With these she returned home, renewed her fire, and, after preparing
the bones and vegetables she had procured, put them into an iron pot
with some water, and hung this upon the crane. She then sat down
again to her work.

At twelve o'clock Henry came in from school, and brought up an
armful of wood, and some water, and then, by direction of his
mother, saw that the fire was kept burning briskly. At one, Mrs.
Gaston laid by her work again, and set the table for dinner. Henry
went for a loaf of bread while she was doing this, and upon his
return found all ready. The meal, palatable to all, was a well-made
soup; the mother and her two children ate of it with keen appetites.
When it was over, Henry went away again to school and Mrs. Gaston,
after administering to Ella another dose of medicine, sat down once
more to her work. One sleeve remained to be sewed in, when the
garment would only require to have the collar put on, and be pressed
off. This occupied her until late in the afternoon.

"Thirty cents for all that!" she sighed to herself, as she laid the
finished garment upon the bed. "Too bad! Too bad! How can a widow
and three children subsist on twenty cents a day?"

A deep moan from Ella caused her to look at her child more intently
than she had done for half an hour. She was alarmed to find that her
face had become like scarlet, and was considerably swollen. On
speaking to her, she seemed quite stupid, and answered incoherently,
frequently putting her hand to her throat, as if in pain there. This
confirmed the mother's worst fears for her child, especially as she
was in a raging fever. Soon after, Henry came in from school, and