Child abuse -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction; Orphans -- Juvenile fiction
"All right," returned One-Eye. "Then we'll ride _down_." Inserting a
knuckle into his mouth between two widely separated teeth that were like
lone sentinels, he blew a high, piercing summons. At the same time, he
swung his arm at a passing taxicab, stopping it almost electrically. And
the thing was done.
As the taxicab rolled to the curb, Johnnie turned his back upon it for a
last look at the palace. How huge it was! "And I'll bet the Afercan
magician couldn't even move it," he decided. He promised himself that
one day he would come back to it, and climb to its several towers.
"A-a-a-a-all aboard!" One-Eye lit a large, magnificently banded cigar.
He handed a second, fully as thick and splendid, to the staring, but
respectful, individual who was to drive them--a young, dark man, very
dirty, and in his shirt-sleeves (he was seated upon his coat), who
seemed so impressed by the elder of his passengers as to be beyond
speech. "Over t' Broadway, and down," instructed One-Eye. "We'll tell y'
when t' whoa."
Calmly Johnnie climbed into the taxicab, and carelessly he took his
seat. Then the car plunged westward before a reeking cloud of its own
smoke. Under way, he elevated that small nose of his and drank deep of
the--to him--good smell of gasoline. Had not his Aunt Sophie often
pronounced it clean and healthy?
However, despite this upward tilting, he did not appear to be at all
proud of the fact that he was riding; and One-Eye fell to watching him,
that green eye round with wonder. For here was this little ragamuffin
seated high and dry in a first class taxi, and speeding through the city
in style, yet with the supreme indifference of a young millionaire!
"City younguns shore take the bak'ry!" One-Eye observed admiringly,
aiming the remark at his driver, who sat somewhat screwed about on his
seat in such a way that he could, from block to block, as some other car
slowed his machine, regale his astonished eyes with those fur-fronted
breeches.
"Oh, this banana'll be enough," politely returned Johnnie, having caught
the word bakery but missed the real meaning of the statement. Calmly as
ever, he divested the fruit of its skin and cast the long peelings upon
the floor of the cab. In his time he had sat for hours at a stretch in
the regal limousines of Uncle Albert's rich man; and he regarded a
taxicab without awe.
One-Eye chuckled.
Presently Johnnie was dragging at his mop as he ate. Which was proof
that he was meditating. Indeed he was thinking so hard that he failed to
note the large amount of attention which he and his companion were
attracting. So far he had not mentioned Grandpa to this friendly
stranger--this for fear of harming his own case, of hastening his return
home. Now the omission somehow appeared to be almost a denial of the
truth. Nor had he spoken of Cis. All this called for correction before
the flat was reached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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