"Oh, officer," Alfred called after him. "Hang around downstairs. I'll
be down later and fix things up with you." Again Alfred gave his whole
attention to his new-found family. He leaned over the cradle and gazed
ecstatically into the three small faces below his. "This is too much,"
he murmured.
"Much too much," agreed Jimmy, who was now sitting hunched up on the
couch in his customary attitude of gloom.
"You were right not to break it to me too suddenly," said Alfred, and
with his arms encircling three infants he settled himself on the couch
by Jimmy's side. "You're a cute one," he continued to Jimmy, who was
edging away from the three mites with aversion. In the absence of any
answer from Jimmy, Alfred appealed to Zoie, "Isn't he a cute one, dear?"
he asked.
"Oh, yes, VERY," answered Zoie, sarcastically.
Shutting his lips tight and glancing at Zoie with a determined effort at
self restraint, Jimmy rose from the couch and started toward the door.
"If you women are done with me," he said, "I'll clear out."
"Clear out?" exclaimed Alfred, rising quickly and placing himself
between his old friend and the door. "What a chance," and he laughed
boisterously. "You're not going to get out of my sight this night," he
declared. "I'm just beginning to appreciate all you've done for me."
"So am I," assented Jimmy, and unconsciously his hand sought the spot
where his dinner should have been, but Alfred was not to be resisted.
"A man needs someone around," he declared, "when he's going through a
thing like this. I need all of you, all of you," and with his eyes he
embraced the weary circle of faces about him. "I feel as though I could
go out of my head," he explained and with that he began tucking the
three small mites in the pink and white crib designed for but one.
Zoie regarded him with a bored expression' "You act as though you WERE out of your head," she commented, but Alfred
did not heed her. He was now engaged in the unhoped for bliss of singing
three babies to sleep with one lullaby.
The other occupants of the room were just beginning to relax and to show
some resemblance to their natural selves, when their features were again
simultaneously frozen by a ring at the outside door.