ng. For a time she took in washing, what
little she could get, devoting the intermediate hours to dressing the
children, cooking, seeing that they got off to school, mending their
clothes, waiting on her husband, and occasionally weeping. Not
infrequently she went personally to some new grocer, each time farther
and farther away, and, starting an account with a little cash, would
receive credit until other grocers warned the philanthropist of his
folly. Corn was cheap. Sometimes she would make a kettle of lye
hominy, and this would last, with scarcely anything else, for an
entire week. Corn-meal also, when made into mush, was better than
nothing, and this, with a little milk, made almost a feast. Potatoes
fried was the nearest they ever came to luxurious food, and coffee was
an infrequent treat. Coal was got by picking it up in buckets and
baskets along the maze of tracks in the near-by railroad yard. Wood,
by similar journeys to surrounding lumber-yards. Thus they lived from
day to day, each hour hoping that the father would get well and that
the glass-works would soon start up. But as the winter approached
Gerhardt began to feel desperate.

"I must get out of this now pretty soon," was the sturdy German's
regular comment, and his anxiety found but weak expression in the
modest quality of his voice.

To add to all this trouble little Veronica took the measles, and,
for a few days, it was thought that she would die. The mother
neglected everything else to hover over her and pray for the best.
Doctor Ellwanger came every day, out of purely human sympathy, and
gravely examined the child. The Lutheran minister, Pastor Wundt,
called to offer the consolation of the Church. Both of these men
brought an atmosphere of grim ecclesiasticism into the house. They
were the black-garbed, sanctimonious emissaries of superior forces.
Mrs. Gerhardt felt as if she were going to lose her child, and watched
sorrowfully by the cot-side. After three days the worst was over, but
there was no bread in the house. Sebastian's wages had been spent for
medicine. Only coal was free for the picking, and several times the
children had been scared from the railroad yards. Mrs. Gerhardt
thought of all the places to which she might apply, and despairingly
hit upon the hotel. Now, by a miracle, she had her chance.

"How much do you charge?" the housekeeper asked her.

Mrs. Gerhardt had not thought this would be left to her, but need
emboldened her.