I
The child life of the neighborhood was sometimes moved in its deeps at
the sight of wagon-loads of furniture arriving in front of some house
which, with closed blinds and barred doors, had been for a time a
mystery, or even a fear. The boys often expressed this fear by
stamping bravely and noisily on the porch of the house, and then
suddenly darting away with screams of nervous laughter, as if they
expected to be pursued by something uncanny. There was a group who
held that the cellar of a vacant house was certainly the abode of
robbers, smugglers, assassins, mysterious masked men in council about
the dim rays of a candle, and possessing skulls, emblematic bloody
daggers, and owls. Then, near the first of April, would come along a
wagon-load of furniture, and children would assemble on the walk by
the gate and make serious examination of everything that passed into
the house, and taking no thought whatever of masked men.
One day it was announced in the neighborhood that a family was
actually moving into the Hannigan house, next door to Dr. Trescott's.
Jimmie was one of the first to be informed, and by the time some of
his friends came dashing up he was versed in much.
"Any boys?" they demanded, eagerly.
"Yes," answered Jimmie, proudly. "One's a little feller, and one's
most as big as me. I saw 'em, I did."
"Where are they?" asked Willie Dalzel, as if under the circumstances
he could not take Jimmie's word, but must have the evidence of his
senses.
"Oh, they're in there," said Jimmie, carelessly. It was evident he
owned these new boys.
Willie Dalzel resented Jimmie's proprietary way.
"Ho!" he cried, scornfully. "Why don't they come out, then? Why don't
they come out?"
"How d' I know?" said Jimmie.
[Illustration: "STAMPING BRAVELY AND NOISILY ON THE PORCH"]
"Well," retorted Willie Dalzel, "you seemed to know so thundering much
about 'em."
At the moment a boy came strolling down the gravel walk which led from
the front door to the gate. He was about the height and age of Jimmie
Trescott, but he was thick through the chest and had fat legs. His
face was round and rosy and plump, but his hair was curly black, and
his brows were naturally darkling, so that he resembled both a pudding
and a young bull.
He approached slowly the group of older inhabitants, and they had
grown profoundly silent. They looked him over; he looked them over.
They might have been savages observing the first white man, or white
men observing the first savage. The silence held steady.
As he neared the gate the strange boy wandered off to the left in a
definite way, which proved his instinct to make a circular voyage when
in doubt. The motionless group stared at him. In time this unsmiling
scrutiny worked upon him somewhat, and he leaned against the fence and
fastidiously examined one shoe.
In the end Willie Dalzel authoritatively broke the stillness. "What's
your name?" said he, gruffly.
"Johnnie Hedge 'tis," answered the new boy. Then came another great
silence while Whilomville pondered this intelligence.