Peace in Friendship Village

d one automobile weren't anything. He had about three of each, and he frisked the world in between occupying them. Still, when he wrote to me tha

I saw Silas Sykes and Timothy Toplady and Eppleby Holcomb and some more, smoking to heaven and talking to each other while the mayor addressed them. I wondered, as I went along, wh

nd some cheaper. Lucy was forty-odd, with long brown hair, braided round and round her head, crown after crown. She was tall and thin, with long arms, but a slow, graceful way

guess who I'm up here

. "Nick Nordman?" she

myself energetic: What was the matter with me to spring that onto her all of a sudden that way, and

from four to six little boys, getting orders for the city paper before the train had come in. B

d it that because Dick Dasher was the conductor-came rolling in a special car, and a black p

there, or what?" I says to Mis'

we was wonder

o bring home all along the line, and he heard me. "If you're to meet somebody, that's

knew him. Stockier, redder in the face, with blunt gray hair and blunt gray mustache

say; but instead of it what I di

t's Calliope Marsh, isn't it?" says he. "I am glad

until I saw him, and heard him being so formal. My land, he looked rich and acted rich! The other women stood there, so I managed to introduce them. "You meet Mis' Arn

emed to me. But to bow quite low, and lift his hat higher and hig

'd like to see the town-" But I kind of wavered off. All

means,"

papers now and they were bound to make a sale. "Paper? Buy a paper? Buy a newspaper, mis

buy a paper. Give me

says then. "Where's

one of the boys had

you don't mean to say you don't have a ci

ys in chorus. "Aw, it ain't comin'. Pitcairn's wanted

hard on the platform. "It's a burning shame!" he says out, indignant a

them a nickel apiece, and the next instant the platform was swept cl

it's grown! What a very nice little town!" A

he village than anything on earth. I'd been going to tell him about old Harvey Myers' han

st came streaming out of the engine house. Mis' Toplady and Mame Holcomb were sitting outside, waiting for their husbands, and so of course I

w, and he says: "Delighted-delighted to see you again. Indeed we

long pause. We al

't know a better sample of what Mr. Nicholas Nordman's manner done to us all. "Remain!" Silas never said "

ght to have been like that the least. This was when Mr. Nordman told a plan he had. "I want you all," he said, "and a few more wh

iggering on the same thing; finally Eppleby ask

, [Pg 81]"somewhere on the siding.

d, I'm sure," "Pleased

ackett. I never said anything till we overtook her. When I spoke she wheeled and flushed up like a girl, and

Miss Lucy Hackett, that I gue

Miss Lucy," says he, "this is a pl

e says, and walked along on the insi

is luncheon next day. She said she would, with a nice little catch of pleasure in her tone; and he left her at

here wasn't a mite of Nick Nordman about him at all; but all of a sudden, like an explosion out of a clear sky and all points of the earth, there came down onto us the

-s

Yow

-all--

-o--rd

ping out of trees and scrambling up from under the fence, and they ran off down

e broke into a broad, pleased grin, and he shoved his hat onto the back of his head, a

heon. Lucy Hackett come for me. She had on a clea

too[Pg 83] bad about Nick? He ain't no more l

ant. "I thought," says sh

I says. "Improved out o

rior smile. "Of course," she says, "he

, with pretty dishes and silver and flowers. Electric fans were going here and there. The lights were lighted, though it was broad day and broader. The porter, in a

very pleased. Now this is

the little tables, four and four, a deathlike silence fell on the whole car. It was hard enough to talk a

table, being we were all odd ones, and begun to talk benevolent ab

parks and buildings in the

een to see them?" s

he. "But I've h

ture, where the shadows were all laying nice. "City l

u stole Grandpa Toplady's grap

of. We were in order already; we hadn't been anything else. Nobody was speaking a

some small token. Therefore, after some conversation about the matter during the forenoon, and much thought before my coming, I have decided to[Pg 85] set aside ten thousand dollars from to-day to be used for your town in a way which a committee-of

minute, everybody burst o

tle about the needs of the town; and Eppleby Holcomb, he got up and proposed a toast to the host. And by that time, the sun had got around considerabl

