Keineth Part 23

"And so I'd like to buy him, please," Keineth finished, laying her check before him.

For a long time the old man stared at it, while Keineth and Pilot waited.

"He loves you better than he does me! You're right--he wasn't happy here--he's cried and cried! I can't keep even a dog's love! Take him."

He slowly lifted the check, read it, turned it over, folded it and put it in his pocket.

Then Keineth felt very sorry for the old man. She felt, too, that now in some way or other he belonged to her, though not exactly related.

"Won't you come home to lunch with me? Then you can meet Peggy and the others and see how glad they are to get Pilot back! They'll be awfully glad to see you, really! Please don't be lonely any more--for--I'll be your friend!"

He had risen slowly to his feet, towering over her. He looked down at the bright face. Keineth slipped her hand into his.

"Oh, please come--it'll be such fun," and she gave his fingers a coaxing, friendly squeeze.

The sour-faced servant muttered, "Well, I never!" under his breath, when he saw his master walk through the door to his waiting car, holding the little girl's hand and listening to her chatter with a smile! It was the strangest sight he had ever beheld in this very strange house!

But it was a stranger sight for the Lees when the big limousine drew up at their curb and Pilot dashed from its door, followed by Keineth and a very, very old man who leaned one hand upon Keineth's shoulder.

"Pilot!" cried Billy, who had seen them through the window.

"And that old man!" echoed Peggy.

In the hall Billy was on his knees with his arms around Pilot's neck.

"Dear, dear old Pilot!" he was saying over and over.

Mrs. Lee, concealing her amazement when Keineth quaintly introduced "my friend, Mr. Grandison," greeted him cordially and by her smile and gracious manner made the old man immediately feel at home. At the table she placed him between Keineth and Peggy, and Peggy found that he was not such a cross old man after all!

"It's just like a story, Ken," she said after he had gone away and Keineth had given them an account of her morning's adventure. "You have found a fairy grandfather! But wasn't it scrumptious to see His Aged Grandness eating hash?"

"Well, I guess Keineth's money has been well spent," added Mrs. Lee, looking fondly at the little girl. "For I think--besides making Billy very happy, it has opened a new life to a very lonely old man!"

"I'll never forget what Ken has done," said Billy solemnly, as though he was taking a vow. "She's just all right and I'd like to see anyone that says she ain't!"

"Billy--your Englis.h.!.+" pleaded his mother.

But Keineth blushed with pleasure. She knew she had won Billy's everlasting friends.h.i.+p! That evening a boy brought to the door a huge package addressed to Miss Keineth Randolph. It was a set of beautifully bound books, "The Lives of the Masters," and with them came a little note written in a queer, old-fas.h.i.+oned handwriting.

May these books give instruction, inspiration and courage to one whose feet are on the threshold. They are bought with the money you unselfishly spent to give a boy back his dog.

Your devoted friend,

WILFRED GRANDISON.

CHAPTER XXIII

SURPRISES

"Why, I just can't believe that I'm Peggy Lee!" Peggy stood in the aisle of a sleeping car and looked up and down its length. Keineth, from her superior knowledge of sleeping cars, was pointing out to Peggy its arrangements. Both girls were dressed in new coats and hats and carried with them the bag Aunt Josephine had given Keineth and in which they had packed their nightgowns and toilet articles.

For they were starting for Was.h.i.+ngton!

Two days before Mr. Lee had come home and asked the children what would be the biggest surprise they could imagine! Of course they had guessed all sorts of things and he had teased them for quite a little while over it! Then, very quietly, he had said:

"Do you think you would like to make a little trip to Was.h.i.+ngton?"

Keineth had not been able to speak. Peggy, jumping from her chair, rushed at her father and threw both arms about his neck.

"All of us?" she cried between hugs.

"No, this time we'll leave mother home with Billy and Alice. Then the next time they'll go."

Peggy's eyes swept over Billy's and Alice's disappointed faces.

"Oh, I wish we could all go!"

"Mother'll make it up to them, my dear. I'll wager right now all sorts of nice plans are floating around in her head. Well, can you be ready?"

"Can we--!" they cried in chorus.

The hours then were full of excited preparations. The new clothes had to be purchased. "Keineth may be invited to meet the President," Mrs.

Lee had laughingly explained, as she held two pretty hats, one in each hand, and considered them carefully.

"Oh, wouldn't that be _wonderful!_" Keineth whispered. She wanted to ask him so many questions about Daddy--she would tell him that she could keep a secret!

Billy gave them a thousand instructions. They must remember everything they saw to tell him! They must climb the big monument and walk up the Capitol steps and hear the echo in the rotunda of the Capitol Building.

They must go to Camp Meyer and to Arlington and to Mount Vernon and be sure to see Was.h.i.+ngton's swords!

"And the White House china," Mrs. Lee added. "It must be as good as a lesson in history to look at that exhibit in the White House! They'd tell the tastes of the different ones who used them! I can picture pretty Dolly Madison ordering all new china because the pattern of the old did not please her!"

Billy broke in: "I'd want to go to the Treasury Building and see all the money and the watchmen that guard the building from little watch-houses! And the big machine where they destroy all the old money!

Four men have keys and they go and unlock it and put the money in it and it gets ground and ground by sharp knives until it's just a pulp!

And then they sell the pulp! I wish I had one of those keys!" Billy was very excited.

"And I want to see the Indian Exhibit at the National Museum," declared Peggy.

"You will, my dear, and a great many other things of interest." Little wonder that she could scarcely believe that she was Peggy Lee! As the train pulled away Keineth was very quiet. She was recalling how often her Daddy had told her of the interesting places in the National Capital and how often he had said, "Some day we'll go there together!"

And now she was really going, but Daddy was far away.

"Well, aren't you children going to take off your things and stay awhile?" asked Mr. Lee, coming in from a smoke on the platform.

They laughed and began to lay aside their wraps. "I can't picture myself sleeping on that funny little shelf," Peggy declared. "What if I should roll out!"

There were a number of other people on the car. The children watched them closely and tried to do whatever they did. Peggy's eyes grew round with interest as she saw the porter deftly spread out mattresses and blankets and make cosy beds where nothing but seats had been. The girls insisted upon sharing the same berth and drew lots "for position," as Peggy put it. Keineth drew the place by the window and was soon cuddled there. And though they had declared that they were going to lie awake for a long time watching out of the window, their heads had scarcely touched the pillow when the motion of the train lulled them to sleep.