Saturday's Child

n advertisement of some new breakfast food. They had intended to go to market immediately after lunch, but it was now three o'clock, and s

o had for some minutes been loosening her collar and belt preparatory to cha

uld see a bright angle of sunshine falling through the hall window upon the faded carpet of the rear entry, and could hear Mrs. Cortelyou's cherished canary, Bobby, bursting his throat in a cascade of song u

airs and into M

u---" sh

arm, for Susan was very white, and she was star

an answered. "Josep

ry Lou sai

y had to tell him--poor fellow! Ethel Frothingham's arm was broken, and Jo never moved--Phil has taken Mrs. Carroll on to-day--Billy just saw them

e most awful thing I ever heard!" Mary

er there, I guess. He said they only had a wire, but that one of the afternoon papers has a short account. My goodne

quiet, sad evening together. No details had reached them, the full force of the blow was not yet felt. When Anna had to go away the next day

tle sister. "She was the best of us all--an

ong," Susan

her coming the atmosphere of the whole house changed. Anna had come back again; the

id to Billy, going home after the funeral. "Yes," Billy answere

and cried together over the miracle of the cure. When Alfie and Freda came there was more hilarity. Freda very prettily presented her mother-in-law, whose birthday chanced to fall on the day, with a bureau scarf. Alfred, urged, Susan had no doubt, by his wife, gave his mother ten dollars, and asked her with a g

d chanced to see the farewells that took place between her oldest cousin and Mr. Ferd Eastman, when the

e's death!" Susan had accu

in her kind eyes. And, to Susan's amazement, her aunt, evidently informed of the event by Mary Lou,

ers left in the house on this day, and the group that gathered about the big turkey was like one large family. Billy carved, and Susan with two paper ca

g back an untasted piece of mince pie, turned to Susan

hink I mu

door, in the hall. A moment later Virginia said "Mama!" in so sharp

!" Susan, after a half-minute of nervous sile

ck something soft and inert that lay in the doorway. Susan gave a gr

om, chairs grated on the floor. Someone lighted the hall gas, and Susan f

id, but already with a premoni

ried her aunt in to the dining-room couch. Mrs. Lancaster's breath was

e go home!" Mary Lou b

ord, for she opened her eyes and

od, good man

rling?" Susan asked, in a voice

earnestly, watching her with

voices. "She fainted away!--Didn't you hear her fall?--I didn't hear

distressedly from one face to another, and as Virginia began to unfasten

k!" Susan whispered, with white lips

Susan fled to the kitchen. Mary Lou, seated by the table where the great roast stoo

pered Mary Lou, "I know it!

n. A moment later she knelt by her aunt's side. The sufferer gave a groan at the tou

out plates and clearing a space about the couch. Virginia, kneeling by her mother, repeate

faint odor of wine about him, from his own dinner. He helped Billy c

edly been a slight

bed Mary Lou, "wi

e doctor to Susan, after a dispassionate look at M

id Susan, very ef

se in mind?" a

swered, feeling as i

" said the doct

know what she's BEEN

ing!" Susan

s comfort, brewing coffee for Mary Lou, carrying a cup of hot soup to Virginia. Susan, slim, sympathetic, was always on hand,--with clean sheets on her arm or with hot water for the nurse or with a message for the doctor. She penciled a little list for Billy to carry to the d

where her cousins were grouped in mournful silence. But Billy's foot touched hers with a signifi

oked inexpressibly grim and cheerless, with its empty mantel and blank, marble-topped bureau. Georgie cried const

was death, indeed, and that the term of human existence is as brief as a dream. "We will all h

al and unconvincing. The figure in the bed, the purple face, the group of sobbing watchers. No word was

yes met Billy's in terror--but there was anot

le

her patient, straightened up, lowered

d protest of grief broke out. Susan neither cried nor spok

n she presently banished the oth

s alone. They'll want to be coming back here, and we must be ready for them. I wo

t?" aske

Do you know wher

esently did her own share bravely and steadily, brushing and coiling the gray-brown locks as she had often seen her aunt coil them. Lying in bed, a

e to resent this fussing little stranger and her ministrations. A curious lack of emotion in herself astonished her. She longed to

s good to me!"

ent of sheets firmly, "she has a grand face!" The room was bright and orderly now, Susan fl

d not see how these dreadful days would have been endurable at all without Susan. Susan could sit up all night, and yet be ready to brightly dispense hot coffee at seven o'clock, could send telegrams, could talk to the men from Simpson and Wright's, could go downtown with Billy to select plain black hats and simp

too absorbed to feel any grief. And presently it occurred to her that perhaps Auntie knew it, and understood. Perhaps the

lston. All the old southern families of the city were represented there; the Chamberlains and the Lloyds, the Duvals and Fairfaxes and Cart

anny went to they' first ball togethah," said one very old lady. "Lou was the belle of all us girls," contributed the same Fanny, now stout and six

r sister,"--her own relationship puzzled some of Mrs. Lancaster's old friends. But they

