e's only these one stairs, an' the only manhole's right here over
your heads, so's you can watch that. You rec'lect that there ain't a
roof on that side o' the house. Now, I'm a lonely beggar, an' I wish't
you'd let me invite you to a cup o' hot coffee an' a hot buttered roll
or two, right over there in that hall window. You can keep your eye
peeled towards that door all the while,' I reminds 'em.

"Well, it was a bitter night, an' them two was flesh an' blood. They
'lowed that if he hadn't been there they'd 'a' had to wait for him,
anyway, so they finally set down. An' I doled 'em out the coffee. I
'lowed I could keep 'em an hour if I knew myself. Nobody could 'a' done
any different, with her an' him settin' up there singin' an' no manner
o' doubt but what it was for the last time.

"I'd be'n 'round consid'able in my time an' I knew quite a batch o'
stories. I let 'em have 'em all, an' poured the coffee down 'em. They
was willin' enough--it wa'n't cold in the halls to what it was outside,
an' the coffee was boilin' hot. An' if anybody wants to blame me, they'd
hev to see her first, all fluffed up same as a kitten in that pink
jacket-thing, afore I'd give 'em a word o' hearin'.

"In the midst of it all I heard the Tomato Ketchup's kid yell. I
remembered that this'd be my last chanst fer _her_ to see the kid when
she could get any happiness out of it. I didn't think twice--I just
filled up the cups o' them two, an' then I sails downstairs, two at a
time, an' opened the door o' first floor front without rappin'. The kid
was there in its little nightgown, howlin' fer fair because it had be'n
left alone with its boy brother. The Tomato Ketchup an' her husband was
to a wake. I picked up the kid, rolled it in a blanket, grabbed brother
by the arm, an' started up the stairs.

"'Is the house on f-f-fire?' says the boy brother.

"'Yes,' says I, 'it is. An' we're goin' upstairs to hunt up a
fire-escape,' I told him.

"At the top o' the stairs I sets him down on the floor an' promises him
an orange, an' then I opens the door, with the kid on my arm. It had
stopped yellin' by then, an' it was settin' up straight, with its eyes
all round an' its cheeks all pinked-up with havin' just woke up, an' it
looked awful cute, in spite of its mother. Mis' Loneway was leanin'
back, laughin', an' tellin' him what they was goin' to do the minute she
got well; but when she see the baby she drops her husband's hand and
sorter screams out, we