“And why was not it done, I ask you?” cried his father, with renewed anger, as another bottle burst at the moment. “What do you stand there for, you lazy brat? why don’t you move, I say? No, no,” catching hold of him, “I believe you can’t move; but I’ll make you.” And he shook him till Lawrence was so giddy he could not stand. “What had you to think of? What had you to do all day long that you could not carry my cider, my Worcestershire cider, to the cellar when I bid you? But go, you’ll never be good for anything; you are such a lazy rascal—get out of my sight!” So saying, he pushed him out of the house door, and Lawrence sneaked off, seeing that this was no time to make his petition for halfpence. The next day he saw the nuts again, and wishing for them more than ever, he went home, in hopes that his father, as he said to himself, would be in a better humour. But the cider was still fresh in his recollection; and the moment Lawrence began to whisper the word “halfpenny” in his ear, his father swore, with a loud oath, “I will not give you a halfpenny, no, not a farthing, for a month to come. If you want money, go work for it; I’ve had enough of your laziness—go work!” At these terrible words Lawrence burst into tears, and, going to the side of a ditch, sat down and cried for an hour; and when he had cried till he could cry no more, he exerted himself so far as to empty his pockets, to see whether there might not happen to be one halfpenny left; and, to his great joy, in the farthest corner of his pocket one halfpenny was found. With this he proceeded to the fruit woman’s stall. She was busy weighing out some plums, so he was obliged to wait; and whilst he was waiting he heard some people near him talking and laughing very loud. The fruit woman’s stall was at the gate of an inn yard; and peeping through the gate in this yard, Lawrence saw a postilion and a stable boy, about his own size, playing at pitch farthing. He stood by watching them for a few minutes. “I began but with one halfpenny,” cried the stable boy, with an oath, “and now I’ve got twopence!” added he, jingling the halfpence in his waistcoat pocket. Lawrence was moved at the sound, and said to himself, “If _I_ begin with one halfpenny I may end, like him, with having twopence; and it is easier to play at pitch farthing than to work.”