He had light brown hair and hazel grey eyes, and his clothes were of many colours, being thickly encrusted with paint, the result of the unskillful manner in which he did his work, for he had only been at the trade about a year.

Some of the men had nicknamed him 'the walking paint-shop', a title which Bert accepted good-humouredly.
This boy was an orphan.

His father had been a railway porter who had worked very laboriously for twelve or fourteen hours every day for many years, with the usual result, namely, that he and his family lived in a condition of perpetual poverty.

Bert, who was their only child and not very robust, had early shown a talent for drawing, so when his father died a little over a year ago, his mother readily assented when the boy said that he wished to become a decorator.

It was a nice light trade, and she thought that a really good painter, such as she was sure he would become, was at least always able to earn a good living.
Resolving to give the boy the best possible chance, she decided if possible to place him at Rushton's, that being one of the leading firms in the town.