Free trader-journal and Ottawa fair dealer. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1920-1927, 1922-04-15
Continued From Our Last Issue

It COulU ever nave UndflHth' olluht'
ed. he said, and stained and badly
eXprcos,d as II TIE writcr-th Ellie
Bright was cryinG aAd incoherent
with di9treas when fh" wrote It, She
said she'd rot into terrible trouble.
She'd got a little baby sabre said l.
was awful to h IN the way she kept on
in every gcntcncn calling it "A little
baby neyer q c1ild, or just baby
but always "A little baby my little
baby He said it was awful She
said it was born In December You re-.
member, old man, ii was the previ-
Gus March she'd got the sack from
them and that she'd been living in
lodgings with it, and that now she
was well enough to move, and had
come to the absolute end OF he: money
she was being turned ont and was
a. her wits end with despair and
nearly out of her mind to know what
10 do and all that Kind Of thing. She
said her father wouldn't have any
thing to do with her, and no one
would have anything to do with her
80 long as she kept her little baby.
That was her plight: no one would
have anything to do with Icr while
she had the baby Her father was
willing TO take her home, and some
Kind people had offered 70 take her
INTO service but only, all Of them, if
she would give up the baby and put
il out to nurse somewhere: and she
said, and Underlined it about fourteen
times, Sabre said, and cried over it so
VuU could hardly read II, she said;
And, oh, Mrs Sabre, ! can't can't,
| 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, aud can't give him up can't
let my little baby go Whatever I've
done, I'm his mother and he's my lit
tie baby and cant let him go.
Sabre said ii was awful can be.
lieye it was. I'd seen the girl and I'd
seen her STOPPING over her baby and
can we'll believe awful was the word
for it. Poor soul
and then she said can remem-
her this bit-then she said, And so,
in NY terrible distress. dear Mrs.
Sabre. am throwing myself on your
mercy. and begging YOU. implorinc
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 hysterical 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 anyone, 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 Sabre told me this bit
deliberately, also she said tnat she
hdn't want to pretend she WAS more
sinned against then 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 APP
peal. there. was this piteous appeal.
as Sabre said. and there was Sabre
profoundly touched by it, and there
was his wife bridling over it--1no
UP against her husband 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
were; and then Sabre said, Well |
what are you going to do about it?'
E"YOu can imagine his wife 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 !
speechless long Sabre said, and | dare !
bet she wasn't. Sabre said she work |
ed herself up in the most awful way
and used language about the girl that |
cut him like a knife-language like |
speaking of the baby as that brat /
It. made him vince. II wOuld-the |
sort of chap he is, And he said that .
the more she rallied, the more fright .
fully he realized the girls position, /
up against that sort of thing every
where she turned.
He described all that to me and .
then, so to speak he stated his case
We'll, what say to you, HapgOod, is !
just precisely wlat | said to my Wife,
felt that the girl had claim on
US. in the first place, she'd turned |
to us in her abject misery for help
and that alone established a claim,
even if it had come from an utter
stranger 1t established a claim be-
cause here was human creature
absolutely down and out come us,
picking us out from everybody, for
suecor. Damn it, you've got to re-
spond, You're picked out. You, One
human creature by another human
creature. Breathing the same air.
Sharing the same mortality. Respon-
sible to the same God. You've got tot
You cant help yourself.
- Well. Hapgood, he went on. that's
enc claim the girl had on us, but she
had anOtheFSs a personal claim. Sne'd
been in Oun house. in our service: she
was our friend; sat with us; eaten
with us; talked with us: shared with
us; and now, now, turned to us. Good
God, man, was that to be refused?
Was that to be denied?'
at seems that, if you please, the
very next day the girl herself fol-
lows up her letter by walking into
the house. In she walked, baby and /