"What do you do with your poor at Shampuashuh, Miss Madge?"
"We do not have any poor. That is, hardly any. There is nobody in the poorhouse. A few—perhaps half a dozen—people, cannot quite support themselves. Check to your queen, Mr. Dillwyn."
"What do you do with them?"
"O, take care of them. It's very simple. They understand that whenever they are in absolute need of it, they can go to the store and get what they want."
"At whose expense?"
"O, there is a fund there for them. Some of the better-off people take care of that."
"I should think that would be quite too simple," said Mrs. Wishart, "and extremely liable to abuse."
"It is never abused, though. Some of the people, those poor ones, will come as near as possible to starving before they will apply for anything."
Mrs. Wishart remarked that Shampuashuh was altogether unlike all other places she ever had heard of.
"Things at Shampuashuh are as they ought to be," Mr. Dillwyn said.