Joan disregarded her brother’s frown, and slipping into the seat next to him, whispered her message. She had been sent to tell him to come back to the Journal—a story had broken and he was needed. She had happened to be over there, and had volunteered to go for him, after the editor had looked around for the red-headed office boy and found him missing as usual, when wanted. Joan was glad she happened to have on a fresh middy.
Tim hadn’t been sent to “cover” the Juvenile Court, for the Journal had its own court reporter, but Editor Nixon had wanted to see what Tim could do in the feature-story line. Miss Betty, who sometimes attended court, was busy with brides this Saturday morning and couldn’t be spared.
Now he shoved his note paper into his pocket and slipped out of the court room, at Joan’s whisper. He seemed a bit provoked at being called away. The half-dozen young boys who were up before Judge Grayson for some deviltry or other, eyed him as he went out. Joan herself, now that she had braved the ordeal of entering the room while the court was in session, decided to stay awhile, and that’s how she met Tommy! Court was always interesting. She hoped that none of these cases would be the kind when every one under sixteen was asked to leave.
She knew all the officials in the Juvenile Court. It was held in a room in the county courthouse. Juvenile Court was an informal proceeding, with Judge Grayson talking more like a father than a judge.
It wasn’t the usual playing hooky from school case that the judge was taking up now. It wasn’t a boy at all, but a young mother, hugging a chubby little boy. He wore blue overalls and looked about two years old. The morning sun slanting in through the long windows made his curls as yellow as the Journal copy paper.
“I didn’t think Tommy would cry so long and hard, Judge! He’s not really a baby,” the young mother was saying. “Or I never would have left him alone in the room. But I had to go to work to earn some money.”
Judge Grayson’s tired-looking face was kind but stern. “Don’t you know there’s a Day Nursery on Grove Street for just such mothers as you?”
The young woman nodded. “I did take him over there when I first came to Plainfield two weeks ago and got this job at Davis’. But the lady there said the nursery was full—the babies were taking naps two and three in a crib, and she couldn’t possibly take Tommy. I couldn’t take him to work with me, and I didn’t dare ask the landlady to keep him so I left him alone.”
Joan knew where the Day Nursery was—just the front room in Mrs. Barnes’ own home. She and Amy had visited it when it first opened with two babies, not long ago—and now it was filled to overflowing.
“If you have no one to care for the boy,” said Judge Grayson in his slow, even tones, “I’m afraid he will have to go to the Home till there is room in the Day Nursery.”