The Washington times., 1911-05-02
CHAPTER II (Continued).

IRA nOuTS. III ldClI US6oi4 ~
myself lucky to hold the job 1 had, for
a gradual change OF methods had oeen
slowly going on in the office. Mechan-
ical adding machines had cost dozen
men their Jobs; a card system OF book
keeping had made it possible to dis
charge another dozen, while an off year
in woolens sent two or three more ny
ing, among them the man who hau
found me the position in the first place.
But he hadn't married and he went out
West somewhere. Occasionally when
work picked up again a young man was
taken on to fill the place of one Of the
DISCHARGED men, The company always
saved a few hundred dollars by such
shift, for the lad never fot the salary
Of the old emplove. and so far as any
one could see the work went on just
as well.
] can see now in looking back. they
didn't disturb me very much at the
time. I filled a little niche in the Of
flee mat was all my own. At eve Y
opportunity I had familiarized myself
with the work of the man above me,
and was on very good terms with him.
] waited patiently and confidently for
the day when Morse should call me in
and announce his own advance and
leave me-to fill his place. l might
have TO begin on two thousand, but It
was sure twenty-five hundred even
tually TO say nothing Of what il led to.
The president OF the company had, be-
gun as / had and had moved up the
eame steps that now lay ahead OF me.
In the meantime the life at home ran
smoothly, in spite of everything. Neither
the wife, the boy, nor ! was sick day,
for we all had sound bodies to start
with. Our country-bred ancestors didn't
need a will to leave us those. If at times
we felt trif1e pinched, especially in the
matter of clothes II was wonderful how
rich Ruth ContTived to make US feel.
She knew how to take care of things.
and though | didn't spend half what
some of the men spent on their suits,
went in town every morning looking
better than two-thirds of them. I was
started, and there wasn't a wrinkle or a
spot so small that it could last twenty
four hours. | shined my own shoes and
pressed my own trousers, and Ruth
Moreover. she could turn tie, clean
and press it so that It looked brand
new. / think some Of the neighbors
even thought l was extravagant in my
She did the same for herself. ard had
caught the knack of seeming to dress
stylishly without really doing so. She
made her look we'll dressed. As for the
boy, he was model for them all.
In the meanwhile the boy had grown
into short trousers, and before we knew
81 ne was in school. It made II lone
some for her during the day when he
began TO trudge off every morning at
o'clock She began to look forward 20
Saturdays as eagerly as the boy ola:
Then the next thing we knew he'd start
off, even earlier on that day, TO join his
plaYmates. Sunday was the only DAY
either of US had him to ourselves
After he began TO go to school, Ruth
and I seemed to begin another life. In
n falt all hV ourselves once
more I didn't get home until half past
seven now and Dick was then abed re
was abed, too. when I left in the morn
ing OF course he was never off nv
mind and if he hadn't been asleep up
stairs I guess I'd have known a differ
ence. But at the same time he was, IN
a small way. living his own life now
which left Ruth and me to ourselves yes
me all the details of his day from the
time she took him up in the morn
ing until she tucked him away IN bed
again at night and then there would
there ought to he something more: hui
there wasn't The next few months it
seemed almost as though she was wait
ing For what, I didn't know and yet
! too felt there was a lapse I'm our lives.
/ never loved her more. There was
never a time when she was so truly
my wife and yet in our combined lives
there was something lacking. After a
while I began TO notice wstful eX-
preston in her ewes. 1t always came
after she bad said:
so DicKy said. God bless father and
mother, and then he went to sleep.
Then one night Il dawned on me.
Hers was the same heart hunger that
had been eating at me. Dick was
boy now and there was no baby to
take his place. But good Lord, as T.
was hadn't heen able TO save dollar.
7 knew that we were simply holding on
Jtobt NJ HriftinU Tho hnat load
ed to the gunwales even now And yet
that expression in her eyes had a right
to be answered But l couldn't ans
wer It. I didn't dare open my mouth.
! didn't dare speak even one night
when she said:
Hes all we have. Billy-iust one"
! gripped her hand and sat staring
into the little coalhod fireplace which
we didn't light more than once a month
now. Even as l watched the flames l
saw them licking up pennies.
Just one! And l. too, wanted house
ful like Dick.
night and l had TO go to town know
ing I was leaving her all alone with
the only one away At school. And what
mother SIZE was! She ought TO have
had baby by her side all the time.
AS the one grew, his expenses in
creased. The only way to meet them
was by cutting down our own ex-
penses still more. / cut down smoking
and made my old clothes do an extra
year Ruth spent half her time in
bargain hunting and saved still more
by taking II out of herself. Poor little
woman. she worked harder for a quar-
ter than ! did and was working hard
er for that sum than ! used to work for
a dollar. But We were not alone in the
struggle. AS we came to know more
about the people in that group of snug
little homes we knew that the same
grim fight was going on in all of them.
Some of them were not so lucky as we.
and ran into debt, while few OF them
were luckier. and we're helped out with
legacies or by well-to-do relatives. We
were as much alike as peas in pod.
We were living on the future and bluff
ing out the present. You'd have thought
II would have cast a gloom over the
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES have thought II
would have done away with some Of
the parties and dances. But it didn't.
In the first place, this was, to most of
us, just life. In the second place there
didn't seem to be any alternative. There
was no other way of living. The con-
ditions seemed to he fixed: we had to !
eat we had to wear a certain type of |
dress; and unless we wished to exist as
eXiles we had to meet on a certain |
plane of social intercourse. The con- |
were as ironclad here as |
among the nobility of England. No one !
thought of violating them; no one |
thought il possible. You had TO live as |
the others did or die and be done with
It. If any one of us had thought, VIC |
might have seen the foolishness Of this, |
but this was all so manifest that no |
one did think. The only method of es-