"
"No, indeed!" said Dick. "I would like to work, if I could find
anything to do. But I do not know anybody in this town, and I have not
had anything to eat for a long time."
"Poor little fellow!" said Mr. Fitz-war-ren. "Come in, and I will see
what I can do for you." And he ordered the cook to give the lad a good
dinner, and then to find some light work for him to do.
Little Dick would have been very happy in the new home which he had
thus found, if it had not been for the cross cook. She would often
say,--
"You are my boy now, and so you must do as I tell you. Look sharp
there! Make the fires, carry out the ashes, wash these dishes, sweep
the floor, bring in the wood! Oh, what a lazy fellow you are!" And
then she would box his ears, or beat him with the broom-stick.
At last, little Alice, his master's daughter, saw how he was treated,
and she told the cook she would be turned off if she was not kinder to
the lad. After that, Dick had an eas-i-er time of it; but his
troubles were not over yet, by any means.
His bed was in a garret at the top of the house, far away from the
rooms where the other people slept. There were many holes in the floor
and walls, and every night a great number of rats and mice came in.
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