cursed her. He was still bandaged up -- why did you hit
him, Jurgis?" (There was some fascinating mystery
about this, the little fellow knew; but he could get no
satisfaction.)

Jurgis could not speak; he could only stare, his eyes
starting out. "She has been trying to get other work,"
the boy went on; "but she's so weak she can't keep up.
And my boss would not take me back, either -- Ona says
he knows Connor, and that's the reason; they've all got
a grudge against us now. So I've got to go down-town
and sell papers with the rest of the boys and Kotrina--"

"Kotrina!"

"Yes, she's been selling papers, too. She does best, be~
cause she's a girl. Only the cold is so bad -- it's terrible
coming home at night, Jurgis. Sometimes they can't
come home at all -- I'm going to try to find them tonight
and sleep where they do, it's so late and it's such a long
ways home. I've had to walk, and I didn't know where
it was -- I don't know how to get back, either. Only
mother said I must come, because you would want to
know, and maybe somebody would help your family when
they had put you in jail so you couldn't work. And I
walked all day to get here -- and I only had a piece of
bread for breakfast, Jurgis. Mother hasn't any work
either, because the sausage department is shut down; and
she goes and begs at houses with a basket, and people give
her food. Only she didn't get much yesterday; it was
too cold for her fingers, and today she was crying--"

So little Stanislovas went on, sobbing as he talked; and
Jurgis stood, gripping the table tightly, saying not a word,
but feeling that his head would burst; it was like having
weights piled upon him, one after another, crushing the
life out of him. He struggled and fought within himself
-- as if in some terrible nightmare, in which a man suffers
an agony, and cannot lift his hand, nor cry out, but feels
that he is going mad, that his brain is on fire --

Just when it seemed to him that another turn of the
screw would kill him, little Stanislovas stopped. "You
cannot help us?" he said weakly.

[[203]]

p202 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p203w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p204

v?