“Got to go along,” he said hurriedly. “Change Kewpie’s feet—shoes, I mean. Might take cold. See you in the morning, folks.”
Laurie made his escape, followed by the others, sighing relief. Outside on the bricks, Kewpie’s shoes squished beautifully, but Kewpie was frowning. “I like the old soul,” he announced, “but, say, she’s awful leaky around the eyes!”
“So you’d be if you were seventy years old and folks were—were kind to you and—and all that sort of thing,” replied Laurie gruffly and vaguely. “Folks get that way when they’re old; sort of grateful and tearful. They can’t help it, I guess!”
It was still well short of supper-time, and so they stopped at Bob’s to see the tennis-court. The surface layer was almost finished, and two sturdy posts for the net, startlingly, shiningly green, had been sunk. While they admired, Mr. Starling joined them from the house, and Laurie thanked him for his assistance with the quarry company.
“Glad to have helped, Laurie,” replied Bob’s father. “And that reminds me. Seen the pear-trees?”
“Pear-trees? No, sir. Not to—to notice them.”
“Come and look at them.” Mr. Starling led Laurie around the corner of the new court and along the further walk to where a few fruit-trees, their branches still bare, occupied one corner of the garden. Laurie viewed the trees interestedly, but failed to note anything remarkable, and he turned to his guide for enlightenment. Mr. Starling was selecting two bills from a long black wallet, keeping his back to the others. He thrust the bills into Laurie’s hand.
“We’d like to help a little, my sister and I,” he said. “Use that in any way you like, Laurie, but you needn’t say where it came from. If you need more, let me know.”
“But we don’t really need it, sir,” protested the boy. “We’ve got twelve dollars, and I don’t believe—”
“Put it in your pocket,” insisted Mr. Starling. “You can find some way of using it for Miss Comfort’s—er—comfort!” He raised his voice. “Look promising, don’t they? Lots of fruit this year, I guess. Thomas is quite a gardener, if you take his word for it.” He turned Laurie about with a hand on his shoulder and paced back toward the others. “We feel sort of sorry for that little woman,” he added, lowering his voice again. “Hard to pull up stakes at her age, I guess. Ought to do what we can for her, Laurie. Come to me again if you need some more.”