s dying, or a woman giving birth to a child, just
the other side of a latched deal door.

In this connection it should be remembered how much more than their
share of the afflictions of the community falls to the labouring people.
The men's work naturally takes them where accidents happen, where
disease is contracted. And then, from ignorance or the want of
conveniences, from the need to continue wage-earning as long as
endurance will hold out, and also from the sheer carelessness which is a
part of their necessary habit, both the men and the women not seldom
allow themselves to fall into sickness which a little self-indulgence,
if only they dared yield to it, would enable them to avoid. I should
not know how to begin counting the numbers I have personally known
enfeebled for life in this way. Things are better now than they were
twenty years ago; there are many more opportunities than there used to
be of obtaining rest or nursing, but still the evil is widespread.
Without going out of my way at all, during the last fortnight I have
heard of--have almost stumbled across--three cases of the sort. The
first was that of a woman who had been taking in washing during her
husband's long illness. Meeting the man, who was beginning to creep
about again, I happened to ask how his wife was; and he said that she
was just able to keep going, but hardly knew how to stand because of
varicose veins in both legs. The second case, too, was a woman's. She
met me on the road, and on the off chance asked if I could give her a
letter of admission to the County Hospital, and so save her the pain of
going down to the Vicarage to beg for a letter there. What was the
matter? "I give birth to twins five months ago," she said, "and since
then dropsy have set in. I gets heavier every day. The doctor wants me
to go to the hospital, and I was goin' to the Vicar to ask for a letter,
but I dreads comin' back up that hill." As it was she had already walked
half a mile. In the third case a man's indifference to his own suffering
was to blame for the plight in which he found himself. Driving a van, he
had barked his shin against the iron step on the front of the van. Just
as the skin had begun to heal over he knocked it again, severely, in
exactly the same way, and he described to me the immense size of the
aggravated wound. But, as he said, he had supposed it would get well,
and, beyond tying his leg up with a rag, he took no further trouble
about it, u