The boy was able, with his handy helpfulness, to add a little more money to the home store.

Winter followed, and the weather became colder.

In the dearth of firewood, Jasmin was fain to preserve his bodily heat, notwithstanding his ragged clothes, by warming himself by the sun in some sheltered nook so long as the day lasted; or he would play with his companions, being still buoyed up with the joy and vigour of youth.
When the stern winter set in, Jasmin spent his evenings in the company of spinning-women and children, principally for the sake of warmth.

A score or more of women, with their children, assembled in a large room, lighted by a single antique lamp suspended from the ceiling.

The women had distaffs and heavy spindles, by means of which they spun a kind of coarse pack-thread, which the children wound up, sitting on stools at their feet.