This, we need hardly say, was far from enough to meet the wants of his family.

Had it not been that George, who was but eleven years old, went every day to a factory in the village and worked from morning until night, thus earning about a dollar and a half a week, and that the mother took in sewing, spinning, washing and ironing, and whatever she could get to do, they must have wanted even enough to eat.
It was but six days to New Year's.

Mrs.Foster had been washing nearly the whole day,--work that she was really not able to do, and which always so tired her out, that in the night following she could not sleep from excessive fatigue,--she had been washing nearly all day, and now, after cleaning up the floor, and putting the confused room into a little order, she sat down to finish some work promised by the next morning.

It was nearly dark, and she was standing, with her sewing, close up to the window, in order to see more distinctly in the fading light, when there came a loud knock at the door.

One of the children opened it, and a man, whose face she knew too well, came in.