“‘How much do you earn?’
“‘Is it earn d’ye say? Sometimes fifty cents a day, sometimes two dollars a week; and thin it’s good times wid me.’
“The Woman of the House.—‘Don’t mind him, man, what he’s saying. Shure he niver earns two dollars a week at all. That id be a good week faix for me. Two dollars indade!’
“‘Have you any children?’
“‘We have one dauther, a girl—a fine, big girl.’
“‘How old is she?’
“‘Well, I suppose she’s twenty-two next Mikilmas.’
“Woman.—‘Indade she’s not, shure. She’s only a slip of a gerrul, fifteen or sixteen years of age, goin’ on.’
“While the parents were arguing the age of their daughter, who, it seems, worked as a servant girl in some private residence, and only slept here when out of employment, the Health Officer was testing the condition of the walls by poking his umbrella at the base under the window and directly over the cess-pool. The point of the umbrella, which was tipped with a thin sheet of brass, made ready entrance into the walls, which were so soft and damp that the point of the umbrella when drawn out left each time a deep circular mark behind, as if it had been drawn from a rotten or decomposed cheese in summer.
“‘Take up a board from the floor,’ said the Health Officer. The man, who informed us that his name was William