Page "Lilies of the Field (1963 film)" Paragraph 3

Mother Maria likes things done her way.

The nuns have essentially no money and subsist by living off the land, on what vegetables the arid climate provides, and some milk and eggs.

Even after being stonewalled when asking for payment, and after being persuaded to stay for a meal, and against his better judgment, Smith agrees to stay another day to help them with other small jobs, always with the faint hope that Mother Maria will pay him for his work.