supped at, what news I read in the Gazette? But 'tis the knowledge of
that overweening Craving to count up the trivial Things of my Youth that
warns me to use despatch, even if the chronicle of my after doings be
but a short summary or sketch of so many Perils by Land and Sea. And for
this manner of the remotest things being the more distinct and dilated
upon, let me put it to a Man of keen vision, if whirling along a High
Road in a rapid carriage, he has not marked, first, that the Palings
and Milestones close by have passed beneath him in a confused and
jarring swiftness; next, that the Trees, Hedges, &c., of the middle-plan
(as the limners call it) have moved slower and with more Deliberation,
yet somewhat Fitfully, and encroaching on each other's outlines; whereas
the extreme distance in Clouds, Mountains, far-off Hillsides, and the
like, have seemed remote, indeed, but stationary, clear, and
unchangeable; so that you could count the fissures in the hoar rocks,
and the very sheep still feeding on the smooth slopes, even as they fed
fifty years ago? And who (let his later life have been ever so
fortunate) does not preferably dwell on that sharp prospect so clearly
yet so light looming through the Long Avenue of years?

It was not, I will frankly admit, a very righteous beginning to a young
life to be hail-fellow well-met with a Gang of Deerstealers, and to go
careering about the King's Forest in quest of Venison which belonged to
the Crown. Often have I felt remorseful for so having wronged his
Majesty (whom Heaven preserve for the safety of these distraught
kingdoms); but what was I, an' it please you, to do? Little Boy Jack was
just Little Boy Beggar; and for want of proper Training he became Little
Boy Thief. Not that I ever pilfered aught. I was no Candle-snuffer
filcher, and, save in the matter of Fat Bucks, the rest of our gang
were, indeed, passing honest. Part of the Venison we killed (mostly with
a larger kind of Bird-Bolt, or Arbalist Crossbow, for through fear of
the keepers we used as little powder and ball as possible) we ate for
our Sustenance; for rogues must eat and drink as well as other folks.
The greater portion, however, was discreetly conveyed, in carts covered
over with garden-stuff, to the market-towns of Uxbridge, Windsor, and
Reading, and sold, under the coat-tail as we called it, to Higglers who
were in our secret. Sometimes our Merchandise was taken right into
London, where we found a good