Produced by Paul Hollander, Juliet Sutherland, Charles
Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
by
Author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess
Illustrations by
Jessie Willcox Smith
The playing today was even a lovelier, happier thing than it hadever been before . . . . Frontispiece
She often sat curving her small long fingers backward
They gazed as if they had known each other for ages of years
"Come and play with me"
She must go and stand at the door and press her cheek against thewood and wait—and listen
She began to mount the stairs which led to the upper floors
The ledge of the window was so low that a mere step took heroutside
"I'm going up to play with the little girl, mother . . . Youdon't mind, do you?"
In the fierce airless heat of the small square room the childJudith panted as she lay on her bed. Her father and mother sleptnear her, drowned in the heavy slumber of workers after theirday's labour. Some people in the next flat were quarrelling,irritated probably by the appalling heat and their miserablehelplessness against it. All the hot emanations of the sun-bakedcity streets seemed to combine with their clamour and unrest, andrise to the flat in which the child lay gazing at the darkness.It was situated but a few feet from the track of the ElevatedRailroad and existence seemed to pulsate to the rush and roar ofthe demon which swept past the windows every few minutes. No oneknew that Judith held the thing in horror, but it was a truththat she did. She was only seven years old, and at that age it isnot easy to explain one's self so that older people canunderstand.
She could only have said, "I hate it. It comes so fast. It isalways coming. It makes a sound as if thunder was quite close. Ican never get away from it." The children in the other flatsrather liked it. They hung out of the window perilously to watchit thunder past and to see the people who crowded it pressedclose together in the seats, standing in the aisles, hanging onto the straps. Sometimes in the evening there were people in itwho were going to the theatre, and the women and girls weredressed in light colours and wore hats covered with whitefeathers and flowers. At such times the children were delighted,and Judith used to hear the three in the next flat calling out toeach other, "That's MY lady! That's MY lady! That one's mine!"
Judith was not like the children in the other flats. She was afrail, curious creature, with silent ways and a soft voice andeyes. She liked to play by herself in a corner of the room and totalk to herself as she played. No one knew what she talked about,and in fact no one inquired. Her mother was always too busy. Whenshe was not making men's coats by the score at the whizzingsewing machine, she was hurriedly preparing a meal which wasalways in danger of being late. There was the breakfast, whichmight not be ready in time for her husband to reach his "shop"when the whistle blew; there was the supper, which might not bein time to be in waiting for him when he returned in the evening.The midday meal was a trifling matter, needing no specialpreparation. One ate anything one could find left from supper orbreakfast.
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