A few mornings after, I was stepping into my gondola when I caught sight of the man from Troy sitting in a gondola surrounded by his trunks. His face expressed supreme content, illumined by a sort of grim humor, as if some master effort of his life had been rewarded with more than usual success. Eliza-beth was tucked away on "the basket of kittens," half hidden by the linen curtains.
"Off?" I said inquiringly.
"You bet!"
"Which way?"
"Paris, and then a bee-line for New York."
"But you are an hour too early for your train."
He held his finger to his lips and knitted his eyebrows.
"What"s that?" came a shrill plaintive voice from the curtains. "An hour more? George, please ask the gentleman to tell the gondolier to take us to Salviate"s; we"ve got time for that gla.s.s mirror, and I can"t bear to leave Venice without"----
"Eliza-beth, you sit where you air, if it takes a week. No Salviate"s in mine, and no gla.s.s mirror. We are stuffed now so jammed full of wooden goats, gla.s.s bottles, copper buckets, and old church rags that I had to jump on my trunk to lock it." Then waving his hand to me, he called out as I floated off, "This craft is pointed for home, and don"t you forget it."
THE BOY IN THE CLOTH CAP
I had seen the little fellow but a moment before, standing on the car platform and peering wistfully into the night, as if seeking some face in the hurrying crowd at the station. I remembered distinctly the cloth cap pulled down over his ears, his chubby, rosy cheeks, and the small baby hand clutching the iron rail of the car, as I pushed by and sprang into a hack.
"Lively, now, cabby; I haven"t a minute," and I handed my driver a trunk check.
Outside the snow whirled and eddied, the drifts glistening white in the glare of the electric light.
I drew my fur coat closer around my throat, and beat an impatient tattoo with my feet. The storm had delayed the train, and I had less than an hour in which to dine, dress, and reach my audience.
Two minutes later something struck the cab with a force that rattled every spoke in the wheels. It was my trunk, and cabby"s head, white with snow, was thrust through the window.
"Morgan House, did you say, boss?"
"Yes, and on the double-quick."
Another voice now sifted in--a small, thin, pleading voice, too low and indistinct for me to catch the words from where I sat.
"Want to go where?" cried cabby. The conversation was like one over the telephone, in which only one side is heard. "To the orphan asylum?
Why, that"s three miles from here.... Walk?... See, here, sonny, you wouldn"t get halfway.... No, I can"t take yer--got a load."
My own head had filled the window now.
"Here, cabby, don"t stand there all night! What"s the matter, anyway?"
"It"s a boy, boss, about a foot high, wants to walk to the orphan "sylum."
"Pa.s.s him in."
He did, literally, through the window, without opening the door, his little wet shoes first, then his st.u.r.dy legs in wool stockings, round body encased in a pea-jacket, and last, his head, covered by the same cloth cap I had seen on the platform. I caught him, feet first, and helped land him on the front seat, where he sat looking at me with staring eyes that shone all the brighter in the glare of the arc light. Next a collar-box and a small paper bundle were handed in.
These the little fellow clutched eagerly, one in each hand, his eyes still looking into mine.
"Are you an orphan?" I asked--a wholly thoughtless question, of course.
"Yes, sir."
"Got no father nor mother?"
Another, equally idiotic; but my interest in the boy had been inspired by the idea of the saving of valuable minutes. As long as he stood outside in the snow, he was an obstruction. Once aboard, I could take my time in solving his difficulties.
"Got a father, sir, but my mother"s dead."
We were now whirling up the street, the cab lighting up and growing pitch dark by turns, depending on the location of the street lamps.
"Where"s your father?"
"Went away, sir." He spoke the words without the slightest change in his voice, neither abashed nor too bold, but with a simple straightforwardness which convinced me of their truth.
"Do you want to go to the asylum?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why?"
"Because I can learn everything there is to learn, and there isn"t any other place for me to go."
This was said with equal simplicity. No whining; no "me mother"s dead, sir, an" I ain"t had nothin" to eat all day," etc. Not that air about him at all. It was merely the statement of a fact which he felt sure I knew all about.
"What"s your name?"
"Ned."
"Ned what?"
"Ned Rankin, sir."
"How old are you?"
"I"m eight"--then, thoughtfully--"no, I"m nine years old."
"Where do you live?"
I was firing these questions one after the other without the slightest interest in either the boy or his welfare. My mind was on my lecture, and the impatient look on the faces of the audience, and the consulted watch of the chairman of the committee, followed by the inevitable: "You are not very prompt, sir," etc. "Our people have been in their seats," etc. If the boy had previously replied to my question as to where he lived, I had forgotten the name of the town.
"I live"---- Then he stopped. "I live in---- Do you mean now?" he added simply.
"Yes."