his fortune, rubs down the horses at night, and is given a supper by the carter. Arrived in London the carter gives him a small coin and they part company. Dick finds the streets are not paved

with gold, but with very hard and flinty stone, and the hearts of the passersby are as hard and flinty as the pavements. No one will give him money, food, or work. After three days he is so reduced by fatigue and hunger that he falls on the doorsteps of a great house. The cook threatens to scald him with boiling water if he does not go away. He rises but falls again from weakness. At that opportune moment his good genius makes his appearance in the shape of Mr. Fitzwarren, the owner of the house. He orders the cook to give him food and work, which she does most grudgingly. Then Miss Alice sees him and says he is to be washed and clothed, and made respectable, if he is to remain about their house. She assigns him a bed in a garret, but does not know that the place swarms with rats and mice, which run over his bed and prevent him from sleeping, nor does she know that the cross cook maltreats him. He does not complain, but seeks every opportunity to make himself useful. One day, for blacking a gentleman's boots, he is given a penny, and resolves to make a good use of it! Seeing a woman who has a cat for sale, he buys it with the penny, and keeps it in seclusion in his garret, for fear the cross cook will kill it. His room is soon freed from rats and mice, while he grows very fond of his one friend and companion,

shut away together as they are at night in the lonely attic.

Soon the good merchant is sending forth a ship, and it is his benevolent custom to allow every person in his employ to send out some venture of his own to gain what there may be of profit on the sale. Miss Alice offers to supply something for Dick to send, but her father says it must be something of his own. Dick replies he has nothing but a cat he bought for a penny earned by blacking a gentleman's boots. "Send that," says his master. Dick's heart aches and tears are in his eyes, but he obeys. The cat has a parting hug and is consigned to the captain's care as part of the cargo. The ship sails on her voyage, his little friend is gone, and the persecutions increase. At last the cook strikes him on the head with a gridiron; faint and bleeding he resolves to leave London and go back to his birthplace. Setting forth very early in the morning and being clear of the streets though not out of the sound of the church bells, he sits down by the wayside to rest. While sitting there he hears most distinctly rung out on the clear morning air: "Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London!

Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London!"

He cannot believe his ears, but he listens intently, and again and again Bow Bells peal out:

"Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London!"

Dick says to himself, "It will be a fine thing to be Lord Mayor of London, and ride in the splendid coach," never for a moment doubting that the bell knows what it is talking about, and, of course, a baptized and consecrated church bell would not tell a lie. With prompt obedience he returns to Mr. Fitzwarren's house and is at his work before he is missed. His thoughts are often with his beloved cat, and whether or not she is thinking of him she is earning a great fortune for him.

The ship lands among the Moors of Barbary, and the captain exhibits his finest goods to the king and queen while they are at supper, and is astonished to see the royal table overrun with rats and mice which devour the food and cannot be driven away. He remembers Dick's cat, and tells the king he has an animal on his ship that would dispose of that nuisance in short order. The cat is sent for and does such tremendous execution that the delighted monarch fills the bag in which she was brought ashore to the very top with gold and diamonds, and the honest captain brings it all home to Dick. As

tonished Dick offers it all to his master, who refuses to accept any of it; then he gives to every one, the captain, the sailors, his fellow servants, even the horrid cook has a share. He lives with his master, falls in love with Miss Alice, and she with him, for by this time he has grown a handsome young man. They are married, he is taken into partnership with Mr. Fitzwarren, grows richer and richer, is not only three times but four times Lord Mayor of London, and is knighted by the king as Sir Richard Whittington, and so ends the pretty story.

Modern iconoclasts deny the poverty, the bells, and the cat, but as Mayor Whittington is represented with a cat in his hand in his portrait painted in 1536, and as his statue erected to his memory by the city had a cat by its side, we will continue to believe it all. At any rate, it is historical that his charities were as wise as they were generous, and his hospitality magnificent. He once gave a banquet to King Henry Fifth and Queen Katherine, where all the fires burned perfumed wood, and when the queen spoke of it, he said he had still more costly fuel which he would use. He then threw into the flames the king's bonds of indebtedness to him for seven million dollars. The astonished king exclaimed: "Never had king such subject!" and Whittington responded,