"You and I will live for each other, baby," she sobbed, holding the wee mite closer. "I will keep you for my very own, and I will pray for the time to come when you will be big enough for me to tell you all my sorrows. You will put your little arms around my neck and your soft, warm cheek against mine, and try to comfort me."
Dorothy had made her resolve, little dreaming that it would end in a tragedy.
She boarded the train, and was soon steaming away toward New York city—the great, cruel city of New York, rampant with wickedness and crime.
More than one passenger noticed the lovely young girl with the tiny infant in her arms, and marveled as to whether or not it could possibly belong to her; for surely the girl could not be a day over sixteen, or seventeen, at most.
All unconscious of this close scrutiny, Dorothy watched the little one with wondering eyes all the way until she reached the metropolis.
Her first idea was to seek a boarding place, and then she could look about her.
To her dismay, among the half score to which she walked until she could almost drop down from exhaustion, no one cared to take her and the child in; and it seemed to her, too, that they were rude in refusing her, and more than one actually shut the door in her face.
She was tired—so tired—carrying the heavy child in her arms. She had given the name Miss Brown to each instance, and at last one landlady came out bluntly and said to her:
"It would sound a deal more proper to call yourself Mrs. Brown, if you please, ma'am," at the same time pointing to the child in her arms.
Then it dawned upon Dorothy's mind why every one had refused them shelter, even for money.