Show little jui b bev bir on U ia ablahad 1 si ah si d jr 1 A story with a soul I 1 13 by F PHOEBE 0 ea ea C a A Y copyright by small maynard compile company y SYNOPSIS while trundling the clean clan washing up clipper mary alice brown Is set upon by some mischievous boys who spill tho the wash washing nt into the dirt she Is rescued and taken to her home in calvert street by francis willett wallett Wll lett a galahad knight she bhe la is punished by her drunken father for returning without the wash money mary marg alice wanders away from home and takes as a trolley ride into the country V mary alice has a glimpse of a u real home inhabited by kindly generous people into her life also comes a friendship that pass pas basseth eth seth understanding 11 how now will arrangements b be e made for the care of mary alices mother and the baby Q lj CHAPTER 11 II continued the door swung wide behind sam thomas mary alice saw a pleasant room and through the open doorway wafted wafred the homey smell that always denotes the farmhouse in her overpowering weariness and pain the little girl yearned to that hearth her big eyes wide with longing well said sam thomas you dont think im goin to turn the poor young one away do you tou your name child and for goodness salce sake the matter with your forehead looks like someone had hit ye AN sam thomas stepped out upon the big flat rock that formed ills his back doorstep s just as the sun licked its first alist broad rays like the tongue of a cat over the saucer rim of the world A wistful mooing came to him from the barn the furry auteen weeds that dimatted the side yard were all daintily rimed aimed with a heavy white dew in which sams footprints would appear dark and distinct as if in snow with a thumping of feet and beating of wings half a hundred chickens ame came hurrying and jostling to his feet gwan igean said sam shoo mall I 1 feed ye shoo he he stumped off to the barn a milk pall rattling cheerfully in each hand band some swallows issued swooping from the tiny holes pierced high up in the peak of the barn gable they swung circled and dipped uttering littering small cheeping notes of morning gossip sam thomas whistled a thin tune less measure swung open the little door in the big door of the barn and pushed ills his palls abe ahead ad of him into that fragrant gloom mrs thomas in the farmhouse 1 itce en washed her breakfast dishes with the deft handling of inbred efficiency an oil lamp burned on the shelf above the sink for mrs thomas had arisen before daylight to make hot biscuit now astae slant rays of the sun crept in and turned the lamp flame to a sickly yellow she blew it out another day had begun the everlasting ever renewing business of cleaning went on oil with scarcely any ny interruption martha was always cleaning som something ething she scrubbed scoured rubbed burnished and polished by intuition hy by inelli inclination bation and by habit and slie she did not find flold it drudgery she was plump pink and pleasant Iea sant in her manner lay a decision a firmness which alch in a less personable woman one I 1 night might have called by a harsher name all the time jut just as her husband whistled his tuneless measure while he did ills his chores martha hummed a soft half balf portion of song a song which kept repeating itself endlessly without words or definable notes from somewhere within the house came a call mum mee ee cp ep the last note long sustained high pitched was as honeyed its as a birds call mum mee ee martha stopped in the midst of her itaskas morning the same th thing ing appended h app ened every morning came the blittle clutch at her heart the little tender recurrent pain of realization she answered a as always all al right heart theart mothers coming she set her broom in the corner and passed swiftly through gli the sitting room ilnyo a chamber the morning sun filled the chamber with a golden radiance and this radiance was wag reflected and seemed to be enhanced when it t touched the shining yellow head bead of a child nestled in the pillows the sun come and waked me up mammee said the child Is it time to get up if you want to dearle dearie howd smothers nn rm others boy sleepy 00 oo grand I 1 dont rum member tiny any thin but just one little teeny dream gee it was a funny little dream tell mother said martha she busied with a basin and cloths claths i and towels As she bathed him the child went on welli well I 1 cant just rum member every wn I 1 only the was a little girl in it but she my sister sinter gee mum mee I 1 wised I 1 hada had a sister martha stopped abort in her opera 1 MODS eions land sakes sake elt bhe said 1 I for sot i forgot what demanded the little boy shar sharply I 1 nothing abart dear said eala blis tal mother and he be baw that she ahe eriq t m miloua mu u lous loua T things aings like that were always happening to 11 martha artha and they never failed to startle and frighten lier her it if her seven beven year old hoy boy dreamed things that came true there might be some explanation a reason she dared not contemplate a fragile and holy secret hidden bidden under penalty even to her mother love she continued to bathe and dress the boy for he was quite hel helpless from the bips downward in the kitchen she arranged him carefully in a big chair and practical padded and propped to save every possible strain where he could choose to watch her about abou her household lio duties or contemplate the uneventful activities of the farmyard sitting there in the window little charlie thomas reminded you of an indolent angel ills his shiny shilly curls clustered ind and tangled about the soft oval of ills his face atif an blended blendea with alth the translucent pallor of his cheeks ills his eyes big blue find and questioning sparkled with a sort of eager and searching intelligence telli gence that sought everything absorbed everything comprehended everything ery thing what do you want for breakfast boy martha asked A egg said eald charlie promptly my clucky lay me one well vell ask the boss said martha here he comes sam carrying the foamy milk palls thrust open the door hullo there lie cried hows bows tike the old man this mor morri ln did clucky lay a egg demanded charlie betcher life she laid an egg answered ills his father two of lem cm gee said charlie some other hen got in Cluck buckys ys nest you fou better eat lem cm both to be on oil the safe side suggested 31 martha artha sam looked at his wife and jerked ills