we may hear Anna's story.

She said: "I'm not seventeen years old till next month, and I'm
the oldest of five children--three girls and two boys. My father is a
mechanic, but sometimes he's out of work, and then didn't he used to
scold! Just as though we were to blame! Poor Mother! I've often pitied
her for marrying my father, who was naturally cross and ill-tempered
even when things didn't go wrong. Half the time mother daren't say her
soul was her own, and, besides, she was naturally one of those meek,
timid kind that would put up with anything for the sake of peace.

"Winter before last when he was out of a job for quite a while and
mother was having a hard time of it trying to keep us warm and fed, I
heard of a place in the next town, just a car-ride away, where I could
work for my board and get my fifty cents a day and car-fare if I wanted
to go home at night. It was to work in a nice, genteel restaurant; so I
coaxed mother to let me take it, which she did. I didn't ask father.

"No, he wasn't what you'd call a drinking man, though he liked a glass
of beer once in a while.

"I soon caught on now to do my work well; sometimes used to get tips,
but not often, 'cause I had the family and ladies' department to wait
on. There was one swell-looking lady used to eat there, and used to
come to my table whenever she could. We weren't allowed to chat with
the customers, though sometimes we did, if the boss wasn't looking. One
day she told me she was very much taken with me, asked if I had a
mother and father, and several other questions. So I told her just how
it was with us and how I happened to take a situation until father got
back to work. Then she asked where I lived. I told her, but that now I