She made no reply. And when she had gone into the house I drew Tom into a seat on the curb. I had to sit down for a few minutes. For a crazy wabble had come into my knees. It was an awful shock to me, let me tell you, to learn [[121]]that our beauty soap wasn’t a fake as we had suspected.
Then I thought of Red. I wondered if his mother had used any of the beauty soap on him. It was hard for me to imagine my red-headed chum with a beautiful face. I wondered what he would look like without his freckles and his red nose.
I got up, telling Tom that I had to go over to Red’s house, and together we hurried down the street. As we came within sight of our freckled chum’s home, his mother appeared on the front porch and beckoned to us.
“Donald wants you to come around to the east bedroom window,” she told us, when we came into the yard. “He has a surprise for you.”
I knew what she meant. She had used some of the beauty soap on Red, and now our formerly freckled chum had a Rudolph Valentino face.
“Hello, fellows,” Red called to us from the bedroom window. “Do I look any different to you?”
Did he! The sight of him sickened me, sort of. Not until this moment had I realized how very dear to me his freckles were. Now they were gone! His red nose was gone! He would never be the same to me again. The chum I had loved [[122]]and traded neckties with had vanished forever. And here in his place was a wax-faced doll.
“You—you don’t look like the same kid,” I told him.
“It’s your beauty soap,” he grinned.
“Such wonderful soap,” put in Mrs. Meyers, beaming at us. “Can I use it on the cat, Jerry? I thought I’d wait and ask you.”