HOMES AND WAGES 145 



find a place at the fireside of their children, 

 who otherwise could not have borne the 

 additional expense, but are glad to receive 

 their parents under the changed conditions. 

 Where no such resource is open to the old 

 people, the loneliness of the surviving partner 

 is very pathetic. You will find an old man, 

 his limbs perhaps racked with rheumatism, 

 sitting quite alone beside the scanty fire, with 

 his pipe and an old copy of the Christian 

 World. His children are scattered far and 

 wide and can pay him only rare visits, and 

 some kind neighbouring woman may look in 

 from time to time to " tidy up." 



The pension has thus benefited the young 

 villagers as well as their parents and grand- 

 parents. Outside exceptional cases of neglect 

 or ill-treatment the claims of parents on the 

 generosity and affection of their children are 

 rarely repudiated. Nevertheless, this support 

 of the older generation often imposed a severe 

 strain on the slender resources of a young 

 couple, whose every penny was required for 

 the maintenance of their own children. The 

 severity of this economic strain has now been 

 greatly relaxed. 



National Insurance, though at first misunder- 

 stood and mistrusted by the labourer, will 

 probably establish itself firmly in the goodwill 



