The Tin Soldier

heater. She and her father went to worship a

ad been always that red-letter night when "The Little Minister" or "Hop-o'-my-Thumb" or "Peter Pan" had tr

had been t

elieve i

. And so did her father, except in certa

The very name had been enough to set Je

I was six when I first saw her

was at his best. The youth in him matched the yout

her the interpreter of dreams for those who would neve

ying act was over that Jean drew

in the seventh row of the parquet and had loved the golden proscenium arch, the painted goddesses, the red velvet hangings-she had thrilled to the voice and gesture of the artists who had played to please her. There had been "Wang" and "T

whose sorrows she had wept in the harrowing first act, having to be console

never when she could help it. "I'd rathe

t-w

laughs in the

hand in those breathless moments where words would have been desec

about that he had pushed away his work on certain nights and, sitting beside her, had for

puzzled look on a stout old gentleman with a wide shirt-front,

ad she

, and black and diamonds, and green and gold. There was a big bald-h

ward to speak to the vision in white and

h the wide shirt front. He was the shabby old gentlem

and elegance! As if a fairy

on Our Policeman wanting a shave, on the orphans in boxes, on baked potato offered as ho

Girl with the Pitcher and the Girl with the Muff-and Cinderella in azu

after a little moment, one saw Cinderella, st

her emotion, she found her eyes pulled away from that appealing

most surprisingly, bowed to the old gent

know him?" s

is Genera

e the o

. The boy in the back of the b

rr

not being quite candid with her fathe

an, and it's a wonder he isn't spoiled to death. His mother is dead, and the General

ey very

y to leave it to. He's th

godmother do more than this? To endow two rained-o

f revelation. Then, as the auditorium darkened, and the curtain went up, she was swept alon

the least the Prince of the fairy tale, but much nicer under the circumstance-and the curtain goes

was the loveliest ever, Daddy," she s

t cloak of heavenly blue that the young

ted hi

e she wa

smiling up into the face of the man who

owed to the man-the big man with the classic head and

seemed to satisfy its owner, then he gripped his father's arm. "Dad, wh

uce McKenzie, the

ing to know that, but o

his eye, Derry Drake saw the two figures with the copper-colored heads move down the aisle, t

o supper at the big hotel around

ital before twelve," the Doc

o eat," she settled herself comfortably beside him i

bundle of-ecstasy-what a

isn't the sn

body doesn't se

hate to see nothing in all th

slush tomorrow-. I wish you

and her father drove on, she

to go to t

ave anythi

N

might cook

her tone was ungracious, she tried to make

ike them. I'll hav

she hated to leave the field to Hilda. She unfastened h

-with c

-I think I'll s

you

dered with snow, found his daughter in

t you'd b

some oyst

I'm st

editatively, "I don'

y n

as this, Daddy? Foo

to feed any man over forty on star-dust

ator. She wore her nurse's outfit of white linen. She looked well in it, and

ed a man on stardust, don't

ed the contents. "Well, yes," she smiled at him, "yo

old her hotly. "I want to belie

ather asked gently. "Well, so be it. We

everal with healthy appetite. Her fath

ll the same, I d

message from Mrs. Witherspoon. Her son is on leave for the we

n the table thoughtfully, "Oh, do

Don'

, my dear, and never let a man look over. Ralph Withersp

d her long hands flat on t

irritability. "Because I don'

glance, "Of course you d

rned, white-faced, to her father, "

aid you don't quit

lk about her. I've got

hink there are two of you, the one that

easy laugh. "Who knows? But you mustn't ha

ays have you

y about, baby. I

e evening paper. "Hav

had my way, it should be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. For every man they have tortured, there

n't, Daddy," she said thickly, "it makes me afra

silence. Over her head he glanced at Hilda