The Life of Thomas Wanless, PeasantWilson, A. J. (Alexander Johnstone)
General
The Life of Thomas Wanless, Peasant
Wilson, A. J. (Alexander Johnstone)
Peasants -- England -- Fiction
Sally found a place as drudge to a newly-married couple in Warwick--a
young surgeon and his wife. They had imprudently married on his
"prospects," and had to use many shifts to hide their poverty, lest the
world, which can only measure men's worth by the length of their purses,
should pass him by. It was thus a poor place, especially for one like
Sally, who had been better educated than probably any one else of her
class in the whole shire; and the wages were poor. At first they gave
her 1s. 6d. a-week with her food, but after six months they gave her
2s., partly to prevent neighbours from gossiping about their want of
means.
Here the girl remained for two years, not because she liked the place,
but because her parents told her that it was good to be able to say that
she had been so long in one family. Then she removed to the household of
a lawyer as housemaid, where two servants were kept, and had been in
that place over a year when her father met with an accident which laid
him up for many weeks. It seems that in building a rick he had somehow
been knocked off by a sheaf flung up at him thoughtlessly before he had
adjusted the previous one. He raised his one hand mechanically to catch
it, and his other slipped from under him. Being near the edge, he rolled
off heavily, striking the wheel of the waggon as he fell. The rick was
high, and the fall so severe, that, when picked up and examined, Thomas
was found to have badly bruised his shoulder and fractured two of his
ribs.
A long and tedious illness followed, during which Thomas was unable to
earn anything. Until young Tom could know and send money the old folks
were therefore likely again to feel the pinch of want, and it would take
many months to bring help from Australia. Some of the old hoard was
still left, but doctors' bills and necessary dainties soon made a hole
in that. In nursing her husband, too, Mrs. Wanless was prevented from
earning anything herself. There was no one to go to market with the
little garden produce that might be to spare. Neighbours were helpful,
but they could do little where all alike lived in daily converse with
want. Thomas's master was kindly, and declared that he would not see
them starve, but Thomas liked to be independent, and took umbrage at the
tone in which the charity was offered.
Talking of these things, and of the difficulties of the future, one
Sunday evening, when Sally was down from Warwick, the girl suddenly
asked why she could not go to a better place where her wages might be of
more use. She had only 3s. a week where she was, and felt sure she could
earn more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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