Mrs. Willis was as pleased with the invitation as Adele and Gertrude had been, and the very next Saturday four girls instead of three went into the city of Dorchester. This time they traveled by train, but the station being within a few blocks of the Institute, the country girls were in no danger of being lost.
Madge was charmed with gentle Gertrude and welcomed her graciously. “Girls,” she said, as she drew on her gloves, “it is early, and since I have an errand in another part of town, I thought that perhaps you would like to accompany me.”
“We would, indeed,” Adele replied, and soon they were all in Everett’s big car and that youth was slowly driving them through the crowded down-town district. The streets became narrower and noisier. The people were shabbily dressed, dirty children played in the gutters, loafers lounged on the corners. The air seemed hot and heavy with unpleasant odors. On both sides of the street were wretched tenement-houses.
“I have heard of this district,” Gertrude said, “but I never before visited it. Oh, Miss Peterson, doesn’t it make one’s heart ache to think that so very near are fields of daisies and buttercups, and yet these babies have to play in the gutters?”
Madge nodded, and then, as the car was stopping at the curb, she opened the door, and, taking a covered basket, led the way across the walk. Ragged little children stopped their play and watched them curiously with open eyes and mouths. Madge smiled down at them and then entered a dark, narrow hallway and began climbing the rickety stairs.
“I thought it was hard to have to live in the Home,” Eva said softly to Adele, “but how thankful we ought to be that we do not have to live in a place like this.”
Soon Madge was rapping on an upper door.
“Come in, Fairy Godmother!” an eager boy’s voice called. Madge opened the door and they entered a room which was very different from the dark, shabby halls which they had just left. Here all was clean and home-like. The windows were filled with blossoming plants, and a canary, hanging in the sunshine, was warbling his cheeriest song. Goldfish splashed and sparkled in their big shining bowl. A fluffy white kitten on the floor frisked about with a red ball for a playmate. A bright-eyed little hunchbacked boy sat on a softly-cushioned wheeled chair. He looked up with eager eyes.
“Good morning, Roberty-Bob,” Madge said. “I have brought some of my friends to call upon you. We cannot stay long, however, as we are on our way to the Art Institute, but I found the book that you wanted in the library this morning, and so I brought it right over.”
“Oh, good!” Roberty-Bob said with shining eyes. “The last one you brought was such a beautiful story, Fairy Godmother. It was all about the King’s Highway.” Then, turning to Gertrude, he asked in his eager, friendly way, “Do you know where the King’s Highway is?”