22 WILD DICK AND 46 Let us cast back a look upon Tippletown. On the day, when the top and the farewell message were found upon fanner Little’s door stone, Robert was sent home sick from school, with a message from the schoolma’am, that he had cried the_whole mornings. Even farmer Little and his wife were deeply affected at the little incid^. Day passed i after day, and it was commonly believed that Dick had ran off. In about six months his father died of the dropsy, and his mother soon followed, of consumpX&n ; and both were buried from the workhouse, in the drunkard's grave. A year had gone by , and nothing hall been heard of Dick. In the month ofUune, a mariner stopped to rest, at the tavern in Tippletown, on his way to visitPhis relations, in another state? He inquired if a family, by the name of Wild, lived in that village, and was informed, that the parents bad died in the workhouse, and the son was supposed to have run off. He then related his adventure with little Dick, for this was the very sailor, who took him to sea. “ A smart little .fellow
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