hold to any one who has occasion to catch
him when he runs loose in the fields, they sufficiently intimate that
he was always open to the ill advice of his play-fellows. If the
meanest and most dirty boy in the neighbourhood was in want of a
companion, or rather a tool, to assist him in his mischievous pranks,
he had nothing to do but to make his application to _Jack Idle_; for
foolish Jack (as they truly called him) was at the beck of every
mischievous rogue; and when the mischief was done, he was always left,
like a stupid ass as he was, to bear the burden of it. His father had
money; and Jack's great pride was to be complimented by his raggamuffin
companions as the cook of the game. Once (I remember it perfectly well)
three bargemen's boys having a violent inclination to plunder a pippin
tree, which was the property of farmer _Crusty_, they gave master Jacky
such a tempting account of the wish'd for prize, and held forth so
liberally in praise of his courage and ingenuity, that they prevailed
upon him to be not only a party, but the commander in chief in this
hopeful enterprize. But, as such adventures generally terminate in the
most mortifying disappointment, the young plunderers were discovered by
the farmer before they had gathered half their booty. The three
tarpaulins being at the bottom of the tree made their escape without
much difficulty; but Jack, who, to support the dignity of his new
command, had ascended almost to the top, was unfortunately taken
prisoner. The consequence was, that his father (who had to deal with a
wretch who was as crusty by nature as he was by name) after being
obliged to pay ten times the value of the fruit, conducted his son to
Mr. _Sharp_, the gentleman who had the trouble of his education, from
whom he received a severe flogging in the presence of all his school
fellows, as a very suitable reward of his stupid ambition. From this
account of him you will naturally conclude that he was no great friend
to learning; and, indeed, so remarkable was his aversion to the useful
arts of reading and writing, that his greatest improvement amounted
only to an indifferent knowledge of the alphabet, and the poor
accomplishment of being just able to scrawl his own name in characters
which were scarcely legible. He was equally distinguished for his speed
and fidelity when his parents sent him on an errand; for he could
hardly make shift to saunter a mile in an hour, and when he arrived at
the place