"I didn't do nowt!" Tom said defensively even before anyone could accuse him when little Alice started crying.
"Well start doin' summ't and lay the table as I told ye to!" his mother said. "Thank you, lovely," she added as Claude picked up Alice, and the baby girl stopped crying to stare at Claude with big blue eyes.
Simon put little Rose down and started helping his brother, but stuck out his tongue at him to taunt him over getting scolded. Rose pouted, but then put four fingers in her mouth, the other hand in her neck, and also stared at Claude, turning her body from one side to the other as she watched. None of the children wore shoes, since they were saved for cold days and church. But the children were relatively clean - as clean as a child playing outside all day would be -, and where their clothes were torn, they had been mended.