Dick’s master was a rich merchant with great ships that he used to fill with all kinds of things to send to foreign lands. Whenever a ship was ready to sail it was his custom to call together all his servants and ask them to send something in the ship to trade for profit. So one day when the ship was ready, all the servants had something to send, except Dick, who said he had nothing in the world but a cat. “Send your cat, my lad,” said the master; “perhaps you will get something of profit for her.” Dick, with tears in his eyes, carried poor puss down to the ship and gave her to the captain. After the cat was gone the rats and mice came back and the cook treated Dick so cruelly that early one morning he ran away. He had not gone very far when he sat down on a stone to rest, and listened to the ringing of a merry chime of bells, which seemed to him to say:
Turn again, Whittington!
Turn again, Whittington!
Thrice Lord Mayor of London!
“If I am to be Lord Mayor of London,” said Dick, “I will go back and let the cook scold me as much as she pleases.” Then Dick turned back and reached the kitchen before any one missed him. Some time after that the ship came back, and the captain said Dick’s cat had won him a great fortune, for an African chief had bought the cat at a great price to drive away the rats and mice from the dining-table of his palace. Dick was cleaning pots in the kitchen when his master called him into his office. “Mr. Whittington,” he said, “your cat has brought you more money than I have in the whole world.” Dick was too kind to keep all for himself. He gave presents to his master’s daughter Alice, and to the captain, and to the sailors, and even to the cross old cook. When he was dressed in a nice suit of clothes he looked as handsome as any young man in London. So Dick Whittington, through his cat, became a rich merchant, married his master’s daughter, and became three times Lord Mayor of London.
9. THE BOY WHO HATED TREES
One night Dick was told by his father to rise early the next morning and help set out some new trees. “I hate trees,” said Dick, “I want to go fishing. I wish I lived in a land where there were no trees!” Then Dick fell asleep, and in his dream he heard the queerest rustling noise, and then a voice called out, “Here is a boy who hates trees!” A procession of trees came toward him. The willow was weeping; the poplar was trembling; the aspen was quaking; the pine and elm and maple and oak were followed by the fruit trees, like the apple and pear and cherry, while the walnut and birch and palm slowly brought up the rear. When all was quiet the Pine began: “Here is a boy that hates trees, and says we are of no use!” “Yes,” said the Maple, “and this morning he ate some of my sugar.” “Yes,” said the Willow, “and he made a whistle out of me.” “Yes,” said the Palm, “and he fanned himself with one of my leaves.” “And he got his bicycle tire out of me, and his rubber boots too,” said another tree. The Elm said: “I have a plan. The wind will help us. The wind is our friend.” So the wind took Dick and hurled him off to a great desert and dropped him down in a land where there were no trees. Dick felt very lonely and was full of fright when he saw a bear coming toward him in the distance, and there was no tree to climb. How glad he was that he was mistaken and that it was not a bear coming, but camels, with men on them. The men beckoned him to get up and ride, which he was glad to do. Soon he saw the men bowing down and thanking God and then waving their hands. Dick looked and saw a spot of green grass, a spring of cool water, and one of the things he hated—a tree. He thought he had never seen anything so beautiful in all his life. He tumbled off the camel, ran toward the tree, and threw his arms about it, saying, “Dear tree, dear tree!”
The next morning Dick was glad to help his father plant the trees, and the school-teacher on Arbor Day said, “I think if good care will help the trees, they will get it from Dick.”
10. THE PRINCE WHO HATED SPIDERS AND FLIES
A young Prince in a rage once said, “I wish all the spiders and flies were driven out of the world!” Not long after that he had to hide at the close of a great battle in a wood, where he fell asleep under a tree. A soldier found him there, and was about to kill him, when a fly tickled the Prince’s face, which awoke him, and made the soldier run away. That same night the Prince hid himself in a cave across the mouth of which a spider wove a web. Next morning two soldiers seeking him were about to enter the cave when they saw the spider’s web. “He can’t be in there,” they said, and passed on. So a hated fly and a spider, after all, saved the Prince’s life!