Her companion joyfully assented, and went off to the market in search of some stale fruit to share with Susie at once. Then they went back together to Susie's home, and, going up the stairs, overheard two of the women talking to the man who had come to see about the funeral.
Susie was too much overcome with grief to pay any attention to what was said; but Elfie had had all her wits sharpened, and she laid her hand on Susie's arm and made her sit down on the stairs, while she listened to the conversation going on just above them.
When they reached the garret, and Elfie had shut the door and glanced round the room, she said, "Look here, Susie, which will you like best;—to stop here and work for yourself, and go out when you like; or have somebody come and shut you up in a horrible place, with high walls like a prison, and make you work there?"
Susie shivered. "Nobody would do that to me," she said, looking across at the bed where her mother lay covered with the sheet, and thinking what she had said of God caring for her.
"But they will, though, if you don't look sharp, for I heard the woman say you'd better go to the work-house," replied Elfie.
She had heard the work-house spoken of very often, but did not know what it was like, or that the life of children there was far less hard than hers. She only knew they were not allowed to run about the streets; and the idea of being shut up in any place was dreadful to Elfie, and must be to everybody else, she thought.
She succeeded in making Susie dread being taken there.
"But what shall I do to pay the rent here?" she asked.
"Well, it would be nice to stop here," said Elfie; "but I manage without paying rent anywhere and that's a saving of money."
"But where do you go to bed?" asked Susie.