"Listen," said Mrs. Horton. "Daddy got Tim to tell about his family. His mother is a widow with six children, and, dear, she takes in washing. She was washing last night when you were there, clothes for her own children, after having done two big washes at other houses that day. Theresa, who is sixteen, works in a department store, and Tim sells papers before and after school, and sometimes, I am afraid, when he plays hooky. He can't leave school till he is at least fourteen and he is only thirteen now. Of course the other children are too young to help."
"Theresa can cook," announced Sunny Boy. "She made stew."
"Theresa does most everything," returned his mother. "But what she wants to do is to be a dressmaker. And Daddy has prevailed on Tim to let him send her to a trade school where she can learn to sew. After she has graduated, if she wishes, she can pay him back the money. Daddy had to arrange it that way because the Harritys are proud and independent."
"And Tim?" urged Sunny Boy, forgetting to eat his egg.
"Oh, Tim is to go to school, too," said Mrs. Horton. "Daddy knows a man who has a school for boys like Tim where they can work and pay for their education, and if Tim can have three or four years there he will be able to help his mother much more than if he got 'working papers' at fourteen and left school."
"Why didn't he go there before?" demanded Sunny Boy. "If he can pay for it himself, he wouldn't be too poor, would he, Mother?"
"Well, you see, he didn't know about this school," said Mrs. Horton. "And then you must remember that he has been helping his mother. Even the little he earned was sorely needed by Mrs. Harrity. So Daddy had to plan for her, too."
"So she won't have to wash?" suggested Sunny Boy eagerly.
"So she won't have to wash," assented Mrs. Horton. "She is to have an apartment rent-free in exchange for janitor work. A man does the heavier work and has four or five apartment houses to take care of, but they want some one to clean the halls, and so on. Tim said it was what his mother often planned. And then she wants to take in a boarder or two. I told Daddy I didn't see that she was having it any easier, but at least she will have a warm, comfortable home this winter. And Daddy is going to keep an eye on them this winter through New York friends. She must be willing to let us help her till her children are old enough."
Sunny Boy finished his breakfast rather soberly. He was learning that all little boys didn't have the many nice things he had. Marty and Thomas, for instance, had they had the kind of breakfast he had just had?