Vereshchagin, a Russian, discovered that the puppies of the blue
room were a great help to her in holding the attention of her boys of
three and five when she was putting them to bed.
Mrs. Schuler shook her head doubtfully when she took down their names
and nationalities in her notebook on the day of their arrival.
"If we get through the summer without quarrels over the war it will be
a miracle!" she exclaimed to her husband.
But she found that the poor creatures were too weary, too sad, too
physically crushed to have spirit enough left to fight any battles,
even those of words. With almost every one of them there had been a
tragedy such as often comes to the immigrants who reach the United
States equipped for success only with strong muscles--a tragedy of
wasted hope and broken courage and failing vigor if not of death. Mrs.
Paterno was the only one of them who could sympathize with Moya's
widowhood; her husband had seen the Black Hand death sign a few months
before, had disregarded it and had been stabbed in the back one night
as he came home from his work.
Conversation was not carried on fluently among them.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57