TIM CARMODY'S FIRST NIGHT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13161, 7 July 1908, Page 4

TIM CARMODY'S FIRST NIGHT.

••Skinny" Tim was carrying a white jug with a pink band round it; there wa.s an air of importance in his gait, and he bore liis burden with anxious care. Tlio light from the window of the corner public shorio on the glistoning frotii at the top of tho pitcher, and two or three observant littlo boys, who had seen Tim receive it from the older boy ho had commissioned to obtain the liquor, nudged each other expectantly. •Two pints to-night, Tim?" said one of them. "You ain't nivcr had two pints afore." "No, I ain't—and its 'six-ale.' " replied Skinny Tim, with a noto of pride in his voice. "Give us a sip, Skinny," implore,! another boy, motioning with his head toward a convenient doorway. "Givo us a sip in the dark here-.'' Tim responded in a tono of ineffable scorn, "No. you don't! This is for Property Mike. If it was for mother 1 wouldn't mind." "Well, then, if you'ro nasty you can tako your beer homo yourself. Wo won't come any further." .".o Tim's mates, with the instinct of house-sparrows on a foraging expedition, slouchod off in th© opposite direction. Tim hurried on to his abode in tho iinpaved yard of All Hollows. It was one of the most squalid parts of tho old Cathedral city, but Tim paid littlo heed to that. Tho Property Man. his friend, was home to supper early, and the boy felt thero was something in the air. Property Miko was a wonderful fellow in the youngster's eyes, and Skinny Tim loved him with a loyal lovo born of heartfelt gratitude; for had not his friend often stood between him and a certain beating on those I occasions when Mm Carmody had for- [ saken her washtub for a convivial halfday at the corner public? Not the least compunction would Skinny havo felt in sipping his mother's supper beer, or his father's for that matter; l but Property Mike's—never!

Tho door of tho tenement in which tho Carmodys lived was open when Tim reached it; and, glancing uneasily toward the dark churchyard of All Hallows, which faced his home, th© boy hurried into the yellow-lit parlour. A cheap oil-lamp was reflected in th© shiny American cloth which covered th© table. There was a smell as of strong tobacco and onions, mixed with a suggestion of soap-suds, in the air; and behind the dirty group seated at the supper table was a sparkling background of regalia. 'Como on, Tim," was Mr Carmody's greeting as Tim delivered up the beerjug. "You've been long enough." Tho Property Man at the table, a littlo grey-facod, bright-eyed man, filled a glass, for Mr Carmody, and another for himself, and poured .Airs Carmody's allowance into a teacup with no handle. Thon the threo drank silently. Tho Property Man's hair was 'property,' too, for it was hung on a knob of his high-backed chair, and its owner passed a red cotton handkerchief over his glistening scalp a.s though he wero perspiring. The remnants of the man'_ supper, which had consisted of bread and cheese and a Spanish onion-, had been pushed aside, and Property Mike was reading a large playbill, his crook M forefinger pointing out the words io the couple at tho table. Skinny Tim surveyed the group from his stool, and meditatively inspected bis friend's bald head. The" boy had seen his friend minus his wig* on only one occasion l>efore. this evening. That was when the household cat had appropriated it, and Tim had, after much search, discovered her using it to form the found.i.t.io.l of a nest near a headstone in the churchyard. Th© boy recalled, with a th.ri.l of pleasure, that the find had brought him sixpence, for tho Property M_nn had been a prison©-' until the recovery of hi.s wig.

"Vis! She's a big actress now," tho bald-headed man was explaining. '•She's a big aitrcs. now, for all sho came out at our lit-tlc thoayter here. She's a tip-topper now, and no mistake." "For sure!" comment-.:! Mrs Carmody. ''And you say she's comin' hack agin to play in t.ho old City t-heaytor. ..like.?" said Carmody. "That do seem good of her." •'For out' night only," said tho Property Man, underlining the words on the playbill with his forefinger. •'There'll l>e a-plenty glad to see her again, what knew her here. T3ut I'm in a n-uandairy—a guam-dairy," he repeated, shaking his head thoughtfully. "I've got to provide a U'yal Prince for t'morrow night, and I don't- know where to goodness he's a-comin' from." "VVe.ll. there he is." said Mrs Carmody. "There h© is, if you make it worth his while." She pointed at Tim. The Property Man oyr-i] him critically and with some disapprobation. "He's a bit too bi<._," sa.id he doubtfully. "Ain't ho too skinny as well?" enquired M.r Carmody. "Well, for a R'yal Prince, he ain't exactly what you'd call fleshy,*' Miko mused. "I'm thinking about hie length, though. It don't matter much about his being thin. But he'-d ha.*e to double up in that there cot we've got. What'll you let him come for?" he asked, turning to Mrs Carmody. "What d'ye s~y to a couple o' shilling?" Mr Carmody replied tentatively, glancing across at his wife. '•Vis, a couple o' shiliin~- will do," said the woman. "And two 'gas' of gin,'' she added as an ai"to.rthought. Did Carmody nodded and looked to Miko to clinch the bargain.

