162 THE HISTORY OF

determined to approach it. When he came near he saw a
large building which seemed to spout fire and smoke at several
openings, and heard an incessant noise of blows and the rattling
of chains. Jack was at first a little frightened, but summoning
all his courage, he crept cautiously on to the building, and
looking through a chink, discovered several men and boys
employed in blowing fires and hammering burning masses of
iron. This was a very comfortable sight to him in his present
forlorn condition ; so, finding a door half open, he ventured in,
and placed himself as near as he dared to one of the flaming
furnaces. It was not long before he was discovered by one of
the workmen, who asked him roughly what business he had
there. Jack answered, with great humility, that he was a
poor boy, looking out for work; that he had not tasted food
all day, and was wet to the skin with the rain, which was
evident enough from the appearance of his clothes. By great
good luck, the man he spoke to was good-natured, and there~
fore not only permitted him to stay by the fire, but gave him
some broken victuals for his supper. After this, he laid himself
down in a corner, and slept without disturbance till morning.
He was scarcely awake the next day, when the master of the
forge came in to overlook his men, who, finding Jack, and
hearing his story, began to reproach him as a lazy vagabond,
and asked him why he did not work for his living? Jack
assured him there was nothing he so earnestly desired ; and
that if he would please to employ him, there was nothing he
would not do to earn a subsistence. “Well, my boy,” said the
master, “if this be true, you shall soon be tried; nobody need
be idle here.” So, calling his foreman, he ordered him to set
the lad to work, and pay him according to his deserts. Jack
now thought himself completely happy, and worked with so
much assiduity, that he soon gained a comfortable livelihood,