did. They had freedom: he was shut in. Once he had thought that this
shut-in condition was due to the strange views of Big Tom. But now, all
at once, he realized that One-Eye agreed with the longshoreman. So did
the Chinese tailor, Mustapha!

He made up his mind that hereafter he would stay close to home.

He spent nearly the whole of the next day most contentedly with Robinson
Crusoe. It was ironing day, but when he had finished the small pieces,
Mrs. Kukor took the rest upstairs. Then Johnnie, dressed from head to
toe in peltry, moored at his elbow that lonely isle. And for him the
wrecked ship gave up the last of its stores, cannibals danced, beacons
were lighted, stockades built, and there swept in upon that East Side
kitchen a breeze that was off the Southern Seas.

Shortly after the evening meal a night or two later, One-Eye knocked,
finding Johnnie up to his elbows in the dishpan, while Barber smoked and
Cis dried the supper plates. The cowboy seemed much embarrassed just at
first, and avoided Cis's smiling look as she thanked him for the apple.
Her little speech over, however, he soon warmed into quite a jovial
mood.

"Jes' had t' see sonny, here, t'night," he declared. "Y' know it's so
seldom a feller meets up with a kid that's worth botherin' about. Now
this one strikes me as a first-class boy"--praise that instantly and
completely wiped out that hurt somewhere in Johnnie's interior.

One-Eye had not come empty-handed. He had cigars for Big Tom, a paper
bag of pears for every one, and a carefully wrapped box tied with
glistening string which turned out to be candy. As a chorus of delight
greeted all these gifts, he became by turns the leathery saffron which,
for him, was paleness, and the dark reddish-purple that made onlookers
always believe that he was holding his breath. "Aw, shucks!" he cried to
the thanks. "It ain't nuthin'. Don't mention it. It's all right. _Eat!_"

Then happened the almost unbelievable: Big Tom, who never made visitors
welcome, and never wasted kerosene, actually lifted down the lamp and
lighted it, and would not hear of One-Eye's taking an early departure.
The cowboy's importance was making him welcome; also, his gifts. For
greed was the keynote of Barber's character. The latter haw-hawed at
everything One-Eye said. And Johnnie gazed in amazement at the unusual
spectacle of Big Tom's face wrinkled by laughter.

He talked about himself. He had been moving barrels all day; doing