Came the day of the windfall when after five days of endless scuffles in queues and counter-queues in the sun outside the treasury he had twenty pounds counted into his palms as ex gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in. it was like christmas for him and for many others like him when the payments began. they called it (since few could manage its proper official name) egg rasher. which historical fact the reader understand the passage best?

answer:

**why, in my father's house on essen-waterside, the fire and the bright lights would show a mile away, and the door open to a beggar's knock!

**i came forward cautiously, and giving ear as i came, heard some one rattling with dishes, and a little dry, eager cough that came in fits; but there was no sound of speech, and not a dog barked.

**the door, as well as i could see it in the dim light, was a great piece of wood all studded with nails;

**but whoever was in that house kept deadly still, and must have held his breath.

**beheld a man's head in a tall nightcap, and the bell mouth of a blunderbuss, at one of the first-storey windows.

explanation: