afterward, and made into a stew for still another day. With this a quarter of a pound of suet may be bought for twopenceor it may not, if the joint give promise of supplying enough dripping for a pudding. Therefore, as we are dealing in averages, we will put down a penny for suet, a liberal estimate, since suet in these cheap shops is rarely eightpence a pound, and is sometimes as low as fourpence. So much for the butcher. At the fishmonger's the housewife's buying will be regulated by the prices and qualities of the day, to say nothing of her own and her husband's fancies. There will be cod, hake (a good and very cheap fish, often sold for cod, and here costing twopence and twopence-halfpenny a pound), eels, mackerel, haddocks, skate, herrings, all at varying but low prices; and for tenpence she will buy enough to make a little supper to celebrate Saturday evening, a little for Sunday's breakfast, and some more to use for breakfast or tea on Monday or Tuesday. In the hot weather she will cook it soon, so that it may keep the better.

The greengrocery will depend much on the purchases already made. Threepence for potatoes and threepence more for greens will about represent the expenditure, though if some unwonted saving have been effected in butcher's meat or fish, advantage may be taken of the fact to indulge in some small luxury in addition. And now, if my arithmetic serves me, it will be found that the evening's payments have been exactly seven-and-sixpence. To this we must add the price of three loaves of bread bought early in the afternoon and costing sevenpence-halfpenny, and half a quartern of flour bought at the same time for threepence. This will bring the whole Saturday marketing expenditure to eight shillings and fourpence-halfpenny. Thus:

So that when the landlord takes his seven shillings on Monday morning, more than half the week's money will be knocked down. But let us put the landlord aside for the moment and go on to estimate the remaining household expenses.

As to food, there will be bread to get for the rest of the week,

and this will cost one-and-threepence. This, with the three loaves already bought, allows one loaf a day. The joint of meat will probably hold out, in one shape or another, over Thursday's dinner, and then something else-fish, sausages, or what notwill be bought for Friday and Saturday. This, with what is called a 'relish' for tea or breakfast-it may be fish, or an egg, or a rasher of bacon on an occasion or two in the latter part of the week-the whole of the additional meat and fish, in short-will cost two shillings. Extra vegetables will be needed, some of them for Thursday's stew, and the cost of these may be put at ninepence. In the matter of fuel, expense will vary, of course, with the season. And here I must apologise for an error in the earlier part of this paper, where I said that rent was the sole expense wherein the workman had a disadvantage as compared with other people. I should have said rent and coal. Almost always he is afflicted with a sad lack of storage-room, and this fact alone would be sufficient to condemn him to buy coal by the hundredweight. This means, of course, that he cannot avail himself of low summer prices to lay in a stock, and he must pay the current rate, however high. Moreover, the current rate with the small dealers of whom he buys is apt to be above that of the merchants who quote by the ton, while the quality of the coal is anything but correspondingly high. It must be remembered, however, that except on washing days only one fire will be used in the winter, for the cooking is done in the livingroom. In the summer a fire is only used when heavy cooking is to be done, a small oil stove sufficing for the occasional boiling of a kettle or the frying of a rasher of bacon. Taking one thing with another the year round, fuel-coal and wood-will cost our workman two shillings a week. There are trades, by the way, in which firewood is a recognised perquisite, which the workman may carry away in reasonable quantity after his day's work.

Paraffin oil, for lamp and stove, will cost sixpence for the week, and perhaps one packet of Swedish boxes of matches will be used especially if the workman smoke, as he usually doesand these matches will cost three-halfpence. Soap, starch, blue, and soda will cost sixpence a week, and blacking and blacklead three-halfpence. The washing and ironing will be done at home, of course, but clothes will be put out to mangle at a cost of threepence. Pepper, salt, mustard, and so forth-'cruet allowance,' in fact-will average at three-halfpence a week. With this we come to the end of strictly household expenses, and we find, as I calculate, that since the transactions of Saturday, seven-andseven-pence-halfpenny more will have been spent, making, with the rent and the money spent on Saturday, a total of one pound three shillings. So that now there is left from the week's wages a sum of seven shillings available for clothes, clubs, insurances, beer, tobacco, fares, newspapers, books, holidays, renewals of furniture and utensils, postage, petty cash, amusements, charities, dissipations, savings, investments, and as many more things as we may imagine it will buy.

