Chicago (Ill.) -- History -- To 1875 -- Fiction; Fires -- Fiction; Great Fire, Chicago, Ill., 1871 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
Bread and other provisions were constantly arriving, but not fast
enough to meet the needs of famishing thousands. Though not feeling
very strong she offered her services, and was soon busily engaged. All
present were strangers to her, but, when they learned from the inquiries
for her father that she was Miss Ludolph, she was treated with deference
and sympathy. But she assumed nothing, and as her strength permitted,
during the day, she was ready for any task, even the humblest. She
handed food around among the hungry, eager applicants, with such a
sweet and pitying face that she heard many a murmured blessing. Her
efforts were all the more appreciated as all saw that she too had
passed through the fire and had suffered deeply. At last a kind,
motherly lady said: "My dear, you look ready to drop. Here, take this,"
and she poured out a glass of wine and gave her a sandwich; "now, go
and find some quiet nook and rest. It's your duty."
"I have a friend who has suffered almost everything in saving me. He
is asleep now, but he has had scarcely anything to eat for nearly three
days, and I know he will be very hungry when he wakes."
"Nothing to eat for three days! Why, you must take him a whole loaf,
and this, and this," cried the good lady, about to provision Dennis
for a month.
"Oh, no," said Christine, with a smile, "so much would not be good for
him. If you will give me three or four sandwiches, and let me come for
some coffee when he wakes, it will be sufficient;" and she carried
what now seemed treasures to where Dennis was sleeping, and sat down
with a happy look in her face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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