"I do not know how to do it," he announced, distinctly. "How shall I do it?"
Augustus Adolphus broke in again. "Aw, say, go on," he urged. "You _got_ to do it! Why _don"t_ you, then?"
Ivan Ivanovitch turned upon him an eye in which the habitual expression of patience was merely intensified.
"I do not know how to do it," he said again, speaking slowly and painstakingly. "You tell me how; then I will do it."
Under the force of this counter-charge, Augustus Adolphus fell back.
"I--I--don"t know, neither," he muttered, feebly. "I thought you knew.
You _got_ to know, "cause you got to do it."
The eyes of the small Russian swept the little group, and lingered on the round face of Josephine.
"You tell me," he said to her. "Then I will do it."
Josephine rose to the occasion.
"Why, why," she began, doubtfully, "_I_ know what it is. You be a sunbeam, you know. I know what a sunbeam is. It"s a little piece of the sun. It is long and bright. It comes through the window and falls on the floor. Sometimes it falls on us. Sometimes it falls on flowers."
Offered this choice, Ivan at once expressed his preference.
"I will fall on flowers," he announced, with decision.
The brown eyes of Augustus Adolphus glittered as he suddenly grasped the possibilities of the situation.
"No, you won"t, neither!" he cried, excitedly. "You got to do it _all!_ You better begin now. You can fall through that window; it"s open." He indicated, as he spoke, a low French window leading from the living-room on to the broad veranda. "He"s got to!" he cried, again.
""Ain"t he got to?" With a unanimous cry the meeting declared that he had got to. Some of the children knew better; others did not; but all knew Augustus Adolphus Schmidtt.
Without a word, Ivan turned, walked up the steps of the veranda, entered the wide hall, swung to the left, crossed the living-room, approached the window, and fell out, head first. There was something deeply impressive in the silence and swiftness of his action, something deliriously stimulating to the spectators in the thud of his small body on the unyielding wood. A long sigh of happiness was exhaled by the group of children. Certainly this was a new duty--a strange one, but worthy, no doubt, since it emanated from Fraulein, and beyond question interesting as a spectacle. Augustus Adolphus resolved in that instant to attend to his personal tasks at an early hour each day, that he might have uninterrupted leisure for getting new falls out of Ivan"s.
That infant had now found his feet, and was methodically brushing the dust from his clothes. There was a rapidly developing lump over one eye, but his expression remained unchanged. Josephine approached him with happy gurgles. Her heart was filled with womanly sympathy, but her soul remained undaunted. She was of the Spartan stuff that sends sons to the war, and holds a reception for them if they return--from victory--on their shields. She cooed in conscious imitation of Fraulein"s best manner. "Now, you can fall on flowers."
Her victim followed her unresistingly to the spot she indicated, and, having arrived, cast himself violently upon a bed of blazing nasturtiums. The enthusiastic and approving group of children closed around him as he rose. Even Augustus Adolphus, as he surveyed the wreck that remained, yielded to Ivan"s loyal devotion to his role the tribute of an envious sigh.
"Now you can fall on us," he suggested, joyfully. Before the words had left his innocent lips, Ivan had made his choice. The next instant the air was full of arms, legs, caps, and hair.
"Lemme go!" shrieked Augustus Adolphus, battling wildly with the unsuspected and terrible force that had suddenly a.s.sailed him. "Lemme go, I tell you!"
The reply of Ivan came through set teeth as he planted one heel firmly in the left ear of the rec.u.mbent youth. "I have to fall on you," he explained, mildly, suiting the action to the word. "First I fall on you; then I let you go."
There was no question in the minds of the spectators that this was the most brilliant and successfully performed of the strange and interesting tasks of Ivan. They cl.u.s.tered around to tell him so, while Augustus Adolphus sought the dormitory for needed repairs. One of the rules of the community was that the children should settle their little disputes among themselves. Fortunately, perhaps, for Augustus Adolphus he found the dormitory empty, and was able to remove from his person the most obvious evidences of one hoisted by his own petard. In the mean time Ivan Ivanovitch was experiencing a new sensation--the pleasurable emotion caused by the praise of one"s kind. But he did not show that it was pleasant--he merely gazed and listened.
