My bird and my dog: A tale for youth

Excerpt: On the following evening when the family were as usual assembled together in the parlour Mr. Fitzallan began his promised tale as follows: — “About twelve years ago there was known at Boston in North America a boy who from the vagrant life he led was distinguished by the degrading appellation of Dirty Barnaby. He had been maintained by the parish but was so deformed and of such a disgusting appearance that no one would take him as an apprentice and he was obliged to earn a scanty subsistence by performing such menial offices for the inhabitants as few others would undertake. This child of misfortune was the butt of ridicule to all the boys in the place; and the hardships and ignominy he was continually exposed to created in his mind a sort of sullen gloom which added to the unpleasantness of his rudely-formed countenance.