but through this there comes the odor of everything that is cooking, or has ever been cooked, and the warmth is quite secondary to the various smells.
The girls, bless them, have tried to give the place a home-like air, and there are a few photographs, a book or two, a little Bible, a devotional book and some of their belongings about, but all the womanliness in the world could not make home of a place like this. The food given, oddly enough, is not bad, neither is it good. If a girl was out in the open air and was healthy and well, not knowing what the close air of a store was, she could come in, eat and enjoy her dinner, but these girls are too tired to eat. Everything seems too heavy to them, and as the boarding-house keeper takes them as boarders, and does not propose catering to their special conditions for the price they pay, they are obliged to make the best of what they have. Breakfast, at which too often liver and bacon and overdone steak appear, is not appetizing, for the cloth bears the stains of the dinner of the night before, and a fresh napkin in the morning is unknown. One or two cups of coffee are taken, and, improperly equipped, bodily, for the day's work, the girl goes out to meet it, and begins by feeling tired. The laws of the State command that there shall be seats for girls when they are not actually employed, but the near-
