“I haven’t any milk; I have eaten nothing myself since morning,” the woman said, yet putting the child to the breast.
Martin shook his head. He got some bread and a cup, opened the oven door and filled the cup with soup. He then took the porridge-pot out of the oven, but the porridge was not quite done. He spread a cloth and put the soup and bread on the table.
“Sit down and have something to eat, my dear. I’ll look after the baby. I have had children of my own and know how to nurse them.”
The woman crossed herself, sat down by the table and began to eat, and Martin sat on the bed with the baby. He clucked and clucked, but having no teeth he could not do it well, and the baby would not stop its crying. And Martin tried to amuse him with his finger. He poked the finger straight at the baby’s mouth, then drew it back again. He would not let the child take the finger in its mouth because it was black with cobbler’s wax. The child looked at the finger, stopped crying and began to laugh. Martin was pleased.
As the woman ate she told him about herself, saying who she was and where she was going.
“I am a soldier’s wife,” she said. “It is now eight months that my husband has been taken away and I haven’t heard a word from him. I had a place as a cook when the child was born, but they would not keep me after that. I’ve been without a place for three months now and eaten everything I possessed. I wanted to go as a wet-nurse, but no one would have me because they said I was too thin. I went to a merchant’s wife with whom our grandmother is in service and she promised to take me. I thought she meant at once, but she told me to come next week, and she lives a long way. I’m quite worn out, and the baby is half-starved. If our landlady did not take pity on us, I don’t know how we should live.”
Martin sighed and said, “Have you no warm clothes?”
“How can I have warm clothes! I pawned my last shawl yesterday for sixpence!”
The woman went up to the bed and took the child. Martin rummaged about among the things hanging on the wall and brought out an old coat.
“Though it isn’t much of a thing, it will do to wrap up in,” he said.