"Who on earth was he, we wondered to ourselves, and we all jostled
forward, trying to see down to him, us women lifting up our skirts from
the entry wet. He was like a little wad of clothes, bunched up on the
top step, but inside them the little fellow was all curled up, sleeping.
And we knew he hadn't come for any of us, and he didn't look like he was
waiting for anybody in particular.
"Silas fixed up an explanation, ready-done:--
"'He must belong down on the flats,' says Silas. 'The idear of his
sleepin' here. I said we'd oughter hev a gate acrost the vestibule.'
"'Roust him up an' start him home,' says Timothy Toplady, adviceful.
"'I will,' says Silas, that always thinks it's his share to do any
unclaimed managing; and he brought down his hand towards the child's
shoulder. But his hand didn't get that far.
"'Let me wake him up,' says Robin Sidney.
"She laid her umbrella in the wet of the steps and, Silas being
surprised into giving way, she stooped over the child. She woke him up
neither by speaking to him nor grasping his arm, but she just slipped
her hands along his cheeks till her hands met under his chin, and she
lifted up his chin, gentle.
"'Wake up and look at me,' she says.
"The child opened his eyes, with no starting or bewildering, and looked
straight up into her face. There was light enough for us all to see that
he smiled bright, like one that's real glad some waiting is done. And
she spoke to him, not making a point of it and bringing it out like
she'd aimed it at him, but just matter-of-fact gentle and commonplace
tender.
"'Whose little boy are you?' she ask' him.
"'I'm goin' with whoever wants me to go with 'em,' says the child.
"'But who are you--where do you live?' she says to him. 'You live, don't
you--in this town?'
"The child shook his head positive.
"'I lived far,' he told her, 'in that other place. I come up here with
my daddy. He says he might not come back to-night.'
"Robin Sidney knelt right down before him on the wet steps.
"'Truly,' she said, 'haven't you any place to go to-night?'
"'Oh, yes,' says the child, 'he says I must go with whoever wants me to
go with 'em. Do--do you?'
"At that Miss Sidney looked up at us, swift, and down again. The wind
had took hold of a strand of her hair and blew it across her eyes, and
she was pushing it away as she got up. And by then Insley was standing
before her, back of the little boy, that he suddenly stooped down and
picked up in his arms.
"'Let's get inside, shall we?' he says, commanding. 'Let's all go back
in and see about him.'
"We went back into the church, even Silas taking orders, though of
course that was part curiosity; and Insley sat down with the child on
his knee, and held out the child's feet in his hand.
"'He's wet as a rat,' he says. 'Look at his shoes.'
"'Well-a, make him tell his name, why don't you?' says Mis' Sykes,
sharp. '_I_ think we'd ought to find out who he is. What's your name,
Boy?' she adds, brisk.
"Insley dropped the boy's feet and took a-hold of one of his hands.
'Yes,' he says, hasty, 'we must try to do that.' But he looked right
straight over Mis' Sykes's shoulder to where, beyond the others, Robin
Sidney was standing. 'He was your friend first,' he said to her. 'You
found him.'
"She come and knelt down beside the child where, on Insley's knee, he
sat staring round, all wondering and questioning, to the rest of us. But
she seemed to forget all about the rest of us, and I loved the way she
was with that little strange boy. She kind of put her hands on him,
wiping the raindrops off his face, unbuttoning his wet coat, doing a
little something to his collar; and every touch was a kind of a little
stroke that some women's hands give almost without their knowing it. I
loved to watch her, because I'm always as stiff as a board with a
child--unless I'm alone with them. Then I ain't.
"'My name's Robin,' she says to the little fellow. 'What's yours, dear?'
"'Christopher,' he says right off. 'First, Christopher. An' then John.
An' then Bartlett. Have you only got one name?' he asked her.
"'Yes, I've got two,' she says. 'The rest of mine is Sidney. Where--'
"'Only two?' says the child. 'Why, I've got three.'
"'Only two,' she answers. 'Where did your father go--don't you know
that, Christopher?'
"That seemed to make him think of something, and he looked down at his
paper bag.
"'First he bringed me these,' he says, and his face lighted up and he
held out his bag to her. 'You can have one my cream-puffs,' he offers
her, magnificent. I held my breath for fear she wouldn't take it, but
she did. 'What fat ones!' she says admiring, and held it in her hand
while she asked him more. It was real strange how we stood around, us
older women and all, waiting for her to see what she could get out of
him. But there wasn't any use. He was to go with whoever asked him to
go--that was all he knew.
