s she
made a brave effort and, hurrying as best she could, reached Third
Avenue and waited for a car. There was room in it, fortunately, and
she did not have to stand up. Further down town she got out, walked
half a block west, and stopped before a tenement-house, opening the
door. The three flights up proved a long journey. She collapsed on a
kitchen chair as soon as she entered. A woman who had been in the
front room hastened to her.

"So you're all right again," she exclaimed. "Last week the doctor said
't was nip and tuck with you. You didn't know me when I stood before
ye. My! But you don't look very chipper yet! I'll make ye a cup of hot
tea."

Madge accepted the refreshment gratefully. It was rather bitter and
black but at least it was hot and comforting. Then she went and sought
the little bed in the dim hall-room, whose frosted panes let in a
yellow and scanty light. For this she had been paying a dollar and a
half a week, and owed for the three she had spent in the hospital.
Fortunately, she still had eleven dollars between herself and
starvation. After paying out four-fifty the remainder might suffice
until she found more work.

She was weary beyond endurance and yet sleep would not come to her, as
happens often to the overtired. Before her closed eyes a vague
panorama of past events unrolled itself, a dismal vision indeed.

There was the coming to the great city, after the widowed mother's
death, from a village up the state. The small hoard of money she
brought with her melted away rather fast, in spite of the most
economical living. But at last she had obtained work in a factory
where they made paper boxes and paid a salary nearly, but not quite,
adequate to keep body and soul together. From this she had drifted to
a place where they made shirts. Here some hundreds of motor-driven
sewing-machines were running and as many girls bent over the work,
feverishly seeking to exceed the day's stint and make a few cents
extra. A strike in this place sent her to another, with different
work, which kept her busy till the hands were laid off for part of the
summer.

And always, in every place, she toiled doggedly, determinedly, and her
pretty face would attract the attention of foremen or even of bosses.
Chances came for improvement in her situation, but the propositions
were nearly always accompanied by smirks and smiles, by hints never so
well covered but that they caused her heart to beat in indignation and