ABSTRACT
Mr. Josiah Muckworm, the gentleman to whose house Mr. Evans was now going, was the son of Mr. Jeremiah Muckworm, who for forty years had served the o ce of parish clerk, in the church where Mr. Evans’s father was curate. His salary as clerk was about ve pounds a year, which never could have maintained his family if he had not also kept a little day school, where children were taught their catechism, and to read and write, for half-a-crown a quarter, which brought him in as much more, kept body and soul together, and put a decent suit of clothes on his back on Sunday; on which day he always got his dinner at old Mr. Evans’s a er he and his wife had done, and little Josiah used to come o en to get a piece of pudding, and play with our worthy curate, who was then a boy much about his own age. As Josiah/ was a shrewd-looking boy, and behaved with great decency and humility, old Mr. Evans was well pleased to have him for a companion to his son; and when the latter was old enough to begin Latin, he thought it would be a good action to give the other some education, of which he seemed extremely susceptible; and that it might be of advantage to his son to have him for a competitor, from that time he took him home to his own house, and treated him in every respect like his own son. e two boys ate together, read together, and slept together, and neither Mr. nor Mrs. Evans made any di erence between them; or, if they did, it seemed in favour of Muckworm, who was of a puny and timid disposition, but extremely shrewd and cunning, and so humble and submissive that he would clean any body’s shoes for a halfpenny – whilst, on the contrary, young Evans was a sturdy boy, full of life and spirit, and would have knocked any person down, or at least attempted it, who should propose/ such an o ce to him. He was also full of generosity and good nature; a remarkable instance of which he gave even at those tender years.
