"I hope that's over, my lass, though it won't make the difference to us I thought it would, if I get this work at my old trade."
"What would have been the difference, daddy?" asked the girl.
"Why, we might have had a front room as well as this one, and you might have been able to look out into the street sometimes and see the children at play when they came home from school. That's what Brown and I used to talk about, and when he found out that you had given up your holiday ticket for Annie, he set himself to give up the drink, and be as steady and sober as he could, so that he might be able to keep the rest steady too, when the strike came, that nothing might spoil it, and prevent you from having a front window to look out of."
"How kind of him!" exclaimed Winny smiling through her tears. "But God is kinder, father, for he is going to let us live in the country, which is ever so much better than having a front window even."
"Yes, dear, I hope we may be able to live in the country for your sake. We owe this good fortune to you, my girl, for if Annie Brown had not gone to work at this jam factory, we should not have heard of this."
"You will take it, father? Though I am sure Mr. Brown will be very sorry if we go away."
"But more sorry if we stayed, my lass, after having such a chance as this. Don't you see every one who leaves this overcrowded London for work in the country gives those who stay a better chance, and so I hope I shall be able to do this work, though what I am going to do without tools is rather a puzzle, for of course they will expect me to take them with me."
"Oh, daddy! We never thought of that," said Winny in a tone of dismay. "I thought when you had got those nice clothes you had got all you wanted."
But before they went to bed, this want was supplied. Brown knew a man who wanted to sell a basket of carpenter's tools, and went to see him about them. Money was scarce enough just now with everybody, but he had found a friend who was willing to lend the price of these to be repaid in small instalments, if somebody would be responsible for the debt, and this Brown promised to do himself.
So before they were in bed, Brown brought the basket of tools ready for him to take in the morning. But the pleasure of handling the old familiar things was too keen for Chaplin to be content with just looking at them. They were a little rusty in places, and this was enough for an excuse. He must sit up for an hour to clean them, and never did a duchess handle her diamonds more tenderly and lovingly, than Chaplin did the planes and gimlets, screw-drivers and hammers. They must all be rubbed and cleaned before he could go to bed, and Winny lay in her little bed watching her father and thanking God for his great goodness to them.