“Yes, some crossings is worth a good deal of money. There was a black in Regent-street, at the corner of Conduit-street, I think, who had two or three houses—at least, I’ve heard so; and I know for a certainty that the man in Cavendish-square used to get so much a week from the Duke of Portland—he got a shilling a-day, and eighteenpence on Sundays. I don’t know why he got more on Sundays. I don’t know whether he gets it since the old Duke’s death.
“The boys worry me. I mean the little boys with brooms; they are an abusive set, and give me a good deal of annoyance; they are so very cheeky; they watch the police away; but if they see the police coming, they bolt like a shot. There are a great many Irish lads among them. There were not nearly so many boys about a few years ago.
“I once made eighteenpence in one day, that was the best day I ever made: it was very bad weather: but, take the year through, I don’t make more than sixpence a-day.
“I haven’t worked at bricklaying for a matter of six year. What did I do for the two years before I took to crossing-sweeping? Why, sir, I had saved a little money, and managed to get on somehow. Yes, I have had my troubles, but I never had what I call great ones, excepting my wife’s blindness. She was blind, sir, for eleven year, and so I had to fight for everything: she has been dead two year, come September.
“I have seven children, five boys and two girls; they are all grown up and got families. Yes, they ought, amongst them, to do something for me; but if you have to trust to children, you will soon find out what that is. If they want anything of you, they know where to find you; but if you want anything of them, it’s no go.
“I think I made more money when first I swept this crossing than I do now; it’s not a good crossing, sir. Oh, no; but it’s handy home, you see. When a shower of rain comes on, I can run home, and needn’t go into a public-house; but it’s a poor neighbourhood.
“Oh yes, indeed sir, I am always here. Certainly; I am laid up sometimes for a day with my feet. I am subject to the rheumatic gout, you see. Well, I don’t know whether so much standing has anything to do with it.
“Yes, sir, I have heard of what you call ‘shutting-up shop.’ I never heard it called by that name before, though; but there’s lots of sweepers as sweep back the dirt before leaving at night. I know they do, some of them. I never did it myself—I don’t care about it; I always think there’s the trouble of sweeping it back in the morning.
“People liberal? No, sir, I don’t think there are many liberal people about; if people were liberal I should make a good deal of money.
“Sometimes, after I get home, I read a book, if I can borrow one. What do I read? Well, novels, when I can get them. What did I read last night? Well, Reynolds’s Miscellany; before that I read the Pilgrim’s Progress. I have read it three times over; but there’s always something new in it.