"Can you spare me a little money, George?" asked Mrs. Cowels, adjusting
her last year's coat.
"What do you want of money?"
"Well--it's Christmas eve, and I thought we ought to have something for
Bennie. He has been asking me all evening what I expected from Santa
Claus, never hinting, of course, that he expected anything."
"Well, here's a dollar."
Mrs. Cowels took the money and went over to the little store.
There were so many things to choose from that she found it difficult to
make a selection. Finally she paid a quarter for a tin whistle and two
bunches of noise--that was for the boy. With the remaining seventy-five
cents she bought a pair of gloves for her husband.
"Anybody been here to-day?" asked Cowels of his wife when she came back
from the store.
"Yes, Mr. Squeesum, secretary of the Benevolent Building Association,
was here to see you about the last two payments which are over-due, on
the house."
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him that we had no money."
"What did he say?"
"He said that was very strange, as the Brotherhoods were pouring
thousands of dollars into Chicago to aid the strikers. What becomes of
all this money, George? You never seem to get any of it."
"We pour it out again," said Cowels, "to the army of engine-men who are
coming here from the Reading and everywhere to take our places. We hire
them--buy them off--bribe them, to prevent them from taking service with
the company, and yet it seems there is no end to the supply. For every
man we secure the company brings a score, and we are losing ground.
Members of the Brotherhood everywhere are growing weary of the long
struggle. They have good jobs and object to paying from six to twelve
dollars a month to support the strikers. Some have even refused to pay
assessments and have surrendered their charters. Anybody else here?"
"Yes, a man named Hawkins. He wanted room and board."
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him we had never kept roomers or boarders, but he said he liked
the place--for me to speak to you, and he would call again."
"Huh! he must like the place. Well, I guess we can get along some way,"
said Cowels, and then he sat and looked into the fire for a while
without saying anything. When Mrs. Cowels had put the baby down she came
and sat near her husband and they began to discuss the future. They had
bought their little home a year and a half ago for twelve hundred
dollars. They had lived economically and had been able to reduce the
debt to six hundred dollars. But when the strike came they were unable
to keep up the payments and now the association had begun to push them.
If they did not pay within the next thirty days the real estate company
with the soft sounding title would foreclose the mortgage. When they had
talked this all over, Mrs. Cowels proposed that they take the stranger
in, but her husband objected. "I didn't want to tell you, George," said
the brave little woman, "but there was another caller. The grocer and
butcher was here this morning and we can get no more meat or groceries
until we pay. He is a poor man, you know, and he can't keep up the
families of all the strikers. I didn't want to worry you with this,
George, but since you are opposed to me helping by taking a lodger I
will tell you that something must be done."
Cowels lighted a fresh cigar. That was the third one since supper. They
cost all the way from two to five cents apiece, but Mrs. Cowels knew
that he was worried about lodge matters and if she thought anything
about it at all, she probably reasoned that it was a good thing to be
able to smoke and forget.
"I made the speech of my life to-day," said the striker, brushing the
ashes lightly from his cigar. "The hall was packed and the fellows stood
up on their chairs and yelled. One fellow shouted, 'Three cheers for the
next Grand Master,' and the gang threw up their hats and hollered till I
thought they'd gone wild. Nora, if there was a convention to-morrow I'd
win, hands down."
Mrs. Cowels smiled faintly, for to her way of thinking there were other
things as important as her husband's election to the position of Grand
Master of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and she changed the
subject. Presently the door-bell sounded, so loud and piercing that the
sound of it waked the baby. The man who had pulled the bell knew at once
that he had made no mistake. He had noticed when he called that morning
that the bell upon the door had once done service in the cab of a
locomotive, and had made a note of the fact. While Mrs. Cowels hushed
the baby her husband answered the bell and when Mr. Hawkins gave his
name and made his wants known, Cowels told him shortly that they did not
keep lodgers. He knew that, he said, and that was one of the reasons why
he was so anxious to come, but Cowels, who liked to show his authority
at all times, shut the door, and the stranger was not taken in.
That night when the orator was dreaming that he had been chosen Grand
Master of the Brotherhood, his wife stole out of the room and put the
things in Bennie's sock, and then, just to please Bennie, she put a
rubber rattle in the baby's little stocking. Her husband, being a great
thinker, would not consent to having his hosiery hung up, so she would
wait till breakfast time and hide the gloves under his plate. Then she
went over to tuck the cover in around Bennie. He was smiling--dreaming,
doubtless, of red sleds and firecrackers--and his mother smiled, too,
and kissed him and went back to bed.