Evelyn Raymond

“ With a slight hesitation, Miss Lucy began:
“I believe that this has been the happiest day of my life. I hope it is a happiness which will continue, because it is the beginning of a life for others. But I wish to make that life as wise as possible. I am afraid of mistakes. I want your advice; the advice of every one here present. I mean to adopt this boy, Towsley—the new Lionel Armacost. Tell me, friends, how best can I rear him to be a blessing to his race?” ”

“ In reality, she had been more touched than she herself quite understood by the frank commiseration in Molly’s eyes, and she could not remember when anybody had clasped her body so affectionately. The sensation it gave her was an odd one; else a person so eminently correct and punctilious as Miss Armacost would never have walked the whole length of the finest block on the Avenue, and in full sight of her aristocratic neighbors’ windows, within the embrace of a girl from Side Street. ”

“ All that was clear to the reporter’s mind of this announcement was that he was desired to enter and follow his guide; which he did into the cheerful basement breakfast-room, where Miss Armacost still sat. She had not gone upstairs since first coming down that morning, and she was white and tremulous. The sight of her troubled face aroused not only all Towsley’s chivalry, but that of the reporter also. Instantly, he regretted that he had so promptly availed himself of the newsboy’s “ghost story,” and had thought more of furnishing “copy” than of a gentlewoman’s feelings. ”

“ If he’d only be contented with enjoying himself and let his neighbors rest. But here they were at home. How odd it looked, to see those great heaps of snow which had been shovelled from the sidewalk and piled up in banks before the houses, between the curbstone and the driveway. And over in the “Square” which filled the centre of the block the children of the bordering houses had all come out with sleds and happy laughter, and were making the old silence ring.
“Maybe, after all, anything which pleases the children is not an unmitigated annoyance,” observed Miss Armacost, reflectively. ”

“ I gave Idelia a bag of buttons to play with, and because Ivanora hadn’t eaten much breakfast I gave her a dish of molasses and some bread. I knew, of course, she’d mess herself, but I thought it would keep her contented. And it did!” she cried, going off into such a peal of laughter that the reporter had to join.
“What’d she do, Molly?” asked Lionel. ”

“ My life runs so smoothly, in ordinary, that I find myself upset by the unusual circumstances of the last few days. The blizzard, Sir Christopher’s death, Lionel’s coming and terrible experience in the storm, and now this extraordinary ringing of my door-bell, which even the neighbors have heard and are inquiring about—altogether I—I am quite unstrung. ”

“ Fact; you can’t help it. You will like them, whether or no. Now I didn’t care a nickel about you till I tumbled over you in the snow-drift. Never heard of you, indeed. But then I had a chance to help you, and right away I liked you. So I’ve been down-town, this afternoon, and bought you this outfit. Between you and me, Towsley, I shouldn’t care for the velvets, either. But they must have been all that Miss Armacost had on hand and so she gave them to you. These I’m not giving; I’m simply advancing. Men like us don’t care to accept what we can’t pay for, you know. ”

“ Miss Armacost was also upon her feet once more and had regained her self-possession. After one hasty glance around, she had satisfied herself that her mishap had not been observed by “the neighbors,” and her dignity had promptly returned.
“Whoever I may be, you are certainly the girl who asks questions!” she returned, rather crisply.
“Yes’m, I reckon I am. I’m Molly Johns. I live on Side Street. My house is the one runs right back of your garden. That’s the way I knew you. I often see you out around, pottering.”
“Oh! you do, do you? You are a very observing young person—at the wrong times.” ”

“ Yet you say nothing of yourself. What would you like to become, Lionel?”
“I’d like to learn everything; and when I grow up I’ll write for a paper!”
It was such a characteristic wish that all the company laughed. Then remarked father Johns:
“I reckon, Miss Armacost, that the lad’s idea of a ‘home,’ an ‘asylum,’ is a place where poor children can be taught to become useful bread-winners. Apparently, he doesn’t think a life of rich idleness can be the happiest.”
“I know!” cried Molly eagerly. “The very thing that first brought him here. Dear little Towsley wants to divide his skates!” ”

