Page:Little Ellie and Other Tales (1850).djvu/51

Rh pence-halfpenny left. So he was obliged to leave the handsome lodgings he had lived in till now, and to take a small garret, to clean his own boots, and darn and mend his clothes himself when they wanted it. None of his old friends visited him any more; for they could not, of course, go up so many pair of stairs for his sake.

It was quite dark in his room, and he had not even money enough to buy a candle. Suddenly he remembered that, in the tinder-box which he fetched up from the bottom of the hollow oak, there were a few matches. He therefore took it, and began to strike a light; but as soon as the sparks flew about, the door of his room was thrown open, and the dog with eyes as large as a tea-cup walked in, and said, “What does the master please to command?”

“Well done!” cried the soldier, astonished; “that’s a capital tinder-box, if I can get all I want with so little trouble! Well, then, my friend,” said he to the dog with the staring eyes, “I am in want of money; get me some!”