PEE-WEE’S PROMISE
Emerson Skybrow was also detained after school that afternoon, but not
for being a humorist; far from it. Life was no jesting matter to
Emerson. He remained for the wildly adventurous task of sharpening the
lead pencils used in his class. He was a sort of chambermaid in the room
which he adorned.
But he did not remain long enough to complete his task for there were
important matters on for the evening. Emerson was going to a show, or,
as his mother preferred him to say, an “exhibition.” He tried to
remember to say this and succeeded very well. In the case of a circus,
he could not very well say _exhibition_. But he could not say show. So
he compromised and said _circus exhibition_. But he ran plunk into a
catastrophe on his way home which all but proved fatal to his plans.
Meanwhile Pee-wee, fresh from his latest triumph, proceeded at once to
Main Street and to the “five and ten” where he began a purchasing
debauch at the hardware counter. Having fifty cents, he bought ten
different things, or rather lots, at five cents each. These appeared to
represent plans both novel and far-reaching in the field of radio
equipment.
He counted out three dozen screws for a nickel; he purchased two brass
handles evidently intended for bureau drawers, at the same price. He
purchased a roll of tire tape and a half-dozen brass screw eyes. His
resources thus diminished to twenty-five cents, he pursued a more
conservative policy in his inspection. He finally bought three boxes of
copper staples for a nickel and allowed his eyes to dwell fondly on a
compartment full of ornate picture hooks, thirty for five cents. He
paused to consider how he might use these and having found a place for
them in his new field of scientific interest, he counted out thirty;
then the salesgirl recounted them and put them in a paper bag.
The remainder of his capital was spent at the counter where radio parts
and accessories were sold. He bought six little brass rods. He did not
know exactly why, but they looked tempting and had a mysterious
suggestion of electrical apparatus about them. In this carnival of
temptation, he was strong enough to reserve one lonely nickel for an ice
cream cone on the way home. It was, perhaps, the most sensible of all
his purchases for at least he knew how he was going to use it.
He started home penniless. No millionaire or United States president
could ever, in his struggling days of early youth, have been a poorer
boy than Pee-wee.
And now in his state of financial ruin, flamboyant circus posters
confronted him on every hand. They called to him from fences and shop
windows. He knew that the afternoon performance was already under way. A
fitful hope still lingered in his mind that something would happen to
enable him to see the evening performance. Warde Hollister (Bridgeboro’s
most confirmed radio-bug) was coming the following day to bring order
out of chaos in the matter of Pee-wee’s aerial and to hook up the
apparatus. Until then he could do nothing.
He paused now and again, gazing wistfully at the seductive posters. One
of these showed three elephants playing a game of one-o’-cat with a
monkey for umpire. Another showed a pony walking a tight rope. Still
another showed the clown’s donkey appropriately cast in the role of
traffic cop.
On the way home he resolved upon a policy which from previous experience
seemed to hold out some prospect of success. He would prefer no requests
but would enthusiastically relate to his mother the unexpected glories
of the great show, leaving it to her own conscience what she would do in
the matter. But his mother and sister had both gone to the city in the
interests of Joan of Arc, leaving the dismal message that they might not
be home for supper at the usual time. As for Doctor Harris, he was
absent on a case and his return was problematical. So Pee-wee withdrew
to his room where he drowned his sorrow by feasting his gaze upon the
waiting apparatus.
After a little while he went forth intending to visit the scene of the
circus and enjoy such external features of the “great exhibeeeshun” as
might be free. On his way through Grantly Place he came upon Emerson
Skybrow standing before a vacant store. This had lately been a drug
store but had proved ill-advised in that purely residential section. The
circus man, however, had filled its dusty windows with flaring posters
of “The world’s most stupendous exhibition.”
In the sidewalk before the windows of this store was an iron grating of
several yards’ area which opened upon a shaft leading into the cellar.
As Pee-wee approached, Emerson was standing upon the grating looking
intently down into the shaft below. Something evidently had happened and
it seemed likely to have been incidental to his inspection of the
posters in the window.
“What’s the matter?” asked Pee-wee.
“It’s plaguy exasperating,” said Emerson.
“What is?”
“This infernal grating; I dropped my tickets down; you can see them down
there.”
Pee-wee looked down, and amid the litter of soiled and crumpled papers
at the bottom of the shaft saw a small, fresh-looking, white envelope.
“I can’t go to the exhibition without them, I know that,” said Emerson,
annoyed. “And I can’t get them, that’s equally certain.”
“What d’you mean _you can’t get them_?” Pee-wee demanded. Then in a
sudden inspiration, he asked, “How many tickets are there?”
“Just two,” said Emerson, preoccupied with his downward gaze.
“You—you going with your mother or your sister?”
“Goodness, no, they’re too busy getting Minerva ready for the Temple’s
masquerade.”
“You—you—maybe—I bet you’re going to take a girl. Hey?” Pee-wee’s
interest was beginning to liven up. “I—gee, I bet you’re not going
alone.”
“It looks as if I were not going at all,” said Emerson.
“Anyway, if you asked me to go, I wouldn’t refuse,” said Pee-wee,
casting a wistful eye upon the posters.
“I’m sure you’d be only too welcome,” said Emerson.
“_Gee whiz_, do you mean it?” Pee-wee gasped.
“It isn’t much of an invitation though,” said Emerson, “with the tickets
so near and yet so far——”
“You call that far?” Pee-wee shouted, his hope mounting. “But anyway, I
bet you’re only fooling; because—I’m not a pal of yours. Are you
fooling? Do you mean it, _honest_?”
“Even if I had the tickets,” Emerson assured him, “I couldn’t go unless
I found a boy to go with me; my mother doesn’t want me to go alone. So
it would be a favor on your part.”
“Geeeeeeeeeeee _whiz_!” said Pee-wee. “Will you promise to take me with
you if I get the tickets?”
“Would you promise to go?” Emerson asked. “What are you talking about?”
Pee-wee vociferated. “_Would I promise to go!_ Oh, _boy_! You just get a
picture of me refusing!”
“You’d have to ask your mother, but anyway I don’t think you can get the
tickets.”
“You should worry about my mother,” said Pee-wee excitedly. “You leave
her to me; handling mothers is my middle name—fathers too. And sisters
and everything. Don’t you worry, I can go and I promise to go
absolutely, positively, cross my heart. And I’ll get the tickets too.”
“I’ve already asked three boys and none of them could go,” said Emerson.
“Two of them didn’t care to——”
“_What?_” gasped Pee-wee.
“The other two were not allowed to.”
“I want to and I’m allowed to both,” Pee-wee said with increasing
elation. “And I promise absolutely and definitely and positively and
double sure to go, so there! Gee whiz, I know how it is with those
fellows, they just, you know, kind of——”
“I know I’m not popular,” said Emerson.
“Oh, _boy_, you’re popular with _me_,” said Pee-wee.