uldn't to send no letter the while
her eyes ain't healthy."

"I am sorry to hear that," said Teacher, with a little stab of regret
for her prompt acceptance of Mrs. Mowgelewsky's invitation; for of all
the ailments which the children shared so generously with their
teacher, Miss Bailey had learned to dread most the many and painful
disorders of the eye. She knew, however, that Mrs. Mowgelewsky was not
one of those who utter unnecessary cries for help, being in this
regard, as in many others, a striking contrast to the majority of
parents with whom Miss Bailey came in contact.

To begin with, Mrs. Mowgelewsky had but one child--her precious, only
Morris. In addition to this singularity she was thrifty and neat,
intensely self-respecting and independent of spirit, and astonishingly
outspoken of mind. She neither shared nor understood the gregarious
spirit which bound her neighbors together and is the lubricant which
makes East Side crowding possible without bloodshed. No groups of
chattering, gesticulating matrons ever congregated in her Monroe Street
apartment. No love of gossip ever held her on street corners or on
steps. She nourished few friendships and fewer acquaintanceships, and
she welcomed no haphazard visitor. Her hospitalities were as serious as
her manner; her invitations as deliberate as her slow English speech.

And Miss Bailey, as she and the First Readers followed the order of
studies laid down for them, found herself again and again, trying to
imagine what the days would be to Mrs. Mowgelewsky if her keen, shrewd
eyes were to be darkened and useless.

At three o'clock she set out with Morris, leaving the Board of
Monitors[78-1] to set Room 18 to rights with no more direct supervision
than an occasional look and word from the stout Miss Blake, whose
kingdom lay just across the hall. And as she hurried through the early
cold of a November afternoon, her forebodings grew so lugubrious that
she was almost relieved at last to learn that Mrs. Mowgelewsky's
complaint was a slow-forming cataract, and her supplication, that Miss
Bailey would keep a watchful eye upon Morris while his mother was at
the hospital undergoing treatment and operation.

"But of course," Miss Bailey agreed, "I shall be delighted to do what I
can, Mrs. Mowgelewsky, though it seems to me that one of the
neighbors----"

"Neighbors!" snorted the matron; "What you think the neighbors make mit
mine little boy? They got four, five dozens c