He didn't like her to sing in public, and he wouldn't allow her when he could HELP himself; but winter came, it was very cold, and fire was expensive.
Rents went up, and they had to move farther out to cheaper and cheaper places; and you were coming--I mean, the boy that is lost was coming--and they were almost distracted.

Then the man wrote and told his father all about it; and his father sent the letter back unopened with a line telling him never to write again.

When the baby came, there was very little left to pawn for food and a doctor, and nothing at all for a nurse; so an old neighbor woman went in and took care of the young mother and the little baby, because she was so sorry for them.

By that time they were away in the suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden house, among a lot of big factories, and it kept growing colder, with less to eat.

Then the man grew desperate and he went just to find something to eat and the woman was desperate, too.