Page:St. Nicholas - Volume 41, Part 1.djvu/67

Rh And it would be grand to live in a house like the one they were going to, with an up-stairs to it, and a piano in the parlor.

But despite Mrs. Neal’s efforts to set matters straight, the poison of Maudie’s suggestion had done its work. Will’m had been in the room when Libby came home with her question, and the wild way she broke out crying made him feel that something awful was going to happen to them. He had never heard of a stepmother before. By some queer association of words, his baby brain confused it with a step-ladder. There was such a ladder in the shop with a broken hinge. He was always being warned not to climb up on it. It might fall over with him and hurt him dreadfully. Even when everything had been explained to him, and he agreed that it would be lovely to take that long ride on the Pullman to see poor Father, who was so lonely without his little boy, the first unhappy impression still stayed with him. Something, he did n't know exactly what, but something was going to fall with him and hurt him dreadfully if he did n't look out.

It 's strange how much there is to learn about persons after you once begin to hear of them. It had been that way about Santa Claus. They had scarcely known his name, and then, all of a sudden, they heard so much that, instead of being a complete stranger, he was a part of everything they said and did and thought. Now they were learning just as fast about stepmothers. Grandma and Uncle Neal and Miss Sally told them a great deal, all good things. And it was surprising how much else they had learned that was n't good, just by the wag of somebody's head, or a shrug of the shoulders or the pitying way some of the customers spoke to them.

When Libby came crying home from school the second time, because one of the boys called her Cinderella, and told her she would have to sit in the ashes and wear rags, and another one said no, she 'd be like Snow-white, and have to eat a poisoned apple, Grandma Neal was so indignant that she sent after Libby's books, saying that she would not be back at school.

Next day, Libby told Will'm the rest of what the boys had said to her. “All the stepmothers in stories are mean like Cinderella’s and Snow-white’s, and sometimes they are cruel. They are always cruel when they have a tusk.” Susie Peters told her what a tusk is, and showed her a picture, in a book of fairy stories, of a cruel hag that had one. "It s an awful long, ugly tooth that sticks away out,” said Libby.

It was a puzzle for both Libby and Will'm to know whom to believe. They had sided with Maudie and the others in their faith in Santa Claus. If Grandma and Uncle Neal had been wrong about that, how could they tell but that they might be mistaken about their belief in step-mothers too?

Fortunately, there were not many days in which to worry over the problem, and the few