Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

504 from chaos. But the little girl drew the silken field of tiny flowers closer about her shoulders and peered curiously at her reflection in the dirty window. It was not the first beautiful cosmos that had been wrecked by the vanity of a ‘woman, Peretti, the old sailor with a crick in his back and the cane from the cannibal isle, was on his seat in the ancient Place d’Armes when the girl who lived above the shop in the Cathedral alley came by and stopped. She was watching a weather- worn old bark toil up the Mississippi with a tug pouring soot through its rigging, and Peretti knew she would ask about the strange ship. But first she sat down and watched Mr. Peretti fumbling for the green chalk in his pocket with which he was going to rub a little mountain on his board until it was the biggest of three. The old sailorman winked foolishly. ‘“‘T jes’ draws ’em for the kids, miss. That little Labat kid she likes ’em pink and purple mostly, with green and yaller at the bottom. Miss, I seen ’em that way, too. ’Way off yander in the Arafura Sea, and Australey and them places.” “Maybe, Mr. Peretti, he has gone there?” “Oh, no—miss! He—wouldn’t go so far! He thought Daly ’d confess some time to the customs officers; but then Daly died and didn’t.” ‘“¢ And Eddie swore he’d never come back if they didn’t get Daly.” “ Jes’ a hot-head boy, Eddie Bright was, and when he served his time for Daly’s job, he couldn’t face you again—because he loved you, miss. He told me so when he took ship and disappeared.”’ ‘“T know,” she said, and then was still. The old man stole a glance at her. He knew she did not see the red, ornate old buildings beyond the plaza palms; she was dreaming of the far places, the unknown ports, the nameless trails; and she would love any spot in all the world where he had rested for the night. : But after a while she spoke in a changed voice and pointed at the old brick building which was boarded up below where there attic windows,” she went on. THE ARGOSY. had ‘been a shop since the days of Lafitte, the pirate, and the Spanish viceroys. The tenement dwellers on either side said that it belonged to a baroness who had died in France. At least a funny old Creole avocat came to look at it now and then, fumbled some yellow papers, and mumbled some- thing -about selling the estate, and then went away. Nobody knew, and nobody cared. That is the way things go—great ladies, old sail- ormen, brick blocks, and dreams. They get old and tumble down unnoticed—every- thing except mountains. And the other thing that Mr. Peretti saw in the girl’s eyes—that, too, was enduring as the hills. ‘Those children are trying to wash the ‘“‘T saw them this morning, and there they are now.” Mr. Peretti couldn’t see that far. The salt spume of the seven seas had bleared his sight, or else he had looked upon too many hills when they were pink. But he laughed with bashful assurance. _ “ Hey, yes! All a-time askin’ me things —all a-time! Askin’ me, can a mountain grow up, and wot’s behind ’em when you git there!” _ She gave him a smile that made him wish he was an artist and not an old sailor with a crick in his back. ‘“ And they told me they built a mountain ’at’s got flowers but ain’t no sunshine, and they want somebody tall to make the sunshine. Wot do you think o’ that?” But the girl went on to watch the men from the ships who passed from the river wharves through the plaza. And that night, when she had gone back to her lonely room, she stood by the windows, for a steamship’s siren had sounded in the river crescent, and now a great search-light played down from the sky. | “A ship?” she whispered. ‘“ Oh, why won’t he come back? He paid the price— he served his time! Served it for Daly, who never spoke! Oh, bring him back! Dear God—bring him back to me!” The search-light was on the creaking palm tops now; then it wavered across the high staring windows across the square. They seemed curiously clean, and now she mM (Cl QO) DOOK