HARD TIMES
Things went on in this manner for some time. Then the hot summer was
over and the green leaves died and fell to the ground with a rustle. All
the children except the babies started to school. It became too cold to
play out-of-doors in the afternoon, and soon the days got so short that
there were no afternoons, and the children forgot it ever had been
summer at all.
If a body had not already known it, he would never have guessed that the
row of houses on one side of Jefferson Square contained twenty-eight
children toasting their toes by blazing fires.
We should say twenty-one, for the entire family of outcasts had moved
from the square to a more congenial neighbourhood, and Mrs. Paddy lost
the only friends she had. Instead of the bright faces smiling and
nodding to her every time they went in or out the front door, an ugly
white card, with "For Rent" in big black letters, stared at her all day,
reminding her sadly of the friends who were gone.
[Illustration: "ALL THE CHILDREN EXCEPT THE BABIES STARTED TO SCHOOL."]
Paddy noticed her looking a little forlorn one morning, so he said:
"The cold weather doesn't agree with you, Peggy; there's too much air
coming through the window cracks. I'll just move your chair away from
it, and as close to the fire as may be."
He had to leave her alone a great deal those days, for bread was high
and work scarce. To get either, a man had to start early so as to be
handy for any odd jobs that came his way.
Peggy was sometimes so lonely that she missed even the naughty children,
for in summer when they played on the common she could hear their young
voices and it was company for her. Now all she could see was a bare
brown waste with never a child in sight.
When Paddy was there bending over his ash heaps she didn't care, for
every little while he would look up from his work, and wave his hand,
and that was all she wanted.
Things got very desperate with the Paddys. Money became so scarce that
they couldn't buy coal, but had to use half-burned cinders from the
common instead. Peggy declared that they made a "real hot fire," and
she would joke about their large coal cellar--meaning the common--"that
never got empty--only fuller and fuller."
Paddy would come in shivering and shaking in his threadbare coat.
"And are you frozen entirely?" she would ask.
And he would answer: "I was mortal cold, but the sight of your gentle
face has warmed my blood. Faith, it's better than all the fires!"
Whenever the sun came out she would make him take her to the window
where she could warm herself in its rays. When her husband was working
at the ash piles she would wave to him.
"On those days," said Paddy, "I always have luck. The people throw out
more rags, and the cinders are in big lumps and only half burned."
Whenever he made a good find he waved his hand to her, but one day he
waved both hands and his cap, and she knew he had been unusually
fortunate.
He came straight in to show her. He had found a big silver dollar. It
was tarnished and black from the flames, but it was a good one with a
true ring.
"Whose can it be, I wonder!" exclaimed Peggy.
"If I knew I'd have to take it back," answered Paddy, "but,
unfortunately, people don't often leave their visiting cards on their
ash heaps."
This was not all. The very day after he found the dollar, Peggy, from
her window, saw more frantic waving.
This time it was a silver spoon!
"I can find the owner of that, I'm sure," says Paddy. And he made the
rounds of all the houses in the neighbourhood to see if they were
missing any spoons, but nobody claimed it.
Peggy cleaned it and made it shine like new. At first she didn't like to
use it--it was so beautiful--but her husband persuaded her that as long
as they couldn't sell it, seeing that the owner might be found some day,
she had better get the good of it. So she yielded, and declared that
the soup had an extra richness all on account of the silver.
"It's luck coming our way, dear," says Paddy. "Money in our pockets and
a silver spoon in our mouths--you'll see."
And it was so; though at first it took such a round-about path--- a
little way luck has--that they quite mistook it for something else.