"What are you going to do with this one? _Now_ we'd better send for Mr. Thornton." Drusilla looked at him severely. "Don't you be a fool, Dr. Eaton. I don't want Mr. Thornton to know nothin' about this one. I'd never hear the last of it." "Well, then you'd better let me take him to the police station." "Yes--" hesitatingly; "I suppose so. But--" and she looked down at the baby who was contentedly playing with the trimming on her dress--"I jest hate to send a baby there." "I'll tell you what I'll do," said Dr. Eaton. "There's a big colored orphan asylum out on the Elpham Road. Let's telephone up there, and I'll take it over myself." Drusilla hesitated again. "Another 'home.' I hate to--" "It's the only thing to do, Miss Doane. You can't mix the colors." "Well, perhaps you'd better." Dr. Eaton left the room, and returned after a few moments with a shake of his head. "No good! They say they're full. They can't take in another child. I telephoned another one downtown that they told me of, and they say the same thing. It seems there is a superfluity of colored babies just now. I guess it'll have to be the police station." "What'll they do with him? If we can't find a place to-night, they can't." "No; perhaps not. But they'll keep him until they do find a place." "Well, if they can keep him, so can I. I'll keep him until we find a place for him. Ring for James and Fanny and we'll put him to bed." James came and the little girl mother, and the baby was placed in James's outraged arms. "Now, James, don't drop him--he won't bite you. Take him to the children's room; and you, Fanny, see that he has something to eat and a bath. Now you be jest as nice to him as to the other babies. Give him your baby's bed and take your baby in with you to-night." As James left the room with the baby in his arms, which were stretched out as far from his body as he could carry them, and with his head held disdainfully in the air, Drusilla sat back in her chair and chuckled. "Ain't James havin' new experiences? His back says, 'This didn't never happen to me when I was in the Duke's house'!" Dr. Eaton rose to go. "I'll find some place to put him to-morrow, Miss Doane. It's good of you to take him tonight." Drusilla went with him to the door. "Good night, Doctor. Things do seem to be kind of comin' my way. I've got Swedes and Dutch and Irish and Jews, and now a nigger baby. It's a mighty good thing for me that the heathen Chinee is barred. Good night." CHAPTER IX