Peace in Friendship Village

ith flags, both bought and borrowed, and some made up by us ladies, part g

he hall, and all pretty tired, so that we were liable to take except

che like the headache, and my he

her little society pucker. "Why, I feel just

it too hard," says Mis' Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss, havi

d myrrh and milk onto any troubled[Pg 21] situation, she brought

he aching sole of it, "Ladies, what under the sun

ys Mis' Holcomb-t

ndeed?"

that always has to sound differen

pe, but saving food is a kind of negative activity, and besides

t of the egg-money and such-that is, not the orphan but its ke

se' to wake up crazy to get through with my work an

s and Catholics and young folks and Elks met pro

out the thing we'd al

to our old enemies-both church and family enemie

do about it?" I

after her. "Why, ladies," she says, "there's some talking more military preparedness right off, I hear.

y, it does seem like women had ought to be getting ready too. Why not knit? And h

and maid, came rushing. And her face was pale and white. "Oh, Mis' Sykes," she

is Christian as because calm is grand lady, I alway

op, ma'am," crie

g

it, Berta?" she ask', s

m," says Berta. "Nor they

seems that she'd come around the house and see him setting there, still as a mouse. When he see her, he

see before in my life," said Berta, "and he don't kn

wandered away from its ma," says she, and goes out with the girl t

ip Village booth on one side and the Foreign booth on the other. Of course the Friendship

were rounding the corner by Mis' Syk

ild that[Pg 24] lives in Friendship Village,

ver I see. He was about four years old, and he had on a little dress that was all gold braid, and animals, and pictures, and bis

all says, "where

uatted down in front of him that was eating his c

him. He o

eyes, and she pressed

him too. He o

your pap

ry, and that was a language we could all understand. But when we ask' him, frantic, wh

Mis' Sykes. "H

g

what we'd never seen, he spoke what we cou

and Copper, the baggageman, had noticed a queer-looking kid on the platform when some folks got off Number 16 that had gone through

went," says Mis' Sykes. "Sure to. Well, then, they'

p to seven o'clock. Quite often the Evening Daily comes after we're all in bed, and we get up and read it to go to sleep by. We told the sheriff, and he come up that evening and clucked at th

m him. He might have droppe

g

s down on the Flats has lost him, it'll be us that'

hitched up and went down to the Flats and took the baby with us,

en down there often enough to see my wash-woman, or dicker for a load of wood, or buy new garden truck, or get somebody to houseclean, but I didn't know anybody down there to visit-and none of us ladies did. The Flats were like that. The Flats didn't seem ever to count real regular in real Friendship

We had the Sykeses' surrey and old white horse, and Mis' Toplady and Mame and me squoze on the back seat so's to

de rug business. She was a wonderful, motherly soul, and she poored the little boy with her big, thick hand and listened, with

ykes says as we drove away, "they neve

She was cutting the grass with a blunt pair of shears; and she had lots of flowers and vines and the nicest way of talking off th

Sykes, so quick after she'd clucked to he

orgot about that, and some folks named Swenson that lived in the toll-gate house and had a regular hennery of homeless cats. And though they give the lit

ember we were just coming out at Mis' Swenson's when she thought of it, and all the h

nopy don't we get some work out of some of thes

g of that," sa

dishes and not charge anythin

Mis' Sykes. "That's when the back

ays Mame, "and this way we could get

he adds, only about half soft enough,[Pg 29] "look at

e Swensons were, and there were mos

lady way, and she says, "Mis' Swenson, why don't you and your h

too much throat in length and not enough in

ated between the different countries. And, of course, this is your country, too," Mis' Sy

says Mis' Swenso

decided to stick to the u

Swenson, "if I can get Pe

e folks must feed their children! And how they must bungle 'em when they're sick. And they won't hardly any of

had heard of any foreigner whatever having just arrived in Friendship Village, nor had ever seen or heard of that little boy before. He

and he was hunting just as wild as any of us, being arrests was light. He was

ld in Friendship Village in twenty

child ain't lost. Here he is. It's th

and the men that were working on

is' Sykes. "Did you ever see

on," says Mis' Topl

g

put a button on the cella

shaved, that's all

the peace celebration to-morrow night," she says. "We've been gi

"But I like to watch them bunk car

lessness?" Mis' Sy

ld be if she didn't get home to get Timothy's di

r pa for this child. What in time are we going to do?

