Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man

ERW

nough. For the Eustises are our wealthiest and most important family, just as the Eustis house, with its pillared, Greek-temple-effect front, is by far th

tertaining no less a personage than Mrs. Eustis; she wasn't calling on the Catholic priest and hi

tion a fool seems to have for men of undoubted powers of mind and heart, for Eustis, who had both to an unusual degree, loved her devotedly, even while he smiled at her. She had, after some years of

an anguished moment as if another little girl had walked out of the past, so astonishingly like was she to that little lost playmate of my you

ave chosen a little girl instead of the little boy that had been

Here, then, the child learned to sew and to embroider, to acquire beautiful housewifely accomplishments, and to speak French with flawless perfection; she reaped the

ized those spring hopes of mine; and had there been little children resembling their mother, then my own little gir

ed me as well as them; these fresh souls and growing min

"But Mary Virginia's is star dust. Star dust,

nocence troubled me for her. "One is puzzled how to bring home to this na?ve soul the ugly truth that all is not good. Now, La

and bumped his head against the study wall-no mild thump, either! She has in her quite enough of the leaven of unrighteousness to save her, at a pinch-for Laurence was entirely right, she entirely wrong. Yet-she made him apologize before she consented to forgive

ther, I misunderstand you

full of astonishment. "Why should I r

I assure you, you said that Laurence had

e; well, as for

, sur

w, fixed as the Medes' and the Persians', and she who forgets or ignores it is ground between the upper and the nether millstone

fully apologizing to the darling shrew who did it, without a cold wind stirring my hai

e were to expect her, and how happy she was at the thought of being home once more. We, too, rejoiced, for we had

es became prisms, a spiderweb was a fairy foot-bridge; and all our birds, leaving for a moment such household torments as squalling insatiable mouths that must be filled, became jubilant choristers.

unding her with a bright-colored living cloud; the judge's black cat Panch lay along the Mayne side of the fence and blinked at the

limb up highe

h dese

hes Westmoreland had lately brought him. Very unlovely he looked, dragging himself along like a wounded beast. The poor wretch struc

ping frantically about her. She wore a white frock, and over it a light scarlet jacket. Her blue eyes were dancing, lighting her sweet and fresh face, colored like a rose. The gay little breeze that came along with her stirred her skirts, a

greetings. My mother, seizing the child by the arms, held her off a moment, to l

d me, when she came back after an absence-as if the Other Girl flashed into view for a quick moment

ny off her head!" sa

o face, the fixed stare of John Flint, hanging upon his crutches as one might up

directly, taking him, as it were, into a pleasant confidence. She seemed perfectly unconscious of the evil unloveliness of him; Mary Virginia always seemed to miss the evil, passing it over as if it didn't exist. Instead, diving into t

s, and the fine bonbons she and my mother had made to celebrate the child's return. And we had tea, making very merry, for she had a thousand amusing things to tell us, every airy trifle informed with something of her own brave bri

e to put up my hair and let down my frocks pretty soon, and that I'll probably be thinking of beaux

ion of Miss Jenny's pecking,

scoffed Laurence. "You everlasting little silly, you! P'tite Madame, these c

gnity. "You're only seventeen, so you don't need to give yourself such hate

y child," sai

ad, either, ar

h a delightful ch

to my funeral in the front carriage; she doted on funerals, the little ghoul! She was horribly disappointed when I got better-she thought it disobliging of me, and that I'd done it to spite

irginia, too gently. "And your head was bumpable, Laurence, though I'm sorry to say I don't ever expect to bump it again. W

ce. "And I'm certainly not going to notice you if you're silly enough to call me Mister Mayn

said she, dispassionately. "My father says

er what we'll be like, th

bly strut like a turkey, and you'll be baldheaded, and wear double-lensed horn spectacles, and spats, and your wife will call you

ack cat Panch would put it all over you. Allow me to inform you I'm not biggity, miss! I'm logical-s

g up. Grown ups don't seem to be happy-and I want to be happy!" She turned her hea

to stop being a little boy and g

ldn't say, miss. I guess I was b

fair," said she, wi

appens to you, though that's pretty bad; it's that you don't know it's happening-and there's nobody to put you wise

thinking about people's looks, too,-and how you never can tell. Wait a minute, and I'll show you." She reached for the pretty crocheted bag she had brought with her, and drew from it a small pasteboa

he was a part of the tree-trunk, he looked so much like it," said the child, opening the little box. I

tty, would one?" said she,

he box. "No, miss, I shouldn't think I'd call something like that pr

finger-tips. He fluttered, spreading out his gray wings; and then one saw the beautiful pansy-

crazy about moths and butterflies, you must understand, and we're always on the lookout to get them for him. I never found t

er. "I'll take him, my dear, and thank you-there's always a demand for the Cat

ordinary, and matter of fact, and uninteresting and even ugly they are, and you feel rather sorry for them-because you don't know. But if you can once get close enough to touch them-why, then you find out!" Her eyes grew deeper, and brighter, as they do when she is moved; and the color came more vividly to her cheek. "Don't you reckon," said she na?vely, "that plenty of folks

ty in his manner; he was staring at Mary Virginia as if some of

nute-in my own hand?" he

only my eyes have just been opened to him. I don't want him to go in any collection. I don't want him to go anywhere, except bac

ed little chap; it spread out its wings splendidly, as if to show him its loveli

kled over with little splotches of silver, as if there'd been plenty of the stuff on hand, and it'd been laid on him thick. But after awhile I got to thinking he'd feel like he was in jail, shut up in my hot fist. I couldn't bear that, so I ran to the end of the street, to save him from the other kids, and then I turned

y enough, upon John Flint's hands lying l

sort to handle setting needles and mounting blocks, and to stretch wings without loosening a scale. He could be taught in a few lessons, and

haped, steel-muscled, powerful, with flexible, smooth-skinned, sensitiv

roud to try, miss. It's true," he added casually, with a sphinx-like immob

led, then," said Ma

d often complained that she might as well be his sister, she quarreled with him so much; and the little girl said, bitterly, he was as disagreeable as if he'd been a brothe

sat outdoors in the pleasant twilight, h

ells, ain't you? The real thing, I mean, you and Madam

u see, my son, Madame is-Madame

?" he persisted. "Old family, swell dig

what you mean. Of an old family, y

ore questions than you had to, so you can tell me to shut up, if you want to. Not that I

through affli

you the best crib ever cracked you were some

ung, the thoughtles

a pause, "that I'm one hell of a sinne

mentioning it," I said, feeling my way cautiously. "But-we are bidden to remember the

born every time the clock ticks, parson-but they don't land something like me every day, believe me! And I bet you a stack of dollar chips a mile high there was some song

a swell, too, ain'

e son of Judge

irl?" Insensibly

t the little girl is what y

ed as if they might have the goods. But none of 'em struck me as being real live breathing people, same as other folks. Why, parson, some of those dames'd throw a fit, fancying they was poisoned, if they had to breathe the same air with folks

somewhat, for once upon a time, I myself would have resented that

ame. "I've seen 'em from the Battery up, and some of 'em was sure-enough queens, but I didn't know they came like this one. She's bran-new to me, parson. Say, yo

ou understand, and I hope and pray you'll never touch one again, either. I'd rather you wou

been caught when you were softer and put wise. Man, it's a bigger job than you think, and you've got to have the know-how and the nerve before you can put it over. But there-I'll keep it dark, seeing you want me to." He stretched out his hands,

ated hastily, "is what very many people consider very fin

asm, "and turn me loose. I'll do what I can, to pleas