her developing mind had little other pabulum than what her mother supplied so
freely. She was acquiring the same consuming curiosity, with the redeeming
feature that she did not talk. Listening in unsuspected places, she heard
much that was said about her mother and herself, and the pathetic part of this
experience was that she had never known enough of kindness to be wounded. She
was only made to feel more fully how precarious was her foothold in her
transient abiding place, and therefore was rendered more furtive, sly, and
distant in order to secure toleration by keeping out of everyone's way. In
her prowlings, however, she managed to learn and understand all that was going
on even better than her mother, who, becoming aware of this fact, was
acquiring the habit of putting her through a whispered cross-questioning when
they retired for the night. It would be hard to imagine a child beginning
life under more unfavorable auspices and still harder to predict the outcome.

In the course of her close watchfulness she had observed how many of the
domestic labors had been performed, and she would have helped more in the
various households if she had been given a chance; but the housewives had not
regarded her as sufficiently honest to be trusted in the pantries, and also
found that, if there was a semblance of return for such hospitality as they
extended, Mrs. Mumpson would remain indefinitely. Moreover, the homely,
silent child made the women nervous, just as her mother irritated the men, and
they did not want her around. Thus she had come to be but the specter of a
child, knowing little of the good in the world and as much of the evil as she
could understand.

She now displayed, however, more sense than her mother. The habit of close
scrutiny had made it clear that Holcroft would not long endure genteel airs
and inefficiency, and that something must be done to keep this shelter. She
did her best to get supper, with the aid given from the rocking chair, and at
last broke out sharply, "You must get up and help me. He'll turn us out of