the room?" My voice was
unbelieving, and at something in my face Jimmy laughed.

"Not when we're working. The wind might blow the little pieces of
paper off the table and we'd lose time getting 'em, she says. Some
the boys get so sick from the heat and the glue smell they heave up
their breakfast and can't eat nothing all day. I 'ain't fainted but
twice since I been there, but Alex Hobbs keels over once a week,
anyhow. Used to frighten me at first when I saw him getting green-y,
but I don't mind it now."

With a quick turn of his head Jimmy looked at a small clock on the
shelf above the wash-tubs, and got up with even quicker movement. "I
forgot about the wood, and the papers will be ready 'fore I can get
there if I don't hurry. Good-by to you all," and, slamming the door
behind him, he ran down the kitchen steps into the yard, where in a
moment we heard him whistling as he chopped the wood that must be
brought up for the morning.

It was not often Mrs. Gibbons had a listener who had never before
heard of her hardships, and after explaining to me why Jimmy was at
home at that time of the day, his presence being due not to trifling
on his part, but to the half-time the factory was running, she gave
herself up to the luxury of telling me in detail of her many
misfortunes and of her inability to get through the winter unless
additional help were given her.

"Can't you work?" I asked. "If the children are put in a day nursery
they would be well looked after, and you would probably be more
comfortable in a good factory than here."

"A good factory!" The inflection in her voice was one of listless
tolerance for my ignorance. "I don't reckon you ever worked in one.
There ain't none of 'em good. Some's better than others, but when
you get up at five o'clock on winter mornings and make the fire and
melt the water, if it's frozen, to wash your face with, and--"

"Does it freeze in here?" Bettina, who had by effort restrained
herself from taking part in the conversation, leaned forward and dug
her hands deep in her lap. "Does it really freeze in this hot room?"

"It ain't hot in here at night. Last winter it froze 'most every
night for a month. Mis' Cotter was boarding with me last winter, her
and her little girl both. She's the lady what rents the room between
the kitchen and the front room from me. She sews on carpets and the
place she works at is right far from here. She warn't well last
winter--some