A lean half-starved cur stood curiously regarding a sleek white well-fed
pig, cosily curled up in a nest of nice clean straw.
“Some folks get all the good things in this world, I think,” grumbled
the cur. “Here is that great fat lazy pig, fed on the best of
everything—peas, potatoes, sweet milk, barley-meal, and I know not what
all—whilst I am kicked and cuffed, and have to pick up a meal anyhow.”
“Dick!” cried the farmer out of the window. “Be up to-morrow at four
o’clock. We’ll kill the white pig for Saturday’s market; and a roast leg
of pork won’t come amiss for Sunday’s dinner.”
Next morning the cur was awakened early by strange sounds. “A—h!” said
he, as he shivered in his straw, and sat up to listen; “I see now, they
only fattened up poor piggy for their own sakes. Seeming good fortune
may not be best for us after all. It is better to live poorly in
security than to have all we want, and be in constant danger.”
“NIBS.”
“Dandy, let’s you and me play we’s poor. And we’ve eaten nuffin for
free-seven-’leaven days. And we’ll beg our daily bread from door to
door, in the rain. Poor little boys have to eat, if it does rain. They
don’t have to stay in the house.”
Nibs is a little boy, who is very tired of staying in the house. Dandy
is his dog.
“Well have to have a basket to put our daily bread in, and a bumbrell.”
Dandy wags his tail so hard you can scarcely see it. That is his way of
saying he’ll back Nibs in any scheme to get out doors.
“Dandy, do you fink poor little boys carry bumbrells? I know one to
match poor boys. Big brover said it was so poor its ribs showed. Come on
Dandy.”
Here Nibs goes off for a basket and umbrella, Dandy keeping close to his
heels. In some way Nibs and Dandy get out of the house unnoticed. After
Nibs raises the umbrella, he halts a moment, Dandy waiting beside him.
His heart and Dandy’s tail sink at the same moment when a voice is heard
calling:
“Nibs, what are you about out there?”
“Dandy and I are just going out for our daily bread,” answers Nibs.
“You’d better come in for your daily bread, or you may get a daily
something else.”
“Oh dear!” sighs Nibs. “Dandy, you and I can’t have any fun. We cant
even be poor.”
[Illustration: NIBS AND DANDY.]
[Illustration]