Show l I The Gleaner By HERBERT KAUFMAN o'clock the o'clock-the the empty owl car rumbles the by the by-the the last taxi T THREE I lurches north with its maudlin freight the freight the watchman rounds the block and settles himself comfortably in the drug store doorway the doorway the younger women have straggled home now home now the Gleaner comes forth In all the city there is no quest for bread so cruel cruel no no work so mean and pitiless In this unlighted hour there may maybe be one who will not see how hard the vengeful years have ridden her frail form Once she t too o h had a chance She could have been beep a a. louse house 1 maid a shop girl ev even n a wife But she was too proud to enter service and vanity lied to her and spun a web of delusions about h her r vapid little tittle mind She wanted pretty things that poor men couldn't afford She wouldn't wait She took the easiest way and thought it was the shortest cut There Ther was no money in her purse so she made or one e out of her soul and now that too is empty except empty except for the scars scar with which it is filled fitted and the bruises which V ich crowd it She went to live among the red red roses but but when she gathered them into her arms they were bundles of thorns and filled her blood with poisons Then she understood what her he mothers mother's mothers knew when proud young Rome first sat down on the hills Sh She wo would ld not riot listen and now the bog has smeared her and the night has taken her for a scullion They never do heed her heed her sort And when they learn they ha have ve no voices to carry back a warning message to the little tittle sisters sister who dare anew the painted mires There she walks walks alone alone in the black rams the rains the heaviest heavies burden-bearer burden of all the alt the sob that was a woman woman the the last chapter in the oldest story story the the Gleaner in the Shadows Copyright 1916 by Herbert Kaufman Great Britain and all other rights reserved |