13

RULES

1. One days docked wages for broken letters
2. One weeks docked wages for spoiled words
3. No etching
4. Shower before entering tubs. Clean toenails.
5. Standard factory issue togs only in tubs
6. Menstruating dippers wear rubber ("A Issue") togs
7. No "drifting"
8. Letters to be rouged only per instruction. NOTICE: ROUGING IS NOT STANDARD PRACTICE.
9. Rota for lunch-breaks, tea-breaks, toilet-breaks, and cigarette-breaks:
             Smoothers 1; Bevellers 2; Polishers 3; Dippers 4.
10. ONLY the TSTM has business in Gilding. NO APPRENTICES in Gilding EVER.
11. No round-the-clock shifts allowed without the permission of:
                                  A. Juzsef, Foreman

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32

You should have seen his face
when the two dogs came in the shed
one chasing the other
and you can guess what *he* was after

well the two of them stopped
right beside the etching table
and started their business
brazen as you please

and wasn't that the very moment
Attila the Hun and the TSTM
were up on their tippy-toes
looking over the partition to Gilding

well I tell you when they turned around
to see what was making the noise
and saw the two dogs at it
there was no checking the watch then

to see who was on lunch or the toilet
but girls girls he yells
this is an emergency
and I want the lot of ye outside

well out we went pretending not to see
and of course the prentices
slipped straight in soon as he was gone
to see could they drift good as us

but they hadn't the togs or the clippers
and the noise they made
scared the poor dogs
I suppose they were finished

and they both ran back out
and Atilla spent the whole rest of the day
explaining how they were looking for rats
down under etching

and we kept asking questions
and he kept getting redder and redder
and we said Mr. Juzsef remember
ROUGING IS NOT STANDARD PRACTICE