Our Square and the People in It

heard such sounds of revelry by night as the Bonnie Lassie's surprise party, given for her by her friends of

from Schwartz's, from Lavansky's Pinochle Parlors, from the late shift of the "Socialist Weekly Battlecry," and even from the Semi-Annual Soirée and Ball of the S

able door an unexpected guest, a woman of sixty with a strong, bent figure, and a square face lighted by gleaming eyes with fixed lines abo

ance," he announced, "I have the honor of presenting, ladies and

rner the Bonnie Lassie spied her, and flew across the floor, flushed, radiant, and confused. "You!" she cried-and there was

rson called me? Mrs. Sparkles? Yes." The Bonnie Lassie nodded her comprehension. "

them. Confronted with the little sculptor's work, the visitor moved about with a swift certainty of judgment, praising this bit with a brief word, shrug

tic. "You have learned much

answered the gi

th were huddled a number of studies, some

e subject, n

es

m carefully. "Very inter

otes in

e see

rew out and submitt

e verdict, after concentrated study. "Or els

on anything

at is the subject? Inside, I mean?" She tapped her forehead and

ing him as 'The Pioneer.' 'Something lost beyond the ranges,' you know." The woman n

hed one of the unfinished bits. "That's the American of it. Or is it? Albrecht Dürer did the same thing in his idea

owing eyes. "That's the haunting resemblance I f

in most

ave been there, unde

r those pretty f

o remodel." Before she had finished, the elderly woman's swift hands were busy with the figures, manipulating them here and there, until they were presently

thed the girl. "Ho

nows-the God that helps all real work. Look! See how the lines of grossness there"-she touched the first figure in her marshaled line -"have planed out here." The swift finger found a later study. "How could you

I'm not a

master-genius, Life, has been carving that f

e what

nths. Come back and take t

late," said the gi

ic, startled. "Your mo

had something

to finish this." She paused. "I have seen a

ed figure, clad in the unmistakable garb of honest labor, appeared, blinking a little at the lights. Instantly the Undertaker, in his r?le of o

us the Gaunt promptly obliged, in a clear and robust

t she was interested in the face of her hostess, which had flushe

our model,

es

he in r

ou se

hat is he d

half a day,

nough. B

tripped over to her newest guest, leaving

demands upo

er in the brief hour remaining to hi

"I came to your party an

was a surprise," she e

t me on an

till l

more than being a mode

ticking to it?

sticking to

matter wha

to happen?" h

"But it's the job for the job

's what you mean. The feel of b

tent in her eyes. B

nother partner claimed her, while he was drag

he had made his way through his protesting fellow-revelers, he reached up for his coat, and felt something lightly brush the top of his head.

a total stranger. The stranger had gray hair and a tired face lighted by crinkly e

" Cyrus remained mute. "Who did you hope it was?" Silence seemed still the best policy.

s the Gaunt politely, and kissed

ghed. "The entente cordiale having been establ

d gaped. "Do

hen you were a boy, painting your father. Permit me to introduce myself." And she gave a

ejaculated. "I-I'm

ed, "even though I am old and stately. But how

ehind them moved. "Somebody's coming." The hanging swung aside and the Bo

turned a disconcerting gaze upon her hostess. "Where did you get him?" sh

as going on which he didn't grasp. "I'm used to it." He turned

Now I begin to suspect you are a fraud. Well, I have something

e observed, as Cyrus moodily accep

sn't kn

even more than I

the girl dispiritedly. "He

told me yet whe

im to my close-barred

have blown about Cyrus S

ho

en; don't y

up from the benc

ilis descensus of an idle waster from the world of white

ok like an

n lies a miracle. Wh

e." The face of the girl melted i

ch. But not all. What

She nodded backwar

have you been doing to that

for a moment before answering. "I've been playing my c

aying

Lassie's he

ying for

N

, I thought that tall and massive youth was going to faint away like a school-miss i

such an advantage," flashe

pays, or the other pays, that is well. It is the chance of the play

a previous debt." And she turned aside a face so woe

e work, at whatever cost to the woman. You will fi

ose so. I

lted her auto the better to laugh. As the lumbering, clamoring monster drew opposite, she signale

hailed, "I have a

hopefully. "From myself.

on, "the carefulest captain that

on, "or she'll make a man of you yet. The process is some

but none other identified or noticed him. The latest departures were two heavily

it?" the engineer overheard them say

s Cartwright fixed things up, and the engagem

om's all right, but he's old enough to be her fa

wish sort of thing. All right, I suppose, so long as there's no on

ther he was off his feed, and the startled face of old man Sittser, who paused to pass the time of night on his way home from the late shift on the linotype and was incontinently cursed for his pains. Full consciousness of the practical world was brought back to Cyrus by the purring

ixty-horsepower motor-car

ay's envelope for what he and the roller did to the barriers and lanterns. By the time he had swung