Family Luck 5

The streets of Cheapside were alive with men selling their wares and women selling a different service. Drunkards staggered from one hostelry to the next or slept it off in doorways. Children rummaged through rubbish piles in search of a scrappy meal. Jude felt that even the workhouse was better than this.

When he came to a row of small shops he looked for the sign of the shoemaker. There were two. At the first he was greeted by an old man, doubled over his last for so long he could no longer straighten.
"No, lad, I don't have an apprentice; can't afford one." The second shop produced the same result.

Jude thought long and hard. He reasoned that to have an apprentice you would have to be doing good business. The people of Cheapside would make nobody's fortune; you would have to have better off customers, and they would not enter these streets. He moved away from the river and to the west. Here the streets were slightly wider, the houses painted, the people better dressed.

"I'm looking for the shoemaker's shop," he said to a lad carrying a stack of books. The boy pointed to an alley. It was dark and narrow. There was only one door, which stood ajar. Jude nervously entered. Several boys of about his age were engaged in sorting leather, carrying lasts, lifting boxes.
"Hello," Jude called out, "Can you help me?"
"What you want, mate?" asked an older lad, maybe fifteen or sixteen.
"I'm looking for my brother, Barnaby Luck; does he work here?"

"Hey boss, lad here looking for Barney," the boy shouted. A middle aged man came out of another room.
"Had to let him go. Sold him on to Joe, the carter. Place down near Southwark Pier." So Jude retraced his steps, back to the river. Seeing the big difference in life here, on the outskirts of Cheapside, and the fate of the poor beggars down by the river, he worried for his brother.

He had no chance to look for Joe the carter. As he got back to the pier Jed was waiting for him. The drink had done little for his mood.
"Get in the boat," he slurred, "You're rowing." He took a swig from the gin bottle he was carrying and then made a leap from the wooden quay into the boat. The boat rocked and Jed nearly fell in the murky river; would have done if Jude hadn't grabbed him.