"I don't s'pose you'd trade what you got in that box for ist old bread and bologna now,would you?Mebby you'd like it!And I know,I ist know,what you got would taste like heaven to Jimmy and Belle.They never had nothing like that!Not even Belle,and she's most ten!
No,sir-ee,they never tasted things like you got!"It was in Elnora's heart to be thankful for even a taste in time,as she knelt on the bridge,opened the box and divided her lunch into three equal parts,the smaller boy getting most of the milk.Then she told them it was school time and she must go.
"Why don't you put your bread and bologna in the nice box?"asked the boy.
"Of course,"said Elnora."I didn't think."When the box was arranged to the children's satisfaction all of them accompanied Elnora to the corner where she turned toward the high school.
"Billy,"said Elnora,"I would like you much better if you were cleaner.Surely,you have water!Can't you children get some soap and wash yourselves?Gentlemen are never dirty.You want to be a gentleman,don't you?""Is being clean all you have to do to be a gentleman?""No,"said Elnora."You must not say bad words,and you must be kind and polite to your sister.""Must Belle be kind and polite to me,else she ain't a lady?""Yes."
"Then Belle's no lady!"said Billy succinctly.
Elnora could say nothing more just then,and she bade them good-bye and started them home.
"The poor little souls!"she mused."I think the Almighty put them in my way to show me real trouble.I won't be likely to spend much time pitying myself while I can see them."She glanced at the lunchbox."What on earth do I carry this for?I never had anything that was so strictly ornamental!One sure thing!I can't take this stuff to the high school.You never seem to know exactly what is going to happen to you while you are there."As if to provide a way out of her difficulty a big dog arose from a lawn,and came toward the gate wagging his tail.
"If those children ate the stuff,it can't possibly kill him!"thought Elnora,so she offered the bologna.The dog accepted it graciously,and being a beast of pedigree he trotted around to a side porch and laid the bologna before his mistress.The woman snatched it,screaming:
"Come,quick!Some one is trying to poison Pedro!"Her daughter came running from the house."Go see who is on the street.Hurry!"cried the excited mother.
Ellen Brownlee ran and looked.Elnora was half a block away,and no one nearer.Ellen called loudly,and Elnora stopped.Ellen came running toward her.
"Did you see any one give our dog something?"she cried as she approached.
Elnora saw no escape.
"I gave it a piece of bologna myself,"she said."It was fit to eat.It wouldn't hurt the dog."Ellen stood and looked at her."Of course,I didn't know it was your dog,"explained Elnora."I had something I wanted to throw to some dog,and that one looked big enough to manage it."Ellen had arrived at her conclusions."Pass over that lunch box,"she demanded.
"I will not!"said Elnora.
"Then I will have you arrested for trying to poison our dog,"laughed the girl as she took the box.
"One chunk of stale bread,one half mile of antique bologna contributed for dog feed;the remains of cake,salad and preserves in an otherwise empty lunch box.One ham sandwich yesterday.I think it's lovely you have the box.
Who ate your lunch to-day?"
"Same,"confessed Elnora,"but there were three of them this time.""Wait,until I run back and tell mother about the dog,and get my books."Elnora waited.That morning she walked down the hall and into the auditorium beside one of the very nicest girls in Onabasha,and it was the fourth day.But the surprise came at noon when Ellen insisted upon Elnora lunching at the Brownlee home,and convulsed her parents and family,and overwhelmed Elnora with a greatly magnified,but moderately accurate history of her lunch box.
"Gee!but it's a box,daddy!"cried the laughing girl.
"It's carved leather and fastens with a strap that has her name on it.Inside are trays for things all complete,and it bears evidence of having enclosed delicious food,but Elnora never gets any.She's carried it two days now,and both times it has been empty before she reached school.
Isn't that killing?"
"It is,Ellen,in more ways than one.No girl is going to eat breakfast at six o'clock,walk three miles,and do good work without her lunch.You can't tell me anything about that box.I sold it last Monday night to Wesley Sinton,one of my good country customers.He told me it was a present for a girl who was worthy of it,and I see he was right.""He's so good to me,"said Elnora."Sometimes I look at him and wonder if a neighbour can be so kind to one,what a real father would be like.I envy a girl with a father unspeakably.""You have cause,"said Ellen Brownlee."A father is the very dearest person in the whole round world,except a mother,who is just a dear."The girl,starting to pay tribute to her father,saw that she must include her mother,and said the thing before she remembered what Mrs.Sinton had told the girls in the store.She stopped in dismay.
Elnora's face paled a trifle,but she smiled bravely.
"Then I'm fortunate in having a mother,"she said.
Mr.Brownlee lingered at the table after the girls had excused themselves and returned to school.
"There's a girl Ellen can't see too much of,in my opinion,"he said."She is every inch a lady,and not a foolish notion or action about her.I can't understand just what combination of circumstances produced her in this day.""It has been an unusual case of repression,for one thing.
She waits on her elders and thinks before she speaks,"said Mrs.Brownlee.
"She's mighty pretty.She looks so sound and wholesome,and she's neatly dressed.""Ellen says she was a fright the first two days.Long brown calico dress almost touching the floor,and big,lumbering shoes.Those Sinton people bought her clothes.
