Lady crying alone
THE MAN WITH THE POCKETFUL OF QUARTERS REAPPEARS
The Lady Who Likes Little Boys went quickly into another room and took down from a closet shelf a little suit of clothes and gave way to tears, hugging the empty clothes desperately to her heart.
After a time, a big man with a brown mustache whose ends curled up, came into the room, looked down pityingly at her, then took her up in his arms like a little tired child and held her silently while she wept her heart out.
"You mustn't take his things out, Alice," said the man. "Not yet."
"I can't bear it, Alfred. I want him! I won't try not to think of him!"
Mr. Anning placed his wife gently in a chair and began to tell her about meeting a small boy in the field who was hunting for something he must not think about.
"For the birthdays he lost before he was big enough to know what it was?" said his wife smiling through her tears.
"Do you know him? Who is he?" asked Mr. Anning eagerly.
For answer, his wife took him by the hand and led him into the little white room where Bobby lay fast asleep. Mr. Anning bent quickly over him and exclaimed:
"Why, it's the very same! The little fellow who lost his birthdays! And in Edward's room. Now I understand, dear, why——"
"It was not that," interrupted his wife, and covered her eyes with her hand. "He asked for justoneof Edward's birthdays so he could find out what it was like. And I couldn't give it to him, Alfred! I couldn't!"
"Poor little chap," said her husband. Then he took his wife by the hand and led her out of the little white room.
They entered the red room just as Sarah, the maid, ushered in Mr. Eller. He was very much disturbed and spoke quickly.
"I'm sorry to trouble you, Mr. Anning, but one of the children from the Home is lost. I wonder if you would take your car and——"
"Was he a little boy of five?" interrupted Mrs. Anning.
"The boy who had lost his birthdays?" questioned her husband.
"Yes," replied Mr. Eller. "Have you found him?"
"He is upstairs fast asleep."
"You don't know what a relief that is!" sighed Mr. Eller. "My wife is nearly distracted at the thought that he may be wandering about in the woods or the fields."
"We'll bring him over in the morning," said Mr. Anning.
"I think I'd better take him with me," said Mr. Eller. "It will calm Mary to have him right under her eyes with the other children."
"I know how she feels," said Mrs. Anning. "I will get him ready."
After he had been asleep for a long, long while, Bobby woke to find himself dressed in his own clothes and in the arms of the Lady Who Likes Little Boys. She was speaking.
"He is so tired and sleepy, Mr. Eller. It's a pity to wake him. I wish you would let me have him until morning."
"My wife's worried sick by his disappearance," replied a voice that was familiar to Bobby. He turned his head about to see. It was the Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy. In the doorway stood another man, a big man with a mustache whose ends curled up. He came forward, smiling at Bobby, and held out his hand.
"Well, young man, I didn't expect to see you again so soon, and in my own house, too."
Bobby didn't know quite what to say to that although he was sure the man was not making fun of him, so he said nothing.
"You haven't forgotten me already, have you?" continued the man.
"No'm," smiled Bobby. "You're the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters."
"Right you are!" laughed the man and, to prove it, drew out a handful of coins from his pocket, selected a quarter and pressed it into Bobby's palm.
The lady kissed Bobby good-bye while the man looked pleadingly at her.
"I can't, Alfred! I can't!" she said all choked up, and Bobby wondered what had made her cry.
"No, of course, you can't, Alice, I understand."
The Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy took Bobby from the Lady and carried him out. Bobby looked back and saw the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters put his arm about the Lady Who Likes Little Boys.
Bobby did not see the 'mobile drive up toward evening of the next day for he was out in the yard at Mr. Eller's playing with the St. Bernard puppy. He was running with all his might, the puppy right at his heels, when he looked up and saw the Lady Who Likes Little Boys coming swiftly towards him. He stopped quite still for a time, then ran with all his might right into her arms and tangled his fingers among the soft hair at the back of her neck.
"Oh, Bobby, I just can't let you go back to the . . . Home, without your first knowing what a birthdays is."
"Have you found it? Is it mine?" asked Bobby eagerly.
"Not yours, Bobby. My little boy is going to lend you—one of his."
Bobby squirmed in delight.
"Day after tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow," smiled the lady.
"When will that be?"
"Soon, dear. I'll tell you when it comes."
Bobby remained in thought for a long while.
"Your little boy won't be mad at you?"
