veral hundred cans of
lard per hour, there were necessary two human creatures, one of whom
knew how to place an empty lard can on a certain spot every few seconds,
and the other of whom knew how to take a full lard can off a certain
spot every few seconds and set it upon a tray.

And so, after little Stanislovas had stood gazing timidly about him for
a few minutes, a man approached him, and asked what he wanted, to which
Stanislovas said, "Job." Then the man said "How old?" and Stanislovas
answered, "Sixtin." Once or twice every year a state inspector would
come wandering through the packing plants, asking a child here and there
how old he was; and so the packers were very careful to comply with the
law, which cost them as much trouble as was now involved in the boss's
taking the document from the little boy, and glancing at it, and then
sending it to the office to be filed away. Then he set some one else at
a different job, and showed the lad how to place a lard can every time
the empty arm of the remorseless machine came to him; and so was decided
the place in the universe of little Stanislovas, and his destiny till
the end of his days. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, it
was fated that he should stand upon a certain square foot of floor from
seven in the morning until noon, and again from half-past twelve till
half-past five, making never a motion and thinking never a thought,
save for the setting of lard cans. In summer the stench of the warm lard
would be nauseating, and in winter the cans would all but freeze to his
naked little fingers in the unheated cellar. Half the year it would be
dark as night when he went in to work, and dark as night again when
he came out, and so he would never know what the sun looked like on
weekdays. And for this, at the end of the week, he would carry home
three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per
hour--just about his proper share of the total earnings of the million
and three-quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their
livings in the United States.

And meantime, because they were young, and hope is not to be stifled
before its time, Jurgis and Ona were again calculating; for they had
discovered that the wages of Stanislovas would a little more than pay
the interest, which left them just about as they had been before! It
would be but fair to them to say that the little boy was delighted with
his work, and at the idea of ea