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Occasionally they visited the trenches as society folk go slumming, and came back proud of having seen a shell burst, having braved the lice and the dirt. "The trenches are the slums," said our guest. "We are the Great Unwashed. We are the Mud-larks." There was a trench in the salient called J. 3. It was away out in advance of our lines. It was not connected with our own trench system.
The three little boys were all "mud-larks," that is, prowled along the river shore, picking up any odds and ends that could be sold to the rag-shop or for firewood, and their backs were scored with the strap which the father carried in his pocket and took out for his evening's occupation when he came.
The Thames abounds with river thieves, with lumpers, scuffle-hunters, mud-larks, glutmen, rogues of all sorts, to hire whom would mean to bribe them with the value of half the lading and to risk their stealing the other half.
Colquhoun, the Scotchman, get himself made a great justice, by his making all the world as wise as himself, about thieves of all sorts, by land and by water, and in the air too, where he detected the mud-larks? And is not Barrington chief-justice of Botany Bay?"
And this other work was to serve the poor, the sick, the lonely, and to give a helping hand to every one of those who needed help. The boys whose work was on the river or the sea, and the "mud-larks" of Gravesend, were his special care. Many a boy who had no work and no right home, he took from the streets, washed, clothed, fed, and took into his house to stay with him as his guest.
Come on and get your punishment!" And he advances towards the stammerer, who has shrunk back. This unlooked-for interference puts an end to the fun-making of the mud-larks, all of whom are now highly incensed, for in their new adversary they recognise a lad of country raising not a town boy which of itself challenges their antagonistic instincts.
They plug us with their rifles An' they let their shrapnel fly, But they never takes a pot at us Exceptin' on the sly. Chorus "Fritzie w'en you comin' out? This wot you calls a fight? You won't never get to Calais Always keepin' out o' sight. "We're a goin' back to Blightey Wot's the use a-witin' 'ere Like a lot o' bloomin' mud-larks Fer old Fritzie to appear?
Colquhoun, the Scotchman, get himself made a great justice, by his making all the world as wise as himself, about thieves of all sorts, by land and by water, and in the air too, where he detected the mud-larks? And is not Barrington chief-justice of Botany Bay?"
Now it so happened that I had carefully noted where the penny had fallen, and if I had been alone, I could have gone straight to the place. But, wishing to mislead my rivals in the search, I waded into the water at a considerable distance from the spot. Glad of a clue, the other mud-larks came over to me in a hurry, and began hunting about.
But he seems scarcely to have closed his eyes before he is awakened by a clamour of voices, scolding and laughing in jarring contrast. Rubbing his eyes and looking about him, he sees the cause of the strange disturbance, which proceeds from some ragged boys, of the class commonly termed "wharf-rats" or "mud-larks."
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