United States or Syria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Jimmy's lips puckered in a pout; he began to blink nervously. Aggie slipped her other arm about his neck. "You know," she continued with a baby whine, "I got Zoie into this, and I've just got to get her out of it. You're not going to desert me, are you, Jimmy? You WILL help me, won't you, dear?" Her breath was on Jimmy's cheek; he could feel her lips stealing closer to his.
"She's so weak, poor dear," sympathised Aggie, almost in a whisper. Alfred nodded his understanding to Aggie. It was then that his attention was for the first time attracted toward the crib. "My boy!" he exclaimed. And again Zoie forgot Aggie's warning and sat straight up in bed. But Alfred did not see her.
And he braced himself for her answer. "He's gone," sobbed Zoie. "Gone!" echoed Jimmy, feeling sure that his worst fears were about to be realised. "Gone where?" "I don't know," sniffled Zoie, "I just 'phoned his office. He isn't there." "Oh, is that all?" answered Jimmy, with a sigh of relief. "Just another little family tiff," he was unable to conceal a feeling of thankfulness. "What's up?"
Clasping her long-sought darling to her heart and weeping with delight, the Italian mother was about to follow O'Flarety through the door when Zoie staggered into the room, weak and exhausted. "You, you!" called the indignant Zoie to the departing mother. "How dare you lock my husband in the bathroom?" She pointed to the key, which the woman still unconsciously clasped in her hand.
To Alfred's intense surprise, his lips had barely touched Zoie's fingertips when he felt his head seized in a frantic embrace. "Alfred, Alfred!" cried Zoie in delight; then she smothered his face with kisses. As she lifted her head to survey her astonished husband, she caught the reproving eye of Aggie.
A moment later she stopped with sudden misgiving. "But, Aggie," she said fearfully, "suppose Alfred shouldn't come back after I've got the baby? I'd be a widow with a child." "Oh, he's sure to come back!" answered Aggie, with a confident air. "He'll take the first train, home." "I believe he will," assented Zoie joyfully. All her clouds were again dispelled.
"How do you suppose that red baby will ever look in this pink basket?" she asked. And then with a regretful little sigh, she declared that she wished she'd "used blue." "I didn't think the baby that we chose was so horribly red," said Aggie. "Red!" cried Zoie, "it's magenta." And again her thread broke. "Oh, darn!" she exclaimed in annoyance, and once more rethreaded her needle.
"Yes, dear," sighed Zoie, with the face of an angel, and then with a languid sigh, she sank back contentedly on her pillows. "My boys! My boys!" cried Alfred, now delirious with delight. "Give them to me," he called to Aggie, and he snatched the surprised infants savagely from her arms. "Give me ALL of them, ALL of them."
He decided forthwith to tell her everything, and never, never again to run the risk of deceiving her; but before he could open his lips, she continued gaily: "I've brought Zoie home with me, dear. There's no sense in her eating all alone, and she's going to have ALL her dinners with us." Jimmy groaned.
"I feel as though I could go out of my head," he explained and with that he began tucking the three small mites in the pink and white crib designed for but one. Zoie regarded him with a bored expression' "You act as though you WERE out of your head," she commented, but Alfred did not heed her. He was now engaged in the unhoped for bliss of singing three babies to sleep with one lullaby.
Word Of The Day