les, with his back to me, he let out a kick like a mule and
caught me in the calf, nearly sending me down.

"Hallo! hold on, my lad," said Old Brownsmith, who had not seen the
cause; and of course I would not tell tales; but I made up my mind to
repay Mr Shock for that kick and for his insolent obstinacy the first
time the opportunity served.

I followed my master into a great shed that struck cool as we descended
to the floor, which was six or seven feet below the surface, being like
a cellar opened and then roofed in with wood. Here some seven or eight
women were busy tying up rosebuds in market bunches, while a couple of
men went and came with baskets which they brought in full and took out
empty.

The scent was delicious; and as we went past the women, whose busy
fingers were all hard at work, Old Brownsmith stopped where another man
kept taking up so many bunches of the roses in each hand and then diving
his head and shoulders into a great oblong basket, leaving the roses at
the bottom as he came out, and seized a piece of chalk and made a mark
upon a slate.

"Give him the slate, Ike," said Old Brownsmith. "He'll tally 'em off
for you now. Look here, Grant, you keep account on the slate how many
bunches are put in each barge, and how many barges are filled."

"Yes, sir," I said, taking the slate and chalk with trembling fingers,
for I felt flushed and excited.

"This is the way--you put down a stroke like that for every dozen, and
one like that for a barge. Do you see?"

"Yes, sir," I said, "I can do that; but when am I to put down a barge?"

"When it's full, of course, and covered in--lidded up."

"But shall we fill a barge to-night, sir?"

"Well, I hope so--a good many," said Old Brownsmith. "Will he go down
to the river with me to show me where, sir?"

"River!--show you what, my boy?"

"The barges we are to fill, sir."

"Whoo-oop!"

It was Ike made this peculiar noise. It answered in him for a laugh.
Then he dived down into the great oblong basket and stopped there.

"You don't know what a barge is," said Old Brownsmith kindly.

"Oh yes, sir, I do!" I replied.

"Not one of our barges, my lad," he said, laying his hand upon my
shoulder. "We call these large baskets barges. You'll soon pick up the
names. There, go on."

I at once began to keep count of the bunches, Old Brownsmith seeming to
take no farther notice of me, while Ike the packer kept on laying in
dozen after dozen, once