Chance of a Lifetime (3 page)

“That’s all right,” said Alan heartily, “we’re partners in this in a way, and when you get out there old man, write me a card now and then to let me know what I’m missing, see?”

“Sure thing!” said Bob. “You’ll be mother, home, and heaven to me, Mac. You know only too well I’m not very popular around here. Can I just step over to the door to the light and copy this?” he asked Sherrill.

“Oh, come in to the library by the desk,” said Sherrill, “both of you come in. I’ve got a pitcher of lemonade in the refrigerator and a great big chocolate cake that needs eating.”

“Oh, boy! Lead me to it!” said Bob excitedly. “I’m boarding down at the Copper Kettle and had half a chicken wing and one lettuce for my supper.”

Laughing, they went into the house, and Sherrill settled the boys at the library desk while she went to forage for refreshments, but Alan soon followed her to help her.

“He insists on copying it lest the paper get lost,” he said, “so I’ll help you rustle the grub.”

Sherrill wheeled about him with shining eyes then went and carefully closed the dining room and pantry doors before she spoke. “Alan MacFarland, you blessed old hypocrite! Did you go and ask Robert Lincoln to go to Egypt in your place?”

“Oh, I just suggested his name,” said Alan, looking sheepish. “I thought he might as well have the chance.”

“But I thought you were sworn enemies!” said Sherrill. “It isn’t long since you gave him an awful thrashing!”

“Well, he needed it,” said Alan thoughtfully, “but you know he almost licked me, too. He’s got a lot of nerve, and he’s strong as wire. He’s a smart kid. I think he’ll make good.”

“But, Alan, I thought you didn’t like Bob. I thought you didn’t approve of him at all.”

“Well, I don’t!” said Alan with a strange grin on his face. “At least I thought I didn’t. But I guess I’ll have to change my opinion. He certainly has showed up in great shape tonight, offering to stay in my place.”

“Maybe he doesn’t really want to go,” suggested Sherrill.

“Yes, he does, Sherry!” protested Alan earnestly. “He told me in there just now it had been a dream of his life to do something like that, and he promised me all kinds he was going to make good. Listen, Sherry. Bob’s had a rotten deal lately. His sister died last month, you know, and she was the only one that ever cared for him. His brother-in-law is as hard as nails. He gave Bob a job in the canning factory carrying out peelings at six dollars a week and his board. Told him if he didn’t like that he could get out, it was all he would ever do for him. I think he’s been kind of up against it. You know Bob. He’d never stand being humiliated by that old grouch. He’d just go to the devil pretty soon, and nobody care.”

“But how do you know what he may do in Egypt? Do you trust him?”

“Sure! I think he’ll make good. He used to be crazy about old Hodge. It was the only thing we ever had in common. I think maybe he’ll turn out all right. He’s keen on the job.”

Sherrill had been buttering thin slices of bread for sandwiches, and now she turned around with the knife in her hand and her eyes bright.

“Alan, I think you’re just wonderful!” she said, with a shining look.

“Nothing of the kind, Sherry. I’ve just had to grind my teeth all day to keep from boohooing because I can’t go myself.”

“Well, I think you’re wonderful!” stated Sherrill again, whirling back to her buttering. “This may be the chance of Bob’s life, but I’m inclined to think you’ve got a bigger one yet coming to you. Now, these are ready. Get the pitcher out of the right-hand door, please. And put that plate of cake on the tray. I’ll take these in.”

“Say, this is some set out, Sherry!” said Alan, surveying the burdened tray. “But I’m glad you did it. I believe that kid is really hungry.”

Sherry flashed him a glad look and led the way with her plate of delicate sandwiches.

Bob looked up from the letter he had copied, his face flushed with eagerness, and a radiant smile that made him seem like a new person, not the boy they had disliked through the last three years of high school.

“Boy!” said Bob. “That certainly looks good! You two people are making me feel I’m leaving some real friends when I go away. I didn’t think I’d ever regret leaving this little old burg, but I certainly think I’ve missed a lot not having you people for friends. No, don’t say anything. I know you likely wouldn’t care for me any more than you ever did if I stayed, but let me go away with the illusion that you would, can’t you? A fellow has to have someone to tie to!”

