And so the other women turned out the contents of their pocketbooks; most of them had only pennies and nickels, but they gave him all. Mrs. Olszewski, who lived next door, and had a husband who was a skilled cattle-butcher, but a drinking man, gave nearly half a dollar, enough to raise the whole sum to a dollar and a quarter. Then Jurgis thrust it into his pocket, still holding it tightly in his fist, and started away at a run.

He had run like mad all the way and was so out of breath he could hardly speak. His hair was flying and his eyes wild⁠—he looked like a man that had risen from the tomb. “My wife!” he panted. “Come quickly!”

“It’s all I’ve got,” he pleaded, his voice breaking. “I must get someone⁠—my wife will die. I can’t help it⁠—I⁠—”

Madame Haupt had put back her pork and onions on the stove. She turned to him and answered, out of the steam and noise: “Git me ten dollars cash, und so you can pay me de rest next mont’.”

“I can’t do it⁠—I haven’t got it!” Jurgis protested. “I tell you I have only a dollar and a quarter.”

The woman turned to her work. “I don’t believe you,” she said. “Dot is all to try to sheat me. Vot is de reason a big man like you has got only a dollar und a quarter?”

“I’ve just been in jail,” Jurgis cried⁠—he was ready to get down upon his knees to the woman⁠—“and I had no money before, and my family has almost starved.”

“Vere is your friends, dot ought to help you?”

“They are all poor,” he answered. “They gave me this. I have done everything I can⁠—”

“Haven’t you got notting you can sell?”

“I have nothing, I tell you⁠—I have nothing,” he cried, frantically.

“Can’t you borrow it, den? Don’t your store people trust you?” Then, as he shook his head, she went on: “Listen to me⁠—if you git me you vill be glad of it. I vill save your wife und baby for you, und it vill not seem like mooch to you in de end. If you loose dem now how you tink you feel den? Und here is a lady dot knows her business⁠—I could send you to people in dis block, und dey vould tell you⁠—”

Madame Haupt was pointing her cooking-fork at Jurgis persuasively; but her words were more than he could bear. He flung up his hands with a gesture of despair and turned and started away. “It’s no use,” he exclaimed⁠—but suddenly he heard the woman’s voice behind him again:⁠—

“I vill make it five dollars for you.”