead! We'll come
+in no time!"
+
+"But I'm not going to lug a basket and have a little chap carrying a
+child. You take this and I'll take the baby!"
+
+Mickey's wireless went into instant action so Peaches promptly rebelled.
+
+"I ain't no baby!" she said. "Miss Leslie Moonshine Lady sent me her
+hair ribbons and I 'spect she's been crying for them back every day;
+and my name what granny named me is Peaches, so there!"
+
+"Corrected! Beg pardon!" said Peter. "Miss Peaches, may I have the
+honour of carrying you to the car?"
+
+"Nope," said Peaches with finality. "Nobody, not nobody whatever, not
+the biggest, millyingairest nobody alive can't ever carry me, nelse
+Mickey says they can, and he is away off on the cars. I like you Peter!
+I just like you heaps; but I'm Mickey's, so I got to do what he says
+'cause he makes me, jes like he ort, and nobody can't ever tend me like
+Mickey."
+
+"So that's the ticket!" mused Peter.
+
+"Yes, that's the ticket," repeated Peaches. "I ain't heavy. Mickey
+carried me up, down is easier."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "_I take my own family_. You take yours. We'll be
+there in a minute."
+
+Peter and Junior disappeared with thankfulness and speed. Mrs. Harding
+and Mickey wrapped Peaches in the sheet and took along a comfort for
+shelter from the air stirred by motion. Steadying his arm, which he
+wished she would not, they descended. Did she think he wanted Peaches
+to suppose he couldn't carry her? He ran down the last flight to show
+her, frightening her into protest, and had the reward of a giggle
+against his neck and the tightening of small arms clinging to him. He
+settled in the car and wrapped Lily in the comfort until she had only a
+small peep of daylight.
+
+Mickey knew from Peaches' laboured breathing and the grip of her hands
+how agitated she was; but as the car glided smoothly along, driven
+skilfully by mentality, guided by the controlling thought of a tiny
+lame back, she became easier and clutched less frantically. He kept the
+comfort over her head. She had enough to make the change, to see so
+many strangers all at once, without being excited by unfamiliar things
+that would bewilder and positively frighten her.
+
+Mickey stoutly clung to a load that soon grew noticeably heavy; while
+over and over he repeated in his heart with fortifying intent: "She is
+my family, I'll take care of her. I'll let them keep her a while
+because it is too hot for her there, but they shan't _boss_ her, and
+they got to know it first off, and they shan't take her from me, and
+they got to understand it."
+
+Right at that point Mickey's grip tightened until the child in his arms
+shivered with delight of being so enfolded in her old and only
+security. She turned her head to work her face level with the comfort
+and whisper in glee: "Mickey, we are going just stylish like
+millyingaire folks, ain't we?"
+
+"You just bet we are!" he whispered back.
+
+"Mickey, you wouldn't let them 'get' me, would you?"
+
+"Not on your life!" said Mickey, gripping her closer.
+
+"And Peter wouldn't let them 'get' me?"
+
+"No, Peter would just wipe them clear off the slate if they tried to
+get you," comforted Mickey. "We're in the country now Lily. Nobody will
+even think of you away out here."
+
+"Mickey, I want to see the country!" said Peaches.
+
+"No Miss! I'm scared now," replied Mickey. "It was awful hot there and
+it's lots cooler here, even slow and careful as Peter is driving. If
+you get all excitement, and rearing around, and take a chill, and your
+back gets worse, just when we have such a grand good chance to make it
+better--you duck and lay low, and if you're good, and going out doesn't
+make you sick, after supper when you rest up, maybe I'll let you have a
+little peepy yellow chicken in your hand to hold a minute, and maybe
+I'll let you see a cow. You'd give a good deal to see the cow that's
+going on your book, wouldn't you?"
+
+Peaches snuggled down in pure content and proved her femininity as she
+did every day. "Yes. But when I see them, maybe I'll like a chicken
+better, and put it on."
+
+"All right with me," agreed Mickey. "You just hold still so this
+doesn't make you sick, and to-morrow you can see things when you are
+all nice and rested."
+
+"Mickey," she whispered.
+
+Mickey bent and what he heard buried his face against Peaches' a second
+and when lifted it radiated a shining glory-light, for she had
+whispered: "Mickey, I'm going to always mind you and love you best of
+anybody."
+
+Because she had expected the trip to result in the bringing home of the
+child, Mrs. Harding had made ready a low folding davenport in her
+first-floor bedroom, beside a window where grass, birds and trees were
+almost in touch, and where it would be convenient to watch and care for
+her visitor. There in the light, pretty room, Mickey gently laid
+Peaches down and said: "Now if you'll just give me time to get her
+rested and settled a little, you can see her a peep; but there ain't
+going to be _much_ seeing or talking to-night. If she has such a lot
+she ain't used to and gets sick, it will be a bad thing for her, and
+all of us, so we better just go slow and easy."
+
+"Right you are, young man," said Peter. "Come out of here you kids!
+Come to the back yard and play quietly. When Little White Butterfly
+gets rested and fed, we'll come one at a time and kiss her hand, and
+wish her pleasant dreams with us, and then we'll every one of us get
+down on our knees and ask God to help us take such good care of her
+that she will get well at our house."
+
+Mickey suddenly turned his back on them and tried to swallow the lump
+in his throat. Then he arranged his family so it was not in a draft,
+sponged and fed it, and failed in the remainder of his promise, because
+it went to sleep with the last bite and lay in deep exhaustion. So
+Mickey smoothed the sheet, slipped off the ribbon, brushed back the
+curls, shaded the light, marshalled them in on tiptoe, and with anxious
+heart studied their compassionate faces.
+
+Then he telephoned Douglas Bruce to ask permission to be away from the
+office the following day, and ventured as far from the house as he felt
+he dared with Junior; but so anxious was he that he kept in sight of
+the window. And so manly and tender was his scrupulous care, so tiny
+and delicate his small charge as she lay waxen, lightly breathing to
+show she really lived, that in the hearts of the Harding family grew a
+deep respect for Mickey, and such was their trust in him, that when he
+folded his comfort and stretched it on the floor beside the child, not
+even to each other did they think of uttering an objection. So Peaches
+spent her first night in the country breathing clover air, watched
+constantly by her staunch protector, and carried to the foot of the
+Throne on the lips of one entire family; for even Bobbie was told to
+add to his prayer: "God bless the little sick girl, and make her well
+at our house."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+_An Orphans' Home_
+
+
+"Margaret, I want a few words with you some time soon," said James
+Minturn to his sister.
+
+"Why not right now?" she proposed. "I'm not busy and for days I've
+known you were in trouble. Tell me at once, and possibly I can help
+you."
+
+"You would deserve my gratitude if you could," he said. "I've suffered
+until I'm reduced to the extremity that drives me to put into words the
+thing I have thrashed over in my heart day and night for weeks."
+
+"Come to my room James," she said.
+
+James Minturn followed his sister.
+
+"Now go on and tell me, boy," she ordered. "Of course it's about
+Nellie."
+
+"Yes it's about Nellie," he repeated. "Did you hear any part of what
+that very charming young lady had to say to me at our chosen
+playground, not long ago?"
+
+"Yes I did," answered Mrs. Winslow. "But not enough to comprehend
+thoroughly. Did she convince you that you are mistaken?"
+
+"No. But this she did do," said Mr. Minturn. "She battered the walls of
+what I had believed to be unalterable decision, until she made this
+opening: I must go into our affairs again. I have got to find out where
+my wife is, and what she is doing; and if the things Miss Leslie thinks
+are true. Margaret, I thought it was _settled_. I was happy, in a way;
+actually happy! No Biblical miracle ever seemed to me half so wonderful
+as the change in the boys."
+
+"The difference in them is quite as much of a marvel as you think it,"
+agreed Mrs. Winslow.
+
+"It is greater than I would have thought possible in any
+circumstances," said Mr. Minturn. "Do they ever mention their mother to
+you?"
+
+"Incidentally," she replied, "just as they do maids, footman or
+governess, in referring to their past life. They never ask for her, in
+the sense of wanting her, that I know of. Malcolm resembles her in
+appearance and any one could see that she liked him best. She always
+discriminated against James in his favour if any question between them
+were ever carried to her."
+
+"Malcolm is like her in more than looks. He has her musical ability in
+a marked degree," said Mr. Minturn. "I have none, but Miss Winton
+suggested a thing to me that Mr. Tower has been able to work up some,
+and while both boys are deeply interested, it's Malcolm who is
+beginning to slip away alone and listen to and practise bird cries
+until he deceives the birds themselves. Yesterday he called a catbird
+to within a few feet of him, by reproducing the notes as uttered and
+inflected by the female."
+
+"I know. It was a triumph! He told me about it."
+
+"James is well named," said Mr. Minturn. "He is my boy. Already he's
+beginning to ask questions that are filled with intelligence,
+solicitude and interest about my business, what things mean, what I am
+doing, and why. He's going to make the man who will come into my
+office, who in a few more years will be offering his shoulder for part
+of my load. You can't understand what the change is from the old
+attitude of regarding me as worth no consideration; not even a
+gentleman, as my wife's servants were teaching my sons to think.
+Margaret, how am I going back even to the thought that I may be making
+a mistake? Wouldn't the unpardonable error be to again risk those boys
+an hour in the company and influence which brought them once to what
+they were?"
+
+"You poor soul!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow.
+
+"Never mind that!" warned Mr. Minturn. "I'm not accustomed to it, and
+it doesn't help. Have you any faith in Nellie?"
+
+"None whatever!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow. "She's so selfish it's simply
+fiendish. I'd as soon bury you as to see you subject to her again."
+
+"And I'd much sooner be buried, were it not that my heart is set on
+winning out with those boys," said Mr. Minturn. "There is material for
+fine men in them, but there is also depravity that would shock you
+inexpressibly, instilled by ignorant, malicious servants. I wish Leslie
+Winton had kept quiet."
+
+"And so do I!" agreed Mrs. Winslow. "I could scarcely endure it, as I
+realized what was going on. While Nellie had you, there was no
+indignity, no public humiliation at which she stopped. For my own
+satisfaction I examined Elizabeth before she was laid away, and I held
+my tongue because I thought you didn't know. When _did_ you find out?"
+
+"A newsboy told me. He went with a woman who was in the park where it
+happened, to tell Nellie, but they were insulted for their pains. Some
+way my best friend Douglas Bruce picked him up and attached him, as I
+did William; it was at my suggestion. Of course I couldn't imagine that
+out of several thousand newsies Douglas would select the one who knew
+my secret and who daily blasts me with his scorn. If he runs into an
+elevator where I am, the whistle dies on his lips; his smile fades and
+he actually shrinks from my presence. You can't blame him. A man
+_should be able to protect the children he fathers_. What he said to me
+stunned me so, he thought me indifferent. In my place, would you stop
+him some day and explain?"
+
+"I most certainly would," said Mrs. Winslow. "A child's scorn is
+withering, and you don't deserve it."
+
+"I have often wondered what or how much he told Bruce," said Mr.
+Minturn.
+
+"Could you detect any change in Mr. Bruce after the boy came into his
+office?" asked Mrs. Winslow.
+
+"Only that he was kinder and friendlier than ever."
+
+"That probably means that the boy told him and that Mr. Bruce
+understood and was sorry."
+
+"No doubt," he said. "You'd talk to the boy then? Now what would you do
+about Nellie?"
+
+"What was it Miss Winton thought you _should_ do?"
+
+"See Nellie! Take her back!" he exclaimed. "Give her further
+opportunity to exercise her brand of wifehood on me and motherhood on
+the boys!"
+
+"James, if you do, I'll never forgive you!" cried his sister. "If you
+tear up this comfortable, healthful place, where you are the honoured
+head of your house, and put your boys back where you found them, I'll
+go home and stay there; and you can't blame me."
+
+"Miss Winton didn't ask me to go back," he explained; "that couldn't be
+done. I saw and examined the deed of gift of the premises to the city.
+The only thing she could do would be to buy it back, and it's torn up
+inside, and will be in shape for opening any day now, I hear. The city
+needed a Children's Hospital; to get a place like that free, in so
+beautiful and convenient a location--and her old friends are furious at
+her for bringing sickness and crooked bodies among them. No doubt they
+would welcome her there, but they wouldn't welcome her anywhere else.
+She must have endowed it liberally, no hospital in the city has a staff
+of the strength announced for it."
+
+"James, you are wandering!" she interrupted. "You started to tell me
+what Miss Winton asked of you."
+
+"That I bring Nellie here," he explained. "That I make her mistress of
+this house. That I put myself and the boys in her hands again."
+
+"Oh good Lord!" ejaculated Mrs. Winslow. "James, are you actually
+thinking of _that?_ Mind, I don't care for myself. I have a home and
+all I want. But for you and those boys, are you really contemplating
+it?"
+
+"No!" he said. "All I'm thinking of is whether it is my duty to hunt
+her up and once more convince myself that she is heartless vanity
+personified, and utterly indifferent to me personally, as I am to her."
+
+"Suppose you do go to her and find that through pique, because you made
+the move for separation yourself, she wants to try it over, or to get
+the boys again--she's got a mint of money. Do you know just how much
+she has?"
+
+"I do not, and I never did," he replied. "Her funds never in any part
+were in my hands. I felt capable of making all I needed myself, and I
+have. I earn as much as it is right I should have; but she'd scorn my
+plan for life and what satisfies me; and she'd think the boys
+disgraced, living as they are."
+
+"James, was there an hour, even in your honeymoon, when Nellie forgot
+herself and was a lovable woman?"
+
+"It is painful to recall, but yes! Yes indeed!" he answered. "Never did
+a man marry with higher hope!"
+
+"Then what----?" marvelled Mrs. Winslow.
+
+"Primarily, her mother, then her society friends, then the power of her
+money," he answered.
+
+"Just how did it happen?" she queried.
+
+"It began with Mrs. Blondon's violent opposition to children; when she
+knew a child was coming she practically moved in with us, and spent
+hours pitying her daughter, sending for a doctor at each inevitable
+consequence, keeping up an exciting rush of friends coming when the
+girl should have had quiet and rest, treating me with contempt, and
+daily holding me up as the monster responsible for all these things.
+The result was nervousness and discontent bred by such a course at such
+a time, until it amounted to actual pain, and lastly unlimited money
+with which to indulge every fancy.
+
+"In such circumstances delivery became the horror they made of it,
+although several of the doctors told me privately not to have the
+slightest alarm; it was simply the method of rich selfish women to make
+such a bugbear of childbirth a wife might well be excused for refusing
+to endure it. Sifted to the bottom that was _exactly what it was_. I
+didn't know until the birth of James that they had neglected to follow
+the instructions of their doctors and made no preparation for nursing
+the child; as a result, when I insisted that it must be done, shrieks
+of pain, painful enough as I could see, resulted in a nervous chill for
+the mother, more inhumanity in me, and the boy was turned over to a
+hired woman with his first breath and to begin unnatural life. I
+watched the little chap all I could; he was strong and healthy, and
+while skilled nurses were available he upset every rule by thriving;
+which was one more count against me, and the lesson pointed out and
+driven home that no young wife could give a child such attention, so
+the baby was better off in the hands of the nurse. That he was reared
+without love, that his mother took not an iota of responsibility in his
+care, developed not a trait of motherhood, simply went on being a
+society belle, had nothing to do with it.
+
+"He did so well, Nellie escaped so much better than many of her
+friends, that in time she seemed to forget it and didn't rebel at
+Malcolm's advent, or Elizabeth's, but by that time I had been
+practically ostracized from the nursery; governesses were empowered to
+flout and insult me; I scarcely saw my children, and what I did see
+made me furious, so I vetoed more orphans bearing my name, and gave up
+doing anything. Then came the tragedy of Elizabeth. Surely you
+understand 'just how' it was done Margaret?"
+
+"Of course I had an idea, but I never before got just the perfect
+picture, and now I have it, though it's the last word I _want_ to say
+to you, God made me so that I'm forced to say it, although it furnishes
+one more example of what is called inconsistency."
+
+"Be careful what you say, Margaret!"
+
+"I must say it," she replied. "I've encouraged you to talk in detail,
+because I wanted to be sure I was right in the position I was taking;
+but you've given me a different viewpoint. Why James, think it over
+yourself in the light of what you just have told me. Nellie never has
+been a mother at all! Her heart is more barren than that of a woman to
+whom motherhood is physical impossibility, yet whose heart aches with
+maternal instinct!"
+
+"Margaret!" cried James Minturn.
+
+"James, it's true!" she persisted. "I never have understood. For fear
+of that, I led you on and now look what you've told me. Nellie never
+had a chance at natural motherhood. The thing called society made a
+foolish mother to begin with, while she in turn ruined her daughter,
+and if Elizabeth had lived it would have been passed on to her. You
+throw a new light on Nellie. As long as she was herself, she was tender
+and loving, and you adored her; if you had been alone and moderately
+circumstanced, she would have continued being so lovable that after ten
+years your face flushes with painful memory as you speak of it. I've
+always thought her abandoned as to wifely and motherly instinct. What
+you say proves she was a lovable girl, ruined by society, through the
+medium of her mother and friends."
+
+"If she cared for me as she said, she should have been enough of a
+woman----" began Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Maybe she _should_, but you must take into consideration that she was
+not herself when the trouble began; she was, as are all women, even
+those most delighted over the prospect, in an unnatural condition, _in
+so far that usual conditions were unusual_, and probably made her ill,
+nervous, apprehensive, not herself at all."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you are changing?"
+
+"Worse than that!" she said emphatically. "I have positively and
+permanently changed. Even at your expense I will do Nellie justice.
+James, your grievance is not against your wife; it is against the
+mother who bore her, the society that moulded her."
+
+"She should have been woman enough----" he began.
+
+"Left alone, she was!" insisted Mrs. Winslow. "With the ills and
+apprehensions of motherhood upon her, she yielded as most young,
+inexperienced women would yield to what came under the guise of tender
+solicitude, and no doubt eased or banished pain, which all of us avoid
+when possible; and the pain connected with motherhood is a thing in awe
+of which the most practised physicians admit themselves almost stunned.
+The woman who would put aside pampering and stoically endure what money
+and friends could alleviate is rare. Jim, pain or no pain to you, you
+must find your wife and learn for yourself if she is heartless; or
+whether in some miraculous way some one has proved to her what you have
+made plain as possible to me. You must hunt her up, and if she is still
+under her mother's and society's influence, and refuses _to change_,
+let her remain. But--but if she has changed, as you have just seen me
+change, then you should give her another chance if she asks it."
+
+"I can't!" he cried.
+
+"You must! The evidence is in her favour."
+
+"What do you mean?" he demanded impatiently.
+
+"Her acquiescence in your right to take the boys and alter their method
+of life; her agreement that for their sakes you might do as you chose
+with no interference from her; both those are the acknowledgment of
+failure on her part and willingness for you to repair the damages if
+you can," she explained. "Her gift of a residence, the furnishings of
+which would have paid for the slight alterations necessary to transform
+a modern home into the most beautiful of modern hospitals, in a
+wonderfully lovely location, and leave enough to start it with as fine
+a staff as money can provide--that gift is a deliberately planned
+effort at reparation; the limiting of patients to children under ten is
+her heart trying to tell yours that she would atone."
+
+"O Lord!" cried James Minturn.
+
+"Yes I know," said Mrs. Winslow. "Call on Him! You need Him! There is
+no question but that He put into her head the idea of setting a home
+for the healing of little children, in the most exclusive residence
+district of Multiopolis, where women of millions are forced to see it
+every time they look from a window or step from their door. Have you
+seen it yourself, James?"
+
+"Naturally I wouldn't haunt the location."
+
+"I would, and I did!" said Mrs. Winslow. "A few days ago I went over it
+from basement to garret. You go and see it. And I recall now that her
+lawyer was there, with sheets of paper in his hand, talking with
+workmen. I think he's working for Nellie and that she is probably
+directing the changes and personally evolving a big, white, shining
+reparation."
+
+"It's a late date to talk about reparation," he said.
+
+"Which simply drives me to the truism, 'better late than never!' and to
+the addition of the comment that Nellie is only thirty and that but ten
+years of your lives have been wasted; if you hurry and save the
+remainder, you should have fifty apiece coming to you, if you breathe
+deep, sleep cool, and dine sensibly," said Mrs. Winslow.
+
+She walked out of the room and closed the door. James Minturn sat
+thinking a long time, then called his car and drove to Atwater alone.
+He found Leslie in the orchard, a book of bird scores in her hands, and
+several sheets of music beside her. Her greeting was so cordial, so
+frankly sweet and womanly, he could scarcely endure it, because his
+head was filled with thoughts of his wife.
+
+"You are still at your bird study?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. It's the most fascinating thing," she said.
+
+"I know," he conceded. "I want the titles of the books you're using. I
+mentioned it to Mr. Tower, our tutor, and he was interested instantly,
+and far more capable of going at it intelligently than I am, because he
+has some musical training. Ever since we talked it over he and the boys
+have been at work in a crude way; you might be amused at their results,
+but to me they are wonderful. They began hiding in bird haunts and
+listening, working on imitations of cries and calls, and reproducing
+what they heard, until in a few weeks' time--why I don't even know
+their repertoire, but they can call quail, larks, owls, orioles,
+whip-poor-wills, so perfectly they get answers. James will never do
+anything worth while in music, he's too much like me; but Malcolm is
+saving his money and working to buy a violin; he's going to read a
+music score faster than he will a book. I'm hunting an instructor for
+him who will start his education on the subjects which interest him
+most. Do you know any one Leslie?"
+
+"No one who could do more than study with him. It's a branch that is
+just being taken up, but I have talked of it quite a bit with Mr.
+Dovesky, the harmony director of the Conservatory. If you go to him and
+make him understand what you want along every line, I think he'd take
+Malcolm as a special student. I'd love to help him as far as I've gone,
+but I'm only a beginner myself, and I've no such ability as it is very
+possible he may have."
+
+"He has it," said Mr. Minturn conclusively. "He has his mother's fine
+ear and artistic perception. If she undertook it, what a success she
+could make!"
+
+"I never saw her so interested in anything as she was that day at the
+tamarack swamp," said Leslie, "and her heart was full of other matters
+too; but she recognized the songs I took her to hear. She said she
+never had been so attracted by a new idea in her whole life."
+
+"Leslie, I came to you this morning about Nellie. I promised you to
+think matters over, and I've done nothing else since I last saw you,
+hateful as has been the occupation. You're still sure of what you said
+about her then?"
+
+"Positively!" cried Leslie.
+
+"Do you hear from her?" he asked.
+
+"No," she answered.
+
+"You spoke of a letter----" he suggested.
+
+"A note she wrote me before leaving," explained Leslie. "You see I'd
+been with her all day and we had raced home so joyously; and when
+things came out as they did, she knew I wouldn't understand."
+
+"Might I see it?" he asked.
+
+"Surely," said Leslie. "I spoke of that the other day. I'll bring it."
+
+When Leslie returned James Minturn read the missive several times; then
+he handed it back, saying: "What is there in that Leslie, to prove your
+points?"
+
+"Three things," said Leslie with conviction: "The statement that for an
+hour after she reached her decision she experienced real joy and
+expected to render the same to you; the acknowledgment that she
+understood that you didn't know what you were doing to her, in your
+reception of her; and the final admission that life now held so little
+for her that she would gladly end it, if she dared, without making what
+reparation she could. What more do you want?"
+
+"You're very sure you are drawing the right deductions?" he asked.
+
+"I wish you would sit down and let me tell you of that day," said
+Leslie.
+
+"I have come to you for help," said James Minturn. "I would be more
+than glad, if you'd be so kind."
+
+At the end: "I don't think I've missed a word," said Leslie. "That day
+is and always will be sharply outlined."
+
+"You've not heard from her since that note?" he asked. "You don't know
+where she is?"
+
+"No," said Leslie. "I haven't an idea where you could find her; but
+because of her lawyer superintending the hospital repairs, because of
+the wonderful way things are being done, Daddy thinks it's sure that
+the work is in John Haynes' hands, and that she is directing it through
+him."
+
+"If it were not for the war, I would know," said Mr. Minturn. "But
+understanding her as I do----"
+
+"I think instead of understanding her so well, you scarcely know her at
+all," said Leslie gently. "You may have had a few months of her real
+nature to begin with, but when her rearing and environment ruled her
+life, the real woman was either perverted or had small chance. Do you
+ever stop to think what kind of a man you might have been, if all your
+life you had been forced and influenced as Nellie was?"
+
+"Good Lord!" cried Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Exactly!" agreed Leslie. "That's what I'm telling you! She had got to
+the realization of the fact that her life had been husks and ashes; so
+she went to beg you to help her to a better way, and you failed her.
+I'm not saying it was your fault; I'm not saying I blame you; I'm
+merely stating facts."
+
+"Margaret blames me!" said Mr. Minturn. "She thinks I'm enough at fault
+that I never can find happiness until I locate Nellie and learn whether
+she is with her mother and friends, or if she really meant what she
+said about changing, enough to go ahead and be different from
+principle."
+
+"Her change was radical and permanent."
+
+"I've got to know," said Mr. Minturn, "but I've no faith in her ability
+to change, and no desire to meet her if she has."
+
+"Humph!" said Leslie. "That proves that you need some changing
+yourself."
+
+"I certainly do," said James Minturn. "If I could have an operation on
+my brain which would remove that particular cell in which is stored the
+memory of the past ten years----"
+
+"You will when you see her," said Leslie, "and she'll be your surgeon."
+
+"Impossible!" he cried.
+
+"Go find her," said Leslie. "You must to regain peace for yourself."
+
+James Minturn returned a troubled man, but with viewpoint shifting so
+imperceptibly he did not realize what was happening. On his way he
+decided to visit the hospital, repugnant as the thought was to him.
+From afar he was amazed at sight of the building. He knew instantly
+that it must have been the leading topic of conversation among his
+friends purposely avoided in his presence. Marble pillars and
+decorations had been freshly cleaned, the building was snowdrift white;
+it shone through the branches of big trees surrounding it like a fairy
+palace. At the top of the steps leading to the entrance stood a marble
+group of heroic proportions that was wonderful. It was a seated figure
+of Christ, but cut with the face of a man of his station, occupation,
+and race, garbed in simple robe, and in his arms, at his knees, leaning
+against him, a group of children: the lean, sick and ailing, such as
+were carried to him for healing. Cut in the wall above it in large
+gold-filled letters was the admonition: "Suffer little children to come
+unto me."
+
+That group was the work of a student and a thinker who could carry an
+idea to a logical conclusion, and then carve it from marble. The
+thought it gave James Minturn, arrested before it, was not the
+stereotyped idea of Christ, not the conventional reproduction of
+childhood. It impressed on Mr. Minturn's brain that the man of Galilee
+had lived in the form of other men of his day, and that such a face,
+filled with infinite compassion, was much stronger and more forceful
+than that of the mild feminine countenance he had been accustomed to
+associating with the Saviour.
+
+He entered the door to find his former home filled with workmen, and
+the opening day almost at hand. Everywhere was sanitary whiteness. The
+reception hall was ready for guests, his library occupied by the
+matron; the dining-hall a storeroom, the second and third floors in
+separate wards, save the big ballroom, now whiter than ever, its
+touches of gold freshly gleaming, beautiful flowers in tubs, canaries
+singing in a brass house filling one end of the room, tiny chairs,
+cots, every conceivable form of comfort and amusement for convalescing
+little children. The pipe organ remained in place, music boxes and
+wonderful mechanical toys had been added, rugs that had been in the
+house were spread on the floor. No normal man could study and interpret
+the intention of that place unmoved. All over the building was the same
+beautiful whiteness, the same comfort, and thoughtful preparation for
+the purpose it was designed to fill. The operating rooms were perfect,
+the whole the result of loving thought, careful execution, and
+uncounted expense.
+
+He came in time to the locked door of his wife's suite, and before he
+left the building he met her lawyer. He offered his hand and said
+heartily: "My sister told me of the wonderful work going on here; she
+advised me to come and see for myself. I am very glad I did. There's
+something bigger than the usual idea in this that keeps obtruding
+itself."
+
+"I think that too," agreed John Haynes. "I've almost quit my practice
+to work out these plans."
+
+"They are my wife's, by any chance?"
+
+"All hers," said Mr. Haynes. "I only carry out her instructions as they
+come to me."
+
+"Will you give me her address?" asked Mr. Minturn. "I should like to
+tell her how great I think this."
+
+"I carry a packet for you that came with a bundle of plans this
+morning," said Mr. Haynes. "Perhaps her address is in it. If it isn't,
+I can't give it to you, because I haven't it myself. She's not in the
+city, all her instructions she sends some one, possibly at her mother's
+home, and they are delivered to me. I give my communications to the boy
+who brings her orders."
+
+"Then I'll write my note and you give it to him."
+
+"I'm sorry Minturn," said Mr. Haynes, "but I have my orders in the
+event you should wish to reach her through me."
+
+"She doesn't wish to hear from me?"
+
+"I'm sorry no end, Mr. Minturn, but----"
+
+"Possibly this contains what I want to know," said Mr. Minturn. "Thank
+you, and I congratulate you on your work here. It is humane in the
+finest degree."
+
+James Minturn went to his office and opened the packet. It was a
+complete accounting of every dollar his wife was worth, this divided
+exactly into thirds, one of which she kept, one she transferred to him,
+and the other she placed in his care for her sons to be equally divided
+between them at his discretion. He returned and found the lawyer had
+gone to his office. He followed and showed him the documents.
+
+"What she places to my credit for our sons, that I will handle with the
+utmost care," he said. "What she puts at my personal disposal I do not
+accept. We are living comfortably, and as expensively as I desire to.
+There is no reason why I should take such a sum at her hands, even
+though she has more than I would have estimated. You will kindly return
+this deed of transfer to her, with my thanks, and a note I will
+enclose."
+
+"Sorry Minturn, but as I told you before, I haven't her address. I'm
+working on a salary I should dislike to forfeit, and my orders are
+distinct concerning you."
+
+"You could give me no idea where to find her?"
+
+"Not the slightest!" said the lawyer.
+
+"Will you take charge of these papers?" he questioned.
+
+"I dare not," replied Mr. Haynes.
+
+"Will you ask her if you may?" persisted Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Sorry Minturn, but perhaps if you should see my instructions in the
+case, you'd understand better. I don't wish you to think me
+disobliging."
+
+Mr. Minturn took the sheet and read the indicated paragraph written in
+his wife's clear hand:
+
+_Leslie Winton was very good to me my last day in Multiopolis. She was
+with me when I reached a decision concerning my future relations with
+Mr. Minturn, as I would have arranged them; and I am quite sure when
+she knows of our separation she will feel that it would not have
+occurred had James known of this decision of mine. It would have made
+no difference; but I am convinced Leslie will think it would, and that
+she will go to James about it. I doubt if it will change his attitude;
+but if by any possibility it should, and if in any event whatever he
+comes to you seeking my address, or me, I depend on you to in no way
+help him, if it should happen that you could. For this reason I am
+keeping it out of your power, unless I make some misstep that points to
+where I am. I don't wish to make any mystery of my location, or to
+disregard any intention that it is barely possible Leslie could bring
+Mr. Minturn to, concerning me. I merely wish to be left alone for a
+time; to work out my own expiation, if there be any; and to test my
+soul until I know for myself whether it is possible for a social
+leopard to change her spots. I have got to know absolutely that I am
+beyond question a woman fit to be a wife and mother, before I again
+trust myself in any relation of life toward any one_.
+
+Mr. Minturn returned the sheet, his face deeply thoughtful. "I see her
+point," he said. "I will deposit the papers in a safety vault until she
+comes, and in accordance with this, I shall make no effort to find her.
+My wife feels that she must work out her own salvation, and I am
+beginning to realize that a thorough self-investigation and revelation
+will not hurt me. Thank you. Good morning."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+_A Particular Nix_
+
+
+Peaches awakened early the following morning, but Mickey was watching
+beside her to help her remember, to prompt, to soothe, to comfort and
+to teach. He followed Mrs. Harding to the kitchen and from the prepared
+food selected what he thought came closest filling the diet prescribed
+by the Sunshine Nurse, and then he carried the tray to a fresh, cool
+Peaches beside a window opening on a grassy, tree-covered lawn. Her
+room was bewildering on account of its many, and to the child,
+magnificent furnishings. She found herself stretching, twisting and
+filled with a wild desire to walk, to see the house, the little girl
+and the real baby, the lawn beyond her window, the flower-field, the
+red berries where they grew, and the birds and animals from which came
+the most amazing sounds.
+
+After doing everything for Peaches he could, Mickey went to his
+breakfast. Mary Harding and Bobbie were so anxious to see the visitor
+they could scarcely eat. Knowing it was no use to try forcing them,
+their mother excused them and they ventured as far as the door. There
+they stopped, gazing at the little stranger, while she stared back at
+them; but she was not frightened, because she knew who they were and
+that they would be good to her, else Mickey would not let them come. So
+when Mary, holding little brother's hand, came peeping around the
+door-casing, Peaches withdrew her attention from exploration of the
+strip of lawn in her range and concentrated on them. If they had come
+bounding at her, she would have been frightened, but they did not. They
+stood still, half afraid, watching the tiny white creature, till
+suddenly she smiled at them and held out her hand.
+
+"I like you," she said. "Did you have red berries for breakfus?"
+
+Mary nodded and smiled back.
+
+"I think you're a pretty little girl," said Peaches.
+
+"I ain't half as pretty as you," said Mary.
+
+"No a-course you ain't," she admitted. "Your family don't put your
+ribbon on you 'til night, do they? Mickey put mine on this morning
+'cause I have to look nice and be jus' as good, else I have to be took
+back to the hot room. Do you have to be nice too?"
+
+"Yes, I have to be a good girl," said Mary.
+
+"What does your family do to you if you don't mind?"
+
+"I ain't going to tell, but it makes me," said Mary. "What does yours
+do to you?"
+
+"I ain't going to tell either," said Peaches, "but I get jus' as good!
+What's your name?"
+
+"Mary."
+
+"What's his?"
+
+"Bobbie. Mostly we call him little brother. Ain't he sweet?" asked Mary.
+
+"Jus' a Precious Child! Let him mark on my slate."
+
+Mickey hurried to the room. As he neared the door he stepped softly and
+peeped inside. It was a problem with him as to how far Mary and Bobbie
+could be trusted. Having been with Peaches every day he could not
+accurately mark improvements, but he could see that her bones did not
+protrude so far, that her skin was not the yellow, glisteny horror it
+had been, that the calloused spots were going under the steady rubbing
+of nightly oil massage, so lately he had added the same treatment to
+her feet; if they were not less bony, if the skin were not soft and
+taking on a pinkish colour, Mickey felt that his eyes were unreliable.
+
+Surely she was better! Of course she was better! She had to be! She ate
+more, she sat up longer, she moved her feet where first they had hung
+helpless. She was better, much better, and for that especial reason,
+now was the time to watch closer than before. Now he must make sure
+that a big strong child did not drag her from the bed, and forever undo
+all he had gained. Since he had written Dr. Carrel, Mickey had rubbed
+in desperation, not only nights but mornings also, lest he had asked
+help before he was ready for it; for the Sunshine Lady had said
+explicitly that the sick back could not be operated until the child was
+stronger. He was working according to instructions.
+
+Mickey watched. Any one could have seen the delicate flush on Peaches'
+cheek that morning, the hint of red on her lips, the clearing whites of
+her lovely eyes. She was helping Bobbie as Mickey had taught her. And
+Bobbie approved mightily. He lifted his face, put up his arms and
+issued his command: "Take Bobbie!"
+
+"No! No, Bobbie," cautioned Mary. "Mother said no! You must stay on the
+floor! Sister will take you. You mustn't touch Peaches 'til God makes
+her well. You asked Him last night, don't you know? Mother will spank
+something awful if you touch her. You must be careful 'til her back is
+well, mother said so, and father too; father said it crosser than
+mother, don't you remember?"
+
+"Mustn't touch!" repeated Bobbie, drawing back.
+
+Mickey was satisfied with Mrs. Harding's instructions, but he took the
+opportunity to emphasize a few points himself. He even slipped one
+white, bony foot from under the sheet and showed Mary how sick it was,
+and how carefully it must be rubbed before it would walk.
+
+"I can rub it," announced Mary.
+
+"Well don't you try that," cautioned Mickey.
+
+"Why go on and let her!" interposed Peaches. "Go on and let her! After
+today you said you'd be gone all day, an' if rubbing in the morning and
+evening is good, maybe more would make me walk sooner. Mickey I ain't
+ever said it, 'cause you do so much an' try so hard, but Mickey, _I'm
+just about dead to walk!_ Mickey, I'm so tired being lifted. Mickey, I
+want to get up an' _go_ when I want to, like other folks!"
+
+"Well that's the first time you ever said that."
+
+"Well 'tain't the first time I ever could a-said it, if I'd a-wanted
+to," explained Peaches.
+
+"I see! You game little kid, you," said Mickey. "All right Mary, you
+ask your mother and if she says so, I'll show you how, and maybe you
+can rub Lily's feet, if you go slow and easy and don't jar her back a
+speck."
+
+"Ma said I could a-ready," explained Mary. "Ma said for me to! She said
+all of us would, all the time we had while you were away, so she'd get
+better faster. Ma said she'd give a hundred dollars if Peaches would
+get so she could walk here."
+
+Mickey sat back on his heels suddenly.
+
+"Who'd she say that to?" he demanded.
+
+"Pa. And he said he'd give five hundred."
+
+"Aw-a-ah!" marvelled Mickey.
