"Sit down," said Mrs. Mitchell, pushing the best chair to her sister-in-law, and standing by the table to resume her work.
"We did not know Tom was ill," said Mrs. Rowles.
"I daresay not," answered Mrs. Mitchell.
"I would have come sooner to see him if I had known."
"Oh, it is no use to bother one's relations when one falls into misfortunes. It is the rich folks who are welcome, not the poor ones."
"I hope you will make me welcome," said Mrs. Rowles, "though I am not rich."
"Well, you are richer than we are," remarked Mrs. Mitchell, softening a little, "and you are welcome; I can't say more. But I daresay if you had known what a place you were coming to you would have thought twice about it. Six months we have had of it. First there were the changes made at the printing-office, and then the men struck work, and there was soon very little to live on; for it's when the strike allowance doesn't come in so fast that the pinch comes."
Mrs. Rowles looked round to see where the children could be hiding. Not a child's garment was to be seen, nor a toy.
"Where are the children?" she asked, half fearing to hear that they were all dead.
"Albert has got a little place in the printing-office. He was took on when Tom was laid up with rheumatic fever. Juliet is gone to the kitchen to try if she can get a drop of soup or something. They only make it for sick people now the hot weather has set in. Florry and Tommy and Willie and Neddy are all at school, because the school-board officer came round about them the other day. But it is the church school as they go to, where they ain't kept up to it quite so sharp. They will be in presently."