The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-31

@No. Yes" stammerea the girl
please don't send"
There WAS an uncomfortable scene in
the office sadie NIoulton had tainted.
MRS. GREE1ys STORY.
1T goes hard with me to break my
! word to her. but maybe you ought to
know, Mrs. Green was saying to the
{ deteclVe from OsWald'S store, who had
called to see whether the sick girl had
best be sent home or to the hospital
Mrs. Green stood by her ironing
/ board, and the white frill she was
! smoothing out came very near being
scorehed in her excitement
| Ought to know what?" asked Miss
Sergeant, her face alive with interest.
Is the girls character not g63d?'
/ Character not good?'' echoed Mrs.
Green, pausing with her iron uplifted in
the air. III show You. Yes, III let the
cat cut of the bag"
What do you nean?" was asked. as
stout Mrs. Green paused for breath
Il mean this, n1a'am; I mean being
! beat and banged about. and sleepin'
! down in the yard on damp paving
stores 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 likes to do them kind of
things; I mean
Are You speaking of Sadie?" inter
/ rupted Miss Sargent beWildered by the
tide of words
You're right. I is" exclaimed the
woman. Sick is she? Likely to stay
sick awhile? Faintin' in offices ard ar
rested for stealing? Come this way and
you'll understand better than I can tell
il TO you"
When the door to an inner back room
across the narrow passageway Was
flung open, Sadle's secret vas revealed.
A general dinGiness and dizziness dis
tinguiShed the boX-lke apartment.
What furniture there was was shabby.
The stove looked as if about to topnle
over, and as if even the mildegt kind
Of polish would be surprise. The
cracked paneS Of the one window looked
out on a solid lead-colored wall not
three feet away. Whatever light there
was concentrated on the fantastic fig
ure by the window, an elderly lady in
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 organdie and rib
bon that was spread out on her lap.
You can look all you want; she won't
notice. whispered Mrs. Green. She's
way she don't know nothin'"
The woman was talking TO herself as
she twisted and patted the rosy fun
merry in her hands. 7 think it would
look better trimmed with pearl bead
ms" she was saying. as Mrs. Green ap-
preached her. Send her to the asylum?
Every minute that she's in her right
mind she's begging Sadie not to let
them take her, and making the girl
ice To CIV La,. &c
picious of every stranger she sees. If
she had seen you she would have COW
cred her face with her hand and skunk
off in the corner.
I'd love to take Sadie and do for her
now she's sick" added Mrs Green:
"but I've got six mouths of my own to
feed. and Mr. Green only earning 81 a
week. and that not steady. had
thought TO turn the old lady over to
the city long ago, but for Sadie's coax
ing ways. and her paying of the rent
so regular. and me so hard pushed. but |
1 tell you my hearts bled for her more
than once, and if she's to go to q good |
hospital and be tended on regular, it !
amt me goin' to lift my voice against !
it"
The next day three interesting things
happened. q shoplfter was detected at !
OsWald's and sewed into the lining of |
her kick we're the four 81 bills that |
Sadie was suspected of taking The |
woman owned no to having taken the !
money from the girls pocket when she |
was winding up the ribbon.
Poor, mad Mrs. Goodwin, grumbling |
and protesting, was carried, bag and |
baggage. pink tarletan scraps and all, /
anu Mrs Green tackled blurred and I
thumb-marlled To Let" card on her !
back room door.
In the meantime Sadie, ignorant that /
the event she had striven SO hard to I
avert, had actually taken place, lay |
with a burning fever on her
little white cot at the hospital Did she /
Yes. after weeks of Illness, |
during which time the manager of Os-
wald's took personal interest in her
welfare. When quite well she EVas ia
ken 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 fnery and takes them over to
the old granddame on the island.