Page:The English Peasant.djvu/98

 what warmth they may. But some are so poverty-stricken that they can only afford to light a fire at meal-times; often their wet clothes can never be dried, but are put on damp again the next morning; for fuel is very expensive. One woman stated that it cost them £2 in the winter for firewood. Here is a case mentioned in the Labour Circular, Feb. 1868. "E., 10s. per week; wife and six children. Son, 3s. 6d. per week; total income, 13s. 6d.; no grist or other allowance; rent, 1s. 6d., leaving only 12s. a week to support and clothe eight persons, a little more than than 2½d. a day for each member of the family."

No wonder there is a "want of labour pluck" in such people, a deadening of mental and physical force. No wonder that such circumstances send the father to the public-house; no wonder that the mother, disheartened at the difficulty of keeping her smoky, dilapidated house decent and clean, gives up the task in despair.

Frequently, however, the home does not get the benefit of her presence, the custom prevailing in Dorsetshire of hiring a whole family. Thus the wife goes to work as well as the husband, and takes her place in the barn, or the field, or beside the threshing-machine. The poor little ones are locked up all day, or left under the care of some young girl of seven or eight years of age, who has enough to do to mind the baby; and, when the mother comes home, smashed crockery and sullen tempers have been the result of the family left without proper guardianship or control.

But they are so poor that every member of the family must earn a crust as soon as he can. Boys of seven or eight go to work—nay, sometimes they begin as early as six. Their poverty, again, and the unconscionable way the farmers have of paying their wages fortnightly, or even monthly, causes them to run into debt with their masters or the tally-men, destroying every atom of independence, or power of improving their condition.

One advantage they have—larger allotments than in any other part of the kingdom, and to most cottages ample gardens are attached. And here, if they had the energy, they could add considerably to their domestic comfort. If every penny was not of such immediate consequence to them, they could cultivate these plots of ground to great advantage.