The Little Red Chimney: Being the Love Story of a Candy ManLeonard, Mary Finley
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The Little Red Chimney: Being the Love Story of a Candy Man
Leonard, Mary Finley
Fiction; Love stories
"Well, as I was going to say, we must have a Little Red Chimney. The
house will be broad and low," she extended her arms, "and with wings;
I love wings. One of them shall have a Little Red Chimney all its own.
It shall stand for our ideals. If we should be tempted to a sort of life
that separates us from our fellows, it will remind us, you, that you
once sat in a Candy Wagon, me, that I fell in love with a Candy Man. And
I'll tell you what, speaking of the Miser. Don't you remember? It was he
you meant that day when we were talking about the Fairy Godmother
Society, and----"
Of course the Candy Man remembered.
"Then, let's organise and make him chief agent while we are gone. I know
of a number of things to be done."
"So do I," said the Candy Man. "There is my fellow lodger, the one I
told you about, a teacher in the High School. He needs a real change
this summer, he and his wife."
"Oh, I am sure we can work it out," cried Margaret Elizabeth.
"I am sure we can," he assented.
"You see it will begin where organised charity leaves off, of necessity.
Also where that can't possibly penetrate, and it will be singularly
free, because secret."
"Again you sound like the minutes of the first meeting," said the Candy
Man.
"Margaret Elizabeth!"
It was Uncle Bob's voice at the door. "I hate to disturb you, but that
old bore at the club wants your father's address."
"You aren't disturbing. Come in and hear about the Fairy Godmother
Society."
"You don't mean really?" Uncle Bob stood before the hearth and looked
from his niece to the Candy Man.
"Indeed we do," she answered. "You see we have ten times as much money
as we thought we had. So why not?"
"Quite correct, as we thought we hadn't any," murmured the Candy Man.
Uncle Bob rubbed his hands in delight. "I told Prue you'd do something
of the sort; that you wouldn't just settle down to be ordinary rich
people. But Prue says riches bring caution."
Margaret Elizabeth, going to her desk for the address, laughed. "We
aren't going to forget our humble beginning," she said; "and we'll act
quickly before we are inured to our new estate."
"But then, you know, there is another side to it," her uncle interposed,
in a sudden access of prudence. "You must consider the matter carefully
with an eye to the future. For instance now, there may be heirs."
A silence fell. The fire crackled, and the clock ticked with unusual
distinctness. Then Margaret Elizabeth spoke.
"Here's the address," she said. "I'll put it in your pocket, where you
can't forget it." And as she tucked it in, she added, stoutly, with a
lovely deepening of the colour in her cheek: "If there are, Uncle Bob,
they will be fairy god-brothers and sisters, so it will be all right."
It was after the door had closed upon Uncle Bob, and Margaret Elizabeth
was back on her low seat again, that the Candy Man left his chair and
sat on the rug beside her. "Girl of All Others, is there any one else
in the world as happy as I?" he asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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