In the matter of clothes I am brought to a stand. I have generalised pretty freely already, but as regards clothes I must generalise wholesale or not at all. Particular clothes are needed in particular trades, and some trades are more destructive of clothes than others. Some workmen buy cheaper clothes than other workmen, and while some are careful with their garments others are not. Some children's clothes are bought at the slop-shop, but more are made at home from father's and mother's cast-offs. If all the family are boys or all girls, clothes descend in the same way from the biggest to the smallest, being shortened and 'taken in' for each successive wearer; but if boys and girls are mixed the old clothes will not go so far. Again, some women are very neat with joins and patches, while others cobble miserably, or not at all. A practice is sometimes followed in such a family as we are discussing of setting aside a sum of about two shillings a week for clothes, boots, and repairs, and I think that our simplest and safest generalisation will be to adopt the same plan. The two shillings alone, perhaps, would scarcely do it; but the thrifty housewife has ways of saving a penny now and a penny again; of selling bottles and rags; of 'making shift' without some small thing at a time when the lack will not be serious; and, by hook and crook, of scraping up little sums which can be hoarded secretly and brought out on occasion. And if needs must, then an extra expenditure on clothes is made up by cheaper living for a week or two; a smaller piece of meat from a cheaper part, and perhaps one day's dinner of bread and cheese, and plainer breakfasts and teas. Two shillings a week, then, let us say, for clothes, and a shilling for clubs and insurances. This is a very necessary shilling, for the benefit club represents medical attendance, which otherwise might be a considerable item. The club may cost sixpence, or it may be a trifle more. If sixpence, the rest of the shilling will provide a penny a week insurance for the wife and each of the children, and one at twopence for the breadwinner.

Four shillings is the sum left, and plenty there is to do with it. If the children go to a voluntary school, there may be a few coppers in school pence to pay, but the average child goes to the Board school, and nowadays pays nothing. Shall we allow half a crown for beer and tobacco? I think that would be very moderate indeed. If we give the workman and his wife but a single pint of beer each a day-and I will be no party to the denial of that-the cost will be two-and-fourpence for the seven days. This allows each half a pint at dinner and half a pint at supper at fourpence a quart, the usual price of the ale or halfand-half' which they drink. But that would leave only twopence for tobacco, so I really think we must increase the half-crown to two and ninepence, to give the man an ounce and a half of shag -a very modest allowance.

And now one shilling and threepence is left for savings, postage, literature, amusements, and all the rest of it. It does not seem a great deal, and if the workman chance to live at a distance from his work, he may well spend a shilling in fares. We will not give the shilling to fares, however, because distance from work would probably mean a smaller rent, and the one thing would balance the other. Moreover, we began with the stipulation that the man lived near his work. But without train-fare there are a hundred ways in which the one-and-threepence may be swallowed in a moment, and truly it is a small fund for contingencies, to say nothing of the little matters of petty cash already spoken of. Indeed, an occasional extra half-pint of beer would wipe it away. Yet there are many families who save it, and even add to it, thanks to the patient expedients of the ' missis.' The income and expenditure account of the week, then, will stand thus :

لگے

Or if we prefer a yearly account as being on a scale more familiar to the eye:

£s. d. 7800

£

8. d.

540

2 12 0

730

350

£78 0 0

These figures will show how narrow is the margin that lies between the workman's plain and healthy livelihood and an unpleasant privation. We have allowed for nothing but reasonable necessaries, and yet very little-almost nothing-remains, wherewith some provision may be made for the evil day of sickness, old age, or lack of work. Yet the provision is often made, as I have said; though it is physically impossible that it should be of a substance to stand a long strain.

If the children are fewer than three, of course there will be some saving, but if their numbers increase, the fight will be a little harder. Fewer 'relishes' will be indulged. in, and there will be more 'makeshift' dinners. When the children pass the school age, however, and begin to earn money, things will grow easier all round. Meantime, economies must be practised. Indeed, the fairly comfortable style of living I have indicated provides a sort of reserve in itself, on which a draft may be made for extra expenses by means of a temporary lowering of the standard in food. More bread, less meat, and that of the cheaper parts, fewer puddings, or rice as a substitute-a few such changes as these make a great difference in the hands of a careful housewife. And if I have not yet made sufficiently plain my admiration of the housewifely qualities of the workman's wife in general, let me say here that again and again they have filled me with astonishment. I have seen clean, well-fed, well-clothed, and well-mannered families brought up on smaller resources than those we have been dealing with here. Often one would almost have supposed the income to be no more than sufficient for clothes and boots alone. When the workman's wife is a good housekeeper, as she commonly is, she is very good indeed. And once again I wish she were more often a good cook.

ARTHUR MORRISON.