Page:History of Whittington and his cat (3).pdf/3

 THE HISTORY

OF

WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT.

once lived in a country village, in the reign of King Edward the Third, a man and his wife named Whittington, who had a son called Dick. But his father and mother dying when he was very young, he remembered but little or nothing at all of them, and used to run about the village a poor ragged little fellow. As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was very badly off; he got but little for his dinner, and sometimes nothing at all for his breakfast; and the people in the village being most of them very poor, Dick did not obtain from them much relief.

For all this, Dick Whittington was a very sharp boy, and was always listening to what every body was talking about. On Sunday he was sure to get near the farmers, as they sat talking on the tombstones in the churchyard, before the parson was come: and once a week you might see Dick leaning against the sign-post of the village ale-house, where the people stopped to drink as they came from the next market town; and when the barber's shop door was open, Dick listened to all the news that his customers told one another.

In this manner Dick heard a great many strange things, particularly about the great city called London; and the old woman with whom Dick lodged, perceiving he had got something in his head, endeavoured to get the secret, which was his intention to go to London. No sooner did she know it, but she, in order to deter him from thinking of such a step, pointed out the happiness and the safety of a country life, on the one hand, and the noise and evils of great cities on the other, in such striking colours, as she hoped would at once fix his choice in favour of a country life.

Whittington listened to what she said with surprise and