The days rolled on and on, and the first warm impulses of spring brought Jinnie, pale and thin, back to Lafe’s side.

She was growing so strong that days when the weather permitted, Peg put a wrap on her, telling her to breathe some color into her cheeks.

For a long time Jinnie was willing to remain quietly on the hut steps where she could see the cobbler whacking away on the torn footwear. She knew that if she looked long enough, he would glance up and smile the smile which always warmed the cockles of her loving heart.

As she grew better, and therefore restless, she walked with Happy Pete along the cinder path beside the tracks. Each day she went a little further than the day before, the spirit of adventure beginning to live again within her. The confines of her narrow world were no longer kept taut by the necessity of selling wood, and to-day it seemed to broaden to the far-away hill from whence the numberless fingers of shadow and sunshine beckoned to the sentimental girl.

She wandered through Paradise Road with the little dog as a companion, and finding her way to the board walk, strolled slowly along.

Wandering up above the city, she discovered a lonely spot snuggled in the hills, and gathering Happy Pete 99 into her arms, she lay down. Over her head countless birds sang in the sunshine, and just below, in the hollow, were squirrels, chattering out their happy existence. Dreamily, through the leaves of the trees, Jinnie watched the white clouds float across the sky like flocks of sheep, and soon the peace of the surrounding world lulled her to rest.

When Happy Pete touched her with his slender tongue, Jinnie sat up, staring sleepily around. At a sound, she turned her head and caught sight of a little boy, whose tangled hair lay in yellow curls on his head.

The sight of tears and boyish distress made Jinnie start quickly toward him, but he seemed so timid and afraid she did not speak.

Suddenly, two slight, twig-scratched arms fluttered toward her, and still without a word Jinnie took the trembling hands into hers. Happy Pete crawled cautiously to the girl’s side; then, realizing something unusual, he threw up his black-tipped nose and whined. At the faint howl, the boy’s hands quivered violently in Jinnie’s. He caught his breath painfully.

“Oh, who’re you? Are you a boy or a girl?”

His eyes were touched with an indefinable expression. Jinnie flushed as she scanned for a moment her calico skirt and overhanging blouse. Then with a tragic expression she released her hands, and ran her fingers through her hair. With such long curls did she look like a boy?

“I’m a girl,” she said. “Can’t you see I’m a girl?”

“I’m blind,” said the boy, “so—so I had to ask you.”

Jinnie leaned forward and scrutinized him intently.

“You mean,” she demanded brokenly, “that you can’t see me, nor Happy Pete, nor the trees, nor the birds, nor the squirrels, skipping around?”

The boy bowed his head in assent, but brightened almost instantly. 100

“No, I can’t see those things, but I’ve got lots of stars inside my head. They’re as bright as anything, only sometimes my tears put ’em out.”

Then, as if he feared he would lose his new friend, he felt for her hand once more.

Jinnie returned the clinging pressure. For the second time in her life her heart beat with that strange emotion—the protective instinct she had felt for her father. She knew at that moment she loved this little lad, with his wide-staring, unseeing eyes.

“I’m lost,” said the boy, sighing deeply, “and I cried ever so long, but nobody would come, and my stars all went out.”

“Tell me about your stars,” she said eagerly. “Are they sky stars?”

“I dunno what sky stars are. My stars shine in my head lovely and I get warm. I’m cold all over and my heart hurts when they go out.”

“Oh!” murmured Jinnie. “I wish they’d always shine.”

“So do I.” Then lifting an eager, sparkling face, he continued, “They’re shinin’ now, ’cause I found you.”

“Where’re your folks?” asked Jinnie, swallowing hard.

“I dunno. I lost ’em a long time ago, and went to live with Mag. She licked me every day, so—I just runned away—I’ve been here a awful long time.”

Jinnie considered a moment before explaining an idea that had slipped into her mind as if it belonged there. She would take him home with her.

“You’re going to Lafe’s house,” she announced presently. “Happy Pete and me and Peg live at Lafe Grandoken’s home. Peggy makes bully soup.”

“And I’m so hungry,” sighed the boy. “Where’s the dog I heard barking?”

He withdrew his hands, moving them outward, searching 101 for something. The girl tried to push Pete forward, but the dog only snuggled closer to her.

“Petey, dear, I’m ashamed of you!” she chided lovingly. “Can’t you see the little fellow’s trying to feel you?”

Then Happy Pete, as if he also were ashamed, came within reach of the wavering hands, and crouched low, to be looked over with ten slender finger tips.

“He’s awful beautiful!” exclaimed the boy. “His hair’s softer’n silk, and his body’s as warm as warm can be.”

Jinnie contemplated Happy Pete’s points of beauty. Never before had she thought him anything more than a homely, lovable dog, with squat little legs, and a pointed nose. In lightninglike comparison she brought to her mind the things she always considered beautiful—the spring violets, the summer roses, that belt of wonderful color skirting the afternoon horizon, and all the wonders of nature of which her romantic world consisted. The contrast between these and the shaking black dog, with his smudge of tangled hair hanging over his eyes, shocked Jinnie’s artistic sense.

