I think we were so astounded at the sight that at first it absorbed all our thought. Then we began to note other things in the room. There were at least nine other persons there beside the Master, and they were all at work making various articles of clothing or wreaths similar to those in the child’s hand. There were five children, from three to nine years of age, two women and two men.

The room was about ten by twelve in size. Opening from it was another room without any window, in which we could see two other women using a sewing machine. There was a small stove in this room. Over it hung a series of lines from which hung doll’s dresses. A pot of glue was on the stove close by the side of a kettle, which we learned afterward contained some vegetable soup. Both rooms were crowded with paper boxes which contained the crude materials brought in, out of which flowers and doll clothes were being made.

As you know, Rachel, I have been familiar with slum conditions in the Rectangle, for a good many years. But there was something about the conditions here in these two rooms, where these human beings herded together, that was desolate and hopeless in the extreme. It seemed to be absolutely beyond redemption, even by God himself. And then I felt dazed in mind and heart as I looked at Jesus and saw him actually living among these creatures.

He preserved the same all-pervading calm he always shows. That, so far, is his most commanding quality. Even at the height of his indignant denunciation in Wall Street, I could not escape that feeling of calm in the midst of the torrent that swept through him.

He went from one to another, quietly helping in the work, a little after we came in. And after we had been there perhaps an hour, though we kept no account of time, he cleared away a little space on one side of the room and, going to a cupboard, took out some dishes and set them on a table. Then he went into the other room, and we could hear him gently speak to someone there, who we afterward learned was sick, lying on a mattress on the floor. Then he set the soup and small plate of bread on the table, and with a smile—such a smile as only his face could reveal—he motioned all to stop their work and eat.

We sat at the table with the rest. Jesus held the little girl in his lap. She was so tired that in a few minutes she fell asleep, with a crust of the bread between her lips.