I hardly dared glance about, but in the casual glimpses I stole, I began to understand now that the men about me were picking up, letter by letter, the types, to form words, and arranging them in little curiously shaped tools they held in their hands.
I had been busily learning my letters for about half an hour, when the big, fat-headed boy came up to me.
“Now then!” he said, in a bullying tone that was a very good imitation of the overseer’s, “done that page?”
“No!” I said.
“You ain’t?”
“No; I did not know how.”
“Oh, you’ll catch it, just, when Mr Grimstone knows. You ain’t coming here to do just as you like; and I tell you what it is—”
“Well, what is it, boy?” said a quiet, stern voice, and my heart, gave a joyful thump as I saw the dark man come up.
“Please, he ain’t dis’d this here pie.”
“No; he did not know how. I set him to learn the case.”