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he hastily turned back, he caught a glimpse of a quickly gathering group of neighborhood children, assembling in a semicircle in various stages of dirt and squalor, staring eagerly to see who was inside the ambulance or who was going to be taken away from their vicinity.
    Then the door was opened by a large woman with a sullen mouth, a frown on her brow, and a cross, sick baby in her arms. She eyed the ambulance with irritation and brought her insolent eyes to bear on the intruder. Reuben stepped within and closed the door behind him. He didn't wish any more witnesses to this incident than was necessary.

CHAPTER TWO
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    Reuben had a glimpse of large, gloomy double rooms, absolutely bare except for a row of dilapidated iron cribs, a few chairs that didn't match, and a couple of low tables at the far end.
    As he told the matron what he wanted, he stepped within the front room and was instantly aware of eyes, baby eyes, staring at him, and wailing young voices crying out with disappointment. Their mothers had not come, and they were weary to death of this dreary place and this desolate woman who had charge. It struck a pang to Reuben's heart. He didn't analyze it at the time, but afterward the scene hung like a pall over the day. How he would have liked to set all those babies free and put them into a big meadow with daisies and buttercups, and butterflies, and birds singing high in the trees, and make the little hearts happy.
    His eyes quickly searched the rooms, and then he saw the boy Noel!
    He was sitting at one of the low tables with a box of crayons before him and a small sheet of paper on which he had been drawing. He had large dark eyes that instantly reminded him of the girl out in the ambulance. They had the same quality of hopelessness and helplessness.
    "I have come after Noel Guthrie," he said, raising his voice a trifle, and the boy at the little table instantly arose, his eyes wide with question, fear trembling behind the whiteness of his face.
    The large woman stepped closer and spoke arrogantly.
    "Well, I can't letcha have him without a written order from his sister. She wouldn't leave him be here onlyless I should promus that," she said. "It's a lotta fool nonsense, o' course, b'cause who would wantta steal a young one from a place like this? But I gave my word, an' I gotta keep it! B'sides, she ain't paid her quarter fer today. He general'y brings his quarter every morning, but he didn't have none taday, 'r else he lost it!"
    The boy gave a look of protest, but Reuben handed out the quarter he held in his hand.
    "Here's the quarter," he said, "and if you want to see his sister, you'll have to step outside and speak to her. She's in the ambulance and isn't able to get up and come in. She was taken sick while she was working."
    There was dignity about Reuben's voice that somewhat awed the woman, but she gave a twist to her mouth and there was a canniness in her eyes.
    "Well, I gotta go out and see ef she's thar first," she said, and turning toward a crib that already held an occupant asleep, she thumped the sick baby down from her arms, who promptly began to protest in loud screams of anger. The other baby woke up and added his voice to the song, and over the duet the woman shouted to Noel, who was standing there clasping and unclasping his hands in agitated excitement.
    "Noll, you stay right where you are, d'ya year? Don'tcha dare stir till I get back!"
    "But I must go to my sister!" said the boy in a low, firm tone. "She wants me!" And he walked forward determinedly.
    The woman strode over to him and jerked him back by the shoulder, setting him down hard on the chair from which he had arisen and adding a stinging slap on his cheek.
    "Now, you set there ! D'ya hear ? An' don'tcha stir till I come back, ur I'll smack ya good, an' you know what that means!"
    The boy quivered and turned white, and two large tears rolled down his cheeks, but he sat still, one great look of anguish turned upon Reuben as he