The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House | Page 9

and I suppose"--again her eyes sought the parade
ground--"if I was to meet him now I maybe wouldn't know him. You
see, I'd still be lookin' for my little brown-eyed, yellow-haired Willie
boy."
"But what made him run away?" asked Mollie, rubbing her eyes
furiously with her handkerchief. "I shouldn't have thought--"
"Neither would I," the strange little woman interrupted abruptly. "If he
hadn't had such a high spirit he never would. But--well, seem like I'm
gettin' ahead of my story.
"You see, some o' the neighbors' children was a pretty wild lot an' they
always had a grudge against my boy 'cause he wouldn't join them in all
their escapades.
"You see, Willie took a lot after his father. He used to just like to sit
and dream and read books you'd thought a little fellow like him
couldn't understand at all--he was just twelve when he ran away.
"An' o' course these other boys, they didn't like him 'cause he was
different, an' they was always layin' the blame for all their pranks on
him.
"But my Willie, it didn't bother him much. He used to tell me that as
long as he knew he didn't do it and I knew it, what other folks thought
wasn't worth worryin' 'bout--just his pa all over.

"Only, I remember one time," the bent old form straightened up
proudly and the bright old eyes gleamed, "when the other boys started
pushin' things too far an' begun callin' my boy names--no names that a
boy with any pride in him would stand for--I heard them--they was jest
around the back o' the house, an' I came to the door with my mad up to
the boilin' point, but what I saw made me stop right short an' wait for
what I knew was goin' to happen.
"Willie, he was sittin' on a log by the barn, jest wrapped up in a new
book he'd found, an' it was some time before just what those
ragamuffins was sayin' seeped in. When it did was when I came to the
door, boilin' with rage.
"Very quiet, but with a sort o' bulldog set to that chin o' his, just like his
pa, he closed his book an' laid it down beside him.
"'I'll be askin' you,' he said, drawlin' very marked and facin' the bully o'
the crowd that was at least two or three years older than he was--'I'll be
askin' you to say what you been sayin' all over again.'
"The bully did, with trimmin's, an' Willie listened without turnin' a hair
till he got all through.
"'Now,' he says, more quiet than ever--I can see him now, with his big
eyes blazin' black out o' his white face and his little hands that seemed
to me scarce more'n a baby's clenched tight at his side--'Now, I guess, I
got to lick you!'
"An' he did!"
"He beat him?" cried Mollie excitedly. "Oh, weren't you proud?"
"I guess I was!" answered the little old woman, her eyes snapping with
the memory. "That was the day my boy showed what was in him, an'
after that the other boys never called him any more names.
"But, o' course," she added, while the old cloud erased the glow from
her face, "that didn't keep the boys from wantin' to get even.

"Well, then came the awful day when Abner Conway's barn burned an'
Abner himself came over to accuse my Willie of havin' started the fire,
bringin' with him two or three o' the boys who had tried to call Willie
names to swear they'd seen him do it.
"O' course Willie denied it an' I backed him up by sayin'--an' there
never was truer word spoken--that Willie was with me before an' at the
time the barn took fire.
"But it didn't do any good. Abner was ragin' because it meant
considerable loss to him, an' so much blame had been laid at Willie's
door by the other boys that he declared this time he was goin' to have
him punished.
"'I'll have the law on him!' he shouted, rampagin' round my kitchen like
a wild animal. I'll show that boy o' yours if he can go round settin'
folks' barns on fire an' not get come up with! I'll give him a taste o'
what it feels like to be behind bars. It's time somethin' was done, an', by
Jerry, I'm the one to do it!'
"An' without another word he slammed out with those grinnin' imps
that was makin' all the trouble followin' at his heels. Well, there isn't
very much more to tell."
Here she paused, the animation left her face and she looked pityfully
old and weary. Betty reached over and patted her hand, and finally she
resumed her story.
"Abner