Year: 1876

WELL, yes, | did find a five-pound
note once, and as you are so pressing
I'll tell you all about it as well as |
can. l find, though, that it isn't quite
so easy to tell you as l thought it
would bet seems 50 difficult to know
where to begin. You think it easy
enough before you do begin, but when
you've got your paper, your pen and
ink, and settle down like, it seems as
though what you intended to say had
all gone out of your head; at least,
that's how it seems to me. I wonder
now whether | ought to begin by tell
ing you exactly when | was born, or
whether l ought to go back even be-
fore that, and tell you all about my
grandfather and grandmother, my un-
cles and aunts, my father and mother.
and my brothers and sisters, where |
came from, and all l have been doing
as long as | can remember. Well, |
only wonder all this because | find it
50 often done in the books | managed
to get hold of. | don't intend to do it
myself, because I'm quite sure you
wouldn't care about it, and because l
don't like to keep on talking about
myself. So I'll endeavor to come to
the point at once, and if anybody thinks
it at all easy to come to the point in
telling "A story, just let them do as I'm
doing-try it.


Well, it was about the year 1864, as
near as | can remember--about ten
years ago-juSt after | came to Lon
don, that | was out with my wagon
one morning early, going to deliver
some Goals. Goals wasn't the price
then that they are now, and therefore
it was better for us men. People
didn't want their Goals weighed then,
and they didn't seem to think of it;
and when they was delivered folks
didn't object to given you tribe, be-
sides a drop o'beer. Now they nearly
snaps your head off if you only look as
if you expected anything. Well, this
morning I'm talking about l had the
wagon all to myself, as my mate was
i'll, and very lucky l thought myself at
the time, can tell you. 1t was a cold,
miserable morning, just few days be-
fore Christmas, and | was jogging
along thinking of all sorts of things.
Times had been very hard with us late
ly, and although l had been pretty well
knocked about in my time, | never
thought | should have had such hard
job as the one 1 had got then. But
there, when times are hard, they are
hard for laboring men, especially for
them that haven't been brought up to
any trade, as was my case, and | was
glad to do almost anything. | knew
there was the rent behind hand, and
the missus was only just getting better
of her last illness, and there was the
children-they, of course, had been
neglected While the missus was ill ;
their clothes were nearly off their
backs, and they'd hardly a bit of shoe
to their feet. However, l felt that
things might have been worse. l
was in work, such as it was,
and that was comfort. Still
thought how nice it would be if I had
only as much money every week to
take home as many of the mechanics |
met that morning going to their work.
| I never was one to look at the worst
| side of things, however, and therefore
1 didn't envy them. l believe / really
felt glad that they We're not so bad of
as was. Well, l went on with my
load, and when we got to the corner Of
the street where the Goals was to be
delivered | stopped the horses, and
went behind the wagon to put a stone