+
+"He did too!" insisted Mary. "This morning 'fore you came out. And
+Junior would too. He'd give all in his bank! And he'd rub too! He said
+he would."
+
+"Well, if you ain't the nicest folks!" cried Mickey. "Gee, I'm glad I
+found you!"
+
+"Jus' as glad!" chimed in Peaches.
+
+"Mary bring Robert here!" called Mrs. Harding from the hall. Mary
+obeyed. Mickey moved up and looked intently at Peaches.
+
+"Well Lily," he asked, "what do you _think_ of this?"
+
+"I wouldn't trade this for Heaven!" she answered.
+
+"The country is all the Heaven a-body needs, in June."
+
+"Mickey, bring in the cow now!" ordered Peaches.
+
+"Bring in the cow?" queried Mickey.
+
+"Sure, the little red cow in the book that makes the milk. I want you
+to milk her right here on my bed!"
+
+"Well, if I ever!" gasped Mickey. "Sure, I'll bring her in a minute;
+but a cow is big, Lily! Awful, great big. I couldn't bring her in here;
+but maybe I can drive her where you can see, or I don't know what would
+be the harm in taking you where the cows are. But first, one thing! Now
+you look right at me, Miss Chicken. There's something I got to _know_
+if you got in your head _straight_. Who found you, and kept them from
+'getting' you?"
+
+"Mickey-lovest," replied Peaches promptly.
+
+"Then who d'you belong to?" he demanded.
+
+"Mickey!" she answered instantly.
+
+"Who you got to do as I say?" he continued.
+
+"Mickey," she repeated.
+
+"Whose _family_ are you?" he pursued.
+
+"Mickey's!" she cried. "Mickey, what's the matter? Mickey, I love you
+best. I'm all yours. Mickey, I'll go back an' never say a word 'bout
+the hotness, or the longness, or anything, if you don't _want_ me here."
+
+"Well I do want you here," said Mickey in slow insistent tone. "I want
+you right here! But you got to _understand_ a few things. You're mine.
+I'm going to keep you; you got to understand that."
+
+"Yes Mickey," conceded Peaches.
+
+"And if it will help you to be rubbed more than I can rub you while I
+got to earn money to pay for our supper when we go home, and fix your
+back, and save for the seminary, I'll let the nice pleasant lady rub
+you; and I'll let a good girl like Mary rub you, and if his hands ain't
+so big they hurt, maybe I'll let Peter rub you; he takes care of
+Bobbie, maybe he could you, and he's got a family of his own, so he
+knows how it feels; but it's _nix_ on anybody else, Miss Chicken, see?"
+
+"They ain't nobody else!" said Peaches.
+
+"There is too!" contradicted Mickey. "Mary said Junior would rub your
+feet! Well he _won't!_ It's nix on Junior! _He's only a boy! He ain't
+got a family. He hasn't had experience. He doesn't know anything about
+families! See?_"
+
+"He carries Bobbie, an' I bet he's heavier 'an me."
+
+For the first time Mickey lost his temper.
+
+"Now you looky here, Miss Chicken," he stormed. "I ain't saying what he
+_can_ do, I'm saying what he _can't!_ See? You are mine, and I'm going
+to keep you! He can lift me for all I care, but he can't carry you, nor
+rub your feet, nor nothing; because he didn't find you, and you ain't
+his; and I won't have it, not at all! Course he's a good boy, and he's
+a nice boy, and you can play with him, and talk to him, I'll let you
+just be awful nice to him, because it's polite that you should be, but
+when it comes to carrying and rubbing, it's nix on Junior, because he's
+got no family and doesn't understand. See?"
+
+"Umhuh," taunted Peaches.
+
+"Well, are you going to promise?" demanded Mickey.
+
+"Maybe," she teased.
+
+"Back you go and never see a cow at all if you don't promise,"
+threatened Mickey.
+
+"Mickey, what's the matter with you?" cried Peaches suddenly. "What you
+getting a tantrum yourself for? You ain't never had none before."
+
+"That ain't no sign I ain't just busting full of them," said Mickey.
+"Bad ones, and I feel an awful one as can be coming right now, and
+coming quick. Are you going to promise me nobody who hasn't a _family_,
+carries you, and rubs you?"
+
+Peaches looked at him in steady wonderment.
+
+"I guess you're pretty tired, an' you need to sleep a while, or
+somepin," she said. "If you wasn't about sick yourself, you'd know 'at
+anybody 'cept you 'ull get their dam-gone heads ripped off if they
+touches me, nelse _you_ say so. _Course_, you found me! _Course_,
+they'd a-got me, if you hadn't took me. _Course_, I'm yours! _Course_,
+it's nix on Junior, an' it's _nix_ on Peter if you say so. Mickey, I
+jus' love you an' love you. I'll go back now if you say so, I tell you.
+Mickey _what's_ the matter?"
+
+She stretched up her arms, and Mickey sank into them. He buried his
+face beside hers and for the first time she patted him, and whispered
+to him as she did to her doll. She rubbed her cheek against his,
+crooned over him, and held him tight while he gulped down big sobs.
+
+"Mickey, tell me," she begged, like a little mother. "Tell me honey?
+Are you got a pain anywhere?"
+
+"No!" he said. "Maybe I _was_ kind of strung up, getting you here and
+being so awful scared about hurting you; but it's all right now. You
+are here, and things are going to be fine, only, will you, cross your
+heart, _always and forever remember this: it's nix on Junior, or any
+boy, who ain't got a family, and doesn't understand?_"
+
+"Yes Mickey, cross my heart, an' f'rever, an' ever; an' Mickey, you
+must get the soap. I slipped, an' said the worse yet. I didn't mean to,
+but Mickey, I guess you can't _trust_ me. I guess you got to soap me,
+or beat me, or somepin awful. Go on an' do it, Mickey."
+
+"Why crazy!" said Mickey. "You're mixed up. You didn't say anything!
+What you said was all rightest ever; rightest of anything I ever heard.
+_It was just exactly what I wanted you to say_. I just _loved_ what you
+said."
+
+"Well if I ever!" cried Peaches. "Mickey, you was so mixed up you
+didn't hear me. I got 'nother chance. Goody, goody! Now show me the
+cow!"
+
+"All right!" said Mickey. "I'll talk with Mrs. Harding and see how she
+thinks I best go at it. Lily, you won't ever, ever forget that
+particular nix, will you?"
+
+"Not ever," she promised, and lifted her lips to seal the pact with a
+kiss that meant more to Mickey than all that had preceded it.
+
+"Just how do you feel, anyway, Flowersy-girl?"
+
+"Fine!" said Peaches. "I can tell by how it is right now, that it isn't
+going to get all smothery an' sweatin's here; whoohoo it's so good,
+Mickey!"
+
+Mickey bent over her holding both hands and whispered: "Then just you
+keep right before your eyes where you came from, Miss, and what you
+must go _back_ to, if you don't behave. You will be a good girl, won't
+you?"
+
+"Honest, Mickey-lovest, jus' as good."
+
+"Well how goes it with the Little White Butterfly?" asked Peter at the
+door.
+
+Mickey looked at Peaches to slightly nod encouragement, then he slipped
+from the room. She gave Peter a smile of wonderment and answered
+readily: "Grand as queen-lady. You're jus' so nice and fine."
+
+Now Peter hadn't known it, but all his life he had been big; handled
+rough tools, tasks, implements and animals; while his body grew sinewy
+and hard, to cope with his task, his heart demanded more refined
+things; so if Peaches had known the most musical languages on earth,
+she could not have used words to Peter that would have served her
+better. He radiated content.
+
+"Good!" he cried. "That's grand and good! I didn't take a fair look at
+you last night. It was so sissing hot in that place and you went to
+sleep before I got my chores done; but now we must get acquainted. Tell
+me honey, does any particular place in your little body hurt you? If
+there does, put your hand and show Peter where."
+
+Peaches stared at Peter, then she faintly smiled at him and laid a
+fluttering hand on her left side.
+
+"Oh shockings!" mourned Peter. "That's too bad! That's vital! Your
+heart's right under there, honey. Is there a pain in your _heart?_"
+
+Peaches nodded solemnly.
+
+"Not _all_ the time!" she explained. "Only like now, when you are so
+_good_ to me. Jus' so fine and good."
+
+Then and there Peter surrendered. He bent and kissed the hand he held,
+and said with tears saturating his words, just as tears do permeate
+speech sometimes: "Pshaw now, Little White Butterfly! I never was more
+pleased to hear anything in my life. Ma and I have talked for years of
+having some city children here for summer, but we've been slow trying
+it because we hear such bad reports from many of them, and it's natural
+for people to shield their own; but I guess instead of shielding, we
+may have been denying. I can't see anything about you children to hurt
+ours; and I notice a number of ways where it is beneficial to have you
+here. It's surely good for all of us. You're the nicest little folks!"
+
+Peaches sat up suddenly and smiled on Peter.
+
+"Mickey is nice an' fine," she told him. "Not even you, or anybody, is
+nice as Mickey. An' I'm _going_ to be. I'd _like_ to be! But you see, I
+laid alone all day in a dark corner so long, an' I got so wild like,
+'at when granny did come, I done an' said jus' like she did, but Mickey
+doesn't like it. He's scairt 'most stiff fear I'll forget an' say bad
+swearin's, an' you'll send me back to the hotness, so's I won't get
+better. Would you send me back if I forget _just once_, Peter?"
+
+"Why pshaw now!" said Peter. "Pshaw Little Soul, don't you worry about
+that. You try _hard_ to remember, and be like Mickey wants you to, and
+if you make a slip, I'll speak to Ma about it, and we'll just turn a
+deaf ear, and away out here, you'll soon forget it."
+
+Just then, Mickey, trailing a rope, passed before the window; there was
+a crunching sound; a lumbering cow stopped, lifted a mouth half filled
+with grass, and bawled her loudest protest at being separated from her
+calf. Peaches had only half a glance, but her shriek was utter terror.
+She launched herself on Peter and climbed him, until her knees were on
+his chest, and her fingers clutching his hair.
+
+"God Jesus!" she screamed. "It 'ull eat me!"
+
+Peter caught her in his arms, turning his back. Mickey heard, and saw,
+and realized that the cow was too big and had appeared too
+precipitately, and bellowed too loudly. He should have begun on the
+smallest calf on the place. He rushed the cow back to Junior, and
+himself to Peaches, who, sobbing wildly, still clung to Peter. As
+Mickey entered, frightened and despairing, he saw that Peter was much
+concerned, but laughing until his shoulders shook, and in relief that
+he was, and that none of the children were present, Mickey grinned,
+acquired a slow red, and tried to quiet Peaches.
+
+"Shut that window!" she screamed. "Shut it quick!"
+
+"Why honey, that's the cow you wanted to see," soothed Mickey. "That's
+the nice cow that gave the very milk you had for breakfast. Junior was
+going to milk her where you could see. We thought you'd _like_ it!"
+
+"Don't let it get me!" cried Peaches.
+
+"Why it ain't going to get anything but grass!" said Mickey. "Didn't
+you see me leading it? I can make that big old thing go where I please.
+Come on, be a game kid now. You ain't a baby coward girl! It's only a
+cow! You are going to put it on your book!"
+
+"I ain't!" sobbed Peaches. "I ain't ever going to drink milk again! I
+jus' bet the _milk_ will _get_ me!"
+
+"Be game now!" urged Mickey. "Mary milks the cow. Baby Bobbie runs
+right up to her. Everything out here is big, Lily. I ran from the
+horses. I jumped on a fence, and Junior laughed at me."
+
+"Mickey, what did you say?" wavered Peaches.
+
+"I didn't say anything," said Mickey. "I just jumped."
+
+"Mickey, I jumped, an' I said it, both. I said it right on Peter," she
+bravely confessed. "Mickey, I said the worst yet! I didn't know I
+_did_, 'til I heard it! But Mickey, I got another chance!"
+
+Peaches wiped her eyes, tremulously glanced at the window, and still
+clinging to Mickey explained: "I was just telling Peter about the
+swearin's, an' Mickey, don't feel so bad. He won't send me back for
+just once. Mickey, Peter has got 'a deaf ear.' He _said_ he had! He
+ain't goin' to hear it when I slip a swearin's, an' Mickey, I am
+tryin'! Honest I'm tryin' jus' as hard, Mickey!"
+
+Mickey turned a despairing face toward Peter.
+
+"Just like she says," assured Peter. "We've all got our faults. You'll
+have to forgive her Mickey."
+
+"Me? Of course!" conceded Mickey. "But what about you? You don't want
+your nice little children to hear bad words."
+
+"Well," said Peter, "don't make too much of it! It's likely there are
+no words she can say that my children don't know. Just ignore and
+forget it! She won't do it often. I'm sure she won't!"
+
+"Are you sure you won't, Miss?" demanded Mickey.
+
+"Sure!" said Peaches, and in an effort to change the subject: "Mickey,
+is that cow out there yet?"
+
+"No. Junior took her back to the barnyard."
+
+"Mickey, I ain't going to put a cow on my book; but I want to see her
+again, away off. Mickey, take me where I can see. You said last night
+you would."
+
+"But the horses are bigger than the cows. You'll get scared again, and
+with scaring and crying you'll be so bad off your back won't get any
+better all day, and to-morrow I got to leave you and go to work."
+
+"Then I'll see all the things to-day, an' to-morrow I'll think about
+them 'til you come back. Please Mickey! If things don't get Bobbie an'
+Mary, they won't get me!"
+
+"That's a game little girl!" said Mickey. "All right, I'll take you.
+But you ought to have----"
+
+"Have what Mickey?" she inquired, instantly alert.
+
+"Well never you mind what," said Mickey. "You be a good girl and lie
+still, so your back will be better, and watch the bundle I'll bring
+home to-morrow night."
+
+Peaches shivered in delight. Mickey proceeded slowly, followed by the
+entire family.
+
+"Mickey, it's so big!" she marvelled. "Everything is so far away, an'
+so big!"
+
+"Now isn't it!" agreed Mickey. "You see it's like I told you. Now let
+me show you the garden."
+
+He selected that as a safe proposition. Peaches grasped the idea
+readily enough. Mrs. Harding gathered vegetables for her to see. When
+they reached the strawberry bed Mickey knelt and with her own fingers
+Peaches pulled a berry and ate it, then laughed, exclaimed, and cried
+in delight. She picked a flower, and from the safe vantage of the
+garden viewed the cows and horses afar; and the fields and sheep were
+explained to her. Mickey carried her across the road, Mary brought a
+comfort, and for a whole hour the child lay under a big tree with pink
+and white clover in a foot-deep border around her. When they lifted her
+she said: "Mickey, to-night we put in the biggest blesses of all."
+
+"What?" inquired Mickey.
+
+"Bless the nice people for such grand things, an' the berries; but
+never mind about the cow."
+
+Then Mickey took her back to the house. She awoke from a restful nap to
+find a basket of chickens waiting for her, barely down dry from their
+shells. She caught up a little yellow ball, and with both hands
+clutched it, exclaiming and crying in joy until Mickey saw the chicken
+was drooping. He pried open her excited little fingers; but the chicken
+remained limp. Soon it became evident that she had squeezed the life
+from it.
+
+"Oh Peaches, you held it too tight!" wailed Mickey. "I'm afraid you've
+made it sick!"
+
+"I didn't mean to Mickey!" she protested.
+
+Mrs. Harding reached over and picked the chicken from Mickey's fingers.
+
+"That chicken wasn't very well to begin with," she said. "'You give it
+to me, and I'll doctor it up, while you take another one. Which do you
+want?"
+
+"Yellow," sniffed Peaches, "but please hurry, and Mickey, you hold this
+one. Maybe I held too hard!"
+
+"Yes you did," laughed Peter. "But we wanted to see what you'd do. One
+little chicken is a small price for the show you give. It's all right,
+Butterfly."
+
+"Peter, you make everything all right, don't you?"
+
+"Well honey, I would if I could," said Peter. "But that's something of
+a contract. Now you rest till after dinner, and if Ma and Mickey agree
+on it, we'll go see the meadow brook and hear the birds sing."
+
+"The water!" shouted Peaches. "Mickey, you promised----"
+
+"Yes I remember," said Mickey. "I'll see how cold it is and if I think
+it won't chill you--yes."
+
+"Oh gee!" chortled Peaches. "'Nother blesses!"
+
+"What does she mean?" asked Peter.
+
+Mickey explained.
+
+"Can't see how it would hurt her a mite," said Peter. "Water is warm,
+nice day. It will be good for her."
+
+"All right," said Mickey, "then we'll try it. But how about the plowing
+Peter, shouldn't I be helping you?"
+
+"Not to-day," said Peter. "I never allow my work to drive me, so I get
+pleasure from life my neighbours miss, and I'll compare bank accounts
+with any of them. To-morrow I'll work. To-day I'm entertaining company,
+or rather they are entertaining me. I think this is about the best day
+of my life. Isn't it great, Ma?"
+
+"It just is! I can't half work, myself!" answered Nancy Harding. "I
+just wonder if we could take a little run in the car after supper?"
+
+"What do you think about it, Mickey?" asked Peter.
+
+"Why, I can't see that coming out hurt her any."
+
+"Then we'll go," said Peter.
+
+"Do I have to be all covered?" questioned Peaches.
+
+"Not nearly so much," explained Mickey. "I'll let you see a lot more.
+There's a bobolink bird down the street Peter wants to show you."
+
+"'Street!'" jeered Junior. "That's a road!"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I got a lot to learn. You tell me, will you
+Junior?"
+
+"Course!" said Junior, suddenly changing from scorn to patronage. "Now
+let's take her to the creek!"
+
+"Well that's quite a walk," said Peter. "We're not going there unless I
+carry the Little White Butterfly. You want me to take you, don't you?"
+
+Peaches answered instantly.
+
+"Mickey always carries me. He can! And of course I like _him_ the best;
+but after him, I like you best Peter, so you may, if he'll let you."
+
+"So that's the way the wind blows!" laughed Peter. "Then Mickey, it's
+up to you."
+
+"Why sure!" said Mickey. "Since you are so big, and got a family of
+your own, so you understand----"
+
+"What Mickey?" asked Peter.
+
+"Oh how to be easy with little sick people," answered Mickey, "and that
+a man's family is _his_ family, and he don't want anybody else butting
+in!"
+
+"I see!" said Peter, struggling with his facial muscles. "Of course!
+But this sheet is going to be rather bunglesome. Ma, could you do
+anything about it?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Harding. "Mary, you run up to the flannel chest, and
+get Bobbie's little blue blanket."
+
+Peter lifted the child to his broad breast, she slipped her arms around
+his neck, and laid her head on his shoulder.
+
+Bloom time was past, but bird time was not, while the leaves were still
+freshly green and tender. Some of them reached to touch Peaches' gold
+hair in passing. She was held high to see into nests and the bluebirds'
+hollow in the apple tree. Peaches gripped Peter and cried: "Don't let
+it get my feet!" when the old turkey gobbler came rasping, strutting,
+and spitting at the party. Mickey pointed to Mary, who was unafraid,
+and Peaches' clutch grew less frantic but she defended: "Well, I don't
+care! I bet if she hadn't ever seen one before, an' then a big thing
+like that would come right at her, tellin' plain it was goin' to eat
+her alive, it would scare the livers out of her."
+
+"Yes I guess it would," conceded Peter. "But you got the eating end of
+it wrong. It isn't going to eat us, we are going to eat it. About
+Thanksgiving, we'll lay its head on the block and Ma will stuff it----"
+
+"I've quit stuffing turkeys, Peter," said Mrs. Harding. "I find it
+spoils the flavour of the meat."
+
+"Well then it will stuff us," said Peter, "all we can hold, and mince
+pie, plum pudding, and every good thing we can think of. What piece of
+turkey do you like best, Butterfly?"
+
+Mickey instantly scanned Peter, then Mrs. Peter, and tensely waited.
+
+"Oh stop! Stop! Is _that a turkey bird?_" cried Peaches.
+
+"Surely it is," said Mrs. Harding. "Why childie, haven't you ever seen
+a turkey, either?"
+
+"No I didn't ever," said Peaches. "Can turkey birds sing?"
+
+Just then the gobbler stuck forward his head and sang: "Gehobble,
+hobble, hobble!" Peaches gripped Peter's hair and started to ascend him
+again. Mrs. Harding waved her apron; the turkey suddenly reduced its
+size three-fourths, skipped aside, and a neat, trim bird, high stepping
+and dainty, walked through the orchard. Peaches collapsed in Peter's
+arms in open-mouthed wonder. "Gosh! How did it cave in like that?" she
+cried.
+
+Peter's shoulders were shaking, but he answered gravely: "Well that's a
+way it has of puffing itself up and making a great big pretense that it
+is going to flop us, and then if just little Bobbie or Ma waves an
+apron or a stick it gets out of the way in a hurry."
+
+"I've seen Multiopolis millyingaires cave in like that sometimes when I
+waved a morning paper with an inch-high headline about them," commented
+Mickey.
+
+Peter Harding glanced at his wife, then they laughed together. Peter
+stepped over a snake fence, went carefully down a hill, crossed the
+meadow to the shade of a tree, sat on the bank of the brook and watched
+Peaches as she studied first the clear babbling water, then the grass
+trailing in the stream, the bushes, trees, and then the water again.
+
+"Mickey, come here!" she commanded. "Put your head right down beside
+mine. Now look just the way I do, an' tell me what you see."
+
+"I see running water, grassy banks, trees, the birds, the sky and the
+clouds--the water shows what's above it like a mirror, Lily."
+
+Peaches pointed. Mickey watched intently.
+
+"Sure!" he cried. "Little fish with red speckles on them. Shall I catch
+you one to see?"
+
+"'Tain't my eyes then?" questioned Peaches.
+
+"Your eyes, Miss?" asked Mickey bewildered.
+
+"'Tain't my eyes seein' things that yours doesn't?"
+
+Mickey took her hand and drew closer.
+
+"Well, it isn't any wonder you almost doubt it, honey," he said. "I
+would too, if I hadn't ever seen it before. But I been on the trolley,
+and on a few newsboys' excursions, and in the car with Mr. Bruce, and
+I've got to walk along the str--roads some, so I know it's real. Let me
+show you----!"
+
+Mickey slipped down the bank, scooped his hands full of water, and
+lifted them, letting it drip through his fingers. Then he made a sweep
+and brought up one of the fish, brightly marked as a flower, and
+gasping in the air.
+
+"Look quick!" he cried. "See it good! It's used to water and the air
+chokes it, just like the water would you if a big fish would take you
+and hold your head under; I got to put it back quick."
+
+"Mickey, lay it in my hand, just a little bit!"
+
+Mickey obeyed while Peaches examined it hurriedly.
+
+"Put it back!" she cried. "I guess that's as long as I'd want to be
+choked, while a fish looked at me."
+
+Mickey exchanged the fish for a handful of wet, vividly coloured
+pebbles, then brought a bunch of cowslips yellow as gold, and a long
+willow whip with leaves on, and when she had examined these, she looked
+inquiringly at Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Nicest lady, may I put my feet in your water?"
+
+"How about the temperature of it, Mickey?" inquired Mrs. Harding.
+
+"It's all right," said Mickey. "I've washed her in colder water lots of
+times. The Sunshine Lady said I should, to toughen her up."
+
+"Then go ahead," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Peter, may I?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Surely!" agreed Peter. "Whole bunch may get in if Ma says so!"
+
+"Well, I don't say so!" exclaimed Mrs. Harding. "The children have
+their good clothes on and they always get to romping and dirty
+themselves and then it's bigger washings and mine are enough to break
+my back right now."
+
+Peter looked at his wife intently. "Why Nancy, I hadn't heard you
+complain before!" he said. "If they're too big, we must wear less and
+make them smaller, and I'll take an hour at the machine, and Junior can
+turn the wringer. All of you children listen to me. Your Ma is feeling
+the size of the wash. That means we must be more careful of our clothes
+and help her better. If Ma gets sick, or tired of us, we'll be in a
+fix, I tell you!"
+
+"I didn't say I was sick, or tired of you, I'm just tired of washing!"
+said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"I see!" said Peter. "But it is a thing that has got to be done, like
+plowing and sowing."
+
+"Yes I know," said Mrs. Harding, "but plowing and sowing only come once
+a year. Washing comes once and twice a week."
+
+"Let me," said Mickey. "I always helped mother, and I do my own and
+Lily's at home. Of course I will here, and I can help you a lot with
+yours!"
+
+"Yes a boy!" scoffed Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Well I'll show you that a boy can work as well as a girl, if he's been
+taught right," said Mickey.
+
+"I wasn't bringing up any question of work," said Mrs. Harding. "I just
+didn't want the children to dirty a round of clothing apiece. They may
+wade when their things are ready for the wash anyway. Go on Peaches!"
+
+Peter moved down the bank and prepared to lower her to the water, but
+she reached her arms for Mickey.
+
+"He promised me," she said. "Back there on his nice bed in the hot room
+he promised me this."
+
+"So I did," said Mickey, radiating satisfaction he could not conceal.
+"So I did! Now, I'll let you put your feet in, like I said."
+
+"Will the fish bite me?" she questioned timidly.
+
+"Those little things! What if they did?"
+
+Thus encouraged she put her toes in the water, gripping Mickey and
+waiting breathlessly to see what happened. Nothing happened, while the
+warm, running water felt pleasant, so she dipped lower, and then did
+her best to make it splash. It wasn't much of a splash, but it was a
+satisfying performance to the parties most interested, and from their
+eagerness the watchers understood what it meant to them. Junior sidled
+up to his mother.
+
+"Ain't that tough?" he whispered.
+
+She bit her lip and silently nodded.
+
+"Look at her feet, will you?" he breathed.
+
+She looked at him instead, then suddenly her eyes filled with a mist
+like that clouding his.
+
+"_Think they'll ever walk?_" he questioned.
+
+"I don't know," she said softly, "but it looks as if God has given us
+the chance to make them if it's possible."
+
+"Well say what's my share?" he said.
+
+"Just anything you see that you think will help."
+
+"If I be more careful not to dirty so many clothes, will it help?" he
+asked.
+
+"It would leave me that much more time and strength to give to her,"
+she said.
+
+"Will all I can save you in any way be helping her that much?" he
+persisted.
+
+"Surely!" she said. "Soon as he's out of sight, I'm going to begin on
+her. But don't let them hear!"
+
+Junior nodded. He sat down on the bank watching as if fascinated the
+feet trying to splash in the water. Mickey could feel the effort of the
+small body.
+
+"You take her now," he said to Peter. Then he threw off his shoes and
+stockings, turned up his knee breeches and stepped into the water,
+where he helped the feet to kick and splash. He rubbed them and at last
+picked up handfuls of fine sand and lightly massaged with it until he
+brought a pink glow.
+
+"That's the stuff," indorsed Peter. "Look at that! You're pulling the
+blood down."
+
+"Where's the blood?" asked Peaches.
+
+Peter explained the circulatory system and why all the years of lying,
+with no movement, had made her so helpless. He told her why scarce and
+wrong food had not made good blood to push down and strengthen her feet
+so they would walk. He told her the friction of the sand-rubbing would
+pull it down, while the sun, water, and earth would help. Peaches with
+wide eyes listened, her breath coming faster and faster, until suddenly
+she leaned forward and cried: "Rub, Mickey! Rub 'til the blood flies!
+Rub 'em hot as hell!"
+
+"Well, Miss Chicken!" he cried in despair.
+
+Peaches buried her shamed face on Peter's breast. He screened her with
+a big hand.
+
+"Now never you mind! Never you mind!" he repeated. "Everybody turn a
+deaf ear! That was a slip! Nobody heard it! You mean Little Butterfly
+White, 'rub hard.' Say rub hard and that will fix it!"
+
+"Mickey," she said in a faint voice so subdued and contrite as to be
+ridiculous, "Mickey-lovest, won't you please to rub hard! Rub jus' as
+hard!"
+
+Mickey suddenly bent to kiss the bony little foot he was chafing.
+
+"Yes darling, I'll rub 'til it a-most bleeds," he said.
+
+When the feet were glowing with alternate sand-rubbing and splashing in
+cold water, Peter looked at his wife.
+
+"I think that's the ticket!" he said. "Nancy, don't you? That pulls
+down the blood with rubbing, and drives it back with cold water, and
+pulls it down, to be pushed back again--ain't that helping the heart
+get in its work? Now if we strengthen her with right food, and make
+lots of pure blood to run in these little blue canals on her temples,
+and hands and feet, ain't we gaining ground? Ain't we making headway?"
+
+"We've just got to be," said Mrs. Harding. "There's no other way to
+figure it. But this is enough for a start."
+
+Peaches leaned toward her and asked: "May we do this again to-morrow,
+nicest lady?"
+
+"Well I can't say as we can come clear here every day; I'm a busy
+woman, and my spare time is scarce; and even light as you are, you'd be
+a load for me; I can't say as we can do this when Peter is busy plowing
+and harvesting and Junior is away on the cream wagon, and Mickey is in
+town at his work; we can't do just this; but there is something we can
+do that will help the feet quite as much. We can bring a bucket of sand
+up to the house, and set a tub of water in the sun, and you can lie on
+a comfort under an apple tree with Mary and Bobbie to watch you, and
+every few hours we can take a little time off for rubbing and
+splashing."
+
+"My job!" shouted Junior. "I get a bucket and carry up the sand!"
+
+"I bring the tub and pump the water!" cried Mary.
+
+"Me shoo turkey!" announced Bobbie.
+
+"I lift the tub to the edge of the shade and carry out the Butterfly!"
+said Peter.
+
+"And where do I come in?" demanded Mickey.
+
+"Why Mickey, you 'let' them!" cried Peaches. "You '_let_' them! An' you
+earn the money to pay for the new back, when I get strong enough to
+have it changed, an' the Carrel man comes! Don't you 'member?"
+
+"Sure!" boasted Mickey, taking on height. "I got the biggest job of
+all! I got the job that really does the trick, and to-morrow I get
+right after it. Now I must take you back to the house to rest a while."
+
+"Aw come on to the barn with me!" begged Junior. "Let father carry her!
+Ain't you going to be any company for me at all?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "Wait a minute! I'd like to go to the barn with
+you."
+
+He dried Peaches' feet with his handkerchief, stuffed his stockings in
+his pocket, and picked up his shoes.
+
+"Lily, can you let Peter take you back to rest 'til supper time, so I
+can see what Junior wants to show me?"
+
+"Yes I can," said Peaches. "Yes I can, 'cause I'm a game kid; but I
+don't wish to!"
+
+"Now you look here, Miss Chicken, that hasn't got anything to do with
+it," explained Mickey. "Every single time you can't have your way,
+'cause it ain't good for you. If all these nice folks are so kind to
+you, you must think part of the time about what they want, and just now
+Junior wants _me_, so you march right along nice and careful with
+Peter, and pretty soon I'll come."
+
+Peaches pouted a second, then her face cleared by degrees, until it
+lifted to Peter with a smile.
+
+"Peter, will you please to carry me while Mickey does what Junior
+wants?" she asked with melting sweetness.
+
+"Sure!" said Peter. "I'm the one to take you anyway, big and strong as
+an ox; but that's a pretty way to ask, and acting like a nice lady!"
+
+Peaches radiated pride while Peter returned her to the couch, brought
+her a glass of milk and a cracker, pulled the shade, and going out
+softly closed the door. In five minutes she was asleep.
+
+An hour before supper time Mickey appeared and without a word began
+watching Mrs. Harding. Suddenly her work lightened. When she was ready
+for water, the bucket was filled, saving her a trip to the pump. When
+she lifted the dishpan and started toward the back door, Mickey met her
+with the potato basket. When she glanced questioningly at the stove, he
+put in more wood. He went to the dining-room and set the table exactly
+as it had been for dinner. He made the trip to the cellar with her and
+brought up bread and milk, while she carried butter and preserves. As
+she told Peter that night, no strange woman ever had helped her as
+quickly and understandingly.
+
+With dishwashing he was on hand, for he knew that Peaches' fate hung on
+how much additional work was made for Mrs. Harding. That surprised
+woman found herself seated in a cool place on the back porch preparing
+things for breakfast, while Mickey washed the dishes, and Mary carried
+them. Peaches was moved to the couch in the dining-room where she could
+look on.
+
+Then wrapped in Bobbie's blanket and held closely in Mickey's arms, the
+child lay quivering with delight while the big car made the trip to the
+club house, and stopped under the trees to show Peaches where Mr. Bruce
+played, and then slowly ran along the country road, with all its
+occupants talking at once in their effort to point out everything to
+her. No one realized how tired she was, until in calling her attention
+to a colt beside its mother, she made no response, then it was
+discovered that she was asleep, so they took her home and put her to
+bed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+_The Fingers in the Pie_
+
+
+When Mickey went the following morning to bring water for the
+inevitable washing, Mrs. Harding said to him: "Is it possible that
+child is awake this early?"
+
+"No. She is sleeping like she'd never come to," said Mickey. "I'll wait
+'til the last minute before I touch her."
+
+"You shouldn't wake her," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"But I must," said Mickey. "I can't go away and leave her not washed,
+fed, and fixed the best I can."
+
+"Of course I understand that," said Mrs. Harding, "but now it's
+different. Then you were forced, this is merely a question of what is
+best for her. Now Mickey, we're all worked up over this till we're most
+beside ourselves, so we want to help; suppose you humour us, by letting
+us please ourselves a trifle. How does that proposition strike you?"
+
+"Square, from the ground up," answered Mickey promptly. "But what would
+please you?"
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Harding, "it would please me to keep this house
+quiet, and let that child sleep till the demands of her satisfied body
+wake her up. Then I'd love to bathe her as a woman would her own, in
+like case; and cook her such dainties as she should have: things with
+lots of lime in them. I think her bones haven't been built right; I
+believe I could make her fifty per cent better in three months myself;
+and as far as taking her away when this week is up, you might as well
+begin to make different plans right now. If she does well here, and
+likes it, she can't be taken back where I found her, till cool weather,
+if I can get the consent of my mind to let her go then. Of course I
+know she's yours, so things will be as you say, but think a while
+before you go against me. If I do all I can for her I ought to earn the
+privilege of having my finger in the pie a little bit."
+
+"So far as Lily goes," said Mickey, "I'd be tickled 'most to death. I
+ain't anxious to pull and haul, and wake up the poor, little sleepy
+thing. Every morning it 'most makes me sick. I'd a lot rather let her
+sleep it out as you say, but while Lily is mine, and I've got to do the
+best by her I can, you are Peter's so he must do the best by you he
+can; and did you notice how he jumped on that washing business
+yesterday? How we going to square up with Peter?"
+
+"I'm perfectly willing to do what I said for the sake of that child.
+I've come to be mighty fond of you Mickey, in the little time I've
+known you; if I didn't like and want to help Peaches I'd do a lot for
+her, just to please you----"
+
+"Gee, you're something grand!" cried Mickey.
+
+"Just common clay, commonest kind of clay Mickey," said Mrs. Harding.
+"But if you want to know how you could 'square' it with me, which will
+'square' it with Peter--I'll tell you. You may think I'm silly; but as
+we're made, we're made, and this is how it is with me: of course I love
+Peter, my children, my home, and I love my work; but I've had this job
+without 'jot or tittle' of change for fifteen years, and I'm about
+stalled with the sameness of it. I know you'll think I'm crazy----"
+
+"I won't!" interrupted Mickey. "You go on and tell me! The sameness of
+it is getting you and----"
+
+"Just the way you flew around and did things last night perfectly
+amazed me. I never saw a boy like you before; you helped me better and
+with more sense than any woman I ever hired, and thinking it over last
+night, I said to myself, 'Now if Mickey would be willing to trade jobs
+with me, it would give me a change, and it wouldn't be any more woman's
+work for him than what he _is_ doing----"
+
+"Well never you mind about the 'woman's work' part of it," said Mickey.
+"That doesn't cut any ice with me. It's men's work to eat, and I don't
+know who made a law that it was any more 'woman's work' to cook for men
+than it is their own. If there _is_ a law of that kind, I bet a
+liberty-bird the _men_ made it. I haven't had my show at law-making
+yet, but when I get it, there are some things I can see right now that
+I'm going to fix for Lily, and I'd sooner fix them for you too, than
+not. Just _what_ were you thinking?"
+
+Mrs. Harding went to Mickey, took him by the shoulder, turned him
+toward the back door and piloted him to the porch, where she pointed
+east indicating an open line. It began as high as his head against the
+side of the Harding back wall and ran straight. It crossed the yard
+between trees that through no design at all happened to stand in line
+with those of the orchard so that they formed a narrow emerald wall on
+each side of a green-carpeted space that led to the meadow, where it
+widened, ran down hill and crossed lush grass where cattle grazed. Then
+it climbed a far hill, tree crested, cloud capped, and in a mist of
+glory the faint red of the rising sun worked colour miracles with the
+edges of cloud rims, tinted them with flushes of rose, lavender,
+streaks of vivid red, and a broad stripe of pale green. Alone, on the
+brow of the hill, stood one giant old apple tree, the remains of an
+early-day orchard. It was widely branching, symmetrically outlined,
+backed and coloured by cloud wonder, above and around it. The woman
+pointed down the avenue with a shaking finger, and asked: "See that
+Mickey? Start slow and get all of it. Every time I've stepped on this
+back porch for fifteen years, summer or winter, I've seen that just as
+it is now or as it was three weeks ago when the world was blooming, or
+as it will be in the red and gold of fall, or the later grays and
+browns, and when it's ice coated, and the sun comes up, I think
+sometimes it will kill me. I've neglected my work to stand staring,
+many's the time in summer, and I've taken more than one chill in
+winter--I've tried to show Peter, and a few times I've suggested----"
+
+"He ought to have seen for himself that you should have had a window
+cut there the first thing," said Mickey.
