about half
past four
This stuff came in wooden barrels containing two hundredweight , and he used to have to dig it out of these barrels with a trowel , and put it into a metal tank , where it was kept covered with water , and the empty barrels were returned to the makers . When he was doing this work he usually managed to get himself smeared all over with the white lead , and this circumstance , and the fact that he was always handling paint or some poisonous material or other was doubtless the cause of the terrible pains he often had in his stomach -- pains that sometimes caused him to throw himself down and roll on the ground in agony . One afternoon Crass sent him with a handcart to a job that Easton , Philpot , Harlow and Owen were just finishing . He got there about half past four and helped the men to load up the things , and afterwards walked alongside the cart with them back to the shop . On the way they all noticed and remarked to each other that the boy looked tired and pale and that he seemed to limp : but he did not say anything , although he guessed that they were talking about him . They arrived at the shop a little before knocking-off time -- about ten minutes past five . Bert helped them to unload , and afterwards , while they were putting their things away and ` charging up ' the unused materials they had brought back , he pushed the cart over to the shed where it was kept , on the other side of the yard .