_Long Jack_ was a prominent, but despite his
joviality, it seems to me a pathetic figure.
CHAPTER VI.
FRIENDSHIP
Delicate health, as I have said, was my lot from childhood. After about
eighteen months of office work I had a long and serious illness and was
away from duty for nearly half a year. The latter part of the time I
spent in the Erewash Valley, at the house of an uncle who lived near Pye
Bridge. I was then under eighteen, growing fast, and when convalescing
the country life and country air did me lasting good. Though a colliery
district the valley is not devoid of rural beauty; to me it was pleasant
and attractive and I wandered about at will.
One day I had a curious experience. In my walk I came across the
Cromford Canal where it enters a tunnel that burrows beneath coal mines.
At the entrance to the tunnel a canal barge lay. The bargees asked would
I like to go through with them? "How long is it?" said I, and "how long
will it take?" "Not long," said bargee, "come on!" "Right!" said I. The
tunnel just fitted the barge, scarcely an inch to spare; the roof was so
low that a man lying on his back on a plank placed athwart the vessel,
with his feet against the roof, propelled the boat along.
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