Tell me, does one ever come your way? For instance, don't they come
here asking for their home-town paper--sobs in their voice--grasp the
sheet with trembling hands--type swims in a misty haze before their
eyes--turn aside to brush away a tear--all that kind of stuff, you know?"

Tony's grin threatened his cold-sore. You can't stand on the corner of
Clark and Randolph all those years without getting wise to everything
there is.

"I'm on," said he, "but I'm afraid I can't accommodate, girlie. I guess
my ear ain't attuned to that sob stuff. What's that? Yessir. Nossir,
fifteen cents. Well, I can't help that; fifteen's the reg'lar price of
foreign papers. Thanks. There, did you see that? I bet that gink give
up fifteen of his last two bits to get that paper. O, well, sometimes
they look happy, and then again sometimes they--Yes'm. Mississippi?
Five cents. Los Vegas Optic right here. Heh there! You're forgettin'
your change!--an' then again sometimes they look all to the doleful.
Say, stick around. Maybe somebody'll start something. You can't never
tell."

And then this happened.

A man approached Tony's news stand from the north, and a woman approached
Tony's news stand from the south. They brought my story with them.

The woman reeked of the city. I hope you know what I mean. She bore the
stamp, and seal, and imprint of it. It had ground its heel down on her
face. At the front of her coat she wore a huge bunch of violets, with a
fleshly tuberose rising from its center. Her furs were voluminous. Her
hat was hidden beneath the cascades of a green willow plume. A green
willow plume would make Edna May look sophisticated. She walked with
that humping hip movement which city women acquire. She carried a
jangling handful of useless gold trinkets. Her heels were too high, and
her hair too yellow, and her lips too red, and her nose too white, and
her cheeks too pink. Everything about her was "too," from the black
stitching on her white gloves to the buckle of brilliants in her hat.
The city had her, body and soul, and had fashioned her in its metallic
cast. You would have sworn that she had never seen flowers growing in a
field.

Said she to Tony:

"Got a Kewaskum Courier?"

As she said it the man stopped at the stand and put his question. To
present this thing properly I ought to be able to describe them both at
the same time, like a juggler keeping two balls in the air at once.
Kindly ca