at finding the way easier than expected and the fact that his feet were troublesome, he did not hesitate but set off. Sniffing the air though with his usual huffily snuffle as he went, in a little while he noticed, beside their knawing ache, an odd feeling in his feet. What was the matter with them now? They were behaving in a manner quite unknown to him. With each step they grew heavier and heavier until at last he was forced to stop. He stood rooted to the spot so to speak and quite at a loss. He had a habit of saying when surprised: ‘Well shake my spines!’ or when angry: ‘Well sharpen my spikes!’ At this moment he was speechless. The full terror of it burst upon him. Was he to stay like this forever? The rest of him felt as cold and heavy as his feet. He strained to be free but it was useless. Nothing could be worse than this he thought, until he heard human voices. Friend or foe? He almost died of fright. It was in this state that he was found by the workmen when they returned from their break.
“Now who’s thrown an o1’ loo-brush on my nice new stretch o’ concrete?” exclaimed a voice.
“That’s no brush, look, it’s an ’edge’og,” came a second voice.
“Why so it is,” agreed the first speaker. “What’s he doing there besides making his mark?”
“Tryin’ to get across I shouldn’t wonder, but the cement’s collectin’ on ’is feet and settin’,” rejoined his mate.
“Poor little perisher,” said the first man sympathetically, “that would get anyone bogged down. Ha! Ha! Just you hang on there a minute an’ I’ll have you out in a jiffy.”
By this time, Hitch was becoming used to his fright and beginning to feel cross.
“Hang on, indeed! I’ve ‘put both feet in it’, so I’m ‘stuck in’,” he fretted.
Presently the man returned carrying a long plank and a piece of sacking. Carefully, so as not to touch the concrete, he laid the plank from the curbing stone to the edge of the wooden mould. He walked along the plank and reaching out to his full arms length he laid the sacking gently around Hitch and lifted him clear of the quickly setting mass that trapped him.
“Funny little geyser,” commented the second workman looking at Hitch with interest. “Always so independent too. Must ’ave been pretty worryin’ ’avin’ somethin’ like that ’appen to yer.”