"we was too near. It have knacked us
in the dark."

"So't have, uncle; I'll go an' search for the box."

"Do, my son," said David.

In those days lucifer matches had not been invented, and light had to be
struck by means of flint, steel, and tinder. The process was tedious
compared with the rapid action of congreves and vestas in the present
day. The man chipped away for full three minutes before he succeeded in
relighting his candle. This done, the rock was examined.

"Bad still, Uncle David?" inquired the boy.

"Iss, Zackey Maggot, so we'll knack'n, and try the higher mine
to-morrow." Having come to this conclusion Uncle David threw down the
mass of rock which he held in his brawny hands, and, picking up his
implements, said, "Get the tools, booy, and lev us go to grass."

Zackey, who had been in the mine all day, and was tired, tied his tools
at each end of a rope, so that they might be slung over his shoulder and
leave his hands free. Trevarrow treated his in the same way, and,
removing his candle from the wall, fixed it on the front of his hat by
the simple process of sticking thereto the lump of clay to which it was
attached. Zackey having fixed his candle in the same manner, both of
them put on their red-stained flannel shirts and linen coats, and
traversed the level until they reached the bottom of the ladder-shaft.
Here they paused for a few moments before commencing the long wearisome
ascent of almost perpendicular ladders by which the miners descended to
their work or returned "to grass," as they termed the act of returning
to the surface.

It cost them more than half an hour of steady climbing before they
reached the upper part of the shaft and became aware that a storm was
raging in the regions above. On emerging from the mouth of the shaft or
"ladder road," man and boy were in a profuse perspiration, and the sharp
gale warned them to hasten to the moor-house at full speed.

Moor-houses were little buildings in which miners were wont to change
their wet underground garments for dry clothes. Some of these used to
be at a considerable distance from the shafts, and the men were often
injured while going to them from the mine, by being exposed in an
overheated state to cutting winds. Many a stout able-bodied miner has
had a chill given him in this way which has resulted in premature death.
Moor-houses have now been replaced by large drying-houses, near the
mouths of shafts, where every conve