or woman went in and took care of the young
mother and the little baby, because she was so sorry for them. By that
time they were away in the suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden
house, among a lot of big factories, and it kept growing colder, with
less to eat. Then the man grew desperate and he went just to find
something to eat and the woman was desperate, too. She got up, left the
old woman to take care of her baby, and went into the city to sing for
some money. The woman became so cold she put the baby in bed and went
home. Then a boiler blew up in a big factory beside the little house and
set it on fire. A piece of iron was pitched across and broke through
the roof. It came down smash, and cut just one little hand off the poor
baby. It screamed and screamed; and the fire kept coming closer and
closer.

"The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened.
She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or anything,
so she ran into the building. She could hear the baby screaming, and she
couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. There it was, all hurt
and bleeding. Then she was almost scared to death over thinking what its
mother would do to her for going away and leaving it, so she ran to a
Home for little friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the
door. Then she hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and
then she ran back to see if her own house was burning. The big factory
and the little house and a lot of others were all gone. The people there
told her that the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house to
find her baby. She had just gone in when her husband came, and he went
in after her, and the house fell over both of them."

Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she
talked rapidly to the ceiling.

"Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby. She was afraid
to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should have left
it, but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the beautiful woman,
when she was ill, had said her husband's people lived. She told all
about the little baby that she could remember: when it was born, how it
was named for the man's elder brother, that its hand had been cut off in
the fire, and where she had put it to be doctored and taken care of. She
told them that its mother and father were both burned, and she begged
and implored them to come after it.

"You'd think that w