wakened her mother.

All through the breakfast her mother advised her on the doing of her
work. She cautioned her daughter when scrubbing woodwork always to
scrub against the grain, for this gave a greater purchase to the brush,
and removed the dirt twice as quickly as the seemingly easy opposite
movement. She told her never to save soap. Little soap meant much
rubbing, and advised that she should scrub two minutes with one hand
and then two minutes with the other hand, and she was urgent on the
necessity of thoroughness in the wringing out of one's floor cloth,
because a dry floor cloth takes up twice as much water as a wet one,
and thus lightens labor; also she advised Mary to change her positions
as frequently as possible to avoid cramp when scrubbing, and to kneel
up or stand up when wringing her cloths, as this would give her a rest,
and the change of movement would relieve her very greatly, and above
all to take her time about the business, because haste seldom resulted
in clean work, and was never appreciated by one's employer.

Before going out Mary Makebelieve had to arrange for some one to look
after her mother during the day. This is an arrangement which, among
poor people, is never difficult of accomplishment. The first to whom
she applied was the laboring man's wife in the next room; she was a
vast woman with six children and a laugh like the rolling of a great
wind, and when Mary Makebelieve advanced her request she shook six
children off her like toys and came out on the landing.

"Run off to your work now, honey," said she, "and let you be easy in
your mind about your mother, for I'll go up to her this minute, and when
I'm not there myself I'll leave one of the children with her to call me
if she wants anything, and don't you be fretting at all, God help you!
for she'll be as safe and as comfortable with me as if she was in Jervis
Street Hospital or the Rotunda itself. What's wrong with her now? Is it
a pain in her head she has or a sick stomach, God help her?"

Mary explained briefly, and as she went down the stairs she saw the
big woman going into her mother's room.

She had not been out in the streets so early before, and had never
known the wonder and beauty of the sun in the early morning. The
streets were almost deserted, and the sunlight--a most delicate and
nearly colorless radiance--fell gently on the long silent paths.
Missing the customary throng of people and traffic she seemed almost
in