They came into North Yakima at breakfast time, and found the house of
Mr. Kloh, a neat, bare, drab frame box, with tight small front and back
yards. Dlorus was awake, and when she wasn't yawning, she was enjoying
being hysterical.
"Miss Boltwood," she whined, "you go in and jolly him up."
Milt begged, "Better let me do it, Claire."
They looked squarely at each other. "No, I think I'd better," she
decided.
"Right, Claire, but--I wish I could do more things for you."
"I know!"
He lifted her stiff, cold little body from the car. His hands under her
arms, he held her on the running-board an instant, her eyes level with
his. "Little sister--plucky little sister!" he sighed. He lowered her to
the ground.
Claire knocked at the back door. To it came a bald, tired man, in an
apron wet at the knees. The kitchen floor was soaped, and a
scrubbing-brush rode amid the seas. A rather dirty child clung to his
hand. "Trying to clean up, ma'am. Not very good at it. I hope you ain't
the Cruelty to Children lady. Willy looks mussed, but fact is, I just
can't get time to wash the clothes, but he means a terrible lot to me.
What was it? Will you step in?"
Claire buttoned the child's rompers before she spoke. Then: "Mr. Kloh, I want to be perfectly honest with you. I've had word from
your wife. She's unhappy, and she loves and admires you more than any
other man in the world, and I think she would come back--misses the
child so."
The man wiped his reddened hands. "I don't know---- I don't wish her no
harm. Trouble was, I'm kind of pokey. I guess I couldn't give her any
good times. I used to try to go to dances with her, but when I'd worked
late, I'd get sleepy and---- She's a beautiful woman, smart 's a whip,
and I guess I was too slow for her. No, she wouldn't never come back to
me."
"She's out in front of the house now--waiting!"
"Great Cæsar's ghost, and the floor not scrubbed!" With a squawk of
anxiety he leaped on the scrubbing-brush, and when Milt and Dlorus
appeared at the door, Mr. Kloh and Miss Claire Boltwood were wiping up
the kitchen floor.
Dlorus looked at them, arms akimbo, and sighed, "Hello, Johnny, my,
ain't it nice to be back, oh, you had the sink painted, oh, forgive me,
Johnny, I was a bad ungrateful woman, I don't care if you don't never
take me to no more dances, hardly any, Willy come here, dear, oh, he is
such a sweet child, my, his mouth is so dirty, will you forgive me,
Johnny, is my overcoat in the moth-balls?"