aster Penny tended the furnace to make sure the smoke was travelling through the pipe and not coming back into the room. He had had problems with the ventilation just last week. One of the young boys that did errands for him had built the fire incorrectly, causing the smoke to fill the shop. He'd lost a day's business. Master Penny put one hand on the bellows and applied light pressure so the air would fan the coals that fed the fire. He glanced down at his hand to the gold skull ring which reminded him of his seven years as an apprentice. He remembered sitting before a wax table etched with designs. He had used an anvil to soften and form the gold, stretching and pulling the gold with tongs and a hammer, coaxing it into the shape of a ring. With a chisel, he had engraved designs on the precious stone for the setting. Using his rabbit's foot, he had smoothed, polished, and wiped the surface of the ring, allowing the small particles to be collected on his leather apron. With a gold wire, he then adjusted the size of his ring. Continuing to fan the fire, he remembered how difficult he thought it would be to become skilled in engraving, chasing, punching, and burnishing, skills that were now second nature to him. He had become so well trained in distinguishing pure gold from latten and copper that he now found it easy to recognize the fraudulent work the customers sometimes brought in. Jarred by his wife's voice calling to remind him of his meeting at Goldsmiths' Hall, he came out of his reverie. He glanced up to see silent reproof in her eyes. "What is it, Emily?" Without saying a word, she walked toward him and brushed the dust off his black waistcoat and doublet and straightened his flat black hat. "My lord, it is not good for you to wear your best clothes in the shop," she said with a smile. "How many times have we had to the replace your blouse because you stood too close to the fire?" she asked. He nodded, smiled, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and told her to mind the shop and his apprentices while he was away. He reminded her to pay each one 6s, for his week's wage, docking Edward three pennies for the time last week when he had skipped work to go to a play. Emily chuckled as she remembered the row there had been when Edward had shown up at the shop after the play. Her husband had never been to a play and agreed with the aldermen that playhouses fostered immoral behaviour. Mistress Penny had attended a play only once. Knowing full well what her husband's thoughts on playgoing were, she didn't dare make a habit of going in secrecy with her friends, the Cheapside Dames, as her husband jokingly called them. -- [[NAME, YEAR]]