Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/248

Rh up boldly by my side from between the cushions. Then I did not wonder at the repression. When I reached home I drove directly to the barn. Fortunately Jonas was there. When I called him and handed little Pat to him I never saw a man more utterly amazed. He stood and held the child without a word. But when I explained the whole affair to him he comprehended it perfectly, and was delighted. I think he was just as anxious for my plan to work as I was myself, although he did not say so.

I was about to take the child into the house when Jonas remarked that it was barefooted.

"That won't do," I said. "It certainly had socks on when I got it. I saw them."

"Here they are," said Jonas, fishing them out from the shawl; "he's kicked them off."

"Well, we must put them on," I said, "it won't do to take him in that way. You hold him."

So Jonas sat down on the feeding-box, and carefully taking little Pat he held him horizontally, firmly pressed between his hands and knees, with his feet stuck out toward me, while I knelt down before him and tried to put on the little socks. But the socks were knit or worked very loosely, and there seemed to be a good many small holes in them, so that Pat's funny little toes, which he kept curling up and uncurling, were continually making their appearance in unexpected places through the sock. But after a great deal of trouble I got them both on, with the heels in about the right places.

"Now they ought to be tied on," I said. "Where are his garters?"

"I don't believe babies have garters," said Jonas doubtfully; "but I could rig him up a pair."