ds, he brought the lower end of his breastbone into contact
with the sill. Resting thus, upon his midriff, he was thoroughly
comfortable, due to the fact that Big Tom's shirt and trousers
thoroughly padded his ribby front. Then he swelled his nostrils with his
intaking of air, and his back heaved and fell, so that he was for all
the world like some sort of a giant lizard, sunning itself on a rock.

Against the dingy black-red of the old wall, his yellow head stood forth
as gaudily as a flower. The flower nodded, too, as if moved by the
breeze that was wreathing the smoke over all the roofs. For Johnnie was
taking a general survey of the scenery.

The Barber window looked north, and in front of it were the rear windows
of tenements that faced on a street. There was a fire escape at every
other one of these windows--the usual spidery affair of black-painted
iron, clinging vinelike to the bricks. And over each escape were draped
garments of every hue and kind, some freshly washed, and drying; others
airing. Mingling with the apparel were blankets, quilts, mattresses,
pillows and babies.

Somehow Johnnie did not like the view. He glanced down into the gloomy
area, where a lean and untidy cat was prowling, and where there
sounded, echoing, the undistinguishable harangue of the fretful Italian
janitress.

Now Johnnie's general survey was done. He always made it short, wasting
less than one minute in looking down or around. It was beauty that drew
him--beauty and whatever else could start up in his mind the experiences
he most liked. His face upturned, one hand flung across his brows to
shield his eyes, for the light outside the sill seemed dazzling after
the semidark of the flat, he scanned first the opposite roof edges, a
whole story higher than he, where sparrows were alighting, and where
smoke plumes curled like veils of gossamer; next he scanned the sky.

Above the roofline of the tenements was a great, changing patch which he
called his own, and which he found fascinating. And not only for what it
actually showed him, which was splendid enough, but for the eternal
promise of it. At any moment, what might not come slipping into sight!

What he longed most to catch sight of was--a stork. Those babies across
on the fire escapes, storks had brought them (which was the main reason
why all the families kept bedclothes out on the barred shelves; a quilt
or a pillow made a soft place on which to leave a new baby). A stork h