| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 14 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
upon a whistle and all hands assembled in the kitchen, where Bert the apprentice had already prepared the tea, which was ready in the large galvanized iron pail that he had placed in the middle of the floor. By the side of the pail were a number of old jam-jars, mugs, dilapidated tea-cups and one or two empty condensed milk tins. Each man on the `job' paid Bert threepence a week for the tea and sugar - they did not have milk - and although they had tea at breakfast-time as well as at dinner, the lad was generally considered to be making a fortune. Two pairs of steps, laid parallel on their sides at a distance of about eight feet from each other, with a plank laid across, in front of the fire, several upturned pails, and the drawers belonging to the dresser, formed the seating accommodation. The floor of the room was covered with all manner of debris, dust, dirt, fragments of old mortar and plaster. A sack containing cement was leaning against one of the walls, and a bucket containing some stale whitewash stood in one corner. |
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