Susie was too much overcome with grief to pay any attention to what was said; but Elfie had had all her wits sharpened, and she laid her hand on Susie's arm and made her sit down on the stairs, while she listened to the conversation going on just above them. When they reached the garret, and Elfie had shut the door and glanced round the room, she said, "Look here, Susie, which will you like best;—to stop here and work for yourself, and go out when you like; or have somebody come and shut you up in a horrible place, with high walls like a prison, and make you work there?" Susie shivered. "Nobody would do that to me," she said, looking across at the bed where her mother lay covered with the sheet, and thinking what she had said of God caring for her. "But they will, though, if you don't look sharp, for I heard the woman say you'd better go to the work-house," replied Elfie. She had heard the work-house spoken of very often, but did not know what it was like, or that the life of children there was far less hard than hers. She only knew they were not allowed to run about the streets; and the idea of being shut up in any place was dreadful to Elfie, and must be to everybody else, she thought. She succeeded in making Susie dread being taken there. "But what shall I do to pay the rent here?" she asked. "Well, it would be nice to stop here," said Elfie; "but I manage without paying rent anywhere and that's a saving of money." "But where do you go to bed?" asked Susie. "Well, I ain't been to bed in that sort of bed for nearly six months," she said, pointing towards the corner. "I sleep under a cart, or on a heap of straw, or anywhere I can find a nice place; it don't matter much when you're asleep where you are, so long as you're out of the way of the rats." Susie shook her head. "I shouldn't like that," she said. "Well, no, I suppose you wouldn't," said Elfie, again looking round the room. "People that's always been used to tables and chairs, and them sort of things, like you've got here, wouldn't like to sleep out under a waggon, I guess." "How can people do without tables and chairs?" said Susie. "How can they live?" "Oh, pretty well! Lots of us have to do without them, and other things besides," said Elfie carelessly; "but you couldn't, I suppose, and so we must try to keep these." "How shall we do it?" asked Susie. "Well, you can sew shirts, and I can get a job now and then at the market, and sometimes I clean steps for people, and that all brings money. How much do you pay for this little room?" she asked. "A shilling a week," answered Susie. "Mother's put the shilling away for next week, and she paid the landlord yesterday." "All right. Have you got any shirts to sew?" asked Elfie. Susie opened her mother's bundle of work, and took out two that were unfinished. "I'll finish them and take them home, and ask them to give me some," she said.