d suppose I
should lose all this, or none would buy my matches, what then?' replied
I, 'I shall starve.' 'Starve--no, no--no one starves in this country;
all you have to do is to get into gaol--committed for a month--you will
live better perhaps than you ever did before. I have been in every gaol
in England, and I know the good ones, for even in gaols there is a great
difference. Now the one in this town is one of the best in all England,
and I patronises it during the winter.' I was much amused with the
discourse of this mumper, who appeared to be one of the merriest old
vagabonds in England. I took his advice, bought six pennyworth of matches,
and commenced my new vagrant speculation.

"The first day I picked up three-pence, for one quarter of my stock, and
returned to the same place where I had slept the night before, but the
fraternity had quitted on an expedition. I spent my two-pence in bread
and cheese, and paid one penny for my lodging, and again I started the
next morning, but I was very unsuccessful; nobody appeared to want
matches that day, and after walking from seven o'clock in the morning,
to past seven in the evening, without selling one farthing's worth, I
sat down at the porch of a chapel, quite tired and worn out. At last,
I fell asleep, and how do you think I was awoke? by a strong sense of
suffocation, and up I sprang, coughing, and nearly choked, surrounded
with smoke. Some mischievous boys perceiving that I was fast asleep,
had set fire to my matches, as I held them in my hand between my legs,
and I did not wake until my fingers were severely burnt. There was an
end of my speculation in matches, because there was an end of all my
capital."

"My poor Timothy, I really feel for you."

"Not at all, my dear Japhet; I never, in all my distress, was sentenced
to execution--my miseries were trifles, to be laughed at. However, I felt
very miserable at the time, and walked off, thinking about the propriety
of getting into gaol as soon as I could, for the beggar had strongly
recommended it. I was at the outskirts of the town, when I perceived
two men tussling with one another, and I walked towards them. 'I says,'
says one, who appeared to be a constable; 'you must come along with I.
Don't you see that ere board? All wagrants shall be taken up, and dealt
with according to _la_.' 'Now may the devil hold you in his claws, you
old psalm-singing thief--an't I a sailor--and an't I a wagrant by
profession, and a