CHAPTER XX 



THE RETURN TO ENGLAND 



A Job a Must — Making myself Necessary — Pushing my Wares — In the 

 Big Cities — Blufi Players I sat down with 



Flumped back in London after years abroad : a family ; 

 no job, and only a tenner in the wide. A paternal 

 roof to go to for a while, but the certain knowledge that, 

 while there was the full welcome, the stay could not, 

 from motives of finance — parents up against it — be too 

 prolonged. After so many months at sea it seemed 

 strange to tread on pavements : the din of the streets 

 distracted me, and I used to rush into the by-streets 

 to get a rest. But the shops, how attractive ! Yet, 

 ah ! the lack of splosh. I saw a million things I 

 wanted, but couldn't buy. I was all right for clothes, 

 and soon got rigged out in up-to-date suits, which 

 made me look less like a cowpuncher. A beard 

 too had to be removed — with regret. I hadn't tasted 

 soles for years, nor lobsters, nor salmon, and found 

 myself buying one or the other and presenting them 

 to the home ; but they cost money. Two or three 

 days and I began to look about. Newspaper offices 

 didn't seem to want me : letters of regret all round 

 and the cold shoulder on calling in Fleet Street. So 

 the Telegraph "situations vacant" had to be studied. 

 Nothing offered itself for a day or two, but — at last ! 

 I called on a firm of leather goods makers ; the job 

 i had gone 1 Somehow I had an idea that I was 

 necessary in that place, and asked them what trade 

 they did with " my country," Austraha, and had the 



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