, with the tears in her eyes. "Nick!" she says. "Oh, Nick, it was wonderful! Oh, it was the most wonderful time I ever had in my life-the luncheon with everything so pretty-prettier'n I ever

says he, "thank you; you

ncheon party or what, when I heard something out on the platform, and then there come a-walking in a regular procession. It was al

ime?" th

ght to have been with us-and wasn't. But he was going off that night, with his car to be hitched onto the Through; and there wasn't any time for anybody to say any more, o

o'clock, and was seeing to the window catches before I

ays I, with my h

g

Nordman,

in. "I thought you'd gone

to wait till five in the morning. And I'

here and things were spread on every chair. Think of receiving a millionaire in a place like that! But he never seemed to notice. H

nted to come back here," he says. "I been thinking about it an

ys the way when anybody comes back. They's chang

rs to go on. Now I've come back, and I don't mind telling you that I've got not far from six hundred thousand invested. Well, from the time I went[Pg 88] off, I used to plan how I'd come back

ys, "and you

never went to school after I was twelve. And when I went to the city I begun at the bottom and lived on nothing and went to night school and got through the whole works up to pardner for them I used to sweep out for. When I got my first ten thousand I thought: 'That's

says, "o

it-with the men all coming around me, and sla

"Nick Nordman! Was t

g

tonishment. "Why," says he, "

e was afraid of you. I was afraid of you. I froze right up and give up telling you about folks hanging themse

e. "But ain't I showed 'em-

s, "that counts." I set down by him, right on a pile of my new sewing. "Look here," I says, "Nick Nordman, if that's the w

p. "How?" says

d been with the boys, and the way the boys had been to him; that was what he was wanting, and that wa

n head, "some way that'll make folks-Oh,[Pg 90] N

year, when they'd wanted to come, the council had put the license so high that they refused it. And yet, one morning, we woke up to find the town plastered up and down wi

F TWELVE

Pageant and

he Beauti

costumes,

wels, diver

and en

D TRAINE

ACROBATS

ROM THE H

D H

AINED-ANIM

LS WO

c Stree

FREE

under the big maple, and see the sights while we et. I broached it to Mis' Toplady and Timothy and Eppleby and Marne Holcomb and Postmaster and Mis' Sykes, and some more-Mis' Arnet and Mis' Sturgis and Mis' Hubbelthw

the window where I'd watched circus parades when I was a little girl. The horses, the elephants, the cages closed and the cages opened, the riders, the bands, the clowns, the calliope-that I wa

th circus folks, dressed gorgeous, but with boys. And we knew them! Laughing, jigging, frantic with joy-we[Pg 92] saw upward of a hundred Friendship Village boys. As the wagon passed us

-s

Yow

-all--

-o--rd

y yelling?" says a wo

," says som

as looking wild. "Calliope," says she, "how'

uld yell that too-on general princi

, rosy, fire red-on gene

ght out to the Pump pasture. The tents were up already, flags we

was giving a

re. And we were dying to[Pg 93] get into each other's lunches and see what each other had brought. So Jimmy Sturgis went

long down and buy all our t

came down nice on the cloth, and appetizing little picnic smells of potato salad and other things begun getting out around, and the whole time was

won't leave us buy no ticket

st everybody bu

and they ain't going to be," says Si

mothy Toplady. "What I think

ning up a litt

they threw round this mor

lowing round the streets, but nobody had paid[Pg 94] a

SHIP V

TO COME T

AFT

R

KETS O

ADM

O

SHIP V

es, "I never heard of such a

Mis' Toplady. "But

s Silas Sykes. "What are

we being a party to,

rd. Coming out of the main tent was a mass of struggling, wriggling, dancing humanity-little human

his collar was turned in, his hat was on the back of his head

g

uess that's who we're t

mean?" Sila

come here to the village and give it to us free. And I say, l

as we started together, not caring who stole the whole lunch that w

ad was back, her eyes were bright, her face was bright, and she did

n going, savory. Nick didn't see us till we were right there, and then the nicest shamefaced look co

your doings?" Silas plu

rinning like a schoolboy

] could. Oh, how we talked at him, all round, a good many at a time. And I think everything there w

o take in the full magnitude of it. We sat down round the potato salad and

ging back that. It was no time at all till every one of us was back twenty-five to thirty years, and telling about it. And Lucy, that I'd maneuvered s

ady when we got through. "Look-at here: To Nich

to Nicholas Nordman, that's give us

o Nick Nordman, that's come back home!" He up with his hand, and it came down on Nic

on of nothing, Nick Nordman met my ey

dy pouring in the pasture, so we scrabbled things up an

u look near enough like you

ered him. "You are you, Nick," she

there in the big tent, when they knew. But far, far more, I sensed the thing that Nick Nordman, walking there with us, with

liope," says he, wh

ade folks so awful nice-when they jus