Dick and His Cat | Page 2

I have run up and down all day to find her. Do you know what they
have done with my ma? Oh! tell me, if you can." Then the poor lad
wept so hard that the man and the girl felt sad for him.
"How old are you, my boy?" said the man.
"I was six last May."
"What is your name?"
"Dick."
"Well, Dick," said this good man, "you may come in here, if you like,
and stay till you can find your ma. I will give you food to eat, and you
can help me to work. When your ma does come for you, you may go
home with her."
[Illustration]


PART II.
[Illustration]

Dick soon made up his mind to live with this kind, good man. The man
was not rich. He had to work hard, and Dick was made to work too. But
he did not mind that.
But the girl was not kind to Dick. She gave him a box on the ear when
he did not do as she bid him. She did not let him sit down to eat till she
had done, and all that she gave him was the bits that she had left. She
made him a bed of a pile of old rags, at one end of the loft.
Dick had no one now to show him how to be good, and he soon got to
be a bad boy. He told lies, and when no eye was on him, he took what
was not his. He did not know God saw him. He used a bad word now
and then, and did not work so well as once he did.
The man who took Dick to live with him was sad to see him such a bad
boy, and did not know what to do with him.
Dick had now no joy in life, for no bad boy can be gay and glad. But he
did not like to feel that he was made sad by his own bad ways. He said
it was the way he had to live that made him bad.
[Illustration]


PART III.
[Illustration]
Poor Dick had now no one to love him but a cat. One day, when he was
out at play, he saw some boys pelt a cat to kill her. He did not like to
have them kill the cat, so he ran to her, took her up in his arms, and
took her home. The girl let him keep the cat, for she kept off all the rats
and mice. She was a gray cat. She had fine soft fur, and a long tail.
When Dick had done his tea, he took puss on his knee to pat her on the
head, and talk to her, as if she knew all that he said to her.

She then did rub her head on his arm, and purr, and lie down on his
knee and take a nap. She had her bed on his heap of rags.
Once when Dick had felt bad all day, he lay down on his bed. He said
to puss, "No one is kind to me but you, puss; no one has love for me. I
will run off. I will not stay."
Dick did not shut his eyes, but when it was yet dark, he got up, and
went out of his room, down to the door. He put his hand on the key and
gave it a turn. He felt the cold air on his face when he went out. But he
ran on fast, till he was so weak, he had to stop.
Just then a big bell near him rang out loud on the air to say that day had
come once more. It made Dick turn his eyes to see this bell, and as it
rang, he felt it say to him,
"Turn back, Dick!--Turn back, Dick!--Turn back, Dick!"
Dick did not move. He did not know what to do. His eyes were on the
bell as it rung out,
"Turn back, Dick!--Turn back, Dick! Turn back, Dick!"
It put him in mind of the time when his ma had laid her hand on his
head ere she went to God, and said, "O God, take care of my poor
boy!" It put him in mind what a bad boy he had been, and how he had
made his life a hard one by his ill ways. He made up his mind to go
back. But then he said, "If they find out I have run off, they will beat
me." This fear made him run so fast, that he got home and back to his
heap of rags ere the man and the girl were up.
As