“I struggled on alone for a while,” said the old woman, “but at last I broke down too for want of food, and grew quite weak. The girl also grew weak and timid. I told her to go to the neighbours⁠—she would not leave the hut, but crept into a corner and sat there. The day before yesterday a neighbour looked in, but seeing that we were ill and hungry she turned away and left us. Her husband has had to go away, and she has nothing for her own little ones to eat. And so we lay, waiting for death.”