He didn't want to say his prayers because he had never said any. She suggested, therefore, that he should kneel on the bed, put his hands together, and repeat the words she told him to say, as she sat on the edge of the cot.
"Dear God"--"Dear God"--"take care of me to-night"--"take care of me to-night"--"and take care of my dear mother"--"and take care of my dear mudda"--"and make us happy again"--"and make us happy again"--"for Jesus Christ's sake"--"for Jesus Christ's sake"--"Amen"--"Amen."
"God's up in the sky, isn't He?" he asked, as he hugged his dancing toy to him and let her cover him up.
"God's everywhere where there's love, it seems to me, dear. I bring a little bit of God to you, and you bring a little bit of God to me; and so we have Him right here. That's a good thought to go to sleep on, isn't it? So good-night, dear."
She kissed him as she supposed his mother would have done. He threw his arms about her neck, drawing her face close to his. "Good night, dear," he whispered back, and almost before she rose from the bedside she knew he was asleep.
Somewhere toward morning she came into the room and found him sitting up in his cot.
"Will it soon be daytime, Mrs. Crewdson?"
"And when daytime comes could I go to the jail?"
"Not too early, dear. They wouldn't let you in."
"Oh, but I don't want to go in. I only want to stand outside. Then if my mudda looks out of the window, she'll see her little boy."
Throwing herself on her knees, she clasped him in her arms. "Oh, you darling! How I wish God had given me a little son like you! I did have one--he would have been just your age--only I--I lost him."
Touched by this tribute to himself, as well as by his friend's bereavement, he brought out a fine manly phrase he had long been saving for an adequate occasion.
Having thus expressed his sympathy, he nestled down to sleep again, hugging his dancing toy.
He woke to his first Christmas. That is, he woke to find a chair drawn up beside his cot and stocked with little presents. He had never had presents before. It had not been his mother's custom to make them. Since she gave him what she could afford, and they shared everything in common, presents would have seemed to her superfluous.
