rst appeared, I can with great truth declare, that when
he first attracted the notice and affection of his uncle, it was plainly
perceivable.

One would imagine he had marked out the commodore as a proper object of
ridicule, for almost all his little childish satire was leveled
against him. I will not deny that he might have been influenced in this
particular by the example and instruction of Mr. Hatchway, who delighted
in superintending the first essays of his genius. As the gout had taken
up its residence in Mr. Trunnion's great toe, from whence it never
removed, no not for a day, little Perry took great pleasure in treading
by accident on this infirm member; and when his uncle, incensed by the
pain, used to damn him for a hell-begotten brat, he would appease him in
a twinkling, by returning the curse with equal emphasis, and asking
what was the matter with old Hannibal Tough? an appellation by which the
lieutenant had taught him to distinguish this grim commander.

Neither was this the only experiment he tried upon the patience of the
commodore, with whose nose he used to take indecent freedoms, even.
while he was fondled on his knee. In one month he put him to the
expense of two guineas in seal-skin; by picking his pocket of divers
tobacco-pouches, all of which he in secret committed to the flames. Nor
did the caprice of his disposition abstain from the favourite beverage
of Trunnion, who more than once swallowed a whole draught in which
his brother's snuff-box had been emptied, before he perceived the
disagreeable infusion; and one day, when the commodore had chastised him
by a gentle tap with his cane, he fell flat on the floor as if he had
been deprived of all sense and motion, to the terror and amazement of
the striker; and after having filled the whole house with confusion and
dismay, opened his eyes, and laughed heartily at the success of his own
imposition.

It would be an endless and perhaps no very agreeable task, to enumerate
all the unlucky pranks he played upon his uncle and others, before he
attained the fourth year of his age; about which time he was sent, with
an attendant, to a day-school in the neighbourhood, that (to use his
good mother's own expression) he might be out of harm's way. Here,
however, he made little progress, except in mischief, which he practised
with impunity, because the school-mistress would run no risk of
disobliging a lady of fortune, by exercising unnecessary severities upon