you, it always gives me much
uneasiness to see people labouring and working hard. I always think how
much I should dislike to be obliged to do so myself, and therefore
very sincerely pity those who must. On no account therefore will I do
anything to add to their labour, or that shall give them unnecessary
work.'

'Pooh!' answered Will, 'you are wonderfully wise; I, for my part, hate
such super-abundant wisdom; I like to see folk fret, and stew, and
scold, as our maids did last week when I cut the line, and let all the
sheets, and gowns, and petticoats, and frocks, and shirts, and aprons,
and caps, and what not, fall plump into the dirt. O! how I did laugh!
and how they did mutter and scold! And do you know, that just as the
wash ladies were wiping their coddled hands, and comforted themselves
with the thought of their work being all over, and were going to sip
their tea by the fireside, I put them all to the scout; and they were
obliged to wash every rag over again. I shall never forget how cross
they looked, nay, I verily believe Susan cried about it; and how I did
laugh!'

'And pray,' rejoined the other boy, 'should you have laughed equally
hearty if, after you had been at school all day, and had with much
difficulty just got through all your writing, and different exercises,
and were going to play, should you laugh, I say, if somebody was to
run away with them all, and your master oblige you to do them all over
again? Tell me, Will, should you laugh, or cry and look cross? And even
that would not be half so bad for you, as it was for the maids to be
obliged to wash their clothes over again; washing is very hard labour,
and tires people sadly, and so does threshing too. It is very unkind,
therefore, to give them such unnecessary trouble; and everything that
is unkind, is wicked; and I would not do it upon any account, I assure
you.' 'Then I assure you,' replied Will, 'you may let it alone; I can
do it without your assistance.' He then began mixing the grain and the
chaff together, the other boy strongly remonstrating against it, to
which he paid no attention; and whilst he was so employed, two men,
Simon and John, entered the barn.

'Why, how now, Master Billy,' said Simon; 'what are you about? What
business have you to be here? You are always doing some mischief or
other! I wish, with all my heart, that you were kept chained like a dog,
and never suffered to be at liberty, for you do more harm in an hour,
than a