The Heart's Kingdom

"Oh, son, how careless!" Martha was just exclaiming when a call in

Jacob's sharp voice interrupted her.

"Martha, grocery!" it commanded her and I was not sure whether he was

ignorant of the fact that I was still her caller or was interrupting her

on purpose. I think Martha shared the same uncertainty; she blushed and

looked both ashamed and frightened.

"I'll go now, Martha, out this door that leads onto the street," I

hastened to say to relieve her of the dilemma. "But I'm coming back to

you," I added with determination, as I made ready to slip out the side

door of the Last Chance in regular underworld style.

"Please don't, Miss Charlotte," she called, as she was passing through

the other door into the world from which I was escaping. The sad

significance of our two exits struck me so forcibly that I was two

blocks away before I really became conscious of things around me, and

then I was brought back to the squalid street of the Settlement and its

surroundings by feeling a damp little hand slipped into mine as I strode

along.

"Please take me with you, Miss Lady," the Stray pleaded, as he ran along

beside me, trying to keep up with my long steps. "I've got me a dog now

to keep off turkles from me and you." And the slinking brindle bunch of

ears and tail and very little else, at our heels, regarded me with the

same brave entreaty. He and the Stray, indeed, presented a picture of

chivalrous attention as they stood regarding me.

"But what will your mother say?" I asked of my small human attendant

with conscientious contention against my desire to take them both with

me on out of the dirt and heat and flies and other swarming young humans

up into the coolness and shade and--loneliness--of my own life.

"She groceries all day and has to forget me," he answered calmly. "You

can bring me back to bed when she is through." And to this plea was

added a pathetic wag of the brindle tail.

"Well, I'll take you up as far as Mother Spurlock's and give you both a

tea cake," I capitulated as I started again up the street of the

Settlement towards the haven of the Town.

And as my escort and I progressed through the Settlement I could see the

most violent signs of interest being manifested in all of us. Dirty,

sweaty women, with their sleeves rolled up, came to the doors to look at

us, and as I greeted them one and all with a nod they smiled back with

pleased astonishment. I had never been down in the Settlement before,

but most of them spoke to me by name and one toothless old woman hastily

broke off a bloom from a struggling geranium, came to her rickety gate

and offered it to me with an admiring smile.