Children of the TenementsRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
General
Children of the Tenements
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American; Tenement houses -- Fiction
The matron made them understand by signs that two of the nine white
beds in the nursery were for them, and they turned right in, humbly
and silently thankful. The little girl had carried up with her, hugged
very close under her arm, a doll that was a real ethnological study.
It was a faithful rendering of the Indian pappoose, whittled out of a
chunk of wood, with two staring glass beads for eyes, and strapped to
a board the way Indian babies are, under a coverlet of very gaudy
blue. It was a marvellous doll baby, and its nurse was mighty proud of
it. She didn't let it go when she went to bed. It slept with her, and
got up to play with her as soon as the first ray of daylight peeped in
over the tall roofs.
The morning brought visitors, who admired the doll, chirruped to the
little girl, and tried to talk with her grandmother, for that they
made her out to be. To most questions she simply answered by shaking
her head and holding out her credentials. There were two letters: one
to the conductor of the train from Montreal, asking him to see that
they got through all right; the other, a memorandum, for her own
benefit apparently, recounting the number of hearts, crosses, and
other treasures she had in her trunk. It was from those she had left
behind at the reservation.
"Little Angus," it ran, "sends what is over to sell for him. Sarah
sends the hearts. As soon as you can, will you try and sell some
hearts?" Then there was "love to mother," and lastly an account of
what the mason had said about the chimney of the cabin. They had sent
for him to fix it. It was very dangerous the way it was, ran the
message, and if mother would get the bricks, he would fix it right
away.
The old squaw looked on with an anxious expression while the note was
being read, as if she expected some sense to come out of it that would
find her folks; but none of that kind could be made out of it, so they
sat and waited until General Parker should come in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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