The Water Babies [antikvár]

CHAPTER 1 The Little Chimney-Sweep Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he never washed himself, for there was no water up the court ^^where he lived. He had never been taught \o say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or of Christ. He cried half his 1 time and laughed the other half. He cried when he had to ^ climb the dark flues? rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw;^ and when the sootvgot into his eyes, which it did every day in the weeTcfand when his master beat him, and when he had not enough to eat, which happened every day in the week likewise. And he laughed the other half of the day, when he \jyas tossing halfpennies with the other boys, or playing leap-* frog% over the posts, or bowling stones at the horses' legs as they trotted by, which last was excellent fun, when there was a wall at hand behind which to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and being hungry, and being beaten, he took all that for the way of the world, like the rain and snow and thunder, and , stood manfully with his back to it till it was over, as his old > aonkey did to a hailstorm1; and then shook his ears and was as jolly as ever; and thought of the fine times coming, when he would be a man, and a master sweep, and sit in the public-house with a quart of beer and a long pipe, and play cards for