receive no more deposits from those who had taken part in the run.  So Marija was forced to take her dollars home with her, watching to right and left, expecting every instant that some one would try to rob her; and when she got home she was not much better off.  Until she could find another bank there was nothing to do but sew them up in her clothes, and so Marija went about for a week or more, loaded down with bullion, and afraid to cross the street in front of the house, because Jurgis told her she would sink out of sight in the mud.  Weighted this way she made her way to the yards, again in fear, this time to see if she had lost her place; but fortunately about ten per cent of the working people of Packingtown had been depositors in that bank, and it was not convenient to discharge that many at once.  The cause of the panic had been the attempt of a policeman to arrest a drunken man in a saloon next door, which had drawn a crowd at the hour the people were on their way to work, and so started the “run.”

About this time Jurgis and Ona also began a bank account.  Besides having paid Jonas and Marija, they had almost paid for their furniture, and could have that little sum to count on.  So long as each of them could bring home nine or ten dollars a week, they were able to get along finely.  Also election day came round again, and Jurgis made half a week’s wages out of that, all net profit.  It was a very close election that year, and the echoes of the battle reached even to Packingtown.  The two rival sets of grafters hired halls and set off fireworks and made speeches, to try to get the people interested in the matter.  Although Jurgis did not understand it all, he knew enough by this time to realize that it was not supposed to be right to sell your vote.  However, as every one did it, and his refusal to join would not have made the slightest difference in the results, the idea of refusing would have seemed absurd, had it ever come into his head.

Now chill winds and shortening days began to warn them that the winter was coming again.  It seemed as if the respite had been too short—­they had not had time enough to get ready for it; but still it came, inexorably, and the hunted look began to come back into the eyes of little Stanislovas.  The prospect struck fear to the heart of Jurgis also, for he knew that Ona was not fit to face the cold and the snowdrifts this year.  And suppose that some day when a blizzard struck them and the cars were not running, Ona should have to give up, and should come the next day to find that her place had been given to some one who lived nearer and could be depended on?