irs.

CHAPTER XXIX

"The Whited Sepulcher," as some of the bitterest of her poorly paid
slaves called the model factory, stood coolly, insolently, among her
dirty, red-brick, grime-stained neighbors; like some dainty lady
appareled in sheer muslins and jewels appearing on the threshold of the
hot kitchen where her servitors were sweating and toiling to prepare her
a feast.

The luxuriant vines were green and abundant, creeping coolly about the
white walls, befringing the windows charmingly, laying delicate clinging
fingers even up to the very eaves, and straying out over the roof. No
matter how parched the ground in the little parks of the district, no
matter how yellow the leaves on the few stunted trees near by, no matter
how low the city's supply of water, nor how many public fountains had to
be temporarily shut off, that vine was always well watered. Its root lay
deep in soft, moist earth well fertilized and cared for; its leaves were
washed anew each evening with refreshing spray from the hose that played
over it. "Seems like I'd just like to lie down there and sleep with my
face clost up to it, all wet and cool-like, all night!" sighed one poor
little bony victim of a girl, scarcely more than a child, as the throng
pressed out the wide door at six o'clock and caught the moist fragrance
of the damp earth and growing vine.

"You look all in, Susie!" said her neighbor, pausing in her interminable
gum-chewing to eye her friend keenly. "Say, you better go with me to
the movies to-night! I know a nice cool one fer a nickel!"

"Can't!" sighed Susie. "'Ain't got ther nickel, and, besides, I gotta
stay with gran'mom while ma goes up with some vests she's been makin'.
Oh, I'm all right! I jus' was thinkin' about the vine; it looks so cool
and purty. Say, Katie, it's somepin' to b'long to a vine like that, even
if we do have it rotten sometimes! Don't you always feel kinda
proud-like when you come in the door, 'most as if it was a palace? I
like to pertend it's all a great b

The Witness

Notka biograficzna

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