Watch-Work-Wait / Or, The Orphan's Victory

her the good seed sown by the pious parents had taken root in go

e began to administer the palatable poison which every human heart is only too ready to receive. "I tell you, Bill," said he, "you are the biggest blockhead I ever saw. If you like to look at the pictures, stand at the windows as long as you please, and do not run yourself to death. Just look at the other shoemakers' boys; they hang their string of boots and shoes over their shoulders, and go whistling and singing along the streets quite at their ease,

ding fall from his hands, and gazed with terr

slowly and in a low voice, as if h

g else," answered Jem, laughing; "e

spreading its glow over his fair forehead, and causin

d. "No! not to escape a beating e

anapes?" asked his ungodly c

s told me that lying was the first step in the road to ruin; and I read in my Bible that no one 'that

nd reverential manner he had been taught was proper, it was long since Jem Taylor had heard any word from that holy book, and now, awed by the dignity of the truth, that great principle of Christian life and conduct, he ma

happy and hopeful as if it had never known a sorrow. The sunshine was so cheering, and rested so brightly on the spires as it bathed them in its golden radiance, that his whole mood partook of the genial glow. He had reached the upper part of the city, and was quite in the neighbourhood of the house where the shoes were to be left, when a

uid streaming over the beautiful shoes; and after having stood for a moment

ce expressed almost every emotion of the human mind, as he held up the shoes and tried to wipe away the black mud

s naturally strong, but he was only a child, and h

be worse off. But those early teachings drawn from the Scripture rules, which had been so prayerfully impressed upon his plastic mind in the little cottage at M--, now came back upon his heart; the remembranc

eir trust in him, and suffers none to be tempted beyond what th

ing from the window of one of the handsomest houses in the square, but was not so lost in c

boy?" said he; "why do you cry so bitterly a

still dripping, "I have no father nor mother now; my master will be very angry and beat me.

to ask for the shoes?" i

e same time wiping the shoes wi

an, throwing him some money from the window; "and here is a shilling for yoursel

rs old, carrying a doll nearly as large as herself in her arms, looked from the window, and seeing our poor hero, burst into a loud fit of laughter, for which he could not account. Although anxious to know the cause,

r wrestling with chimney-sweeps? Look at yourself, what a figure you make with all the mud of the street on your face!" and p

rst of laughter. Forgetting that his stern master stood beside him, and the bitter tears he had so lately shed, with that buoyancy of spirit which is the peculiar property of childhood, and surmounts all rules, he laughed aloud until recalled to his usual gravity by some blows on his shoulders fro

shoes?" he thundered forth,

hole circumstance, not concealing that the g

m, have no need of money; it only serves to lead them into mischief;" and takin

ing that the door leading to the kitchen was shut. "Why did you give him the shilling, which was your own? The price of the shoes, too, you might h

s, he had never wavered; and the only consequence of his advice had been to create dislike and mistrust of one who could advocate a practice so

am so often hungry; and when I see the street boys spending pennies at the cake stalls and I have nothing, it makes me so angry; and I cannot bear this old Walte

form of words than the heart-prompted petition. Alas! the poisonous influence around him was beginning to tell, and he would soon throw off the only armour that could shield him from the temptations of the wicked, or guard against the more insidious attacks of his own deceiving and deceitful heart. He was not more happ

n of that district, who lived but a few doors distant, and whose wife sold Mrs. Walters milk, came more frequently than the tailor, and as he was a conversable man and understood politics, Walters was rather glad of his coming than otherwise. Will was generally sent for the milk, and his pale face and dejected look awakened the sympathies of this honest and God-fearing couple. They soon learned that he was an orphan, and Thomas Burton, the good watchman, having

ice of the shoes and the shilling, and grieved over the loss of both, until he no longer considered that keeping the price of the shoes would have been a dishonest act. He began to be of Jem's opinion, that he had shown himself a blockhead, and resolved to act differently in future. "But, indeed, I would have liked to thank that good old gentleman," said

egin his work. This he did, and had cut out and nearly half made a pair of doll's boots before the usual time of going to work. He could not, however, find any red ribbon with which to bind and tie them; some bits of blue were lying about, and as he had not a penny to pur

cheerily, and as he approached the house from whence the money had been thrown him, his heart beat joyfully-yes, that was the very window where the kind old gentleman stood; and, a better sight than that, the outer door stood open. It was but the work of

ce, sent a new order to Mr. Walters, and gave him a sixpence for himself. William, altogether rejoiced at receiving the gift, trifling as it was, resolved in this case to do as Jem Taylor advised; he would not give it to Mr. Walt

s eyes on some paintings in the window. "I really will try to draw that old man and his dog," said he to himself; "but then I have no paper; ah yes, the sixpen