the
household treated him very cruelly, except a nice little girl, the youngest
daughter of the family. She felt very sorry for him. She would secretly
take him better food, and she furnished him with a knife with which he
could cut the tough pieces of meat. She had to be very careful not to be
discovered, for if found out she would have been severely punished. So her
pity had to show itself on the sly, and the few words she was able to tell
him of her sympathy had to be whispered as she passed him, when nobody was
looking or listening. The poor boy up to this time had no ambition to
better himself, but her kind words and deeds made him resolve that he must
begin and do something for himself. But what could he do? Everybody seemed
against him but this little girl, and she could do nothing in the way of
helping him to escape from these people, who, now that he was becoming so
useful to them, would not let him go. What, really, could he do?

"Thus the days and weeks and months passed on and there seemed no chance of
escape. He had tried to run away, but had been caught and brought back and
beaten.

"One night when it was not very cold he went outside of the narrow entry
where he generally had to sleep and threw himself on the ground and cried
in his sorrow and despair. He seemed to be utterly unable to better
himself. As he lay there he began looking up at the great bright moon that,
now so large and round, was, he thought, looking earnestly at him. Soon he
was able to see that there was a great man in the moon. As he watched him
he was glad to notice that he was not looking crossly at him, but kindly,
and so he began crying to the man in the moon to come and help him to
escape from the miserable life he was leading. Sure enough, as the boy kept
on crying and pleading he saw the man in the moon beginning to come down to
this world. He came to the very spot where the unhappy boy was lying, but
instead of helping him he made him stand up and then he gave him a good
sound thrashing, making the boy, however, strike back at him as vigorously
as he could. The beating he got very much disheartened and discouraged the
boy, for it was not what he had expected. On the following night, when he
had recovered a little, he began reproaching the man in the moon.

"'I called for you,' he said, 'to come and help me against my enemies, and
now you have come and thrashed me.'

"But these words, instead of softening the man in the moon, ca