+
+"Well, he didn't; and he doesn't!" said Mrs. Harding. "But Mickey, for
+fifteen years, _there hasn't been a single morning when I went to the
+back porch for water_----"
+
+"And you ought to have had water inside, fifteen years ago!" cried
+Mickey.
+
+"_Why so I had!_" exclaimed Mrs. Harding. "And come to think of it,
+I've mentioned _that_ to Peter, over and over, too. But Mickey, what I
+started to say was, that I've been perfectly possessed to follow that
+path and watch the sun rise while sitting under that apple tree; and
+never yet have I got to the place where there wasn't bread, or
+churning, or a baby, or visitors, or a wash, or ironing, or some reason
+why I couldn't go. Maybe I'm a fool, but sure as you're a foot high,
+I've got to take that trip pretty soon now, or my family is going to
+see trouble. And last night thinking it over for the thousandth time I
+said to myself: since he's so handy, if he'd keep things going just one
+morning, just one morning----"
+
+Mickey handed her a sun hat.
+
+"G'wan!" he said gruffly. "I'll do your work, and I'll do it right.
+Lily can have her sleep. G'wan!"
+
+The woman hesitated a second, pushed away the hat, took her bearings
+and crossed the walk, heading directly toward the old apple tree on the
+far crest. Her eyes were set on the rising sun, and as she turned to
+close the yard gate, Mickey could see that there was an awed, unnatural
+expression on her face. He stepped into the dining-room. By the time
+Peter and Junior came with big buckets of milk, Mickey had the cream
+separator rinsed and together, as he had helped Mrs. Harding fix it the
+day before. With his first glance Peter inquired: "Where's Ma?"
+
+"She's doing something she's been crazy to for fifteen years," answered
+Mickey calmly, as he set the gauge and poured in the first bucket of
+milk.
+
+"Which ain't answering where she is."
+
+"So 'tain't!" said Mickey, starting the machine. "Well if you'll line
+up, I'll show you. Train your peepers down that green subway, and on
+out to glory as presented by the Almighty in this particular stretch of
+country, and just beyond your cows there you'll see a spot about as big
+as Bobbie, and that will be your nice lady heading straight for
+sunrise. She said she'd wanted to go for fifteen years, but there
+always had been churning, or baking, or something, so this morning, as
+there wasn't a thing but what I could do as good as she could, why we
+made it up that I'd finish her work and let her see her sunrise, since
+she seems to be set on it; and when she gets back she's going to wash
+and dress Lily for a _change_. Strange how women folks get discouraged
+on their job, among their best friends, who would do anything in the
+world for them, 'cept just to see that a little bit of change would
+help them. It will be a dandy scheme for Lily, 'cause it lets her get
+her sleep out, and it will be good for you, 'cause if Mrs. Harding
+doesn't get to sit under that apple tree and watch sunup pretty soon,
+things are going to go wrong at this house."
+
+Peter's lower jaw slowly sagged.
+
+"If you don't hurry," said Mickey, "even loving her like you do, and
+loving you as she does, she's going to have them nervous prostrations
+like the Swell Dames in Multiopolis get when they ask a fellow to carry
+a package, and can't remember where they want to send it. She's not
+there _yet_. She's ahead of them now, for she _wants_ to sit under that
+apple tree and watch sunup; but if she hadn't got there this morning or
+soon now, she'd a-begun to get mixed, I could see that plain as the
+City Hall."
+
+"Mickey, what else can you see?" asked Peter.
+
+"Enough to make your head swim," said Mickey.
+
+"Out with it!" ordered Peter.
+
+"Well," said Mickey gravely, and seemingly intent on the separator, but
+covertly watching Peter, "well, if you'd a-cut that window she's wanted
+for fifteen years, right over her table there where the line comes, she
+would a-been seeing that particular bit of glory--you notice Peter,
+that probably there's nothing niftier on earth than just the little
+spot she's been pining for; look good yourself, and you'll see, there
+she's just climbing the hill to the apple tree--look at it carefully,
+and then step inside and focus on what she's faced instead."
+
+"What else does she want?" inquired Peter.
+
+"She didn't mention anything but to watch sunup, just once, under that
+apple tree," said Mickey. "I don't know _what_ she wants; but from one
+day here, I could tell you things she _should_ have."
+
+"Well go ahead and tell," said Peter.
+
+"Will you agree not to break my neck 'til I get this cream in the can,
+and what she keeps strained, and these buckets washed?" asked Mickey.
+"I want to have her job all done when she gets back, 'cause I promised
+her, and that's quite a hike she's taking."
+
+"Well I was 'riled' for a minute, but I might as well hold myself,"
+said Peter. "Looks like you were right."
+
+"Strangers coming in can always see things that folks on the job
+can't," consoled Mickey.
+
+"Well go on and tell me what you've seen here Mickey!"
+
+Mickey hoisted the fourth bucket.
+
+"Well, I've seen the very nicest lady I ever saw, excepting my mother,"
+said Mickey. "I've seen a man 'bout your size, that I like better than
+any man I know, barring Mr. Douglas Bruce, and the bar is such a little
+one it would take a microscope to find it." Peter laughed, which was
+what Mickey hoped he would do, for he drew a deep breath and went on
+with greater assurance: "I've seen a place that I thought was a new
+edition of Heaven, and it is, only it needs a few modern
+improvements----"
+
+"Yes Mickey! The window, and what else?"
+
+"You haven't looked at what I told you to about the window yet," said
+Mickey.
+
+"Well since you insist on it, I will," said Peter.
+
+"And while you are in there," suggested Mickey, "after you finish with
+that strip of brown oilcloth and the pans and skillets adorning it,
+cotton up to that cook stove, and imagine standing over it while it is
+roaring, to get three meals a day, and all the baking, fruit canning,
+boiling clothes, and such, and tell me if Lily's bed was in so much
+hotter a place than your wife is, all but about three hours each day."
+
+Mickey listened as intently as he could for the separator he dared not
+stop, heard not a sound for what seemed a long time, and then came
+amazing ones. He grinned sympathetically as Peter emerged red faced and
+raging.
+
+"And you're about the finest man I ever met, too," commented Mickey,
+still busy with the cream. "You can see what a comfort this separator
+must be, but it's the _only_ thing your nice lady has got, against so
+many for your work it takes quite a large building to keep them in.
+Junior was showing me last night and telling me what all those machines
+were made for. You know Peter, if there was money for a hay rake, and a
+manure spreader, and a wheel plow, and a disk, and a reaper, and a
+mower, and a corn planter, and a corn cutter, and a cider press, and a
+windmill, and a silo, and an automobile--you know Peter, there _should_
+have been enough for that window, and the pump inside, and a kitchen
+sink, and a bread-mixer, and a dish-washer; and if there wasn't any
+other single thing, there ought to be some way you sell the wood, and
+use the money for the kind of a summer stove that's only hot under what
+you are cooking, and turns off the flame the minute you finish. Honest
+there had Peter! I got a little gasoline one in my room that's better
+than what your nice lady has. The things she should have would cost
+something, cost a lot for all I know, but I bet what she needs wouldn't
+take half the things in the building Junior showed me did; and it
+couldn't be the start of what a sick wife, and doctor bills, and
+strange women coming and going, and abusing you and the children would
+cost----"
+
+"Shut up!" cried Peter. "That will do! Now you listen to me young man.
+Since you are so expert at seeing things, and since you've traded work
+with my wife, to _rest her_ by _changing her job_, suppose you just
+keep your eyes open, and make out a list of what she should have to do
+her work convenient and easy as can be, and of course, comfortably.
+That stove's hot yet! And breakfast been over an hour too! Nothing like
+it must be going full blast, and things steaming and frying!"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey.
+
+"Watch a few days, and then we'll talk it over. If it is your train
+time, ride down with Junior, and I'll stay in the house till she comes.
+I guess Little White Butterfly won't wake up; and if she does, she'll
+be all right with me. Mary dresses herself and Bobbie. Is Mary helping
+her Ma right?"
+
+"Well some," said Mickey. "Not all she could! But her taking care of
+Bobbie is a big thing. Junior could do a lot of things, but he doesn't
+seem to see them, and----"
+
+"And so could I?" asked Peter. "Is that the ticket?"
+
+"Yes," said Mickey.
+
+"All right young man," said Peter. "Fix us over! We are ready for
+anything that will benefit Ma. She's the pinwheel of this place. Now
+you scoot! I can see her coming."
+
+"It's our secret then?" asked Mickey.
+
+"Yes, it's our secret!" answered Peter gravely.
+
+Mickey took one long look at Peaches and went running to the milk
+wagon. Junior offered to let him drive, so for the first time he took
+the lines and guided a horse. He was a happy boy as he spun on his heel
+waiting a few minutes for the trolley. He sat in the car with no paper
+in which to search for headlines, no anxiety as to whether he could
+dispose of enough to keep Peaches from hunger that night, sure of her
+safety and comfort. The future, coloured by what Mrs. Harding had said
+to him, took on such a rosy glow it almost hurt his mental eyes. He
+revelled in greater freedom from care than he ever had known. He sat
+straighter, and curiously watched the people in the car. When they
+entered the city and the car swung down his street near the business
+centre, Mickey stepped off and hiding himself watched for the passing
+of the boy, on his old route. Before long it came, "I _like_ to sell
+papers," in such good imitation of his tone and call that Mickey's face
+grew grave and a half-jealous little ache began in his heart.
+
+"Course we're better off," he commented. "Course I can't go back now,
+and I wouldn't if I could; but it makes me want to swat any fellow
+using my call, and taking my men. Gee, the kid is doing better than I
+thought he could! B'lieve he's got the idea all right. I'll just join
+the procession."
+
+Mickey stepped into line and followed, pausing whenever a paper was
+sold, until he was sure that his men were patronizing his substitute,
+then he overtook him.
+
+"Good work, kid!" he applauded. "Been following you and you're doing
+well. Lemme take a paper a second. Yes, I thought so! You're leaving
+out the biggest scoop on the sheet! Here, give them a laugh on this
+'Chasing Wrinkles.' How did you come to slide over it and not bump
+enough to wake you up? Get on this sub-line, 'Males seeking beauty
+doctors to renew youth.'"
+
+"How would you cry it?" asked the boy.
+
+"Aw looky! Looky! Looky!" Mickey shouted, holding his side with one
+hand and waving a paper with the other. "All the old boys hiking to the
+beauty parlours. Pinking up the glow of youth to beat Billie Burke.
+Corner on icicles; Billie gets left, 'cause the boys are using all of
+them! Oh my! Wheel o' time oiled with cold cream and reversed with an
+icicle! Morning paper! Tells you how to put the cream on your face
+'stead of in the coffee! Stick your head in the ice box at sixty, and
+come out sixteen! Awah get in line, gentlemen! Don't block traffic!"
+
+When the policemen scattered the crowd Mickey's substitute had not a
+paper remaining. With his pocket full of change he was running to the
+nearest stand for a fresh supply. Mickey went with him and watched with
+critical eye while the boy tried a reproduction of what he called "a
+daily scream!" The first time it was rather flat.
+
+"You ain't going at it right!" explained Mickey. "'Fore you can make
+anybody laugh on this job, you must see the fun of life yourself.
+Beauty parlours have always been for the Swell Dames and the theatre
+ladies, who pink up, while their gents hump to pay the bill. You ought
+always take one paper home, and _read_ it, so you know what's going on
+in the world. Now from what I've read, I know that the get-a-way of the
+beauty parlours is cold cream. And one of the show ladies the boys are
+always wild over told the papers long ago 'bout how she used icicles on
+her face to pink it up. Now if you'd a-knowed this like you should, the
+minute you clapped your peepers on that, 'Chasing Wrinkles,' you'd
+a-knowed where your laugh came in today, like I've told you over and
+over you _must_ get it. Bet Chaffner put that there on purpose for me.
+Which same gives me an idea. You been calling the Hoc de Geezer war,
+and the light-weight champeen of Mexico, and 'the psychological panic'
+something fine; but did you sell out on them? Not on your topknot! You
+lost your load on the scream. _Get the joke of life soaked in your
+system good_. On this, you make yourself see the plutes, and the
+magnates, and the city officials leaving their jobs, and hiking to the
+beauty parlours, to beat the dames at their daily stunt of being
+creamed and icicled and--it's funny! When it's so funny to you that you
+just howl about it, why it's catching! Didn't you see me catch them
+with it? Now go on and do it again, and get the _scream_ in."
+
+The boy began the cry with tears of laughter in his eyes. He kept it up
+as he handed out papers and took in change. Satisfied, Mickey called to
+him: "Tell your sire it's all over but polishing the silver."
+
+He started down the street glancing at clocks he was passing, with
+nimble feet threading the crowds until he reached the _Herald_ office;
+there he dodged in and making his way to the editorial desk he waited
+his chance. When he saw an instant of pause in the work of the busy
+man, he started his cry: "Morning papers! I _like_ to sell them!" and
+so on to the "Chasing Wrinkles." There because he was excited, for he
+knew that his reception would depend on how good a laugh he gave them,
+Mickey outdid himself. Reporters waiting assignments crowded around
+him; Mr. Chaffner beckoned, and Mickey stepped to him.
+
+"Found it all right, did you, young man?"
+
+"The scream lifted the load!" cried Mickey. "War, and waste, and
+wickedness, didn't get a look in."
+
+"I thought you'd like that!" laughed the editor.
+
+"Biggest scoop yet!" said Mickey. "Why it took the police to scatter
+the crowd. They struggled to get papers, 'til they looked like the bird
+on the coin they were passing in, trying to escape the awful things it
+goes through on the money, and get back to nature where perfectly good
+birds belong. Honest, they did!"
+
+"Have you any poetry for me yet?"
+
+"No, but I'm headed that way," answered Mickey.
+
+"How so?" inquired the editor.
+
+"Why I've got another kid so he can do my stunt 'til nobody knows the
+difference, and I've gone into Mr. Bruce's office, and we're after the
+grafters."
+
+"Douglas Bruce?" queried Mr. Chaffner.
+
+"Yes," said Mickey. "He's my boss, and say, he's the finest man you
+ever met; and his Joy Lady is nice as he is, and prettier than
+moonshine on the park lake. I never saw a lady who could hold a candle
+to Miss Leslie Winton, and they just love to tell folks they're
+engaged."
+
+Suddenly the editor arose from his chair, gripped his desk, leaned
+across it toward Mickey, and almost knocked him from his feet with one
+word.
+
+"_What?_"
+
+Mickey staggered. At last he recovered his breath.
+
+"Mr. Bruce and Miss Leslie don't care if I tell," he defended. "They
+all the time tell it!"
+
+"_What?_"
+
+"Why that they are going to be married, soon as Mr. Bruce gets the
+grafter who's robbing the taxpayers of Multiopolis, and collects his
+big fee. That's what."
+
+As suddenly as he had arisen Mr. Chaffner dropped back, and in a
+stupefied way still looked at Mickey. Then: "You come with me," Mr.
+Chaffner said rising, and he entered a small room and closed the door.
+
+"Now you tell me all about this engagement."
+
+"Maybe they don't want it in the papers yet," said Mickey. "I guess
+I'll let Mr. Bruce do his own talking."
+
+"But you said they told everybody."
+
+"So they do," said Mickey. "And of course they'd tell you. You can call
+him. His number is 500-X."
+
+The editor made a note of it, studying Mickey.
+
+"Yes, that would be the better way, of course," he agreed. "You have a
+long head, young man. And so you think Miss Leslie Winton is a fine
+young lady?"
+
+"Surest thing you know," said Mickey. "Why let me tell you----"
+
+And then in a few swift words, Mickey sketched in the young woman so
+intelligent she had selected him from all the other "newsies" by a
+description, and sent him to Mr. Bruce; how she had dolls ready to give
+away, and poor children might ride in her car; how she lived with
+"darling old Daddy," and there Mickey grew enthusiastic, and told of
+the rest house, and then the renting of the cabin on Atwater by the
+most considerate of daughters for her father and her lover, and when he
+could not think of another commendatory word to say, Mickey paused,
+while a dazed man muttered a word so low the boy scarcely heard it.
+
+"I don't know why you say _that!_" cried Mickey.
+
+"Ommh!" said Mr. Chaffner, slowly. "I don't either, only I didn't
+understand they were _engaged_. It's my business to find and distribute
+news, and get it fresh, 'scoop it,' as our term is, and so, Mickey,
+when investigations are going on, and everybody knows a denou--a big
+surprise is coming, in order to make sure that my paper gets in on the
+ground floor, I make some investigation for myself, and sometimes by
+accident, sometimes by intuition, sometimes by sharp deduction we
+_happen_ to land before the investigators. Of course we have personal,
+financial, and political reasons for not spoiling the game. Now we
+haven't gone into the City Hall investigation as Bruce has and we can't
+show figures, but we know enough to understand where he's coming out;
+so when the gig upsets, we have our side ready and we'll embroider his
+figures with what the public is entitled to, in the way of news."
+
+"Sure! But I don't see why you act so funny!"
+
+"Oh it's barely possible that I've got ahead of your boss on a few
+features of his investigation."
+
+"Aw-w-wh!" said Mickey. "Well I hope you ain't going to rush in and
+spoil _his_ scoop. You see he doesn't know who he's after, himself. We
+talk about it a lot of times. I tell him how I've sold papers, and seen
+men like he's chasing get their dose, and go sick and white, and can't
+ever face men straight again; but he says stealing is stealing, and cut
+where it will, those who rob the taxpayers must be exposed. I told him
+maybe he'd be surprised, and maybe he'd be sorry; but he says it's got
+to be stopped, no matter who gets hurt."
+
+"Well he's got his nerve!" cried the editor.
+
+"Yes!" agreed Mickey. "He's so fine himself, he thinks no other men
+worth saving could go wrong. I told him I wished the men he was after
+would break their necks 'fore he gets them, but he goes right on."
+
+"Mickey, you figure closer than your boss does."
+
+"In one way I _do_," conceded Mickey. "It's like this: he knows books,
+and men, and how things _should_ be; but I know how they _are_. See?"
+
+"I certainly see," said the intent listener. "Mickey, when it comes to
+the place where you think you know better than your boss, while it's
+bad business for me to tell you, keep your eye open, and maybe you can
+save him. Books and theories are all right, but there are times when a
+man comes a cropper on them. You watch, and if you think he's riding
+for a fall, you come skinning and tell me, not over the 'phone, _come
+and tell me_. Here, take this, it will get you to me any time, no
+matter where I am or what I'm doing. Understand?"
+
+"You think Mr. Bruce is going to get into trouble?"
+
+"His job is to get other people into trouble----"
+
+"But he says he ain't got a thing to do with it," said Mickey. "He says
+they get themselves into trouble."
+
+"That's so too," commented Mr. Chaffner. "Anyway, keep your mouth tight
+shut, and your eyes wide open, and if you think your boss is getting
+into deep water, you come and tell me. I want things to go right with
+_you_, because I'm depending on that poem for my front page, soon."
+
+Mickey held out his hand.
+
+"Sure!" he agreed. "I'm in an awful good place now to work up the
+poetry piece, being right out among the cows and clover. And about Mr.
+Bruce, gee! I wish he was plowing corn. I just hate his job he's doing
+now. Sure if I see rocks I'll make a run for you. Thanks Boss!"
+
+Mickey had lost time, and he hurried, but things seemed to be
+happening, for as he left the elevator and sped down the hall, he ran
+into Mr. James Minturn. With a hasty glance he drew back, and darted
+for the office door. Mr. Minturn's face turned a dull red.
+
+"One minute, young man!" he called.
+
+"I'm late," said Mickey shortly. "I must hurry."
+
+"Bruce is late too. I just came from his office and he isn't there,"
+answered Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Well I want to get it in order before he comes."
+
+"In fact you want anything but to have a word to say to me!" hazarded
+Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Well then, since you are such a good guesser, I ain't just crazy about
+you," said Mickey shortly.
+
+"And I'm tired of having you run from me as if I were afflicted with
+smallpox," said Mr. Minturn.
+
+"If your blood is right, smallpox ain't much," said Mickey. "I haven't
+a picture of myself running from _that_, if it really wanted a word
+with me."
+
+"But you have a picture of yourself running from me?"
+
+"Maybe I do," conceded Mickey.
+
+"I've noticed it on occasions so frequent and conspicuous that others,
+no doubt, will do the same," said Mr. Minturn. "If you are all Bruce
+thinks you, then you should give a man credit for what he tries to do.
+You surprised me too deeply for words with the story you brought me one
+day. I knew most of your facts from experience, better than you did,
+except the one horrible thing that shocked me speechless; but Mickey,
+when I had time to adjust myself, I made the investigations you
+suggested, and proved what you said. I deserve your scorn for not
+acting faster, but what I had to do couldn't be done in a day, and for
+the boys' sake it had to be done as privately as possible. There's no
+longer any reason why you should regard me as a monster----"
+
+"I'm awful glad you told me," Mickey said. "I surely did have you sized
+up something scandalous. And yet I couldn't quite make out how, if my
+view was right, Mr. Bruce and Miss Leslie would think so much of you."
+
+"They are friends I'm proud to have," said Mr. Minturn. "And I hope
+you'll consider being a friend to me, and to my boys also. If ever a
+times comes when I can do anything for you, let me know."
+
+"Now right on that point, pause a moment," said Mickey. "You _are_ a
+friend to my boss?"
+
+"I certainly am, and I'm under deep obligations to Miss Winton. If ever
+my home becomes once more what it was to start with, it will be her
+work. Could a man bear heavier obligation than that?"
+
+"Well hardly," said Mickey. "Course there wouldn't likely ever be
+anything you could do for Miss Leslie that would square _that_ deal;
+but I'm worried about my boss something awful."
+
+"Why Mickey?" asked Mr. Minturn.
+
+"That investigation you started him on."
+
+"I did start him on that. What's the matter?"
+
+"Well the returns are about all in," said Mickey, "and the man who
+draws the candy suit is about ready to put it on. See?"
+
+"Good! Exactly what he should do."
+
+"Yes exactly," agreed Mickey dryly, "but _who_ do you figure it is? We
+got some good friends in the City Hall."
+
+"Always is somebody you don't expect," said Mr. Minturn. "Don't waste
+any sympathy on them, Mickey."
+
+"Not unless in some way my boss got himself into trouble," said Mickey.
+
+"There's no possible way he could."
+
+"About the smartest man in Multiopolis thinks yes," said Mickey. "I
+just been talking with him."
+
+"Who, Mickey?" asked Mr. Minturn, instantly.
+
+"Chaffner of the _Herald_," said Mickey.
+
+"_What!_"
+
+Mr. Minturn seized the boy's arm, shoved him inside his door and closed
+it. Mickey pulled away and turned a belligerent face upward.
+
+"Now nix on knocking me down with _your_ 'whats!'" he cried. "I just
+been hammered meller with his, and dragged into his room, and shut up,
+and scared stiff, about twenty minutes ago."
+
+"_The devil you say!_" exploded Mr. Minturn.
+
+"No, I said Chaffner!" insisted Mickey. "Chaffner of the _Herald_. I'm
+going to write a poetry piece for his front page, some day soon now. I
+been selling his paper all my life."
+
+"And so you're a friend of Chaffner's?"
+
+"Oh not bosom and inseparable," explained Mickey. "I haven't seen so
+awful much of him, but when I do, we get along fine."
+
+"And he said----?" questioned Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Just what I been afraid of all the time," said Mickey. "That these
+investigations at times got into places you didn't _look_ for, and made
+awful trouble; and that my boss _might_ get it with his."
+
+"Mickey, you will promise me something?" asked Mr. Minturn. "You see I
+started Mr. Bruce on this trying to help him to a case that would bring
+him into prominence, so if it should go wrong, it's in a way through
+me. If you think Douglas is unlike himself, or worried, will you tell
+me? Will you?"
+
+"Why surest thing you know!" cried Mickey. "Why I should say I would!
+Gee, you're great too! I think I'll like you awful well when we get
+acquainted."
+
+Mickey was busy when Bruce entered, and with him was Leslie Winton.
+They brought the breath of spring mellowing into summer, freighted with
+emanations of real love, touched and tinctured with joy so habitual it
+had become spontaneous on the part of Leslie Winton, and this morning
+contagious with Douglas Bruce. Mickey stood silent, watched them
+closely, and listened. So in three minutes, from ragged scraps and
+ejaculations effervescing from what was running over in their brains,
+he knew that they had taken an early morning plunge into Atwater,
+landed a black bass, had a breakfast of their own making, at least in
+so far as gathering wild red raspberries from the sand pit near the
+bridge; and then they had raced to the Multiopolis station to start Mr.
+Winton on a trip west to try to sell his interest in some large land
+holdings there, the care of which he was finding burdensome.
+
+"Heavens, how I hope Daddy makes that sale!" cried Leslie. "I've been
+so worried about him this summer."
+
+"I wondered at you not going with him," said Douglas.
+
+"He didn't seem to want me," said Leslie. "He said it was a flying trip
+and he was forced to be back before some reports from his office were
+filed; so he thought I wouldn't enjoy it; and for the first time in my
+life he told me distinctly that he didn't have _time_ for me. Fancy
+Daddy! I can't understand it."
+
+"I've noticed that he has been brooding and preoccupied of late, not at
+all like himself," said Douglas. "Have you any idea what troubles him?"
+
+"Of course! He told me!" said Leslie. "It's Mr. Swain. When Daddy was a
+boy, Mr. Swain was his father's best friend, and when grandfather died,
+he asked him to guide Daddy, and he not only did that, but he opened
+his purse and started him in business. Now Mr. Swain is growing old,
+and some of his investments have gone wrong; just when political
+changes made business close as could be, he lost heavily; and then came
+the war. There was no way but for Daddy to stay here and fight to save
+what he could for him. He told me early last fall; we talked of it
+again in the winter, and this spring most of all--I've told you!"
+
+"Yes I know! I wish I could help!" said Douglas.
+
+"I do too! I wish it intensely," said Leslie. "When father comes, we'll
+ask him. We're young and strong, and we should stand by. I never saw
+Daddy in such a state. He _must_ sell that land. He _said_ so. He said
+last night he'd be forced to sell if he only got half its value, and
+that wouldn't be enough."
+
+"Enough for what?" asked Douglas.
+
+"To help Mr. Swain," said Leslie.
+
+"He's going to use his fortune?" queried Douglas.
+
+"I don't know that Daddy has holdings large enough to deserve the
+word," said Leslie. "He's going to use what he has. I urged him to;
+it's all he can do."
+
+"Did you take into consideration that it may end in his failure?" asked
+Douglas.
+
+"I did," said Leslie, "and I forgot to tell him, but I will as soon as
+he comes back: he can have all mother left me, too, if he needs it."
+
+"Leslie, you're a darling, but have you ever had even a small taste of
+poverty?" asked Douglas.
+
+"No! But I've always been curious, if I did have, to see if I couldn't
+so manage whatever might be my share, that it would appear to the world
+without that peculiar state of grime which always seems to distinguish
+it," said the girl. "I'm not afraid of poverty, and I'm not afraid of
+work; it's dishonour that would kill me. Daddy accepted obligations; if
+they involve him, which includes me also, then to the last cent we
+possess, we pay back."
+
+Mickey drew the duster he handled between vacuum days across a table
+and steadily watched first Douglas, then Leslie, both of whom had
+forgotten him.
+
+"That should be good enough for Daddy; what about me?" asked Douglas.
+"If ever I get in a close place, does the same hold good?"
+
+"If I know what you are doing, surely!"
+
+"I knew you were a 'Bearer of Morning' first time I saw you," said
+Douglas. "But we are forgetting Mickey."
+
+Mickey promptly stepped forward, putting away the duster to be ready
+for errands.
+
+"How are you this morning?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Fine!" answered Mickey. "I've taken my family to the country, too!"
+
+"Why Mickey! without saying a word!" cried Douglas.
+
+"Well it happened so fast," said Mickey, "and I didn't want to bother
+you when your head was so full of your old investigation and your own
+moving."
+
+"Did you hear that Leslie?" he asked. "Mickey dislikes my investigation
+as much as the man who comes out short is going to, any day now. So
+you've moved Peaches to the country? You should have told me, first."
+
+"I'm sorry if you don't like it," said Mickey. "You see my room was
+getting awful hot. I never was there days this time of year, and nights
+I slept on the fire-escape; all right for me, but it wouldn't do for
+Lily. Why should I have told you?"
+
+"Because Miss Winton had plans for her," explained Douglas. "She
+intended to take her to Atwater, and she even contemplated having her
+back examined for you."
+
+Mickey's eyes danced and over his face spread a slow grin of
+comprehension.
+
+"Well?" ejaculated Douglas.
+
+"Nothing!" said Mickey.
+
+"Well?" demanded Douglas.
+
+Mickey laughed outright. Then he sobered suddenly and spoke gravely,
+directly to Miss Winton.
+
+"Thank you for thinking of it, and planning for her," he said. "I was
+afraid you would."
+
+"Thank me for something you feared I would do! Mickey, aren't you
+getting things mixed?"
+
+"Thank you for thinking of Lily and wanting to help her," explained
+Mickey, "but she doesn't need you. She's mine and I'm going to keep
+her; so what I can do for her will have to be enough, until I can do
+better."
+
+"I see," said Leslie. "But suppose that she should have attention at
+once, that you can't give her, and I can?"
+
+"Then I'd be forced to let you, even if it took her from me," agreed
+Mickey. "But thank the Lord, things ain't that way. I didn't take my
+say-so for it; I went to the head nurse of the Star of Hope; she's gone
+to the new Elizabeth Home now; she loves to nurse children best. All
+the time from the first day she's told me how, and showed me, so Lily
+has been taken care of right, you needn't worry about that. And where
+she is now, if she was a queen-lady she couldn't have grander; honest
+she couldn't!"
+
+"But Mickey, how are you going to pay for all that?" queried Douglas.
+
+"Easy as falling off a car in a narrow skirt," said Mickey. "'Member
+that big house where things are Heaven-white, and a yard full of trees,
+and the fence corners are cut with the shears, and the street--I mean
+the road--swept with a broom, this side the golf grounds about two
+miles?"
+
+"Yes," said Douglas. "The woman there halted my car one evening and
+spoke to me about you."
+
+"Oh she did?" exclaimed Mickey. "Well I hope you gave me a good
+send-off, 'cause she's a lady I'm most particular about. You see I
+stopped there for a drink, the day you figured instead of playing, and
+she told me about a boy who was to be sent out by the _Herald_ and
+hadn't come, and as she was ready, and interested, she was
+disappointed. So I just said to her if the boy didn't come, how'd she
+like to have a nice, good little girl that wouldn't ever be the least
+bother. Next day she came to see us, and away Lily went sailing to the
+country in a big automobile, and she isn't coming back 'til my rooms
+are cool, if she can be spared then."
+
+"But how are you going to pay, Mickey? Most people only take children
+for a week----?"
+
+"Yes I know," said Mickey. "But these folks haven't ever tried it
+before, and they don't know the ropes, so we're doing it our own way,
+and it works something grand."
+
+"If they are suited----" said Douglas. "That place is far better than
+where we feel so comfortable."
+
+"We started this morning," said Mickey. "The lady and I traded jobs;
+she sat on a hill under an apple tree and watched sunrise. I washed the
+dishes, sep'rated the cream, and scrubbed the porch for her. When Lily
+wakes up, the lady is going to bathe, rub, feed her, and see to her
+like she owned her, to pay me back. It's a bargain! You couldn't beat
+it, could you?"
+
+"Of course if you want to turn yourself into a housemaid!" said Douglas
+irritably.
+
+Mickey laughed, and Leslie sent a slightly frowning glance toward
+Douglas.
+
+"You can search me!" cried the boy, throwing out his hands in his
+familiar gesture. "Why I just love to! I always helped mother! Pay?
+I'll pay all right; the nice lady will say I do, and so will Peter.
+It's my most important job to make her glad of me as I am of her. And
+if you put it up to me, I'd a lot rather have my job than yours; and I
+bet I get more joy from it for my family!"
+
+"Croaker!" laughed Bruce.
+
+"'Tain't going to be a scream for the fellow who comes short," warned
+Mickey.
+
+"So you're planning not to allow me to do anything for Lily?" inquired
+Miss Winton.
+
+"Well there's something you can do this minute if you'd like," said
+Mickey. "I was going to hurry up and see my Sunshine Nurse, but it's a
+long way to the new hospital, and you could do as well, if you would."
+
+"Mickey, I'd love to. What is it? And may I see your family? You know I
+haven't had a peep yet."
+
+"Well soon now, you may," said Mickey. "You see I ain't quite ready."
+
+"Mickey, what do you know about the new Elizabeth Home?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Only that a rich lady gave her house and money, and that my Sunshine
+Nurse is going to be there after this. I was going for my first trip
+to-night."
+
+"I wondered," said Douglas. "Mickey, when you get there, you'll find
+that you've been there _before_."
+
+"My eye!" cried Mickey.
+
+"Fact! Mr. Minturn did put his foot down, and took his boys----" began
+Douglas.
+
+"Yes he was telling me this morning. That's what I get for stopping at
+the first page. If I'd a-looked inside, bet I'd have known that long
+ago." "He was telling you?" queried Douglas.
+
+"Yes. I guess I must kind of shied at him 'til he noticed it; I didn't
+_know_ I did, but he caught me and told me his troubles by force. We
+shook hands to quit on. Say, he's just fine when you know him, and
+there doesn't seem to be a thing on earth he wouldn't do for you, Miss
+Leslie. Why he said if ever he found happiness again, and his home
+become what it should, it would be because you were sorry for him, and
+fixed things."
+
+"Mickey, did he really?" rejoiced the girl. "Douglas, when may Mickey
+show me what he wants me to do?"
+
+"Right now," he answered. "I got a load of books while he was away
+yesterday and I haven't started them yet. Now is the best time."
+
+When Mickey made a leap from the trolley platform that night, at what
+he already had named Cold Cream Junction, he was almost buried under
+boxes. He stepped high and prideful, for he had collected the money
+from his paper route and immediately spent some of it under Leslie
+Winton's supervision.
+
+Pillow bolstered, on the front porch, on his comfort lay the tiny girl
+he loved. Mickey stopped and made a detailed inspection. Peaches leaned
+forward and reached toward him; her greeting was indescribably sweet.
+Mickey dropped the bundles and went into her arms; even in his joy he
+noted a new strength in her grip on him, an unusual clinging. He drew
+back half alarmed.
+
+"You been a good girl?" he queried suspiciously.
+
+"Jus' as good!" asserted Peaches.
+
+"You didn't go and say any----?"
+
+"Not ever Mickey-lovest! Not one!" she cried. "I ain't even _thinked_
+one! That will help, Peter says so!"
+
+"You have been washed and fed and everything all right?" he proceeded.
+
+"Jus' as right!" she insisted.
+
+"You like the nice lady?" he went on.
+
+"Jus' love the nice lady, an' Mary, an' Bobbie, an' Peter, an' Junior,
+jus' love all of them!" she affirmed.
+
+"Well I hope I don't bust!" he said. "I never was so glad as I am that
+everything is good for you."
+
+"They's two things that ain't good."
+
+"Well if things ain't right here, with what everybody's doing for you,
+they ought to be!" cried Mickey. "You cut complaining right out, Miss
+Chicken!"
+
+"You forgot to set my lesson, an' I ain't had my po'try piece for two
+days. That ain't complainin'."
+
+"No 'tain't honey," conceded Mickey regretfully. "No 'tain't! That's
+just all right. I thought you were going to start kicking, and I wasn't
+going to stand for it. Course I'll set your lesson; course I'll make up
+your piece, but you must give me a little time. I was talking with Mr.
+Chaffner of the _Herald, our_ paper you know, and he's beginning to get
+in a hurry about his piece, too."
+
+"I want mine first!" demanded Peaches.
+
+"Sure! You'll get it first! Always! But I'm going to do something for
+you before I make it, 'cause I won't know how it goes 'til afterward.
+See?"
+
+"What you going to do?" she questioned. "What's all the bundles? My
+they look excitements!"
+
+"And so they are!" triumphed Mickey. "Where are all the folks? Do they
+leave you alone like this?"
+
+"No, they don't leave me alone only when I'm asleep in the room," said
+Peaches. "They saw you coming an' went away 'cause they know families
+likes to be alone, sometimes. Ain't they smart to know that?"
+
+"They are!" said Mickey. "First, you come to your bed a little while. I
+got something for you."
+
+"Ooh Mickey! Those bundles jus' look----!"
+
+"Now you hold on. You wait and see, Miss!"
+
+Mickey carried her in then he returned for the boxes. He opened one and
+from it selected a pair of pink stockings and slipped them on Peaches;
+then tiny, soft buckskin moccasins embroidered and tied with ribbons to
+match the hose. Peaches squealed and clapped her hand over her mouth to
+muffle the sound; but Mrs. Harding heard and came to the door. Mickey
+asked for help.
+
+"Young ladies who are going automobiling and taking walks are well
+enough to have dresses, and things that all _good_ girls have," he
+announced. "But I'm a little dubious about how these things go. Will
+you dress her?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Harding. "You fill the water bucket and the wood box,
+and start the fire for supper."
+
+Mrs. Harding looked over the contents of the box and from plain soft
+pieces of underwear chose a gauze shirt, a dainty combination suit and
+a tucked and trimmed petticoat, while Peaches laughed and sobbed for
+pure joy. Then Mickey came, and Mrs. Harding went away. After various
+trials he decided on a white dress with pink ribbons run in the neck,
+sleeves, and belt, slipping it on her and carefully fastening it.
