Work in the coal-mine I always dreaded.

One reason for this was that any one who worked in a coal-mine was always unclean, at least while at work, and it was a very hard job to get one's skin clean after the day's work was over.

Then it was fully a mile from the opening of the coal-mine to the face of the coal, and all, of course, was in the blackest darkness.

I do not believe that one ever experiences anywhere else such darkness as he does in a coal-mine.
The mine was divided into a large number of different "rooms" or departments, and, as I never was able to learn the location of all these "rooms," I many times found myself lost in the mine.

To add to the horror of being lost, sometimes my light would go out, and then, if I did not happen to have a match, I would wander about in the darkness until by chance I found some one to give me a light.