-
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. Ben B. Lindsey
 
 CAPTAIN 
 MARTHA MARY
 
 I gotta get the kids cleaned up 'fore me an' 
 Jakey takes 'em on our weddin' trip."
 
 CAPTAIN 
 MARTHA MARY 
 
 BY 
 
 AVERT ABBOTT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1912
 
 Copyright, 1912, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 Published, April, 1912
 
 TO MY ACTIVE PARTNER
 
 Ps 
 
 3S~ol 
 A I lie. 
 
 Since ' ' Captain Martha Mary ' ' has 
 already given to readers her earliest ex 
 ploits, she is under obligation to the pub 
 lishers of the ' ' Metropolitan Magazine, ' * 
 and the ' ' Red Book Magazine, ' ' whose 
 courtesy makes it possible to continue 
 her adventures in these pages. 
 
 1106194
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I A NEST TO LIVE AT I 
 
 II THE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE . 18 
 
 III A VIGIL AND A VISION 29 
 
 IV BRASS BUTTONS AND FINE LADIES . 39 
 V A FLITTING 48 
 
 VI TREASURE TROVE 59 
 
 VII AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY ... 80 
 
 VIII DECORATED 91 
 
 IX THE WEDDING TRIP 102 
 
 X LAND OF THE BLESSED SLEEP . . .113 
 
 XI THE KIDS' LADY 118 
 
 XII GOING TO LAW 124 
 
 XIII HER "OWNEST OWN" 130 
 
 XIV FORCED SURRENDER 139 
 
 XV STAMPEDED 149 
 
 XVI To THE TALL TIMBER 155 
 
 XVII THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER . . . . 168 
 
 XVIII CONTEMPT OF COURT 176 
 
 XIX A REJECTED PROPOSAL 191 
 
 XX BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS .... 202
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 TRANS-MISSISSIPPI 
 
 LADIES' AND GENTS' CLOTHING 
 
 NEW AND SECOND-HAND 
 
 THE board was of such proportions 
 and hung so low that it came near 
 to imperiling the heads of passers-by. In 
 deed, it was the red and yellow newness of 
 this sign, rather than any consideration 
 of the appertaining shop and stock, which 
 decided the business career of Antonio Blat- 
 zenfeld. He acquired as promptly as pos 
 sible the entire magnificence; or, more cor 
 rectly speaking, he advanced a month's 
 rent, made a first payment on the stock, 
 and then, with a lively and smiling counte 
 nance, hastened back to his family who 
 were awaiting him at the Union Station. 
 3
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Early in the morning he had climbed 
 down from the train, carrying in one hand 
 a bulging telescope bag which bumped 
 against his knees, and in the other a volumi 
 nous wicker basket covered with oilcloth. 
 He was followed by an apathetic wife and 
 a diminishing line of progeny. This do 
 mestic procession Antonio ushered into the 
 waiting-room, where the members of it de 
 posited their few greasy bundles of food 
 and clothing and, apparently quite at home, 
 ate, fought and slept, contentedly beguiling 
 their father's absence, while Mrs. Blatzen- 
 feld, with irresponsible frequency, nour 
 ished her latest-born. 
 
 At the end of the day, Antonio returned 
 to them, greatly exhilarated. He breathed 
 enthusiasm and spirituous liquors as he en 
 tered the room where the pawns of his 
 parentage lay strewn upon the squares of 
 the tesselated floor in the unguarded at 
 titudes of sleep. Even Mrs. Blatzenfeld 
 had succumbed and dozed in her chair with 
 hanging arms, while the latest-born dangled 
 perilously half off her ' ^p. Antonio seized 
 4
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 the infant by the middle of his wearing ap 
 parel and folded him in a somewhat abrupt 
 embrace. The baby choked, then settled 
 into a blinking smile, rather obscured by 
 a round fist punctuated with black dimples. 
 
 " It is just as if the city it had been made 
 for us," the father announced with loud 
 complacency. " Already I have found a 
 nest." 
 
 "A nist of wot?" questioned his wife, 
 even less awake than usual. 
 
 Antonio shouted with hilarity, rolling 
 the squirming and gurgling latest-born be 
 tween his palms like a ball. 
 
 " A nest of wot ? " he repeated derisively. 
 " A place to live at. A business in front 
 and a house behint." 
 
 With a fat smile Antonio marshaled the 
 brood out of the railroad station ; and, after 
 a gratified survey of the immediate sur 
 roundings, led them down the least reputa 
 ble of the adjacent streets. 
 
 Temporary hostelries swung their signs 
 at intervals, while here and there a squalid 
 shop displayed a rusty coat or a dangling 
 5
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 parr of trousers alluringly before its door, 
 and presently the family came in sight of 
 the gayest sign of the entire quarter. 
 
 Mrs. Blatzenfeld looked at the board 
 when "it was proudly indicated by Antonio; 
 she entered the shop and also looked at 
 that. With the brood at her heels she 
 inspected the battered counter, the broken 
 show-case, the semi-opaque street windows, 
 and said not a word. Notwithstanding the 
 natural expansiveness of an Irish tempera 
 ment, Mrs. Blatzenfeld was a silent woman. 
 Years of experience with a volatile and 
 loquacious husband had taught her the fu 
 tility of speech. She looked at the three 
 shelves filled with fly-specked boxes; she 
 even lifted the covers of some of the boxes 
 and looked at the emptiness inside; then 
 she went out to the rear room where their 
 household effects were piled in a heteroge 
 neous heap in the middle of the floor, and 
 where her husband was already seated in 
 a one-armed rocking-chair which he had 
 extricated from his newly purchased stock 
 of goods. 
 
 6
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 " Antonio," she asked hopelessly, " sure 
 an' what is it you was meaning to sell ? " 
 
 With the vapid dignity of the mildly in 
 toxicated, her husband waved his hand to 
 ward a rusty stove, a cast-off trooper's uni 
 form hanging by a hook from the ceiling, 
 some paper masks on a string, a pair of 
 high boots and three battered hats. 
 
 " This stock it goes all with the place," 
 he announced with prodigal satisfaction. 
 " Besides, here is where I have one good 
 idea. It is getting summer. Already it 
 is becoming warm. We do not need so 
 many clothings on us. I will myself take 
 off my coat and vest. You," he regarded 
 for a moment his meagerly dressed spouse, 
 " you, I egspect, can get along without 
 something, if not from the outside, then 
 from the underneath. The kids are need 
 ing not much at all. We can have quite a 
 stock. We will put it in the window, and 
 for the shelves I will get fresh boxes. By 
 the fall we shall sell enough to buy much 
 more, and we can then have winter cloth 
 ings besides." 
 
 7
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 As a theory this was perfect, but it 
 promptly received its first blow at the hands 
 of the eldest of the brood, Martha Mary. 
 She had been listening shrewdly to her 
 father's system of finance, and she now 
 faced him with decision. 
 
 " You can have my hat in there," she 
 said, with a jerk of her bright auburn head 
 toward the rear room. " 'Tain't much 
 good anyhow, since George Johnny slep' 
 on it. You can have my underclothings, 
 too; I don't care nothing about 'em. But 
 I won't sell off my shoes and stockings. 
 To go bare on your feet ain't ladylike." 
 
 " Well, well," mollified Antonio, having 
 learned in this daughter's brief years an odd 
 sort of respect for a character which was, 
 in reality, much stronger than his own. 
 " There will be enough, yet." 
 
 Indeed, Jacob Christopher 'and George 
 Johnny, considering clothing a burden and 
 a superfluity, gladly parted with as much 
 as the requirements of civilization would 
 allow. But a second insurrection took 
 place when it became evident that the 
 8
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 younger girl was expected to render tribute 
 in the shape of a flannel petticoat. 
 
 This child, having early turned upon the 
 world glances of enchanting if sometimes 
 intermittent sweetness, had been christened 
 by her father, Sunshine. Whereupon she 
 had repaid him by exemplifying to the full, 
 in her one small being, the Latin strain in 
 his blood. With her growth she acquired 
 a snarl of grape-black curls, eyes of blazing 
 dusk, an amazing affinity for grime, and a 
 temper which, either in love or anger, was 
 cyclonic. George Johnny, two years her 
 junior, blond, amiable and phlegmatic, she 
 passionately adored. She threw herself 
 upon him twenty times a day; often, it must 
 be owned, scratching and biting, but more 
 frequently with caresses, hardly less vio 
 lent. 
 
 Now, while George Johnny watched her, 
 blandly interested, she cast herself down on 
 the floor, to indulge in what he called a 
 " tankrum." For was not the petticoat in 
 question, though old, of scarlet flannel? 
 And was not its hue so dear to her little 
 9
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 southern heart that gladly she would have 
 worn it always outside, over her gray 
 frock? 
 
 But the father could not be expected to 
 take all this into account. " Tankrums," 
 moreover, were a commonplace, and be 
 sides, he was at present absorbed in busi 
 ness. So with firm hands he turned over 
 the yelling and kicking Sunshine, unfast 
 ened the gleaming brass button, which alone 
 guarded the gay treasure, and wresting it 
 calmly away, proceeded to the considera 
 tion of further stock. 
 
 The latest-born, not being yet of an age 
 to appear often in public, was permitted to 
 contribute more generously than any of 
 the others toward setting his father up 
 in business. The weather being, as An 
 tonio had stated, very warm, the infant's 
 wardrobe was reduced to the lowest 
 possible terms and thereafter consisted sim 
 ply of a change of flour-sacks. Pinned up 
 in one of these, a rear view pronounced 
 him in green letters " Pride of the West." 
 The alternate garment, printed in red, 
 10
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 declared him to be a " Happy Thought." 
 Antonio, observing this last, grinned. 
 " It will do as well as any other," he said. 
 "We will call him that." As the family 
 increased, the father's interest in names was 
 abating. Earlier, this had been an especial 
 pride of his, but the christening of the latest- 
 born was a minor consideration. 
 
 The present absorbing interest of the 
 'brood was the arrangement of their sur 
 rendered garments in a seductive window 
 display. So adroitly did Antonio pluck up 
 the flattened ribbons of Martha Mary's hat 
 and so skilfully did he fold out of sight the 
 rags and spots of Jacob Christopher's 
 jacket that the original owners would gladly 
 have regained their property. They scur 
 ried eagerly into the street to view their 
 garments, as they were disposed in the 
 front window, and they came to blows in 
 a dispute as to which sacrifice would at 
 tract the first purchaser. 
 
 As a matter of fact, their father's coat 
 was the initial sale and it went for such a 
 good price the buyer evidently being in 
 ii
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 need of altering speedily his outward ap 
 pearance that the proceeds enabled An 
 tonio to become satisfyingly intoxicated. 
 This was scarcely an episode in the family, 
 long familiarity having dulled its signifi 
 cance; but Martha Mary, growing daily 
 in keenness of perception, made at about 
 this time a discovery. 
 
 " Jake," she said one day, while the two 
 sat in the shade of a garbage barrel, catch 
 ing flies and pulling off their heads, " ma 's 
 booze fightin'." 
 
 "What's that?" questioned the less so 
 phisticated younger brother. 
 
 " Drinkin', like pa. That 's what makes 
 her sleep all the time and makes her so 
 cross when she ain't sleepin'. I guess 
 drunk women is meaner 'n drunk men." 
 
 " Ma 's mean," agreed Jakey, stung by the 
 rankle of some recent injury. 
 
 " She ain't, neither. You must n't talk 
 like that about your ma," reproved Martha 
 Mary with inconsistent loyalty. " She 's 
 drunk now," she calmly continued. " I 'm 
 goin' in and see what she 's doin'." 
 12
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 Their arrival in the rear room did not 
 attract their mother's attention. She lay 
 on the bed with the baby beside her and was 
 occupied at the moment with trying to pour 
 some last drops from a bottle into the 
 child's open mouth. Poor little misnamed 
 Happy was crying and choking, but stopped 
 both abruptly as Martha Mary jerked him 
 into her arms. 
 
 " You quit givin' him that," she ordered 
 shrilly. " You 're givin' it to him all the 
 time. I seen you. It '11 make him silly, 
 Mis' Kelly said it would." 
 
 Mrs. Blatzenfeld was in no condition to 
 argue concerning her neighbor's superior 
 knowledge of the rearing of infants. She 
 muttered thickly, glaring at her daughter, 
 then lurched over on the bed in the stupor 
 of drunkenness. 
 
 Jacob Christopher began to sniff. " I 'm 
 hungry," he complained, desirous of con 
 tributing his quota to the family discom 
 fort. 
 
 " Shut up, Jake Blatzenfeld," snapped 
 his sister. " Course you 're hungry. So 'm 
 13
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 I. So 's ma, I s'pose, if she knew enough 
 to know it. Come on, we '11 go set on Mis' 
 Kelly's back step. Mebbe she '11 give us 
 somep'n." 
 
 Mrs. Kelly, to whom Martha Mary 
 seemed to pin her faith, possessed the dis 
 tinction, rare in that vicinity, of having no 
 children of her own to look out for. And 
 though her indulgent generosity toward the 
 children of others was likely to be spas 
 modic, she was a possible resource upon 
 which the little Blatzenfelds had learned to 
 count. Accordingly the two eldest now set 
 forth by the shortest route, to be joined on 
 the way by Sunshine and George Johnny, 
 just returned from an inspection of the ad 
 jacent alleys with a view to discovering 
 some rejected scraps of food. But very 
 little that was eatable ever was rejected in 
 this neighborhood, and the entire quartette 
 proceeded to the friendly Mrs. Kelly's, who 
 looked out of the door to find them ranged 
 upon the step, apparently admiring the 
 back yard. 
 
 " You kids had anything to eat to-day ? " 
 14
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 was her prompt and practical question. 
 
 " Oh, yes 'm," answered Martha Mary 
 brightly, at which Jacob Christopher stared 
 in disappointment. 
 
 " What 's yer ma doin' ? " 
 
 " She 's asleep. We come away so 's not 
 to disturb her." 
 
 "Where's yer pa?" 
 
 " He ain't been home for two days. I 
 guess he 's got a job." 
 
 Mrs. Kelly grunted incredulously, then 
 she took the day's loaf from the shelf, 
 where it lay between a kerosene lamp and 
 a flat iron, cut off four thin slices, and, 
 looking a bit regretfully at the remnant as 
 she laid it back, handed the portions to 
 Martha Mary. 
 
 " Oh, thank you," said the elder sister 
 in apparent surprise. " We 're so particu 
 lar fond of bread we can eat it any time." 
 
 " Well, hurry up an' eat it then. If any 
 more kids come, it '11 be lunches all around." 
 
 It must needs have been a sudden ar 
 rival that could have surprised any vestige 
 of that bread upon one of the Blatzenfelds. 
 15
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 But the last scrap of food that Mrs. Kelly 
 could manage to bestow, supplemented by a 
 bit here and there from other neighbors, 
 could not long keep the little household 
 from the twisting pangs of hunger. 
 
 The expansive sign still swinging above 
 the shop door might have .indicated the gate 
 of doom, so far as Antonio and his family 
 were concerned. At least it very effect 
 ively marked the man's last flamboyant im 
 pulse toward responsibility. He now ap 
 peared only long enough to select what 
 seemed the most negotiable object about the 
 premises, and then vanished to reappear 
 briefly upon the same errand, more unsteady 
 and blear-eyed than before, but never ill- 
 natured. It was left for his wife thor 
 oughly to exemplify that phase of dissipa 
 tion. These were precarious days for the 
 brood, and they learned to anticipate with 
 satisfaction the final stage which left their 
 mother helpless on the floor. 
 
 One dull morning revealed even the sign 
 gone; the next brought rumor of Antonio 
 in jail. Mrs. Blatzenfeld did not doubt 
 16
 
 A NEST TO LIVE AT 
 
 the truth of the news ; in fact, it did not in 
 terest her particularly; she faced more 
 pressing realities. There was nothing to 
 sell, there was nothing to eat; that might 
 have been borne; but there was nothing to 
 drink, and that was not to be endured. 
 She was dully conscious of the dependent 
 brood, whom she regarded with smoldering 
 animosity. It was a problem altogether too 
 intricate for the befuddled mind of Mrs. 
 Blatzenfeld, and she solved it by subtract 
 ing herself. What became of her no one 
 was at the least pains to ascertain. The 
 brood was troubled rather than bereft, and 
 their small capabilities were completely oc 
 cupied by their own immediate needs.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE 
 
 EVEN the enterprising sun of an early 
 May morning took some time to find 
 its way into the one window of that room, 
 back of the shop where the little Blatzen- 
 felds were sleeping. The yellow beams lay 
 first across Martha Mary's small, square, 
 and rather dingy chin; then they outlined 
 clearly the cheerful snub of her profusely 
 freckled nose, and at last the warm rays 
 fell on her eyes. Martha Mary put up her 
 fists and rubbed those eyes with a weary 
 little gesture which was appealingly child 
 ish, but the next moment she sat erect, and 
 immediately her face took on an expression 
 of mature concern. Crawling carefully 
 over the tumbled rags which served as bed 
 ding, she reached across George Johnny 
 and gave the still slumbering Jakey a pinch. 
 18
 
 WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE 
 
 "Ouch!" said Jacob Christopher 
 promptly, and made a scramble in prepara 
 tion for swift reprisal, but Martha Mary 
 cowed him with serious mien and uplifted 
 finger. 
 
 " Hush ! " she admonished. " Come 
 'long outside." 
 
 Once out, she closed the door with cau 
 tion and entered upon her explanation, 
 while the not yet fully awakened Jakey 
 blinked at the ruts and garbage heaps of 
 the alley, where the hot sun was already 
 cooking up divers malodorous vapors. 
 
 " You get them kids awake," began 
 Martha Mary, " an' there '11 be nothin' but 
 cryin', same as there was all yesterday." 
 The freckled face sharpened at the recollec 
 tion of yesterday's trials. " Tell you what, 
 Jake Blatzenfeld, you 'n me 's got to 
 hustle." 
 
 " Hustle w'ot ? " questioned the brother, 
 in junior dependence. 
 
 " Hustle somethin' for them kids to eat, 
 first thing. Ain't nobody else to do it. I 
 was thinkin' last night, w'en I heard the 
 19
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 boys yellin' ' Yuxtry ! ' why can't you sell 
 papers? " 
 
 " Aw, I dunno how ! " deprecated Jacob 
 Christopher. 
 
 " Know how ! " His sister withered him. 
 " You're the loudest yellin' boy I ever 
 seen, an' you might just as well be yellin' 
 ' Woild-Hoild-Bee-ur-News ! ' " (Here Mar 
 tha Mary gave a subdued imitation of this 
 accomplishment.) " Might as well be yell- 
 in' that, as to be yellin' nonsense out of 
 your own head." 
 
 " Where 'd I get the papers to yell ? " 
 questioned the still reluctant Jakey. 
 
 " That 's just what I don't know nothin* 
 about, but I 'm goin' over right now to ask 
 Mis' Kelly ; she '11 most likely know. Pa 
 ain't a comin' back, nor ma ain't, neither. 
 I '11 bet you a dollar on that ! " This last 
 was stated with the triumphant assurance 
 of one who lays down plenteous coin on a 
 safe wager. " You stay right here ; don't 
 go stravagin' off now, 'cause if Happy 
 wakes up he '11 holler like anythin' for his 
 milk. I won't be gone but a minute." 
 20
 
 WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE 
 
 She set off with wiry skips, hopping over 
 tin cans and old bottles, her two red braids 
 flapping on her flat little shoulders, until 
 they switched around the corner that led to 
 Mrs. Kelly's. 
 
 Popping in at her neighbor's back door 
 she popped out her question at the same 
 instant : 
 
 " Mis' Kelly, where at do you git papers 
 to yell?" 
 
 The languid Mrs. Kelly, still leaning her 
 elbows upon a crumb-strewn table over a 
 dirty coffee cup, looked around, wearily. 
 
 " Well, ain't you the limit ! " she ob 
 served, from the depths of her morning 
 lassitude. " A body 'd think you was 
 stirred up of ginger an' lightning." 
 
 But Martha Mary was in no mood for 
 neighborly badinage; her expression grew 
 still more earnest. 
 
 " Where do they git 'em, though ? the 
 kids that sells the papers? I want to git 
 Jakey started right away. I got to ! " 
 
 The anxious note in those last words 
 pierced even the easy sloth of Mrs. Kelly. 
 
 21
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " What 's the matter? Yer ma sick? " 
 
 " I guess so. I dunno. Leastways she 
 ain't there." 
 
 "Ain't there! Since when?" 
 
 Martha Mary stopped to consider. It 
 seemed a long time since the family had 
 been her responsibility. After a moment 
 she said : 
 
 " It was the night before yesterday 
 when she went away. She did n't come 
 back." 
 
 "An' yerpa?" 
 
 " He 's been gone a long time, al 
 ready." 
 
 Mrs. Kelly was fully roused now. " For 
 the love of Mary, ain't that the limit!" 
 she cried, her voice vibrating with honest 
 sympathy. " An' you kids a little nearer 
 starved than what you 've been any time 
 yet!" 
 
 Still Martha Mary's pride did not quite 
 desert her. " The milkman give me a lit 
 tle milk for the baby," she protested. " It 
 was most sour, but he took it, every speck. 
 An' we found quite a bit of bread an* 
 22
 
 WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE 
 
 things in the can back of the ' Quick 
 Lunch.' " 
 
 Even the unfastidious Mrs. Kelly made 
 a grimace at the thought of this source of 
 supplies. " You better keep out of that. 
 You '11 all get pizened," she admonished. 
 " That old Brodky would n't throw out 
 nothin' that was fit for a dog." 
 
 Martha Mary's face puckered and her 
 eyes filled. Upon the table before her was 
 still the heel of a loaf, some milk remained 
 in the bottom of a yellow glass pitcher, and 
 the air of the little room reeked with the 
 smell of much-boiled coffee. So delicious 
 was that odor to Martha Mary that it made 
 her sick. 
 
 " You pore red-headed lamb ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Kelly, realizing the gravity of the sit 
 uation and reaching, simultaneously, for the 
 coffee pot and the milk pitcher. But Mar 
 tha Mary intervened. 
 
 " If I could just have some milk for the 
 baby, till Jakey can git into business." 
 
 " Now don't you be a fool, Martha 
 Mary ! " admonished the woman, as she 
 23
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 held out a slopping cup of the gray mix 
 ture and began to pull off a portion of the 
 bread. "Jest you git yourself outside of 
 that, while I gether up a few things." 
 
 A relief expedition was soon under way, 
 and when Jakey, still humping disconso 
 lately on the back step, caught sight of an 
 approaching coffee-pot grasped by Mrs. 
 Kelly, he emitted a yell which augured a re 
 markable capacity for his future profession. 
 
 With a crust in one hand and some very 
 small change in the other he was despatched 
 to the nearest grocery and soon the entire 
 brood was feeding voraciously on bread 
 and coffee, while the baby attached himself 
 with silent avidity to a sticky but succulent 
 bottle. Meanwhile Mrs. Kelly offered 
 counsel : 
 
 " Course you could apply to the Board 
 of Charities," she commented, " but don't 
 you never do it. If there 's one thing I 
 can't stand, it 's bein' done good to. First 
 thing they 'd do would be to separate you 
 all up. Send some of you way out in the 
 country, like 's not, an' the rest to the Child 
 24
 
 WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE 
 
 Savin' Ins'tute. I put my Katy in that 
 place, the winter Mike got his leg broke. 
 They never give her a thing to eat but 
 bread and milk, an' she most a year an' a 
 half old! When I got her out she was 
 pretty nigh starved for potatoes and meat 
 an' somethin' solid. I fed her good 
 strengthenin' food up to the day she died, 
 an' I ain't got nothin' to blame myself for. 
 No, sir! you keep clear of them charity 
 guys, just as long as you can." 
 
 The little Blatzenfelds, gazing at their 
 friend with their mouths full and their 
 stomachs warm and cozy, were very will 
 ing to scorn assistance from all blundering 
 and pride-bound organizations. And when 
 Mrs. Kelly, getting to her feet, announced 
 that she would make ready to go with Jakey 
 upon his quest for employment, the two 
 older children felt that success was assured. 
 
 Mrs. Kelly's toilet, for ceremonious oc 
 casions, consisted always of a shirt waist 
 which made up in starch what it lacked in 
 cleanness. Her skirt remained the same, 
 varied only by the differing arrangements 
 25
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 of a huge safety pin at the back of the 
 waist band. 
 
 That safety pin was an unfailing indi 
 cator of Mrs. Kelly's spiritual and financial 
 state. Like mercury in a thermometer, it 
 went up and down her spinal column, ac 
 cording to her mental temperature. When 
 she was feeling altogether low she omitted 
 the pin entirely and abandoned herself to 
 a bagging hiatus in the equatorial regions. 
 
 But to-day, when the two were ready to 
 depart, Martha Mary was encouraged to 
 observe that the safety pin was at its top 
 most limit, so high indeed that Mrs. Kelly's 
 skirt canted up in the back to reveal, above 
 her low shoe, a hole in the heel of her 
 stocking. However, since her belt had 
 quite an elegant slant, Martha Mary deemed 
 it best not to mention the hole. 
 
