"And Millie's got such thin arms; and baby don't laugh as he used, and all the red's gone out of his checks. I wish I was a man; I'd go off to the works, and get a lot of money."
"It'll be long enough before you're a man, Bobbie," sighed his mother. "Years and years first. And when you are, I suppose you'll just be like the rest,—do what everybody else does, and never think about the little ones at home."
"Don't father think?"
Martha put a sudden check upon herself.
"Yes, he does," she said. "He does think; and it goes to his heart to see baby Harry's look. I didn't mean that, Bobbie; I only meant, I wish with all my heart the strike was over."
"Look 'ee here, Mrs. Holdfast!"
Molly Hicks once more held out her baby, and Sarah Holdfast's kind face softened with pity.
"Poor little thing! Why, she's wasted away to nothing!"
"Starving!" said Mrs. Hicks, in a dry unnatural voice.
"Poor little thing!" repeated Mrs. Holdfast.