CHAPTER VI
THE BORROWED BIRTHDAY
"Is it tomorrow now?" asked Bobby eagerly as he awoke the next morningin the little white room and found the Lady Who Likes Little Boysbending over him.
"Yes, this is day-after-tomorrow."
"Your little boy's birthday?"
The reply was a long time in coming.
"It's your birthday this time, dear."
"For all day and always?"
"For all day long."
Bobby felt of himself all over and then announced wistfully:
"It doesn't not feel any different, having birthdays--not yet."
"Wait, Bobby, until you have had your bath and breakfast, then maybe itwill be different."
Bobby didn't mind the bath this time at all, only he was in atremendous hurry to get through with it, and when he was seated at thetable he scampered through breakfast very quickly without being scoldedonce. He did not even notice that the girl with the little white aprondid not bring him things to eat as she had the night before. He wasback in the red room with the forty or a dozen red-shaded lights, nowall put out, shaking hands with the Man With the Pocketful of Quarters,when the maid came into the room and said:
"It's all ready now, sir."
"All right, Sarah," replied the man and the girl left the room.
"We're going to start out _this_ birthday right, son."
"Yes'm," said Bobby, watching him with eyes that sparkled expectantly.
"Up in the room where you slept," continued the man, "are a lot ofthings that small boys like. I want you to go up there alone and lookthem over. Then you are to pick out the _one_ thing that you want mostof all--just one. That will be yours for keeps."
"'Glassies' or the bat or the train?" asked Bobby.
"It's just _one_ thing for now," interposed the lady. "There will be--"
"Don't give me away, Alice," pleaded the man.
Bobby wondered how she _could_ give away the Man With the Pocketful ofQuarters, but soon forgot that thinking about more important matters.
"Or little pigs to buy an edge-cation with curly tails?" pursued Bobby.
The man burst out into a big laugh that filled the room.
"I haven't a doubt but what you'll have a curly-tailed edge-cation allright, Bobby, when the time comes, pigs or no pigs."
"Yes'm," smiled Bobby not knowing quite what the man meant.
"Come," said the lady. "I'll go as far as the door with you."
And that was as far as she _did_ go. Her hand slipped gently overBobby's straight blond hair and lingered there before she pushed himinto the room and closed the door between them.
Bobby stopped at the head of the little bed which had already been madeup, and looked carefully about the room. There was the enchanting trainall ready to get up steam to carry him away into that strange landwhere red Indians tomahawk little boys, or where pirates dig all day inthe white sand making places to hide yellow gold in. And there on thebed was the box of marbles, "glassies," agates and all, and a littleblue sailor suit, and a baseball bat, and a whole row of quarters, andthere--
Bobby's eyes opened wide and he made a jump for the thing that wasalmost hidden in the pocket of the sailor suit. It _couldn't_ be, andyet it _was_! The shiningest, white-handled pocket knife a boy everhad! He counted the blades; there were three of them, but not one ofthem could he open. He sat down on the floor and tried and tried toopen those blades, oblivious to everything else.
Before very long he became aware of a barely audible scratching sound.It was soon followed by a high-pitched whine. Bobby looked eagerly allabout; a strange excitement thrilled his blood, but didn't see anythingthat _could_ make such a noise.
At last he leaned clear over until his head almost touched the floorand looked under the bed. Way down at the foot of it was somethingin a basket, that moved. Bobby watched fascinated, hardly daring tobreathe. The whining came again. Then the dearest little black nose waslifted above the edge of the basket and two soft brown eyes looked intoBobby's.
Bobby shouted and the puppy yelped at the same instant. Bobby,forgetting that he could walk around the bed, crawled under it. Thepuppy tried just as hard to come to him. It managed to get half way outof the basket when Bobby's face came down against its black nose. Puppyand boy mingled affection and gratitude.
The puppy's ugly face and wide-apart bow-legs were at that momentthe most beautiful things in the world to Bobby. Even birthdays wereforgotten and he hugged and patted that worshipping creature for along, long time before recollection of the Lady Who Likes Little Boyscaused him to crawl hastily out from under the bed, burst through thedoor, and tear wildly downstairs to the red room, the puppy clutched tohis heart.
The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters sat at the table in the corner,talking to the Lady. They both looked up.
"Well, son, is that what you want most?"
"Yes'm," smiled Bobby. "Is it _all_ mine?"
"Head, body and tail," replied the man.
"It knew me!" exulted Bobby.
The man and the lady exchanged laughs.
"He's all boy," said the man. "Made of the right stuff."
The lady patted the man's shoulder and looked away.
"Come here, son, and tell me what you think about birthdays."
Bobby marched close up to the man.
"Wish it was mine."
The wistful note in his voice made the lady's hands fly out to him.
"Oh, you like it, do you?" asked the man. "Well, this birthday has onlyjust started."
"Yes'm," said Bobby and hugged the squirming puppy till it licked hisear.
"Here's another quarter for you. That's four quarters--quite a sum fora small boy."
Bobby took one hand off the puppy long enough to accept the quarter.
"What have you done with the others, Bobby?" asked the lady.
He fished them out of the pocket of his blouse and held all four out inthe palm of his hand.
"That makes a dollar, son. That's a whole lot of money for a boy onlyfive years old."
That set Bobby to wondering.
"Is it lots of money for a little boy with _seven_ birthdays?" he asked.
"You can just bet your boots it is. A boy can buy all sorts of thingswith a dollar."
As he spoke, the man pulled a great, round white piece of money out ofhis pocket, thereby revealing to Bobby that his pockets contained otherthings besides quarters, and making him forget that four quarters _is_an awful lot of money even for a boy with seven birthdays.
"Know what this is?" asked the man.
"Money," replied Bobby.
"How much money?"
"A grown-up quarter," hazarded Bobby at length.
"It's a dollar," replied the man, "and is worth just as much as thefour quarters. Would you rather have your money all in one piece? I'llgive you the dollar for the four quarters."
Bobby hesitated in perplexity and the Lady came to his rescue.
"Take the big piece, Bobby. It's not so easy to lose and easier to findif you do lose it."