For the next week Mr. Smith was untiring in his efforts to find the missing Joseph Smith, his namesake. Telegrams sped back and between Baltimore and San Diego, with the result that the only information gained was: on the very day, or the next following that, on which Mrs. John Smith sailed from San Diego for Santiago de Chile, Doctor Alexander MacDonald, otherwise known as “Doctor Mack,” had departed for the Philippines. No person at their recent home knew anything further concerning these two persons, and owing to their long journeys all communication with them was for the present impossible.
The seventy-five Joseph Smiths residing in or around Baltimore had all been , so to speak, without finding one who in any[139] particular beyond the name resembled the desired one. Not one was anybody’s twin, not one happened to have had any relative in either San Diego or Santiago, and not one welcomed the thought of receiving a strange child into his household.
One Joseph Smith had, indeed, been found to have lately resided at 1000 Bismarck Street and this confusion of street and avenue explained to Uncle Joe’s mind the whole curious, yet simple blunder. This Bismarck-Street Joseph Smith was, doubtless, the right one; but, also, he was the only one of the seventy-five who could not now be located! He had disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed him, and Josephine’s present rested his efforts; merely causing an advertisement to be inserted in each of the daily papers to the effect that the person answering it might hear of something to his advantage by calling at the newspaper office and leaving his address for the advertiser, “S.”
Nobody called. Matters dropped into a comfortable routine. Uncle Joe was disturbed[140] at finding the name of the trained nurse was also Smith, and to prevent unpleasant complications, requested that he might call her as the little girl did, “Mrs. Red Kimono,” or, more , “Miss Kimono,” she having set him right as to her condition.
She readily and smilingly agreed to this, and, reporting the matter to Mrs. Merriman, laughed so over it, that that lady , saying:
“Dear Miss Desire, it’s . Under the circumstances I would never permit it. The idea! He excludes you from table with himself and the little girl, does he not? For so Michael tells me.”
“Yes. Not, I fancy, from , but merely from force of habit. He dislikes women, and sincerely. Or he thinks he does. But Josephine has won his whole heart for childhood, and he likes her to be with him as constantly as possible. From what the servants tell me, she has a complete in the household. And she is so lovely, so winning, that eventually[141] she’ll bring everything right. I don’t mind the table business; the main thing is that I am in his house, tolerated there, and , if the time is not too short, to prove to him that blood is thicker than water, and that, just though he thinks himself, he has been wholly unjust in his treatment of others. Oh, I don’t object to the situation. I get lots of quiet fun out of it, and haven’t felt so happy in a long time. I’ve even lost all bitterness against him, poor, , prejudice-bound old man,” returned the nurse.
“Well, may I be there to see when the revelation is at last made! Though I that his behavior in the matter will be as as it was about the line-fence. Think! We squabbled over it like a couple of silly children, for years and years. I can’t understand now how I could ever have been so absurd. Must you go? Well, then, since your employer wishes you to take little Josephine down town to get that Rudanthy a head, suppose you both go with me in my carriage? I will call for you at three o’clock.”
[142]Miss Kimono thanked her friend and departed; and that same afternoon the unhappy doll’s ruined was replaced by one so beautiful that it almost consoled Josephine for the loss of the more familiar face.
That very day, too, away out in a village, where rents were cheap and needs few, three little lads sat on a bare floor, surrounding a baby, who rejoiced in the high-sounding name of Penelope, but rejoiced in very little else. Even now she was crying for her dinner, and each of the “triplets,” as they were called by the neighbors, was doing his utmost to console her. In reality they were not triplets, though the were twins, and their names were those so objectionable in Uncle Joe’s ears, Tom, Dick, and .
“Here, Penel! You may play with my pin-wheel!” cried the latter.
“No, Harry, she must not. She’ll swallow it. The pin’ll scratch her insides. She swallows everything, Penelope does. And you mustn’t say just ‘Penel.’ Mother doesn’t like that. She says it’s a beautiful name and mustn’t be spoiled.”
[143]“Oh, Tom, you’re always a c’recting a fellow. Well, if she can’t have my pin-wheel, what shall I give her to make her shut up?”
“Maybe I can find something in mother’s cupboard, maybe,” answered Harry.
The tone was doubtful, but the suggestion cheering, and with one accord the triplets left the baby to its fate and betook themselves to the rear room where they a small pantry, only to find their search rewarded by nothing more than a stale loaf of bread and a few raw potatoes.
“She can’t eat taters, and she can’t eat this bread, ’ithout it’s . And there isn’t any milk,” said Dick, despondingly. “I don’t see why we don’t have things like we used to have. I don’t know what made my folks move ’way out here to nowhere, anyway. I was just going to get a new ’rithmetic to my school, and now, I—I hate this.”
“No, you don’t hate it, Dicky. Not always. You’re hungry, that’s all,” said the more thoughtful Tom.
“Well, so are you!” retorted Dick, resenting[144] the statement............