possibly live without eating very often;” and Stuffy sat down,
wishing he had not been too lazy to write out his valuable
observations, for a general smile went round when he mentioned
the last of the three facts which lingered in his memory.
“Then we are done for to-day,” began Mr. Bhaer, but Tommy
called out in a great hurry,
“No we ain’t. Don’t you know? We must give the thing;” and he
winked violently as he made an eye-glass of his fingers.
“Bless my heart, I forgot! Now is your time, Tom;” and Mr. Bhaer
dropped into his seat again, while all the boys but Dan looked
mightily tickled at something.
Nat, Tommy, and Demi left the room, and speedily returned with a
little red morocco box set forth in state on Mrs. Jo’s best silver
salver. Tommy bore it, and, still escorted by Nat and Demi,
marched up to unsuspecting Dan, who stared at them as if he
thought they were going to make fun of him. Tommy had prepared
an elegant and impressive speech for the occasion, but when the
minute came, it all went out of his head, and he just said, straight
from his kindly boyish heart,
“Here, old fellow, we all wanted to give you something to kind of
pay for what happened awhile ago, and to show how much we
liked you for being such a trump. Please take it, and have a jolly
good time with it.”
Dan was so surprised he could only get as red as the little box, and
mutter, “Thanky, boys!” as he fumbled to open it. But when he saw
what was inside, his face lighted up, and he seized the long desired
treasure, saying so enthusiastically that every one was satisfied,
though is language was anything but polished,
“What a stunner! I say, you fellows are regular bricks to give me
this; it’s just what I wanted. Give us your paw, Tommy.”
Many paws were given, and heartily shaken, for the boys were
charmed with Dan’s pleasure, and crowded round him to shake
hands and expatiate on the beauties of their gift. In the midst of
this pleasant chatter, Dan’s eye went to Mrs. Jo, who stood outside
the group enjoying the scene with all her heart.
“No, I had nothing to do with it. The boys got it up all themselves,”
she said, answering the grateful look that seemed to thank her for
that happy moment. Dan smiled, and said, in a tone that only she
could understand,
“It’s you all the same;” and making his way through the boys, he
held out his hand first to her and then to the good Professor, who
was beaming benevolently on his flock.
He thanked them both with the silent, hearty squeeze he gave the
kind hands that had held him up, and led him into the safe refuge
of a happy home. Not a word was spoken, but they felt all he
would say, and little Teddy expressed his pleasure for them as he
leaned from his father’s arm to hug the boy, and say, in his baby
way,
“My dood Danny! everybody loves him now.”
“Come here, show off your spy-glass, Dan, and let us see some of
your magnified pollywogs and annymalcumisms as you call ’em,”
said Jack, who felt so uncomfortable during this scene that he
would have slipped away if Emil had not kept him.
“So I will, take a squint at that and see what you think of it,” said
Dan, glad to show off his precious microscope.
He held it over a beetle that happened to be lying on the table, and
Jack bent down to take his squint, but looked up with an amazed
face, saying,
“My eye! what nippers the old thing has got! I see now why it hurts
so confoundedly when you grab a dorbug and he grabs back
again.”
“He winked at me,” cried Nan, who had poked her head under
Jack’s elbow and got the second peep.
Every one took a look, and then Dan showed them the lovely
plumage on a moth’s wing, the four feathery corners to a hair, the
veins on a leaf, hardly visible to the naked eye, but like a thick net