s the mine and sweeps all before it.

Such was the life young Mark Gilbart was apparently doomed to lead.

CHAPTER THREE.

LEARNING TO WORK.

We must proceed more rapidly than heretofore with Mark Gilbart's
history. He did his duty as a trapper, never falling asleep, and always
opening and shutting the trap at the proper moment. The rolley boys
never complained of him, and as he was invariably in good humour, and
stood their chaffing, he became a favourite.

Often he had to go into the pit before daylight, and remain until ten
o'clock at night with one candle to light him on his way to his trap,
and another with which to return.

As he always told his mother that he was happy, and he appeared to be in
tolerable health, she became reconciled to his being thus employed,
though she little dreamed of what he had really to go through. When he
had shorter hours of work, he employed his time at home in reading and
improving himself in writing. He had also a fancy for making models.
He began by making one of the parts of the pit in which he worked. Then
he tried his hand at making some of the simpler machinery of the pit.
His uncle acknowledged that the rolleys, corves, picks, and spades were
wonderfully exact,--indeed, was so well pleased that he allowed him a
lantern and a supply of candles, so that instead of sitting in the dark,
he could pass his time in reading and cutting out his models, the
materials for which he carried down with him. So perfect were his
models that they were readily purchased by visitors to the pit. His
mother, on one occasion, taking some of them into a neighbouring town,
sold specimens to tradesmen, who offered to buy as many as she could
bring them of the same description. At length Mark became big enough to
be a "putter," or rolley boy. He could no longer read or make models
down in the pit, but he got better wages, shorter hours of work, and his
health improved with the exercise. Being always wide-awake, he escaped
the accidents from which so many of his companions suffered, which they
called "laming." The injuries they received were from various causes,
but generally from falling, when the rolley passed over their arms or
legs, and broken limbs were the consequence. Some had lost one or more
fingers or toes, others had received gashes in their faces, or arms, or
legs, but they had seldom long been laid up, and had willingly again
returned to their work. The term "putter," i