Question

What did the peddler do to keep his body and soul together

Answer 1

The rattrap peddler draws reader's sympathy because of his poverty.

The author's description of his clothes and appearance like this clothes are in rags, his cheeks are sunken and hunger gleams his eye.

And his resorting to begging and petty thievery to keep his body and soul together evokes reader's sympathy.

Answer 2

The peddler made and sold rattraps but his business was not really profitable so he had to resort to both begging and petty thievery to keep his body and soul together.