“You make us ashamed, Bob, that we have been so unfriendly,” said Sherrill. “Won’t you put it this way, that we just haven’t got to know the real you? We didn’t mean to be horrid, really we didn’t.”

“You make me feel more than ashamed, Bob,” said Alan, laying a friendly arm across the other’s shoulder. “Let’s make up for the loss from now on, shall we? What say we’ll be real partners in this job across the sea. You’re the representative on the field, and I’m the home correspondent or something.”

“Okay with me,” said Bob heartily. “Boy, you don’t know how it feels to have you say that. I can’t ever thank—”

“Cut it out, pard!” said Alan huskily. “Here, have some more lemonade.”

They had a merry time and ate up every scrap of sandwich and every crumb of cake, drinking the lemonade to the last drop. Then suddenly Bob Lincoln sprang up.

“I must go!” he declared, looking at his watch. “It’s awfully late, and I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me tomorrow. First I’ve got to hand in my resignation to the Rockland Canning Factory, which same I shall enjoy doing; and then I’ve got to get all that junk in that list together and pack. There’s a few things in that list I don’t believe I can compass, but I don’t reckon it matters. I’ve learned pretty much to get along without things lately anyhow,” and he laughed a careless little ripple, the kind he had been used to giving to cover his angry feelings.

Sherrill and Alan looked at him with sudden comprehension. This was the old Bob they had not liked. Had it been that he covered up his loneliness with this attitude and they had not understood him?

Then Alan spoke quickly. “Look here, old man,” he said, “you and I have got to have a good talk fest tonight. Suppose you come home with me for the night. Then we can get everything thrashed out. You know we’re partners. You’re taking my place, and it’s sort of up to me to see that you have everything in your outfit you need. Yes, that’s my part. Come on, old boy, let’s get down to brass tacks!”

Bob looked at Alan with sudden wonder.

“You’re great!” he said, with deep feeling in his voice. “What a fool I was! I used to think all that church going you did was just a pose. I called you a hypocrite once right in the school yard! And I believed you were. But now I see— Well, I can’t tell you how I feel about this. I’m not going to let you do anything more for me of course, but—it’s awfully decent and fine of you to talk that way.”

“Come along, pard!” said Alan laughing. “We’ll settle our differences in private. Come, we haven’t any time to waste.”

Alan gave him a push toward the door, but he paused before Sherrill.

“Good night, Sherrill,” Bob said earnestly. “You’ve given me an awfully nice evening, and I shall always remember it. I used to think you were a snob, but now I see you’re real. I can’t thank you enough for letting me in on this pleasant evening.”

Sherrill went to the door with them and called a happy good-night, watching them go down the walk, Alan’s arm flung across Bob’s shoulders as if they had been comrades for years.

Suddenly Alan turned and sprang back toward her.

“I’m carrying some of your property, Sherry.” He laughed, handing her a handkerchief. “You dropped this under the hammock when we came into the house, and I absentmindedly put it in my pocket.”

Their fingers touched as Sherrill took her handkerchief, and she heard Alan’s low whisper, “It was great of you to do that, Sherry. He thinks you’re wonderful, and I can’t thank you enough.”

“Oh, I was glad to have a part in it, Alan,” whispered Sherrill, “and say, Alan, I’ve been thinking. I shouldn’t wonder if, after all, this would turn out to be the chance of your lifetime. I think you’ve gone a long way toward saving Bob!”

He gave her fingers a squeeze and sprang back to Bob and they walked down the street, whistling together an old school song, a thing they never had done before.

“Who was that other boy, Sherrill?” asked her mother, looking up with pleasant curiosity in her face.

“That was Bob Lincoln, Mother.”

“What! Not the Lincoln boy that Alan dislikes so much? Not the boy that made so much trouble in school and was always doing wild things? Not the one that Alan fought with?”

