Part 6 (1/2)

And the game at an end, without waiting for direction or guidance, the newcomer marched with the other children about the big room and took her place with them at one of the tables spread with entrancing green and yellow papers. And here, absorbed in directing the work at her own table, and her two a.s.sistant teachers equally absorbed at theirs, Miss Stannard was presently aroused by a nudge from 'Tildy Peggins, the freckle-faced young person employed in a capacity of janitress and nursery maid.

”Look a-yonder to that young willain, Miss Ruth,” urged 'Tildy, whose sentiments regarding the infant populace refused, despite all the efforts of her employers, to be tempered by Kindergarten views.

Miss Stannard looked up hastily, and so did the twenty pairs of eyes about her table.

From the depths of one pocket the Major had produced a cigarette, and from the mixed contents of another he had extracted a match, and as the twenty pairs of eyes fell on him, a fascinating curl of blue smoke was just issuing from his lips.

'Tildy Peggins folded her arms on her flat chest and gave vent to a groan. Already, with her gloomy views on Kindergarten regeneration versus innate depravity, she foresaw the contamination of every half-subjugated small masculine in the room.

Miss Stannard, with a shake of her head at 'Tildy, coughed slightly.

Instantly the eyes of the school left the Major and fixed themselves expectantly on her pretty face.

”I thought you wanted to be a soldier, Major,” she observed, addressing the small gentleman.

”I is goin' to be,” returned that unabashed gentleman, calmly sticking a thumb in his belt, and in so doing pus.h.i.+ng his jacket aside, so as to further expose the military trappings about his round little person, ”I's a-goin' to be a sojer in the Fourth Regiment.”

”No, indeed,” said Miss Ruth, ”the members of the Fourth Regiment are gentlemen, and a gentleman would never have smoked in here without asking if he might.”

The Major looked somewhat moved out of his usual imperturbability. The curl of offending smoke ceased.

”I know a soldier,” Miss Ruth went on calmly, ”and what is more, he is a member of the Fourth Regiment, but he never would have done such a thing as you are doing.”

The cigarette trembled in the Major's irresolute fingers.

”And even if you had asked first,” the steady voice went on, ”I would have said no, for such a thing as smoking is never allowed in this room.”

The Major's irresolute brown eyes met Miss Stannard's resolute brown ones. Then the cigarette went out the open window behind him and the work at the tables went on.

Presently Miss Ruth looked up again. ”Won't you come,” she said pleasantly, touching a pile of the gay papers. ”Are you not tired?”

The Major shook his head decidedly. ”No, he would not,” and finding a chip among the apparently inexhaustible stores of his pockets, he next produced a knife boasting an inch of blade and went to whittling upon 'Tildy's immaculate floor.

Miss Ruth saw it all, and presently saw the chip fall to the floor and the round head begin to nod. Then, with 'Tildy Peggins' gloomy and disapproving eye upon her at this act of overture, she crossed the room.

”Major,” said Miss Ruth, just a little plaintively, perhaps, ”do you suppose you could do something for me?”

The Major was wide awake on the instant.

”These papers,” explained Miss Ruth, while 'Tildy from her work of was.h.i.+ng windows, shook her disapproving head, ”put all like this in a pile on the table here, and all like this over here, and this color,--here,” and before Miss Stannard had gotten over to her table again, the Major was deep in the seductive fascinations of Kindergarten.

It was when the three teachers, with 'Tildy's help, had at last distributed the sixty hats, hoods, and caps, and started the loitering groups on their homeward ways, that pretty Miss Stannard, putting on her own hat, addressed her new pupils. ”Now, Major, I am ready,” she said, and the three accordingly turned their steps toward the neighborhood of the Tenement.

Miss Ruth's small escort had quite an idea of the proper thing to do, and pointed out the landmarks as the three went along, the Angel's friendly hand slipped confidingly into that of her new friend.

”I did hear as so many died in this yere house of the fevers this summer,” Joey remarked cheerfully, pointing to a wretched-looking tenement building they were pa.s.sing; ”they'll give yer a room there now fer nothin' to git a good name fer the house agin.”

Miss Ruth s.h.i.+vered as they pa.s.sed.

The Major next nodded toward a dingy saloon. ”Here's where I take a schooner an' a free lunch sometimes,” he remarked confidentially.

The tall young lady's brown eyes danced as she glanced down at the small person of the Major. ”And how old are you, Major?” she inquired.