"It is all I get."

"At this rate, then, you can only make fourteen cents a day?"

"That is all, sir. And, even on the best of work, I can never get
beyond a quarter of a dollar a day."

"How in the world, then, have you managed to keep yourself and three
children from actual want?"

"I have not been able, doctor," she replied, with some bitterness.
"We have wanted almost every thing."

"So I should suppose. What rent do you pay for this poor place?"

"Three dollars a month."

"What! seventy-five cents a week! and not able to earn upon an
average more than a dollar a week?"

"Yes, sir. But I had better work through the summer, and sometimes
earned two dollars, and even a little more, in a week."

The doctor paused some time and then said--

"Well, Mrs. Gaston, it's no use for you to struggle on at this rate,
even with your two remaining children. You cannot keep a home for
them, and cover their nakedness from the cold. Now let me advise
you."