 The auguries proved correct. An hour 
 later, Jakey, wearing a numbered badge, 
 returned triumphant, a regularly appointed 
 " newsy." When, on the next evening, he 
 brought home twenty-seven cents, the Blat- 
 zenfeld family basked in affluence. They 
 26
 
 WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE 
 
 had oyster stew for supper, two oysters in 
 each portion, and three for Jakey because 
 he was at work and needed strengthening 
 food. Martha Mary remarked that they 
 would n't have needed the soup so rich, but 
 it was all right for once as a celebration. 
 The elder sister had that sanguine tempera 
 ment which is particularly strong on cele 
 brations. When there was no especial oc 
 casion to be discovered she devised one, be 
 ing fertile of expedients. 
 
 The following evening they celebrated 
 again in honor of the fact that Martha Mary 
 also had become a wage earner. This time 
 they banqueted upon hot " weenies " and 
 a dill pickle, of huge size and virulent com 
 plexion. " A dill pickle goes so far ! " 
 jubilated Martha Mary, munching a green 
 and rubbery disk of the lauded fruit. 
 
 One circumstance alone marred her fe 
 licity; her new occupation would take her 
 away from Happy during the greater part 
 of each day. For Martha Mary was to 
 be nurse to another baby of the neighbor 
 hood, a Hinkstein baby, whose mother 
 27
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 wanted to go out to work. Jakey must 
 therefore be on hand when his sister was 
 not, and hours had been arranged accord 
 ingly. 
 
 It all looked very simple and felicitous; 
 according to Mrs. Kelly, it was " a blessin' 
 from Heaven," and certainly that shining 
 dime each night must not be allowed to es 
 cape. So Martha Mary shouldered, very 
 literally, her new responsibility, and she al 
 lowed no one to suspect how heavy and 
 how ugly she thought that Hinkstein baby. 
 
 28
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 FROM a sound sleep Martha Mary sud 
 denly bobbed up to a sitting posture, 
 her smarting eyes staring into the darkness 
 and a sense of calamity heavy in her little 
 breast. What had gone wrong? For a 
 moment she could not remember, then the 
 empty ache within spurred her tired 
 senses. She was very hungry. They had 
 gone without supper. In vain they had 
 waited for Jakey, and Jakey had not come. 
 Martha Mary had watched from the door 
 way until she grew afraid of the dark. 
 Then, with the door fastened as securely 
 as its rickety lock would permit, she had 
 stared out of the grimy window, and every 
 moment she had grown more anxious, and 
 more empty. 
 
 Her one nickel had purchased milk for 
 the baby, and as it grew late she divided 
 29
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 the portion that was left between Sunshine 
 and George Johnny. Thus they went to 
 sleep, leaving Martha Mary to her lonely 
 terrors. Finally, even she could no longer 
 endure the vigil. Her arms and legs 
 prickled, and her eyelids were closing of 
 their own weight. She dragged herself 
 over to the bed and knew nothing more 
 about anything until she bobbed up again, 
 with her whole small being wondering 
 about Jakey. She had no idea what the 
 hour might be. It was no darker than when 
 she went to bed, but the feeling she had 
 was a very late feeling, and all the sounds 
 were late sounds, even to the far-off clang 
 ing of a trolley gong, which rang faintly 
 and infrequently, because there were now 
 so few teams or people in the streets. The 
 gritty gnawing of a mouse only empha 
 sized the silence that had been filled when 
 she went to sleep by the metallic jingling of 
 an electric piano in a saloon two blocks 
 away. 
 
 As Martha Mary listened to the lonely 
 lateness of the night, a horrible fear began 
 30
 
 A VIGIL AND A VISION 
 
 to drag at her. Jakey was dead. He must 
 be dead. She knew it. With a sickening 1 
 chill at the pit of her stomach, she saw him 
 go under the wheels of a street car. Or 
 perhaps it had been one of those ramping, 
 honking automobiles. Whatever the cause, 
 the result was the arms and legs of Jakey 
 strewn the length and breadth of Farnam 
 Street ten times as many arms and legs 
 as a boy of his normal structure could pos 
 sibly have produced. 
 
 Despite her sureness of calamity, Martha 
 Mary longed to go to the door and look 
 out into the night. What relief, then, if 
 Jakey, still intact, should be approaching! 
 She dared not believe it; she had been dis 
 appointed too many times by other foot 
 steps that had gone slouching emptily by 
 into the unknown darkness of the street. 
 So, in the terror that had finally come upon 
 her, she crouched down in a strained pos 
 ture, cowering and listening. The closed 
 room was moistly hot, and with her chok 
 ing anxiety, Martha Mary felt smothered. 
 
 But hark! What was that? There was 
 31
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 a sound: the creak of a board outside, a 
 touch on the door. The knob turned 
 softly. Never before had Martha Mary 
 known what a reassurance the nightly pres 
 ence of the soundly sleeping Jakey had 
 been. She would have screamed in spite 
 of herself, but her tongue was dry and not 
 even a whisper came. 
 
 Then, from without the door she heard 
 a tone familiar: 
 
 " Lemme in ! " 
 
 Like a coiled spring released, Martha 
 Mary was erect and across the floor. She 
 jerked back the rusty bolt, peeked through 
 the crack, then flung the door wide. 
 
 " Jacob Christopher Blatzenf eld, where 
 have you been ? " With the words there 
 surged over her a great wave of joyful re 
 lief, to be washed down immediately by a 
 much greater wave of indignation. 
 
 Jakey's entrance was sidewise and depre 
 cating. He started toward the corner 
 where the others lay asleep, but Martha 
 Mary grasped his arm. 
 
 " I said, where was you? " she demanded. 
 32
 
 A VIGIL AND A VISION 
 
 Her brother jerked away. " Show! " he 
 ejaculated, defiantly. The dark and lonely 
 homeward way had been almost too much 
 even for Jakey. 
 
 "Show?" exploded his sister. "What 
 show?" 
 
 " Orfume," the boy answered, trying to 
 make his tone convey an extended familiar 
 ity with every form of entertainment. 
 " All the kids goes, all the time. Binky he 
 goes mos' every night. It 's great ! " 
 
 "Binky!" Martha Mary sniffed. " Ju 
 have any supper? " 
 
 " Had nuff," Jakey evaded. 
 
 "Bet it was a lot!" his sister jeered. 
 
 " Was a-plenty," the boy righteously con 
 tended, and then he let slip a fact he had 
 not meant to tell. " Me and Binky had 
 pink ice cream, an' pop, an' cracker-jack ! " 
 
 Ice cream? Cracker- jack? Jakey could 
 not mean that. Jakey was only telling a 
 lie. But no; there had been importance 
 and pride in his voice. He did mean 
 it: pink ice cream! That, and cracker- 
 jack ! And Martha Mary, at this very mo- 
 33
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 ment, would have given anything for the 
 stalest bun or the most impregnable dough 
 nut which might have helped to assuage the 
 ache and grind of emptiness. 
 
 Ice cream! Jakey had said it. Not 
 merely ice cream, but pink ice cream ! Very 
 well, then; but that was not the important 
 thing. Martha Mary knew the important 
 thing. She put it into a sudden question: 
 
 " Got any money ? " 
 
 " Yep," replied Jakey, still righteously, 
 and burrowed in the bottom of a trousers 
 pocket. 
 
 Martha Mary took the coins which he 
 handed her and spread them on her palm in 
 the faint glimmer of electricity which fil 
 tered through the window. Three cop 
 pers! They could at least have rolls for 
 breakfast. And then Martha Mary remem 
 bered the baby's milk. 
 
 She put the pennies on the table and si 
 lently crossing the floor, lay down on the 
 lumpy and disarranged bedding in the cor 
 ner. Jakey, also, disposed himself for the 
 night, which was a brief process in the Blat- 
 34
 
 A VIGIL AND A VISION 
 
 zenfeld family, since disrobing was consid 
 ered a futile and unnecessary performance. 
 Neither of the children spoke. Jakey lay 
 absolutely still, Martha Mary felt sure that 
 he was asleep. 
 
 She was mad at Jakey, so mad that she 
 was never going to get over it. She was 
 madder still because he could go to sleep, 
 go to sleep right away, and not care one 
 bit that he had spent all his money and had 
 devoured pink ice cream, and popcorn, and 
 cracker- jack, and had been to a show. She 
 would be mad at Jakey all her life! She 
 choked with the bitterness of her resolution 
 and the hot tears smarted in her eyes. 
 
 What was that? Jakey was talking in 
 his sleep ! No, he was n't ; he was awake 
 and speaking to her. He did not seem to 
 realize at all how mad at him she was. 
 
 " Gee ! " said the boy's subdued voice, 
 thrilling with remembrance. " Gee, Martha 
 Mary, you'd jus' orto seen that elephant! 
 Right up on the stage he was, an' him big 
 as a house! He could dance, that elephant 
 could. Wa'n't nothin' he couldn't do. 
 35
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 He 'd walk around over the man an' never 
 step on him, not once. If he had stepped 
 on that man he 'd a squashed him flat, but 
 you could see the feller wan't a mite afraid. 
 
 " There was more things, too. There 
 was somethin' Binky called a ' skit.' It 
 was a man a-paperin' a room. You never 
 did see no such a dub as that feller was. 
 We mos' died a-laffin' at him. He 'd get 
 all tangled up in the paper, an' when he got 
 a piece straightened out an' ready to slap 
 onto the wall, he 'd fall off the stepladder 
 into the paste bucket, an' there he 'd be, in 
 a worse mess 'an he was before. You 'd 
 jus' died a-laffin', Martha Mary. Binky an' 
 me mos' did." 
 
 Martha Mary was silent, but Jakey, be 
 ing quite lost in the gleeful treasure of his 
 impressions, had still a breathless lot of 
 wonderful things to tell. 
 
 " But the prettiest was a lady, a lady 
 with a white horse. All white he was; 
 not a speck on him, anywheres. And the 
 lady she had on a dress all shiny green and 
 gold, like fish scales all over, only brighter 'n 
 36
 
 A VIGIL AND A VISION 
 
 a gold fish even. Her dress hung down in 
 the back an' laid around on the floor." 
 
 "A train?" breathed Martha Mary. 
 
 " Yep, I guess it was a train. An' 
 she an' that horse made pictures of their- 
 selves." 
 
 "Pictures?" Martha Mary questioned. 
 "Pictures? how?" She was sitting up in 
 the darkness and so was Jakey. They 
 talked in violent whispers, across the slum 
 bering barrier of Sunshine and George 
 Johnny. 
 
 " Oh, they stood around and made 'em. 
 I can't say it so 's you 'd know. You orto 
 see it. I bet if I sell a lot of papers this 
 nex' week, an' we don' spend much on 
 eatin', we 'd have enough money so 's we 
 could all go." 
 
 It seemed an inopportune time to urge 
 further abstinence from food, but Martha 
 Mary did not think of that. Before her 
 spread the lure of unknown wonders. Her 
 agile mind had already created marvels be 
 yond anything Jakey had beheld. More 
 than all was the reassurance of Jakey's 
 
 37
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 magnanimity. He wanted her to go, too; 
 he wanted them all to go. 
 
 " Will it be there yet next week ? " she 
 asked, in sudden fear. 
 
 " It 's there all the time, only different. 
 Sometimes it 's better, Binky says. Sun 
 shine an' George Johnny, they 'd like it 
 gran'. Mis' Kelly she 'd keep the baby." 
 
 " Well, sir, we '11 jus' do that ! " joyously 
 whispered Martha Mary. " You bet we 
 jus' will. Now we better shut up a-talkin'. 
 Mus' be mos' mornin'." 
 
 She lay down with resolution, but long 
 after Jakey was breathing regularly, his 
 sister was still wide-eyed. Her hungry 
 little stomach and her hungry little brain 
 were combining to keep her awake, but it 
 was a pleasant wakefulness, full of dazzling 
 fancies. 
 
 The hungry little heart was satisfied.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BRASS BUTTONS AND FINE LADIES 
 
 THE wobbly craft of the Blatzenfelds 
 seemed afloat in fair water. It was 
 undeniably true that, according to their 
 standards, the little family was on the edge 
 of being comfortable, but there were shoals 
 ahead. They struck Number One very 
 shortly. Jakey sounded danger at night, 
 on his home-coming. 
 
 " Wot do you s'pose that head guy 
 says? " he confided to Martha Mary, " that 
 boss w'ot gives out the papers? He says 
 do I go to school ? I says, ' not me ! ' 
 An' then he says I have to go. If I sells 
 papers off 'n him, he 's got to tend to me, so 
 I go to school. He made like he was sore 
 about it." 
 
 " Well, what for did you say, ' not 
 me ' ? " snapped the sister. " Why did n't 
 you say, not yet? It 's always better when 
 
 39
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 you say not yet, about most anything. You 
 ain't got no no no respectableness.'' 
 
 Jakey, realizing his limitations, forebore 
 comment, only asking meekly: 
 
 " What am I goin' to tell him when he 
 comes at me again ? " 
 
 " Tell him ? " Martha Mary pondered 
 deeply. " Tell him you 're extry busy, 
 whilst yer pa 's out of town. Tell him 
 that just as soon as yer pa gets back, you 're 
 a-goin' to start in." 
 
 " But you said pa was n't comin' back," 
 demurred Jacob Christopher. 
 
 Martha Mary stuck out her chin, flounced 
 across the floor to where Sunshine and 
 George Johnny were having a mix-up, shook 
 them apart, shook each one separately, and 
 then, passing casually by the dejected Jakey, 
 she deigned to remark: 
 
 " You don't know he ain't, do you ? 
 Well!" 
 
 But Martha Mary was- permitted to use 
 her own skill in steering around shoal Num 
 ber Two. It arrived late one afternoon, 
 buttoned rotundly into a blue coat, and it 
 40
 
 BRASS BUTTONS AND FINE LADIES 
 
 was formally known as the truant officer. 
 This ominous person inquired for the pa 
 ternal Blatzenfelds. 
 
 " They 're out just now," smiled Martha 
 Mary, with a discerning eye to the brass 
 buttons. " Won't you take a chair ? " 
 
 The portly gentleman glanced at the two 
 chairs, one minus a back, the other lacking 
 a leg, and not appearing to consider either 
 of them worth the taking, continued to 
 stand uncompromisingly by the door. 
 
 " Have you been attending school ? " was 
 his next question. 
 
 " I could n't go to-day," explained 
 Martha Mary. " Ma ain't been feeling real 
 well." 
 
 " You have a brother, have n't you ? " 
 continued that relentless man. " Is he in 
 school?" 
 
 " He ain't got started yet," admitted the 
 girl. She was apparently very busy over 
 the baby, shaking up his bedding and ad 
 justing him with solicitude, though he had 
 been making not the smallest disturbance. 
 Now she lifted him from the perambulator
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 into her arms and came to a stand before 
 her visitor. 
 
 " You see, we ain't been moved here so 
 very long," she volunteered. " I Ve got 
 another brother and a sister, too, both 
 younger. They 're just crazy to go to 
 school soon 's they 're old enough," she 
 finished, brightly. 
 
 " Well, you tell your mother that you 
 two older children must start right away, 
 over here at Burbank, on D street ; and you 
 must attend regularly." 
 
 " Yes, sir." Martha Mary's tone was 
 obedient and respectful. At the same time 
 she tickled the baby and kissed him. He 
 gurgled with laughter, throwing himself 
 back in her arms until even the truant offi 
 cer melted. 
 
 " Nice baby," he said, and smiled. " Now 
 don't forget." 
 
 " No, sir," said Martha Mary. 
 
 " A p'liceman was here," was her way of 
 breaking the news to Jakey. 
 
 " A cop ? w'ot for ? " Jacob Christopher 
 was in dismay. 
 
 42
 
 BRASS BUTTONS AND FINE LADIES 
 
 " No, not a real cop; just a school p'lice- 
 man." 
 
 " Aw, I ain't a-goin' to no school." 
 
 As suddenly Martha Mary tacked. 
 
 " Now Jacob Christopher Blatzenf eld ! 
 Do you want to grow up without a lick of 
 education ? I don't guess you 'd need to 
 go all the time. Just a day or two oncet 
 in a while, to be polite. That fat man 
 looked real good-natured. I guess one or 
 two days a week would do him. Some 
 body 's got to go ; that 's a cinch. An' when 
 you 're away, I can skip over from Hink- 
 stein's every little bit and get a peek at the 
 kids. Wisht she 'd let me take 'em over 
 there, but I don't dast ask her." 
 
 Accordingly Martha Mary " skipped " 
 between Hinkstein's and her own abode, 
 warily, lest Mrs. Hinkstein should discover 
 her absences. Meanwhile Jakey enrolled 
 himself as a pupil at Burbank. But even 
 this strenuous effort to meet the municipal 
 demands was unavailing. 
 
 Jakey had acquired a deep-seated dis 
 taste for school in the town of their earlier 
 
 43
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 residence. He now developed an insatiable 
 desire to tend the baby, and Martha Mary 
 wearied of a combat which had to be fought 
 anew every morning. Moreover, Happy 
 was ailing, and Sunshine and George 
 Johnny knew no arts to quiet him. One 
 morning, after a long night which he had 
 made intolerable by continued protests 
 against some infant pain of uncertain loca 
 tion, he was fretting dismally in Jakey's 
 arms, when there came a tap at the door. 
 
 Martha Mary stopped the clatter of her 
 preparations for departure and uttered a 
 warning, " Shut up ! " The tap came 
 again, polite but not to be denied. In 
 stantly Martha Mary dived into the shop 
 and closed the door after her, leaving a just 
 discernible crack through which she whis 
 pered, " Now don't you tell nothin'." 
 
 Jakey stared in dismay ; then, as his sister 
 thrust out an arm and beckoned him to ac 
 tion, he gathered up Happy into a much 
 soiled bundle, and went to the door. 
 
 It opened upon two ladies, suave and 
 silken, the perfume of whose garments 
 44
 
 BRASS BUTTONS AND FINE LADIES 
 
 flavored oddly the kitchen's stale air. They 
 entered with a gracious self-possession, hav 
 ing had previous experience as volunteer 
 probation officers in this sort of visitation. 
 Mentioning that they had chosen this time 
 for their call as being most favorable for 
 finding Mrs. Blatzenfeld, they were sorry 
 indeed to hear that she was not at home. 
 They had been more sorry to hear of Jacob's 
 absence from school. The boy maintained 
 a discreet silence, while he reflected upon the 
 baby's inconsiderate conduct in choosing 
 just this season to have a painful night. 
 The ladies gracefully pursued their ques 
 tions, to which Jakey answered, yes, or no, 
 according as he fancied that he read their 
 wishes; squirming, meanwhile, with such 
 vigor as to endanger the safety of the baby. 
 His docility they found genuinely pleas 
 ing. Jakey did not look at all a bad boy; 
 they agreed about that, but he was evidently 
 very nervous. There must be a reason for 
 the nervousness. One of the ladies felt 
 sure she discovered the reason in the at- 
 mosphere of greasy cooking which pervaded 
 
 45
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 the room. (Martha Mary's cooking was 
 peculiarly productive of atmosphere.) 
 They concluded that the boy was not prop 
 erly nourished. It was a pity! Such a 
 bright little fellow! They discussed him 
 with a complete unconsciousness of his pres 
 ence. 
 
 They also discussed the baby, Sunshine 
 and George Johnny. The little girl had 
 retired to a corner from which she glow 
 ered at the visitors, but George Johnny, in 
 sweet placidity, leaned wide-eyed upon one 
 lady's silken knee, not minding in the least 
 that she spread her handkerchief under his 
 hands. He would gladly have joined in the 
 conversation, and would probably have con 
 tributed more than did Jakey. But when 
 his lady questioned whether there were 
 other children, and he responded, " Thither 
 theeth thkipped inth the thtore," his un 
 conquerable lisp effectually prevented any 
 awkward disclosures, and Martha Mary re 
 mained undiscovered. 
 
 Finally the ladies rose and departed, with 
 smiling leave-takings, shaking hands with 
 46
 
 BRASS BUTTONS AND FINE LADIES 
 
 Jakey and flapping George Johnny's limp 
 and dingy little paw, while they assured the 
 elder brother that they knew he realized 
 now the importance of regular attendance 
 at school ; that they were positive he meant 
 to be a very good boy. To all of which 
 Jakey assented with a relieved, though 
 somewhat sheepish, grin. 
 
 As the door closed upon the last smile, 
 Martha Mary pirouetted into the room. 
 " Snoopy, snoopy, snoopy ! " she derided, 
 mincing along with her dress lifted daintily. 
 "Humph! I can smell 'em yet!" 
 
 " Wot you skip out for ? " demanded 
 Jakey, with a sense of savage injury. 
 
 "Idiot! wo't for you s'pose? If these 
 here swells are goin' to keep on droppin' in, 
 I guess we '11 all skip out. Gee ! I got to 
 go. Mis' Hinkstein '11 be havin' a fit." 
 
 47
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A FLITTING 
 
 THE premonitions of Martha Mary 
 were not unfounded, though the next 
 caller was hardly a swell. He was a much 
 more serious menace in the shape of Eizen- 
 stein, the landlord, who took this unfortu 
 nate time to drop in and demand his next 
 month's rent. Being offered, by Martha 
 Mary, the ever useful excuse that her father 
 and mother were out, he inexorably re 
 turned the next day ; and, receiving the same 
 answer, waxed threatening. 
 
 "Oudt, is it? Veil, that leetle game, it 
 vill not vork. I ben coming again to-mor 
 row, an' ven the money it iss not ready, 
 effery cent, you vill be also oudt." 
 
 Eizenstein took a knife from his pocket 
 
 and, opening the large blade deliberately, 
 
 ran his dirty finger along it. Then he 
 
 sliced a portion from a plug of tobacco, 
 
 48
 
 A FLITTING 
 
 closed his knife with a snapping click and, 
 giving the children a parting scowl, went 
 scuffling away in his carpet slippers. 
 Martha Mary, lugging Happy in her arms 
 stood, meanwhile, in the doorway, the two 
 brothers and the smaller sister watching 
 their departing caller over the top of the 
 baby's head. 
 
 When he had disappeared from sight, 
 big sister transferred her burden to the 
 arms of Jacob Christopher. " Here, you 
 mind him an' the kids. I got to go away 
 on business," she completed importantly. 
 
 An hour later the stomachs of the 
 hungry brood gave an added twinge of ex 
 pectation, as Martha Mary's dilapidated 
 shoes came slapping up the back steps. 
 
 " I 've found the Jim-dandy place, Jake," 
 she exulted. " It 's that little house we saw 
 when we was down coal pickin' by the rail 
 road. Nobody ain't lived there lately. I 
 ast a woman. We 're goin' to move, 
 straight off." 
 
 She began to fly about the place, catching 
 up here and there an article which the father 
 49
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 and mother had not thought salable. 
 Everything she flung at a pile she was ac 
 cumulating in the middle of the floor. 
 This was a good game. Sunshine and 
 George Johnny fell to, and threw things in 
 various directions with enthusiasm. Jakey 
 put the baby down with the other house 
 hold necessities and made for the outside. 
 
 " I '11 go tell Mis' Kelly," he called back. 
 
 " No, you don't, Jake Blatzenfeld," com 
 manded his sister. " You come 'ere. We 
 ain't goin' to tell Mis' Kelly nor nobody, 
 an' have that dirty old Eizenstein comin' 
 after us. We 're goin' to lead a better life, 
 like pa was always talkin' about. I guess 
 we 're ready to pack now." 
 
 She whirled to the middle of the floor 
 the old perambulator, and commenced 
 bundling portions of the heap into it. The 
 foundation was laid with some remnants of 
 dirty bedding; broken dishes and unwashed 
 cooking utensils were wedged about ; in the 
 midst, on a sodden pillow, she planted the 
 baby and surveyed this ark of salvation. 
 " 'Tain't quite full," she decided as she stuck 
 50
 
 A FLITTING 
 
 an empty bottle, a broken egg-beater, a dis 
 carded corset, and the handle of a feather- 
 less duster into each of the four corners. 
 Then she grasped with a firm hand the 
 wrecked green parasol, which dangled like 
 a withered burdock leaf at the back of the 
 vehicle. 
 
 " There 's one thing we don't need," she 
 declared with emphasis, as she flung it dis 
 dainfully aside. " Now come on, all of 
 you. You kids take as much as you can 
 carry of what 's left, and we '11 move." 
 
 It required a steady hand to guide the 
 overloaded perambulator down the back 
 steps, but Martha Mary combined the skill 
 of experience with the strength born of a 
 high emprise. By the time she had bumped 
 the vehicle and the sprawling Happy suc 
 cessfully to the ground, the rest of the fam 
 ily rallied around her and she headed the 
 retreat down the alley; the others, with 
 their spoils, stubbing single file behind. 
 
