had probably laid himself up for months by his folly.
The injury was not one that Durham and Company could
be held responsible for, and so that was all there was to
it, so far as the doctor was concerned.

Jurgis got home somehow, scarcely able to see for the
pain, and with an awful terror in his soul. Elzbieta
helped him into bed and bandaged his injured foot with
cold water, and tried hard not to let him see her dismay;
when the rest came home at night she met them outside
and told them, and they, too, put on a cheerful face, say~
ing it would only be for a week or two, and that they
would pull him through.

When they had gotten him to sleep, however, they sat
by the kitchen fire and talked it over in frightened whis~
pers. They were in for a siege, that was plainly to be
seen. Jurgis had only about sixty dollars in the bank,
and the slack season was upon them. Both Jonas and
Marija might soon be earning no more than enough to
pay their board, and besides that there were only the
wages of Ona and the pittance of the little boy. There
was the rent to pay, and still some on the furniture; there
was the insurance just due, and every month there was
sack after sack of coal. It was January, midwinter, an
awful time to have to face privation. Deep snows would
come again, and who would carry Ona to her work now?
She might lose her place -- she was almost certain to lose
it. And then little Stanislovas began to whimper -- who
would take care of him?

It was dreadful that an accident of this sort, that no
man can help, should have meant such suffering. The
bitterness of it was the daily food and drink of Jurgis.
It was of no use for them to try to deceive him; he
knew as much about the situation as they did, and he
knew that the family might literally starve to death.
The worry of it fairly ate him up -- he began to look hag~
gard the first two or three days of it. In truth, it was
almost maddening for a strong man like him, a fighter, to
have to lie there helpless on his back. It was for all the
world the old story of Prometheus bound. As Jurgis lay

[[137]]

p136 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p137w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p138

v?