besides six other younger brothers and sisters, and a worshipped mother,
to whom she gave every cent of her wages of three dollars and a half a
week. An older brother, a day laborer, paid the rent and provided food
for all of them. Every other family expense was met by Catriona's three
dollars and a half, so that she was in the habit of spending only five
cents for her own lunch, and, on the nights of overtime, five cents for
her own dinner, in order to take home the extra thirty cents; and every
day she looked whiter and older.

At the beginning of the week before Christmas, the store raised
Catriona's wage to four dollars. Her mother told her she might have the
extra half dollar for herself for Christmas. Though Catriona had worked
for some months, this was the first money of her own she had ever had.
With pride she told the department how it was to be spent. She was going
to surprise her mother with a new waist for Christmas, a waist Catriona
had seen in the store marked down to forty-nine cents. A ten per cent
discount was allowed to employees, so that the waist would cost
forty-five cents. With the remaining five cents Catriona would buy her
sick Rosa a doll. All her life Rosa had wanted a doll. Now, at last, she
could have one.

On the day when she received the money, Catriona kept it close at hand,
in a little worn black leather purse, in a shabby bag hanging from her
arm, and not out of sight for an instant.

Her purchases were to be made in the three-quarters of an hour allowed
for supper. The time Catriona consumed in eating her five-cent meal was
never long, so that, even allowing for prolonged purchasing, her absence
of an hour was strange.