_Tuesday._—Dinner: Flour pancakes, with sugar. _Wednesday._—Dinner: ¼ lb. bacon, half a loaf of bread. _Thursday._—Dinner: halfpennyworth of fish for Lulu, and halfpennyworth of potatoes. Landlord downstairs gave Mrs. X. some meat pie and potatoes. _Friday._—Dinner: Bread, margarine, and tea. _Saturday._—Dinner: Bread and three bloaters. The following is a week’s budget: s. d. Rent 4 6 Baby minded 1 0 Fares 2 0 Coal 0 6¾ Lamp oil 0 2 Wood 0 2 Matches 0 0¼ Soap, soda, blue 0 2¼ Sickness insurance 0 3 Burial insurance 0 3 ----- 9 1¼ s. d. 6 loaves 1 10 2 lb. sugar 0 4 1 tin of milk 0 2 4 lbs. potatoes 0 2 Flour 0 2 Meat and fish 0 4 4 ozs. tea 0 4 Dripping 0 3 Margarine 0 0¾ Oatmeal 0 3 ------ 3 10¾ The eldest boy of seven has dinners at school five days in the week in term-time. The girl is three and a half, and is fed at home. The baby is two years old. All the children are extremely delicate. Since this menu was taken Mrs. X. has been lucky enough to get help from some kind people. They have seen her elder boy through an attack of rheumatic fever, and have clothed the three children in warm and decent garments. Without such timely help she would in all probability have lost her boy. There are those who, if they happen to read these weekly menus, will criticise with deep feeling the selection of the materials from which they are composed. It is not necessary to pretend that they are the absolute best that could be done, even upon that money. It is quite likely that someone who had strength, wisdom, and vitality, who did not live that life in those tiny, crowded rooms, in that lack of light and air, who was not bowed down with worry, but was herself economically independent of the man who earned the money, could lay out his few shillings with a better eye to scientific food value. It is quite as likely, however, that the man who earned the money would entirely refuse the scientific food, and demand his old tasty kippers and meat. It is he who has to be satisfied in the long-run, and if he desires pickles, pickles there will be. The fact that there is not enough money to buy good, healthy house-room means that appetites are jaded, and that food which would be nutritious and valuable, and would be greedily eaten by people who lived in the open air, seems tasteless and sickly to those who have slept four in a bed in a room 10 feet by 12 feet. CHAPTER X AMOUNT SPENT A HEAD ON FOOD—PER WEEK, PER DAY