Emma C. Dowd

“ This was a long task, for nearly every one of Blue’s acquaintance had given his name to the Salvation Army Sergeant, and the few not on the list had early been engaged as substitutes. But a free lad was finally discovered, and Blue, who had been tormented by spasms of fear lest he might have to remain to serve his customers himself, ran home on nimble feet to tell the good news. He carried joy, also, in the shape of two magic slips of pink cardboard,—passports to the wonderful automobile rides, eight hours in the enchanting country, and a dinner of dainties topped with ice cream. ”

“ Doodles agreed.
“Oh, dear,” she fretted, half chuckling, “what children you are!” She sat down and ate what Blue ladled out for her—she did not know whether it was much or little, her mind was too distracted and her eyes too misty. But the boy knew, and felt that he could better go hungry than his mother.
Mrs. Stickney went out early on her forlorn errand, her heart full of prayer for work. If nothing could be obtained to-day, she must try to get a little more credit at the market—enough to bridge over this crisis. After that—well, perhaps the strike would end! ”

“ The last dish was finally empty, and Doodles looked up with a seraphic smile.
“When I’m a man,” he said, “I’m going to save my money and give ice cream every day to all the folks that can’t have any!”
“Like it?” queried Blue, with a mischievous lift of his eyebrows.
“It’s the best thing to eat in the whole world! Why,” he went on solemnly, “I wouldn’t have missed mine for—fifty cents!” The afternoon’s delights were many and marvelous. ”

“ The flickering lights seemed to inspire Caruso to a song, for he broke the stillness with a few startling notes. The boy hushed him at once, whereupon he retreated to the farther end of his perch, mopish as a reproved child.
Light feet came running along the hall, and Daphne appeared.
“Will you come upstairs? Mother is not at home, but Eudora would like to hear the bird. Wasn’t he singing a minute ago?”
“Yes,” nodded Blue. “I shut him up as quick as I could,” he added apologetically.
“Why did you?” was the surprised query. ”

“ Down on the sidewalk Fitzpatrick cast a look into the cage. Caruso, huddled up on his lowest perch, was a forlorn bunch of feathers.
“What kind of bird is it?”
“Do’ know what he is; nobody seems to know.”
“Looks some like a mockin’-bird.”
“That’s what Dolly Rose said,” agreed Blue.
“What ails his wing?—broke?”
“I do’ know. It’s always been bad; but it hangs down worse ’n ever.” The boy scowled anxiously at it, thinking of Doodles.
“You ought to have it fixed,” counseled the big man, “and I know who can do it for you—that’s Sandy Gillespie. ”

“ It was little more than a breath, but Tom caught it, and glanced down with the hint of a smile as he recognized Blue Stickney.
“Sure! Blow my whistle!” was the quick answer, in a tone to match the query. With a deft motion, the little instrument was in the boy’s hand.
Thomas Fitzpatrick’s whistle! Blue could scarcely comprehend the truth. For the joy of this moment he would have braved greater dangers than the present. Only a few days ago—or so it seemed—the kindly officer had explained the uses of his whistle, telling over his various signals. Blue remembered them every one. ”

“ Her dark blue eyes shone softly.
“My friend, Mr. Selden, is abroad,” she said in a low voice; “but he ought to know about Jacky at once. He will be glad—oh, so glad!—that he is safe. He loves Jacky!”
“But it’s my brother’s bird,” Blue broke out in blunt defiance. “It would kill Doodles to give up Caruso!”
“Oh, I did not mean that! No, no! Mr. Selden never would take him from your brother. He is the best man in the world—and the most sympathetic. But it would please him greatly to know that his pet is in kind hands.” ”

“ The gray bird stopped pruning his feathers, glanced archly at his little master, and with a few joyous whistles broke into one of his captivating songs.
“He is a wonderful singer,” praised the girl. “I’ve been wishing I could go to hear Caruso; I’ll have to come and hear this one instead.”
“Yes, do come—any time!” urged Doodles. “But why don’t you go and hear the other, if you want to?”
The girl laughed. “It costs money, sweetheart.” Her blue eyes grew wistful. “Everything nice costs money.” She turned to go.
“I’m ever and ever so much obliged to you for the name,” Doodles hastened to say. ”