Some large woman, wiping the tears from her

se's girl--Major Calhoun was one o

her with a whispered "Knew your mother

some came in widow's black, and some with shabby gloves and worn shoes, and some rustled up from c

to feel sure that you would at least not be an object of pity for the last twenty!" said S

leep on a couch, Susan and Billy were in deep chairs. The room was very cold, and the girl had a big wrapper o

t out booze and theaters and graphophones now,--don't care what your neighbors think of you now, but mind your own affairs, stick to your business, let everything

ment, and no training, and here she is, dying at sixty-three, leaving Jinny and Mary Lou practically helpless, and nothing but a lot of debts! For twenty years she's just been drifting and drifting,--it's only a chance that Alfie pulled out of it, and that Georgie really did pretty well. Now, with Mrs. Carroll som

ional, though

ced that they never had to fuss with the building of a fire in the kitchen stove. When a meal was over, Mrs. Carroll opened the dampers, scattered a little wet coal on the top, and forgot about it until the next meal, or even overnight. She could start it up in two seconds, with no dirt or fuss, whenever she wa

familiar picture. "Mary Lou always

"sometimes I don't believe tha

't--why, Lord, of

widened childishly, "don

nough perspective of things, Sue," he said, "everybody has the same chance. You to-day, and I to-morrow, and somebody else the day after that! Now,

ed, nodded

ised for the past six or seven years, and Anna pushed into a job, and Jim and Betsy

san firmly, "we'll do very

, you mean

I. I think we'll keep

y sc

u do. There's no money in it. The house is

of plans," said Susan vivaciously. "I'm going to market myself, every morning. I'm go

ou all you w

n assured him. "I'm going to buy china and linen, and raise our rates. For

time that Susan--even with Bill

you down to an enterprise lik

ile. "I've made a pretty general failure of my own happiness, Bill. I've

ng like a damn fo

ing, you know! Well. So I'm really going to work, right here and now. Mrs. Carroll says that service is the secret of happiness, I'm going to try it. L

" said Billy, "but don't talk rot abo

e empty grate. Long thoughts went through her mind, a hazy drift of plans and resolutions, a hazy wonder as to what Stephen Bocqueraz was doing to-night--what Kenneth Saunders was doing. Per

ok at the clock. Just two. Susan went into the front

the smell of wet leaves, heavy on the air. One window was raised an inch or two, a little current of air stirr

firmly closed mouth. Susan's eyes moved from the face to the locked ivory fingers, lying so lightly,--yet with how terrible a weight!--upon spotless white satin and lace. Virginia had put the ivory-bound praye

rywhere. And auntie had gone

her own grief!" everyone said. She thought of Virginia's passionate and dramatic protest, "Ma carried this book when she was married, she shall have it now!" and of Mary Lou's wail, "Oh

? Isn't anything r

, drooping about the desolate house, looked shockingly pinched and thin. There was a family council in a day or

his talk; Billy had been staying there, and Mr. Ferd Eastman, in answer

had ascertained what none of the sisters knew, the exact figures of the mortgage, the value of the contents of Mrs. Lancaster's locked tin box, the size and number of various outstanding bills. He spread a great number of papers out before him on a

eels that you might make a good thing of i

, who was stammering and blushing in a most peculiar way. Mr. Ea

e gasped. But this was the momen

id buoyantly. "This young lady and I

tears, and Georgie turning faint, Mary Lou very sensibly set about restorin

d Georgie, faintly, turning reproach

st gone!" Virginia bu

"didn't want to wait, and I WOULDN'T,--so soon after poor Grace!" Grace had been the fi

!" said Virginia, i

elf, soothingly, his arm about his wife, "and Mary Lou's

n the first crying and exclaiming were over, there was a very practical satisfaction in the thought of Mary Lou as a prosperous

it, and kept them all talking and friendly. Georgie, perhaps a little dashed by Mary Lou's recently acquired state, told Susan in a significant aside, as a doctor's wife, that it was very improbable that Mary Lou, at her age, would have childr

o leave the next day for a belated honeymoon; to Susan and Virginia

asked Billy, as they were w

and Settlement House, a few weeks ago, about working there. She told me frankly that they have all they need of untrained help. But she said, 'Miss Brown, if you COULD take a year's course in New York, you'd be a treasure!' And so I'm going

u want?" he asked, af

e hun

d! The fare i

rough the course, Bill, even if I have to g

le. But before they parted

e hundred, if you like. Borrow it from me, you kn

unlight falling in clear sharp lines across the dusty, un-carpeted floors. A hundred old scars and stains showed on the denuded walls; there were fresher squares on the dark, faded old papers, where the pictures had been hung; Susan recognized the outline of

ndreds of dollars. It was to be torn down at once, and Susan felt a curious stirri

Billy, "the block and the bakery! I c

had come down the street steps, and tur

gave me a little cologne bottle filled with water, and one of

se canary we hit with a ball? And the second-

e steps with chalk and Aunti

were both smiling a

Nevada City with

ay with Georgie for a week, an

off and have dinner s

rgie's. But I'm going over to see the Carroll

t!" said B

san echoed,

Mrs. Carroll's been awfully que

she was so

ne into a sort of melancholia, no

nd a bit like her," S

anyway, it'll do them all good. Well-

grimy winter light, and at the dirt and papers and chaff drifting up against the railings, and at the b