for; there was only one of them left to seek a place.
Jurgis was determined that Teta Elzbieta should stay at
home to keep house, and that Ona should help her. He
would not have Ona working -- he was not that sort of
a man, he said, and she was not that sort of a woman. It
would be a strange thing if a man like him could not sup~
port the family, with the help of the board of Jonas and
Marija. He would not even hear of letting the children
go to work -- there were schools here in America for
children, Jurgis had heard, to which they could go for
nothing. That the priest would object to these schools
was something of which he had as yet no idea, and for
the present his mind was made up that the children of
Teta Elzbieta should have as fair a chance as any other chil~
dren. The oldest of them, little Stanislovas, was but thir~
teen, and small for his age at that; and while the oldest
son of Szedvilas was only twelve, and had worked for
over a year at Jones's, Jurgis would have it that Stani~
slovas should learn to speak English, and grow up to be a
skilled man.

So there was only old Dede Antanas; Jurgis would
have had him rest too, but he was forced to acknowledge
that this was not possible, and, besides, the old man would
not hear it spoken of -- it was his whim to insist that he
was as lively as any boy. He had come to America as
full of hope as the best of them; and now he was the
chief problem that worried his son. For everyone that
Jurgis spoke to assured him that it was a waste of time
to seek employment for the old man in Packingtown.
Szedvilas told him that the packers did not even keep the
men who had grown old in their own service -- to say
nothing of taking on new ones. And not only was it the
rule here, it was the rule everywhere in America, so far
as he knew. To satisfy Jurgis he had asked the police~
man, and brought back the message that the thing was
not to be thought of. They had not told this to old
Anthony, who had consequently spent the two days wan~
dering about from one part of the yards to another, and
had now come home to hear about the triumph of the

[[51]]

p050 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p051w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p052

v?