Dick and His Cat I
Once there was a boy called Dick. He was very poor: his father and mother were dead and he had no friends to help him.
One day he heard some men speaking: one man said, "I shall go to London, for London is a very big city, and its streets are covered with gold. Everyone in London is very rich."Then Dick said, "I shall go to London and become rich."Some days after that, Dick saw a cart at the side of the road. He said to the man who was on the cart, "Where are you going to?" The man said, "I am going to London." Will you take me to London with you?" asked Dick. The man said, "I will." So Dick got on the cart, and went to London.
When Dick came to London he saw that the streets were not made of gold; they were made of stones like other streets. But there were very many houses. All along the sides of the streets there were houses, hundreds and hundreds of houses, houses on this side, houses on that side, hundreds of houses everywhere. Dick got down; and the man and the cart went away.
Dick stood in the street: he had no house to go to, no food to eat, and no friends.
Then snow began to fall. The snow fell more quickly. Soon there was snow over everything. The streets and the houses were covered with snow. Soon they were all white; they looked beautiful. But it was very cold. Poor Dick was covered with snow; he was so cold that he thought that he would die.
Night was coming on. There was a light in the window of a house. Dick went to it and stood near the door then he sat down on the stone. Just then the door opened and a servant looked out; she saw Dick sitting there. " Go away, you good-for-nothing boy!" she cried. "What are you doing there?" Dick was so cold that he could not even stand up. The servant became angry: "Go away!" she cried again. Then she got a pot of cold water and threw it over Dick. Poor Dick was too cold even to cry.
Now, that was the house of a very rich man, named Mr. Warren. Mr. Warren had one child, named Alice. Alice was standing near the door and she saw the servant-woman throw the water over Dick. Alice was very angry at this. She said, "The poor boy will die of cold. You bad woman!" Then she took Dick's hand. "Come in, poor boy," she said; and she brought him into the house. She gave him food and a bed to sleep in, and Dick stayed in the house that night.
In the morning Mr. Warren saw Dick, and said, "You shall stay in my house and help the cook, You shall begin today." So Dick stayed and helped the cook.
Now the cook was a bad woman. She was not kind to Dick. She always made him do all her work; she always gave him bad food to eat; she was always calling him bad names, and when she was angry she even hit him on the face. Dick had a little room at the top of the house. It was a very little room; and it was a very bad room, for it was always full of mice. There were hundreds of mice. The mice would eat Dick's food. The mice would even run over his face when he was in bed.
So Dick was not happy in Mr. Warren's house. But he would not say anything to Mr. Warren or to Alice, for he loved Alice, and he did not want her to know that he was not happy.
One day Dick saw a small boy in the street. The boy had a cat in his arms. Dick asked, "Where are you taking that cat?" The boy said, "I am going to throw the cat in the river and kill her." Now Dick loved cats, so he said, " Do not kill her; give her to me." Dick had one small bit of money; he gave that to the small boy for his cat.
That night Dick took the cat to his room when he went to bed. He had a small bit of bread to eat. He put it on the table; then a mouse came and began to eat the bread. The cat jumped, caught the mouse and killed it. She killed many mice, and all the other mice ran away.
After that there were no more mice in Dick's room.
Alice saw that Dick was unhappy, and she knew that the cook was unkind to him. So she told her father, Mr. Warren, that the cook was unkind to Dick. Mr. Warren said, " The cook is not a nice woman; she is fat and ugly, and she looks unkind. Dick is a nice boy. He does his work nicely, and his face and hands are always nice and clean. Dick shall work for me."ⅡMr. Warren sent for Dick and said "You shall come and work for me."Mr. Warren worked in a big ugly house by the side of the river. He had many ships. He sent the ships far away to other countries. The ships took things from England to other countries, and brought things from other countries to England. There were many men working for Mr. Warren: there were men writing for him in the big house; there were men taking things out of the ships, and men putting things on to other ships. There were men who worked on the ships, cleaning them and making them ready to go to sea again.
Dick still lived in the little room, and his cat was still with him, but in the day he worked in the big house by the side of the river.
One day Mr. Warren was sending a ship away to another country. He asked all his servants, " Have you anything which you want to send on my ship? It will be sold in some far country, and I will give you the money." Then Mr. Warren asked Dick; but poor Dick had nothing to send.
Alice said, "I will give Dick something to send on our ship." But Mr. Warren said, "No, he must send something of his own."Dick said, "I have nothing but my cat.""Why do you not send your cat?" asked Alice.
"I love my cat," said Dick; "but I must send her, for I have no other thing to send."So Dick brought his cat, and put her on the ship.
Dick went back to his room. He was very sad, for he was alone now. He slept alone in his little room; he had not even his cat to speak to. The cat had gone; the mice were beginning to come back to the room; and Dick could not sleep because of the mice. The cook was still unkind to him, and she did not give him nice food.
One night Dick said, "I cannot stay here. I shall go away to some other country." He put on his clothes, and went down. He opened the door of the house, and went out alone into the street. He walked along the street. He walked all night. The street led out into the country. It became a small road. There were no houses in the country, but trees and fields. When morning was near he sat down on a stone at the side of the road. He could not go on.
As he sat there the sun came up into the sky. As the sun came up, the bells of London began to ring. They rang out from far away through the sky, calling the new day. As they rang, Dick thought that they said, "Come again! Come again!""They are ringing to me," he thought, "they are calling me back to London. They are saying 'Come back. You will not always be poor and unhappy and alone. Wait, and your day will come. "Dick stood up: "I will go back," he said, "--and wait." He went back again to the city.
The ship went far over the sea and came to an unknown country where they had never been before.
The King of that country asked the men from the ship to come to his house. "Come," he said, "and show me all the things which you have brought." So they went to the King's house taking beautiful cloth, jewels, rings, hats, shoes, axes, bells, boxes, lamps, and many other things. The King looked at all the things and said, "I do not want any of those things. Bring me what I want, and I will fill your ship with gold."Then the King told his servants to bring food. They brought food and set it on the table before the men. As soon as they set the food on the table, hundreds of mice came out of holes in the wall. The men had never seen so many mice before. The mice jumped on the table and ate up all the food before they could take it. The mice ate up the food before their eyes.
The King said, " That is what I want: I want something to kill these mice. They eat the food before our eyes. They run over the food before we can eat it. They make holes in our clothes. They run over our faces as soon as we get into bed. They bite the children. We cannot kill them: they are so small and they run away before we can catch them. Give me something that will kill the mice and I will fill your ship with gold.""Have you no cats in this country?" asked one of the men from the ship.
"What is a 'cat'?" said the King.
Then the man ran quickly and brought Dick's cat from the ship. As soon as the man came into the King's hall the cat jumped from his arms; she killed a mouse with one foot, and caught another in her mouth. She killed so many mice that the other mice quickly ran away.
The King jumped up and cried, "Good! Good! I never saw a cat before. Give me the cat and I will fill you ship with gold. I never saw so beautiful a thing before."So the King took Dick's cat, and he gave the men much gold for the cat: he filled their ship with gold.
The ship came back to London. Mr. Warren went on to the ship, and saw all the gold which they had got. He said, " What did you sell for so much gold?" The men said, "It was the cat."Then Mr. Warren sent for Dick. He said, "You have become very rich. You have more money than I have. Do you want to go away from us now?"Dick loved Alice. He said, "No, I want to stay and work with you."Mr. Warren said, "You shall not stay as my servant, but as my friend."So Dick stayed with Mr. Warren. After some years he married Alice, for he loved her very much. He became very rich, and he was a very good man. He and his wife lived together very happily for many, many years. |