Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/30
1804.
Æt. 12-13.
Only a few yards from Jacob's Well Mews is a bookseller's shop, at No. 2 Blandford Street.
There Faraday went as errand boy, on trial for a year, to Mr. George Riebau, in 1804. He has spoken with much feeling 'that it was his duty, when he first went, to carry round the papers that were lent out by his master. Often on a Sunday morning he got up very early and took them round, and then he had to call for them again; and frequently, when he was told the paper was not done with, "You must call again," he would beg to be allowed to have it; for his next place might be a mile off, and then he would have to return back over the ground again, losing much time, and being very unhappy if he was unable to get home to make himself neat, and to go with his parents to their place of worship.'
He says, 'I remember being charged with being a great questioner when young, but I do not know the nature of the questions.' One instance, however, has been preserved. Having called at a house, possibly to leave a newspaper, whilst waiting for the door to be opened, he put his head through the iron bars that made a separation from the adjoining house; and, whilst in this position, he questioned himself as to which side he was on. The door behind him being opened, he suddenly drew back, and, hitting himself so as to make his nose bleed, he forgot all about his question.
In after life the remembrance of his earliest occupation was often brought to his mind. One of his nieces says that he rarely saw a newspaper boy without making some kind remark about him. Another niece recalls his words on one occasion, 'I always feel a