"Bring it in, Shock; set it on end there in the passage.

We'll take it up after tea.
Come along." Shock lifted in the box before I could help him; and then seizing the barrow-handles, with his back to me, he let out a kick like a mule and caught me in the calf, nearly sending me down.
"Hallo! hold on, my lad," said Old Brownsmith, who had not seen the cause; and of course I would not tell tales; but I made up my mind to repay Mr Shock for that kick and for his insolent obstinacy the first time the opportunity served.
I followed my master into a great shed that struck cool as we descended to the floor, which was six or seven feet below the surface, being like a cellar opened and then roofed in with wood.

Here some seven or eight women were busy tying up rosebuds in market bunches, while a couple of men went and came with baskets which they brought in full and took out empty.
The scent was delicious; and as we went past the women, whose busy fingers were all hard at work, Old Brownsmith stopped where another man kept taking up so many bunches of the roses in each hand and then diving his head and shoulders into a great oblong basket, leaving the roses at the bottom as he came out, and seized a piece of chalk and made a mark upon a slate.
"Give him the slate, Ike," said Old Brownsmith.

"He'll tally 'em off for you now.

Look here, Grant, you keep account on the slate how many bunches are put in each barge, and how many barges are filled." "Yes, sir," I said, taking the slate and chalk with trembling fingers, for I felt flushed and excited.
"This is the way--you put down a stroke like that for every dozen, and one like that for a barge.