"There's no need to find out about your naturalization then," he went
on, "of course you're both Americans. And you both speak English," and
he entered this also on the language column.
"What does your husband work at?" was the boy's next query.
"He's a gardener, sah."
"Odd jobs?"
"Oh, no, sah, in the big nu'sery here."
"On regular wages, then?"
"Yas, sah, nine dollahs a week."
"I don't have to put down how much he earns," the boy explained, "only
to state whether he is paying wages, or being paid wages, or working on
his own account.--But you must find it hard to get along on nine a
week."
"Ah make mo 'n he does," the woman explained.
"You do? How?"
"Washin', sah. An' Ah take a lot o' fine washin', laces an' things like
that, which the ladies want jes' as carefully done! Ah make as high as
twelve an' sometimes fifteen dollahs a week."
"That helps a lot," said Hamilton, as he noted down the facts that the
woman was a laundress, and that she worked on her own account, typified
by the letters "O.A." in the wage column.
"You both read and write--or, wait a bit, I think you said you couldn't
write, and that you have to get the neighbors' children to help you.
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