when they can have it at the places where they live, or hard by, any
two or three of them; or any one, for the matter of that? No; folk
collect in these Banded-workshops to do hand-work in which working
together is necessary or convenient; such work is often very
pleasant. In there, for instance, they make pottery and glass,--
there, you can see the tops of the furnaces. Well, of course it's
handy to have fair-sized ovens and kilns and glass-pots, and a good
lot of things to use them for: though of course there are a good
many such places, as it would be ridiculous if a man had a liking for
pot-making or glass-blowing that he should have to live in one place
or be obliged to forego the work he liked."

"I see no smoke coming from the furnaces," said I.

"Smoke?" said Dick; "why should you see smoke?"

I held my tongue, and he went on: "It's a nice place inside, though
as plain as you see outside. As to the crafts, throwing the clay
must be jolly work: the glass-blowing is rather a sweltering job;
but some folk like it very much indeed; and I don't much wonder:
there is such a sense of power, when you have got deft in it, in
dealing with the hot metal. It makes a lot of pleasant work," said
he, smiling, "for however much care you take of such goods, break
they will, one day or another, so there is always plenty to do."

I held my tongue and pondered.

We came just here on a gang of men road-mending which delayed us a
little; but I was not sorry for it; for all I had seen hitherto
seemed a mere part of a summer holiday; and I wanted to see how this