Stories for the Young | Page 3

of
wood after the family were gone to bed, answered the end better, and
was not half the trouble.
Among the many trades which Giles professed, he sometimes practised
that of a rat-catcher; but he was addicted to so many tricks, that he
never followed the same trade long, for detection will sooner or later
follow the best-concerted villany. Whenever he was sent for to a
farm-house, his custom was to kill a few of the old rats, always taking
care to leave a little stock of young ones alive sufficient to keep up the
breed; "for," said he, "if I were to be such a fool as to clear a house or a
barn at once, how would my trade be carried on?" And where any barn
was overstocked, he used to borrow a few rats from thence, just to
people a neighboring granary which had none; and he might have gone
on till now, had he not unluckily been caught one evening emptying his
cage of young rats under parson Wilson's barn-door.
This worthy minister, Mr. Wilson, used to pity the neglected children
of Giles, as much as he blamed the wicked parents. He one day picked
up Dick, who was far the best of Giles' bad boys. Dick was loitering
about in a field behind the parson's garden, in search of a hen's nest, his
mother having ordered him to bring home a few eggs that night, by
hook or by crook, as Giles was resolved to have some pancakes for
supper, though he knew that eggs were a penny apiece. Mr. Wilson had
long been desirous of snatching some of this vagrant family from ruin;
and his chief hopes were bent on Dick, as the least hackneyed in
knavery. He had once given him a new pair of shoes, on his promising
to go to school next Sunday; but no sooner had Rachel, the boy's
mother, got the shoes into her clutches, than she pawned them for a
bottle of gin, and ordered the boy to keep out of the parson's sight, and
to be sure to play his marbles on Sunday, for the future, at the other end
of the parish, and not near the churchyard.

Mr. Wilson, however, picked up the boy once more; for it was not his
way to despair of any body. Dick was just going to take to his heels, as
usual, for fear the old story of the shoes should be brought forward; but
finding he could not get off, what does he do but run into a little puddle
of muddy water which lay between him and the parson, that the sight of
his naked feet might not bring on the dreaded subject. Now, it
happened that Mr. Wilson was planting a little field of beans, so he
thought this a good opportunity to employ Dick; and he told him he had
got some pretty easy work for him. Dick did as he was bid; he willingly
went to work, and readily began to plant his beans with dispatch and
regularity, according to the directions given him.
While the boy was busily at work by himself, Giles happened to come
by, having been skulking round the back way, to look over the parson's
garden wall, to see if there was any thing worth climbing over for on
the ensuing night. He spied Dick, and began to scold him for working
for the stingy old parson; for Giles had a natural antipathy to whatever
belonged to the church.
"What has he promised thee a day?" said he; "little enough, I dare say."
"He is not to pay me by the day," said Dick, "but says he will give me
so much when I have planted this peck, and so much for the next."
"Oh, oh, that alters the case," said Giles. "One may, indeed, get a trifle
by this sort of work. I hate your regular day-jobs, when one can't well
avoid doing one's work for one's money. Come, give me a handful of
the beans; I will teach thee how to plant when thou art paid for planting
by the peck. All we have to do in that case is to dispatch the work as
fast as we can, and get rid of the beans with all speed; and as to the
seed coming up or not, that is no business of ours; we are paid for
planting, not for growing. At the rate thou goest on, thou wouldst not
get sixpence to-night. Come along, hurry away."
So saying, he took his hat-full of the seed, and where Dick had been
ordered to set one bean, Giles buried a dozen; so the beans were soon
out. But though the peck was emptied, the ground was unplanted. But
cunning Giles