Year: 1872

1 pa bAOuAAA NApDOoAh1 W AINAS Al y
supper on when 1 came back at night.
They made hole in the six or seven
shillings, I know well; and ] was out
at the backing warehouse all day,
and had to support myself upon that
money all the week. I suppose my
lodging was paid for by my father,
[ certainly did not pay it myself;
and certainly had no other assis-
tance whatever (the making of my
clothes, 1 think, excepted), from
Monday morning until Saturday
night. No advice, no cousel, no en-
couragement no consolation, no
support, from any one that l can call
to mind,


so HELP NE GOD.


Sunday Fanny andI passed in the
prison. I was at the Academy in
Tenterdan street, Hanover square, at
.9o'clock in the morning to fetch her,
and we walked back there together
at night


I was so young and and childish,
and 80 little qualifed-how could it
be otherwise?-to undertake the
whole charge Of my own existence,
that in going to Hungerford stairs
of a morning, I could not resist the
stale of pastry put out at half price
on trays at the confectioners' doors
in Tottenham Court Road, and I
often spent in that the money
should have kept for my dinner.
Then [ went without my dinner,
or bought roll or slice Of pud-
ding. There were two pudding
shops between which 1 was divided,
according to my finances. One was
in a court clcse to St. Martin s
church, ct the back of the church) }
which is now removed altogether.
The pudding at that shop was
made with currents, and was rather
a special pudding, but was dear
two penn'Orth not being larger than
penn'orth Of more ordinary pud-
dings, A good shop for the latter
was in the strand, somewhere near
where the LoWther Arcade is now.
1t was stout, hale pudding, fabby
and heavy; with great rasins in it,
stuck in at great distances apart. It
came up hot at about noon every
day; and many and many a day did
I dine of it.


ALMOST A LITTLE ROBBER AND VAGA-


BOND.


We had half an hour, l think, for
tea. When l had money enough l
used to go to a coffee shop and have
half pint of coffee and a slice of
bread and butter. When I had no
money I took a. turn in Covet Gar
den Market and stared at the pine
apples. The coffee shops to which
1 most resorted were one in Maiden
lane, and one (non-existent now
in a court close to Hungerford
Market; and none in st. Martins
lane, of which 1 only recollect that
it stood near the church, and in the
door thre was an oval glass plate
with coffee room painted on it, ad
dressed toward the street. If 1 ever
find myself in a different kind of
coffee room now, but where there is
such an inscription glass, and read
| it backward on the wrong side,
moor eefoc,' as I often used to do
then, in a dismal reverie, a shock
goes through my blood.


1 know do not exagerate uncon-
ciouslv and unintentioually, the
scantinesss of my resources, and
the difficulties of my life. 1 know
that if a shilling were given me by
any one, 1 spent it in a dinner or a
tea. l know that l worked from
morning till night with common men
and boys, a shabby child, 1 know
that I tried, but Intellectually, not to
anticipate my money, and to make il
last the week through by putting it
away in drawer l had in the count
ing house, wrapped up in six little
parcels, each parcel containing the
same amount, and labelled with a
different day. know that I have
lounged about the the streets insuf-
ficiently and Enthusiastically fed.
know that but for the mercy of
God, 1 might easily have been, for
any care that was taken of me, a lit
tie robber or a little vagabond.


THE YOUNG GENTLEMAN.


But 1 held some station at the
blacking warehouse too. Besides
that my relative at the counting
house did what a man so anomalous
could TO treat me as one upon a diff
ferent footing from the rest, I never
said to man or boy, how it was that
1 came to be there, or gave the least
indication Of being sorry that l was
there. That suffered in secretand
that 1 suffered exquisitely, no one
ever knew butI. How much I suf-
ferred, it is, as l have said already, ut
terly beyond my power to tell. No
mans imagination can overstep the
reality. But kept my own council,
and l did my work. l knew from
the first, that if I could not do my
work as well as any of the rest, !
could not hold myself above slight
and contempt. 1 soon became al
least as expeditions and as skilful
With my hands as either of the other
boys. Though perfectly familiar
with them, my conduct and manners
were different enough from theirs tc
place a space between us. They
and the men always spoke of me as
''the young gentleman" A certain
man { a soldier once )named Thomas
who was the foreman, and another
named Harry, who was the carman
and wore a red jacket, used to call
me "Charles'' sometimes in speaking
to me; but 1 think it was mostly
when we were very confidential, and
when l had made some efforts tC
entertain them over our work with
the results of some of the old read
ings, which were fast perishing out
of my mind.


! OUT OF THE DEPTH.


After 4 time the lonly little boy
! thinking there was no reason why hC
should be obliged to live 50 far from
tho Marshalsea, demonstrated viii
his father so pathetically, and with
so many tears, that, as the son rec