on his bed, hour after hour, there came to him emotions
that he had never known before. Before this he had met
life with a welcome -- it had its trials, but none that a
man could not face. But now, in the night-time, when
he lay tossing about, there would come stalking into his
chamber a grisly phantom, the sight of which made his
flesh to curl and his hair to bristle up. It was like seeing
the world fall away from underneath his feet; like plung~
ing down into a bottomless abyss, into yawning caverns of
despair. It might be true, then, after all, what others had
told him about life, that the best powers of a man might not
be equal to it! It might be true that, strive as he would,
toil as he would, he might fail, and go down and be
destroyed! The thought of this was like an icy hand at
his heart; the thought that here, in this ghastly home of
all horror, he and all those who were dear to him might
lie and perish of starvation and cold, and there would be
no ear to hear their cry, no hand to help them! It was
true, it was true, -- that here in this huge city, with its
stores of heaped-up wealth, human creatures might be
hunted down and destroyed by the wild-beast powers of
nature, just as truly as ever they were in the days of the
cave-men!

Ona was now making about thirty dollars a month, and
Stanislovas about thirteen. To add to this there was the
board of Jonas and Marija, about forty-five dollars. De~
ducting from this the rent, interest, and installments on
the furniture, they had left sixty dollars, and deducting
the coal, they had fifty. They did without everything
that human beings could do without; they went in old
and ragged clothing, that left them at the mercy of the
cold, and when the children's shoes wore out, they tied
them up with string. Half invalid as she was, Ona would
do herself harm by walking in the rain and cold when she
ought to have ridden; they bought literally nothing but
food -- and still they could not keep alive on fifty dollars
a month. They might have done it, if only they could
have gotten pure food, and at fair prices; or if only they
had known what to get -- if they had not been so pitifully

[[138]]

p137 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p138w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p139

v?