Show I 1 t p r by PHOEBE GRAY copyright by small maynard company compney SYNOPSIS 4 while W Ws trundling the clean washing up clipper hill mary alice brown Is set up on by some borne mischievous boys boya who split spill the bathing into the dirt shots she Is rescued and taken to her home in calvert street by francis willett Wll lett a galahad knight she is punished by her drunken lather father for returning without the wash money mary alary allet wanders away from home takes a trolley ride into the country and spends the night at the farmhouse of 0 sam thomi as in it 1 the morning sho she meets little charlie th thomas omas a cripple A f r 4 here before sam a and marha 4 stretches chea a big bia problem aroble they 04 want to make mrs brown and 04 M her children camf comfortable a le I 1 in acme way can they do I 1 it the j i 4 are not wealthy it i 4 people 4 CHAPTER 11 II continued he flexed his tiny arm seeking rp for an imagined bleeps biceps pretty good for ft a boy seven years old I 1 my father says he never see nothing like it lie he says it if I 1 keep on ill be a Herc uluss ever read about Herc Hercul uluss usg I 1 guess he was most as strong ns no god do you live all the time in the city most all thu the time I 1 been in the country with the mission picnic sometimes ought to live in the country like ilke me ine its awful healthy pal im as healthy as any anything thin just cause I 1 live ilvo in the country my aly father says god intends for people to stay in the country bryas as much as possible he says the cites full of fall pits mary fary alice I 1 want you to come back and see me I 1 like you not hardly any chil childen dun comes to play with me my mother ashes so BO busy but sometimes she stops and reads me a story it if you was waa here you could read me stories all the time read me one now mary alice before you go uary mary alice read Tead with a certain rapid contempt for all literary hurdles la in the shape of polysyllables poly syllables that made her delivery a of great charm both sam and 31 martha artha reading to charlie hesitated and stumbled at every big word the result was balting baiting and jerry jerky charlie never complained but the smoothness of mary alary alices reading pleased and soothed him she plowed along at great speed tossing clouds of syllables to right and left like ft rotary going through a snowdrift she got there this reckless dismemberment tier ment of the had bad scarcely any obscuring effect on the main thread of the story charlie listened almost breathlessly and his blue eyes shone through a mist of ecstasy into the translucent pallor of ibis his face crept a faint pink ile he radl radiated joy one slim hand band crept out and took the almost equally slim but far imore competent hand of his bs new friend with a low cadence of bliss read mary alice lady isabel allowed her sold soldier ler lover to fold her clo close s e to his palpitating tating breast while abile sir egbert glendenning thus forever defeated in ills his villainous mache rations slunk a beaten mim man from the presence of his intended vic victims tums 11 gee breathed charlie thi its a peach of a story oo 00 mary alice dont g way you read lovely CHAPTER III an old acquaintance Alary Alices recollection oad clay of prosperity Iro was so vague that for a long time it bad been quite inactive the events of the last few hours had stirred it ever so little she had had a good nights sleep in a clean cool bed had breathed a quantity of air from the original package had bad been fed liberally and who whole diomely fio mely had bad seen and been in a home that was a home better than all that she had bad made the acquaintance of charlie thomas who looked like an indolent an ange gelland and was only a crippled crumpled little boy mary alary alice had bad supposed that she was the most unlucky child in the world she could not think of charlie Ch ailie anchored immovably to one spot by ills his anil and wish to change places with him ile he was more unfortunate than slid she yet he spoke very agreeably and confidently of god as if god werf were u sort of friend like the doctor or hla his father sam thomas you yon cant plant bitterness in the heart ubeart ofa of a child and expect it to thrive except through a combination of very unlikely circumstances in the soil of mary alices soul then the acrid erld noisome shoot of bitterness had bad withered in its place overnight a fairer vegetation had bad germinated now sitting beside sam thomas on the city bound trolley car mary alice avay all mixed up in her mind between tho the desire to bee and comfort her smother ther who we would arild be 14 fra etc with anxiety and the wish to go back to the quiet fann jan where the chickens pecked busily about the side elde