Peace in Friendship Village

her birds all went, but he[Pg 60] didn't go. And one day, in the first snow and high wind, he was storm-beaten into our little porch, and we caught him. We dare not let him g

pirit. The cardinal helped me to understand. I wonder if the death of an

But Jeffro would know. He had seeing eyes, and his heart was the heart of a child, and his face was always surprised—surprised, but believing it all too, and trusting the good. He trusted the good just as you and I did, in the beginning. Just as you and I do, in th

e shrunken, the floor was in a draft from all four directions; and I didn't have the money to make the house over—which was just about what it needed. I offered to

d the chance to get ahead; and Miss Mayhew said she'd keep the little boy; and Jeffro thought about the cold little house, and feeding himself all winter, and about standing on street corners with his pack; and

say good-by. He thanked me, so nice, for what I'd done, o

2] eyes got big and deep. "They give me credit—and thes' two books," he said. "And they vill give me interest on thes' little money. It vill make money for me vile I am gone. It is a vonde

ollars, his summer's savings. He had h

an come. They can live in your little house—oh, it is a plenty room. Ve shall have

ouse that night—his two books tightly clasped, his shoulders back, his head full

same as the almanac would have you believe. This one was long, and it was white, and it was deep. It kept me shoveling coal and splitting kindling and paying for stove-wood[Pg 63] and warming my feet, and it seemed to me that

ounted in at all, and that just eats up time by the dialful. And I think, if you look close, that one of the things we've got to learn is how to do less of the little hectoring, wearing

ttle faint green down below, a little fine gold up above, and a

of his age would naturally have been in. He had had several short letters from his father

as almost to a close, and he hadn't come yet, I saw it would be too late for his garden, so I planted that—a few vegetables, and a few flower

effro was in the hospital, it said, and he wanted to send word that he was all rig

y books and marvel over will be the things we call panics. They'll know then that, put simple, it's just another name for somebody's greed, dressed up becoming as Conditions. We're beginning now to look at the qualit

says to Silas Sykes that told me. "You can't

g

they'll never pay a cent on th

owe you ten dollars, I can't put down my

banks," says Sila

stock-still in the street. The National Bank—it was the

fternoon I took my trowel and went up to his little place, and thought

the front door was open. "Land," I thought, "I hope they haven't s

pulled down over his eyes, his legs were thrust out in front of him, on

ffro!" I says. "Oh

t wasn't the look of Jeffro any more than feathers have the look of a bird. But one thing I knew about that look—h

nd a box of crackers opened. I brought the bowl to the table, all steaming and good-smelling, an

l me about it, Mr. Jeffro

ad begun—the strike against a situation that Jeffro drew for me that afternoon, telling it without any particular heat, but

t takes no pay. My little boy's school costs me not anything. When I come to this state I have no passport to get, and they did not search me at the frontier. All this[Pg 67] is very free. Bu

nderstood nothing. And he could speak the language, while ma

ian and Polish and Lithuanian,

ldiers. Jeffro t

ward them, my cap in my hand. I saw their fine uniforms, their fine horses, this army that was kept to protect me, a citizen, and vich I did not have to pay. I stood bowing. My heart felt good. They had come to help us then—free! And then somebody cried. 'He's one of the damned, disorde

everywhere. The little that Jeffro had earned was spent, dime by dime. He stayed on, hopi

re here. Over here vere the men. Vrong vas done on both sides—different kinds

had been locked up for being "implicated"—"I don't know yet vat they mean by that long vord," Jeffro said—and had been taken t

ouched that—and send to her vat I have. It may be she has saved a little bit.

ht then. "Mr. Jeffro—Mr. Jeffro," I said,[Pg 69] "you

t me, not u

he said. "'Fail

It's something banks can do. You never c

mean? It vas the National Ban

ght. Everybody that had money in it has lost it—unles

"Then this too," he says, "can happen in America. And th

says. "You m

I understood, I struck him in his face, just the same as if I have von. But I saw men sell their vote, and laugh at it. And now I understand. You throw dust in our eyes, free fire-engi

rying to think. I knew that a great deal of what he'd said was true. I knew that folks all over the country were waking up and getting to know that it

a call, but when another came and then another, it set my heart to beating and

children, coming out of the Friendship Village schoolhouse, there at the top of the hill. And in a minute it came over me th

oseph coming. I could pick out his little black head and

g

. "You come over here—an

running and followed him, eager to know what was what. And up the

road. And he threw away his book, and ran to his father, and flung both arms around his neck. A

! It's the Present-ma

er had he, that they'd ever called him that. When he heard it, he looked up from Joseph, where he stood holding him in his arms almost fierce, and he come

outed louder'n they did: "Wh

, loud as their lungs: "The P

g

tell her the news. And she came in the gate to shake hands with him. And then in a minute they a

round and lo

he says, breathless. And back to his face

ll are. We've missed you like every

w, like a young puppy. Jeffro stood patting him with his cracked, chapped hand.

e to say. "And I stuck a few things in the ground for you out there, that are coming up real nice—pot

and walked a few steps away. "A garden?" he

wooden bridal pair for the cake in the window—the groom to the other one is all specked up. And I heard her say you could set some of your toys there

g. I thought maybe he was figuring something with them, and I kept still. But he wasn't—he was thinking with them. In a minute he straightene

h. "My friend," he says, "I vill tell you what

ca, and all he hadn't found? A lump come in my throat—not a sad

t [Pg 74]coming, to save up money to bring over his wife and the little ones. And it wasn't two

he see I noticed. "Thes' I do not for America—no!

I watched him pound

e knows things America hasn't found ou

FOOTNOTE

rybody's Magazine, 191