Part 24 (1/2)
Polly's eyes widened in astonishment. Mrs. Dudley smiled understandingly.
”I gave the conductor my watch for security,” the boy went on. ”I told him how 'twas, and he let me ride,--I guess out of his own pocket. He was a good one! You see, I spent all my money in a jiffy for the first part of the way and something to eat. I didn't s'pose tickets cost so much.”
”You dear child!” murmured Mrs. Dudley, her eyes soft with sympathy.
Then she caught him in her arms, as if he had been a baby.
”Have you had any supper?”
A weary little negative sent her into the pantry, and soon the hungry lad was eating bread and b.u.t.ter and cheese and cookies, and feasting his eyes upon Polly at the same time.
”Say, where in the world were you when I came away from your house?”
was the sudden inquiry.
”Out in the garage,” Harold answered promptly.
”But didn't you hear us call?”
He nodded, his lips puckered into a half-smile.
”Why didn't you answer, then?” Polly was plainly puzzled.
”Because,” he blurted out defiantly, ”I wasn't coming to say good-bye for anybody!”
”Perhaps you thought, with d.i.c.kens,” interposed Mrs. Dudley considerately, ”that it is easier to act good-bye than to say it.”
”It is!” declared Harold, wagging his head. ”I guess he knew!”
Over the wires, after the children were asleep, went messages to school and home that banished anxiety, and then the Doctor and his wife talked long into the night. It had been a disturbing day.
At breakfast Harold announced his intention of remaining in Fair Harbor and going to school with Polly, but an early telegram from his father ended his happy planning. He scowled as he read the yellow slip.
”Return to school at once, and behave yourself.”
”Botheration!” he grumbled, ”I s'pose I'll have to! Pop always means what he says.”
Yet the lad enjoyed his breakfast, judging by the number of bananas and m.u.f.fins that disappeared from his plate, until Polly, thinking of yesterday's overheard talk, wondered what they should have done if her cousin had followed out his desire. Bananas cost; she was not so sure about m.u.f.fins. In consequence of which she restricted her own appet.i.te to the latter, and made her mother question if she were quite well, to pa.s.s by her favorite fruit.
Equipped with tickets for the journey and sufficient money to redeem his watch, besides a generous luncheon, Harold was put aboard the ten o'clock train. Notwithstanding his longing heart, he carried himself pluckily, consoled by Mrs. Dudley's invitation to spend a week of his summer's vacation in Fair Harbor. Yet she saw him suspiciously sweep his eyes with the back of his hand as the train whirled him off, and she sighed in sympathy, thinking, ”Poor little fellow! he needs a mother!”
CHAPTER XVI
ROSES AND THORNS
David pulled a rose from the little bush by the house corner, and began to chew its petals.
”Don't do that!” begged Polly. ”It doesn't want to be eaten up.”
The boy laughed, looking ruefully down at the jagged edges of the flower.