+
+"Mickey, I want the glass!" she begged. "Please, oh please hurry,
+Mickey."
+
+"Now you just wait, Miss Chicken!" said Mickey.
+
+Then he brushed her hair and put on a new pink ribbon, not so large as
+those she had, but much more becoming. He laid a soft warm little gray
+sweater with white collar and cuffs in reach, and in turning it she
+discovered a handkerchief and a pair of gloves in one pocket.
+Immediately she searched the other and produced a purse with five
+pennies in it. Then for no reason at all, Peaches began to cry.
+
+"Well Miss Chicken!" exclaimed Mickey in surprise, "I thought you'd be
+pleased!"
+
+"Pleased!" sobbed Peaches. "Pleased! Mickey, I'm dam--I'm busted!"
+
+"Oh well then, go on and cry, if you want to," agreed Mickey. "But
+you'd look much nicer to show Mrs. Harding and Peter if you wouldn't!"
+
+Peaches immediately wiped her eyes. Mickey lifted and carried her back
+to the porch, placing her in a pillow-piled big chair. Then he put the
+gloves on her hands, set a hat on her head and tied the pink ribbons.
+Peaches both laughed and cried at that, while the Harding family came
+in because they could not wait. Mickey raised and put in Peaches'
+shaking fingers the crowning glory of any small girl: a wonderful
+little pink parasol. Peaches appeared for a minute as if a faint were
+imminent.
+
+"Now do you see why I couldn't come with a poetry piece when my head
+was so full of these things?"
+
+"Yes Mickey, but you will before night?" she begged.
+
+"You want it even now?" he marvelled.
+
+"More 'an the passol, even!" she declared.
+
+"Well you fool little sweet kid!" cried Mickey and choked. He fled
+around the house as Peter came out. In his ears as he went sounded
+Peter's big voice and the delighted cries of the family.
+
+"I want Mickey!" wailed Peaches.
+
+He heard her call and ran back fast for fear he might be so slow
+reaching her that Peter would serve. But to his joy he found that he
+alone would answer.
+
+"I want to see me!" demanded Peaches.
+
+"Sure you do!" cried Peter. "I'll just hand down the big hall mirror so
+you can see all of you at once."
+
+He brought it and set it before her. Peaches stared and drew back. She
+cried, "Aw-w--ah!" in a harsh, half-scared voice. She gripped Mickey
+with one hand and the parasol with the other; she leaned and peeped,
+and marvelled, and smiled at a fully clothed little girl in the glass,
+while the image smiled back. Peaches thought of letting go of Mickey to
+touch her hat and straighten her skirt, but felt so lost without him,
+that she handed Peter the parasol, and used that hand, while the other
+clung to her refuge. When Mickey saw the treasure go in his favour, he
+swallowed lumps of emotion so big that the Hardings could see them
+running down his throat. Peaches intent on the glass smiled, grimaced,
+tilted her head, and finally began flirting outrageously with herself,
+until all of them laughed and recalled her. She looked at Peter, smiled
+her most winsome smile and exclaimed: "Well ain't I the----"
+
+"Now you go easy, Miss Chicken," warned Mickey.
+
+"Mickey, if you hadn't stopped me I'd done it sure!" sobbed Peaches,
+collapsing against him. "'F I had, would you a-took these bu'ful things
+'way from me?" "No I wouldn't!" said Mickey. "I couldn't to save me.
+But I _should!_"
+
+"Mickey, I'm so tired," she said. "Take my hat an' put it where I can
+see it, an' my passol, an' my coat; gee, I don't have to be wrapped in
+sheets no more, an' lay me down. Quick Mickey, I'm sick-like."
+
+"Well I ought to had the sense not to spring so much all at once," said
+Mickey, "but it all seemed to belong. Sure I will, you poor kid!"
+
+"And Mickey, you won't forget the lesson and the po'try piece?" she
+panted.
+
+"No, I won't forget," promised Mickey, as he stretched her among her
+treasures and watched her fall asleep even while he slipped the gloves
+from her fingers.
+
+Next morning she found the lesson and the poetry on her slate. Mrs.
+Harding bathed and clothed her in the little garments, and showed her
+enough more for the changes she would need, even two finer dresses for
+Sunday. She left the coat, hat, and parasol in reach. Then Peaches
+resolutely took up her pencil and set herself to copy the lines without
+knowing enough of the words to really understand; but she was extremely
+well acquainted with one word that Mickey had said "just flew out of
+his mouth when he looked at her," and in her supreme satisfaction over
+her new possessions she was sure the lines must be concerning them.
+Most of all she was delighted with her slippers. A hundred times that
+morning she looked down, wiggled her toes and moved her feet so that
+she could see them better. Between whiles she copied over and over:
+
+_LILY
+
+Miss L. P. O'Halloran daily went walking, In slippers so nifty the
+neighbours were talking. The minute she raised her gay pink parasol The
+old red cow began to friskily bawl. When they observed the neat coat on
+her back, All the guineas in the orchard cried: "Rack! Pot rack!" She
+was so lovely a bird flying her way, Sang "Sweet, sweet, sweet!" all
+the rest of the day._
+
+Peter came in to visit a few minutes, so she gave him the slate to see
+if he could read her copy, and by this ruse she found what the lines
+were. She was so overjoyed she opened her lips and then clapped both
+hands over them, to smother the ejaculation at her tongue's end. To
+distract Peter she stuck out her foot and moved it for him to see.
+
+"Ain't that pretty, an' jus' as soft and fine?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Peter. "They remind me of a flower called 'Lady Slipper,'
+that grows along the edge of the woods. It's that shape and the
+prettiest gold yellow, but little, they'd about fit your doll."
+
+"Oh Peter, could you get me one? I want to see."
+
+"Why I would, but they are all gone now, honey," answered Peter. "Next
+year I'll remember and bring you some when they bloom. But it's likely
+by that time you can go yourself, and see them."
+
+"Do you honest think it Peter?" asked Peaches, leaning forward eagerly.
+
+"Yes I honest think it," repeated Peter emphatically.
+
+"But I won't be here then," Peaches reminded him.
+
+"Well it won't be my fault, if you're not," said Peter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+_Initiations in an Ancient and Honourable Brotherhood_
+
+
+"Now father, you said if I'd help till after harvest, I could go to
+Multiopolis and hunt a job," Junior reminded Peter. "When may I?"
+
+"I remember," said Peter. "You may start Monday morning if you want to.
+Ma and I have talked it over, and if you're bound to leave us, I guess
+there'd never be a better time. I can get Jud Jason to drive the cream
+wagon for me, and I'll do the best I can at the barn. I had hoped that
+we'd be partners and work together all our days; but if you have
+decided upon leaving us, of course you won't be satisfied till you've
+done it."
+
+"Well I can try," said Junior, "and if I don't like it I can come back."
+
+"I don't know about that," objected Peter. "Of course I'd have other
+help hired; your room would be occupied and your work contracted
+for----"
+
+"Well I hadn't figured on that," he said. "I supposed I could go and
+try it, and if I didn't like it I could come home. Couldn't I come home
+Ma?"
+
+Nancy slowly became a greenish white colour; but the situation had been
+discussed so often, it worried her dreadfully; now that it had to be
+met, evasion would do no good. Peter grimly watched her. He knew she
+was struggling with a woman's inborn impulse to be the haven of her
+children, her son, her first-born, especially. He was surprised to hear
+her saying: "Why I hardly think so Junior, it wouldn't be a right start
+in life. You must figure that whatever kind of work you find, or
+whoever you work for, there will be things you won't like or think
+fair, but if you are going to be your own man, you must begin like a
+man; and of course a man doesn't go into business with his mind made up
+to run for his mother's petticoats, the first thing that displeases
+him. No, I guess if you go, you must start with your mind made up to
+stay till the October term of school opens, anyway."
+
+"Then we'll call that settled," said Peter. "You may go with Mickey on
+the Monday morning car and we probably won't see you again till you are
+one of the leading business men of Multiopolis, and drive out in your
+automobile. Have you decided which make you'll get?"
+
+"Well from what I've learned driving yours, if I were buying one
+myself, I'd get a Glide-by," said Junior. "They strike me as the best
+car on the market."
+
+Peter glanced sharply at his son. When he saw that the answer was
+perfectly sincere, his heart almost played him the trick he had
+expected from his wife.
+
+"All right Ma, gather up his clothes and get them washed, and have him
+ready," said Peter.
+
+"I thought maybe you'd take me in the car and sort of look around with
+me," said Junior.
+
+"I don't see how I am going to do it, with both our work piled on me,"
+said Peter. "And besides, I'm a farmer born and bred; I wouldn't have
+the first idea about how to get a boy a job in the city or what he
+ought to do or have. Mickey is on to all that; he'll go with you, won't
+you Mickey?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "And you can save a lot by using my room. It is
+high, but it's clean"--Junior scowled but Mickey proceeded calmly--"and
+while it gets hot in the daytime, if you open the door at night, and
+push the bed before the window, it soon cools off, while very hottest
+times I always take to the fire-escape. It's nice and cool there."
+
+"Of course! That will be the ticket," said Peter heartily. "A boy
+starting with everything to learn couldn't expect to earn much, and
+when you haven't Ma and me to depend on for your board you'll be glad
+to have the bed free. Thank you Mickey, that's fine!"
+
+Junior did not look as if he thought it were. Presently he asked: "How
+much money ought I to take to start on, Mickey?"
+
+"Hully gee!" said Mickey. "Why your fare in! You're going to make
+money, kid, not to spend it. If I was turned loose there with just one
+cent I'd be flying by night, and if I hadn't the cent, I'd soon earn
+it."
+
+"How could you Mickey?" asked Junior eagerly.
+
+"With or without?" queried Mickey.
+
+"Both!" exclaimed Junior.
+
+"Well, 'without,'" said Mickey, "I'd keep my lamps trimmed and burning,
+and I'd catch a lady falling off a car, or pick up a purse, or a kid,
+or run an errand. 'With,' there'd be only one thing I'd think of,
+because papers are my game. I'd buy one for a penny and sell it for
+two; buy two, sell for four; you know the multiplication table, don't
+you? But of course you don't want a street job, you want in a factory
+or a store. If you could do what you like best, what would it be
+Junior?"
+
+Junior opened his mouth several times and at last admitted he hadn't
+thought that far: "Why I don't know."
+
+"Well," said Mickey calmly, "there's making things, that's factories.
+There's selling them, that's stores. There's doctors, and lawyers,
+that's professional, like my boss. And there's office-holders, like the
+men he is after, but of course you'd have to be old enough to vote and
+educated enough to do business, and have enough money earned at
+something else to buy your office; that's too far away. Now if you
+don't like the street, there's the other three. The quickest money
+would be in the first two. If you were making things, what would you
+make?"
+
+"Automobiles!" said Junior.
+
+"All right!" said Mickey, "we can try them first. If we can't find a
+factory that you'd like, what would you rather sell?"
+
+"Automobiles," said Junior promptly.
+
+"Gee!" said Mickey. "I see where we hit that business at both ends. If
+we miss, what next?"
+
+"I don't know," said Junior. "I'll make up my mind when I have looked
+around some."
+
+"You can come closer deciding out here, than you can in the rush of the
+streets," said Mickey. "There, you'll be rustling for your supper, and
+you'll find boys hunting jobs thick as men at a ball game, and lots of
+them with dads to furnish their room and board."
+
+Junior hesitated, but Mickey excused himself and without having been
+told what to do, he accomplished half a day's work for Mrs. Harding,
+then began some of Peter's jobs and afterward turned his attention to
+hearing Peaches' lesson and setting her new copy. When Junior paid his
+fare Monday morning, Mickey, judging by the change he exhibited,
+realized that both his mother and father had given him, to start on, a
+dollar to spend. Mickey would have preferred that he be penniless. He
+decided as they ran cityward that the first thing was to part Junior
+from his money, so he told him he would be compelled to work in the
+forenoon, and for a while in the afternoon, and left him to his own
+devices on the street, with a meeting-place agreed on at noon.
+
+When Mickey reached the spot he found Junior with a pocket full of
+candy, eating early peaches, and instead of hunting work, he had
+attended three picture shows. Mickey could have figured to within ten
+cents of what was left of one of Junior's dollars; but as the cure did
+not really begin until the money disappeared, the quicker it went the
+better. As he ate his sandwich and drank his milk, he watched Junior
+making a dinner of meat, potatoes, pie and ice-cream, and made a mental
+estimate of the remains of the other dollar. As a basis for a later "I
+told you so," he remonstrated, and pointed out the fact that there were
+hundreds of unemployed men of strength, skilled artisans with families
+to support, looking for work that minute.
+
+"I know your dad signed up that contract with Jud Jason," he said,
+"'cause I saw him, and that means that he's got no use for you for
+three months; so you must take care of yourself for that long at least,
+if you got any ginger in you. Of course," explained Mickey, "I know
+that most city men think country boys won't stick, and are big cowards,
+but I'm expecting you to show them just where they are mistaken. I know
+you're not lazy, and I know you got as much sand and grit as any city
+boy, but you must _prove it_ to the rest of them. You must show up!"
+
+"Sure!" said Junior. "I'll convince them!"
+
+By night the last penny of the second dollar was gone, so Junior
+borrowed his fare to his room from Mickey, who was to remain with him
+to show him the way back and forth, and to spend an early hour in
+search of employment. It was Mickey's first night away from Peaches,
+and while he knew she was safe, he felt that when night came she would
+miss him. The thought that she might cry for him tormented him to
+speech. He pointed out to Junior very clearly that he would have to
+mark corners and keep his eyes open because he need not expect that he
+could leave her longer than that. Junior agreed with him, for he had
+promised Peaches in saying good-bye to keep Mickey only one night.
+
+He had treated himself to candy and unusual fruits until his money was
+gone, while by night these and a walk of miles on hot pavement had bred
+such an appetite that he felt he had not eaten a full meal in years, so
+when Mickey brought out the remains of the food Mrs. Harding had given
+him, her son felt insulted. But Mickey figured a day on the basis of
+what he had earned, what he had expended, what he must save to be ready
+when the great surgeon came, and prepared exactly as he would have done
+for himself and Peaches. On reaching the tenement and climbing until
+his legs ached, Junior faced stifling heat, but Mickey opened the
+window and started a draft by setting the door wide. While they ate
+supper, Mickey talked unceasingly, but Junior was sulkily silent. He
+tried the fire-escape, but one glance from the rickety affair, hung a
+mile above the ground it seemed to him, was enough, so he climbed back
+in the window and tossed on the bed.
+
+Junior did his first real thinking that night. He was ravenous before
+morning and aghast at what he was offered for breakfast. He was eager
+to find work and he knew for what his first day's wage would go. In
+justice to his own sense of honour and in justice to Junior, mere
+common fairness, such as he would have wanted in like case, for the
+first few days Mickey honestly and unceasingly hunted employment. With
+Junior at his elbow he suffered one rebuff after another, until it was
+clear to him that it was impossible for a country boy unused to the
+ways of the city to find or to hold a job at which he could survive,
+even with his room provided, while the city swarmed with unemployed
+men. Everywhere they found the work they would have liked done by an
+Italian, Greek, Swede, German, or Polander who seemed strong as oxen,
+oblivious, as no doubt they were, to treatment Junior never had seen
+accorded a balky mule, and able to live on a chunk of black bread, a
+bit of cheese, and a few cents' worth of stale beer. When Mickey had
+truly convinced himself of what he had believed, with a free conscience
+he then began allowing Junior to find out for himself exactly what he
+was facing. By that time Junior had lost himself on the way to Mickey's
+rooms, spent a night wandering the streets, and breakfastless was
+waiting before the Iriquois.
+
+Mickey listened sympathetically, supplied a dime, which seemed to be
+all he had, for breakfast, and said as he entered the building: "Well
+kid, 'til we can find a job you'll just have to go up against the
+street. If I can live and save money at it, you ought to be smart
+enough to _live_. Go to it 'til I get my day's work done. You just
+can't go home, because they'll think you don't amount to anything; the
+fellows will make game of you, and besides Jud is doing wonderfully
+well, your father said so. He seemed so tickled over him, I guess the
+fact is he is getting more help from him that he ever did from Junior
+boy, so your job there isn't open. Go at whatever you can see that
+needs to be done, 'til I get my work over and we'll try again. I'll be
+out about three, and you can meet me here."
+
+Empty and disheartened Junior squeezed the dime and hurried toward the
+nearest restaurant. But the transaction had been witnessed by a boy as
+hungry as he, and hardened to the street. How Junior came to be
+sprawling on the sidewalk he never knew; only that his hand
+involuntarily opened in falling and he threw it out to catch himself,
+so he couldn't find the dime. Before noon he was sick and reeling with
+sleeplessness and hunger. He was waiting when it was Mickey's time to
+lunch, but he did not come, and in desperation Junior really tried the
+street. At last he achieved a nickel by snatching a dropped bundle from
+under a car. He sat a long time in a stairway looking at it, and then
+having reached a stage where he was more sick, and less hungry, he
+hunted a telephone booth and tried to get his home, only to learn that
+the family was away. Gladdened by the thought that they might be in the
+city, he walked miles, watching the curb before stores where they
+shopped, searching for their car, and he told himself that if he found
+it, nothing could separate him from the steering gear until he sped
+past all regulation straight to his mother's cupboard.
+
+He had wanted ham and chicken in the beginning; later helping himself
+to cold food in the cellar seemed a luxury; then crackers and cookies
+in the dining-room cupboard would have satisfied his wildest desire;
+and before three o'clock, Junior, in mad rebellion, remembered his
+mother's slop bucket. How did she dare put big pieces of bread and
+things good enough for any one to eat in feed for pigs and poultry! If
+he ever reached home he resolved he would put a stop to that.
+
+At three to Mickey's cheerful, "Now we'll find a job or make it," he
+answered: "No we will find a square meal or steal it," and then he
+told. Mickey watched him reflectively, but as he figured the case, it
+was not for him to suggest retreat. He condoled, paid for the meal, and
+started hunting work again, with Junior silent and dogged beside him.
+To the surprise of both, almost at once they found a place for a week
+with a florist.
+
+Junior went to work. After a few tasks bunglingly performed, he was
+tried on messenger service and started with his carfare to deliver a
+box containing a funeral piece. He had no idea where he was to go, or
+what car line to take. In his extremity a bootblack came to his aid. He
+safely delivered the box at a residence where the owner was leaving his
+door for his car. He gave Junior half a dollar. Junior met the first
+friendly greeting he had encountered in Multiopolis, as he reached the
+street.
+
+Two boys larger than he walked beside him and talked so frankly, that
+before he reached his car line, he felt he had made friends. They
+offered to show him a shorter cut to the car line just by going up an
+alley and out on a side street. At the proper place for seclusion, the
+one behind knocked him senseless, and the one before wheeled and
+relieved him of money, and both fled. Junior lay for a time, then
+slowly came back, but he was weak and ill. He knew without
+investigating what had happened, and preferring the mercy that might be
+inside to that of the alley, he crawled into a back door. It proved to
+be a morgue. A workman came to his assistance, felt the lump on his
+head, noticed the sickness on his face, and gave him a place to rest.
+Junior was dubious from the start about feeling better, as he watched
+the surroundings. The proprietor came past and inquired who he was and
+why he was there. Junior told him, and showed the lumps behind his ear
+and on his forehead, to prove his words.
+
+The man was human. He gave Junior another nickel and told him which car
+to take from his front door. He had to stand aside and see five pieces
+of charred humanity from a cleaning-establishment explosion, carried
+through the door before he had a chance to leave it. He reached the
+florist's two hours late and in spite of his story and his perfectly
+discernible bumps to prove it, he was discharged as a fool for
+following strangers into an alley.
+
+On the streets once more and penniless, he started to walk the miles to
+his room. When he found the building he thought it would be cooler to
+climb the fire-escape and sit on it until he decided what to do, then
+he could open the door from the inside. At the top he thrust a foot,
+head, and shoulders into the room and realized he had selected the
+wrong escape. He tried to draw back, but two men leaped for him, and as
+he was doubled in the window he could not make a swift movement.
+
+He was landed in the middle of the room, cursed for a prowling thief,
+his protestations silenced, his pockets searched, and when they yielded
+nothing, his body stripped of its clean, wholesome clothing and he was
+pitched down the stairs. He appealed to several people, and found that
+the less he said the safer he was. He snatched a towel from a basket of
+clothes before a door, twisted it around him, and ran down the street
+to Mickey's front entrance. With all his remaining breath he sped up
+flight after flight of stairs and at last reached the locked door, only
+to find that the key was in the pocket of his stolen trousers, and he
+could not force his way with his bare hands. He could only get to his
+clothing by trying the fire-escapes again. He was almost too sick to
+see or cling to the narrow iron steps, but that time he counted
+carefully, and looked until he was sure before he entered. He found his
+clothes, and in the intense heat dressed himself, but he could not open
+the door. He sat on the fire-escape to think.
+
+Presently he espied one of the men who had robbed him watching him from
+another escape, and being afraid and beaten sore, he crept into the
+heat, and lay on the bed beside the window. After a while a breath of
+air came in, and Junior slept the sleep of exhaustion. When he awoke it
+was morning, his head aching, his mouth dry, and the room cooler.
+Glancing toward the door he saw it standing open and then noticed the
+disorder of the room, and of himself, and sat up to find he was on the
+floor, once more disrobed, and the place stripped of every portable
+thing in it, even the bed, little stove, and the trunk filled with
+clothes and a few personal possessions sacred to Mickey because they
+had been his mother's. The men had used the key in Junior's pocket to
+enter while he slept, drugged him, and carried away everything. He
+crept to the door and closed it, then sank on the floor and cried until
+he again became unconscious. It was four o'clock that afternoon when
+Mickey looked in and understood the situation. He bent over Junior's
+bruised and battered body, stared at his swollen, tear-stained face,
+and darting from the room, brought water, and then food and clothing.
+
+Redressed and fed, Junior lay on the floor and said to Mickey: "Go to
+the nearest 'phone and call father. Tell him I'm sick, to come in a
+hurry with the car."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "But hadn't we better wait 'til morning now, and
+get you rested and fed up a little?"
+
+"No," said Junior. "The sooner he sees the fix I'm in the better he
+will realize that I'm not a quitter; but that this ain't just the place
+for me. Mickey, did you ever go through this? Why do I get it so awful
+hard?"
+
+"It's because the regulars can tell a mile off you are country,
+Junior," said Mickey. "All my life I've been on the streets so they
+knew me for city born, and supposed I'd friends to trace them and back
+me if they abused me; and then, I always look ahead sharp, and don't
+trust a living soul about alleys. You say the next escape but one? I've
+got to find them, and get back my things. I want mother's, and Lily and
+I can't live this winter with no bed, and no stove, and nothing at all."
+
+"I'm sorry about your mother's things Mickey, but don't worry over the
+rest," said Junior. "Pa and Ma won't ever be willing to give up Peaches
+again, I can see that right now, and if they keep her, they will have
+to take you too, because of course you can't be separated from her;
+your goods, I'll pay back. I owe you a lot as it is, but I got some
+money in the bank, and I'll have to sell my sheep."
+
+Junior laid his head on his arm and sobbed weakly.
+
+"Don't Junior," said Mickey. "I feel just awful about this. I thought
+you had a place that would earn your supper, and you had the room, and
+would be all right."
+
+"Why of course!" said Junior.
+
+Mickey looked intently at him. "Now look here Junior," he said, "I got
+to square myself on this. I didn't think all the time you'd like
+Multiopolis, when you saw it with the bark off. Course viewing it on a
+full stomach, from an automobile, with spending money in your pocket,
+and a smooth run to a good home before you, is one thing; facing up to
+it, and asking it to hand out those things to you in return for work
+you can do here, without knowing the ropes, is another. You've stuck it
+out longer than I would, honest you have, but it isn't your game, and
+you don't know how, and you'd be a fool to learn. I thought you'd get
+enough to satisfy you when you came, but seeing for yourself seemed to
+be the only way to cure you."
+
+"Oh don't start the 'I told you so,'" said Junior. "Father and mother
+will hand it out for the rest of my life. I'd as lief die as go back,
+but I'm going; not because I can't get in the game, and make a living
+if you can, even if I have to go out and start as you did, with a
+penny. I'm going back, but not for the reason you think. It's because
+seen at close range, Multiopolis ain't what it looks like from an
+automobile. I know something that I really know, and that comes natural
+to me, that beats it a mile; and now I've had my chance, and made my
+choice. I'm so sore I can't walk, but if you'll just call father and
+tell him to come in on high, I'll settle with you later."
+
+"Course if that's the way you feel, I'll call him," said Mickey, "but
+Junior, let me finish this much I was trying to say. I knew Multiopolis
+would do to you all it had done to me, and I knew you wouldn't like it;
+but I _didn't_ figure on your big frame and fresh face spelling country
+'til it would show a mile down the street. I _didn't_ figure on you
+getting the show I would, and I _didn't_ intend anything worse should
+happen to you than has to me. Honest I didn't! I'm just about sick over
+this Junior. Don't you want to go to Mr. Bruce's office--I got a key
+and he won't care--don't you want to go there and rest a little, and
+feed up better, before I call your father?"
+
+"No I don't! I got enough and I know it! They must know it some time;
+it might as well come at once."
+
+"Then let's go out on the car," said Mickey.
+
+"I guess you don't realize just how bad this is," said Junior. "You
+call father, and call him quick and emphatic enough to bring him."
+
+"All right then," said Mickey. "Here goes!"
+
+"And put the call in nearest place you can find and hustle back," said
+Junior. "I'm done with alleys, and sluggers, and robbers. Goliath
+couldn't have held his own against two big men, when he was fifteen,
+and I guess father won't think I'm a coward because they got away with
+me. But you hurry!"
+
+"Sure! I'll fly, and I'll get him if I can."
+
+"There's no doubt about getting him. This is baked potato, bacon,
+blackberry roll, honey and bread time at our house. They wouldn't be
+away just now, and it's strange they have been so much this week."
+
+Mickey gave Junior a swift glance; then raced to the nearest telephone.
+
+"You Mickey?" queried Peter.
+
+"Yes. It's you for S.O.S., and I'm to tell you to come on high, and
+lose no time in starting."
+
+"Am I to come Mickey, or am I too busy?"
+
+"You are to come, Peter, to my room, and in a hurry. Things didn't work
+according to program."
+
+"Why what's the matter, Mickey?"
+
+"Just what I told you would be when it came to getting a job here; but
+I didn't figure on street sharks picking on Junior and robbing him, and
+following him to my room, and slugging him 'til he can't walk. You come
+Peter, and come in a hurry, and Peter----"
+
+"You better let me start----" said Peter.
+
+"Yes, but Peter, one minute," insisted Mickey. "I got something to say
+to you. This didn't work out as I planned, and I'm awful sorry, and
+you'll be too. But Junior is cured done enough to suit you; he won't
+ever want to leave you again, you can bank on that--and he ain't hurt
+permanent; but if you have got anything in your system that sounds even
+a little bit like 'I told you so,' forget it on the way in, and leave
+instructions with the family to do the same. See? Junior is awful sore!
+He don't need anything rubbed in in the way of reminiscences. He's
+ready to do the talking. See?"
+
+"Yes. You're sure he ain't really hurt?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "Three days will fix him, but Peter, it's been
+mighty rough! Go easy, will you?"
+
+"Mickey have you got money----"
+
+"All we need, just you get here with the car, and put in a comfort and
+pillow. All my stuff is gone!"
+
+Peter Senior arrived in a surprisingly short time, knelt on the floor
+and looked closely at his sleeping boy.
+
+"Naked and beaten to insensibility, you say?"
+
+Mickey nodded.
+
+"Nothing to eat for nearly two days?"
+
+Another affirmation. Peter arose, pushed back his hat and wiped the
+sweat from his brow.
+
+"I haven't been thinking about anything but him ever since he left," he
+said, "and what makes me the sorest is that the longer I think of it,
+the surer I get that this is my fault. I didn't raise him right!"
+
+"Aw-w-ah Peter!" protested Mickey.
+
+"I've got it all studied out," said Peter, "and I didn't! There have
+been two mistakes, Junior's and mine, and of the two, mine is twice as
+big as the boy's."
+
+Peter stooped and picked up his son, who stirred and awakened. When he
+found himself in his father's arms Junior clung to him and whispered
+over and over: "Father, dear father!" Peter gripped him with all his
+might and whispered back: "Forgive me son! Forgive me!"
+
+"Well I don't know what for?" sobbed Junior.
+
+"You will before long," said Peter. He drove to a cool place, and let
+the car stand while he called his wife, and explained all of the
+situation he saw fit. She was waiting at the gate when they came. She
+never said a word except to urge Junior to eat his supper. But Junior
+had no appetite.
+
+"I want to run things here for a few minutes," he said. "When the
+children finish, put them to bed, and then let me tell you, and you can
+decide what you'll do to me."
+
+"Well, don't you worry about that," said Peter.
+
+"No I won't," said Junior, "because there's nothing you can do that
+will be half I deserve."
+
+When the little folks were asleep, and Mickey had helped Mrs. Harding
+finish the work, and Jud Jason had been paid five dollars for his
+contract and had gone home, Junior lay in the hammock on the front
+porch, while his father, mother and Mickey sat close. When he started
+to speak Peter said: "Now Junior, wait a minute! You've been gone a
+week, and during that time I've used my brains more than I ever did in
+a like period, even when I was courting your Ma, and the subject I
+laboured on was what took you away from us. I've found out why you were
+not satisfied, and who made you dissatisfied. The guilty party is Peter
+Harding, aided and abetted by one Nancy Harding, otherwise known as
+Ma----"
+
+"Why father!" interrupted Junior.
+
+"Silence!" said Peter. "I've just found out that it's a man's job to be
+the _head of his family_, and I'm going to be the head of mine after
+this, and like Mickey here, 'I'm going to keep it.' Let me finish. I've
+spent this week thinking, and all the things I have thought would make
+a bigger book than the dictionary if they were set down. Why should you
+ask to be forgiven for a desire to go to Multiopolis when I carried you
+there as a baby, led you as a toddler, and went with you every chance I
+could trump up as a man? Who bought and fed you painted, adulterated
+candy as a child, when your Ma should have made you pure clean taffy at
+home from our maple syrup or as good sugar as we could buy? Often I've
+spent money that now should be on interest, for fruit that looked fine
+to you there, and proved to be grainy, too mellow, sour or not half so
+good as what you had at home.
+
+"I never took you hunting, or fishing, or camping, or swimming, in your
+life; but I haven't had a mite of trouble to find time and money to
+take you to circuses, which I don't regret, I'll do again; and picture
+shows, which I'll do also; and other shows. I'm not condemning any form
+of amusement we ever patronized so much, we'll probably do all of it
+again; but what gets me now, is how I ever came to think that the only
+_interesting things_ and those worth taking time and spending money on,
+were running to Multiopolis, to eat, to laugh, to look, and getting
+little to show for it but disappointment and suffering for all of us.
+You haven't had the only punishment that's struck the Harding family
+this week, Junior. Your Ma and I have had our share, and I haven't
+asked her if she has got enough, but speaking strictly for myself, I
+have."
+
+"I wouldn't live through it again for the farm," sobbed Mrs. Harding.
+"I see what you are getting at Pa, and it's we who are the guilty
+parties, just as you say."
+
+Junior sat up and stared at them.
+
+"I don't so much regret the things I did," said Peter, "as I condemn
+myself for the things I haven't done. I haven't taught you to ride so
+you don't look a spectacle on a horse, and yet horses should come as
+natural as breathing to you. You should be a skilled marksman; you
+couldn't hit a wash-tub at ten paces. You should swim like a fish, with
+a hundred lakes in your country; you'd drown if you were thrown in the
+middle of one and left to yourself. You ought to be able to row a boat
+as well as it can be done, and cast a line with all the skill any lad
+of your age possesses. That you can't make even a fair showing at any
+sport, results from the fact that every time your father had a minute
+to spare he took you and headed straight for Multiopolis. Here's the
+golf links at our door, and if ever any game was a farmer's game, and
+if any man has a right to hold up his head, and tramp his own hills,
+and swing a strong arm and a free one, and make a masterly stroke, it's
+a _land owner_. There's no reason why plowing and tilling should dull
+the brains, bend the back, or make a pack-horse of a man. Modern
+methods show you how to do the same thing a better way, how to work one
+machine instead of ten men, how to have time for a vacation, just as
+city men do, and how to have money for books, and music, and school,
+instead of loading with so much land it's a burden to pay the taxes. I
+have quite a bunch of land for sale, and I see a way open to make three
+times the money I ever did, with half the hard work. We've turned over
+a new leaf at this place from start to finish, including the house,
+barn, land, and family. A year from now you won't know any of us; but
+that later. Just now, it's this: I'm pointing out to you Junior,
+exactly how you came to have your hankering for Multiopolis. I can see
+you followed the way we set you thinking, that all the amusing things
+were there, the smart people, the fine clothes, the wealth, and the
+freedom----"
+
+"Yes you ought to see the 'amusing things' and the 'happy people' when
+your stomach's cramping and your head splitting!" cried Junior. "I tell
+you down among them it looks different from riding past in an
+automobile."
+
+"Exactly!" conceded Peter. "Exactly what I'm coming at. All your life
+I've given you the wrong viewpoint. Now you can busy yourselves
+planning how to make our share of the world over, so it will bring all
+the joy of life right to the front door. I guess the first big thing is
+to currycomb the whole place, and fix it as it should be to be most
+convenient for us. Then we better take a course of training in making
+up our minds to be _satisfied_ with what we can afford. Junior, does
+home look better to you than it did this time last week?"
+
+"Father," began Junior, and sobbed aloud.
+
+"The answer is sufficient," said Peter dryly. "Never mind son! When,
+with our heads put together, we get our buildings and land fixed right,
+I suggest that we also fix our clothes and our belongings right. I
+can't see any reason why a woman as lovely as Ma, should be told from
+any other pretty woman, by her walk or dress. I don't know why a man as
+well set up as I am, shouldn't wear his clothes as easy as the men at
+the club house. I can't see why we shouldn't be at that same club house
+for a meal once in a while, just to keep us satisfied with home
+cooking, and that game looks interesting. Next trip to Multiopolis I
+make, I'm going to get saddles for Junior and Mickey and teach them
+what I know about how to sit and handle a horse properly; and it
+needn't be a plow horse either. Next day off I have, I'm going to spend
+hauling lumber to one of these lakes we decide on, to build a house for
+a launch and fishing-boat for us. Then when we have a vacation, we'll
+drive there, shelter our car, and enjoy ourselves like the city folks
+by the thousand, since we think what they do so right and fine. They've
+showed us what they like, flocking five thousand at a clip, to Red Wing
+Lake a few miles from us. Since we live among what they are spending
+their thousands every summer to enjoy, let's help ourselves to a little
+pleasure. I am going to buy each of us a fishing rod, and get a box of
+tackle, soon as I reach it, and I'm going fast. I've wasted sixteen
+years, now I'm on the homestretch, and it's going to be a stretch of
+all there is in me to make our home the sweetest, grandest place on
+earth to us. Will you help me, Nancy?"
+
+"I think maybe I'll be saved nervous prostration if I can help just a
+few of these things to take place."
+
+"Yes, I've sensed that," said Peter. "Mickey pointed that out to me the
+morning you jumped your job and headed for sunup. For years, just _half
+your time and strength has been thrown away using old methods and
+implements in your work, and having the kitchen unhandy and
+inconvenient; and I'm the man who should have seen it, and got you
+right tools for your job at the same time I bought a houseful for
+myself and my work_. We must stir up this whole neighbourhood, and
+build a big entertainment house, where we can have a library suitable
+for country folks, and satisfying to their ways of life. It's got to
+have music boxes in it, and a floor fit for dancing and skating, and a
+stage for our own entertainments, and the folks we decide to bring here
+to amuse us. We can put in a picture machine and a screen, that we can
+pay for by charging a few cents admission the nights we run it, and
+rent films once or twice a week from a good city show. We could fix up
+a place like that, and get no end of fun and education out of it,
+without going thirty miles and spending enough money in one night to
+get better entertainment for a month at home, and in a cool,
+comfortable hall, and where we can go from it to bed in a few minutes.
+Once I am started, with Mickey and Junior to help me, I'm going to call
+a meeting and talk these things over with my neighbours, and get them
+to join in if I can. If I can't, I'll go on and put up the building and
+start things as I think they should be, and charge enough admittance to
+get back what I invest; and after that, just enough to pay running
+expenses and for the talent we use. I'm so sure it can be done, I'm
+going to do it. Will you help me, son?"
+
+"Yes father, I'd think it was fine to help do that," said Junior.
+"_Now_ may I say what I want to?"
+
+"Why yes, you might son," said Peter, "but to tell the truth I can't
+see that you have anything to say. If you have got the idea, Junior,
+that you have wronged us any, and that it's your job to ask us to
+forgive you for wanting to try the things we started and kept you
+hankering after all your life so far, why you're mistaken. If I'd
+trained you from your cradle to love your home, as I've trained you to
+love Multiopolis, you never would have left us. So if there is
+forgiving in the air, you please forgive me. And this includes your Ma
+as well. I should ask her forgiveness too, for a whole lot of things
+that I bungled about, when I thought I was loving her all I possibly
+could. I've got a new idea of love so big and all-encompassing it
+includes a fireless cooker and a dish-washing machine. I'm going to put
+it in practice for a year; then if my family wants to change back,
+we'll talk about it."
