certainly must have been welcome. There were two other girls in
service, and therefore off their parents' hands; but six children--the
youngest only a few months old--were still at home, dependent on what
their father and mother could earn. Of these, the eldest was a boy near
thirteen. "I shall be glad when he's schoolin's over," the mother said;
and she had applied for a "labour certificate" which would allow him to
finish school as a "half-timer," and to go out and earn a little money.

Since their marriage, twenty-three years earlier, the couple had
occupied always the came cottage, at a rental of three shillings a week.
After the first twenty years--the property then changing owners--the
first few repairs in all that long period had been undertaken. That is
to say, the outside woodwork was painted; a promise was given to do up
the interior; the company's water was laid on; and--the rent was raised
to three-and-sixpence. The woman thought this a hardship; but she said
that her husband, looking at the bright side of things, rejoiced to
think that now the water from the old tank, hitherto so precious for
household uses, might be spared for his flowers.

After the rent was paid--with the daughter's help--there were about
fourteen shillings left. But the man was an "Oddfellow," and his
subscription was nine shillings a quarter, or eightpence halfpenny a
week. In prudence, that amount should perhaps have been put by every
week, but apparently prudence often had to give way to pressing needs.
"When the club money's due, that's when we finds it wust," the woman
remarked. "Sometimes I've said to 'n, 'I dunno how we be goin' to git
through the week.' 'Oh,' he says, 'don't you worry. We shall get to the
end of 'n somehow.'"

But she did not explain, nor is it easy to conceive, how it was done.
For observe, the weekly bushel of potatoes did not feed the family, even
for half the year. "A gallon of potatoes a day, that's what it is," she
had said; and then she had enumerated other items. "A gallon of bread a
day," was needed too, besides a gallon of flour once a week "for
puddings." In other words, bread and flour cost upwards of six shillings
weekly. Seeing that this left but eight shillings for eight people, it
is small wonder that the club-money was rarely put by, and great wonder
how the family managed at all when the club-money was wanted in a lump.
It must have been that they went short that week. For instance, they
wou