“ She had never seen just such a look on anybody’s face, and though it expressed greediness it did not shock her, as she felt it ought to do. Because it was so ill-bred!
Just then, while Towsley was watching the ice-cream begin to melt, the portiere was again lifted and the maid re-entered, leading a fat, fuzzy dog. She led him by a beautiful blue satin ribbon, and he blundered along in a haphazard sort of way that was exceedingly curious.
Molly’s gaze left the pictures on the walls to regard him.
“Why, what a funny creature! He is really almost as broad as he is long, and how he does wobble! ”

“ Money? Money in the pockets, Tows? Give us a nickel all round, you nabob, you. Rides in a sleigh every day, he does, and never thinks no more of Newspaper Square and nights on the old steam holes, he don’t! ”

“ The coal wagons will be the first astir, and they’ll break the roads nicely with their heavy wheels. The bakers and butchers and milkmen will follow mighty soon. The boys that want a bit of money for Christmas will all be out with any sort of broom, or shovel, or even a stick, they can pick up. It’ll give work for idle men, clearing the streets, and the liverymen will make a lot of money as soon as it settles a little. Oh! a rousing snow-storm is a good thing once in a while.”
“I declare, John, you are the cheerfullest soul. Nothing is ever wrong with you, and Molly is as like you as two peas! ”

“ Surely not. That is, in ordinary. But in a blizzard? Everything gets out of gear in a blizzard, even boys’ appetites. As many cakes as a child is years old is a safe rule to follow; but not on blizzard mornings, that come but seldom in a lifetime. Hark! Quiet! I hear a bell ringing somewhere. A dinner bell. It sounds like a summons.”
All fell perfectly silent for the space of a half-minute, maybe; then Molly burst forth with a thought she had been pondering:
“What a good thing it was that Miss Armacost had Sir Christopher buried last night, before this snow came! ”

“ A boy who wears velvet and feathers must belong to some rich family, who’ll gladly pay for every attention. Poor, little, bedraggled bird of paradise!”
So it happened that when Towsley opened his eyes, a few hours later, it was in a room whose comfort quite equalled that of the one from which he had fled, even though its furnishings were much plainer. And over his pillow leaned another woman wearing a snowy cap, far daintier in shape than had adorned Miss Lucy’s gray curls. ”

“ Miss Lucy rang the bell that summoned Jefferson, who was not only coachman but a man-of-all-work in the quiet establishment. When this gray-headed “boy” appeared, the newsboy was put into his charge with the order:
“Take him to the third floor bath. He is to sleep in the front hall bedroom. After you have attended him to bed, come to me. I will have something else for you to do.”
Jefferson was good-natured and devoted to Miss Armacost; but he liked things to go along in an orderly way. ”

“ Everybody had eaten as much as he desired, and the big sleighs came round to convey the lads back to Newspaper Square, to the old lives of labor and, alas! poverty; but which were to be far brighter, for a long time to come, because of that one day’s hilarious enjoyment.
In the cheery back parlor, that evening, Miss Lucy assembled a little group of people. There were father Johns, and Doctor Frank, and Mr. Graham; besides Molly and Towsley—I mean Lionel—sitting cosily together on one of the very same satin sofas of which, such a little while before, they had both been afraid. ”

“ What in the world shall I do with him? The threatened snow-storm has come and seems like the beginning of a blizzard. He didn’t belong to that Molly, she said, but of course he can’t stay here. I—I—Oh, dear! Troubles never come singly. I can’t keep him all night. I simply cannot. Yet I wouldn’t turn even a dog——”
When Miss Armacost’s thoughts reached this point she seemed to see Sir Christopher looking up into her face suggestively. ”

“ Then why were you masquerading in borrowed plumes, my lad? Your story and your clothing don’t agree. What is your name? Give it right, now, mind.”
“Why shouldn’t I? I ain’t ashamed of it, if it isn’t pretty. I’m Towsley. Towsley Towhead, some the Alley folks call me. I’m one the boys on the ’Xpress. That’s who I am, and I can sell more’n any other fellow of my size on the whole force.”
[Pg 68]
“I believe it. You look as sharp as a razor. But let’s keep to facts. You tacitly admitted that you ran away, and your velvet attire is certainly against you!” ”

