“He did pretty well up there sometimes, such as on Christmas-day, where he has took as much as six shillings sometimes, and never less than one and sixpence. All the gentlements knowed him thereabouts, and one or two used to give him a shilling a-week regular.
“It was he as first of all put me up to sweep a crossing, and I used to take my stand at St. Martin’s Church.
“I didn’t see anybody working there, so I planted myself on it. After a time some other boys come up. They come up and wanted to turn me off, and began hitting me with their brooms,—they hit me regular hard with the old stumps; there was five or six of them; so I couldn’t defend myself, but told the policeman, and he turned them all away except me, because he saw me on first, sir. Now we are all friends, and work together, and all that we earns ourself we has.
“On a good day, when it’s poured o’ rain and then leave off sudden, and made it nice and muddy, I’ve took as much as ninepence; but it’s too dry now, and we don’t do more than fourpence.
“At night, I go along with the others tumbling. I does the cat’en-wheel [probably a contraction of Catherine-wheel]; I throws myself over sideways on my hands with my legs in the air. I can’t do it more than four times running, because it makes the blood to the head, and then all the things seems to turn round. Sometimes a chap will give me a lick with a stick just as I’m going over—sometimes a reg’lar good hard whack; but it ain’t often, and we general gets a halfpenny or a penny by it.
“The boys as runs after the busses was the first to do these here cat’en-wheels. I know the boy as was the very first to do it. His name is Gander, so we calls him the Goose.
“There’s about nine or ten of us in our gang, and as is reg’lar; we lodges at different places, and we has our reg’lar hours for meeting, but we all comes and goes when we likes, only we keeps together, so as not to let any others come on the crossings but ourselves.
“If another boy tries to come on we cries out, ‘Here’s a Rooshian,’ and then if he won’t go away, we all sets on him and gives him a drubbing; and if he still comes down the next day, we pays him out twice as much, and harder.
“There’s never been one down there yet as can lick us all together.
“If we sees one of our pals being pitched into by other boys, we goes up and helps him. Gander’s the leader of our gang, ’cause he can tumble back’ards (no, that ain’t the cat’en-wheel, that’s tumbling); so he gets more tin give him, and that’s why we makes him cap’an.