"Then you ought not to come here. You have been here before, and you knew just how it was before you did the wrong which brought you here. You were sent here to work hard, for nothing, for a punishment."
"Others do worse than I, and they don't come here. If those that put me here had their dues they'd be here too!"
That was the continual rejoinder.
"May be; but how are you going to help that? You will have about as much as you can do to attend to your own case. Only think of what you have been doing; robbing another person as badly off as you are. You ought to have pity on each other, if no one else has pity on you! You ought to respect the rights of your fellow-prisoners,—they have done you no harm!"
"I will; but I was so hungry and the meat smelt so good; and I did not think of them. If you worked as I do, and was real hungry, and saw the meat, wouldn't you take it?"
"I don't know, Bridget; I have not had the temptation."
The word temptation sounded out from the other words that I had been using, fearfully loud when I pronounced it. A nice slice of roast beef was a strong temptation to those hungry women. They were allowed enough to tantalize but not to satisfy them.
By being kept without enough to satisfy their hunger they were led into sin, if it be a sin for them to help themselves to more than their share. They were led to disobey the rules, which involved punishment if they were detected. It would certainly undermine their health to work so many hours as they were obliged to without a suitable amount of food to produce recuperation.
"Are you hungry enough to eat that meat after it has been in your stocking, and on this floor?"
"Yes, ma'am; it ain't hurt it any. I'll eat it if you'll give it to me."