The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1897-05-20

By CHAs. G. JOHNSON.

I'm a bricklayer. l am; and what's
more, down in the country, where
people amt SO particular about keep
ing trades distinct as they are in the
great towns. This may be seen any
day in a general shop, where, rs one
might say, yon can get anything,
from half Iuartern of butter up to
a horn lantern; and down again to a
hundred of short cut brads,-well,
down in the country I've done bit of
d Job now aud then as mason; and
not so badly neither, l should suppose
for | got pretty we'll paid considering
and didn't hear more than the usual
amount of growlin' arter it was done
| which is saying Il deal. Ours amt
| The most agreeable of lives, and if it
warn't for recollecting a little about
the dignity of labor, and such like,
one would 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 oRr way,-all things CON
sidered, | amt agoing to tell you
where our way is. A days work
week had been all I'd been able to get
| for quite two months: so Mary. that's
my wife, used to pinch and screw, and
screw and pinch, and keep on squeez
ing shilling arter shilling out of the
| long stocking, till at last it got so
light, that one morning she let it fall
upon the table, where, instead of com
ing down with good hearty spang,
It fell softly and jest like a piece of
cotton that Was empty. And then,
poor lass, she hangs on to my neck,
and burst out crying that pitiful,
that I'm blest If | didn't want my nose
blowing every quarter of "a minute, |
hadn't minded the screwing and
pinching not bit of it. First week
we went without our puddings. Well,
that wasn't much. Second week we
stopped my half-pint O beer. Third
week | put my pipe out. Mary KEEP
on saying that things must look mp
soon, and then should have an ounce
of the best to make mp 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.
hadn't much cared for the pinch
ing, but il was my poor lass as so!
pinched the most, and she was get
ting paler and thinner every day, till
| couldn't bear TO see ii. / run out o
the house, anG down to Jenklns's
yard, where I'd been at work last |
soon found Jenkins; and | says 10
him, Governor" says, this won't
do. you know: man can't live upon
wind
True for you, Bill Stock" he says
''And man can't keep his wife up
on wiud," says
Right you are, Bill" he says; and
he went on and spoke AS fair as n man
could speak; and said ha hadn't a job
he could put me on, or he uld have
done it III minute. I'm very
sorry, Bill" he says, lint if times
don't mend, / tell you you what I'm
a goingt TO do
Nv hats that?'
go up to London" he says; "and
if was a young man like you, l
would stop starving down here, when
they're giving first class wages up
there, and when there's building go
ing on all round. as thick as thick.
and good big jobs too :hotels, and rail
ways, and bridges, and all sorts"
faces round sharp. and walks off
home: for when fel1er's hungry and
close up, it lays hold on his temper as
we'll as his stummick, more especially
when there's somebody belonging to
him in the same fix. Sol walks off
home, where l finds Mary a alookin'
very ed-eyed; and l makes no more
ado, but l gets NY pipe, and empties
the bit o dust there was in the bottom
o the jar into it, Lights up, and sits
down aside O Mary, and puts my arm
round her, jest as | usedin old court
ing times; and then begins smokin'
an thinking. Very slow as to the
fust, end very fast as to the second;
AS smOkin' costs money, and the dust
WAS dry; whereas thinking came cheap
jest then,-and it's surprising how yer
| can think on a empty inside. | sup
pose it is because there's plenty o
room for the thoughts to work in.
Well, | hadn't been settin' above a
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 [ held her a
little bit tighter; and there | sat think
| ing, AID watching the thin smoke, till
| could see buildings, and scatfolds,
and heaps o bricks, and blocks o
stone. and could almost hear the ring
O the trowels, and the 'sar jar q 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 smok
ing till it seemed as though | was one
of great crown o men standing
round q lite square wooden office
place, ana being called in one at a
time: and there | could see them
"A takin' their six and thirty shillings
and two pounds apiece, as fast as a
clerk could book 1t. And then all at
once it seemed to fade away like a fog
in the sun; and | kept on drawing
but nothing come, and | found as my
my pipe was oct, and there was moth
ing left to light agen. SO | knocks
the ashes out,-what there was o
them, and then / breaks the pipe up
bit by bit. and puts all the pieces il
my pocket,-ri2ht hand trousers
pocket.
"What for? says you
Nothin' at all. AS | knows on; bu
that's what | did; and I'm a-tellins
you what happened. Perhaps it wa:
because | felt uncomfortable Will
nothing to rattle in my pocket
Howsomever. my mind was made up
and Frightening mp, and looking a
cheerful as If I'd six-and thirty shil
!ings to take on Saturday. | says t,
| bar &c was by my Si1a