Our Square and the People in It

h the bickering of neighbors. By night the voice of the spellbinder is strident on its corners, but from the remoter benches float murmurs where the

the happy grass, the flash and song of the birds stir our tree

nent domain over all of us. Even MacLachan, the dour tailor on the corner, used to burst into song when she passed. It was he who dubbed her the Bonnie Lassie, and as it was the first decent word he'd spoken of living being within the memory of Our Square, the name stuck. Apart from that, it was eminently appropriate. She was a small girl who might have been pe

l other people wanted more than he did. So he got up and gave it to them. Later, when the huskiest of them met him and explained, by way of putting him in his proper place, what would have happened to him if he hadn't been so obliging, Cyrus absent-mindedly said, "Oh, yes," threw the belligerent one into our fountain, held him

of the law. Terry the Cop, who presides over the destinies of Our Square, led the Bonnie Lassie to

ung woman nodded and said, "How-d'ye-do?" non-committally, and the young police

soft, studious eyes. There was something discomfortin

ou'll do," she

red Cyrus, wond

down and talk it

n, Cyrus wondered what this half-fairy, half-flower, with the decisive

n he lifted his head; his eyes met hers, and she modified her estimate, substituting for "homely," first "queer," then "quaint," and finally "unus

wering some ques

guardedly. "Well, I'll

ound the

do y

ing m

ave you bee

o l

n't you

d her in the eye. "Beautiful Incognita," he drawled with mild impertinen

were in the monosyllable. "I'm afraid I've made a mistake

ce-President of the Life B

itude. Again she studied him. "No,

cue his personality from her impersonal ignoring of it. He also felt sudde

at my house in the

e?" he aske

houldn't stare at strange h

ith the little bronzes of dancin

no

tare? There's a se

t? What

ng kiddies have got it. I want it. I

id the gir

fting his head to contemplate her with his direc

I model them. I

re a very good one, aren'

one. Now I'm trying

"Oh, then it's as a subject that you t

lection. You see, I've

s where the blithe figures danced, tiny m?nads of the gutter, Bacch? of the asphalt

uldn't

rce through the externals and perceive with your artistic eye that beneath this austere mask I'm as m

er as brightened life to the limits of its farthest echo. Cyrus had the feeling that the gr

hem!" she cried. "Shall I

ly and looked up at him with wondering eyes and parted lips, droop

that or anything else she wished. "All r

cents a

if-fif-fif-" he began, then recovered himself. "Pardon my performing like a deranged steam-whistle, but do I understand that you off

did. Others ar

ocial distincti

me to you I thought you were of Our Square. If you will tell me

belong quite as much t

are you? Don't tell me that you are here Settlementing or Sociologizing or Improving the Condition of Somebody Else!

re not an

o I look as if I'd

rpose, improved," she observed. "Please d

y t

u anything

jobs. That's why I'm so grat

" His face fell. "It's most irregul

r. And that's more than I've ever

iss Wil

loying Cyrus Murphy. Do you thi

too many friends who are Murphys to believe that you are one

and disappeared. Splash! Bubble-bubble! There goes nothing. The only differenc

r little hand she indicated the bustling activities with which the

His gaze came to rest upon a steam-roller, ponderously clanking ove

man's job at least. H

Any kind of machinery j

tter than being a model. Be at m

d it, to inject light and color into life at fifty cents an hour, and who had plainly intimated that, in her view, he was not a man. It was that precise opinion

to MacLachan's "Home of Fashion," where he left his clothes to be pressed overnight. In the mornin

ot my cloth

said th

npress '

aid the

the floor. Muss'em up. Put all th

e the whiskey be,"

and proceeded to play football with it, after whic

e, improved," he muttered as he wended his way to the lit

rus the Gaunt may have cherished was promptly quashed on his arriva

rther forward-let the chin drop a l

ted and kneaded, nor the vivid face as plastic as the material fr

to look at nothing, as you do when you sit

most unexpected crannies and corners lurked tiny bronzes, instinct with life: a wistful dog submitting an injured paw to a boy hardly as large as himself; "Androcles" this one was labeled. Then there was "Mystery," a young, ill-clad girl, looking down at a dead butterfly; "Remnants," a withered an

orker presently. "You

d, Cyrus ventu

re the d

all in th

as big work, isn't it? Why

my people." She put a world of pro

t see w

e told of the tragedy of life. Joy and play and l

ng eyes. "Do you know, I begin to th

at least. Half a dozen times he sat for her, sometimes collecting a dollar, sometimes only fifty cents, the money being invariably handed over with a demure and determined air of business procedu

rt of the little sculptor. The subjects were two-on-a-bench, in Our Square. One wa

lse, less tangible, something which lighted

king sculptor overhea

o'clock to-morrow mo

degrees less wan, as he rounded the opposite curve of the circle and passed out on the street in front

reathlessly. "I forgot. I've got an engage

gan, when there appeared before them both

irty to-morrow." Then she passed on, so deep in thought that she hardly responded to th

, rumpled and mussed as usual. "How do you do?" the artist g

asing a phantom mouse up the swaying cu

a person of fine distinctions. Come here, Mischief." The kitten gave over the chase, after one last lightning swipe, and

fine distinctions. Fluff, do you know how those ancient barbarian parties looked

him with her eyes. "I'v

good p

ere really

me see myself before you bartere

der

ldn't have liked

omposed pride. "My idea of you wouldn't be good, as

hink I oughtn't to l

te and sympathetic friendliness.

it's pretty evident

. One can't be too careful as to whom one int

their acquaintance he smiled. The

working into the far corner of the studio.

the

estion. "Why did you have to go and smile that way? I haven't

you know. Nothing ver

ted and uncontr

think perha

icking the shutter of a camera, for all I've done with you. T

me any more?"

t have time. I've got

ery have you sold

ve got around here-and I can name my man for the late night-shift. Will

don't know

nything else to eat. How l

nd more. How

rele

." Which she did, writing it down in her absurd litt

nd sit for you afte

e here, Miss Fluff, and tell the new engineer that we'll be glad to have him come and tell us about the job when he's learned it." But the

d," said Cyrus, "ma

ight t

with her grave, speculative gaze, "but just as a guaranty of good faith. I set great stor

is bad at all," she s

aid he

you l

me, for some people,

't like

that demand. "I never knew but one girl

don't squint. D

er his nose. Cyrus the Gaunt looked down into those radiant eyes that grew wider and deeper and deeper and wider, until hi

flickered at the corner of a challenging mouth; unconsciously challenging, doubtless, yet-And then Fluff, opportunely descrying her imaginary butterfly on the side of Cyrus's

hen you're too busy to come and see us, Fluff and I will peek out a

b," said Cyrus the Gaunt wist

him a dollar bill. "Here's your pay. You'll be