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Maggie, Girl of the Steets by Stephen Crane
Book, page 71 / 73


A soiled, unshaven man pushed open the door and entered.

"Well," said he, "Mag's dead."

"What?" said the woman, her mouth filled with bread.

"Mag's dead," repeated the man.

"Deh hell she is," said the woman. She continued her meal.
When she finished her coffee she began to weep.

"I kin remember when her two feet was no bigger dan yer t'umb,
and she weared worsted boots," moaned she.

"Well, whata dat?" said the man.

"I kin remember when she weared worsted boots," she cried.

The neighbors began to gather in the hall, staring in at the
weeping woman as if watching the contortions of a dying dog. A
dozen women entered and lamented with her. Under their busy hands
the rooms took on that appalling appearance of neatness and order
with which death is greeted.

Suddenly the door opened and a woman in a black gown rushed in
with outstretched arms. "Ah, poor Mary," she cried, and tenderly
embraced the moaning one.

"Ah, what ter'ble affliction is dis," continued she. Her vocabulary
was derived from mission churches. "Me poor Mary, how I feel fer yehs!
Ah, what a ter'ble affliction is a disobed'ent chil'."

Her good, motherly face was wet with tears. She trembled in
eagerness to express her sympathy. The mourner sat with bowed head,
rocking her body heavily to and fro, and crying out in a high,
strained voice that sounded like a dirge on some forlorn pipe.

"I kin remember when she weared worsted boots an' her two
feets was no bigger dan yer t'umb an' she weared worsted boots,
Miss Smith," she cried, raising her streaming eyes.

 
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