explain these lines and the highlighted

[nawab]

hi all,
pls explain these lines from Great Expectations(chapter4)by Charles Dickens.

Mrs.Joe was prodigiously busy in getting the house ready for the festivities of the day,and Joe had been put upon the kitchen door-step to keep him out of the dust-pan____an article into which his destiny always led him,sooner or later,when my sister was vigorously reaping the floors of her establishmrnt.
thanks
Nawab

 

[Anglika]

hi all,
pls explain these lines from Great Expectations(chapter4)by Charles Dickens.

Mrs.Joe was prodigiously busy in getting the house ready for the festivities of the day,and Joe had been put upon the kitchen door-step to keep him out of the dust-pan____an article into which his destiny always led him,sooner or later,when my sister was vigorously reaping the floors of her establishmrnt.
thanks
Nawab

Joe had been put [upon the kitchen doorstep] = Mrs. Joe had placed the child to sit on the step

to keep him out of the dust-pan = to stop him climbing into the tool for collecting dust as it is swept off the floor

his destiny always led him = Dickens's fancy way of saying "he always seemed to end up in the pan"

reaping the floors of her establishment = another of Dickens's fancy ways of saying a simple thing = sweeping the floor.

 

[nawab]

hi anglika,
but there is no mentioning of any child. and that Joe is her husband.
pls help

 

[Anglika]

Sorry - I wasn't really thinking. Of course, it is her husband Joe, who is constantly bullied by his wife.