ments had caused another to waver. Once, in the even~
ing, when they were all in harmony, and the house was
as good as bought, Szedvilas came in and upset them again.
Szedvilas had no use for property-owning. He told them
cruel stories of people who had been done to death in this
"buying a home" swindle. They would be almost sure
to get into a tight place and lose all their money; and
there was no end of expense that one could never foresee;
and the house might be good-for-nothing from top to bot~
tom -- how was a poor man to know? Then, too, they
would swindle you with the contract -- and how was a
poor man to understand anything about a contract? It
was all nothing but robbery, and there was no safety but
in keeping out of it. And pay rent? asked Jurgis. Ah,
yes, to be sure, the other answered, that too was robbery.
It was all robbery, for a poor man. After half an hour of
such depressing conversation, they had their minds quite
made up that they had been saved at the brink of a preci~
pice; but then Szedvilas went away, and Jonas, who was
a sharp little man, reminded them that the delicatessen
business was a failure, according to its proprietor, and
that this might account for his pessimistic views. Which,
of course, reopened the subject!

The controlling factor was that they could not stay
where they were -- they had to go somewhere. And when
they gave up the house plan and decided to rent, the
prospect of paying out nine dollars a month forever they
found just as hard to face. All day and all night for
nearly a whole week they wrestled with the problem, and
then in the end Jurgis took the responsibility. Brother
Jonas had gotten his job, and was pushing a truck in
Durham's; and the killing-gang at Brown's continued to
work early and late, so that Jurgis grew more confident
every hour, more certain of his mastership. It was the
kind of thing the man of the family had to decide and
carry through, he told himself. Others might have failed
at it, but he was not the failing kind -- he would show
them how to do it. He would work all day, and all night,
too, if need be; he would never rest until the house was

[[57]]

p056 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p057w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p058

v?