+
+"But father----" began Junior.
+
+"Go to bed son," said Peter. "You can tell us what happened when you
+ain't as sleepy as you are right now."
+
+Junior arose and followed his mother to the kitchen.
+
+"Ain't he going to let me tell what a fool I've been at all?" he
+demanded.
+
+"I guess your Pa felt that when he got through telling what fools we've
+been, there wasn't anything left for you to say. I know I feel that
+way. This neighbourhood does all in its power, from the day their
+children are born, to teach them that _home_ is only a
+_stopping-place,_ to eat, and sleep, and work, and be sick in; and that
+every desirable thing in life is to be found _somewhere else_, the else
+being, in most cases, Multiopolis. Just look at it year after year
+gobbling up our boys and girls, and think over the ones you know who
+have gone, and see what they've come to. Among the men as far as I
+remember, Joel Harris went into a law office and made a rich,
+respectable man; and two girls married and have good homes; the others,
+many of them, I couldn't name to you the places they are in. This
+neighbourhood needs reforming, and if Pa has set out to attempt it,
+I'll lend a hand, and I guess from what you got this week, you'll be in
+a position to help better than you could have helped before."
+
+"Yes I guess so too," said Junior emphatically.
+
+He gladly went back to the cream wagon. Peter didn't want him to, but
+there was a change in Junior. He was no longer a wilful discontented
+boy. He was a partner, who was greatly interested in a business and
+felt dissatisfied if he were not working at furthering it. He had
+little to say, but his eyes were looking far ahead in deep thought. The
+first morning he started out, while Junior unhitched his horse, Peter
+filled the wagon and went back to the barn where Mickey was helping him.
+
+Junior, passing, remembered he had promised Jud Jason to bring a bundle
+he had left there, and stopped for it. He stepped into the small front
+door and bent for the package lying in sight, when clearly and
+distinctly arose Mickey's voice lifted to reach Peter, at another task.
+
+"Course I meant him to get enough to make him good and sick of it, like
+we agreed on; but I never intended him to get any such a dose as he
+had."
+
+Junior straightened swiftly, and his lower jaw dropped. His father's
+reply was equally audible.
+
+"Of course I understand _that_, Mickey."
+
+"Surest thing you know!" said Mickey. "I like Junior. I like him better
+than any other boy I ever knew, and I've known hundreds. I tell you
+Peter, he was gamer than you'll ever believe to hang on as long as he
+did."
+
+"Yes I think that too," said Peter.
+
+"You know he didn't come because he was all in," explained Mickey. "You
+can take a lot of pride in that. He'd about been the limit when he
+quit. And he quit, not because he was robbed and knocked out, but
+because what he had seen showed him that Multiopolis wasn't the job he
+wanted for a life sentence. See?"
+
+"I hope you are right about that," said Peter. "I'm glad to my soul to
+get him home, cured in any way; but it sort of gags me to think of him
+as having been scared out. It salves my vanity considerable to feel, as
+you say, that he had the brains to sense the situation, and quit
+because he felt it wasn't the work for which he was born."
+
+Then Mickey's voice came eagerly, earnestly, warming the cockles of
+Junior's heart.
+
+"Now lemme tell you Peter; I was there, and I _know_. It _was_ that
+way. _It was just that way exact!_ He wasn't scared out, he'd have gone
+at it again, all right, if he'd seen anything in it he _wanted_. It was
+just as his mother felt when she first talked it over with me, and the
+same with you later: that if he got to the city, and got right up
+against earning a living there, he would find it wasn't what he wanted;
+and he did, like all of us thought. Course I meant to put it to him
+stiff; I meant to 'niciate him in the ancient and honourable third
+degree of Multiopolis all right, so he'd have enough to last a
+lifetime; but I only meant to put him up against what I'd. had myself
+on the streets; I was just going to test his ginger; I wasn't counting
+on the robbing, and the alleys, and the knockout, and the morgue. Gee,
+Peter!"
+
+Then they laughed. A dull red surged up Junior's neck, and flooded his
+face. He picked up the bundle, went silently from the barn, and climbed
+on the wagon. The jerk of the horse stopping at its accustomed place
+told him when to load the first can. He had been thinking so deeply he
+was utterly oblivious to everything save the thought that it had been
+prearranged among them to "cure" him; even his mother knew about, if he
+heard aright, had been the instigator of the scheme to let him go, to
+be what Mickey called "initiated in the ancient and honourable third
+degree of Multiopolis."
+
+Once he felt so outraged he thought of starting the horse home, taking
+the trolley, going back to Multiopolis and fighting his way to what his
+father would be compelled to acknowledge success. He knew that he could
+do it; he was on the point of vowing that he _would_ do it; but in his
+heart he knew better than any one else how repulsed he was, how he
+hated it, and against a vision of weary years of fighting, came that
+other vision of himself planning and working beside his father to
+change and improve their home life.
+
+"Say Junior are you asleep?" called Jud Jason. "You sit there like you
+couldn't move. D'ye bring my bundle?"
+
+"Yes, it's back there," answered Junior. "Get it!"
+
+"How'd you like Multiopolis?" asked Jud.
+
+Junior knew he had that to face.
+
+"It's a cold-blooded sell, Jud," he said promptly. "I'm glad I went
+when I did, and found out for myself. You see it's like this, Jud: I
+_could_ have stayed and made my way; but I found out in a few days that
+I wouldn't give a snap for the way when it was made. We fellows are
+better off right where we are, and a lot of us are ready to _throw
+away_ exactly what _many of the men in Multiopolis are wild to get_.
+Now let me tell you----"
+
+Junior told him, and through putting his experience into words, he
+eased his heart and cleared his brain. He came to hints of great and
+wonder-working things that were going to happen soon. There was just a
+possibility that Jud gleaned an idea that the experience in Multiopolis
+had brought his friend home to astound and benefit the neighbourhood.
+At any rate Junior picked up the lines with all the sourness gone from
+his temperament, which was usually sweet, except that one phrase of
+Mickey's, and the laughter. Suddenly he leaned forward.
+
+"Jud, come here," he said. Junior began to speak, and Jud began to
+understand and sympathize with the boy he had known from childhood.
+
+"Could we?" asked Junior.
+
+"'Could we?' Well, I just guess we _could!_"
+
+"When?" queried Junior.
+
+"This afternoon, if he's going to be off," said Jud.
+
+"Well I don't know what his plans are, but I could telephone from here
+and by rustling I could get back by two. I've done it on a bet. Where
+will we go, and what for?"
+
+"To Atwater. Fishing is good enough excuse."
+
+"All right! Father will let me take the car."
+
+"Hayseed! Isn't walking good enough to suit you? What's the matter with
+the Elkhart swale, Atwater marsh, and the woods around the head of the
+lake----"
+
+"Hold the horse till I run in and 'phone him."
+
+When he came down the walk he reported: "He wants to go fishing awful
+bad, and he'll be ready by two. That's all settled then. We'll have a
+fine time."
+
+"Bully!" said Jud laconically, and started to the house of another
+friend, where a few words secured a boy of his age a holiday. Junior
+drove fast as he dared and hurried with his work; so he reached home a
+little before two, where he found Mickey with poles and a big can of
+worms ready. Despite the pressing offer of the car, they walked, in
+order to show Mickey the country which he was eager to explore on foot.
+Junior said the sunfish were big as lunch plates at Atwater, the perch
+fine, and often if you caught a grasshopper or a cricket for bait, you
+got a big bass around the shore, and if they had the luck to reach the
+lake, when there was no one ahead of them, and secured a boat they were
+sure of taking some.
+
+"Wouldn't I like to see Lily eating a fish I caught," said Mickey,
+searching the grass and kicking rotting wood as he saw Junior doing to
+find bass bait.
+
+"Minnies are the real thing," explained Junior. "When we get the scheme
+father laid out going, before we start fishing, you and I will take a
+net and come to this creek and catch a bucketful of right bait, and
+then we'll have man's sport, for sure. Won't it be great?"
+
+"Exactly what the plutes are doing," said Mickey. "Gee, Junior, if your
+Pa does all the things he said he was going to, you'll be a plute
+yourself!"
+
+"Never heard him say anything in my life he didn't do," said Junior,
+"and didn't you notice that he put _you_ in too? You'll be just as much
+of a plute as I will."
+
+"Not on your bromide," said Mickey. "He is _your_ father, and you'll be
+in business with him; I'll just be along sometimes, as a friend, maybe."
+
+"I usually take father at just what he says. I guess he means you to
+stay in our family, if you like."
+
+"I wonder now!" said Mickey.
+
+"Looks like it to me. Father and mother both like you, and they're
+daffy about Peaches."
+
+"It's because she's so little, and so white, and so helpless," Mickey
+hastened to explain, "and so awful sweet!"
+
+"Well for what ever it is, it _is_," said Junior, "and I'm just as
+crazy about her as the rest. Look out kid! That fellow's coming right
+at us!"
+
+Junior dashed for the fence, while Mickey lost time in turning to see
+what "that fellow" might be; so he faced the ram that had practised on
+Malcolm Minturn. With lowered head, the ram sprang at Mickey. He flew
+in air, and it butted space and whirled again, so that before the boy's
+breath was fully recovered he lifted once more, with all the agility
+learned on the streets of Multiopolis; but that time the broad straw
+hat he wore to protect his eyes on the water, sailed from his head; he
+dropped the poles, and as the ram came back at him he hit it squarely
+in the face with the bait can, which angered rather than daunted it.
+Then for a few minutes Mickey was too busy to know exactly what
+happened, and movements were too quick for Junior. When he saw that
+Mickey was tiring, and the ram was not, he caught a rail from the fence
+and helped subdue the ram. Panting they climbed the fence and sat
+resting.
+
+"Why I didn't know Higgins had that ram," said Junior. "We fellows
+always crossed that field before. Say, there ain't much in that
+
+  '_Gentle sheep pray tell me why,
+  In the pleasant fields you lie?_'
+
+business, is there?"
+
+"Not much but the lie," said Mickey earnestly.
+
+Junior dropped from the fence and led the way toward a wood thick with
+underbrush, laughing until his heart pained. As they proceeded they
+heard voices.
+
+"Why that sounds like my bunch," said Junior.
+
+He whistled shrilly, which brought an immediate response, and soon two
+boys appeared.
+
+"Hello!" said Junior.
+
+"Hello!" answered they.
+
+"Where're you going?" asked Junior.
+
+"To Atwater Lake, fishing. Where you?"
+
+"There too!" said Junior. "Why great! We'll go together! Sam, this is
+Mickey."
+
+Mickey offered his hand and formalities were over.
+
+"But I threw our worms at the ram," said Mickey.
+
+"Well that was a smart trick!" cried Junior.
+
+"Wasn't it?" agreed Mickey. "But you see the ram was coming and I had
+the worms in my strong right, so I didn't stop to think I'd spent an
+hour digging them; I just whaled away--"
+
+"Never mind worms," said Jud. "I guess we got enough to divide; if you
+fellows want to furnish something for your share, you can find some
+grubs in these woods, and we'll get more chance at the bass."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "What are grubs and where do you look for them?"
+
+"Oh anywhere under rotting wood and round old logs," said Jud. "B'lieve
+it's a good place right here, Mickey; dig in till I cut a stick to help
+with."
+
+Mickey pushed aside the bushes, dropped on his knees and "dug in." A
+second later, with a wild shriek, he rolled over and over striking and
+screaming.
+
+"Yellow jackets!" shouted Jud. "Quick fellers, help Mickey! He's got
+too close to a nest!"
+
+Armed with branches they came beating the air and him; until Mickey had
+a fleeting thought that if the red-hot needles piercing him did not
+kill, the boys would. Presently he found himself beside a mudhole and
+as the others "ouched" and "o-ohed" and bewailed their fate, and
+grabbed mud and plastered it on, he did the same. Jud generously
+offered, as he had not so many stings, to help Mickey. Soon even the
+adoring eyes of Peaches could not have told her idol from the mudhole.
+He twisted away from an approaching handful crying: "Gee Jud! Leave a
+feller room to breathe! If you are going to smother me, I might as well
+die from bites!"
+
+"Bites!" cried the boys while all of them laughed wildly, so wildly
+that Mickey flushed with shame to think he had so little appreciation
+of the fun calling a sting a bite, when it was explained to him.
+
+"Well they sure do get down to business," he chattered, chilling from
+the exquisite pain of a dozen yellow-jacket stings, one of which on his
+left eyelid was rapidly closing that important organ. He bowed a
+willing head for Jud's application of cold mud.
+
+Finally they gathered up their poles and bait and again started toward
+the lake. The day was warm, and there was little air in the marsh, and
+on the swampy shore they followed. Suddenly Jud cried: "I tell you
+fellows, what's the use of walking all the way round the lake? Bet the
+boats will be taken when we get there! Let's cut fishing and go
+swimming right here where there's a cool, shady place. It will be good
+for you Mickey, it will cool off your stings a lot."
+
+Mickey promptly began to unbutton, and the others did the same. Then
+they made their way through the swamp tangle lining the shore at the
+head of the lake, and tried to reach the water beside the tamaracks.
+Sam and Junior found solid footing, and waded toward deep water. Jud
+piloted Mickey to a spot he thought sufficiently treacherous, and said:
+"Looks good here; you go ahead Mickey, and I'll come after you."
+
+Mickey was unaccustomed to the water. He waded in with the assurance he
+had seen the others use, but suddenly he cried: "Gee boys, I'm sucking
+right down!"
+
+Then on his ears fell a deafening clamour. "Help! Help! Quicksands!
+Mickey's sinking! Help him!"
+
+Mickey threw out his arms. He grabbed wildly; while a force, seemingly
+gentle but irresistible, sucked him lower and lower, and with each inch
+it bore him down, gripped tighter, and pulled faster. When he glanced
+at the boys he saw panic in their faces, and he realized that he was
+probably lost, and they were terror stricken. The first gulp of tepid
+shore water that strangled him in running across his gasping lips made
+him think of Peaches. Struggling he threw back his head and so saw a
+widespreading branch of a big maple not far above him. All that was
+left of Mickey went into the cry: "Junior! Bend me that branch!" Junior
+swiftly climbed the tree, crept on the limb, and swayed it till it
+swept the water, then Mickey laid hold; just a few twigs, and then as
+Junior backed, and the branch lifted higher and higher, Mickey worked,
+hand over hand, and finally grasped twigs that promised to stand a
+gentle pull.
+
+Then Jud began to shout instructions: "Little lower, Junior! Get a
+better grip before you pull hard, Mickey! Maple is brittle! Easy! It
+will snap with you! Kind of roll yourself and turn to let the water in
+and loosen the sand. Now roll again! Now pull a little! You're making
+it! You are out to your shoulders! Back farther, Junior! Don't you fall
+in, or you'll both go down!"
+
+Mickey was very quiet now. His small face was pallid with the terror of
+leaving Peaches forever with no provision for her safety. The grip of
+the sucking sand was yet pulling at his legs and body; while if the
+branch broke he knew what it meant; that sucking, insistent pulling,
+and caving away beneath his feet told him. Suddenly Mickey gave up
+struggling, set his teeth, and began fighting by instinct. He moved his
+shoulders gently, until he let the water flow in, then instead of
+trying to work his feet he held them rigid and flattened as he could,
+and with the upper part of his body still rolling, he reached higher,
+and kept inching up the branch as Junior backed away, until with
+sickening slowness he at last reached wood thick as his wrist. Then he
+dragged his helpless body after him to safety, where he sank in a heap
+to rest.
+
+"Jud, it's a good thing I went in there first," he said. "Heavy as you
+are, you'd a-been at the bottom by now, if there _is_ any bottom."
+
+Mickey's gaze travelled slowly over his lumpy, purple frame, and then
+he looked closely at the others. "Why them stingers must a-give about
+all of it to me," he commented. "I don't see any lumps on the rest of
+you."
+
+"Oh we are used to it," scoffed Jud. "They don't show on you after you
+get used to them. 'Sides most all mine are on my head, I kept 'em off
+with the bushes."
+
+"So did I," chimed in Sam and Junior with one voice.
+
+"I guess I did get a lot the worst of it," conceded Mickey. "But if
+they only stung your heads, it's funny you didn't know where to put
+your mud!"
+
+"Well I'll tell you," said Jud earnestly. "On your head they hurt worst
+of all. They hurt so blame bad, you get so wild like you don't know
+where you _are_ stung, and you think till you cool off a little, you
+got them all over."
+
+"Yes I guess you do," agreed Mickey.
+
+The boys were slowly putting on their clothing and Junior was scowling
+darkly. Jud edged close.
+
+"Gosh!" he whispered. "I thought it was only a little spring! I didn't
+think it was a quicksand!"
+
+"You cut out anything more!" said Junior tersely.
+
+Jud nodded. After a while they started home, walking slowly and each
+one being particularly careful of and good to Mickey. When he had
+rested, he could see that it was only an accident; such an astounding
+one he forgot his bites and could talk of little else.
+
+They made another long pause under a big tree, and Mickey felt so much
+better as they again started home, that Junior lagged behind, and Jud
+seeing, joined him. Junior asked softly: "Have any more?"
+
+Jud nodded.
+
+"What?" whispered Junior.
+
+Jud told him.
+
+"Oh that! Nothing in that! Go on!"
+
+So they struck into the path they had followed from the swamp to the
+woods, when suddenly a warm, yielding, coiling thing slipped under
+Mickey's feet. With a wild cry he leaped across the body of a big
+rattlesnake that had been coiled in the path. As he arose, clear cut
+against the light launched the ugly head and wide jaws of the rattler,
+then came the sickening buzz of its rattles in mad recoil for a second
+stroke.
+
+"Run Mickey! Jump!" screamed Junior.
+
+"What is it?" asked Mickey bewildered.
+
+"Rattlesnakes! Sure death!" yelled Jud. "Run fool!"
+
+But Mickey stood perfectly still, and looked, not where the increasing
+buzz came from, but at them. They had no choice. Jud carried a heavy
+club; he threw himself in front of Mickey and as the second stroke
+came, he swung at the snake's head. The other boys collected their
+senses and beat it to pulp, then the dead mate it watched beside.
+Junior glared at Jud, but when he saw how frightened he was, he knew
+what had happened.
+
+Mickey gazed at the snakes in horror.
+
+"Ain't that a pretty small parcel to deal out sudden death in?" he
+asked. "And if they're laying round like that, ain't we taking an awful
+risk to be wading through here, this way? Gee, they're the worst sight
+I ever saw!"
+
+Mickey became violently ill. He lay down for a time, while the boys
+waited on him, and at last when he could slowly walk toward home, they
+went on. Jud and Sam left them at the creek, and Junior and Mickey
+started up the Harding lane. Suddenly Mickey sat down in a fence
+corner, leaned against the rails, and closed his eyes.
+
+"Gee!" he said. "Never felt so rotten in all my life."
+
+"Maybe that snake grazed you."
+
+"If it did, would it kill me?" asked Mickey dully.
+
+"Well after the yellow-jacket poison in your blood, and being so tired
+and hot, you wouldn't stand the chance you'd had when we first
+started," said Junior. "Do you know where it came closest to you?"
+
+"Back of my legs, I s'pose," said Mickey.
+
+"If it had hit you, it would leave two places like needles stuck in,
+just the width of its head apart. I can't find any-thing that looks
+like it, thank the Lord!"
+
+"Here too!" said Mickey. "You see if it or the quicksands had finished
+me, I haven't things fixed for Lily. They might '_get'_ her yet. If
+anything should happen to me, she would be left with no one to take
+care of her."
+
+"Father would," offered Junior. "Mother never would let anybody take
+her. I know she wouldn't."
+
+"Well I don't," said Mickey, "and here is where guessing doesn't cut
+any ice. I must be _sure_. To-night I'll ask him. I'd like to know how
+it happens that sudden death has just been rampaging after me all this
+trip, anyway. I seemed to get it coming or going."
+
+Junior did not hide his grin quickly enough.
+
+"Aw-w-w-ah!" grated Mickey, suddenly tense and alert.
+
+He sprang to his feet. So did Junior.
+
+"Say, look here----" cried Mickey.
+
+"All right, 'look here,'" retorted Junior. His face flamed Ted, then
+paled, and his hands gripped, while his jaw protruded in an ugly scowl.
+Then slowly and distinctly he quoted: "Course I meant to put it to you
+stiff; I meant to 'niciate you in the ancient and honourable third
+degree of the Country all right, so's you'd have enough to last a
+lifetime; but I only meant to put you up against what I'd had myself in
+the fields and woods; I was just going to test your ginger; I wasn't
+counting on the _quicksand_, and the _live_ snake, finding its dead
+mate Jud fixed for you."
+
+"So you were sneaking in the barn this morning, when we thought you
+were gone?" demanded Mickey.
+
+"Easy you!" cautioned Junior. "Going after the bundle I promised Jud
+was _not_ sneaking----"
+
+"So 'twasn't," conceded Mickey, instantly. "So 'twasn't!"
+
+He looked at Junior a second.
+
+"You heard us, then?" he demanded. "All of it?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Junior. "I heard what I just repeated, and
+what you said about my being game, and exactly why I came back; thank
+you for _that_, even if I lick you half to death in a minute--and I
+heard that my own mother first fixed it up with you, and then father
+agreed. Oh I heard enough----!"
+
+"And so you got a grouch?" commented Mickey.
+
+"Yes I did," admitted Junior. "But I got over all of it, after I'd had
+time to think, but that third degree business; that made me so sore I
+told Jud about it, and he said he'd help me pay you up; but we struck
+the same rock you did, in giving you a bigger dose than we meant to.
+Honest Mickey, Jud didn't know there was a _real_ quicksand there, and
+of course we didn't dream a live snake would follow and find the one
+the boys hunted, killed, and set for you this morning----"
+
+"Awful innocent!" scoffed Mickey. "'Member you didn't know about the
+ram either?"
+
+"Honest I _didn't_, Mickey," persisted Junior. "I thought steering you
+into the yellow jackets was to be the first degree! Cross my heart, I
+did."
+
+Suddenly Mickey whooped. He tumbled on the grass in the fence corner
+and twisted in wild laughter until he was worn out. Then he struggled
+up, and held out his hand to Junior.
+
+"If you're willing," he said, "I'll give you the grip, and the password
+will be, 'Brothers!'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+_Malcolm and the Hermit Thrush_
+
+
+"Mr. Dovesky, I want a minute with you," said James Minturn.
+
+"All right, Mr. Minturn, what is it?"
+
+"You are well acquainted with Mrs. Minturn?"
+
+"Very well indeed!" said Mr. Dovesky. "I have had the honour of working
+with her in many concerts."
+
+"And of her musical ability you are convinced?"
+
+"Brilliant is the only word," exclaimed the Professor.
+
+"My reason for asking is this," said Mr. Minturn: "one of our boys, the
+second, Malcolm, is like his mother, and lately we discovered that he
+has her gift in music. We ran on it through Miss Leslie Winton, who
+interested Mrs. Minturn in certain wild birds."
+
+"Yes I know," cried the Professor eagerly.
+
+"When she became certain that she had heard a--I think she said Song
+Sparrow, sing Di Provenza from Traviata--correct me if I am
+wrong--until she felt that Verdi copied the bird or the bird copied the
+master, she told my wife, and Nellie was greatly interested."
+
+"Yes I know," repeated the musician. "She stopped here one day in
+passing and told me what she had heard from Miss Winton. She asked me
+if I thought there were enough in the subject to pay for spending a day
+investigating it. I knew very little, but on the chance that she would
+have a more profitable time in the woods than in society, I strongly
+urged her to go. She heard enough to convince her, for shortly after
+leaving for her usual summer trip she wrote me twice concerning it."
+
+"You mean she wrote you about studying bird music?"
+
+"Yes," said the Professor, "the first letter, if I remember, came from
+Boston, where she found much progress had been made; there she heard of
+a man who had gone into the subject more deeply than any one ever
+before had investigated, and written a book. Her second letter was from
+the country near Boston, where she had gone to study under his
+direction. I have thought about taking it up myself at odd times this
+spring."
+
+"That is why I am here," said Mr. Minturn. "I want you to begin at
+once, and go as far as you are able, taking Malcolm with you. The boys
+have been spending much of their time in the country lately, hiding in
+blinds, selecting a bird and practising its notes until they copy them
+so perfectly they induce it to answer. They are proud as Pompey when
+they succeed; and it teaches them to recognize the birds. I believe
+this is setting their feet in the right way. But Malcolm has gone so
+fast and so far, that he may be reproducing some of the most wonderful
+of the songs, for all I know, for the birds come peering, calling,
+searching, even to the very branch which conceals him. Isn't it enough
+for a beginning?"
+
+"Certainly," said the musician.
+
+"He's been badly spoiled by women servants," said Mr. Minturn, "but the
+men are taking that out of him as fast as it can be eliminated. I
+believe he is interested enough to work. I think his mother will be
+delighted on her return to find him working at what she so enjoys. Does
+the proposition interest you?"
+
+"Deeply!" cried the Professor. "Matters musical are extremely dull here
+now, and I can't make my usual trip abroad on account of the war; I
+should be delighted to take up this new subject, which I could make
+serve me in many ways with my advanced Conservatory pupils."
+
+"May I make a suggestion?" asked Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Most assuredly," exclaimed the Professor.
+
+"You noticed I began by admitting I didn't know a thing about it, so
+I'll not be at all offended if you indorse the statement. My boys are
+large, and old for the beginning they must make. I have to go carefully
+to find what they care for and will work at; so that I get them started
+without making them feel confined and forced, and so conceive a dislike
+for the study to which I think them best adapted. Would you find the
+idea of going to the country, putting a tuned violin in the hands of
+the lad, and letting him search for the notes he hears, and then
+playing the composers' selections to him, and giving his ear a chance,
+at all feasible?"
+
+"It's a reversal, but he could try it."
+
+"Very well, then," said Mr. Minturn rising. "All I stipulate is that
+you allow the other boys and the tutor to go along and assimilate what
+they can, and that when you're not occupied with Malcolm, their tutor
+shall have a chance to work in what he can in the way of spelling,
+numbers, and nature study. Is it a bargain?"
+
+"A most delightful one on my part, Mr. Minturn," said Mr. Dovesky.
+"When shall I begin?"
+
+"Whenever you have selected the instrument you want the boy to have,
+call Mr. Tower at my residence and arrange with him to come for you,"
+said Mr. Minturn. "You can't start too soon to suit the boy or me."
+
+"Very well then, I'll make my plans and call the first thing in the
+morning," said the Professor.
+
+James Minturn went home and told what he had done.
+
+"Won't that be great, Malcolm?" cried James Jr. "Maybe you can do the
+music so well you can be a birdman and stand upon a stage before a
+thousand people and make all of them think you're a bird."
+
+"I believe I'd like to do it," said Malcolm. "If I find out the people
+who make music have gone and copied in what the birds sing, and haven't
+told they did it, I'll tell on them. It's no fair way, 'cause of course
+the birds sang their songs before men, didn't they father?"
+
+"I think so, but I can't prove it," said Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Can you prove it, Mr. Tower?" asked Malcolm.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Tower, "science proves that the water forms developed
+first. Crickets were singing before the birds, and both before man
+appeared."
+
+"Then that's what I think," said Malcolm.
+
+"When are they to begin, James?" asked Mrs. Winslow.
+
+"Mr. Dovesky is to call Mr. Tower in the morning and tell him what
+arrangements he has been able to make," answered Mr. Minturn. "Malcolm,
+you are old enough to recognize that he is a great man, and it is a big
+thing for him to leave his Conservatory and his work, and go to the
+woods to help teach one small boy what the birds say. You'll be very
+polite and obey him instantly, will you not?"
+
+"Do I have to mind him just like he was Mr. Tower?"
+
+"I don't think you are obeying Mr. Tower because you must," said Aunt
+Margaret. "Seems to me I saw you with your arms around his neck last
+night, and I think I heard you tell him that you'd give him all your
+money, except for your violin, if he wouldn't go away this winter.
+Honestly, Malcolm, do you obey Mr. Tower because you feel forced to?"
+
+"No!" cried Malcolm. "We have dandy times! And we are learning a lot
+too! I wonder if Mr. Dovesky will join our campfire?"
+
+"Very probably he'll be eager to," said Mrs. Winslow, "and more than
+likely you'll obey him, just as you do father and Mr. Tower, because
+you love to."
+
+"Father, are William and I going to study the birds?" asked James.
+
+"If you like," said Mr. Minturn. "It would please me greatly if each of
+you would try hard to understand what Mr. Dovesky teaches Malcolm, and
+to learn all of it you can, and to produce creditable bird calls if
+possible; and of course these days you're not really educated unless
+you know the birds, flowers, and animals around you. It is now a
+component and delightful part of life."
+
+"Gee, it's a pity mother isn't here," said Malcolm. "I bet she knows
+more about it than Mr. Dovesky."
+
+"I bet she does, too," agreed James. "But she wouldn't go where we do.
+There isn't a party there, and if a mosquito bit her she'd have a fit."
+
+"Aw! She would if she wanted to!" insisted Malcolm.
+
+"Well she wouldn't _want_ to!" said James.
+
+"Well she might, smarty," said Malcolm. "She did once! I saw the boots
+and skirt she was going to wear. Don't you wish she liked the things we
+do better than parties, father?"
+
+"Yes, I wish she did," said Mr. Minturn. "Maybe she will."
+
+"If she'd hear me call the quail and the whip-poor-will, she'd like
+it," said Malcolm.
+
+"She wouldn't like it well enough to stay away from a party to go with
+you to hear it," said James.
+
+"She might!" persisted Malcolm. "She didn't know about this when she
+went to the parties. When she comes back I'm going to tell her; and I'm
+going to take her to hear me, and I'll show her the flowers and my
+fish-pond, and yours and father's. Wouldn't it be fun if she'd wear the
+boots again, and make a fish-pond too?"
+
+"Yes, she'd wear boots!" scoffed James.
+
+"Well she would if she wanted to," reiterated Malcolm. "She wore them
+when she wanted to hear the birds; if she did once, she would again, if
+she pleased."
+
+"Well she wouldn't please," laughed James.
+
+"Well she _might_," said Malcolm stubbornly. "Mightn't she, father?"
+
+"If she went once, I see no reason why she shouldn't again," said Mr.
+Minturn.
+
+"Course she'll go again!" triumphed Malcolm. "I'll make her, when she
+comes."
+
+"Yes 'when' she comes!" jeered James. "She won't ever live here! She
+wouldn't think this was good enough for Lucette and Gretchen! And she
+gave away our house for the sick children, and she hates it at
+grandmother's! Bet she doesn't ever come again!"
+
+"Bet she does!" said Malcolm instantly.
+
+"Would you like to have mother come here, Malcolm?" interrupted Mr.
+Minturn quietly.
+
+"Why----" he said and shifted his questioning gaze toward Aunt
+Margaret, "why--why--well, I'll tell you, father: if she would wear
+boots and go see the birds and the flowers--if she would do as we
+do----Sometimes in the night I wake up and think how pretty she is, and
+I just get hungry to see her--but of course it would only kick up a row
+for her to come here--of course she better stay away--but father, if
+she _would_ come, and if she _would_ wear the boots--and if she'd let
+old slapping Lucette go, and live as we do, father, _wouldn't that be
+great?_"
+
+"Yes I think it would," said James Minturn conclusively, as he excused
+himself and arose from the table.
+
+"James," said Malcolm, when they went to their schoolroom, "if Mr.
+Dovesky goes to shutting us up in the study and won't let us play while
+we learn, what will we do to him to make him sick of his job?"
+
+"Oh things would turn up!" replied James. "But Malcolm, wouldn't you
+kind o' hate to have him see you be mean?"
+
+"Well father saw us be mean," said Malcolm.
+
+"Yes, but what would you give if he _hadn't?_"
+
+"I'm not proud of it," replied Malcolm.
+
+"Yes and that's just it!" cried James. "That's just what comes of
+living here. All of them are so polite, and if you are halfway decent
+they are so good to you, and they help you to do things that will make
+you into a man who needn't be ashamed of himself--that's just it! How
+would you like to go back and be so rough and so mean nobody at all
+would care for us?"
+
+"Father wouldn't let us, would he?" asked Malcolm.
+
+"He wouldn't if he could help it," said James. "He didn't used to seem
+as if he could help it. Don't you remember he would tell us it was not
+the right way, and try to have us be decent, and Lucette would tell
+mother, and mother would fire him? I wonder how she could! And if she
+could then, why doesn't she now? I guess he doesn't want to stop her
+party to bother with us; but if she ever conies and wants to take us
+back like we were, Malcolm, I'm not going. I _like_ what we got now.
+Mother always said we were to be gentlemen; but we never could be that
+way. Father and Mr. Tower and Mr. Dovesky are gentlemen, just as kind,
+and easy, and fine. When we were mean as could be, and acted like
+fight-cats, you remember father and Mr. Tower only _held_ us; they
+didn't get mad and beat us. If mother comes you may go with her if you
+want to."
+
+"I wish she'd come with us!" said Malcolm.
+
+"Not mother! We ain't her kind of a party."
+
+"I know it," admitted Malcolm slowly. "Sometimes I want her just awful.
+I wonder why?"
+
+"I guess it's 'cause a boy is born wanting his mother. I want her
+myself a lot of times, but I wouldn't go with her if she'd come today,
+so I don't know _why_ I want her, but I _do_ sometimes."
+
+"I didn't know you did," said Malcolm.
+
+"Well I do," said James, "but I ain't ever going. Often I think the
+queerest things!"
+
+"What queer things do you think, James?"
+
+"Why like this," said James. "That it ain't _safe_ to let children be
+jerked, and their heads knocked. You know what Lucette did to
+Elizabeth? I think she hit her head too hard. She gave me more cake,
+and said I was a good boy for saying the ice made her sick, but all the
+time I thought it was hitting her head. I wouldn't be the boy who said
+that again, if I had to be shot for _not_ saying it, like the French
+boy was about the soldiers. 'Member that day?"
+
+"Yes I do," said Malcolm shortly.
+
+"You know you coaxed her off the bench, and I pushed her in!" said
+James, slowly.
+
+"Yes," said Malcolm. "And I kicked her. And I wasn't mad at her a bit.
+I wonder _why_ I did it!"
+
+"I guess you did it because you were more of an animal than a decent
+boy, same as I pushed her," said James. "I guess I won't ever forget
+that I pushed her."
+
+"Pushing her wasn't as bad as what I did," said Malcolm. "I guess ain't
+either one of us going to feel right about Elizabeth again, long as we
+live."
+
+"Malcolm, we can't get her back," said James, "but if any way happens
+that we ever get another little sister, we'll take care of her like
+father _wanted to_."
+
+"You bet we will!" said Malcolm.
+
+Next morning the boys had the car ready. They packed in all their bird
+books, their flower records, and botanies, and were eagerly waiting
+when the call from Mr. Dovesky came. At once they drove to his home for
+him, and from there to a music store where a violin was selected for
+Malcolm.
+
+Mr. Dovesky was so big, the boys stood in awe of his size. He was so
+clean, no boy would want him to see him dirty. He was so handsome, it
+was good to watch his face, because you had to like him when he smiled.
+He was so polite, that you never for a minute forgot that soon you were
+going to be a man, and if you could be the man you wished, you would be
+exactly like him. Both boys were very shy of him and very much afraid
+his entrance into their party would spoil their fun.
+
+When they left the music store, Malcolm carefully carrying his new
+violin, Mr. Dovesky his, and a roll of music, the boys with anxious
+hearts awaited developments.
+
+"Now Mr. Tower," said Mr. Dovesky, "suppose we drive wherever you are
+likely to find the birds you have been practising on, and for a start
+let me hear just what you have done and can do, and then I can plan
+better to work in with you."
+
+When they reached the brook they stopped to show the fish pools and
+then entered an old orchard, long abandoned for fruit growing and so
+worm infested as to make it a bird Paradise. Cuckoos, jays, robins,
+bluebirds, thrashers, orioles, sparrows, and vireos, nested there,
+singing on wing, among the trees, on the fences, and from bushes in the
+corners.
+
+Malcolm and Mr. Dovesky secreted themselves on a board laid across the
+rails of an alder-filled fence corner, then the boy began pointing out
+the birds he knew and giving his repetition of their calls, cries, bits
+of song, sometimes whistled, sometimes half spoken, half whistled, any
+vocal rendition that would produce the bird tones. He had practised
+carefully, he was slightly excited, and sooner than usual he received
+replies. Little feathered folk came peeping, peering, calling, and
+beyond question answering Malcolm's notes. In an hour Mr. Dovesky was
+holding his breath with interest, suggesting corrections, trying notes
+himself, and when he felt he had whistled accurately and heard a bird
+reply, he was as proud as the boy.
+
+Then a thing happened that none of them had mentioned, because they
+were not sure enough that it would. A brown thrush, catching the
+unusual atmosphere of the orchard that morning, selected the tallest
+twig of an apple tree and showed that orchard what real music was.
+
+The thrush preened, flirted his feathers, opened his beak widely and
+sang his first liquid notes. "Starts on C," commented Mr. Dovesky
+softly.
+
+"Three times, and does it over, to show us we needn't think it was an
+accident and he can't do it as often as he pleases," whispered Malcolm.
+Mr. Dovesky glanced at the boy and nodded.
+
+"There he goes from C to E," he commented an instant later, "repeats
+that--C again, falls to B, up to G, repeats that--I wish he would wait
+till I get my pencil."
+
+"I can give it to you," said Malcolm. "He does each strain over as soon
+as he sings it. I know his song!"