"No, Bobby. He was always generous—just like his father." Then she said something that Bobby decided was addressed to herself and not to him. "I can't be less generous."
Bobby squeezed her neck until his arms ached. Then he remembered something she had just said.
"Did your little boy have fathers, too?"
"Yes. He's waiting in the car. Let's go to him, will you? Mrs. Eller is going to let you spend the night with us."
Holding hands, they went out through the yard, while the deserted puppy sat on his haunches and stared forlornly after his little playmate who did not even look back.
When they got to the car, there sat the Man With the Pocketful of Quarters! Sothatwas the fathers of the little boy who was going to lend him a birthdays!
"Well, son," said the man as they solemnly shook hands, "we're going to show you what a real birthdays is."
"Yes'm?" queried Bobby as he was lifted into the 'mobile.
"Sure thing. It will be birthday all daylong, from the moment you open your eyes until the Sandman comes."
Bobby snuggled happily at the side of the lady in the back seat, while the car sped swiftly on towards the house with the little white room with the little train and a whole string of little cars.
Man in automobile shaking hands with Bobby
Lady tucking Bobby in
THE BORROWED BIRTHDAY
"Is it tomorrow now?" asked Bobby eagerly as he awoke the next morning in the little white room and found the Lady Who Likes Little Boys bending over him.
"Yes, this is day-after-tomorrow."
"Your little boy's birthday?"
The reply was a long time in coming.
"It's your birthday this time, dear."
"For all day and always?"
"For all day long."
Bobby felt of himself all over and then announced wistfully:
"It doesn't not feel any different, having birthdays—not yet."
"Wait, Bobby, until you have had your bath and breakfast, then maybe it will be different."
Bobby didn't mind the bath this time at all, only he was in a tremendous hurry to get through with it, and when he was seated at the table he scampered through breakfast very quickly without being scolded once. He did not even notice that the girl with the little white apron did not bring him things to eat as she had the night before. He was back in the red room with the forty or a dozen red-shaded lights, now all put out, shaking hands with the Man With the Pocketful of Quarters, when the maid came into the room and said:
"It's all ready now, sir."
"All right, Sarah," replied the man and the girl left the room.
"We're going to start outthisbirthday right, son."
"Yes'm," said Bobby, watching him with eyes that sparkled expectantly.
"Up in the room where you slept," continued the man, "are a lot of things that small boys like. I want you to go up there alone and look them over. Then you areto pick out theonething that you want most of all—just one. That will be yours for keeps."
"'Glassies' or the bat or the train?" asked Bobby.
"It's justonething for now," interposed the lady. "There will be—"
"Don't give me away, Alice," pleaded the man.
Bobby wondered how shecouldgive away the Man With the Pocketful of Quarters, but soon forgot that thinking about more important matters.
"Or little pigs to buy an edge-cation with curly tails?" pursued Bobby.
The man burst out into a big laugh that filled the room.
"I haven't a doubt but what you'll have a curly-tailed edge-cation all right, Bobby, when the time comes, pigs or no pigs."
"Yes'm," smiled Bobby not knowing quite what the man meant.
"Come," said the lady. "I'll go as far as the door with you."
And that was as far as shedidgo. Her hand slipped gently over Bobby's straight blond hair and lingered there before she pushed him into the room and closed the door between them.
Bobby stopped at the head of the little bed which had already been made up, and looked carefully about the room. There was the enchanting train all ready to get up steam to carry him away into that strange land where red Indians tomahawk little boys, or where pirates dig all day in the white sand making places to hide yellow gold in. And there on the bed was the box of marbles, "glassies," agates and all, and a little blue sailor suit, and a baseball bat, and a whole row of quarters, and there—
Bobby's eyes opened wide and he made a jump for the thing that was almost hidden in the pocket of the sailor suit. Itcouldn'tbe, and yet itwas!The shiningest, white-handled pocket knife a boy ever had! He counted the blades; there were three of them, but not one of them could he open. He sat down on the floor and tried and tried to open those blades, oblivious to everything else.
Before very long he became aware of a barely audible scratching sound. It was soon followed by a high-pitched whine. Bobby looked eagerly all about; a strange excitement thrilled his blood, but didn't see anything thatcouldmake such a noise.
At last he leaned clear over until his head almost touched the floor and looked underthe bed. Way down at the foot of it was something in a basket, that moved. Bobby watched fascinated, hardly daring to breathe. The whining came again. Then the dearest little black nose was lifted above the edge of the basket and two soft brown eyes looked into Bobby's.
