Three People Part 15

"Have you given yourself to the Lord Jesus, my boy?"

"Yes, sir," Tode answered, simply.

"That is good. Do you know I think you have pleased him to-night? You have done what you could to right the wrong, and done it for his sake."

And now Tode's eye shone with pleasure. After a moment's silence he asked:

"What are you going to do with me, sir?"

"Do with you? I am going to be much obliged to you for returning my property."

"Yes, but I didn't do it straight off, and at first I meant to keep it."

"Which was bad, decidedly, and I don't think you will do it again. Can you write?"

"Yes, sir," Tode answered him, proudly.

"You may write your name on that card for me."

Tode obeyed with alacrity, and wrote in capitals, because he had a dim notion that capitals belonged especially to names:

T O D E M A L L.

"What are you going to do for a living after this?" further questioned Mr. Stephens, thoughtfully fingering the ten dollar bill.

"Going to keep a hotel of my own."

"Oh, you are? In what part of the town?"

"Don't know. Down by the depot somewhere, I reckon."

Mr. Stephens folded the ten dollar bill and put it in his pocket. Tode rose to go.

"Now, my friend," said Mr. Stephens, "shall you and I kneel down and thank the Lord Jesus for the care which he has had over you to-night, and for the help which he has given you?"

"Yes, sir," answered Tode, promptly, not having the remotest idea what kneeling down meant, but he followed Mr. Stephens' movement, and was commended to G.o.d in such a simple, earnest prayer that he had never heard before. He went out from the house in a sober though happy mood.

He felt older and wiser than he did when he entered; he had heard a prayer offered for him, and he had been told that the Lord Jesus was pleased with his attempt to do right. Instead of going home he went around by the depot, and bestowed searching glances on each building as he pa.s.sed by. Directly opposite the depot buildings there were two rum-shops and an oyster-saloon.

"This spot would do," said Tode, thoughtfully, halting in front of the illest looking of the rum-shops. "If I can set up right here now, why I'll do it."

A very dismal, very forbidding spot it seemed to be, and why any person should deliberately select it as a place for commencing business was a mystery; but Tode had his own ideas on the subject, and seemed satisfied. He looked about him. The night was dark save for street lamps, and there were none reflecting just where he stood. There was a revel going on down in the rum-cellar, but he was out of the range of their lights; elsewhere it was quiet enough. It was quite midnight now, and that end of the city was in comparative silence.

What did Tode mean to do next? and why was he peering about so stealthily to see if any human eye was on him? Surely with so recent a lesson fresh in mind, he had not already forgotten the All-seeing Eye?

Was he going to offend it again? He waited until quite certain that no one was observing him, then he went around to the side of an old barrel and kneeled down, and clasped his hands together as Mr. Stephens had done, and he said: "O Lord Jesus, if I come down here to live I'll try to do right all around here, every time." Then he rose up and went home to his room and his bed. He had been down in the midnight and selected the spot for his next efforts, and consecrated it to the Lord. Another thing, he had found out how people did when they talked with G.o.d. After that Tode always knelt down to pray.

It was not yet eight o'clock when Tode, his breakfast eaten, his bundle packed, himself ready to migrate, sat down once more on the edge of that bed, and began to calculate the state of his finances. He had been at work in the hotel for his board and clothing; but then there had been many errands on which he had run for those who had given him a dime, or, now and then, a quarter, and his expenditures had been small; so now as he counted the miscellaneous heap, he discovered himself to be the honest owner of six dollars and seventy-eight cents.

"That ain't so bad to start on," he told himself, complacently. "A fellow who can't begin business on that capital, ain't much of a fellow.

I wonder now if ever I'll take a peak at this little room of mine again; 'tain't a bad room; I'll have one of my own just like it one of these days. I'll have a square patch of carpet just that size, red and green and yellow, like that, and I'll have a patchwork quilt like this one; who'll make it for me though? Ho, I'll find somebody. I wonder who'll sleep in this bed of mine after this? Jim won't, 'cause Jim sleeps with his brother. I reckon it's fun to have a brother. Maybe there'll be some fellow here that I can come and see now and then. Well, come Tode, you and I must go, we must, there's business to be done."

So the boy rose up, put away his money carefully, slung his bundle over his shoulder, took a last, long, loving look at the familiar surroundings, coughed once or twice, choked a little, rubbed his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket, and went out from his only home. On the stairs he encountered Jim.

"Jim," said he, "I'm going now; if you only _wouldn't_, you know."

"Wouldn't what?"

"Give your neighbor drink."

"Pooh!" said Jim, "_You're_ a goose; better come back and be decent."

"Good-by," was Tode's answer, as he vanished around the corner. He went directly to the spot opposite the depot, which he had selected the night before, and descended at once to the cellar.

"Want to rent that stone out down there, between your building and the alley?" he questioned of the ill-looking man, who seemed to be in attendance.

"Um, well, no, I reckon not; guess you'd have a time of getting it away."

"Don't want to get it away; it's just in the right spot for me."

"What, for the land's sake, do you mean to do?"

"I mean to set up business right out there on that stone."

This idea caused a general laugh among the loungers in the cellar; but Tode stood gravely awaiting a decision.

"What wares might you be going to keep, youngster?" at last queried one of the red-nosed customers.

"Cakes and coffee."

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the proprietor, eyeing him keenly. "And whisky, too, I wouldn't be afraid to bet."

"Not a bit of it; you keep enough of that stuff for you and me, too."

"And where might you be going to make your coffee?"

"I ain't going to make it until I get a place to put it," was Tode's brief reply.

"Do you want to rent that stone, or not, that's the question? and the quicker you tell me, the quicker I'll know."

"Well, how much will you pay for it?"

"Just as little as I can get it for." This caused another laugh from the listeners.

"You're a cute one," complimented the owner. "Well, now, seeing it's you, you can have it on trial for two dollars a week, I reckon."

"I reckon it will be after this when I do," said Tode, turning on his heel.

"Hold up. What's the matter? Don't the terms suit? Why that's _very_ reasonable!"