The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Robert Tressell
after a few seconds it became placid: the mouth resumed its usual shape; the limbs relaxed and the child slumbered peacefully.
‘Don’t you think he’s getting thin?’ asked Easton. ‘It may be fancy, but he don’t seem to me to be as big now as he was three months ago.’
‘No, he’s not quite so fat,’ admitted Ruth. ‘It’s his teeth what’s wearing him out; he don’t hardly get no rest at all with them.’
They continued looking at him a little longer. Ruth thought he was a very beautiful child: he would be eight months old on Sunday. They were sorry they could do nothing to ease his pain, but consoled themselves with the reflection that he would be all right once those teeth were through.
‘Well, let’s have some tea,’ said Easton at last.
Whilst he removed his wet boots and socks and placed them in front of the fire to dry and put on dry socks and a pair of slippers in their stead, Ruth half filled a tin basin with hot water from the boiler and gave it to him, and he then went into the scullery, added some cold water and began to wash the paint off his hands. This done he returned to the kitchen and sat down at the table.
‘I couldn’t think what to give you to eat tonight,’ said Ruth as she poured out the tea. ‘I hadn’t got no money left and there wasn’t nothing in the house except bread and butter and that piece of cheese, so I cut some bread and butter and put some thin slices of cheese on it and toasted it on a place in front of the fire. I hope you’ll like it: it was the best I could do.’
‘That’s all right: it smells very nice anyway, and I’m very hungry.’
As they were taking their tea Easton told his wife about Linden’s affair and his apprehensions as to what might befall himself. They were both very indignant, and sorry for poor old Linden, but their sympathy for him was soon almost forgotten in their fears for their own immediate future.
They remained at the table in silence for some time: then,
‘How much rent do we owe now?’ asked Easton.
‘Four weeks, and I promised the collector the last time he called that we’d pay two weeks next Monday. He was quite nasty about it.’
‘Well, I suppose you’ll have to pay it, that’s all,’ said Easton.
‘How much money will you have tomorrow?’ asked Ruth.
He began to reckon up his time: he started on Monday and today was Friday; five days, from seven to five, less half an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner, eight and a half hours a day – forty-two hours and a half. At sevenpence an hour that came to one pound four and ninepence halfpenny.
‘You know I only started on Monday,’ he said, ‘so there’s no back day to come. Tomorrow goes into next week.’
‘Yes, I know,’ replied Ruth.
‘If we pay the two week’s rent that’ll leave us twelve shillings to live on.’
But we won’t be able to keep all that,’ said Ruth, ‘because there’s other things to pay.’
‘What other things?’
‘We owe the baker eight shillings for the bread he let us have while you were not working, and there’s about twelve shillings owing for groceries. We’ll have to pay them something on account. Then we want some more coal; there’s only about a shovelful left, and –’
‘Wait a minit,’ said Easton. ‘The best way is to write out a list of everything we owe; then we shall know exactly where we are. You get me a piece of paper and tell me what to write. Then we’ll see what it all comes to.’
‘Do you mean everything we owe, or everything we must pay tomorrow.’
‘I think we’d better make a list of all we owe first.’
While they were talking the baby was sleeping restlessly, occasionally uttering plaintive little cries. The mother now went and knelt at the side of the cradle, which she gently rocked with one hand, patting the infant with the other.
‘Except the furniture people, the biggest thing we owe is the rent,’ she said when Easton was ready to begin.
‘It seems to me,’ said he, as, after having cleared a space on the table and arranged the paper, he began to sharpen his pencil with a table-knife, ‘that you don’t manage things as well as you might. If you was to make a list of just the things you must have before you went out of a Saturday, you’d find the money would go much farther. Instead of doing that you just take the money in your hand without knowing exactly what you’re going to do with it, and when you come back it’s all gone and next to nothing to show for it.’
His wife made no reply: her head was bent over the child.
‘Now, let’s see,’ went on her husband. ‘First of all there’s the rent. How much did you say we owe?’
‘Four weeks. That’s the three weeks you were out and this week.’
‘Four sixes is twenty-four; that’s one pound four,’ said Easton as he wrote it down. ‘Next?’
‘Grocer, twelve shillings.’
Easton looked up in astonishment.
‘Twelve shillings. Why, didn’t you tell me only the other day that you’d paid up all we owed for groceries?’
‘Don’t you remember we owed thirty-five shillings last spring? Well, I’ve been paying that bit by bit all the summer. I paid the last of it the week you finished your last job. Then you were out three weeks – up till last Saturday – and as we had nothing in hand I had to get what we wanted without paying for it.’
‘But do you mean to say it cost us three shillings a week for tea and sugar and butter?’
‘It’s not only them. There’s been bacon and eggs and cheese and other things.’
The man was beginning to become impatient.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘What else?’
‘We owe the baker eight shillings. We did owe nearly a pound, but I’ve been paying it off a little at a time.’
This was added to the list.
‘Then there’s the milkman. I’ve not paid him for four weeks. He hasn’t sent a bill yet, but you can reckon it up; we have two penn’orth every day.’
‘That’s four and eight,’ said Easton, writing it down. ‘Anything else?’
‘One and seven to the greengrocer for potatoes, cabbage, and paraffin oil.’
‘Anything else?’
‘We owe the butcher two and sevenpence.’
‘Why, we haven’t had any meat for a long time,’ said Easton. ‘When was it?’
‘Three weeks ago; don’t you remember? A small leg of mutton.’
‘Oh, yes,’ and he added the item.
‘Then there’s the instalments for the furniture and oilcloth – twelve shillings. A letter came from them today. And there’s something else.
She took three letters from the pocket of her dress and handed them to him.
‘They all came today. I didn’t show them to you before as I didn’t want to upset you before you had your tea.’
Easton drew the first letter from its envelope.
CORPORATION OF MUGSBOROUGH
General District and Special Rates
FINAL NOTICE
MR W. EASTON,
I have to remind you that the amount due from you as under, in respect of the above Rates, has not been paid, and to request that you will forward