"I have no home," answered Markham in a subdued tone.
"An orphan?" insinuated Frank, gently.
"No, my father is living. He is in the Philippines. He will be out of service next January. All I am waiting for is for him to get back to this country to right my wrongs."
"Don"t worry about it, Markham," said Frank, observing deep sadness and distress shadow the bright face of his companion. "You come home with me. I"ve got so good a mother she will welcome you gladly."
"But I want to work," said Markham.
"Haven"t I got work waiting ready for you, and lots of it, too?"
demanded Frank.
"That"s so, is it?" said Markham, brightening up. "My! to be away--away from the city in a quiet, beautiful town. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! You are the first real friend I"ve found in six months, and--I can"t help it."
"That"s right--get rid of all your old troubles," said Frank, and he did not think the less of his new friend because he had a good, solid cry.
"There"s nothing but sunshine ahead for you, if I can help you any."
Frank warmed to the boy as they continued their conversation. A dark spell seemed to lift from Markham"s spirit, each mile accomplished away from the great city that appeared to hold some secret, haunting dread for him.
"Greenville," announced Frank heartily at length--"and home."
The hour was late, the streets deserted, but, as they strolled away from the little railroad depot, Markham walked like a person in some rapt dream. He drew in great luxurious breaths of the flower-perfumed air. He viewed pretty moonlit lawns and gardens as if he were looking at some fascinating picture.
"Like it, do you?" smiled Frank.
"I love the country. I always did," replied Markham. "This is just grand to me. Look here, now," he continued, "you had better let me stow myself in some friendly haystack or under some hedge till morning. Don"t disturb your mother to-night about me."
"Disturb her?" said Frank. "No danger of her going to bed till I show up, if it"s till morning. There we are--there"s the light in the window for us, Markham."
Frank led his friend upstairs over the store. Markham lagged behind until the greetings between mother and son were over. He stepped a little timidly forward, as he heard Frank say:
"Mother, I have brought a friend home with me. This is my mother, Markham."
Mrs. Ismond received the homeless boy with a sweet, welcoming smile that won his heart entirely. She told Frank to take him into the sitting room while she herself hustled about the kitchen. Frank left Markham long enough to join his mother and tell her what he owed to his new companion.
"It"s late," said Mrs. Ismond a few minutes later, "but you must eat a good meal after your long, busy day, and I positively will wake up n.o.body in this house until nine o"clock in the morning."
There were only two beds in the house. Frank shared his with Markham.
The latter wore a happy smile on his face as he stretched himself out luxuriously.
"That supper!" he said, in a rapturous sort of a way. "This nice comfortable bed! I"ve got to shut my eyes for fear it will all turn out a dream."
Frank was glad to lie thinking for a spell undisturbed. His companion fell into a profound, exhausted slumber. Mrs. Ismond retired, and the house was all quiet at last.
Like a panorama all the varied events of the preceding twenty-four hours pa.s.sed vividly through Frank"s mind. He felt greatly satisfied with the outcome of his visit to the city.
Then Frank began to scan the future, his plans, his ambitions. He felt truly rich with his little money capital, the present work in hand, the mail order lists, the apple corer, and other things.
"How sick that man is of his apple corer," mused Frank. "There are over five thousand of the crude, unsatisfactory things in that big box down stairs. He had a good idea all right, but didn"t know how to apply it.
He gave it--to--me--be--"
There Frank drifted into a doze. It was strange, but he half-dreamed, half-thought out some wonderful transformation of the hardware man"s invention, and, all of a sudden, in a lightning flash, a great, surging idea swept through his brain with tremendous force.
It lifted him out of his sleep half-dazed, he gave a jump from the bed to the floor. There he wavered, rubbing his eyes, and then irresistibly shouting out:
"Eureka--I"ve found it!"
CHAPTER XIII
A GOOD START
Frank did not go to sleep again, he couldn"t. As he lay there, it seemed to him as though every nerve in his body was wide awake and on a terrific tension.
Frank had heard of some of the great inventions of the world discovered in a dream. Had he, too, in a dream, or a half-waking doze, had the same experience.
"It came like a flash," he reflected. "It"s plain as day now. The apple corer improved, remodeled, in perfect working order and a success. Oh, I simply can"t lie here."
Frank wriggled and tossed restlessly. Then, when he was certain that Markham was asleep again, he slipped quietly out of bed, put on part of his clothes and glided noiselessly downstairs.
Frank softly closed the store door communicating with the hallway. He lit a lamp and went over to a counter containing the great heap of apple corers.
He selected one, got a sheet of tin and a pair of stovepipe shears, and became engrossed in cutting out and forming cones, funnels and all kinds of odd-shaped contrivances.
For fully two hours Frank was working at his task. He seemed to be supplying the crude apple corer with an inner sheath, to which he had supplied a small three-bladed device. He turned it about, altered it, worked over it, and a broad smile of satisfaction stole across his face as he progressed.
"Frank, this is not sleeping."
Frank looked up from his task, quite startled, to find his mother standing a few feet away, watching him.
"I know it isn"t, mother," he responded gaily. "It"s work, good work, too, so it couldn"t wait."
"But, Frank--"
"Listen, mother," he said, "I have dreamed out an invention. Really I have. If my improved apple corer works as I think it will, this is a lucky spell of wakefulness. I don"t want to say much about it till I am sure of it, but I believe I have invented something practical and of value."
Frank treasured his little model in his pocket, and consented to go back to bed now. He was up bright and early. First thing he was down in his work shop. At breakfast he was more quiet than usual. Frank was doing a great deal of thinking.
"I have certainly got the patent right bee in my bonnet," he reflected.
"It"s a fascinating little insect. Ah, Markham, we were going to let you sleep till you were rested up completely," added Frank, as their guest put in an appearance.
Markham was pleasant, polite and contented. He put some things in order for Mrs. Ismond, offered to help her with the dishes, and went downstairs finally to join Frank.
"Now then," he said briskly, "I"m fed up and rested up--what is there to do?"