Aladdin O'Brien

  "It's a matter of pride," he said, and walked out of the room. When hehad gone the senator took from his pocket a leather purse, opened it,put back the gold piece, and carefully tied the string. Then far fromany known key or tune the great man whistled a few notes. Could hisconstituents have heard, they would have known--and often had thesubject been debated--that Hannibal St. John was human.

  Aladdin stood for a while upon the lofty pillared portico of thesenator's house, and with a mist in his eyes looked away and away towhere the cause of all his troubles flowed like a ribbon of silverthrough the bright-colored land. Grown men, having, in their wholelives, suffered less than Aladdin was at that moment suffering, haveconsidered themselves heartbroken. The little boy shivered and toileddown the steps, between the tall box hedges lining the path, and outinto the road. A late rose leaning over the garden fence gave up herleaves in a pink shower as he passed, and at the same instant all theglass in a window of the house opposite fell out with a smash. Theseevents seemed perfectly natural to Aladdin, but when people, talking atthe tops of their voices and gesticulating, began to run out of housesand make down the hill toward the town, he remembered that, just as therose-leaves fell and just as the glass came out of the window-frame,he had been conscious of a distant thudding boom, and a jarring of theground under his feet. So he joined in the stream of his neighbors, andran with them down the hill to see what had happened.

  Aladdin remembered little of that breathless run, and one thing onlystood ever afterward vivid among his recollections. All the people wereheaded eagerly in one direction, but at the corner of the street inwhich Aladdin lived, an awkish, half-grown girl, her face contortedwith terror, struggled against the tugging of two younger companions andscreamed in a terrible voice:

  "I don't wahnt to go! I don't wahnt to go!"

  But they dragged her along. That girl had no father, and her motherwalked the streets. She would never have any beauty nor any grace; shewas dirt of the dirt, dirty, but she had a heart of mercy and could notbear to look upon suffering.

  "I don't wahnt to go! I don't wahnt to go!" and now the scream was ashudder.

  Aladdin's street was crowded to suffocation, and the front of the housewhere Aladdin lived was blown out, and men with grave faces were goingabout among the ruins looking for what was left of Aladdin's father.

  A much littler boy than Aladdin stood in the yard of the house. In hisarms folded high he clutched a yellow cat, who licked his cheek with herrough tongue. The littler boy kept crying, "'Laddin, 'Laddin!"

  Aladdin took the little boy and the yellow cat all into one embrace, andpeople turned away their heads.

  VII

  In the ensuing two days Aladdin matured enormously, for though a kindneighbor took him in, together with his brother Jack and the yellow cat,he had suffered many things and already sniffed the wolf at the door.The kind neighbor was a widow lady, whose husband, having been a mastercarpenter of retentive habits, had left her independently rich. Sheowned the white-and-green house in which she lived, the plot of ground,including a small front and a small back yard, upon which it stood,and she spent with some splendor a certain income of three hundred andeighty-two dollars a year. Every picture, every chair, every mantelpiecein the Widow Brackett's house was draped with a silk scarf. The parlorlamp had a glass shade upon which, painted in oils, by hand, werecrimson moss-roses and scarlet poppies. A crushed plush spring rockerhad goldenrod painted on back and seat, while two white-and-gold vasesin precise positions on the mantel were filled with tight roundbunches of immortelles, stained pink. Upon the marble-topped,carved-by-machine-walnut-legged table in the bay-window were things tobe taken up by a visitor and examined. A white plate with a spreading offoreign postage-stamps, such as any boy collector has in quantities forexchange, was the first surprise: you were supposed to discover that thestamps were not real, but painted on the plate, and exclaim about it. Achina basket contained most edible-looking fruit of the same material,and a huge album, not to be confounded with the family Bible upon whichit rested, was filled with speaking likenesses of the Widow Brackett'srelatives. The Bible beneath could have told when each was born, whenmany had died, and where many were buried. But nobody was ever allowedto look into the Widow Brackett's Bible for information mundane orspiritual, since the only result would have been showers of pressedferns and flowers upon the carpet, which was not without well-pressedflowers and ferns of its own.

