The mill people, however, were not the only ones that learned something during the next few months. Margaret herself learned much. She learned that while there were men who purposely idled their time away and drank up their children’s hard-earned wages, there were others who tramped the streets in vain in search of work.
“I hain’t got nothin’ ter do yit, Miss,” one such said to Margaret, in answer to her sympathetic inquiries. “But thar ain’t a boss but what said if I’d got kids I might send them along. They was short o’ kids. I been tryin’ ter keep Rosy an’ Katy ter school. I was cal’latin’ ter make somethin’ of ’em more’n their dad an’ their mammy is: but I reckon as how I’ll have ter set ’em ter work.”
“Oh, but you mustn’t,” remonstrated Margaret. “That would spoil everything. Don’t you see that you mustn’t? They must go to school—get an education.”
The man gazed at her with dull eyes.
“They got ter eat—first,” he said.
“Yes, yes, I know,” interposed Margaret, eagerly. “I understand all that, and I’ll help about that part. I’ll give you money until you get something to do.”
A sudden flash came into the man’s eyes. His shoulders straightened.
“Thank ye, Miss. We be n’t charity folks.” And he turned away.
A week later Margaret learned that Rosy and Katy were out of school. When she looked them up she found them at work in the mills.
This matter of the school question was a great puzzle to Margaret. Very early in her efforts she had sought out the public school-teachers, and asked their help and advice. She was appalled at the number of children who appeared scarcely to understand that there was such a thing as school. This state of affairs she could not seem to remedy, however, in spite of her earnest efforts. The parents, in many cases, were indifferent, and the children more so. Some of the children in the mills, indeed, were there solely—according to the parents’ version—because they could not “get on” in school. Conscious that there must be a school law, Margaret went vigorously to work to find and enforce it. Then, and not until then, did she realize the seriousness of even this one phase of the problem she had undertaken to solve.