Chapter 7 Mord Em’ly’s mother justified her daughter’s confidence. The interview took place in the presence of Mrs. Wingham, and the two excellent ladies talked to each other, and at Mord Em’ly. It seemed to Mord Em’ly that her mother’s face was thinner. “As I say, ma’am,” remarked Mord Em’ly’s mother, “I only hope she’s…

Chapter IChildhood All through my life, at least all my thinking life, I have been on a quest. My search has been with one object in view, and that object has been to find myself. I did not know when I started that Walt Whitman had said, “A man is not all included between his…

Chapter IIChild-Life in the Lowell Cotton-Mills In attempting to describe the life and times of the early mill-girls, it has seemed best for me to write my story in the first person ; not so much because my own experience is of importance, as that it is, in some respects, typical of that of many…

Chapter 2 All the members of the Gilliken Gang possessed the privilege which the London girl demands—that of having their evenings for their very own. Some were engaged in a large mineral water factory in Albany Road; two walked over Blackfriars Bridge to the City every morning; the remainder did nothing of a definite character….

Chapter 20 A bright morning, and everybody and everything in South London singing cheerfully. Elderly birds in cages, cocking one eye and looking up at the sky, on being hung outside windows straightway began an air of which they had nearly forgotten the tune; the people hurrying along the pavements hummed or whistled; shopkeepers chatted…