Fatal Boots | Page 6

was a sad dishonorable fellow, Dick Bunting; for after I'd been
so kind to him, and let him off for three-and-twenty-weeks the money
he owed me, holidays came, and threepence he owed me still. Well,
according to the common principles of practice, after six-weeks'
holidays, he ought to have paid me exactly sixteen shillings, which was
my due. For the
First week the 3d. would be 6d. | Fourth week . . . . . 4s. Second
week . . . . . 1s. | Fifth week . . . . . 8s. Third week . . . . . 2s. | Sixth
week . . . . . 16s.
Nothing could be more just; and yet--will it be believed? when Bunting
came back he offered me THREE-HALFPENCE! the mean, dishonest
scoundrel.
However, I was even with him, I can tell you.--He spent all his money
in a fortnight, and THEN I screwed him down! I made him, besides
giving me a penny for a penny, pay me a quarter of his bread and butter
at breakfast and a quarter of his cheese at supper; and before the
half-year was out, I got from him a silver fruit-knife, a box of
compasses, and a very pretty silver-laced waistcoat, in which I went
home as proud as a king: and, what's more, I had no less than three
golden guineas in the pocket of it, besides fifteen shillings, the knife,
and a brass bottle-screw, which I got from another chap. It wasn't bad
interest for twelve shillings--which was all the money I'd had in the
year--was it? Heigho! I've often wished that I could get such a chance
again in this wicked world; but men are more avaricious now than they
used to be in those dear early days.
Well, I went home in my new waistcoat as fine as a peacock; and when
I gave the bottle-screw to my father, begging him to take it as a token
of my affection for him, my dear mother burst into such a fit of tears as
I never saw, and kissed and hugged me fit to smother me. "Bless him,

bless him," says she, "to think of his old father. And where did you
purchase it, Bob?"--"Why, mother," says I, "I purchased it out of my
savings" (which was as true as the gospel).--When I said this, mother
looked round to father, smiling, although she had tears in her eyes, and
she took his hand, and with her other hand drew me to her. "Is he not a
noble boy?" says she to my father: "and only nine years old!"--"Faith,"
says my father, "he IS a good lad, Susan. Thank thee, my boy: and here
is a crown- piece in return for thy bottle-screw--it shall open us a bottle
of the very best too," says my father. And he kept his word. I always
was fond of good wine (though never, from a motive of proper
self-denial, having any in my cellar); and, by Jupiter! on this night I
had my little skinful,--for there was no stinting,--so pleased were my
dear parents with the bottle-screw. The best of it was, it only cost me
threepence originally, which a chap could not pay me.
Seeing this game was such a good one, I became very generous towards
my parents; and a capital way it is to encourage liberality in children. I
gave mamma a very neat brass thimble, and she gave me a half-guinea
piece. Then I gave her a very pretty needle-book, which I made myself
with an ace of spades from a new pack of cards we had, and I got Sally,
our maid, to cover it with a bit of pink satin her mistress had given her;
and I made the leaves of the book, which I vandyked very nicely, out of
a piece of flannel I had had round my neck for a sore throat. It smelt a
little of hartshorn, but it was a beautiful needle-book; and mamma was
so delighted with it, that she went into town and bought me a gold-
laced hat. Then I bought papa a pretty china tobacco-stopper: but I am
sorry to say of my dear father that he was not so generous as my
mamma or myself, for he only burst out laughing, and did not give me
so much as a half-crown piece, which was the least I expected from
him. "I shan't give you anything, Bob, this time," says he; "and I wish,
my boy, you would not make any more such presents,--for, really, they
are too expensive." Expensive indeed! I hate meanness,--even in a
father.
I must tell you about the silver-edged waistcoat which Bunting gave me.
Mamma asked me about it, and I told her the truth,--that it