Wheels! Wheels! Wheels! The boulevards were full of them, from the
glistening up-to-date mount, back to the antiquated '91 model with its
hard tires and widely curved handle-bars.
The sun struck the sheen of nickel and new enamel and sent a thousand
little needles of light in all directions. Even the '91 model was
beautiful in the light of the spring day, overtaken though it might be
by the swiftly moving procession.
Wheels! Every man, woman, and child in the city of Chicago who could
beg, borrow, or rent a bicycle, was speeding westward to the flagstaff
at the entrance to the Garfield Park Loop. Every spoke and bar had been
polished to the limit, and the long asphalt boulevard was a glittering,
sparkling avenue of wheels.
Wheels! It was the day of the great road race, under the auspices of
the Associated Cycling Clubs. The twenty-five mile course had been
smoothed and measured, the sky was blue and cloudless, and far away in
Wheeling four hundred eager cyclers awaited the bugle call.
John Gardner stood at the door of his news-room and watched with a
wistful eye, the few hundred wheelmen who had chosen to ride on the
business street that went past his door. The orange and black of the
South Shore Club fluttered from many a shining bar, and at the sight of
the colours the old man's face grew tender. For it was Jack's club that
boasted the orange and black--Jack Gardner of the "Varsity, '98," and
his only son. A touch on his arm made him turn his face within.
"Father," said a gentle voice, "why don't we go to the doin's?"
"Land sakes, Mother, who'd take care of the store?"
"Guess the store ain't goin' to run away, and we ain't been out in
years. Let's go, Father, and see Jack ride!"
It was John Gardner's way to oppose everything at first, and then to
generously give in. He liked to feel himself master in his own house,
so he hesitated.
But the stronger will was fully settled upon going. "I'm a-goin'
Father, even if I have to go alone."
She vanished into the back part of the store and began to brush
carefully the state gown, the brown silk, made after the quaint fashion
of a bygone day. After a few minutes the old man appeared in the door.
"I reckon we'll go, Hannah," he said, with the air of one granting a
favour, "but it do seem wrong to leave the little store!"
For many a year the little store had been open on all holidays, as well
as weekdays and evenings, for Jack in school and college had needed
money, and a startling amount of it. Old John Gardner never complained.
Hampered, and made ashamed all his life by his lack of "book larnin',"
he had vowed that his son should have "a bang-up eddication, the best
they is a-goin'," if he could get it for him.
To-day Jack was to ride in the road race, and imbued with solemn
importance Gardner, senior, robed himself for the occasion. They made a
queer picture as they stood on the corner waiting for a car. Hannah's
brown silk was wrinkled and shabby, but her thin gray hair arranged in
tiny puffs around her forehead, looked, as her fond mate said, "right
smart." Twenty years ago, when Jack was a little boy in dresses, his
father had bought a silk hat to wear to a funeral, and it was this
relic of past splendour which now adorned his head.
Once on the car, a new fear presented itself. "Mother," he said,
"sposen Jack should see us!"
For an instant her heart stood still. "He won't," she said bravely; "he
won't see anything but that new bicycle of his'n and we will come home
as soon as it's over."
"I don't know's we'd ought," said the old man doubtfully. "He might not
like it."
"Like what?" demanded Hannah sharply.
"Our goin'!"
"Hush, Father," she answered, "you know we don't see Jack very often
'cause he has to live down where his school is. Lemme see--it's three
months now since he's been home, ain't it?"
"Three months yestidy."
"So what's goin' to hurt if we see him ride to-day? He'll never notice
us among all them folks."
Two girls who sat opposite were watching the old couple with very
evident amusement. "There's rural simplicity for you," said one.
"So I see," responded the other. "They appear to be attached to some
Jack. Wouldn't it be funny if it were Jack Gardner?" They laughed in
unison and Hannah looked up into their faces. John's eyes followed
hers and neither spoke for a moment. They saw nothing but the joy
and happiness of girlhood and something blinded them both. Jack was
forgotten for the moment in the memory of the little girl who lay in
the Silent City beyond the smoke and dust of the town.
They left the car when the others did and followed the crowd.
"I don't b'leeve Jack'll see us, Mother," said the old man. "I ain't
goin' to worry about it no more."
Twenty-five miles away, Jack Gardner surveyed his wheel complacently.
Every screw was tightened, his chains were just right, his tires were
exactly mellow enough and his handle-bars were at the proper pitch. He
was none the less pleased with his own appearance, for he had written
his father that he needed a new suit in the colours worn by the South
Shore Club. He had searched the town for the orange and black and
finally found them. The S.S.C. on his black chest could be seen as far
as his wheel could, and he had topped the glaring outfit with a flaming
orange cap, with a black tassel to stream in the wind behind.
"Get on to the oriole!" The champion of a rival club was inclined to
be sportive at Jack's expense. He retorted with a fling at the green
costume of the other, and then the bugle sounded for the flying start.
Anxious friends and trainers shouted, final directions from behind the
"dead line," as Jack called it. Another blare from the bugle, a sudden
whir, a flash of the shining spokes and they were off.
As the last group flew over the tape the train started back to the
city. A South Shore Club man climbed up on the locomotive to "josh" the
engineer. "You'll have to get a move on you, if you catch Gardner," he
said.
The engineer laughed and looked fondly at his giant of steel. Perhaps
an engineer enamoured of his engine can understand the love of a
cyclist for his wheel.
The people around the Garfield Park Loop were beginning to get
impatient. Most of them had stood for two hours holding their bicycles,
and even a well behaved bicycle is an awkward possession in a crowd.
