They came at last to the house, and to the group of frightened women in the kitchen. It was not over yet, Jurgis learned⁠—he heard Ona crying still; and meantime Madame Haupt removed her bonnet and laid it on the mantelpiece, and got out of her bag, first an old dress and then a saucer of goose-grease, which she proceeded to rub upon her hands. The more cases this goose-grease is used in, the better luck it brings to the midwife, and so she keeps it upon her kitchen mantelpiece or stowed away in a cupboard with her dirty clothes, for months, and sometimes even for years.

Then they escorted her to the ladder, and Jurgis heard her give an exclamation of dismay. “ Gott im Himmel , vot for haf you brought me to a place like dis? I could not climb up dot ladder. I could not git troo a trapdoor! I vill not try it⁠—vy, I might kill myself already. Vot sort of a place is dot for a woman to bear a child in⁠—up in a garret, mit only a ladder to it? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” Jurgis stood in the doorway and listened to her scolding, half drowning out the horrible moans and screams of Ona.