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THE RED RUGS OF TARSUS

under our eyes? Then Mary said, "They are selling bread, and want six met allies a loaf." The business of life goes on in spite of cata- clysms. Selling bread! In the midst of life we are in death. Yes, but in the midst of death we are in life. The family goes home to din- ner after the funeral. When you are living the cataclysm, however, your vision is not ad- justed to the small events. The matter-of-fact things are happening because they always hap- pen and must happen.

A door outside slammed. Then the door into Mary's room opened. In came Mother Christie, looking as though she hadn't slept. The steel-rimmed spectacles used indifferently by herself and Daddy Christie, were pushed away up on her forehead. She said briskly: "Another baby! a dear little boy, and not a rag to put on him!" I went to my steamer trunk to fetch three little flannel petticoats and two kimonos. Down jumped the spectacles with- [133]

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