She's standing by the train station, panhandling for change.
Four more dollars buys a decent meal and a room.
Looks like the Sally Ann [Salvation Army] place after all,
a crowded sleeping hall that echoes like a tomb.
But it's warm and clean and free, and there are worse places to be:
at least it means no beating from her dad.
And if she cries because it's Christmas Day,
she hopes that it won't show.

(Stan Rogers, "First Christmas Away From Home")