e delicious to lie on the floor,
uncrowded, and sheltered from the night.

But no such shelter awaited them. Instead, they were pointed to
a sort of hobo camp with lights glimmering through torn canvas.
A heavy odor scented the darkness.

Grandpa said, "They can't expect decent folks . . . !"

Grandma said, "We've got to stretch out somewheres. Even under a
tree. This baby. . . ."

Sally was crying a miserable little cry, and an Italian woman who
reminded Rose-Ellen of Mrs. Albi peered out of a patched tent and
said, "Iss a _bambina_! Oooh, the little so-white _bambina_! Look
you here, quick! The people next door have leave these tent. You
move in before some other bodies."

"These tent" was a top and three walls of dirty canvas. "If
you'd told me a Beecham would lay down in a filthy place like
this. . . ." Grandma declared. Rose-Ellen did not hear the end of
the sentence. She was asleep on the earth floor.

Next day when the men and Dick were hired to pick grapefruit,
Grandpa asked the boss about better living quarters.

"He said there wasn't any," Grandpa reported later.

"My land of love, you mean we've got to stay here?" Grandma
groaned.

Grimly she set to work. The Italian neighbor had brought her a
pot of stew and some coffee, but now Grandma and Rose-Ellen must
go to the store for provisions. They brushed their clothes, all
wrinkles from the long trip, and demanding the iron Grandma did
not have. They combed their hair and washed. They set out,
leaving the baby with Jimmie.

"Shall I send these?" the grocer asked respectfully, when they
had given their order. "You're new here, aren't you?" Mussed as
they were, the Beechams still looked respectable.

Grandma flushed. She hated to have anyone see that flapping
canvas room, but the heap of supplies was heavy. "Please. We're
working in the grapefruit," she said.

The grocer's face lost its smile. "Oh, we don't deliver to the
camps," he snapped. "And it's strictly cash."

Grandma handed him the coins, and she and Rose-Ellen silently
piled their purchases into the tub they had bought. They had to
set it down many times on their way back.

[Illustration: Bringing back the groceries]

Next Grandma made a twig broom and they swept the dirty ground.
Mrs. Rugieri, next door, showed Grandma her beds, made of
automobile seats put together on the ground. That night the
Beecham men went to the nearest dumps and found enough seats to
make