I couldnt get near him to touch his hand, or I would; and while I was looking hard at the spot where he stood, he was gone; and then the place seemed to be swimming round, and I felt as though I wanted to cry out, and then I came to and found myself sitting on the stones outside, with Arrys mother, and we got away as fast as we could.
Yes; up early, and round here every morning, wet or dry, for I shouldnt seem to get on well if I didnt; and long tramps I has: now its Farringdon Market for creases; now Common Garding for flowers; or Spitalfields or the Boro for fruit cept oranges, and them we gets o the Jews; and you may say what you like, but I never finds them worse to deal with than some as calls theirselves Christians.
Then its off with your load, and get rid of it as fast as you can; for its heavy carrying miles after miles through the long streets; and its a-many faces you look into before theres one to buy. And last of all, when I get back I can sit and think about Arry, and how pleased hell be to find as the nets, and cages, and calls, aint none of em sold. Yes, you cant help thinking about him, for outside the window theres the pigeon trap as he was a-making with laths and nails; inside theres his birds, and the one he was trying to stuff; for he says thats a good living for a chap, if hes at all clever; and he used to think that after seeing so many birds alive he could do it right off. So at odd times he used to practise; and there was his scissors and wires, and tow, and files and nippers, and two or three little finches hed done, perched up on sprigs of wood, with their feathers wound over and over with cotton, and pins stuck in em to keep the wings in their places.
But he allus was clever, was Arry; and if hed had a chance, would have got on.
When the suns a-going down I gets to the open window, if Im home time enough; and while the birds are all twittering about me, I get looking right out far away over roofs and chimneys right out towards where theres the beautiful country, and then I even seem to see it all bright and clear: trees waving, and grass golden green; and through the noise and roar of the streets I seem to hear the cows lowing as they go slowly through the meadows, and the tinkle of the sheep-bell; while all the clouds are golden, orange, and red. Then, too, the bright stars seem to come peeping out one at
a time; and the sky pales, while theres a soft mist over the brook, and a sweet, cool, freshness after the hot, close, burning day; now, from where I seem to be on a hill-side, there can be seen a bright light here and there from the cottages, and then about me the bats go darting and fluttering silently along; theres the beautiful white ghost-moths flitting about the bushes, and flapping along, high up, a great owl; and, again, round and round, and hawking about along the wood-side, theres a large night-jar after the moths; for Arry taught me all their names. And at last, in the deep silence, tears seem to come up in my eyes, as I hear the beautiful gushing song of the nightingales, answering one another from grove to grove pure, bright, and sparkling song that goes through one, and sends ones thoughts far away from the present.
And those tears coming into ones eyes seem to shut out all the bright scene, and it goes again; and though theres the twinkling stars overhead, and the birds nestling around me, yet, instead of the peace and silence, theres the roar of the court and the streets, the chimneys and tiles all round, the light shining up from the gas, and I know Im only in the Dials; but its sweet to fancy it all, and get away from the life about you for a few minutes; and when Arrys mother sees me like that, she never disturbs me to complain of her aches and pains.
No; never in the country since my boy was taken; but the bright days are coming soon.
Chapter Five. A Rogue in Grain
Well, says the guvnor, I dont want to be unreasonable: anything really necessary for the job you shall have; but of course I cant help my workshop not being equal to your last; but I spose it wont make much difference if you get your wages reglar?
Oh, no; he says; it didnt matter to him; he could work with any tools, he could; ony he did like to see things a bit to rights, and so on to that tune; and then my gentleman gets to work.
Pity you didnt stop where you was so jolly well off, I thinks to myself; and then I goes on whistling, and priming some shutters as the guvnor had made for a new shop front as he had to put in. You see, taint many years since our guvnor was ony a working man like me, ony he managed to scrape a few pounds together, and then very pluckily started for hisself out in one of the new outskirts, where there was a deal of new building going on by the big London contractors, and a deal of altering and patching, which used to be done by the little jobbing men same as our guvnor. Often and often hes talked to me about it when working aside me pleasant and sociable as could be; how at times hed be all of a shake and tremble for fear of going wrong, not knowing how to pay his man or two on Saturday, and obliged to be civil as could be to them, for fear theyd go off and leave him in the lurch over some job or other. Then people didnt pay up, and hed have to wait; and then there was the ironmonger and the timber merchant wouldnt give him credit, being only a small beginner; and one way and another he led such a life of it for the first three years as made him wish again and again as hed been content to be journeyman and stopped on the reglar. But there; he warnt meant for a journeyman, he was too good a scholar, and had too much in his brains, and, besides, had got such a stock of that will do it in his head as made him get on. He knowed well enough that you cant drive a nail up to the head at one blow, or cover a piece of flatting with one touch of the brush; and so he acted accordingly, tapping gently at first till hed got his nail a little way in, and then letting go at it till it was chock up to the head, reglar fixture; and so on, nail after nail, till he got his house up firm and strong. He didnt turn master for the sake of walking about with his hands in his pockets; for, as he said to me often, In my small way, Sam, he says, masters a harder job than journeymans. And so it was; for, come tea-time and the men knocked off, Ive seen him keep on hard at it, hour after hour, right up to twelve oclock; while the chaps as left the shop would wink at one another, for some men aint got any respect for a hard-toiling master: theyll a deal sooner slave for some foul-mouthed bully who gives them no peace of their lives.