Little Folks Astray Part 13

"Yes, I put some otto of rose on it this morning," said Prudy. "What a shame!"

"And I gave my flowers to the sick man. He was on the bed, with a blue bed-kilt. A girl name o' Maria, tookened me home. The seeingness is all gone out of her eyes, so she can't see."

"How long has your husband been sick?" asked Mrs. Allen of the woman, while she was taking lunch in the dining-room. "Did you tell me he knew Colonel Allen?"

Mrs. Brooks dropped her knife and fork; but her lips trembled so she could not speak. Flyaway, who sat in Horace's lap, eating ginger-snaps, exclaimed, "She wants some perjerves, auntie. She don't get no perjerves, nor nuffin nice to her house."

"'s.h.!.+" whispered Horace. The woman looked so respectable and well bred, that it seemed a great rudeness to allude to her poverty.

But Mrs. Brooks drank some water, and then answered Aunt Madge, calmly,--

"I'm not ashamed of being poor, Mrs. Allen; it's no disgrace, for there never was an honester man than my husband, nor none that worked harder, till a beam fell on him from the roof of a house, two years ago, and he lost the use of his limbs.--Yes, ma'am; he did use to know your husband.

He was one of the workmen that helped build this house. I came and looked on when he was setting these very doors."

"What is his name?" asked Aunt Madge, looking very much interested, and taking out her note-book and pencil. "What street and number?"

"Cyrus Brooks, Number Blank, Blank Street, ma'am. Before the accident, we lived on Thirty-third Street, in very good shape; but, little by little, we were obliged to sell off, and finally had to move into pretty snug quarters. But we've always got enough to eat, such as it was,"

added the good woman, trying not to show much she enjoyed her lunch.

"I am very glad Providence has sent you here, Mrs. Brooks," said Aunt Madge, warmly. "I know Colonel Allen will seek you out when he comes home next week; but I shall not wait for that; I shall write him this very night."

Mrs. Brooks' heart was so full that she had to cry into a coa.r.s.e purple handkerchief of Bennie's, which happened to be in her pocket, and felt very much ashamed because she could not find her voice again, or any words in which to tell her grat.i.tude. It was just as well, though. Mrs.

Allen knew words were not everything. It gave her pleasure to fill a huge basket with nice things--wine and jelly for the sick man, plain food for the family, and a pretty woolen dress for Maria, which had been intended for Mrs. Fixfax, the housekeeper.

The children looked on delighted, while the basket was filled with these articles, then pa.s.sed over to Nathaniel, who was going home with Mrs. Brooks. It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the servants' door.

It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high wind, like a sail. She was going home to tell her husband the Lord had heard her prayers, and she had found a friend.

"And you may depend I never talked so easy to anybody in my life, pa;"

this was what she thought she should say. "I didn't _have_ to beg. Mrs.

Allen is one of the Lord's own; I saw it the minute I clapped my eyes on her face."

"I am going to see that woman to-morrow, and ask some questions about her blind daughter," said Aunt Madge, turning away from the window.

"Ask 'bout her nose, too."

"Whose nose, Fly?"

"The woman's. It keeps a-moving when she talks."

"There, who else noticed that?" exclaimed Horace, tossing his young sister aloft. "It takes Fly, with her little eye, to see things."

"But I didn't ask her nuffin 'bout it, though, Horace Clifford. G.o.d made her so, with a wire in."

Everybody smiled at the notion of Mrs. Brooks being a wax doll.

"What a queer day it has been!" said Prudy. "Nothing but hide and seek.

We'll all keep together next time, and lock hands tight."

"Of course," said Dotty, quickly; "but look here; don't you think 'twould be safer not to let Fly go with us? She was the one that made all the fuss."

"Want to know if she was," said Horace, slyly. "Guess there are two sides to that story."

"At any rate," struck in Aunt Madge, "Fly was the one that did the most business. You went round doing good--didn't you, dear?"

"Little city missionary," said Horace.

Whereupon Miss Fly modestly dropped her head on her brother's shoulder.

She concluded she had done something wonderful in running after a dog.

"On the whole," continued auntie, "we've all had a very hard time. It's only three o'clock; but seems to me the day has been forty hours long.

Let us rest, now, and have a quiet little evening, and go to bed early."

CHAPTER X.

FIVE MAKING A CALL.

The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.

"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company was most desirable.

"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you run away from brother Hollis again?"

"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a spring violet.

"And look up in _my_ eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.

"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran _after_ you, if I remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."

"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"

"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"

"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"

"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."

Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a person of deep wisdom and wide experience.

"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt Madge.

"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand tight."

"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and there's the boy, ahind the window."