s; and though I forget
nearly all the events of my life at that time, I remember many of the
verses she taught me; they have been a wonderful comfort to me through
life. My mother had married unwisely, I have no doubt, and if she ever
had any relations, they discarded her; so she was very soon reduced to
the condition I have described, aided by an illness which at length
terminated in her death.

I was about eight years old when I became an orphan; but my intellects
were sharpened by exercise, and I was as precocious as many children
double my age. As I was able to do something to gain my own livelihood,
the people of the house where we lodged took compassion on me, and,
instead of sending me to the workhouse, gave me the corner of a garret
to sleep in. I understood the compact, and worked harder than ever.

Young as I was I felt my mother's loss most bitterly. We had been all
in all to each other, and I should have broken down altogether with
grief, had not my kind host roused me up and advised me to go out and
try and do something to gain my livelihood. Hunger is a severe
taskmaster; it makes many an idle man work.

I now became a regular mudlark, though I got employment when I could by
running on errands and in assisting the boatmen on the river. I was one
summer's day, with a number of other boys, wading up to my knees in the
water, when a boat with several gentlemen on a pleasure excursion came
down the river, and pulled into the shore near where we were. Some of
the gentlemen landed, while the others who remained in the boat amused
themselves by throwing halfpence into the water for us to dive after.
They scattered them about in every direction, so that many coins were
altogether lost; for as the boys rushed after them they drove them into
the mud.

At last, as I was standing some way from the other boys, a gentleman
threw a penny towards me; but it passed over my head and fell into deep
water, and directly afterwards I heard him exclaim--

"Dear me! I've lost my ring--my diamond ring, too. I would not have
lost it for a hundred pounds."

As he had been throwing pence in various directions, he had no notion
where it had fallen, though he naturally concluded that it had come off
at one of those times. As I saw that he was very much annoyed at his
loss I felt sorry for him; so I went up to him, and told him that I
would hunt about for his ring, and that if I found it I would gladly
bring it to him,