162 THE THING "IMPOSSIBLE." CHAP. ix. 



" Did you ever hear of any one else who had ever 

 done the like before?" 



" No. But thousands might have done it, and much 

 more too." 



" Well, I don't believe it. I have never heard of 

 such a thing, and I have never read of such a thing !" 



" But I never thought," said Edward, " that I was 

 doing anything, that any one else might not have 

 done. I was quite unaware of the fact that I was 

 doing anything in the least way meritorious. But 

 if I have, as a journeyman shoemaker, done anything 

 worthy of praise, then I must say that there is not a 

 working man on the face of the earth that could not 

 have done much more than I have done ; for of all the 

 occupations that are known, that of shoemaking is 

 surely the very worst." 



"Had you been an outside- worker, I would not 

 have thought so much about it ; but even then it 

 would have been surprising. But having to work 

 from morning to night in a shoemaker's shop where 

 these things can neither be seen nor found the thing 

 is perfectly inconceivable. I'll give my oath that, so 

 far as Aberdeen is concerned, or I believe any other 

 place, there is not a single working-man who could, 

 by himself, have done anything of the sort. I tell 

 you, that there is no person who knows the labouring 

 people and their circumstances, better than I do ; 

 and I tell you again, that, situated as they are, the 

 thing is quite impossible. They have neither the 



