As Ye Sow

暂无简介Jeanette, the pretty daughter of a hard-working family of the tenement district, envies other girls with good clothing. She loathes the dinginess of her own neighborhood. Jeanette has made the acquaintance of a girl in the neighborhood named Carrie, considered rather fast. Carrie happens in one evening and invites Jeanette out with her for \"a good time.\" Jennie remembers her lack of pretty dresses, but Carrie overcomes the objection by offering to fit her out. The parents demur, but finally consent, with the admonition, \"I will wait up, so do not stay late.\" Arrived at Carrie's room, which is very elaborately furnished, Jeanette is surprised at the display of finery and remarks, \"I don't see how you manage it on $6 per week.\" Fully arrayed, they set forth and meet a couple of young men with whom Carrie is acquainted, and they go to a restaurant and are cajoled and laughed at. Jeanette drinks her first glass. A once beautiful woman enters bedecked with silks and jewels, and she is the cynosure of all eyes, especially Jeanette's. The woman orders a drink, and falls to gazing at the crowd; her eyes finally rest on Jeanette, and she understands. A conflict of emotions seems raging in her breast as she watches and listens, and when the escort of Jeanette's speaks in aside to the waiter, and asks Jeanette to follow, she gets up also and arrives at the door in time to see the fellow almost forcing the girl into a cab. She knocks him down, and takes Jeanette under her protection. Arrived at her room, she shows Jeanette what a terrible fate she has avoided by telling her a story of her own life. Jeanette realizes and wants to go home to mother, who sits there patiently and anxiously awaiting the daughter's return. But Jeanette, ashamed and afraid of the wrath of her father, hesitates. The woman writes a note, and gets Jeanette's promise to deliver it to her parents, then calls a cab and bids her farewell. Jeanette arrives home to her anxious parents, and, unable to explain, hands them the note. \"Dear Friends: Do not chide your daughter. But one out of every thousand returns unsullied from where she has been tonight. She has seen, she has heard, she has had her lesson. I, one of the vilest, was once pure as she, but I took the fatal step, and no voice spoke the one word that meant my salvation: Mother.\"