IN the reign of thefamousKing Edward the
Third, therewasalittle boycalledDickWhit- tington, whose father and mother died when he was very young, so that he was left a dirty, ragged little fellow running about a country village. As poorDick was not old enoughto work,hewas in a sorry plight; he got but little for his dinner, and sometimes nothingatallforhis breakfast; forthepeople wholived inthevillage wereverypoor them-
selves, and could spare him little more than theparings of potatoes, and now and thena hardcrust.
WniTTOfOTON AHDHIS CAT. 159 For all this, Dick Whittington was a very sharp boy, and was always listening to what every one talked about, and storing up the informationinhismemory.
OnSundays he neverfailed to get near the ftmifFt at theysat onthe tombstonesin the churchyard, talking before the parson was come; and oncea-weck you might besure to see littleDickleaning against the sign-post of thevillage ale-house,where people stopped to drink as theycamefromthenextmarket-town;
and wheneverthebarber'sshop-doorwas open, Dicklistened toall thenews that passed be- tweenhimand hiscustomers.
Inthismanner, Dickbeard of the greatcity of London; how*the people who lived there wereallfine gentlemen and ladies; that there weresingingandmuskinitalldaylong; and thatthestreetswere pavedwithgold.
One day a waggoner, with a large waggon andeight horses, allwithbells at theirheads, drove through the village while Dick was lounging near his favourite sign-post The thought immediately struck him, thatit must
160 FAVOURITE FAIRYTALES.
be going to the fine town of London; and takingcourage, heasked the waggoner to let himwalk withhim bythesideof thewaggon.
Theman,hearing from poorDickthathehad nofatheror motherliving, and seeing byhis ragged condition that he could not be worse offthan he was, told him he might go if he would; sotheysetofftogether.
Thewaggoner was verykind tohimbythe way, and when Dick was tired and footsore, he would allow him to take a seat on the waggon.
Dick gotsafe toLondon; and soeagerwas heto see the finestreets pavedall overwith gold, that he quite forgot to thank the wag- goner,and ranas fast as his legswouldcarry him through several streets, expecting every moment to come to those that were paved with gold. Dick hadthreetimes seen a guinea in his own village, and observed whata great deal of money it brought in change; so he imagined he had onlyto take upsome little
bitsof the pavement,to haveas much money
ashewanted.
wnirnxGTON AKDHIS CAT. 1C1 Poor Dickran till hewastired,and atlast, finding itgrow dark,and thatwhicheverwaj he turned he aawnothing but dirt instead of gold,hesatdown in a dark corner,and cried himselfasleep.
LittleDick remainedallnightinthestreets;
and nextmorning, finding himself very hungry, be gotupand walked about, asking thosehe mettogive himahalfpennyto keephim from starving;bat scarcelyany onestaid toanswer him, andonlytwoortewgavehimanything;
so that thepoor boy wassoonina mostmiser- able plight At last, being almost starved to death,helaid himselfdown at the door of a
finehouse,which belonged to MrFiUwarren, a great rich merchant Here he was found by the cook-maid, an ill-tempered creature,
whohappenedjust Am to beverybusypre- paring dinnerforhermasterand mistress; to seeing poor Dick, shecalled out, *Whatbusi- ness have youthei^ you Lucy roguef There
is nothingelsebut beggars. If you do not take yourself away,wewill see how youwill likeasousing of somedish-water I havehew
thatishotenoughU>makeyoucaper."
162 FAVOURITE FAIRYTALES.
Justat this moment MrFitzwarren himself camehome fromthe city to dinner,andseeing a dirtyragged boylying at the door, said to him, "
Why do you lie there, mylad? You
seemoldenoughtowork I fear you mustbe somewhatidle." "
No,indeed,sir,"saysWhit- tington, "that is not the case, for I would workwith all myheart; butI knownobody, andIamverysick forwant of food." "Poor fellow!
"
answeredMrFitzwarren,"
getupand
letusseewhat'sthematterwith you."
Dick nowtried to rise,but was obliged to liedown again, being too weakto stand;for hehadeaten scarcelyanything forthree days, and -wasno longer able torun aboutand beg a halfpenny of people in the streets; so the kindmerchantorderedthathe should be taken intothehouse, and have a gooddinnerimme-
diately,and that he should be kepttodo what dirtyworkhe wasable for the cook.
LittleDick wouldhavelivedvery happilyin thisgoodfamily,had itnot beenforthe crab- bed cook,who wasfinding fault and scolding at him from morning till night; and was withal so fond of basting, that, when she
wiirrriKCTOHAKDBIB CAT. 16S had no meattobaste,shewould be at basting poor Dick's head and shoulderswith abroom or anything elsethat happened tofall inher way. At last herill-usageof himwastold to Miss Alice, Mr Fitxwarren's daughter, who
asked the ill-tempered creatureifshewas not ashamedtous* alittlefriendlessboysocruelly;
andadded, that she wouldcertainly be turned awayifshe didnottreat himwith
jnorekind- ness.
But though thecook wassoill-tempered,Mr
Fitzwamm's footman wasquite thecontrary:he had lived inthe familymanyyears, wasrather elderly, and hadoncea little boy ofhis own.
whodiedwhenaboutthe ago of Whittington; so he could not but feel compassion for the poor boy.
Asthefootmanwasvery fond ofreading,he oftenused inthe eveningto entertain his fel- lowservants, when they had done theirwork, withsome amusing book The pleasure our
littlehero took inhearinghimread,made him wish very much to team to read too;soone day,whenthe good-naturedfootman gavehtma halfpenny, he bought a horn-book with it;
164 FAVOURITE FAIRYTALES,
and, with a little of his help, Dick soon learned his letters, and afterwards to read.
About this time Miss Alice was going out one morning for a walk; and the foot-
man happening to be out of the way, little Dick, who had received from Mr Fitzwarren a neat suit of clothes, to go to church on Sundays, was ordered to put them on, and walk behind her. As theywalk along, Miss Alice, seeing a poor woman with one child in her arms, and another at her back, pulled out her purse, and gave some money; and as she was putting the purse again in- to her pocket, she dropped iton the ground, and walkedon. Luckily Dick, who was be- hind, saw what she had done, picked it up, andimmediately presented it to her.
Besides the ill-humour of the cook, which now, however, was somewhat mended, Whit- tingtonhad another hardshiptoendure. This was. tnat his bed, which was of flock, was placed in a garret, where there were many
holes inthefloorandwalls,andhe never went tobedwithout beingawakenedin his sleep by greatnumbersofrats and mice, which often