could
say them no.

So the good Anna gave her all to friends and strangers, to children,
dogs and cats, to anything that asked or seemed to need her care.

It was in this way that Anna came to help the barber and his wife who
lived around the corner, and who somehow could never make ends meet.
They worked hard, were thrifty, had no vices, but the barber was one
of them who never can make money. Whoever owed him money did not pay.
Whenever he had a chance at a good job he fell sick and could not
take it. It was never his own fault that he had trouble, but he never
seemed to make things come out right.

His wife was a blonde, thin, pale, german little woman, who bore her
children very hard, and worked too soon, and then till she was sick.
She too, always had things that went wrong.

They both needed constant help and patience, and the good Anna gave
both to them all the time.

Another woman who needed help from the good Anna, was one who was in
trouble from being good to others.

This woman's husband's brother, who was very good, worked in a shop
where there was a Bohemian, who was getting sick with consumption.
This man got so much worse he could not do his work, but he was not
so sick that he could stay in a hospital. So this woman had him living
there with her. He was not a nice man, nor was he thankful for all the
woman did for him. He was cross to her two children and made a great
mess always in her house. The doctor said he must have many things to
eat, and the woman and the brother of the husband got them for him.

There was no friendship, no affection, no liking even for the man
this woman cared for, no claim of common country or of kin, but in the
kindly fashion of the poor this woman gave her all and made her house
a nasty place, and for a man who was not even grateful for the gift.

Then, of course, the woman herself got into trouble. Her husband's
brother was now married. Her husband lost his job. She did not have
the money for the rent. It was the good Anna's savings that were
handy.

So it went on. Sometimes a little girl, sometimes a big one was in
trouble and Anna heard of them and helped them to find places.

Stray dogs and cats Anna always kept until she found them homes. She
was always careful to learn whether these people would be good to
animals.

Out of the whole collection of stray creatures, it was the young Peter
and the jolly little Rags, Anna could not find it in her heart to
par