When she had been alone for a few minutes, Mrs Crawley got up from her chair, and going into the kitchen, lighted the fire there, and put the kettle over it, and began to prepare such breakfast for her husband as the means in the house afforded.  Then she called the sleeping servant-girl, who was little more than a child, and went into her own girl’s room, and then she got into bed with her daughter.

‘I have been up with your papa, dear, and I am cold.’

‘Oh, mamma, poor mamma!  Why is papa up so early?’

’He has gone out to visit some of the brickmakers, before they go to their work.  It is better for him to be employed.’

‘But, mamma, it is pitch dark.’

’Yes, dear, it is still dark.  Sleep again for a while, and I will sleep too.  I think Grace will be here tonight, and then there will be no room for me here.’

Mr Crawley went forth and made his way with rapid steps to a portion of this parish nearly two miles from his house, through which was carried a canal, affording water communication in some intricate way both to London and Bristol.  And on the brink of this canal there had sprung up a colony of brickmakers, the nature of the earth in those parts combining with the canal to make brickmaking a suitable trade.  The workmen there assembled were not, for the most part, native-born Hogglestockians, or folk descended from Hogglestockian parents.  They had come thither from unknown regions, as labourers of that class do come when they are needed.  Some young men from that and neighbouring parishes had joined themselves to the colony, allured by wages, and disregarding the menaces of the neighbouring farmers; but they were all in appearance and manners nearer akin to the race of navvies than to ordinary rural labourers.  They had a bad name in the country; but it may be that their name was worse than their deserts.  The farmers hated them, and consequently they hated the farmers.  They had a beershop, and a grocer’s shop, and a huxter’s shop for their own accommodation, and were consequently vilified by the small old-established tradesmen around them.  They got drunk occasionally, but I doubt whether they drank more than did the farmers themselves on market-day.  They fought among themselves sometimes, but they forgave each other freely, and seemed to have no objection to black eyes.  I fear that they were not always good to their wives, nor were their wives always good to them; but it should be remembered that among the poor, especially when they live in clusters, such misfortunes cannot be hidden as they may amidst the decent belongings of more wealthy people.  That they worked very hard was certain; and it was certain also that very few of their number ever came upon the poor rates.  What became of the old brickmakers no one knew.  Who ever sees a worn-out navvy?