WHITTINGTON.


* * * * *


Dick Whittington was a very little boy when his father and mother died;
little indeed, that he never knew them, nor the place where he was
born. He strolled about the country as ragged as a colt, till he met
with a waggoner who was going to London, and who gave him leave to walk
all the way by the side of his waggon without paying anything for his
passage, which pleased little Whittington very much, as he wanted to see
London badly, for he had heard that the streets were paved with gold,
and he was willing to get a bushel of it; but how great was his
disappointment, poor boy! when he saw the streets covered with dirt
instead of gold, and found himself in a strange place, without a friend,
without food, and without money.

Though the waggoner was so charitable as to let him walk up by the side
of the waggon for nothing, he took care not to know him when he came to
town, and the poor boy was, in a little time, so cold and so hungry that
he wished himself in a good kitchen and by a warm fire in the country.

In this distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them bid
him "Go to work for an idle rogue." "That I will," says Whittington,
"with all my heart; I will work for you if you will let me."

The man, who thought this favoured of wit and impertinence (tho' the
poor lad intended only to show his readiness to work), gave him a blow
with a stick which broke his head so that the blood ran down. In this