KEINETH'S GIFT
Twenty-five dollars! To Keineth it seemed like a fortune!
She had never thought much about money. She knew some people were very
poor--she had often felt sorry for them as she watched them near the
Square in New York. And she knew some were very rich, for Aunt
Josephine talked of them. She had always had all the money she wanted,
because she had never wanted very much. She supposed Peggy and the
others had all they wanted, too. Each week Mr. Lee gave to each one of
them a small allowance and whenever they managed to save anything from
this each of them put it in her bank. Keineth supposed that the Lees
were not as rich as Aunt Josephine and not as poor as Francesca's
family next door to her old home, but it didn't seem to matter at all,
because she did not think that the Lees wanted to be rich, anyway. They
never talked of anything in terms of dollars and cents! Twenty-five
dollars--that seemed enough to Keineth to buy everything anyone could
want!
Keineth and Peggy had carefully kept the precious secret of the "Castle
of Dreams." For a few weeks they had watched the mail each day, then
the holiday fun had filled their minds and the secret was forgotten. As
the weeks passed and Keineth heard nothing she had almost given up all
hope of selling her music and her great ambitions had taken a sad fall.
Peggy had urged her to consult her music master about it, but after one
or two attempts Keineth found she had not the courage.
And now a check had come! Twenty-five whole dollars!
"Peggy! Peggy!" she called, unable to wait one moment to share the good
news.
It was a very excited family that listened to their story at dinner
time. Even Billy, red-eyed, forgot his own sorrow. Everyone had to hold
the check and read it! Then each one suggested some way for Keineth to
spend her money!
And as is the way with all fortunes, sooner or later they become a
burden! Already, even while they made merry over the check, Keineth was
beginning to worry as to what she should do with it! Of course Mr. Lee
had advised her putting it in the bank, but that did not seem like much
fun! If Daddy were at home she would buy something for him with it or
she might send it to Tante to help the poor children that were
suffering from the war.
"Give it to the Red Cross!" Peggy suggested grandly.
"Buy a bicycle!" said Alice, "or one of those cunning electric stoves
that we can cook on!"
"If I had it I'd buy Pilot!" put in Billy sadly.
"I'd like to do something with it," said Keineth slowly, "that would
make somebody just awfully happy, because--" She looked down the length
of the table and realized suddenly how dear to her these Lees had grown
and what this home was to her. "Because I'm so happy here!"
And even while she was speaking she decided just what she would do! But
she would tell no one, not even Peggy!
She would buy Pilot for Billy! Mrs. Lee had said they could not afford
it! What good luck that her check had come just at the right time!
After dinner she searched for and found the old man's card. It was
soiled and crumpled from Billy's angry fingers. She hid it away with
the check. She must wait until Monday.
Keineth had to ride on the street-car a very long way before she
reached the address which the card gave. Then she found herself before
a great iron fence and had to ring twice before the big gate in the
fence opened. It opened quite by itself and it clanged shut behind her,
startling her with its noise. There seemed to be a million steps
leading to the big bronze door and her feet moved like tons of lead!
She had to ring again. The door swung back and a sour-faced man in dark
livery faced her.
"Is--is Mr. Grandison at home?" she asked in a voice so strange that
she scarcely recognized it herself.
The sour-faced man looked very hard at her.
"Who is it, miss?" he asked wonderingly, as though few people came to
that door for Mr. Grandison.
"I'm Keineth Randolph. I must see him, please!" "He never sees anyone,
miss, but you can go in. Only I wouldn't advise you to bother him very
much because he's bad this morning with his rheumatism!"
He was telling her this in a whisper as he led her through the long
hall. Keineth thought it quite the longest, widest hall she had ever
seen and she walked very fast past the big doors that opened into dark
empty rooms that looked like great caverns! If a giant, bending his
great head, had leaped through one of the heavy door-frames she would
have thought it quite to be expected!
The servant drew back a door and Keineth saw a long room full of books.
At the other end, close to a table, sat an old, old man. Then she saw
something move suddenly and Pilot dashed at her from a corner and
leaped upon her with great whimpering, licking her hands and face and
even her shoes.
"What's this? Come here, Jacky! Who are you? Who let you in here?"
roared the old man, glaring at Keineth.
Keineth, terribly frightened, advanced slowly towards him, one hand on
the dog's head. "I live at the bees' where you found Pilot. We all miss
him so terribly, especially Billy, that I came to buy him back!"
"You did, did you? Well, nobody has money enough to buy him."
Keineth was so indignant at his disagreeable manner that she forgot her
fright.
"I know the Lees haven't money enough, because they have so many
children and buy lots of things for them and give them a good time! But
I'm going to buy Pilot for them! I know Pilot couldn't be happy here,
anyway, it's so--so big and horrid and you're so--cross--after having a
happy home with the Lees!"
Pilot, as though to tell her that was very true, snuggled his nose
under her arm and wagged his tail.
"I've got twenty-five dollars," finished Keineth triumphantly, "and I
can spend all of it because I earned it myself--writing music!"
