CHAPTER I.
THE WAY IT BEGAN

Nobody except Miss Lucy Armacost would have thought of starting an orphan asylum with one orphan. Even she might not have done it but for Molly Johns. As for Molly, she never dreamed of such a thing.

She was just careering down the avenue one windy afternoon in early December, upon one roller skate, and Miss Lucy was just coming up the block, walking rather unsteadily upon her two small feet. The dear little old lady was so tiny and so timid, and the wind so big and boisterous, that even without the accident she would have had difficulty in climbing the slope to her big house on the corner.

This was the way of it. Molly was making a reckless speed toward the bottom of the hill, swinging one arm to keep herself in balance, and now and then just touching the foot which wore no skate to the pavement; with the free hand she grasped the thin little fingers of a ragged boy, who also wore one skate, and forced him along beside her at her own rapid pace.

She was talking and laughing and singing, apparently all in one breath, just as she always was, and the thin little boy was doing his best to imitate her. Between them they made such a jolly racket that they heard nothing else, not even the trolley cars whizzing by, till Miss Lucy screamed:

“Oh! my dears! my dears!”

Down they all went in a heap; and it was the first time in her life that Miss Lucy remembered to have made such an exhibition of herself.

“The idea! – of my falling flat in the public street! Oh! this is dreadful!”

Molly and the boy were up almost as quick as they were down, and each had an arm about the lady, while the girl’s tones were full of shame and sympathy.

“Oh! please forgive me! I am so sorry! I didn’t see you and he didn’t, and we were having such a good time. Are you hurt? Are you hurt very much? Shall I call a policeman? Would you like an ambulance? Are you the lady that lives in the house on the Avenue, the corner house with sixteen rooms and a garden and side yard, and – ”

Miss Armacost was also upon her feet once more and had regained her self-possession. After one hasty glance around, she had satisfied herself that her mishap had not been observed by “the neighbors,” and her dignity had promptly returned.

“Whoever I may be, you are certainly the girl who asks questions!” she returned, rather crisply.

“Yes’m, I reckon I am. I’m Molly Johns. I live on Side Street. My house is the one runs right back of your garden. That’s the way I knew you. I often see you out around, pottering.”

“Oh! you do, do you? You are a very observing young person – at the wrong times.”

Molly opened her big gray eyes to their widest.

The little old lady was as odd as she looked, after all. Then she reflected that when people spoke in that tone of voice they were usually suffering in some manner. It was the very sound Father Johns’ speech had, whenever he came home from an especially hard day’s toil and his rheumatism bothered him. She again slipped her strong arm about Miss Lucy’s waist and remarked, anxiously:

“I do believe I did hurt you badly! Please lean on me and I’ll help you home in a jiffy. Then some of your ‘girls’ will take care of you.”

By “girls” Molly meant servants, of which there were at least three in the big corner house.

“Very well. The sooner we bring this episode to an end the better pleased I shall be,” answered the other. In reality, she had been more touched than she herself quite understood by the frank commiseration in Molly’s eyes, and she could not remember when anybody had clasped her body so affectionately. The sensation it gave her was an odd one; else a person so eminently correct and punctilious as Miss Armacost would never have walked the whole length of the finest block on the Avenue, and in full sight of her aristocratic neighbors’ windows, within the embrace of a girl from Side Street.

“But, my child, you should be more careful. You might have broken my bones.”

“Yes’m, I might; might-be’s aren’t half so bad as did-do’s,” returned Molly airily, and again Miss Lucy flashed a penetrating glance into the merry, freckled face.

But there was no disrespect manifest upon it, and the lady remarked:

“You seem a very cheerful person.”

“Why, of course. Aren’t you?”

“Sometimes. But how you hobble along on that one skate! Why in the world don’t you use two, or go without entirely?”

“Well, you see, if I wore both, Towsley couldn’t have any. If he wore both and I none, there’d be nobody to teach him how. That’s why.”

“What – what did you say his name was?”

Miss Lucy was very thankful that the dirty little urchin was on the further side of Molly, who was quite clean, and that her own dainty garments could not be soiled by contact with his.

“He doesn’t know, exactly. The folks around call him ‘Towsley,’ ’cause his hair’s never combed, except once in a while when I take him in hand. It’s such a pretty yellow color, too, isn’t it? It seems a pity it couldn’t always be tidy, doesn’t it?”

Molly had a disconcerting habit of appealing to anybody near for confirmation of any opinion she expressed, and this was annoying to Miss Lucy. She considered it distinctly ill-bred, and whatever was ill-bred was disagreeable to her. She was very glad that she had reached the big marble steps which led up to her own front door, and she disengaged herself from Molly’s supporting arm with a brisk little motion which emphasized her words:

“This thing has gone far enough!”

But the girl from Side Street didn’t notice this. She rarely did notice unpleasant small things. She hadn’t time; being always so busy looking after the larger pleasant ones, of which her world seemed full.

