She swallowed her emotions.“Not now, love.Bessie is acting up, and I must go after breakfast to see if I can fix her before the ladies are ready to set the type.”
“Can I come?”
“Of course.”She held out a hand as he scrambled up off the floor and carefully stepped around his battalions.“Let’s go see what Mrs.Todd has made for breakfast.”
*
“Thank God you’rehere,” Mr.Norton’s gruff voice called out.
Elizabeth pulled the pin from her straw bonnet and hung it on the hook next to the front door.“It can’t be all that bad, George.”
Her print chief huffed and crossed his beefy arms across his chest.“You know I can’t make heads or tails of this newfangled thing.Bessie is real temperamental.”
George Norton, God bless his crusty old heart, had been her father’s best friend and business partner, and he had stuck by Elizabeth when she took over thePiccadilly Pressafter her father died.But the man was mired in the old ways.He still mourned the manual Stanhope Press they used to use.
Last year, she’d purchased a new steam-powered double-cylinder press.It cost her a pretty penny and took three months to come from Germany.She would be paying off the loan for the next five years, but it was worth it.Bessie could print eleven hundred double-sided sheets per hour compared to the two hundred the manual press could print.George was no spring chicken, and you’d think he would be grateful for the new, more automated machine.But no, he grumbled every day.
She took off her jacket, hung it on a hook, as well, grabbed an apron, and rolled up her shirt sleeves.
Robert took off his hat and handed it to her.“Hullo, Mr.Norton.I’ve come to help.”
George’s expression softened as he looked down at Robert.“Well now, that’s a good boy.It’s a fine thing you learning from your mama.She is the best print master in town.”Then George winked at her.
Elizabeth stepped up to him and bussed his weathered cheek.“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she said.
They walked back through the small front foyer area and into the airy print room.The back wall of the large room was all windows.Most were open to help the flow of air and mitigate how hot the room got with the steam-powered print machine.
“Good morning, ladies,” Elizabeth said as she passed by where her typesetters sat on stools at a long table, getting today’s edition of the paper set.
“Good morning, Miss Harper.”
“Morning, little man.”
Robert smiled broadly at the ladies, always the charmer.“I came to help.”
Elizabeth turned to the middle of the room, where the machine held the place of honor.“What’s seems to be the trouble, George?”
“I was running the test page and the paper jammed in the second roller.I can’t see why.I oiled the mechanism, but the paper keeps jamming in the second roller.”
She peered between the roller and the center of the mechanism, where the ink pads would press against the paper.There was a dark blob of some sort there.“Hmm, maybe too much ink and it has congealed?”Or…she peered at the dark spot again.Then opened the drawer to the right, where the case of type was placed.Just as she thought, a letter was missing from the third line of text.Making sure the lever to start the machine was in theOFFposition, with the latch engaged, she called out.“Robert, come here.Do you see that little dark spot there?”
Robert peered up where she pointed.“Yes, mama.”
“I think it is a type tile.Can you fish it out for me?”
Robert bit down on his bottom lip and stuck his small hand between the roller and the type case drawer.After a few seconds, he pulled his hand out, the tile pinched between his forefinger and thumb.
“Good job, darling!”
George shook his head.“I didn’t spot that.”
She smiled at him.“We needed small fingers.Now that we know that can happen, we need to be careful not to jostle the case when inserting the type into the drawer.”She crouched down in front of Robert.“What letter is that?”
Robert turned the tile to face him and concentrated.“It is aQ.The one with the tail.”
“Correct.”She gave him a kiss on the cheek.“Let’s put it back in place, shall we?”
Robert nodded.And she lifted him up so he could place the tile back into place in the sentence.Then they carefully slide the case back into the drawer.“Alright, let’s run another test copy.”
