s wood and a hatchet. _Mr B._--Wood you shall have
in plenty; but did you ever use a hatchet? _T._--No, sir. _Mr B._--Then
I am afraid to let you have one, because it is a very dangerous kind of
tool; and if you are not expert in the use of it you may wound yourself
severely. But if you will let me know what you want, I, who am more
strong and expert, will take the hatchet and cut down the wood for you.
"Thank you, sir," said Tommy; "you are very good to me, indeed." And
away Harry and he ran to the copse at the bottom of the garden.

Mr Barlow then went to work, and presently, by Harry's direction, cut
down several poles about as thick as a man's wrist, and about eight feet
long; these he sharpened at the end, in order to run into the ground;
and so eager were the two little boys at the business, that, in a very
short time, they had transported them all to the bottom of the garden;
and Tommy entirely forgot he was a gentleman, and worked with the
greatest eagerness.

"Now," said Mr Barlow, "where will you fix your house?" "Here, I think,"
answered Tommy, "just at the bottom of this hill, because it will be
warm and sheltered."

So Harry took the stakes and began to thrust them into the ground at
about the distance of a foot, and in this manner he enclosed a piece of
ground, which was about ten feet long and eight feet wide--leaving an
opening in the middle, of three feet wide, for a door. After this was
done they gathered up the brushwood that was cut off, and by Harry's
direction they interwove it between the poles in such a manner as to
form a compact kind of fence. This labour, as may be imagined, took them
up several days; however, they worked at it very hard every day, and
every day the work advanced, which filled Tommy's heart with so much
pleasure that he thought himself the happiest little boy in the
universe.

But this employment did not make Tommy unmindful of the story which Mr
Barlow had promised him; it was to this purport:--

"THE STORY OF THE GRATEFUL TURK."

"It is too much to be lamented that different nations frequently make
bloody wars with each other; and when they take any of their enemies
prisoners, instead of using them well, and restoring them to liberty,
they confine them in prisons, or sell them as slaves. The enmity that
there is often between many of the Italian states (particularly the
Venetians) and the Turks is sufficiently known.

"It once happened that a Venetian ship had take