Bobby shouted and the puppy yelped at the same instant. Bobby, forgetting that he could walk around the bed, crawled under it. The puppy tried just as hard to come to him. It managed to get half way out of the basket when Bobby's face came down against its black nose. Puppy and boy mingled affection and gratitude.
The puppy's ugly face and wide-apart bow-legs were at that moment the most beautiful things in the world to Bobby. Even birthdays were forgotten and he hugged and patted that worshipping creature for a long, long time before recollection of the Lady Who Likes Little Boys caused him to crawl hastily out from under the bed, burst through the door, and tear wildly downstairs to the red room, the puppy clutched to his heart.
The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters sat at the table in the corner, talking to the Lady. They both looked up.
"Well, son, is that what you want most?"
"Yes'm," smiled Bobby. "Is itallmine?"
"Head, body and tail," replied the man.
"It knew me!" exulted Bobby.
The man and the lady exchanged laughs.
"He's all boy," said the man. "Made of the right stuff."
The lady patted the man's shoulder and looked away.
"Come here, son, and tell me what you think about birthdays."
Bobby marched close up to the man.
"Wish it was mine."
The wistful note in his voice made the lady's hands fly out to him.
"Oh, you like it, do you?" asked the man. "Well, this birthday has only just started."
"Yes'm," said Bobby and hugged the squirming puppy till it licked his ear.
"Here's another quarter for you. That's four quarters—quite a sum for a small boy."
Bobby took one hand off the puppy long enough to accept the quarter.
"What have you done with the others, Bobby?" asked the lady.
He fished them out of the pocket of his blouse and held all four out in the palm of his hand.
"That makes a dollar, son. That's a whole lot of money for a boy only five years old."
That set Bobby to wondering.
"Is it lots of money for a little boy withsevenbirthdays?" he asked.
"You can just bet your boots it is. A boy can buy all sorts of things with a dollar."
As he spoke, the man pulled a great, round white piece of money out of his pocket, thereby revealing to Bobby that his pockets contained other things besides quarters, and making him forget that four quartersisan awful lot of money even for a boy with seven birthdays.
"Know what this is?" asked the man.
"Money," replied Bobby.
"How much money?"
"A grown-up quarter," hazarded Bobby at length.
"It's a dollar," replied the man, "and is worth just as much as the four quarters. Would you rather have your money all in one piece? I'll give you the dollar for the four quarters."
Bobby hesitated in perplexity and the Lady came to his rescue.
"Take the big piece, Bobby. It's not so easy to lose and easier to find if you do lose it."
Bobby holding dollar out to man and lady
ALL THE PERQUISITES PERTAINING THERETO
Bobby obediently exchanged the four quarters for the dollar despite the frantic efforts of the puppy to see what was going on. The dollar was heavy in his hand and it was very thick. Bobby felt quite wealthy, able to buy all sorts of things, an edge-cation or . . . or perhaps even birthdays! His eyes grew big and round.
The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters had just said a moment before that a boy could buy all sorts of things with a dollar. And a dollar is lots of money even to a boy with seven birthdays! In his excitementBobby almost dropped the puppy, retaining his hold on that delight by one leg only. His eyes sparkled with the intensity of the desire lighted in them.
"Is it enough to buy a birthdays?" he asked, stammering in his eagerness.
The lady gasped at the question and the man was too staggered to do anything at first; finally he exploded into that huge laughter which always seemed to Bobby to fill the room. He didn't mind the laughter for he knew the man was not making fun of him.
"I don't know, Bobby," said the man when he had stopped laughing. "I've never heard of anybody selling his birthday. You might try and see."
Bobby turned at once to the Lady Who Likes Little Boys.
"Your little boy ain't not never coming back," he fairly stammered in his excitement. "Would he sell me a birthdays?"
And he held out the round, shining dollar.
The lady shrank back from him and went suddenly all white. Bobby knew he had done something wrong, but couldn't for the life of him imagine what it was.
The father of the boy with seven birthdays went quickly to his wife.
"He's got grit and perseverance," said the man. "A birthday looks good to him and he won't give up till he gets one. It would make him happy as a king, Alice."
She hid her face on his shoulder.
"I can't, Alfred. Don't ask that."
Bobby didn't understand what it wasshecouldn't do, but felt that he had in some way hurt her and his lower lip began to move unsteadily.
