it flapped
against me and knocked off my cap. Then pieces of iron fell, or were
thrown, no one knew which, though they knew where, for the place was
generally on or close by my unfortunate body.

I was in the habit of frequently going to look down in the wheel chamber
or pit, and one day, as I stepped on to the threshold, my feet glided
from under me, and, but for my activity in catching at and hanging by
the iron bar that crossed the way I should have plunged headlong in.

There seemed to be no reason for such a slip, but the men laughed
brutally, and when I looked I found that the sill had been well smeared
with fat.

There was the one man in the grinders' shop, though, whom I have
mentioned, and who never seemed to side with his fellow workers, but
looked half pityingly at me whenever I seemed to be in trouble.

I went into the grinding-shop one morning, where all was noise and din,
the wheels spinning and the steel shrieking as it was being ground, when
all at once a quantity of water such as might have been thrown from a
pint pot came all over me.

I turned round sharply, but every one was at work except the stout
grinder, who, with a look of disgust on his face, stood wiping his neck
with a blue cotton handkerchief, and then one cheek.

"Any on it come on you, mester?" he said.

"Any come on me!" I cried indignantly--"look."

"It be a shaam--a reg'lar shaam," he said slowly; "and I'd like to know
who throwed that watter. Here, let me."

He came from his bench, or horse as the grinders call their seat, and
kindly enough brushed the water away from my jacket with his
handkerchief.

"Don't tak' no notice of it," he said. "They're nobbut a set o' fullish
boys as plays they tricks, and if you tell on 'em they'll give it to you
worse."

I took his advice, and said nothing then, but naturally enough, spoke to
my uncles about it when we were alone at night.

"Never mind," said Uncle Dick. "I daresay we shall get the fellows to
understand in time that we are their friends and not their enemies."

"Yes," said Uncle Jack; "they are better. I dare say it will all come
right in time."

It was soon after this that I went into the grinding-shop one day while
the men were at dinner, and going to the door that opened into the wheel
chamber, which always had a fascination for me, I stood gazing down into
its depths and listening to the splashing water.

"Iver try to ketch any o' them long eels, Mester Jacob