THE CRY FOR BREAD




I

The Baby

"A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM"




I

The Baby


The heavy perfume of rare blossoms, the wild strains of mad music, the
patter of flying feet, the murmur of speech, the ring of laughter,
filled the great hall. Now and again a pair of dancers, peculiarly
graceful and particularly daring, held the center of the floor for a
moment while the room rang with applause.

Into alcoves, screened and flower-decked, couples wandered. In the
dancing-space hands were clasped, bosoms rose and fell, hearts throbbed,
pulses beat, and moving bodies kept time to rhythmic sound.

Suddenly the music stopped, the conversation ceased, the laughter died
away. Almost, as it were, poised in the air, the dancers stood amazed.
One looked to another in surprise. Something stole throughout the room
which was neither music, nor lights, nor fragrance, but which was
life--a presence!

"Do you see that child?" asked the wildest of the dancers of her escort.
"There," she pointed. "He looks like a very little boy."

"I see nothing," said the man, who still held her in the clasp of his
arm.

"He is strangely dressed, although I see him indistinctly, vaguely,"
whispered the woman. "He wears a long white robe and there is a kind of
light about his face. See, he is looking at us."

"I see nothing," repeated the man in low tones. "The heat, the light,
the music, have disturbed you; let me get you--"

"I want nothing," interposed the woman, waving the man aside and drawing
away from his arm. "Don't you see him, there?"

She made a step toward the center of the room. She stopped, put her
hand to her head.

"Why, he is gone," she exclaimed.

"Good," said the man, while at that instant the room suddenly rang with
cries: "Go on with the music, the dance is not half over." He extended
his arm to the woman again. "Our dance is not finished."

"Yes, it is," she said as the flying feet once more twinkled across the
polished floor, as everybody took a long breath

William Babington Maxwell (18661938) was a British novelist. He was a son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Though nearly 50 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France until 1917.

Cyrus Townsend Brady (December 20, 1861 January 24, 1920) was a journalist, historian and adventure writer. His most well-known work is Indian Fights and Fighters. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883. He was also a deacon in the Episcopal church. His first wife was Clarissa Guthrie, who died in 1890. His second wife was Mary Barrett.

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-1906), also known as Sophie May, was an American author of childrens fiction. Using her nieces and nephews as inspiration, she wrote realistic stories about children. She wrote 45 books between 1860 and 1903. The most popular being the Little Prudy books. She lived most of her life in her native town of Norridgewock, Maine, where she lived out her life with her sister, who was also a successful author.