aye they needed a beast to draw their waggon / internal combustion engine no longer available in manmade form as if it never existed / things come and go / they bought a beast / best they could afford / not much / boy had stolen in street gold watch chain of pig merchant / hid in refuse heap to escape / sold it best he could / not much / mimed he found bag of coins in corner of workshop / old boxmaker thought must have forgotten them from better days / praised providence for his humble beast / larger than a donkey / smaller than a horse / tending towards a donkey in appearance / so they harnessed it to the ready laden waggon / secret traveling studio / slap of the reigns on old beast flat back / creaking slowly first they set off / great adventure this for the old man / pupil playful as ever / down moonlit cobble streets / sounds like that ol bugger boxmaker be sneakin off in tha dead a night / one waking voice to another somewhere in the neighbouring buildings / good riddance / reply before sinking back into oblivion / rattle clatter of wagons entering town loaded with produce for market / waggon drivers nodding no more than curt good mornings / dawn approaching they enter expanse of fields / hills to horizon