"Bless you, no ! Nor can e do as well helse-
where with is money."

And I thought of my own spacious West, with
room under its sky and unlimited air for a thou
sand Londons; and here was this man, a steady
and reli; ole man, never missing a night s work,
frugal ai.i honest, lodging in one room with two
other men, paying two dollars and a half per month
for it, and out of his experience adjudging it to
be the best he could do ! And here was I, on
the strength of the ten shillings in my pocket, able
to enter in with my rags and take up my bed with
him. The human soul is a lonely thing, but it
must be very lonely sometimes when there are
three beds to a room, and casuals with ten shil
lings are admitted.

"How long have you been here ? " I asked.

"Thirteen years, sir; an don t you think you ll
fancy the lodgin?"

The while she talked she was shuffling ponder
ously about the small kitchen in which she cooked
the food for her lodgers who were also boarders.
When I first entered, she had been hard at work,
nor had she let up once throughout the conversa
tion. Undoubtedly she was a busy woman. " Up
at half-past five," " to bed the last thing at night,"
"workin' fit ter drop," thirteen years of it, and for
reward, gray hairs, frowzy clothes, stooped shoulders,

[[32]]

p031 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p032w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p033

v?