"But I can work," Jurgis exclaimed. "I can earn
money!"

"Yes," she answered -- "but we thought you were in
jail. How could we know when you would return?
They will not work for nothing."

Marija went on to tell how she had tried to find a mid~
wife, and how they had demanded ten, fifteen, even twenty-
five dollars, and that in cash. "And I had only a quarter,"
she said. "I have spent every cent of my money -- all
that I had in the bank; and I owe the doctor who has
been coming to see me, and he has stopped because he
thinks I don't mean to pay him. And we owe Aniele for
two weeks' rent, and she is nearly starving, and is afraid
of being turned out. We have been borrowing and beg~
ging to keep alive, and there is nothing more we can
do--"

"And the children?" cried Jurgis.

"The children have not been home for three days, the
weather has been so bad. They could not know what is
happening -- it came suddenly, two months before we
expected it."

Jurgis was standing by the table, and he caught himself
with his hands; his head sank and his arms shook -- it
looked as if he were going to collapse. Then suddenly
Aniele got up and came hobbling toward him, fumbling
in her skirt pocket. She drew out a dirty rag, in one
corner of which she had something tied.

"Here, Jurgis!" she said, "I have some money.
_Palauk!_ See!"

She unwrapped it and counted it out -- thirty-four
cents. "You go, now," she said, "and try and get some~
body yourself. And maybe the rest can help -- give
him some money, you; he will pay you back some day,
and it will do him good to have something to think about,
even if he doesn't succeed. When he comes back, maybe
it will be over."

And so the other women turned out the contents of their
pocket-books; most of them had only pennies and nickels,
but they gave him all. Mrs. Olszewski, who lived next

[[216]]

p215 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p216w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p217

v?