But I went off downstairs to the first floor front. The kid she meant belonged to the Tomato Ketchup woman. I knew they had one because it howled different times an", I judge, pounded its head on the floor some when it was maddest. It was the only real little one in the buildin"--the others was all the tonguey age. I told what I wanted.
""For the land!" says Tomato Ketchup, "I never see such nerve. Take my baby into a sick room? Not if I know it. I s"pose you just come out o"
there? Well, don"t you stay here, bringin" diseases. A hospital"s the true place fer the sick," she says.
"I went back to Mis" Loneway, an" I guess I lied some. I said the kid was sick--had the croup, I thought, an" she"d hev to wait. Her face fell, but she said "all right an" please not to say nothin"," an" then I went out an" done my best to borrow a kid for her. I ask" all over the neighbourhood, an" not a woman but looked on me for a cradle s.n.a.t.c.her--thought I wanted to abduct her child away from her. Bime-by I even told one woman what I wanted it for.
""My!" she says, "if she ain"t got one, she"s got one less mouth to feed. Tell her to thank her stars."
"After that I used to look into Mis" Loneway"s frequent. The women on the same floor was quite decent to her, but they worked all day, an"
mostly didn"t get home till after her husband did. I found out somethin"
about him, too. He was clerk in a big commission house "way down-town, an" his salary, as near as I could make out, was about what mine was, an" they wa"n"t no estimatin" that by the cord at all. But I never heard a word out"n him about their not havin" much. He kep" on makin" milk toast an" bringin" in one piece o" fruit at a time an" once in a while a little meat. An" all the time anybody could see she wa"n"t gettin" no better. I knew she wa"n"t gettin" enough to eat, an" I knew he knew it, too. An" one night the doctor he outs with the truth.
"Mr. Loneway an" I was sittin" in the kitchen while the doctor was in the other room with her. I went there evenin"s all the time by then--the young fellow seemed to like to hev me. We was keepin" warm over the oil-stove because the real stove was in her room, an" the doctor come in an" stood over him.
""My lad," he says gentle, "there ain"t half as much use o" my comin"
here as there is o" her gettin" strengthenin" food. She"s got to hev beef broth--cer"als--fresh this an" fresh that"--he went on to tell him, "an" plenty of it," he says. "An" if we can make her strength hold out, I think," he wound up, "that we can save her. But she"s gettin" weaker every day for lack o" food. Can you do anything more?" he ask" him.
"I expected to see young Mr. Loneway go all to pieces at this, because I knew as it was he didn"t ride in the street-car, he was pinchin" so to pay the doctor. But he sorter set up sudden an" squared his shoulders, an" he looked up an" says:--
""Yes!" he says. "I"ve been thinkin" that to-night," he says. "An" I"ve hed a way to some good luck, you might call it--an" now I guess she can hev everything she wants," he told him; an" he laughed some when he said it.
"That sort o" amazed me. I hadn"t heard him sayin" anything about any excruciatin" luck, an" his face hadn"t been the face of a man on the brink of a bonanza. I wondered why he hadn"t told her about this luck o"
his, but I kep" quiet an" watched to see if he was bluffin".
"I was cleanin" the walk off when he come home nex" night. Sure enough, there was his arms laid full o" bundles. An" his face--it done me good to see it.
""Come on up an" help get dinner," he yelled out, like a kid, an" I thought I actually seen him smilin".
"Soon"s I could I went upstairs, an" they wa"n"t nothin" that man hadn"t brought. They was everything the doctor had said, an" green things, an"
a whol" basket o" fruit an" two bottles o" port, an" more things besides. They was lots o" fixin"s, too, that there wa"n"t a mite o"
nourishment in--for he wa"n"t no more practical _nor_ medicinal"n a wood-tick. But I knew how he felt.
""Don"t tell her," he says. "Don"t tell her," he says to me, hoppin"
"round the kitchen like a buzz-saw. "I want to surprise her."
"You can bet he did, too--if you"ll overlook the liberty. When he was all ready, he made me go in ahead.
""_To-ot!_" says I, genial-like--they treated me jus" like one of "em.
"_To-ot!_ Lookey-_at_!"
"He set the big white platter down on the bed, an" when she see all the stuff,--white grapes, mind you, an" fresh tomatoes, an" a gla.s.s for the wine,--she just grabs his hand an" holds it up to her throat, an"
says:--
""Jack! Oh, Jack!" she says,--she called him that when she was pleased,--"how did you? _How did you?_"
""Never you mind," he says, kissin" her an" lookin" as though he was goin" to bu"st out himself, "never you ask. It"s time I had some luck, ain"t it? Like other men?"
"She was touchin" things here an" there, liftin" up the grapes an"
lookin" at "em--poor little soul had lived on milk toast an" dates an" a apple now an" then for two weeks to my knowledge. But when he said that, she stopped an" looked at him, scared.
""John!" she says, "you ain"t--"
"He laughed at that.
