They rung the curtain down here to
make you think six days has passed.
When it goes up again, Maizie 's setting
on the couch, holding the little one.
Pretty soon Bridget comes in with the
evening paper.
Digitized by Microsoft®



KATIE WINS A HOME 235

"They's a big headline, mum," she
says. * ' A troopship has been torpedoed. ' '

Well, when she handed her the paper,
I could see the big headline. It said,
"Phillies Hit Grimes Hard." But Mai-
zie may of had a bet on Brooklyn. Any-
way, she begin trembling and finally fell
over stiff. So Bridget picked up the pa-
per and read it out loud :

"Amongst the men lost was Capt. F.
Shaw of Kew York."

Down went the curtain again and the
first act was over, and some jokesmith
in the audience yelled "Author! Author !"

"He's sunk}" said the egg in the
gallery.
Well, Maizie was the only one in the
whole theater that thought Shaw was
dead. The rest of us just wished it. Still
you couldn't blame her much for getting
a wrong idear, as it was Nov. 11, 1918 —
over a year later — ^when the second act
begins, and she hadn't heard from him in

Digitized by Microsoft®



236 THE BIG TOWN

all that time. It wasn't never brought
out why. Maybe he'd forgot her name or
maybe it was Burleson's fault, like every-
thing else.
The scene was the same old living room
and Maizie was setting on the same old
couch, but she was all dressed up like
Elsie Ferguson. It comes out that she's
expecting a gentleman friend, a Mr.
