Very pathetically he described her lonely life and home, with no one but a drunken woman to care for her; the pinched, wan face, and the hardships necessarily endured while trying to earn a livelihood on the streets during the winter season, until, from the varying expression of his father’s features, Josiah knew he had excited sympathy, if nothing more.
The good man wiped his forehead vigorously as if excessively warm, and said in a tone of mingled bewilderment and regret:—
“I wish you hadn’t told me this, Josiah, till you had talked with mother. I was countin’ on seein’ a good bit of the city to-day; but somehow your story has taken all the fun outer me.”
“Why not carry her home with us, father? If mother isn’t willin’ she needn’t stay any longer’n Tom an’ Bob did, an’ the poor little thing will be jest so much the better for havin’ a chance to live two or three days like decent folks.”
“But there’s the expense of takin’ her back an’ forth, ’Siah. Don’t forget that, for your mother won’t.”
“I’ve got enough to pay for the ticket. I was goin’ to buy you an’ mother somethin’; but I know you’d be willin’ to get along without the presents for the sake of givin’ her a good time.”
Farmer Shindle was so deeply engaged with his thoughts that he made no reply to this last suggestion of his son’s, until the ferry-boat touched the slip with a shock which caused him considerable alarm, and as the young gentlemen from Baker’s Court led the way to the street, he said:—
“Let’s go right up an’ see that girl. If she wants to go out to the farm for a week, an’ you’re willin’ to pay the fares, I don’t see as there’s any reason for sayin’ no. Mother can’t be very much opposed to it, ’cause the harvestin’s over, the apples are dried, an’ she’s through preservin’. I’ll risk it anyhow.”
This was as much as Josiah had dared to hope for, and now had come the time when he could tell Tom and Bob of the plan.
“Well, that’s what I call a big thing,” Master Green said in a tone of approbation. “It’s goin’ to be tough on Sadie to stay out-doors all winter jest to earn what little she needs, an’ if you folks take care of her, she’ll be mighty lucky.”