The Princess and Joe Potter Part 16

"If I'd seen any soap an' water I'd known what they meant; but it's been so long since I was in a reg'lar house that I've kind'er forgot how to behave."

Aunt Dorcas turned away quickly, and when she had left the room Plums said, as he unbent from the awkward position he had at first a.s.sumed in the straight chair:

"Dan Fernald ain't in this! He may be a mighty big detective, but he slips up when it comes to hustlin' for these kind of snaps!"

"Aunt Dorcas is nice, ain't she?"

"She's a corker!"

"If the princess was only here we'd be jest about as snug as any two fellers that could be found in this world."

"I'm going to give you the chamber over the kitchen; it is clean and comfortable, but, of course, not as nice as the spare-room," aunt Dorcas said, as she entered suddenly, causing Master Plummer to instantly a.s.sume a less negligent att.i.tude.

"Plums an' me ain't slept in a reg'lar bed for so long that a blanket spread out on the floor would seem mighty good to us," Joe replied, and the little woman held up both hands in astonishment.

"Haven't slept in a bed! Well, I've heard of the heathen in our midst, but never believed I'd be brought in contact with them. How did you--But, there, I won't ask questions to-night, when I know you must be tired. We'll read a chapter, and then you can go to bed. I will wash the dishes afterwards."

Reverentially the little woman took a well-worn Bible from the small table beneath one of the windows, and while the two boys who were fleeing from the officers of the law, as they believed, gazed at her in wonderment and surprise, but not understanding that which they heard, she read one of the psalms.

Then kneeling, she prayed in simple language which reached their hearts, for the homeless ones within her gates.

Joe's eyes were moist when she rose to her feet, and Plums whispered, in a voice choked with emotion:

"She's a daisy, that's what's the matter with her!"

CHAPTER VIII.

A HUNGRY DETECTIVE.

When aunt Dorcas had ushered the boys into the "room over the kitchen,"

and left them with a kindly "good night," they gazed around in such astonishment as can best be depicted by Master Plummer's emphatic remark shortly after the little woman went down-stairs.

"I've always thought swells had a pretty soft snap when they went to bed; but I never counted on its bein' anything like this. Do you s'pose she means for us to get right into that bed, an' muss it all up?"

Joe did not reply for several seconds, and then said, doubtfully:

"It seems as if that's what she must have meant, else why did she tell about her best sheets bein' in the other room? I thought the old German woman's house was mighty nice; but it wasn't a marker 'longside of this.

If the princess was only here!"

"You can bet I don't bother my head 'bout no princesses when I've got a chance to crawl into that nest. I almost wish now I'd had sense enough to use one of them towels we had on the table, 'cause my hands look pretty dirty when you get 'em side of that sheet."

"Well, see this, Plums! If you'll believe it, here's a pitcher full of water, an' soap, an' everything! Let's wash up now, will you?"

Ordinarily, Master Plummer would have met this suggestion with a decided refusal; but, being surrounded as he was by so much luxury, it seemed necessary he should do something in the way of celebrating.

It was not a very careful toilet which Plums made on this night, for he was in too great a hurry to get between the lavender-scented sheets to admit of spending much time on such needless work as washing his hands and face; but he was more cleanly, and perhaps felt in a better condition to enjoy the unusual luxury.

"Say, Joe, it's a mighty big pity we've got to go to sleep."

"Why?"

"'Cause we ought'er keep awake jest to know how much swellin' we're doin'. I stopped at a Chatham Street lodgin'-house one night, when I was feelin' kind of rich, an' thought the bed there was great; but it wasn't a marker 'longside of this one. I shouldn't wonder if there were feathers in it."

Joe was quite as well pleased with the surroundings as was his companion; but he said less on the subject because his mind was fully occupied with thoughts of the princess,--sad thoughts they were, for he was beginning to believe he had been wickedly selfish in taking her away from the place where her parents might have been found, simply to save himself from arrest.

He fell asleep, however, quite as soon as did the boy on whose conscience there was no burden, and neither of the fugitives were conscious of anything more until aroused by a gentle tapping on the chamber door, to hear aunt Dorcas say:

"It's five o'clock, children, and time all honest people were out of bed."

"We're gettin' up now," Joe cried, and he was on his feet in an instant; but Master Plummer lazily turned himself in the rest-inviting bed, as he muttered:

"I don't see how it makes a feller honest to get up in the night when he's out in the country where he hasn't got to go for the mornin'

papers, an' I guess I'll stay here a spell longer."

"You won't do anything of the kind," and Joe pulled the fat boy out of bed so quickly that he had no time for resistance.

It was seldom Plums lost his temper; but now he was on the verge of doing so because of having been thus forcibly taken from the most comfortable resting-place he had ever known.

"Now, don't get on your ear," Joe said, soothingly. "Aunt Dorcas has told us to get up, an' that settles it. We're bound to do jest as she says, 'cause all these things are hers. It won't pay to turn rusty, Plums, else we may find ourselves fired out before breakfast, an' I _would_ like to stay till to-morrow."

"Don't you want to stop any longer than that?" and Master Plummer began hurriedly to dress himself.

"'Course I'd like to; but you see I've got to go back to the old German lady's in the mornin'."

"What good will that do? It ain't likely you can bring the princess here."

"I know that as well as you do; but I promised to be there in two days, an' I'm goin', so we won't have any talk about it."

Five minutes later, aunt Dorcas's guests were in the kitchen, where the little woman was preparing a most appetising breakfast, and he would have been a dull boy who did not understand that she must have been up at least two hours before arousing her visitors.

"It ain't right for you to wait on us jest like we was reg'lar folks, an' we ain't used to it," Joe said, in a tone of mild reproof. "Anything would have been good enough for us to eat, without your gettin' up so early an' workin' hard to cook it."

"Bless your heart, Joseph, I'm doing no more than if I was alone, except perhaps there may be more victuals on the table. My appet.i.te isn't as hearty as it used to be; but I've got a pretty good idea how it is with growing boys."

"You're mighty good to us, aunt Dorcas, an' I'll feel a heap better if you'll give me some work to do before breakfast."

"I might have let you bring in the wood, if I'd thought; but I'm so accustomed to doing such things for myself that it never came into my mind. I wonder if you could split up a few kindlings? That is the most trying part of keeping house alone, for whenever I strike a piece of wood with an axe I never know whether it's going to break, or fly up and hit me in the face."

"Of course we can do it. Where's the axe?"

Aunt Dorcas led the way to the shed, where was her summer's store of wood, and before she returned to the kitchen Joe was causing the chips to fly in a way which made the little woman's heart glad.

"It does me good to see you work, Joseph. I have always lived in mortal terror of an axe; but you seem to know how to use one."