"An' it's jus' that smart she is, all the time," declared Mary Carew
proudly, "an' 'taint like she's showin' off, either, is it, Norma?"
When at last the trying on was over, and the Tony generosity was
sufficiently enlarged upon, the ladies, as is the way with the best of
the sex, fell into a mild gossip before separating. And while racy bits
of Tenement shortcomings were being handed around, the small object of
this gathering, too young, alas, to know the joys denied her because of
her limited abilities to understand the nature of the conversation,
slipped down from Mrs. O'Malligan's lap, and eluding Mary's absent
hold, proceeded to journey about the room, until reaching the open
door, she took her way, unobserved, out of the O'Malligan first floor
front and leaving its glories of red plush furniture and lace curtains
behind her, forthwith made her way out the hall door into the street.
The hot, garbage-strewn pavements and sunbaked gutters swarmed with the
sons and daughters of the Tenement. Directly opposite its five-storied
front was the rear entrance to the Fourth Regiment Armory. And there, at
that moment, a sad-eyed, swarthy Italian,--swinging his hand-organ down
on the asphalt pavement in front of the Armory's open doors, was
beginning to grind out his melodies. And with the first note, children
came running, from doorstep and curb, from sidewalk and gutter, while,
at the same moment, in the open door of the Armory appeared a small,
chubby-cheeked boy, who had upon his head a soldier cap so much too
large for him as to cover the tips of his ears entirely, and who,
moreover, wore, buckled about his waist, a belt gay as to trimmings and
glittering with silver finishings. If the Fourth Regiment boasted a
Company of Lilliputian Guards here surely was a member.
The Angel, in the Tenement door, was enchanted. How different a world
from that upstairs room under the roof! She kept step to the music and
nodded her head to the fascinating little boy in the Armory door. And
the sharp eyes of that young gentleman had no sooner espied the nodding
little creature in the doorway opposite, than heels together, head
erect, up went a quick hand to the military cap. The Angel was being
saluted, and while her ignorance of the fact prevented her appreciating
that honor, the friendliness of the little boy was alluring. Down the
steps she came, her little feet tripping to the measure of the music,
her skirts outheld, and flitting across the pavement and over the curb,
she made for the group of children in the street. Cobblestones, however,
being strange to the baby feet, up those dancing members tripped and
down the Angel fell, just as a wagon came dashing around the corner of
the streets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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