 Jacob Christopher bore aloft a blue glass 
 lamp, very smoky of its chimney and seepy 
 of its bowl, but still containing a useful por-
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 tion of reeking oil. George Johnny, less 
 mature in his judgment, carried flapping 
 against his knees a large and gaudy litho 
 graph, whose representation of crisp brown 
 rolls and pink ham had inspired the adoring 
 ardor of his empty little stomach, leaving 
 him oblivious of the long-necked bottle 
 which was the center of the pictured re 
 past. Trailing behind was Sunshine, betray 
 ing her feminine taste by clutching to the 
 front of a little apron glazed with dirt, a 
 nosegay of tattered and faded paper 
 flowers. 
 
 " Wot in the dickens do you an' George 
 Johnny expect to do with them things ? " 
 snapped Martha Mary when, feeling safe 
 from pursuit, she slackened her pace to let 
 the rear guard catch up. " Never mind," 
 she promptly comforted, as signs of incon 
 venient woe began to appear upon two tired 
 and dirty little faces (Happy had been for 
 some time wailing exasperatingly), "don't 
 cry now. Them things '11 help to make it 
 look homelike. I 'm goin' in here an' 
 borrow some matches off this cigar store, 
 52
 
 A FLITTING 
 
 an' then we '11 hurry up. It 's gettin' late." 
 Once more on its way, the straggling 
 line passed through rapidly darkening 
 streets. They stumbled over the rotting 
 blocks of cedar pavements, where ill- 
 smelling puddles, reflecting the infrequent 
 electric lamps, shone bluish-white, like 
 pieces of metal. The lights only served to 
 emphasize the ever-increasing squalor, and 
 presently the children came out upon a par 
 tially open space, with a few strange shan 
 ties cowering along the railroad tracks ; 
 crazy structures, cobbled together out of the 
 flotsam of the turbulent city. In two or 
 three of these hovels, sickly lights were 
 beginning to glimmer. 
 
 "If only somebody ain't rented our house 
 a'ready," observed Martha Mary anx 
 iously. But no gleam shone from the ruin 
 ous little shack to which the elder sister 
 guided her family. She pushed open the 
 dragging door and they trooped after her, 
 unafraid, into the dim and musty interior, 
 their bare feet pat-patting over the worn 
 boards. 
 
 S3
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " Here we are! " she cried jubilantly, as 
 she struck a match. " Bring the lamp, 
 here, Jakey." They set up their smoky al 
 tar light upon an old box in one corner, after 
 which Martha Mary hunted out a tin can 
 from beneath the sleeping baby, and sharply 
 bidding them all stay right where they were 
 till she returned, she whisked out of the 
 door. She came back with the can slopping 
 over with water, produced from some place 
 of concealment a greasy paper sack, and 
 emptied its contents into a vegetable dish. 
 Supper was served. The food was a con 
 glomerate mass of scraps, but the children 
 set about fishing contentedly for the most 
 recognizable bits, and eating with sounds of 
 greedy zest. Martha Mary awakened 
 Happy by thrusting into his mouth a small, 
 soft portion and gave him some of the liquid 
 from the can to drink. 
 
 During their sister's absence the family 
 had been settling. Jakey had lifted the 
 baby and the bedding into a much-mixed 
 heap at the side of the room. From a 
 broken jug Sunshine's pink paper flowers 
 54
 
 A FLITTING 
 
 bloomed rakishly. George Johnny had 
 found a rusty nail in the crumbling plaster 
 upon which to impale his lithograph, and 
 the crisp, brown rolls, the pink ham and the 
 lurking golden bottle glowed in complacent 
 color upon the supper of broken leavings. 
 
 "Ain't this the Jim-dandy place?" 
 Martha Mary exulted again, as she looked 
 about the dirty room, whose half-lit corners 
 were filled with the discarded rubbish of 
 former occupants. She seemed too much 
 elated to eat her share of the food, which 
 she was portioning out to the others while 
 her tongue ran gaily on. " Here 's where 
 we can house-keep and nobody to bother 
 us. I'm the mother o' this housekeepin,' 
 an' you Ve got to be the father, Jakey Blat- 
 zenfeld." She surveyed Jacob Christopher 
 with an estimating eye, never having con 
 sidered him before in this capacity. " I 
 wisht you was bigger for a father. A 
 bigger father looks better; a bigger father 
 is better." 
 
 She shook out the end of a ragged com 
 forter with a flap that sent drab wads of 
 55
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 cotton flying, and spread it along the wall. 
 " You, Sunshine an' George Johnny, come 
 'ere an' lay down." 
 
 The two viewed these preparations for 
 the night, then the boy raised his voice in 
 protest. " I 'm hungry yet," he howled. 
 
 " Now, now," expostulated Martha 
 Mary, at the same time hustling them 
 briskly toward their couch, " you ain't 
 neither hungry, and if you are, you won't 
 know it after you get to sleep. You lay 
 down an' be good an' to-morrow, or mebbe 
 the day after, Jakey an' me '11 take you on 
 our weddin' trip." 
 
 " Weddin' trip ? " echoed the newly ap 
 pointed father, whose duller wit lagged ever 
 in the wake of Martha Mary's skipping 
 fancy. 
 
 " Yes, weddin' trip," she snapped with 
 truly conjugal asperity, adding in a lowered 
 tone : " The kids 'ud like it fine, an' they 
 got to have somep'n to look forward to." 
 
 But even the anticipation of such an 
 unique pleasure was hardly sufficient to sus 
 tain the Blatzenfelds through the days that 
 56
 
 AFLITTING 
 
 followed. Wan days they were and empty ; 
 the little Blatzenfelds were often empty, too, 
 and growing every day more wan. Jakey 
 was less resourceful than boys of his age 
 who have spent all their brief years in the 
 city. As a " yeller " of papers he fully 
 justified Martha Mary's faith, but as 
 a seller he was continually outdone by his 
 shrewd and wily competitors. The small 
 coins he gathered were small, indeed, to 
 meet the needs of a family. 
 
 It was not possible for the elder sister to 
 be long from home. Once she earned a 
 nickel by minding a baby while its mother 
 went with another child to a doctor. Now 
 and then a scrap of food came from some 
 of the neighbors in the huddling shanties, 
 but they had pitifully little to give. Martha 
 Mary talked a great deal now about the 
 wedding trip. Sunshine and George 
 Johnny submitted to having their faces 
 washed to make ready for it; they went to 
 bed early that they might wake up in time 
 to start; they stopped crying on instant 
 peril of losing it forever. Martha Mary 
 57
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 kept it dancing ahead of them, a shining 
 ignis fatuus; even Jacob had come almost 
 to believe in it. 
 
 But Martha Mary's little face had grown 
 old.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 'TTTOILD-HOILD, Bee ur News!" 
 VV rasped the husky voice of Jakey 
 Blatzenfeld. A diminutive gray figure, in 
 the gray rain, he stood at the bank corner 
 on the glistening walk, and tried his chant 
 ing call in different keys, but always it 
 proved only a futile croak, quite undiscern- 
 ible above the noises of the street. There 
 was the wet clok-clok of hoofs on the shiny 
 pavements; there was the clangor of the 
 car gongs ; there was a vicious snapping and 
 tearing of violet fire along the dripping 
 trolley wires; there was a spluttering dash 
 from under whirling wheels along the rainy 
 tracks; there were churnings and snortings 
 and yowlings of automobiles whose fat 
 tires scudded up a slush of mud and water. 
 It was a rainy June and Jakey standing 
 at his post soaked to the skin in the chill 
 59
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 showers had taken a cold which promptly 
 attached itself to his overworked vocal 
 organs. His yell, that one pride and ac 
 complishment, was gone. To be sure, he 
 still disposed of papers. The bundle of 
 freshly printed sheets under his arm, his 
 numbered badge, his appealing size and his 
 good-natured, wistful little face, conducted 
 his business for him, almost as effectively 
 as his vociferous shoutings had done. But 
 Jakey's was the soul of the artist and the 
 zest of his work had vanished. He 
 drooped like a fledgling rooster, who has 
 swelled himself out for a cock-a-doodle- 
 doo! and finds himself emitting a ludicrous 
 and grating squawk. 
 
 In impotent mortification Jakey scuffled 
 along the street, and as he returned to his 
 station close to the curb, not even looking 
 up for possible patrons, his eye caught a 
 gleam under the sodden trash in the gutter. 
 Listlessly he stepped down and kicked the 
 rubbish with his muddy toes. The next 
 moment he had made a sudden grab and 
 then scuttled for a sheltering doorway. 
 60
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 Here he held his hand under his jacket 
 and looked again. It was! It was a 
 watch! Round and golden, with the slen 
 der thread of a dull metal chain still hang 
 ing broken from its ring, the timepiece 
 shone in his eyes as big as a full moon. 
 With trembling fingers he tied the chain 
 together, ducked his head through the loop 
 and slid the watch into his trousers' pocket. 
 Then he gathered up his slab of papers and 
 went back to his corner in a daze. 
 
 "Got a News, kid?" asked a man's 
 voice above him. 
 
 " Nope," answered Jakey. 
 
 " Yes, you have. You little blockhead ! " 
 and a hand twitched a paper off the top 
 of the pile and held out a penny. 
 
 Jakey accepted the copper and idly held 
 it in a lax hand. What was a copper when 
 a gold watch was ticking against his leg? 
 He pressed his palm tight over its round 
 hardness, put his hand in and felt its smooth 
 case, held open his pocket and looked 
 within, till he caught the yellow shine, then 
 he started down the street. He would turn 
 61
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 in what remained of his papers; it was too 
 late, anyhow, to make sales. Ten minutes 
 after he climbed on the back platform of 
 a passing car. The conductor would order 
 him off as soon as he got around to it, but 
 by that time Jakey would be several blocks 
 nearer home. Either through kindness or 
 carelessness the conductor did not look at 
 him until he swung off a few squares from 
 his own corner. 
 
 Martha Mary saw him coming, and fears 
 of a lost job assailed her. " How 'd you 
 get back so early ? " was her anxious greet 
 ing. 
 
 Excitement was spurring Jakey's brain 
 to unusual activity. He executed a grand 
 flourish. 
 
 "Early?" he questioned with an air of 
 elaborate nonchalance to which his hoarse 
 ness gave a most weird effect. " Is it 
 early? Now leave me take a look at the 
 time!" 
 
 He tried to draw out the watch with the 
 careless ease of habit, but only succeeded 
 in getting hold of the chain. So, instead 
 62
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 of regarding the face gravely, as he had 
 intended, he held up his treasure dangling, 
 and grinned at Martha Mary. 
 
 She made one dash and grabbed it. 
 
 " Jee-rusy-lam-gosh ! " she ejaculated. 
 " Who give it to you ? Where 'd you git 
 it? Is it real?" 
 
 " Real ! 'Course not. I got it off 'n a 
 prize box of gum drops." 
 
 " 'Tis, too, real ! " Martha Mary was 
 holding it to her ear while George Johnny 
 and Sunshine pulled at her arm and clam 
 ored for a nearer view. 
 
 "Where did you git it, Jakey?" she 
 pleaded. 
 
 " I picked it out 'n some dirty papers in 
 the gutter. Here, leave me have it back ! " 
 
 But his sister had looped the chain over 
 her neck and now paced tiltingly up and 
 down the floor, humming a tune, while she 
 gazed first at the back of the watch, then 
 at its face. Suddenly her mood changed. 
 
 " Did anybody see you git it ? " She 
 stopped to peer solicitously into Jakey's 
 face. 
 
 63
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " Naw, they did n't." The boy waxed 
 belligerent. " You give it here now ! " 
 
 The girl was unheeding. " How much 
 do you s'pose it 's worth ? I bet it was 
 awful costly." 
 
 Such observations did not meet with 
 Jakey's favor. " I ain't a-goin' to sell it," 
 he whined, and being half sick from his cold 
 and wholly exasperated by his sister's be 
 havior, his exhilaration dropped from him 
 and he began to cry. 
 
 " Bawly ba-aby ! " mocked Martha Mary, 
 then relenting suddenly, " Here, take yer 
 ole watch. I gotta go get somepin' for 
 supper. D'ye make anythin' to-day ? " 
 
 Jakey turned out his pockets and Martha 
 Mary departed for the grocery, but before 
 she left she halted in the doorway to issue 
 orders. 
 
 " You, Sunshine and George Johnny, 
 don't - you - never - tell - hope - to - die - 
 an' - spit, that Jakey never found nothin', 
 nowheres. An' you, Jake Blatzenfeld, you 
 put that watch up on the shelf under that 
 washbasin, or before I git back the kids '11 
 64
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 smash it, or the baby '11 swallow it, or you '11 
 lose it somewheres yourself. An' then 
 you '11 have to go to jail." 
 
 With which comforting prophecy con 
 cerning the results of wealth, Martha Mary 
 banged the door behind her. 
 
 That night, for the first time, the little 
 Blatzenfelds experienced the uneasiness 
 which accompanies possessions. What if 
 the watch should be stolen! They hid it 
 under a snarl of rags in the corner, and at 
 once imagined something suspicious in the 
 arrangement of those rags, something which 
 would attract the most stupid of burglars 
 immediately. But when they had stowed it 
 away in a hole under the floor, they were no 
 better satisfied. Finally Jakey insisted upon 
 taking it to bed with him, putting it inside 
 his shirt and folding his arms tightly across 
 his chest to insure against robbery. 
 
 Martha Mary did not long combat this 
 project, but she kept awake until the folded 
 arms dropped with slumber. Then she se 
 cured the prize herself and essayed to sleep 
 on it. She was not comfortable. It was 
 65
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 astonishing what a big lump the watch 
 made, in a bed not remarkable for smooth 
 ness. But the girl finally succumbed to 
 sheer weariness, only to start awake again 
 from terrifying dreams, and to find that 
 Jakey, also, was tossing and talking in his 
 sleep. She sat up and looked at him as he 
 lay in the blue gleam of a distant arc light 
 which pierced the window. About his neck 
 was a rag soaked in kerosene which, de 
 spite his protests, she had tied on him for 
 the benefit of his cold. 
 
 " I bet that coal oil is bitin' somepin' 
 fierce," she thought, as she watched him 
 twist and turn. Sighing wearily she lay 
 down again, but fell asleep only to waken 
 and search once more for the watch, which 
 seemed to go burrowing about like a mole, 
 the moment her hand was not on it. 
 
 It was with great reluctance, the next 
 morning, that Jakey relinquished his expec 
 tations of wearing the watch. Where was 
 the use of a thing like that if you could n't 
 take it with you to dazzle your associates? 
 He and Martha Mary quarreled on that 
 66
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 point until he departed, vanquished but 
 sulky. He returned in a still worse humor. 
 
 "Wo'd I tell you, now! That watch's 
 gone been advertised. The kids was readin' 
 in the paper. ' Gee ! ' says Binky, ' lost 
 'tween i6th and i/th streets, an' me 
 a-goin' up an' down there every day! ' 
 
 "An' you tole, I bet!" 
 
 " Naw, I never. Wot was the use, with 
 me nothin' to show ? They 'd 'a' give me 
 the laugh on that. Here 's the paper where 
 it says about it." 
 
 Martha Mary spelled out the brief notice, 
 one word at a time, until she came to the 
 last. " Whoopee ! Jakey, listen at that. 
 Fi' dollars ree ward ! Fi' dollars ! " 
 
 " Yep, I know," said Jacob Christopher 
 condescendingly. " But Binky he said fi' 
 dollars wa' n't nothin' fer a watch. He 
 said some watches was worth twenty-fi' dol 
 lars. He said as how if he found that 
 watch he was goin' to sell it an' buy a pop 
 corn wagon. He said he bet he could git a 
 wagon with a horse, maybe. He said he 
 could git one with a gong, anyhow." 
 67
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " Yep, I bet we could. We could run a 
 pop-corn wagon. You could drive an' 
 make the gong go, an' I could shake the 
 corn. The kids could ride along. 
 Would n't that be great? " 
 
 " You bet ! Le 's go sell it now. I bet 
 Dittenheimer 'd buy it. Down where it 
 says, * Joolery an' House Furnishin's '." 
 Jakey was on fire with anticipation. 
 
 But something deterred Martha Mary. 
 
 " He '11 ask where we got it, that 's what 
 he'll do! Then what ye goin' to say?" 
 
 " Aw, I '11 tell him paw guv it to me." 
 
 "He'd b'lieve that, wouldn't he?" 
 sneered the sister. " Dittenheimer knowed 
 paw." 
 
 " Well, le 's go ask somebody." 
 
 Martha Mary regarded him with the long- 
 suffering asperity of superior years. " I 
 never did see no such a boy ! I bet you '11 
 bust plum wide open if you don't git a 
 chanc't to show off that watch. Can't you 
 be satisfied to own a gole watch an' chain? 
 It 's more 'n mos' kid 's got." 
 
 No, Jakey was far from satisfied; but 
 68
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 compared with Martha Mary's state of 
 mind his mental attitude was peace itself. 
 Long after he was asleep that night his 
 sister lay awake smothered by a "black and 
 sickening sense of guilt; that unreasoning, 
 rayless terror known only to childhood. 
 
 For the first time Martha Mary missed 
 her mother. Yet it was not at all the list 
 less, silent, drink-sodden woman who had 
 deserted her children, of whom the girl was 
 thinking. She could quite well remember 
 when mother had been different. Before 
 poverty and drink, the drain of child-bear 
 ing, and the foolish improvidence of An 
 tonio had put upon her the stamp of utter 
 hopelessness, Mrs. Blatzenfeld had been 
 used to take thought of her little ones. 
 Martha Mary's earlier years had known 
 motherly care and instruction, and it was 
 those years which now bore fruit in a vivid 
 conviction of wrong-doing. 
 
 The watch was theirs no longer. It was 
 
 the property of that unknown " A. R. Q." 
 
 who had advertised. Why had Binky ever 
 
 nosed out that mean little item in the paper ? 
 
 69
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 If they had sold the watch at once it would 
 have been all right, but if they sold it now, 
 they would be stealers. That word brought 
 with it a troop of fears sufficient to keep 
 Martha Mary rolling back and forth in the 
 tumbled bedding till she was quite worn 
 out. 
 
 But in spite of weariness her eyes opened 
 again with the first grayness of morning. 
 Then, when her distress had taken shape 
 once more, she shook Jakey awake. 
 
 " Jakey, git up here ! We got somepin' 
 to do. You know what 's goin' to happen 
 to us, when we don't git that watch back 
 right away? " 
 
 " Quit ! Lemme be ! " The boy struck 
 at her and rolled out of her reach, closing 
 his eyes tighter, but she pursued him. 
 
 " The cops '11 be after us. The cops, 
 d'ye hear?" 
 
 Well she knew the power of that word 
 with her brother. He struggled to a sitting 
 posture, gouging his eyes malevolently 
 with black fists. 
 
 "Wha'ssa matter? What cops? What 
 70
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 you talkin' 'bout anyhow?" he mumbled. 
 
 " 'Bout that gole watch an' chain. Can't 
 you see that if ' A. R. Q.' is a-advertisin' 
 for it, he wants it, an' he 's going to fin' out 
 where it 's at ? Somebody saw you pick 
 that up." 
 
 " Naw, they didn', neither ! " interrupted 
 the boy. 
 
 " Course you didn' see 'em saw you, but 
 they saw you all the same. They must of, 
 with all them people on the streets. An' 
 that ' A. R. Q.' he 's goin' to fin' us and fin' 
 that watch, an' then we '11 all have to go to 
 jail fer keepin' it." 
 
 "Aw!" Jakey strove to make his tone 
 contemptuous but his sister's prophecies 
 were telling on him. She pursued her ad 
 vantage. 
 
 " Yessir, most likely they '11 be here after 
 us to-day." 
 
 Jakey weakened. " I'm sick of the durn 
 ole watch, anyhow. I '11 take it back an' 
 lose it where I foun' it. Let Binky fin' it 
 ef he wants to. He 's a-huntin' it. An' 
 then see what the cops '11 do to him ! "
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " That 'd be just like you ; go throwin' 
 away a perfeckly good watch. We '11 an 
 swer that advertisement, of course, an' git 
 that fV dollars." 
 
 " All right," acquiesced Jakey with an 
 alacrity equal to his former reluctance. 
 " How we goin' to do it ? " 
 
 Martha Mary considered. 
 
 " Wy jus' do it. On the paper it says, 
 'A-dress "A. R. Q.," care Worl'-HeralV 
 That means write a letter." 
 
 " You goin' to write a letter, Martha 
 Mary? " Jakey's tone was awed. 
 
 " Course I be. You come 'long an' help, 
 'fore the kids wakes up." 
 
 While the morning light was growing 
 steel-blue in the room, the two children 
 smoothed out a portion of a paper sack, 
 on one side of the table, and set to work 
 with the stub of a pencil contributed from 
 Jakey's pocket. 
 
 " Yu kin fine yc.r wach," scrawled Martha 
 Mary, with great labor, gripping the pencil 
 with rigid fingers and sticking out her 
 tongue. 
 
 72
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 "Where kin he fin' his watch, Jakey?" 
 she stopped to ask. 
 
 "On me," said Jacob, cheerily. "I'll 
 wear it." 
 
 " He 'd fin' you easy, would n't he ? An' 
 that watch 'd be on you a long time, one 't 
 you got in the middle of a bunch of new 
 sies." 
 
 That last statement struck Jakey forci 
 bly. He had one of his infrequent ideas. 
 
 "Tell you what, I'll leave it by Mr. 
 Carey. He 's cashier in that Union Cloth 
 ing Store, by the bank. He buys a ' News ' 
 off me every night, an' he most allus gives 
 me a nickel. He's white, Mr. Carey is." 
 
 Martha Mary considered. " Yep, I 
 guess that 'd do." She resumed her labor. 
 " at yimyon stor" She looked up, 
 " Now when '11 we say ? He 's got to git 
 the letter first. To-morrow '11 be time 
 enough. To-morrow 's Saturday, no, Fri 
 day." 
 
 The pencil started off again. "frydy 
 nun ast fer J. Blatzenfeld." 
 
 Reflectively Martha Mary ran the pencil 
 73
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 down her tongue, making a black line along 
 its redness. Then she wrote again. 
 
 " Wot ye tellin' 'im now ? " inquired 
 Jakey suspiciously. 
 
 His sister read with pride: 
 
 " p s don't fergit the reeward 2 purzent 
 discount fer kesh." 
 
 "Wot's dizcount?" 
 
 " It 's pay w'en ye git it. Don't ye 
 know? Pa allus put a sign like that on 
 things in the winder. Don't you leave that 
 ' A. R. Q.' have no watch neither, till he 
 comes across with the cash." 
 
 The preliminaries went through as 
 planned, and on Friday morning Jakey had 
 at last his proud desire; he wore the watch 
 down to business. Made wary by his sis 
 ter's repeated injunctions, he dared not take 
 it from concealment but called his papers 
 unremittingly while he kept one hand tight 
 over the lump in his pocket. Never had 
 any morning seemed so long to Jakey. Al 
 ternately he shifted his eyes from the clock 
 in the post-office tower to the entrance of 
 the Union Store. Surely Mr. Carey was 
 74
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 not often so late. But at last the well- 
 known figure in the smart gray suit sepa 
 rated itself from the morning crowd of 
 passing workers and pushed through the 
 swinging doors into the store. At once 
 Jakey started to follow and immediately 
 encountered temptation in the shape of 
 Binky. 
 
 "How many 'd ye sell, kid?" was 
 Binky's hail. " Mos' time to quit." 
 
 " Is it ? " observed Jakey, grandly. 
 " Don't believe it is by my time." Like a 
 flash he pulled out the watch and let it glit 
 ter before the astounded eyes of Binky. 
 
 "Here, you! Where 'd you git that?" 
 yelled the older boy, and he made a lunge 
 for capture, but Jakey had chosen his place. 
 He dodged through the doorway of the 
 Union Store, and not until he had shoved 
 the watch under the cashier's window and 
 into the hands of the mildly surprised Mr. 
 Carey, did he look back to find that Binky 
 had prudently stopped without, and now, 
 through the glass of the door, was making 
 faces intended to be paralyzing. 
 
 75
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 It was fortunate for Martha Mary that 
 she remained in ignorance of all this. As 
 it was, the day taxed her patience to the 
 breaking point. She could have declared 
 that on no other day had Sunshine and 
 George Johnny ever bethought themselves 
 of so many iniquitous occupations. And, 
 surely, never had poor, tiny Happy cried 
 so unremittingly. She fed him and walked 
 with him, ^heeled him and trotted him, 
 then fed him again, but nothing stilled his 
 wailing. 
 
 Martha Mary was near to tears herself, 
 and her back and arms were aching with a 
 red-hot pain when, at last, she could go out 
 and sit upon the step to watch for Jakey. 
 There was a boy coming, she caught a 
 glimpse of the hurrying figure in a gap be 
 tween two buildings, but it was not Jakey. 
 It was a well-dressed boy, though something 
 in the way he scrambled along with ducked 
 head and swinging arms reminded her of 
 her brother. Now the boy rounded the 
 corner, caught sight of her and advanced 
 with strange whoops and cavortings. It 
 76
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 was Jakey, sure enough, but Jakey in the 
 transforming glory of a new blue suit. 
 
 "Gee!" cried Martha Mary, "ain't 
 you the dead swell ! Where 'd you git 
 'em?" 
 
