"And you made no more after Buddy--after he left?"
"He didn't die," said Peter, "if that's what you mean. He was took away. Yes'm. I did make a couple. I made a couple more cats to put in the gunny-sack. But that was because I sort of saw Buddy a sittin' there on the floor, even when he was gone."
"But don't you see," cried Mrs. Montgomery eagerly, "that you can always see Buddy? Don't you know there are hundreds of other Buddys--boys and girls--all over the country, and that, as you work, a man of your imagination can _feel_ their eyes and smiling mouths guiding your hand and your knife? _They_ want your 'funny cats,' too, Mr. Lane. Don't you see that you could sit here in your lonely boat, and have all the children of America clustered about your knee?"
"Yes, I do sort of see it," said Peter, "but it's a thing I'm liable to forget any time."
"But you must not forget it!" exclaimed Mrs. Montgomery. "Your work is too rare, too valuable to permit you to forget How many artists, do you suppose, are, like the musicians, able to draw their inspiration face to face from their audiences? Very few, Mr. Lane. Do you suppose a Dickens was able to have those for whom he wrote crowded in his workroom? And yet those he worked to please guided his pen. He heard the laughs and saw the tears and was guided by them as he chose the words that were to cause the laughs and tears. You, too, can see the children's faces."
She paused, for she saw in Peter's eyes that he understood and agreed.
"But then there's another reason I can't whittle more toys," he said. "I've got about thirty more cords of wood to saw this winter."
"But that is not like you!" said Mrs. Montgomery reproachfully. "You see I know you, Mr. Lane! You are not the man to saw wood when all the Buddys are eager for your toys."
"It ain't like me usually," admitted Peter. "I don't know who's been telling you about me, but usually I don't do any work I don't have to, and that's a fact, but certain circumstances--" he hesitated. "You didn't know why they took Buddy away from me, did you? I wasn't fit to keep him. I was like a certain woman was always tellin' me, I guess--shiftless and no-'count--so they took Buddy. And I guess they were right. But I've changed. It's going to take some time, but I'm going to make money, and I'm going to be like other folks, and I'm going to get Buddy back. So you see," he said, after this outburst, "I've got to saw wood. If it wasn't for that I'd be right eager to make toys for all the kids you speak of. It would be a pleasure. But I've got to make some money."