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 glanc~
ing at it, and then sending it to the office to be filed away.
Then he set someone 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 de~
cided 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 week-days. 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 en~
gaged 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 earning a lot
of money; and also that the two were very much in love
with each other.

[[85]]

p084 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p085w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p086

v?