 "Off that lady, 'A. R. Q.'" Jakey 
 straddled about with his hands in his pock 
 ets, displaying himself at all angles. 
 " ' A. R. Q.' wa' n't no man ; it was a lady, 
 a awful nice lady, too. I tell you, she was 
 glad to git that watch back. She said her 
 husband gi'n it to her, an' he was dead 
 now." 
 
 " So it was her gi'n ye the clo'es ? 
 Ain't that fine ! Where 's the fi' dollars ? " 
 
 " Fi' dollars ! W'y that 's wot bought 
 the clo'es." 
 
 Martha Mary felt something within her 
 sink, suddenly, but Jakey went blithely on. 
 " They was cheap, too. They 're a-sellin' 
 'em out extry special. The lady an' Mr. 
 Carey they both said they wanted to see me 
 spend my money useful an' they fitted 'em 
 right on, then. Don't they make me look 
 the gay gazabo ? " 
 
 77
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " Yep," his sister's tone was dull. 
 "Where's yer ole ones?" she queried. 
 
 " Wot did I want o' them ole rags ? I 
 lef 'em at the store." 
 
 Martha Mary regarded her brother's 
 greasy cap, his still greasier shirt and his 
 bare and muddy feet in contrast to the bla 
 tant newness of his other attire. She 
 thought of the scantily fed children asleep 
 within, of her own tired arms and aching 
 back and of the doctor she had thought 
 might help to make Happy well again. 
 Five dollars had seemed capable of purchas 
 ing almost anything they might ever need, 
 and now there was to be no five dollars. 
 She did not know that she was confronting 
 the eternal masculine, but the lump which 
 rose in her throat was so big that she got 
 up quickly from the step that Jakey might 
 not see how hard the lump was to swallow. 
 And when she answered her brother, it 
 was the eternal feminine which spoke for 
 her. 
 
 " That suit," said Martha Mary, " sure 
 is awful handsome." 
 
 78
 
 TREASURE TROVE 
 
 "Yep," agreed Jakey. "An' that lady 
 took my badge number. She said I could 
 count on hearin' from her again, maybe. 
 She said there wa' n't many boys would of 
 returned that watch, same as me." 
 
 79
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY 
 
 TWO small and anxious countenances 
 were peering over the brink of the 
 ditch, while the source of the disturbance 
 renewed his efforts, both muscular and vo 
 cal. 
 
 " A dog, Georgie ! A little baby dog ! 
 A white, little baby dog ! " cried Sunshine 
 in an ecstasy of excitement, though the last 
 added appellation was rapidly becoming in 
 appropriate, through the puppy's repeated 
 backslidings into the mire. " You stay 
 right here, Georgie, and I '11 git him out." 
 
 Sunshine spoke with a confidence not 
 unfounded, for of this ditch she and George 
 Johnny knew thoroughly both the outs and 
 the ins. There was a certain spot where a 
 portion of the bank had crumbled, leaving 
 a ledge which it was possible to traverse 
 to the bottom. Sunshine had made the trip 
 80
 
 AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY 
 
 before, through a pure lust of adventure, 
 and now she started down without a 
 thought but helpfulness. 
 
 The white baby dog began to whimper 
 confidingly, at the same time wading and 
 waddling valiantly to meet the relief expe 
 dition, and by the time Sunshine was on his 
 level she was able to pull him into her arms ; 
 but the ascent was more difficult. Even a 
 small puppy, when he is slippery with mud 
 and wriggling with rapture, is an armful 
 for five years old, but George Johnny, above, 
 was not without resource. He lay on his 
 stomach and stretched down eager arms. 
 
 " Puth 'im up ! " he shouted. Sunshine, 
 almost spent, made a final effort. George 
 Johnny caught one of the dog's legs ; there 
 was a general scramble, a mixture of ex 
 clamation both human and canine, and 
 George Johnny and the puppy were rolling 
 on the bank, leaving Sunshine to finish her 
 ascent in more deliberate security. 
 
 " Ain't he sweet ! " gurgled Sunshine. 
 
 " Fweet ! " chorused George Johnny in 
 the most sincere acquiescence, though in- 
 81
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 deed the reek of the dog's late experience 
 was still upon him. But his rescuers 
 did n't mind that ; bless you, no ! The fetid 
 breath of the drainage ditch was their nor 
 mal atmosphere. Other children might 
 have died of it, they lived immune. Since 
 their removal to the sparsely settled river- 
 flat the days of Sunshine and George 
 Johnny were uneventful even to monotony. 
 And this particular afternoon was more 
 than usually dull, because Martha Mary 
 had been absent taking care of a family of 
 small children whose mother was appearing 
 against the father in police court. So the 
 advent of the puppy was not an incident, 
 but an epoch. 
 
 Yet as the day waned, both children grew 
 sober in expectation of what Martha Mary 
 would say. The hours had been one long 
 romp; even the necessity of sharing their 
 lunch with the dog was robbed of any seri 
 ousness by the puppy's unfamiliarity with 
 solid food. Though he whined often and 
 emptily, he managed only a small portion 
 of bread and syrup, and fortunately it did 
 82
 
 AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY 
 
 not occur to them to give him the baby's 
 milk. In this evidence of a delicate appe 
 tite the children found encouragement, for 
 certainly Martha Mary would recognize 
 the advantage of that ; they were concerned 
 all the same, to see her coming. 
 
 There she was, down the dry and dusty 
 length of the parched street, near the place 
 where the broken pavement came to an end ; 
 a small figure with thin little legs below a 
 short dress. She walked slowly along, her 
 body somberly outlined against a back 
 ground of tumbling blackness the slug 
 gish, sooty flood from the thicket of smoke 
 stacks over yonder, among the jumbled mass 
 of distant packing houses. 
 
 Instantly, as their sister came into view, 
 Sunshine grasped the hand of George 
 Johnny, for without that precautionary link 
 they never ventured beyond their own pre 
 cincts. And now, while Martha Mary was 
 gradually approaching, they started toward 
 her on a lively trot. After them came the 
 puppy, blundering, falling over his own 
 paws, but making good time, nevertheless, 
 83
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 and emphatically prominent by reason of 
 his piercing protests against being left. 
 
 This would never do. Sunshine halted, 
 and suddenly realizing that there was no 
 use going to meet trouble, she fiercely com 
 manded the dog to go back. He was 
 charmed at being waited for, prostrated his 
 soft little body upon her bare feet and licked 
 the dust from her toes, while Sunshine 
 giggled with delight at the funny warm feel 
 of it, and Martha Mary was looking just 
 as they had known she would a good 
 deal interested and rather cross. 
 
 " Whose is it? Where did you get it? " 
 she questioned. The puppy, by way of in 
 troducing himself pleasantly, got between 
 her feet and nearly brought her to the 
 ground before she had him disentangled. 
 Meanwhile, the children were vocal. 
 
 " Can we keep him ? Can't we keep 
 him? We got him in the ditch. He likes 
 us awful well." 
 
 By this time, they had all reached their 
 own domain, where Martha Mary dropped 
 upon a box outside the door, while children 
 84
 
 AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY 
 
 and puppy cast themselves upon her. She 
 rolled the little animal over with her foot 
 and laughed like the child she was ; then she 
 said, " What you s'pose we 're goin' to feed 
 him?" 
 
 " Oh, bread and syrup," assured Sun 
 shine. " He likes it dandy, but he only 
 eats just such a little bit! " she added with 
 early wisdom. 
 
 " He '11 be an awful nuisance and he '11 
 eat a lot," asserted Martha Mary dubiously. 
 
 The two eager faces looking up at her, 
 sobered on the instant; only the puppy re 
 mained ecstatic, fiercely worrying the hem 
 of Martha Mary's dress, as if it were not 
 already much too worn and frayed to be 
 properly called a hem. She pushed him 
 away, got up, and went into the house to 
 hang over the cab where Happy lay asleep. 
 
 " You can keep him a while, to-night 
 anyway, if nobody don't come for him," 
 she called back, as she unwrapped a stale 
 loaf she had brought with her and began 
 preparations for supper. 
 
 So the puppy stayed, and had conferred 
 85
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 upon him the name of Mark, in honor of 
 the butcher's boy who once gave him a 
 bone. 
 
 Mark early learned the use of bones; in 
 deed he developed a capacity for food 
 which became rapidly inconvenient, yet not 
 surprising, since his body was long and 
 barrel-shaped, with no legs to speak of, 
 and completed by a futile tail and a heavy- 
 jawed head. But Mark was not depressed 
 about his looks, for there were four chil 
 dren to whom he was beautiful. By day 
 he stretched himself out in the shade, by 
 night he slept at the children's feet, and 
 Martha Mary felt much safer about leaving 
 the younger ones alone, now that Mark 
 was showing signs of having developed a 
 sort of sagacity. 
 
 He seemed almost to understand when 
 Martha Mary contracted a severe cold. 
 She had really no leisure for such indul 
 gences and it racked her so sorely that it 
 seemed doubtful at times whether she ever 
 would get over it by the natural method. 
 
 Mark stood about with the children to 
 86
 
 AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY 
 
 watch her when she coughed, and looked 
 sad with his eyes and glad with his tail, 
 thus being able to convey condolence and 
 encouragement simultaneously. So she did 
 pull through after a while; she had to, and 
 soon she was flying about again with her 
 former snap and enthusiasm. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mark had almost ceased to 
 be a baby dog, having matured rapidly un 
 der necessity. He seemed to have no idea 
 when to stop growing and it was now that 
 he manifested his lack of human intelli 
 gence. Jakey's earnings did not increase 
 as they had hoped, so the children really 
 tried to eat sparingly, and even Sunshine 
 endeavored to conceal from Martha Mary 
 the half-filled condition of her little 
 stomach; Mark alone was openly ravenous. 
 He ranged the neighborhood, the target of 
 brooms and brick-bats, but the locality was 
 not prolific of edible garbage, and Mark's 
 barrel sides were growing flat. 
 
 Then came the terror of the dog-catchers, 
 not troubling Mark in the least but fright 
 ening Sunshine and George Johnny even in 
 87
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 their dreams. This was too big a trouble 
 to bear by themselves. They asked Martha 
 Mary all about it and she told them; offer 
 ing no solution and proffering no hope. 
 
 Sunshine and George Johnny did their 
 best. If your dog has not the brazen pro 
 tection of a tag you must keep him where 
 no one will find it out. But Mark had de 
 veloped more alertness than prudence. In 
 spite of their vigilance he would escape 
 them, and in the interval before his return, 
 always very dirty and affectionate, they 
 passed through tortures of apprehension. 
 Besides, when he was home, he seemed to 
 think forever of eating. There was some 
 thing lacking in Mark that he could not 
 subsist upon affection. 
 
 In the meantime, some of the other dogs 
 of Mark's acquaintance went riding away 
 in a slatted wagon, and that was the last 
 of them. A few of the animals were even 
 delivered by their owners, who received in 
 return a quarter of a dollar. Sunshine and 
 George Johnny had not learned of this sort 
 of business transaction, but Martha Mary 
 88
 
 AN ADDITION TO THE FAMILY 
 
 had; and late one hot afternoon when she 
 espied the slatted wagon in a neighboring 
 street, she made haste to send the children 
 on an errand to the grocery. Mark, this 
 time, did not go with them. 
 
 As soon as the others were safely out of 
 sight, Martha Mary took the dog up in her 
 arms and looked forlornly toward the slat 
 ted wagon, then quickly set him down 
 again. It would be all right, she was think 
 ing, if for this once she were to give him a 
 little milk. But when he had voraciously 
 swallowed his ration, and was licking his 
 lips, she again took him up and started 
 away with him. Better he should go like 
 this than meet the torture of the dog-catch 
 ers. He might be captured within sight of 
 the children and that thought was too much 
 for Martha Mary. 
 
 Mark cuddled down confidingly against 
 her shoulder, wagged his thick, white 
 thumb of a tail, and with his soft, pink 
 tongue gently lapped one of the girl's rough 
 little hands. 
 
 "Quit!" she said, but for all that she 
 89
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 walked steadily on, walked very fast at 
 first; then went slower and slower; then 
 stopped. Suddenly her arms fell, the dog 
 leaped down and she turned abruptly, start 
 ing hastily toward the house. 
 
 90
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DECORATED 
 
 UPON being released Mark gave chase 
 to some sparrows, gaily and foolishly 
 barking at them as they flirted up out of 
 his reach, clumsily falling down when he 
 tried to stop short, and looking after them 
 in perplexity, with his pink tongue quiver 
 ing out of the side of his mouth. But 
 Martha Mary gave no heed to him. She 
 hastened quietly into the house, and when 
 the children returned they found her with 
 arms folded upon the table, and her fore 
 head pillowed upon them. Yet as soon as 
 Sunshine and George Johnny had come in, 
 she was on her feet again, and quite in the 
 usual way began the brief task of getting 
 supper ready. 
 
 Meanwhile the children had sat down on 
 the box under the window, with Mark be- 
 
 91
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 tween them, and by and by George Johnny 
 was asking: 
 
 " Why doeth dogth gotta have collar th 
 and brath tagth for?" 
 
 An old question, this, which the elder sis 
 ter had long ago wearied of answering. 
 
 " Well, then," the boy persisted, " why 
 don't uth have no collar and tag for 
 Mark?" 
 
 " Dog tax costs ft"' dollars, an' us ain't 
 got no fi' dollars, has us, Martha Mary?" 
 reasoned Sunshine, with her arm going 
 tight about Mark's neck. The child's voice 
 was wistful in its appeal, but not more wist 
 ful than was the elder sister's as she asked : 
 
 " Don't you kids think you could git 
 along without him? Sometimes dogs goes 
 mad ; that 's why they ketches 'em. What 
 if Mark 'd go mad now, an' tear 'round 
 bitin' folks?" 
 
 " Mark don't never git mad at me" 
 George Johnny protested, and to prove the 
 point he added exultingly : " Thee, I can 
 pinch his tail, an' thick a pin in him, an' thit 
 on him, an' an' " 
 92
 
 DECORATED 
 
 " Shut up," said Martha Mary. 
 
 What with her affection for the dog and 
 her dread of having him dragged away be 
 fore the children's very eyes, the situation 
 was becoming altogether unbearable. She 
 and Jacob Christopher held a secret confer 
 ence, according to which, on the following 
 day, he put in a prompt appearance at home 
 and showed himself uncommonly entertain 
 ing. With the baby in his arms, he lured 
 Sunshine and George Johnny around to 
 the shady side of the building and engaged 
 them in the absorbing occupation of ex 
 cavating dirt houses. 
 
 Meanwhile, Martha Mary, within, was 
 giving Mark a meal of scraps which threw 
 him into transports by its quantity and qual 
 ity. The moment he had gobbled it, she 
 lifted him into Happy's perambulator, 
 Mark's one accomplishment being the art 
 of lolling gracefully in that vehicle while 
 he was pushed about. And since he could 
 be depended upon neither to lead nor to 
 follow, this trick now stood Martha Mary 
 in good stead. 
 
 93
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Resolutely she grasped the perambu 
 lator's handle and started away, but on the 
 instant, like a demure but uneasy spirit, 
 trudged into view, George Johnny. 
 
 " Where you doin' ? Wait for me ! " 
 was his immediate and imperative hail. 
 
 " Can't wait," declared Martha Mary, at 
 tempting to carry the matter off with a 
 rush. " I 'm playin' dog ketcher. You can 
 clod me if you want to. You can clod me 
 good." By this ruse she hoped to make 
 her escape, but it was a failure. 
 
 " Don't 'ant to clod you dood ! " George 
 Johnny exclaimed, and there began to steal 
 over his face the shadow of coming storm. 
 It was seldom, indeed, that he created a 
 disturbance, but when he did feel it neces 
 sary to file a protest the result was remark 
 able, both for volume and duration. 
 
 Well did Martha Mary know that here 
 was an element which demanded taking 
 into account. Once let Sunshine appear 
 on the scene and the plan must, for the 
 time, be abandoned. 
 
 " Come along, then," she compromised. 
 94
 
 DECORATED 
 
 *'' Only hush up, right this minute. Here, 
 you wheel him; quick, before he jumps 
 out/' By this diversion she gained a mo 
 ment to run back and surreptitiously en 
 lighten Jakey; then she and George Johnny 
 proceeded on their way. Only now they 
 constituted a circus parade, with George 
 Johnny helping to propel the lion's cage, 
 in which Mark was supposed to be enacting 
 the part of a fierce beast from the jungle. 
 
 After this fashion, the two children and 
 their dog finally reached the police station, 
 where Mark followed with docility into a 
 room smelling strongly of tobacco smoke. 
 But both Martha Mary and George Johnny 
 held fast to the frayed end of the rope about 
 his neck, and both looked scarefully up at 
 Sergeant Whelan, who was peering out 
 and down at them through his official win 
 dow. He was a fat sergeant and when he 
 leaned forward on his elbow, with the edge 
 of the wide desk pressing against his 
 stomach, it made him very red in the face. 
 
 " Mebbe you 're the p'liceman what kills 
 the dogs. Are you ? " the girl questioned, 
 
 95
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 with a lonesome shake in her voice. Both 
 she and George Johnny held a little tighter 
 to the rope, as if for protection. 
 
 " An' 'f I am, then what? " There was 
 a note of curiosity in the sergeant's tone 
 and in the lifting of his black, bushy eye 
 brows. Nor was he the only one to show 
 a degree of interest. The brass-buttoned 
 row of policemen, lounging on a wooden 
 bench and on chairs about the wall, smoked, 
 and spat, and watched idly. 
 
 Martha Mary, in response to the ser 
 geant's question, offered him the end of the 
 frayed rope. 
 
 " Here he is," she said. " We brung 
 him ourselves. We wanta get him killed, 
 don't we, George Johnny?" 
 
 Little brother did not reply; little 
 brother had his hands to his eyes, and the 
 black dimples of his wee, soft fists were get 
 ting wet. 
 
 " What for do you want him killed ? " 
 the sergeant inquired. 
 
 " We ain't got no tag for him," Martha 
 Mary bravely but snufftly replied. 
 96
 
 DECORATED 
 
 " All right. We '11 take care of him for 
 you." Sergeant Whelan was very busi 
 ness-like, but such prompt acquiescence was 
 not quite what Martha Mary had expected. 
 Could n't the red-faced man see that Mark 
 was no common dog? Her campaign had 
 been planned, and she was forced to a new 
 expedient. 
 
 " We thought mebbe somebody might 
 want to buy him," she suggested, coura 
 geously, and then added with a burst of be 
 lated enthusiasm : " He 's such a dandy 
 dog!" 
 
 Tom Moriarty, the biggest of the police 
 men, chuckled expansively, and Mark, being 
 conscious of an amiable atmosphere, de 
 lightedly wagged himself. His short tail 
 had once been a disadvantage, but since he 
 had grown thin, he wagged easily, clear to 
 the shoulders. Martha Mary, however, did 
 not so readily mistake the meaning of the 
 chuckle, and as for George Johnny, the 
 blackness was still melting out of the dim 
 ples of his fists. 
 
 " Well, I s'pose everybody has got plenty 
 
 97
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 of dogs," the little girl conceded; then, af 
 ter an interval of reflection, she said : " We 
 jest can't let the dog ketchers git him. 
 They use wires, you know, to do their 
 ketchin' with, an' wires hurts awful. So 
 we was thinkin' that mebbe, if you did n't 
 want to kill him he 's such a dandy dog 
 we was thinkin' that mebbe you could 
 keep him, keep him for your own se'f ." 
 
 " We keep 'em in the pound five days," 
 said the sergeant. " Then they have to be 
 put out of the way." 
 
 " An' you could n't keep him ? " 
 
 " Keep him? W'y 'f we kep' all of 'em, 
 we 'd have a reg'lar dogs' boardin* 
 school!" 
 
 Very clumsy humor, this may have been, 
 and yet the sergeant was not unkind; only 
 how was Martha Mary to know that ? She 
 looked straight at him, but there did not 
 seem to be anything more for her to say, 
 and as for George Johnny, he was steadily 
 patting the dog, while Mark wagged and 
 grinned complacently and scratched him 
 self. 
 
 98
 
 DECORATED 
 
 At last the little girl again held up the 
 rope-end. 
 
 " I guess you '11 have to take him." She 
 choked, but for the benefit of little brother, 
 whose hand she now squeezed solidly in 
 hers, she bravely added : " They 'd ketch 
 him anyhow, an' we could n't stand it to 
 see 'em ketch him." Then she remembered 
 about the quarter and she looked at Ser 
 geant Whelan expectantly, but since noth 
 ing of the kind seemed to occur to him, she 
 turned away as she said, " Come on, 
 George Johnny." 
 
 It was now that Tom Moriarty created 
 a disturbance. His solid feet came solidly 
 down from the top of the reading table; 
 they struck the floor with a jar that made 
 the windows rattle, and he mentioned some 
 thing as impolite as it was emphatic. At 
 the same time, he took off his helmet, which 
 must have been a relief to the other men 
 in the room, if one might judge by the way 
 silver coins went clinking into it. A 
 strange thing about it, so Martha Mary af 
 terward reflected, was that there should 
 99
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 have been such a substantial ring of money 
 when the helmet finally reached Sergeant 
 Whelan. 
 
 The meaning of it all was not the least 
 bit clear to the children, and yet it was a 
 triumphal march, a very triumphal march 
 when their circus parade took its course 
 back toward the drainage ditch. This time, 
 with great importance, George Johnny led 
 the procession. He had pulled up, from 
 somewhere along the way, a sun-weed stalk, 
 and the round, yellow-faced flowers at the 
 top went jerking in time to his strutting, 
 jerky steps. But the blossoms were not 
 so bright as the decoration worn by a cer 
 tain lionized dog. 
 
 For all that, there was no place for him 
 in his lion cage. It was laden with humpy 
 bags and neat parcels, one of which exhaled 
 an appetizing odor of ground coffee. A 
 cook wagon, Martha Mary called it, and 
 she proudly pushed it along, while the sum 
 mer wind flapped her faded apron about 
 the bend of her knees. 
 
 " Thunthine ! Thee ! " called out George 
 100
 
 DECORATED 
 
 Johnny. He had spied a waiting group 
 near the little house : Jakey with Sunshine 
 and the baby, interestedly watched their ap 
 proach. 
 
 Wildly George Johnny was flourishing 
 his sun-weed stalk as the procession ad 
 vanced enveloped by a golden dust. The 
 setting sun had at last burned bravely 
 through the pall of packing house smoke, 
 and in the reddening glow, the brass tag 
 upon the dog's breast was all a-sparkle, 
 transmuted into precious metal. Mark had 
 been decorated. 
 
 101
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE WEDDING TRIP 
 
 FOR an entire week Mark's rugged 
 health was imperiled. Through over 
 feeding he came near to losing his perfect 
 digestion and his active habits. Then the 
 contents of the cook wagon gave out and 
 Mark, as well as the rest of the family, 
 went back to their former sparing and ex 
 ceedingly uncertain fare. 
 
 Once more Martha Mary began to talk 
 about the wedding trip, and though Jakey, 
 having tasted real diversion, at the Or- 
 pheum, could no longer be cheered by fan 
 tastic imaginings, the two younger children 
 were readily beguiled by whatever rain- 
 bow-hued bauble of fancy their sister dan 
 gled before them. 
 
 Yet to little Happy a wedding trip could 
 bring no solace. He wailed ceaselessly, 
 but the cry was growing less troublesome 
 102
 
 THE WEDDING TRIP 
 
 because less loud. It was this hoarse and 
 feeble wailing- which helped to guide a 
 graceful woman in a gray gown who came 
 stepping around the puddles one day over 
 the muddy flat. 
 
 She paused at the Blatzenfelds' door. 
 
 Martha Mary did not see the visitor at 
 first. She was very busy sousing Sun 
 shine's apron and George Johnny's trousers 
 in a rusty pan outside the door, while the 
 two were in forced confinement within, 
 noisily trying to divert Happy, one of whose 
 changes was already dripping on the line, 
 with its red-lettered legend of felicity 
 grown sadly dim. 
 
 " Are n't you getting your washing out 
 early? " came a voice of a quality not usual 
 in this neighborhood. 
 
 The small figure straightened up to meet 
 the regard of the superintendent of the De 
 tention Home, known among recalcitrant 
 juveniles as the " Kids' Lady," but those im 
 posing facts were unrevealed and unimpor 
 tant to Martha Mary. She was looking at 
 a gently smiling woman, the lines about 
 103
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 whose soft brown eyes were only lines of 
 loving. 
 
 " Oh, yes 'm," the child answered, flash 
 ing back the friendly smile. " I gotta get 
 the kids cleaned up 'fore me an' Jakey takes 
 'em on our weddin' trip. Sunshine an' 
 George Johnny, you go back there ! " as two 
 small nudes appeared in the doorway. 
 " Jakey, he ain't here just now. He 's the 
 father of us, and I 'm the mother. We 
 gotta baby." She dived through the door 
 way, leaving even the experienced Miss 
 Maynard slightly bewildered, to reappear 
 snuggling Happy's little head in her neck, 
 and sat down in such a way as to bar the 
 door against the egress of the two other 
 children, who hovered in the background, 
 pink and unashamed. 
 
