One, two, three days pass; at last there
is a day when grandmother and I eat nothing. We give the last scraps of
bread to the children and spend the last two pennies on milk for
mother. There is nothing left for us. We not sleep that night; we sit by
the empty stove and we think all night. Grandmother is praying all the
time; she is, oh so good, that grandmother. She pray and she pray, and
she tell me God is kind and good, He will show us a way. Me, I am not
good like that. I say to her God cannot be kind and merciful, or he
would not treat us so. What have we done that He punish us like that?
She say to me:
"'Hush, child, hush; you very bad, very wicked. God is good and kind and
loving. He not try us any more than we can bear; He send us help soon if
we trust in Him.'
"Next morning is cold, very cold; we have no fire and no food. I have
been everywhere to look for work and find nothing. But I put on my hat
to go out and try once more. Grandmother ask me what I do. I tell her I
go again to look for work. She say: 'No, child, you stay here with your
mother to-day; it is my turn now.'
"She is old; she is blind and I fear to have her go out alone, but she
is firm and will go. She take her stick and she go out. She come back
later with bread for the children and a little money to buy coal. I not
ask her where she get it; I know.
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