Page:Life of Colonel Jack (1810).djvu/26

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10
THE LIFE OF

parish providing for us, we did not trouble ourselves much about that; we rambled about all three together, and the people in Rosemary-Lane and Ratcliff, and that way, knowing us pretty well, we got victuals easily enough, and without much begging.

For my particular part, I got some reputation, for a mighty civil honest boy; for if I was sent of an errand, I always did it punctually and carefully, and made haste again; and if I was trusted with any thing, I never touched it to diminish it, but made it a point of honour to be punctual to whatever was committed to me, though I was as arrant a thief as any of them in all other cases.

In like case, some of the poorer shop-keepers would often leave me at their door, to look after their shops, till they went up to dinner, or till they went over the way to an alehouse, and the like, and I always did it freely and cheerfully, and with the utmost honesty.

Captain Jack, on the contrary, a surly, ill-looked rough boy, had not a word in his mouth that savoured either of good manners, or good humour; he would say Yes, and No, just as he was asked a question, and that was all, but no body got any thing from him that was obliging in the least. If he was sent of an errand he would forget half of it, and it may be go to play, if he met any boys, and