UNSUSPECTED WAYS OF EARNING A LIVELIHOOD.
'Why, sir, we never should wake of our own accord, specially these dark mornings, if we hadn't somebody to knock us up.'
The speaker was a worthy artisan whom I often used to meet at a certain steam-boat pier on the Thames; his after-breakfast labours appearing to begin about the time I usually was in waiting for the boat.
'You see, sir,' he continued in answer to a question I had put to him--'you see, sir, there's about sixty of us hereabouts down by the water-side; and there's so much that depends upon the tide, that we have to be called at all hours--sometimes two o'clock in the morning, or three or four, just as the case may be.'
'But who is it calls you?' I asked. 'A policeman, I suppose?'
'No; not a policeman,' my companion answered; 'it would take up a deal too much of his time; besides, fresh policemen are always coming on to the beat, and we could not be bothered with constantly having to shew and tell a new man the way.'
'Well, it must be rather an awkward matter,' I observed.
'No; it isn't. We each pay fourpence a week to Phil Larkins; and he wakes us as regular as clockwork.'
'But if sixty people want to be called at all sorts of irregular hours, how does the awakener manage to know his duties?' I asked.
'Oh, we chalk on our doors or shutters the time, and that way he knows. Phil is to be depended upon always. But he very nearly lost the work a year ago, and it was a shame. Some fellow wanted to step into his shoes, and morning after morning went and altered the chalkings, so that we were either called two hours before our time, or over-slept ourselves, and so got into trouble. There was no end of quarrels and misunderstandings till the trick was found out. And I think the rascal who did it deserved a ducking--only, you see Phil is such a little fellow he couldn't give it him.'
'It was a dastardly trick!' I exclaimed with indignation, bidding the man good-bye.
Another speaking acquaintance of mine was an old man whose duty consisted in sweeping down the steps which were submerged at high-tide, but quite bare at low-water. I had often seen him at work cleansing from mud and silt step by step as the tide receded; and now it occurred to me that from the nature of his occupation he, of all others, must work at the most irregular hours. It was a dull wintry morning, but the old man was working cheerfully at his accustomed task, which, as the water was getting low, was very nearly completed. He was pale and thin, but had that air of decent respectability which happily is often seen in the very humblest classes.