mingled with
the love of adventure, in this lad. True it is, his father had trained
him early, first to examine the snares and conceal the game, which a
little shrimp like Joey could do, without being suspected to be
otherwise employed than in picking blackberries. Before he was seven
years old, Joey could set a springe as well as his father, and was well
versed in all the mystery and art of unlawful taking of game. Indeed,
he was very valuable to his father, and could do what his father could
not have ventured upon without exciting suspicion. It was, perhaps,
from his constant vigils, that the little boy was so small in size; at
all events, his diminutive size was the cause of there being no
suspicion attached to him. Joey went very regularly to the day-school
of Mr Furness; and although often up the best part of the night, he was
one of the best and most diligent of the scholars. No one could have
supposed that the little fair-haired, quiet-looking boy, who was so busy
with his books or his writing, could have been out half the night on a
perilous excursion, for such it was at the time we are speaking of. It
need hardly be observed that Joey had learned one important lesson,
which was to be _silent_; not even _Mum_, the dog, who could not speak,
was more secret or more faithful.

It is astonishing how much the nature and disposition of a child may be
altered by early tuition. Let a child be always with its nurse, even
under the guidance of a mother, regularly brought up as children usually
are, and it will continue to be a child, and even childish, after
childhood is gone. But take the same child, put it by degrees in
situations of peril, requiring thought and observation beyond its years,
accustom it to nightly vigils, and to watching, and to hold its tongue,
and it is astonishing how the mind of that child, however much its body
may suffer, will develop itself so as to meet the demand upon it. Thus
it is with lads that are sent early to sea, and thus it was with little
Joey. He was a man in some points, although a child in others. He
would play with his companions, laugh as loudly as the others, but still
he would never breathe a hint of what was his father's employment. He
went to church every Sunday, as did his father and mother; for they
considered that poaching was no crime, although punished as such by the
laws; and he, of course, considered it no crime, as he only did what his
father and mother wi