He might be hung-over, but Harry Longbottom showed up. He had cursed the bells that had woken him from his drunk slumber last night, but when one of his children - was it his? - when a child had told him a collier was in trouble, he had ordered the children to wake him and their useless mother up early.

That morning, he hadn't stayed to check whether Anita actually got up. Instead, he and the children had hurried down to the beach, trying to get there before the others. The slipway was crowded with so many people trying to get down the sands at once, but he elbowed his way through the crowd, not stopping to help the man he had caused to slip on the seaweed-covered concrete.

Once he got to the beach, he realized that a lot of people were already there, gathering the coal, and he could feel himself rage. Bastards! Half of them probably didn't even need it as much as he and his poor starving family did!

When he saw a young woman trip over something - probably a large piece of coal! -, he hurried over. "Yo, lady! That's my coal!" He took her by the elbow and pulled her up to get her out of the way.