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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A DEAD 'UN. Billy Wilks was a person most uncommonly conscientious by nature and habit, and by trade a thief. He did not take to that trade by choice; no conscientious person would do it. There were several other things Billy Wilks would have liked better: a sleeping partnership in a large bank, for instance?or, in fact, a sleeping partnership in anything lucrative, ? his conscience told him, would have been far preferable. But his finer aspirations were cruelly defeated by his fellowmen, who offered him no bank-partnerships, and refused in any way even to contribute to his bare support, except on conditions of intolerable personal exertion. He had made his attempts, too. He had once been a time-keeper on buildings-works?a job which had attracted him by the comparatively passive nature of its duties. Here he had discovered a kindly means of increasing the incomes of late-rising bricklayers, which brought him grateful acknowledgment, by way of weekly percentage, from the beneficiaries. But a misanthropic employer, abetted by a brutal system of law, brought the arrangement to a disastrous end. So that there was no more honest toil for Billy Wilks; but such was his regard for toil in the abstract that he still persevered in it vicariously through Mrs. Wilks, who did what charing she could get, with her husband's hearty approval. As for himself, he performed his thieving with the most respectable compunction. He never removed an unattended bag from a railway station, an overcoat from a neglected hat-stand, nor an armful of washing from a clothes-line, without sad pangs of commiseration for the despoiled owners; but then, as he always reflected, he had himself to think about. It is surprising to consider what a number of things can be picked up casually in and about the street.
| ISBN-13 | 9780217925921 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217925928 |
| Weight | 0.48 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.33 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 142 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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