Little Joe could
stand the curiosity no longer. He craned his neck to see. Far down the
street soldiers were standing before a building. Everybody watched them
open-mouthed. In front of the building on a high platform two men stood
as if they were making speeches. But they did not move their arms, and
their heads looked very queer ... as if they had bags over them.
Then, unexpectedly, Mrs. Sime forced him back. She pulled the curtain on
the left side of the carriage. Little Joe heard a half-suppressed roar
go up from the throng. For an instant the carriage halted. He was
grievously disappointed not to witness the thing which held the public
eye. Then the carriage went on.
* * * * *
Later, another funeral wended its way through the streets. It was at
night and ill attended. A handsome woman followed it with streaming
eyes; a woman who lived by an evil trade, and the inmates of whose house
were given over to sin. Early that morning she had married a murderer.
Now she was a widow with a broken heart--she whom many stigmatized as
heartless.
For many years she was to visit and to weep over the grave of a little
dark man who had touched her affections; who might, under happier
conditions, have awakened her soul.
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