Immigrant children -- Fiction; Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction; Teachers -- Fiction
That had been upon the question of lunch. Teacher had noticed that Becky
frequently remained at school during the luncheon hour, but that she
never ate anything. Other little girls sometimes urged refreshment upon
her in vain. Miss Bailey, wise by this time in the laws of kosher and of
traff, the clean and the unclean, according to Mosaic dietary laws,
suggested a glass of milk at a neighboring dairy, or a roll from the
delicatessen shop across the street. Any one of her charges would starve
cheerfully to death or at the hospital ward before they would touch any
of her food. She was a Christian, and though they loved her, learned
from her, and honored her, they, like Shylock of old, would not eat with
her. And Becky Zabrowsky, adding pride unto faith, and manners unto
both, would smile her heart-breaking smile, shake her bandage-bowed
head, and go on starving.
"Teacher, I tells you s'cuse, I don't needs I shall eat," was her always
courteous answer. And not all Miss Bailey's tact or wiles could prevail
against it.
It was at about this time that Miss Bailey in her unofficial capacity
accepted an invitation to a costume dance. Looking through old trunks
and long-neglected shelves, she came upon a little tight-fitting
shoulder cape of prehistoric date and fashion. It was such a cape as you
can find in some of Du Maurier's drawings. It pinned the wearer's arms
to her side, it gagged her tightly around the throat, it was of velvet,
and its color was royal blue.
Constance Bailey, peering back into the dim vista of the years, could
remember the pride and happiness which she had felt when her
over-indulgent grandmother had given her, then a child of about twelve,
this gorgeous garment. She could remember how it had dwarfed and faded
the rest of her wardrobe, how she had wept to wear it upon all possible
and impossible occasions, and how tragic had been the moment when it
refused to meet across her loving breast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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