the leaves before them, pausing, darting,
exclaiming.
"I--Honest, Mr. Blaney, I--"
"Eddie!"
"Eddie, I--I never did feel so--I never was so--so--Aw, I can't say it."
Tears sprang to her eyes.
"Sure, you never was. I never was, neither, before--before--"
"Before what?"
"Before I had to."
"Had to?"
"Yeh; both of them. Bleedin' all the time. Didn't see nothing but red
for 'leven months."
"You!"
"Yeh; three years ago. Looked like Arizona on a stretcher for me."
"You--so big and strong and all!"
He smiled at her and his teeth flashed.
"Gad, little girl, if you got a right to be scared, whatta you think I
had? I seen your card over at the clinic last night, and you ain't got
no right to have that down-and-out look on you had this morning. If you
think you got something to be scared at you looka my old card at the
clinic some day; they keep it for show. You oughtta seen me the day I
quit the shipping room, right over at the Titanic, too, and then see
whether you got something to be scared at."
"You--you used to work there?"
"Six years."
"I--I ain't scared no more, Eddie; honest, I ain't!"
"Gee, I should say not! They ain't even sending you up to the farm."
"No, no! They're going to get me a job. A regular outdoor, on-the-level
kind of a job. A grand old doc, with whiskers! I ain't a regular one,
Eddie; just the bottom of one lung don't make a regular one."
"Well, I guess not, poor little missy. Well, I guess not."
"Three months he said, Eddie. Three months of right livin' like this,
and air and all, and I'll be as round as a peach, he said. Said it
hisself, without me asking--that's how scared I was. Round as a peach!"
"You can't beat that gang over there at the clinic, little missy. They
took me out of the department when all the spring water I knew about ran
out of a keg. Even when they got me out on the farm--a grown-up guy like
me--for a week I thought the crow in the rooster was a sidewalk faker.
You can't beat that, little missy."
"He's a grand old man, with whiskers, that's going to get me the job.
Then in three months I--"
"Three months nothing! That gang won't let you slip back after the three
months. They took a extra shine to me because I did the prize-pupil
stunt; but they won't let anybody slip back if they give 'em half
a chance. When they got me sound again, did they ship me back to the
shipping department in the sub-basement? Not muchy! Looka me now, little
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