was henceforth submerged in the darkness of oblivion.




CHAPTER VII

NEIGHBORLY ADVICE


"It's a poor business looking at the sun with a cloudy face."

The long, hot summer days that followed were full of trials for Lovey
Mary. Day after day the great unwinking sun glared savagely down upon
the Cabbage Patch, upon the stagnant pond, upon the gleaming rails,
upon the puffing trains that pounded by hour after hour. Each morning
found Lovey Mary trudging away to the factory, where she stood all day
counting and sorting and packing tiles. At night she climbed wearily
to her little room under the roof, and tried to sleep with a wet cloth
over her face to keep her from smelling the stifling car smoke.

But it was not the heat and discomfort alone that made her cheeks thin
and her eyes sad and listless: it was the burden on her conscience,
which seemed to be growing heavier all the time. One morning Mrs.
Wiggs took her to task for her gloomy countenance. They met at the
pump, and, while the former's bucket was being filled, Lovey Mary
leaned against a lamp-post and waited in a dejected attitude.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Mrs. Wiggs. "What you lookin' so
wilted about?"