d valleys, which chafed
his feet, and made them bleed. The soles were five-eighths of an inch
thick, covered with hobnails, and were as hard and inflexible and
almost as heavy as iron. These boots hurt his feet dreadfully and made
him feel very tired and miserable, for he had such a lot of walking to
do. He used to be jolly glad when dinner-time came, for then he used to
get out of sight in some quiet spot and lie down for the whole hour.
His favourite dining-place was up in the loft over the carpenter's
shop, where they stored the mouldings and architraves. No one ever
came there at that hour, and after he had eaten his dinner he used to
lie down and think and rest.

He nearly always had an hour for dinner, but he did not always have it
at the same time: sometimes he had it at twelve o'clock and sometimes
not till two. It all depended upon what stuff had to be taken to the
job.

Often it happened that some men at a distant job required some material
to use immediately after dinner, and perhaps Crass was not able to get
it ready till twelve o'clock, so that it was not possible to take it
before dinner-time, and if Bert left it till after dinner the men would
be wasting their time waiting for it: so in such cases he took it there
first and had his dinner when he came back.

Sometimes he got back about half past twelve, and it was necessary for
him to take out another lot of material at one o'clock.

In such a case he 'charged' half an hour overtime on his time sheet--he
used to get twopence an hour for overtime.

Sometimes Crass sent him with a handcart to one job to get a pair of
steps or tressels, or a plank, or some material or other, and take them
to another job, and on these occasions it was often very late before he
was able to take his meals. Instead of getting his breakfast at eight,
it was often nearly nine before he got back to the shop, and frequently
he had to go without dinner until half past one or two.

Sometimes he could scarcely manage to carry the pots of paint to the
jobs; his feet were so hot and sore. When he had to push the cart it
was worse still, and often when knocking-off time came he felt so tired
that he could scarcely manage to walk home.

But the weather was not always hot or fine: sometimes it was quite
cold, almost like winter, and there was a lot of rain that summer. At
such times the boy frequently got wet through several times a day as he
went from one job to another, and