“If––if you say he’s beautiful, then he is,” she stammered almost inaudibly.

“Of course he is! What’s your name?”

“Jinnie. Jinnie Grandoken... What’s yours?”

“Blind Bobbie, or sometimes just Bobbie.”

“Well, I’ll call you Bobbie, if you want me to.... I like you awful well. I feel it right in here.”

She pressed the boy’s fingers to her side.

“Oh, that’s your heart!” he exclaimed. “I got one too! Feel it jump!”

Jinnie’s fingers pressed the spot indicated by the little boy.

“My goodness,” she exclaimed, “it’ll jump out of your mouth, won’t it?” 102

“Nope! It always beats like that!”

“Where’s your mother?” asked Jinnie after a space.

“I suppose she’s dead, or Mag wouldn’t a had me. I don’t know very much, but I ’member how my mother’s hands feel. They were soft and warm. She used to come to see me at the woman’s house who died—the one who give me to Mag.”

“She must have been a lovely mother,” commented Jinnie.

“She were! Mag tried to find her ’cause she said she was rich, and when she couldn’t, she beat me. I thought mebbe I’d find mother out in the street. That’s why I run away.”

Jinnie thought of her own dead father, and the child’s halting tale brought back that one night of agony when Thomas Singleton died, alone and unloved, save for herself. She wanted to cry, but instead she murmured, “Happy in Spite,” as Lafe had bidden her, and the melting mood vanished. The cobbler and his club were always wonderfully helpful to Jinnie.

“My mother told me onct,” Bobbie went on, “she didn’t have nothin’ to live for. I was blind, you see, and wasn’t any good—was I?”

The question, pathetically put, prompted Virginia to fling back a ready answer.

“You’re good ’nough for me and Happy Pete,” she asserted, “and Lafe’ll let you be his little boy too.”

The blind child gasped, and the girl continued assuringly, “Peg’ll love you, too. She couldn’t help it.”

“Peg?” queried Bobbie.

“Oh, she’s Lafe’s wife. Happy Pete and me stay in her house.”

The blind eyes flashed with sudden hope.

“Mebbe she’ll love me a little! Will she?” 103

“I hope so. Anyway, Lafe will. He loves everybody, even dogs. He’ll love you; sure he will!”

The boy shook his head doubtfully.

“Nobody but mothers are nice to blind kids. Well—well—’cept you. I’d like to go to Lafe’s house, though, but mebbe the woman wouldn’t want me.”

Jinnie had her own ideas about this, but because the child’s tears fell hot upon her hands, the mother within her grew to greater proportions. Three times she repeated softly, “Happy in Spite.”

“Happy in Spite,” she whispered again. Then she sat up with a brilliant smile.

“Of course I’m going to take you to Lafe’s. Here at Lafe’s my heart’s awful busy loving everybody. Now I’ve got you I’m going to take care of you, ’cause I love you just like the rest. Stand up and let me wipe your nose.”

“Let me see how you look, first,” faltered the boy. “Where’s your face?... I want to touch it!”

His little hands reached and found Jinnie’s shoulders. Then slowly the fingers moved upwards, pressing here and there upon the girl’s skin, as they traveled in rhythmic motion over her cheeks.

“Your hair’s awful curly and long,” said he. “What color is it?”

“Color? Well, it’s black with purple running through it, I guess. People say so anyway!”

“Oh, yes, I know what black is. And your eyes’re blue, ain’t they?”

“Yes, blue,” assented Jinnie. “I see ’em when I slick my hair in the kitchen glass ... I don’t think they’re much like yours.”

Bobbie paid no heed to the allusion to himself.

“Your forehead’s smooth, too,” he mused. “Your eyes are big, and the lashes round ’em ’re long. You’re much 104 prettier’n your dog, but then girls ’re always pretty.”

A flush of pleased vanity reddened Jinnie’s skin to the tips of her ears, and she scrambled to her feet. Then she paused, a solemn expression shadowing her eyes.

“Bobbie,” she spoke soberly, “now I found you, you belong to me, don’t you?”

Bobbie thrust forth his hands.

“Yes, yes,” he breathed.

“Then from now on, from this minute, I’m going to work for you.”

Jinnie’s thoughts were on the shortwood strap, but she didn’t mention it. Oh, how she would work for money to give Peg with which to buy food! How happy she would be in the absolute ownership of the boy she had discovered in the hills! Tenderly she drew him to her. He seemed so pitifully helpless.

“How old ’re you?” she demanded.

“Nine years old.”

“You don’t look over five,” said Jinnie, surprised.

“That’s because I’m always sick,” explained the boy.

Jinnie threw up her head.

“Well, a girl sixteen ought to be able to help an awful little boy, oughtn’t she?... Here, I’ll put my arm round you, right like this.”

But the boy made a backward step, so that Jinnie, thinking he was about to fall, caught him sharply by the arm.

“I’ll walk if you’ll lead me,” Bobbie explained proudly.

Thus rebuffed, Jinnie turned the blind face toward the east, and together they made their way slowly to the plank walk.