the
collection at a special Service, and donations from the feeble-minded
old females elsewhere referred to.

By the end of April nearly all the old hands were back at work, and
several casual hands had also been taken on, the Semi-drunk being one
of the number. In addition to these, Misery had taken on a number of
what he called 'lightweights', men who were not really skilled workmen,
but had picked up sufficient knowledge of the simpler parts of the
trade to be able to get over it passably. These were paid fivepence or
fivepence-halfpenny, and were employed in preference to those who had
served their time, because the latter wanted more money and therefore
were only employed when absolutely necessary. Besides the lightweights
there were a few young fellows called improvers, who were also employed
because they were cheap.

Crass now acted as colourman, having been appointed possibly because he
knew absolutely nothing about the laws of colour. As most of the work
consisted of small jobs, all the paint and distemper was mixed up at
the shop and sent out ready for use to the various jobs.

Sawkins or some of the other lightweights generally carried the heavier
lots of colour or scaffolding, but the smaller lots of colour or such
things as a pair of steps or a painter's plank were usually sent by the
boy, whose slender legs had become quite bowed since he had been
engaged helping the other philanthropists to make money for Mr Rushton.

Crass's work as colourman was simplified, to a certain extent, by the
great number of specially prepared paints and distempers in all
colours, supplied by the manufacturers ready for use. Most of these
new-fangled concoctions were regarded with an eye of suspicion and
dislike by the hands, and Philpot voiced the general opinion about them
one day during a dinner-hour discussion when he said they might appear
to be all right for a time, but they would probably not last, because
they was mostly made of kimicles.

One of these new-fashioned paints was called 'Petrifying Liquid', and
was used for first-coating decaying stone or plaster work. It was also
supposed to be used for thinning up a certain kind of patent distemper,
but when Misery found out that it was possible to thin the latter with
water, the use of 'Petrifying Liquid' for that purpose was
discontinued. This 'Petrifying Liquid' was a source of much merriment
to the hands. The name was applied to the tea that they made i