at the three ladies, and could hardly be got
to go away; but this woman pressed her way through, pushing some and
using harsh language to others, till she stood immediately opposite
to Clara.

"Look at that, madam," she cried, undoing an old handkerchief which
she held in her hand, and displaying the contents on the counter; "is
that what the likes of you calls food for poor people? is that fit
'ating to give to children? Would any av ye put such stuff as that
into the stomachs of your own bairns?" and she pointed to the mess
which lay revealed upon the handkerchief.

The food, as food, was not nice to look at; and could not have been
nice to eat, or probably easy of digestion when eaten.

"Feel of that." And the woman rubbed her forefinger among it to show
that it was rough and hard, and that the particles were as sharp as
though sand had been mixed with it. The stuff was half-boiled Indian
meal, which had been improperly subjected at first to the full heat
of boiling water; and in its present state was bad food either for
children or grown people. "Feel of that," said the woman; "would you
like to be 'ating that yourself now?"

"I don't think you have cooked it quite enough," said Clara, looking
into the woman's face, half with fear and half with pity, and
putting, as she spoke, her pretty delicate finger down into the nasty
daubed mess of parboiled yellow flour.

"Cooked it!" said the woman scornfully. "All the cooking on 'arth
wouldn't make food of that fit for a Christian--feel of the roughness
of it"--and she turned to another woman who stood near her; "would
you like to be putting sharp points like that into your children's
bellies?"

It was quite true that the grains of it were hard and sharp, so as to
give one an idea that it would make good eating neither for women nor
children. The millers and dealers, who of course made their profits
in these times, did frequently grind up the whole corn without
separating the grain from the husks, and the shell of a grain of
Indian corn does not, when ground, become soft flour. This woman had
reason for her complaints, as had many thousands reason for similar
complaints.

"Don't be throubling the ladies, Kitty," said an old man standing by;
"sure and weren't you glad enough to be getting it."

"She'd be axing the ladies to go home wid her and cook it for her
after giving it her," said another.

"Who says it war guv' me?" said the angry mother. "Didn't I buy it,