Harper's Young People, March 28, 1882 An Illustrated Weekly

DOING SOMETHING.

BY ADA CARLETON.

"Something'll have to be done," said Merry; and he put his elbows on the table, and dropped his chin into his palms.

Beside Merry's elbows stood the remains of a very scanty breakfast. The remains were scanty too, consisting of a single roasted potato, a dish of salt, and a bit of bread. This was all the food there was in the little brown house by the creek where America Andrew and his mother lived. The rent, too, was a whole quarter in arrears, and Mr. Colley, their landlord, was beginning to screw up his lips and frown whenever he met them.

So, with all this in mind, it was small wonder that Merry, with his elbows on the table and his chin in his palms, decided "Something'll have to be done!"

"Yes," said Mrs. Andrew, looking into Merry's bright face which poverty had not been able to make a whit less plump or rosy, as if in hopes to catch a gleam of sunshine there.

Merry saw this, for he smiled a brave, bright smile back into his mother's faded blue eyes and care-worn face.

"Now don't you worry, mother. Summer's coming right along. Folks will be wanting their yards cleaned up. Mrs. Quipp told me last night, you know, if I'd clean hers up she'd have Mr. Quipp give credit for twenty-five cents on the grocery account. I'll go now, and I'll bring you half--the biggest half--of my dinner, sure."

With that Merry left a kiss on his mother's cheek, for he hadn't got over showing that he loved her very dearly, and trudged away up the hill, whistling "Bonnie Dundee" in his own merry way.

When he had left the gate a little way behind he heard the whistle of the down train, and it occurred to him that he would go round by way of the station and see if there wasn't a portmanteau to carry for somebody. There was not much hope of it, since the occasional stranger which the on-going train dropped into the sleepy old town usually preferred to carry his own luggage. But to-day, strange to relate, a gentleman stood on the platform with a large portmanteau in one hand, and a still larger valise in the other.

"Hello, my man!" he called; "can you give me a lift?"

"Yes, sir," answered Merry, shouldering the portmanteau and trying to appear as if carrying large packages were an every-day affair with him. This one, however, happened to be very heavy, even for its size, and he shifted it once or twice uneasily. The strange gentleman looked down at him with a quizzical twinkle, which Merry did not see.

"Don't do that again," said a very small voice from the interior of the portmanteau. "I've got feelings as well as other folks."

"Eh?" ejaculated Merry, gazing about in wide-eyed amazement.

"Yes, I have," pursued the small voice; "and I've a mind to punch your head for banging me so."

Merry gave a little gasp, and stopped. He put the portmanteau down gently, so astonished that he could not speak, because he never in all his life had heard a ventriloquist, and this Professor Wagner happened to be a remarkably good one.

"Well?" said the Professor, with an inquiring smile.

"I--I can't carry it," stammered Merry.

Professor Wagner laughed until his deep-set blue eyes were twinkling like stars on a frosty night.

"Never mind," said he; "Jack sha'n't trouble you any more; so pick up the portmanteau again, my lad. I show here to-night. Haven't you seen the bills?"

Merry, taking up his load, began to understand. He had seen the bills.

"Was it you, sir?" he asked, doubtfully.

"I think it was," answered the Professor, who was a very kind, genial gentleman. When they reached the hotel the Professor gave Merry a silver quarter. Then he said, with a laugh, "I think you've earned something more;" and he took from his pocket two sky-blue complimentary tickets. "Bring your mother, if she'll come," said he.

But Merry's mother shook her head at sight of the sky-blue tickets; and it was little Jack Hennessey whom one of them carried into enchanted land--little Jack, who might otherwise as well have wished for a trip to the moon.

How funny and fine it all was! How Merry held his breath, and clapped his hands, and laughed aloud, by turns, in his excitement, to see his friend the Professor pick eggs by the dozen from Mr. Colley's hat; and follow the eggs with feathers enough for a bed; and send Mr. Quipp's watch into Deacon Wilson's pocket, to the great discomfiture of the Deacon, and the great enjoyment of everybody else; and perform all manner of impossible feats with the ease of a veritable magician! And to cap the climax of his delight, Merry heard again the small voice which had spoken to him from the portmanteau--only now it was the very gruff voice of a very sleepy landlord whom the Professor was vainly trying to arouse.

Oh, it was wonderful! and Merry rehearsed it so faithfully to his mother that she declared it was much better than seeing it herself with not half the trouble. And he went over it all again in dreams, and his mind was still full of it when he ran up to the hotel next morning to carry the Professor's portmanteau to the station. The Professor, walking along beside him, and looking down at Merry's face, laughed to see the unfeigned admiration in the black eyes.

"Why don't you get up something of the sort," he asked, "and ask the boys round five cents a-piece to go in? I used to earn a good many dimes that way when I was a youngster." And when they reached the station, and found that the train was not in, the Professor emphasized his advice by one or two simple lessons in sleight-of-hand. "Now all you need is practice on that," said he. "Here's my train. Good-by. Be a good boy, and take care of your mother." And that was the last of Professor Wagner.

But it wasn't the last of the Professor's idea, which grew and grew until it filled Merry's head completely, and ran over at his lips when he stopped to expend the precious thirty-five cents at Mr. Quipp's counter on his way home. And Mr. Quipp, who might not have been altogether disinterested, said:

"You'd better tidy up my place overhead, Merry, and use that for your fandango. I've been wantin' it cleared out this good while."

Well, I haven't space to tell you of all the doings in all the days that followed--how Merry, after having obtained his mother's consent to a trial of his project, went to work with Jack Hennessey and one or two other boys; how he soon became well skilled in a few simple sleight-of-hand performances; how Mr. Quipp's place was tidied up, and a little platform arranged at one end, after the Professor's model; how at length the boy public came to understand, by means of an immense placard printed in burnt cork, that Merry Andrew would give an entertainment, to include speeches, recitations, sleight-of-hand tricks, and ventriloquism, in Mr. Quipp's chamber, on the night of April 1; that the admission price would be five cents for boys, and ten cents for grown folks, and that if anybody was not satisfied he should have his money back.

Everybody was interested, for Merry was well liked by everybody in town; and when the first night of April came, there were not a few people in the little room over Mr. Quipp's shop.

Merry's heart jumped into his throat, choking him, and bringing the tears to his eyes, when he stood on the little platform behind the lamp which Mr. Quipp had loaned for the occasion. But he went bravely through with his simple performances--with the ring trick, and the magic coin trick, in which a big copper could never be found when looked for, but turned up in the most unexpected places. Then there were speeches, some funny and some otherwise. Then there was more sleight-of-hand. And how everybody laughed when Merry, having gained a great deal of courage, borrowed Mr. Colley's hat, and pulled out of it a pair of stockings, a bunch of feathers, a green silk handkerchief, and several other things.

The entertainment was pretty well concluded, but on the platform was a box, bottom up, not more than eight inches high, but perhaps twice eight inches square. Upon this box Merry, his eyes shining with excitement, knocked.

"Hello, Jack," said he.

"What do you want?"

How everybody started, and leaned forward, and stared at everybody else then!

"I want my cat," said Merry.

"I ain't got yer cat."

"Yes you have. Hear that?" and Merry turned triumphantly to his audience, as there sounded an unmistakable "Me-ow."

"I tell you that boy's a genius," whispered Mr. Colley, excitedly, to Mr. Quipp. "He might make a fortune. He beats Wagner all to pieces."