“It’s a pity to put Tacker to the trouble, young ’un,” said he; “he’ll probably ring when I’m going to leave off, and that’ll do as well.”
“That’s not bad for you,” said Gedge, approvingly; “not half bad. Go on like that, and you’ll make a joke in about a fortnight.”
“Look here,” said Reginald, smiling at last. “I shall either have to punch your head or begin work. You’d better decide which you’d like best.”
“Well, as Durfy is looking this way,” said Gedge, “I suppose you’d better begin work. Stick that pair of empty cases up there—the one with the big holes below and the other one above. You needn’t stick them upside down, though, unless you particularly want to; they look quite as well the right way. Now, then, you’d better watch me fill them, and see what boxes the sorts go in. No larks, now. Here goes for the ‘m’s.’”
So saying, Mr “Magog” proceeded to fill up one box with types of the letter “m,” and another box some distance off with “a’s,” and another with “b’s,” and so on, till presently the lower of the two cases was nearly full. Reginald watched him with something like admiration, inwardly wondering if he would ever be able to find his way about this labyrinth of boxes, and strongly of opinion that only muffs like printers would think of arranging the alphabet in such an absurdly haphazard manner. The lower case being full up, Gedge meekly suggested that as he was yet several feet from his full size, they might as well lift the upper case down while it was being filled. Which done, the same process was repeated, only with more apparent regularity, and the case having been finally tilted up on the frame above the lower case, the operator turned round with a pleased expression, and said,—
“What do you think of that?”
“Why, I think it’s very ridiculous not to put the ‘capital J’ next to the ‘capital I,’” said Reginald.
Gedge laughed.
“Go and tell Durfy that; he’d like to hear it.”
Reginald, however, denied himself the pleasure of entertaining Mr Durfy on this occasion, and occupied himself with picking up the types and inspecting them, and trying to learn the geography of his cases.