LUCKY LITTLE NELL.
“Hello, Jack!”
Frank saluted the keeper of the store, who proved to be a bright-faced,
lame boy.
“Jack,” said Merry, “did you ever hear me speak of Ephraim Gallup?”
“Of course I have!” exclaimed the boy.
“And Hans Dunnerwurst?”
“Yes.”
“Well, here they are.”
“What?”
Jack Norton stared at Frank’s two companions.
“These are the friends of whom I have told you; and this, fellows, is
Jack Norton, a hustling young business man of this city. Some day he’ll
be one of the greatest retail merchants in the place.”
Jack blushed.
“I’m gol darned glad to see ye!” declared the Vermonter, striding up and
grasping the lame lad’s hand. “Anybody Frank Merriwell trains with is
all right, an’ I’m ready to hitch hosses with ’um.”
He wrung the young shopkeeper’s hand heartily.
“Yaw,” nodded Hans, waddling up. “You vos plamed clad to seen us, Shack.
Shust catch me holdt your handt uf. How you vos alretty yet?”
“Frank has told me about you,” said Jack, “but I never expected to see
you.”
“Waal, we’re travelin’ araound with the greatest show on earth.”
“Barnum’s?”
“Not by a long shot! Barnum’s ain’t in it. Haley’s ‘All-Star Combination
an’ Mammoth Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company’ knocks ’em all aout.”
“Dot’s vot der madder vos,” agreed Hans. “Dot gompany has dwo ‘Topsys,’
dwo ‘Marks,’ dwo ‘Gumption Cutes’——”
“An’ two jackasses,” grinned the Yankee youth. “One of them leads the
other every day in the street parade.”
“Hey?” exclaimed the Dutch youth. “You don’d mean——Say, you vill lick me
a minute in uf I say dot again!”
He squared off in a fighting attitude, seeming ready to go at Ephraim.
“There, there!” laughed Frank. “Up to your old tricks, I see. Why, I
believe you two fought a duel once at Fardale.”
“We did, b’jee!” nodded Ephraim.
“Mit eggs,” spoke Hans.
“Ripe aigs, at that.”
“Dose eggs couldt smell me vor a veek.”
“It was awful.”
“Yaw; id peen a put ub shob us onto.”
“An’ Frank Merriwell was the feller whut put it up.”
“Yaw. I peliefed I vos all ofer plood mit.”
“So did I.”
“But I nefer knewed pefore dot plood vos so pad to smell uf anybody like
dot.”
“We never got even with him fer that sell, Hans.”
“Nefer.”
“Well, we’ll eat enough to-day to square the account. He’ll think he’s
run up ag’inst a cyclone.”
“Yaw, we vill done dot, Efy. You haf a greadt headt on me, ain’d id!”
“Well, if I can settle the score that way, I won’t kick,” said Merry.
“Is Nellie at home, Jack?”
“Yes, she went home to get dinner. You know one of us has to stay here
and keep the shop open. We take turns getting dinner. She will have it
all ready when you get there, but she may not have enough, for she won’t
know anyone is coming with you.”
“I’ll fix that all right,” said Frank. “There is a restaurant on the
corner, and I can get all kinds of stuff there to take out.”
“Can’t yeou shut up to-day an’ come with us, Mister Norton?” asked
Ephraim.
“Yaw,” put in Hans, “shust haf der shop shut you up und come along us
mit.”
“I’d like to do it,” said the lame lad, “but it might hurt my business,
and I believe in looking after one’s business before anything else.
Frank has taught me that.”
“He’s alwus teachin’ somebody somethin’,” muttered the Vermonter.
Slam!—open flew the door. Bounce!—in popped a lively boy in a neat suit
of clothes.
“Hello, Frank!” he cried. “Goin’ by w’en I seen yer t’rough der window,
an’ I t’ought I’d stop an’ speak.”
It was Bob, the newsboy, whom Frank had befriended in his railroad days.
“Hello, Bob!” exclaimed Merry. “On the jump, as usual. How do you like
your new position in the broker’s office?”
“Great!” was the instant answer. “Der boss treats me fine, an’ he says
w’en I’ve been ter night school long ernough ter have der proper
eddycashun, he’ll put me onter der turns of der business. Oh, I’ll be a
broker meself some day, see if I don’t.”
Frank introduced Bob to Ephraim and Hans.
“Say, dis is great!” cried the former newsboy. “I’ve heard Frank tell
heaps of t’ings about youse chaps.”
He seemed genuinely delighted over the meeting.
“I invited them to dinner,” said Merry. “We wanted Jack to come along,
but he can’t close up.”
“How long will it take?”
“Oh, he might be back in three-quarters of an hour.”
“If he kin do it in dat time, I’ll stay right here an’ run dis joint. I
kin git back on time den. Go ahead, Jack.”
“Oh, but you are out for your own dinner,” protested the lame boy. “It’s
too much to expect you to do all that for me.”
“Not by a blame sight! Youse folks didn’t do a t’ing fer me w’en I was
down on me luck, did yer? No, not a t’ing but take me in an’ keep me
till I could git somewhere. Now, don’t make any talk about dis t’ing,
but jest you skip right along with der odders. Only be sure ter git back
in time fer me ter git ter der office.”
Bob settled it that way, and Jack was carried off with Frank and his two
friends.
On the way home, Merry stepped into a restaurant and ordered plenty of
food, which was given him in a large pail, the pail being wrapped to
disguise its real nature.
Little Nell, Jack Norton’s sister, was waiting for Frank to appear when
she recognized his familiar step on the stairs. She rose hastily to her
feet, but paused to listen.
There were other steps, and she realized that several persons were
coming. Wondering what it meant, she waited till the door opened and the
four filed into the room.
Then there were introductions.
“I am pleased to meet any of Frank’s friends,” declared the girl. “I am
very pleased to see you.”
“That’s right,” nodded the lame boy. “She is pleased to see you. Two
weeks ago she could not have seen you had she stood face to face with
you as she does now.”
“I don’t toldt you so!” exclaimed Hans.
“Whut was the matter?” asked Ephraim.
“She was blind.”
“Plind?”
“Blind?”
“Yes, stone blind.”
“Jeewhillikins! She kin see all right naow.”
“By a miracle. We were saving money to have her treated by a great
oculist in New York, and we had almost enough. One night she got up in a
dream and walked out to those stairs. She fell all the way to the
bottom, striking on her head. I dragged her up the stairs and got her
into bed. The next morning she could see. I believe it was the work of
God!”
“It was marvelous!” put in Merriwell. “You see, she was not born blind,
but received a blow on the head that injured the optic nerve in some
manner so she became blind. Most marvelously, by falling and striking on
her head, the shock restored her sight.”
“And the money we had saved we put into our little business,” said Jack.
“Say, you nefer heardt such a peculiar thing as that uf pefore!” cried
Hans.
“I doubt if anyone ever did. Nellie, I have brought my friends to dine
with me, and here is plenty of food that I bought at the restaurant. All
you have to do is get it onto the table.”
“I’ll do that,” laughed the happy girl. “It seems so good to be able to
do such work! We will have a delightful dinner! I am so glad you brought
them, Frank!”
“There, b’gosh!” exclaimed Ephraim; “that’s whut makes a feller feel
right to hum! Naow I know I’ve got right among the kaind of folks I take
to.”
“Yaw,” nodded the Dutch boy; “id makes beoble feel like you vos right to
home. Oxcuse us uf we make ourseluf so.”
“Go ahead,” invited Frank. “I want you to feel free here.”
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