Pedals scraped the shins of utterly strange riders, handle-bars got
tangled in watch-guards, and front wheels got into mischief with
unpleasant regularity.
Close to the course, and on the grassy bank, sat Mr. and Mrs. Gardner.
Kindly souls had made way for them until they had at last reached the
very front. The day and the multitude were almost spectacle enough, but
a cry from the far north brought them to their feet.
Yes, there they were--a cloud of dust across the field. How small the
riders seemed! Nearer and nearer they came--how the shining wheels flew
through the sunlight! Tense, strained faces almost on the handle-bars:
every man of them was doing his best, and the crowd was cheering like
mad. The band played merrily, as on and on they flew,--past the judges'
stand, over the tape and down, to the mingled praise and solicitude of
their friends. The old people were very much disappointed. Jack had
not ridden after all! Perhaps--but there was another cloud of dust and
another cry from the north. On came another group of riders. They went
by like the whirlwind, but no Jack was there.
"I sh'd have thought he'd got back somewheres near the front," said the
old man. He was hurt to think his son was so far behind.
Group after group passed by, the old people watching anxiously; then
Hannah gripped his arm suddenly.
See! Down the course, only a faint speck now, shone the orange and
black of the South Shore Club. Perhaps----
Yes, riding at the head of thirty tired wheelmen, to the stirring
strains of a Sousa march, their Jack, strong, superb, excited, nerving
himself for the final effort.
Their hearts stopped beating during the instant he was flying by.
"There," she whispered reassuringly, "I told you he wouldn't see us.
My! Wasn't he fine?"
But John Gardner could not speak, for his eyes were dim with happy
pride in remembrance of that superb specimen of perfect manhood six
feet high--his Jack, to whom he had given the "eddication."
They watched the rest of the race with little interest, for the best of
it all had gone by.
When the last rider crossed the tape, the multitude stirred to go. "We
better stand right here, Hannah, till some of these folks gets away,"
he said. So they stood perfectly still and let the crowd surge around
them.
Then a great huzza went up, the track cleared again, as if by magic,
and down the course came a dozen men, shouting in unrestrained joy.
Aloft on their shoulders they held--the old people craned their necks
to see--yes, Jack--their Jack--looking sheepish and very much ashamed.
"Why, Mother," the old man cried, "he's won! Our Jack's won the race!
Do you hear?"
Mother's eyes were fixed on the black and orange sweater, for Jack was
once again in regulation bicycle attire, and her heart was too full to
trust itself for speech.
"Three cheers for Gardner! 'Rah for the South Shore Club!" and the
great field swelled and swelled again with bursts of applause. And
then--the crowd parted some way and Jack saw those pathetic faces
upturned to him.
It is said that when a man is drowning, in the flash of a second his
whole previous life passes in review. Something like this came to him
at the crowning moment of his twenty-three years.
At that minute he knew, as never before, how those hands had toiled for
him, how those lips had prayed for him, and how those honest hearts had
loved him ever since he was born. A sudden lump came into his throat,
for he seemingly had withheld the only reward they wanted for it all.
"Let me down, fellows," he cried, "there's my folks."
Almost before they knew what had happened, he had rushed up to them
with hands outstretched. "Why, Father! Mother!" he exclaimed; "why
didn't you let me know you wanted to come?"
Just a minute the old people doubted the wisdom of their course, then
the gladness in Jack's face set all at rest. The men from the South
Shore Club gathered around and were presented, one by one. They shook
hands with the old gentleman and told them how proud they were of
Jack, and doffed their caps to Mrs. Gardner, "just z's if I was a fine
lady," she said afterward.
Then Jack said everybody was going down to the club for lunch and his
father and mother must come too.
"No, no!" gasped Mrs. Gardner in affright; "no! no!"
"Well, indeed you are coming," said Jack, with a charming air of
proprietorship. "I guess when a fellow wins the race of the year that
his father and mother will go to lunch with him." Then he squeezed her
thin wrinkled hand and whispered tenderly: "Dear little mother! To
think you wanted to come, and I didn't know!"
The hero of the day turned to those who were with him: "Will some of
you fellows get a carriage? I don't think I want any more bicycle
riding to-day and I'll go down with my father and mother if one of you
boys will lead my wheel."
It was an enchanted journey for the old people to roll down the broad
smooth boulevard in a real carriage, with Jack sitting in front of them
telling them all about the race. The President of the South Shore Club,
the son of a man known and honoured throughout Chicago, had asked to
be presented, and said he hoped Jack's father would be willing to be
his guest for the day.
"I told him father would be pleased," concluded Jack, "and he wanted
mother too, but I said I guessed not, that I was going to have my
little mother for my own guest."
At last, when the carriage stopped before an imposing brown stone
house, Jack helped them out, and entered the club with the shabby
little brown figure on his arm. "Just wait here a few minutes," he
said, "until I make myself presentable."
He stationed them on a luxurious sofa, and ran off to the
dressing-rooms.
The old man looked after him fondly. "I didn't think Jack would be
ashamed of us, Mother," he said.
"No, Father, and he ain't."
"My, ain't this a grand place?"
Half awed, they gazed at the rich furnishings in silence. "Seems like
heaven don't it?" he murmured.
"Makes me think more of the chapter in Solomon," she replied.
"How's that, Mother?"
The little old lady looked up at him, her face shining with ineffable
happiness, and repeated softly:
"'_He led me into his banqueting house, and his banner over me was
love._'"