One by one the days passed,and there came from the anxious watchers at David's bedside only the words,"There's very little change."Often Jack Gurnsey went to the farmhouse to inquire for the boy.Often,too,he saw Perry Larson;and Perry was never loath to talk of David.It was from Perry,indeed,that Gurnsey began to learn some things of David that he had never known before.
"It does beat all,"Perry Larson said to him one day,"how many folks asks me how that boy is--folks that you'd never think knew him,anyhow,ter say nothin'of carin'whether he lived or died.
Now,there's old Mis'Somers,fur instance.YOU know what she is--sour as a lemon an'puckery as a chokecherry.Well,if she didn't give me yesterday a great bo-kay o'posies she'd growed herself,an'said they was fur him--that they berlonged ter him,anyhow.
"'Course,I didn't exactly sense what she meant by that,so Iasked her straight out;an'it seems that somehow,when the boy first come,he struck her place one day an'spied a great big red rose on one of her bushes.It seems he had his fiddle,an'he,played it,--that rose a-growin'(you know his way!),an'she heard an'spoke up pretty sharp an'asked him what in time he was doin'.Well,most kids would 'a'run,--knowin'her temper as they does,--but not much David.He stands up as pert as ye please,an'tells her how happy that red rose must be ter make all that dreary garden look so pretty;an'then he goes on,merry as a lark,a-playin'down the hill.
"Well,Mis'Somers owned up ter me that she was pretty mad at the time,'cause her garden did look like tunket,an'she knew it.
She said she hadn't cared ter do a thing with it since her Bessie died that thought so much of it.But after what David had said,even mad as she was,the thing kind o'got on her nerves,an'she couldn't see a thing,day or night,but that red rose a-growin'there so pert an'courageous-like,until at last,jest ter quiet herself,she fairly had ter set to an'slick that garden up!She said she raked an'weeded,an'fixed up all the plants there was,in good shape,an'then she sent down to the Junction fur some all growed in pots,'cause 't was too late ter plant seeds.An,now it's doin'beautiful,so she jest could n't help sendin'them posies ter David.When I told Mis'Holly,she said she was glad it happened,'cause what Mis'Somers needed was somethin'ter git her out of herself--an'I'm free ter say she did look better-natured,an'no mistake,--kind o'like a chokecherry in blossom,ye might say.""An'then there's the Widder Glaspell,"continued Perry,after a pause."'Course,any one would expect she'd feel bad,seein'as how good David was ter her boy--teachin'him ter play,ye know.
But Mis'Glaspell says Joe jest does take on somethin'turrible,an'he won't tech the fiddle,though he was plum carried away with it when David was well an'teachin'of him.An'there's the Clark kid.He's lame,ye know,an'he thought the world an'all of David's playin'.
"'Course,there's you an'Miss Holbrook,always askin'an'sendin'things--but that ain't so strange,'cause you was 'specially his friends.But it's them others what beats me.
Why,some days it's 'most ev'ry soul I meet,jest askin'how he is,an'sayin'they hopes he'll git well.Sometimes it's kids that he's played to,an'I'll be triggered if one of 'em one day didn't have no excuse to offer except that David had fit him--'bout a cat,or somethin'--an'that ever since then he'd thought a heap of him--though he guessed David didn't know it.
Listen ter that,will ye!
"An'once a woman held me up,an'took on turrible,but all Icould git from her was that he'd sat on her doorstep an'played ter her baby once or twice;--as if that was anythin'!But one of the derndest funny ones was the woman who said she could wash her dishes a sight easier after she'd a-seen him go by playin'.There was Bill Dowd,too.You know he really HAS got a screw loose in his head somewheres,an'there ain't any one but what says he's the town fool,all right.Well,what do ye think HE said?"Mr.Jack shook his head.
"Well,he said he did hope as how nothin'would happen ter that boy cause he did so like ter see him smile,an'that he always did smile every time he met him!There,what do ye think o'that?"
"Well,I think,Perry,"returned.Mr.Jack soberly,"that Bill Dowd wasn't playing the fool,when he said that,quite so much as he sometimes is,perhaps.""Hm-m,maybe not,"murmured Perry Larson perplexedly."Still,I'm free ter say I do think 't was kind o'queer."He paused,then slapped his knee suddenly."Say,did I tell ye about Streeter--Old Bill Streeter an'the pear tree?"Again Mr.Jack shook his head.