+
+On the back of an envelope, Mr. Dovesky was sketching a staff of music
+in natural key, setting off measures and filling in notes. As the bird
+confused him with repetitions or trills on E or C so high he had to
+watch sharply to catch just what it was, his fingers trembled when he
+added lines to the staff for the highest notes. For fifteen minutes the
+blessed bird sang, and at each rendition of its full strain, it seemed
+to grow more intoxicated with its own performance. Finishing the last
+notes perfectly, the bird gave a hop, glanced around as if he were
+saying: "Now any one who thinks he can surpass that, has my permission
+to try." From a bush a small gray bird meouwed in derision and accepted
+the challenge. The watchers could not see him, but he came so close
+singing the same song that he deceived Mr. Dovesky, for he said: "He's
+going to do it over from the bushes now!"
+
+"Listen!" cautioned Malcolm. "Don't you hear the difference? He starts
+the same, but he runs higher, he drops lower, and does it quicker, and
+I think the notes clearer and sweeter when the little gray fellow sings
+them, and you should see his nest! Do you like him better?"
+
+"Humph!" said Mr. Dovesky. "Why I was so entranced with the first
+performance I didn't suppose anything could be better. I must have time
+to learn both songs, and analyze and compare."
+
+"I can't do gray's yet," said Malcolm. "It's so fine, and cut up, with
+going up and down on the jump, but I got the start of it, and the part
+that goes this way----"
+
+"This is my work!" cried Mr. Dovesky. "Is there any chance the
+apple-tree bird will repeat his performance?"
+
+"Mostly he doesn't till evening," answered Malcolm. "He's pretty sure
+to again to-morrow morning, but old cat of the bushes, he sings any
+time it suits him all day. His nest isn't where he sings, and he
+doesn't ever perch up so high and make such a fuss about it, but I
+think mother would like his notes best."
+
+"First," said Mr. Dovesky, "I'll take down what Mr. Brown Bird sang,
+and learn it. I'd call that a good start, and when I get his song so I
+can whistle, and play it on the instruments, then we'll go at Mr. Cat's
+song, and see if I can learn why, and in what way you think it finer."
+
+"Oh, it goes from high to low quicker, more notes in a bunch, and
+sweeter tones trilling," explained Malcolm. Mr. Dovesky laughed, saying
+in a question of music that would constitute quite a difference. They
+went to the brook and lunched and made easy records of syllabic calls
+that could be rendered in words and by whistling. Then all of them
+gathered around Mr. Dovesky while he drew lines, crossed them with
+bands and explained the staff, and different time, and signatures, and
+together they had their first music lesson.
+
+Malcolm whistled the thrush song while Mr. Dovesky copied the notes,
+tuned the violin, and showed the boy how the strings corresponded to
+the lines he had made, where the notes lay on them, and how to draw
+them out with the bow. He could not explain fast enough to satisfy the
+eager lad. After Mr. Dovesky had gone as far as he thought wise, and
+left off with music, he wandered with Mr. Tower hunting flowers in
+which he seemed almost as much interested as the music. Malcolm clung
+to the violin, and over and over ran the natural scale he had been
+taught; then slowly, softly, with wavering awkward bow, he began
+whistling plain easy calls, and hunting up and down the strings for
+them.
+
+That day was the beginning. Others did not dawn fast enough to suit
+Malcolm, while the ease with which he mastered the songs of the orchard
+and reproduced them, in a few days set him begging to be taken to the
+swamp to hear the bird that sang "from the book." Leslie Winton was
+added to the party that day. Malcolm came from the land of the tamarack
+obsessed. James, William, and the tutor did not care for that location,
+but Malcolm and Mr. Dovesky wanted to erect a tent and take provisions
+and their instruments and live among the dim coolness, where miracles
+of song burst on the air at any moment. They heard and identified the
+veery. They went on their knees at their first experience with the
+clear, bell-toned notes of the wood thrush. With a little practice
+Malcolm could reproduce the "song from the book." He talked of it
+incessantly, sang and whistled it, making patent to every member of the
+family that what was in his heart was fully as much a desire to do the
+notes so literally that he would win the commendation of his mother, as
+to obtain an answer from an unsuspecting bird; for that was the sport.
+The big thing for which to strive! They worked to obtain a record so
+accurately, to reproduce it so perfectly that the bird making it would
+answer and come at their call. The day Malcolm, hidden in the tamarack
+swamp, coaxed the sparrow, now flitting widely in feeding its young, he
+knew not how far, to the bush sheltering him, and with its own notes
+set it singing against him as a rival, the boy was no happier than Mr.
+Dovesky.
+
+Mr. Minturn could not quite agree to the camp at the swamp, but he
+provided a car and a driver and allowed them to go each morning and
+often to remain late at night to practise owl and nighthawk calls,
+veery notes, chat cries, and the unsurpassed melody of the evening
+vespers of the Hermit bird. This song once heard, comprehended, copied,
+and reproduced, the musician and the boy with music in his heart,
+brain, and finger tips, clung to each other and suffered the exquisite
+pain of the artist experiencing joy so poignant it hurt. After a
+mastery of those notes as to time, tone, and grouping, came the task of
+perfecting them so that the bird would reply.
+
+Hours they practised until far in the night, and when Malcolm felt he
+really had located a bird, gained its attention, and set it singing
+against him, he was wild, and nothing would satisfy him but that his
+father should go to the swamp with him, and well hidden, hear and see
+that he called the bird. Gladly Mr. Minturn assented. Whether the boy
+succeeded in this was a matter of great importance to his father, but
+it was not paramount. The thing that concerned him most was that
+Malcolm's interest in what he was doing, his joy in the study he was
+making, had bred a deep regard in his heart for his instructor. The boy
+loved the man intensely in a few days, and immediately began studying
+with him, watching him, copying him. He moved with swift alertness,
+spoke with care to select the best word, and was fast becoming
+punctiliously polite.
+
+On their return Mr. Dovesky had fallen into the habit of lunching with
+the Minturns. The things of which he and the boy reminded each other,
+the notes they reproduced by whistling, calling, or a combination, the
+execution of these on the violin, the references Mr. Dovesky made to
+certain bird songs which recalled to his mind passages in operas, in
+secular and sacred productions, his rendition of the wild music, and
+then the human notes, his comparison of the two, and his remarks on
+different composers, his mastery of the violin, and his ability to play
+long passages preceding and following the parts taken from the birds,
+were intensely absorbing and educative to all of them. Then Mr. Tower
+would add the description and history of each bird in question. Mr.
+Minturn started the boys' library with interesting works on
+ornithology, everything that had been written concerning strains in
+bird and human music; the lives and characters of the musicians in
+whose work the bird passages appeared, or who used melodies so like the
+birds it made the fact apparent the feathered folk had inspired them.
+This led to minute examination of the lives of the composers, in an
+effort to discover which of them were country born and had worked in
+haunts where birds might be heard. The differing branches of
+information opened up seemed endless. The change this work made in the
+boys appeared to James Minturn and his sister as something marvellous.
+That the work was also making a change in the heart of the man himself,
+was an equal miracle he did not realize.
+
+As each day new avenues opened, he began to understand dimly how much
+it would have meant to him in his relations with his wife, if he had
+begun long ago under her tuition and learned, at least enough to
+appreciate the one thing outside society, which she found absorbing. He
+began to see that if he had listened, and tried, and had induced her to
+repeat to him parts of the great composers she so loved, on her
+instruments, when they reached home, he soon could have come to
+recognize them, and so an evening at the opera with her would have
+meant pleasure to himself instead of stolid endurance. Ultimately it
+might have meant an effective wedge with which to pry against the waste
+of time, strength and money on the sheer amusement of herself in
+society. Once he started searching for them, he found many ways in
+which he might have made his life with his wife different, if indeed he
+had not had it in his power to effect a complete change by having been
+firm in the beginning.
+
+Of this one thing he was sure to certainty: that if he had been able to
+introduce any such element of interest into his wife's residence as he
+had, through merely saying the word, in his own, it surely would have
+made some of the big difference then it was making now. He found
+himself brooding, yearning over his sons, and his feeling for them
+broadening and deepening. As he daily saw James seeking more and more
+to be with him, to understand what he was doing, his pride in being
+able to feel that he had helped if it were no more than to sit in court
+and hand a marked book at the right moment, he began to make a comrade
+of, and to develop a feeling of dependence on, the boy.
+
+He watched Malcolm with his quicker intellect, his daily evidence of
+temperament, his rapidly developing musical ability, and felt the
+tingle of pride in his lithe ruddy beauty, so like his mother, and his
+talent, so like hers. The boy, under the interest of the music, and
+with the progress he was making in doing a new, unusual thing, soon
+began to develop her mannerisms; when he was most polite, her charm was
+apparent; when he was offended, her hauteur enveloped him. When he was
+pleased and happy, her delicate tinge of rose flushed his transparent
+cheek, while the lights on his red-brown hair glinted with her colour.
+He shut himself in his room and worked with his violin until time to
+start to the tamarack swamp. When Mr. Minturn promptly appeared with
+the car, he found Malcolm had borrowed Mr. Dovesky's khaki suit and
+waders for him, and on the advice of the boy he wore the stiff coarse
+clothing, which the tamaracks would not tear, the mosquitoes could not
+bite through, and muck and water would not easily penetrate--there were
+many reasons.
+
+When they reached the swamp both of them put on boots and then,
+following his son and doing exactly what he was told, James Minturn
+forgot law, politics, and business. With anxious heart he prayed that
+the bird the lad wished to sing would evolve its sweetest notes, and
+that his high hope of reproducing the music perfectly enough to induce
+the singer to answer would be fulfilled. Malcolm advanced softly,
+slipping under branches, around bushes, over deep moss beds that sank
+in an ooze of water at the pressure of a step and sprung back on
+release. Imitating every caution, stepping in the boy's tracks, and
+keeping a few rods behind, followed his father. He had rolled his
+sleeves to the elbow, left his shirt open at the throat, while for
+weeks the joy of wind and weather on his bared head had been his, so
+that as he silently followed his son he made an impressive figure. At a
+certain point Malcolm stopped, motioning his father to come to him.
+
+"Now this is as far as I've gone yet," he whispered. "You stay here,
+and we'll wait till the music begins. If I can do it as well as I have
+for three nights, and get an answer, I'm going to try to call the
+Hermit bird I sing with. If a hen answers, I'll do the male notes, and
+try to coax her where you can see. If a male sings, I'll do his song
+once or twice to show you how close I can come, and then I'll do the
+hen's call note, and see if I can coax him out for you. If I creep
+ahead, you keep covered as much as you can and follow; but stay as far
+as that big tree behind me, and don't for your life move or make a
+noise when I'm still. I'll go far ahead as I want to be, to start on.
+Now don't forget to be quiet, and listen hard!"
+
+"I won't forget!" said James Minturn.
+
+"Oh but it will be awful if one doesn't sing to-night!"
+
+"Not at all!" answered Mr. Minturn. "This is a new experience for me;
+I'll get the benefit of a sight of the swamp that will pay for the
+trip, if I don't even see a bird."
+
+By the boy's sigh of relief the father knew he had quieted his anxiety.
+Malcolm went softly ahead a few yards, and stopped, sheltering himself
+in a clump of willow and button bushes. His father made himself as
+inconspicuous as he could and waited. He studied the trunks of the big
+scaly trees, the intermingled branches covered with tufts of tiny
+spines, and here and there the green cones nestling upright. The cool
+water rising around his feet called his attention to the deep moss bed,
+silvery green in the evening light. Here and there on moss mounds at
+the tree bases he could see the broad leaves and ripening pods that he
+thought must be moccasins seeding. Then his eye sought the crouching
+boy, and he again prayed that he would not be disappointed; with his
+prayer came the answer. A sweep of wings overhead, a brown flash
+through the tamaracks, and then a burst of slow, sweet notes, then
+silence.
+
+James Minturn leaned forward, his eyes on his son, his precious little
+lad. How the big strong man hoped, until it became the very essence of
+prayer, that he would be granted the pride and pleasure, the triumph,
+of success; for his ears told him that to reproduce the notes he had
+just heard would undoubtedly be the crowning performance of bird music;
+surely there could be no other songster gifted like that! The bird made
+a short flight and sang again. Across the swamp came a repetition of
+his notes from another of his kind, so the brown streak moved in that
+direction. At its next pause its voice arose again, sweeter for the
+mellowing distance, and then another bird, not so far away, answered.
+The bird replied and came winging in sight, this time peering, uttering
+a short note, unlike its song; and not until it came searching where he
+could see it distinctly, did James Minturn awake to the realization
+that the last notes had been Malcolm's. His heart swelled big with
+prideful possession. What a wonderful accomplishment! What a fine boy!
+How careful he must be to help and to guide him.
+
+Again the bird across the swamp sang and the one in sight turned in
+that direction. Then began a duet that was a marvellous experience. The
+far bird called. Malcolm answered. Soon they heard a reply. Mr. Minturn
+saw the boy beckoning him, and crept to his side.
+
+"It's a female," whispered Malcolm. "I'm going to sing the male notes
+and calls, and try to toll her. You follow, but don't get too close and
+scare her."
+
+The father could see the tense poise of Malcolm, stepping lightly,
+avoiding the open, stooping beneath branches, hiding in bushes, making
+his way onward, at every complete ambush sending forth those wonderful
+notes. At each repetition it seemed to the father that the song grew
+softer, more pleading, of fuller intonation; and then his heart almost
+stopped, for he began to realize that each answer to the boy's call was
+closer than the one before. Malcolm would sleep that night with a
+joyful heart. He was tolling the bird he imitated; it was coming at his
+call, of that there could be no question. His last notes came from a
+screen of spreading button bushes and northern holly. At the usual
+interval they heard the reply, but recognizably closer. Malcolm raised
+his hand without moving or looking back, but his father saw, and
+interpreted the gesture to mean that the time had come for him to stop.
+He took a few steps to conceal himself, for he was between trees when
+the signal came, and paused, already so elated he wanted to shout; he
+scarcely could restrain the impulse. What was the use in going farther?
+His desire was to race back to Multiopolis at speed limit to tell Mr.
+Dovesky, Margaret, and Mr. Tower what a triumph he had witnessed. He
+wanted to talk about it to his men friends and business associates.
+
+Distinctly, through the slowly darkening green, he could see the boy
+putting all his heart into the song. James Minturn watched so closely
+he was not mistaken in thinking he could see the lad's figure grow
+tense as he delivered the notes, and relax when the answer relieved his
+anxiety as to whether it would come again, and then gather for another
+trial. At the last call the reply came from such a short distance that
+Mr. Minturn began intently watching from his shelter to witness the
+final triumph of seeing the bird Malcolm had called across the swamp,
+come into view. He could see that the boy was growing reckless, for as
+he delivered the strain, he stepped almost into the open, watching
+before him and slowly going ahead. With the answer, there was a
+discernible movement a few yards away. Mr. Minturn saw the boy start,
+and gazed at him. With bent body Malcolm stared before him, and then
+his father heard his amazed, awed cry: "_Why mother!_ Is that _you_,
+mother?"
+
+"_Malcolm! Are you Malcolm?_" came the incredulous answer.
+
+James Minturn was stupefied. Distinctly he could see now. He did not
+recognize the knee boots, the outing suit of coarse green material, but
+the beautiful pink face slowly paling, the bright waving hair framing
+it, he knew very well. Astonishment bound him. Malcolm advanced another
+step, still half dazed, and cried: "Why, have I been calling _you?_ I
+thought it was the bird I saw, still answering!"
+
+"And I believed you were the Hermit singing!" she said.
+
+"But you fooled the bird," said the boy. "Close here it answered you."
+
+"And near me it called you," said Mrs. Minturn. "Your notes were quite
+as perfect."
+
+Malcolm straightened and seemed reassured.
+
+"Why mother!" he exclaimed. "When did you study _bird_ music? Have you
+just come back?"
+
+"I've been away only two weeks, Malcolm," she answered, "and if it
+hadn't been for learning the bird notes, I'd have returned sooner."
+
+"But where have you _been?_" cried the boy.
+
+"At home. I reserved my suite!" she answered.
+
+"But home's all torn up, and pounding and sick people, and you hate
+pounding and sick people," he reminded her.
+
+"There wasn't so very much noise, Malcolm," she said, "and I've changed
+about sickness. You have to suffer yourself to do that. Once you learn
+how dreadful pain is, you feel only pity for those who endure it. Every
+night when the nurses are resting, I change so no one knows me, and
+slip into the rooms of the suffering little children who can't sleep,
+and try to comfort them."
+
+"Mother, who takes care of _you?_" he questioned.
+
+"A very sensible girl named Susan," she answered.
+
+The boy went a step closer.
+
+"Mother, have you changed about anything besides sickness?" he asked
+eagerly.
+
+"Yes Malcolm," said his mother. "I've changed about every single thing
+in all this world that I ever said, or did, or loved, when you knew me."
+
+"You have?" he cried in amazement. "Would you wear that dress and come
+to the woods with us now, and do some of the things we like?"
+
+"I'd rather come here with you, and sing these bird notes than anything
+else I ever did," she answered.
+
+Malcolm advanced another long stride.
+
+"Mother, is Susan a pounding, beating person like Lucette?" he asked
+anxiously.
+
+"No," she said softly. "Susan likes children. When she's not busy for
+me, she goes into the music room and plays games, and sings songs to
+little sick people."
+
+"Because you know," said Malcolm, "James and I talk it over when we are
+alone, we never let father hear because he loved Elizabeth so, and he's
+so fine--mother you were _mistaken_ about father not being a gentleman,
+not even Mr. Dovesky is a finer gentleman than father--and father loved
+her so; but mother, James and I _saw_. We believe if it had been the
+cream, it would have made us sick too, and we're so _ashamed_ of what
+we did; if we had another _chance_, we'd be as good to a little sister
+as father is to us. Mother, we wish we had her back so we could try
+_again_----"
+
+Nellie Minturn shut her eyes and swayed on her feet, but presently she
+spoke in a harsh, breathless whisper, yet it carried, even to the ears
+of the listening man.
+
+"Yes Malcolm, I'd give my life, oh so gladly if I could bring her back
+and try over----"
+
+"You wouldn't have any person like Lucette around, would you mother?"
+he questioned.
+
+"Not ever again Malcolm," she answered. "I'd have Little Sister back if
+it were possible, but that can't ever be, because when we lose people
+as Elizabeth went, they never can come back; but I'll offer my life to
+come as near replacing her as possible, and everywhere I've neglected
+you, and James, and father. I'll do the best there is in me, if any of
+you love me, or _want_ me in the least, or will give me an opportunity
+to try."
+
+"Mother, would you come where we are? Would you live as we do?"
+marvelled the boy.
+
+"Gladly," she answered. "It's about the only way I could live now, I've
+given away so much of the money."
+
+"Then I'll ask father!" cried the boy. "Why I forgot! Father is right
+back here! Father! Father! Father come quick! Father it wasn't the
+Hermit bird at all, it was mother! And oh joy, father, joy! She's just
+changed and changed, till she's _most as changed as we are!_ She'll
+come back, father, and she'll go to the woods with us, oh she will!
+Father, you're _glad_, aren't you?"
+
+When Nellie Minturn saw her husband coming across the mosses, his arms
+outstretched, his face pain-tortured, she came swiftly forward, and as
+she reached Malcolm, Mr. Minturn caught both of them in his arms
+crying: "My sweetheart! My beautiful sweetheart, give me another
+chance, and this time I'll be the head of my family in deed and in
+truth, and I'll make life go right for all of us."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+_Establishing Protectorates_
+
+
+"I'm sorry no end!" said Mickey. "First time I ever been late. I was
+helping Peter; we were so busy that the first thing I knew I heard the
+hum of her gliding past the clover field, so I was left. I know how
+hard you're working. It won't happen again."
+
+Mickey studied his friend closely. He decided the time had come to
+watch. Douglas Bruce was pale and restless, he spent long periods in
+frowning thought. He aroused from one of these and asked: "What were
+you and Peter doing that was so very absorbing?"
+
+"Well about the most interesting thing that ever happened," said
+Mickey. "You see Peter is one of the grandest men who ever lived; he's
+so fine and doing so many _big_ things, in a way he kind of fell behind
+in the _little_ ones."
+
+"I've heard of men doing that before," commented Douglas. "Can't you
+tell me a new one?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "You know the place and how good it seems on the
+outside--well it didn't look so good inside, in the part that counted
+most. You've noticed the big barns, sheds and outbuildings, all the
+modern conveniences for a man, from an electric lantern to a stump
+puller; everything I'm telling you--and for the nice lady, nix! Her
+work table faced a wall covered with brown oilcloth, and frying pans
+heavy enough to sprain Willard, a wood fire to boil clothes and bake
+bread, in this hot weather, the room so low and dark, no ice box, with
+acres of ice close every winter, no water inside, no furnace, and
+carrying washtubs to the kitchen for bathing as well as washing, aw
+gee--you get the picture?"
+
+"I certainly do," agreed Douglas, "and yet she was a neat, nice-looking
+little woman."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "If she had to set up housekeeping in Sunrise
+Alley in one day you could tell her place from anybody else's. Sure,
+she's a nice lady! But she has troubles of her own. I guess everybody
+has."
+
+"Yes, I think they have," assented Douglas. "I could muster a few right
+now, myself."
+
+"Yes?" cried Mickey. "That's bad! Let's drop this and cut them out."
+
+"Presently," said Douglas. "My head is so tired it will do me good to
+think about something else a few minutes. You were saying Mrs. Harding
+had trouble; what is it?"
+
+Mickey returned to his subject with a chuckle.
+
+"She was 'bout ready to tackle them nervous prostrations so popular
+with the Swell Dames," he explained, "because every morning for fifteen
+years she'd faced the brown oilcloth and pots and pans, while she'd
+been wild to watch sunup from under a particular old apple tree; when
+she might have seen it every morning if Peter had been on his job
+enough to saw a window in the right place. Get that?"
+
+"Yes, I get it," conceded Douglas. "Go on!"
+
+"Well I began her work so she started right away, and before she got
+back in comes Peter. When he asks where she was and why she went, I was
+afraid, but for her sake I told him. I told him everything I had
+noticed. At first he didn't like it."
+
+"It's a wonder he didn't break your neck."
+
+"Well," said Mickey judicially, "as I size Peter up he'd fight an awful
+fight if he was fighting, but he ain't much on _starting_ a fight. I
+worked the separator steady, and by and by when I 'summed up the
+argument,' as a friend of mine says, I guess that cream separator
+didn't look any bigger to Peter, set beside a full house and two or
+three sheds for the stuff he'd brought to make _his_ work easier, than
+it did to me."
+
+"I'll wager it didn't," laughed Douglas.
+
+"No it didn't!" cried Mickey earnestly. "And when he stood over it
+awhile, that big iron stove made his kitchen, where his wife lived most
+of her day, seem 'bout as hot as my room where he was raving over Lily
+having been; and when he faced the brown oilcloth and the old iron
+skillets for a few minutes of silent thought, he bolted at about two.
+Peter ain't so slow!"
+
+"What did he do?" asked Douglas.
+
+"Why we planned to send her on a visit," said Mickey, "and cut that
+window, and move in the pump, and invest in one of those country gas
+plants, run on a big tank of gasoline away outside where it's all safe,
+and a bread-mixer, and a dishwasher, and some lighter cooking things;
+but we got interned."
+
+"How Mickey?" interestedly inquired Douglas.
+
+"Remember I told you about Junior coming in to hunt work because he was
+tired of the country, and how it turned out?" said Mickey.
+
+"Yes I recall perfectly," answered Douglas.
+
+"There's a good one on me about that I haven't told you yet, but I
+will," said Mickey. "Well when son came home, wrapped in a comfort,
+there was a ripping up on the part of Peter. He just 'hurled back the
+enemy,' and who do you think he hit the hardest?"
+
+"I haven't an idea," said Douglas.
+
+"In your shoes, I wouldn't a-had one either," said Mickey. "Well, he
+didn't go for Junior, or his Ma, or me. Peter stood Mister Peter
+Harding out before us, and then didn't leave him a leg to stand on. He
+proved conclusive he'd used every spare moment he'd had since Junior
+was in short clothes, carrying him to Multiopolis to amuse him, and
+feed him treats, and show him shows; so he was to blame if Junior
+developed a big consuming appetite for such things. How does the
+argument strike you?"
+
+"Sound!" cried Douglas. "Perfectly sound! It's precisely what the land
+owners are doing every day of their lives, and then wailing because the
+cities take their children. I've had that studied out for a year past."
+
+"Well Peter figured it right there for us in detail," said Mickey.
+"Then he tackled Ma Harding and her sunup, and then he thought out a
+way to furnish entertainment and all the modern comforts right there at
+home."
+
+"What entertainment?" said Douglas.
+
+"Well he specified saddles and horses to ride," grinned Mickey, "and
+swimming, and a fishing-boat and tackle for all of us, a launch on
+whatever lake we like best, a big entertainment house with a floor for
+skating and dancing, and a stage for plays we will get up ourselves,
+and a movie machine. I'm to find out how to run one and teach them, and
+then he'll rent reels and open it twice a week. The big hole that will
+cave in on the north side of Multiopolis soon now will be caused by the
+slump when our neighbourhood withdraws its patronage and begins being
+entertained by Peter. And you'll see that it will work, too!"
+
+"Of course it will," agreed Douglas. "Once the country folk get the
+idea it will go like a landslide. So that's what made you late?"
+
+"Well connected with that," explained Mickey. "Peter didn't do a thing
+but figure up the price he'd paid for every labour-saver he ever bought
+for himself, and he came out a little over six thousand. He said he
+wouldn't have wanted Ma in a hardware store selecting his implements,
+so he guessed he wouldn't choose hers. He just drew a check for what he
+said was her due, with interest, and put it in her name in the bank,
+and told her to cut loose and spend it exactly as she pleased."
+
+"What did she do?" marvelled Douglas.
+
+"Well she was tickled silly, but she didn't lose her head; she began
+investigating what had been put on the market to meet her requirements.
+At present we are living on the threshing floor mostly, and the whole
+house is packed up; when it is unpacked, there'll be a bathroom on the
+second floor, and a lavatory on the first. There'll be a furnace in one
+room of the basement, and a coal bin big enough for a winter's supply.
+We can hitch on to the trolley line for electric lights all over the
+house, and barn, and outbuildings, and fireless cooker, iron, and
+vacuum cleaner, and a whole bunch of conveniences for Ma, including a
+washing machine, and stationary tubs in the basement. Gee! Get the
+picture?"
+
+"I surely do! What else Mickey?" asked Douglas. "You know I've a house
+to furnish soon myself."
+
+"Well a new kitchen on the other end of the building where there's a
+breeze, and a big clover field, and a wood, and her work table right
+where it is in line with her private and particular sunup. There's a
+big sink with hot and cold water, and a dishwasher. There's a
+bread-mixer and a little glass churn, both of which can be hitched to
+the electricity to run. There's a big register from the furnace close
+the work table for winter, and a gas cook stove that has more works
+than a watch."
+
+"What does the lady say about it?"
+
+"_Mighty little!_" said Mickey. "She just stands and wipes the shiny
+places with her apron or handkerchief, and laughs and cries, 'cause
+_she's so glad_. It ain't set up yet, but you can see just standing
+before it what it's going to mean for her. And there's a chute from the
+upstairs to the basement, to scoot the wash down to the electric
+machine to rub them, and a little gas stove with two burners to boil
+them, and the iron I told you of. Hanging it up is the hardest part of
+the wash these days, and since they have three big rooms in the
+basement, Peter thought this morning that he could put all the food in
+one, and stretch her lines in the winter for the clothes to dry in the
+washroom. The furnace will heat it, and it's light and clean; we are
+going to paint it when everything is in place."
+
+"Is that all?" queried Douglas.
+
+"It's a running start," said Mickey; "I don't know as Peter will ever
+get to 'all'. The kitchen is going to have white woodwork, and blue
+walls and blue linoleum, and new blue-and-white enamelled cooking
+things from start to finish, with no iron in the bunch except two
+skillets saved for frying. Even the dishpan is going to be blue, and
+she's crying and laughing same time while she hems blue-and-white wash
+curtains for the windows. All the house is going to have hardwood
+floors, the rooms cut more convenient; out goes the old hall into just
+a small place to take off your wraps, and the remainder added to the
+parlour. All the carpets and the old heavy curtains are being ground up
+and woven into rugs. Gee, it's an insurrection! Ma Harding and I surely
+started things when we planned to dose Junior on Multiopolis, and let
+her 'view the landscape o'er.' You can tell by her face she's seeing
+it! If she sails into the port o' glory looking more glorified, it'll
+be a wonder! And Peter! You ought to see Peter! And Junior! You should
+see Junior planning his room. And Mickey! You must see Mickey planning
+his! And Mary and Bobbie! And above all, you should see Lily! Last I
+saw of her, Peter was holding her under her arms, and she was shoving
+her feet before her trying to lift them up a little. We've most rubbed
+them off her with fine sand, and then stuck them in cold water, and
+then sanded them again, and they're not the same feet--that's a cinch!"
+
+"Is that the sum of the Harding improvements?" asked Douglas, drawing
+fine lines on a sheet of figures before him.
+
+"Well it's a fair showing," said Mickey. "We ain't got the new rugs,
+and the music box, and the books; or the old furniture rubbed and oiled
+yet. When the house is finished, Peter expressly specified that his
+lady was to get her clothes so she could go to the club house, and not
+be picked for a country woman by what she _wore_."
+
+"Mickey, this is so interesting it has given my head quite a rest.
+Maybe now I can see my way clearly. But one thing more: how long are
+you planning to stay there? You talk as if----"
+
+"'Stay there?'" said Mickey. "Didn't you hear me say there was a horse
+and saddle and a room for me, and a room for Lily? 'Stay there!' Why
+for ever and ever more! That's _home!_ When I got into trouble and
+called on Peter to throw a lifeline, he did it up browner than his job
+for Ma. A _line_ was all I asked; _but Peter established a regular
+Pertectorate_--_nobody can 'get' us now_----"
+
+"You mean Peter adopted both of you?" cried Douglas.
+
+"Sure!" indorsed Mickey with a flourish. "You see it was like this:
+when we dosed Junior with Multiopolis, the old threshing machine took a
+hand and did some things to him that wasn't on the program; he found
+out about it, and it made him mad. When he got his dander up he hit
+back by turning old Miss Country loose on me. First I tried a ram and
+yellow jackets; then only a little bunch of maple twigs was all the
+pull I had to keep me from going to the bottomless pit by the way of
+the nastiest quicksand on Atwater Lake. Us fellows went back one day
+and fed it logs bigger than I am, and it sucked them down like Peter
+does a plate of noodles. Then Junior thought curling a big dead rattler
+in the path, and shunting me so I'd step right on it, would be a prime
+joke; but he didn't figure on the snake he had fixed for me having a
+mate as big and ugly as it was, that would follow and coil zipping mad
+over the warm twisting body----"
+
+"Mickey!" gasped Douglas.
+
+"Just so! Exactly what I thought--and then some. When I dragged what
+was left of me home that night, and figured out where I'd been if the
+big maple hadn't spread its branch just as wide as it did, or if the
+snake had hit my leg 'stead of my britches--when I took my bearings and
+saw where I was at, the thing that really hurt me worst was that if I'd
+gone, either down or up, I hadn't done anything for Lily but give her a
+worse horror than she had, of being 'got' by them Orphings' Home
+people, when I should have made her _safe forever_. I took Peter to the
+barn and told him just how it was, 'cause I felt mighty queer. I wasn't
+so sure that one scratch on my leg that looked ugly mightn't a-been the
+snake striking through the cloth and dosing me some, I was so sick and
+swelled up; it turned out to be yellow jackets, but it might a-been
+snakes, and I was a little upset. As man to man I asked him what I
+ought to do for my _family_ 'fore I took any more _risks_. A-body would
+have thought the jolt the box gave me would have been enough, but it
+wasn't! It took the snake and the quicksand to just right real wake me
+up. First I was some sore on Junior; but pretty quick I saw how funny
+it was, so I got over it----"
+
+"He should have had his neck broken!"
+
+"Wope! Wope! Back up!" cautioned Mickey. "Nothing of the kind! You
+ain't figuring on the starving, the beating, being knocked senseless,
+robbed of all his clothes _twice_, and landing in the morgue with the
+cleaning-house victims. Gee, Junior had reasons for his grouch!"
+
+Douglas Bruce suddenly began to laugh wildly.
+
+"Umhum! That's what I told you," said Mickey. "Well, that night I laid
+the case before Peter, out on the hay wagon in the barnyard, so moon
+white you could have read the _Herald_, the cattle grunting satisfied
+all around us, katydids insisting on it emphatic, crickets chirping,
+and the old rooster calling off the night watches same as he did for
+that first Peter, who denied his Lord. I thought about that, as I sat
+and watched the big fellow slowly whittling the rack, and once in a
+while putting in a question, and when I'd told him all there was to
+tell, he said this: he said _sure_ Lily was _mine_, and I had a perfect
+_right_ to _keep_ her; but the law _might_ butt in, 'cause there _was_
+a law we couldn't evade that _could_ step in and take her any day. He
+said too, that if she had to go to the hospital, sudden, first question
+a surgeon would ask was who were her parents, and if she had none, who
+in their place could give him a right to operate. He said while she was
+_mine_, and it was my _right_, and _my job_, the law and the surgeon
+would say _no_, 'cause we were not related, and I was not of age. He
+said there were times when the law got its paddle in, and went to
+fooling with red tape, it let a sick person lay and die while it
+decided what to do. He said he'd known a few just exactly such cases;
+so to keep the law from making a fool of itself, as it often did, we'd
+better step in and fix things to suit us before it ever got a showdown."
+
+"What did he do?" asked Douglas Bruce eagerly.
+
+"Well, after we'd talked it over we moved up to the back porch and
+Peter explained to Ma, who is the boss of that family, only she doesn't
+_know_ it, and she said for him to do exactly what his conscience and
+his God dictated. That's where his namesake put it over that first
+Peter. Our Peter said: 'Well if God is to dictate my course, you
+remember what He said about "suffering the little children to come to
+Him," and we are commanded to be like Him, so there's no way to _twist_
+it, but that it means _suffer them to come to us_,' he said.
+
+"Ma she spoke quick and said: 'Well we've got them!'
+
+"Peter said, 'Yes, we've got them; now the question is whether we
+_keep_ them, or send them to an Orphings' Home.'
+
+"The nice lady she said faster than I can tell you: 'Peter Harding, I'm
+ashamed of you! There's no question of that kind! There's never going
+to be!'
+
+"'Well don't get het up about it,' said Peter. 'I knew all the time
+there _wasn't_, I just _wanted to hear you say so plain and emphatic_.
+So far as I'm concerned, my way is clear as noonday sun,' said Peter.
+'Then you go first thing in the morning and adopt them, and adopt them
+_both_,' said Ma. 'Lily will make Mary just as good a sister as she
+could ever have,' said she, and then she reached over and put her arms
+right around me and she said, 'And if you think I'm going to keep on
+trying to run this house without Mickey, you're mistaken.' I began to
+cry, 'cause I had had a big day, and I was shaking on my feet anyway.
+Then Peter said, 'Have you figured it out to the end? Is it to be 'til
+they are of age, or forever?' She just gripped tighter and said fast as
+words can come, 'I say make it forever, and share and share alike. I'm
+willing if you are.' Peter, he said, 'I'm willing. They'll pay their
+way any place. Forever, and share and share alike, is my idea. Do you
+agree, Mickey?' 'Exactly what do you mean?' I asked, and Peter told me
+it was making me and Lily both his, just as far as the law could do it;
+we could go all the farther we wanted to ourselves. He said it meant
+him getting the same for me and Lily as he did for his own, and leaving
+us the same when he died. I told him he _needn't do that_, if he'd just
+keep off the old Orphings' Home devil, that's had me scared stiff all
+my days, I'd tend to _that_, so now me and Lily belong to Peter; he's
+our _Pertectorate_."
+
+"Mickey, why didn't you tell me?" asked Douglas. "Why didn't you want
+me to adopt you?"
+
+"Well so far as 'adopting' is concerned," said Mickey, "I ain't _crazy_
+about it, with anybody. But that's the _law_ you men have made; a boy
+must obey it, even if he'd rather be skinned alive, and when he _knows_
+it ain't _right or fair_. That's the law. I was up against it, and I
+didn't know but I _did_ have the snake, and Peter was on hand and made
+that offer, and he was grand and big about it. I don't love him any
+more than I do you; but I've just this minute discovered that it ain't
+in my skin to love any man more than I do Peter; so you'll have to get
+used to the fact that I love him just as well, and say, Mr. Bruce,
+Peter is the finest man you ever knew. If you'll come out and get
+acquainted, you'll just be tickled to have him in the Golf Club, and to
+come to his house, and to have him at yours. His nice lady is exactly
+like Miss Winton, only older. Say, she and Peter will adopt you too, if
+you say so, and between us, just as man to man, Peter is a regular
+lifesaver! If you got a chance you better catch on! No telling what you
+might want of him!"
+
+"Mickey, you do say the most poignant things!" cried Douglas. "I'd give
+all I'm worth to catch on to Peter right now, and cling for much _more_
+than life; but what I started, I must finish, and Peter isn't here."
+
+"Well what's the matter with me?" asked Mickey. "Have you run into the
+yellow jackets too? 'Cause if you have, I'm ahead of you, so I know
+what to do. Just catch on to me!"
+
+"Think you are big enough to serve as a straw for a drowning man,
+Mickey?" inquired Douglas.
