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Bobby in Search of a Birthday

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<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> <div class='chaptertitle'>ALL THE PERQUISITES PERTAINING THERETO</div> Bobby obediently exchanged the four quarters for the dollar despite the frantic efforts of the puppy to see what was going on. The dollar was heavy in his hand and it was very thick. Bobby felt quite wealthy, able to buy all sorts of things, an edge-cation or . . . or perhaps even birthdays! His eyes grew big and round. The Man with the Pocketful of Quarters had just said a moment before that a boy could buy all sorts of things with a dollar. And a dollar is lots of money even to a boy with seven birthdays! In his excitement[53] Bobby almost dropped the puppy, retaining his hold on that delight by one leg only. His eyes sparkled with the intensity of the desire lighted in them. "Is it enough to buy a birthdays?" he asked, stammering in his eagerness. The lady gasped at the question and the man was too staggered to do anything at first; finally he exploded into that huge laughter which always seemed to Bobby to fill the room. He didn't mind the laughter for he knew the man was not making fun of him. "I don't know, Bobby," said the man when he had stopped laughing. "I've never heard of anybody selling his birthday. You might try and see." Bobby turned at once to the Lady Who Likes Little Boys. "Your little boy ain't not never coming back," he fairly stammered in his excitement. "Would he sell me a birthdays?" And he held out the round, shining dollar. The lady shrank back from him and went suddenly all white. Bobby knew he had done something wrong, but couldn't for the life of him imagine what it was. The father of the boy with seven birthdays went quickly to his wife. [54] "He's got grit and perseverance," said the man. "A birthday looks good to him and he won't give up till he gets one. It would make him happy as a king, Alice." She hid her face on his shoulder. "I can't, Alfred. Don't ask that." Bobby didn't understand what it was she couldn't do, but felt that he had in some way hurt her and his lower lip began to move unsteadily. "It's only day-after-tomorrow, Alice," pleaded the man. "It's Edward's," replied the Lady. "You have no heart or you couldn't. . . ." The man looked at Bobby and then said in a low voice to his wife: "Day-after-tomorrow is never to-day." Bobby's heart smote him anew, for he saw water running down the Lady's face as she lifted her head. It had all been caused by his wanting a birthdays. Very well, he would pretend he didn't want a birthdays any more; then perhaps the water would go out of the Lady's eyes. "Don't want a birthdays," he announced with a suspicious dolefulness in his voice. "It doesn't not feel good." "Look at him, Alice," said the man. Bobby didn't want the Lady to see the[55] water in his eyes, so he tried to rub it out, but the tightly clutched dollar got in the way, and the lady must have seen what he was doing, for she simply rushed at Bobby and gathered him, puppy, dollar and all, into her arms and kissed him forty or a dozen times and held his face against her wet cheek. "Birthdays can't be bought, Bobby, but you shall have one all of your very own. I'll give you one." "Don't not want any," whimpered Bobby. "Not if I give you one?" asked the lady, wiping the water out of her eyes. "We'll give you our little boy's." Bobby kept perfectly still and in that stillness a miracle was performed; that trembling lip of his, without stopping its trembling, was transformed into a joyful smile. And when the Lady saw it, she smiled too. "I've been selfish and . . . rebellious," said her sweet, low voice right at his ear, but she was looking up at the Man with the Pocketful of Quarters when she said it. The man blew his nose and made such a loud noise that it startled Bobby and the Lady. They looked into one another's face and then began to smile like persons sharing a happy secret that no one else knew. [56] "I'll draw it up on paper, son," said the man, "and then if you ever lose it again, whoever finds the paper will know that birthday belongs to you and return it." He went to the writing desk in one corner of the room, took paper, pen and ink and began to write. When all the water had gone out of the eyes of Bobby and the Lady, they went over to watch the man who was writing away rapidly and smiling to himself. "There you are," he said at last, with a concluding flourish, and handed the paper to his wife. She smiled as if it hurt her to read what he had written, and pressed Bobby more closely to her. "Now we must sign it," said the man. With another flourish, he wrote his name on the paper. His wife's lip trembled just like Bobby's as she signed it. Then the man took Bobby on his lap and guided his hand in making a big cross, and then wrote something himself above and below the mark Bobby made. "Is that a birthdays?" asked Bobby. "No," replied the Lady, "it's just proof that we have given you a birthday. If anybody ever doesn't believe you have one, just show him that, and he'll know that you have." [57] "I'll read it to you, son," said the man and proceeded to read in a big, booming voice: "Done at Our House this Second Day of August, 1916. We, Alfred and Alice Anning, do hereby and herewith give and convey to Bobby North, Day-After-Tomorrow, which on every Second Day of August becomes To-Day, to be his very own birthday forever. This Day-After-Tomorrow is his fifth birthday; the next one will be his sixth. No one can take this birthday from him because it is ours to give. Whenever Day-After-Tomorrow comes, the aforesaid Bobby North is to have his birthday with a celebration and all the perquisites pertaining thereto. In witness whereof our signatures are herewith attached. <div class='right'> Signed: Alfred Anning Alice Anning. </div> <div class='center'>Bobby North</div> <div class='unindent'>Accepted by </div> <div class='center'>His X Mark." </div> "There, I guess that's all ship-shape and tight enough so water can't leak through," said the man and offered the paper to Bobby. He accepted it gravely, as one should in such important matters, then smiled up at the[58] Lady whose lip still twitched curiously. He looked thoughtfully at the paper in his hand. "A birthdays and perk—perk—" "And all the perquisites pertaining thereto," said the man, helping him out. "What is perk-wizits?" Bobby asked. "Perk-wizits," replied the man gravely, "are the things that go with birthdays, a celebration, marbles, cake and ice cream, pocket knives, pigs and pups. Why, look at that pup!" Bobby looked and the puppy had the precious bit of paper in his mouth and was trying to swallow it! The man opened the puppy's mouth and rescued Bobby's birthdays. "I was only just in time," he confided to Bobby. "A second later and that dog would have swallowed it. Then where would your birthdays have been?" Bobby took time to consider. In due course he arrived at a decision. "Long's the puppy's mine, I'd have the birthdays, too." He joined in the laughter of his two friends without quite knowing why. "Keep the paper in your pocket, Bobby. If the dog eats it you couldn't prove to anybody that you had a birthday. Now we are going to continue the celebration." [59] All day long that celebration lasted and Bobby was so happy and excited and had so many good things to eat and so many wonderful things to do that he didn't know where the hours had gone when the man said the day was almost over and that it was time to take him back to Mr. Eller's. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i059.png" width-obs="464" height-obs="501" alt="Bobby writing and holding his puppy" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> [60] <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i060.png" width-obs="224" height-obs="304" alt="Bobby sitting on the lady's lap" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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