sidewalk. Yes, said the agent, they would have to have
these, whether they wanted them or not, if the city said
so. The sewer would cost them about twenty-two dol~
lars, and the sidewalk fifteen if it were wood, twenty-five
if it were cement.

So Jurgis went home again; it was a relief to know the
worst, at any rate, so that he could no more be surprised
by fresh demands. He saw now how they had been plun~
dered; but they were in for it, there was no turning back.
They could only go on and make the fight and win -- for
defeat was a thing that could not even be thought of.

When the springtime came, they were delivered from
the dreadful cold, and that was a great deal; but in addi~
tion they had counted on the money they would not have
to pay for coal -- and it was just at this time that Marija's
board began to fail. Then, too, the warm weather brought
trials of its own; each season had its trials, as they found.
In the spring there were cold rains, that turned the streets
into canals and bogs; the mud would be so deep that
wagons would sink up to the hubs, so that half a dozen
horses could not move them. Then, of course, it was im~
possible for any one to get to work with dry feet; and this
was bad for men that were poorly clad and shod, and still
worse for women and children. Later came midsummer,
with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing-beds of
Durham's became a very purgatory; one time, in a
single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke. All day
long the rivers of hot blood poured forth, until, with the
sun beating down, and the air motionless, the stench was
enough to knock a man over; all the old smells of a genera~
tion would be drawn out by this heat -- for there was never
any washing of the walls and rafters and pillars, and they
were caked with the filth of a lifetime. The men who
worked on the killing-beds would come to reek with foul~
ness, so that you could smell one of them fifty feet away;
there was simply no such thing as keeping decent, the
most careful man gave it up in the end, and wallowed in
uncleanness. There was not even a place where a man
could wash his hands, and the men ate as much raw blood

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p119 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p120w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p121

v?