 The story poured itself out easily in re 
 sponse to the visitor's practised questions: 
 a cheerful commingling of fancy, fact and 
 ignorance. That they had anything to com 
 plain of never occurred to Martha Mary. 
 Only once her tone grew anxious as she 
 jounced the fretting Happy on her knee, 
 104
 
 THE WEDDING TRIP 
 
 his little head bobbing weakly back and 
 forth. 
 
 " I don't think he looks real well, do you ? 
 Even for a baby ? " She leaned over and 
 peered around into the tiny face, withered 
 and brown, like an old man's, and twisting 
 into a scowl. " Mebbe I ain't fed 'im just 
 right. He 's always the best baby ! " She 
 hugged him close while he feebly protested. 
 " I 'spect the weddin' trip will do 'im good, 
 don't you? If he should git sick," her face 
 took on the drawn solicitude of maternity, 
 " I guess I could n't ever stand it." 
 
 The lines of loving had deepened about 
 the eyes of Miss Maynard. 
 
 " How would you like," she asked, " to 
 let me go with you on your wedding trip? 
 How would you like, all of you, to take a 
 trip to a beautiful house I know, where 
 there are other children and where you can 
 have everything you need? We could go 
 on the car this afternoon." 
 
 " Aw, now ! " said the girl incredulously, 
 and her loyal gray eyes reproached this wo 
 man who could have the heart to tantalize 
 105
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 her with a fairy tale a dream so much 
 beyond any she had ever been able to invent 
 that it could not possibly come true. 
 
 Then the warning of Mrs. Kelly echoed 
 in the back of Martha Mary's brain. What 
 was it that friendly adviser had cautioned 
 against? She could recall but one word, 
 and since this lady looked so nice and 
 seemed so gentle and considerate, she tried 
 to state the objection politely: 
 
 "Are you is it ?" she stammered. 
 " Is that house you mean, a charities ? " 
 
 " I do not call it so," was the guarded re 
 ply of the Kids' Lady. " It answers a good 
 many different purposes. Sometimes," she 
 continued with a smile, " I have known it 
 to be the Half -Way House to Happi 
 ness." 
 
 Martha Mary was mystified but not con 
 vinced, and Miss Maynard, seeing the 
 doubt in the small face, at once so childish 
 and so mature, used the one argument that 
 she knew would prevail. 
 
 " I will tell you the truth, little girl. I 
 think this is a very sick baby. I am afraid 
 1 06
 
 THE WEDDING TRIP 
 
 if you stay here with him he will never get 
 well." 
 
 Terror sprang into the child's eyes, -but 
 her self-reliance came quickly back. 
 
 " No, he ain't so very sick," she stoutly 
 declared. " He don't get no worse. He 
 ain't used to being fat." 
 
 " Well, he would get used to it, if you 
 would come with me. Out at that big 
 house there is a sunny nursery and a lady 
 who knows just how to make sick babies 
 well. You could help to take care of him, 
 and in a month he would be so fat and rosy 
 you would n't know him. Don't you think 
 you 'd better come ? " 
 
 "Would all of us go?" 
 
 " Of course you would." 
 
 " An' would we ride on the street cars ; 
 on the open-work cars ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed, dear," said Miss May- 
 nard. " If you will go, I will come back 
 for you this afternoon at five o'clock." 
 
 For a moment Martha Mary regarded 
 thoughtfully the infant in her arms. Then 
 she said decisively, " Yes, sir, we will ! " 
 107
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 As she laid the baby on the doorstep and 
 made for the rusty tin pan, she concluded, 
 " I got to get these kids' things dry." 
 
 Their preparations for departure were 
 necessarily simple, one problem alone pre 
 senting itself : the disposal of Mark. This 
 obstacle loomed so large for a time that 
 Martha Mary began to wish no wedding 
 trip had been arranged, but Jakey solved 
 that question upon his arrival, in a manner 
 which was for him quite brilliant. He 
 proposed that they give Mark to the 
 butcher's boy, with the proviso that when 
 they were back again in their wonted neigh 
 borhood they should once more have their 
 property. Jakey scurried away in haste to 
 look up Mark's future master and arrange 
 his project. He came back triumphant. 
 The butcher's boy was delighted, Sunshine 
 and George Johnny were not ; but by making 
 a great bustle of getting off, Martha Mary 
 averted any outburst of grief. 
 
 On the car the children were very quiet, 
 only Martha Mary kept gazing down into 
 Happy's weazened little face and then look- 
 108
 
 THE WEDDING TRIP 
 
 ing up at her friend to ask : " I think it 's 
 doin' 'im good a'ready, don't you? I do 
 b'lieve he 's beginnin' to look a little bet 
 ter." 
 
 She had no doubt of her baby's sure re 
 covery when she saw the place that was to 
 take them in a generous building set 
 back in the sweep of a shaded lawn and 
 as they went up the walk the Kids' Lady, 
 mother-eyed and smiling, took Martha 
 Mary's limp little hand in the clasp of her 
 warm, soft fingers. They followed her 
 into a cool-hued library, and Happy lay 
 on her lap while she asked a few questions 
 and wrote in her big superintendent's 
 book. 
 
 " What was your father his occupa 
 tion?" asked Miss Maynard. 
 
 Martha Mary had no slightest notion 
 what that meant and she puzzled for an in 
 stant, trying to think of any useful thing 
 that her father had been, but could not 
 recall one. So she answered cheerily, 
 " Yes 'm, I believe he was." 
 
 It was difficult for the elder sister to 
 109
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 keep her mind on the answers, for the 
 whole place, even to the library, was filled 
 with the smell of new baked bread. They 
 had it for supper, great sweet flapping 
 slices, with fragrant apple sauce, and all 
 the milk they could drink. Sunshine and 
 George Johnny could hardly stay awake to 
 eat. Happy was already in a white crib 
 upstairs, bathed and fed and fast asleep. 
 Martha Mary had seen him. 
 
 Now, as they trooped with the others 
 from the children's dining-room, she went 
 up to Miss Maynard. 
 
 " Dast me an' Jakey go outdoors?" she 
 questioned. 
 
 " Yes," granted the superintendent, at 
 the same time reaching out for Sunshine, 
 who, tired and replete, was exhibiting the 
 first symptoms of a " tankrum." Having 
 seen that small thunderstorm safely in the 
 care of a bed-time attendant, Miss May 
 nard stepped back into the empty dining- 
 room and looked out between the curtains 
 at the two older children. Slowly they 
 circled the front of the house and stopped 
 no
 
 THE WEDDING TRIP 
 
 under a broad tree, not far from the open 
 window. The girl's voice came in with 
 the damp coolness of the evening. 
 
 " Jus' smell it, Jakey ! " Martha Mary's 
 sharp little nose sniffed audibly the unpol 
 luted breeze. " Ain't it somep'n gran' ? 
 I did n't never b'lieve reely that we 'd have 
 no weddin' trip. An' to have it end up 
 like this ! " 
 
 She stopped, looking at her brother, who 
 had flopped upon the grass, squirming on 
 his back like a little animal and wriggling 
 his newly washed toes into the cool, green 
 turf. His sister sat down slowly, leaning 
 her back against the trunk of the tree. 
 
 " Jakey," she said, after a moment, but 
 the lure of companionship had beckoned 
 Jacob Christopher. With his hands in his 
 pockets and an air of fine indifference, he 
 was sauntering toward a group of boys at 
 the further end of the grounds. Martha 
 Mary looked in his direction rather wist 
 fully, then she rested her head against the 
 tree's rough bark. 
 
 A half hour later, when Miss Maynard 
 in
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 came to take her in, the girl did not waken. 
 Sleep and the twilight had brought a look 
 almost babyish into her small face. The 
 Kids' Lady stooped to touch the sharp lit 
 tle shoulder, and as Martha Mary's cheek 
 dropped against the protecting hand, she 
 remarked with the uncertain accents of 
 sleep, but in the crisp tone of authority: 
 
 " Hush now hush up ! you ain't 
 neither hungry." 
 
 112
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 LAND OF THE BLESSED SLEEP 
 
 SLOWLY Martha Mary and the Kids' 
 Lady moved along over the grass to 
 gether, hearing the shouts of the boys, 
 who were running and scrambling about 
 among the apple trees, in a thoroughly 
 boyish and unorganized fashion. There 
 came, also, the shriller screams and giggles 
 of a group of girls who were playing drop- 
 the-handkerchief, on a level green at the 
 side of the grounds. Miss Maynard's 
 arm was around Martha Mary's shoulders, 
 and it pressed the little girl's head gently 
 against the smooth, cool folds of a blue 
 linen skirt. 
 
 All this was very strange and at the 
 same time very delightful to Martha Mary. 
 Though well-accustomed to the vicissi 
 tudes of a haphazard existence, this day 
 had been really the most surprising and
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 tiring of her experience. Her eyes were 
 wide open, but she felt numbly yet tin- 
 glingly asleep to the ends of her thin legs 
 and arms. 
 
 How good it would seem to be taken up 
 stairs where she could crawl under the 
 covers of one of those small white beds 
 she had glimpsed through an open door 
 way! In a half dream she dragged her 
 feet over the clipped softness of the grass, 
 and she was dreadfully sorry when Miss 
 Maynard stopped and took away the em 
 bracing arm to shake hands with a big 
 man. 
 
 The man had appeared, followed by sev 
 eral of the smaller boys, from around the 
 front corner of the house, and it took Martha 
 Mary's weary eyes a considerable interval 
 to travel to the top of him. He was, as 
 she would have expressed it, both high-up 
 and wide-out; besides, his face, when you 
 did get to it, was undeniably ugly. And yet 
 Martha Mary was not surprised that the 
 Kids' Lady greeted the man in a voice of 
 most friendly welcome. He certainly did 
 114
 
 LAND OF THE BLESSED SLEEP 
 
 seem like the kind of person you would 
 be glad to see. Three of the little boys 
 were acting as an immediate bodyguard, 
 two youths of a more self-conscious age 
 shambled in the rear, and the man's hand 
 was wooling the inky kinks upon the head 
 of " African Mick," properly McKinley 
 Jones. 
 
 " Here is one of our latest arrivals," 
 Miss Maynard was saying. " This is 
 Martha Mary, Judge Sunderland. And 
 now, if you will excuse me a moment, I will 
 see that this new daughter is properly taken 
 care of for the night." 
 
 Once upstairs, Martha Mary was turned 
 over to a young, young lady, a pretty young 
 lady, too, with nice ways and the name of 
 Miss Clara. Yet she did not seem to under 
 stand in the least that all Martha Mary 
 wanted was to crawl between the covers of 
 a white bed. No, indeed; the young lady 
 had other plans which she carried out with 
 promptness and energy. Martha Mary 
 was given such a bathing and scrubbing 
 and combing as she had never dreamed of,
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 and of which she did not particularly ap 
 prove. But she submitted with sleepy and 
 silent docility, until Miss Clara remarked: 
 
 " Good thing your hair is n't curly." 
 
 Then Martha Mary's mind wandered 
 around to the rest of the family. " Did 
 Sunshine git hers combed? " she questioned 
 drowsily. 
 
 " Sunshine's had to be cut off," replied 
 Miss Clara. "Do you want to see her?" 
 
 Martha Mary was now in a clean 
 nightie. It was much too long; she had 
 to hold it up with both hands, above her 
 feet that were brightly pink from soap and 
 hot water, while she followed Miss Clara 
 into the dormitory. 
 
 It was not yet the hour for regular bed 
 time and the narrow iron cots were still 
 smoothly spread; but at one side, near an 
 open door, a dark head rested on a pillow. 
 Sunshine was fast asleep, her hair, what 
 was left of it, sticking out in stiff, ragged 
 wisps. The shears had certainly been 
 wielded by a determined, if not altogether 
 skilful hand. But the cheeks of Sun- 
 116
 
 LAND OF THE BLESSED SLEEP 
 
 shine, where the long, black lashes rested, 
 were an olive-rose from recent and 
 thorough washing, and her small hands, 
 snuggled beside her face on the pillow, were 
 cleaner than they had probably ever been 
 before. Sunshine was still very pretty. 
 The elder sister looked up at Miss Clara. 
 
 " I bet she kicked awful," was her ex 
 perienced comment. 
 
 " She certainly did," Miss Clara agreed. 
 
 Martha Mary said nothing more until 
 she was at last really laying her head upon 
 a pillow of her own; then she reflected, in 
 a tone of regret: 
 
 " Sunshine had awful nice curls." 
 
 " Yes, she had, dear," Miss Clara's 
 voice was sympathetic, " but they will soon 
 grow again, and when they are brushed 
 regularly they will be prettier than ever." 
 Even as she spoke she was moving down 
 the room, and before she was out of the 
 door Martha Mary was gone, too, far into 
 that blessed country of sleep, whose gates 
 open so easily and so wide for little chil 
 dren. 
 
 117
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE KIDS' LADY 
 
 MEANWHILE the Blatzenfeld his 
 tory was being outlined for Judge 
 Sunderland, as he sat on the front veranda 
 in the cooling twilight, with the Kids' Lady 
 in a wide-armed chair not far away. 
 
 Parts of the recital were necessarily given 
 in a fragmentary undertone. In fact, any 
 thing that Miss Maynard had to say at this 
 hour would be riddled by interruptions. 
 For, notwithstanding the two teachers who 
 were on the lawn with the children, some 
 ubiquitous juvenile was always in need of 
 affection or correction from the main 
 source. 
 
 Judge Sunderland leaned back, watching 
 them, and the aspect of it all struck him 
 quite freshly, as well-accustomed things will 
 suddenly, to our surprise, meet us with new 
 faces, as if for the first time. Scarce a 
 118
 
 THE KIDS' LADY 
 
 child in the motley group who had ever 
 thought of physical discomfort and depriva 
 tion as anything but a necessary accompani 
 ment of life. Some of them were mentally 
 askew, many had been ungovernable and 
 vicious. Yet here they were, their hearts 
 as well as their bodies fed, surrounded by 
 an atmosphere of sensible lenience, and the 
 whole collection, apparently, about as dan 
 gerous as a basket of puppies. 
 
 When the last of the line had disappeared 
 up the stairs the Judge turned again to the 
 Kids' Lady and noted that she seemed all at 
 once to have grown younger. A look of 
 tension, which he realized more keenly by 
 its absence, had left her face. He leaned 
 forward, regarding her thoughtfully; then 
 he said, with his accustomed directness : 
 
 " You 're tired. What have you been 
 doing to-day? " 
 
 " Well, for one thing, I had to go down 
 on the river flats, and that, you know, is 
 how I happened to pick up these little Blat- 
 zenfelds." 
 
 " But why," the Judge asked, with ju- 
 119
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 dicial severity, " why do you persist in try 
 ing to do the work of more than three peo 
 ple? The visiting is all arranged for; you 
 should not take so much upon yourself." 
 
 " But sometimes I must see for myself, 
 you know. And I did not go looking for 
 trouble. I merely happened upon it. 
 Those absurd little chicks had to be brought 
 here." 
 
 " Yes, oh, yes," sighed the Judge. " You 
 women always have the best of reasons for 
 anything you have a mind to do. Now 
 about these Blatzenheimer youngsters, or 
 whatever their name is any relatives 
 likely to show up ? " 
 
 " From what they tell me, I imagine not. 
 I telephoned a probation officer. He may 
 be able to locate one of the parents before 
 you hold court again. But in all probability 
 we have simply to find homes for them. I 
 wish that really were so simple. No diffi 
 culty about the baby, but as for the others, 
 they don't all fill the requirements." 
 
 " Requirements ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed ! People have very def- 
 120
 
 THE KIDS' LADY 
 
 inite requirements. And they are so sure 
 of the unselfishness of their charitable in 
 tentions! They tell you so seriously that 
 they would like the baby to have blue eyes, 
 yellow curls, and a good disposition. 
 Above everything, it must be well born ! " 
 
 The Judge threw back his head and 
 laughed : 
 
 "Bad as that?" 
 
 Smiling at her own caricature of facts, 
 Miss Maynard added: 
 
 " Well, but is n't it a bit vexing ? Only 
 think of the good chances that will come in 
 the way of the little Blatzenfelds who hap 
 pen to be pretty, instead of to plain Martha 
 Mary, who has been such a little brick ! " 
 
 " Yes, yes, that 's true, to be sure ; that 's 
 always the way; but, after all, it averages 
 up, it averages up." 
 
 The Judge's voice had the same rich 
 hopefulness, that emanation of good health, 
 good will and good work, which shone 
 through the massive blocking out of his 
 face. It was a face which seemed to have 
 been hewn, not molded; and the spirit 
 
 121
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 within lighted, instead of shaping it. " Is n't 
 the Judge the ugliest man you ever saw? " 
 a lady visitor at juvenile court had once 
 whispered to Miss Maynard, at the same 
 time poking her pretty head forward, the 
 better to scrutinize His Honor. 
 
 On that occasion, weeks ago, Judge Sun- 
 derland had been utterly unconscious of ob 
 servation. Five very little boys were 
 crowding close about him, each trying to get 
 nearer than the other; one, indeed, sitting 
 on the edge of the rostrum, right by the 
 Judge's chair, his curly black head sticking 
 up in the curve of the Judge's arm, whose 
 hand was put out to rest upon another boy's 
 shoulder. The whole quintette were grave 
 malefactors. They had broken into a 
 freight car and were then realizing the 
 enormity of their crime; yet, at the same 
 time, they were relating every detail of the 
 affair to their judge, in the firm assurance 
 that he would give them a square deal. 
 
 Just as the visiting lady made her re 
 mark, the youngster of the black curls had 
 his great dark eyes upturned to the Judge's 
 122
 
 - THE KIDS' LADY 
 
 face, while the round and shining tears of 
 childhood rolled after each other down the 
 boy's cheeks. 
 
 " Ugly ? " Miss Maynard had asked her 
 self, and had gone on with the thought: 
 " Yes, he is the most beautiful ugly man 
 who ever looked at life through the medium 
 of kindness." 
 
 123
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 GOING TO LAW 
 
 WHIZZING along in an open car, with 
 Miss Maynard and Sunshine back 
 of her, George Johnny beside her, and Jakey 
 with a dozen other juveniles occupying seats 
 in front and across the aisle, Martha Mary's 
 heart was light. The last few days had put 
 quite out of her mind such an empty fantasy 
 as a wedding trip. The present being fully 
 satisfying, what need was there to draw 
 upon the future? 
 
 From the night of his arrival at the 
 Home, little Happy had stopped crying. 
 He slept almost constantly, and in spite of 
 the nurse's assurance that rest was just what 
 he needed, and that before long he would be 
 fat and dimpled, Martha Mary longed to 
 waken him, and make him laugh, that she 
 might see whether the dimples had begun 
 to come yet. But her faith in the nurse was 
 124
 
 GOING TO LAW 
 
 only second to her faith in the Kids' Lady. 
 Whatever the big home was, and Martha 
 Mary found it quite pleasant enough to ac 
 cept without question, she felt sure it was 
 not one of those places against which Mrs. 
 Kelly had warned her. In the sudden re 
 lief from responsibility, her very soul 
 danced. She entered into the games with 
 the other children as though she could never 
 play enough, and she laughed with an up- 
 spring of childish gaiety to which Miss 
 Maynard stopped to listen with a smile. 
 
 Martha Mary turned about, now, in her 
 seat, to refresh, by actual sight, her sense 
 of the gracious presence back of her. Sun 
 shine had slipped a hand on Miss Maynard's 
 lap, and the stubby brown fingers were 
 clasped in the slim white ones ; upon the face 
 of that ardent little rebel was a new look of 
 softness. 
 
 The car came to a grinding pause at a 
 street corner and George Johnny pulled his 
 sister's sleeve. They had halted before a 
 massive hospital building where, beside a 
 pillared doorway, stood a carven figure of 
 125
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Saint Vincent with a child in his arms. 
 The benignity of that sculptured form im 
 pressed even George Johnny. 
 
 " Is it God ? " he whispered. 
 
 " Yes," said Martha Mary. And then, 
 for further elucidation, " He 's mindin' the 
 baby." 
 
 But the elder sister did not so easily ar 
 rive at conclusions when they were all in 
 the court room. Some of the cases were 
 not difficult to understand. If a boy had 
 made too dextrous use of a brick-bat upon 
 the person of a small neighbor, or if he had 
 failed to observe the rights of property, it 
 was clearly his due to be reprimanded. But 
 why did some of the children cry when their 
 only offense appeared to be the lack of 
 proper care? Why were many of the par 
 ents angry with the Judge, though he 
 seemed never to be out of temper or even 
 unkind ? And what did it mean to go to 
 Kearney? 
 
 Such a general atmosphere of trouble 
 brooded over the place, that Martha Mary 
 began to have suspicions whether she and 
 126
 
 GOING TO LAW 
 
 her little flock might not, after all, have 
 fallen into the abode of charities. Yet Miss 
 Maynard had said Martha Mary leaned 
 forward to get a glimpse of the Kids' Lady 
 sitting at one corner of the long table, next 
 the Judge. That gentle face was still 
 gravely sweet, and there was something in 
 its look, Martha Mary could not have told 
 what it was, but something which quieted 
 her forebodings. She could not make out 
 the meaning of it all, but since the Kids' 
 Lady was here it somehow meant good; of 
 that she felt assured. 
 
 So when a man with a loud voice ran his 
 finger down the page of an enormous book 
 and said something about the Blatzenfeld 
 case, she was not at all uneasy. Miss May 
 nard motioned to them to come and sit in 
 chairs beside her. Then, when Sunshine 
 had climbed up, George Johnny had been 
 lifted up, and Jakey and Martha Mary had 
 sidled into their places, the Judge looked 
 down the diminishing line with a smile, 
 and brought his gaze back to the eldest 
 girl. 
 
 127
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 " So this is the mother of the family? " 
 he observed. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the girl, promptly, un 
 conscious that any one was amused. In 
 deed, it was not amusement which shone in 
 the Judge's deep-blue eyes. Martha Mary, 
 looking into those eyes, made up her mind 
 instantly that she liked the Judge. 
 
 Miss Maynard answered the Judge's 
 questions. They were few and simple ; the 
 Blatzenfeld case, so far, being chiefly 
 distinguished by its lack of complica 
 tions. 
 
 " Can you accommodate them for the 
 present?" asked the Judge of Miss May 
 nard. 
 
 The Kids' Lady replied that she could. 
 
 " Then that will be best until we can make 
 further arrangements," concluded the Judge. 
 " You have been a good little mother." 
 He patted Martha Mary on the shoulder, 
 as he had done on that evening when she 
 first saw him. " A fine little mother, but 
 I think it will be best for all of you to stay 
 with Miss Maynard for awhile. One thing, 
 128
 
 GOING TO LAW 
 
 it will be so much better for your baby out 
 there. Don't you think so ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir," breathed Martha Mary. 
 It was like being sentenced to Heaven. 
 The quartette slid out of their chairs to 
 make way for others, Martha Mary smiling 
 back happily at the Kids' Lady. They be 
 longed now to the Kids' Lady. Only what 
 was it the Judge meant about arrangements ? 
 Martha Mary did not know, even the word 
 would not stay in her mind, but the feeling 
 it gave her she could not forget. 
 
 129
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HER " OWNEST OWN " 
 
 AT last was Happy Blatzenfeld living 
 up to the name so casually bestowed 
 by a facetious parent. Back of his father 
 and mother were generations of a strong 
 and simple people, and thereby Happy pos 
 sessed what physicians exult over as a good 
 constitution. When, in the Home's nurs 
 ery, he was given fresh air, fresh milk and 
 fresh water, intelligently administered, he 
 responded like any other small animal. He 
 gave up looking a thousand years old and 
 tired of it. In an amazingly short time he 
 returned to gurgling, dimpling babyhood. 
 His gold-brown hair grew shiny in the light, 
 and sat up, like little duck-tails, in incipient 
 curls all over his head. There was an es 
 pecially seductive ringlet around each 
 crumply, pink ear, and his eyes were con 
 fidingly blue. 
 
 130
 
 HER " OWNEST OWN " 
 
 Standing in the sun-flooded nursery one 
 morning, between the white iron cribs, Miss 
 Maynard was looking down at him. He 
 lay all smiles and coos, kicking up his round 
 legs in a pair of much-washed and shrunken 
 socks that were still far too big, and pad 
 dling the air with short arms that begged 
 the " taking " for which there is small lei 
 sure at county institutions. It was high 
 time, as the Kids' Lady well knew, that she 
 should set in motion the machinery which 
 would eventually secure for the little chap 
 a suitable and permanent home. There 
 would be no difficulty in " placing " this 
 child ; and, as speedily as possible, he ought 
 to make room for others, perhaps less at 
 tractive than himself. Expenses must be 
 kept down, since superintendents are ac 
 countable to boards, and boards, presum 
 ably, are accountable to tax-payers who do 
 the voting. 
 
