A sob choked Stanislovas, and he stopped. "What's
the matter with Marija?" cried Jurgis.

"She's cut her hand!" said the boy. "She's cut it bad,
this time, worse than before. She can't work and it's all
turning green, and the company doctor says she may --
she may have to have it cut off. And Marija cries all the
time -- her money is nearly all gone, too, and we can't
pay the rent and the interest on the house; and we have
no coal and nothing more to eat, and the man at the store,
he says--"

The little fellow stopped again, beginning to whimper.
"Go on!" the other panted in frenzy -- "Go on!"

"I -- I will," sobbed Stanislovas. "It's so -- so cold
all the time. And last Sunday it snowed again -- a deep,
deep snow -- and I couldn't -- couldn't get to work."

"God!" Jurgis half shouted, and he took a step to~
ward the child. There was an old hatred between them
because of the snow -- ever since that dreadful morning
when the boy had had his fingers frozen and Jurgis had
had to beat him to send him to work. Now he clenched
his hands, looking as if he would try to break through the
grating. "You little villain," he cried, "you didn't try!"

"I did -- I did!" wailed Stanislovas, shrinking from
him in terror. "I tried all day -- two days. Elzbieta
was with me, and she couldn't either. We couldn't walk
at all, it was so deep. And we had nothing to eat, and
oh, it was so cold! I tried, and then the third day Ona
went with me--"

"Ona!"

"Yes. She tried to go to work, too. She had to. We
were all starving. But she had lost her place--"

Jurgis reeled, and gave a gasp. "She went back to
that place?" he screamed.

"She tried to," said Stanislovas, gazing at him in per~
plexity. "Why not, Jurgis?"

The man breathed hard, three or four times. "Go --
on," he panted, finally.

"I went with her," said Stanislovas, "but Miss Hen~
derson wouldn't take her back. And Connor saw her and

[[202]]

p201 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p202w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p203

v?