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found my mother standing before the glass arranging her hair.

"Well!" exclaimed my mother, "this is very pretty behaviour-forcing your way into a lady's room."

The doctor stared, and so did I. At last I exclaimed, "Well! father thought he'd killed her."

"Yes," cried my mother, "and he's gone away with it on his conscience, that's some comfort;-he won't come back in a hurry-he thinks he has committed murder, the unfeeling brute!-Well, I've had my revenge."

And as she twisted up her hair, my mother burst out screaming

"Little Bo-peep, she lost her sheep,

And couldn't tell where to find him—

She found him, indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For he left his tail behind him."

"Why then, doctor, it was all sham," exclaimed I. "Yes-and the doctor's come on a fool's errand :

"Goosey, Goosey Gander,

Whither dost thou wander?
Up stairs and down stairs,
And in a lady's chamber."

The doctor shrugged up his shoulders so that his head disappeared between them; at last he said, “Your mother don't want me, Jack-that's very clear. Good morning, Mrs. Saunders."

"A very good morning to you, Doctor Tadpole," replied my mother, with a profound courtesy. "You'll oblige me by quitting this room, and shutting the door after you, if you please."

As the doctor and I went down my mother continued

the song:

"And then I met a little man,
Couldn't say his prayers;

I took him by the left leg
And sent him down stairs."

As soon as we were in the parlour I acquainted the doctor with what had happened-"I'm sure I thought she was dead," said I, when I had finished the story.

"Jack, when I asked you where your mother was bad, external or internal, you replied, both, and a great deal more besides. So she is-internally, externally, and infernally bad," said the doctor, laughing. "And so she amputated your father's pigtail, did she-the Delilah! Pity one could not amputate her head, it would make a good woman of her.-Good bye, Jack, I must go and look after Tom-he's swallowod a whole yard of stick liquorice by this time."

Soon afterwards, Ben the Whaler came in to inquire after my father, and I told him what had occurred; he was very indignant at my mother's conduct, and, as soon as the affair was known, so were all the tenants of Fisher's Alley. When my mother went out, or had words with any of her neighbours, the retort was invariably, "Who sent the pressgang after her own husband ?" or, "Who cut off the tail from her husband's back?-wasn't that a genteel trick?" All this worried my mother, and she became very morose and ill-tempered; I believe she would have left the alley if she had not taken a long lease of the house. She had now imbibed a decidea hatred for me, which she never failed to show upou every occasion; for she knew that it was I who had

roused my father, and prevented her escape from his wrath. The consequence was that I was seldom at home, except to sleep. I sauntered to the beach, rar into the water, sometimes rowed in the wherries, at others hauling them in and holding them steady for the passengers to land. I was beginning to be useful to the watermen, and was very often rewarded with a piece of bread and cheese or a drink of beer out of their pots. The first year after my father's visit I was seldom given a meal, and continually beatenindeed sometimes cruelly so; but as I grew stronger I rebelled and fought, and with such success that, although I was hated more, I was punished less.

One scene between my mother and me may serve as a specimen for all. I would come home with my trousers tucked up, and my high-lows unlaced and full of water-sucking every time that I lifted up my leg, and marking the white sanded floor of the front room, as I proceeded through it to the back kitchen. My mother would come down stairs, and perceiving the marks I had left, would get angry, and as usual commence singing

"A frog he would a wooing go,
Heigho, says Rowly."

I see-there's that little wretch been here,

"Whether his mother would let him or no,
Heigho, says Rowly."

I'll rowly him with the rowling pin, when I get hold of him. He's worse than that beastly water-spaniel of Sir Hercules', who used to shake himself over my

He'll be

best cambric muslin. Well, we'll see. wanting his dinner; I only wish he may get it.

"Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,

Eating his Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum,
And cried, what a good boy am I !"

'Good boy am I!' good-for-nothing brat, just like his father. O dear! — if I could but get rid of him!

"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She'd so many children she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread,

She whipped them all round, and sent them to bed."

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And if I don't whip him, it's my fault, that's all. Virginia, my love, don't spit- that's not genteel. It's only sailors and Yankees who spit.-Nasty little brute! oh! here you are, are you?" cried my mother, as I entered. "Do you see what a dirty mess you have made, you little ungrateful animal? Take that, and that, and that," continued she, running the wet bristles of the long broom into my face, with sufficient force to make my nose bleed. I stood the first push, and the second; but the third roused my indignation — and I caught hold of the end of the broom towards me, and tried to force it out of her hands. It was push against push; for I was very strong-she screaming as loud as she could, as she tried to wrest the broom from my clutches; - I shoving at her with all my force-like Punch and the devil at the two ends of the stick. At last, after she had heid me in a corner for half a minute, I made a rush upon her, drove her

right to the opposite corner, so that the end of the handle gave her a severe poke in the body, which made her give up the contest, and exclaim as soon as she recovered her breath,- "Oh! you nasty, ungrateful, ungenteel brute! You little viper! Is that the way you treat your mother-and nearly kill her? Oh, dear me!"

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"Why don't you leave me alone, then? you never beats Jenny."

"Who's Jenny, you wicked good-for-nothing boyyou mean your sister Virginia? Well, you'll have no dinner, I can tell you."

I put my hand in my pocket, took out a sixpence which I had received, and held it up between my thumb and finger. "Won't I?"

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"You oudacious boy! that's the way you're spoiled by foolish people giving you money."

"Good-bye, mother." So saying, I leaped over the board fixed up at the door, and was again down at the beach. Indeed I was now what is termed a regular Mud-larker, picking up halfpence by running into the water, offering my ragged arm to people getting out of the wherries, always saluting them with, "You haven't got never a halfpenny for poor Jack, your honour?" and sometimes I did get a halfpenny, sometimes a shove, according to the temper of those whom I addressed. When I was not on the beach I was usually in company with Ben the Whaler, who, after my father's visit, was more kind to me than ever; and there were several other pensioners who were great friends of mine; and I used to listen to their long yarns, which were now becoming a source of great

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