re outside the stove was chill, but owing
to the heat of the stove, Darius was obliged to work half naked. His
sweat ran down his cheeks, and down his chest, and down his back, making
white channels, and lastly it soaked his hair.

When there were no moulds to be sprinted into the drying-stove, and no
moulds to be carried less rapidly out, Darius was engaged in
clay-wedging. That is to say, he took a piece of raw clay weighing more
than himself, cut it in two with a wire, raised one half above his head
and crashed it down with all his force upon the other half, and he
repeated the process until the clay was thoroughly soft and even in
texture. At a later period it was discovered that hydraulic machinery
could perform this operation more easily and more effectually than the
brawny arms of a man of seven. At eight o'clock in the evening Darius
was told that he had done enough for that day, and that he must arrive
at five sharp the next morning to light the fire, before his master the
muffin-maker began to work. When he inquired how he was to light the
fire his master kicked him jovially on the thigh and suggested that he
should ask another mould-runner. His master was not a bad man at heart,
it was said, but on Tuesdays, after Sunday, and Saint Monday, masters
were apt to be capricious.

Darius reached home at a quarter to nine, having eaten nothing but bread
all day. Somehow he had lapsed into the child again. His mother took
him on her knee, and wrapped her sacking apron round his ragged clothes,
and cried over him and cried into his supper of porridge, and undressed
him and put him to bed. But he could not sleep easily because he was
afraid of being late the next morning.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THREE.

And the next morning wandering about the yards of the manufactory in a
storm of icy sleet a little before five o'clock, he learnt from a more
experienced companion that nobody would provide him with kindling for
his fire, that on the contrary everybody who happened to be on the place
at that hour would unite to prevent him from getting kindling, and that
he must steal it or expect to be thrashed before six o'clock. Near them
a vast kiln of ware in process of firing showed a white flaming glow at
each of its mouths in the black winter darkness. Darius's mentor crept
up to the archway of the great hovel which protected the kiln, and
pointed like a conspira