Sarah Pratt Carr

“ Sydney did not know how deep an impression his simple motto, “Never take something for nothing,” had made upon Max, who had thought the opposite, “Take all you can get and give as little as possible,” was the law of business from day laborers to railroad wreckers.
He did not know that business is built upon an idea, confidence; that the commercial life of the nation would have failed, and surely would fail, were not the majority of men honest, and willing to let the “other fellow” also make something.
Mrs. Schmitz read what was passing in his mind and encouraged his attempts at helpfulness. ”

“ But suddenly Sydney realized in the presence of this stranger, so sinisterly introduced into that quiet life, that there was a great area of culture for which no public school can issue diplomas. As a child speaks its native tongue nor knows when he learns it, so Max spoke the language of refined society, of an early home environment that comes only from generations of good breeding and comfortable income. ”

“ Sydney waited for no more but set out at a run. That was what Max intended—to ship to some distant port! That would certainly hide him well, and give him a living on his way. Sydney thought of sensitive, gifted Max handling “tackle,” and “bossed” around by some profane mate; treated like a machine rather than like a human being—no, worse; machines are property and get consideration. It is only human life that is wasted with unconcern, it is so plenty.
Running faster and faster, Sydney emerged from the woods to see the ship steaming slowly into the bay. ”

“ Mrs. Schmitz with a lighted taper was standing at the head of the stairs, listening. Her hair hung in a long braid, and the straight lines of her heavy kimono disguised her large figure and gave her a weird stateliness that made Sydney think of some serpent-bound goddess from old mythology.
He slid into his slippers, pulled around him the spread from the bed, caught up the poker from under the stove, and hurried to her.
“What is it,” he whispered, “a burglar?”
“Nothing, I guess. What you up for? I catch him mine self.” ”

“ That bit of slang with the familiar name helped Sydney to “break through,” as he knew she intended; for none better than Bess understood the sort of good breeding that fits the rule to the situation.
As he turned back he met May Nell Smith. She was almost grown, tall and lady-like; yet she had the same sun-touched waving hair, the same blue eyes and mystic, ethereal spirit looking out from them, that he remembered when he first met her, a delicate little girl in the big car, taking him and Billy on their first drive over the City of Green Hills. ”

“ Buckman busy at his desk, his dreams seemed very foolish. The atmosphere of severity that pervaded the office sobered him; and as the absorbed man did not look up, Max seated himself quietly to wait till he should be noticed.
At business the man looked the master he was. [200] Power showed in every movement of his broad hand; sternness in every feature of his large, deeply lined face. He was one to drive important enterprises to success against the greatest odds; the only kind of man who is able to conquer the territory of the Northwest where nature, though lavish, makes harsh resistance. ”

“ Billy’s efforts, enlisted by Sydney in behalf of Ida Jones, had long before this borne fruit. May Nell’s own shining electric motor stood more than once in front of the house where Ida lived, impressing the family little less than when she was driven up in her mother’s great limousine. And Bess Carter, whether she walked, came by trolley, or was dropped from his motor car by Dr. Carter, radiated power and a bluff sort of queenliness all her own that was even more impressive than evidence of wealth. ”

“ Max smiled. “With no proper clothes, no violin, and not a friend among people that care for music? There was no Mrs. Schmitz standing round, ready to hand me an old Cremona.”
Both were silent a moment. “But even bottle washers get too plenty in the winter when work is slack; and after I began to cough so hard the men were afraid of tuberculosis and wouldn’t work with me and I had to go. I couldn’t seem to impress any one with my superior skill as bottle washer enough to command a promotion.” He gave Sydney a crooked smile that was not all mirth. ”

“ None of us are going in for opera hats and patent leathers; that is, only the Fussers. Will you come to dinner with me tonight and stay for rehearsal?”
“All right. Thank you. Say, Billy! Hello, Billy!”
“Hi, there! Thought you had finished,” Billy returned after a slight wait. “Hello!” he called again as Sydney did not answer.
In that hesitant moment Sydney decided to abandon his intention of asking an invitation for Max. With his airy, sophisticated manner, his good looks, his playing, Max would be sure to win the heart of every one present. And then his cough—really he was not well enough. ”

