The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1898-04-28
THE PHEEBLE CASE.


alley, and such of the inhabitants as had
energy crawled out to the fagstone pave
ment to enjoy the warmth.
Better look out goin up them steps.
There's water split all the way up and it's
froze over and dangerous in the dark.
said tenant who was coming out of one
of the houses to the district missions visit
ors about to enter.
'sWater split? Why, do they carry the
water up in buckets?'' asked the trained
nurse.
"Right about now they do. The pipes
all out of fix, and no sign of gettin it in
shape soon. Everybody goes to the ground
floor for water. Yes, it's a pretty tough
lug up to the top flat
The women acknowledged the warning
and then picked their way cautiously up
the narrow stairs to door at the top of
the tall tenement.
ssGood morning, Mr.. Pheeble. How are
the wife and baby?'' the nurse asks as the
door is opened by tall man wearing a
yellow overcoat and SLOUGH hat.
sPretty well, ma am. Come in to the
fire. says the master of the apartment,
and he Immediately steps out of it, cir
cumstance that is fortunate, there are
only two vacant seats and little room for
movement
"The baby is better2" is the nurses first
inquiry, CHANGING at the bundle of wrap
pings IN the mothers arms.
"Oh, yes, ma'am, good deal, = uncoy-
ering the infants face, proceeding at
which it wakes to protest, only to be
hushed at the breast.
"Well, how arc you getting on, Mrs.
Pheeble? Got any work, you or your hus
band?"
Mrs. Pheeble shakes her head. ssHe
III. Il
spondently. "He tramps round early and
late tryin to find job, but it seems as if
he's in poor streak of luck. l could get
a good place tomorrow, to do washin by
the day, but there amt nobody to leave the
baby with
"The creche-the day nursery" it is
suggested promptly.
"They won't take any baby as young as
NINE" says Mrs. Pheeble. 81 went to
two that IS near the place could get work
at, but there WASH t chance
'tHow old is the baby now?"
t'Six weeks. They say they can't take
children under 10 months. They are too
much trouble
The nurse was thoughtful for moment
s2fsuppose your boy here could not look
after the baby while you were out?' she
yentured.
"Oh, no, I couldn't trust him. Besides
,
that he can go I like to send him to school
He couldn't go today because he's got
such cold. "
The pasty faced boy standing back of the
stove moved uneasily in tho conscious way
of a child who finds himself the subject of
conversation.
''Has he got an overcoat?" was asked
"Yes, but he can It get into it. It's too
little for him."
eyes, but there's hole in the heel of
'em. I was thinkin to get 'em mended
some way"
care you certain you could get work,
Mrs. Pheeble?' asked the other visitor,
who had sat silent in the midst of these
dismal reckonings.
eyes, ma'am, I've got good reference
from the people worked with four years,
and could go back there tomorrow
"And your husband can't get work."
'sNo; he tries hard, but he can't get
none. He's in a streak of bad luck"
"Weil, then, why not get him to take
care of the baby while you go out to
work?''
The mothers face is a study. "He
wouldn't do it, ma'am. He don't like
babies much, and this one is uncommonly
cross long of havin the thrash. Mr..
Pheeble never was no hand at tendin
EOuHQ INC mousse ludtGofS.
The nurse engages to see if some ar
rangement cannot be made by which the
baby may be taken care of and the mother
left at liberty to work.
81 hope you ladies will excuse things"
says Mrs. Pheeble. cheering up bit and
CHANGING around her very disorderly apart
ment. ct amt had no heart to clean up
none yet today"
And very likely she had not. There was
that in the air of the stuffy apartment cal
culated to strangle impulse of any kind
except the almost irresistible desire to
fling some of the superfuous tides and
gimcracks out of the window or into the
stove, to wash the place, give the wailing
baby bath and some fresh clean wrap
pings, scrub the pasty faced boy likewise
and pin shawl round him and set him
out in the sunny alley where he might
breathe some pure air. But the thought
arose, how could the woman do this each
day with the only available water fathoms
below her flight of stairs and an irate
landlady urging her for rent and threaten
ing expulsion unless it was forthcoming.
"But she'll surely not turn you out in
such bitter weather as this" says the
nurse. "She shan't do it.i'
Baby's mother shakes her head, uncon-
WINGED. 81 couldn't wonder if she did, +"
she admits. "Accordin to the landlady' s
story, SnoNS got UnlS Dig mouse rented on
her hands, and if she amt able to pay her
landlord when he comes round he ain E
goin to ask reasons why her money ain t
ready. I owe her three months rent now,
count of hayin been sick so much off and
on and the baby comm just in the midst
of Mr.. Pheeble's bad streak of luck. Tt
seems like one gets moro and moro behind
hand instead of goin forward, and the
landlady's patience is most to the end.
The visitors say encouraging words and
promise that by the next day or the day
after succor shall come in one form or an
other.
''It is very cold day" remarks the Ii
brarian at the Broome Street Free library.
The mission visitors have stepped in to
get an address, and comments are ex-
changed for few minutes. CHANGING to
glance over the we'll filed, well warmed
room, where men in various attitudes are
reading the daily papers, whom should
they espy but Phoebe comfortably perus-
ing an illustrated sheet with an expression
that betokens entire satisfaction.
81 think he had better be devising ways
to keep his family from starving snaps
the trained nurse impatiently.
sDon't say that now,' interposes the
mission visitor. ''Maybe he comes in here
to look over the advertisements and see if
there is anything in his line of work"
But the nurse shrugs her shoulders
skeptically, and the two go on their way.
New York Sun.