Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-04-22
PART FOUR
CHAPTER U-COntinued.

Sabre said the letter WAS the
most frightfully pathetic document he
could ever have imagined. Smudged, he
said. and stained and badly expressed.
as If the writer-this Effie Bright-was
crying and incoherent with distress when
she wrote 1t. She said she'd got lit
tie baby. Sabre said It was awful TO
him the way she kept on In every SEN
tence calling 1t a little baby'-never a
child, or just q baby, but always a little
baby my little baby He said it was
awful. She said it was born In De-
cember-you remember, old man, 1t was
the previous March she'd got the sack
from them-and that she'd been living
in lodgings with it, and that now she
was we'll enough to move, and had come
to the absolute end of her money, she
was being turned out and was at her wits
end with despair and nearly out Of her
mind Il know what TO do and all that
kind OF thing. She said her father
wouldn't have anything to do with her,
and no one would have anything to do
with her-so long as she kept her little
baby. That was her plight; no one
would have anything to do with her while
she had the baby. Her father was will
ing to take her home, and some kind peo-
pie had offered to take her into service,
but only, all Ct them, II she would give
up the baby and put IL out TO nurse
somewhere; and she said, and underlined
ii about fourteen times, Sabre said, and
cried over 1t so you could hardly read 1t,
she said: And. oh, Mrs. Sabre, l can't
I can't, I simply cannot give up my
little baby. =. He's mine she said
He looks at me, and knows me. and
stretches out his tiny little hands to me,
ana n uf i'm lnr nv
little baby go. Whatever I've done. I'm
his mother and he's my little baby and
can't let him 60
Sabre said it was awful. can be
lieve it was. I'd seen the girl, and I'd
seen her STOPPING over her baby and
I can well believe ewtul was the word for
It. Poor soul.
and then she eaid--I can remem-
Der this bit-then she said, And so,
IN my terrible distress. dear Mrs. Sabre,
am throwing myself on your mercy,
and begging you. imploring you. for the
love of God to take In me and my little
baby and let me work for you and do
anything for you and bless you and ask
Gods blessing forever upon you and
teach my little baby to pray for you as
something or other. forget. And then
she said a lot OF hysterlcal things about
working her fingers to the bone for Mrs
Sabre. and knowing she was a wicked
girl and not fit to be spoken to by any
one, and was willing to sleep in a shed
in the garden and never to open her
mouth, and all that sort Of thing; and
all the way through my little baby my
little baby Also she said. and Sable
told me this Bit deliberately, also she
said that she didn't want to pretend she
was more s!nned against than shining,
but that If Mrs. Sabre knew the truth
she might Judge less harshly and be more
willing to help her. Yes, Sabre told me
that
All right Well, there was the appeal,
there was this piteous appeal as Sabre
said, and there was Sabre profoundly
touched by it, and there was his wife
bridling over it-one up against her hus-
band who'd always stuck up for the girl.
d'yOu see, and about two million up In
justification Of her own opinion Of her.
There they we're; and then Sabre said,
Well, what are you going to 90 about
itf'
You can imagine his wite's tone. DO
about It! Do about It, What on earth
do you think I'm going TO do about it,
"She was furious. Absolutely white and
speechless with fury; but not specifies
long, Sabre said. and 1 dare bet she
wasn't. Sabre said she worked herself
up in the most awful way and used Ian
guage about the girl that cut him Ike
a knife-language like speaking Of the
baby as that brat II made him vince
1t would-the sort OF chap he Is. A7d
b. said that the more she rallied. the more
frightfully he realized the girls posi-
tlon, up against that sort OF thing every
where she turned.
He described an that 10 me and then.
so TO speak, he stated his case. Wei,
what I say to you. Hapgood, is just
precisely what I said TO my wife. I felt
that the girl had a claim on US. In the
first place, she'd turned TO us in her alb
ject misery for help and that alone es-
tablisbed a claim, even If il had come
from an utter stranger. 1t established
claim because here was A human creature
absolutely down and out come to us
picking US out from everybody, for sue
cor. Damn it, you've got to respond.
You're picked out. Youl One human
creature by another human creature
Breath hing the same air Sharing the
same mortality. Responsible to the same
God. You've got to. You cant help
yourself
Well, Hapgood,' he went on, that's
one claim the girl had on us, but she
had another. personal claim. She'd been
----------------.