“Well, that’s one way of getting money without working.”
Frankie played with his toys in silence for some minutes. At last he said:
“What other ways?”
“Some people who have some money already get more in this way: they find some people who have no money and say to them, ‘Come and work for us.’ Then the people who have the money pay the workers just enough wages to keep them alive whilst they are at work. Then, when the things that the working people have been making are finished, the workers are sent away, and as they still have no money, they are soon starving. In the meantime the people who had the money take all the things that the workers have made and sell them for a great deal more money than they gave to the workers for making them. That’s another way of getting lots of money without doing any useful work.”
“But is there no way to get rich without doing such things as that?”
“It’s not possible for anyone to become rich without cheating other people.”
“What about our schoolmaster then? He doesn’t do any work.”
“Don’t you think it’s useful and necessary and also very hard work teaching all those boys every day? I don’t think I should like to have to do it.”
“Yes, I suppose what he does is some use,” said Frankie thoughtfully. “And it must be rather hard too, I should think. I’ve noticed he looks a bit worried sometimes, and sometimes he gets into a fine old wax when the boys don’t pay proper attention.”
The child again went over to the window, and pulling back the edge of the blind looked down the deserted rain washed street.