He heard that the streets of London were paved with gold. Being now a sturdy youth, he set out for the city to make his fortune. He did not know the way, but he fell in with a carter, who was bound for London, and he followed the cart. When night came, he helped the carter by rubbing down the horses, and for this he was paid with a supper.
He trudged on day after day, until they came to the famous city. The carter was afraid Dick would hang about him and give him trouble. So he gave him a penny and told him to begone and find some work.
Dick went from street to street, but he knew no one. He was ragged and forlorn, and looked like a beggar. Nobody gave him anything to do. Once in a while some one gave him something to eat, but at last he had nothing.
For two days he went about hungry and almost starved, but he would rather starve than steal. At the end of the second day he came to a merchant's house in Leadenhall Street, and stood before it, weary and faint. The ill-natured cook saw him and came out and said:—
"Go away from here, or I will kick you away!" He crept off a little distance and lay down on the ground, for he was too weak to stand. As he lay there, the merchant who lived in the house came home, and stopped to speak to him. He spoke sharply, and told him to get up, that it was a shame for him to be lying there.
Poor Dick got up, and after falling once, through faintness and want of food, made out to say that he was a poor country boy, nearly starved. He would do any work if he might have food.
Mr. Fitzwarren, the merchant, took pity on him. He brought him into the house, and bade the servants look after him. He gave him a place under the cook, and this was the beginning of Dick's fortune. But Dick had a hard time of it. The servants made sport of him. The ill-natured cook said:—
"Do you know what you are to do? You are to come under me. So look sharp. Clean the spits and the pans, make the fires, wind up the roasting-jack, and do nimbly all the dirty work I set you about, or else I will break your head with my ladle, and kick you about like a foot-ball."
This was cold comfort, but it was better than starving. What gave him more hope was the kind notice he had from his master's daughter, Mistress Alice. She heard Dick's story from her father, and called for the boy. She asked him questions, and he was so honest in his answers, that she went to her father, and said:—
"That poor boy whom you brought into the house is a good, honest fellow. I am sure he will be very useful. He can clean shoes, and run errands, and do many things which our servants do not like to do."
Dick's Cat") ?> Dick was kept and a cot bed was given him in the garret. He was up early and worked late. He left nothing undone that was given him to do. For all that, he could not please the cook, who was very sour to him. Still, he bore her blows rather than leave so good a home. Then the cook told tales about him, and tried to get him sent away, but Mistress Alice heard of it. She knew how ill-tempered the cook was, and so she made her father keep Dick.This was not the whole of Dick Whittington's trouble. The garret where he lay at night had long been empty, and a great number of mice had made their home in it. They ran over Dick's face, and kept up such a racket that he knew not which was worse, the cook by day or the mice by night.
He could only hope that the cook might marry or get tired of the place, and that he might in some way get a cat. It chanced, soon after, that a merchant came to dinner, and as it rained hard, he stayed all night. In the morning Dick cleaned the merchant's shoes and brought them to his door. For this service the merchant gave him a penny.
As he went through the street on an errand that morning, he saw a woman with a cat under her arm. He asked her the price of the cat.
"It is a good mouser," said the woman: "you may have it for a sixpence."
"But I have only a penny," said Dick. The woman found that she really could get nothing more, so she sold the cat to Dick for a penny. He brought it home, and kept it out of the way all day for fear the cook would see it. At night he took the cat up to the garret, and made her work for her living. Puss soon rid him of one plague.
When Mr. Fitzwarren sent out a ship to trade with far countries, he used to call his servants together, and give each a chance to make some money, by sending out goods in the ship. He thought that thus his ship had better fortune.
Now he was again making a venture, and each of the servants brought something to send; all but Whittington. Mistress Alice saw that he did not come, and she sent for him, meaning to give him some simple goods, that he too might have a share in the venture.
When, after many excuses, he was obliged to appear, he fell on his knees, and prayed them not to jeer at a poor boy. He had nothing he could claim for his own but a cat, which he had bought with a penny given him for cleaning shoes.
Upon this Mistress Alice offered to lay something down for him. But her father told her the custom was for each to send something of his own. So he bade Dick bring his cat, which he did with many tears, and gave her over to the master of the ship.
The cook, and indeed all the servants, after this plagued Dick, and jeered at him so much for sending his cat, that he could bear it no longer. He said to himself that he would leave the house and try his fortune elsewhere.