a rag gives a smudge here and there, and all so lightly, and there it is done. But I couldnt, though I tried till the missus nodded, so I was obliged to send her to bed for fear shed set her cap afire; and then I goes to the pump and has a reglar good sloosh, and touches my face over with the cold water, when after a good rub I goes at it again quite fresh.
I cant think now how many times I rubbed the paint off with the dirty rag, but a good many I know, and the clock had gone three when I was still at it, with every try seeming to be worse than the last; but still I kept on till I seemed to hear it strike four in a muffled sort of way, and then the next thing I heard was the wife calling me, for it was five oclock, and I had a long way to walk to get to my work.
As soon as I could get my head off the table, and pull myself together, the first thing I did was to look at my graining; and some how or other it didnt look so very much amiss; but still it warnt anything like what it ought to be, as I knowed well enough. All that day I was thinking it over, and best part of that dinner-hour I stopped in the shop trying it on again.
Just as I was going to smudge a piece over, and finish my bit of bread and meat, not feeling at all satisfied, I gives a jump, for some one behind me says,
Very neat, indeed. Bit of old oak, I suppose. Youd better do them shutters that style of grain.
Well, do you know, if I didnt look at the guvnor for him it was to see whether he warnt a joking me; but, bless you, no; he was as serious as a judge: so feeling all the while like a great humbug, as I was, I says, Werry well, sir, finished my dinner, and then got to work again.
It turned out as I expected, just a whole week before I had to begin graining; and what with about an hour a day, and four more every night, I got on pretty well, especially after giving a chap two pots of ale to put me up to a wrinkle or two; and now I sometimes pass by that very bit of graining, and though of course I could do it a deal better now, I dont feel so very much ashamed of it.
But along of my guvnor. What a fight that man did have surely; and how well I used to know when he was running short on Saturdays: hed look ten years older those times; and over and over again Ive felt ashamed to take the money; but one couldnt do without it, you know, on account of the little ones and wife. Last of all, though, we got to understand one another the guvnor and me; and this was how it was: hed been worse nor usual, and was terribly hard-up, for hed been buying wood and paying for it; for though he could have plenty of credit now as he dont want it, in those days not a bit of stuff could he get without putting the money down. Well, having next to no capital, this bothered him terribly; and after paying two men on Saturday, I felt pretty sure as he was run close, and stood hanging about in the shop, not knowing whether to go in to the house or be off home; and at last I did go home and told the wife about it, and she said we could hold out two or three weeks very well, if I thought the guvnor would pay by-and-by. But I soon settled that, for I knew my man, and so I set down quietly to my tea, and was sticking a bit of bread-and-butter in one little open beak and a bit in another, when there comes a knock at the door, and I turned red all over, for I felt it was the guvnor; and so it was, and hed brought my wages, when, as he stood in my bit of a kitchen holding out the three-and-thirty shillings, I couldnt for the life of me help looking at where his watch-chain hung, and it warnt there.
I meant to do it neatly, and without hurting his feelings, for him and his wife had been very kind to us when we had the sickness in the house; but, you see, it warnt a bit of graining, and I regularly muffed the job when I told him to let it stand for two or three weeks, as we could do till then. Next moment he had hold of my hand, shaking it heartily, and then next after that he broke down in a humbled, mortified sort of a way; and when the wife hurried the children up the staircase, out of sight, poor chap! he sat down, laid his head on his hand, and groaned.
Cheer up, I says, itll be all right soon.
Right! yes, he says, jumping up. But it aint that, he says; its meeting a friend where I didnt expect one; and then he was gone.
I was sitting at breakfast next morning (Sunday) when the garden gate rattles, and there was the guvnor coming in such a hurry. Never stops to knock, but in he comes and shakes hands hearty; and then, without speaking, stuffs a letter into my hand. Head it, he says, last post, last night, and I did; but what I took most notice of was a long strip of paper with 197 pounds 10 shillings 6 pence written on it, just under the name of one of the London bankers.
Yes, we had a pleasant dinner, a comfortable cup of tea, and a cosy supper with the guvnor
that day; and uncommon good friends weve been ever since. I do all sorts at the shop, so that theres always a job, and though people say Jack of all trades master of none, I think a man might follow French suit and know two trades and master them both, so as when work falls one way he has a chance the other. Poor folks often get hunted by the wolf Poverty, and it would not be amiss to take a lesson from the burrowing animals, and have two holes to get out of one when tother happened to be stopped.