Show LITTLE BOY NEXT DOOR CORNER By i NEW PEOPLE were moving in the old house across the and Molly went about her sewing near the window complacent with the certainty that the couple with the ten-year-old m boy Minute with whom she'd 3 Fiction the I day not the folks moving in Molly Turner had never liked and through all these twenty-five years she had been fortunate that none had moved next She felt In a way that telling prospective tenants with children the bad features about the old house had spared her an association she couldn't have There hadn't been anything wrong in speaking the Molly put her sewing on a got up from her chair with difficulty and hobbled over to the coal stove to shake it down and put in a scuttle of She had told the woman the truth about the house being drafty and needing and about Frank Overton being so tight he'd never do anything about She straightened and turned toward the and that was when she saw the ten-year-old boy belonging to the woman she'd talked to the other He was standing against the fence looking toward her Planning up his conquests of she and she groaned in sick She hobbled back to her So they had taken the house after Well someway she had o keep the brat out of her There were her flowers In the spring and He'd rummage In her sheds and break op She glanced out of the window and saw Ronnie climbing the She pulled herself out of the chair Molly thought she had Ronnie but the next afternoon there he was at her and waddled hastily to the she called to back in your own Ronnie looked at her a second then climbed back over the THOUGHT she had Ronnie MOLLY but the next afternoon when she went out to the shed for a bucket of he came to the get your coal he said-Molly wouldn't look at don't need you to get my coal she back in your own Go It was the way Molly looked that caused the kid to scamper down the walk and climb over the fence as if she bad actually shot at his The unpleasant incident didn't keep Ronnie Every day Molly had to chase him out of her Every day she vowed she'd skin him What kind of mother did Ronnie have that she allowed him to pester a crippled old woman like But one night a blizzard and the town of Hanover was covered with Molly just had one or coal by ner ana she dared not venture out on the ice to get She used the coal and when she got down to the last a desperate kind of feeling went over What would she Late that afternoon a knock sounded on her and when she opened Ronnie smiled up at her get your coal Miss be n you might fall Molly couldn't speak tor a She felt almost humble with shame and gratitude that he had I that would be sweet of she said and for the first time in an these twenty-five of not wanting children next she saw the Injustice of her prejudice toward queer in her mind had blinded her to i happiness a child could bring Maybe it was she had never looked at one not as the was looking cow at Ronnie and teeing the clear Innocence of hit A smile broke her old she how good she felt laying The feeling waa beautiful-one that the bad waited much too long to |