“ Stickney’s fears for Doodles lessened. The cooler weather after the big storm had revived his strength and the day in the country had seemed to add fresh power to his frail body. But as the heat increased again, he began to droop as before, and the mother wondered with a sickening dread how he was to endure the debilitating weeks of August that were close at hand. Must he stay in these oven-like rooms to die? Why should he be denied a breath of the great outdoors? ”

“ There Doodles saw so many novel and interesting things that for the time he forgot the chief of his thoughts,—when should he go to the great surgeon whose word was to bring him joy or sorrow? But after luncheon he said to himself, “It is coming now—in an hour or two!” Yet Miss Fleming went out by herself, and stayed away all the afternoon, leaving Daphne and Doodles to the care of Laure, her maid. They had a happy time with some new books and photographs; but through it all buzzed the questions, “When will it be? What will the doctor say?” ”

“ After that Doodles sang “Old Folks at Home,” and was encored so heartily and so long that he gave “Edinboro Town,” one of his mother’s favorites when she was in a gay mood. Further along on the programme he played several simple melodies on his violin, and as he slipped into “Annie Laurie” he glanced towards Caruso, whose cage had been set back into the shadow. Quite as if awaiting a signal, the bird struck into tune, and away they soared together, the mocker and the violin, to the uncontrolled delight of the audience. ”

“ Stickney walked out of the big silver shop with the other workers, inwardly rebelling at the command that forced her to give up the daily wages so needful for the comfort of herself and her family. Only a little money was in the emergency purse. Six dollars a week left not much to spare, and women hands in the silver shop were not allowed to earn more than a dollar a day. If by dint of nerve and skill a toiler in skirts was able to add a few cents to the customary one hundred her work was so arranged that she must keep to her task more closely to compass even her regular pay. ”

“ I think I should have run away during luncheon, as has sometimes been done in the face of a dreaded speech; but one can’t leave his friends in the lurch, and we are certainly warm friends—warmer, perhaps, because we are Flatiron friends. If I am not mistaken, all of us, with two exceptions, have, at one time or another, dwelt beneath its hospitable roof. So now, in behalf of The Flatiron, I present to Master Doodles this new home for Caruso.”
He lifted the cloth which had hidden from sight a large, handsome mocking-bird cage. ”

“ Doodles went on enthusiastically, his fair face pink with excitement, and his brown eyes luminous with hope.
The policeman’s lips parted—and came together. Then he said quietly:—
“It would, sure!”
“I guess I shall,” Doodles smiled. “The doctor thinks so. It is going to cost a good deal, five dollars a time; but mother says she doesn’t begrudge the money, if he can do me a bit of good. Oh, I’ve wondered and wondered what it would feel like to jump right up and run across the room, as Blue does—and to think I shall know!” ”

“ She’s true-blue, just like you!”
Blue began to whistle. Then his eyes twinkled, and the whistling was cut short.
“Doodles, I think you’d be a better match for Daphne,—you are nearer her age.”
“Oh, no!” cried Doodles. “I’d rather marry Polly—Polly Dudley!”
“Cracketywhack! You’ve got ahead o’ me! Picked out a wife already!” Blue laughed himself almost out of his chair.
Doodles laughed a little in sympathy, yet he said:—
“I don’t see anything very funny about that! If I like Polly and Polly likes me, why can’t we marry each other when we get old?” ”

“ Gaylord arrived with delightful news—he had seen Dolly Moon, had actually been at her home in Pebbleton, and she had sent to Doodles a quart of cream, a basket of apples, and a jar of clover honey. She had been waiting for a letter, having overlooked the truth—that her Flatiron friends did not know where she lived, and she was very much ashamed of her forgetfulness and of her neglect to write to them. The young man had discovered her by accident. He had been taking his employer, Mrs. Graham, to an adjoining town, and in passing through Pebbleton he had spied the girl at a window. ”

