“She said, ‘You just go back upstairs and tell that Carlyle to send me some money down. He is two weeks behind now on his rent. I told him not to be setting on my stoop with that girl last summer. Instead of making hay while the sun were shining, he were using his time otherwise. Just go back upstairs and tell him what I said.’

“‘All of which is no concern of mine,’ says the Health Nurse. ‘I am concerned with the welfare of mother and child. Your house is cold, except down here where you and your dog is at.’

“‘Just leave Trixie out of this,’ says the landlady. ‘Trixie is an old dog and has rheumatism. I love this dog better than I love myself, and I intends to keep her warm.’

“‘If you do not send some steam upstairs, I will advise your tenants to report you to the Board of Health,’ says the Health Nurse.

“She were a real spunky little nurse. I love that nurse—because about every ten days she came by to see how them new babies was making out. And every time she came, that old landlady would steam up. So us roomers was warm some part of last winter, anyhow.”

“Thanks especially to Carlyle and his midsummer madness,” I said. “But where do you suppose the boy went when he left his wife?”

“To his mama’s in the Bronx,” said Simple. “He is just a young fellow what is not housebroke yet. I seen him last night on the corner of Lenox and 125th and he said he was coming back soon as he could find himself a good job. Fight or not fight, he says he loves that girl and is crazy about his baby, and all he wants is to find himself a Fifty or Sixty Dollar a week job so he can meet his responsibilities. I said, ‘Boy, how much did you say you want to make a week?’ And he repeated himself, ‘Fifty to Sixty.’

“So I said, ‘You must want your baby to be in high school before you returns.’

“Carlyle said, ‘I’m a man now, so I want to get paid like a man.’

“‘You mean a white man,’ I said.

“‘I mean a grown man,’ says Carlyle.

“By that time the Bronx bus come along and he got on it, so I did not get a chance to tell that boy that I knowed what he meant, but I did not know how it could come true.… Man, look at that chick going yonder, stacked up like the Queen Mary!… Wheee-ee-oco! Baby, if you must walk away, walk straight—and don’t shake your tail-gate.”

“Watch yourself! Have you no respect for women?”