Part 22 (1/2)

But Mrs. Richie was herself again; she laughed, though not quite naturally, and sat down in the swing, swaying slightly back and forth with an indolent push of her pretty foot. David lounged against her knee, eying the doctor with frank displeasure. ”I am sure,” she said, ”I wish Sam would attend to his ledgers; it would be much better than making visits.”

”Dr. King,” David said, gently, ”I'll shake hands now, and say good- by.”

The laugh that followed changed the subject, although warm in William's consciousness the thought remained that she had let him know what the subject meant to her: he shared a secret with her! She had told him, indirectly perhaps, but still told him, of her troubles with young Sam. It was as if she had put out her hand and said, ”Help me!”

Inarticulately he felt what David had said, ”I'll take care of you!”

And his first care must be to make her forget what had distressed her.

He said with the air of one imparting interesting information, that some time in the next fortnight he would probably go to Philadelphia on business. ”Can I do any errands for you? Don't you ladies always want ribbons, or something.”

”Does Mrs. King let you buy ribbons for her?” Helena asked.

”Ribbons! I am to buy yarn, and some particular brand of lye for soap.”

”Lye! How do you make soap out of lye?”

”You save all the ”--William hesitated for a sufficiently delicate word--”the--fat, you know, in the kitchen, and then you make soft soap.”

”Why! I didn't know that was how soap was made.”

”I'm glad you didn't,” said William King. ”I mean--it's disagreeable,”

he ended weakly. And then, to David's open joy, he said good-by and jogged off down the hill, leaving Mrs. Richie to her new responsibilities of discipline.

”Now, David, come here. I've got to scold you.”

David promptly climbed up into the swing and settled himself in her lap. Then he snuggled his little nose down into her neck. ”I'm a bear,” he announced. ”I'm eating you. Now, you scream and I'll roar.”

”Oh, David, you little monkey! Listen to me: you weren't very polite to Dr. King.”

”O-o-o-o-o-o!” roared the bear.

”You should make him feel you were glad to see him.”

”I wasn't,” mumbled David.

”But you must have manners, dear little boy.”

”I have,” David defended himself, sitting up straight. ”I have them in my head; but I only use them sometimes.”

Upon which the disciplinarian collapsed; ”You rogue!” she said; ”come here, and I'll give you 'forty kisses'!”

David was instantly silent; he shrank away, lifting his shoulder against his cheek and looking at her shyly. ”I won't, dear!” she rea.s.sured him, impetuously: ”truly I won't.”

But she said to herself she must remember to repeat the speech about manners to the doctor; it would make him laugh.

William laughed easily when he came to the Stuffed Animal House.

Indeed, he had laughed when he went away from it, and stopped for a minute at Dr. Lavendar's to tell him that Mrs. Richie was just as anxious as anybody that Sam Wright should attend to his business.

”_Business_!” said the doctor, ”much she knows about it!” And then he added that he was sure she would do her part to influence the boy to be more industrious. ”And you may depend on it, she won't allow any love-making,” said William.

He laughed again suddenly, out loud, as he ate his supper that night, because some memory of the after-noon came into his head. When Martha, starting at the unusual sound, asked what he was laughing at, he told her he had found Mrs. Richie playing with David Allison. ”They were like two children; I said I didn't know which was the younger. They were pretending they were s.h.i.+pwrecked; the swing was the vessel, if you please!”