Part 5 (1/2)

”It will not take long to make a little sketch,” Mrs. Halsey replied, ”and it will be a real pleasure for me to do it.” As her fingers moved rapidly over the paper the girls took an inventory of the room. A cracked cooking-stove, and a cupboard behind it formed of a dry-goods box, but all the utensils were scrupulously clean. A closet, another dry-goods case on end, with a chintz curtain in front, concealed, as Winnie's prying eyes ascertained, a roll of bedding, which was evidently spread on the floor at night. Mrs. Halsey knelt before a worn table, and this, with the sewing-machine, completed the furnis.h.i.+ng of the apartment. No, in the window there was a row of fruit-cans containing some geraniums. Miss Sartoris discovered them, and Mrs.

Halsey apologized for their condition. ”They were just in bud,” she said, ”but we were without coal for several days, and they were nipped by frost.”

Poor woman! she looked as if _she_ had been nipped by the frost too during that bitter experience. She coughed, and Adelaide remarked, ”You ought to drink cream, Mrs. Halsey; they say it is better for a cough than cod-liver oil.”

”I have plenty of milk,” the little woman replied. ”The milkman for whom my Jim works lets him have the milk that he finds left over in the cans when he washes them out after his rounds. Sometimes there's as much as a pint, and almost always enough for our oatmeal.”

Mrs. Halsey spoke cheerily and proudly--as of a luxury which she owed her boy. The design was completed, and Adelaide was delighted.

”Would you like to have me make the costume in tissue-paper?” Mrs.

Halsey asked; ”the sleeve, at least, and this drapery; then any seamstress can make it.”

”How much will it be?” Adelaide asked, doubtfully--wondering if her five-dollar bill would cover the charge.

”Do you think seventy-five cents too much? It would take me an afternoon.”

”But you could certainly earn more than that by your sewing.”

Mrs. Halsey smiled rather bitterly. ”Would you really like to know the rates at which I work?” she asked.

Adelaide expressed her interest. ”These pretty Mother Hubbard night-gowns sell well, I am sure, but I know you can't get very much for making them, for I bought a pair at a bargain counter for a dollar.”

”It is the bargain counter which makes the low pay. I get a dollar and thirty cents _a dozen_ for making them,” said Mrs. Halsey, calmly.

”A dozen!” cried Winnie; ”and how many can you make in a day?”

”Eight.”

”Then you make--”

”Eighty-five cents a day; but I cannot average that.”

”Can't you do better with something else?”

”I have made flannel skirts--tucked--at a dollar a dozen, but I can only make eight of those in a day, so that is less. I have received a dollar and twenty cents a dozen for making chemises, which sell at seven dollars a dozen; and seventy-five cents a dozen for babies' slips, three tucks and a hem; forty cents a dozen for corset covers. I have a friend who works a machine in a ruffling factory; she makes a hundred and fifty yards of hemmed and tucked ruffling a day, for which she receives twenty-five cents. So, you see, I am better off than some.”[A]

[A] See ”Campbell's Prisoners of Poverty” for still more harrowing statistics.

”And can you live on five dollars a week?”

”Six dollars, Madame; Jim earns one dollar and the milk.”

”You pay for rent--”

”Six dollars a month; yes, it _is_ hard to earn that.”

”You must be thankful that you have only Jim to provide for.”

”The Sandys, on the floor below, have six children; five of them earn wages. I think they earn more than their cost.”

”But,” said Miss Sartoris, ”I thought child labor was prohibited by law.”