Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Pay Day
from THE TOWN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Summary
Mr. Kofi Jackson, a book-keeper working in the firm of Industrial Agents Ltd., was receiving £35 a month. He saw an advertisement for a similar post offering a salary of £45 a month, so he applied. He was interviewed and three weeks afterwards received an appointment letter asking him to assume duty on the 1st February. The letter was dated 23rd January.
‘Good show!’ he exclaimed as he scanned the lines, thrilling with success.
‘I'll surely be punctual! Let me write an acceptance of the post now!’ After the first few moments of sensation his face darkened into sadness as it dawned upon him that he could resign from his present appointment only after giving a month's notice or refunding a month's salary in lieu of notice.
‘Gracious!’ he sighed giving the letter a more serious reading.
‘What the deuce is this! Hm!’ He folded the letter, put it back into the envelope, and sighed again. He looked into space and thought hard.
‘No, a loan won't do; only last month I went in for thirty pounds for forty pounds—ten pounds interest! His wife's baby was due early next month.’
He got up, paced up and down.
‘Stop the noise over there, infidels,’ he shouted to the children through the window.
‘Kofi, you look exceedingly tired today,’ said Mr. Jackson's wife who had entered the room unnoticed. There was a pause as Mrs. Jackson thought about their problems.
‘I saw the midwife this morning. She said these should be bought.’
‘All right! Put it somewhere,’ said Kofi, still looking through the window.
‘There it is.’
Having racked his brains without finding any way out, he turned round and threw himself into an arm-chair and temporarily ceased to think about his problems.
At dinner as Mrs. Jackson observed the unusually slow manner in which he ate his meal, she realised that her husband was disturbed.
‘Kofi, what is worrying you?’
‘It's nothing; I've left some work undone.’
Mr. Jackson had a rather sleepless night.
The following morning he decided to see the Manager's wife. The Manager himself was serious and bureaucratic, but his wife had shown kindness and a desire to talk to the staff whenever she visited the office. So Mr. Jackson was encouraged to go and see her. He marched to the bungalow.
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- Voices of GhanaLiterary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System 1955–57, pp. 199 - 202Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018