ou might
acknowledge his hand in your present comfort and prosperity. Above
all, you must bless his goodness in sending you to me, not only
because I have been of use to you in your worldly affairs, but
because he has enabled me to show you the danger of your state from
sin and ignorance, and to put you in a way to know his will and to
keep his commandments, which is eternal life."

How Betty, by industry and piety, rose in the world, till at length
she came to keep that handsome sausage shop near the Seven Dials,
and was married to that very hackney-coachman, whose history and
honest character may be learned from that ballad of the Cheap
Repository which bears his name, may be shown hereafter.

BLACK GILES THE POACHER.

CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF A FAMILY WHO HAD RATHER LIVE BY THEIR
WITS THAN THEIR WORK.

PART I.

Poaching Giles lives on the borders of those great moors in
Somersetshire. Giles, to be sure, has been a sad fellow in his time;
and it is none of his fault if his whole family do not end their
career, either at the gallows or Botany Bay. He lives at that mud
cottage with the broken windows, stuffed with dirty rags, just
beyond the gate which divides the upper from the lower moor. You may
know the house at a good distance by the ragged tiles on the roof,
and the loose stones which are ready to drop out from the chimney;
though a short ladder, a hod of mortar, and half an hour's leisure
time, would have prevented all this, and made the little dwelling
tight enough. But as Giles had never learned any thing that was
good, so he did not know the value of such useful sayings, as, that
"a tile in time saves nine."

Besides this, Giles fell into that common mistake, that a beggarly
looking cottage, and filthy ragged children, raised most compassion,
and of course drew most charity. But as cunning as he was in other
things, he was out in his reckoning here; for it is neatness,
housewifery, and a decent appearance, which draw the kindness of the
rich and charitable while they turn away disgusted from filth and
laziness; not out of pride, but because they see that it is next to
impossible to mend the condition of those who degrade themselves by
dirt and sloth; and few people care to help those who will not help
themselves.

The common on which Giles's hovel stands, is quite a deep marsh in a
wet winter: but in summer it looks green and pretty enough. To be
sure it would be rather convenient when one