CHAPTER XV
MEADOWCROFT was saying to himself that he wouldn’t have believed Rose Harrow had it in her to do what she must have done, when Herbie came in with lights and he forgot everything else as he stared at Tommy.
The lad’s hair, of various shades of brown blending into what is called “sandy,” which usually hung in long, ragged, untidy but picturesque locks about his eyes, had been burned off in front straight across his brow, giving his head the appearance of that of a young calf. From the proprietary reproach of his tone, Meadowcroft might have been the boy’s father.
“Tommy Finnemore, what in the name of common sense have you done to your hair?” he demanded. “And now, of all times, when you’re going into a new school and ought to look your best.”
Tommy grinned. “I just bunted out a little fire,” he explained. “It was only alcohol, though, nothing to speak of. You see I had my mother’s piano cover with silk dadoes all round the edge. The trick called for felt and I couldn’t find another bit though I hunted all through all the drawers in the house. So mother being away for the afternoon, I took that. I was awfully careful but the first I knew it was all blue flame. Gee, but I was scared stiff, for dad would ’a given me the very dickens if I’d burned a hole in that. You see I had asked to use it before, and mother went right up in theair. I remembered about smothering fires with rugs, but there wasn’t one round; and just then my hair was hanging in my eyes like fringes and it seemed about like a rug and handier. It did the business, but dad was almost as fierce as if I had burned the piano cover, though not quite, or I wouldn’t be here. And mother said ‘Thomas, I wish you would forbid that boy doing any more magic for a year. The next thing you know he’ll be blind too.’”
Tommy sighed. “I don’t know why he didn’t, I’m sure. He said he’d a good mind not to let me do any more till my hair grew out, which would ’a been the same thing. That made me feel queer and when he passed me my plate I said I guessed I didn’t want any supper. I started to leave the table and he says ‘Mind you, Tom, no magic for two weeks.’ And then I shoved up my chair again and said I guessed if I ate slow I could eat a little.”
Meadowcroft smiled. “Your parents have my sympathy, Tommy,” he observed. “However, there’s a good piece of felt that was left over when they re-covered the billiard tables on the top floor and an old carriage rug that I’ll give you if you will solemnly promise never to try to put out a fire in that manner again or in any way that might cause personal injury to yourself.”
“Bargain,” said Tommy laconically.
“And do be more careful, pray. A magician should be skilful not clumsy in the use of his materials, you know. You have long, supple fingers that are capable of doing very delicate work if you train them.”
Tommy looked at his stained, spotted fingers curiously.
“Time for ’em to stiffen in two weeks,” he observed soberly.
“Your new school will occupy your mind meantime so it won’t seem so long, Tommy,” Meadowcroft remarked encouragingly.
Tommy rose. “I hate to walk,” he said suddenly, à propos of nothing, so far as one could judge.
He wandered restlessly about the room. “You see it ain’t as if I shouldn’t have exercise. I shall play ball with the boys recesses and at lunch time—we South Paulding people have to carry our luncheons and stay all day. And when it’s rainy I can go up to the book-store and see if they’ve got anything new in magic.”
“It will be first-rate to play ball, certainly,” Meadowcroft declared. “You’re pale, and you don’t carry yourself well. You don’t make the most of your inches.”
“I play a very decent game of ball,” Tommy remarked.
“I daresay.”
“Of course, it’s fine for Betty to walk. She’s crazy about it—partly the novelty, you know,” he remarked sagely.
“It is an exercise one doesn’t readily tire of, I believe.”
“And Rose walking with her, there’s no need of anyone else,” Tommy declared decidedly. “And there are houses all along the way and school is out at half-past two, so they’ll be home at four dead easy.”
“Yes, indeed, it is perfectly safe,” Meadowcroft agreed.
Tommy walked over to the mantel and examined the clock.
“Of course, once in a while, after they get started. I might walk home with ’em,” he announced as heturned. “But if I should start out doing it the first day or even the first week, I should feel like thirty cents, Betty being so much taller, you see. I could tell you right now what the boys would call me if I did—I know a thing or two about boys. They’d call me Baby Brother. Later on they’d know me better. They’d learn that I can pitch a pretty decent ball and that I could lick any one of ’em—I guess I could—and after that a fellow can do as he likes.”
He drew a deep sigh and passed his hand over his ragged fringe of hair.
“I don’t know as there’s anything speciallyqueerin a fellow’s riding in the train with the other high school scholars even if two girls he knows are hoofing it—not even if one of themisblind,” he declared as indignantly as if someone had suggested the contrary.
“Rose can walk just as well for all that. However, Tommy, walking wouldn’t be bad for you; and I should suppose the money you would save might be used very conveniently for your experiments,” observed Meadowcroft.
“O, wouldn’t it!” cried Tommy almost savagely. “But I wouldn’t have that, anyway. I mentioned it to dad and he said if he had a son foolish enough to walk five miles a day when he could just as well ride, why he’d soothe his mortification so far as he could by saving money off him. That’s the sort of chin a fellow has to stand from parents, you know.”
Meadowcroft ignored the issue. Tommy slapped his knee with his cap.
“Hang it!” he cried. “The worst of it is, she has always stood by me, Bet has. Before you came, nobodyelse ever took any interest in my magic, and she’s the only one that has ever come to see me do tricks more than once. Everybody else expects every single trick to come out just so the very first time, and if they don’t, they haven’t any more interest at all. And it would make it easier for her, too, because I could walk with Rose part of the time and have her go free. O, and we could each take hold one end of a stick—Rose and me—and sling all three dinner pails on it, and——”
Meadowcroft was smiling slightly. Tommy sighed.
“I suppose I’ll come to it. I suppose I’ll have to,” he grumbled. “But it won’t be until after about three weeks are gone by.”
“I am glad you feel that way. It will certainly be a civil thing to do,” Meadowcroft said kindly.
The boy edged along, pausing at the threshold.
“I daresay you would begin the very first day?” he demanded rather reproachfully.
“I should rather envy the fellow who did,” Meadowcroft replied quietly.
“O gee! I suppose in the end that is just what I shall have to do!” exclaimed Tommy. “And I’ll be Baby Brother to the end of the chapter. You wait and see. Well—so long!”