“Yes, sir, it’s the truth you speak, and there’s many another in the same boat along with me. It’s a cruel hard life. But then, you see, I was making my four-and-six a day, and if I gave up I knew it meant starvation for the wife and the children; there is thousands out of work, and that makes a man think twice before giving in—spite of the long hours.”
“And he did get six shillings a day at one time,” said the wife looking up, “but the company’s cruel hard, sir, and just because he had a twopence in his money and no ticket to account for its being there they lowered him down to four-and-six again.”
“Yes, that did seem to me hard; I’ll not deny, I swore a bit that day,” said Hallifield. “But the company never treats us like men, it treats us like slaves. They might have known me to be honest and careful, but it seems as if they downright liked to catch a fellow tripping, and while that’s so there’s many that’ll do their best to cheat.”
“But is nothing being done to shorten the hours, to make people understand how frightful they are?” asked Sigrid.
“Oh, yes, miss, there’s Mrs. Reaney working with all her might for us,” said Hallifield. “But you see folks are hard to move, and if we had only the dozen hours a day that we ought to have and every other Sunday at home, why, miss, they’d perhaps not get nine per cent. on their money as they do now.”
“They are no better than murderers!” said Frithiof hotly.
“Well,” said Hallifield, “so it has seemed to me sometimes. But I never set up to know much; I’ve had no time for book-learning, nor for religion either, barely time for eating and sleeping. I don’t think God Almighty will be hard on a fellow that has done his best to keep his wife and children in comfort, and I’ll not complain if only He’ll just let me sit still and do nothing for a bit, for I’m mortal tired.”
He had been talking eagerly, and for the time his strength had returned to him, but now his head dropped forward, and his hands clutched convulsively at the blankets.
With a great cry the poor wife started forward and flung her arms round him.
“He’s going!” she sobbed. “He’s going! John—oh, John!”