He turned and looked hard at her. Her fury seemed to have amused him.
"Music--you write music! A child like you!"
Keineth stepped closer to him. "Yes. Do you like music?"
The old man answered very slowly. "It was all I cared for once upon a
time! Let me see your eyes!" He reached out a wrinkled hand and drew
her towards him. "They are blue--like hers were! Child, years and years
ago I loved a young girl very much--and she taught me to love music!
But she went out of my life and left me with nothing but loneliness!"
Keineth thought of the great empty house and felt very sorry for him.
"What was her name?" she asked softly.
"A pretty name--like she was!" he muttered, his eyes fastened on the
child's face. It was as if something he saw there was awakening the
memories. "It was Keineth."
"Why, that is my name!"
"Keineth--Keineth what?" he cried.
"Keineth Randolph."
"You are John Randolph's girl--her son's girl."
"You mean my grandmother? That--lady--you loved was my daddy's mother?"
The old man was half laughing, half crying. He held Keineth's arms with
his trembling fingers.
"Of course--the same blue eyes--and music! How your grandmother loved
music! How her fingers could play, make sounds that'd tear the heart
right out of you!" He shook his head. "And she wouldn't have me--my
money couldn't buy her! After she died I stood in the Square and
watched them take her away from the house--saw the flowers I had sent
go with her! I saw the man she had chosen instead of me walk out, too.
He had two children by the hand--the little fellow was your father. I
went away from New York then--" He drew his hands across his eyes as
though to brush away the haunting pictures. "And you're Keineth!" he
finished.
Keineth told him of her daddy and of her coming from New York to live
with the Lees until her father returned. She had almost forgotten Pilot
in her deep sympathy for this lonely old man who had loved her father's
mother--and had loved her for so many, many years! But Pilot suddenly
barked!
"Pilot thinks he belongs to us because he once saved my life," Keineth
explained, going on, then, to tell the story of her narrow escape from
drowning. Perhaps the old man heard her, though his face still wore a
far-away look as if he had not yet been able to bring himself back from
that dear past the child's eyes had awakened.
"And so I'd like to buy him, please," Keineth finished, laying her
check before him.
For a long time the old man stared at it, while Keineth and Pilot
waited.
"He loves you better than he does me! You're right--he wasn't happy
here--he's cried and cried! I can't keep even a dog's love! Take him."
He slowly lifted the check, read it, turned it over, folded it and put
it in his pocket.
Then Keineth felt very sorry for the old man. She felt, too, that now
in some way or other he belonged to her, though not exactly related.
"Won't you come home to lunch with me? Then you can meet Peggy and the
others and see how glad they are to get Pilot back! They'll be awfully
glad to see you, really! Please don't be lonely any more--for--I'll be
your friend!"
He had risen slowly to his feet, towering over her. He looked down at
the bright face. Keineth slipped her hand into his.
"Oh, please come--it'll be such fun," and she gave his fingers a
coaxing, friendly squeeze.
The sour-faced servant muttered, "Well, I never!" under his breath,
when he saw his master walk through the door to his waiting car,
holding the little girl's hand and listening to her chatter with a
smile! It was the strangest sight he had ever beheld in this very
strange house!
But it was a stranger sight for the Lees when the big limousine drew up
at their curb and Pilot dashed from its door, followed by Keineth and a
very, very old man who leaned one hand upon Keineth's shoulder.
"Pilot!" cried Billy, who had seen them through the window.
"And that old man!" echoed Peggy.
In the hall Billy was on his knees with his arms around Pilot's neck.
"Dear, dear old Pilot!" he was saying over and over.
Mrs. Lee, concealing her amazement when Keineth quaintly introduced "my
friend, Mr. Grandison," greeted him cordially and by her smile and
gracious manner made the old man immediately feel at home. At the table
she placed him between Keineth and Peggy, and Peggy found that he was
not such a cross old man after all!
"It's just like a story, Ken," she said after he had gone away and
Keineth had given them an account of her morning's adventure. "You have
found a fairy grandfather! But wasn't it scrumptious to see His Aged
Grandness eating hash?"
"Well, I guess Keineth's money has been well spent," added Mrs. Lee,
looking fondly at the little girl. "For I think--besides making Billy
very happy, it has opened a new life to a very lonely old man!"
"I'll never forget what Ken has done," said Billy solemnly, as though
he was taking a vow. "She's just all right and I'd like to see anyone
that says she ain't!"
"Billy--your English!" pleaded his mother.
But Keineth blushed with pleasure. She knew she had won Billy's
everlasting friendship! That evening a boy brought to the door a huge
package addressed to Miss Keineth Randolph. It was a set of beautifully
bound books, "The Lives of the Masters," and with them came a little
note written in a queer, old-fashioned handwriting.
May these books give instruction, inspiration and courage to one whose
feet are on the threshold. They are bought with the money you
unselfishly spent to give a boy back his dog.
Your devoted friend,
WILFRED GRANDISON.