Dawn Eleanor Porter (free novels to read txt) 📖

glance, as acareworn-looking man appeared in the doorway of the house across thetwo back yards, and peered anxiously over at the Burtons' kitchendoor. "Now, don't forget—ten o'clock to-morrow mornin'."

"I won't forget," promised Susan cheerfully, "Now, do you go home an'set easy, Mis' McGuire, an' don't you fret no more. It's comin' outall right—all right, I tell you," she reiterated, as Mrs. McGuirehurried through the doorway.

But when Mrs. McGuire was gone Susan drew a dubious sigh; and hercheery smile had turned to a questioning frown as she went in searchof Keith. Very evidently Susan was far from feeling quite so sureabout Keith's cooperation as she would have Mrs. McGuire think.

Keith was in the living-room, his head bowed in his two hands, hiselbows on the table before him. At the first sound of Susan's steps helifted his head with a jerk.

"I was lookin' for you," began Susan the moment she had crossed thethreshold. Susan had learned that Keith hated above all things to haveto speak first, or to ask, "Who is it?" "Mis' McGuire's jest beenhere."

"Yes, I heard her voice," returned the boy indifferently.

"She was tellin' about her John."

"How is he getting along?"

"He's in a bad way. Oh, he's real well physicianally, but he's in abad way in his mind."

"Well, you don't wonder, do you?"

"Oh, no, 'course not. Still, well, for one thing, he don't like to seefolks."

"Strange! Now, I'd think he'd just dote on seeing folks, wouldn'tyou?"

Susan caught the full force of the sarcasm, but superbly she ignoredit.

"Well, I don't know—maybe; but, anyhow, he don't, an' Mis' McGuire'sthat worried she don't know what to do. You see, she found him oncewith his daddy's pistol"—Susan was talking very fast now—"an''course that worked her up somethin' terrible. I'm afraid he hain'tgot much backbone. They don't dare to leave him alone a minute—not aminute. An' Mis' McGuire, she was wonderin' if—if you couldn't help'em out some way."

"I?" The short ejaculation was full of amazement.

"Yes. That's what she come over for this mornin'."

"I? They forget." Keith fell back bitterly. "John McGuire might gethold of a dozen revolvers, and I wouldn't know it."

"Oh, 'twa'n't that. They didn't want you to WATCH him. They wanted youto—Well, it's jest this. Mis' McGuire thought as how if she could gether John out on the back porch, an' you happened to be in our backyard, an' should go over an' speak to him, maybe you'd get to talkin'with him, an' go up an' sit down. She thought maybe 'twould get himout of hisself that way. You see, he won't talk to—to most folks. Hedon't like to be stared at." (Susan threw a furtive glance intoKeith's face, then looked quickly away.) "But she thought maybe heWOULD talk to you."

"Yes, I—see." Keith drew in his breath with a little catch.

"An' so she said there wa'n't anybody anywhere that could help so muchas you—if you would."

"Why, of course, if I really could HELP—"

Susan did not need to look into Keith's face to catch the longing andheart-hunger and dawning hope in the word left suspended on his lips.She felt her own throat tighten; but in a moment she managed to speakwith steady cheerfulness.

"Well, you can. You can help a whole lot. I'm sure you can. An' Mis'McGuire is, too. An' what's more, you're the only one what can help'em, in this case. So we'll keep watch to-morrow mornin', an' when hecomes out on the porch—well, we'll see what we will see." And Susan,just as if her own heart was not singing a triumphant echo of the songshe knew was in his, turned away with an elaborate air ofindifference.

Yet, when to-morrow came, and when Keith went out into the yard inresponse to the presence of John McGuire on his back porch, the resultwas most disappointing—to Susan. To Keith it did not seem to be somuch so. But perhaps Keith had not expected quite what Susan hadexpected. At all events, Keith came back to the house with a glow onhis face and a springiness in his step that Susan had not seen therefor months. Yet all that had happened was that Keith had called outfrom the gate a pleasant "Good-morning!" to the blinded soldier, andhad followed it with an inconsequential word or two about the weather.John McGuire had answered a crisp, cold something, and had risen atonce to go into the house. Keith, at the first sound of his feet onthe porch floor, had turned with a cheery "Well, I must be going backto the house." Whereupon John McGuire had sat down again, and Mrs.McGuire, who at Keith's first words, had started to her feet, droppedback into her chair.

Apparently not much accomplished, certainly; yet there was the glow onKeith's face and the springiness in Keith's step; and when he reachedthe kitchen, he said this to Susan:

"The next time John McGuire is on the back porch, please let me know."

And Susan let him know, both then and at subsequent times.

It was a pretty game and one well worth the watching. Certainly Susanand Mrs. McGuire thought it so. On the one side were persistence andperseverance and infinite tact. On the other were a distrustfulantagonism and a palpable longing for an understanding companionship.

At first the intercourse between the two blind youths consisted of amere word or two tossed by Keith to the other who gave a still shorterword in reply. And even this was not every day, for John McGuire wasnot out on the porch every day. But as the month passed, he came moreand more frequently, and one evening Mrs. McGuire confided to Susanthe fact that John seemed actually to fret now if a storm kept himindoors.

"An' he listens for Keith to come along the fence—I know he does,"she still further declared. "Oh, I know he doesn't let him say muchyet, but he hasn't jumped up to go into the house once since thosefirst two or three times, an' that's somethin'. An' what's more, helet Keith stay a whole minute at the gate talkin' yesterday!" shefinished in triumph.

"Yes, an' the best of it is," chimed in Susan, "it's