Radio mirror (Jan-June 1948)

THE OTHER JOHN PERKINS an evening to which we were invited — Starr and I. You shouldn't have come!" "My dear boy, please — " said Professor Bassett reprovingly. He turned to Ma. "Mrs. Perkins, you should understand. My son-in-law has been ill. I've gone to great pains to shelter him — " "Why am I so delicate?" Joseph demanded. "I'm cured. I'm well — and I'm restless at the place. It does me good to get out in the world. Coming here isn't — isn't going to a bazaar. It's not going into the flesh pots. I don't see why I should be in the wrong!" Shuffle had had all he could stand. "Now, Professor Bassett," he said, " 'pears to me like we was having a real fine time until you bust in without no invitation. And now, if I can put it plain, we're having a real terrible time. You know what it looks like to me? Looks like you're following these young people around in order to spy upon them!" "Shuffle!" said Ma, and Fay wailed, "Oh, Shuffle, what an idea!" But Professor Bassett even smiled. "You're right. I admit it. I'm over-zealous where my son-in-law is concerned. Have you never heard how Joseph and I met? This boy was a wanderer — a common vagabond. One hot summer ni^ht I'd left my hotel and had gone for a walk. I saw a little crowd pn 3, street corner, laughing, jeering. I went up.' ' -^re was this boy, speaking to them, pourmg ^,' —cessage! By twos and threes the crowd scattered until only I was left. But the boy never noticed. His eyes were fixed upon heaven, or on the inner mysteries of his own heart. His face was white under the street lamp, and his body shook as with fever. And then, before I could take a step, he crumpled — fell. I had him taken to a nursing home . . . and we have not been separated from that day to this. Mrs. Perkins, you know how it is with young folks. We give them everything— our tears and our fears, but some day they leave us. And when we try to hold on, they resent us." "I know," said Ma in a low voice. And then — "What had you been sick with, Son, that you fainted in the street?" "Malnutrition, exhaustion," Professor Bassett answered for him. "But he's well now, and it's my own weakness that makes me worry about him." Shuffle muttered, "When a person sees a weakness in hisself he ought to fight agin it — especially a philosopher." And Professor Bassett just laughed. It seemed he could smooth anything over with that chuckle of his, with a phrase. "Quite right again, Mr. Shober! And I'm afraid Joseph and I have been behaving rather more like pugilists than like philosophers. I am ashamed. It's good of you to take an interest in us, Mrs. Perkins — " "I'm interested, too." Fay spoke suddenly. "I have an announcement to make. In order to smooth the friendship between Pleasant Haven and — and Perkins Haven, and — " she was very serious now — "and because your son-in-law. Professor Bassett, is a good and sincere man, who is very like someone terribly dear to all of us . . . I'd like to announce that in the memory of my brother, John Perkins — you could be his twin. Dr. Joseph, so it's really for your sake — anyway, in memory of my brother, John, I wish to announce that I am investing in expanding Pleasant Haven and spreading the great work you're doing. I premise a down payment of a thousand dollars, and when all the plans are made, a total of five thousand dollars." "Father!" Starr cried. "Joseph! Isn't it wonderful?" Shuffle felt sick. There, as he saw it, went a good part of Fay's inheritance from Paul Henderson. And when he looked around the room, he saw that there was one other person who wasn't smiling. Ma. She was trying to smile, but she couldn't manage it, not at all. With all her heart Ma wanted to believe in Pleasant Haven. Not just because of the boy, Joseph, but because if Professor Bassett wasn't all he seemed to be, he would be — something just too terrible to imagine. But she had to be sure, with the town looking to her for guidance, with Fay investing money in the place. To that end, she put in a telephone call to Pleasant Haven the next morning, and then repaired to the lumberyard offlce to await results. They weren't long in coming, in the form of Augustus Pendleton and Professor Bassett. "I can't stay long," said Augustus, sidling up to the Shuffle Shober warmth of the pot-bellied stove. "Ma, the Professor just came over to tell me that you want to go out and spend a little time at Pleasant Haven." Ma nodded. "Yes, I would. Everybody in town's been telling me how their preaching is so much like the things I myself hold by. And besides — you want me to get up at this big town meeting you're going to have, and tell folks how they should put their money into Pleasant Haven. If I'm going to do that, I'd like to be sure of what I'm talking about." "Dear lady," said Professor Bassett smoothly, "we are very grateful for your interest. Our plans for developing Pleasant Haven will have a great ally in you. Therefore, I'd give the world to make a place for you — but I simply can't. We're so overcrowded now!" He was very convincing. Ma almost believed him — until she remembered that there'd been no mention of overcrowding when Charley Brown spoke of selling his store and moving to Pleasant Haven with his wife. "But suppose folks still have doubts after I speak at the meeting?" she asked. "Suppose they ask me questions — questions which I won't be able to answer? Then I make a bad impression; Pleasant Haven makes a bad impression. Oh, I just don't see how I can do it, 'less I got more to go on!" "Bassett," said Augustus, "Ma's got a point. Isn't there any way you could give her a room for a few days? How long would you want to stay. Ma?" "Just a few days," she said. "A week, maybe. But if the Professor don't want me to go, then I just don't go. As a matter of fact, I've been needing a little change. Maybe I'll go out to Fort William for a few days, spend a — " "Ma," said Augustus sharply, "you're blackmailing us! You're saying that if Bassett don't give you a room, you won't be in town for the meeting!" "Land o'Goshen," Ma exclaimed. "I wouldn't do nothing like that! Maybe I'd come to the meeting, and then when Professor Bassett speaks, I'd ask some of the questions, from the floor, which I'd be going out to Pleasant Haven to have answered, only I ain't." "My dear Pendleton," said the Professor dryly, "I'm afraid we've caught a tartar here. Mrs. Perkins, could we leave it this way? I shall make every effort to find a room for you at Pleasant Haven — if you'll give me a little time." "No hurry at all. Professor Bassett," said Ma sweetly. "And — say hello to your little daughter for me, and to John — I mean. Dr. Joseph. You, Augustus, greet Gladys and Mathilda for me — " "Gladys — hmf," grumbled Augustus. "I never see her myself. Don't know what the girl finds to do in a town this size until one o'clock in the morning. See you soon. Ma." Ma went to the window to watch them go down the walk. They shook hands on the sidewalk; then Augustus tramped off down the street toward the bank. The Professor turned toward the long, new black limousine that always made Shuffle Shober remark that the philosophy business must be real good. And then — Ma stiffened. Someone popped up in the front seat as the Professor got in. A woman. And the Professor hadn't been expecting her — Ma could tell that from the one glimpse she got of his startled face. The car rolled away. Ma back, shaking, sat down at the old-fashioned roll-top desk. The woman had been Gladys Pendleton — and she'd been waiting for Professor Bassett in his car! Gladys herself came calling at the Perkins house that night, but not to see Ma. As Fay opened the door, Gladys said rapidly, "Fay, I want to talk to you, alone. Put on your coat and come on outside." "Come into the kitchen," Fay suggested, "and we'll make tea. What is it, Gladdie?" "It's — " She tiptoed after Fay through the darkened dining room, into the kitchen. "Fay, I want you to do something for me — back me up in something. Tomorrow I'm going to tell my folks that I'm spending the night with you. I — I've got to go to Fort William and — and buy something — and they don't want me to spend the money. And I don't want to drive back at night over the slippery road — Fay! Stop looking like that!" "Like what?" asked Fay (Continued on page 94) 63