 Moreover, though Happy was thriving in 
 the somewhat rigid lap of organized charity, 
 he had a right to a flesh and blood father 
 and mother; and Miss Maynard was hold-
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 ing all this clearly in mind while she gave 
 him a rolling snuggle, which set him off in 
 chirps of glee. The chirps subsided, when 
 he saw that she was turning away, but re 
 doubled in joyfulness almost immediately as 
 Martha Mary appeared in the open doorway. 
 Big sister, too, had taken a modicum of 
 softness upon her angles, and as the Kids' 
 Lady watched her seize the welcoming baby 
 and sit down, hugging him all in a fat and 
 tumbled bundle into her arms, she thought 
 the love in the plain little face was as sweet 
 a light as she had ever seen. But there was 
 no denying that Martha Mary was not a 
 pretty child, especially now that she was 
 nearing the age when skirts seem always 
 too short and elbows too aggressive. Even 
 artfully fashioned attire often falls power 
 less, while of course, Martha Mary wore 
 the left-overs which arrived at the institu 
 tion in bundles generously huge, if not al 
 ways suitable in contents. Her present 
 frock, of red wool that had faded in wash 
 ing, was remarkably like a length of stove 
 pipe with a deep frill at the bottom. It was 
 132
 
 HER " OWNEST OWN " 
 
 a style known as the " Baby-Doll " dress, 
 and since it was undeniably and hideously 
 the mode, Martha Mary rejoiced in it, de 
 claring it " swell ! " 
 
 The little girl possessed a sort of snap 
 ping optimism which enabled her to view 
 many seemingly adverse circumstances in 
 a high light of very genuine, if sometimes 
 amusing, satisfaction. But there could be 
 no doubt about the rapturous attributes of 
 the baby she was holding. 
 
 "Ain't he just the beautifulest! " she 
 cried, trying to turn him around for Miss 
 Maynard's better inspection, while he 
 bounced and teetered upon legs which were 
 completely untrustworthy. With a crow of 
 victory, he clutched both hands into Martha 
 Mary's smoothly brushed and braided hair. 
 
 " Now, now, baby must n't be naughty ! " 
 the girl crooned, and in her voice was a 
 mother note, as she gently strove to detach 
 the clawing pink ringers. " He always was 
 good, even when he was sickest, but now 
 he 's just just a dumpling angel! An' 
 you know, Miss Maynard," Martha Mary 
 133
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 looked up earnestly into the face above her, 
 " I ain't hardly any homesick for Jakey ; 
 'specially, since he 's in such a good place 
 with that widow-lady, an' goin' on with his 
 carryin' papers, an' everything. Sunshine 
 an' George Johnny, they 're plum stuck on 
 this kinter garden, an' Sunshine don't have 
 a hollerin' spell half so often. Do you think 
 she does ? " 
 
 " No, indeed," Miss Maynard acquiesced. 
 " She will learn in time to control her tem 
 per." 
 
 " Yes 'm, I guess so." Martha Mary's 
 tone carried a shade of doubt. " Anyhow, 
 she 's awful smart. But Happy, he 's my 
 ownest-own baby, an' I love him most to 
 pieces ! " She kissed him ravenously, in the 
 soft places of his neck, holding him so tight 
 that he squealed in protest. The Kids' 
 Lady, meanwhile, drew a long breath which 
 was very like a sigh. 
 
 " I think," she said, " you 'd better come 
 with me now." 
 
 Martha Mary got to her feet with as 
 much promptness as the weight of the baby 
 134
 
 HER " OWNEST OWN " 
 
 would permit, and lifted the disappointed 
 Happy into the middle of his crib. 
 
 " Yes 'm," the little girl reminded her 
 self, " I expect Miss Helen 's needin' me to 
 peel on the potatoes." From the first she 
 had evinced a willing, if sometimes almost 
 too vigorous, zeal in the kitchen, a zeal which 
 was extremely useful in a menage depend 
 ent, in a large measure, upon transient and 
 often sulky helpers. 
 
 As they went to the stair-head together, 
 the Kids' Lady reached out an encircling 
 arm and led the child into her own room, 
 then closed the door. She had an impulse 
 to take the little girl into her lap, but felt, 
 all at once, that Martha Mary was not used 
 to that, and so sat down and drew the 
 little figure close to her. 
 
 " I want to talk to you, dear," she 
 said. 
 
 At once Martha Mary looked frightened. 
 
 " Now, don't worry. You are a good 
 
 girl and you have pleased me always, 
 
 pleased me so much that I should like to keep 
 
 you, and George Johnny, and Sunshine, and 
 
 135
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 the baby, keep all of you right here. But 
 you see that is not possible. We must find 
 good homes for you all, such as Jakey al 
 ready has. We have to make room, you 
 understand, for other children who need to 
 come here. Now Georgie or Sunshine may 
 go first, but the baby is so sweet ! and there 
 are many women who would like such a 
 baby. You are a very helpful, active little 
 girl; there will be (not quite so soon, per 
 haps) a place for you, too. You would be 
 willing, wouldn't you? You would see 
 that this is best; that it may be the only 
 plan?" 
 
 The child had drawn away from her and 
 now stood at a little distance, big-eyed, with 
 an expression of weird maturity in her 
 small face. 
 
 " Do you mean ? let somebody have 
 Happy for their baby? And me go live 
 with other folks?" 
 
 Miss Maynard sought safety in delay. 
 
 " Perhaps not, dear. We will try very hard 
 
 to arrange it so that you and the baby may 
 
 be together. But if it should happen other- 
 
 136
 
 HER " OWNEST OWN " 
 
 wise, if it should be best for him, then you 
 would be willing, would n't you ? " 
 
 Martha Mary clutched her hands at her 
 sides, and the gray eyes blazed. " No," 
 she cried, " I would n't, and I won't! " 
 
 It was well that the wisdom of the w r oman 
 understood, how this rebellion was not in 
 the least against her authority. But be 
 fore she could speak, Martha Mary's head 
 came burrowing into her lap, and the little 
 girl was choking out, in the midst of child 
 hood's despairing tears, that Happy was 
 her " ownest-own baby " and nobody else 
 should ever have him to keep, not " ever 
 nor ever ! " 
 
 She grew comforted when Miss Maynard 
 took her into her arms, and by and by she 
 raised her eyes, much swollen but already 
 lighted with their natural shrewd philoso 
 phy: 
 
 " Course, I could n't never stand to have 
 him git so sick again, but any lady would n't 
 want to tend him all the time ; now, would 
 she ? And he likes me awful well. I guess 
 the lady would let me go, too, to take care of 
 
 137
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 him." She looked up into Miss Maynard's 
 face with something like a smile. " She 
 would, would n't she ? " 
 
 " Yes, I do think she would," the Kids' 
 Lady answered, " and we will see about it 
 right away." 
 
 138
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 FORCED SURRENDER 
 
 THE facts needed no adorning to make 
 what a young newspaper reporter 
 voted " good stuff." The staff photogra 
 pher came out to the Home to take a picture 
 of the children together, and the reporter 
 wrote a " story " that undoubtedly had 
 " heart interest." But the paper was 
 crowded for space that day; so the city 
 editor drew a blue pencil through all but 
 the first two paragraphs of the little tale. 
 The most the public got was an enticing 
 likeness of Happy, who came out well, a 
 blur of a plain little girl, and the informa 
 tion that the two needed a home and would 
 like to be together. 
 
 When Miss Maynard, glancing from the 
 window the next day as visitors were an 
 nounced, saw at the curb a shining, long- 
 bodied car, with a waiting chauffeur, she 
 
 139
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 surmised at once that she had been correct 
 about the drawing power of little Happy's 
 pictured face. 
 
 She liked the big business man who 
 stepped aside to allow the pale, pretty wo 
 man to enter before him. The woman said, 
 quite without preface: 
 
 " Is he here yet ? the lovely baby ? that 
 was in the paper? " 
 
 The assurance that he was brought a 
 look of relief. 
 
 " I was afraid he might be gone before 
 we could come," sighed the visitor. (The 
 name on her card was Mrs. Addison.) 
 " May we see him now, please ? " Her 
 manner held the graciousness that assumes 
 acquiescence. 
 
 To fetch the baby Miss Maynard went 
 herself, ascertaining at the same time that 
 Martha Mary was in the kitchen. A fresh 
 white slip, a few touches to the enterprising 
 gold duck-tails, and Happy made his ap 
 pearance in the library, radiating amiability. 
 
 The woman approached a trifle timidly, 
 while her husband stepped back ; but finding 
 140
 
 FORCED SURRENDER 
 
 that the child had no fear of strangers, 
 Mrs. Addison surrounded him with eager 
 arms. 
 
 " You rosebud thing ! And to think you 
 should need a home ! a home ! " 
 
 She carried the baby over to her husband, 
 and leaning close against him, half put the 
 boy into his arms. Mr. Addison dinted 
 the child's cheek with a tentative finger, and 
 Happy returned the courtesy by an ineffec 
 tual grab for the gold-rimmed eyeglasses 
 above him. 
 
 " Is n't he just what we have been wish 
 ing for, dear? Let us take him now. I 
 simply cannot go away without him." The 
 wife looked up at her husband with an ex 
 pression not used to being denied, but Miss 
 Maynard suggested: 
 
 " There are several other babies here you 
 might like to see. And, you know, this lit 
 tle fellow has a sister, some years older. 
 We had hoped to place the two together. 
 There are other children in the family, but 
 the little girl is especially fond of this baby. 
 She has had much of the care of him." 
 141
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Mrs. Addison was listening sympatheti 
 cally. 
 
 " We gleaned something of that from the 
 paper," she said. " But I but, you 
 see " She looked up at her husband. 
 " Robert, I believe I could tell Miss Maynard 
 better, just by ourselves." 
 
 " Surely, surely," he responded, and when 
 the superintendent had ushered him into an 
 adjoining room she returned to find his 
 wife established in a rocker, the baby in 
 her lap, her story already written in her 
 face. 
 
 " You see, it is n't that we could n't take 
 two children, Miss Maynard, but we have so 
 wanted a baby of our own. And when we 
 knew we must give that up . . ." She 
 paused a moment, her lips trembling, then 
 went on again, " It seemed to me I had to 
 find one somewhere to fill the place. It 
 is n't so easy. There are so many you 
 could n't take, but when I saw this darling's 
 picture . . ." She looked down at the 
 little fellow with a face of rapture, and he 
 smiled back while he tried to get the frilly 
 142
 
 FORCED SURRENDER 
 
 end of her long veil into his mouth, but 
 tickled his nose instead and made himself 
 sneeze. 
 
 Mrs. Addison laughed like a girl, with the 
 sudden reaction, and held the baby closer, at 
 the same time looking with bright confidence 
 at Miss Maynard. 
 
 " You doubtless know of Mr. Addison? 
 Addison and Blake? We can give every 
 reference and assurance that could possibly 
 be desired. And could n't the baby go with 
 us now ? You know, we had concluded that 
 if we found the right child we did n't want 
 to know about his parentage. Very im 
 practical, I suppose, but if we had that al 
 ways in our minds it might make him seem 
 less our own. Could n't he possibly go 
 with us now? and the stupid business ar 
 rangements be made later ? " 
 
 It took a moment's thought before Miss 
 Maynard said : 
 
 " Only the court, of course, has author 
 ity to give him to you. I might let him go 
 for a visit, which could, without a doubt, be 
 indefinitely prolonged." She smiled, then 
 
 H3
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 grew serious again. " But I must tell you, 
 Mrs. Addison, that I feel his sister has a 
 right to be asked." 
 
 The visitor's delicate forehead creased in 
 disappointment. 
 
 "But what if she objects? Oh, she 
 must n't do that. She would n't surely, 
 would she? At least, not if she understood 
 how much we could do for the baby. Of 
 course she loves him, but even a little girl 
 will understand could n't you ask her 
 right away? I think I would rather not see 
 her. If we never saw her it would be so 
 much easier not to remember, don't you 
 know, about the baby." 
 
 " Yes, I think I get your meaning." Miss 
 Maynard appeared to hesitate a moment, 
 then she opened the door to admit Mr. 
 Addison, and at the same time left the 
 room. 
 
 She found Martha Mary still in the 
 kitchen, her thin arms resting upon the edge 
 of a huge pan of muddy water and potato 
 parings, just removing the brown coat from 
 the " last of the littlest ones." Fortunately 
 144
 
 FORCED SURRENDER 
 
 she was alone for the moment and Miss 
 Maynard gratefully seized the opportunity 
 to have the matter appear casual. 
 
 " A lady and gentleman are here, Martha 
 Mary, to see Happy. They are so pleased 
 with him that they want to take him home 
 with them for a little visit. I told them I 
 would ask you. I was sure you would be 
 willing." 
 
 Miss Maynard was conscious that she had 
 made a poor success of her effort to speak 
 lightly. Without lifting the potato pan 
 Martha Mary appeared to slide out 
 from under it, leaving it to occupy the 
 chair. 
 
 "Shall I go get my things now?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " That was not what I meant, dear," cor 
 rected her friend. " I meant would you be 
 willing to have the baby go ? It is only the 
 baby they want, at present for a visit, 
 you know." 
 
 Martha Mary had sidled away and now 
 stood with her back to the door. Miss 
 Maynard could see that she was pale, even 
 
 145
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 under the freckles. In spite of herself the 
 Kids' Lady felt impelled to a futile attempt 
 at explanation. 
 
 " It is only for a visit, now," she repeated 
 lamely. " Mrs. Addison seems a very sweet 
 woman. You think it is best, don't you, to 
 let the baby have this good chance? They 
 Will take excellent care of him." 
 
 " Did she say she would n't want some 
 body to help take care of him ? " 
 
 " She did n't say she would n't," Miss 
 Maynard felt herself floundering before that 
 direct gaze. " But this is not a permanent 
 arrangement, you know. I felt that we 
 ought not to interpose any obstacles " 
 She stopped, not wishing to designate 
 Martha Mary as an obstacle, but her caution 
 was wasted. All the possibilities were 
 darkly shadowed in the depths of Martha 
 Mary's eyes. The child seemed to flatten 
 out against the door, her lips quivered as if 
 with speech, but enunciated never a syllable. 
 Finally she grew crimson, from the ends of 
 the small hands pressed against the wood 
 work, clear to the margin of her hair. 
 146
 
 FORCED SURRENDER 
 
 And then she burst out, almost in one word, 
 which ended in a sobbing scream : 
 
 " She can have him ! she can have him ! 
 she can have him! I don't care!" And 
 flinging her slim body around the edge of 
 the door, she banged it behind her, and was 
 gone. 
 
 Miss Maynard stood a moment looking 
 after her, but not in vexation nor even in 
 astonishment at this sudden outburst, she 
 knew Martha Mary. She sighed, at last, 
 and, turning slowly, went back to the front 
 of the house. 
 
 The Addisons glanced up at her when she 
 entered the office, with just the air of ex 
 pectant confidence which she had antici 
 pated ! they were so used to getting whatever 
 they wanted. Miss Maynard's briefly 
 worded consent to their taking the baby 
 home with them they received with gracious 
 courtesy. About the sister they asked no 
 questions. 
 
 When Happy was at last swished away in 
 the shining car amid dust and honkings, 
 the Kids' Lady felt relieved. There had 
 147
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 been moments when she had feared she was 
 going to lose sight of her duty. Now she 
 could go to Martha Mary. 
 
 She was sure where the child could be 
 found and there she was, a sodden heap in 
 the middle of her small white bed. Miss 
 Maynard bent over and smoothed the damp 
 hair back from the little hot forehead, but 
 Martha Mary only hid her face the tighter 
 and her whole body shook. She could not 
 see how pitying was the face of the Kids' 
 Lady as she sat down on the side of the bed 
 and waited. Finally came a voice from 
 above : 
 
 " They are not taking him to keep not 
 yet, Martha Mary." 
 
 The child turned her face up quickly: 
 " Don't they want him ? " she asked, with 
 mingled incredulity and resentment. 
 
 " They want him greatly," assured the 
 Kids' Lady, and then she added, afraid of 
 promising too much, " It may be differently 
 arranged." 
 
 Martha Mary made no sign except once 
 more to turn away her head. 
 148
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 STAMPEDED 
 
 MARTHA MARY-no longer needed to 
 ask, Martha Mary knew that this 
 place to which they had come was some sort 
 of a charities. When the lady of the watch 
 had offered a home to Jakey, because she 
 was lonely and wanted a boy about the 
 house, it had seemed a lucky chance. She 
 was not a rich lady at all ; she said she would 
 have liked to take all the little family, had it 
 been possible. Jakey was still to sell papers 
 and Miss Maynard pronounced that just 
 as well, because it would " develop his char 
 acter." About this phase of the affair 
 Martha Mary had not much of an opinion, 
 but since Jakey liked the arrangement well 
 enough to vote it " a snap " the elder sister 
 was satisfied. 
 
 Now if somebody should want Sunshine 
 and George Johnny, if somebody very nice 
 149
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 should come, who looked able to manage 
 Sunshine, Martha Mary felt that she could, 
 perhaps, bear to see them go, because she 
 was beginning to understand how it was 
 best. 
 
 But not the baby! oh, no, not her baby! 
 Never the baby! 
 
 She no longer believed that any one 
 would take Happy and her together. She 
 did not even believe that the baby would 
 come back from his visiting. In fact, there 
 was not much left of Martha Mary's be 
 liefs, once so upspringing. The gay little 
 spirit which had brought her through so 
 many adversities, and kept her full of vim 
 and laughter, was fast losing its power of 
 reaction. Almost, Martha Mary did not 
 believe in the Kids' Lady. She still loved 
 her ; oh, yes, she loved her ! yet that in itself 
 was somehow a pain. She could not con 
 fide in her any more, and she asked no fur 
 ther questions. She said little to any one, 
 and she steadfastly pared potatoes because 
 she no longer cared to play. She was very 
 glad of potatoes. But when those faithful 
 150
 
 STAMPEDED 
 
 vegetables were served with the other sim 
 ple food, which at first had steamed so in 
 vitingly upon the long tables, Martha Mary 
 had no appetite. Somewhere inside her 
 was a weight, a sickening heaviness. 
 
 She would have been greatly surprised to 
 know that Miss Maynard, too, was carry 
 ing a troubled heart. Martha Mary could 
 never have dreamed how deeply it con 
 cerned the Kids' Lady because one little 
 girl was grown dull-eyed and slow of step. 
 When, about this time, school began, it was 
 a relief to both of them. A relief to the 
 woman because she hoped the new occupa 
 tions and interests would furnish for 
 Martha Mary a diversion and a stimulant, 
 and to the child, because the school was 
 some distance away from the Home, which 
 meant a long walk in the dreaming days of 
 amber sunshine. She liked to slip away at 
 noon and morning before the other children 
 started and go quietly by herself, and Miss 
 Maynard humored her, since Martha Mary 
 was always to be relied upon. 
 
 How could she suspect that Martha
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Mary, having small interest in her dinner 
 one noon, and thereby starting for school 
 unusually early, would make a wide detour 
 to pass by a park? Or how could any one 
 have foreseen that, having done this, the lit 
 tle girl would meet with a portentous adven 
 ture? 
 
 Immediately there sprang into Martha 
 Mary's brain an invincible determination. 
 The details of her enterprise she worked out 
 deliberately in the next two days, but when 
 it came to putting them into execution, her 
 courage was near to failing. 
 
 Easy enough it seemed to fold up her few 
 extra pieces of clothing and conceal them in 
 her school bag, but the doing of it proved a 
 tremendous task. Surely, never before, had 
 any paper rattled with such a guilty sibi- 
 lance as did that one printed sheet which 
 she essayed to wrap about her little gar 
 ments. Finally they were stowed away in 
 the bottom of the bag with books on top, 
 and then, how the paper kept crackling as 
 she made her way out of the front door, 
 ostensibly starting for school! 
 152
 
 STAMPEDED 
 
 But she did not go on down the walk ; in 
 stead, she wandered vaguely to the back of 
 the grounds. Beyond, in the garden, a dull- 
 witted fellow was digging turnips. The 
 mellow, brown earth fell away easily from 
 the white and purple globes. The digger 
 stopped, and, leaning on his fork, began to 
 munch one of the crisp vegetables. Evi 
 dently he took no cognizance of Martha 
 Mary; she began to breathe easier. 
 
 With as casual an air as she could com 
 mand she walked across the yard to a bench 
 which stood under a tree near the edge of 
 a steep terrace. Here she seated herself, 
 brushing away some of the yellow leaves 
 that lay everywhere. All the while other 
 leaves came balancing idly down, like flakes 
 of sunshine as the morning light shone 
 through them. There was nothing to pre 
 vent her departing, as she did every morn 
 ing, for school, yet Martha Mary could not 
 start. 
 
 Then, suddenly, her very breath stopped 
 to listen ; from the house some one was call 
 ing her. Twice, and a third time the voice 
 153
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 of one of the teachers sounded through the 
 still air. Doubtless she was wanted for 
 some part of her work which had been for 
 gotten. What she had done and what she 
 had not done of her accustomed tasks that 
 morning, she could not have told in the 
 least. 
 
 But the call was the one touch needed to 
 set her loose. Like a flash she was seated 
 on the grass at the edge of the terrace. 
 One jerk of her bag into her lap and she 
 was coasting swiftly down the incline. 
 The moment that her feet had touched the 
 pavement, the impetus of her slide sent her 
 on, and away she went, well out of sight in 
 the lowered street, but still fleeing in an 
 actual terror of pursuit. Even when she 
 had reached unaccustomed ways she kept 
 on running, her heavy bag slapping her thin 
 leg and her head turning at every new 
 sound to glance back over her shoulder. 
 
 154
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 ADINSMORE PARK squirrel, wha 
 was patting down an acorn in the 
 musky mold under a barberry bush, sud 
 denly bobbed upright on his haunches 
 and made a few emphatic and well-chosen 
 remarks. His protest being quite un 
 heeded, he took three curving leaps and 
 shinned half way up the trunk of an oak 
 tree. Then, being a park squirrel, and 
 used to holding his ground against ubiqui 
 tous humans, he stopped flaunting an in 
 solent tail, and continued his execrations. 
 
 It was all very well, of course, for people 
 on business men and women who had to 
 go to work to pass through the park in the 
 early morning. They went rapidly crunch 
 ing along the paths, intent upon their own 
 affairs ; they did not in the least disturb an 
 industrious and self-respecting squirrel who 
 155
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 was up and at work every morning at day 
 break in order to have his winter supplies 
 well in cold storage. But this little girl 
 who came pushing right through the thicket 
 of shrubbery, even stooping to crawl under 
 the prickly boughs of the squirrel's own 
 barberry bush, this child was an intrusion 
 and an impertinence. He had told her how 
 he felt about it in perfectly adequate lan 
 guage, and she paid not the slightest atten 
 tion, even seemed oblivious of his presence. 
 
 So, finally, he let fall his remonstrant tail, 
 went slouching up the tree to the first hori 
 zontal limb, and, stretching himself com 
 fortably along, let his legs hang down on 
 either side of the branch. If a surcease 
 from toil were to be forced upon him, he 
 might as well relax and get the full ben 
 efit. 
 
 The child did not look up at him, though 
 he tilted his head comfortably sidewise, to 
 regard her fixedly and with a beady eye. 
 A very plain child ; there could be no doubt 
 of that, even though the color of her hair 
 was not so bad, being much the shade of his 
 own tail. She appeared to have been in a 
 156
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 great hurry about something. Her little 
 chest heaved, and there was red between the 
 round brown spots on her cheek. She sat 
 down on the soft old leaves, under the shel 
 ter of the barberry bush, and just sat there. 
 So long she sat that the squirrel was about 
 making up his mind that if this small person 
 was established right in the midst of his 
 larder for the rest of the day, he might as 
 well betake himself to other labors. 
 
 But just then she began to move about 
 once more. Out of a hempen school-bag, 
 big and frayed, she took a bundle wrapped 
 in newspapers. This she laid to one side, 
 drew two school books from the bag, and 
 scraping away the rustling brown and 
 tawny leaves, laid books and bag down flat, 
 pushed the leaves over them again, until 
 they were almost concealed, then seemed to 
 contemplate her work. 
 
 The squirrel understood that. This girl 
 creature was storing her property for win 
 ter. He was about to conceive a slight re 
 spect for her when she suddenly uncovered 
 the articles and began to dig in the soft 
 mold in good earnest. She easily ex- 
 157
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 cavated a small hollow, then shoved in bag 
 and books once more, covered them thor 
 oughly this time, scattered leaves over the 
 top, and regarded the result with evident 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Not so the Dinsmore Park squirrel. He 
 had seen acorn after acorn of his careful 
 storing thrown heedlessly aside or buried 
 in the earth beyond recovery. In high 
 dudgeon and barking angrily, he went 
 scratching up the tree's rough bark, clear 
 to the top and leaping to the out-reaching 
 branch of another tree, went bounding 
 away through the topmost boughs, his in 
 dignant tail flapping like a sail behind him. 
 
