and the arches where they neal the bottles after they are made, know that those places where the ashes are cast, and where the poor boys lie, are cavities in the brick-work, perfectly close, except at the entrance, and consequently warm as the dressing-room of a bagnio, that it is impossible they can feel any cold there, were it in Greenland, or Nova Zembla, and that therefore the boys lie not only safe, but very comfortably, the ashes excepted, which are no grievance at all to them.
The next day the major and his comrades went abroad again, and were still successful; nor did any disaster attend them, for I know not how many months: and, by frequent imitation and direction, major Jack became as dextrous a pick-pocket as any of them, and went on through a long variety of fortunes, too long to enter upon now, because I am hastening to my own story, which at present is the main thing I have to set down.
The major failed not to let me see every day the effects of his new prosperity, and was so bountiful, as frequently to throw me a tester, sometimes a shilling; and I might perceive that he began to have cloaths on his back, to leave the ash-hole, having gotten a society lodging (of which I may give an explanation by itself on another occasion) and which was more, he took upon him to wear a shirt, which was what neither he or I
