CHAPTER XVI
HOPE DEFERRED
"BOY SCOUTS," explained Mrs. Kukor, "wass awful stylish. Say you wass ascout, so you go in beautiful gangs for makink picnic und seeink birds,mit eatinks from goot foods, und such comes healthy for you."
Cis added to that when she arrived home that evening. "Boy scouts helpthe police sometimes," she declared, "and march in parades, and huntbabies that get lost, and don't let bad boys hurt cats, or girls, andthey do nice things for grown people--just the way Sir Gawain did, andSir Kay. And I shouldn't wonder, at the Table Round, when King Arthur'sknights were little, if they weren't _all_ boy scouts. But, oh, Johnnie,what would _he_ say if you told him when he gets in that you want to bea scout?"
Johnnie laughed. "He'd have a fit!" he declared, the thought of Barber'sconsternation and anger amusing him far more than it made him fearful.
He was still in this happy state of mind when Cis chanced to remark thatthere were girl scouts as well as boy scouts. At once he was shocked,and wrathy, and quite disgusted. For it spoiled the whole boy scout ideafor him if girls could be scouts.
"Aw!" he cried, getting red with annoyance, "I don't believe it! Howcould _girls_ be _scouts_? If knights was scouts when they was little,well, anyhow girls never could be knights!"
Cis did not know how it was, only that it was so; and she reminded him,with appeal in the violet-blue eyes, that she was not a particle toblame for it. "Girls can march," she said; "and they can be kind to catsand people a lot better than boys can."
"One thing sure," Johnnie went on, firmly, "girls can't be cowboys." Hedetermined to think twice before he became a scout since, apparently,the organization was not so exclusive as he had thought.
"Oh, but girls can be cowgirls," went on Cis. "I've seen pictures ofcowgirls _lots_ of times. They wear divided skirts."
At that, Johnnie turned pale. "Well, I bet girls can't bepirate-killers," he retorted angrily, "like Jim Hawkins. Or a p'licemanon horseback, or a millionaire, or own islands all by theirselves, orride el'phants like Aladdin, or poke other girls off horses withspears!"
As Big Tom now came scuffing into the kitchen, nothing more could besaid on the subject. But later on Johnnie again complained to Cis aboutthe intrusion of girls into ranks where they could not fail to be bothunwelcome and unsuited. "They don't belong," he urged, "and they oughtt' keep out! They spoil _ev'ry_thing!"
"Well, men do the same things," she argued. "Just to-day I saw a manrunning a _sewing machine_."
"But he's got t' do it for some reason," Johnnie declared, "like I havet' make vi'lets--and cook."
"But if all the boy scouts don't care because girls are girl scouts, whyshould _you_ care?" she wanted to know, hurt at his attitude toward hersex. "You know you don't belong yet. And if that young man thinks it'sall right, why it must be, and he'll think you're funny if you scoldabout it."
The next morning Johnnie had but one thought: The promised call of theleader. Naturally he did not take his usual trip to search for One-Eyeand bring home a box. Instead he made elaborate preparations lookingtoward the arrival of his visitor. With One-Eye, somehow it had notmattered how the flat appeared. Hero though he was, style counted littlewith the cowboy, who dwelt in a cellar along with horses. And anyhowOne-Eye thought the flat was all right "far's it goes." Those had beenhis very words.
But with that leader, Johnnie felt it was different. He proceeded atonce, mentally, to establish the gallant young stranger in a mostluxurious apartment, with big windows, lace curtains, a figured carpetand shining morris chairs. And though across this attractive bachelorhabitation he stretched a clothesline for the drying of expensivelaundry, he was careful to think this line as a brand new one which wasnever used as a telephone, since right at hand was the genuineinstrument.
How Johnnie went to work! When all of the duties of the flat were done,he pulled off the apron and hid it in the wash boiler. He did not wantthat leader to catch him wearing any garment that belonged to a woman.Neither did he want his newest friend even to guess that he (Johnnie)did any sort of girl's work--in particular any cooking.
"My goodness!" he exclaimed to himself. "If he was t' know what Ido--well, maybe he wouldn't ask me t' be one of his scouts!"
Now he went at himself. He washed his face so that it glistened. Hescrubbed his neck and ears till they were scarlet. And still using thesoap liberally, even contrived to get rid of a coal smudge of longstanding, situated down along his thin left calf.
But the morning passed, and the afternoon went by, and--no one came.
No one, that is, but Mrs. Kukor, who looked in toward five o'clock. Inamazement she noted the neatness of the kitchen and the cleanliness ofhis face. "Ach, Levi!" she exclaimed. "How you gits a runnink jump mityourselluf!"
"Prob'ly that gentleman, he's been awful busy to-day," said Johnnie,"and so he'll be here first thing in the mornin'."
"Pos-i-tivvle!" comforted Mrs. Kukor.
But late that night, when the whole flat was abed, he admitted tohimself not only his disappointment but his keen chagrin. And he said tohimself, independent now, that perhaps, after all, he did not care to bea scout!--there were so many other wonderful things he could be.
This is how it came about that, lying in the dark, he thought a mostcurious thing--one that had to do with the years ahead--the future thatwould find him grown-up.
The thing was this: he held himself away from himself to look athimself--precisely as he might have looked at Cis, or Big Tom, orGrandpa. But this was not all. For he did not look at himself as he was,in the big, old clothes; and he did not look at himself _singly_. Helooked at _six himselves_, all ranged in a wonderful row!
