me object
in it; but if simply for fun, Fred could not see where it came in when
he considered the immense amount of effort it must have taken to wield
with such dexterity those great boots, whose legs reached far above the
dancer's knee, and the soles of which were nearly an inch in thickness
and contained a generous supply of iron slugs.

When Fred first witnessed Jack's comical performances, they amused him
hugely, and he thought he had never before seen anything half so funny;
even the annual circus, with its train of animals, and dancers, and
tumblers and clowns, could not equal it. The "Jolly Scourer" was
extremely comical and clownish, evidently without trying to be so, while
the circus clown's _effort_ at comical acts and sayings detracts from
the amusing effect of the acts themselves.

Jack was thoroughly original, and his originality in music, which
accompanied these performances, added much to them; for, contrary to the
custom of many small boys when practising clog dancing, instead of
whistling Jack furnished his music by singing, in a rich brogue, bits of
improvised rhyme that he seemed to compose for the occasion. Many of
them were very funny, and possessed the originality and wit
characteristic of his nationality, which added much to the whole
performance.

Fred soon made the acquaintance of the "Jolly Scourer," and had many
good laughs at his jokes, which often lightened the monotony of routine
work. He moreover did our young hero many acts of kindness, and in a
certain matter proved of great service to him.

Time passed by with Fred in his factory life not altogether
unpleasantly, and as he saw no chance of getting into a store again very
soon, he concluded that the best thing for him to do was to gain every
point possible relative to woolen manufacture, and especially to the
finishing department, in which he had commenced his mill career.

Consequently he bent his energies to this purpose. Whatever was to be
learned by observation and by questioning he was fast finding out. When
he first ventured out into the wet gig room, he saw there numerous
machines, the working of which was a curiosity which he wished to have
explained; and after carefully examining them he hastened back to the
little humpback, where he felt confident he could get the desired
information. Said he:

"Carl, what are those great tall machines in the second room beyond us,
that have the large cylinders?"

"They are gigs--wet