"Jehoshaphat!" exclaimed Seth Wilber faintly.
Fletcher folded the paper and brought his fist down hard upon it.
"There"s more--a heap more," he cried excitedly.
"But how--what--" stammered Jared, whose wits were slow on untrodden paths.
"It"s old Marvin"s son--don"t you see?" interrupted Squire Fletcher impatiently. "He "s big!--famous!"
""Famous"! What for?"
"Zounds, man!--did n"t you hear?" snarled the Squire. "He"s a famous entomologist. It"s his bugs and spiders."
"Gosh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jared, his hand seeking the bald spot on the back of his head. "Who"d ever have thought it? Gorry! Let"s have a look at it." And he opened the paper and peered at the print with near-sighted eyes.
It was on Monday, three days later, that Jared, Seth, and the Squire were once more accosted in the hotel office by a man they did not know.
"Good-evening, gentlemen, I--"
"You don"t even have to say it," cut in Jared, with a nourish of both hands. "We know why you"re here without your telling."
"An" you"ve come ter the right place, sir--the right place," declared Seth Wilber, pompously. "What Professor Marvin don"t know about bugs an" spiders ain"t wuth knowin". I tell ye, sir, he"s the biggest entymollygist that there is ter be found."
"That he is," affirmed the Squire, with an indulgently superior smile toward Wilber--"the very greatest _entomologist_ living," he corrected carefully. "And no wonder, sir; he"s studied bugs from babyhood.
_I"ve known him all his life--all his life, sir_, and I always said he"d make his mark in the world."
"Oh, but--" began the stranger.
""Member when he took the parson"s hat to catch b.u.t.terflies in?"
chuckled Jared, speaking to the Squire, but throwing furtive glances toward the stranger to make sure of his attention. "Gorry--but he was a cute one! Wish "t had been my hat. I "d "a" had it framed an"
labeled, an" hung up on the wall there."
"Yes, I remember," nodded the Squire; then he added with a complacent smile: "The mischievous little lad used my overshoe for a fish-pond once--I have that overshoe yet."
"Have ye now?" asked Seth Wilber enviously. "I want ter know! Well, anyhow, my Tim, he went ter school with him, an" set in the same seat,"
continued Seth, turning toward the stranger. "Tim"s got an old writin"-book with one leaf all sp"iled "cause one of young Marvin"s spiders got into the inkwell an" then did a cake-walk across the page.
Tim, he got a lickin" fur it then, but he says he would n"t give up that page now fur forty lickin"s."
The stranger shifted from one foot to the other.
"Yes, yes," he began, "but--"
"You"d oughter seen him when old Marvin used ter send him put to hoe pertaters," cut in Jared gleefully. "Gorry!--young as he was, he was all bugs then. He was smart enough to know that there was lots of curious critters under sticks an" stones that had laid still for a long time. I tell yer, there wa"n"t much that got away from his bright eyes--except the pertaters!--he did n"t bother them none."
A prolonged chuckle and a loud laugh greeted this sally. In the pause that followed the stranger cleared his throat determinedly.
"See here, gentlemen," he began pompously, with more than a shade of irritation in his voice. "_Will_ you allow me to speak? And _will_ you inform me what all this is about?"
"About? Why, it"s about Professor George Marvin, to be sure," rejoined Squire Fletcher. "Pray, what else should it be about?"
"I guess you know what it"s about all right, stranger," chuckled Seth Wilber, with a shrewd wink. "You can"t fool us. Mebbe you"re one o"
them fellers what thinks we don"t know enough ter "preciate a big man when we"ve got him. No, sir-ree! We ain"t that kind. Come, ye need n"t play off no longer. We know why you"re here, an" we"re glad ter see ye, an" we"re proud ter show ye the way ter our Professor"s. Come on--"t ain"t fur."
The stranger drew back. His face grew red, then purple.
"I should like to know," he sputtered thickly, "I should like to know if you really think that I--I have come "way up here to see this old bug man. Why, man alive, I never even heard of him!"
"What!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed three disbelieving voices, their owners too dumfounded to take exceptions to the sneer in tone and words. "Zounds, man!--what did you come for, then?" demanded the Squire.
The stranger raised his chin.
"See here, who do you think I am?" he demanded pompously, as he squared himself before them in all his glory of checkered trousers, tall hat, and flaunting watch-chain. "Who do you think I am? I am Theophilus Augustus Smythe, sir, advance agent and head manager of the Kalamazoo None-Like-It Salve Company. I came, sir, to make arrangements for their arrival to-morrow morning. They show in this town to-morrow night. Now perhaps you understand, sir, that my business is rather more important than hunting up any old bug man that ever lived!" And he strode to the desk and picked up the pen.
For a moment there was absolute silence; then Seth Wilber spoke.
"Well, by ginger!--you--you"d oughter have come ter see the Professor, anyhow," he muttered, weakly, as he fell back in his chair. "Say, Squire, "member when Marvin--"
Over at the desk Theophilus Augustus Smythe crossed his _t_ with so violent an energy that the pen sputtered and made two blots.
That Angel Boy
"I am so glad you consented to stay over until Monday, auntie, for now you can hear our famous boy choir," Ethel had said at the breakfast table that Sunday morning.
"Humph! I"ve heard of "em," Ann Wetherby had returned crisply, "but I never took much stock in "em. A choir--made o" boys--just as if music could come from yellin", hootin" boys!"
An hour later at St. Mark"s, the softly swelling music of the organ was sending curious little thrills tingling to Miss Wetherby"s finger tips.
The voluntary had become a mere whisper when she noticed that the great doors near her were swinging outward. The music ceased, and there was a moment"s breathless hush--then faintly in the distance sounded the first sweet notes of the processional.
Ethel stirred slightly and threw a meaning glance at her aunt. The woman met the look unflinchingly.
"Them ain"t no boys!" she whispered tartly.
Nearer and nearer swelled the chorus until the leaders reached the open doors. Miss Wetherby gave one look at the white-robed singers, then she reached over and clutched Ethel"s fingers.
"They be!--and in their nighties, too!" she added in a horrified whisper.
One of the boys had a solo in the anthem that morning, and as the clear, pure soprano rose higher and higher, Miss Wetherby gazed in undisguised awe at the young singer. She noted the soulful eyes uplifted devoutly, and the broad forehead framed in cl.u.s.tering brown curls. To Miss Wetherby it was the face of an angel; and as the glorious voice rose and swelled and died away in exquisite melody, two big tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed on the shining, black silk gown.
At dinner that day Miss Wetherby learned that the soloist was "Bobby Sawyer." She also learned that he was one of Ethel"s "fresh-air"
mission children, and that, as yet, there was no place for him to go for a vacation.
"That angel child with the heavenly voice--and no one to take him in?"
Miss Wetherby bethought herself of her own airy rooms and flowering meadows, and snapped her lips together with sudden determination.
"I"ll take him!" she announced tersely, and went home the next day to prepare for her expected guest.