“ Ant your own soul tells you if you listen right. I will show you also where to read. But not now—to-morrow. Today we work.”
More she said as they moved Sydney’s possessions, partly in answer to his wondering questions, but more directly from her store of wisdom.
“Du sollst deinen Naechsten lieben als dich selbst,” she said musingly after a pause and did not know she was speaking in German till she saw Sydney’s look of perplexity. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” she translated; “but if you think yourself a poor, mean creature, it iss not much goot to love somebody like yourself.” ”

“ Sydney was as much out of it as if the language were Hindoo. In school he had done well. Through the interest of Mr. Streeter, a young man recently come into a fortune, who devoted it and his time to assisting boys who were otherwise on the way to being “down and out,” and through the kindness of Mrs. Schmitz, Sydney had been able to press on in his grades. Now at the beginning of the winter semester he stood [35] with Billy Bennett, “Sis” Jones, Queen Bess, and all the others who made his world, seniors in the “Fifth Avenue High,” side by side, respected and liked. ”

“ Sydney looked at her with deeper respect. He knew the property was valuable. “I can’t see how—other nurserymen make money, but not so fast.”
She stepped nearer and laid her hand impressively on his. “Seedney, there iss a secret—love.”
He looked his wonder, his mystification.
“Listen. I tell you. Plant, tree, insect, animal—all are God’s. His life iss in all. He gifes all breath the same as man; that iss, life. Then all are brothers; nicht wahr? I think so; ant so I do. I love mine leetle plants same as if they could speak. I watch them close, every leetle thing I see. ”

“ She’s great, isn’t she?” Max said under his breath, nodding toward the door where Mrs. Schmitz had disappeared. “How is it she is just drudging—cooking, washing dishes? She should never use her hands but to play.”
Sydney looked again at the stranger. Some vague notion he, too, had had in regard to Mrs. Schmitz’s past, when she must have been taught by masters and spent long hours at the piano; but it never occurred to him that she was out of place in a new city, “running” a greenhouse and working twice as many hours as her men did. ”

“ You steal from yourself. You steal not money but much more, your innocence. With fifty or five dollars you have yourself a new name bought—thief! No money buys that word back. It makes one long, bloody cut into your soul. ”

“ Carefully into the glasses, as Sydney had seen Mrs. Schmitz put away her jellies, they dipped the marmalade, and afterward washed up the dishes and put the kitchen in order, rather proud of their morning’s work. Then they went to the nursery to help in the potting, the making of new beds, the “slipping,” or whatever work was most pressing.
That day and night they did little cooking. Anyone could live well more than one day on warmed-up things at Mrs. Schmitz’s home. Early in the evening Max wrote and posted his acceptance of the invitation to have his name proposed for the Fussers. ”

“ Billy was the best of friends. He told Max that all the “good ones of the bunch” liked him from the day he went back to school and marched boldly up to Walter in the presence of his special friends and said, “Mr. Buckman, when one does wrong the only way he can atone is to make good for it if possible, and live it down. ”

“ But Billy Bennett cared nothing at all for Buckman, senior or junior, when fair play was at stake; nor even for the much admired magnate, Mr. Smith, May Nell’s father. “I protest,” he cried. “This accusation is unworthy a student. No matter how incriminating circumstances may appear, there is always a chance that they may not be true. Walter Buckman, I want you to retract that statement.” All knew Billy was recalling his own bitter experience of the year before [141] when Jim Barney trapped him into appearing as a thief. ”

“ Of course she was a junior; yet when he had been a junior he had found no such battle to fight. Suddenly he remembered his friends, Reginald Steele, Hec Price, “Sis” Jones, and Billy To-morrow—good old Billy, who had always been his friend since the day on the coast [6] steamer when Billy interceded for the stowaway, Sydney. A word from any of these was as good as a proclamation from the whole of an under class.
Yet for Ida it was not the same; she had something quite different from a boy’s troubles to fight, wholly feminine and mysterious. ”

