"Do you know what the men are going to do?" asked Mrs. Chaplin, for she had made up her mind how he ought to help Winny and all of them, and meant to tell him so.
"No; I don't think anybody knows," replied Brown twirling his cap and wishing himself well out of the room.
But Mrs. Chaplin had heard that this man, unlikely as it seemed to her, was regarded as a sort of leader, and so she determined to get him to promise her his help. "Now, I want you to help us this way, Mr. Brown. Just tell the men to give up all foolish notions about being able to get up a strike. I know what strikes are, and I know this, if these foolish men strike, we shall all be starved to death in a week."
"Never while Jack Brown has got two arms on his body, and can remember what this lass here has done for his 'little un.' No, no, I'll never see you or yours starve while I've got a hand to help you."
"What's all this about?" asked a voice from the doorway, and the next minute Chaplin walked into the room looking very weary, and laying down his day's earnings of fivepence. He seldom got hired for more than an hour now, for by that time his strength was exhausted, he was so weak from insufficient food.
Brown knew the signs of slow starvation, and saw the money that his neighbour put down on the table, and recalled the time when Winny had sent him the cold mutton for tea. Although he, too, had a hard fight to make ends meet sometimes, still he was better off than most, for he had only himself to think of, and he had earned four times as much as Chaplin, just because he had been able to get better food, and was therefore stronger and able to stand four hours' work.
So laying a shilling on the table he said, "I want you to let me have my bit of tea with you. I ain't got no kettle boiling, and if you don't mind me taking it along of you, I could pay that for it."
But Mrs. Chaplin looked dubious, and glanced at her husband for a moment. Brown was not the sort of person she cared to associate with, unless she herself was the bestower of the favour. But her pride melted before the look in her husband's face, and she eagerly took up the shilling.
"Yes, you shall have tea with us, and I'm much obliged for the help; I'll go myself and get something for you," she added.
It was one of the hardships of this way of living that no provision in the way of a cheap nourishing meal could be prepared beforehand, or at least very rarely, and so now that Mrs. Chaplin had got a shilling to spend, her first thought was to go to the butcher and get a pound of steak. This was what most housewives did when they could indulge in the luxury of a piece of meat.