The savage does not enjoy the advantage of civilization; but he has, at least, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, and the fruits of the earth, to feed him, and his native woods for shelter and for fuel.  The civilized man, disinherited of these gifts, considering the rights of property as sacred, may, in return for his hard daily labor, which enriches his country, demand wages that will enable him to live in the enjoyment of health:  nothing more, and nothing less.  For is it living, to drag along on the extreme edge which separates life from the grave, and even there continually struggle against cold, hunger, and disease?  And to show how far the mortification which society imposes thus inexorably on its millions of honest, industrious laborers (by its careless disregard of all the questions which concern the just remuneration of labor), may extend, we will describe how this poor girl contrived to live on three shillings and sixpence a week.

Society, perhaps, may then feel its obligation to so many unfortunate wretches for supporting, with resignation, the horrible existence which leaves them just sufficient life to feel the worst pangs of humanity.  Yes:  to live at such a price is virtue!  Yes, society thus organized, whether it tolerates or imposes so much misery, loses all right to blame the poor wretches who sell themselves not through debauchery, but because they are cold and famishing.  This poor girl spent her wages as follows: 

Six pounds of bread, second quality . . . . . . . .0 8 1/2
Four pails of water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 2
Lard or dripping (butter being out of the question)0 5
Coarse salt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 0 3/4
A bushel of charcoal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 4
A quart of dried vegetables . . . . . . . . . . . .0 3
Three quarts of potatoes. . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 2
Dips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 3 1/4
Thread and needles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 2 1/2
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2 7

To save charcoal, Mother Bunch prepared soup only two or three times a week at most, on a stove that stood on the landing of the fourth story.  On other days she ate it cold.  There remained nine or ten pence a week for clothes and lodging.  By rare good fortune, her situation was in one respect an exception to the lot of many others.  Agricola, that he might not wound her delicacy, had come to a secret arrangement with the housekeeper, and hired a garret for her, just large enough to hold a small bed, a chair, and a table; for which the sempstress had to pay five shillings a year.  But Agricola, in fulfilment of his agreement with the porter, paid the balance, to make up the actual rent of the garret, which was twelve and sixpence.  The poor girl had thus about eighteenpence a month left for her other expenses.  But many workwomen, whose position is less fortunate than hers, since they have neither home nor family, buy a piece of bread and some other