The child’s selection chanced to be Nevin’s “Little Boy Blue,” which Leona Montgomery had taught him one rainy holiday. As always, he threw his heart into the simple words, and they became words of life. At the end his listener surprised him by taking both his hands in hers.
“Doodles dear, has anybody ever told you that you have a wonderful voice?”
“Nobody but a lady who lived downstairs,” he replied modestly. “I sang to her before she died. She said I ought to take lessons.”
“You shall,” declared Miss Fleming. “And my teacher in New York must certainly hear you sing. I will try to manage it.”
After another song the visitor said good-bye, leaving a message for Mrs. Stickney, which when it was given her threw the little woman into a panic.
“Coming to see me?” she exclaimed. “For what? I shan’t know a thing to say to her! I wish folks wouldn’t—such folks!”
But Eudora Fleming always kept her word, and her next call was in the evening, when the mother was apt to be at home.
At first Mrs. Stickney was not quite at ease and inclined to be silent; but the girl’s errand was of such an exciting nature that the embarrassed tongue was soon set at liberty, and talk was free.
For Doodles to be invited to go to New York with Miss Fleming and her sister; to think of his singing before the celebrated Italian who had taught Miss Fleming herself; to have it suggested that he even be examined by the great surgeon whose fees sometimes mounted into the thousands,—all this was enough to bring quick self-forgetfulness to the mother. It was late that night before the little apartment at the top of The Flatiron was dark and still.
Within four days Doodles started for the big city of which he had heard so much and which he longed to see. He was surprised and delighted to find that the trip was to be made in a limousine instead of by train, and when the mother saw how all had been arranged for his comfort she let him go without a fear. The little lad’s long rides in his wheel chair had so increased his strength that he had no misgivings at thought of the many miles to be traveled, especially when the cushions were piled around him until he felt never a jolt, and an extra seat was waiting, where he could lie down for a nap if he became weary. But he bore the journey even better than Miss Fleming had expected, and that first night he slept soundly in his little bed in the great hotel.