Page 460 - les-miserables

a hard trade. In the wheelwright’s trade one works always
in the open air, in courtyards, under sheds when the mas-
ters are good, never in closed workshops, because space is
required, you see. In winter one gets so cold that one beats
one’s arms together to warm one’s self; but the masters don’t
like it; they say it wastes time. Handling iron when there
is ice between the paving-stones is hard work. That wears
a man out quickly One is old while he is still quite young
in that trade. At forty a man is done for. I was fifty-three. I
was in a bad state. And then, workmen are so mean! When
a man is no longer young, they call him nothing but an old
bird, old beast! I was not earning more than thirty sous a
day. They paid me as little as possible. The masters took ad-
vantage of my age— and then I had my daughter, who was a
laundress at the river. She earned a little also. It sufficed for
us two. She had trouble, also; all day long up to her waist in
a tub, in rain, in snow. When the wind cuts your face, when
it freezes, it is all the same; you must still wash. There are
people who have not much linen, and wait until late; if you
do not wash, you lose your custom. The planks are badly
joined, and water drops on you from everywhere; you have
your petticoats all damp above and below. That penetrates.
She has also worked at the laundry of the Enfants-Roug-
es, where the water comes through faucets. You are not in
the tub there; you wash at the faucet in front of you, and
rinse in a basin behind you. As it is enclosed, you are not
so cold; but there is that hot steam, which is terrible, and
which ruins your eyes. She came home at seven o’clock in
the evening, and went to bed at once, she was so tired. Her

460 Les Miserables