The Angel nodded amiably, and slipped her hand in Joey's that she might
the better keep up. They had passed the region of small shops and were
passing through a better portion of the city. Before a tall stone house,
one of a long row, a girl stood singing, while a boy played an
accompaniment on a harp. As Joey and his charge reached them, a lady,
with a group of children clustered about her, threw some pennies out
the window to the young musicians.
"Did yer see that, Angel," demanded Joey, "did yer ketch onter that
little game? We c'n do that. I c'n whis'le an' you c'n sing, an' we'll
make 'nough to get Mis' Tomlin th' ice ourselves. If yer do," continued
the wily Joey, "I tell yer what,--we'll go home on the cable cars, we
will." And he hurried his small companion along the sunny sidewalks,
still following the line of the cable cars, until they came to a
business street again, this time of large and handsome stores. Here,
before the most imposing, Joey paused, and cast a calculating eye upon
the stream of shoppers passing in and out. "Now, Angel, sing," he
commanded.
The footsore, tired Angel, hot and cross, declined to do it. "Her wants
to sit down an' west," she declared.
"We'll sit down out there on ther curbstone an' rest soon as yer sing
some," promised the Major. So, taking up their stand on the flagging
outside the entrance of the big store, the bare-headed Angel, in her
worn gingham frock, highbred and beautiful as a little princess,
despite it, struck up with as much effect as a bird's twitter might
make. Finding that his whistle in no way corresponded to the song, Joey
wisely contented himself with holding out his soldier's cap.
Two such babies, one with so innocent, and the other with so comically
knowing a smile, could not but attract attention. Some laughed, some
sighed, some stopped to question, many dropped pennies and some put
nickels, and even a dime or two into Joey's cap, while one stout and
good-humored woman opened the paper bag she carried and put a sponge
cake in each hand. But at this point, seeing that the policeman in
charge of the crossing had more than once cast a questioning eye upon
them, Joey decided to move on. "We'll have ter hurry anyhow," he
observed, "ter get to ther speakin' in time. If you'll come on, Angel,
'thout restin', I'll tell yer what,--I'll buy yer a banana, I will,
first ones we see." And the weary Angel, thus beguiled, dragged her
tired feet along in Joey's wake.
* * * * *
The slanting rays from the setting sun were falling across Liberty
Square, on the statue of that great American who declared all men to be
created equal, on the sullen faces of hundreds of idle men who stood
beneath its shadow, listening to speech after speech from various
speakers, speeches of a nature best calculated to coax the smouldering
resentment in their hearts into a blaze.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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