Edward was a doffer and it was his responsibility to remove the spools filled by the spinning machine and replace them with empty ones. Doffering was a difficult job; it required quick spurts of fast energetic work, spaced with long periods of inactivity.
How Edward hated this task. Not only had he to climb upon the machines, in order to change the higher spools, but he also had to do it barefooted, in order to be quick and agile. Often a misplaced foot or a hesitant hand had been the cause of the tragic passing of many a young worker. It was common to see a new face working in the textile mills, after the body of a previous child had been removed from the innards of the moving machinery.
People often said that the Shadow was always busy in the cotton mills, taking the souls of those who had departed, to their final home in the heavens.
Edward was determined that he should not wane in his chores for he did not want to see the Shadow just yet.
(This picture was taken in Loki Eliot’s cotton mill.)
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