"Oh, don't it hurt, just!" "What about mine?"
"Look here!" like young recruits bragging of their wounds after the
skirmish.

"Lily!"

"Yes, Ma!"

And Lily washed quickly, put on her frock and ran down-stairs to prepare
the coffee, but her Ma stopped her on her way.

"Lily, you light the fire."

"What about Maud?" said Lily. "Why can't Maud do it?"

"You young impudence," ... said Ma; "Maud has gone to Jimmy's to take the
bike which Tom couldn't get to him yesterday; he was shut. It's the bike
you spoiled, you little bedlamite!"

Lily had to laugh at the thought of Maud struggling with Old Jigger: Maud,
who couldn't lead the machine by the handle-bar, or even walk beside it,
without barking her shins.

"Why!" cried Lily. "She'll explain everything wrong to Jimmy, and the bike
will be no use!"

"Well, then, go yourself," said Ma, after a pause. "And mind you, come
back quickly; don't go loitering in the street; and don't stay long with
that drunkard."

"Yes, Ma."

Gresse Street, where Jimmy lived, was quite as dreary as Rathbone Place:
here and there, a few posters on the walls; some low-fronted shops,
displaying sweets and candies, or else a dazzling case of oranges on the
muddy pavement; alleys, stables, cab-yards....

It was here that Jimmy had his workshop, or rather his tool-store, for he
did not do much work there. The time which his occupation at the theater
left him he devoted to improving himself. Electricity and its manifold
uses held his interest. There was no doubt that, had he given all his time
to it, he would have become very clever, for he had an inventor's brain
and, moreover, possessed an astonishing manual skill for altering and
perfecting things. He worked in copper and steel, was glad to make and
repair bikes for a few customers, the New Zealanders, among others. While
working, he brewed all manner of plans in his brain. They all revealed a
practical intelligence. Saddle-supports which reduced the shaking on a
bike, improved carriage-springs and so on; and, on the stage, inventions
to dispense with men in the flies and wings; to work everything--scenery,
curtain, lime-light--by means of the switchboard; and ever so many other
things....

Since joining the theater, Jimmy had naturally undergone the influence of
the stage. It had affected his ideas, with all its new-fangled "turns,"
which owed their success to a maximum of daring--or bluff--coupled with a
minimum of scientific knowledg