They seemed to be waiting very hard for something just then, and they stared at me, as the rest had done; but in a few minutes, just as I began to hear the paymaster's footsteps behind me, the man at the nearest end of the quarry called "Shorrock!" and a sudden activity woke up along the line.

Shorrock then pointed to a corner of the delph where two of these poor fellows had been killed the week before, by stones thrown out from a fall of earth.

We went down through the delph, and up the slope, by the place where the older men were at work in the poorhouse grounds.
Crossing the Darwen road, we passed the other delphs, where the scene was much the same as in the rest, except that more men were employed there.

As we went on, one poor fellow was trolling a snatch of song, as he hammered away at the stones.

"Thir't merry, owd mon," said I, in passing.