When Frank's money ran out, he considered applying for welfare payment, but he decided that a better way to continue writing his novel would be to find a job which would given him some good, wholesome experience of how ordinary people lived. However, at that time there was widespread unemployment, and Frank had to weight his own requirements against considerations of the greater public good. He decided that for someone with his education to take a factory job away from a working man would be nothing short of wicked. However, he managed to find some casual work with a group of men who had a contract to clear undergrowth from railway lines.
Frank had never had a laboring job, and he was afraid that he might not survive his first day at work. A white van called for him at six in the morning and he had to wedge himself into the back with a group of boys and several chainsaws. Two of the boys were playing cat's cradle to while away the time. One boy would wind a lot of string around the other boy's hands, and the second boy would then whirl his hands around in a mysterious way and somehow weave a short of web in which, presumably,the cat was supposed to sleep.
Before they arrived at the railway, the boss gave Frank a yellow waterproof jacket to wear. These jackets were compulsory for staff working on the railway, who also had to have a warrant and one man with a whistle to watch for trains while the other men worked. The boss said that according to the rules, each man should clear one section of railway every day. Hearing this, Frank wanted to weep, he tried to whisper to one of the boys that he really wasn't a worker at all, but the body just gave him a wink and handed him a rather grubby paper tissue to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
The van stopped at a little station with a line of whitewash on the platform edge. The boss said that four sections would be eighty-eight meters, and they started to walk along the track. The embankment was surprisingly clear; in fact they walked for eighty-seven meters before they encountered a single weed sitting by a weld in the track. One snip with the shears and the day's work was done. Frank had never felt less weary in his life!
Frank had never had a laboring job, and he was afraid that he might not survive his first day at work. A white van called for him at six in the morning and he had to wedge himself into the back with a group of boys and several chainsaws. Two of the boys were playing cat's cradle to while away the time. One boy would wind a lot of string around the other boy's hands, and the second boy would then whirl his hands around in a mysterious way and somehow weave a short of web in which, presumably,the cat was supposed to sleep.
Before they arrived at the railway, the boss gave Frank a yellow waterproof jacket to wear. These jackets were compulsory for staff working on the railway, who also had to have a warrant and one man with a whistle to watch for trains while the other men worked. The boss said that according to the rules, each man should clear one section of railway every day. Hearing this, Frank wanted to weep, he tried to whisper to one of the boys that he really wasn't a worker at all, but the body just gave him a wink and handed him a rather grubby paper tissue to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
The van stopped at a little station with a line of whitewash on the platform edge. The boss said that four sections would be eighty-eight meters, and they started to walk along the track. The embankment was surprisingly clear; in fact they walked for eighty-seven meters before they encountered a single weed sitting by a weld in the track. One snip with the shears and the day's work was done. Frank had never felt less weary in his life!