to you, my lad," was his reply, and it seemed to acknowledge
me as one of that big brotherhood of toilers who, when they want
"something to do," want it not to pass time but to earn daily bread.

CHAPTER II.

"Deark d'on Dearka." ("_Beg of a Beggar_.")
_Irish Proverb_.

"... From her way of speaking they also saw immediately that she
too was an Eirisher.... They must be a bonny family when they are
all at home!"--_The Life of Mansie Tailor in Dalkeith_.

"Dock" (so ran the 536th of the 'Penny Numbers') is "a place
artificially formed for the reception of ships, the entrance of which is
generally closed by gates. There are two kinds of docks, dry-docks and
wet-docks. The former are used for receiving ships in order to their
being inspected and repaired. For this purpose the dock must be so
contrived that the water may be admitted or excluded at pleasure, so
that a vessel can be floated in when the tide is high, and that the
water may run out with the fall of the tide, or be pumped out, the
closing of the gates preventing its return. Wet-docks are formed for the
purpose of keeping vessels always afloat.... One of the chief uses of a
dock is to keep a uniform level of water, so that the business of
loading and unloading ships can be carried on without any
interruption.... The first wet-dock for commercial purposes made in this
kingdom was formed in the year 1708 at Liverpool, then a place of no
importance."

_The business of loading and unloading ships can be carried on without
any interruption._ If everything that the Penny Numbers told of were as
true to the life as that, the world's wonders (at least those of them
which begin with the first four letters of the alphabet) must be all
that I had hoped; and perhaps that bee-hive about which Master Isaac and
I had had our jokes, did really yield a "considerable income" to the
fortunate French bee-master!

Loading and unloading, coming and going, lifting and lowering, shouting
and replying, swearing and retorting, creaking and jangling, shrieking
and bumping, cursing and chaffing, the noise and restlessness of men and
things were utterly bewildering. I had often heard of a Babel of sounds,
but I had never before heard anything so like what one might fancy it
must have been when that great crowd of workmen broke up, and left
building their tower, in a confounding of language and misundersta