518 ASCH
Passers-by, seeing a woman walking and scolding aloud, laughed.
.flight came on, the little town was darkened.
Taube reached home with her armful of baskets, dragged herself up the steps, and opened the door.
"Maine, it's Ma-a-me !" came voices from within.
The house was full of smoke, the children clustered round her in the middle of the room, and never ceased calling out Mame ! One child's voice was tearful : "Where have you been all day ?" another's more cheerful : "How nice it is to have you back!" and all the voices mingled together into one.
"Be quiet! You don't give me time to draw my breath !" cried the mother, laying down the baskets.
She went to the fireplace, looked about for something, and presently the house was illumined by a smoky lamp.
The feeble shimmer lighted only the part round the hearth, where Taube was kindling two pieces of stick an old dusty sewing-machine beside a bed, sign of a departed tailor, and a single bed opposite the lamp, strewn with straw, on which lay various fruits, the odor of which filled the room. The rest of the apartment with the remaining beds lay in shadow.
It is a year and a half since her husband, Lezer the tailor, died. While he was still alive, but when his cough had increased, and he could no longer provide for his family, Taube had started earning something on her own account, and the worse the cough, the harder she had to toil, so that by the time she became a widow, she was already used to supporting her whole family.