""Gamblin"?" he says. "No--never you fear." I had thought o" that myself, only I didn"t quite see when he"d had the chance since night before when the doctor told him. "It"s all owin" to the office," he says to her, "an" now you eat--lemme see you eat, Linda," he says, an" that seemed to be food enough for him. He didn"t half touch a thing. "Eat all you want," he says, "an", Peleg, poke up the fire. There"s half a ton o"
coal comin" to-morrow. An" we"re goin" to have this _every day_," he told her.
"Land o" love! how happy she was! She made me eat some grapes, an" she sent a bunch to the woman on the same floor, because she"d brought her an orange six weeks before; an" then she begs Mr. Loneway to get an extry candle out of the top dresser draw". An" when that was lit up she whispers to him, and he goes out an" fetches from somewheres a guitar with more"n half the strings left on; an" she set up an" picked away on "em, an" we all three sung, though I can"t carry a tune no more"n what I can carry a white oak tree trunk.
""Oh," she says, "I"m a-goin" to get well now. Oh," she says, "ain"t it heaven to be rich again?"
"No--you can say she"d ought to "a" made him tell her where he got the money. But she trusted him, an" she"d been a-livin" on milk toast an"
dates for so long that I can pretty well see how she took it all as what"s-his-name took the wild honey, without askin" the Lord whose make it was. Besides, she was sick. An" milk toast an" dates"d reconcile me to "most any change for the better.
"It got so then that I went upstairs every noon an" fixed up her lunch for her, an" one day she done what I"d been dreadin". "Mr. Bemus," she says, "that baby must be over the croup now. Won"t you--won"t you take it down this orange an" see if you can"t bring it up here awhile?"
"I went down, but, law!--where was the use? The Ketchup woman grabs up her kid an" fair threw the orange at me. "You don"t know what disease you"re bringin" in here," she says--she had a voice like them gasoline wood-cutters. I see she"d took to heart some o" the model-tenement social-evenin" lectures on bugs an" worms in diseases. I carried the orange out and give it to a kid in the ar"y, so"s Mis" Loneway"d be makin" somebody some pleasure, anyhow. An" then I went back upstairs an"
told her the kid was worse. Seems the croup had turned into cholery infantum.
""Why," she says, "I mus" send it down somethin" nice an" hot to-night,"
an" so she did, and I slips it back in the Loneway kitchen unbeknownst.
She wa"n"t so very medicinal, either, bless her heart!
""Tell me about that baby," she says to me one noon. "What"s its name?
Does it like to hev its mother love it?" she ask me.
"I knew the truth to be that it didn"t let anybody do anything day or night within sight or sound of it, an" it looked to me like an imp o"
the dark. But I fixed up a tol"able description, an" left out the freckles an" the temper, an" told her it was fat an" well an" a boy.
That seemed to satisfy her. Its name, though, sort o" stumped me. The Tomato Ketchup called it mostly "you-come-back-here-you-little-ape." I heard that every day. So I said, just to piece out my information, that I thought its name might be April. That seemed to take her fancy, an"
after that she was always askin" me how little April was--but not when Mr. Loneway was in hearin". I see well enough she didn"t want he should know that she was grievin" none.
"All the time kep" comin", every night, another armful o" good things.
Land! that man he bought everything. Seems though he couldn"t buy enough. Every night the big platter was heaped up an" runnin" over with everything under the sun, an" she was like another girl. I s"pose the things give her strength, but I reck"n the cheer helped most. She had the surprise to look forward to all day, an" there was plenty o" light, evenin"s; an" the stove, that was drove red-hot. The doctor kep" sayin"
she was better, too, an" everything seemed lookin" right up.
"Seems queer I didn"t suspect from the first something was wrong. Seems though I ought to "a" known money didn"t grow out o" green wood the way he was pretendin". It wasn"t two weeks before he takes me down to the bas.e.m.e.nt one night when he comes home, an" he owns up.
""Peleg," he says, "I"ve got to tell somebody, an" G.o.d knows maybe it"ll be you that"ll hev to tell her. I"ve stole fifty-four dollars out o" the tray in the retail department," says he, "an" to-day they found me out.
They wasn"t no fuss made. Lovett, the a.s.sistant cashier, is the only one that knows. He took me aside quiet," Mr. Loneway says, "an" I made a clean breast. I said what I took it for. He"s a married man himself, an"
he told me if I"d make it up in three days, he"d fix it so"s n.o.body should know. The cashier"s off for a week. In three days he"s comin"
back. But they might as well ask me to make up fifty-four hundred. I"ve got enough to keep on these three days so"s she won"t know," he says, "an" after that--"
"He hunched out his arms, an" I"ll never forget his face.
"I says, "Mr. Loneway, sir," I says, "chuck it. Tell her the whole thing an" give "em back what you got left, an" do your best."
"He turned on me like a crazy man.
""Don"t talk to me like that," he says fierce. "You don"t know what you"re sayin"," he says. "No man does till he has this happen to him.