make it their business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are
cut, they must be flung into water, and kept there; for otherwise they
will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. When these junci are
thus far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached and take
the dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun. Some
address is required in dipping these rushes in the scalding fat or
grease; but this knack is also to be attained by practice. A pound of
common grease may be procured for fourpence, and about six pounds of
grease will dip a pound of rushes and one pound of rushes may be bought
for one shilling; so that a pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use,
will cost three shillings."]

The servant was pleased with his good nature in this trifling instance,
and remembered it long after it was forgotten by Edmund. Whenever his
master wanted to send a messenger anywhere, Gilbert (for that was the
servant's name) always employed his little friend Edmund, whom, upon
further acquaintance, he liked better and better. He found that Edmund
was both quick and exact in executing commissions.

One day, after he had waited a great while at a gentleman's house for an
answer to a letter, he was so impatient to get home that he ran off
without it. When he was questioned by Gilbert why he did not bring an
answer, he did not attempt to make any excuse; he did not say, "There was
no answer, please your honour," or, "They bid me not to wait," etc.; but
he told exactly the truth; and though Gilbert scolded him for being so
impatient as not to wait, yet his telling the truth was more to the boy's
advantage than any excuse he could have made. After this he was always
believed when he said, "There was no answer," or, "They bid me not wait";
for Gilbert knew that he would not tell a lie to save himself from being
scolded.