As Brother had said, two scholars were ever so much better than one and they had a beautiful time playing together.  Mickey, in spite of his ragged clothes, and bad grammar, knew how to play, and he suggested several new things that Sister and Brother had never done.

“I been to school,” boasted Mickey.

The children were anxious to have him stay to lunch with them and Louise, who had heard his voice and who came downstairs to see him, also invited him to stay.  But he was too shy, and shuffled off just as Nellie Yarrow bounded up the front steps.

“Wasn’t that Mickey Gaffney?” she asked curiously.  “I shouldn’t think you’d want to play with him.  His folks are awful poor, and, besides, his father was arrested last year.”

“Mickey isn’t to blame for that,” retorted Grace quickly.  “Don’t be a snob, Nellie; Brother and Sister had a good time playing with that little red-headed boy.”

“But hardly any of the children play with him,” persisted Nellie, who of course went to the public school.  “You see last term Mickey was in my room, and he only came till about the middle of October —­maybe it was November.  Anyway, soon as it got cold he stopped coming.

“The teacher thought he was playing hooky, and she told Mr. Alexander, the principal.  And he found out that the reason Mickey didn’t come to school was ’cause his father didn’t send him.”

“Why didn’t his father send him?” asked Sister.

“He wouldn’t work, and Mickey didn’t have any shoes to wear,” explained Nellie.  “Mr. Alexander got somebody to give Mickey a pair of shoes, but he wouldn’t pay any attention to his lessons, and I know he wasn’t promoted.  I suppose he’ll be in the first grade again this year.”

Brother and Sister thought a good deal about Mickey after Nellie had gone home.  They wondered if he wanted to go to school and whether he wished the summer would hurry so the new term might open.

“He liked to play school, so I guess he likes to go, really,” argued Sister.  “Playing is different,” said Brother wisely.  “He didn’t have any shoes on this morning, did he?”

“No, that’s so,” Sister recalled.  “And his clothes were all torn and dirty; maybe he hasn’t any new suit to wear the first day.”

All the Morrison children had always started school in new suits or dresses, and Mother Morrison had promised Brother a new sailor suit and Sister a gingham frock when they started off in September.

“Miss Putnam would say he ‘scuffled,’” giggled Sister, remembering that was what Miss Putnam thought all children did with their feet.

“I wonder who really did put the tar on her porch?” murmured Brother.  “She’ll always think we did it, unless someone tells her something else.”

CHAPTER XIX

A VERY SICK DOLL

“Madam,” declared Brother seriously, “your child is very ill, I fear!”