“ I bet Pop Streeter can do the trick for you. Good old Pop.”
Max asked about Mr. Streeter, and Sydney explained. “He’s to the good on every count; and I have a hunch he can do something for you. Ever play in public?”
“No; only for my—for friends.”
“Well, there’s a new moving-picture-show house going up near the Fifth Avenue High. I know the man that’s building it; he owns another show down the street, the best shows in town he has,—even the teachers approve them, so you can see they’re O. K. Well, the way you pet those fiddle strings I bet you can play for him.” ”

“ A great fight for life. All the leetle seeds hear the spring birds sing ant they feel the warm sun coming; ant something tells them, ‘Come up! Come up! Come quick before it iss too late.’”
“Too late?” Max repeated when she dropped into silence.
“There iss so much for seeds to do in one summer, to feed themself with air, sun, water, that makes them to grow; to make flower ant [119] seed; ant to put in every leetle seed also enough to last it through the long winter.” ”

“ Max toyed with the violin a little longer; [38] looked over the music, now and then drawing a breath of sweetness from the strings, and speaking a running accompaniment all the while, so easy in word and movement, so fluent, that each moment he became more and more an enigma to the other.
Sydney found himself telling freely the little he knew of Mrs. Schmitz, her kindness to him, her generosity, her many eccentricities, one of which was her aversion to girls. “She can’t bear even to hear about them.” ”

“ Sydney looked up quickly. “That’s what you did for Max; you trusted him first.”
“You have said it. Trust helps to success. You can make a man fail by telling him he will; you can also make a man succeed by telling him he will. After success comes plenty friends. Friends! That kind are like flies, much in the way.”
Sydney laughed, and just then the five o’clock whistle blew.
“Mine gracious! So late already. Come. We’ll have dinner soon ant then be ready for [173] the musicale. Good iss Mrs. Wright to ask me. It iss living once more to be mit people who make the music. ”

“ You have tried hard as you can to do right; but you are full of cold, hunger, lonesomeness; you cannot see life iss good any more. So the goot Gott im himmel sends you to one old woman who iss not afraid, ant she has enough for one boy more. You stay by me?”
The warmth, the steaming food that all at once made him faint, the welcome where he had expected, if not rough treatment, certainly arrest, and especially the kindness that recalled the memory of all a loving mother could be,—these were too much for him; he sobbed like a child.
“Get the salt, Seedney!” Mrs. Schmitz cried ”

“ You notice Walter Buckman doesn’t figure large in high jinks engineered by Bess Carter or May Nell.”
[80]
“But why don’t the girls take in a friendless girl as you fellows took me?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Girls are different.” Billy could not answer that question. It was too large for him. It is too large for most people. We see a sweet young thing making herself ridiculous over the sufferings of a pampered cat, who yet will calmly stab to the heart with a cold stare some struggling girl who wears a last year’s frock and earns the bread she eats. ”

“ You take all the risk. You give him the goods, ant he gets the money! It iss one fine scheme! When did you fall in his trap?”
“Today—yesterday, I mean,” he glanced at the clock that marked the hour of three, “when I was hunting work, hungrier all the time, I got angry. I said if a man wants work and can’t get it, at least he ought not to starve. Going to jail would save him from that.”
“I’ll give you better to eat than any chails,” Mrs. Schmitz broke in with a laugh.
Sydney saw the ghost of an answering smile on the lad’s face, and knew that was what she wished. ”

“ Sydney agreed, his heart quite at rest about Ida; and both sat quietly listening to the music. Neither realized the secrets of the great social fabric they had grazed, though Sydney continued in thought to follow the puzzle that provoked his question to Billy; why do girls—young women—treat each other as they do?
This led back to the day many months earlier when a couple of squabbling boys, turning the high school corner, ran against a girl, almost [82] knocking her over, and sending her books flying on the wet walk. They were too occupied to notice their rudeness ”