hy it aint nothing to it. I hardly knew what
I was a-doing at first."

"No more did I, Bill. You must mind what you do and not touch any of
those straps and wheels and things. I know when I was at Croydon there
was a man killed in a sawmill there by being caught in the strap; they
said it drew him up and smashed him against the ceiling. And now we
had better look out for a baker's."

"I suppose there aint a coffee-stall nowhere handy?"

"I don't suppose there is, Bill; at any rate we have no time to spare
to look for one. There's a pump in the yard, so we can have a drink of
water as we come back. Well, the work doesn't seem very hard, Bill,"
George said as they ate their bread.

"No, it aint hard," Bill admitted, "if it weren't for all them
rattling wheels. But I expect it aint going to be like that regular.
They've just gived us an easy job to begin with. Yer'll see it will be
worse presently."

"We shall soon get accustomed to the noise, Bill, and I don't think we
shall find the work any harder. They don't put boys at hard work, but
just jobs like we are doing, to help the men."

"What shall we do about night, George?"

"I think that at dinner-time we had better ask the man we work for. He
looks a good-natured sort of chap. He may know of someone he could
recommend us to."

They worked steadily till dinner-time; then as they came out George
said to the man with whom they were working:

"We want to get a room. We have been lodging together in London, and
don't know anyone down here. I thought perhaps you could tell us of
some quiet, respectable people who have a room to let?"

The man looked at George more closely than he had hitherto done.

"Well, there aint many people as would care about taking in two boys,
but you seem a well-spoken young chap and different to most of 'em. Do
you think you could keep regular hours, and not come clattering in and
out fifty times in the evening, and playing tom-fools' tricks of all
sorts?"

"I don't think we should be troublesome," George said; "and I am quite
sure we shouldn't be noisy."

"You would want to be cooked for, in course?"

"No, I don't think so," George said. "Beyond hot water for a cup of
tea in the evening, we should not want much cooking done, especially
if there is a coffee-stall anywhere where we could get a cup in the
morning."

"You haven't got any traps, I suppose?"

George looked puzzled.

"I mean bed and chairs, and so on."

George sho