Читать книгу The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The West онлайн

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SHE IS FACING US NEAR AT HAND, HER HEAD FRAMED IN THE DARK UMBRELLA WHICH RESTS UPON HER SHOULDER.

I am struck dumb for the moment, but Clark is disturbed in no wise by the situation, and is answering her in perfect calmness that we have taken shelter there, and “won’t you go on,” he asks, “for you may attract to us the notice of a cop.”

“He’s not coming this way yet awhile,” she retorted; “I met him just now at the corner.”

They fall into easy, natural dialogue, and the girl soon learns that we are newly come to Chicago seeking work, and hungry and shelterless we are waiting for the right hour in which to go to the station-house.

“And why did you ever come to this God-condemned town?” she asks. “There’s thousands of boys like you here, and no jobs for none of you.”

There is quick resentment in Clark’s sharp rejoinder:

“And why in h— did you come?” But the girl’s good-nature is unruffled; you simply feel an instinctive tightening of her grip upon herself as her figure straightens slightly to the reply: