At this Mrs. Smith laughed till her sides shook, and declared that, boy or girl, he was a splendid little fellow as the sun ever shone on; and if Mrs. Laurence felt as if she could spare him he might come up to the grocery, and when there was no light jobs for him to do, there was the cradle to rock, and the baby to tend up stairs.
Again the hot scarlet swept its way to the lad’s face, and a choking sense of shame rose to his throat; but he conquered the rebellious feelings like a hero, and protested, half crying, when he meant to laugh, that tending a baby must be prime fun, and rocking a cradle like rowing a boat. Just what he had wanted to do all his life. Besides, Mrs. Smith’s baby was such a first-class young one he wondered that any girl could be strong enough to hold her.
“Then it is all settled, Jimmy, dear!” exclaimed the good wife. “Smith couldn’t make much of an opening for a little chap as had got to learn the business before he could be of any use; so Kate Gorman and I thought how handy it would be to have some one about the baby now and then, just for that, and running the fancy errands, as I call them,—John Smith don’t like lazy people about him, and we musn’t eat the bread of idleness, you know, James.”
“I want to earn every mouthful of bread I eat,” said the boy, bravely, “and enough for others, too. If you’ll set me to washing dishes and peeling potatoes, I’ll try and do it well. See if I don’t.”
“Come along, then,” cried the woman, taking his hand with a firm clasp. “You’re willing, Mrs. Laurence?”
The poor, pale mother turned wistfully to her boy, who looked her firmly in the eyes, and smiled as if rocking cradles and tending babies were the great aim and glory of his young life.
“It will be in the house, and—and you’ll be a mother to him, Mrs. Smith?”
“Won’t I?” answered the dame.
“And you will let him come home sometimes?”
“Every night of his life, and three times a day, if you want him. Goodness gracious! you don’t expect that we intend to work a little fellow like that every hour in the twenty-four. I didn’t come here like a highway robber to run off with your son, and make a white slave of him; but just to give him what he seems to want, something to do, and something to eat.”