I said I was sorry to hear it, and hoped Sam would prove to be a false prophet for the boy’s sake. Sam grunted something in reply, and gave out signs of falling asleep. As I had now learned all I cared to know for the present, I said no more, and we were soon both enjoying sound repose.
CHAPTER VI.
SAD SCENES OF LIFE.
I was awakened in the morning by a knocking overhead, which Sam, who was already up and stirring, told me proceeded from the head of the family in the room above, who was a cobbler. I also heard the tongue of a loud-talking woman, and the murmur of the voices of several children.
‘How many up there?’ I inquired.
‘Father, mother, and six children,’ replied Sam. ‘The father works hard, and is a patient, quiet man; but the mother drinks and scolds, and the home is a wretched one. Home I called it—ah! a poor home it is, and many a pig would turn up his nose at it.’
Mr. Harkaway and his son entered and interrupted our conversation. Jim, under the eye of his father, gave us a fairish grooming and a feed of corn; then I was taken out, harnessed, and put to my first day’s work in the furniture line. Mr. Harkaway drove me to a house in the Old Kent Road, with the walls all plastered with bills, and leaving Jim in charge of the cart, went in.
Everything was so novel to me that the time passed very quickly. A street in London or the suburbs is a perfect panorama to any observant creature, and no one need languish for want of food for the mind. The faces alone are sufficient to amuse and interest any thoughtful horse or man. Watch two as they meet and salute, and you will see whether they be friend or foe. Mark their style of greeting, their faces as they meet and part, and you will have a very good idea of the true nature of the feeling between them. The varieties of life are endless, the shades of emotion numberless, and he who cares to study the book of nature may read on throughout his days, and find in the end that he has but imperfectly scanned a single page.
There was much to study in the other horses I met with daily, and the dogs too were very interesting; but my great study was man, and I shall devote the principal part of these pages to him. I hope my experience of our lord and master was a very exceptional one, but I am sorry to say that I found very little good in him.
My life with Mr. Harkaway was for the most part very monotonous; he worked me very hard, and fed me as little as was consistent with the amount of work required of me. Sometimes Sam and I were taken out together in a large van to move the goods and chattels of some tradesman; but as a rule we were employed apart on small jobs, Mr. Harkaway driving me, and Sam being under the guidance of that atom of vice, the boy Jim. I do not care to speak ill of any one, but I must say that the training of this lad was fatal to every good quality which must have been born in him. He was cruel, crafty, and fond of low self-indulgence; he smoked and even drank with men—some of whom were old and grey, and ought to have checked the boy in his evil ways.