Part 3, Chapter 1-6 Summary

Mike's body is brought to Mary's house. He is buried on a wintry day. After the last guest departs, Mary feeds the kids and puts them to bed. She receives thirteen hundred dollars from the company under the accident compensation plan. The year is 1914. Mary moves as quickly as possible, before the end of the month. It hurts her too much to be in quarters she shared with Mike. Mary moves to two rooms around the corner from her sister Anna.

"She was at this time a few months past thirty. She had four children, the oldest eleven, the youngest not yet two. She had something over a thousand dollars in the bank, a knowledge of housework and dressmaking, and her two hands. Thus equipped she took up where Mike had left off," (Part 3, Chapter 1, p. 210). She cannot go...