“Yes, Mother,” laughed Sherrill. “The same boy, but you’d be surprised how nice he is, and how grateful he was for the sandwiches and cake. He hadn’t had much supper. You know his sister died not long ago, and he has to get his meals almost anywhere.”

“Well, but, my dear! How did he come to call on you? I’m sure he’s not the kind of boy you would want to have for a friend. I hope he isn’t going to start in now and bother you coming here. I’m sure your brother would not like it at all. Keith is very particular about you, you know.”

“Oh, he didn’t come to see me at all, Mother; he just ran in to speak to Alan a minute—on business—and we asked him in.”

“Well, but, my dear, it isn’t wise to get too intimate with a boy like that. He will think he can come here again. I’m surprised that Alan didn’t take him away at once. It’s all well enough to be kind, but I really couldn’t have you asking a boy like that here regularly. Sherrill, you never stop to think about things like that—”

“Listen, Mother dear. You needn’t worry about Bob. He is going to Egypt day after tomorrow, to be gone three years on an archaeological expedition with Professor Hodge. So, you see, there’s nothing to worry about at all. He came to ask Alan something, that was all, and we were just being kind to him. We found out he has been awfully lonely, and Mother, he was so pleased to have somebody a little friendly! You ought to have heard him. I felt so ashamed I didn’t know what to do.”

“Is that the red-haired Lincoln boy that used to drive by here in that old rattlely Ford?” asked Sherrill’s grandmother, looking up with sudden interest. “I always liked that boy’s looks. He reminded me of a cousin of mine that ran away and joined the navy. He came back a first-rate man, too. I always thought his aunt that brought him up never understood him. She fussed over him a lot.”

“Now, Mother!” said Sherrill’s mother with a tender smile. “You always were a romantic dear. Who would ever have thought you noticed a boy going by on the street?”

“Well, I did!” said Grandmother Sherrill. “And I’m glad you were nice to him, Sherrill. If he’s going to Egypt he can’t do you any harm, and anyway, I’ll bank on your good sense to take care of yourself anywhere.”

“Now, Mother! You’re spoiling Sherrill!” The mother smiled. “However did a boy like that get a chance to go on an expedition of that sort? That is a great honor. Professor Hodge must have approved of him or he never would have asked him.”

It was on Sherrill’s lips to tell about Alan, but remembering his request that she keep it to herself, she closed her mouth and turned away smiling. By and by, when it didn’t matter, she would tell Mother what a wonderful boy Alan MacFarland had been. She said good night and went singing up to her room.

“She’s a good girl, Mary,” said her grandmother.

“Yes, she is, Mother. I didn’t mean that about your spoiling her.”

“Humph!” said Grandmother, folding away her sewing and taking off her spectacles. “Yes, she’s a good girl, and that Alan MacFarland is a good boy. I’m glad they made that other boy have a good time. He never looked to me as if he was very happy.”

Over at the MacFarland house, the two boys entered quietly, Bob protesting that he ought not to go in lest it might disturb the invalid. They took off their shoes and went silently up the stairs, but not too silently so that Alan’s mother heard him and came out to the landing to smile at him and give him a good-night kiss. She wore a pretty blue robe, and her eyes were bright and more rested looking. Bob watched her in wonder, as she reassured her son about his father.

“He’s resting very well,” she whispered. “The doctor thinks he may have a better day tomorrow.”

Alan introduced his friend, and Mrs. MacFarland gave him smile of welcome and a soft handclasp.

“I thought I oughtn’t to come,” he whispered, “but he made me.”

“Alan’s friends are always welcome,” she said, “and you won’t disturb anybody. Alan’s room is over in the tower, and nobody can hear you talk.”

“I wish I had a mother,” said Bob, as they entered Alan’s room and the light was switched on. “Gee! It must be great! I hardly remember mine.”

Then he looked around Alan’s room.

“Say, boy! If I had a room like this and a mother like yours, you couldn’t drag me to Egypt. I’d stay right here in my home!”

Alan looked at him and then gave a swift glance about his room, with its comfortable furnishings and its evidences on every hand that his tastes and conveniences were consulted.