“Perhaps my mission is close at hand,” she said, stepping aside to let an old man pass. She glanced at his sad, wrinkled face. It seemed as though other eyes were looking through her own into it. She took some money from her purse, and thrust it into his hand.
He closed his fingers mechanically over the bill; it was something more than money he needed.
“I am looking for-for-her,” he said, his eyes gazing on vacancy.
“Any one I can find for you?” inquired Dawn, touched by his gentle, childlike manner.
“Find her? Can you find Margaret? Why, she went away when she was a little gal; no, she has grown up-like you. But I guess she's lost; yes lost. O, my little Margy,—your own mammy, and your other mammy is dead, and I am all alone. Come, Margy, come,” he said, reaching forth his hands to Dawn.
“I am not Margy; but perhaps we can find her.” She drew nearer to him, and walked by his side down the street.
They passed along until the crowd grew more dense, and the sea of human forms, rushing and jostling, made her head swim.
What a variety; from childhood to age,—faces in which sorrow and hope were struggling; faces marked with lines and furrows; cheeks sunken by disease and many griefs; bright, glowing faces, fresh as flowers, before the dew had been parched by noon-day sun and heat. On, on they went,—the busy crowd, and the old man, and the maiden; he, looking at all, yet seeing none; she, gazing with restless vision, for what? for whom? How typical of life's great highway, on which we wander, looking for that which we know not; hoping, that out of the sea of faces, one will shine forth on us, to receive or give a blessing.
They passed spacious buildings, and came to those less pretentious in style. The crowd grew less dense, the apparel less showy and elegant; the low wooden houses contrasting strangely with the lofty edifices which they left behind. Little shops, with broken panes in every window; children ragged, idle, and brutal in their appearance, stirred the heart of the passer-by with a grief which no words could portray.
Dawn looked on them, and longed to gather them all into one fold of love and harmony. “O, guide me, Father, and help me to lead them to better lives,” was the earnest prayer of her soul.