Progress was made by the very poorest against every difficulty.
The oldest worker in this discarded mill, whose career is in present memory, attended school for exactly half a day. He was then seven and the sudden offer of a job put an end to his formal education. But he " had of knowledge so unquenchable a thirst " that he paid a halfpenny for evening lessons from a cottager, and presently became an omnivorous reader. In later days he delighted in Tolstoi's Religion. But above all he was artist in all that concerned a mill. For the sum of 9s. a week, raised beyond all hope to lls., he worked the greater part of six days a week as well as much of the night. He would always be waiting in the mill on Sunday night for the striking of twelve o'clock by the village clock, which re- leased him for work. Before this he had learned enough to keep watch and ward over six pairs of stones grinding simul- taneously ; but that was in anti er mill.
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