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 does— and 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:

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

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.

THE GIFT OF THE MAHATMA.

WHILST looking through the papers of a lately deceased relative who had made me his executor, I came across the following story, which he expressly authorised me to publish if I deemed it of sufficient interest. On that point I have not the slightest hesitation. It is in itself so very remarkable that I feel it can need neither preface nor apology on my part, and leave it, with all condence, to speak, as it speaks so eloquently, for itself.

When I was at Oxford, one of my chief friends was Ralph Dunstan, a quaint creature whom all that were at the same College, and some few besides, cannot fail to remember. He was not a game-playing man, nor even a distinguished scholar; his name therefore was not at all generally known in the University. But for those who did know him he was always a remarkable man, in some ways rather a sinister man. He had a very dark complexion, and a nasty un-British habit of smoking out of a queer Oriental pipe. We liked neither of these things about him; and yet we ought to have made every allowance, for his father, who had been an Englishman in the Indian Civil Service, had committed the unforgivable sin of marrying a Hindoo lady, away up in some distant province where caste distinctions-that is to say, English ones--grow confused. So Ralph Dunstan, in spite of his name, was half Oriental.

There is only one place where class distinctions of the most childish kind are observed more strictly than in India, and that is an English public school or university. Dunstan had a true Oriental's sensitiveness, and I think it was the fact that I did not offend this sensitiveness by sharing all the prejudices of most of our fellow undergraduates about him that made me his friend. I never did him any important service, that I am aware of, but he always treated me as if I was his benefactor and he in my debt a thousand deep.

While he was at Oxford his father died, and he went to India without taking his degree, so I doubt whether his name will be on the College books, though of course the buttery lists, and so on, of our day would show it.

VOL. X.-NO. 58, N.S.

20