Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-03-08
I'M JEOPARDY.

i Pm bricklayer, am; and, what s more,
down in the country, where people amt so
particular about keeping trades distinct as
they aresin the great towns This may be
seen any day in general shop, where, as
one might say, you can get anything, from
half quartern of butter up to a horn Ian
tern and down again to a hundred of short
cut brads-well, down in the country I've
done bit of job now and then as ma
son; and not so badly, neither, | should sup
pose, for got pretty well paid considering,
and didn't hear more than the usual amount
of growlin' arter it was done-which is
saying deal. Ours amt the most agree
able of lives, and if it warn't for recollecting
a little about the dignity Of labor, and such
like, one wonld often grumble more than one
does.
Some time ago, it don't matter to you, nor
me- nor yet anybody else, just when it was,
work was precious slack down our way-all
things considered, amt a-going to tell you
where our way is. A days work aweek had
been all I'd been able to get for quite two
month; so Mary, that's my wife used to
pinch and screw, and keep on squeezing
shilling arter shilling out Of the long stock
ing, till at last ii got so light, that one morn
ing she lets it fall upon the table, where,
instead of coming down with good hearty
spang, it fell softly and jest like piece Of
cotton that was empty. And then, poor
lass, she hangs on to my neck, and burst
out a-crying that pitiful, that I'm blest if I
didn't want my nose blowing every quarter
of minute. / hadn't minded the screwing
and pinching, not. bit of it. First week
we went without our buildings. Well, that
wasn't much. Second week we stopped my
half-pints O. beer. Third week [ put my
pipe out. Mary KEEP on saying that things
must look up soon, and then l should have
an ounce of the best to make up for it. But
things didn't look up; and, in spite of all
the screwing, we got down to the bottom of
the stocking, as | said jest now.
I hadn't much cared for the pinching, but
it was my poor lass as got pinched the most,
and she was a-getting paler and thinner
every day, till I couldn't abear to see it. |
run out O. the house, and down to Jenkins's
yard, where I'd been at work last. | soon
found Jenkins; and l says to him, &C ~
ernor," says, +" this won't do; q man cam
live upon wind"
ssTrue for you, Bill Stock" he says.
"And a man can't keep his wife upon
wind" says.
"Right you are, BILL he says; and he
went on and spoke as fair as man could
speak; and said he hadn't job he could
put me on, or he would have done it in a
minute, "Im very sorry, Bill" he says,
"but if times don't mend, ! tell you what
Pm a-going to do"
"What's that ~ says.
AGO up to London he says; and if I
was q young man like you, wouldn't stop
starving down here, when they're giving
frst-class wages up there, and when there's
building going on all round, as thick as
thick, and good big jobs too: hotels and
railways, and bridges, and all sorts"
I faces round sharp, and walks off home :
for when feller's hungry and close up, it
lays hold ON his temper as well as his STUN
mick, more especially when there's some
body belonging to him in the some fix. So
| walks off home, where | finds Mary a.
lookin' very red-eyed; and l makes no
more ado, but I gets my pipe, and empties
the bit O. dust there was in the bottom O the
jar into it, lights up, and sits down aside of
Mary, and puts my arm round her jest as |
used in old counting times; and then begins
smoking an thinking. Very slow as to
Z the fust, and very fast as to the second
as smokin' cost money, and the dust was
dry; whereas thinking came cheap jest
then,-and it's surprising how yer can
think on an empty inside. suppose it is
because there's plenty o. room for the
thoughts to work in.
Well, hadn't been settin' above minute
like this, when my lass lays her head On my
shoulder, and though she wouldn't let me
see it, | knowed she was a-giving way; but
| didn't take no notice. Perhaps.I held her
little bit tighter; and there | sat thinking,
and watching the thin smoke, till | could
see buildings, and scafolds, and heaps O
bricks, and blocks O. stone, and could almost
hear the ring o. the trowels, and the +" sar-
jar o. the big stone saws; and there was
the men a-running up and down the ladders,
and the CANCERS giving their orders and
all seemed so plain, that l began to grow
warm. And | keeps on smoking till it
seemed as though was one of great crowd
O. men standing round a little square wood
en- Office place, and being called in one at a
time; and there | could see them takin'
their six-and- thirty shillings and two pounds
: apiece, as fast as the clerk could book it.
And all at once it seemed to fade away like
a fog in the sun; and l KEEP on drawing
but nothing come and | found as my pipe
was out. and there was nothing left to light
agen. So l knocks the ashes out,--what
there was on 'em,--and then I breaks the
pipe up, bit by bit, and puts all the pieces
in my pocket ight-hand pocket.
What for 2 says you.
Nothin' at all, as l knows on but that's
what did; and | am a-telling you what
happened Perhaps it was because | felt
uncomfortable with nothing to rattle in my
, pocket. Howsemever, my mind was made
up; and Frightening up, and looking as
if I'd six-and-thirfy shillings to take on
Saturday, says to her as was by my side,-