d Noddy.

"I wish you would be sorry for yourself, instead of me."

"I am--sorry that you want to make a tinker of me;" and Noddy used this
word to express his contempt of any mechanical occupation.

He did not like to work. Patient, plodding labor, devoid of excitement,
was his aversion; though handling a boat, cleaning out a gutter on some
dizzy height of the mansion, or cutting off a limb at the highest point
of the tallest shade tree on the estate, was entirely to his taste, and
he did not regard anything as work which had a spice of danger or a
thrill of excitement about it. He was not lazy, in the broad sense of
the word; there was not a more active and restless person on the estate
than himself. A shop, therefore, was a horror which he had no words to
describe, and which he could never endure.

"I want to see you in some useful occupation, where you can earn your
living, and become a respectable man," said Bertha. "Don't you want to
be a respectable man, Noddy?"

"Well, I suppose I do; but I had rather be a vagabond than a respectable
tinker."

"You must work, Noddy, if you would win a good name, and enough of this
world's goods to make you comfortable. Work and win; I give you this
motto for your guidance. My father told me to lock you up in your room."

"You may do that, Miss Bertha," laughed Noddy. "I don't care how much
you lock me in. When I want to go out, I shall go. I shall work, and win
my freedom."

Noddy thought this application of Bertha's motto was funny, and he had
the hardihood to laugh at it, till Bertha, hopeless of making any
impression on him at the present time, left the room, and locked the
door behind her.

"Work and win!" said Noddy. "That's very pretty, and for Miss Bertha's
sake I shall remember it; but I shan't work in any tinker's shop. I may
as well take myself off, and go to work in my own way."

Noddy was tired, after the exertions of the day; and so deeply and truly
repentant was he for the wrong he had done, that he immediately went to
sleep, though it was not yet dark. Neither the present nor the future
seemed to give him any trouble; and if he could avoid the miseries of
the tinker's shop, as he was perfectly confident he could, he did not
concern himself about any of the prizes of life which are gained by
honest industry or patient well doing.

When it was quite dark, and Noddy had slept about two hours, the
springing of the bolt in the lock of his door awoke him. H