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diff --git a/old/7mcoh10.txt b/old/7mcoh10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..123f8d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7mcoh10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17206 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Michael O'Halloran, by Gene Stratton-Porter +#10 in our series by Gene Stratton-Porter + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Michael O'Halloran + +Author: Gene Stratton-Porter + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9489] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE 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 '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 + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MICHAEL O'HALLORAN *** + +This file should be named 7mcoh10.txt or 7mcoh10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7mcoh11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7mcoh10a.txt + +Produced by Brendan Lane, Richard Prairie and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Michael O'Halloran + +Author: Gene Stratton-Porter + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9489] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE 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 café 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 café?" "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 +café 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 régime 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 café, 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 cafés 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 café, 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 régime, 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 +protégé 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 '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 + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MICHAEL O'HALLORAN *** + +This file should be named 8mcoh10.txt or 8mcoh10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8mcoh11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8mcoh10a.txt + +Produced by Brendan Lane, Richard Prairie and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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