himself in his precocious wisdom, as to what sort of person she had been. These facts did not, however, controvert her evidence as to his father's name. Any assertion of authority over him which she might have represented had been obviated by her death. What, in this respect, did the card represent? The card excited in him a mild, impersonal curiosity. Having seen his mother, he was beginning to wonder, though without any immediate intention of investigating, what sort of person his father might be.
At Halsted Street, where the alleys changed to north and south, he turned south as far as Jackson. He halted and hesitated here. Until four o'clock he would not take the risk of entering the "loop," and he had intended to go south beyond its limits and then east to the lake, where probably he would find some boys in bathing. He turned back instead now on his steps as far as Monroe Street and traveled eastward to Canal. Long freight sheds here stretched along the street; men shouted, swore; the pavements roared under the wheels of scores of trucks.
