I I - American Memory

" I
llilll
[ 264 ]
hopes to meet with her own ; and coming to this Shop,
he (hewed her the very Book {he wanted, Sir, fays fhe,
this Book is mine, •where had it you ? (jull at that In-
ftant I was going by the Window, and meeting an old
School-fellow, 1 ilop'd to talk with him) the Man re-
plies. By Fortune there jlands the Alan njjho fold it me ;
fays fhe, i/^ is a Thief and has Jiole it, whereupon the
Man came to the Door, and faid he wanted to fpeak
with me ; I went boldly in, tho' my Confcience told
me that I had done fomething amifs, but I had forgot
the Book ; fays he. Did you not feli me this Book? Yes,
fays I, pray fays flie, Hoiv came you by it ? I faid I had
it of fomebody to fell, making what lame Excufes I
could think ofj but they not being oblig'd to believe
me, threat'ned me with a Conftable, and a Goal was to
be my Habitation immediately; but however, flie re-
collecting my Face, asked me if xay Name was not
Fonx)is? to which .1 replying in the Affirmative, the
good natur'd Woman fhed Tears, faying, / am forryfor
you, and for your poor Father, to nuhom injlead of being a
Comfort, you are the Caufe of all the Sorroius he endures ;
fo telling the Man of the Shop who I was, he was fo
mov'd with Compaffion of the Relation, that he let
her have the Book, and let me go upon my Promife to
bring him the Money he gave me for it next Day; but
I not having it ready by the Time, was alham'd to go
near him after.
In about a Week after I went to a Pajiry-Cookh Shop
in Fleet-Jireet, next Door to Mr. Pinchbecks, and
bought a Penny Tart, and feeing them put the Money
in the Drawer, in which to vay thinking there was a
great deal, the Devil gave me a Jog by the Elbow, and
I took the Hint immediately, wherefore I knowing
the Houfe, that Night climb'd up the Iron Sign which
is fix'd in a Poll at the Hole in the Wall, and getting
over two or three Balconies, I got into the one pair of
Stairs Window, and fo proceeded into the Shop, but
was difappointed, for there was not a Half-penny in
the Drawer; but becaufe I wou'd not come in fw no-
thing.