"We shall be punished!" I said. "We'll surely be punished if we do it!"
My brother Carol smiled. It was quite a white smile. He put out his hand. I took it. We ran down the hill after young Annie Halliway! And led her to the glint!
Old Man Smith was pretty surprised to see us. He was riding round the door-yard in his wheel chair. He rolled his chair to the gate to meet us. The chair squeaked a good deal. But even if he'd wanted to walk he couldn't. The reason why he couldn't is because he's dumb in his legs.
"What in the world do you want?" he asked.
I looked at Carol. Carol looked at me. He kicked me in the shins. My thoughts came very quickly.
"We've brought you a young lady that's lost her mind!" I said. "What can you do about it?"
Something happened all at once that made our legs feel queer. What happened was that Old Man Smith didn't seem pleased at all about it. He snatched his long white beard in his hands.
"Lost her mind?" he said. "Her mind? Her mind? How dar'st you mock me?" he cried.
"We darsn't at all!" I explained. "On account of the bears! We've read all about the mocking bears in a book!"
He seemed to feel better.
"You mean in the good book?" he said. "The Elijah bears, you mean?"
"Well, it was quite a good book," I admitted. "Though my Father's got lots of books on Tulips that have heap prettier covers!"
"U-m-m-m," said Old Man Smith. "U-m-m-m--. U-m--m--m."
And all the time that he was saying "U-m--m--m-U-m--m--m," young Annie Halliway was knocking down his house. With a big chunk of rock she was chipping it off. It was a piece of blue china cup with the handle still on it that she chipped off first.
When Old Man Smith saw it he screamed.
"Woman! What are you doing?" he screamed.
"Her name is Young Annie Halliway," I explained.
"Young Annie Halliway-Come Here!" screamed Old Man Smith.
Young Annie Halliway came here. She was perfectly gentle about it. All her ways were gentle. She sat down on the ground at Old Man Smith's feet. She lifted her eyes to Old Man Smith's eyes. She looked holy. But all the time that she looked so holy she kept right on braiding the handle of the blue china cup into her hair. It cranked against the tin trumpet. It sounded a little like the 4th of July.
Old Man Smith reached down and took her chin in his hands.
"Oh my Lord-what a beautiful face!" he said. "What a beautiful face!-And you say she's lost her mind?" he said. "You say she's lost her mind?" He turned to Carol. "And what do you say?" he asked.
"Oh, please, Sir, Carol doesn't say anything!" I explained. "He can't! He's dumb!"
"Dumb?" cried Old Man Smith. "So this is the Dumb Child, is it?" He looked at Carol. He looked at himself. He looked at my freckles. He rocked his hands on his stomach. "Merciful God!" he said. "How are we all afflicted!"
"Oh, please, Sir," I said, "my brother Carol isn't afflicted at all!-It's a great gift my Mother says to be born with the Gift of Silence instead of the Gift of Speech!"
He made a little chuckle in his throat. He began to look at Young Annie Halliway all over again.
"And what does your Mother say about her?" he pointed.
"My Mother says," I explained, "that she only hopes that the person who finds her mind will be honest enough to return it!"
"What?" said Old Man Smith. "To return it?-Honest enough to return it?"
He began to do everything all over again!-To chuckle! To rock! To take Young Annie Halliway's chin in his hand!
"And what did you say your name was, my pretty darling?" he asked.
Young Annie Halliway looked a little surprised.
"My name is Robin," she said. "Dearest-Robin-I think."
"You think wrong!" said Old Man Smith. He frowned with ferocity.
It made us pretty nervous all of a sudden.
Carol went off to look at the bee-hive to calm himself. Young Annie Halliway picked up the end of one of her long braids and looked at that. There was still about a foot of it that didn't have anything braided into it. I didn't know where to look so I looked at the house. It was very glistening. Blue it glistened. And green it glistened! And red it glistened! And pink! And purple! And yellow!
"Oh, see!" I pointed. "There's old Mrs. Beckett's rose-vase with the gold edge!-She dropped it on the brick garden-walk the day her son who'd been lost at sea for eleven years walked through the gate all alive and perfectly dry!-And that chunky white nozzle with the blue stripe on it?-I know what that is!-It's the nose of Deacon Perry's first wife's best tea pot!-I've seen it there! In a glass cupboard! On the top shelf!-She never used it 'cept when the Preacher came!"
"The Deacon's second wife broke it-feeding chickens out of it," said Old Man Smith.
"And that little scrap of saucer," I cried, "with the pansy petal on it?-Why-Why that's little Hallie Bent's doll-dishes!-We played with 'em down in the orchard! She died!" I cried. "She had the whooping-measles!"
"That little scrap of saucer," said Old Man Smith, "was the only thing they found in Mr. Bent's bank box.-What the widow was lookin' for was gold!"
"And that green glass stopper!" I cried. "Oh, Goodie--Goodie--Goodie!-Why, that--"
"Hush your noise!" said Old Man Smith. "History is solemn!-The whole history of the village is written on the outer walls of my house!-When the Sun strikes here,-strikes there,-on that bit of glass,-on this bit of crockles-the edge of a plate,-the rim of a tumbler,-I read about folk's minds!-What they loved!-What they hated!-What they was thinking of instead when it broke!-" He snatched his long white beard in his hands. He wagged his head at me. "There's a law about breakin' things," he said, "same as there's a law about losin' them! My house is a sample-book," he said. "On them there walls-all stuck up like that-I've got a sample of most every mind in the village!-People give 'em to me themselves," he said. "They let me rake out their trash barrels every now and then. They don't know what they're givin.'-Now, that little pewter rosette there--"
"It would be nice-wouldn't it," I said, "if you could find a sample of Young Annie Halliway's mind? Then maybe you could match it!"
"Eh?" said Old Man Smith. "A sample of her mind?" He looked jerky. He growled in his throat. "A-hem--A-hem," he said. He closed his eyes. I thought he'd decided to die. I screamed for Carol. He came running. He'd only been bee-stung twice. Old Man Smith opened his eyes. His voice sounded queer. "Where do they think she lost her mind?" he whispered.
"In Europe," I said. "Maybe in a train! Maybe on a boat! They don't know! She can't remember anything about it."
"U-m-m," said Old Man Smith. He looked at Young Annie Halliway. "And where do you think you lost it?" he said.
Young Annie Halliway seemed very much pleased to be asked. She laughed right out.
"In a March wind!" she said.
"Eh?" said Old Man Smith. He turned to me again. "What did you say her name was?" he asked.
I felt a little cross.
"Halliway!" I said. "Halliway-Halliway-Halliway! They live in the big house out by the Chestnut Trees! They only come here in the Summers! Except now! The Doctors say it's Mysteria!"
"The Doctors say what is Mysteria?" said Old Man Smith.
"What Annie's got!" I explained. "What made her lose her mind! Mysteria is what they call it."
"U-m-m," said Old Man Smith. He reached way down into his pocket. He pulled out a box. He opened the box. It was full of pieces of colored glass! And of china! He juggled them in his hands. They looked gay. Red they were! And green! And white! And yellow! And blue! He snatched out all the blue ones and hid 'em quick in his pocket. "She seems sort of partial to blue," he said.