  Very soon after the explosion of the wonderful lamp the Widow Bracketthad taken Aladdin and Jack and the cat into her house and seen to itthat they had a square meal. Early on the second day she came to theconclusion that if it could in any way be made worth her while, shewould like to keep them until they grew up. And when the ground uponwhich Aladdin's father's house had stood was sold at auction for threehundred and eight dollars, she let it be known that if she could getthat she would board the two little waifs until Aladdin was old enoughto work. The court appointed two guardians. The guardians consulted fora few minutes over something brown in a glass, and promptly turned overthe three hundred and eight dollars to the Widow Brackett; and the WidowBrackett almost as promptly made a few alterations in the up-stairsof her house the better to accommodate the orphans, tied a dirty whiteribbon about the yellow cat's neck, and bought a derelict piano uponwhich her heart had been set for many months. She was no musician, butshe loved a tightly closed piano with a scarf draped over the top, andthought that no parlor should be without one. Up to middle C, asAladdin in time found out, the piano in question was not without musicalpretensions, but above that any chord sounded like a nest of tin platesdropped on a wooden floor, and the intervals were those of no knownscale nor fragment thereof. But in time he learned to draw pleasantthings from the old piano and to accompany his shrill voice in song. Asa matter of fact, he had no voice and never would have, but almost fromthe first he knew how to sing. It so happened that he was drawn to thepiano by a singular thing: a note from his beloved.

  It came one morning thumb-marked about the sealing, and covered with thegenerous sprawl of her writing. It said:

  DEAR ALADDIN: Do not say anything about this because I do not know if myfather would like it but I am so sorry about your father blowing up andall your troubles and I want you to know how sory I am. I must stop nowbecause I have to practis.

  Your loving friend

  MARGARET ST. JOHN.

  Aladdin was an exquisite speller, and the first thing he noticed aboutthe letter was that it contained two words spelled wrong, and that heloved Margaret the better by two misspelled words, and that he had alump in his throat.

  He had found the letter by his plate at breakfast, and the eyes of Mrs.Brackett fastened upon it.

  "I don't know who ken have been writin' to you," she said.

  "Neither do I," said Aladdin, giving, as is proper, the direct lie tothe remark inquisitive. He had put the letter in his pocket.

  "Why don't you open it and see?"

  Aladdin blushed.

  "Time enough after breakfast," he said.

  There was a silence.

  "Jack's eatin' his breakfast; why ain't you eatin' yours?"

  Aladdin fell upon his breakfast for the sake of peace. And Mrs. Brackettsaid no more. Some days later, for she was not to be denied in littlematters or great, Mrs. Brackett found where Aladdin had hidden theletter, took it up, read it, sniffed, and put it back, with the remarkthat she never "see such carryin's-on."

  Aladdin hid, and read his letter over and over; then an ominous silencehaving informed him that Mrs. Brackett had gone abroad, he stole intothe parlor, perched on the piano-stool, and, like a second Columbus,began to discover things which other people have to be shown. The joy ofhis soul had to find expression, as often afterward the sorrow of it.

  That winter Jack entered school in the lowest class, and the two littleboys were to be seen going or coming in close comradeship, fair weatheror foul. The yellow cat had affairs of gallantry, and bore to thefamily
, at about Christmas-time, five yellow kittens, which nobody hadthe heart to drown, and about whose necks, at the age of eye-opening,the Widow Brackett tied little white ribbons in large bows.

  Sometimes Aladdin saw Margaret, but only for a little.

  So the years passed, and Aladdin turned his sixteenth year. He was verytall and very thin, energetic but not strong, very clever, but with lessapplication than an uncoerced camel. To single him from other boys, hewas full of music and visions. And rhymes were beginning to ring in hishead.

  A week came when the rhymes and the music went clean out of his head,which became as heavy as a scuttle full of coal, and he walked aboutheavily like an old man.

