as to be any fam'ly convention and weddin' celebration, why
couldn't she have her little Aloysius to it? She didn't care a split
spud how he'd behaved, or if him and his father had had words; he was
her youngest b'y, and she thought more of him than all the rest put
together, and she wouldn't have a hand in any doin's that 'Loyshy was
barred from comin' to.

As Nora put it, "When the old lady speaks her mind, you got to listen
or go mad from her." She don't talk of anything else, and when she
ain't talkin' she's cryin' her eyes out. Old Larry swore himself out
of breath, the lady Kate argued, and Maggie had done her best; but
there was nothin' doin'. They'd got to find Aloysius and ask him to
the party, or call it off.

But findin' 'Loyshy wa'n't any cinch. He'd left the Army long ago. He
wa'n't in any of the fifteen-cent lodgin' houses. The police didn't
have any record of him. He didn't figure in the hospital lists. The
nearest anyone came to locatin' him was a handbook man the scene
shifter knew, who said he'd heard of 'Loyshy hangin' around the
Gravesend track summer before last; but there was no use lookin' for
him there at this time of year. It wa'n't until they'd promised to
advertise for Aloysius in the papers that Mother Dillon quit takin' on
and agreed to wear the green silk she'd had made for Nora's chistenin'.

"Yes, and what then?" says I.

"Why," says Sadie, "Nora's afraid that if Aloysius doesn't turn up, her
mother will spoil the party with another crying spell; and she knows if
he does come, her father will throw him out."

"She has a happy way of lookin' at things," says I. "Was it for this
you cut out going to Rockywold?"

"Of course," says Sadie. "I am to pour tea at the Dillons' on Sunday
afternoon. You are to come at five, and bring Pinckney."

"Ah, pickles, Sadie!" says I. "This is----"

"Please, Shorty!" says she. "I've told Nora you would."

"I'll put it up to Pinckney," says I, "and if he's chump enough to let
himself loose in Tenth-ave. society, just to help the Dillons put it
over the Bradys, I expect I'll be a mark too. But it's a dippy move."

Course, I mistrusted how Pinckney would take it. He thinks he's got me
on the rollers, and proceeds to shove. He hasn't heard more'n half the
tale before he begins handin' me the josh about it's bein' my duty to
spread sunshine wherever I can.

"It's calcium the Dillons want," says I. "But I hadn't got to tellin'
you ab