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[Illustration: NO. 11. AN ARCH OF LONDON BRIDGE; TOWER BRIDGE IN THE
DISTANCE.]

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When he reached it, up and down its streets he went,--streets far
narrower than those of to-day, and darkened by the overshadowing
houses, for often each of their stories stood out a little beyond the
story below. Very dirty we should have thought those streets, for
people often threw out into them their rubbish and refuse. And what of
the gold? Dick saw none. At last, utterly wearied out, utterly
disappointed, so weak from hunger that he could hardly stand, he sank
down to rest on the doorstep of one of the houses. Now the story says
that presently the cook of this house caught sight of him sitting
there. She was a bad-tempered woman. She flung open the door and
scolded Dick well for an idle fellow, and bade him be off. Dick begged
her to give him work so that he might earn some food, but she would not
listen to him, and only scolded the more; and while this was going on
up came the master of the house, a rich merchant, whose name was Hugh
Fitzwarren. He asked the meaning of all these angry words, and {41} he
too was vexed to see a boy sitting idly on his doorstep, and bade him
go to his work.

"Ah," said Dick, "I have no work, and I have had nothing to eat for
three days. I am a poor country lad, and here no one knows me, no one
will help me." And he rose up to wander away again, but he was so
tired, so weak, he could hardly stand. The merchant saw this, and said
to the cook, "Take him in; feed him well, and set him to work to help
thee in thy kitchen."

Now, she was, as I said, a bad-tempered woman. Her master's orders she
must and did obey, but if Dick now had work and food and a
resting-place, he had also many a sharp word, many a sour look, many a
cruel blow. Though he worked hard he could not please her. Indeed, in
all the household--and it was a large one--the only person who was
friendly to him was the merchant's little daughter, Mistress Alice, who
not only spoke kindly to him herself, but tried to make his
fellow-servants treat him better.

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[Illustration: NO. 12. WHITTINGTON SETTING THE KING FREE FROM THE
GREAT DEBT.]

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Dick slept in a garret which was overrun with rats