days ago her baby was born at the Star of Mercy Hospital and she was not strong enough to make it. All I have to show for her is the baby.”
Margaret Cameron pushed him back and looked at him quietly.
“Why, Jamie,” she said, “Jamie, I can’t understand that. Why didn’t you bring her here to the garden? Why didn’t you let me take care of her, too? Maybe if her diet had been right and she had been cared for as a woman can care for a girl, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”
“‘Maybes’ don’t do any good now,” said Jamie. "The circumstances were such that I couldn’t bring her here. The point is that she is gone and there is a splendid boy baby and his name is James Lewis MacFarlane, Junior.”
“At the hospital? He’s at the hospital?”
“No,” said Jamie. “She’d told them before I got there that she wanted me to have him, that she wanted him named for me. They had him all ready and they put him in my arms and without knowing what I was going to do, I walked out with him. I am the same kind of a dog that you are, Margaret. I came home, to the only place I’ve got, to the only place on earth that knows me or wants me. It hasn’t been long, but as long as I live, this spot right here is home to me. So I came home with a little raw, new-born baby.”
Margaret Cameron arose.
“You have him over at the house?” she asked. “You’re trying to take care of him yourself?”