+
+"Sure! I'm big enough to establish a _Pertectorate_ over you, this
+minute. The weight of my body hasn't anything to do with the size of my
+heart, or how fast I can work my brains and feet, if I must."
+
+"Mickey," said Douglas despairingly, "it's my candid opinion that no
+one can save me, right now."
+
+Mickey opened his lips, and showed that his brain _was_ working by
+shutting them abruptly on something that seemed very much as if it had
+started to be: "Sure!"
+
+"Is that so?" he substituted.
+
+"Yes, I'm in the sweat box," admitted Douglas.
+
+"And it's uncomfortable and weakening. What's the first thing we must
+do to get you out?"
+
+"What I'm facing now is the prospect that there's no way for me to get
+out, or for my friends to get me out," admitted Douglas. "I wish I
+_had_ been plowing corn."
+
+The boy's eyes were gleaming. He was stepping from one foot to the
+other as if the floor burned him.
+
+"Gosh, we must saw wood!" he cried. "You go on and tell me. I been up
+against a lot of things. Maybe I can think up something. Honest, maybe
+I can!"
+
+"No Mickey, there's nothing you or any one can do. A miracle is
+required now, and miracles have ceased."
+
+"Oh I don't know!" exclaimed Mickey. "Look how they been happening to
+me and Lily right along. I can't see why one mightn't be performed for
+you just as well. I wish you wouldn't waste so much time! I wish you
+hadn't spent an hour fooling with what I was telling you; _that_ would
+keep. I wish you'd give me a job, and let me get busy."
+
+Douglas Bruce smiled forlornly.
+
+"I'd gladly give you the job of saving me, my dear friend," he said,
+"but the fact is I haven't a notion of how to go to work to achieve
+salvation."
+
+"Is somebody else getting ahead of you?"
+
+"Not that I know of! No I don't think so. That isn't the trouble," said
+Douglas.
+
+"I do wish you'd just plain tell me," said Mickey. "Now that I got the
+_Pertectorate_ all safe over Lily, I'd do anything for you. Maybe I
+could think up some scheme. I'm an awful schemer! I wish you'd _trust_
+me! You needn't think I'd _blab!_ Come on now!"
+
+Suddenly Douglas Bruce's long arms stretched across the table before
+him, his head fell on them, and shuddering sobs shook him. Mickey's
+dance steps became six inches high, while in desperation he began
+polishing the table with his cap. Then he reached a wiry hand and
+commenced rubbing Douglas up and down the spine. The tears were rolling
+down his cheeks, but his voice was even and clear.
+
+"Aw come on now!" he begged. "Cut that out! That won't help none! What
+shall I _do?_ Shall I call Mr. Minturn? Shall I get Miss Leslie on the
+wire?"
+
+Bruce arose and began walking the floor.
+
+"Yes," he said. "Yes! 'Bearer of Morning,' call her!"
+
+Mickey ran to the telephone. In a minute, "Here she is," he announced.
+"Shall I go?"
+
+"No! Stay right where you are."
+
+"Hello Leslie! Are you all right? I'm sorry to say I am not. I'm up
+against a proposition I don't know how to handle. Why just this:
+remember your father told me in your presence that if in the course of
+my investigations I reached his office, I was to wait until he got
+back? Yes. I thought you'd remember. You know the order of the court
+gave me access to the records, but the officials whose books I have
+gone over haven't been pleased about it, although reflection would have
+told them if it hadn't been I, it would have been some other man. But
+the point is this: I'm almost at the finish and I haven't found what
+obviously exists somewhere. I'm now up to the last office, which is
+your father's. The shortage either has to be there, or in other
+departments outside those I was delegated to search; so that further
+pursuit will be necessary. Two or three times officials have suggested
+to me that I go over your father's records first, as an evidence that
+there was no favouritism; now I have reached them, and this
+proposition: if I go ahead in his, as I have in other offices, I
+disobey his express order. If I do not, the gang will set up a howl in
+to-morrow morning's paper, and they will start an investigation of
+their own. Did you get anything from him this morning Leslie? Not for
+four days? And he's a week past the time he thought he would be back? I
+see! Leslie, what shall I do? In my morning's mail there is a letter
+from the men whose records I have been over, giving me this ultimatum:
+'begin on Winton's office immediately, or we will.'
+
+"Tell them to go ahead? But Leslie! Yes I know, but Leslie----Yes! You
+are ordering me to tell them that I propose to conduct the search in
+his department as I did theirs, and if they will not await his return
+from this business trip, they are perfectly free to go ahead----You are
+_sure_ that is the thing you want said? But Leslie----Yes, I know, but
+Leslie it is _disobeying_ him, and it's barely possible there might be
+a traitor there; better men than he have been betrayed by their
+employees. I admit I'm all in. I wish you would come and bring your
+last letter from him. We'll see if we can't locate him by wire. It's an
+ugly situation. Of course I didn't think it would come to this. Yes I
+wish you would! If you say so, I will, but----All right then. Come at
+once! Good-bye!"
+
+Douglas turned to his desk, wrote a few hasty lines and said to Mickey:
+"Deliver that to Muller at the City Hall."
+
+Mickey took the envelope and went racing. In half the time he would
+have used in going to the City Hall he was in the _Herald_ Building,
+making straight for the office of the editor. Mr. Chaffner was standing
+with a group of men earnestly discussing some matter, when his eye was
+attracted by Mickey, directly in range, and with the tip of his index
+finger he was cutting in air letters plainly to be followed: "S.O.S."
+Chaffner nodded slightly, and continued his talk. A second later he
+excused himself, and Mickey followed to the private room.
+
+"Well?" he shot at the boy.
+
+"Our subm'rine has sunk our own cotton."
+
+"Humph!" said Chaffner. "I've known for two weeks it was heading your
+way. Just what happened?"
+
+Mickey explained and produced the letter. Chaffner reached for it.
+Mickey drew back.
+
+"Why I wouldn't dare do just that," he said. "But I know that's what's
+in it, because I heard what he said, and by it you could tell what she
+said. I've told you every word, and you said the other day you knew;
+please tell me if I should deliver this letter?"
+
+"If you want to give me a special with the biggest scoop of ten years,"
+said Chaffner, "and ruin Douglas Bruce and disgrace the Wintons, take
+it right along."
+
+"Aw gee!" wailed Mickey, growing ghastly. "Aw gee, Mr. Chaffner! Why
+you _can't_ do that! Not to _them!_ Why they're the _nicest folks;_ and
+'tain't two weeks ago I heard Miss Leslie say to Mr. Bruce right in our
+office, 'losing money I could stand, disgrace would _kill_ me.' You
+can't kill her, Mr. Chaffner! Why she's the nicest, and the
+prettiest----She found me, and sent me to the boss, like I told you.
+Honest she did! Why you can't! You just _can't!_ Why Mr. Chaffner, I
+can see by your nice eyes you can't! Aw gee, come on now!"
+
+Mickey's chin hooked over the editor's elbow, his small head was
+against his arm, his eyes were dripping tears, but his voice controlled
+and steady was entreating.
+
+"You know there's a screw loose somewhere," explained Mickey. "You know
+'darling old Daddy' couldn't ever have done it; and if somebody under
+him has gone wrong, maybe he could make it up, if he was here and had
+an hour or so. That day, Miss Leslie said he should give all he had for
+his friend, and he could have all of hers. If she'd be willing for the
+money to go for her 'dear old Daddy's' _friend_, course she'd be glad
+to use it for her Daddy, and she's got a lot from her mother, and maybe
+Daddy has sold the land he went to sell, and all of that ought to be
+enough; and if it isn't, I know who will help them. Honest I do!"
+
+"Who, Mickey?" demanded Mr. Chaffner, instantly.
+
+"Mr. Minturn! Mr. James Minturn!" said Mickey. "He's Mr. Bruce's best
+friend, and he _told_ me he would do _anything_ for Miss Leslie, that
+day right after I saw you, for if his home ever came right again, it
+would be 'cause she made it; and she _did_ make it, and it is _right_,
+and he's so crazy happy he can't hardly keep on the floor. _Course_
+he'd pay Miss Leslie back. He _said_ he would. He's the nicest man!"
+
+"Isn't your world rather full of nice men, Mickey?"
+
+Mickey renewed his grip. His eyes were pleading, the white light on his
+brow was shining, his voice was irresistibly sweet: "You just bet my
+world is full of nice men, packed like sardines; but they'll all
+scrooge up a little and make room for you on the top layer among the
+selects! Come on now! Rustle for your place before we revolve and leave
+you. All your life you'll be sorry if you make that scoop, and kill
+Miss Leslie, and shame 'darling old Daddy,' and ruin my boss. Oh I say
+Mr. Chaffner, you _can't!_ You can't ever sleep nights again, if you
+do! They haven't ever done anything to you. You'll be the _nicest_ man
+of all, if you'll _tell me what to do_. 'Twon't take you but a second,
+'cause you _know_. Oh tell me, for the love of God tell me, Mr.
+Chaffner! _You'll be the nicest man I know, if you'll tell me_."
+
+The editor looked down in Mickey's compelling eyes. He laid his hand on
+the lad's brow and said: "That would be worth the price of any scoop I
+ever pulled off, Mickey. Are you going to be a lawyer or write that
+poetry for me?"
+
+"If I'd ever even thought of law, _this_ would cook me," said Mickey.
+"Poetry it is, as soon as I earn enough to pay for finding out how to
+do it right."
+
+"And when you find out, will you come on my staff, and work directly
+under me?" asked Mr. Chaffner.
+
+"Sure!" promised Mickey. "I'd rather do it than anything else in the
+world. It would suit me fine. That is, if you're coming in among my
+nice men----"
+
+Mr. Chaffner held out his hand. "This is going to cost me something in
+prestige and in cash," he said, "but Mickey, you make it _worthwhile_.
+Here are your instructions: _don't_ deliver that letter! Cut for
+Minturn and give it to him. Tell him if he wants me, to call any time
+inside an hour, and that he hasn't longer than noon to make good. He'll
+understand. If you can't beat a taxi on foot, take one. Have you money?"
+
+"Yes," said Mickey, "but just suppose he isn't there and I can't find
+him?"
+
+"Then find his wife, and tell her to call me."
+
+"All right! Thanks, boss! You're simply great!"
+
+Mickey took the taxi and convinced the driver he was in a hurry. He
+danced in the elevator, ran down the hall, and into Mr. Minturn's door.
+There he stopped abruptly, for he faced Miss Winton and Mrs. Minturn,
+whose paling face told Mickey that he was stamped on her memory as she
+was on his. He pulled off his cap, and spoke to Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Could I see you a minute?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly! Step this way. Excuse us ladies."
+
+Mickey showed the letter, told what had caused it to be written, and
+that he had gone to Mr. Chaffner instead of delivering it, and what
+instructions had been given him there. Mr. Minturn picked up the
+telephone and called Mr. Chaffner. When he got him he merely said:
+"This is Minturn. What's the amount, and where does he bank his funds?
+Thank you very much indeed."
+
+Then he looked at Mickey. "Till noon did you say?"
+
+"Yes," cried Mickey breathlessly, "and 'tisn't so long!"
+
+"No," said Mr. Minturn, "it isn't. Ask Mrs. Minturn if I may speak with
+her a moment."
+
+"Shall I come back or stay there?" inquired Mickey.
+
+"Come back," said Mr. Minturn. "I may need you."
+
+Mickey stood before Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Please will you speak with Mr. Minturn a minute?"
+
+"Excuse me Leslie," said the lady, rising, and entering the private
+room. There she turned to Mickey. "I remember you very well," she said,
+with a steady voice. "You needn't shrink from me. I've done all in my
+power to atone. It will never be possible for me to think of forgiving
+myself; but you'll forgive me, won't you?"
+
+"Sure! Why lady, I'm awful sorry for you."
+
+"I'm sorry for myself," said she. "What was it you wanted, Mr. Minturn?"
+
+"Suppose you tell Mrs. Minturn about both your visits here," suggested
+Mr. Minturn to Mickey.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "You see it was like this lady. This morning Mr.
+Bruce's head is down, and if he doesn't get help before noon, he and
+Miss Leslie and all those nice people are in trouble. I thought Mr.
+Minturn ought to know, so I slipped in and told him."
+
+"What is the trouble, lad?" asked Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Why you see Miss Leslie's 'darling old Daddy' is one of the city
+officials, and of course Mr. Bruce left him 'til last, because he would
+a-staked his life he'd find the man he was hunting before he got to his
+office, and he _didn't!_"
+
+"What, James?" said the lady, turning hurriedly.
+
+"Tell her about it, Mickey," said Mr. Minturn calmly.
+
+"Well there ain't much to tell," said Mickey. "My boss he just kept
+stacking up figures; two or three times he thought he had his man and
+then he'd strike a balance; and the men whose records he searched kept
+getting madder, and Mr. Winton went west to sell some land. Someway
+he's been gone a week longer than he expected; and my boss is all
+through except him, and now the other men say if he doesn't begin on
+Mr. Winton's books right away, _they_ will, and he told my boss _not to
+'til he got back_. A while ago I was in the _Herald_ office talking to
+Mr. Chaffner, whose papers I've sold since I started and I was telling
+him what nice friends I had, and how Mr. Bruce and Miss Leslie were
+engaged, and he like to ate me up. When I couldn't see why, he told me
+about investigations he had his men, like I'm going to be, make, and
+sometimes they get a 'scoop' on the men appointed to do the job, and he
+told me he had a 'scoop' on this, and if I saw trouble coming toward my
+boss, I was to tell him and maybe--he didn't say sure, but _maybe_ he'd
+do something."
+
+"Oh James!" cried Mrs. Minturn.
+
+"Wait dear! Go on Mickey," said Mr. Minturn.
+
+"Well," said Mickey, "the elevated jumped the track this morning when
+my boss got a letter saying if he didn't go on at once with Mr.
+Winton's office, somebody else would; and the people who have been in
+the air ever since are due to land at noon, and it's pretty quick now,
+and they are too nice for any use. Did you ever know finer people?"
+
+"No I never did," said Mrs. Minturn; "but James, I don't understand.
+Tell me quickly and plainly."
+
+"Chaffner just gave me the figures," he said, holding over a slip of
+paper. "If that amount is to Mr. Winton's credit on his account with
+the city, at the Universal Bank before noon--nothing at all. If it's
+_not_, disgrace for them, and I started it by putting Bruce on the
+case. I'll raise as much as I can, but I can't secure enough by that
+time without men knowing it. Mr. Winton has undoubtedly gone to try to
+secure what he needs; but he's going to be too late. There never has
+been a worse time to raise money in the history of this country."
+
+"But if _money_ is the trouble," said Mrs. Minturn, "you said you never
+would touch what I put in your name for yourself, why not use it for
+him? If that isn't enough, I will gladly furnish the remainder. That
+I'm not a stranded, forsaken woman is due to Leslie Winton; all I have
+wouldn't be big enough price to pay for you, and my boys, and my
+precious home. Be quick James!"
+
+Mr. Minturn was calling the Universal Bank.
+
+Mickey and Mrs. Minturn waited anxiously. They involuntarily drew
+together, and the woman held the boy in a close grip, while her face
+alternately paled and flushed, and both of them were breathing short.
+
+"I want the cashier!" Mr. Minturn was saying.
+
+"Don't his voice just make you feel like you were on the rock of ages?"
+whispered Mickey.
+
+Mrs. Minturn smiling nodded.
+
+"Hello, Mr. Freeland. This is Minturn talking--James Minturn. You will
+remember some securities I deposited with you not long ago? I wish to
+use a part of them to pay a debt I owe Mr. Winton. Kindly credit his
+account with--oh, he's there in the bank? Well never mind then. I
+didn't know he was back yet. Let it go! I'll see him in person. And you
+might tell him that his daughter is at my office. Yes, thank you. No
+you needn't say anything about that to him; we'll arrange it ourselves.
+Good-bye!"
+
+"Now where am I at?" demanded Mickey.
+
+"I don't think you know, Mickey," said Mr. Minturn, "and I am sure I
+don't, but I have a strong suspicion that Mr. Winton will be here in a
+few minutes, and if his mission has been successful, his face will tell
+it; and if he's in trouble, that will show; and then we will know what
+to do. Mr. Bruce would like to know he is here, and at the bank I
+think."
+
+"I'll go tell him right away," said Mickey.
+
+Douglas was walking the floor as Mickey entered.
+
+"You delivered the letter?" he cried.
+
+Mickey shook his head, producing the envelope.
+
+"You didn't!" shouted Bruce. "You didn't! Thank God! Oh, thank God you
+_didn't!_"
+
+"Aw-w-ah!" protested Mickey.
+
+"Why didn't you?" demanded Douglas.
+
+"Well you see," said Mickey, "me and Mr. Chaffner of the _Herald_ were
+talking a while ago about some poetry I'm going to write for his first
+page, soon now--I've always sold his papers you know, so I sort of
+belong--and I happened to tell him I was working for you, and how fine
+you were, and about your being engaged to Miss Leslie, and he seemed to
+kind of think you was heading for trouble; he just plain _said so_. I
+was so scared I begged him not to let _that_ happen. I told him how
+everything was, and finally I got him to promise that if you _did_ get
+into trouble he'd help you, at least he _almost_ promised. You see he's
+been a newspaper man so long, he eats it, and sleeps it, and he had a
+s'scoop'--"
+
+"'He had a scoop?'" repeated Douglas.
+
+"Yes! A great one! Biggest one in ten years!" said the boy. "He loved
+it so, that me trying to pry him loose from it was about like working
+to move the Iriquois Building with a handspike. All he'd promise that
+first trip was that if I'd come and tell him when I saw you'd got into
+trouble, he'd _see_ what he could do."
+
+"Wanted to pump you for material for his scoop, I suppose?" commented
+Douglas.
+
+"Wope! Wope! Back up!" warned Mickey. "He didn't pump me a little bit,
+and he didn't _try_ to. He told me nearly three weeks ago just what
+_would_ happen about now, as he had things doped out, and they have. I
+didn't _think_ that letter should be delivered this morning, 'cause you
+had no business in 'darling old Daddy's' office if he said 'stay out.'"
+In came Mickey's best flourish. "_Why he mightn't a-been ready!_" he
+exclaimed. "He had his friend to help you remember, I heard Miss Leslie
+tell you he did. And she told him to. She told you he could have what
+she had, you remember of course. He might a-had to use some of his
+office money real quick, to save a friend that he _had_ to save if it
+took all he had and all Miss Leslie had; and _that_ was right. I asked
+you the other day if a man might use the money he handled, and you said
+yes, he was _expected_ to, if he had his books straight and the money
+in the bank when his time for accounting came. 'Tain't time to account
+yet; but you was doing this investigating among his bunch, and so I
+guess if he did use the money for his friend, he had to go on that trip
+he was too busy to take Miss Leslie, and sell something, or do
+something to get ready for you. _That's_ all right, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, if he could _do_ it," conceded Douglas.
+
+"Well he can!" triumphed Mickey. "He can just as easy, 'cause he's down
+at the Universal Bank doing it right now!"
+
+"What?" cried Douglas.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "Back on time! At the bank fixing things so you
+can investigate all you want to. What's the matter with 'darling old
+Daddy?' _He's all right!_ Go on and write your letter over, and tell
+them anxious, irritated gents, that you'll investigate 'til the
+basement and cupola are finished, just as soon as you make out the
+reports you are figuring up _now_. That will give you time to act
+independent, and it will give Daddy time to be ready for you----"
+
+"Mickey, what if he didn't get the land sold?" wavered Douglas. "What
+if his trip was a failure?"
+
+"Well that's fixed," said Mickey, stepping from one toe to the other.
+"Don't ruffle your down about that. If 'darling old Daddy' has bad
+luck, and for staking his money and his honour on his friend, he's
+going to get picked clean and dished up himself, why it's fixed so he
+_isn't!_ See?"
+
+"_It's fixed?_" marvelled Douglas.
+
+"Surest thing you know!" cried Mickey. "You've had your _Pertectorate_
+all safe a long time, and didn't know it."
+
+"Mickey, talk fast! Tell me! What do you mean?"
+
+"Why that was fixed three weeks ago, I tell you," explained Mickey.
+"When Mr. Chaffner said you would strike trouble, I wasn't surprised
+any, 'cause I've thought all the time you _would;_ and when you did, I
+went skinning to him, and he told me _not_ to deliver that letter; and
+he was grand, just something grand! He told me what had to happen to
+save you, so I kept the letter, and scuttled for Mr. James Minturn, who
+started all this, and I just said to him, 'Chickens, home to roost,' or
+words like that; and he got on the wire with Chaffner, and 'stead of
+giving that 'scoop' to all Multiopolis and the whole world, he give Mr.
+Minturn a few figures on a scrap of paper that he showed to his nice
+lady--gosh you wouldn't ever believe she _was_ a nice lady or could be,
+but honest, Mr. Bruce, me and her has been holding hands for half an
+hour while we planned to help you out, and say, she's so nice, she's
+just peachy--and she's the _same_ woman. I don't know how that happens,
+but she's the same woman who fired me and the nice lady from Plymouth,
+and now she _ain't_ the same, and these are the words she said: 'All I
+have on earth would not be enough to pay Leslie Winton for giving you
+back to me, and my boys, and my precious home.' 'Precious home!' Do you
+get that? After her marble palace, where she is now must look like a
+cottage on the green to her, but 'precious home' is what she said, and
+she ought to know----"
+
+"Mickey go on! You were saying that Mr. Chaffner gave Mr. Minturn some
+figures--" prompted Douglas.
+
+"Yes," said Mickey. "His precious 'scoop,' so Mr. Minturn showed her,
+and she said just as quick to put that amount to Mr. Winton's credit at
+the Universal Bank, so he called the bank to tell them; when he got the
+cashier he found that 'darling old Daddy' was there that minute----"
+
+"'Was there?'" cried Douglas.
+
+"'_Was there_,'" repeated Mickey; "so Mr. Minturn backed water, and
+_then_ he told the cashier he needn't mention to Mr. Winton that he was
+going to turn over some securities he had there to pay a debt he owed
+him, 'cause now that he was home, they could fix it up between
+themselves. But he told the cashier to tell Mr. Winton that Miss Leslie
+was in his office. He said 'Daddy' would come to her the minute he
+could, and then if he was happy and all right, it meant that he had
+sold his land and made good; and if he was broke up, we would know what
+to do about putting the money to his credit. The nice lady said to put
+a lot more than he needed, so if they did investigate they could see he
+had plenty. See? Mr. Minturn said we could tell the minute we saw
+him----"
+
+"Well young man, can you?" inquired a voice behind them.
+
+With the same impulse Douglas and Mickey turned to Mr. Winton and
+Leslie standing far enough inside the door to have heard all that had
+been said. A slow red crept over Mickey's fair face. Douglas sprang to
+his feet, his hand outstretched, words of welcome on his lips. Mr.
+Winton put him aside with a gesture.
+
+"I asked this youngster a question," he said, "and I'm deeply
+interested in the answer. _Can you?_"
+
+Mickey stepped forward, taking one long, straight look into the face of
+the man before him; then his exultant laugh trilled as the notes of
+Peter's old bobolink bird on the meadow fence.
+
+"Surest thing you know!" he cried in ringing joy. "You're tired, you
+need washing, sleep, and a long rest, but there isn't any glisteny,
+green look on your face. It's been with you, like I told Mr. Chaffner
+it's in the Bible; only with you, it's been even more than a man
+'laying down his life for his friend,' it was a near squeak, but you
+made it! Gee, you made it! I should say I _could_ tell!"
+
+Mr. Winton caught Mickey, lifting him from his feet. "God made a jewel
+after my heart when he made you lad," he said. "If you haven't got a
+father, I'm a candidate for the place."
+
+"Gee, you're the nicest man!" said Mickey. "If I was out with a
+telescope searching for a father, I'd make a home run for you; but you
+see I'm fairly well fixed. Here's my boss, too fine to talk about, that
+I work for to earn money to keep me and my family; there's Peter,
+better than gold, who's annexed both me and my child; there's Mr.
+Chaffner punching me up every time I see him about my job for him, soon
+as I finish school; I'd _like_ you for a father, only I'm crazy about
+Peter. Just you come and see _Peter_, and you'll understand----"
+
+"I'll be there soon," said Mr. Winton. "I have reasons for wanting to
+know him thoroughly. And by the way, how do you do, Douglas? How is the
+great investigation coming on? 'Fine!' I'm glad to hear it. Push it
+with all your might, and finish up so we can have a month on Atwater
+without coming back and forth. I feel as if I'd need about that much
+swimming to make me clean, as the young man here suggests; travelling
+over the west in midsummer is neither cool nor cleanly; but it's great,
+when things sell as ours did. Land seems to be moving, and there's
+money under the surface; nobody has lost so much, they are only
+economizing; we must do that ourselves, but Swain and I are both safe,
+so we shall enjoy a few years of work to recoup some pretty heavy
+losses; we're not worth what we were, but we are even, with a home
+base, the love of God big in our hearts, and doubly all right, since if
+we couldn't have righted ourselves, our friends would have saved us,
+thanks to this little live wire on my left!"
+
+"Oh Daddy, if you'd searched forever, you couldn't have found a better
+name for Mickey!" cried Leslie. "Come on Douglas let's go home and
+rest."
+
+"Just as soon as I write and start Mickey with a note," said Douglas.
+"Go ahead, I'll be down soon."
+
+He turned to his desk, wrote a few lines, and sealing them, handed the
+envelope to the waiting boy.
+
+"City Hall," he said. "And Mickey, I see the whole thing. It will take
+some time to figure just what I do owe you----"
+
+"Aw-a-ah g'wan!" broke in Mickey, backing away.
+
+"Mickey, we'll drive you to take the note, and then you come with us,"
+said Douglas.
+
+"Thanks, but it would try my nerve," said Mickey, "and I must help
+Peter move in the pump!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+_Mickey's Miracle_
+
+
+That night Mickey's voice, shrill in exuberant rejoicing, preceded him
+down the highway, so the Hardings, all busy working out their new plans
+for comfort, understood that something unusually joyous had happened.
+Peaches sat straighter in her big pillow-piled chair, leaned forward,
+and smilingly waited.
+
+"Ain't he happy soundin'?" she said to Mrs. Harding, who sat near her
+sewing. "I guess he has thought out the best po'try piece yet. Mebby
+this time it will be good enough for the first page of the _Herald_."
+
+"Young as he is, that's not likely," said the literal woman. "There's
+no manner of doubt in my mind but that he _can_ do great newspaper work
+when he finishes his education and makes his start; but I think Mr.
+Bruce will use all his influence to turn him toward law."
+
+"Mr. Douglas Bruce is a swell gentl'man," said Peaches, "and me and
+Mickey just loves him for his niceness to us; but we got _that_ all
+settled. Mickey is going to write the po'try piece for the first page
+of the _Herald_--that's our paper--and then we are going to make all my
+pieces into a bu'ful book, like I got it started here."
+
+Peaches picked up a small notebook, scrupulously kept, and lovingly
+glanced over the pages, on each of which she had induced Mickey to
+write in his plainest script one section of her nightly doggerel; and
+if he failed from the intense affairs of the day, she left a blank page
+for him to fill later. Taken together, the remainder of her possessions
+were as nothing to Peaches compared with that book. Not an hour of the
+day passed that it was not in her fingers, every line of it she knew by
+heart, and she learned more from it than all Mickey's other educational
+efforts. Peter scraped a piece of fine black walnut furniture free from
+the accumulated varnish of years, and ran an approving hand over the
+smooth dark surface, seasoned with long use. He smiled at her. She
+smiled back, falling into a little chant that had been on her lips much
+of the time of late: "You know, Peter! You know, Peter! We know
+somepin' we won't tell!"
+
+Peter nodded, beaming on her.
+
+"Just listen to that boy, Peter, he must be perfectly possessed!" said
+Nancy.
+
+"He didn't ever sound so glad before!" cried the child eagerly.
+
+Mickey came up the walk radiant. He divided a smile between Mrs.
+Harding and Peter, and bowed low before Peaches as he laid a package at
+her feet. Then he struck an attitude of exaggerated obeisance and
+recited:
+
+"_Days like this I'm tickled silly, When I see my August Lily. No other
+fellow, dude or gawk, Owns a flower that can laugh and talk._"
+
+Peaches immediately laughed; so did all of them.
+
+"Peter," asked Mickey, "were you ever so glad that you thought you
+would bust wide open?"
+
+"I was," said Peter; "I am this minute."
+
+"Would you mind specifying circumstances?"
+
+"Not a bit," said Peter. "First time was when Ma said she'd marry me,
+and I got my betrothal kiss; second, was the day she said she'd forgive
+my years of selfish dunderheadedness, and start over. Now you, Mickey,
+what's yours?"
+
+"The great investigation is over, so far as our commission goes,"
+answered Mickey. "Multiopolis isn't robbed where she was sure she was.
+Her accounts balance in the departments we've gone over. Nobody gets
+the slick face, the glass eye, the lawn mower on his cocoanut, or dons
+the candy suit from our work; but some folks I love had a near squeak,
+and I got a month vacation! Think of that, Miss Lily Peaches
+O'Halloran! Gee, let's get things fixed up here and have a party, to
+show the neighbouring gentlemen what's coming to them, before the
+weather gets so cold they won't have time to finish their jobs this
+fall. Some of them will squirm, but we don't care. Some of them will
+think they won't do it, but they _will_. Kiss me, Lily! Hug me tight,
+and let me go dig on the furnace foundation 'til I sweat this out of
+me."
+
+When the children were sleeping that night he sat on the veranda and
+told Mrs. Harding and Peter exactly what he thought wise to repeat of
+the day's experience and no more; so that when he finished, all they
+knew was that the investigation was over, so far as Mr. Bruce was
+concerned, Mickey had a vacation, and was a happy boy.
+
+As she came to dinner the next day, Mary laid a bundle of mail beside
+her father's plate. When he saw it, Peter, as was his custom, reached
+for the _Herald_ to read the war headlines. He opened the paper, gave
+it a shake, stared at it in amazement, scanned a few lines and
+muttered: "Well for the Lord's sake!"
+
+Then he glanced over the sheets at Mickey and back again. The family
+arose and hurried to a point of vantage at Peter's shoulder, while he
+spread the paper wide and held it high so that all of them could see.
+Enclosed in a small ruled space they read:
+
+_Sacred to the memory of the biggest scoop, That ever fell in Mister
+Chaffner's soup,
+  And was pitched by this nicest editor-man,
+  Where it belonged, in the garbage can,
+  To please his friend, Michael O'Halloran.
+Whoop fellers, whoop, for the drownded scoop, That departed this life
+in our Editor's soup!
+  All together boys, Scoop! Soup! Whoop!_
+
+They rushed at Mickey, shook hands, thumped, patted and praised him,
+when a wail arose to the point of reaching his consciousness.
+
+"Mickey, what?" cried Peaches.
+
+"Let me take it just a minute, Peter," said Mickey.
+
+"Wait a second," suggested Mrs. Harding, picking up a big roll that
+they had knocked to the floor. "This doesn't look like catalogues, and
+it's addressed to you. Likely they've sent you some of your own."
+
+"Now maybe Mr. Chaffner did," said Mickey, almost at the bursting
+point. "Course he is awful busy, the busiest man in the world, I
+expect, but he _might_ have sent me a copy of my poetry, since he used
+it."
+
+With shaking fingers he opened the roll, and there were several copies
+of the _Herald_ similar to the one Peter held, and on the top of one
+was scrawled in pencil: "Your place, your desk, and your salary are
+ready whenever you want to begin work. You can't come too soon to suit
+me.--CHAFFNER."
+
+Mickey read it aloud.
+
+"Gee!" he said. "I 'most wish I had education enough to begin right
+now. I'd _like_ it! I could just go _crazy_ about that job! Yes honey!
+Yes, I'm coming!"
+
+He caught up another paper, and hurried across the room, quietly but
+decidedly closing the door behind him, so when Mary started to follow,
+Junior interposed.
+
+"Better not, Molly," he said. "Mickey wants to be alone with his family
+for a few minutes. Say father, ain't there a good many newspaper men
+worked all their lives, and got no such show as that?"
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it," said Peter.
+
+"Mickey must have written that, and sent it in before he came home
+yesterday," said Mrs. Harding. "I call it pretty bright! I bet if the
+truth was told, something went wrong, and he was at the bottom of
+shutting it up. Don't you call that pretty bright, Pa?"
+
+"I guess I'm no fair judge," said Peter. "I'm that prejudiced in his
+favour that when he said, 'See the cat negotiate the rat' out in the
+barn, I thought it was smart."
+
+"Yes, and it was," commented Junior. "It's been funny for everybody to
+'negotiate' all sorts of things ever since that north pole business, so
+it was funny for the cat too. Father, do you think that note really
+means that Mr. Chaffner would give Mickey a place on his paper, and pay
+him right now?"
+
+"I don't know why Chaffner would write it out and sign his name to it
+if he _didn't_ mean it," said Peter.
+
+"You know he is full of stuff like that," said Junior. "He could do
+some every day about people other than Peaches if he wanted to. Father,
+ain't you glad he's in our family? Are you going to tell him to take
+that job if he asks you?"
+
+"No I ain't," said Peter. "He's too young, and not the book learning to
+do himself justice, while that place is too grown up and exciting for a
+boy of his nerve force. Don't you think, Nancy?"
+
+"Yes, I do, but you needn't worry," said Mrs. Harding. "Mickey knows
+that himself. Didn't you hear him say soon as he read it, that he
+hadn't the education yet? He's taken care of himself too long to spoil
+his life now, and he will see it; but I marvel at Chaffner. He ought to
+have known better. And among us, I wonder at Mickey. Where did he get
+it from?"
+
+"Easy!" said Peter. "From a God-fearing, intelligent mother, and an
+irresponsible Irish father, from inborn, ingrained sense of right, and
+a hand-to-hand scuffle with life in Multiopolis gutters. Mickey is all
+right, and thank God, he's _ours_ If he does show signs of wanting to
+go to the _Herald_ office, discourage him all you can, Ma; it wouldn't
+be good for him--yet."
+
+"No it wouldn't; but it would be because he needs solid study and
+school routine to settle him, and make him _great_ instead of a clown,
+as that would at his age. But if you think there is anything in the
+_Herald_ office that could _hurt_ Mickey, you got another think coming.
+It wouldn't hurt Mickey; but it would be mighty good for the rest of
+them. The _Herald_ has more honour and conscience than most; some of
+the papers are just disgraceful in what they publish, and then take
+back next day; while folks are forced to endure it. Sit up and eat your
+dinners now. I want to get on with my work."
+
+"Mickey, what happened?" begged Peaches as Mickey came in sight,
+carrying the papers.
+
+He was trembling and tensely excited as her sharp eyes could see. They
+rested probingly a second on him, then on the paper. Her lips tightened
+while her eyes darkened. She stretched out her hand.
+
+"Mickey, let me see!" she commanded.
+
+Mickey knelt beside her, spreading out the sheet. Then he took her
+hand, setting a finger on the first letter of his name and slowly moved
+along as she repeated the letters she knew best of all, then softly
+pronounced the name. She knew the _Herald_ too. She sat so straight
+Mickey was afraid she would strain her back, lifting her head "like a
+queen," if a queen lifts her head just as high as her neck can possibly
+stretch, and smiled a cold little smile of supreme self-satisfaction.
+
+"Now Mickey, go on and read what you wrote about _me_," her Highness
+commanded.
+
+The collapse of Mickey was sudden and complete. He stared at Peaches,
+at the paper, opened his lips, thought a lie and discarded it, shut his
+lips to pen the lie in for sure, and humbly and contritely waited, a
+silent candidate for mercy. Peaches had none. To her this was the
+logical outcome of what she had been led to expect. There was the
+paper. The paper was the _Herald_. There was the front page. There was
+Mickey's name. She had no conception of Mickey writing a line which did
+_not_ concern her; also he had expressly stated that all of them and
+the whole book were to be about her. She indicated the paper and his
+name, while the condescension of her waiting began to be touched with
+impatience.
+
+"Mickey, why don't you go on and read what it says about me?" she
+demanded.
+
+Mickey saw plainly what must be done. He gazed at her and suddenly, for
+the first time, a wave of something new and undefined rushed through
+him. This exquisitely delicate and beautiful little Highness, sitting
+so proudly straight, and so uncompromisingly demanding that he redeem
+his promises, made a double appeal to Mickey. Her Highness scared him
+until he was cold inside. He was afraid, and he knew it. He wanted to
+run, and he knew it; yet no band of steel could have held him as this
+bit of white femininity, beginning to glow a soft pink from slowly
+enriching blood, now held and forever would hold him, and best of all
+he knew that. It was in his heart to be a gentleman; there was nothing
+left save to be one now. He took both Peaches' hands, and began
+preparing her gently as was in his power for what had to come.
+
+"Yes, Flowersy-girl," he said, "I'll read it to you, but you won't
+understand 'til I tell you----"
+
+"I always understand," she said sweepingly.
+
+"You know how wild like I came home last night," explained Mickey.
+"Well, I had reason. Some folks who have been good to us, and that I
+love like we love Peter and Ma, had been in awful danger of something
+that would make them sore all their lives, and maybe I had some little
+part in putting it over, so it never touched them; anyway, they thought
+so, and I was tickled past all sense and reason about it. It was up to
+the editor of the _Herald_ to decide; and what he did, was what I
+begged him to. Course left to himself, he would a-done it anyway,
+_after he had time to think_----"
+
+"Mickey, read my po'try piece about me, an' then talk," urged Peaches.
+
+"Honey, you make me so sick I can't tell you."
