IX
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winter turned out to be a very hard one and soup kitchens were organised at many places, including Cradley Heath, Sedgley and Cannock, for the alleviation of distress among the less-fortunate of the workers and their families. Three Irish labourers who spent their wages on drink and always slept beside the furnaces at Old Park were found frozen on Boxing Day, despite the glow from the roaring ovens. And as far inland as Birmingham the sea-gulls came flocking in, scrabbling for scraps from the hawkers’ carts as they trundled along the cobbled streets from the markets.
But we were happy. Elijah grew steadily stronger until at last, after a particularly hard frost, old Doctor Maguire came to the house and took us all out in his dog-cart one evening, to skate on a broad shallow po
