ee what came of it I had no longer to wait than next
morning; but when the work was given out it looked to my ignorant eye so
inconsiderable that I forbore to make any complaint about it. A piece
of old tarred rope, six or seven inches long and an inch and a half in
diameter, had to be picked into fine oakum between seven o'clock in the
morning and eleven. The business looked anything but formidable, and I
began upon it with a light heart.

The accustomed men began by hammering the ends of their strands upon the
stone floor, and I followed their example, and, having secured a hold
for the finger-tips, went ahead with the work. I may say that until a
man of delicate fingers has tried this occupation he can have no idea
of the long-drawn and exasperating misery of it. It is no use to be
impatient, for in attempting to go too fast you succeed only in skinning
your thumb and fingers. The only chance is patience, and that is not an
easy thing. The old stagers, who had had years of it, got along quite
comfortably, and were thankful that they were not stone-breaking. The
new men swore and grumbled and flayed their fingers. The result of
my own experience was that David Vane, compositor, was put beyond the
chance of earning a living at his legitimate trade for a good fortnight
The accommodation paid for by the labour consisted, all told, in one
hunk of dry bread--weight, I should say, about four ounces; one pint
of stirabout made of Indian meal and flavoured with soot; and
a particularly dirty and uninviting bed. Having bestowed these
benefactions on the harmless workman, the British Poor-law in return
insists that he shall become a hopeless pauper by stealing from him his
handicraft.

I tried stone-breaking pretty often later in the course of my tramp, and
found it a much less painful occupation. The handling of cricket-bat
and sculls hardens the palm of the hand whilst it leaves the tips of the
fingers unprotected. But though at the time of my excursion I was fresh
from life on the river, it took me some time to get inured to this new
occupation, and stone-breaking alone would, of course, unfit for his
work any man who needed lightness and steadiness of hand. Work and
accommodation varied very widely. In one or two places we got good bread
at night, good broth in the morning, and a bed to sleep in which, as I
suppose, the average tramp would find almost luxurious. The bedclothes
were coarse, as they had a perfect right to be