“ They talked of many things,—Caruso, Lilith Brooks, Polly’s school, and the new hospital which was building.
Polly stayed until the nurse came, the one with dark hair and eyes, whom they called Miss Eden. Doodles liked her very much, her smile was so quick and so cheering.
After a while she brought him another cup of broth. It looked the same, she laughed, but tasted different. Doodles found it just as good as the first. He wondered why they did not give him something to eat with it, yet he asked no questions.
One nurse or another came often, but some of the time the small patient was alone. ”

“ If only he could have a violin of his own—a little one! Christarchus said you could get them cheap. But when he had suggested it to his mother she became so strangely grave that he did not speak of it again. Perhaps she was thinking of Uncle Jim. Christarchus urged his own instrument upon him whenever he was not practicing himself, and it was far better than any he could hope to buy. So side by side with the increasing anxiety of his mother and brother his happiness grew. And then, one sunny forenoon, when Doodles supposed him to be at school, Christarchus walked slowly in. ”

“ In the street below people hurried along, every now and then glancing upward at the threatening sky. Little whiffs of wind whirled the dust in the roadway, and thunder growled in the distance.
“Bet some folks’ll git wet!” prophesied the boy, as he turned back to the room. He was surprised at the dim light. He could scarcely see Doodles, over on the couch. Doodles was timid in a thunder storm, and Blue crossed the floor to his side.
“Prob’ly the heft of it’ll go round, as usual,” he said; “but ’t will be cooler. We shall like that, old feller, shan’t we?” ”

“ Gaylord told me the name—oh, if I’d only known! Now it’s too late!” She dropped her head to the cruel edge of the trunk, and wept aloud. “It serves me right! I held myself above her—just because she danced in a theater! O God, forgive me! I’ve got my pay for being so high and mighty! There I could have found out all about my dear brother if I’d treated her like a Christian! And I left her to die alone—my own sister-in-law!”
Mrs. Stickney’s remorse was pitiful to see. Blue did not know what to say, but stood there, silent and uneasy.
“Don’t cry, mother dear!” pleaded Doodles. ”

“ Yet, much as they loved the songster and his music, the Stickney family could not be won over to forgetfulness of the real trouble that shadowed them.
The mother gained but slowly, the third week at home found her still unable to work, and the question that constantly confronted her was, “What will become of us?”
Granny O’Donnell, whose income was ample for her slender needs, had been an actual fairy godmother to the boys during those lonely hospital days, and now she was continually cooking more food than she could eat, and bringing the surplus up to the Stickney kitchen. ”

“ Blue nodded smilingly, but returned at once to his book, and Doodles, with a wee breath of disappointment, gave up the one-sided talk. He craved a stronger assurance from his brother that a stove was a proper subject for prayer; but he could wait until the story was finished, and meanwhile he would venture to pray.
It happened that Doodles was alone when Captain Bligh fulfilled his promise, and he had much to tell his mother and Blue of what the genial Captain had said. But one thing he kept to himself. He was anxious to have the gift from Heaven come as a surprise to his mother. ”

“ Dudley walked beside him to the door, while Miss Eden and Polly went as far as the car and then scampered back to linger at the window for a last good-bye.
The air was keen, but Doodles, snug beneath the robes, was warm as need be.
Giles drove fast. In a little while they passed the postoffice in Carleton, then the granite church at Berryville, and not long afterwards the outskirts of Foxford came in sight.
Doodles grew eager as familiar objects were whizzed by. When the car turned into Cherry Street he sat motionless, looking ahead where The Flatiron showed in the distance. ”

“ Doodles said earnestly.
She seemed satisfied, and went on. “It’s a comfort to think that’s settled. It’s worried me about Jim’s fiddle. I’m glad you’re going to have it—you’ll love it! I wanted to give you something for singing to me so beautifully. It is good of you to come. There’s nothing else in the trunk of any value, but you can have all there is. It is a nice fiddle—I don’t know how much it cost, but a lot of money—my, how Jim idolized it!” ”