“No, Tommy. I didn’t. I wish I had,” returned Meadowcroft with a sigh. “I am sorry to say I hardly knew there were such things as stilts.”
“Well, I suppose even now you could pretend they were,” Tommy remarked. “I can pretend things now as well as ever. But it may be my magic, of course. There’s something about magic that keeps a fellow young. Perhaps it’s because you have to have so much faith.” And he sighed.
Meadowcroft laughed.
“How about Betty?” he asked. “You said she was well, but you didn’t seem inclined to go into particulars. I hope—all is well with her?”
“The truth is, poor Bet’s in a heap of trouble,” said the boy soberly, “I just thought I’d better lie low and not say much while you were eating dinner. Our physiology says never to tell bad news at the table. It dries up the juices and retards digestion. Not that anybody at home ever thinks of it. Dad had just as leave shout any old thing at me when I’m eating—he’d druther than not.”
“But Betty? What has happened to her?” Meadowcroft asked anxiously.
“Well, nothing has happened, really. It’s something that hasn’t happened that ails her,” the boy returned judicially. “And it isn’t quite so bad as you seem to think by your expression. She isn’t sick or gone blind or had her teeth knocked out. It’s more like—well, a broken heart, you might say.”
“Tommy Finnemore! What nonsense is this you are giving me? Tell me at once what you are trying to get at—or to conceal!” demanded the other.
Tommy, despite his genuine interest and concern in the matter, was secretly gratified to have produced such an impression upon his friend. He felt that it augured well for the way he would handle his audience when he should have become a celebrated magician.
“More like a broken heart, I said, not really it,” he rejoined soberly. “Anyhow, she has been training all summer on the sly, Betty has, getting used to walking fast and long ways, planning to walk to Paulding to school every day and back home at night and just lotting on it and wild to begin. But she never dassed ask her father till three days ago, and he was fierce—said he’d sooner keep her home than let her do such a crazy thing.”