“ But at last she ordered the coachman homeward, and they rode slowly out of the park, down the beautiful Avenue toward the Armacost mansion and [Pg 87] Towsley’s new home. He sank back into his place with a profound sigh of mingled pleasure and regret:
“To think they never had a sleigh-ride!”
“Humph! How many have you had, before this one, Lionel?”
“Why—why—why—none.”
“I thought so. Have you pitied yourself?”
“No, ma’am. I mean, no, Miss Lucy.”
“Then save your sympathy. One cannot miss what one has never enjoyed. For myself, I see little good of this snow. ”

“ He was neither humble nor bold, and now that he had forgotten his shyness was keen and business-like. He neither complained of his poverty nor was ashamed of it; and his manner as he walked toward the table and drew out a chair for Miss Armacost was as gallant as possible.
“That’s the checker!” he said to himself. “That’s the way I’ve seen the gentlemen do in the hotel dining-rooms when I’ve been peeking through, or the waiters, I mean. The gentlemen would have done it, if the waiters hadn’t been there, and it goes. Some day, when I own the papers I sell now, I’ll know just how to act. ”

“ Molly whisked off Towsley’s skate, then her own, and hastily dragged him after her up into the house.
“That’s so. I suppose it is cold standing, though we didn’t notice it skating. We did have such fun. Come, boy; don’t be bashful. It’s the same lady, isn’t it?”
“Yes. ’Spose it is. ’Tain’t the same house, though.”
“That’s no matter. It’s but a house, after all’s said and done. A little bigger and nicer than we’re used to, but my father says folks are the same sort all the world round, and he knows. ”

“ Makes a man feel happy inside to know his folks’ll worry about him when he’s in danger. But isn’t it an odd fact that a soft little thing like a snowflake can stop the traffic of a whole city! Hello there, Molly! Got my coat and mittens ready? Well, you don’t look as if the storm had kept you awake much. Give the father a kiss, lass, to sort of sweeten his breakfast. Are the Jays awake? Hunt them up a spade [Pg 48] or a shovel and set them digging their neighbors out. And, Mary wife, if I were you I’d keep a pot of coffee on the range all day. ”

“ The genial doctor entered the room just in time to witness the little scene between Miss Armacost and her protégé; and knowing both parties fairly well, he judged that the best way out of a difficulty was to get rid of the difficulty. Which he did in the manner above.
For there was never a newsboy on Newspaper Square, not even the independent Master Towsley, who could resist the charm of a sleigh ride; especially [Pg 77] in a city where sleighing was a rare occurrence, and where enormous prices were asked and obtained for any sort of vehicle that would glide over the snow. ”

“ You see, after a turn in the park, I think they’ll all enjoy a regular country ride. Away and away, where there are evergreens that they may break, if they choose, and holly bushes bright with berries, that are not prohibited like private property. You are to take the horses and our [Pg 119] own sleigh and Molly’s mother and Molly, while—well, I’ll hunt up somebody to look after the twins while they’re gone; and—here comes the gentleman back, and that must be the electrician he is bringing with him. ”

“ Just a little of that nice lobster salad was left from luncheon; and a cup of custard; being more ’an would go in the floating island. Then a mere taste of the ice-cream, out the freezer was meant for the kitchen, an’ he seemed to relish it right well. He licked a right smart of the custard, and as for the lobster, you know yourself, Miss Lucy, he’s always plumb crazy for shell-fish. Not like most dogs, Chrissy isn’t, won’t touch such victuals. ”

“ Graham and the electrician, “I don’t care at all about all that. Since it’s only a mouse, let’s forget that subject and get on to a more interesting one—our picnic sleigh-ride. Here come Molly and a lady; I suppose the one who is to help us feed our guests.”
It was all very quickly settled, as everything is into which the heart really enters; the happy boarding-house keeper started for market with injunctions from Miss Armacost to “spare no expense and select the best,” and quite sure in her own heart that her labor would be well paid for. ”