"I think your new duties is nice," Josephine informed him, as she gazed upon him with eyes humid with approval. "You have to do it every day,"
she added, gluttonously.
Ivan a.s.sented, but in his heart there lay a doubt. Seeking for light, he approached Fraulein von Hoffman that afternoon as she dozed and knitted under a sheltering tree.
He stopped before her and fixed her with his serious gaze.
"Does a sunbeam fall through windows?" he inquired, politely.
Fraulein von Hoffman regarded him with a drowsy lack of interest.
"But yes, surely, sometimes," she admitted.
"Does it fall always through the window--every day?"
"But yes, surely, if it is in the right place."
The community"s sunbeam sighed.
"Does it fall on flowers and on boys and girls?" he persisted.
"But yes, it falls on everything that is near."
A look of pained surprise dawned upon the features of Ivan Ivanovitch.
"Always?" he asked, quickly. "Always--it falls on _everything_ that is near?"
Fraulein von Hoffman placidly counted her st.i.tches, confirming with a sigh her suspicion that in dozing she had dropped three.
"Not always," she murmured, absently. "But no. Only when the sun is shining."
Ivan carried this gleam of comfort with him when he went away, and it is very possible that he longed for a darkened world. But if, indeed, his daily task was difficult, as it frequently proved to be as the days pa.s.sed, there were compensations--in the school games, in the companionships of his new friends, in the kindness of those around him.
Even Augustus Adolphus was good to him at times. Unquestioningly, inscrutably, Ivan absorbed atmosphere, and did his share of the community"s work as he saw it.
The theories of the community were consistently carried out. In the summer, after their few hours of study, the children were left to themselves. Together they worked out the problems of their little world; together they discussed, often with an uncanny insight, the grown-ups around them. Sometimes the tasks of the others were forgotten; frequently, in the stress of work and play, Augustus Adolphus"s wood-box remained unfulfilled; Josephine"s flowers were unwatered. But the mission of Ivan as a busy and strenuous sunbeam was regularly and consistently carried out--all the children saw to that.
Regularly, that is, save on dark days. Here he drew the line.
"Fraulein says it only falls on things when the sun shines," he explained, tersely, and he fulfilled his mission accordingly. Fraulein wondered where he had acc.u.mulated the choice collection of b.u.mps and bruises that adorned his person; but he never told, and apparently n.o.body else knew. Mrs. Eltner marvelled darkly over the destruction of her favorite nasturtium-bed. Daily the stifled howls of Augustus Adolphus continued to rend the ambient air when the sunbeam fell on him; but he forbore to complain, suffering heroically this unpleasant feature of the programme, that the rest might not be curtailed. Once, indeed, he had rebelled.
"Why don"t you fall on some one else?" he had demanded, sulkily. "You don"t have to fall on me all the time."
The reply of the sunbeam was convincing in its simple truth.
"I do," he explained. "Fraulein has said so. It must fall always on the same place if it is there."
Augustus Adolphus was silenced. He was indeed there, always. It was unfortunate, but seemed inevitable, that he should contribute his share to the daily entertainment so deeply enjoyed by all.
It was, very appropriately, at Thanksgiving-time that Ivan"s mission as an active sunbeam ended. He was engaged in his usual profound meditation in the presence of Miss Clarkson, who had come to see him, and who was at the moment digesting the information she had received, that not once in his months at Locust Hall had he been seen to smile.
True, he seemed well and contented. His thin little figure was fast taking on plumpness; he was brown, bright-eyed. Studying him, Miss Clarkson observed a small bruise on his chin, another on his intellectual brow.
"How did you get those, Ivan?" she asked.
For some reason Ivan suddenly decided to tell her.
"I fell through the window. This one I got yesterday"--he touched it--"this one I got Monday; this one I got last week." He revealed another that she had not discovered, lurking behind his left ear.
"But surely you didn"t fall through the window as often as that!"