Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/232



Mr. Grinder kept a shop in the Bethnal Green Road. It was announced in brilliant lettering as an "oil, colour and Italian warehouse," and there, in addition to the oil and the colour, and whatever of Italian there might have been; he sold pots, pans, kettles, brooms, shovels, mops, lamps, nails, and treacle. It was a shop ever too tight for its stock, which burst forth at every available opening, and heaped so high on the paving that the window was half buried in a bank of shining tin. Father Sturt was one of the best customers: the oil, candles and utensils needed for church and club all coming from Mr. Grinder's. Mr. Grinder was losing his shop-boy, who had found a better situation; and Father Sturt determined that could the oilman but be