O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 Part 38

"I hate this ole school. I wanna leave. You tell Florette."

"Aw, now, Freddy----"

"I'm lonesome. I don't like n.o.body here." His voice dropped. "An'--an'

they don't like me."

"Aw, now, Freddy----"

"Maybe Miss Mary does. But Miss Eva don't. Anyway, I ain't no use to anybody here. What's the sense of stayin' where you ain't no use? An'

they're always callin' me down. I don't do nothin' right. I can't even talk so's they'll like it. Florette liked the way I talked all right.

An' you get what I mean, don't you, Bert? But they don't know nothin'.

Why, they don't know nothin', Bert! Why, there's one boy ain't ever been inside a theatre! What-ta you know about that, Bert? Gee, Bert, I'm awful glad you come! I'd 'a' bust not havin' somebody to talk to."

Bert was silent. He still held Freddy in his arms. His heart reeled at the thought of what he must tell the child. He cleared his throat, opened his mouth to speak, but the words would not come.

Freddy chattered on, loosing the flood gates of his acc.u.mulated loneliness. He told how Florette had bidden him "learn to be a li'l gem'mum," and how he really tried; but how silly were the rules that governed a gentlemanly existence; how the other li'l gem'mum laughed at him, and talked of things he had never heard of, and never heard of the things he talked of, until at last he had ceased trying to be one of them.

"You tell Florette I gotta leave this place," he concluded firmly.

"Bert, now you tell Florette. Will you, Bert? Huh?"

"Freddy--I----Freddy, lissen now. I got somethin' to tell you."

"What?"

"I--I come on to tell you, Freddy. Tha's why I come out to tell you, see?"

"Well, spit it out," Freddy laughed.

Bert groaned.

"Wha.s.sa matter, Bert? What's eatin' you?"

"I--I----Say, Freddy, lissen--lissen, now, Freddy. I----"

"Florette! She ain't sick? Bert, is Florette sick?"

"No! No, I----"

"You tell me, Bert! If it's bad news about Florette----"

His voice died out. His face grew white. Bert could not meet his eyes.

"No, no, now, Freddy," Bert mumbled, turning away his head. "You got me all wrong. It--it's good news, sonny."

Like a flash Freddy's face cleared.

"What about, Bert? Good news about what?"

"Why--ah--why, the ac's goin' big, like I tole you. An'--an' say, boy, out at one place--out at K.C., it--why, it stopped the show!"

"Stopped the show!" breathed Freddy in awe. "Oh, Bert, we never done that before!"

"An' so--so she--ah, Florette--y'see, kid, account of the ac' goin' so big, why, she--has to--go away--for a little while."

"Go away, Bert! Where?"

"To--to--Englund, an'--Australia."

"To Englund, an'--Australia?"

"Yeah, they booked her up 'count o' the ac' goin' so great."

"Oh, Bert!"

"Yeah. An' lissen. She's booked for fifty-two weeks solid!"

"Fifty-two weeks! Oh, Bert, that ain't never happened to us before!"

"I know. It's--great!"

Bert blew out his breath loudly, mopped his forehead. He could look at Freddy now, and he saw a face all aglow with love and pride.

"When she comin' to get me, Bert?" the child asked confidently.

"Why--why, Freddy--now--you---"

Bert could only flounder and look dismayed.

"She ain't goin' off an' leave me!" wailed the child.

"Now, lissen! Say, wait a minute! Lissen!"

"But, Bert! Bert! She--"

"Say, don't you wanna help Florette, now she's got this gran' bookin'

an' all?"

"Sure I do, Bert. I wanna he'p her with her quick changes like I useter."

"You he'p her! Say, how would that look in all them swell places she's goin' to? W'y, she'll have a maid!"

"Like the headliners, Bert?"

"Sure!"

"A c.o.o.n, Bert?"

"Sure! Like a li'l musical com'dy star."