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42 THE king's yard
be anything but Mr. Hill, Mrs. Mildwater was not
the woman to
stand on ceremony, and as the lodger
unbent, and seemed anxious to
be friendly with our
Mild was, she took to calling him John, and from
that to Jack. Then, anxious that he should obtain
work, and so remain with them, she went about
telling the neighbours that if they heard of anything
in the painter way, they might bear in mind that
John Hill, painter, lodged with her. So that everyone
in Chapel Row soon drifted into calling him
Jack the Painter.
Jack got occasional work now and again, but
although once or twice he visited the Dockyard in
company with Mildwater, he seemed to lack energy
enough to worry for work from the foreman painter,
to whom Mildwater had introduced him. But he
liked to visit the Yard, showing
some interest in the
sights, and Mildwater was pleased
to exhibit all its
wonders, and there was much to see, for even in
those days it was quite a little town, though unlike
enough to its present-day appearance.
The town of Portsmouth, too, was not without
interest for him, and he was greatly taken with the
ramparts, and the manner in which the place was
surrounded by them. So enclosed was it, as he said
to Mildwater, that supposing a man wished to escape
the press, now beginning to grow hot, and they shut