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Come along. Exeunt. Slow music. Twilight. Enter BILL with a three-legged stool, brushes, etc. Bill. Come! it's blackin' all over! When gents can't no longer see their boots, 'tain't much use offerin' to shine 'em. But if I can get a penny, I will. Enter WATERFIELD. Bill. Black your boots for a party, sir? Wat. But wasn't she a brick not to split! That's what I call devotion now!
However, considering the character of the audience, this was as much as could be expected. "How much have you made to-day, Johnny?" asked Tim. "A dollar," said Phil. "A dollar! That's more nor I have made. I tell you what, boys, I think I'll buy a fiddle myself. I'll make more money that way than blackin' boots." "A great fiddler you'd make, Tim Rafferty." "Can't I play, then?
She munched her bread-and-butter and drank her tea. 'When you've done breakfast, Liza, she said, 'you can give the grate a cleanin', an' my boots'd do with a bit of polishin'. Mrs. Tike, in the next 'ouse, 'll give yer some blackin'. She remained silent for a bit, then said: 'I don't think I shall get up ter-day. Liza. My rheumatics is bad. You can put the room straight and cook the dinner.
"You haven't give up business, have you?" "I've just gone into business, Johnny." "I mean you aint give up blackin' boots, have you?" "All except my own, Johnny. Aint that a good shine?" and Dick displayed his boot with something of his old professional pride. "What you up to now, Dick? You're dressed like a swell."
How under the sun can I or any other woman be up on a pedestal and do our own housework, cookin', washin' dishes, sweepin', moppin', cleanin' lamps, blackin' stoves, washin', ironin', makin' beds, quiltin' bed quilts, gittin' three meals a day, day after day, biled dinners and bag puddin's and mince pies and things, to say nothin' of custard and pumpkin pies that will slop over on the level, do the best you can; how could you keep 'em inside the crust histin' yourself up and down?
I'se shore I'd never ask it of any woman if I was a man, 'less I was sick or ole. But folks don't seem to 'member dat we've got feelin's, and de best way is not to mind dese ere little trubbles. You jes leave de boots to me; blackin' can't do dese ole hands no hurt, and dis ain't no deggydation to me now; I's a free woman."
He also brushed off his coat as well as he could; he also critically inspected his shoes, not forgetting his old professional habits. "I wish I had a brush and some blackin'," he said to himself. "My shoes would look all the better for a good shine." But time was up, and, under the escort of a policeman, Dick was conveyed to the Tombs. Probably all my readers have heard of this building.
Now I can tell him I have seen 'Ragged Dick's' cousin. Where is Dick now?" "He's reformed, ma'am." "Reformed?" "Yes, from blackin' boots. He's in better business now." "If I should give you some of the money in this pocketbook, you wouldn't spend it on drinking and gambling, would you?" "No, ma'am. I'd reform like my cousin, Ragged Dick." "You look like a good truthful boy.
"You see what it is to be a man of fortun', Frank," said Dick, "and wear good clothes. I wonder what that chap'll say when he sees me blackin' boots to-morrow in the street?" "Perhaps you earn your money more honorably than he does, after all," said Frank. "Some of these mining companies are nothing but swindles, got up to cheat people out of their money."
"A week's leave of absence?" said I. "Just so a veek's leave of absence furlow if you prefers to call it so. The truth is, I wants a 'oliday wery bad. Granny says so, an' I thinks she's right. D'you think my constitootion's made o' brass, or cast-iron, or bell-metal, that I should be able to york on an' on for ever, black, black, blackin' boots an' shoes, without a 'oliday?
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