Concerning Sally Part 2

Sally was still giggling.

"Seriously, Sally," said the professor, with a change of manner, "by the coal trees I meant the trees which have become the coal we are burning in the stove and the furnace and to make steam. I see no reason to doubt that this little lizard could fly up into the tops of the trees. Perhaps he actually alighted on some tree which we now have down cellar in the coal bin."

"Oh!" cried Sally. "Let's suppose he did. And what did he see from his topmost branch?"

"Very little," replied the professor, "except treetops and a swamp or two."

"Well," said Sally, "it's rather disappointing. But I wish I could have seen it."

"Then," said her father solemnly, "there would now be nothing left of you but a skeleton which I would be puzzling my brains over. It would be somewhat disconcerting, Sally, to find a skeleton of a little girl among these bones of a past age; very disconcerting, indeed, to find that of Miss Sally Ladue."

"But how would you know it was Miss Sally Ladue's skeleton?" asked Sally, her eyes twinkling.

"That is a poser," her father answered. "I should know it, though. If there were no other means of identifying it, I should know it for Miss Ladue's by the large b.u.mp of inquisitiveness on the skull."

"What's my b.u.mp of inquisitiveness?"

The professor turned towards her. "Hand me that skull on my desk, and I'll show you." Sally obediently handed him the skull. "There it is,"

he continued. "You can see it, although it is not as large as your own. Come here and let us see if it is."

Sally came.

"The phrenologists," he began, feeling of her head, "would--h.e.l.lo!"

"Ouch!" cried Sally, squirming but giggling irrepressibly, nevertheless.

"It is a very large b.u.mp," said the professor gravely; "unexpectedly large, even for you. What makes it so large, Sally?"

"I--I fell out of a tree yesterday," Sally said. "I suppose it was that."

"Ah, yes," the professor returned; "and because the b.u.mp was so large by nature it stuck out in a most inappropriate and uncomfortable way and was made more inappropriate and uncomfortable. It might be safer for you if you could fly, like my little lizard."

"I wish I could," said Sally; "I wish I could fly into the top of any tree I wanted to."

"You find the trees very attractive?"

"Yes, I do," Sally replied, simply. "You can see a lot from the top of a tall tree. The trouble is that you can't find big enough branches when you get nearly to the top."

"No," observed the professor, "I can't. If I could, I suppose I might climb trees oftener. It is very disconcerting to get almost up, just where the leaves are thickest, and find that I can't get any higher and can't see anything to speak of, either. And twigs that you wouldn't hesitate to trust yourself upon, Sally, are not nearly big enough for me. That," he finished, reflectively, "is, I think, the only reason why I have given up tree-climbing at such an early age."

Sally chuckled delightedly. "Did you climb trees when you were a boy, father?"

"Huh! Climb trees! Gracious, yes. Used to run right up one side and down the other. Tallest trees I could find, too. Hundreds of feet high. Did I use to climb trees!" The professor turned away in excess of scorn.

"Oh!" cried Sally, clapping her hands.

"Climb trees!" murmured the professor. "Why, there was one tree that I remember--"

He was interrupted, at this point, by a gentle knock at the door.

"That sounds like your mother's knock, Sally. Will you be kind enough to see?"

It was Mrs. Ladue. She had heard the unaccustomed sounds of merriment issuing from her husband's room and had come up--rather timidly, it must be confessed--to see what it was all about. If her heart was fluttering a little with symptoms of hope, as she came, it is not to be wondered at. There was another reason for her coming, although she was not conscious that it had weight with her.

She was half smiling as she entered; half smiling in a doubtful, hesitating sort of way, ready to let the smile develop in its own lovely manner or to check it and let it fade away, according to circ.u.mstances. Sally held tightly to her hand. Professor Ladue got upon his feet with more agility than would have been expected of him.

"Sally and I were having a session with my lizard," he said, "and were variously entertaining ourselves. I hope your head is better, Sarah."

Mrs. Ladue appeared to see some reason for letting her smile take its natural course. It was a very lovely smile, almost tender. Professor Ladue should have been a very proud and happy man that it was for him.

There is no reason to think that he was.

"Thank you, Charlie," she replied. "It is all right, to-day. Won't you and Sally go on with your session and let me be a visitor? It must have been a very amusing session. I don't know when I have heard Sally laugh so much."

Sally clapped her hands again. "Oh, do," she said. "You were going to tell me about a tree, father. What about it?"

Professor Ladue talked much nonsense in the next half-hour and was surprisingly gay; and Sally sat, holding her mother's hand, and smiling and chuckling and enjoying it intensely. Of course Mrs. Ladue enjoyed it. The professor seemed so genial and care-free that she reproached herself for her doubts. She even thought, unfortunately, that it was a favorable time for asking for something that she was very much in need of. But she hesitated, even then.

"Charlie," she said timidly, as they were going, "can you--can you let me have this week's money for the house? Katie, you know,--we owe her for two weeks, and there's the--"

Professor Ladue interrupted her. "Money?" he said airily. "Money?

What's money? Certainly, my dear. Help yourself. You're welcome to anything you find there."

He tossed her his pocketbook and turned back to his skeleton. Perhaps it was to hide some embarra.s.sment; perhaps it was only to indicate that, so far as he was concerned, the incident was closed. For the pocketbook was empty.

Mrs. Ladue spoke low and tried hard to keep any hint of reproach out of her voice. "Did you--did you lose it?" she asked.

"I suppose I must have lost it, if there was anything to lose,"

Professor Ladue replied nonchalantly. He did not turn away from his work.

"And--and did you notify the police?"

"No, my dear, I have not notified the police, yet." He smiled dryly as he spoke. "I will take that matter under advis.e.m.e.nt."

Mrs. Ladue did not push the question further. There were tears in her eyes as she joined Sally.

"Oh, mother," cried Sally joyously, "wasn't it fun? Did you ever know that father could be so funny?"

"Yes, darling child. He was full of fun and nonsense before we were married, and for some years after."

She bent and kissed her daughter, but would say no more.

CHAPTER III

Sally was not completely deprived of the society of other children, although her temperament made this question a rather difficult one.

Her father did not bother himself about Sally's goings and comings, which was quite what would have been expected. Indeed, he bothered himself very little about the doings of his family; as a general thing, he did not know what they did, nor did he care, so long as they refrained from interference with his own actions. They had learned to do that.