CHAPTER XXV
Visitors for the Judge
Two weeks later Berty and her boy were spending the day at the Judge’s. She arrived early in the morning.
“Dear Judge,” she said, bundling out of a cab with various packages and looking up at him as he stood on his front doorstep throwing crumbs to the sparrows, “dear Judge, I have come to spend the blessed, livelong day with you.”
“I am delighted,” he said, gallantly, and throwing away his bread he hurried down the steps and took the baby from her.
“Yesterday,” she went on, “I was half distracted with calls upon me. ‘Tom,’ I said to my husband, ‘if I’m spared till to-morrow morning I am going to take baby and hide for a day. You get up early in the morning and go to your mother’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am going to close the house and give Daisy and the cook a holiday.’”
“And what did your husband say?” inquired the Judge, as he held open the door for her. “O, my dear lady—”
“What is it?” asked Berty, anxiously.
“This baby—he is putting something in my ear.”
“Gravel,” said his mother, as she stood on tiptoe and examined the side of the Judge’s head. “He had his hands full when we started. He is the most mischievous baby ever born. You would better give him to me. You take the packages, and I will take him.”
“No, no; he is too heavy for you to carry.”