flowers the folks on the Flats had give h

eign booth looked kind of slimpsey. We hadn't got enough in it. We just had a few dishes that come from the old country, and a Swiss dress

on in come old Mis' Marchant, that had rode up on a grocery delivery wagon, she said. Close behind these come some more of them we had asked. And Mis' Sykes, acting lik

she looked for a while and then she says,

g strings, and we made out that s

"Post right straight home an

Norway," says Mis' Swenson

es. "Ladies, why do you s'pose w

g 33] wooden shoes, or an old box, or a kerchief. Old Mis' Marchant had come wearing a shoulder

trange boy was running around the floor, playing with papers, and w

"say" but gets it said unbeknownst when excite

, and most of them says they'd got their husbands to come too. So we held off the supper a little bit for them-a fifteen-cent supper it was, coffee and sandwiches and baked beans and doughnuts-and it was funny, when you think of it, for us to be waiting for them, for most of us had never spoken to any of these folks before. The

kind of wishing they hadn't come. But I liked to see them with our little lost red boy.

ready to pour out the coffee, I recollect, when the fire-bell rang. Us ladies didn't think much of that. Compared with

the door of the hall was shoved open, and there stood a m

he cried. "They'r

lve cars drawn up on a spur

rom the Flats, some of whom worked on the sewer too. I don't suppose it would ever have entered his head to come up to call[

e new moon was dropping down to bed. It didn't seem as if there ought

ld see the red glare on the round wall. When we got nearer,

roaty cries that we didn't understand, but some of the folks from the Flats were answering them. I think that

says somebody. "They might h

little boy. And the baby, kind of scared at all the noise and the difference,

"I can't find Berta. He's

that car had a little rag of lace curtain at its window, and a tin can with a flower in it. And when the blaze died for a minute, and the roof showed all burned, but not t

funny? Some man down there in a bunk

the Sykeses more to see if walking wouldn't keep the baby still. It wouldn't. That

, we came on Mis' Swenson a

"by four of the children sleeping on th

n our lounge," s

barn," says a Flats man. "Oh, we'll

llage catastrophe, her[Pg 37] and me had been among the planners. But here

plady all of a sudd

them, were a blue dress. And the woman, a little dark thing with earrings, stood the

Sykes, shuddering.

She had her head up and back as if she was listening to something else. And now she began moving through the crow

the wildness and the strength of that little dark

e could [Pg 38]understand without understanding. It was in her throat, it was in her tears, it was in her heart. She cried, she sunk down to the ground, kissing that baby. He put out his hands and went right to her, laughing in the midst of the crying-oh, I've heard a baby

the huge, rough hands that he laid about the baby's shoulders. And they both began talking to us, first one and then both, asking, looking,

f them began telling us what it was they said. It seemed so wonderful to see the folks that we had never paid attention t

-sure enough, there they were now, all flocking about her-and the oldest girl had somehow lost the baby. Poor souls, they had tried to ask. But he knew that he must dig and she must cook, and ther

understand or not. There was something about those two, with our little chap in the midst of them, tha

own anyhow, and somebody s

y to us. "Have 'em all go up to the Po

at we could do for the burned-out folks, an

all on, just as we'd left them, and there w

g

quarts of coffee hot on the back of the s

s. And we all

And now here were these others, from the bunk cars,-big, beautiful eyes they had, and patient looks, and little bobbing curtsies, and white teeth when they smiled. I saw them now, trying to eat and

by. He was needed, like Mis' Sykes told him he might be, bu

inally was what I hea

f the Foreign Booth, with her little boy in her lap. That'll b

s, [Pg 41]promiscuous, and set her ther

s Mis' Sykes, grieving. "Ladies, an

o, and just stood and looked at her, and smiled at her, and clucked at the little boy,

ften blazes up before the match is lit. "Why not call

of stopped winking and b

s'pose he's an enemy bab

we had made out, they might be anything. We go

old them. "Ast her what cou

we know already. They're Lith

e close. Was Lithuanians central power or was it ally? Us ladies ai

gets around for folks to wonder at-Why, my land," she says, "

around the Foreign Booth. And the Fri

une. I saw the side faces of the Flats folks and the bunk car folks, while they hummed away, broken, at that tune that they knew about. Oh, if you want to know what to do next with your life, go somewhere and look at a foreigner

hat the magic began to work in u

ttle boy, and the other folks, living in those bunk cars.

it?"

Toplady whispers pretty soon. "Can't some of us teach

ays Mame Holcomb. "I shouldn't wonder if the

ught of something else. "Ladies," I says, "and get sewerage down there on th

t taken it for granted the Flats shouldn't h

e like we'd have a very hard time knowing wha

to wake up, crazy to start in on something-it l

' Toplady, "when Baptist

that[Pg 44] she comes down off her high horse,

ing about beginning to knit for another war.

FOOTNOTE

Housekeeping, June, 19