the demand for hearth-stones, are all told cheerily
and without a syllable of even implied murmuring.
Here, there is a slight variation in
manufacture, for the dealers prescribe pink linings for
their match-boxes, and this involves a sixth item
for cutting out and fastening, and a proportionate
expenditure of time. The working tinman's, a
few doors lower down, is a completely different
place. Here the whole house is occupied by
one family; the wife helps the husband by
soldering down his work, and the business or box-
making is left to the children. The eldest girl
who looks twelve, and is sixteen, is the chief of
the department. The youngest, who "will be
three the 7th of next month," is an active
member of the staff, and has worked regularly
for more than a year.

"Five shillings and sixpence we pay a week for
our house, and we've no call to complain of our
landlady. The noise of my husband's trade
made it difficult for us to keep in apartments,
for it's hammer, hammer, hammer, much as you
hear it now, all day long; so we've had to take
this house, which suits us very well, all things
considered. No, sir, I've never no time to help
at box-making myself; but when I do get five
minutes from the sawdering, I just tell 'em to
allers put their best work in, and they'll never
want a job, and they've as much as they can do.
Twopence-halfpenny a gross is what we get, the
regular price; but then, you see, making 'em,
as we do, with the inside part as perfect as
t'other, it's just like two boxes in one; or twenty-
four dozen boxes, as you may say, for twopence-
halfpenny. It's littery work too, very littery,
and our landlady didn't want us to do it at all,
on account of fire; but that, as we told her, that
wouldn't do nohow, if she wanted her rent regular;
so we're as careful as we can be. When I
worked at the match-box trade myself, which was
before I learnt sawdering, and when it was my
only way of earning money, the round boxes used
to be my sort. You'll remember them, I dare
say. You could just get your two fingers into
the round, and they paid fourpence a gross for
making them. I'd be very glad if they'd come
into fashion again, for I got pretty quick at it,
and could turn out a gross in a hour, which
weren't so very bad, and my girl there would
soon pick it up, I know. It would be better for
her to go out to service, I don't dispute that;
but she's very useful to us, you see, and
we couldn't spare her easily. That other one,
who's bin in the 'orspital twice, she'd be a better
one to go out, for she likes fresh people, and
isn't shy; but, however, ma'am, if you say you
could get Annie a place at once, I'll talk it over
with her father, and let you know. I don't
want to stand in her way, not I, if she'd like to
go. We've four rooms in this house, sir, and,
to tell you the truth, it ain't hardly enough, for
we've seven children, though we've lost one,
through a lady at Bow taking a fancy to her, and
taking her off our hands. My husband's work
takes up a lot of room, you see, let alone the
match-making; but, however, we're better off
than a good many, and mustn't cry out. No,
we'd no cholera here, sir. They had it very
bad a few doors lower down; but the gentleman
from the Board of Health said our house was
kept cleaner and more wholesome than many,
and perhaps that helped to keep us free. He
ordered them to put us dust-heaps up in the
yard; but, Lord! they've done 'em so badly that
they ain't no use. Very good water supply, sir,
now, since some other gentlemen came round
and inquired into it, though our tap's out of
order just at this time; but, when it's right,
we've as much water as we can use."

Another home of one small room. Husband
a dustman, out with his cart; wife daily expecting
an addition to the family; little boys and girls
all busily at work. "Fourpence each every time
they fill a cart, the three of 'em, that's what
dustman's pay is; but then they often don't fill
more than three carts a day, sometimes much
less, and that makes it shockin' uncertain."

At every house we have visited there have
been cheery allusions to a tea given on the
preceding Monday at the Bedford Institution to
match-box makers under fourteen years of age.
The quantity of cake eaten, and of tea drunk, has
been a fertile topic for jocosity, and we have
diplomatically availed ourselves of an obvious
disposition to connect our call with the treat
enjoyed — with which, we regret to add, we had
nothing whatever to do. Here a bright lad of ten,
who blushed and grinned merrily over his pasting
at the reminiscence, was on the point of losing the
feast for want of a pair of trousers and a waistcoat
to appear in, when, presto, a kind gentleman
sent him a shilling, with which the father
purchased both, and in which the lad worked
proudly now. "My husband's asthma has been
a good deal better, thank you, ma'am, since he
went into the work-house infirmary; but these
old winds tell upon him, and the dust trade's
bad for that complaint, you see." A whispered
colloquy between my companions and the
speaker concerning a certain "bag," which
contains baby linen, and is lent on application
from an admirable institution close by, described
in a previous number of this journal,* and
but for which there would often be no
provision for infants newly born, and we pass
to a room a few streets off, where one young
woman and a little girl are at work. The boxes
here are for the Liverpool market, are more
fragile, and less profitable to make.
"Twopence a gross is all we get, and the two of us
can't make more than six gross a day, do what
we will," is cheerfully told us: the child
continuing her work, and warning off some
other children who peep in at the door, with
a quaint wise look, which sits strangely on her
pretty little face. "My husband's a hayband-
gatherer for chair-stuffing, but he don't do very
well at it, and this little girl ain't ours, but a
niece of mine I'm bringing up."
* See NUMBER SEVEN, BROWN'S LANE, vol. xii.,
p. 804.

Another room in the same street, where the
mistress is ill in bed in a sort of cupboard to the