"Well," said Mrs. Cullen, "he hardly had the strengt' to drink much, she tells me, after he see the big snake an' the little black divil the first time. Poor woman, she says he talked so plain she sees 'em both herself, iv'ry time she looks at the poor body where it's laid out. She says--"
"Don't tell me!" cried the impressionable Della. "Don't tell me, Mrs. Cullen! I can most see 'em meself, right here in me own kitchen! Poor Tom! To think whin I bought me new hat, only last week, the first time I'd be wearin' it'd be to his funeral.
To-morrow afternoon, it is?"
"At two o'clock," said Mrs. Cullen. "Ye'll be comin' to th' house to-night, o' course, Della?"
"I will," said Della. "After what I've been hearin' from ye, I'm 'most afraid to come, but I'll do it. Poor Tom! I remember the day him an' Flora was married--"
But the eavesdropper heard no more; he was on his way up the back stairs. Life and light--and purpose had come to his face once more.
Margaret was out for the afternoon. Unostentatiously, he went to her room, and for the next few minutes occupied himself busily therein. He was so quiet that his mother, sewing in her own room, would not have heard him except for the obstinacy of one of the drawers in Margaret's bureau. Mrs. Schofield went to the door of her daughter's room.
"What are you doing, Penrod?"
"Nothin'."
"You're not disturbing any of Margaret's things, are you?"
"No, ma'am," said the meek lad.
"What did you jerk that drawer open for?"
"Ma'am?"
"You heard me, Penrod."
"Yes, ma'am. I was just lookin' for sumpthing."
"For what?" Mrs. Schofield asked. "You know that nothing of yours would be in Margaret's room, Penrod, don't you?"
"Ma'am?"
"What was it you wanted?" she asked, rather impatiently.
"I was just lookin' for some pins."
"Very well," she said, and handed him two from the shoulder of her blouse.
"I ought to have more," he said. "I want about forty."
"What for?"
"I just want to MAKE sumpthing, Mamma," he said plaintively. "My goodness! Can't I even wnt to have a few pins without everybody makin' such a fuss about it you'd think I was doin' a srime!"
"Doing a what, Penrod?"
"A SRIME!" he repeated, with emphasis; and a moment's reflection enlightened his mother.
"Oh, a crime!" she exclaimed. "You MUST quit reading the murder trials in the newspapers, Penrod. And when you read words you don't know how to pronounce you ought to ask either your papa or me."
"Well, I am askin' you about sumpthing now," Penrod said. "Can't I even have a few PINS without stoppin' to talk about everything in the newspapers, Mamma?"
"Yes," she said, laughing at his seriousness; and she took him to her room, and bestowed upon him five or six rows torn from a paper of pins. "That ought to be plenty," she said, "for whatever you want to make."
And she smiled after his retreating figure, not noting that he looked softly bulky around the body, and held his elbows unnaturally tight to his sides. She was assured of the innocence of anything to be made with pins, and forbore to press investigation. For Penrod to be playing with pins seemed almost girlish. Unhappy woman, it pleased her to have her son seem girlish!
Penrod went out to the stable, tossed his pins into the wheelbarrow, then took from his pocket and unfolded six pairs of long black stockings, indubitably the property of his sister.
(Evidently Mrs. Schofield had been a little late in making her appearance at the door of Margaret's room.)
Penrod worked systematically; he hung the twelve stockings over the sides of the wheelbarrow, and placed the wheelbarrow beside a large packing-box that was half full of excelsior. One after another, he stuffed the stockings with excelsior, till they looked like twelve long black sausages. Then he pinned the top of one stocking securely over thc stuffed foot of another, pinning the top of a third to the foot of the second, the top of a fourth to the foot of the third--and continued operations in this fashion until the twelve stockings were the semblance of one long and sinuous black body, sufficiently suggestive to any normal eye.
He tied a string to one end of this unpleasant-looking thing, led it around the stable, and, by vigorous manipulations, succeeded in making it wriggle realistically; but he was not satisfied, and, dropping the string listlessly, sat down in the wheelbarrow to ponder. Penrod sometimes proved that there were within him the makings of an artist; he had become fascinated by an idea, and could not be content until that idea was beautifully realized. He had meant to create a big, long, ugly-faced horrible black snake with which to interest Della and her friend, Mrs. Cullen; but he felt that results, so far, were too crude for exploitation.
Merely to lead the pinned stockings by a string was little to fulfill his ambitious vision.
Finally, he rose from the wheelbarrow.
"If I only had a cat!" he said dreamily.
