Dawn Eleanor Porter (free novels to read txt) 📖

hand. An' pretty quick John was talkin' about it, too.He had the rose an' was smellin' of it. Then Keith had a new knife,an' he passed that over, an' pretty quick I saw that John had thatlittle link puzzle of Keith's, an' was havin' a great time tryin' tostraighten it out. That's the first time I heard him laugh.

"I began to realize then what Keith was doin'. He was fillin' John'smind full of somethin' else beside himself, for just a minute, an' wasshowin' him that there were things he could call by name, like therose an' the knife an' the puzzle, even if he couldn't SEE 'em. Oh,Keith didn't SAY anything like that to him—trust him for that. Butbefore John knew it, he was DOIN' it—callin' things by name, I mean.

"An' Keith is comin' again to-morrow. John TOLD me so. An' if youcould have seen his face when he said it! Oh, Susan, isn't itwonderful?" she finished fervently, as she turned to go.

"It is, indeed—wonderful," murmured Susan. But Susan's eyes were outthe window on Keith's face—Keith and his father were coming up thewalk talking; and on Keith's face was a light Susan had never seenthere before.

CHAPTER XXVI

MAZIE AGAIN

It came to be the accepted thing almost at once, then, that KeithBurton and John McGuire should spend their mornings together on theMcGuires' back porch. In less than a fortnight young McGuire evencrossed the yard arm in arm with Keith to the Burtons' back porch andsat there one morning. After that it was only a question as to whichporch it should be. That it would be one of them was a foregoneconclusion.

Sometimes the two boys talked together. Sometimes they worked on oneof Keith's raised picture puzzles. Sometimes Keith read aloud from oneof his books. Whatever they did, their doing it was the source ofgreat interest to the entire neighborhood. Not only did Mrs. McGuireand Susan breathlessly watch from their respective kitchens, butfriends and neighbors fabricated excuses to come to the two houses inorder to see for themselves; and children gathered along thedivisional fence and gazed with round eyes of wonder. But they gazedsilently. Everybody gazed silently. Even the children seemed tounderstand that the one unpardonable sin was to let the blind boys onthe porch know that they were the objects of any sort of interest.

One day Mazie Sanborn came. She brought a new book for Mrs. McGuire toread—an attention she certainly had never before bestowed on JohnMcGuire's mother. She talked one half-minute about the book—and fiveminutes about the beautiful new friendship between the two blind youngmen. She insisted on going into the kitchen where she could see thetwo boys on the porch. Then, before Mrs. McGuire could divine herpurpose and stop her, she had slipped through the door and out on tothe porch itself.

"How do you do, gentlemen," she began blithely. "I just—"

But the terrified Mrs. McGuire had her by the arm and was pulling herback into the kitchen before she could finish her sentence.

On the porch the two boys had leaped to their feet, John McGuire, inparticular, looking distressed and angry.

"Who was that? Is anybody—there?" he demanded.

"No, dear, not now." In the doorway Mrs. McGuire was trying to nodassurance to the boys and frown banishment to Mazie Sanborn at one andthe same moment.

"But there was—some one," insisted her son sharply.

"Just some one that brought a book to me, dearie, an' she's gone now."Frantically Mrs. McGuire was motioning Mazie to make her assertion thetruth.

John McGuire sat down then. So, too, did Keith. But all the rest ofthe morning John was nervously alert for all sounds. And his ears werefrequently turned toward the kitchen door. He began to talk again,too, bitterly, of the little tin cup for the pennies and the sign"Pity the Poor Blind." He lost all interest in Keith's books andpuzzles, and when he was not railing at the tragedy of his fate, hewas sitting in gloomy silence.

Keith told Susan that afternoon that if Mrs. McGuire did not keeppeople away from that porch when he was out there with John, he wouldnot answer for the consequences. Susan told Mrs. McGuire, and Mrs.McGuire told Mazie Sanborn, at the same time returning the loanedbook—all of which did not tend to smooth Miss Mazie's already ruffledfeelings.

To Dorothy Mazie expressed her mind on the matter.

"I don't care! I'll never go there again—never!" she declaredangrily; "nor speak to Mrs. McGuire, nor that precious son of hers,nor Keith Burton, either. So there!"

"Oh, Mazie, but poor Keith isn't to blame," remonstrated Dorothyearnestly, the color flaming into her face.

"He is, too. He's just as bad as John McGuire. He jumped up and lookedjust as cross as John McGuire did when I went out on to that porch.And he doesn't ever really want to see us. You know he doesn't. Hejust stands us because he thinks he's got to be polite."

"But, Mazie, dear, he's so sensitive, and he feels his afflictionkeenly, and—"

"Oh, yes, that's right—stand up for him! I knew you would," snappedMazie crossly. "And everybody knows it, too—running after him the wayyou do."

"RUNNING AFTER HIM!" Dorothy's face was scarlet now.

"Yes, running after him," reiterated the other incisively; "and youalways have—trotting over there all the time with books and puzzlesand candy and flowers. And—"

"For shame, Mazie!" interrupted Dorothy, with hot indignation. "As iftrying to help that poor blind boy to while away a few hours of histime were RUNNING AFTER HIM."

"But he doesn't WANT you to while away an hour or two of his time. AndI should think you'd see he didn't. You could if you weren't so deadin love with him, and—"

"Mazie!" gasped Dorothy, aghast.

"Well, it's so. Anybody can see that—the way you color up every timehis name is mentioned, and the way you look at him, with your heart inyour eyes, and—"

"Mazie Sanborn!" gasped Dorothy again. Her face was not scarlet now.It had gone dead white. She was on her feet, horrified, dismayed, andvery angry.

"Well, I don't care. It's so. Everybody knows it. And when a fellowshows so plainly that he'd rather be let