Christian fiction; Families -- Fiction; Love stories
She studied the names on the cars. "Glenside Road" one read. What had
she heard about that? Ah! that it was the longest ride one could take
for five cents within the limits of the city's roads! Her heart leaped
up at the word. It sounded restful anyway, and would give her time to
think. It wasn't likely, if it went near any glens, that there would
be any houses within her means on its way; but possibly it passed some
as it went through the city, and she could take notice of the streets
and numbers and get out on her return trip to investigate if there
proved to be anything promising; or, if it were too far away from home
for her to walk back from it, she could come another time in the
evening with George, some night when he did not have school. Anyhow,
the ride would rest her and give her a chance to think what she ought
to do, and one car was as good as another for that. Her resolve was
taken, and she stepped out and signalled it.
There were not many people in the car. It was not an hour when people
rode out to the suburbs. Two workmen with rolls of wall-paper slung in
burlap bags, a woman and a little girl, that was all.
Shirley settled back in her seat, and leaned her head against the
window-sash wearily. She felt so tired, body and soul, that she would
have been glad to sleep and forget for a little while, only that there
was need for her to be up and doing. Her room had been oppressively
warm the night before; and Doris, who slept with her, had rolled from
one side of the bed to the other, making sleep well-nigh impossible for
the elder sister. She felt bruised and bleeding in her very soul, and
longed for rest.
The car was passing through the thickest of the city's business
thoroughfare, and the noise and confusion whirled about her ears like
some fiendish monotonous music that set the time for the mad dance of
the world. One danced to it whether one would or not, and danced on to
one's death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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