had a certain delicacy
about telling the real facts to so kind a foreman as "Abe."

The second day we had no better luck, and the pain between the
shoulder-blades was unceasing. All night long I had tossed on my narrow
cot, with aching back and nerves wrought up to such a tension that the
moment I began to doze off I was wakened by a spasmodic jerk of the
right arm as it reached forward to grasp a visionary strip of lace. That
evening, as we filed out at six o'clock, Bessie was waiting for us, her
gentle face full of radiance and good news. Even the miserable Eunice
was affected by her hopefulness.

"Oh, girls, I've got something that's really good--three dollars a week
while you're learning, and an awful nice shop; and just think,
girls!--the hours--I never had anything like it before, and I've knocked
around at eighteen different jobs--half-past eight to five, and--" she
paused for breath to announce the glorious fact--"Girls, just think of
it!--_Saturday afternoons off_, all the year round."

XIV

IN WHICH A TRAGIC FATE OVERTAKES MY "LADY-FRIENDS"

The next morning we met on the corner, as usual, and Bessie led us to
our new job--led us through a world that was strange and new to both
Eunice and me, though poor Eunice had little heart for the newness and
the strangeness of it all. In and out, and criss-cross, we threaded our
way through little narrow streets bordered with stately "sky-scrapers,"
and at last turned into Maiden Lane. We walked arm in arm till we came
to an alley which Bessie said was Gold Street. It is more of a zigzag
even than Maiden Lane, and is flanked by dark iron-shuttered warehouses
and factories. Wolff's, our destination, was at the head of the street,
and in a few minutes we were sitting side by side at the work-table,
while our new forewoman, a cross-eyed Irish girl, was showing us what to
do and how to do it.

Making jewel-and silverware-cases was now our work. In the long,
whitewashed workroom there were thirty other girls performing the same
task, and on each of the five floors beneath there were as many more
girls, pasting and pressing and trimming cases that were to hold rings,
watches and bracelets, and spoons, knives, and forks--enough to supply
all Christendom, it seemed to me. As beginners we were given each a
dozen spoon-boxes to cover with white leather and line with satin. It is
light, pleasant work, and was such an improvement on the sweat-shop
drudgery that even E