men and ladies in mind, that such
tricks are a kind of apprenticeship to the trades of begging and
thieving; and that nothing is more injurious to good morals than to
encourage the poor in any habits which may lead them to live upon
chance.

Giles, to be sure, as his children grew older, began to train them
to such other employments as the idle habits they had learned at the
gate very properly qualified them for. The right of common, which
some of the poor cottagers have in that part of the country, and
which is doubtless a considerable advantage to many, was converted
by Giles into the means of corrupting his whole family; for his
children, as soon as they grew too big for the trade of begging at
the gate, were promoted to the dignity of thieves on the moor. Here
he kept two or three asses, miserable beings, which if they had the
good fortune to escape an untimely death by starving, did not fail
to meet with it by beating. Some of the biggest boys were sent out
with these lean and galled animals to carry sand or coals about the
neighboring towns. Both sand and coals were often stolen before they
got them to sell; or if not, they always took care to cheat in
selling them. By long practice in this art, they grew so dexterous,
that they could give a pretty good guess how large a coal they could
crib out of every bag before the buyer would be likely to miss it.

All their odd time was taken up under the pretense of watching their
asses on the moor, or running after five or six half-starved geese:
but the truth is these boys were only watching for an opportunity to
steal an old goose of their neighbor's, while they pretended to look
after their own. They used also to pluck the quills or the down from
these live creatures, or half milk a cow before the farmer's maid
came with her pail. They all knew how to calculate to a minute what
time to be down in a morning to let out their lank hungry beasts,
which they had turned over night into the farmer's field to steal a
little good pasture. They contrived to get there just time enough to
escape being caught replacing the stakes they had pulled out for the
cattle to get over. For Giles was a prudent long-headed fellow; and
whenever he stole food for his colts, took care never to steal
stakes from the hedges at the same place. He had sense enough to
know that the gain did not make up for the danger; he knew that a
loose fagot, pulled from a neighbor's pile of wood after the family