Page:Navvies and Their Needs.djvu/12

 beasts, very useful in our way, but terrible dangerous and not of much account except for strength. Why, it was only t'other day as I heard a woman telling about a railway accident, and she said as there was three men killed and a navvy. That's the way, sir. We aint men at all, we aint got no feelings nor no soul, nor nothing but just strong backs and arms and a big swallow for beer. Ha! ha! it makes me laugh sometimes does folks' ignorance; but it's a sad job too, sir—it's a very sad job, for it's the spoiling of many a young fellow as might be kept straight with just a little kindness."

"I fancy that something has helped to keep you straight," I said.

"Aye, sir, you're right there,"

And my friend who had been voluble before, suddenly relapsed into silence. His last answer had been spoken in a low tone. He looked down and played with a kit between his knees. I saw I had touched a tender point, but I wanted to hear more, so I waited in silence. At last he looked up.

"I see you're a parson, sir, and if you wasn't I don't fancy you're the sort to laugh at a chap, so I'll just tell how it was. You fancy something has kept me straight. I expect you mean I don't look like a drunken black-guard, and I've got a decent jacket and a good kit to carry. Well, if you'd seen me five years ago you'd have fancied something different I can tell you. I don't fancy you'd have got into the same carriage with me at all. I just was a villain, and I dare say I looked it too. You'd have been more likely to have met me tramping it on the road, or if I'd got a shilling, you might have sought me in the nearest public; and I'd nothing