The Rambles of a Rat

appearance struck me. After a short examination of the captives in their cag

oy, in whose cheeks health was glowing, and whose

more money to buy bu

a whole dozen already; I do not think it right to spend more on pampering well

you think th

ds, who know not, when they rise in the morning, where they shall find a morsel of foo

eating himself by his father, "whi

e, when suddenly I felt a hand at my pocket. Mine was instantly down upon

what did you do with him, papa? Did you give him over

e so young already p

as a boy, what will he be when he is a man! He will be sure

I could understand the word crime, or know why human beings feel it wrong to seize anything that they want and can get. It was evident to me that they are governed by laws and principles quite

to the gentlem

clothed in rags, his wasted countenance prematurely old in its expression of sorrow and care, hi

's a precious deal of difference

rtue. His mother is dead, his father in jail; if he has learnt anything from those around him it is only a knowledge of vice. Pinched by hunger, homeless, friendless, ignorant even that he ha

n raising his blue eyes to his father's fac

d that my watchmaker had given me the direction of a Ragged School at which his daughter taught; spending her time and energies as so many do now, in this noblest labour of love. This school was not very far off, and I resolved to take this opportunity of paying it a long-intended visit. I took the poor litt

once being a thief he is ever lik

reformatory for thieves. Not one of the inmates there but had broken the laws of his country, and committed the crime of theft. But mercy was giving them a chance to redeem the characters which they had lost, and they were learning various trades, by which to support themselves in honest inde

they do? they had no money, they owed their very bread to charity, for they had not yet acquire

had not got, papa, if they wish

elp the widow and the orphan, that they asked and obtained leave to go a whole day wi

y?-have neither breakfast, nor dinner,

t the hundreds of thousands of subscriptions to the Patriotic Fund, any showed so

re rising into his eyes. "There must have been good in them, papa, an

f it," said his fa

that he may amend. Shall we h

es regarding him at the Ragged School, and if I find that he is improving und

Neddy eagerly, "I should

l take you with me,"

ed schools and reformatories, to give the poor, the ignorant, and the wicked,

d the gentleman, smiling as he rose from his se

, I can do

in the cause of the desolate poor. Were all the children of the middle classes in England to give each but one penny a-week

in Great Smith St

been provided with homes in refuges and reformatories. To show the habits of prudence inculcated in the schools, it is only necessary to state that in the same year ragged scholars placed in saving-banks a sum of no less than

eward upon earth. There are numbers of ragged children in London, as desolate as those whom I have described, who have never known t