  VIII

  One day, during the morning session of school, Aladdin's head got soheavy that he could hardly see, and he felt hot all over. He spoke tothe teacher and was allowed to go home. Mrs. Brackett, when she saw himenter the yard, was in great alarm, for she at once supposed that he haddone something awful, which was not out of the question, and sufferedexpulsion.

  "What have you done?" she said.

  "Nothing," said Aladdin. "I think I'm going to be sick."

  Mrs. Brackett tossed her hands heavenward.

  "What is the matter?" she cried.

  "I don't know," said Aladdin. She followed him into the house and up thestairs, which he climbed heavily.

  "Where do you feel bad, 'Laddin O'Brien?" she said sharply.

  "It's my head, ma'am," said Aladdin. He went into his room and lay facedown on the bed, having first dropped his schoolbooks on the floor, andbegan to talk fluently of kings' daughters and genii and copper bottles.

  The Widow Brackett was an active woman of action. Flat-footed andhatless, but with incredible speed, she dashed down the stairs, outof the house, and up the street. She returned in five minutes with thedoctor.

  The doctor said, "Fever." It was quite evident that it was fever; buta doctor's word for it put everything on a comfortable and satisfactoryfooting.

  "We must get him to bed," said the doctor. He made the attempt alone,but Aladdin struggled, and the doctor was old. Mrs. Brackett came to therescue and, finally, they got Aladdin, no longer violent, into his bed,while the doctor, in a soft voice, said what maybe it was and what maybeit wasn't,--he leaned to a bilious fever,--and prescribed this and thatas sovereign in any case. They darkened the room, and Aladdin was sickwith typhoid fever for many weeks. He was delirious much too much, andMrs. Brackett got thin with watching. Occasionally it seemed as if hemight possibly live, but oftenest as if he would surely die.

  In his delirium for the most part Aladdin dwelt upon Margaret, so thathis love for her was an old story to Mrs. Brackett. One gay springmorning, after a terrible night, Aladdin's fever cooled a little, and hewas able to talk in whispers.

  "Mrs. Brackett," he said, "Mrs. Brackett."

  She came hurriedly to the bed.

  "I know you're feelin' better, 'Laddin O'Brien."

  He smiled up at her.

  "Mrs. Brackett," he said, "I dreamed that Margaret St. John came here toask how I was--did she?"

  Margaret hadn't. She had not, so hedged was her life, even heard thatAladdin lay sick.

  Mrs. Brackett lied nobly.

  "She was here yesterday," she said, "and that anxious to know all aboutyou."

  Aladdin looked like one that had found peace.

  "Thank you," he said.

  Mrs. Brackett raised his head, pillow and all, very gently, and gave himhis medicine.

  "How's Jack?" said Aladdin.

  "He comes twice every day to ask about you," said Mrs. Brackett. "He'slivin' with my brother-in-law."

  "That's good," said Aladdin. He lay back and dozed. After a while heopened his eyes.

  "Mrs. Brackett-"

  "What is it, deary?" The good woman had been herself on the point ofdozing, but was instantly alert.

  "Am I going to die?"

  "You goin' to die!" She tried to make her voice indignant, but it broke.

  "I want to know."

  "He wants to know, good land!" exclaimed Mrs. Brackett.

  "If a man's going to die," said Aladdin, aeat-sixteen, "he wants toknow, because he has things that have to be done."

  "Doctor said you wasn't to talk much," said Mrs. Brackett.

  "If I've got to die," said Aladdin, abruptly, "I've got to seeMargaret."

  A woman in a blue wrapper, muddy slippers, her gray hair disheveled,hatless, her eyes bright and wild, burst suddenly upon Hannibal St. Johnwhere he sat in his library reading in the book called "Hesperides."

  "Senator St. John," she began rapidly, "Aladdin O'Brien's sick in myhouse, and the last thing he said was, 'I've got to see Margaret'; andhe's dyin' wantin' to see her, and I've come for her, and she's got tocome."

