WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT. 41

be kept to do what dirty work he was
able for the cook.

Little Dick would have lived very
happy in this good family if it had not
been for the ill-natured cook, who was
finding fault and scolding him from
morning to night, and besides, she was
so fond of basting, that when she had
no meat to baste, she would baste poor
Dick’s head and shoulders with a broom,
or anything else that happened to fall in
her way. At last her ill-usage of him
was told to Alice, Mr Fitzwarren’s
daughter, who told the cook she should
be turned away if she did not treat him
kinder.

The ill-humour of the cook was now
a little amended ; but besides this Dick
had another hardship to get over. His
bed stood in a garret, where there were
so many holes in the floor and the walls
that every night he was tormented with
rats and mice. A gentleman having
given Dick a penny for cleaning his shoes,
he thought he would buy a cat with it.
The next day he saw a girl with a cat,