..续本文上一页 a month, but she soon got a raise to 30 a month. Together, then, we were making 80 a month, which pleased me.

　　As time passed, my position advanced. My employer trusted me completely, and at times would have me take over his duties in his absence. Both my wife and I were determined to be honest and upright in our dealings with the company, and ultimately our earnings — our salaries plus my percentage of the profits — reached 100 a month. At this point I felt I could breathe easy, but my dreams still hadn”t been fulfilled.

　　So I began to buy presents — good things to eat and other nice things — to take to my parents-in-law to show my good intentions towards them. After a while they began to show some interest in me, and eventually had us move into their house. At this point I was really pleased: I was sure to be in line for part of the inheritance. But living together for a while revealed certain things about my behavior that rubbed my parents-in-law the wrong way, so in the end they drove us out of the house. We went back to live in a flat, as before.

　　This was when my wife became pregnant. Not wanting her to do any hard work, I hired a servant woman to look after the house and help with the housework. Hired help in those days was very cheap — only four baht a month.

　　As my wife came closer to giving birth, she began to miss work more and more often. I had to keep at my job. One night I sat down to look over our budget. The 100 baht we had once earned was probably as much as we”d ever earn. I had no further hopes for a raise. Our expenses were mounting every day: one baht a month for electricity; 1.50 baht for water; charcoal and rice each at least six baht a month; the help, four baht a month; and on top of it all, the cost of our clothing.

　　After my wife gave birth, our expenses mounted still higher. She wasn”t able to work, so we lost her percentage of the profits. After a while she became ill and missed work for an extended period. My employer cut her salary back to 15 baht a month. Our medical bills rose. My wife”s salary wasn”t enough for her needs, so she had to cut into mine. My old salary of 50 baht was now completely gone by the end of each month.

　　In the end, my wife”s illness proved fatal. I had to borrow 50 baht from my employer which, along with my own savings of 50, went towards her funeral expenses, which totaled 80 baht. I was then left with 20 baht and a small child to raise.

　　What was I to do now

　　 Before, I had breathed easily. Now it seemed as if life was closing in on me. I went to see my parents-in-law, but they gave me the cold shoulder. So I hired a wet nurse for the child. The wet nurse was a low-class woman, but she took awfully good care of the child. This led me to feel love and affection towards her, and ultimately she became my second wife.

　　My new wife had absolutely no education — she couldn”t even read or write. My income at this point was now only 50 baht — enough just to get by. After a while my new wife became pregnant. I did my best to make sure that she didn”t have to do any heavy work, and I did everything I could to be good to her, but I couldn”t help feeling a little disappointed that life had turned out so differently from my original plans. After my new wife gave birth, we both helped to raise the children until both my first wife”s child and my new wife”s child were old enough to feed and take care of themselves.

　　This was when my new wife started acting funny — playing favorites, giving all her love and attention to her own child, and none to my first. My first child started coming to complain to me all the time that my new wife had been unfair in this way or that. Sometimes the two children would start fighting. At times I”d come home from work and my first child would run to me with …

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