The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-25


of the shabby figure. Two vivid spots
burned in the cheeks. When the superin-
tendent spoke again his voice was stern.
Are you afraid that your assertions as to
character might not be borne out?' he ask
ed coldly.
mo. Yes" stammered the girl. please
There was an uncomfortable scene in the
office. Sadie Martin had tainted.
1T goes hard with me to break my word
to her, but maybe you ought TO know"
Mrs. Green was saying to the detective
nrEIlt Il, q L. STORE, Mio iddU oaleI 20 &c
home to the hospital.
Mrs. Green stood at her ironing board,
came very near being scorched in her ex-
:. Ought to know what?" asked Miss Sc
ligman, her face alive with interest. is
the girls character not good?
Character not good?' echoed Mrs. Green,
pausing with her iron uplifted in the air;
IN show you. Yes, I'll let the cat out of
the bag. Sometimes l think that girl amt
made out of ordinary flesh and blood, to
tell you, miss, what it is. If these here mis-
sion-hOuse folks knew all what | know and
all what l see and all what hear mot
one day nor one month, but goin on now
most Year,, they'd call it, beg pardon if
it's not religious, but they'd call it cruel
fyin'. No nails ever driving in flesh ever
hurt much worse or longer"
What do you mean?" was asked, as
stout Mrs. Green paused for breath.
L
and banged about, and sleepin' down in the
yard, on damp paving stones, on nights cold
enough to freeze the marrow in your bones,
and goin without enough food and Wearin'
leaky shoes in sloppy weather, and maxim
out as you, like to do them kind of things.
Are you speaking of Sadie?" interrupted
Miss SeHgman, bewildered by the tide of
words
You're right is" exclaimed the woman
SICK is she? Likely to stay sick awhile?
Faintin in offices and arrested for stealing?
Come this way and you'll understand better
than 1 can tell it to you. Don't you chill
dren come Ito the youngsters who crowd
ed forward as she opened the door,
When the door of an inner back room
open, Sadie's secret was revealed. A gen
eraI dinginess and dullnesS distinguished
the box-like apartment. What furniture
there was vas shabby. The stove looked as
If about to toppIe over ard as if even the
m1ldeSt kind of polish would be a surprise.
The cracked panes of the one window
| looked out on solid, lead-colored wall not
| three feet away. Whatever light there was,
| was concentrated on the fantastic figure
| by the window, an elderly woman, in a
| bedraggled gown, with gay artificial flowers
stuck in her thick gray hair Other flowers,
some red, some yellow, lay on the window
| ledge beside her and her Withered hands
| fumbled with some lengths of pink organdy
| and ribbon that was spread out in her lap.
MI You can can look ke all YOU want" whispered
Mrs. Green. Shes Sadie's grandmarm.
When she's that way she don't take no
notice of nothing"
The woman was talking to herself, as she
plated and twisted and patted the rosy
| hummery in her hands. 81 think it would
! be better to trim it with pearl beading, -
| she was saying as Mrs. Green approached
| her.
| Getting your costume ready, Mrs. Gron-
| ing?" asked the landlady.
| Yes, she answered without looking up.
| II had it draped right once but Sadie made
| me change it, and l can't ever get it right
again. 1t was that smooth-tongued Bob
Butler who put it into her head. They won t
| let me wear my bracelets either. I can't
| find them. know they were flung out into
| the yard, and that careless Sadie won't pick
| down there last night, and 1 woke her up
quick and sent her down for them, but she
| knot on the shoulder so, with a rose in the
| middle, and then I'll dance
Come on. She'll carry on like that for
| hours" whispered Mrs. Green. Sometimes
she dances a regular hornpipe She's in a
| good humor now, but she's something awful
when she's in one of her tantrums. She'll
| fling anything she can get hold of in the
| nre; money or anything. She burnt up
| Sadie'S book of stamps just because the
bright stamps struck her fancy. If she had
seen you, she would have covered her face
| up and skunk off into the corner. She thinks
every stranger is somebody come to carry
| her off to q crazy house, and every minute
that she's in her right mind she's begging
| Sadie not to let them take her. and making
| the girl promise not to give her up. I'd love
| her, but I've got six mouths of my own to
| fill, and Mr.. Green only earning 81 a week,
/ ana that not steady. L mad thought to turn
| the old lady over TO the city long ago, eX-
| ceptin' for Sadie's coaxin' ways, and her
| paying of the rent regular, and me so hard
up; but | tell you my hearts bled for her
| more than once, and, if she's to go to the
| hospital and be tended to regular it ain t
me to lift up my voice against it
| You go to the hospital with her, Miss
Seligman," said the superintendent on hear
| ing this report. Go along with her, when
the ambulance comes, and tell them to let
| her have every attention and I'll be respon-
| sible. l called in a doctor while you were
| gone, and he says it's a nervous break
down, induced partly by exposure and lack
| her. She's got grit and she's faithful, two
| wonderfully good qualities
| The next day three interesting things
& L. store, and, sewed into the lining of
! her kick" were the four one-dOllar bills
| that Sadie was suspected of taking. The
woman owned up to having taken the mon
| ey from the girls pocket when she was
| winding UP the ribbon.
| Poor. mad Mrs. Grooming, grumbling and
| protesting, was conveyed, bag and baggage,
pink tarletan scraps and all, to the asylum
| tackled a blurred and thumb marked ITO
| let" card on her outer back room door.
| In the meantime Sadie, ignorant that the
| event she had striven so hard to avert had
| actually taken place, lay consumed with a
! burning fever her white cot at the hos
pital. Did she recover? Yes, after weeks
| of illness, during which time the senior
member of the Il. & l.. firm himself took
| interest in her welfare. When quite well
! she was taken back into the store and put
| in charge of work more important than is
| usually trusted to girls of her age. She
| buys ships of ribbon still, and odds and
| ends of finery, and takes them over to the
| old grandame on the island
| Olive T. Gunby, in New York Evening
Post
| III A ~ ~