The Princess and Joe Potter

"He's gone, an' I ought'er be kicked for standin' here chinnin' with you, as if he'd wait till I got ready to tie him up!"

"We should be thankful to him for going without making any more of a disturbance. I'm relieved to know he wasn't seriously hurt, and – How wicked I am to stand here talking about anything, when your wounds should be attended to! It's a mercy you haven't bled to death long before this."

"There's no danger of anything of that kind, aunt Dorcas, and if you'll go right back to bed, I'll tend to myself in great shape. There's no need of your fussin' 'round."

"You must believe me a perfect wretch if you think I could leave you in such a condition. But, Joseph, I would like to go back and dress myself properly."

"There's no reason why you shouldn't leave me till mornin' jest as well as not, so go ahead, aunt Dorcas, an' do whatever you please."

"Sit down here by the table, where you will have something on which to rest your head if you grow faint, and I'll be back in a moment."

Aunt Dorcas closed the kitchen door, lest a draft of air should come upon the boy she believed so grievously wounded, and went to her own room, Joe saying to himself, meanwhile:

"I'd been willin' for him to have pounded me into shoestrings, if it would save me from havin' to tell a woman as good as she is that I ran away from New York to keep out of jail."

CHAPTER XIII.

A CONFESSION

It seemed to Joe as if aunt Dorcas had but just left the room when she returned, ready for the work of binding up his wounds.

"Do you feel any worse, Joseph?" she asked, laying her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Not a bit of it," Master Potter replied, stoutly.

"Do you think you can bear up until I have built a fire and heated some water?"

"Now, look here, aunt Dorcas, I ain't hurt any to speak of, even though there is a good deal of blood on my face, an' as for bearin' up, why, it wouldn't do me a bit of harm if there wasn't anything done to my face. I'll build a fire, if it's warm water you're after," and, before the little woman could prevent him, he had set about the task.

While waiting for the fire to burn, aunt Dorcas collected such articles as she believed would be needed, and Joe found it difficult to prevent a smile from appearing on his bruised face, as he watched the preparations.

Several rolls of clean, white cloth, in sufficient quantity to have bandaged the heads of twenty boys, arnica, antiseptic washes, adhesive plaster, a sponge, cooling lotions, and, as Joe afterwards told Plums, "a whole apothecary's shop full of stuff," was placed on the table in a methodical fashion.

"I guess while this water's bein' heated I'll wash some of the blood off my face, an' then you'll see that there ain't any need of worryin' much 'bout me," Joe said, with a laugh, as he turned towards the sink, and aunt Dorcas cried, excitedly:

"Don't do it, Joseph! Don't you dare to do it; it might be as much as your life is worth to put cold water on that bruised flesh! It won't be many minutes before we shall have plenty of the proper temperature."

"Of course I'll do jest as you say, aunt Dorcas; but I've been hurt worse'n this a good many times, an' never had any one to touch me up the same's you seem bound on doin'."

"If you have been foolhardy in the past, it is no reason why you should run unnecessary risks now," the little woman said, severely, and Joe made no further attempt to dissuade her from her purpose.

When the water was sufficiently warm, aunt Dorcas set about her self-appointed task, passing the moist sponge over Joe's face with an exceedingly light touch, as if afraid of causing him pain, and he said, with a stifled laugh:

"You needn't be afraid of hurtin' me, aunt Dorcas. I can stand a good deal more'n that without yippin'. I'd been willin' to got it twice as bad, if we could have held on to that duffer."

"You shouldn't harbour revengeful thoughts, Joseph. I am truly glad he made his escape."

"If you treat burglars in that way, this place will be overrun with them before next winter."

"Of course I don't like the idea of having strange men prowling around the house in the night; but there is nothing here for them to steal, and I am certain they couldn't be wicked enough to hurt a poor old woman like me. Instead of harbouring revengeful thoughts, we should endeavour to do good to those who would injure us, remembering the words spoken on the Mount, 'That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.'"

"If a feller went 'round doin' anything like that, I reckon he'd soon be in worse shape than I am. Do you mean, aunt Dorcas, that I ought to have stood still an' let that burglar have fun with me?"

"I can't think it was intended we should take the words literally; but they certainly were meant that we should be forgiving, – that we should love our enemies so heartily as to lead them from their evil ways. The man who beat you so cruelly will never be brought into a better life by harsh words. Now, I am going to put some arnica on these bruises; it will hurt, but you must try to bear the pain manfully."

"Don't be afraid of me, aunt Dorcas. You couldn't do anything that would make me yip."

The little woman treated Joe's wounds with such simple remedies as she had near at hand, and then proceeded to bandage his head, until but little more than his eyes and mouth could be seen, striving, meanwhile, to show him how much better the world would be for his having lived in it, if he would govern himself strictly by the Golden Rule.

During all the while she was putting the many bandages in place, Joe was saying to himself that now was come the time when he should make that confession he had decided upon, and, although aunt Dorcas had said so much concerning the blessedness of forgiving those who have done us an injury, he did not believe she would so far carry her precepts into practice as to be willing to shelter one who appeared to be as great a criminal as himself.

"I believe, Joseph, I have done all that is possible to-night," the little woman finally said, as she fastened in place the last bandage. "You are not to get up in the morning until after I have made certain you are in no danger of a fever. Now, go to your room, and if you think George may disturb you, I'll put him in the spare chamber."

"Wait a minute, aunt Dorcas; I want to tell you something," and Joe laid his hand on the little woman's arm to prevent her from rising. "You never knew why Plums an' I left New York to come out here where there isn't a chance to earn a living."

"I understood from something you said, Joseph, that there was a reason for your leaving home suddenly; but I can't believe, my boy, you have done anything wrong."

"An' I haven't, aunt Dorcas; as true as I live, I haven't, though everybody, even Plums, thinks I've been cuttin' a terrible swath! Of course, when that advertisement come out, I had to run away, else they'd carried me to jail – "

"To jail?" aunt Dorcas repeated, in horror. "What advertisement do you mean, Joseph?"

"The one that was in the paper 'bout payin' anybody who'd tell where I was."

"But who wanted to know where you were?"

"The lawyers, of course, – the fellers that advertised."

"Why did they want to find you?" aunt Dorcas asked, in perplexity.

"That's what knocks me silly, 'cause I don't know a thing about it, any more'n you do."

"Did you say the advertisement knocked you silly, Joseph?" and the little woman now looked thoroughly bewildered.

"Course it did, an' it would have paralysed 'most anybody that didn't know what they'd been about."

"Joseph, I'm afraid I don't understand you. It is a printed advertisement you are telling me about, isn't it?"

"Of course. I saw the first one in the Herald, an' – "

"I thought you said some one had dealt you a blow. Tell me what there was in the advertisement."

Joe repeated the words almost verbatim, and then told aunt Dorcas all the details of the flight, up to the moment they arrived at her home.

Regarding the threats made by the amateur detective he remained silent, because of the promise to Dan.

"There must be some terrible mistake about it all, Joseph. If you haven't committed a crime, and I feel certain you couldn't have done such a thing, then it is some other boy these lawyers are hunting for."

"There's no such good luck as that, aunt Dorcas. I don't believe there's another feller in town named Joseph Potter, who's been sellin' newspapers an' then went into the fruit business. You see, that's me to a dot, an' now Plums an' Dan are in the scrape because they helped me away. Just as likely as not Dan will come here to-morrow to ask you to take him in, too, an' I've made up my mind that the princess an' I have got to leave. We're goin' away about noon, aunt Dorcas, an' some time I'll be back to pay you for bein' so good to us."