Read "A Rough Shaking" by George MacDonald online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
At the end of the wall was a rough boarded fence, in contact with it, and reaching, some fifty yards or so, to a hovel in which a blacksmith, of unknown antecedents, had taken possession of a forsaken forge, and did what odd jobs came in his way. The boys went along the fence till they came to the forge, where, looking in, they saw the blacksmith working his bellows. To one with the instincts of Clare's birth and breeding, he did not look a desirable acquaintance. Tommy was less fastidious, but he felt that the scowl on the man's brows boded little friendliness. Clare, however, who hardly knew what fear was, did not hesitate to go in, for he was drawn as with a cart-rope by the glow of the fire, and the sparks which, as they gazed, began, like embodied joys, to fly merrily from the iron. Tommy followed, keeping Clare well between him and the black-browed man, who rained his blows on the rosy iron in his pincers, as if he hated it.
"What do you want, gutter-toads? " he cried, glancing up and seeing them approach. "This ain't a hotel."