oads, you
know,' answered Rushton, and added with a laugh: 'But the donkeys are
quite strong enough for such a job as that.'

The 'donkeys' struggled on up the hill for about another hundred yards
and then they were forced to halt again.

'We mustn't stop long, you know,' said Harlow. 'Most likely he's gone
to the job, and he'll wait to see how long it takes us to get there.'

Barrington felt inclined to say that in that case Rushton would have to
wait, but he remained silent, for he remembered that although he
personally did not care a brass button whether he got the sack or not,
the others were not so fortunately circumstanced.

While they were resting, another two-legged donkey passed by pushing
another cart--or rather, holding it back, for he was coming slowly down
the hill. Another Heir of all the ages--another Imperialist--a
degraded, brutalized wretch, clad in filthy, stinking rags, his toes
protruding from the rotten broken boots that were tied with bits of
string upon his stockingless feet. The ramshackle cart was loaded with
empty bottles and putrid rags, heaped loosely in the cart and packed
into a large sack. Old coats and trousers, dresses, petticoats, and
under-clothing, greasy, mildewed and malodorous. As he crept along
with his eyes on the ground, the man gave utterance at intervals to
uncouth, inarticulate sounds.

'That's another way of gettin' a livin',' said Sawkins with a laugh as
the miserable creature slunk past.

Harlow also laughed, and Barrington regarded them curiously. He
thought it strange that they did not seem to realize that they might
some day become like this man themselves.

'I've often wondered what they does with all them dirty old rags,' said
Philpot.

'Made into paper,' replied Harlow, briefly.

'Some of them are,' said Barrington, 'and some are manufactured into
shoddy cloth and made into Sunday clothes for working men.

'There's all sorts of different ways of gettin' a livin',' remarked
Sawkins, after a pause. 'I read in a paper the other day about a bloke
wot goes about lookin' for open trap doors and cellar flaps in front of
shops. As soon as he spotted one open, he used to go and fall down in
it; and then he'd be took to the 'orspital, and when he got better he
used to go and threaten to bring a action against the shop-keeper and
get damages, and most of 'em used to part up without goin' in front of
the judge at all. But one day a slop was a watchin' of 'i