homework 11.19

I waited in growing impatience to get on my way, not for one minute but for quite a considerable time. It was nearly half-past two when the boss finished. He then came to me with the ham, put it in the basket beside me, and instructed me to deliver it to a customer who had it on order.

This meant going a long way out of my road home, so I looked up and said to the boss: “Do you know I finish at two on Tuesday?” I have never seen a man look more astonished than he did then. “What do you mean?” he gasped. I told him I meant that I would deliver the groceries as usual, but not the ham.

He looked at me as if I were some unusual kind of insect and burst into a storm of abuse. But I stood firm. He gave me up as hopeless and tried new tactics. “Go out and got another boy,” he yelled at a shop-assistant.

“Are you going to deliver them or not?” the boss turned to me and asked in a threatening tone. I repeated what I had said before. “Then, out of here,” he shouted, So I got out.

This was the first time I had serious trouble with an employer.