got a young niece that
I've tried to have with me. I wrote to her and says: 'Your auntie's
heart's just crying out for you!' And I told her I'd leave her all I've
got. But she said she didn't feel like she could come."

As soon as breakfast is over the mundane member of the household starts
off on a day's round of visits. When the screen door has shut upon her
slender silhouette, Mrs. Brown settles down for a chat. She takes out
the brush and comb, unbraids her silver locks and arranges them while
she talks.

"Miss Arnold's always on the go; she's awful nervous. These society
people aren't happy. Life's not all pleasure for them. You can be sure
they have their ups and downs like the rest of us."

"I guess that's likely," is my response.

"They don't tell the truth always, in the first place. They say there's
got to be deceit in society, and that these stylish people pretend all
sorts of things. Well, then, all I say is," and she pricks the comb into
the brush with emphasis, "all I say is, you better keep out of society."

She had twisted her gray braids into a coil at the back of her head, and
dish-washing is now the order of the day. As we splash and wipe, Mrs.
Brown looks at me rather closely. She is getting ready to speak. I can
feel this by a preliminary rattle of her teeth.

"You're a new girl here," she begins; "you ain't been long in Chicago. I
just thought I'd tell you about a girl who was workin' here in the
General Electric factory. She was sixteen--a real nice-lookin' girl from
the South. She left her mother and come up here alone. It wasn't long
before she got to foolin' round with one of the young men over to the
factory. They were both young; they didn't mean no harm; but one day she
come an' told me, cryin' like anythin', that she was in trouble, and her
young man had slipped off up to Michigan."

Here Mrs. Brown stopped to see if I was interested, and as I responded
with a heartfelt "Oh, my!" she went on:

"Well, you ought to have seen that girl's sufferin', her loneliness for
her mother. I'd come in her room sometimes at midnight--the very room
you have now--and find her on the floor, weepin' her heart out. I want
to tell you never to get discouraged. Just you listen to what happened.
The gentleman from the factory got a sheriff and they started up north
after the young man, determined to get him by force if they couldn't by
kindness. Well, they found him and they brought him back; he was will