on the athletic field. In other words, instead of
remaining passive I wanted him to take an aggressive attitude towards
life. In still other words instead of being a middle-classer I wanted
him to get something of the emigrant spirit. And I had the
satisfaction of seeing him begin his work with the germ of that idea
in his brain.

In the meanwhile with the approach of cold weather I saw a new item of
expense loom up in the form of coal. We had used kerosene all summer
but now it became necessary for the sake of heat to get a stove. For a
week I took what time I could spare and wandered around among the junk
shops looking for a second hand stove and finally found just what I
wanted. I paid three dollars for it and it cost me another dollar to
have some small repairs made. I set it up myself in the living room
which we decided to use as a kitchen for the winter. But when I came
to look into the matter of getting coal down here I found I was facing
a pretty serious problem. Coal had been a big item in the suburbs but
the way people around me were buying it, made it a still bigger one.
No cellar accommodations came with the tenement and so each one was
forced to buy his coal by the basket or bag. A basket of anthracite
was costing them at this time about forty cents. This was for about
eighty pounds of coal, which made the total cost per ton eleven
dollars--at least three dollars and a half over the regular price.
Even with economy a person would use at least a bag a week. This, to
leave a liberal margin, would amount to about a ton and a half of coal
during the winter months. I didn't like the idea of absorbing the
half dollar or so a week that Ruth was squeezing out towards what few
clothes we had to buy, in this way--at least the over-charge part of
it. With the first basket I brought home, I said, "I see where you'll
have to dig down into the ginger jar this winter, little woman."

She looked as startled as though I had told her someone had stolen the
savings.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

I pointed to the basket.

"Coal costs about eleven dollars a ton, down here."

When she found out that this was all that caused my remark, she didn't
seem to be disturbed.

"Billy," she said, "before we touch the ginger jar it will have to
cost twenty dollars a ton. We'll live on pea soup and rice three times
a day before I touch that."

"All right," I said, "but it does seem a pity that the burden of such
prices as thes