36 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



number of old grandfather clocks and made 

 new ones, setting them striking hymn-tunes 

 and popular airs. In his little village shop he 

 talked to me of his struggles in life. 



His father, as an agricultural labourer, got 

 only 8s. a week, and he had six children to keep. 

 When my friend was seven years of age, his 

 father's employer agreed to take him on to the 

 farm as carter's boy for the magnificent sum 

 of £3 a year and the promise made to the 

 father that he would apprentice the intelligent 

 lad to a trade. The £3 per annum was never 

 paid, nor the apprenticeship ever entered into, 

 for in three years' time the farmer died of drink 

 without having paid one penny for the labour 

 of the boy. 



The boy stayed on at the farm under a new 

 master. Then the station-master of Savernake 

 offered to find him a job on the railway. He 

 was now a lad of eighteen, earning 10s. a 

 week and keeping his father, who was a widower, 

 in the old farm cottage. On speaking to the 

 farmer about " bettering " himself, the farmer 

 gruffly told him that he could go and take 

 the old man with him too, which, of course, 

 meant the loss of a home, for the cottage was 

 farm-tied. 



