The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

“Hardly,” Miss Smith said. “All I did was put them in clean clothes and
feed them.” She rubbed stinky lotion on our impetigo too, but I noticed she
didn’t tell the iron woman that. Instead she said, hesitatingly, “Perhaps, if you
have hand-me-downs—or if you know someone who does—I can’t afford all
they’ll need for winter.”
The iron lady pulled a clipboard out of her large handbag. She probably
held a clipboard in her sleep. “Of course,” she said, writing something down.
“I’m organizing a used clothing collection in town. We don’t expect you to be
able to cover clothing out of the allowance. They were supposed to bring their
own—well, never mind. They should have come with more than they did.
Obviously.”
Her iron-faced daughter was staring at my bandaged foot. I leaned close
and whispered, “It just happened yesterday. I got stepped on by our pony.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed. She whispered back, “That’s an awful lie.”
I said, “We have too got a pony.”
She said, “It doesn’t hurt that much when a pony steps on you. I’ve been
stepped on dozens of times.”
Well, she had me there. I didn’t know what to say, so I stuck my tongue out
at her. She bared her teeth in response, like a tiger. Cor.
Meanwhile Miss Smith was saying, “What allowance?”
It turned out she was getting paid for taking us in. Nineteen shillings a
week! Nearly a whole pound! If she hadn’t been rich before, she was now. I
let out a deep breath. I could quit worrying over what my shoe had cost, and
how much food we ate. Mam didn’t earn anything like nineteen shillings a
week. Jamie and I could eat all we wanted on nineteen shillings a week.
“I can’t believe you didn’t know that,” the iron woman said. “Surely I
explained—”
“Oh,” Miss Smith said, with a little laugh, “I wasn’t listening to a word
you said.”
As we continued down the street, Jamie subdued but still whimpering, I
said, “That’s three pounds sixteen shillings a month, miss. You could take in
more of us and get rich.”
Miss Smith scowled. “Thank God I’m not reduced to that.”