ties, it stands to the poor man's wife's credit that
their children fight our battles, people our colonies, uphold the credit
of our nation, and perpetuate the greatness of the greatest empire the
world has ever known.

But Mrs. Jones' eldest girl has a hard time too! for she acts as nurse
and foster-mother to the younger children. It was well for her that Tom
was born before her or she would have nursed him. Perhaps it was well
for Tom also that he got the most nourishment. As it is the girl has her
hands full, and her time is more than fully occupied. She goes to
school regularly both Sunday and week-day. She passes all her standards,
although she is not brilliant. She washes the younger children, she
nurses the inevitable baby, she clears the "dinner things" away at
midday, and the breakfast and tea-cups in their turn. She sits down to
the machine sometimes and sews the clothing her mother has cut out and
"basted." She is still a child, but a woman before her time, and Mrs.
Jones and all the young Joneses will miss her when she goes "out."

When that time comes, Mrs. Jones will not be so badly put to it as
she was when Tom went "out." For she has been paying regularly into a
draper's club, and with the proceeds a quantity of clothing material
will be bought. So Sally's clothing will be made at home, and Sally and
her mother will sit up late at night to make it.

It is astonishing how "clubs" of all descriptions enter into the lives
of the poor. There is, of course, the "goose club" for Christmas, for
the poor make sure of one good meal during the year. Some of them are
extravagant enough to join "holiday clubs," but this Mrs. Jones cannot
afford, so her clubs are limited to her family's necessities, excepting
the money club held at a neighbour's house into which she pays one
shilling weekly. This club consists of twenty members, who "draw"
for choice. Thus once in twenty weeks, sooner or later, Mrs. Jones is
passing rich, for she is in possession of twenty shillings all at once.

There is some discussion between Sally and her mother as to the spending
of it; Tom's first suit was bought by this means, and Jones himself is
not forgotten; but for Mrs. Jones no thought is given.

The planning, scheming and contrivance it takes to run a working man's
home, especially when the husband has irregular work, is almost past
conception, and the amount of self-denial is extraordinary.

But it is the wife who finds the brains