be in a hurry, Jack; look about; there’s plenty of pretty things in my shop.—­So Davis the butcher has been pulled up for bad meat; I thought it would come to that, and I’m glad of it.—­There’s a capital lock and key, Jack, to put to your chest, when you get one; suppose you take that.—­What’s the doctor about?  They say he is always sitting with the widow.—­Does your mother make plenty of money by clear-starching?  I know your sister had a spotted muslin frock on last Sunday, and that must have cost something.—­There’s a spade, Jack; very useful to dig on the beach; you may find something—­money, perhaps—­who knows?  Take the spade, Jack, and then you’ll owe me sixpence.—­So Bill Freeman pawned his wife’s best gown last Saturday night.  I thought it would be so.  He may say it’s because he’s caught no fish this bad weather.  But I know more than people think.—­Here’s a nice glass bottle, Jack, wouldn’t you like to give it to your mother, to put pickles in? it’s white glass, you see.  Look about, Jack; there’s plenty of pretty things, you see.—­So the Governor’s daughter’s going to be married; at least I suppose so, for I met her riding with a young gentleman; and nowadays the quality always make love on horseback.—­Well, Jack, have you found anything?”

“No, mother, I haven’t; and I must have my shilling or go.  Unless, indeed, you’re inclined to help me to what I want, and then I’ll give you the rope for nothing.”

“Give me the rope for nothing!” replied old Nanny.  “Sit down, Jack, and let me know what it is you want.”

I thought it was of little use to make the application, but I determined to try; so I explained my wishes.

“Humph!” said she, after a minute’s thought, “so you want thirty-three shillings to buy clothes—­to go to church in.  Your mother dresses your sister in spotted muslin and leaves you in rags; suppose you wait till your father comes home again?”

“That may not be for years.”

“Why, Jack, I don’t go to church—­I am too old—­too poor to dress myself to go to church, even if I could go so far—­why should you go?”

“Well, mother,” said I, rising up, “if you will not do it, I’m very sorry; I would have paid you honestly, and have given you good bargains, so good-by.”

“Not so fast, Jack—­sit down, sit down, boy—­look about the shop and see if you can find something that will suit you.”  Here Nanny communed with herself aloud:  “Thirty-three shillings! that’s a great deal of money—­pay me honestly—­and good bargains!  His mother called me an old cat the other day—­I think they could be got cheaper, they always cheat boys—­she’d be vexed to see him dressed clean at church—­honest boy, I do believe—­a boy that wants to go to church must be a good boy.  Oh, dear me, it is so much money!”

“I’ll work day and night to pay you, Nanny.”

“And mind, Jack, I’m to have good bargains, and this piece of rope for nothing; something paid every week.”