earliest friends,
who had been transported for poaching, was almost the only one who could
talk to him after his absence of twenty-four years; not that she knew
the people at the time, for she was then an infant, but she had grown up
with them after Joe had left, and could narrate anecdotes of them, and
what had been their eventual destinies. Jane having been the daughter
of a man who had been transported for poaching, was to Joe a sort of
recommendation, and it ended in his taking her for his wife. They had
not been long settled in their cottage before Joe's former propensities
returned; in fact, he could not be idle, he had carried a musket too
long, and had lived such a life of excitement in the service of his
country, that he found it impossible to exist without shooting at
something. All his former love of poaching came strong upon him, and
his wife, so far from checking him, encouraged him in his feelings. The
consequence was, that two years after his marriage, Joe Rushbrook was
the most determined poacher in the county. Although often suspected, he
had never been detected; one great cause of this was his appearing to be
such a drunkard, a plan hit upon by his wife, who had observed that
drunken men were not suspected of being poachers. This scheme had
therefore been hit upon, and very successfully; for proving before a
magistrate that a man was carried home dead drunk and speechless at
midnight, was quite as good an _alibi_ as could be brought forward. Joe
Rushbrook had, therefore, the credit of being a worthless drunken
fellow, who lived upon his pension and what his wife could earn; but no
one had an idea that he was not only earning his livelihood, but laying
by money from his successful night labours. Not that Joe did not like a
drop occasionally--on the contrary, he would sometimes drink freely;
but, generally speaking, the wounds in his head were complained of; and
he would, if the wind was fresh and set in the right quarter, contrive
to be carried home on the night in which he had most work to do. Such
was the case, as we have represented in the first chapter.

Little Joey, who, as the reader may anticipate, will be our future hero,
was born the first year after marriage, and was their only child. He
was a quiet, thoughtful, reflective boy for his years, and had imbibed
his father's love of walking out on a dark night to an extraordinary
degree: it was strange to see how much prudence there was,