Nor could he borrow money except occasionally, for the
drought that had made general business so bad had hurt all his friends,
and, indeed, many of them had already borrowed from him while he had
anything to lend; and he was too proud to complain now to them. Nor
did his wife complain, though what deepened their anxieties was that
they looked for the coming of a second child. Mrs. George would not
run up bills that she did not have money to meet. She parted with her
little pieces of jewellery and smaller trinkets one by one, until only
her wedding ring had not been pawned. And then she told the milkman
that she could no longer afford to take milk, but he offered to
continue to supply it for printed cards, which she accepted. Mr.
George's diary is blank just here, but at another time he said:[2]
"I came near starving to death, and at one time I was so close to it
that I think I should have done so but for the job of printing a few
cards which enabled us to buy a little cornmeal. In this darkest time
in my life my second child was born."
The baby came at seven o'clock in the morning of January 27, 1865.
When it was born the wife heard the doctor say: "Don't stop to wash the
child; he is starving.
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