Chapter XVIII

Jurgis did not get out of the Bridewell quite as soon
as he had expected. To his sentence there were added
"court costs" of a dollar and a half -- he was supposed to
pay for the trouble of putting him in jail, and not having
the money, was obliged to work it off by three days more of
toil. Nobody had taken the trouble to tell him this -- only
after counting the days and looking forward to the end in
an agony of impatience, when the hour came that he ex~
pected to be free he found himself still set at the stone-
heap, and laughed at when he ventured to protest. Then
he concluded he must have counted wrong; but as another
day passed, he gave up all hope -- and was sunk in the
depths of despair, when one morning after breakfast a
keeper came to him with the word that his time was up at
last. So he doffed his prison garb, and put on his old
fertilizer clothing, and heard the door of the prison clang
behind him.

He stood upon the steps, bewildered; he could hardly
believe that it was true, -- that the sky was above him
again and the open street before him; that he was a free
man. But then the cold began to strike through his
clothes, and he started quickly away.

There had been a heavy snow, and now a thaw had set
in; a fine sleety rain was falling, driven by a wind that
pierced Jurgis to the bone. He had not stopped for his
overcoat when he set out to "do up" Connor, and so his
rides in the patrol wagons had been cruel experiences;
his clothing was old and worn thin, and it never had been
very warm. Now as he trudged on the rain soon wet it
through; there were six inches of watery slush on the

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