‘Oh!’ said Joe. Then, after a pause, he added, ‘It ’ud be the landlords o’ them places that would get the profit o’ that.’ ‘Landlords and everybody; it would be a great advantage to the country, and would make our young man’s fortune, as he says.’ ‘If I was you,’ said Joe, ‘I’d go on ahead with that. If it’s you that’s writing it out, you’ll go shares in the profits, I reckon.’ March resumed his pen at this incentive and began once more to write. ‘No,’ he said, shaking his hand, ‘not shares; for I have really nothing to do with it except to copy it; but I’ve no doubt he will pay me, and pretty well too----’ ‘I daresay,’ said Joe, ‘if he’s that sort of a cove for finding out things, as he has a many more in his head as well as this.’ ‘I should think most likely,’ said the elder man. ‘He’s got a good brain--and plenty of energy, and fond of his profession--which is a good thing, Joe. Neither you nor I have been fond of our professions, unfortunately for us.’ ‘I ain’t got one--not even a trade. I was brought up to hang about, and do odd jobs. I never had no justice in my bringing-up.’ ‘Ah, that was a pity,’ said his companion; ‘perhaps, however, it wouldn’t have mattered much. Hanging about is the trade of a great many men, Joe, more successful men than you and me.’ ‘It depends on the nature o’ the jobs you gets,’ Joe remarked. He drew his chair a little nearer to the writing-table. ‘I’d get on with that there work, guv’nor, if I was you,’ he said, with a nudge; ‘if there’s a fortune in it for one, there might be a fortune in it for two.’ March looked at him hazily with an afternoon look of drowsiness and languor; but he was tickled by the advice thus given, and resumed the so-easily-relinquished work. Joe, so to speak, sat or stood over him all day, encouraging and stimulating. The work went on slowly, as John remarked in the evening, but still it went on. The next day and the next passed in much the same way, except that Joe, ‘hanging about’ as usual, managed to meet his comrade on his way to instead of after luncheon, and so secured a clear head and less drowsy condition for the afternoon. At last, chiefly by the exertions of this very unusual overseer, the work was concluded, and then Joe spoke his mind more clearly. ‘It’s you as has had most part of this work, guv’nor, but it’s he as’ll get the pay.’ ‘That’s the way of this world, Joe,’ said his comrade. But he added after a moment, with a magnanimous air, ‘Not in this case, however--for I have only copied, I have not invented--though I may have given a few hints.’ He had given these hints only to himself, various suggestions having occurred to him in the course of his copying, which in some instances he had inserted with the wildest ignorance of practicability in his text.