Remembering what Cis had said about girl scouts and cowgirls, there wasno Johnnie Smith either in khaki or in fur-trimmed breeches. The firstJohnnie Smith of the row was a policeman (mounted!); the second, amillionaire, wearing his fur on his collar; then there was a JohnnieSmith dressed like Jim Hawkins, and he had two pistols in his belt;beside this pirate-slaying Johnnie was a Johnnie who inhabited a lonelyisland with a gentleman who owned a parrot and had a man Friday; and nottoo close to the Johnnie who was Crusoe's friend was a Johnnie who rodeabout with Aladdin on a great fighting elephant covered with blankets ofsteel which could turn the arrows of all enemies; last of the six, andperhaps the most glorious, too, was Sir Johnnie Smith, helmeted, and inknightly dress, sitting a curveting gray, lance and shield in hand.
Which of them all would he be?
There was plenty of time to decide. A thin cheek cupped in a too-largehand, he slept, dreaming that the leader was at the hall door, knocking,knocking, knocking, but that for the life of him, Johnnie could not moveto answer the knock, being fixed to the floor, and helpless. He calledto the young man, though, with his whole might, which woke Big Tom andCis, and Cis woke Johnnie, by telling him to turn over, for he washaving a nightmare.
Next morning, hope buoyed Johnnie up from the moment he opened his eyes.He rose joyously; and by nine o'clock everything was in readiness forthe coming of the leader, and Johnnie was waiting eagerly, ears cocked.
But when, shortly before noon, he realized that a stranger was climbingthe tenement stairs, not his ears but his small nose gave him theinformation. Charging the air from the hall was perfume so strong anddelightful that, sniffing it in surprise and pleasure, he hastened toopen the door and glance up and around in the gloom for what he feltsure would be like a smoke.
He saw nothing; but heard lively breathing, and a _swish, swish, swish_;next, a weak, mewlike cry. Then here was Mrs. Kukor herself, droppingdown volubly, step by step, from her floor, aided by the banisters."Eva?" she cried as she came; "wass it mine Eva?"
Now, coming up the stairs to Johnnie's level, appeared a young lady withred cheeks on a marvelously white face. She had on a silk dress (it wasthe silk which was doing the swishing), a great deal of jewelry, and aheavy fur coat fairly adrip around its whole lower edge with dozens oflittle tails.
But this was not all. Slung u
nder one arm, she carried a fat baby!--andwhat a rosy, what a spotlessly clean, baby!
The baby was Mrs. Kukor's grandson, the lady was Mrs. Kukor's daughter,for "Mama!" cried the young mother; and as they met just in front ofJohnnie there was an explosive outburst of talk in a strange tongue, andmuch of what Johnnie afterwards described to Cis as "double kissin',"that is, a kissing on both cheeks, the baby coming in for his share andweeping over it forlornly.
Greeting done, Mrs. Kukor introduced Johnnie. "Eva," she beamed, "fromlong you have hear Mama speakink over Chonnie Schmitt. Und--here wass!"
Fortunately Johnnie's right hand was clean. So was his smiling face."Oh, Mrs. Reisenberger, I thank you for the tel'phone-d'rect'ry," hebegan gratefully, as the two shook hands.
Mrs. Reisenberger was staring at his rags. Also, she was now holding thebaby well up and back. "Oh, I don't like it that my Mama should livedown here," she declared. "She can live swell in the Bronx with Jake andme."
Now Johnnie stared--miserably. For her words were like a sickening blow.What if Mrs. Kukor were to leave? What would he do without her?
"I like I should live always by mine own place," asserted Mrs. Kukor.And to Johnnie, as she plucked a bit of Mrs. Reisenberger's skirtbetween a thumb and finger, "Look, Chonnie! All from silks!"
Then she led the way higher, while heads popped out of doors all up anddown the house; and Mrs. Reisenberger puffed after her, like some sortof a sweet-smelling, red-and-white engine. "Oh, Mama," expostulated theother between breaths as she toiled to that last floor, "how I wish youshould come to live with Jake and me!"
Mrs. Reisenberger was excitement enough for one day. But on the dayfollowing nothing happened, nor on the day after that. And graduallyJohnnie's hope began to lessen, his faith to ooze.
By the end of a week, the young man with the eyeglasses scarcely seemedreal, so that when Cis gently suggested that Johnnie had never met anyleader, he was hardly able to protest that he had. By the end of afortnight, his newest friend merged with that unsubstantial company madeup of David, Aladdin, Uncas and all the rest. Then Johnnie took totelephoning him over the clothesline. Also, when Cis was home, the scoutleader had a part in all those elaborate social functions she enjoyed,such as dances, and calling, and shopping.
These days, Johnnie again wore the apron, and neglected the soap and thecomb and the brushing. Ah, it had all been too good to come true!
Two or three times, with a nubbin of chalk, he tried to draw the face ofthe young man on that handy bit of kitchen wall where the smooth plastershowed. But what unpracticed hand could trace such a splendidcountenance? and what bit of white crayon could give any idea of a cheekall tan and red? It was one thing, and easy, to suggest Big Tom, withhis bulging eyes, his huge, twisted nose, his sloping chin and hisSaturday night bristles. But regular features were quite another matter.
Then one morning as he stood writing the big word "landscape" on theplaster, this word being out of _The Last of the Mohicans_, which heheld in his left hand, his attention was caught by a sound in the hall.Some one seemed to be walking about aimlessly, as if uncertain where toknock.
Johnnie dropped his book into the big shirt, reached the door in a fewlong jumps, jerked it wide, and--looked straight into a smiling, ruddyface.