ing their tasks Charles
took up the book, and said: 'Giles, will you teach me to read?' and
Giles said: 'Certainly, Master Charles, I will, but I am sure you must
know how to read a great deal better than such a poor boy as I am.'

'I might have done so,' said Charles, 'but, Giles, I was a sad, naughty,
perverse boy, and hated to learn any thing that was good; but I hope I
know better now, and if you will only take the trouble of teaching me I
will try and make up for my lost time.'

So Giles gave Charles a lesson that very night, and every evening after
supper he heard him read and spell what he had learned during the day,
and Charles took such pains that he soon began to read so well that he
used to amuse himself by reading pretty stories, and by teaching little
Betty, one of Giles's youngest sisters, to read.

Still Charles used to be exceedingly hungry, for he had not more than
half the quantity of food he was used to eat, and Giles was hungry too,
and grew pale and thin.

Then Charles said to himself: 'It is not right for me to eat the bread
which poor Giles works so hard to earn; I will try and get my own
living, for why should I not do so, as well as Giles?' So one morning,
when Giles rose, as usual, at five o'clock, Charles got up too. Then
Giles said:

'Why do you rise so early this cold morning, Master Charles?'

'Because I am going out to work with you, Giles, if you will permit me,'
answered Charles.

'Oh, Master Charles, such work as I do is not fit for a young gentleman
like you,' said Giles.

'You must not call me a young gentleman _now_, for I am only a poor boy,
and poorer than other poor boys, for they can earn their own living,
while I should have been starved to death had not you given me half of
the bread you work so hard for. But I will not be a burthen to you any
longer, but learn to work and get my own living as you do.'

Charles now meant to keep his word, and they both went out into the
fields, and worked together at picking stones off the young crops of
wheat and clover, and before breakfast Giles had picked up two bushels
of stones and Charles one, and the farmer gave them a penny per bushel
for gathering them up.

Then they made haste back to the cottage, and Giles gave his mother the
money he had earned, and Charles did the same, and when the dame poured
out the milk for the family Charles saw that she filled a porringer for
him also, and they had all a good breakfast that morni