The room where the boys lodged was scarcely bigger than a coach-house;
and so low was the ceiling, that a fly-paper suspended from a
clothes-line was on a level with my head, and had to be carefully
avoided when I moved about.
One corner of the apartment was completely filled up by a big four-post
bedstead, which fitted into a kind of recess as perfectly as if it had
been built to order.
The old woman who kept this lodging had endeavoured to give it a homely
look of comfort, by hanging little black-framed pictures, scarcely
bigger than pocket-books, on the walls. Most of these were sacred
subjects, with large yellow glories round the heads; though between
the drawing representing the bleeding heart of Christ, and the Saviour
bearing the Cross, was an illustration of a red-waistcoated sailor
smoking his pipe. The Adoration of the Shepherds, again, was matched on
the other side of the fireplace by a portrait of Daniel O’Connell.
A chest of drawers was covered over with a green baize cloth, on which
books, shelves, and clean glasses were tidily set out.
Where so many persons (for there were about eight of them, including
the landlady, her daughter, and grandson) could all sleep, puzzled me
extremely.
The landlady wore a frilled nightcap, which fitted so closely to the
skull, that it was evident she had lost her hair. One of her eyes
was slowly recovering from a blow, which, to use her own words, “a
blackgeyard gave her.” Her lip, too, had suffered in the encounter, for
it was swollen and cut.
“I’ve a nice flock-bid for the boys,” she said, when I inquired into
the accommodation of her lodging-house, “where three of them can slape
aisy and comfortable.”
“It’s a large bed, sir,” said one of the boys, “and a warm covering
over us; and you see it’s better than a regular lodging-house; for, if
you want a knife or a cup, you don’t have to leave something on it till
it’s returned.”
The old woman spoke up for her lodgers, telling me that they were good
boys, and very honest; “for,” she added, “they pays me rig’lar ivery
night, which is threepence.”
The only youth as to whose morals she seemed to be at all doubtful was
“the Goose,” “for he kept late hours, and sometimes came home without a
penny in his pocket.”
_B. The Girl Crossing-Sweepers._