Jack leaves the brickworks for a job at the textile mill

Jack Harte’s move from the brickyard to the Fairley mill is a reluctant choice shaped by low wages and family responsibility. He gives up outdoor work he prefers for a small pay increase, while the mill’s closeness to his home offers a practical reassurance as his wife, Elizabeth Harte, is unwell.

The decision to leave the brickyard

Jack has already given notice at the brickyard when he considers whether to tell Elizabeth. The decision has been difficult: work is scarce and many men are unemployed, and he likes being outdoors. The problem is not the labor itself. Slinging wet clay onto a gantry for ten hours a day is punishing work, but what he objects to is the pay it brings.

His weekly take-home pay is eighteen shillings and tenpence, a sum he considers inadequate for a married man with three children. He complains to Stan, the brickyard’s gaffer, that the owner, Mr Fairley, pays starvation wages. Stan sympathizes but explains that even gaffers may earn only about twenty shillings a week and that he has little power to change the terms. Jack chooses to leave rather than accept the brickyard’s wage.

A modest improvement at the mill

On Saturday morning, Jack goes to the Fairley mill to ask for work, swallowing his pride as he approaches the change. There he speaks with Eddie, the foreman and a friend since boyhood. Eddie signs him on to start the following week at twenty shillings a week. The increase over his brickyard pay is real but slight; the new job represents no escape from hard work or poverty, only a somewhat better wage.

The change also means taking work Jack loathes. He knows Elizabeth dislikes the idea of his working at the mill, and he expects telling her in advance would distress her and worsen her condition. He therefore decides not to say anything until he has already begun. His silence is a temporary concealment, intended to spare his sick wife worry rather than to disguise a completed departure from the family.

The mill’s proximity and the family stakes

The mill stands at the bottom of the village, in the valley beside the River Aire, only ten minutes from the cottage. That distance gives Jack a reason to accept the work despite his aversion: he will be close if Elizabeth needs him or an emergency arises. The reassurance changes how he regards the job, making the prospect of mill work more bearable.

The move thus balances two pressures rather than resolving either one. Jack trades preferred outdoor labor for a small improvement in earnings, while choosing a workplace near home because of his wife’s illness. The decision places household security and readiness to care for Elizabeth ahead of his own preference for brickyard work.