Part 2 (2/2)
The little girl's thin voice piped up with shrill eagerness, ”Look at the pretty yeller fields an' the green trees away over there across the river, Bobby. Gee, but wouldn't yer just love to be over there an'--an'--roll 'round in the gra.s.s, an' pick flowers, an' everything?”
”Huh,” retorted Bobby. ”Look-ee, that there's McIver's factory up the river there. It's 'most as big as the Mill. An' see all the stores an'
barber shops an' things downtown--an' look-ee, there's the courthouse where the jail is an'--”
Maggie chimed in with, ”An' all the steeples of the churches--an'
everythin'.”
”An' right down there,” continued the boy, pointing more toward the east where, at the edge of the Flats, the ground begins to rise toward the higher slope of the hills, ”in that there bunch of trees is where Pete Martin lives, an' Mary an' Captain Charlie. Look-ee, Mag, yer can see the little white house a-showin' through the green leaves.”
”You know the Martins, do you?” asked the Interpreter.
”You bet we do,” returned Bobby, without taking his gaze from the scene before him, while Maggie confirmed her brother's words by turning to look shyly at her new-found friend. ”Pete and Charlie they work in the Mill. Charlie he was a captain in the war. He's one of the head guys in our union now. Mary she used to give us stuff to eat when dad was a-strikin' the last time.”
”An' look-ee,” continued the boy, ”right there next to the Martins' yer can see the old house where Adam Ward used to live before the Mill made him rich an' he moved to his big place up on the hill. I know 'cause I heard dad an' another man talkin' 'bout it onct. Ain't n.o.body lives in the old house now. She's all tumbled down with windows broke an'
everything. I wonder--” He paused to search the hillside to the east.
”Yep,” he shouted, pointing, ”there she is--there's the castle--there's where old Adam an' his folks lives now. Some place to live I'd say.
Gee, but wouldn't I like to put a chunk o' danermite er somethin' under there! I'd blow the whole darned thing into nothin' at all an that old devil Adam with it. I'd--”
Little Maggie caught her warlike brother's arm. ”But, Bobby--Bobby, yer wouldn't dast to do that, yer know yer wouldn't!”
”Huh,” returned the boy, scornfully. ”I'd show yer if I had a chanct.”
”But, Bobby, yer'd maybe kill the beautiful princess lady if yer was to blow up the castle an' every-thin'.”
”Aw shucks,” returned the boy, shaking off his sister's hand with manly impatience. ”Couldn't I wait 'til she was away somewheres else 'fore I touched it off? An', anyway, what if yer wonderful princess lady _was_ to git hurt, I guess she's one of 'em, ain't she?”
Poor Maggie, almost in tears, was considering this doubtful rea.s.surance when Bobby suddenly pointed again toward that pretentious estate on the hillside, and cried in quick excitement: ”Look-ee, Mag, there's a autermobile a-comin' out from the castle, right now--see? She's a-goin'
down the hill toward town. Who'll yer bet it is? Old Adam Ward his-self, heh?”
Little Maggie's face brightened joyously. ”Maybe it's the princess lady, Bobby.”
”And who is this that you call the princess lady, Maggie?” asked the Interpreter.
Bobby answered for his sister. ”Aw, she means old Adam's daughter.
She's allus a-callin' her that an' a-makin' up stories about her.”
”Oh, so you know Miss Helen Ward, too, do you?” The Interpreter was surprised.
The boy turned his back on the landscape as though it held nothing more of interest to him. ”Naw, we've just seen her, that's all.”
Stealing timidly back to the side of the wheel chair, the little girl looked wistfully up into the Interpreter's face. ”Do yer--do yer know the princess lady what lives in the castle?” she asked.
The old basket maker, smiling down at her, answered, ”Yes, dear, I have known your princess lady ever since she was a tiny baby--much smaller than you. And did you know, Maggie, that she was born in the old house down there, next door to Charlie and Mary Martin?”
”An'--an' did she live there when she was--when she was as big as me?”
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