The Tinker's Girl [antikvár]

Jinnie Howlett stood at the end of the long table in the sorting room of the workhouse. This particular room was known as the 'dead store', because in its cubbyhole-lined walls it held the remnants of clothing and articles belonging to inmates past and present, mostly past, because clothing worn by new admissions was very often in such a condition that it practically walked unaided to the incinerator. The room had a peculiar smell, one that Jinnie had always termed a hot gingery smell, for the atmosphere would at times cause her to sneeze. If there was any part of this workhouse she liked it was this room, not for itself, but because in it she often found herself alone with Miss Caplin. Miss Caplin was a seamstress, but she had alsó part-time duties, such as taking in admissions and seeing that they were stripped and bathed, then garbed in the uniform of the workhouse. In these duties, as in the sewing-room, she chose for a helper, as often as possible, young Jinnie Howlett. Miss Caplin straightened Jinnie5s straw hat, then gave a little tug at the collar of the long grey coat that came to the top of the child's boots. And quietly, she said, 'Now, Jinnie, you will remember all I've told you, because I cannot teli you often enough that if you are brought back from this, your second place, you'll be kept in here for years,' and she moved her head from side to