Looking back in after days it always seemed to her that for this poor soul the true parting, the true wrench between life and life, came at this moment.
She went up to her, her own tears running over.
"You must come and lie down," she said, recovering herself as quickly as possible.

"You and the children are both starved, and you will want your strength if you are to help him.

I will see to things." She put the helpless woman on the wooden settle by the fireplace, rolling up her cloak to make a pillow.
"Now, Willie, you sit by your mother.

Daisy, where's the cradle?
Put the baby down and come and help me make the fire." The dazed children did exactly as they were told, and the mother lay like a log on the settle.

Marcella found coal and wood under Daisy's guidance, and soon lit the fire, piling on the fuel with a lavish hand.
Daisy brought her water, and she filled the kettle and set it on to boil, while the little girl, still sobbing at intervals like some little weeping automaton, laid the breakfast.