It was the Kid. Clad in a clean white sailor suit, and finding time pressing heavily on his hands, he had bethought himself of a gift with which to meet his mother,—none other than one of the new kittens which had been born two weeks before and were now passing their infancy on an old rug at the bottom of a barrel in the cellar. Having made an expedition to the barrel, the Kid had endeavored to gain one of the feline offspring by reaching over into the dark depths, with a logical result of falling headlong into the barrel. The muffled shrieks which the family heard, and the sounds of scraping, were such as would naturally proceed from the attempts of a small boy to rescue himself from an uncomfortable posture. When Jack arrived upon the scene, the Kid had just succeeded in freeing himself by tipping over the barrel and crawling out. Being blinded and confused by the length of time in which he had been standing on his head, he had made a wild dive for the door, and found himself prone on the piles of coal on the cellar floor.
“Well, here’s a mess!” cried Jack, with disgust, picking him up and dragging him along to the upper regions. “Look at this, Barbara; and there are only ten minutes to change his clothes.”
Barbara hurried the little boy upstairs without a word of reproach. She washed him quickly, and was struggling with a stiff new linen suit, when the sound of a carriage came to her ears.
“I love you, Barbara, for changing me,” the Kid said humbly.
She kissed him affectionately. “Now your tie,—there!”
The carriage had stopped. She heard Jack’s excited voice downstairs. The Kid made a desperate wriggle from her and fled down the steps, shouting for his mother. Barbara felt a sudden pang as he left her,—a pang of loneliness and desertion. She stood still a moment, and then, almost before she had time to move, a quick step sounded on the stairs, a new, fresh mother came swiftly into the room, and two strong, firm arms held her close.
“Barbara, my brave, splendid daughter!” said the most motherly voice in the world.
Barbara’s reign was over.
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A