 Such an outburst attracted the attention 
 of even a preoccupied Martha Mary. She 
 lifted her eyes to the sprightly thing that 
 whisked so airily among the branches, re 
 garded with unconscious envy his appar 
 ently untrammeled freedom ; and then, quite 
 oblivious of the fact that she had just over 
 turned a vital part of his world, she sat 
 down with a sigh at the foot of the oak and 
 appeared to settle herself to wait. 
 158
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 Quietly, for a long time, she remained in 
 this nook among the bushes, while the sun, 
 growing warmer, filtered down through the 
 tree's thinning foliage to dance upon 
 Martha Mary's blue dress and upon the flat- 
 lying grass. The sound of passing feet 
 and voices came now and then from the 
 walks and driveways, but no one ap 
 proached this refuge among the shrubbery. 
 
 At last, when she was sure it was well 
 after 9 o'clock, she got up and wandered 
 about the paths, strolled down by the foun 
 tain, watched the glimmering gold fish, and 
 afterward diverted herself as best she could 
 with the absurd posturings of an old pelican 
 who had his abode on the edge of a pond. 
 That queer bird must have been fixed in the 
 opinion that children existed for the sole 
 purpose of bringing him food. He pursued 
 Martha Mary upon ineffectual legs, with 
 suppliant, baggy beak; and she would have 
 found him laughable, had her frame of 
 mind been less serious. 
 
 Always she was watching the paths which 
 led to the park entrances ; with strained gaze 
 159
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 she examined every one who approached, 
 while varying shades of disappointment 
 crossed her face. Finally there came 
 slowly down the hill a slender, pretty wo 
 man, wheeling a baby-cab. At the first 
 glimpse of her Martha Mary crimsoned, 
 caught her breath, stood for a moment 
 staring, then crossed deliberately to a bench 
 beside the path and seated herself. No one, 
 passing by, would have imagined that this 
 little girl, who so calmly watched a pelican 
 dawdling on the edge of a pond, was chok 
 ing with anxiety and suspense. 
 
 When the crunching of gravel under 
 small wheels told Martha Mary that the 
 new-comers were nearly opposite, she 
 turned casual eyes in that direction. The 
 lady certainly was very pretty and elegant, 
 and the perambulator was a fine affair, 
 though it seemed heavy to push. 
 
 But it was the baby in the perambulator 
 whom Martha Mary eyed hungrily from 
 beneath lowered lids. He was a pink, 
 plump, complacent baby, and his cap and 
 coat were of white silk, heavy with em- 
 160
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 broidery. His blue eyes were regarding 
 the universe in drowsy approbation, but 
 when his gaze fell upon the little girl on the 
 park bench, his face lighted, he bounced in 
 his cab until the springs teetered up and 
 down; he struggled against the beribboned 
 strap which held him in, and he laughed 
 aloud with absurd chirpings and chucklings, 
 while he threw himself backward and 
 forward, at the same time reaching out 
 eager arms, unmistakably extended toward 
 Martha Mary. 
 
 The lady stopped and came around in 
 front of the baby, where she lifted him up 
 and tucked him down, and executed various 
 small manceuvers supposed to add to the 
 comfort of infants. All of which did not 
 in the least distract his attention. He still 
 continued to wave his arms and chuckle at 
 Martha Mary; and, rinding no heed was be 
 ing paid to his manifestations, feeling in 
 deed that his coach was beginning to move 
 on, he introduced a threatening squeal into 
 his performance. 
 
 A trifle doubtfully the lady scrutinized 
 161
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Martha Mary, and then smiled. The little 
 girl looked clean. 
 
 " He is always so fond of other chil 
 dren," she explained, as she lifted him from 
 his wrappings and brought him over to the 
 bench. She sat down at the end, while the 
 little girl timidly moved to the farther cor 
 ner. But this by no means satisfied the 
 baby. Still he squirmed and fretted, 
 eagerly he reached and cooed. 
 
 " Do you like babies ? " questioned the 
 lady, thinking that this must be a very un 
 impressionable girl. 
 
 " Yes 'm," replied Martha Mary, de 
 murely. She had an instinct that to appear 
 too eager might spoil everything. Happy 
 was doing enough for both of them. The 
 triumphant joy of this moment was like to 
 suffocate Martha Mary, but her face was 
 as impassive as an Oriental's. It was not 
 for nothing that she had laid these plans 
 desperate plans she felt them to be, and she 
 had the courage of desperation. 
 
 When in that momentous noon hour a 
 few days before, she had first approached 
 162
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 this park, it had been with no especial mo 
 tive. The city had many parks, and out 
 and in the gateways of these pleasant, tree- 
 shadowed places passed many women who 
 trundled before them baby-cabs with their 
 ever interesting burdens. Perhaps, for 
 that reason, had Martha Mary been drawn 
 to this spot, and certainly her eyes were 
 very keen for babies. So keen they were 
 that at a distance of half a block from one 
 of those perambulated infants, she had 
 stopped in her tracks so abruptly that she 
 fairly jumped backward. The perambu 
 lator, the lady who slowly propelled it, and 
 the baby's attire were completely unknown 
 to her, but at a much greater distance 
 Martha Mary would have known that baby. 
 She turned quite sick with the shock of it, 
 and as soon as she could collect herself suffi 
 ciently to get her feet started, she hurried 
 down a side street. 
 
 But the next day at the same hour she 
 
 was watching in the same place, and there, 
 
 sure enough, out of the same gateway came 
 
 the lady, the perambulator and the baby! 
 
 163
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 It was then she began to make her plans; 
 now she was carrying them through. 
 
 After what she thought a sufficient inter 
 val, and when she knew by indications that 
 Happy was preparing for a protest which 
 would command his entire attention and 
 that of every one else for a considerable 
 period of time, she proffered a gentle sug 
 gestion. 
 
 " I could take the baby a few minutes, if 
 you 're tired. I 'm real used to babies." 
 
 Since her hands seemed to have been 
 washed quite recently (that had been done 
 at the fountain of the gold fish) the lady 
 agreed tentatively ; at least, she bent slightly 
 forward along the bench, and loosened her 
 arms. 
 
 Happy had grown a strong boy ; he gave 
 a leap from that confining embrace, and 
 the lady cried out; but at the same instant 
 Martha Mary's practised arms had caught 
 him. She held him steady though he was 
 executing a triumphant but startlingly un 
 certain dance upon her narrow lap, while 
 he fairly shrieked with delight and made 
 164
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 gleeful clutches for her hair. But Martha 
 Mary held her head well back out of his 
 reach, as she smiled upon him with a sagely 
 tempered reserve. When he had somewhat 
 subsided, and she had him seated on her 
 lap in the curve of a motherly arm, the lady 
 spoke again : 
 
 " You seem to be used to babies." 
 
 " Oh, yes 'm ; I took care of one a long 
 time. He 's gone away now." 
 
 Suddenly Martha Mary's eyes filled with 
 tears. She blinked them back in dismay; 
 tears had not been in her program, but they 
 served a purpose. The lady melted. 
 
 " Oh, I hope the baby did n't die ! " Her 
 tone was compassionate. 
 
 " No 'm," said Martha Mary, smiling in 
 swift transition. " He ain't coming back, 
 though. I got to find a new place." 
 
 "Have you?" said the lady. Martha 
 Mary imagined she said it consideringly. 
 
 " Yes 'm," the child went on, pursuing 
 
 her fancied advantage. " I 'm going to 
 
 stay with a lady across the park here till I 
 
 get a new place. The lady ain't expecting 
 
 165
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 me, either. I don't know as she '11 be real 
 glad ; she 's got a good many." 
 
 Martha Mary paused, in amaze at her 
 own facility of invention. Her natural per 
 pendicularity had kept her, for the most 
 part, in simple paths of truth. Having 
 usually been equal to a situation, she had 
 found no need of evasions. But now she 
 was tasting the intoxication of a newly dis 
 covered talent, and would have liked to go 
 on " making up." In response to the stim 
 ulus of a sympathetic listener, all manner of 
 interesting details popped into consciousness, 
 with a vividness which almost convinced her 
 of their reality. But her native shrewdness 
 warned her in time; she changed the sub 
 ject. 
 
 " Might I wheel the baby around, a 
 while ? " she asked. " I ain't in any 
 hurry." 
 
 The lady willingly assented, and sat look 
 ing on while the baby was deftly rear 
 ranged in his chariot. Untiringly he was 
 perambulated up and down all the near-by 
 walks; he was formally introduced to the 
 166
 
 TO THE TALL TIMBER 
 
 pelican ; he was initiated into the delights of 
 watching for the glister of gold fish in the 
 basin of the fountain; and always he was 
 guarded with care against possible accident, 
 unfailingly he was treated with the defer 
 ence due his social position, while the lady 
 sat at her ease; and, observing all this, 
 looked pleased. 
 
 Very well pleased she must have been; 
 for when she left the park an hour later, 
 Martha Mary was still with her and wheel 
 ing the perambulator. Happy was com 
 fortably asleep, and he would have been 
 even more content, could he have known 
 that the newspaper parcel going along 
 with him in the bottom of his cab, contained 
 his sister's wardrobe. ^ Two new frocks she 
 had already been promised, and the proper 
 nurse-maid's caps to go with them. Mar 
 tha Mary was having queer sensations, 
 there was a light feeling in her feet, as 
 though she were stepping in time to music. 
 
 167
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER 
 
 THE door bell rang! Since the disap 
 pearance of Martha Mary from the 
 Home, that tingling whirr, each time it 
 came, shrilled always the same thought into 
 the mind of the Kids' Lady. She had been 
 immediately concerned on that day when 
 there was no shining red head at the dinner 
 table. Questions evoked the information 
 that the child had not appeared at school 
 that forenoon, though it was established by 
 sufficient testimony that she was known to 
 have started. What could possibly have 
 happened to a wise little Martha Mary, tak 
 ing her quiet way along the streets of a 
 September morning ? When no solution of 
 fered itself, the Kids' Lady was greatly 
 alarmed. She set on foot inquiries, the in 
 terest of the various officers of juvenile 
 court was enlisted, even policemen were in- 
 168
 
 THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER 
 
 structed to keep an eye out for a wiry little 
 girl with red braids and freckles, or an ear 
 open for possible news of her. But perhaps 
 the policemen were not over-zealous; there 
 were so many small girls with red braids in 
 the city. Certainly, no one produced any 
 tidings, and efforts soon lapsed. 
 
 Miss Maynard had more than one dis 
 turbed night trying to persuade herself that, 
 at least, no misfortune could have befallen 
 the child or something would surely have 
 been discovered. The persistence of her 
 anxiety had come to be almost a vexation. 
 Sunshine and George Johnny, with the su 
 premely innocent selfishness of very young 
 children, took their sister's continued ab 
 sence quite philosophically, and Miss May 
 nard sometimes wished she could share their 
 light-hearted indifference. But any sound 
 of unusual voices, or a summons from the 
 bell, continued to spur her instant attention ; 
 and now, since she happened to be passing 
 through the hall, she opened the door her 
 self. 
 
 She was not precisely surprised to see be- 
 169
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 fore her Mrs. Addison, smiling her assured 
 little smile. Beside the lady stood her chaf- 
 feur, and in his arms was Happy, whom he 
 promptly handed over to Miss Maynard as 
 if the baby were a package to be returned. 
 
 " It is hardly worth while to come in," be 
 gan Mrs. Addison, in her pretty breathless 
 way. " Well, just for a moment, then. I 
 hope it won't be inconvenient, having the 
 baby brought back unannounced like this. 
 Indeed, I meant to 'phone you yesterday, 
 but I really have n't had a minute I could call 
 my own. 
 
 " After all, it was a fortunate thought of 
 yours that we should take the baby only for 
 a visit. You see, the business of the firm 
 requires Mr. Addison's presence in South 
 America, perhaps for quite a little time. 
 He insists upon my going with him, and we 
 shall be moving about a good deal. I sup 
 pose we could take a baby with us, doubt 
 less people do, but we thought it would n't 
 be best. The child is so perfectly well now, 
 it would be a pity to subject him to any 
 thing upsetting, would n't it ? I have had 
 170
 
 THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER 
 
 a little nurse girl for him, such a homely lit 
 tle thing, but nice, too. I really even con 
 sidered taking them both along. But it 
 complicates matters so, does n't it ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," agreed Miss Maynard, rather 
 coolly. She was holding Happy on her lap 
 with both arms around him, as if he were 
 a very welcome guest. 
 
 " Yes, it does, frightfully. And you 
 know when I told Estelle yesterday that I 
 intended bringing the baby back this morn 
 ing, she disappeared at once, never said a 
 word to me about going, just dropped out 
 of sight, though she knew I was so busy 
 getting ready to go away that I had hardly 
 seen the baby for days. I had quite put 
 myself out to be kind to her, too." 
 
 Miss Maynard, untying Happy's cap, 
 paused with the ribbons in her ringers : 
 
 " Was it the nurse girl," she asked, 
 " whose name was Estelle ? " 
 
 '' Yes, so absurd ! A most snubby-nosed, 
 red-haired little thing! But the baby fan 
 cied her quite amazingly. I must be going. 
 I am so rushed." She fluttered a scented 
 171
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 little kiss upon Happy's cheek. " Good- 
 by, you nice baby. I should so have loved 
 to keep him, Miss Maynard, but life does 
 make such sudden demands upon one, 
 doesn't it? I hope he will find a lovely 
 home soon. I am sure he will. I have had 
 a charming time with him, and I thank you 
 so much." 
 
 The Kids' Lady was visibly preoccupied. 
 She opened her lips to speak, then thought 
 better of it. Mrs. Addison felt that her 
 manner was markedly peculiar. 
 
 " You quite understand, don't you, how 
 I was placed about the baby ? " 
 
 " Oh, certainly ; yes, of course. You 
 said, I believe, that you had no idea where 
 the nurse girl had gone? and she had red 
 hair?" 
 
 " Yes, she was most unornamental. 
 Where she is? I don't know in the least, 
 but then it doesn't matter now. I really 
 must be going." 
 
 She glided away, and Miss Maynard, 
 turning from the door, gazed deep into the 
 baby's seraphic eyes : 
 
 172
 
 THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER 
 
 " Happy," she demanded, " where is 
 Martha Mary?" 
 
 Happy leaned away over, with a great 
 expenditure of effort, as if he were going 
 to look for his lost relative upon the floor, 
 but instead he only pulled off his slipper 
 and flung it from him exultingly. He knew 
 a great deal, did Happy ; he knew almost as 
 much as the Dinsmore Park squirrel, but 
 neither of them were ever going to tell. 
 Martha Mary had the telling to do and it 
 was not easy. She put it off as long as pos 
 sible. 
 
 Supper was over and it was quite dark 
 when the Kids' Lady opened the door upon 
 the broad porch and walked to the top of the 
 steps, where she stood a few moments 
 breathing the frosty air, and looking off into 
 the blue darkness, prickling with stars above 
 the glow of the city's lights. 
 
 As she turned to go in, there caught 
 her eye, in the corner of one of the 
 porch benches, a darker shadow. Quickly 
 she went closer, stooped down, and laid 
 her hand upon a little shoulder that shivered. 
 
 173
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 Instantly she grasped the small arm. 
 
 " Come in this minute, where it 's warm ! " 
 she commanded. 
 
 Without a glance downward she hustled 
 the child through the hall and into the of 
 fice, then backed her up against a warm radi 
 ator. 
 
 " Martha Mary, where did you stay last 
 night?" 
 
 " Id the bark," confessed the girl, and as 
 she spoke she caught her breath and put a 
 hand to her breast. 
 
 " Is there a pain in your chest ? " 
 
 Martha Mary nodded in shame, and the 
 Kids' Lady set her lips. 
 
 Fifteen minutes later all that was visible 
 of the returned sinner was a sort of tepee 
 of blankets, from an aperture of which 
 peeped out a countenance so perspiringly 
 red that the freckles were quite obliterated. 
 Martha Mary's eyes were full of tears which 
 were amply justified by the double strength 
 of the ginger tea she gulped dutifully, and 
 her feet were tingling in a mustard bath of 
 fully equal vigor. 
 
 174
 
 THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER 
 
 If there had been anything to say, there 
 was no chance to say it until Miss Maynard 
 was tucking Martha Mary into a heated bed. 
 Then, as some pungent oil was being swiftly 
 rubbed on her breast, the child lifted 
 weighted eyelids : 
 
 " I did 'ud wad to be bad," she articulated 
 thickly. 
 
 Suddenly, the Kids' Lady drew up the 
 blankets and turned away. When she came 
 back she brought a folded flannel, which she 
 laid, all hot and prickly, clear up to the 
 moist little chin. 
 
 " Martha Mary," she said, sternly, " if 
 you ever do such awful things any more I 
 shall I shall soak your feet again ! " 
 
 175
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 A COLD on your lungs, with edgy pos 
 sibilities of pneumonia, and hot and 
 sticky actualities of fever, nasty sweet medi 
 cine, and curious, shifty aches, is not com 
 monly considered in the light, either of a 
 solace or a diversion. Yet to the Kids' 
 Lady and Martha Mary the illness which 
 kept the child in bed for a week brought 
 with it no small sense of relief. It was 
 greatly easier for Miss Maynard to have 
 only Martha Mary's bodily needs to con 
 sider, and to be able for a time to put aside 
 any thought of the more perplexing prob 
 lems which were bound to loom up again in 
 the future. As for the little girl, she rested 
 very contentedly in the gentle tendance 
 which sickness brought her. She felt for 
 given, and that was a sensation which it was 
 just as well to enjoy, even though she was 
 176
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 by no means clear in her mind that she had 
 actually done wrong. 
 
 Miss Maynard was almost equally doubt 
 ful on that point, but the fact remained that 
 Martha Mary had run away, and the main 
 tenance of discipline required that she must 
 be in some manner dealt with. As for the 
 precise method by which justice should be 
 meted out, the Kids' Lady could not seem 
 to come to any decision. She concluded 
 finally to leave the matter to Judge Sunder- 
 land, since he made a profession of deci 
 sions. Had she realized with what terror 
 this arrangement struck Martha Mary, she 
 would, perhaps, have done otherwise. 
 
 Going to court, on the former occasion, 
 had been to the little girl merely a pleasantly 
 titillating and rather agreeably important ex 
 cursion into the unknown. But this time 
 she would be one of the offenders, accused 
 of having done wrong, of having broken 
 rules. She had liked the Judge before. 
 She remembered how there had been in his 
 eyes, when he regarded her, a sort of you 're- 
 a-funny-little-girl kind of look. But she 
 177
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 certainly was not a funny little girl any 
 more. Her desperate adventure had ap 
 peared to her most solemn and startling at 
 the time she embarked upon it; since then 
 she had been given time to grow used to the 
 idea, but now, with her crime come up for 
 judgment, she magnified her offense with 
 all the unreasoning intensity of childhood. 
 Yet Miss Maynard had said, so gently : 
 
 " I think on Monday morning I shall take 
 you with me to see Judge Sunderland. I 
 believe, Martha Mary, we had better ask 
 him what arrangements we can make next." 
 
 And that quiet speech had cast one little 
 girl into outer darkness. It had been a Sat 
 urday evening when the Kids' Lady spoke 
 those words, and though Martha Mary 
 slept that night, it was to start awake over 
 and over in the clutch of strangling fears. 
 
 What a length of time elapsed before 
 Monday! During the dragging afternoon 
 of Sunday, it popped into Martha Mary's 
 head queerly that it was a pity the Sabbath 
 was not a working day. It seemed to her 
 that every bit of work there ever was in all 
 178
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 the world could have been put tidily out of 
 the way in those interminably drawn-out 
 hours between breakfast and supper. 
 
 But she said nothing. More and more was 
 she learning to say nothing ; and the less she 
 said, and the more she thought, the farther 
 away slipped her confidence in anything 
 ahead to be desired. Worn out with her 
 own half feverish imaginings, she had 
 reached a state of almost comfortable apathy 
 by the time she was filing, with a small com 
 pany of juveniles, into the room where 
 Judge Sunderland held court. 
 
 The out-door air had been sharp with the 
 early morning chill of late October, and the 
 steam-heated room, long and narrow as a 
 Pullman car, was palpitatingly hot. By the 
 time the stumbling flock of the Kids' Lady 
 had been herded into chairs adjacent to the 
 Judge's long table, Martha Mary began to 
 feel sleepy. Gradually the further end of 
 the room, outside the rail, filled up with spec 
 tators, parents and complainants. A man 
 with a metal star attached to his vest and 
 a-glisten under his open coat, came from an 
 179
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 inner room, carrying an enormous, calf- 
 bound book, which he opened upon the table 
 with a leathery whack. Three ladies 
 stepped questioningly in from the tiled hall 
 way, looked about, spoke together in an un 
 dertone ; then the man with the star opened 
 the spindled gate in the railing, and gave 
 them chairs at the corner of the table, with 
 a way as though he wanted to be very polite. 
 
 One of the ladies had her spectacles fas 
 tened to a gold stick, and when she wanted 
 to see anything she had to hold them up in 
 a tightly gloved hand and tip her head side- 
 wise. It looked a great deal of bother, but 
 Martha Mary felt sure she did it because 
 she wanted to. 
 
 Over against the railing leaned a girl who 
 attracted the lady's notice. The girl's 
 shoulders hung with a sullenly childish 
 droop, but she was older than a child, yet 
 not old enough, Martha Mary decided, to 
 be a sure enough young lady. Certainly 
 her white furs were very dirty, but as for 
 the cavernous hat, with its hanging yellow 
 plume, the little girl thought that wonder- 
 180
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 fully beautiful. Perhaps the tightly gloved 
 lady thought so, too, and maybe that is why 
 she kept her spectacles up in front of her 
 eyes. The girl hunched up a furry shoul 
 der, and half turned away. Martha Mary 
 wondered what she had cried about so long 
 that her face was red and swollen all over. 
 Quite suddenly Martha Mary wanted to 
 stick out her tongue at that lady with the 
 spectacles on a gold stick; and then, almost 
 as suddenly, the child felt a prickle under her 
 hair and a tingle down her back; the Judge 
 was coming. 
 
 He swung into the room as if he had got 
 under motion on a long walk and had not 
 yet slowed down. The Judge had specta 
 cles, too, and was scouring them rigorously 
 with a clean handkerchief. Passing the 
 windows he held the lenses to the light, then 
 took hold of the bows and ducked his head 
 between them, like a horse plunging his head 
 into a feed-bag. While seating himself in 
 his big chair, he was hooking the gold wires 
 over his ears, and with a forceful jerk he 
 pulled himself and the chair both forward, 
 181
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 rested his arms on the end of the table, said 
 " Good morning " all around as if he did not 
 know anybody, and then the business of 
 court began. 
 
 Case after case was heard. Each time 
 Martha Mary was expecting her name to be 
 called, and as each time she was disap 
 pointed, her attention presently wandered. 
 Beyond the row of long windows, she could 
 see, spread far below, the jagged jumble of 
 walls and roofs and chimneys. Netted with 
 wires and feathered with half bare trees, the 
 city seemed to reach on and out, quite to the 
 place where the sky bent down. The whole 
 tangle of colors and shapes was harmonized 
 and hovered over by a haze of pinky brown, 
 that tender russet transformation which the 
 sunlight of a frosty autumn morning knows 
 how to weave out of befouling smoke, acrid 
 dust and all the noisome exhalations of a 
 crowding, moiling humanity. 
 
 From all this Martha Mary derived two 
 
 sensations : it was pretty and she did not like 
 
 it. Pretty, because it lay like a sun-gilt 
 
 picture, but uncomfortable, because it made 
 
 182
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 her feel so little. Before that immensity 
 Martha Mary's soul shriveled. She was 
 homesick for any kind of place where you 
 could be walled about, shut in, and where 
 you did not have to look away off and see 
 how terrifyingly big was the world. 
 
 Half subdued laughter brought her back 
 to the faces circling the long table, and now 
 all were turned toward a diminutive figure 
 in a chair next His Honor. The culprit 
 was a very little boy of five, dimply and rose- 
 lipped, with brown eyes raised to the Judge 
 in the bewilderment of an aggrieved cherub. 
 His mother, beside him, vacillated between 
 outraged dignity and vexed amusement. 
 The complainant, a bristle-faced rag-picker, 
 maintained diffusely and with righteous heat 
 that rubber tubing of value had been ab 
 stracted from his cart by the arraigned in 
 fant. He glared angrily when the levity 
 rose. 
 
 Bending forward, the Judge brought his 
 smiling eyes nearer the level of the little boy. 
 
 " And how long," he questioned gravely, 
 " have you been in the junk business? " 
 183
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 The child looked at his mother, who 
 bridled and smiled at the Judge. The mirth 
 bubbled up once more, and Martha Mary 
 turned away. They made her tired. 
 
 But later, even she felt amused at the half 
 coherent vociferations of a truck peddler. 
 This tousled and bearded fellow bore, as 
 testimony to his injuries, a partially healed 
 cut on the back of his head. A rock hurled 
 after him, he protested, had done that, and 
 he darted vengeful glances at the two impish- 
 looking youngsters whom he held responsi 
 ble. 
 
 " Yes, zur, Judge, zur," he declared with 
 much waving of arms, " dey says always 
 oudt loud, ' Sheeny ! Sheeny ! ' an' dey push 
 me de stone from behindt ! " 
 
 As the peddler sat down, Martha Mary 
 lost interest again, and she jumped in her 
 chair when her name was now called. 
 Moving to a seat nearer the Judge, put her 
 beside the Kids' Lady, and it helped a great 
 deal when the Kids' Lady gave her a 
 smile. 
 
