The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-06-17
THE STARS RAPID
FIRE SHORT STORY

the tenement on O0erIy Hill aust
gathered for three days upon his bed.
, Mrs. Kelly ate desolate breakfasts and
= did all the work. At dusk on the third
} day she followed an insistent impulse
: and went for a little walk Totally
oblivious footsteps carried her stout
'sand rotund figure down into Oliver
: street. She happened to notice the
= cross-eyed girl sitting on her doorstep
in close and unabashed converse
with a boy who was not Johnny.
Shortly afterwards she returned home,
and the haste with which she opened
the door meant hope as plainly as
the subsequent look in her old eyes
meant disappointment. The room was
still empty.
At the moment in which she plod-
ded uneasily to her work on the next
morning, Johnny crawled forlornly
from packing box in a Thirty-first
street area, and denounced upper
Broadway vigorously. He was hun
CRY and business was bad.
Towards four in the afternoon he
shifted his bundle of unsold papers
under his arm and despairingly
caught on behind truck that was rat
Ting towards the Battery. AS he
swung off at the City Hall his heart
grew suddenly light, and he ran across
the park in citation. At tn foot of
the City Hall steps he sprang with a
joyous whoop upon the back of an ac-
quaintance who, in company with a
group of other newsboys, was beguil-
ing the tedium of the afternoons
slack hours by pitching pennies. The
acquaintance leaped to his feet and
mixed things until a policeman scat
tered the ring.
On native soil the lifeless insipid-
ity of upper Broadway fell rapidly
into the dim recesses of memory and
johnny heaved a sigh of relief.
By 6 o'clock he had lodged guilty
into Park Row to get the extras,
catching a glimpse, on his way, of his
mothers back as she stood in her reg
ular place and cried her wares. There
was something about the lines Of her
figure which made Johnny uncomfort-
able, but he ducked behind the near
10y Franklin statue and commenced
business.
From time to time he peeped around
Ben Franklin. He noticed the tactics
of the piratical outsiders as they
boarded Annies customers, and his
blood boiled over. When restraint
ceased to be a possibility, and while
his mothers attention was engaged,
he crept up behind the intruders and
cuffed one of them soundly. The
others fed, and it was noised swiftly
abroad that Johnny had returned to
his own.
Mrs. Kelly got the news at last, and
an absurd wave of something shot
from her ankles to the top of her head,
leaving her trembling and weak, but
happier than she had been for three
days. A wisp of iron-grey hair fall
ing over her eyes caught drop that
trickled down the side of her weather
beaten nose, and two customers each
bore away a cent too much in change
before she discovered its binding in
fiuence.
When greater self-possession came,
she fastened automatically to a spot
from which she might catch an occa- :
slonal glimpse of Johnny. Because
he looked detected, her heart smote
her, and she sent out newsgirl scouts
to see how many papers he was get I
ting rid Of
Johnny, after cutting his mothers
competitors, went back to the Frank
lin statue and tried to shout Eek
trap In an overwhelming rush OF {
emotion his voice choked. He count
ed up his days receipts, and drew his
coat sleeve across his nose as he
found that his profits amounted to but l
81 cents. The image of the half dol
lar which his mother had presented to !
him every night rose swimmingly be-
fore his eyes when he gazed miser-
ably into space and thought of supper {
time. {
"Hey, kid" he called to another Y
newsboy, in wistful bravado, TASK me
mother if she's goin' t lock me outer /
he house tonight" S
Il don't want to AK her" replied the
boy. "She might soak me. Dere's me }
sister talkin' to her; wen dey break
away I'll AK her to ak her" q
Meanwhile Annie was grimly re-
luesting the little newsgirl to ask her a
how long he intended to stay c
80, ,AviIrn