'No,' said Hubert, 'never touch it. Out of work.'

'No offence, master, we're all mortal, we is all weak, and in misfortune we
goes to it. It was them boys that drove me to it.'

'How was that?'

'They was always round my show; no getting rid of them, and their remarks
created a disturbance; the perlice said he wouldn't 'ave it, and when the
perlice won't 'ave it, what's a poor man to do? They are that hignorant.
But what's the use of talking of it, it only riles me.' The blue-eyed man
lay back in his seat, and his head sank on his chest. He looked as if he
were going to sleep again, but on Hubert's asking him to explain his
troubles, he leaned across the table.

'Well, I'll tell yer. Yer be an eddicated man, and I likes to talk to them
that 'as 'ad an eddication. Yer says, and werry truly, just now, that
changing the stable don't change an 'orse into a hass, or a hass into an
'orse. That is werry true, most true, none but a eddicated man could 'ave
made that 'ere hobservation. I likes yer for it. Give us yer 'and. The
public just thinks too much of the stable, and not enough of what's inside.
Leastways that's my experience of the public, and I 'ave been a-catering
for the public ever since I was a growing lad--sides of bacon, ships on
fire, good old ship on fire.... I knows the public. Yer don't follow me?'

'Not quite.'

'A moment, and I'll explain. You'll admit there's no blooming reason except
the public's blooming hignorance why a man shouldn't do as good a picture
on the pavement as on a piece of canvas, provided he 'ave the blooming