In Thrums Street, as it ought to have been called, herded at least one-half of the Thrums folk in London, and they formed a colony, of which the grocer at the corner sometimes said wrathfully that not a member would give sixpence for anything except Bibles or whiskey.  In the streets one could only tell they were not Londoners by their walk, the flagstones having no grip for their feet, or, if they had come south late in life, by their backs, which they carried at the angle on which webs are most easily supported.  When mixing with the world they talked the English tongue, which came out of them as broad as if it had been squeezed through a mangle, but when the day’s work was done, it was only a few of the giddier striplings that remained Londoners.  For the majority there was no raking the streets after diversion, they spent the hour or two before bed-time in reproducing the life of Thrums.  Few of them knew much of London except the nearest way between this street and their work, and their most interesting visitor was a Presbyterian minister, most of whose congregation lived in much more fashionable parts, but they were almost exclusively servant girls, and when descending area-steps to visit them he had been challenged often and jocularly by policemen, which perhaps was what gave him a subdued and furtive appearance.

The rooms were furnished mainly with articles bought in London, but these became as like Thrums dressers and seats as their owners could make them, old Petey, for instance, cutting the back off a chair because he felt most at home on stools.  Drawers were used as baking-boards, pails turned into salt-buckets, floors were sanded and hearthstones ca’med, and the popular supper consisted of porter, hot water, and soaked bread, after every spoonful of which, they groaned pleasantly, and stretched their legs.  Sometimes they played at the dambrod, but more often they pulled down the blinds on London and talked of Thrums in their mother tongue.  Nevertheless few of them wanted to return to it, and their favorite joke was the case of James Gloag’s father, who being home-sick flung up his situation and took train for Thrums, but he was back in London in three weeks.

Tommy soon had the entry to these homes, and his first news of the inmates was unexpected.  It was that they were always sleeping.  In broad daylight he had seen Thrums men asleep on beds, and he was somewhat ashamed of them until he heard the excuse.  A number of the men from Thrums were bakers, the first emigrant of this trade having drawn others after him, and they slept great part of the day to be able to work all night in a cellar, making nice rolls for rich people.  Baker Lumsden, who became a friend of Tommy, had got his place in the cellar when his brother died, and the brother had succeeded Matthew Croall when he died.

They die very soon, Tommy learned from Lumsden, generally when they are eight and thirty.  Lumsden was thirty-six, and when he died his nephew was to get the place.  The wages are good.