HELPING THE HARRITYS
"Now you hang on to me," commanded Tim, as he and Sunny Boy went down
the subway steps into the warm, moist air of the station. "I don't aim
to lose you changing, and we have to change, 'cause this ain't an
express station."
Sunny Boy obediently "hung on to" Tim, keeping so close beside him
that several times it was inconvenient, as when people tried to get
past them at the door of the car. The train was crowded, and the two
boys had to stand.
"We change here," warned Tim, when they reached the express station.
"Look sharp!"
Sunny Boy breathed a sigh of relief when they were safely on the
express train; he didn't trust himself to change cars.
"You look kind of beat out," commented Tim, eyeing his charge
critically when they were near their last stop. "I s'pose you've done
more going to-day than you're used to. Never mind, we're most there
now.
"I wonder," Tim said, when they reached the entrance of the McAlpin
Hotel a few minutes later, "will I have to go in and let that bunch
look me over? I didn't bring my dress suit, and I ain't exactly crazy
about giving 'em something to stare at."
Sunny Boy's little heart understood. Tim was ashamed of his shabby
clothes, and he knew that the bright lights would make his worn coat
reveal every spot and hole.
"Mother won't care," Sunny assured him. "Come on, Tim, I'll show you."
So it was Sunny Boy who pulled Tim into the foyer, and even then Tim
would have backed out if, almost the instant they entered the door,
some one had not come running to them.
"Oh, my baby!" cried Sunny Boy's mother, gathering him up and hugging
him.
Tim felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to find Sunny Boy's
father smiling down at him.
"You look as if you might cut and run," said Mr. Horton cheerfully.
"And you and I must have a little talk first. Olive, here's the chap
who found Sunny Boy."
Mrs. Horton, still holding Sunny Boy in her arms, smiled with wet dark
eyes at Tim.
"She certainly was pretty," said Tim afterward to his mother. "Tall as
Theresa, and young and dressed up nice and all. But she shook hands
with me just as if I was a friend of hers. I guess all mothers are
nice and friendly."
By this time a little crowd had gathered about the Hortons, for many
of the guests at the hotel had heard that Sunny Boy was lost and they
wanted to tell his father and mother how glad they were that he was
safely found. Tim began to get decidedly restless.
"I got to go," he whispered to Mr. Horton. "Ma won't know what's
keeping me. 'Sides I have to be up at five in the morning to cover my
paper route."
"Olive," said Mr. Horton to his wife, "suppose you take the boy up. I
want to have a little talk with Tim" (for Sunny of course had told
them his name) "and we're going into the grill room where there won't
be so many people. I guess we can have a bite to eat if we have had
supper."
"And we had Welsh rabbit and coffee," Tim recounted to his admiring
family later that night. "The grill room's just a restaurant. I'll bet
that waiter didn't want me coming in there looking like a tramp, but
Mr. Horton never let on I looked any different from the rest of 'em."
Sunny Boy and his mother went up in the elevator, and after they were
in their room, while she undressed him, "for," she said, "I'm so glad
to have my baby back I must undress him and put him to bed just as I
used to when he was really a baby," he told her about the Harritys and
how he had met Tim.
"We rode up and down in the subway, hunting for you," explained Mrs.
Horton. "Daddy asked every guard, and I even asked the ticket sellers
if they had seen a little boy in a blue suit. Then we thought you
might have remembered the name of the hotel, and we hurried back here
in case you should manage to get here before we did."
"Did you cry?" asked Sunny Boy, patting her cheek, as he lay in her
lap.
"Yes, I did," admitted Mother softly. "Poor Daddy had a hard time of
it. But, darling, we won't talk of it any more--you're all right and
Mother is very happy. I'll lie down beside you here on the bed till
you go to sleep." And going to sleep did not take long.
"Where's Tim?" asked Sunny Boy when he woke up the next morning.
He had slept later than usual, after his exciting day, and Mother was
up and dressed and sewing fresh ruffles in her coat over by the
window. Daddy was not in the room.
"Good morning, precious," Mrs. Horton greeted him. "You've had a fine
long sleep. Daddy has been gone an hour--he had a telephone call
before breakfast."
"Did Tim stay all night? Is he here now?" asked Sunny Boy, slipping
out of bed and beginning to hunt for his socks and shoes. "Do I have
to take a bath, Mother?"
"Yes indeed you do," said Mother. "We are going down town, you and I,
on a very important shopping trip, and I want you to be as clean and
as fresh as a rose when we start. And if you hurry, I'll tell you
about Tim while you are eating your breakfast."
Sunny Boy hurried, and in less than half an hour he was sitting at the
table in the big dining room eating breakfast with Mother, who had
waited for him.
