h as stirred till Barber or the alarm clock
sounded an order. But on this happy morning he did not wait for orders,
but rose promptly, though it still wanted more than half an hour to
getting-up time. He did yet another unusual thing; noiselessly, so as
not to wake any one, he set his bedding roll on end just outside the
door of Cis's room, then returned to the table, drew out the drawer,
chose a saucer of rose-colored beads, and fell to threading them
swiftly. He had two ideas in mind: first, after yesterday's unpleasant
experience, he was anxious to make a good impression upon Big Tom;
second, and principally, he was stringing now, when he dared not read,
in order that, later on, he might be free to enjoy his book.

He held the long needle in his right hand. He poked the beads to the
needle's tip with the forefinger of his left. He used his tongue, too,
after a fashion, for if a bead was obstinate his tongue tip sometimes
helped--by curling itself noseward over his upper lip. Before now he had
always thought of rose-colored beads as future rose-colored roses in the
beautiful purses that Mrs. Kukor made. But now the beads reminded him of
nothing less than that strange garden laying under the horizontal stone
in China.

He took out all of his saucers--the pink, the green, the brown, the
gold, the blue, the burgundy, the white, the black, the yellow--and
found that they gave him a new pleasure. They were the fruit of
Aladdin's garden, and he planned to offer them in a yellow bowl to that
certain dark-haired little girl. "'What wouldst thou have?'" he quoted.
"'I am ready to obey thee as thy slave,'"--a statement that he
considered highly appropriate. His whispering was accompanied by
gesticulations that bore no relation to bead-stringing, and by tossings
of his yellow head.

"_Now_ what y' mumblin' about?" demanded Big Tom. He was watching from
the bedroom door, and his look denied that Johnnie, though at work, was
making anything like a good impression; quite the contrary--for Barber's
bloodshot eyes were full of suspicion. Should a boy who always had to be
watched and driven suddenly show a desire to keep busy? "Breakfast on?"
he asked.

Johnnie sprang up. "I didn't want to make no noise," he explained. The
next moment lids were rattling and coal was tumbling upon some blazing
kindling as he started the morning fire.

"A-a-a-ah! What y' got this _lamp_ down for?"--it was the next question,
and there was triumph i