NEWS
CHAPTER IX
NEWS
Altogether that was a wonderful summer which the Laws spent at the old Dallas place. To be free to wander in that enchanting garden; to hear a cool breeze whispering in the leafy tops of the trees; and when it was stifling hot in the streets to be able to sit on a porch overlooking a green lawn; to help John to weed and to water the flowers; to learn from him all sorts of useful things concerning plants; to watch the morning-glories open and shut in the morning, and the moon-flowers at night; all this was like a beautiful dream, and Cassy wished the summer would never come to an end. She dreaded the probable removal back to Orchard Street, next door to the parrot and old Mrs. Finnegan and Billy Miles; she dreaded the girls who at school looked askance at her and called her Miss Oddity.
“We don’t want to go back, do we?” she said to Flora. “We’d like to live here in this garden forever’n ever.”
But one day Mr. Dallas came. He had been with them several times before, had stayed over night, and had given a pleasant word to each one, but this time he called Mrs. Law from the back porch and they both went up-stairs to the sitting-room. Then Cassy heard the voice of another man and after a while Mr. Dallas and this other person came down-stairs and went out together. Cassy listened a few minutes, and then she ran to find her mother. She found her standing by a table; she was gazing half-dazed at a piece of paper in her hand.
“What is it, mother?” Cassy asked, touching her gently.
She looked down at the child with a little wistful smile. “It is a check from the railroad people,” she said.
“Oh! Oh! Are we rich now? Shall we have nice clothes and a pretty new home? Are we as rich as Mr. Dallas?”
“Far from it, dear. They are not willing to pay what we demanded and the lawyer at last thought it best that we should compromise, so it is much less than I had hoped for at first, but it is so much better than nothing that I am very thankful.”
“Shall we have to go back to Orchard Street?”