Part 9 (1/2)
”And how much for a whole house?”
”It depends upon the size. We pay seven s.h.i.+llings a week, but you might get one without the kitchen and bedroom over it behind for six s.h.i.+llings.”
”That would be much the nicest,” George said, ”only it would cost such a lot to furnish it.”
”But you needn't furnish it all at once,” Mrs. Grimstone suggested.
”Just a kitchen and two bedrooms for a start, and you can put things into the parlor afterwards. That's the way we did when we first married. But you must have some furniture.”
”And how much will it cost for the kitchen and two bedrooms?”
”Of course going cheaply to work and buying the things secondhand, I should say I could pick up the things for you, so that you could do very well,” Mrs. Grimstone said, ”for six or seven pounds.”
”That will do capitally,” George said, ”for by the end of this month Bill and I will have more than ten pounds laid by.”
”What! since you came here?” Grimstone exclaimed in astonishment. ”Do you mean to say you boys have laid by five pounds apiece?”
”Yes, and bought a lot of things too,” his wife put in.
”Why, you must have been starving yourselves!”
”We don't look like it,” George laughed. ”I am sure Bill is a stone heavier than when he came here.”
”Well, young chap, it does you a lot of credit,” Bob Grimstone said.
”It isn't every boy, by a long way, would stint himself as you must have done for the last five months to make a comfortable home for his mother, for I know lots of men who are earning their two quid a week and has their old people in the workhouse. Well, all I can say is that if I or the missis here can be of any use to you in taking a house we shall be right down glad.”
”Thank you,” George said. ”We will look about for a house, and when we have fixed on one if you or Mrs. Grimstone will go about it for us I shall be much obliged, for I don't think landlords would be inclined to let a house to two boys.”
”All right, George! we will do that for you with pleasure. Besides, you know, there are things, when you are going to take a house, that you stand out for; such as papering and painting, or putting in a new range, and things of that sort.”
After their dinner on the following Sunday the two boys set out house-hunting.
”If it's within a mile that will do,” George said. ”It doesn't matter about our going home in the breakfast time. We can bring our grub in a basket and our tea in a bottle, as several of the hands do; but if it's over a mile we shall have to hurry to get there and back for dinner. Still there are plenty of houses in a mile.”
There were indeed plenty of houses, in long regular rows, bare and hard-looking, but George wanted to find something more pleasant and homelike than these. Late in the afternoon he came upon what he wanted. It was just about a mile from the works and beyond the lines of regular streets. Here he found a turning off the main road with but eight houses in it, four on each side. It looked as if the man who built them had intended to run a street down for some distance, but had either been unable to obtain enough ground or had changed his mind.
They stood in pairs, each with its garden in front, with a bow-window and little portico. They appeared to be inhabited by a different cla.s.s to those who lived in the rows, chiefly by city clerks, for the gardens were nicely kept, the blinds were clean and spotless, muslin curtains hung in the windows, and fancy tables with pretty ornaments stood between them. Fortunately one of them, the last on the left-hand side, was to let.
”What do you think of this, Bill?”
”It seems to be just the thing; but how about the rent, George? I should think they were awful dear.”
”I don't suppose they are any more than the houses in the rows, Bill.
They are very small, you see, and I don't suppose they would suit workmen as well as the others; at any rate we will see.”
Whereupon George noted down on a sc.r.a.p of paper the name of the agent of whom inquiry was to be made.
”No. 8,” he said; ”but what's the name of the street? Oh, there it is.