another.

"If it were not for the Grossvater," she said, "and the children, I
should have a place and work in the country and grow strong, but I
cannot. If I die before them what can they do?"

There was other trouble. Gretchen's light little head could never guard
her pretty face. She was fourteen now, and tall and fair, fretting
against the narrow life and refusing to stay indoors when evening came.
One day she did not come home; and when Lotte sought her she saw only
the evil smile and triumphant eyes of the foreman who had followed her a
year ago and who laughed in her face as he shut the door.

"You'd better come in yourself," he called. "You'd fare better if you
did."

Lotte went home dumb, and sat down at her machine. There was no money in
the house, nor would be till she had taken home this work; but as she
bent over it the blood poured in a stream from her mouth. She tried to
rise, but fell back; and when the screaming children had brought in
neighbors, Lotte's struggle was quite over. When they had buried her in
the Potter's Field by Lisa, they took the bundle of work stained with
her life-blood and carried it back to its owners.

"She'll need no more," said the old neighbor from the floor above as she
laid it on the counter. "You've cut her down and cut her down, till
there wasn't life left to stand it longer. There's not one of you to
blame, you say, but I that know, know you've fastened her coffin-lid
with nails o' your own makin', an' that sooner or later you'll come face
to face, an' find that red-hot is cowld to the hate that's makin' ready
for you. An' as for him that stands there smilin', if it weren't for the
laws that spare the guilty and send the innocent to their deaths, God
knows it would be the best thing these hands ever did to tear him to
bits. But there's no one to blame. Ye're sure o' that. Wait a while. The
day's comin' when you'll maybe think different; an' may God speed it!"

CHAPTER NINTH.

THE EVOLUTION OF A JACKET.

"If underwear, whether for men or women, has proven itself a most
excellent medium for starvation; if suits and dresses in general rank
but a grade above; if shirts, whether of cotton or woollen, are a
despair; and in each and all competition has cheapened material and
manufacture and brought labor to the 'life limit' and below, at least it
cannot be so bad with cloaks and jackets. Here are single garments,
often of the most expensive material and put togeth