The Words of a Little Child
— I —
THE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER
A dirty room, with, in it, a rickety table, a wooden chair without a back, an empty sugar box, used as a stool, and in a corner on the floor a heterogeneous collection of odds and ends, which served as a bed. Very little else, except a woman, a little girl, a black bottle, and a cup without a handle. To the woman the black bottle was far and away the most prominent object in the room. All that, in her judgement, was needed to adequately furnish a room was a bottle of gin. And there was still the better part of a pint of gin in that black bottle. She was making it last as long as she could.
The woman sat on the chair without a back, and the little girl on the empty sugar box in front of her. And the woman took sips from the cup w