+
+"Mickey, what's the matter?"
+
+Peaches' penetrating eyes were slowly changing to accusing. She drew a
+deep breath, giving him his first cold, unrelenting look.
+
+"Mister Michael O'Halloran," she said in incisive tones, "did you write
+a po'try piece for the first page of the _Herald, not_ about me?"
+
+"Well Miss Chicken," he cried, "I wish you wouldn't talk so much! I
+wish you'd let me _tell_ you."
+
+"I guess you ain't got anything to tell," said Peaches, folding her
+arms and tilting her chin so high Mickey feared she might topple
+backward.
+
+"I guess I have!" shouted Mickey. "_I_ didn't put that there! I didn't
+_mean_ it to _be_ there! If I'd a-put it there, and _meant_ it there,
+and knowed it would _be_ there, it would a-been about you, of course!
+Answer me this, Miss. Any single time did I ever _not_ do anything that
+I said I would?"
+
+"Nothing but this," admitted Peaches.
+
+"There you go again!" said Mickey. "I tell you I _didn't_ do _this_,
+and when I tell you, I tell true, Miss, get that in your system. If
+you'd let me explain how it was, you'd see that I didn't have a single
+thing to do with it."
+
+Peaches accomplished a shrug that was wonderful, and gazed at the
+ceiling, her lips closed. Mickey watched her a second, then he began
+softly: "Flowersy-girl, I don't see what you mean! I don't know why you
+act like this! I don't know what's to have a tantrum for, when I didn't
+_mean_ it to be there, and didn't _know_ it would be there. Honest, I
+don't!"
+
+"Go on an' read it!" she commanded.
+
+Mickey obeyed. As he finished she faced him in wonder.
+
+"Why they ain't a damn bit of sense to it!" she cried.
+
+"_Course_ there ain't!" agreed Mickey. "Course there _would be_ no
+sense to anything that wasn't about _you!_"
+
+"Then what did you put it there in my place for?"
+
+"I didn't! I'm trying to tell you!" persisted Mickey.
+
+Peaches shed one degree of royal hauteur. "Well why don't you go on an'
+tell, then?"
+
+"Aw-w-ah! Well if you don't maneuver to beat a monoplane! I've tried to
+tell you, and you won't _let_ me. If you stop me again, I'm going to
+march out of this room and stay 'til you bawl your eyes red for me."
+
+"If you go, I'll call Junior!" said Peaches instantly.
+
+"Well go on and call him!"
+
+He turned, his heart throbbing, his eyes burning with repressed tears,
+the big gulp in his throat audible to Peaches, as her little wail was
+to him. He whirled and dropping on his knees took her in his arms. She
+threw hers around his neck, buried her face against his cheek, and they
+cried it out together. At last she produced a bit of linen, and mopped
+Mickey's eyes and face, then her own. While still clinging to him she
+whispered: "Mickey, I'm jus' about _dead_ to have it be the _Herald_,
+an' the _front page_, an' _you_, an' _not_ about _me!_"
+
+"Flowersy-girl, I'm just as sorry as you are," said Mickey. "It was
+this way: I was just crazy over things our editor-man did, that saved
+our dear boss and the lovely Moonshine Lady who gave you your Precious
+Child and her 'darling old Daddy' from such awful trouble it would just
+a-killed them; honest it would Lily! When our editor-man was so great
+and nice, and did what he didn't _want_ to at all, I went sort of wild
+like, and when I was off for the day and got on the streets, everything
+pulled me his way. I was anxious just to see him again, and if I'd done
+what I wanted to, I'd a-gone in the _Herald_ office and knelt down, and
+said: 'Thank you, oh thank you!' and kissed his feet, but of course I
+knew men didn't do like that, and it would have shamed him, but I had
+to do something or bust, and I went running for the office like flying,
+and my mind got whirling around, and that stuff began to come.
+
+"I slipped in and back to his desk, like I may if I want to, and there
+he sat. He had a big white sheet just like this before it is printed,
+spread out, and a pencil in his fingers, and about a dozen of his best
+men were crowding 'round with what they had for the paper to-day. I've
+told you how they do it, often, and when I edged up some of the men saw
+me. They knew I had a pass to him, so they stepped back just as he
+said: 'Well boys, who's got some _big stuff_ to fill the space of our
+departed scoop?' That 'departed' word means lost, gone, and it's what
+they say about people when they--they go for good. Then he looked up to
+see who would speak first, and noticed me. 'Oh there is the little
+villain who scooped our scoop, right now,' he said. 'Let's make him
+fill the space he's cut us out of.' I thought it was a joke, but I
+wasn't going to have all that bunch of the swellest smarties who work
+for him put it clear over me; I've kidded back with my paper men too
+long for that; so I stepped back and shot it at him, that what's
+printed there, and when I got to the end and invited the fellows to
+'Whoop,' Lily, you could a-heard them a mile. I saw they was starting
+for me, so I just slung in a 'Thank you something awful, boss,' and
+ducked through and between, and cut for life; 'cause if they'd a-got
+me, I might a-been there yet. They are the _nicest_ men on earth, but
+they get a little keyed up sometimes, and a kid like me couldn't keep
+even. Now that's all there is to it, Lily, honest, cross my heart! I
+_didn't_ know they would put it there. I didn't know they thought it
+was _good_ enough. I wouldn't a-let them for the life of them, if I'd
+_known_ they was going to."
+
+"You jus' said it once, Mickey?" inquired Peaches.
+
+"Jus' once, Flowersy-girl, fast as I could rattle."
+
+"It's twice as long as mine ever are," she said. "I don't see how they
+'membered."
+
+"Oh that!" cried Mickey. "Why honey, that's easy! Those fellows jump on
+to a thing like chained lightning, and they got a way of writing that
+is just a lot of little twists and curls, but one means a whole
+sentence--they call it 'shorthand'--and doing that way, they can set
+down talk as fast as anybody can speak, and there were a dozen of them
+there with pencils and paper in their fingers. That wasn't anything for
+them!"
+
+"Mickey, are you going to learn to write that way?"
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "Before I go to the _Herald_ to take my desk, and
+my 'signment,' I've got to know, and you ought to know too; 'cause I
+always have to bring what I write to you first, to see if you like it."
+
+"Yes, if the mean old things don't go an' steal my place again, when
+you don't know it," protested Peaches.
+
+"Well, don't you fret about that," said Mickey. "They got away with me
+this time, but they won't ever again, 'cause I'll be on to their
+tricks. See? Now say you forgive me, and eat your dinner, 'cause it
+will be spoiled, and you must have a good rest, for there's going to be
+something lovely afterward. You ain't mad at me any more, Lily?"
+
+"No, I ain't mad at you, but I'm just so----"
+
+"Wope! wope!" cautioned Mickey.
+
+Peaches pulled away indignantly.
+
+"--so--so--so _estremely mad_ at those paper men! Mickey, I don't think
+I'll ever let you be a _Herald_ man at all if they're going to leave me
+out like that!"
+
+"What do you care about an old paper sold on the streets, and ground up
+for buckets, and used to start fires, anyway?" scoffed Mickey. "Why
+don't you sit up on the shelf in a nice pretty silk dress and be a book
+lady? I wouldn't be in the papers at all, if I were you."
+
+"No, an' I won't, either!" cried Peaches instantly. "Take the old paper
+an' put what you please in it. I shall have all about _me_ in the nice
+silky covered book on the shelf; so there, you needn't try to make me
+do anything else, 'cause I shan't ever!"
+
+"Course you shan't!" agreed Mickey.
+
+He went back to the dinner table to find the family finished and gone.
+He carried what had been left for him to the back porch, and eating
+hastily began helping to get things in place. As always he went to Mrs.
+Harding for orders. She was a little woman, so very like his mother in
+size, colouring, speech, and manner, that Mickey could almost forget
+she was not truly his, when every hour she made him feel her motherly
+kindness; so from early habit it was natural with him to seek her
+first, and do what he could to assist her before he attempted anything
+else. All the help Peter had from him came when he found no more to do
+for Mrs. Harding. As he washed the dishes while she sat sewing for the
+renovation of the house, he said to her: "When you dress Lily for this
+afternoon I wish you'd make her just as pretty as you can, and put her
+very nicest dress on her."
+
+"Why Mickey, is some one coming?" she asked.
+
+"I don't know," said Mickey, "but I have a hunch that my boss, and Miss
+Leslie, and her father may be out this afternoon. They have been
+talking about it a long time, but I kept making every excuse I could
+think up to keep them away."
+
+"Why, Mickey?" asked Mrs. Harding, looking at him intently. She paused
+in her sewing, running the needle slowly across the curtain material.
+
+"Well, for a lot of reasons," said Mickey. "A fellow of my size doesn't
+often tackle a family, and when he does, if he's going to be square
+about it, he has got to do a lot of _thinking_. One thing was that it's
+hard for me to get Lily out my head like I first saw her. I guess I
+couldn't tell you so you'd get a fair idea of how dark, dirty, alone,
+and little, and miserable she was. Just with all my heart I was ashamed
+of her folks, and sick sorry for her; but I can't bear for anybody else
+to be! I didn't want any of them to see her 'til she was fed, and
+fatted up a lot, and trained 'til how nice she really is shows plain.
+It just hurt me to think of it."
+
+"Um-m-uh!" agreed Mrs. Harding, differing emotions showing on her face.
+"I see, Mickey."
+
+"Then," continued Mickey, "I'm sticking sore and mean on one point. I
+_did_ find her! She _is_ mine! I _am_ going to keep her! Nobody in all
+this world takes her, nor God in Heaven!"
+
+"Mickey, be careful what you say," she cautioned.
+
+"I don't mean anything wicked," explained Mickey. "I'm just telling you
+that nobody on earth can have her, and I'd fight 'til I'd die with her,
+before even Heaven gets her. I don't mean anything ugly about it. I'm
+just telling you friendly like, how I _feel_ about her."
+
+"I see Mickey," said Mrs. Harding. "Go on!"
+
+"Well, lots of reasons," said Mickey. "She wasn't used to folks, so
+they scared her. She was crazy with fear about the Orphings' Home
+getting her, while I wasn't any too sure myself. I flagged one Swell
+Dame, and like to got caught in a trap and lost her. Then my Sunshine
+Nurse helped me all I needed; so not knowing how much women were alike,
+I didn't care to go rushing in a lot on Lily just to find out. She was
+a little too precious to experiment with.
+
+"That Home business has been a big, grinning, 'Get-you-any-minute
+devil,' peeping 'round the corner at me ever since mother went. I could
+dodge him for myself, but I couldn't take any _risks_ for Lily. _These
+Orphings' Homes ain't no place for children_. 'Stead of the law
+building them, and penning the little souls starving for home and love
+in them, what it _should_ do is to make people who pay the money to run
+them, take the children in their _own homes_ and love and raise them
+_personal_. If every family in the world that has no children would
+take two, and them that has would take just one, all the Orphings'
+Homes would make good hospitals and schools; while the orphings would
+be fixed like Lily and I are. Course I know all folks ain't the same as
+you and Peter; but in the long run, children are _safer in homes_ than
+they are in _squads_. 'Most any kind of a home beats no home at all.
+You can stake your liberty-birds on that."
+
+"You surely can," agreed Mrs. Harding.
+
+"You just bet," persisted Mickey. "When I didn't know what they would
+do, I didn't want them pestering 'round, maybe to ruin everything; and
+when I _did_, I didn't want them any more, 'cause then I saw their idea
+would be to take her themselves, and in one day they would a-made all I
+could do look like thirty cents. She was mine, and what she had with me
+was so much better than what she would a-had without me, or if the law
+got her, that I thought she was doing well enough. I see now she could
+a-had more; but I thought then it was all right!"
+
+"Now Mickey, don't begin that," said Mrs. Harding. "What you did was to
+find her, and without a doubt, save her life; at least if you didn't,
+you landed her in a fairly decent home where all of us will help you do
+_what you think best for her;_ and there's small question but we can
+beat any Orphans' Home yet in existence. And as for the condition in
+which I found her, it _was_ growing warm in that room, but I'll face
+any court in the universe and swear I never saw a cleaner child, or one
+in better condition for what you had to begin on. The Almighty Himself
+couldn't have covered those awful bones with flesh and muscle, and
+smoothed the bed sores and scars from that little body; and gone much
+faster training her right, unless He was going back to miracles again.
+As far as miracles are concerned, I think from what you tell me, and
+what the child's condition proves, that you have performed the miracle
+yourself. To the day of my death I'll honour, respect, and love you,
+Mickey, for the way in which you've done it. I've yet to see a woman
+who could have done better, so I want you to know it."
+
+"I don't know the right words to say to you and Peter."
+
+"Never mind that," said Mrs. Harding. "We owe you quite as much, and
+something we are equally as thankful for. It's an even break with us,
+Mickey, and no talk of obligations on either side. We prize Junior as
+he is just now, fully as much as you do anything you've gained."
+
+Mickey polished the plates and studied Mrs. Harding. Then he spoke
+again: "There's one more obligation I'm just itching to owe you."
+
+"Tell me about it, Mickey," she said.
+
+"Well right in line with what we been talking of," said Mickey. "Just
+suppose a big car comes chuffing up here this afternoon, like I have a
+hunch it will, and all those nice folks so polite and beautifully
+dressed come to see us, I know you are busy, but I'll work afterward to
+pay back, if you and Peter will dust up a little--course I know the
+upset fix we are in; but just glorify a trifle, and lay off and _keep
+right on the job without a second of letting up_, 'til they are gone.
+See?"
+
+"You mean you don't want to be left _alone_ with them?"
+
+"You get me!" cried Mickey. "You get me clearly. I don't want to be
+left alone with them, for them to put ideas in Lily's head about a
+nicer car than ours, and a bigger house, and finer dolls and dresses,
+and going to the city to stay with them on visits; or me going to live
+with Mr. Winton, to be the son he should have found for himself long
+ago. I guess I have Lily sized up about as close as the next one; and
+she has got all that is _good_ for her, right now. She'd make the worst
+spoiled kid you ever saw if she had half a chance. What she needs to
+make a grand woman of her, like you and mother, is clean air, quiet,
+good food like she's got here, with bone as well as muscle in it; and
+just enough lessons and child play with children to keep her brains
+going as fast as her body, and no silly pampering to make her foolish
+and disagreeable. I know how little and sick she is, but she shan't use
+it for capital to spoil her whole life. See?"
+
+"'Through a glass darkly,'" quoted Mrs. Harding laughing. "Oh Mickey, I
+didn't think it of you. You're deeper than the well."
+
+"That's all right," said Mickey, his face flushing. "Often I hear you
+say 'let good enough alone.' My sentiments exact. Lily is fine, and so
+am I. Let us alone! If you and Peter will do me the 'cap-sheaf favour,
+as he would say, you'll dust up and _spunk_ up, and the very first hint
+that comes--'cause it's coming--at the very first hint of how Miss
+Leslie would love to take care of the dear little darling awhile, smash
+down with the nix! _Smash like sixty!_ Keep your eyes and ears open,
+and if you could, dearest lady, beat them to it: I'd be tickled silly
+if you manage _that_. If you could only tell them how careful she has
+to be handled, and taken care of, and how strangers and many around
+would be bad for her----"
+
+"Mickey, the minute they see the shape things are in here, it will give
+them the chance they are after, so they will begin that very thing,"
+she said.
+
+"I know it," conceded Mickey. "That's why I'd put them off if I could,
+'til we were fixed and quiet again. But at _that_, their chance isn't
+so grand. This isn't worrying Lily any. She saw all of it happen, she
+knows what's going on. What I want, dearest lady, is for you to get on
+the job, and spunk up to them, just like you did about Junior going
+away. I didn't think you'd get through with that, and I know Peter
+didn't; but you _did_, fine! Now if you and Peter would have a little
+private understanding and engineer this visit that I scent in the air,
+so that when you see they are going to offer pressing invitations to
+take Lily, and to take me, and put me at work that I wasn't born to do;
+if you'd only have a receiver out, and when your wires warn you what's
+coming down the line, first and beforehand, _calm_ and _plain_, fix
+things so the nix wouldn't even be needed; do you get me, dearest
+Mother Harding, do you see?"
+
+"That I do!" said Mrs. Harding rising abruptly. "I'll go and speak to
+Peter at once, then we'll shift these workmen back, and quiet them as
+much as we can. I'll slip on a fresh dress, and put some buttermilk in
+the well, and fix Peaches right away, if she's finished her nap----"
+
+Mrs. Harding's voice trailed back telling what she would do as she
+hastened to Peter. Mickey, with anxious heart, helped all he could,
+washed, slipped on a fresh shirt, and watched the process of adjusting
+Peaches' hair ribbon.
+
+"Now understand, I don't _know_ they're coming," he said. "I just
+_think_ they will."
+
+Because he thought so, for an hour the Harding premises wore a
+noticeable air of expectation. All the family were clean and purposely
+keeping so; but the waiting was long, while work was piled high in any
+direction. Peaches started the return to normal conditions by calling
+for her slate, and beginning to copy her lesson. Mary with many
+promises not to scatter her scraps, sat beside the couch, cutting
+bright pictures from the papers. Mickey grew restless and began
+breaking up the remains of packing cases, while Junior went after the
+wheelbarrow. Mrs. Harding brought out her sewing, and Peter went back
+to scraping black walnut furniture. Mickey passed him on an errand to
+the kitchen and asked anxiously: "Did she tell you?"
+
+"Yes," said Peter.
+
+"Will you make it a plain case of 'nobody home! nobody home?'"
+questioned Mickey.
+
+"I will!" said Peter emphatically.
+
+Being busy, the big car ran to the gate before they saw it coming.
+Leslie Winton and Douglas Bruce came up the walk together, while Mr.
+Winton and Mrs. Minturn waited in the car, in accordance with a
+suggestion from Douglas that the little sick girl must not see too many
+strange people at once. Mickey went to meet them, and Peaches watching,
+half in fear and wholly in pride, saw Douglas Bruce shake his hand
+until she frowned lest it hurt, clap him on the back, and cry: "Oh but
+I'm proud of you! Say that was great!"
+
+Leslie purposely dressed to emphasize her beauty, slipped an arm across
+his shoulders and drawing him to her kissed his brow.
+
+"Our poet!" she said. "Oh Mickey, hurry! I'm so eager to hear the ones
+in the book Douglas tells me you are making! Won't you please read them
+to us?"
+
+Mickey smiled as he led the way. "Just nonsense stuff for Lily," he
+said. "Nothing but fooling, only the prayer one, and maybe two others."
+
+An abrupt movement from Peaches as they advanced made Mrs. Harding
+glance her way in time to see the first wave of deep colour that ever
+had flooded the child's white face, come creeping up her neck and begin
+tinging her cheeks, even her forehead. With a swift movement she
+snatched her poetry book, which always lay with her slate and primer,
+thrusting it under her pillow; when she saw Mrs. Harding watching her
+she tilted her head and pursed her lips in scorn: "'Our!'" she
+mimicked. "'Our!' Wonder whose she thinks he is? Nix on her!"
+
+Mrs. Harding, caught surprisedly, struggled to suppress a laugh as she
+turned to meet her guests. Mickey noticed this. He made his
+introductions, and swiftly thrust Peaches' Precious Child into her
+arms, warning in a whisper: "_You be careful, Miss!_"
+
+Peaches needed the reminder. She loved the doll. She had been drilled
+so often on the thanks she was to tender for it, that with it in her
+fingers she thought of nothing else, so her smile as Leslie approached
+was lovely. She held out her hand and before Mickey could speak
+announced: "Jus' as glad to see you! Thank you ever so much for my
+Precious Child!"
+
+Nothing more was necessary. Leslie was captivated and would scarcely
+make way for Douglas to offer his greeting. Mary ran to call her
+father, while the visitors seated themselves to say the customary
+polite things; but each of them watched a tiny white-clad creature,
+with pink ribbons to match the colour in a flawless little face,
+rounded to the point of delicate beauty, overshadowed by a shower of
+gold curls, having red lips and lighted by a pair of big, blue-gray
+eyes with long dark lashes. When Mrs. Harding saw both visitors look so
+intently at Peaches, and intercepted their glance of admiration toward
+each other, she looked again herself, and then once more.
+
+Peaches spoke imperiously. "Mickey-lovest, come here and bend down your
+head."
+
+Mickey slipped behind Douglas' chair, knelt on one knee, and leaned to
+see what Peaches desired of him. She drew her hankerchief from her
+waist ribbon, rubbed it across his forehead, looked at the spot with
+frowning intentness, rubbed again, and then dropping the handkerchief,
+laid a hand on each side of his head, bent it to her and kissed the
+spot fervently; then she looked him in the eyes and said with
+solicitous but engaging sweetness: "_Mickey, I do wish you would be
+more careful what you get on your face!_"
+
+Mickey drew back thrilled with delight, but extremely embarrassed.
+"Aw-a-ah you fool little kid!" he muttered, and could not look at his
+friends.
+
+Watching, Douglas almost shouted, while the flush deepened on Miss
+Winton's cheeks. Peter began talking to help the situation, so all of
+them joined in.
+
+"You are making improvements that look very interesting around here,"
+said Douglas to Mrs. Harding.
+
+"We are doing our level best to evolve a sanitary, modern home for all
+of us, and to set an example for our neighbours," she said quietly. "We
+always got along very well as we were, but lately, we have found we
+could have things much more convenient, and when God gave us two more
+dear children, we needed room for them, and comforts and appliances to
+take care of our little new daughter right. When we got started, one
+thing led to another until we are pretty well torn up; but we've saved
+the best place for her, and the worst is over."
+
+"Yes we are on the finish now," said Peter.
+
+"I did think of taking her and going to my sister's," continued Mrs.
+Harding, "but Peaches isn't accustomed to meeting people, while Mickey
+and I both thought being among strangers and changing beds and food
+would be worse for her than the annoyance of remodelling; then too, I
+wanted very much to see the work here done as I desired. At first I was
+doubtful about keeping her, but she doesn't mind in the least; she even
+takes her afternoon naps with hammers pounding not so far from her----"
+
+"Gee, there is no noise and jar here to compare with Multiopolis," said
+Mickey. "She's all right, getting stronger every day."
+
+Peaches spread both hands, looking at them critically, back and palm.
+
+"They are better," she said. "You ought to seen them when they was so
+clawy they made Mickey shiver if I touched him; and first time I wanted
+to kiss something or go like granny did, he wouldn't let me 'til I
+cried, an' then he made me put it on his forehead long time, 'til I got
+so the bones didn't scratch him; didn't you Mickey?"
+
+"Well I wish you wouldn't tell everything!"
+
+"Then I won't," said Peaches, "'cause _I'm_ your fam'ly, an' I must do
+what _you_ say; an' _you_ are _my_ fam'ly, an' you must do what _I_
+say. Are you a fam'ly?" she questioned Leslie and Douglas.
+
+"We hope to be soon," laughed Leslie.
+
+"Then," said Peaches, "you can look how we're fixing our house so you
+can make yours nice as this. Mickey, I want to show that pretty lady in
+the auto'bile my Precious Child."
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I'll go tell her. And the man with her is Miss
+Leslie's father, just like Peter is ours; you want to show him the
+Child, don't you?"
+
+"Maybe!" said Peaches with a tantalizing smirk.
+
+"Miss Chicken, you're getting well too fast," commented Mickey in
+amazement as he started to the car.
+
+Because of what Mr. Winton had said to him the previous day, he
+composed and delivered this greeting when he reached it: "Lily is
+asking to show you her Precious Child, Mrs. Minturn, and I want both of
+you to see our home, and meet our new father and mother. Letting us
+have them is one thing the law does that makes up a little for the
+Orphings' Homes most kids get who have had the bad luck to lose their
+own folks."
+
+"Mickey, are you prejudiced against Orphans' Homes?" asked Mrs. Minturn
+as she stepped from the car.
+
+"Ain't no name for it," said Mickey. "I'm dead against bunching
+children in squads. If rich folks want to do something worth while with
+their money, they can do it by each family taking as many orphings as
+they can afford, and raising them personal. See?"
+
+"I should say I do!" exclaimed the lady. "I must speak to James about
+that. We have two of our own, and William, but I believe we could
+manage a few more."
+
+"I know one I'd like very much to try," said Mr. Winton, but Mickey
+never appeared so unconscious.
+
+He managed his introductions very well, while again Peaches justified
+her appellation by being temptingly sweet and conspicuously acid. When
+Mickey reached Peter in his round of making friends acquainted, he slid
+his arm through that of the big man and said smilingly: "Nobody is
+going to mix me with Peter's son by blood--see what a fine chap Junior
+is; but Peter and I fixed up my sonship with the Almighty, whom my
+Peter didn't deny, when he took me in, and with the judge of the
+Multiopolis courts; so even if it doesn't show on the outside, I
+belong, don't I?"
+
+Peter threw his left arm around Mickey even as he shook hands with his
+right: "You surely do," he said, "by law and by love, to the bottom of
+all our hearts."
+
+The visit was a notable success. The buttermilk was cold, the spice
+cake was fresh, the apples and peaches were juicy, the improvements
+highly commendable. Peter was asked if he would consider a membership
+in the Golf Club, the playhouse was discussed, and three hours later a
+group of warm friends parted, with the agreement that Mickey was to
+spend a day of the latter part of the week fishing on Atwater. The
+Hardings smiled broadly. "Well son, did we manage that to your
+satisfaction?" asked Peter.
+
+"Sure!" said Mickey. "I might have been mistaken in what half of that
+trip was for, but I think not."
+
+"So do I," said Mrs. Harding emphatically. "They were just itching to
+get their fingers on Peaches; while Bruce and Mr. Winton both were
+chagrined over our getting you first."
+
+"We feel bad about that too, don't we, Peter?" laughed Mickey.
+
+"Well, I would," said Peter, "if it were the other way around. I didn't
+mind the young fellow. You'll be with him every day, and he'll soon
+have boys of his own no doubt; but I feel sorry for Mr. Winton. He
+looks hungry when he watches you. He could work you into his business
+fine."
+
+"He's all right, he's a nice man," said Mickey, "but I've lived off the
+_Herald_ all my life 'til this summer, so when school is over I go
+straight to Mr. Chaffner."
+
+The Winton car ran to the club house; sitting in a group, the occupants
+looked at each other rather foolishly.
+
+"Seems to me you were going to bring Peaches right along, if you liked
+her, Leslie," laughed Douglas.
+
+"The little vixen!" she said flushing.
+
+"Sorry you didn't care for her," he commented.
+
+"It is a pity!" said Leslie. "But I didn't 'miss bringing her along'
+any farther than Mrs. Minturn missed taking her to the hospital to be
+examined and treated!"
+
+"I'll have to go again about that," said Mrs. Minturn. "I just couldn't
+seem to get at it, someway."
+
+"No, you 'just couldn't seem to,'" agreed Douglas. "And Mr. Winton
+'just couldn't seem to' lay covetous hands on Mickey, and bear him away
+to be his assistant any more than I could force him to be my Little
+Brother. I hope all of us have a realizing sense that we are permitted
+to be good and loyal friends; but we will kindly leave Mickey to make
+his own arrangements, and work out his own salvation, and that of his
+child. And Leslie, I didn't hear you offering to buy any of the quaint
+dishes and old furniture you hoped you might pick up there, either."
+
+"Heavens!" cried Leslie half tearfully. "How would any one go about
+offering to buy an old platter that was wrapped in a silk shawl and
+kept in the dresser drawer during repairs, or ask a man to set a price
+on old furniture, when he was scraping off the varnish of generations,
+and showing you wood grain and colouring with the pride of a veteran
+collector? I feel so silly! Let's play off our chagrin, and then we'll
+be in condition for friendship which is the part that falls to us, if I
+understand Mickey."
+
+"Well considering the taste I've had of the quality of his friendship,
+I hope you won't be surprised at the statement that I feel highly
+honoured," said Mr. Winton, leading the way, while the others
+thoughtfully followed.
+
+With four days' work the Harding home began to show what was being
+accomplished. The song of the housewife carried to the highway.
+Neighbours passing went home to silent, overworked drudges, and
+critically examined for the first time stuffy, dark kitchens, reeking
+with steam, heat, and the odour of cooking and decorated with the grime
+of years. The little leaven of one home in the neighbourhood, as all
+homes should be, set them thinking. A week had not passed until people
+began calling Mrs. Harding to the telephone to explain just what she
+was doing, and why. Men would stop to ask Peter what was going on, so
+every time he caught a victim, he never released him until the man saw
+sunrise above a kitchen table, a line in the basement for a winter
+wash, kitchen implements from a pot scraper and food pusher to a gas
+range and electric washing machine, with a furnace and hardwood floors
+thrown in. Soon the rip of shovelled shingles, the sound of sawing, and
+the ring of hammers filled the air.
+
+The Harding improvements improved so fast, that sand, cement, and the
+big pile of lumber began accumulating at Peter's corner of the
+crossroads below the home, for the playhouse. Men who started by
+calling Peter a fool, ended by borrowing his plans and belabouring
+themselves for their foolishness; for the neighbourhood was awakening
+and beginning to develop a settled conviction as to what constituted
+the joy of life, and that the place to enjoy it was at home, and the
+time immediately. Peter's reward was not only in renewed happiness for
+himself and Nancy; equal to it was his pleasure over the same renewal
+for many of his lifelong friends.
+
+Mickey started on his day to Atwater with joyful anticipation, but he
+jumped from Douglas' car and ran up the Harding front walk at three
+o'clock, his face anxious. He saw the Harding car at the gate, and
+wondered at Peter sitting dressed for leisure on the veranda.
+
+"Got anxious about Lily," he explained. "Out on the lake I thought I
+heard her call me, then I had the notion she was crying for me. They
+laughed at me, but I couldn't stand it. Is she asleep, as they said
+she'd be?"
+
+Peter opened his lips, but no word came. Mickey slowly turned a ghastly
+white. Peter reached in his side pocket, drew out a letter, and handed
+it to the boy. Mickey pulled the sheet from the envelope, still staring
+at Peter, then glanced at what he held and collapsed on the step. Peter
+moved beside him, laid a steadying arm across his shoulders and proved
+his fear was as great as Mickey's by being unable to speak. At last the
+boy produced articulate words.
+
+"_He came?_" he marvelled.
+
+"About ten this morning," said Peter.
+
+"He took her to the hospital?" panted Mickey.
+
+"Yes," said Peter.
+
+"Why did you let him?" demanded Mickey.
+
+That helped Peter. He indicated the letter.
+
+"There's your call for him!" he said, emphatically. "You asked me to
+adopt her so I could give him orders to go ahead when he came."
+
+"Why didn't you telephone me?" asked Mickey.
+
+"I did," said Peter. "The woman who answered didn't know where you
+were, but she said their car had gone to town, so I thought maybe
+they'd find you there. I was just going to call them again."
+
+"Was she afraid?" wavered Mickey.
+
+"Yes, I think she was," said Peter.
+
+"Did she cry for me?" asked Mickey.
+
+"Yes she did," admitted Peter, who hadn't a social lie in his being,
+"but when he offered to put off the examination till he might come
+again, she climbed from the cot and made him take her. Ma went with
+her."
+
+"The Sunshine Nurse came?" questioned Mickey.
+
+"Yes," said Peter, "and Mrs. Minturn. She sent for him to see about an
+operation on a child she is trying to save, so when it was over, he
+showed her your letter. She brought them out in her car, and Ma went
+back with them."
+
+"She may be on that glass table right now," gulped Mickey. "What time
+is it? When's the next car? Run me to the station will you, and if
+you've got any money, let me have it 'til I get to mine."
+
+"Of course!" said Peter.
+
+"Will Junior and Mary be all right?" asked Mickey, pausing in his
+extremity to think of others.
+
+"Yes, they often stay while we go."
+
+"Hurry!" begged Mickey.
+
+Peter took hold of the gear and faced straight ahead.
+
+"She's oiled, the tank full, the engine purring like a kitten," he
+said. "Mickey, I always wanted to beat that trolley just once, to show
+it I _could_, if I wasn't loaded with women and children. Awful nice
+road----"
+
+"Go on!" said Mickey.
+
+Peter smiled, sliding across the starter.
+
+"Sit tight!" he said tersely.
+
+The big car slipped up the road no faster than it had gone frequently,
+passed the station, then on and on; Mickey twisted to look back at the
+rattle of the trolley stopping behind them, watching it with wishful
+eye. Peter opened his lips to say: "Just warmed up enough, and an even
+start!"
+
+The trolley came abreast and whistled. Peter blew his horn, glancing
+that way with a little "come on" forward jerk of his head. The motorman
+nodded, touched his gear and the car started. Peter laid prideful,
+loving hands on his machinery; for the first time with legitimate
+racing excuse, as he long had wished to, he tried out his engine.
+Mickey could see the faces of the protesting passengers and the
+conductor grinning in the door, but Peter could not have heard if he
+had tried to tell him. Flying it was, smooth and even, past fields,
+orchards, and houses; past people who cried out at them and shook their
+fists. Mickey looked at Peter and registered for life each line of his
+big frame and lineament of his face, as he gripped the gear and put his
+car over the highway. When they reached the pavement, Mickey touched
+Peter's arm. "Won't make anything by getting arrested," he cautioned.
+
+"No police for blocks yet," said Peter.
+
+"Well there's risk of life and damage suit at each crossing!" shouted
+Mickey, so Peter slowed a degree; but he was miles ahead of all
+regulations as he stopped before the gleaming entrance. Mickey sprang
+from the car and hurried up the steps. Mrs. Minturn arose from a seat
+and came to meet him.
+
+"Take me to her quick!" begged Mickey.
+
+Silently she led the way to her suite in her old home, and opened the
+door. Mickey had a glimpse of Mrs. Harding, his Sunshine Nurse, and
+three men, one of whom he recognized from reproductions of his features
+in the papers. A very white, tired-looking Peaches stretched both hands
+and uttered a shrill cry as Mickey appeared in the doorway. His answer
+was inarticulate while his arms spread widely. Then Peaches arose, and
+in a few shuffling but sustained steps fell on his breast, gripping him
+with all her strength.
+
+"Oh darling, you'll kill yourself," wailed Mickey.
+
+He laid her on the davenport and knelt clasping her. Peaches regained
+self-control first; she sat up, shamelessly wiping Mickey's eyes and
+her own alternately.
+
+"Flowersy-girl, did you hurt yourself awful?"
+
+"I know something I won't tell," chanted Peaches, as she had been doing
+for days.
+
+Mickey looked at her, then up at Peter, who had entered and come to
+them.
+
+"_Did you?_" eagerly asked Peter of the child.
+
+Peaches nodded proudly. "To meet Mickey," she triumphed. "I wouldn't
+for anybody else _first! The longest piece yet! And it didn't hurt and
+I didn't fall!_"
+
+"Good!" shouted Peter. "That's the ticket!"
+
+"You look here Miss Chicken, what do you mean?" cried Mickey
+wonderingly.
+
+"Oh the Doctor Carrel man you sent for, came," explained Peaches, "and
+you wasn't there, but he had your name on the letter you wrote; he
+showed me, so I came and let him examination me; but Peter and I been
+standing alone, and taking steps when nobody was looking. You've
+surprised me joyful so much, it takes one as big as that to pay you
+back."
+
+Mickey clung to his treasure, while turning to Peter an awed,
+questioning face.
+
+"That's it!" said Peter. "She's been on her feet for ten days or such a
+matter!"
+
+Mickey appealed to Dr. Carrel. "How about this?" he demanded.
+
+"She's going to walk," said the great man assuringly.
+
+"It's all over? You've performed your miracle?" asked Mickey.
+
+"Yes," said Dr. Carrel. "It's all over, Mickey; but you had the miracle
+performed before I saw her, lad."
+
+Mickey retreated to Peaches' neck again, while she smiled over and
+comforted him.
+
+"Mickey, I knew you'd be crazy," she said. "I knew you'd be glad, but I
+didn't know you could be so----"
+
+Mickey took her in his arms a second, then slowly recovered his feet
+and a small amount of self-possession. Again he turned to the surgeons.
+
+"_Are you sure?_ Will it hurt her? Will it last?"
+
+"Very sure," said Dr. Carrel. "Calm yourself, lad. Her case is not so
+unusual; only more aggravated than usual. I've examined her from crown
+to sole, and she's straight and sound. You have started her permanent
+cure; all you need is to keep on exactly as you are going, and limit
+her activities so that in her joy she doesn't overdo and tire herself.
+You are her doctor. I congratulate you!"
+
+Dr. Carrel came forward, holding out his hand, and Mickey took it with
+the one of his that was not gripping Peaches and said, "Aw-a-ah!" but
+he was a radiant boy.
+
+"Thank you sir," he said. "Thank everybody. But thank you especial,
+over and over. I don't know how I'll ever square up with you, but I'll
+pay you all I have to start on. I've some money I've saved from my
+wages, and I'll be working harder and earning more all the time."
+
+"But Mickey," protested the surgeon, "you don't owe me anything. I
+didn't operate! You had the work done before I arrived. I would have
+come sooner, but I knew she couldn't be operated, even if her case
+demanded it, until she had gained more strength----"
+
+He was watching Mickey's face and he read aright, so he continued: "I
+like that suggestion you made in your letter very much. Something
+'coming in steadily' is a good thing for any man to have. For the next
+three months, suppose you send me that two dollars a week you offered
+me if I'd come. How would that be?"
+
+Mickey gathered Peaches in his arms and looked over his shoulder as he
+started on the homeward trip.
+
+"Thank you sir," he said tersely. "That would be square."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Michael O'Halloran, by Gene Stratton-Porter
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