"It's only day-after-tomorrow, Alice," pleaded the man.
"It's Edward's," replied the Lady. "You have no heart or you couldn't. . . ."
The man looked at Bobby and then said in a low voice to his wife:
"Day-after-tomorrow is never to-day."
Bobby's heart smote him anew, for he saw water running down the Lady's face as she lifted her head. It had all been caused by his wanting a birthdays. Very well, he would pretend he didn't want a birthdays any more; then perhaps the water would go out of the Lady's eyes.
"Don't want a birthdays," he announced with a suspicious dolefulness in his voice. "It doesn't not feel good."
"Look at him, Alice," said the man.
Bobby didn't want the Lady to see thewater inhiseyes, so he tried to rub it out, but the tightly clutched dollar got in the way, and the lady must have seen what he was doing, for she simply rushed at Bobby and gathered him, puppy, dollar and all, into her arms and kissed him forty or a dozen times and held his face against her wet cheek.
"Birthdays can't be bought, Bobby, but you shall have one all of your very own. I'llgiveyou one."
"Don't not want any," whimpered Bobby.
"Not ifIgive you one?" asked the lady, wiping the water out of her eyes. "We'll give you our little boy's."
Bobby kept perfectly still and in that stillness a miracle was performed; that trembling lip of his, without stopping its trembling, was transformed into a joyful smile. And when the Lady saw it,shesmiled too.
"I've been selfish and . . . rebellious," said her sweet, low voice right at his ear, but she was looking up at the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters when she said it.
The man blew his nose and made such a loud noise that it startled Bobby and the Lady. They looked into one another's face and then began to smile like persons sharing a happy secret that no one else knew.
"I'll draw it up on paper, son," said the man, "and then if you ever lose it again, whoever finds the paper will knowthatbirthday belongs to you and return it."
He went to the writing desk in one corner of the room, took paper, pen and ink and began to write. When all the water had gone out of the eyes of Bobby and the Lady, they went over to watch the man who was writing away rapidly and smiling to himself.
"There you are," he said at last, with a concluding flourish, and handed the paper to his wife. She smiled as if it hurt her to read what he had written, and pressed Bobby more closely to her.
"Now we must sign it," said the man.
With another flourish, he wrote his name on the paper. His wife's lip trembled just like Bobby's as she signed it. Then the man took Bobby on his lap and guided his hand in making a big cross, and then wrote something himself above and below the mark Bobby made.
"Is that a birthdays?" asked Bobby.
"No," replied the Lady, "it's just proof that we have given you a birthday. If anybody ever doesn't believe you have one, just show him that, and he'll know that you have."
"I'll read it to you, son," said the man and proceeded to read in a big, booming voice:
"Done at Our House this Second Day of August, 1916. We, Alfred and Alice Anning, do hereby and herewith give and convey to Bobby North, Day-After-Tomorrow, which on every Second Day of August becomes To-Day, to be his very own birthday forever.ThisDay-After-Tomorrow is his fifth birthday; the next one will be his sixth. No one can take this birthday from him because it is ours to give. Whenever Day-After-Tomorrow comes, the aforesaid Bobby North is to have his birthday with a celebration and all the perquisites pertaining thereto. In witness whereof our signatures are herewith attached.
Signed: Alfred AnningAlice Anning.
Bobby North
Accepted by
HisXMark."
"There, I guess that's all ship-shape and tight enough so water can't leak through," said the man and offered the paper to Bobby. He accepted it gravely, as one should in such important matters, then smiled up at theLady whose lip still twitched curiously. He looked thoughtfully at the paper in his hand.
"A birthdays and perk—perk—"
"And all the perquisites pertaining thereto," said the man, helping him out.
"What is perk-wizits?" Bobby asked.
"Perk-wizits," replied the man gravely, "are the things that go with birthdays, a celebration, marbles, cake and ice cream, pocket knives, pigs and pups. Why, look at that pup!"
Bobby looked and the puppy had the precious bit of paper in his mouth and was trying to swallow it!
The man opened the puppy's mouth and rescued Bobby's birthdays.
"I was only just in time," he confided to Bobby. "A second later and that dog would have swallowed it. Then where would your birthdays have been?"
Bobby took time to consider. In due course he arrived at a decision.
"Long's the puppy's mine, I'd have the birthdays, too."
He joined in the laughter of his two friends without quite knowing why.