“Yes, I suppose it has. I’m so glad, more glad than I can say, that I didn’t hurt you. It would have made me so unhappy, and I just hate to be unhappy.”

“Oh! you do, do you?”

“Yes’m. Well, if you think you’re all right now, Towsley and I’ll just take another try at it and see if we can’t keep our eyes right front next time. Good-by. I hope you’ll not feel shook up, afterward, as mother did the day she fell down-stairs. Didn’t appear to hurt her a mite, then, but she was all trembling and queer-headed for a week afterward. Come on, Tows! I didn’t have but fifteen minutes for play, to begin with, and a lot of that’s been wasted already. Good-by.”

Before the servant had opened the door to admit her mistress the two children and the one pair of skates had whisked away to the foot of the block; this time, however, keeping well to the asphalt in the centre of the Avenue, where they would not be apt to collide with anything smaller than a horse and wagon, which would be better able to resist their onslaught than Miss Lucy had been.

“Why, mistress! Whatever has happened? Your cloak is all dusty and your bonnet – ”

Miss Armacost interrupted. She had not thought of any damage to her attire, and her servant’s exclamation revived unpleasant ideas. After all, the neighbors might have seen and commented; might even, at that moment, be gazing at her from behind their lace curtains. The thought was painful, and the lady retreated through her vestibule into the dimness of the hall beyond. There she paused and bade her maid:

“Wait where you are, Mary, till those two children come back up the Avenue. Then ask them to step inside.”

Much wondering, Mary remained. “Whatever does mistress want with such truck? Side Street, even Alley, kids they look to be. Pshaw! That’s the girl from the house in the rear. ‘Jolly Molly,’ the youngsters call her. She’s the smartest one I ever saw. Say, hello! Molly! Oh, Molly!”

It wasn’t so easy skating up hill, and the children approached more slowly than they had descended; yet as soon as the girl came within reach of Mary’s summons she let go her playmate’s hand and ran to the foot of the steps.

“What is it? Did she really get hurt?”

“Hurt? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only know that my mistress wants to see you, for some reason or another, and that it’s mighty cold standing here. Come in. Yes. I suppose she wants you both. She said ‘children.’”

Molly whisked off Towsley’s skate, then her own, and hastily dragged him after her up into the house.

“That’s so. I suppose it is cold standing, though we didn’t notice it skating. We did have such fun. Come, boy; don’t be bashful. It’s the same lady, isn’t it?”

“Yes. ’Spose it is. ’Tain’t the same house, though.”

“That’s no matter. It’s but a house, after all’s said and done. A little bigger and nicer than we’re used to, but my father says folks are the same sort all the world round, and he knows. John Johns knows a heap. Come on. Just mind your manners, sharp.”

Thus beguiled, Towsley shuffled on his worn shoes after his more confident guide into a distant, sunny back parlor. There Miss Armacost had laid aside her hat and wrap and sat resting in an easy-chair. In its depths she looked even smaller and frailer than she had done out of doors, but also very much more determined and at home.

“Just like she’d been sitting in big chairs and giving orders all her life,” as Molly afterward expressed it.

“Did you want us, ma’am?”

“Yes, I did. You may sit down.”

“Thank you. Sit down, Towsley.”

Molly promptly availed herself of the permission given, while her admiring gaze roved over the apartment, but the shyer boy dared not seat himself upon any of those handsome satin-covered chairs. He slunk behind Molly, casting his eyes down and nervously twirling his cap. For, little vagrant though he was, his street life had already taught him that it was the correct thing for lads and men to bare the head in the presence of a lady.

Now he did not know that this one simple action on his part did more to interest Miss Lucy in him than an hour’s argument would have done. For the first time she observed that his hair was of a lovely color, as Molly had suggested, and that after a good shampooing it would be even beautiful in texture. From his hair to his eyes was not far; and the fleeting glimpses she caught of them, as they timidly uplifted, showed them a clear hazel. Long silky lashes swept the thin cheek and – but it’s better to go no further at present. There was too much soil of the street upon the rest of the little face to make it pleasing in Miss Lucy’s sight. Besides, her dainty nose already detected a peculiar odor, one unfamiliar to her home, and that in her mind she designated as the “poor smell.” Which was not surprising, since not even Molly could have told when Towsley’s ragged clothing had been cleansed by soap and water.

To relieve herself, as well as him, the lady pointed to a carved, wooden stool in the bay window, and Towsley went to it. The stool could be washed and thus purified after contact with the child’s dusty garments, as the satin chairs could not be.

Another servant came in and placed a silver tray upon a table. The tray bore a plate of fruit cake and some saucers of ice-cream; and at sight of these luxuries Towsley’s shyness almost disappeared. He was such a very hungry little boy. He always had been hungry, for the scraps which he picked up out of garbage barrels and at the back-doors of houses were not very satisfying. He began to stare at the food in a fascinated way that made Miss Lucy also stare, but at him. She had never seen just such a look on anybody’s face, and though it expressed greediness it did not shock her, as she felt it ought to do. Because it was so ill-bred!