She has been married twelve years, so that every second year she has borne a child.

The dark rings beneath her eyes tell of protracted hours of work, and the sewing-machine underneath the window tells us that she supplements the earnings of her husband by making old clothes into new, and selling them to her neighbours, either for their children's wear or their own.

This accounts for the fact that her own children are so comfortably clothed.

The dinner that we have seen disappear cost ninepence, for late last evening, just before the cheap butchers close by shut up for the night, Mrs.Jones bought one pound and a half of pieces, and, with the aid of two onions and some potatoes, converted them into a nourishing stew.
Many times near midnight I have stood outside the cheap butchers' and watched careful women make their purchases.

It is a pitiful sight, and when one by one the women have made their bargains, we notice that the shopboard is depleted of its heap of scrags and odds and ends.
So day by day Mrs.Jones feeds her family, limiting her expenditure to her purse.