  It was a tribute to St. John's genius that in spite of her incoherentutterance he understood precisely what the woman was driving at.

  "You say he's dying?" he said.

  "Doctor's given up hope. He's had a relapse since this mornin', andshe's got to come right now if she's to see him at all."

  The senator hesitated for once.

  "It's got nothin' to do with the proprieties," said Mrs. Brackett,sternly, "nor what he was to her, nor her to him; it's a plain case ofhumanity and--"

  "What is the nature of the sickness?" asked the senator.

  "It's fever--"

  "Is it contagious?" asked the senator.

  "No, it ain't!" almost shrieked the old lady. "And what if it was?"

  "Of course if it were contagious she couldn't go," said the senator.

  "It ain't contagious, and, what's more, he once laid down his life forher on the log, that time."

  "If you assure me the fever is not contagious--"

  "You'll let her come--"

  "It seems nonsense," said the senator. "They are only children, and Idon't want her to get silly ideas."

  "Only children!" exclaimed Mrs. Brackett. "Senator, give me the troublesof the grown-ups, childbirth, and losing the first-born with noneto follow, the losing of husband and mother, and the approach of oldage,--give me them and I'll bear them, but spare me the sorrows andtrials of little children which we grown-ups ain't strong enough tobear. You can say I said so," she finished defiantly.

  The senator bowed in agreement.

  "I believe you are right," he said. "I will take you home in mycarriage, Mrs.--"

  "Brackett," said she, with pride.

  The senator stepped into the hall and raised his voice the least trifle.

  "Daughter!"

  She answered from several rooms away, and came running. Her hands wereinky, and she held a letter. She was no longer the timid little girlof the island, for somehow that escapade had emancipated her. She hadwaited for a few days in expectation of damnation, but, that failing tomaterialize, had turned over a leaf in her character, and became such abully at home that the family and servants loved her more and more fromday to day. She was fourteen at this time; altogether exquisite andcharming and wayward.

  "Aladdin O'Brien is very sick, daughter," said the senator, "and we aregoing to see him."

  "And don't tell him that you didn't come to ask after him yesterday,"said Mrs. Brackett, defiantly, "because I said you did. I had myreasons," she went on, "and you can say I said so."

  Margaret ran up-stairs to get her hat. She was almost wild withexcitement and foreboding of she knew not what.

  The letter which she had been writing fell from her hand. She picked itup, looked hastily at the superscription, "Mr. Peter Manners, Jr.," andtore it into pieces.

  IX

  There is no doubt that Aladdin's recovery dated from Margaret's visit.The poor boy was too sick to say what he had planned, but Margaretsat by his bed for a while and held his hand, and said little abruptconventional things that meant much more to them both, and that wasenough. Besides, and under the guns of her father's eyes, just beforeshe went away she stooped and kissed him on the forehead, and that wasmore than enough to ma
ke anybody get over anything, Aladdin thought.So he slept a long cool sleep after Margaret had gone, and woke free offever. As he lay gathering strength to sit up in bed, which treat hadbeen promised him in ten days, Aladdin's mind worked hard over thefuture, and what he could machinate in order one day to be almost worthyto kiss the dust under Margaret's feet. She sent him flowers twice, butwas not allowed to come and see him again.

  Aladdin had awful struggles with the boredom of convalescence. He feltperfectly well, and they wouldn't let him get up and out; everythingforbidden he wanted to eat. And his one solace was the Brackett library.This was an extraordinary collection of books. They were seven, and howthey got there nobody knows. The most important in the collection was,in Mrs. Brackett's estimation, an odd volume of an encyclopedia, boundin tree-calf and labeled, "Safety-lamps to Stranglers." Next were fourfat tomes in the German language on scientific subjects; these, providedthat anybody had ever wanted to read them, had never succeededin getting themselves read, but they had cuts and cuts which werefascinating to surmise about. The sixth book was the second volume ofa romance called "The Headsman," by "the author of 'The Spy,'" and theseventh was a back-split edition of Poe's poems.