“H-h-here it is,” said Titus, emphatically, and he laid his hand on Brick’s shoulder.
“Bless my heart, and soul, and body,” exclaimed Mrs. Blodgett, “if you aint the greatest lad! Another colored boy, and the first one hardly gone out of the house.”
“H-h-how would you have liked to keep that first one, Blodgieblossom?” said Titus, mischievously.
“I wouldn’t have given him houseroom,” she said, energetically, “the dirty creature! Now this fellow looks clean,” and she bestowed a kindly glance on Brick. “I’ll have the girls lay him a little table in the wash room.”
Brick was grinning, but not as alarmingly as before. He was embarrassed now, and somewhat afraid of this fat woman.
Ten minutes later he was an ecstatic colored boy. White girls were waiting on him, white girls were placing before him the most sumptuous dinner he ever ate, and he surreptitiously sneaked pieces off his plate and into his pockets for Bylow, the dog.
CHAPTER XVIII
Airy’s Second Call on the Judge
Airy was arriving at 100 Grand Avenue, via the stable.
Like a little dark shadow, she flitted up the driveway to the open door of the harness room. Brick was there, seated on an overturned tub, polishing a silver-mounted bridle and whistling vigorously. Bylow lay at his feet, only lazily moving one ear in the direction of Airy.
He knew who was coming. In fact, with his doggish sense of smell he knew before he saw her.