Willet is a drunken rat-catcher who keeps Gemmy as a servant and kind of surrogate son for several years in England when Gemmy is just a child. Willet is horrible and abusive, but since he is the only person Gemmy knows and he offers Gemmy his only sense of identity—Gemmy recalls that he was not a boy until Willet found him and turned him into “Willet’s boy”—Gemmy views him with an almost god-like reverence. Since Gemmy does not know any other life than the miserable one he lives with Willet, he is reasonably content for several years. However, one evening, on a resentful whim, Gemmy sets fire to their room while Willet is passed out drunk. Though Gemmy only meant to scare Willet, he cannot wake him and the fire spreads, forcing Gemmy to leave Willet behind, presumably to be burned to death.