door and a crip pled boy with i a billion dollars worth of gold curls sai and looked looke d at the hills Herfa her faint lut re recollection collection of a day of prosperity th included eluded a cottage and some borne grass nothing in it reminded her of scant feeding whippings and ever present fear she could not manage to make any connection between it and her father the besotted lem bravn of today the sweet morning breeze that stirred lier her black hair hilr na as the trolley ear car whizzed dizzily along the friendly presence of sam charlies father broke through mary alices reserve martha had helped her straighten out her hair just before she left the farm and had bad tied a piece of ribbon on it tula this gave mary alary alicea alice a faintly stirring consciousness of her own appearance there la Is no tonic like it sam am thomas did not ask direct leading questions os as did maltba and charlie he ventured the opinion that mary alices father would have gone to work by the ti time meshe she reached home mary alary alice said that ther her father work sam did n not at immediately cry ja oh V ands and seem eins shocked so mary alice Allce overlooked her negligence in having lot let slip lip something she had kept a secret from charlie then hell be real seared scared about you wont he be with nothan else to think orr or 1 I guess not very replied the little garl but mother 11 be most crazy you tell em you was goin when you left home ma and the baby was asleep they the know it I 1 was only coln ns far as the park then 1 I got on the car for a little ride and the car come back your pa at home him nol no those two words told sam thomas a prologue forty chapters and an appendix concerning the life history of mary alice brown and her fa family mily now listen little girl he be said its ita eight the s stores to res are openly up I 1 got them arlands to do for maltby Alart by you can come with me take a few minutes and then well go to your house oh no I 1 I 1 I 1 got to go right 1 this was as far as she got the prospect was too alluring by nine mrs brown had begun to be genuinely alarmed about her daughter whom she had missed upon waking at five there were plenty of places where she might have gone for numerous purposes but there was no conceivable reason why she should stay so BO long mrs airs brown thrust her head from the window and peered anxiously down the narrow alley once she left the baby alone while she trot he ie held out a large hand that was wa about as soft as a brick ted ad to the corner of calvert street and an back ack there was nothing to pat eat in the tb house ouse or a penny of money now the th baby aby walled dolefully tor for his mill milk over the washtubs wash tubs sirs airs brown had long g since dried up the natural sources for his need on the stairs came a thumping and pounding of feet heralding the approach of at least two persons mrs brown straightened up tip and listened nervo nervously cisly wiping her hands bands on her damp apron mary alice came in followed closely by a large ruddy man who bother to take off hla his hat bat mary alices face was shining with a new light tier her black eyes sparkled and her black hair looked blacker than ever because of j the bow of red ribbon mrs thomas i had tied on it the little girls arms were full of nf bundles the moment sam thomas thomaa entered mrs irs browns sudsy kitchen the woman knew lie was from the country for he be possessed a pungent and bucolic aura compounded of many things the baro barn the dairy and the field had nil all contributed to it ft dainty people turn up their noses at that kind of odor maybe it is agreeable only by suggestion to mrs brown browa it brought back apple blossoms and roses and morning plo glo rles it brought back big shiny pans of yellow milk smoky rafters hung with branded together ears of popcorn rag rugs chickens that you had bad to shoo out but of the kitchen the bleating of sheep on a hillside it brought back the tears she be had bad forgotten how bow to shed all this was as instantaneous s as the breath of odor laden air that wafted wafred across her face she looked up into sam thomas eyes and saw that they were very friendly she saw something else eibe but she was not quite sure of it something that stirred her to the depths of her soul it just juat be here heie I 1 am ma bald mary alice was you scared 1 I was most seared scared to pieces child good landwher land whereto revo eve you been my names thomas sam Tho thomas milk said the bucolic stranger 1 I sooae youre mrs airs brown little girl ame to io my house last night and wo we kept her till mornin moraln id brought her back sooner but what with chorea and errands and he sto stopped libed sad and looked hard bard at the woman then he blink edin