of the other two. This was an important matter. After
they were cooked it would not be easy to say which was which: he might
possibly be given one of the smaller ones instead of his own. He took
out his pocket knife and cut off the tail of the large bloater.

''Ere it is, then,' he said to Bert. 'I've cut the tail of mine so as
you'll know which it is.'

It was now about twenty minutes past seven and all the other men having
been started at work, Crass washed his hands under the tap. Then he
went into the kitchen and having rigged up a seat by taking two of the
drawers out of the dresser and placing them on the floor about six feet
apart and laying a plank across, he sat down in front of the fire,
which was now burning brightly under the pail, and, lighting his pipe,
began to smoke. The boy went into the scullery and began washing up
the cups and jars for the men to drink out of.

Bert was a lean, undersized boy about fifteen years of age and about
four feet nine inches in height. He had light brown hair and hazel
grey eyes, and his clothes were of many colours, being thickly
encrusted with paint, the result of the unskillful manner in which he
did his work, for he had only been at the trade about a year. Some of
the men had nicknamed him 'the walking paint-shop', a title which Bert
accepted good-humouredly.

This boy was an orphan. His father had been a railway porter who had
worked very laboriously for twelve or fourteen hours every day for many
years, with the usual result, namely, that he and his family lived in a
condition of perpetual poverty. Bert, who was their only child and not
very robust, had early shown a talent for drawing, so when his father
died a little over a year ago, his mother readily assented when the boy
said that he wished to become a decorator. It was a nice light trade,
and she thought that a really good painter, such as she was sure he
would become, was at least always able to earn a good living.
Resolving to give the boy the best possible chance, she decided if
possible to place him at Rushton's, that being one of the leading firms
in the town. At first Mr Rushton demanded ten pounds as a premium, the
boy to be bound for five years, no wages the first year, two shillings
a week the second, and a rise of one shilling every year for the
remainder of the term. Afterwards, as a special favour--a matter of
charity, in fact, as she was a very poor woman--he agreed to accept
five pou