DICK AND HIS CAT.
Once on a time, a poor boy was seen to go up and down the side-walk of a town, and sob and cry. At last he sat down on a door-step. He was too weak to run more. He had had no food all the day. It was a day in June. The air was mild. The warm sun sent down its rays of love on all. But poor Dick had no joy on this fair day.
He laid his head down on the step, and took a nap; for he was sick and weak for want of food. As he lay, a girl came to the door. She saw the poor boy lie on the step; but he did not see her. She went in, and said to a man who was in the room, “A poor boy has lain down on our step to take a nap.”
The man came to the door to see the boy. He said, “This boy does not look nice. His hair has not seen a comb all day; his face and feet are full of dirt; and his coat is torn.”
The man did not like such a mean boy to be at his door. But when he saw the lad’s thin, pale face, as he lay at his feet, he felt sad for him.
Just then the boy woke up. He went to run off when he saw the man and girl at the door, but they made him stay.