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There was work to be done, there were men wanted, above all, men who could understand something beyond the pick-and-shovel end of the thing, men who knew the difference between a transit and a telescope. And the work itself appealed to him strangely now that that labor was not without independence, not without a stern sort of dignity even.
"At some points our lines have been slightly advanced and their position improved." It has to be admitted by all who know him that the average British soldier has a deep-rooted and emphatic objection to "fatigues," all trench-digging and pick-and-shovel work being included under that title.
Winton was in the thick of the pick-and-shovel melee, urging it on, when Biggin ran up. "Hi!" he shouted. "Fixin' to take another play-day in Carbonate? Lookee down yonder!" Winton looked and became alive to the possibilities in the turning of a leaf. "Guns!" he yelled; and at the word of command the tools were flung aside, and the track force, over two hundred strong, became an army.
And I'm not a scholar or a historian; I'm a pick-and-shovel field archaeologist a highly skilled and specialized grave-robber and junk-picker and there's more pick-and-shovel work on this planet than I could do in a hundred lifetimes. This is something new; I was a fool to think I could turn my back on it and go back to scribbling footnotes about Hittite kings."
But if I take that same strength of arm and use it at pick-and-shovel work for a day and earn two dollars, you won't have anything to do with the two dollars. Yet it's the same old strength of arm in a new form, that's all. Besides, in this proposition it won't be a claim on you. It ain't even a loan to you.
She says, 'That is four hundred and fifty dollars a month. And I say, 'Sitka Charley is no pick-and-shovel man. Then she says, 'I understand, Charley. I will give you seven hundred and fifty dollars each month. It is a good price, and I go to work for her. I buy for her dogs and sled.
I'm going to work." "But not at once," put in Mary de Peyster, née Mary Morgan, in her soft contralto voice, that seemed to effervesce with mischief. "Tell Matilda what you're doing to do." "I've already told you, Matilda, about my little experiment in the pick-and-shovel line. I decided that I didn't care for that profession. I've saved a few hundred out of my allowance.
Still, a siege is always a poor sort of a pick-and-shovel business, and there were better prospects with my hussars in front of the English. Every mile that passed, my heart grew lighter and lighter, until I found myself shouting and singing like a young ensign fresh from St Cyr, just to think of seeing all my fine horses and my gallant fellows once more.
He had enlisted as a soldier, and as a reward for his patriotism the Government had given him a shovel, "an' 'ere I am, workin' like a bloomin' navvy, fillin' sandbags full o' France, w'en I up an' gets plugged!" The men who most bitterly resented the pick-and-shovel phase of army life were given a great deal of it to do for that very reason.
He came to know, through awful, blood-sweating hours, that with so much blasting, so much pick-and-shovel work, allowing for so many back-sets from water and blind rock, so many shifts of men could progress to certain points, in so many days.
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