Rufus M. Read Free

go upstairs quick, get the Brownie book, and go home? The window had banged shut, but he thought he could climb up the coal pile, pull the window up, and get out. He certainly hoped he could anyway. Supposing he couldn't and he had to stay in this cellar! Well, that he would not think about. He looked around in the dusky light and saw a staircase across the cellar. Luckily his application was still good. It was torn and dirty but it still had his name on it, RUFUS M., and that was the important part. He'd leave this on the desk in exchange for the Brownie book.
    Rufus cautiously made his way over to the steps but he stopped halfway across the cellar. Somebody had opened the door at the top of the stairs. He couldn't see who it was, but he did see the light reflected and that's how he knew that somebody had opened the door. It must be the lady. He was just going to say, "Hey, lady," when he thought,
Gee, maybe it isn't the lady. Maybe it's a spooky thing.
    Then the light went away, the door was closed, and Rufus was left in the dark again. He didn't like it down here. He started to go back to the coal pile to get out of this place. Then he felt his application. What a lot of work he had done to get a book and now that he was this near to getting one, should he give up? No. Anyway, if it was the lady up there, he knew her and she knew him and neither one of them was scared of the other. And Mama always said there's no such thing as a spooky thing.
    So Rufus bravely made his way again to the stairs. He tiptoed up them. The door at the head was not closed tightly. He pushed it open and found himself right in the library. But goodness! There in the little sink room right opposite him was the library lady!
    Rufus stared at her in silence. The library lady was eating. Rufus had never seen her do anything before but play cards, punch books, and carry great piles of them around. Now she was eating. Mama said not to stare at anybody

    while they were eating. Still, Rufus didn't know the library lady ate, so it was hard for him not to look at her.
    She had a little gas stove in there. She could cook there. She was reading a book at the same time that she was eating. Sylvie could do that, too. This lady did not see him.
    "Hey, lady," said Rufus.
    The librarian jumped up out of her seat. "Was that you in the cellar? I thought I heard somebody. Goodness, young man! I thought you had gone home long ago."
    Rufus didn't say anything. He just stood there. He had gone home and he had come back lots of times. He had the whole thing in his mind: the coming and going, and going and coming, and sliding down the coal pile, but he did not know where to begin, how to tell it.
    "Didn't you know the library is closed now?" she demanded, coming across the floor with firm steps.
    Rufus remained silent. No, he hadn't known it. The fellow had told him but he hadn't believed him. Now he could see for himself that the library was closed so the library lady could eat. If the lady would let him take his book, he'd go home and stay there. He'd play the game of Find the Duke with Jane. He hopefully held out his card with his name on it.
    "Here this is," he said.
    But the lady acted as though she didn't even see it. She led Rufus over to the door.
    "All right now," she said. "Out with you!" But just as she opened the door the sound of water boiling over on the stove struck their ears, and back she raced to her little room.
    "Gracious!" she exclaimed. "What a day!"
    Before the door could close on him, Rufus followed her in and sat down on the edge of a chair. The lady thought he had gone and started to sip her tea. Rufus watched her quietly, waiting for her to finish.
    After a while the lady brushed the crumbs off her lap. And then she washed her hands and the dishes in the little sink where Rufus had washed his hands. In a library a lady could eat and could wash. Maybe she slept here, too. Maybe she lived here.
    "Do you live here?" Rufus asked her.
    "Mercy on us!"