‘It isn’t only the money,’ sobbed his wife, ’but it might have got him more work, and now, of course, he’s lost the chance, and we haven’t nothing more than a crust of bread left.  And—­’

Thomas slipped half-a-crown into her hand and whispered, ’Send Jack before the shops close.’  Then, to escape thanks, he shouted out, ’Where’s these blessed envelopes, and where’s the addresses?  All right, just leave me this corner of the table and don’t speak to me as long as I sit here.’

Between half-past nine and half-past twelve, at the rate of eighty an hour, he addressed all but half the five hundred envelopes.  Then his friend appeared, dolefully drunk.  Thomas would not look at him.

‘He’ll finish the rest by dinner to-morrow,’ said the miserable wife, ’and that’s in time.’

So Thomas Bird went home.  He felt better at heart, and blamed himself for his weakness during the day.  He blamed himself often enough for this or that, knowing not that such as he are the salt of the earth.

THE PIG AND WHISTLE

’I possess a capital of thirty thousand pounds.  One-third of this is invested in railway shares, which bear interest at three and a half per cent.; another third is in Government stock, and produces two and three-quarters per cent.; the rest is lent on mortgages, at three per cent.  Calculate my income for the present year.’

This kind of problem was constantly being given out by Mr. Ruddiman, assistant master at Longmeadows School.  Mr. Ruddiman, who had reached the age of five-and-forty, and who never in his life had possessed five-and-forty pounds, used his arithmetic lesson as an opportunity for flight of imagination.  When dictating a sum in which he attributed to himself enormous wealth, his eyes twinkled, his slender body struck a dignified attitude, and he smiled over the class with a certain genial condescension.  When the calculation proposed did not refer to personal income it generally illustrated the wealth of the nation, in which Mr. Ruddiman had a proud delight.  He would bid his youngsters compute the proceeds of some familiar tax, and the vast sum it represented rolled from his lips on a note of extraordinary satisfaction, as if he gloried in this evidence of national prosperity.  His salary at Longmeadows just sufficed to keep him decently clad and to support him during the holidays.  He had been a master here for seven years, and earnestly hoped that his services might be retained for at least seven more; there was very little chance of his ever obtaining a better position, and the thought of being cast adrift, of having to betake himself to the school agencies and enter upon new engagements, gave Mr. Ruddiman a very unpleasant sensation.  In his time he had gone through hardships such as naturally befall a teacher without diplomas and possessed of no remarkable gifts; that he had never broken down in health was the result