''All right. I think the management will run to that," he said. "He ain't wanted until the last act."

Thus it chanced that, on ihe following night, Tim Carmody was taken by the hand and led to a great house with queer rooms, ami tenanted by ! people in fantastic dresses. The boy had nev<?r been to a theatre before, ami to him t.he dressing-room was like j a showy fairyland. It was in a dream ihot ho was handed over by Property Mike to a tall man in a green doublet and darned hose, who lvegnn to explain hie part- to him before ho had recovered from his bewilderment. It was very simple: he had to lie still i:i bed, to keep his eyes shut, and to remain quite- otill. Skinny Tim heard the man in the preen doublet expound, hut the words i came to him in a medley of ill-assorted impressions of beautiful dresses, flaring candles, and mysterious distant music. Then the boy, obeying aleently, yet with a strange feeling of aloofness, was placed in a bed—a snowy bed, very j wonderful to him—after they had | covered hie raps with a long white I gown, and had brushed the light curls kick from hi* fair forehead. A beautiful lady, who was the queon mother, the heroine of the- drama, came j •md knelt by him. Tim was a little. : 'earful of her beauty; but the scene; was to him the sweetest of fairy \ dreams —all misty and musical, and in a >trange- liall-iight. Then a dark ] wall of curtain in front of the child i went sweeping upward ; tho beautiful ! dreamy mireic became even more subdued;'and through his half-closed eyelids ho received an impression of counties iacos beyond a row of leaping lights. A hoarse voice to the left of his t-nowy cot was speaking an aside. Tim lah but turned to looK at the speaker, ! but tho queen bent over him. She. whispered. "Be. quit-o still and pretend to be. asleep." Then Tim felt the hand which was laid gently on his thin arm give a sharp squeeze. He opened his eyes involuntarily, hut the queen mother quickly interposed her arm between him and the audience, as though arranging tho clothes in his cot. Ho couid not help glancing up to see if the beautiful lady was vexed ; with him. There was a startled expression on her face as he looked, but not a trace of iiiicer. She hushed him, and smoothed back his curls with the natural tendering of a mother, which ho had never known. • The royal prince closed his eves tightly and made up his mind that, come wliat -would, lie would act his part well and please, the lady. A faithful servant came on just then to watch tho sleeping prince, and tho boy felt tho queen mother gently push up* the loft sleeve of his nightgown. Skinny Tim knew that there was a red scar there, and he inwardly prayed that tho beautiful lady should not see it. But her hancT, gentle though it was, thrust back tho sleeve in spite of his keeping liis arm down on tho coverlet. When his forearm was bared he heard the queen mother take- in her breath sharply, and, as she gave him a real kiss before resigning him to tho care of the faithful servant, Tim felt a tear fall on his forehead. It was said in the theatre afterward that the actress staggered as she made her exit, and the prompter thought she was going to faint in the wings. After tho lady had gone, Skinny Tim kept perfectly quiet, though from time to time ho looked round under hia drooped eyelids. He was naturally a nervous and imaginative child, ancl when he saw two ruffia-ne enter with glittering knives he could scarcely forbear to scream. He absently wondered why all those people who were looking on did not cry out to stop them. Poor Httlo soul! the stage murderers were very real to him. But even in his helpless panic he wondered at the property rags they wore. Tim knew only too intimately the appearanoo of tho real thing, and he marvelled when he saw that tho seeming rags were stitched tipon their garments. As in a nightmare, the boy watched the terrible "ruffians seize upon the faithful, servant, stab him, and cast him t(trough a window. Hβ saw the stage- knives close up, and knew it was merely make-beliove; but it was only with the meet heroic efforts that the sleeping prince managed to obey instructions and refrain from shrieking when tho princinal murderer seized him and carried him out. The curtain fell, and there arose in the theatre a great cheer. 111. Behind tho scenes tho queen mother waited. In response to that cheer she .and the prince must go on again. The murderer delivered the boy to her, but Skinny Tim lay inanimate in her arms. ''He's gone off," said the murderer, briefly. He was right. Tim, a prey to his imaginative apprehensions, had fainted. But the public were calling for the popular actress and for Tim: it was well the queen mother was tall and stately. Tim was long but light, and she carried him on and off again. audience cheered wildly.

l_i© queen carried Tim into heir dress-i-i.g--_om, and breathleesly hid him down. The collapse was passing: he was coming round again.

'\Send for Mr Browning," said tho actress to her maid. This was th© stag© name of her husband. "When he came, as he did immediately, th© actress dismissed those in her room with a single movem-ent. Their departure was almost instinctive. Tim lay at full length upon" a chintz-cover-ed sofa, crying hysterically. Tho great actreas, still in her robes of the queen mother, led her husband to th© child. Sho turned back the ,le©v© of Skinny Tim's gown; "Bernard," said she, '"it is our lost boy!" Th© actor looked at th© scar, and then from the boy's fair face and curly hair to his wife as she knelt by the sofa, ond h© put his arms tenderly about them both.

Thus it was that Skinny Tim did not return to hi, old abode* in the unpaved yard near the church of All Hallows.