"Keep the paper in your pocket, Bobby. If the dog eats it you couldn't prove to anybody that you had a birthday. Now we are going to continue the celebration."
All day long that celebration lasted and Bobby was so happy and excited and had so many good things to eat and so many wonderful things to do that he didn't know where the hours had gone when the man said the day was almost over and that it was time to take him back to Mr. Eller's.
Bobby writing and holding his puppy
Bobby sitting on the lady's lap
FATHERS AND MOTHERS AND THINGS LIKE THAT
The Lady Who Likes Little Boys took Bobby into the house to get him ready while the man was bringing the 'mobile out to the gate. The car was waiting long before the Lady had Bobby ready. She was very slow about it; first she held him tight and ran her fingers through his hair; then she put his hat on, and took it off to smooth his hair again. Next she brushed his clothes. Finally she put the puppy in his arms and gathered up all the presents which Bobby was to take with him.
There came a sudden honking from thewaiting 'mobile, the Lady hastily kissed Bobby, put on his hat for the last time, and led him out of the house. She helped Bobby into the car and very slowly arranged his presents about him in the back seat. Then, reluctantly, she closed the door.
"Aren't you coming with us, Alice?" asked the man. "The ride will do you good."
"No," she replied, "the day is over for me.
"Why, the sun hasn't not gone to bed—quite," said Bobby, for the edge of the round, red ball in the West had not yet touched the horizon.
"All right, son, we're off," said the man and honked the horn, and the wheels began to go slowly 'round.
"Wait, Alfred!" called his wife in an unsteady voice and her hands went out quickly towards Bobby.
The 'mobile came to a sudden stop, the Lady opened the door and snatched Bobby out and to her breast.
"I can't let you go, Bobby. They wouldn't celebrate your birthday at the Home. They wouldn't know how."
"I'm afraid it wouldn't be much like a birthday there; not after this one," said the man.
The Lady put Bobby down and he seized the opportunity to readjust his hold on the puppy and to look into his blouse pocket to see if the precious bit of paper was still there.
"May I, Alfred?" he heard the Lady Who Likes Little Boys saying to the man in the 'mobile.
"Alice!" cried the man. "I love you a thousand times better than ever!"
That seemed a very funny sort of answer to Bobby; there was no sense in it. He looked up and found the Lady's arms held out to him.
"Bobby, would you like to stay with us and bemylittle boy? Then, every year when your birthday comes, we could celebrate it together."
Bobby's eyes glistened. He looked from her to the man and back again. They were both smiling at him.
"Will you be my mothers, then?"
"Yes, dear, I'll be your mother."
Then, forgetting all about the puppy, which fell to the ground with a surprised little yelp, Bobby rushed to the Lady Who Likes Little Boys and threw his arms passionately about her neck as she knelt to receive him. They both squeezed just ashard as they could and the Lady laughed and cried and then laughed again.
Bobby sighed with complete happiness. He had found a birthdays and already that magical thing was bringing him all sorts of presents—puppies and perk-wizits and "glassies" and mothers and perhaps curly-tailed little pigs to buy him an edge-cation. He hugged the Lady again.
"Well, son, you seem to like mothers."
Bobby looked up and saw that the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters had climbed out of the 'mobile and was standing over them.
"Yes'm," replied Bobby and twined his fingers in the soft hair at the back of the Lady's neck.
"And fathers, too?" smiled the lady.
Bobby drew back and looked at her with shining eyes.
"Have I fathers, too?"
"Yes, dear. You will love him because he likes little boys, too."
Bobby thought that over, then looked up with a shy smile at the man.
"The Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy?" he asked.
"No, dear," said his mothers, "not that man—The Man with the Pocketful ofQuarters. Will you shake hands with him?"
"Whyhe'sthe Man Who Lets You Play with the Puppy, too!" said Bobby, anticipating the fact.
"Already he's found me out!" laughed the man.
Smilingly, Bobby held out his hand to his fathers.
THE END
Bobby being carried by man and lady
Transcriber's Notes:Obvious punctuation errors repaired.Page 32, "did'nt" changed to "didn't" (Ididn'tthink about)Page 52, "and" changed to "an" (things, an edge-cation)Page 53, "fathers" changed to "father" (The father of the boy)
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 32, "did'nt" changed to "didn't" (Ididn'tthink about)
Page 52, "and" changed to "an" (things, an edge-cation)
Page 53, "fathers" changed to "father" (The father of the boy)