| She did not smile—nor did she fear me. Her fingers
closed over mine. I do not know what she meant by that tight clasp.
She was a beautiful child, a blue-eyed, winsome little thing; but pain
had driven all the sweet roguery out of her face.
"Does you think she'll die, sir?" asked the woman, anxiously.
I did not know.
"Sure, sir," said the man, trying to smile, "I thought
you might be a doctor when I seed you coming ashore."
"But you isn't?" said the woman. "Is you sure you couldn't
do anything? Be you no kind of a doctor at all? We don't—we don't—want
she to die."
In the silence—so long and deep a silence—melancholy shadows
crept in from the desolation without.
"I wish you was a doctor," said the man. "I—wish—you—was."
He was crying.17
Section Six
Looking Ahead: Basic Social Security
What Is A Minimum Wage?
Minimum wage is the lowest amount of money that an employer is allowed
to pay a worker under the law. This is usually an hourly rate. In Newfoundland,
in 1995, the minimum wage was $4.75 an hour. For more information about
minimum wage, see the profile of Karen Westcott in the booklet Facing
the New Economy.
What Is The Poverty Line?
The poverty line tells us how many people live in poverty. In Canada,
the government uses something call "low income cut-offs" to
set the poverty lines. Low income cut-offs are decided by looking at
two things. First, what percentage of a person's or family's income
is spent on food, housing and clothing. If more than 54% of income goes
to these things, the family or person has a low income. Secondly, levels
of income are measured against the population of the place where people
live. This is because bigger cities can be more expensive to live in.
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