his thumb toward the ceiling hows the martha checked him with a gesture and a sidewise look toward charlie which said as plainly as words 1 I told him yet mary alice brown dreamed a dream she thought she lay jay in it a big clean bed in a room with sloping walls walla it was difficult for mary alice to piece two and two together in explanation of her astonishing position the pains in her limbs when she tried to move about in the bed helped her and all the details came gradually back she sat up and hung bung her thin legs over the side of the bed on a chair near by she saw her clothes in contrast with the clean chamber their dirtiness and raggedness were pathetic and shameful mary alice plucked at her own person and found herself grip 0 she saw A little boy propped and pillowed billowed Pill owed in a big chair ping a pinch of white cotton nightgown something less than a mile too big for her but terrifyingly clean she knew she must resume her clothes and loathed the idea the least effort hurt her bitterly but she hobbled bobbled across the room and some liow how got into her own things she worked forkl d with extreme caution of noise she did not know just why when she was war dressed she stood still and won dered what to do next the idea of facing sam thomas appalled her she remembered the kindliness of mrs thomas motherly face when she had tucked her into bed last night yet somehow she wondered if these people had not changed during the night if they would not look scornfully upon her untidy little person and put out her ber out with reproaches mary ilary alice at last mustered courage to seek the stairs to tiptoe down find and when she found herself in the sitting room she peered fearfully across at the open kitchen door then she advanced not venturing to speak she SAW a little boy with amazing yellow hair sitting propped dand and padded it and nd billowed pillowed pill owed in a big chair she saw a man and a woman attending upon the child with infinite love and tenderness dern ess in their faces it was waa all right and regular for a mother to love her baby but mary iary alice had almost forgotten that there was such a thing as fatherly fondness in the devils truck patch men quarreled viol violently antly with their wives and ais assaulted bulted their children with any convenient weapons weapons at the mission sunday school mary alice had been told a great deal about fatherly affection but in real life exemplification had been negligible like as a father hla his children seemed to her a kind of sarcasm little charlie thomas suddenly looked around and saw the intruder his eyes widened in surprise and question 00 oo cooki look he cried look at the little girl ashes the one I 1 dreamed about honest she Is sam and martha hartha turned and oddly enough thought mary alice greeted her very pleasantly hullo kid said sam sleep good you poor young onel martha said come here and let me wash your face I 1 bet youre hun hungry gry 11 mary alice was not conscious of hunger now she bhe submitted dumbly to the ablutionary processes of the cleanly martha INI artha all the while she kept her eyes fixed upon the little shiny hilred boy in the big alg chair by the window your name demanded charlie please come here and talk to me 11 mary alice went slowly up to the childs side le Is s shako shake hands he said 1 I dreamed about you your name mary alice brown Wb ered you come from I 1 I 1 like you mary iary alice she come from sheffield charlie boy put in INI martha artha wash IN moore foore the trolley conductor brought her here she got lost or something she slept upstairs lill all night what do you s spose pose made you dream about her 1 I dont know I 1 just wanted someone ane to come and see me some little boy or girl will you stay here frever mary iary alice my mother let me said the little girl 1 I got to go home right now charlie looked from his father to his mother as if in them lay the decision quite without reference to mary lary alices necessities cant she stay I 1 like hice her so much and she can read me stories there was nothing teasing or whining in charlies en gerness eagerness just a cheerful hopeful insistence could you began martha 1 I have to help my mother said eald the girl ashes probably te terrible trible worried about me we got a baby too and hes bes kind of sick I 1 could go home on the trolley the same way I 1 come I 1 got money well you might Is a well cat some breakfast the next car dont go for an hour mary iary alice went and sat by charlie he asked her a hundred que questions scions told her a hundred little things about his own on life mary alice was waa na as frank as she felt she could be but she hated to admit the facts that were cre all too plainly revealed by her dress dresa and condition instinctively she knew the hurt she must glye give the boy if she told him too much truth about herself shrewd martha thomas saw it all as through a magnifying lens dear lord the thought liel helplessly v how can call such things be right why do little children have to suffer and pay why dont grownup grown up folks settle their own accounts poor innocent b banes babies a poor innocent babies from this one may see that somehow or other martha thomas was clas classing clashing qing her charlie with mary kary alice of the sheffield eld slum what was the common debt thus vicariously charged against her boy and the forlorn little girl sam coming in from the barn announced that he must postpone his wagon trip for another day but ho he said ill just change my clothes and take her indicating the visitor home on the troll trolley eX im coln to find out so methin about that kid she aint very ery talka talkative tire but bilt im darned good and sure if shed tell us its all wed like to know it sound like no tunny funny story that young ones had bad some hard bard treatment im glad youre going agreed his wife ashes a real nice child only ashes been kicked or whipped or something bome you find out all you can dear I 1 maybe we can do something my fathers the grand grandest est feller charlie was wag telling mary alice 1 I guess im a awful lucky little boy ile he made me this chair his himself self did you ever see a baseball game some day when I 1 grow up and my legs gets well im coln to play baseball im goin to be a big leg pitcher gods gain to make me well says im gettin better all the time feel what sorrow has darkened the alves of srm and martha hat made little charle the helpless thing he Is TO BE |