nails without heads, screws without worms, and locks without wards, lay
a glue-pot and an oilstone, two articles which their owner was wont to
term "his right hand and his left." On a shelf was placed a row of
paint-jars; the contents of which had been daubed in rainbow streaks
upon the adjacent closet and window sill. Divers plans and figures were
chalked upon the walls; and the spaces between them were filled up with
an almanack for the year; a godly ballad, adorned with a rude wood-cut,
purporting to be "_The History of Chaste Susannah_;" an old print of the
Seven Golden Candlesticks; an abstract of the various Acts of Parliament
against drinking, swearing, and all manner of profaneness; and a view of
the interior of Doctor Daniel Burgess's Presbyterian meeting-house in
Russell Court, with portraits of the reverend gentleman and the
principal members of his flock. The floor was thickly strewn with
sawdust and shavings; and across the room ran a long and wide bench,
furnished at one end with a powerful vice; next to which three nails
driven into the boards served, it would appear from the lump of
unconsumed tallow left in their custody, as a substitute for a
candlestick. On the bench was set a quartern measure of gin, a crust of
bread, and a slice of cheese. Attracted by the odour of the latter
dainty, a hungry cat had contrived to scratch open the paper in which it
was wrapped, displaying the following words in large characters:--"THE
HISTORY OF THE FOUR KINGS, OR CHILD'S BEST GUIDE TO THE GALLOWS." And,
as if to make the moral more obvious, a dirty pack of cards was
scattered, underneath, upon the sawdust. Near the door stood a pile of
deal planks, behind which the carpenter ensconced himself in order to
reconnoitre, unobserved, the proceedings of his idle apprentice.

Standing on tiptoe, on a joint-stool, placed upon the bench, with his
back to the door, and a clasp-knife in his hand, this youngster, instead
of executing his appointed task, was occupied in carving his name upon a