“I wonder who thought of all this first,” said Doodles.
Blue was passing, and heard.
“Ask her!” he laughed, waving an arm towards the blushing Mrs. Jimmy.
“Pshaw, I didn’t do nothin’!” denied that lady. “I happened to think’t would be nice if we could, and I asked ’em to come, as soon’s I found out ’t would be agreeable to your mother—that’s all I did! I was for havin’ us bring the refreshments; but Miss Flemin’ she said no, she’d ’tend to that, an’ she did—my, I sh’d think she did!
“You see,”—lowering her voice,—“the truth is, a lady (I won’t mention no names) but she said to me, one day, ‘I s’pose now the Stickneys have got so much money and live in such a swell house, they won’t have no use for their old friends.’ And I just up an’ out with, ‘They will too! They ain’t no such folks as to turn their backs on tried-an’-true neighbors!’ That was what started me t’ thinkin’ o’ this, and I told Jimmy ’t I’d put it through if only to prove things to her. So here we be, an’ I guess she’s satisfied all right! I invited every blessed one, and they’d all been mighty glad to come, but some couldn’t.”
After luncheon, when everybody was in full content, Giles Gaylord called for silence.
“My dear friends,” he began, “this honor ought to be upon the shoulders of the one to whom we are indebted for the pleasure of the evening; but as she wouldn’t take it, and I didn’t succeed in sneaking out of it, here I am! I think I should have run away during luncheon, as has sometimes been done in the face of a dreaded speech; but one can’t leave his friends in the lurch, and we are certainly warm friends—warmer, perhaps, because we are Flatiron friends. If I am not mistaken, all of us, with two exceptions, have, at one time or another, dwelt beneath its hospitable roof. So now, in behalf of The Flatiron, I present to Master Doodles this new home for Caruso.”
He lifted the cloth which had hidden from sight a large, handsome mocking-bird cage.
Everybody turned to Doodles, who stood transfixed with astonishment and delight.
“Speech! speech!” was the call.