| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 234 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
term. Afterwards, as a special favour - a matter of charity, in fact, as she was a very poor woman - he agreed to accept five pounds. This sum represented the thrifty savings of years, but the poor woman parted with it willingly in order that the boy should become a skilled workman. So Bert was apprenticed - bound for five years - to Rushton & Co. For the first few months his life had been spent in the paint-shop at the yard, a place that was something between a cellar and a stable. There, surrounded by the poisonous pigments and materials of the trade, the youthful artisan worked, generally alone, cleaning the dirty paint-pots brought in by the workmen from finished `jobs' outside, and occasionally mixing paint according to the instructions of Mr Hunter, or one of the sub-foremen. Sometimes he was sent out to carry materials to the places where the men were working - heavy loads of paint or white lead - sometimes pails of whitewash that |
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