"They shan't!" Rose-Ellen whispered.

"Nonsense!" Daddy said hoarsely, his hands tightening on Jimmie's
shoulder and Rose-Ellen's. "It's better for families to stick
together, even if they don't get everything they need. Ma, you
think it's better, don't you?"

He looked anxiously at his parents and they looked pityingly at
him, as if he were a boy again, and before they knew it the whole
family were crying together, Grandpa and Daddy pretending they
had colds.

Then came a knock at the door, and Grandma mopped her eyes with
her apron and answered. Julie's mother stood there, a comfortable
brown woman with shining black hair and gold earrings, the
youngest Albi enthroned on her arm. Mrs. Albi's eyebrows had
risen to the middle of her forehead, and she patted Grandma's
shoulder plumply.


[Illustration: Mrs. Albi]


"Now, now, now, now!" she comforted in a big voice. "All will be
well, praise God. Julie, she tell me. All will be well."

"How on earth can all be well?" Grandma protested. "I don't see
no prospects."

"This summer as you know," said Mrs. Albi, "we went into Jersey.