 Apparently some one must have told the 
 184
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 Judge all about what she had done ; at least, 
 he asked no questions. A moment he looked 
 at her, and then he said, slowly: 
 
 " I was disappointed in you, Martha 
 Mary." 
 
 This statement, appearing to require no 
 answer, the little girl did not make any. In 
 miserable silence she sat waiting for the 
 Judge to continue; but finally, when the 
 waiting became intolerable, she choked, 
 swallowed hard and said : 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " I realize, perfectly, the temptation you 
 had to follow the baby," His Honor contin 
 ued, " but I think you should have trusted 
 to Miss Maynard to know what was best. 
 Don't you think you should have asked Miss 
 Maynard whether you might apply for that 
 position as nurse to the baby? " 
 
 " She would n't of let me," stated Martha 
 Mary, simply. 
 
 The Judge liked Martha Mary; his voice 
 was still kind. 
 
 " But if Mrs. Addison understood how 
 well you could take care of him; if it had 
 
 185
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 been explained to her that you were the 
 baby's sister " 
 
 " Then she would n't of let me." 
 
 His Honor cleared his throat. 
 
 " However that may be," he went on, 
 " you will certainly have to learn to depend 
 upon the judgment of people who are much 
 older than you, upon the judgment of people 
 who are trying to arrange matters as 
 seems to them wisest. Surely you must 
 know, Martha Mary, that we will not see 
 any of your little family placed, except with 
 people who will be good to you." 
 
 The little girl had been sitting stiffly upon 
 the edge of her chair ; now she leaned back 
 with a sigh, and when she spoke she looked 
 straight at the Judge, while her voice, small 
 and old, seemed to come from dry years of 
 disillusion. 
 
 " I'm so tired of being arranged ! " she 
 said. " I don't want to be done good to." 
 
 The smile in the room came dangerously 
 
 near to being overheard. The lady with 
 
 the gold stick lifted it and regarded the 
 
 Judge through her glasses with evidence of 
 
 186
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 highly pleasurable interest. He may not 
 have seen her; at least, he looked only at 
 the Kids' Lady. 
 
 " There 's a great deal on the docket this 
 morning, Miss Maynard," he said, in his 
 most judicial voice. " Since I want to have 
 a talk with Martha Mary, we shall take up 
 this case again after luncheon. What 's 
 next?" he concluded, turning to the proba 
 tion officer. 
 
 If Martha Mary had been guilty of con 
 tempt of court, she remained in fortunate 
 ignorance of her misdemeanor. So, when 
 she faced the Judge again some three hours 
 later, she was much less troubled than be 
 fore. This time they two and the Kids' 
 Lady had a small side-room to themselves; 
 and for this absence of on-lookers, espe 
 cially for deliverance from the lady with 
 the gold stick, Martha Mary was grate 
 ful. 
 
 His Honor sat in a deep low chair, and, 
 
 with elbows on his knees, he contemplatively 
 
 regarded the little girl. Finally he reached 
 
 forward, and taking one of the small, un- 
 
 187
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 resisting hands, he laid it in his big palm 
 and looked down at it, saying at last : 
 
 " Little girl, are n't you ever going to be 
 willing that we should help you to take care 
 of your family? If it happens that we find 
 a good home for the baby, are n't you going 
 to be unselfish enough to say that he may 
 have it?" 
 
 Martha Mary waited a minute. 
 
 " You would n't if it was your baby," 
 she said. 
 
 Dropping the little hand, the Judge slid 
 down in his chair, and, shoving his fists deep 
 into his pockets, pondered with knotted eye 
 brows and protruding under lip. He was 
 past middle age, but he had never lost the 
 vision which stays long in the minds of all 
 good men. Sometimes it is difficult to re 
 member that you are a judge. 
 
 The Kids' Lady broke the silence. 
 
 " I have a plan, Judge Sunderland, which 
 would please me ; but I have hesitated about 
 suggesting it, perhaps because it does please 
 me. You know Martha Mary is extremely 
 industrious and competent, and she has a 
 1 88
 
 CONTEMPT OF COURT 
 
 remarkable way with children. Out at the 
 Home we need more help in the nursery, 
 and what she could do might make it pos 
 sible for us to get along without the as 
 sistant nurse I have felt we must have." 
 
 The Judge looked up, his frown melting 
 away, while Miss Maynard softly contin 
 ued: 
 
 " For the next few months for the 
 winter, say if she would work very hard 
 before and after school, could n't her serv 
 ices be considered as an equivalent for the 
 board of this little family at the Home? 
 Now that we 're in the new building, and no 
 longer crowded, it seems that we might well 
 enough accommodate them " 
 
 Miss Maynard paused, then quietly 
 added : 
 
 " I should like very much to have the 
 help of Martha Mary." 
 
 "Well, why not, why not?" said the 
 Judge brusquely. " If you want it that 
 way, I see no reason why any one should 
 complain." He turned to the little girl with 
 a teasing gleam in his eye. " Since you 
 189
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 have such decided opinions, young woman 
 - since you have such decided opinions, 
 what do you think about it ? " 
 
 Martha Mary shyly smiled at him. 
 
 "I think it's a good < arrangement," 
 she answered. 
 
 Then, under the table's edge, her hand 
 slipped along and slid into the warm hand 
 of the Kids' Lady. 
 
 190
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A REJECTED PROPOSAL 
 
 ALL the windows of the nursery were 
 wide open to the warm western sun 
 of an April afternoon. Small breezes came 
 whiffing in, fluttering aside the white cur 
 tains, and roving about the room, laden with 
 all sorts of tales of springing grass and 
 leafing trees. One of these breezes had dis 
 covered a budding lilac bush in the back 
 yard, and had flown to the nursery on pur 
 pose to tell of it. Without a doubt the chil 
 dren got the message, for they laughed even 
 more gaily, as they frolicked upon the floor, 
 while the babies in their white cribs batted 
 about with active uncertain fists and uttered 
 jjqueaks of glee. 
 
 Loudest of all laughed Elvira, who could 
 exceed even the volatile Sunshine in merri 
 ment. For, in the veins of Elvira, rioted a 
 potent strain of African blood, and she was 
 191
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 of a lovely, smooth yellowish color, like the 
 back of a lady's tan kid glove. 
 
 Just now Sunshine distinguished herself 
 by a perfect shriek of joy, which brought 
 all the others crowding to the window with 
 Martha Mary looking over their heads. 
 
 " Wed boid ! Wed boid ! " was the way 
 Sunshine announced the marvel, though the 
 shy visitor, perched upon the farthest end 
 of a roof spout, was of the hue of sapphire. 
 Such an outburst of acclaim was too much 
 even for a city blue bird. He went dipping 
 away upon skyey wings, while Martha Mary 
 turned to other amusements for her flock. 
 
 To watch her with the children, sitting 
 upon the floor to be near as many as pos 
 sible, was almost to forget that they were in 
 any way in misfortune. Such a gay play 
 fellow she was for games and laughter ; yet 
 such a tender small mother for woes and 
 tears. In these few months of security 
 Martha Mary had wonderfully gentled, both 
 without and within. A quaint surpliced 
 frock of dull blue, gave to her childish an 
 gles a promise of what might some day be 
 192
 
 A REJECTED PROPOSAL 
 
 a lithe grace. Her hair was darkening, and 
 the coppery braids were fastened around 
 her head with soft ribbons. The freckles 
 still remained, uncompromisingly freckly, 
 but the skin between the brown dots and on 
 forehead, neck and chin, was clear with the 
 whiteness of pearl. Now and then, regard 
 ing the child, the Kids' Lady felt an odd 
 sense of triumph. Perhaps, after all, 
 Martha Mary was not going to be entirely 
 unattractive to look at. Certainly it was a 
 face both sweet and merry that turned now 
 toward the opening door. 
 
 " Judge Sunderland is downstairs," an 
 nounced the nurse who entered. " He 
 wants to see you." 
 
 " Yes 'm," Martha Mary's tone was un 
 troubled; apprehension had come to be a 
 thing of the past. Besides, the Judge's 
 visits to the Home were not infrequent, and 
 they never portended anything but good. 
 She ran quickly down the steps, in danger 
 of violating with her stout shoes a cherished, 
 though not very efficacious, regulation 
 against unnecessary noise. When she 
 
 193
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 brought up in the doorway of the office she 
 was still smiling. 
 
 "Come in! Come in!" called out His 
 Honor from where he sat talking with Miss 
 Maynard. He extended a broad palm and 
 when he had hold of Martha Mary's hand, 
 he drew her over beside his chair. 
 
 " Now, then, how is that nursery ful up 
 stairs? Some pretty mean children up 
 there, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, sir, no ! " Martha Mary's face 
 was gravely intense. " They 're always 
 good and they're so darling, darling !" 
 
 " Sh-h-h ! " the Judge threatened her with 
 lifted hands. " Don't try to describe those 
 babies. I wanted to talk some myself." 
 
 The little girl flushed rosily. The Judge 
 always bothered her this funny way, and 
 laughed with his eyes. Every time he did 
 it her face grew warm, but somehow her 
 heart grew warm at the same time, and she 
 felt both good and happy. Without the 
 smallest reservation now, Martha Mary 
 liked the Judge; she was equally sure that 
 the Judge liked her. 
 
 194
 
 A REJECTED PROPOSAL 
 
 Miss Maynard being called away, His 
 Honor put the little girl into the vacated 
 chair opposite him. 
 
 " I '11 tell you how it is, Martha Mary," 
 he began confidentially. " You see, Miss 
 Maynard and I have no right to go on in 
 definitely, keeping you and your little family 
 here without making any effort to find homes 
 for you. This is merely a Detention Home, 
 and must be kept for that purpose. On the 
 other hand there is a mighty slim chance of 
 finding a place where you children could 
 all be together. It takes some courage to 
 adopt a family of five, though it has been 
 done. And, anyhow, I take it you would 
 rather hoe your own row if you could, 
 would n't you ? " 
 
 "Oh, I'd heaps liefer," Martha Mary 
 sighed. 
 
 " Yes, of course, of course. You are that 
 kind of a girl. How old are you, by the 
 way?" 
 
 " I '11 be fourteen come next August." 
 She stated it with demure dignity. 
 
 " That is getting along in years, is n't 
 
 195
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 it ? " The Judge was exceedingly serious. 
 
 " Yes, sir, it is," agreed Martha Mary. 
 
 " You know, after you are fourteen," the 
 Judge continued, wiping his glasses, " you 
 are not obliged to go to school, but I 
 should n't like to think of your terminating 
 your education at this point. However, we 
 need n't worry about that now. Vacation 
 begins before long, and I have thought seri 
 ously of setting you up in housekeeping." 
 
 Housekeeping! The word encompassed 
 visions for Martha Mary. Her eyes grew 
 bluer and shining. 
 
 The Judge was also a trifle irradiant; 
 evidently his project pleased him. 
 
 " Of course you ought to have some kind 
 of a business. Something you could do and 
 still not be away from the children. I Ve 
 been thinking of a flower shop with a few 
 rooms at the back." 
 
 His Honor brought forth this idea rather 
 triumphantly, but the little girl made no 
 response. 
 
 " Later in the season we might have to 
 put in fruit, too. I 'm sure you 'd make a 
 196
 
 A REJECTED PROPOSAL 
 
 capital business woman." Then, as the 
 child still did not speak, " Well, what do 
 you think about it ? " 
 
 " I don't know, sir." Martha Mary's 
 tone was not sanguine; it was barely inter 
 ested. 
 
 His Honor felt distinctly vexed. He 
 would not have allowed any one to intimate 
 that this little girl was either wilful or stub 
 born, and he knew she was not ungrateful ; 
 but he did think it would be quite as well if 
 her mind were a bit more open to sug 
 gestion. 
 
 " So you don't like the idea?" he said, 
 and in his tone was a touch of asperity. 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir ! Yes, I do," Martha Mary 
 hastened to make her peace. " It would be 
 awful pretty to sell flowers, but I did n't 
 know you see, Miss Maynard told me 
 maybe there 'd be something I could do. 
 I 'd talked about it to Jakey's widow." 
 
 " ' Jakey's widow? ' " growled the Judge. 
 
 " Yes, sir. The widow lady where Jakey 
 lives at. Mis' Phelps, her name is. Miss 
 Maynard lets us go see her an' Jakey some- 
 197
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 times. She ain't a rich lady at all ; she 's a 
 real nice lady. She don't live so far from 
 where we used to be." 
 
 " Well ? " The Judge was waiting. 
 
 " Yes, sir. An' so we said, what could 
 I do? We thought about ice cream." 
 This last very timidly. 
 
 " Ice cream ! " The Judge's tone forever 
 abolished that commodity. " Why, child, 
 that 's an expensive outfit ! It takes capital. 
 It 's out of the question." 
 
 Martha Mary looked dismayed, but she 
 went on: 
 
 " Oh, we did n't mean like that, not like 
 that at all. We meant ice cream for poor 
 folks. You see, flowers is something rich 
 folks likes to buy, but ice cream is something 
 poor folks has got to have." 
 
 "Well, I don't know about that," His 
 Honor demurred. 
 
 " But they do" Martha Mary's eyes 
 grew big and earnest. " When it gets so 
 awful hot down there at night, an' all the 
 kids is hot an' cross, an' their mothers is all 
 tired out, seems like they just got to have 
 198
 
 A REJECTED PROPOSAL 
 
 it. They buys an' buys it, off the peddlers, 
 an' it makes 'em sick, cause it 's made dirty. 
 Miss Maynard says it is. She says it kills 
 the little kids, just kills 'em, when good ice 
 cream would n't hurt a mite ! " 
 
 " Hm-m-m-m," her friend regarded her 
 ruminatingly. " I don't know but maybe 
 you might, now. Could you make it, 
 though?" 
 
 " Jakey's widow would help me. She 
 said she would." 
 
 " But I don't see how you 'd get the stuff 
 around. A push cart is heavy." 
 
 Evidently Martha Mary had an idea on 
 this subject, also, but the thought of it 
 seemed to embarrass her. She blushed and 
 looked down. His Honor pressed the ques 
 tion: 
 
 " Had you thought about that? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," admitted Martha Mary. 
 Then, "Don't laugh," she begged. "We 
 did have a dog. We gave him to the 
 butcher's boy to keep for us. Jakey says the 
 butcher's boy has learnt him to be hitched 
 up. He don't drive just like he ought to. 
 199
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 If you 're behind him he turns right around 
 and comes backwards, but Sunshine and 
 George Johnny could lead him." 
 
 " You mean you thought of taking him 
 into the ice cream business ? " questioned 
 the Judge with earnest demeanor. 
 
 " Yes, sir. To pull a little wagon. I 
 thought he could. Could n't he ? He 's 
 real big, now, an' he 's a awful nice dog." 
 
 Then the Judge did laugh, shamelessly, 
 with a laugh that was full-lunged and of 
 embarrassing duration. Martha Mary 
 laughed, too, but hers was rather an hysteri 
 cal giggle. 
 
 When His Honor straightened up again, 
 he said with emphasis: 
 
 " Martha Mary, you 're a born adver 
 tiser!" 
 
 Precisely what he meant was not quite 
 clear to the little girl, but she knew he was 
 not displeased, for during the rest of his call 
 he chuckled deeply at intervals. 
 
 When he left, he shook hands with her 
 as if she were grown up. 
 
 " I am going to back your enterprise, 
 200
 
 A REJECTED PROPOSAL 
 
 Martha Mary," he declared, " but the most 
 important detail I shall leave you to attend 
 to. Be sure that you definitely engage that 
 dog." 
 
 2O I
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS 
 
 JUNE had come. Not a country June, 
 crimson-sweet with roses and strawber 
 ries and clover, while tree shadows turn 
 into green caves of coolness, and gold- 
 dusted bees go sing-songing all day long 
 of hives and honey and the hearts of 
 flowers; nor June in the fine, broad, city 
 streets of pompous residences, with whisk 
 ing mists of water keeping the lawns 
 washed fresh around blooming urns, glow 
 ing borders and the shining leaves of vines, 
 but June in the crowded districts of the 
 town, where the sun scorches a fierce men 
 ace almost as soon as working people are 
 wearily awake, and only goes glowering 
 down behind the buildings at night, after he 
 has burned into walls and pavements heat 
 enough to keep the narrow spaces palpitant 
 until he comes blazing out again. It was 
 202
 
 BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS 
 
 June of exhausted bodies, of edged tempers, 
 of ailing little children. 
 
 On one of the most humidly hot of these 
 long, bright evenings, came walking down 
 a short street which turned into the poorer 
 quarters of the city, a big, broad-shouldered, 
 square-faced man. Beside him was a free- 
 stepping, graceful woman, who indicated 
 various points in passing, and smiled as she 
 talked. The street possessed many quaint 
 features, having once been the fashionable 
 residence district when the town was new. 
 It still kept some traces of its former state, 
 in the gracious elms that bordered it 
 and in the few detached houses which had 
 not yet given way to more space-econo 
 mizing structures. 
 
 One of these, a brick building topped with 
 a streaked and rusty mansard roof, like a 
 battered crown, appeared to be renewing its 
 youth in a freshly green lawn spread on 
 either hand of its paintless steps. Along 
 the side fence twine was strung, up and 
 down in taut zigzags, for the encourage 
 ment of a row of valiant young nasturtiums 
 203
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 which were making bold promises with 
 their bluish green discs of leaves. The 
 long front windows were open and were 
 genteelly guarded within by white lace cur 
 tains, pushed back to admit the air, but still 
 hanging stiffly in the pride of fresh starch. 
 
 " From the appearance of her home, I 
 infer that ' Jakey's widow ' makes the best 
 of what she has," observed Judge Sunder- 
 land. As he spoke he slipped a hand under 
 Miss Maynard's elbow to help her up the 
 porch steps. Not that she needed any as 
 sistance, but because he had done that for 
 his mother so many years that now he could 
 never get over the habit. 
 
 " She does more than that," replied the 
 Kids' Lady. " She makes the best of what 
 she has n't." 
 
 A quick tread answered His Honor's 
 knock upon the open door, and a cheerful 
 voice came down the hallway, even before 
 its owner was fully visible. 
 
 " Now if that ain't a shame ! And all the 
 children gone this hour ago ! " Comment 
 ing in this fashion upon her guests' arrival, 
 204
 
 BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS 
 
 the owner of the voice came forward to 
 ward the light ; a neat, round figure in gray 
 calico. When she reached the door she be 
 gan her greeting more conventionally : 
 
 " Good evening, Miss Maynard, and 
 Judge Sunderland, sir. It 's a downright 
 shame the children ain't any of 'em here. 
 They get off early, now. The route is get 
 ting so busy they have to. Deary me! I 
 don't know as I can say there ain't any of 
 'em here." 
 
 This last was evoked by the appearance 
 at her side of a small, pink presence, who 
 had evidently come patting close behind her 
 skirts upon soft, bare feet. Happy, in pink 
 gingham rompers, was a study in wild rose 
 tints. 
 
 " Ain't he growing fine? " she questioned, 
 as she lifted him proudly against the plump 
 curve of her hip. " Will you come in, or 
 would sitting out here suit you? I '11 fetch 
 some chairs." 
 
 " Oh, here, by all means ! " As she spoke 
 Miss Maynard held out her arms for the 
 baby. And when the chairs had been 
 205
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 brought, carried by Judge Sunderland, after 
 all, the Kids' Lady was so pleasantly oc 
 cupied that the Judge and " Jakey's widow " 
 had most of the conversation to themselves, 
 unless the baby's confident but unintelligible 
 essays at language, and Miss Maynard's 
 soft laughter thereat could be dignified by 
 such a term. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, Judge," Mrs. Phelps was 
 saying, " the business is doing fine beyond 
 anything I expected. Why, some nights 
 now they can't hardly get any of the ice 
 cream down to the poor folks, where Mar 
 tha Mary wants to sell it. We 've bought 
 a third freezer, too, but since people on the 
 streets near here have found out it 's real 
 homemade, with cream in it, they fairly buy 
 the wagon out before it gets started." 
 
 " Great ! Great doings ! " There was 
 hearty pleasure in His Honor's voice. 
 " One of these days we shall be having to 
 increase our transportation facilities." 
 
 " Yes, sir, I should n't wonder. They 
 used to take a different way every trip, but 
 now they stick to the same street till they 
 206
 
 BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS 
 
 get below Twelfth. That makes it go far 
 ther." 
 
 As she finished speaking, Mrs. Phelps 
 turned in the direction of the baby. With 
 the evening impulse of frolic, Happy was 
 growing hilarious. " I ought to put that 
 young man to bed, Miss Maynard," she 
 said. " It 's past his time now, and he '11 
 be getting cross. I 've got him pretty well 
 trained, and I don't like to have it to do 
 over again; so if you '11 just excuse me " 
 She rose to take the child, and then added : 
 
 " Would n't you like to see the children's 
 rooms? They think they are fixed up fine. 
 They have the three this side of the hall." 
 
 Despite the pressure of business cares, the 
 two back rooms were comfortably neat. 
 After their inspection Mrs. Phelps ushered 
 her guests to the front room, and apolo 
 gized for closing the door between, since 
 quiet was necessary to get the baby settled. 
 The two were thus left to inspect that apart 
 ment in detail. It held a nondescript outfit, 
 the donations of the charitably inclined. 
 The rug was maroon, the table-spread blue, 
 207
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 a cushioned chair red, and the sofa-bed a 
 slightly impaired but still perfectly straight 
 forward green. 
 
 " Where ever do you suppose that came 
 from?" asked Miss Maynard. She was 
 looking up at a strip of worsted work, 
 framed like a picture, which hung above the 
 door. The colors were yellow, red and pur 
 ple, fortunately somewhat tamed by time, 
 but still demanding persistently, " What is 
 Home Without a Mother? " 
 
 " I suspect that is one of the donations," 
 commented the Kids' Lady. " And I also 
 suspect that Martha Mary thinks it beauti 
 ful. It is rather pathetic, here, but I don't 
 know, after all. Martha Mary makes an 
 admirable mother. I think she was born a 
 mother. Motherhood is largely a state of 
 mind." 
 
 " And," the Judge added softly, " a con 
 dition of heart." 
 
 He had been looking about the room 
 where open picture-books lay on the table, 
 a headless doll sprawled half off the window- 
 ledge, and the cushions on the lounge were 
 208
 
 BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS 
 
 still whacked flat by the impact of solid, 
 romping little bodies. 
 
 " This may not be a very pretty room," 
 he continued, " but it is a home. I don't 
 suppose you have any idea what that means 
 to a man like me." 
 
 The Kids' Lady turned to the window 
 suddenly. " Is n't that the children com 
 ing?" she said. "Yes, it is." And she 
 went out into the hall to meet them. 
 
 They were already starting in from the 
 street, George Johnny being left at the curb 
 to guard Mark, who, temporarily relieved 
 of responsibility, had lain down in the 
 traces. Martha Mary's pleasure at sight of 
 the callers was considerably overshadowed 
 by her business zeal. 
 
 " It 's just going dandy, Miss Maynard," 
 she called out. "Just dandy!" Then, to 
 Mrs. Phelps : " I guess we 've got 'em 
 about filled up down that street now. We 
 can get down as far as 'Leventh, this time." 
 
 Judge Sunderland and Jakey bore out the 
 full freezer between them. It was painted 
 a riotous scarlet, and the wagon was the 
 209
 
 CAPTAIN MARTHA MARY 
 
 same hue. There was even a red ribbon 
 bow, slightly stringy, which tied a bell about 
 the dog's neck. When the load was settled, 
 the dependable George Johnny picked up the 
 leading strap, while Mark, in plainly bored 
 obedience, got yawningly upon his awkward 
 legs. And so the little cavalcade started 
 forth once more. 
 
 Sunshine, not being essential to the busi 
 ness, elected to remain behind; Martha 
 Mary walked sedately beside the wagon, 
 very neat in her white apron, a new market 
 basket on her arm, filled with crisp, pastry 
 cones and covered by a fresh towel. Jakey 
 had the responsible position of cashier and 
 bodyguard. 
 
 Watching them go, His Honor smiled 
 more and more. He was thinking many 
 things. Only a few years now, before 
 Martha Mary would be a woman, and what 
 a woman she would be! What a link she 
 would make with the people he wanted most 
 to reach! A day nursery, right in this 
 neighborhood, now, would fill a great need ; 
 there might be a pure milk depot, in con- 
 210
 
 BLITHELY ON HER BUSINESS 
 
 nection to the Judge these projects were 
 as good as established. 
 
 Rounding the corner out of sight, the 
 children waved gay farewells. Martha 
 Mary trudged on contentedly; yet she, too, 
 was not without aspirations. A little red 
 cart is nice, but by no means so imposing 
 as a large wagon with glass sides. Then, 
 the bell about Mark's neck, though it reg 
 istered their progress conscientiously was, 
 nevertheless, a cow bell, and had a flat and 
 dolorous note. 
 
 Some day on this point Martha Mary 
 was positive some day, she would have a 
 gong. 
 
 THE END 
 
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