THE OLD TOBACCO SHOP
The next morning, when Freddie awoke, his mother and father were
standing over his bed.
"I think he had better not go there anymore," his father was saying.
"Oh, I don't think it will do him any harm now," said his mother.
"It all comes of his staying away so long," said his father. "I always
told him to hurry back, and just see how long he stayed this time. If he
can't come back in less than six months or six years or heaven knows how
long, he'd better not go at all."
"Oh," said his mother, "I'm sure he'll come back promptly after this."
"I couldn't," said Freddie. "It took such a long time to get to the
Island, and there was all the trouble with the pirates, and it was a
terrible long journey before we got to the palace, and of course we
couldn't run away from the queen after we'd gone all that long way with
her, and the queen's children didn't want me to go anyway, and there
wasn't any way to get back, except for finding out how to get to the top
of the tower, and maybe I wouldn't have got back at all if I hadn't met
the Old Man of the Mountain, and got sick and cured again by Mr. Punch's
father, and I might have got drowned when the ship disappeared, or I
might have had my head cut off by the pirates, and then you wouldn't
have seen me any more, and you'd have been sorry."
His father looked at his mother, and nodded his head.
"He'd better stay in bed today," said he. "We won't talk to him about it
until tomorrow."
"Yes," said his mother, "that will be much better. Poor little Freddie!"
Freddie did not know why he should be called poor, but he was still
tired from the adventurous life he had recently lived, and he was very
glad to remain in bed all day.
The next morning, after his father had said good-bye for the day, his
mother allowed him to get up, and a little later to go out into the
sunshine. He strolled down the street, enjoying the familiar sights
after his long absence. He found his legs a little weak; he must have
been very ill indeed at the King's palace, and he could not expect to
get over it in one day. He crossed the street-car track, and on the
pavement before the church he saw a well-known figure.
The Churchwarden was sitting in his chair tilted back against the wall,
smoking a long pipe and reading a newspaper. As Freddie approached he
put down his paper and looked at him over his spectacles.
"Good morning," said he. "I'm glad to see you back again. I hear you've
been away." And he winked his eye at Freddie in a very knowing manner.
"Yes, sir," said Freddie. "I guess I must have been pretty sick."
"No doubt about it, my son. But of course I knew all the time you'd pull
through."
Freddie did not believe it for a moment; obviously the Churchwarden was
bragging.
"The street looks pretty good," said Freddie, "after being away so long.
Would you rather sit here on the pavement than do anything else?"
"I believe you, son. I'd rather sit here on a sunny day with a pipe and
a newspaper than have all the treasure of the Incas."
Freddie was glad to hear that the Churchwarden did not regret the loss
of his share of the treasure, though whether Captain Lingo belonged to
the Incas he did not know.
"I don't care anything about the treasure myself," said he. "I'm too
glad to be well again and back in our own street."
"I'm glad I'm here myself, son. And if you happen to see Toby Littleback
this morning, tell him I'm alive and resting well, considering."
"Yes, sir," said Freddie, and continued his stroll.
The Old Tobacco Shop, when he arrived, looked as it had looked on the
fateful day when he had last seen it. He paused before the door, and
gazed at Mr. Punch. He half expected the little man to step down and
shake hands with him; but Mr. Punch did not move a muscle; he did not
even look at Freddie; he held out in one hand a packet of black cigars,
and his wooden face, if it expressed anything at all, showed the great
calm which he must have felt when he got back to his little perch.
Freddie looked up at the clock in the tower, with some thought that the
hands might be together; but it was a quarter past ten, and anyway Mr.
Punch's father was probably by this time far away in some other of his
store-rooms about the world.
Freddie entered the shop. Mr. Toby was behind the counter, opening a
package of tobacco.
"Aha! young feller!" he cried. "Back again, sure enough! Blamed if it
don't seem as if you'd been away from here for a year. And a mighty sick
chap you were, that's a fact. I reckon we all thought you were going to
die, maybe; by crackey, I never seen anyone so pale in my life. Are you
all right now?"
"Yes, sir," said Freddie. "And I'm glad to be back. Are you glad to be
here in the shop, the same as ever?"
"Me? You bet I am. You couldn't buy me to leave this shop, not if you
offered me all the money that Captain Kidd ever buried. No, sir. And
look here, young man; I reckon you ain't surprised to see that the
Chinaman's head is gone; eh?"
Freddie looked at the shelf behind Toby, and sure enough, the Chinaman's
head was gone. He knew, of course, that it was lying at the bottom of
the ocean.
"I kind of lost it one day," said Toby, winking his eye. "Mislaid it,
you know, or lost it, one or the other, I don't know which,--but,
anyway, I reckon it won't never be found. It's gone. I hope you don't
mind it now, do you?"
"No, sir," said Freddie. He was glad to know that Mr. Toby was not still
feeling disturbed because he had left it on board The Sieve.
"All right, then," said Toby. "You'd better go in and see Aunt Amanda."
Freddie opened the door at the rear of the shop and went into the back
room. Aunt Amanda was sitting by the table, sewing.
On the table were the wax flowers and the album and the double glasses
through which you looked at the twin pictures. The room was just as if
they had never left it.
"Eshyereerilart," said Aunt Amanda, taking a handful of pins from her
mouth. "Bless your dear little heart, I'm glad you're back again. Are
you well? Sit down on the hassock."
Freddie took his customary place on the hassock at her feet. He looked
up at her and wondered if she were sorry she had been a queen once and
was a queen no more.
"Yes'm," said he. "I'm all well now."
"And glad to be back here in the shop again?"
"Yes'm; I cert'n'y am."
[Illustration: "Ah, yes," said Aunt Amanda, "there's no place like the
Old Tobacco Shop, after all."]
"Ah, yes," said Aunt Amanda, "there's no place like the Old Tobacco
Shop, after all. I wouldn't exchange it for a palace if you'd give it to
me."
"Wouldn't you?" said Freddie, a little surprised at this.
"I should say not. I wouldn't be myself in a palace. I'm pretty well
satisfied here."
"But what about the children?" said Freddie.
"The children?" asked Aunt Amanda.
"Yes. Robert and Jenny and James. _You_ know."
Aunt Amanda looked at him for a moment, and then nodded her head and
sighed.
"Yes," she said. "You know about them, don't you? I forgot that you
knew. Yes, I miss them a good deal, and I suppose I even cry sometimes
because I haven't got them. But I love to think about them. I'm happy
thinking about them, even if I can't have them."
"James was the littlest," said Freddie.
"Yes," said Aunt Amanda, nodding her head to herself as if at a gentle
memory.
"He was too little to go out much with the others," said Freddie.
"Yes," said Aunt Amanda, "he was too little."
"And Jenny," said Freddie, "she wouldn't go with Robert the day he ran
away. He wanted her to, but she wouldn't."
"No," said Aunt Amanda, "she wouldn't."
"He was gone all day," said Freddie.
"Yes," said Aunt Amanda, "he was gone all day, and he didn't get back
until after dark. I didn't know where he was. When he got back it was
dark, and he was muddy all over. I was terribly worried."
THE END.