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Ebook has 930 lines and 57437 words, and 19 pages

CHAPTER

On an October day--a sunny day, and except for the yellow leaves that quivered on rapidly bearing branches, very like spring--Patricia Everett, from the window of her home, watched an automobile drive out of sight, carrying her mother and sister away to Florida, and confided to the empty room that she was the very unhappiest girl in the whole world!

Conflicting emotions tormented the soul of the little lady. She disliked very much seeing anyone depart from anywhere without her! Then, too, so hurried had been the departure that nothing in the shape of candy, books or toys had been left behind to comfort her! And saddest of all, at the last moment her mother had decided that she must not return to Miss Prindle's because of an epidemic of measles!

The curious quiet that had fallen upon the house after the bustle of departure added to Patricia's loneliness. With a heart bursting with pity for herself, she wandered up the stairs to her room--a pretty room, its windows hung in flowered chintz, a bird singing from a cage hanging in the sunshine.

When his little mistress walked into the room Peter Pan trilled more gayly than before--it was as though he bade her come to the window and look across the way!

If she had looked she would have seen in the kitchen window of the shabby brick house, across the intersecting street, Mrs. Mary Quinn and her daughter Sheila rocking in one another's arms and laughing like two children!

Mrs. Quinn's house was old and shabby, its fences tumbling down; hard times often knocked at her door, but with it all her smile was always as bright as the gay geraniums blooming on the spotless sill of the kitchen window that faced the Everett house.

Fortune had come to the Quinns that day in the guise of a new lodger. He had taken the second floor bedroom which stretched across the back of the house. Because this room was very big and had a queer, rickety stairway leading to it from the outside of the house, it had never been rented. But with the other lodgers who lived in the front rooms and the tiny side bedroom and the parlor, which had been converted into a "light housekeeping suite," Mrs. Quinn managed to keep her little family most comfortably and to have a bit left over for such luxuries as the flowers, a few books, pretty pictures and crisp muslin curtains.

"Faith, Sheila," she had cried, coming into the kitchen where her daughter was preparing apples for the oven. "It's just as though Dame Fortune knew it was your birthday! Now you shall have your music!"

Then these two, arms around one another, the bowl tipping dangerously between them, laughed together as though there had never been a single hardship in the world.

"We're two sillies--that's what we are! Now we must be about our work or the gentleman will come and the room won't be ready!"

"Who is he, mother?"

"Sure, child, and I scarcely asked him! His name is Marks and he said he was employed at the Everett Works. I only thought of you, dearie! After supper you run over and see Miss Sheehan about the lessons; two a week--and we'll have a man come to tune up the old piano and we'll just pull it out here where it will be warm and where I can listen to you!"

So their work--and there was much for their quick fingers to do before the room could be put in readiness for the new tenant and the supper prepared for the younger Quinns, would be made lighter by their happy plans!

But Patricia was too miserable to even glance across at the window where the pink geraniums bloomed. She did not want to think that there was anyone happy anywhere in the world.

Sighing deeply she curled herself on her bed, drew from underneath her pillow her beloved diary and wrote upon its open page:

This sudden thought so comforted Patricia that she closed her diary quickly, put it back under the pillow, slipped off the bed and ran downstairs to the kitchen.

She found that Melodia, the cook, had already prepared mince tarts for dinner. They were spread temptingly upon a shelf. Patricia tasted one and immediately ordered Melodia to make nothing but mince tarts for dessert during her mother's absence! Perched on a stool Patricia asked several questions concerning the pleasant odors that came from the big oven. But Melodia seemed to be very indifferent as to the importance of her presence in the kitchen; Patricia was glad to remember that she had promised her mother to carry a report to the Red Cross Headquarters that very afternoon. So, slipping off her stool she stalked majestically away.

Now almost at the same moment that Sheila and Mrs. Quinn were laughing in their kitchen over their wonderful fortune and lonely Patricia was cheering her heart by tasting mince tarts, kind-hearted Mrs. Atherton, the official in charge at the Red Cross Headquarters on this October day, was wrinkling her pretty brows over an unusual situation.

Before her, watching her face anxiously, stood a man in the uniform of a captain of the United States Army.

"Perhaps I acted too hastily--bringing the child here, to leave on your hands, but--you can see how it happened; I'd given my word to that boy to take care of his little sister. If you could have known him! Why, there wasn't a fellow in my company that wouldn't have given up his life for him! They didn't need to--he did it first!" Capt. Allan's voice broke. "I got my orders back to the States and I just had time to go and find Ren?e."

"Wouldn't it have been better if you had left her somewhere in Paris?"

"You see you don't know the whole story, madam. This Emile LaDue was in the French uniform but he was sort of an American. And that was my promise--that I'd bring her back to America--somewhere. He didn't have time to say anything more--he gave me the address when we were in a shell hole waiting until it was dark enough to creep over to the enemy lines. We went out a few seconds afterwards--crawling along on our stomachs, he one way, I another. I--never saw him again."

