Child abuse -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction; Orphans -- Juvenile fiction
"Oh, that's all right," Johnnie assured him. "'Cause I filled in the
wait good 'nough. I jus' kept thinkin' you here, and ev'ry mornin'
Grandpa and me'd have you 'long with us when we went t' Niaggery, or
anywheres else; and ev'ry night, Cis'd take you with us, callin' on the
Queen, or buyin' at the stores, or goin' t' grand balls."
After that, Mr. Perkins did not have anything to say for as much as a
whole minute, but sat looking earnestly at his small host, and blinking
a good deal. Then, "I see," he said finally. "That's nice. Mighty nice.
I'm glad. And--and I hope I conducted myself all right."
"Oh, you was fine! Always!" declared Johnnie, his voice breaking, he was
so emphatic. "Cis never could dance with One-Eye, and not jus' 'cause he
wears spurs, neither. No, she thinks One-Eye's too homely to dance, or
go callin', or take t' Wanamaker's. But, oh, she says you're jus' fine!
Maybe not as grand as the Prince of Wales, she says, but then she's
awful silly about him."
More steady looking; more blinking. "Well,--er--what did you say the
little girl's name is?"
"Her full name's Narcissa Amy Way," answered Johnnie. "It's pretty long,
ain't it? And if Grandpa and me called her that, Big Tom'd think we was
wastin' time, or tryin' t' be stylish, and he hates ev'rything that's
stylish--I don't know why. So round the flat, for ev'ry day, we call her
Cis--C-i-s."
"Well, Miss Narcissa is right about me," said Mr. Perkins. "I'm _not_ as
grand as the Prince of Wales--not by a good deal! But now suppose you
tell me all about yourself, and--and the others who live here."
Johnnie did so. And since he spoke low, and evenly, Grandpa did not
wake, to interrupt. At the end of an hour, Mr. Perkins knew all that
Johnnie was able to tell--about himself, his parents, his Uncle and
Aunt, Mike Callaghan, the policeman, and the Fifty-fifth Street
millionaire; about Cis and her mother, Barber and his father, Mrs.
Kukor, One-Eye and the other cowboys, Buckle, Boof, David, Goliath
(mingling the real, the historical, the visionary and the purely
fictional), young Edward of England, that Prince's numerous silk-hatted
friends, the four millionaires, the janitress, Mrs. Reisenberger and her
baby, the flea-bitten mare, the postman, Edwarda (he showed the new
doll), then, in quick succession, his favorite friends out of his five
books.
Mr. Perkins listened, sitting on the small of his back, with his elbows
on the arms of the morris chair, and his fingers touching. And when
Johnnie came to the end of his story (with King Arthur, and those three
Queens who kneeled around the king and sorely wept and wailed), all the
visitor said was, "Good boy! And now tell me more about your reading."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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