a puzzled way and asked say am I 1 mistaken or are you lottle lottie dillingham that inar married leni lem brown just who 1 I am said mrs brown 1 I recognized you the minute you opened that door sam goehl gald agid sam he held out aut a large hand about assort as soft and yielding as a molded brick I 1 this la Is a surprise aint UP mary alice looked in bewilderment from her moth mother er to her new friend and back again something besides whippings and skipped meals was beginning ni n g to 0 happen in ter her life she listened bened with her entire equipment of cars to the conversation between her mother and sam thomas and she helped get the breakfast the baby sucked conten contentedly gedly at a bottle of warm alik mrs drown brown said he was a abood good de deal al better mrs brown was not a aj woman that Is if she were all her instinct of self repression was broken down by this unexpected meeting with an old friend she told sin sam thomas all the things that mary alice had been at pains ains to conceal it was not quite edifying to hear bear her do so mary alary alice did not understand the awful longing to tell ones troubles that accumulates through years of silent suffering mrs brown had had a home and a babygirl baby girl as much hers as le lems ms this homo home she had bad helped to make pretty an and d attractive mrs irs brown and abid her baby did not drink of course lem lost job after job and became destitute nobody would keep lem antwork just because bis his wife was sober and industrious dust rious mrs airs browns unexceptionable habits did not noi prevent the building and loan from foreclosing the mortgage she and her children were paying a debt they had bad never incurred suffering vengeance no vengeance was due you can say if you like that it served lem brown right to lose his home he drank it up but you cant say it served mrs drown brown lose hers you can say if you like that it served lem right to be sent up in the coldest time of year to work out a three months sentence in a warm jail workshop where the tasks were after all not unbearably hard bard and there were blankets at night and regular nourishment but you cant say that it served mrs brown right to bear a child la in an unheated room rom with quite inadequate attention and not a penny at hand to pay for the nak edest necessaries of her situation little dick had bad been thus born mary alice brown trudged off with the of laundry for mra afro travers something had biad happened in her life what whai was to come of it she looked down a trifle complacently comp lacell W at her new dress of dark blue cioth oi with red trimmings below the now new dress a stout pair of shoes came into alternate view they were still stiff find hurt villainously mary alice care she hauled the heavy wagon up clipper hill and gloried in her acting aching feet halfway up she met a boy with red hair all the joy went out of the little girls heart this was the boy who had helped her last night the boy she had treated so cavalierly whose bounty she had spurned and later picked up from the gutter she felt as aa it if she had bad stolen it hello mary alice drown brown said francis willett Wll lett all resentment had apparently gone from him he seized the wagon tongue arent you going to speak to me he be inquired what you mad at 1 I aint mad said mary alice francis assumed the entire lab laboi ollof of hauling the wagon she tried vainly to pull a share of the load oh you leggo said francis 1 I dout dont need any help say how often do you come up this way ill tell you what ill do every day you come up ill try to be here and help you I 1 belong to the galahad knights Us galahad knights have got to assist maidens in distress you can be a maiden in distress cant you how much asked mary alice aiice does it cost to belong to your galahad knights twenty five cents a year but girls cant could a little boy that lives out in the country all by himself with his father and mother on a farm belong to it hes a cripple he never moves out of his bis chair all day could he belong I 1 sure if hes got twenty five cents he be could mary ry alice fished in the ibe paci pocket edof of her new dress she rhe had bad forgotten in the flash of her lg g idea that she was beholden to this very boy forthe for the coins I 1 her fingers touched she could only see as in a vision the radiant taue face of oc charlie thomas framed in its ita invaluable border of gold here said mary alice his hie name Is charlie thomas and be lives in hillside falls falla 7 something surely had hap ar 4 bened in mary alices ufa life and f 14 in something was pretty certain J i 4 to come of it but what fate V j alays strange tricks heres this acquaintance with the wll 11 lett boy ra s I 1 ofaf 4 X WO TO BE CONTINUED k |