A knot of young men in a corner rattled their sticks vigorously.

The older men had begun at any rate to look at the speaker.

The boys on the back benches instinctively stopped scuffling.
Then he threw himself into a sort of rapid question-and-answer.

What were their wages ?--eleven shillings a week?
"Not they!" cried a man from the middle of the chapel.

"Yer mus' reckon it wet an' dry.