A few minutes later he entered the hospital through another door. He found room two twenty-five easily. Ten beds were in the room. Each bed had a boy in it. It reminded Axel of the dorm back at the Home.

Axel checked five of the beds before he found Nate. He woke his sleeping friend. “Hello, stranger,” he said softly.

“Axel!” Nate released a loud whisper the instant he caught sight of his pal.

“How are you, partner?” Axel had never been happier to see anyone in his life.

Nate shifted in his bed and moaned with pain. “I’m better than I was.”

Axel touched the bandage on Nate’s left eye. “Will your eye be all right?”

Nate shook his head. “I can’t see with it, Axel. Doctor says I never will.” Nate looked at his covers, then at the splint on his arm. “My arm is getting better and so is my ankle. The arm was broke, but the ankle wasn’t.”

“Gosh, I’m sorry about your eye, Nate.” Blind, Axel thought. How could Nate stand it?

Nate shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll be all right. I still have one good eye, don’t I?”

Axel’s stomach churned at the thought of Nate’s suffering. He handed his friend his knapsack. “I brought your things.”

Nate took the knapsack. “Why? You could have left them at home. I’ll be back in a few weeks.”

Axel looked down and shifted from one foot to the other. “We don’t have a home anymore. Stevenson sold the crate yesterday. If I hadn’t gone back there today, he would have put our things in the trash tomorrow.”

“Gone back? Were you away?” Nate tried to sit up straighter. “Where were you?”

Axel explained to Nate about stealing the bread and going to jail. He told Nate what Judge Thomas ordered him to do. Then he looked away so his friend wouldn’t see his eyes filling with tears. “I leave for Iowa tomorrow.”

Four

Promises

Nate spoke softly. “Iowa? Tomorrow?”

Axel looked back at Nate. He saw a tear roll from the side of Nate’s good eye, but he didn’t say anything about it. “We’ll always be partners, Nate, even when I’m in Iowa.”

“Partners,” Nate whispered.

Axel wiped his own eye when Nate looked away. He took a deep breath. “Nate, I have to go tomorrow, or they’ll put me in jail. But I’ve been thinking...”

Nate looked back at him. “About what?”

“Nothing can keep us apart, Nate. We’re brothers, and we belong together. I’m going to come back to New York as soon as I can.”

“But they’ll put you in jail.”

Axel shrugged. “If they try, we’ll run off somewhere together.” Axel rubbed a finger over his mouth and worked hard to hold back tears. “When you get out of here, Nate, see Mr. Akers at the Children’s Home by the Methodist church. He can tell you where I am.”

Nate slowly moved his head up and down. “Akers at the Children’s Home by the Methodist church,” he repeated. “I got it.” Nate stuck out his hand. “Good luck, Axel. Have a good life in Iowa.”

Axel took Nate’s hand and shook it. “Thanks, Nate, but life won’t be good until we’re together again. I will come back. I promise it won’t be long.”

Another tear slipped from Nate’s good eye. “I believe you, Axel.”

Axel took one last look at his partner and left.