In the World #226680

I went out into the world as "shop-boy" at a fashionable boot-shop in the main street of the town. My master was a small, round man. He had a brown, rugged face, green teeth, and watery, mudcolored eyes. At first I thought he was blind, and to see if my supposition was correct, I made a grimace.<br><br>"Don't pull your face about!" he said to me gently, but sternly. The thought that those dull eyes could see me was unpleasant, and I did not want to believe that this was the case. Was it not more than probable that he had guessed I was making grimaces? I told you not to pull your face about, he said again, hardly moving his thick lips.<br><br>"Don't scratch your hands," his dry whisper came to me, as it were, stealthily. "You are serving in a first-class shop in the main street of the town, and you must not forget it. The door-boy ought to stand like a statue."<br><br>I did not know what a statue was, and I couldn't help scratching my hands, which were covered with red pimples and sores, for they had been simply devoured by vermin.