counts. They have this in common, that they are true. For good
reasons, names and places are changed, but they all happened as told here.
I could not have invented them had I tried; I should not have tried if I
could. For it is as pictures from the life in which they and we, you and
I, are partners, that I wish them to make their appeal to the neighbor who
lives but around the corner and does not know it.

JACOB A. RIIS.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE ANSWER OF LUDLOW STREET 1

KIN 11

THE WARS OF THE RILEYS 16

LIFE'S BEST GIFT 31

DRIVEN FROM HOME 42

THE PROBLEM OF THE WIDOW SALVINI 48

PETER 63

KATE'S CHOICE 70

THE MOTHER'S HEAVEN 82

WHERE HE FOUND HIS NEIGHBOR 86

WHAT THE SNOWFLAKE TOLD 101

THE CITY'S HEART 108

CHIPS FROM THE MAELSTROM 122

HEARTSEASE 139

HIS CHRISTMAS GIFT 147

OUR ROOF GARDEN AMONG THE TENEMENTS 157

THE SNOW BABIES' CHRISTMAS 168

AS TOLD BY THE RABBI 198

THE STRAND FROM ABOVE 205

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Little Louisa's fingers were nimbler than
her mother's. She was only eight, but she
soon learned to tie a plume" _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

"He tied his feet together with the prayer
shawl, and looked once upon the rising sun" 9

"There he stood, indifferent, bored if
anything, shiftless" 64

"If Kate sees it, she steals up behind her,
and, putting two affectionate arms around
her neck, whispers in her ear, 'I love oo,
Grannie'" 80

"When we had set up a Christmas tree
together,