Chapter Three: Swill and Hunger

“Big brother, look what good stuff we brought!” As evening fell, Billy led a group of ragged orphans to the charity house. When he saw James Thompson, he immediately ran over excitedly and shouted.

“What good stuff?” Seeing how excited Billy was, James Thompson couldn’t help but ask.

At this moment, James Thompson was also sizing up the orphans behind Billy. Each of these children was short and skinny, their clothes patched upon patches, and beneath their messy hair were dirty little faces—if you didn’t look closely, you couldn’t even tell if they were boys or girls. The children were carrying a wooden bucket, and even from a distance, James Thompson could smell a strange aroma.

“You’ll know when you see it!” Billy beckoned, and the dozen or so children struggled to carry the wooden bucket over.

These orphans all followed James Thompson. Although he and his sister weren’t technically orphans, their gambler father was rarely home, and when he did come back, he’d at most toss a few copper coins their way. So, in reality, the siblings were not much better off than orphans. Since James Thompson was seven or eight, he had to take on the responsibility of supporting himself and his sister. But relying on his own strength alone was far from enough. Fortunately, a kind elder looked after them from time to time, or else the siblings would have starved long ago.

Later, James Thompson saved Billy, and through Billy, he met many other orphans. He was smart, literate, and bold, and valued loyalty, so he gradually became the leader of this group of orphans. They banded together to find food in the surrounding area. Of course, as a bunch of kids, they didn’t have any proper means of making a living—begging, petty theft, whatever it took to get a bite to eat. Even though they were still often hungry, at least they hadn’t starved to death.

Billy and the other orphans usually had nowhere to stay, so they built a few shacks against the outer wall of the charity house. Sometimes, when the winter cold was unbearable, they would temporarily move inside. Of course, the side room where James Thompson and his sister lived was far too small, so the others could only squeeze into the main hall and keep company with the corpses. Although the main hall was eerie, at least it had four walls and a roof, so they wouldn’t freeze to death.

“This is... swill?” When the wooden bucket was brought before James Thompson, he looked at the soupy mess inside, with bones and vegetable leaves floating on top, and couldn’t help but ask in disbelief. Wasn’t this just leftover food all dumped together—swill? How could this be called good stuff?

“It’s not swill! This is the leftovers from that new restaurant on West Street. The chef there is from my hometown. Today we helped him with a small favor, and he introduced us to work at the restaurant—mainly washing dishes and sweeping the floor. Our pay is the restaurant’s daily leftovers. From now on, we’ll never have to worry about going hungry again.” Billy said excitedly.

Leftovers are just swill, aren’t they? Of course, seeing Billy’s excited little face, James Thompson couldn’t bear to say it out loud. Instead, he praised him a few times, which made Billy even happier. The orphans behind him couldn’t hold back any longer and started reaching into the swill bucket to pick out food.

Seeing this, James Thompson quickly stopped the children and told Billy to pour the swill into the big pot to heat it up. After all, the swill wasn’t clean to begin with, and now it was spring—the season when illness spread most easily—so it was best to heat it up to disinfect it.

James Thompson was the leader of Billy’s group and had quite a bit of authority among the children, so his words carried weight. Even though the kids were so hungry their stomachs were sticking to their backs, they obediently poured the leftovers into the pot. Lily Thompson had already started the fire, and before long, a mishmash of aromas filled the air as the stew was ready.

To be fair, the heated leftovers did smell delicious—especially to kids like James Thompson, who usually ate worse than pigs and still couldn’t get enough to eat. These leftovers had both meat and vegetables, and were rich and oily, so to them, it was a rare delicacy.

As soon as the stew was ready, Billy immediately served a bowl to James Thompson, then he and the other orphans swarmed around the pot like hungry wolves, fighting for food. Even when they burned their mouths and cried out, they still couldn’t bear to spit out what was in their mouths.

Lily Thompson also got a big bowl. She looked like a little she-wolf, shoveling food into her mouth. James Thompson instinctively wanted to stop her, but after opening his mouth, he could only shake his head helplessly. He thought the swill was disgusting, but to Lily Thompson, it was a rare treat. Forcing his own views on her would only make him seem selfish.

In fact, James Thompson was also very hungry. Other than the elm seed soup he had in the morning, he hadn’t eaten all day. In the Northern Song period, people at the bottom of society like him usually only ate two meals a day. Some heavy laborers might eat three, but he had only eaten a little elm seed soup all day. By noon, his stomach was already empty, and now, smelling the aroma of the stew, his stomach was growling even louder.