"Tell me about Tim," begged Sunny Boy when the waiter had brought him
his orange and asked him how he felt; the waiter knew he had been
lost.
"Well, Daddy had a long talk with Tim last night," said Mrs. Horton.
"We wanted to reward him in some way for his kindness to you and his
good sense in going about to find where you lived. But Tim wouldn't
take any money. He said his mother wouldn't let him."
"Then can't Daddy 'ward him?" asked Sunny Boy disappointedly.
"Listen," said Mrs. Horton. "Daddy got Tim to tell about his family.
His mother is a widow with six children, and, dear, she takes in
washing. She was washing last night when you were there, clothes for
her own children, after having done two big washes at other houses
that day. Theresa, who is sixteen, works in a department store, and
Tim sells papers before and after school, and sometimes, I am afraid,
when he plays hooky. He can't leave school till he is at least
fourteen and he is only thirteen now. Of course the other children are
too young to help."
"Theresa can cook," announced Sunny Boy. "She made stew."
"Theresa does most everything," returned his mother. "But what she
wants to do is to be a dressmaker. And Daddy has prevailed on Tim to
let him send her to a trade school where she can learn to sew. After
she has graduated, if she wishes, she can pay him back the money.
Daddy had to arrange it that way because the Harritys are proud and
independent."
"And Tim?" urged Sunny Boy, forgetting to eat his egg.
"Oh, Tim is to go to school, too," said Mrs. Horton. "Daddy knows a
man who has a school for boys like Tim where they can work and pay for
their education, and if Tim can have three or four years there he will
be able to help his mother much more than if he got 'working papers'
at fourteen and left school."
"Why didn't he go there before?" demanded Sunny Boy. "If he can pay
for it himself, he wouldn't be too poor, would he, Mother?"
"Well, you see, he didn't know about this school," said Mrs. Horton.
"And then you must remember that he has been helping his mother. Even
the little he earned was sorely needed by Mrs. Harrity. So Daddy had
to plan for her, too."
"So she won't have to wash?" suggested Sunny Boy eagerly.
"So she won't have to wash," assented Mrs. Horton. "She is to have an
apartment rent-free in exchange for janitor work. A man does the
heavier work and has four or five apartment houses to take care of,
but they want some one to clean the halls, and so on. Tim said it was
what his mother often planned. And then she wants to take in a boarder
or two. I told Daddy I didn't see that she was having it any easier,
but at least she will have a warm, comfortable home this winter. And
Daddy is going to keep an eye on them this winter through New York
friends. She must be willing to let us help her till her children are
old enough."
Sunny Boy finished his breakfast rather soberly. He was learning that
all little boys didn't have the many nice things he had. Marty and
Thomas, for instance, had they had the kind of breakfast he had just
had?
"And we're going shopping," Mother reminded him, as she led the way
out of the dining room. Perhaps she guessed what he was thinking. "You
see, Daddy did all this for you and for me, but we want to give the
Harritys something, don't we?"
"Oh, yes!" Sunny Boy was all smiles. "Let's, Mother! But what shall we
buy?"
"I thought I'd send something nice to Mrs. Harrity and Theresa, and
you would choose something for each of the children," explained Mrs.
Horton. "We'll go right out now and see what we can find."
When they reached the corner Mrs. Horton was confused for a moment.
She couldn't remember whether to turn up or down to get to the
particular shop she wanted.
"I'll find out," said Sunny Boy.
Before she could stop him, he had dashed out into the middle of the
street and was speaking to the tall policeman who directed traffic
from the center of the street. He was so tall that he had to bend down
to hear what Sunny Boy was saying.
Mrs. Horton, on the curb, saw him laugh, then point up the street and,
as Sunny Boy started back to her, the policeman blew his whistle and
stopped the traffic till Sunny Boy was safely across.
"What made you do that?" demanded Mrs. Horton. "It's never safe to run
out into the street like that. I didn't know you were even going."
"Daddy and I know that p'liceman," said Sunny Boy calmly. "He s'lutes
us--sometimes. I asked him which way to go, and he showed me. That's
why they stand in the middle of the street, Mother; to show people
where to go."
"What did you say that made him laugh?" Mrs. Horton asked, as she and
Sunny Boy started to walk in the direction the policeman had pointed.
"You were so little, Sunny, and he was so tall, I don't see how you
ever heard each other."
Sunny Boy was puzzled for a minute.
"Did he laugh?" he said. "Oh, yes, I 'member. I asked him please not
to step on me. His feet are pretty big when you're close to him."
"And here is the store," smiled Mrs. Horton. "Your policeman knew
where we wanted to go, didn't he? Begin now and think what you would
want most if you were Tim Harrity."