"Silas Sykes snaps his watch. 'It's gettin' late,' he gives out, with a
backward look at nothing in particular. 'Hadn't we best just leave him
at the police station? Threat Hubbelthwait and me go right past there.'
"Mis' Toplady, she sweeps round on him, pulling her shawl over her
shoulders--one of them gestures of some women that makes it seem like
even them that works hard and don't get out much of anywhere has motions
left in them that used to be motioned in courts and castles and like
that. 'Police station! Silas Sykes,' says she, queenly, 'you put me in
mind of a stone wall, you're that sympathizin'.'
"'Well, _we_ can't take him, Amandy,' Timothy Toplady reminds her,
hurried. 'We live too far. 'Twouldn't do to walk him 'way there.'
Timothy will give, but he wants to give to his own selected poor that he
knows about; an' he won't never allow himself no luxuries in givin' here
an' there, when something just happens to come up.
"'Land, he may of come from where there's disease--you can't tell,' says
Mis' Uppers. 'I think we'd ought to go slow.'
"'Yes,' says two-three others, 'we'd best go slow. Why, his father may
be looking for him.'
"Mis' Eleanor Emmons spoke up serene.
"'While we're going slow,' she says, 'I think I'll just take him home
and get his feet dry. I live the nearest. Mr. Sykes, you might report
him at the police station as you go by, in case someone is looking for
him. And if nobody inquires, he can sleep on my couch beside my grate
fire to-night. Can't he, Robin?'
"'I'd love it,' says the girl.
"'Excellent,' says Insley, and set the little boy on his feet.
"But when he done that, the child suddenly swung round and caught Miss
Sidney's arm and looked up in her face; and his little nose was screwed
up alarming.
"'What _is_ it--what's the matter, Christopher?' she ask' him. And the
rest of us that had begun moving to go, stopped to listen. And in that
little stillness Christopher told us:--
"'Oh,' he says, 'it's that hole near my biggest toe. My biggest toe went
right through that hole. And it's _chokin'_ me.'
"Just exactly as if a hand had kind of touched us all, a nice little
stir went round among us women. And with that, Insley, who had been
standing there so big and strong and able and willing, and waiting for a
chance to take hold, he just simply put his hands on his knees and
stooped over and made his back right for the little fellow to climb up
on. The child knew what it was for, soon enough--we see somebody
somewheres must of been doing it for him before, for he scrambled right
up, laughing, and Miss Sidney helping him. And a kind of a little
ripple, that wan't no true words, run round among us all. Most women and
some men is strong on ripples of this sort, but when it comes right down
to doing something in consequence, we ain't so handy.
"'Leave me come along and help take care of him a little while,' I says;
and I thought it was because I was ashamed of myself and trying to make
up for not offering before. But I think really what was the matter with
me was that I just plain wanted to go along with that little boy.
"'I'm your automobile,' says Insley to the little fellow, and he laughed
out, delighted, hanging onto his paper sack.
"'If you'll give me the big umbrella, Aunt Eleanor,' says Miss Sidney on
the church steps, 'I'll try to keep the rain off the automobile and the
passenger.'
"The rain had just about stopped when we four started down Daphne
Street. The elms and maples along the sidewalk was dripping soft, and
everybody's gardens was laying still, like something new had happened to
them. It smelled good, and like everything outdoors was going to start
all over again and be something else, sweeter.
"When we got most to Mis' Emmon's gate, I stopped stock still, looking
at something shining on the hill. It was Proudfit House, lit up from top
to bottom--the big house on the hill that had stood there, blind and
dark, for months on end.
"'Why, some of the Proudfits must of come home,' I says out loud.
"Mis' Emmons answered up, all unexpected to me, for I never knew she
knew the Proudfits. 'Mr. Alex Proudfit is coming on to-morrow,' she
says. And I sort of resented her that was so near a stranger in the
village hearing this about Alex Proudfit before I did, that had known
him since he was in knickerbockers.
"'Am I keeping the rain off you two people?' Miss Sidney asks as, at the
corner, we all turned our backs on Proudfit House.
"'Nobody,' Insley says--and his voice was always as smooth and round as
wheels running along under his words, 'nobody ever kept the rain off as
you are keeping it off, Miss Sidney.'
"And, 'I did walked all that way--in that rain,' says Christopher,
sleepy, in his automobile's collar.