What Happened to Tad by Mary E. Ropes

OLD Renard, as Tad soon found, was a Jack-of-all-trades. He could / turn his hand to most things, though he did no sort of work well or / thoroughly. But he was a bit of a tinker, a basket-maker, and mender; / he could do a bit of rough cobbling for any villager who wanted a pair / of boots mended; he could put a passable patch in a pair of trousers; / and he could even play the dentist after a fashion of his own, and take / out teeth, often getting a sound tooth by mistake, and very cheerfully / giving any amount of pain for his fee.

Then, too, he was a bit of a pedlar, and generally carried about with / him a box of cheap jewellery, relics, and knick-knacks, on which, by / aid of his glib tongue, he made a fair profit. He also sold patent / pills and ointments and quack remedies to the ignorant folk, besides / earning many a dishonest penny by the telling of their fortunes. But it / was by the lads in his employ that he made the most regular part of his / income, and Tad soon found that his new work was by no means a bed of / roses, and that old Foxy was quite as fully bent upon making him serve / with rigour, as were the old Egyptian task-masters with their Israelite / bondsmen.