Rosas Quest | Page 2

on your way by this time. It goes to that lady
over on Lake Avenue, where I sent you once before."

"Oh, where I heard the beautiful music?"
"Yes, but don't you loiter on your way to listen to no music! Fine music
ain't for the likes of us here on Burton street. It's a shame fer me to have
to pay your carfare, but I 'spose you can't carry that big package so far.
If you'd spend a little more time a-workin', and a little less a-lookin'
after your ma, you'd have more strength, I won't have it said that I git
work done fer nothin', so I'll give you ten cents besides. You git a piece
of beefsteak with it, and I'll broil it fer your ma's supper. You couldn't
fix it fit to eat, nohow. I hope to goodness she won't cough all night and
keep me awake."
"Oh, thank you, Mis' Gray, you are so kind," delightedly exclaimed
Rosa, her wan little face lighting up with genuine pleasure at the
thought that mother was going to have something good for supper.
"Now do be gone, and don't talk no more. You're enough to set me
crazy, you and father."
"I'm off now, Mis' Gray. Goodby, grandpa dear," she affectionately
said, kissing the old man's withered cheek, for these two children of the
tenement, the one eight and the other eighty, were the best of friends.
"Rosa," called once again Mrs. Gray's shrill voice, as the child was
making her way across the dark hall, "come back here!"
"Yes'm, Mis' Gray, here I am."
"You're so awful careless, you see to it that you don't lose that money I
give you. If you do, you'll be sorry. You won't git the pay fer the work;
I wouldn't trust you with that, nohow. Now hurry up and don't waste
another minute! Wait! can't you give me a chance to tell you what I
want? You're so provokin'. Be sure to tell your ma where you're goin',
and that it'll take you about an hour and a half. I don't want her a-gettin'
scared and a-hollerin' 'round and a-sendin' some one after you, like she
did that day you didn't git home till dark. She acted ridiculous, as if she
thought you never would come back. I couldn't fer the life of me see
what made her do so; it was real silly, and I told her so at the time. I did

think, though, that you'd ought to be licked fer not hurryin' up more,
but she jest kissed you and cried all the more when I said so. Go and
tell her now, and be sure you don't drop that package in the dirt."
This time Rosa started on a run, lest she might be called back once
more. She feared the tyrant, but vainly endeavored to love her for
grandpa's sake. He so often told her that "Sary was a good woman, yes,
a very good woman."
"Mother dear," she said, upon entering their one poverty-stricken, but
scrupulously neat, little room, "I'm going to deliver a package over on
Lake Avenue for Mis' Gray, and will not be back for about an hour and
a half, she told me to tell you; and she gave me ten cents, too. Ain't that
nice? I'm going to get some beefsteak, and she'll broil it.
"But, mother, she said something about your going away, and didn't
know what would become of me. You won't move, will you, without
taking me along? I don't know what she could have meant. What did
she mean, anyhow? Why do you cry, mother dear?" tremulously
inquired the child, rushing impulsively up to the side of the bed.
"We'll talk when you come back, darling. Kiss me, my precious"; and
the sufferer fell back upon her pillow, coughing violently, and moaning
for very agony of spirit.
With a heart heavier than the huge package, Rosa sped down the steep
stairway, out into the bitter December weather.
"Oh," she said, half audibly, "how cold it is! I'm glad I haven't far to go
to take the car."
Quickly her nimble feet carried her, and in a few minutes she was
scrutinizing the faces of her fellow-passengers. Sitting across the aisle
from her was a young lady, who to Rosa seemed the embodiment of
beauty and elegance. While intently studying the fair face and neat
costume, this object of her admiration suddenly crossed the car and sat
down by her side. The sweet smile and cordial greeting made the child
forget her timidity, and soon the two were conversing most familiarly.

"And so you are going to deliver that package over on Lake Avenue,
are you?"
"Yes'm, and Mis' Gray gave me ten cents fer it, too. I'm going