He passed a railway embankment where a gang of navvies were hard at work.

As he watched them he felt half envious.

They had work to do, they had homes to return to at night, they had characters, perhaps.

Most of them were big strong fellows like himself.

Why should he not become one of them?
He fancied he could wheel a barrow, and ply a crowbar, and dig with a spade, as well as any of them; he was not afraid of hard work any more than they were, and the wages that kept a roof over their heads would surely keep a roof over his.
As he sat on a bank by the roadside and watched them, he had almost resolved to walk across to the foreman and ask for a job, when the sound of voices close to him arrested him.
They were boys' voices, and their talk evidently referred to himself, "Come along, Teddy," said one.