Then he and
his brother decided to relieve their mother in the housework by rising
early in the morning, building the fire, preparing breakfast, and
washing the dishes before they went to school. After school they gave
up their play hours, and swept and scrubbed, and helped their mother to
prepare the evening meal and wash the dishes afterward. It was a
curious coincidence that it should fall upon Edward thus to get a
first-hand knowledge of woman's housework which was to stand him in
such practical stead in later years.
It was not easy for the parents to see their boys thus forced to do
work which only a short while before had been done by a retinue of
servants. And the capstone of humiliation seemed to be when Edward and
his brother, after having for several mornings found no kindling wood
or coal to build the fire, decided to go out of evenings with a basket
and pick up what wood they could find in neighboring lots, and the bits
of coal spilled from the coal-bin of the grocery-store, or left on the
curbs before houses where coal had been delivered.
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