Was John Halifax living there too?
My father's tan-yard was in an alley a little further on.

Already I perceived the familiar odour; sometimes a not unpleasant barky smell; at other times borne in horrible wafts, as if from a lately forsaken battle-field.

I wondered how anybody could endure it--yet some did; and among the workmen, as we entered, I looked round for the lad I knew.
He was sitting in a corner in one of the sheds, helping two or three women to split bark, very busy at work; yet he found time to stop now and then, and administered a wisp of sweet hay to the old blind mare, as she went slowly round and round, turning the bark mill.

Nobody seemed to notice him, and he did not speak to anybody.
As we passed John did not even see us.

I asked my father, in a whisper, how he liked the boy.
"What boy ?--eh, him ?--Oh, well enough--there's no harm in him that I know of.