ALL THE PERQUISITES PERTAINING THERETO
Bobby obediently exchanged the four quarters for the dollar despite the
frantic efforts of the puppy to see what was going on. The dollar was
heavy in his hand and it was very thick. Bobby felt quite wealthy, able
to buy all sorts of things, an edge-cation or . . . or perhaps even
birthdays! His eyes grew big and round.
The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters had just said a moment before
that a boy could buy all sorts of things with a dollar. And a dollar is
lots of money even to a boy with seven birthdays! In his excitement
Bobby almost dropped the puppy, retaining his hold on that delight
by one leg only. His eyes sparkled with the intensity of the desire
lighted in them.
"Is it enough to buy a birthdays?" he asked, stammering in his
eagerness.
The lady gasped at the question and the man was too staggered to do
anything at first; finally he exploded into that huge laughter which
always seemed to Bobby to fill the room. He didn't mind the laughter
for he knew the man was not making fun of him.
"I don't know, Bobby," said the man when he had stopped laughing. "I've
never heard of anybody selling his birthday. You might try and see."
Bobby turned at once to the Lady Who Likes Little Boys.
"Your little boy ain't not never coming back," he fairly stammered in
his excitement. "Would he sell me a birthdays?"
And he held out the round, shining dollar.
The lady shrank back from him and went suddenly all white. Bobby knew
he had done something wrong, but couldn't for the life of him imagine
what it was.
The father of the boy with seven birthdays went quickly to his wife.
"He's got grit and perseverance," said the man. "A birthday looks good
to him and he won't give up till he gets one. It would make him happy
as a king, Alice."
She hid her face on his shoulder.
"I can't, Alfred. Don't ask that."
Bobby didn't understand what it was _she_ couldn't do, but felt that he
had in some way hurt her and his lower lip began to move unsteadily.
"It's only day-after-tomorrow, Alice," pleaded the man.
"It's Edward's," replied the Lady. "You have no heart or you
couldn't. . . ."
The man looked at Bobby and then said in a low voice to his wife:
"Day-after-tomorrow is never to-day."
Bobby's heart smote him anew, for he saw water running down the Lady's
face as she lifted her head. It had all been caused by his wanting a
birthdays. Very well, he would pretend he didn't want a birthdays any
more; then perhaps the water would go out of the Lady's eyes.
"Don't want a birthdays," he announced with a suspicious dolefulness in
his voice. "It doesn't not feel good."
"Look at him, Alice," said the man.
Bobby didn't want the Lady to see the water in _his_ eyes, so he tried
to rub it out, but the tightly clutched dollar got in the way, and the
lady must have seen what he was doing, for she simply rushed at Bobby
and gathered him, puppy, dollar and all, into her arms and kissed him
forty or a dozen times and held his face against her wet cheek.
"Birthdays can't be bought, Bobby, but you shall have one all of your
very own. I'll _give_ you one."
"Don't not want any," whimpered Bobby.
"Not if _I_ give you one?" asked the lady, wiping the water out of her
eyes. "We'll give you our little boy's."
Bobby kept perfectly still and in that stillness a miracle was
performed; that trembling lip of his, without stopping its trembling,
was transformed into a joyful smile. And when the Lady saw it, _she_
smiled too.
"I've been selfish and . . . rebellious," said her sweet, low voice
right at his ear, but she was looking up at the Man with the Pocketful
of Quarters when she said it.
The man blew his nose and made such a loud noise that it startled Bobby
and the Lady. They looked into one another's face and then began to
smile like persons sharing a happy secret that no one else knew.
"I'll draw it up on paper, son," said the man, "and then if you ever
lose it again, whoever finds the paper will know _that_ birthday
belongs to you and return it."
He went to the writing desk in one corner of the room, took paper, pen
and ink and began to write. When all the water had gone out of the eyes
of Bobby and the Lady, they went over to watch the man who was writing
away rapidly and smiling to himself.
"There you are," he said at last, with a concluding flourish, and
handed the paper to his wife. She smiled as if it hurt her to read what
he had written, and pressed Bobby more closely to her.
"Now we must sign it," said the man.
With another flourish, he wrote his name on the paper. His wife's lip
trembled just like Bobby's as she signed it. Then the man took Bobby
on his lap and guided his hand in making a big cross, and then wrote
something himself above and below the mark Bobby made.
"Is that a birthdays?" asked Bobby.
"No," replied the Lady, "it's just proof that we have given you a
birthday. If anybody ever doesn't believe you have one, just show him
that, and he'll know that you have."
"I'll read it to you, son," said the man and proceeded to read in a
big, booming voice:
"Done at Our House this Second Day of August, 1916. We, Alfred and
Alice Anning, do hereby and herewith give and convey to Bobby North,
Day-After-Tomorrow, which on every Second Day of August becomes
To-Day, to be his very own birthday forever. _This_ Day-After-Tomorrow
is his fifth birthday; the next one will be his sixth. No one can
take this birthday from him because it is ours to give. Whenever
Day-After-Tomorrow comes, the aforesaid Bobby North is to have his
birthday with a celebration and all the perquisites pertaining thereto.
In witness whereof our signatures are herewith attached.
Signed: Alfred Anning
Alice Anning.
Bobby North
Accepted by
His =X= Mark."
"There, I guess that's all ship-shape and tight enough so water can't
leak through," said the man and offered the paper to Bobby. He accepted
it gravely, as one should in such important matters, then smiled up at
the Lady whose lip still twitched curiously. He looked thoughtfully at
the paper in his hand.
"A birthdays and perk--perk--"
"And all the perquisites pertaining thereto," said the man, helping him
out.
"What is perk-_wiz_its?" Bobby asked.
"Perk-_wiz_its," replied the man gravely, "are the things that go with
birthdays, a celebration, marbles, cake and ice cream, pocket knives,
pigs and pups. Why, look at that pup!"
Bobby looked and the puppy had the precious bit of paper in his mouth
and was trying to swallow it!
The man opened the puppy's mouth and rescued Bobby's birthdays.
"I was only just in time," he confided to Bobby. "A second later and
that dog would have swallowed it. Then where would your birthdays have
been?"
Bobby took time to consider. In due course he arrived at a decision.
"Long's the puppy's mine, I'd have the birthdays, too."
He joined in the laughter of his two friends without quite knowing why.
"Keep the paper in your pocket, Bobby. If the dog eats it you couldn't
prove to anybody that you had a birthday. Now we are going to continue
the celebration."
All day long that celebration lasted and Bobby was so happy and excited
and had so many good things to eat and so many wonderful things to do
that he didn't know where the hours had gone when the man said the day
was almost over and that it was time to take him back to Mr. Eller's.
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