"Well," cried I, "my good boys, how do you like your bed? I hope you are not afraid to lie in this room, dark as it appears?"

"No, papa," says Dick, "I am not afraid to lie any5 where where you are."

"And I," says Bill, who was yet but four years old, "love every place best that my papa is in."

After this, I allotted to each of the family what they were to do. My daughter was particularly directed to Io watch her declining sister's health; my wife was to attend me; my little boys were to read to me : "And as for you, my son," continued I, "it is by the labour of your hands we must all hope to be supported. Your wages as a daylabourer will be fully sufficient, with proper frugality, to 15 maintain us all, and comfortably too. Thou art now six

teen years old, and hast strength, and it was given thee, my son, for very useful purposes; for it must save from famine your helpless parents and family. Prepare, then, this evening, to look out for work against to-morrow, and 20 bring home every night what money you earn, for our support."

Having thus instructed him and settled the rest, I walked down to the common prison, where I could enjoy more air and room. But I was not long there when the 25 execrations, lewdness, and brutality that invaded me on every side drove me back to my apartment again. Here I sat for some time, pondering upon the strange infatuation of wretches who, finding all mankind in open arms against them, were labouring to make themselves a future 30 and a tremendous enemy.

Their insensibility excited my highest compassion, and

blotted my own uneasiness from my mind. It even appeared a duty incumbent upon me to attempt to reclaim them. I resolved, therefore, once more to return, and in spite of their contempt to give them my advice, and conquer them by perseverance. Going, therefore, 5 among them again, I informed Mr. Jenkinson of my design, at which he laughed heartily, but communicated it to the rest. The proposal was received with the greatest good-humour, as it promised to afford a new fund of entertainment to persons who had now no other resource 10 for mirth but what could be derived from ridicule or debauchery.

I therefore read them a portion of the service with a loud, unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon the occasion. Lewd whispers, groans of 15 contrition burlesqued, winking and coughing, alternately excited laughter. However, I continued with my natural solemnity to read on, sensible that what I did might mend some, but could itself receive no contamination from any.

20

After reading, I entered upon my exhortation, which was rather calculated at first to amuse them than to reprove. I previously observed that no other motive but their welfare could induce me to this; that I was their fellow-prisoner, and now got nothing by preaching. I was 25 sorry, I said, to hear them so very profane; because they got nothing by it, but might lose a great deal: "For be assured, my friends,” cried I,—" for you are my friends, however the world may disclaim your friendship-though you swore twelve thousand oaths in a day, it would not 30 put one penny in your purse. Then what signifies calling

every moment upon the devil, and courting his friendship, since you find how scurvily he uses you? He has given you nothing here, you find, but a mouthful of oaths and an empty belly; and, by the best accounts I have of 5 him, he will give you nothing that's good hereafter.

"If used ill in our dealings with one man, we naturally go elsewhere. Were it not worth your while, then, just to try how you may like the usage of another master, who gives you fair promises at least to come to him? Surely, To my friends, of all stupidity in the world his must be the greatest who, after robbing a house, runs to the thieftakers for protection. And yet how are you more wise? You are all seeking comfort from one that has already betrayed you, applying to a more malicious being than 15 any thief-taker of them all; for they only decoy and then hang you; but he decoys and hangs, and, what is worst of all, will not let you loose after the hangman is done.”

When I had concluded, I received the compliments of my audience, some of whom came and shook me by the 20 hand, swearing that I was a very honest fellow, and that they desired my further acquaintance. I therefore promised to repeat my lecture next day, and actually conceived some hopes of making a reformation here; for it had ever been my opinion that no man was past the hour 25 of amendment, every heart lying open to the shafts of reproof if the archer could but take a proper aim. When

I had thus satisfied my mind, I went back to my apartment, where my wife prepared a frugal meal, while Mr. Jenkinson begged leave to add his dinner to ours, and 30 partake of the pleasure, as he was kind enough to express

it, of my conversation. He had not yet seen my family;

for as they came to my apartment by a door in the narrow passage already described, by this means they avoided the common prison. Jenkinson, at the first interview, therefore, seemed not a little struck with the beauty of my youngest daughter, which her pensive air contributed 5 to heighten, and my little ones did not pass unnoticed. "Alas, Doctor," cried he, "these children are too handsome and too good for such a place as this."

"Why, Mr. Jenkinson," replied I, "thank Heaven my children are pretty tolerable in morals; and if they be 10 good, it matters little for the rest."

"I fancy, sir," returned my fellow-prisoner, "that it must give you great comfort to have this little family about you."

"A comfort, Mr. Jenkinson," replied I, "yes, it is 15 indeed a comfort, and I would not be without them for all the world; for they can make a dungeon seem a palace. There is but one way in this life of wounding my happiness, and that is by injuring them."

"I am afraid, then, sir," cried he, "that I am in some 20 measure culpable; for I think I see here," looking at my son Moses, one that I have injured, and by whom I wish to be forgiven."

66

My son immediately recollected his voice and features, though he had before seen him in disguise, and taking 25 him by the hand, with a smile, forgave him. "Yet," continued he, "I can't help wondering at what you could see in my face to think me a proper mark for deception."

"My dear sir," returned the other, "it was not your 30 face, but your white stockings and the black riband in

your hair that allured me. But, no disparagement to your parts, I have deceived wiser men than you in my time; and yet, with all my tricks, the blockheads have been too many for me at last."

5 "I suppose," cried my son, "that the narrative of such a life as yours must be extremely instructive and amusing."

"Not much of either," returned Mr. Jenkinson. "Those relations which describe the tricks and vices 10 only of mankind, by increasing our suspicion in life, retard our success. The traveller that distrusts every person he meets, and turns back upon the appearance of every man that looks like a robber, seldom arrives in time at his journey's end.

15

"Indeed, I think, from my own experience, that the knowing one is the silliest fellow under the sun. I was thought cunning from my very childhood: when but seven years old, the ladies would say that I was a perfect little man; at fourteen I knew the world, cocked my 20 hat, and loved the ladies; at twenty, though I was per

fectly honest, yet every one thought me so cunning that not one would trust me. Thus I was at last obliged to turn sharper in my own defence, and have lived ever since, my head throbbing with schemes to deceive, and 25 my heart palpitating with fears of detection. I used often to laugh at your honest, simple neighbour Flamborough, and one way or another generally cheated him. once a year. Yet still the honest man went forward without suspicion, and grew rich, while I still continued tricksy 30 and cunning, and was poor, without the consolation of being honest. However," continued he, "let me know