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Updated: May 17, 2025
Then Ona added that Teta Elzbieta had decided that little Stanislovas would have to work too. It was not fair to let Jurgis and her support the family the family would have to help as it could. Previously Jurgis had scouted this idea, but now knit his brows and nodded his head slowly yes, perhaps it would be best; they would all have to make some sacrifices now.
He would manage to persuade her of it and besides, Marija was willing, and Marija was furnishing the money. If Elzbieta were ugly, he would tell her that in so many words. So Jurgis went on meditating; until finally, when he had been an hour or two in the hall, there began to prepare itself a repetition of the dismal catastrophe of the night before.
Each dances for several minutes as long as he pleases; it is a very merry proceeding, with laughter and singing, and when the guest has finished, he finds himself face to face with Teta Elzbieta, who holds the hat. Into it he drops a sum of money a dollar, or perhaps five dollars, according to his power, and his estimate of the value of the privilege.
It was the one consolation of Jurgis' long imprisonment that now he had time to look at his baby. Teta Elzbieta would put the clothesbasket in which the baby slept alongside of his mattress, and Jurgis would lie upon one elbow and watch him by the hour, imagining things. Then little Antanas would open his eyes he was beginning to take notice of things now; and he would smile how he would smile!
Elzbieta, alas, did not read the papers, and no one had told her; but perhaps it was as well, for just then they would not have had the carfare to spare to go every day to wait upon the surgeon, nor for that matter anybody with the time to take the child.
It was long after midnight when Jurgis lay down upon the floor of Ostrinski's kitchen; and yet it was an hour before he could get to sleep, for the glory of that joyful vision of the people of Packingtown marching in and taking possession of the Union Stockyards! Jurgis had breakfast with Ostrinski and his family, and then he went home to Elzbieta.
The nest which had been advertised had not included feathers for quite so many birds as there were in this family. They had, of course, put their dining table in the kitchen, and the dining room was used as the bedroom of Teta Elzbieta and five of her children. She and the two youngest slept in the only bed, and the other three had a mattress on the floor.
He kept trying to show them something in the next paragraph; but Szedvilas could not get by the word "rental" and when he translated it to Teta Elzbieta, she too was thrown into a fright. They would not own the home at all, then, for nearly nine years! The agent, with infinite patience, began to explain again; but no explanation would do now.
If they paid rent, of course, they might pay forever, and be no better off; whereas, if they could only meet the extra expense in the beginning, there would at last come a time when they would not have any rent to pay for the rest of their lives. They figured it up. There was a little left of the money belonging to Teta Elzbieta, and there was a little left to Jurgis.
Suddenly some of the steam begins to advance, and, peering through it, you discern Aunt Elizabeth, Ona's stepmother Teta Elzbieta, as they call her bearing aloft a great platter of stewed duck.
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