"It might have been better to go to the country," she said. "But you see I wasn't used to the country, and then any work I could get to do was right here. I'd always liked to sew, and so had Emeline, and we found we could get regular work on children's suits, with skirts and such things in the dull seasons. It was good pay, and we were comfortable till prices began to fall. We made fifteen dollars a week sometimes, and could have got ahead if it hadn't been for a little debt of my husband's that I wanted to pay, for we'd never owed anybody a penny and I couldn't let even that debt stand against his name. But when it was paid, somehow I came down with rheumatic fever, and I've never got back my full strength yet. And the prices kept going down. Emmy is an expert. I never knew her make a mistake, but working twelve and fourteen hours a day,--and it's 'most often fourteen,--the most she has made for more than a year and a half is eighty-five cents a day, and on that we've managed. I suppose we couldn't if I ever went out, but I've had no shoes in two years. I patch the ones I got then with one of my husband's old coats, and keep along, but we never get ahead enough for me to have shoes, and Emmy too, and she's the one that has to go out. How we live? It's all in this little book. It's foolish to put it down, and yet I always somehow liked to see how the money went, even when I had plenty, and it's second nature to put down every cent. Take last month. It had twenty-seven working days: $22.95. Out of that we took first the ten dollars for rent. I've been here eleven years, and they've raised a dollar on me twice. That leaves $12.95 for provisions and coal and light and clothes. 'Tisn't much for two people, is it? You wouldn't think it could be done, would you? Well, it is, and here's the expense for one week for what we eat:-- Sugar, 23; Tomatoes, 7; Potatoes, 5 $0.35 Tea, 15; Butter, 30; Bread, 12 0.57 Coal, 12; Milk, 15; Clams, 10 0.37 Oil, 15; Paper, 1; Clams, 10; Potatoes, 5 0.31 Cabbage, 5; Bread, 7; Flour, 15; Rolls, 3 0.30 ---- Total $1.90