We Can't Have Everything

p to Kedzie's idea or ideal of what swells should be, and she had not even grown up enough to study the society news that makes such thrilling reading to those who thrill to that sor

. They had, in consequence, a little reserve of funds, which they took pride in keeping up. The three Thropps came now to New York

the right of way with a locomotive's cow-catcher, the granger naturally put in a claim for the destruction of a prize-winning animal with a record as an amazing milker; also he added something for damage to the feelings of the family in the loss of a hou

rom the office, and every demand of his wife or children for money was again a test of ability in claim-agency tactics. He fought so earnestly for every c

chooled the girls to help her in the kitchen and at the sewing-machine and with the preserve-jars. Her day's work ended when she could no longer see her darning-needle. I

lasting chores, rebukes, sayings wiser than tender, complaints and bitter criticisms of husband, chil

their evenings at pool-tables or on corners. The elder girls had accepted positions in the various emporia of the village as soon as they could. They counted the long hours of the shop life as an escape from worse. Their free evenings were not devo

tives-was just growing up into a similar career. Her highest prayer was that her path might lead her

ever traveled far. To undertake New York was hardly les

announced it at the table, and tried to be careless, his hand trembled till the sauc

is home town. When one of the members died, the others attended his funeral in full regalia, consisting of each individual's Sunday clothes, enhanced with a fringed sash and lappets

ble silk hat and his gilded glave. Sometimes as she took her hands out of the dough and dried them on her apron to fasten his sash about him, she fe

r Sol to do the same. Sol had died recently and left his insurance money to Mrs. Thropp. Sol's own wife, after cherishing long-deferred hopes of spending th

be a tremendous investigation of the insurance scandal. Adna was elected the

wife of his not only had to go and yell at him about a little coffee-stain, but she had to announce

e wouldn't no more allow him loose in that wicked place than she would-well, she didn't know what! He could get a pass for self

ith a menacing sweetness: "Goody, goody! Besides seeing New York, I

hush her mouth. It was a very pretty mouth even

to leave me home, you got another t

ss, a fiendish determination to subd

a bump on a log. And now you're goin' to New York. I'd sooner go there than to heaven. It's my first chance to see a ci

r sneered. What, after a

away and you'll never see me again. If you're mean enough to no

heer terror. Immediately she became almost intolerably rapturous. She shrieked and jumped; and she kissed and hugged every member of the household, including the dogs an

to her gorgeous eyes. Now and then she slept curled up kittenwise on a seat, and the motion of t

hed Chicago in a state of collapse. She told Adna that she would have to travel the rest of the way in a sleeper or in

bouncing across the town in a bus. That transit colored Kedzie's soul lik

ed. She tried to flirt with the tall buildings. She was afraid to leave Chicago lest she never ge

and father with her adoration. In all sincerity, Kedzie mechanically worshiped peo

t day by eating their meals out of a filing-cabinet of shoe-boxes compiled by Mrs. Thropp. But it was

and into her clothes was a fascinating exercise in contortion. She was entranced by the wash-room with its hot and cold water and its basin of app

nt and half the next day. She pressed her nose against the window and ached with

, but she thrilled at the beauty of big, dark railroad stations

eight when it roared across the Harlem River. Kedzie was glad of the

stairs. She caught glimpses of kitchens on the fourth floor and she thought

r most of the inhabitants were either in the streets or leaning out of the windows looking down. Here it was ten o'

lness just as they reached wonderful market streets with fla

at first with its long, dark noise and the flip-flops of light. Then a bri