Rose O'Paradise Part 20

Her smile was radiant and self-possessed. She was one of the world's workers and loved Lafe and Peg and the world with her whole honest young heart.

"Thirty-two cents," she whispered. "That's a pile of money. I wish I could buy Lafe a posy. He does love 'em so, and he can't get out like Peg and me to see beautiful things."

She stopped before a window where brilliant blossoms were exhibited.

Ever since she began to work, one of the desires of Jinnie's soul had been to purchase a flower. As she scrutinized the scarlet and white carnations, the deep red roses, and the twining green vines, she murmured.

"Peg loves Lafe even if she does bark at him. She won't mind if I buy him one. I'll make more money to-morrow."

She opened the door of the shop and drew her unwieldy burden carefully inside. A girl stood back of the counter.

"How much're your roses?" asked Jinnie, nodding toward the window and jingling the pennies in her pocket.

"The white ones're five cents a piece," said the clerk, "and the red ones're ten.... Do y' want one?"

"I'll take a white one," replied the purchaser.

"Shall I wrap it in paper?" asked the other.

"No, I'll carry it this way. I'd like to look at it going home."

The girl pa.s.sed the rose to Jinnie.

"It smells nice, too," she commented.

"Yes," a.s.sented Jinnie, delightedly, taking a whiff.

Then she went on to the meat market to buy the small amount of meat required for the three of them.

One of the men grinned at her from the back of the store, calling, "h.e.l.lo, kid!" and Maudlin Bates, swinging idly on a stool, shouted, "What's wanted now, Jinnie?" and still another man came forward with the question, "Where'd you get the flower, la.s.s?"

"Bought it," replied Jinnie, leaning against the counter. "I got it next door for the cobbler. He's lame and can't get out."

The market man turned to wait upon her.

"Five cents' worth of chopped meat," ordered Jinnie, "and four sausages."

"Ain't you afraid you'll overload your stomachs over there at the cobbler's shop?" laughed one of the men. "I'll tell you what I'll do, Jinnie ... Do you see that ring of sausage hangin' on that hook?"

The girl nodded wonderingly, looking sidewise at Maudlin.

"Well, if you'll give us a dance, a good one, mind you, still keepin'

the wood on your back, I'll buy you the hull string. It'll last a week the way you folks eat meat."

Jinnie's face reddened painfully, but the words appealed to her money-earning spirit, and with a curious sensation she glanced around.

Could she dance, with the wondering, laughing, admiring gaze of the men upon her? And Maudlin, too! How she detested his l.u.s.tful, doltish eyes!

She straightened her shoulders, considering. The wood was heavy, and the strap, bound tightly about her chest and arms, made her terribly tired. But a whole string of sausage was a temptation she could not withstand. In her fertile imagination she could see Lafe nod his approbation, and Peggy joyously frying her earnings in the pan. She might even get three more kisses when no one was looking.

"I don't know what to dance," she said presently, studying the rose in her confusion.

"Oh, just anything," encouraged the man on the stool. "I'll whistle a tune."

"Hand her the sausage, butcher;" sn.i.g.g.e.red Maudlin, "then she'll be sure of it. The feel of it'll make her dance better."

The speaker grinned as the butcher took the string from the hook.

Jinnie slipped the stem of the cobbler's rose between her white teeth, grasped the sausage in one hand and gripped the shortwood strap with the other. Then the man started a rollicking whistle, and Jinnie took a step or two.

Every one in the place drew nearer. Here was a sight they never had seen--a lovely, shy-eyed, rosy, embarra.s.sed girl, with a load of kindling wood on the strong young shoulders, turning and turning in the center of the market. In one hand she held a ring of sausage, and between her lips a white rose.

"If you'll give us a grand fine dance, la.s.s," encouraged the butcher, "you c'n have the chopped meat, too."

The man's offer sifted through Jinnie's tired brain and stimulated her to quicker action. She turned again, s.h.i.+fting the weight more squarely on her shoulders, her feet keeping perfect time with the shrill, whistling tune.

"Faster! Faster!" taunted Maudlin. "Earn your meat, girl! Don't be a piker!"

Faster and faster whirled Jinnie, the heft of the shortwood carrying her about in great circles. Her cap had fallen from her head, loosing the glorious curls, and her breath whistled past the stem of Lafe's white flower like night wind past a taut wire.

Jinnie forgot everything but the delight of earning something for her loved ones--something that would bring a caress from Lafe. She was sure of Lafe, very sure!

As voices called "Faster!" and still "Faster!" Jinnie let go the shortwood strap to fling aside her curls. Just at that moment she whirled nearer Maudlin Bates, who thrust forth his great foot and tripped her. As she staggered, not one of those watching had sense enough to catch her as she fell. At that moment the door swung open and Peg Grandoken's face appeared. She looked questioningly at the market man.

"I thought I saw Jinnie come in," she hesitated----

Then realizing something was wrong, her eyes fell upon the stricken girl.

"She was just earnin' a little sausage by dancin'," the butcher excused.

Peggy stared and stared, stunned for the moment. The hangdog expression on Maudlin's face expressed his crime better than words would have done. Jinnie's little form was huddled against the counter, the shortwood scattered around her, and from her forehead blood was oozing. On the slender arm was the ring of sausage and between her set teeth was Lafe's pale rose. With her outraged soul s.h.i.+ning in her eyes, Peggy gathered the unconscious girl in her two strong arms.

"I bet _you_ done it, you d.a.m.n Maudlin!" she gritted, and without another word, left the market.

Within a few minutes she had laid Jinnie on her bed, and was telling Lafe the pathetic story.

CHAPTER XII

WATCHING

There was absolute quiet in the home of the cobbler for over a week.

The house hung heavy with gloom. Jinnie Grandoken was fighting a ghastlier monster than even old Matty had created for her amus.e.m.e.nt.

Of course Jinnie didn't realize this, but two patient watchers knew, and so did a little black dog. To say that Lafe suffered, as Peggy repeated over and over to him the story of Jinnie's loving act, would be words of small import, and through the night hours, when the cobbler relieved his wife at the sick girl's bed, shapes black and forbidding rose before him, menacing the child he'd vowed to protect.

Could it be that Maudlin Bates had anything to do with Jinnie's fall?

Even so, he was powerless to s.h.i.+eld her from the young wood gatherer.