Mrs. Atherton openly wiped her eyes.

"If Mrs. Everett was here I am sure we could arrange something, but she is out of town."

It was at that moment that Patricia walked past the open door on her way from the Secretary's office where she had left her mother's report. Mrs. Atherton's rather high-pitched voice reached her ear. She stood quite still.

"The child would make any home happy--she's a dear little thing! Has plenty of clothes, I guess, but right now more than anything else she needs friends and love--quite a bit of that."

"A baby!" thought Patricia excitedly; "a war orphan!"

Patricia's mother had already adopted six French orphans; Patricia and her classmates at school were supporting several Belgian families and Celia was a godmother to ever so many disabled French soldiers. That all meant only sending money away just so often, but this was quite different--the baby was right here! Patricia had no time to think just what her mother might do in such a case! There was an offended tone in the man's voice as though he might take his war-orphan and go away and not come back! So she walked straight into the room.

"Mrs. Atherton, I will take this child immediately."

Both Mrs. Atherton and the captain gasped at the sudden appearance of Patricia. Patricia, seeing doubt in Mrs. Atherton's eyes, turned to the soldier.

"My mother is away, but if you will bring the--the baby to my home I will ask my father, and I know he will let her stay!"

It sounded so logical that even Mrs. Atherton nodded approvingly.

"Where is she?" asked Patricia, looking around the room as though some corner might conceal a bundle that would prove to be the little war-orphan.

"I left her outside, in the taxi. I wanted to find out what could be done."

"Well, let's hurry!" commanded Patricia, turning toward the door. "I know Daddy'll say yes, for you see my mother and sister have ever so many orphans and this will be mine and Daddy's." She was running eagerly ahead of Capt. Allan out of the door and down the long flight of steps.

"Can she walk yet?" she whispered excitedly.

"I should say so!" he laughed, throwing open the door of the taxicab.

And within Patricia beheld staring gravely at her from a corner of the automobile, her small hands clasped tightly in her lap, her pale face framed by a wealth of golden hair that hung in soft curls over her shabby coat--not the war-orphan she had pictured, but a little girl of her own age!

Patricia, almost too astonished and too delighted to make a sound, stammered:

"I'm Patricia Everett, but please, just call me Pat!"

Certain that some serious catastrophe must have happened, Thomas Everett ran up the steps of his house with the speed of a schoolboy. Watkins, the chauffeur, had found him at his office.

"Miss Pat, sir, says you are to hurry home at once--that it is awfully important." He had repeated her exact words and even imitated her imperative tone.

When Mr. Everett had anxiously asked him "what had happened," he had shaken his head and had said: "I don't know, sir, what it is, sir, but I'm sure it is something because I've never seen Miss Pat so excited!"

Patricia was awaiting her father in the hall. There were not many things that she had ever wanted that he had refused her--but then this was very different and he might say "No!" She greeted him with a violent hug and, talking so fast that he could not make out one word that she was saying, she dragged him toward the library door.

Within the room Mr. Everett found a tall soldier holding a shy little girl by the hand. The officer introduced himself with a word or two, and with the same directness he had used in telling his story to Mrs. Atherton, he now plunged straight to the point.

"I have brought this little girl from France. She is one of--those many--who has lost everyone and everything--through this war!" He was trying to choose his words carefully so as to spare the little girl as much as he could.

Realizing his embarrassment Mr. Everett interrupted him. "Pat, dear, take the little girl and show her the birds." Patricia, rather reluctantly led the little stranger off to the small conservatory beyond the dining-room where, in beautiful cages, many different kinds of birds sang joyously.

"Just after that we crawled out--we had to do our job and get back with the stuff the Colonel wanted to know! We divided up--two of us went one way and two the other. I got over and through and back to our lines with the information and I won this"--touching his cross--"and got a sniper's bullet in the shoulder. I was put out of business then--for three weeks." He stopped again--it was very hard for him to tell his tale. Mr. Everett was giving occasional nods of sympathy.

"Well, old Susette packed her clothes and I started back with her, though I hadn't the ghost of an idea where to take her! I haven't a home or any folks of my own, sir, but I said to myself--there's the Red Cross, they'll tell me! I had come to this town first, sir, so I just brought her along with me and--here we are!" He laughed ruefully. "I guess I didn't think the thing out very much! Over there, you know, homes are smashed up in a twinkling, and so many kiddies--like this little one--are left along by the wayside, that you don't stop to think but just gather 'em in! Our boys can't stand seeing the children suffer, sir--why, I've watched many a one just turn his whole mess right over to a bunch of kids--they're so hungry looking." He paused for a moment. "That's all, sir, and if you can find a place for Ren?e to live where she'll be safe and--happy, I'll gladly give half my pay and take her when I come back!"

The story of Ren?e LaDue finished, the officer stood very straight and looked anxiously at his listener.

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