her only child. Nevertheless, Mrs. Pickle was not so blindly partial as
to be pleased with such unseasonable indulgence. Perry was taken out of
the hands of this courteous teacher, and committed to the instruction
of a pedagogue, who was ordered to administer such correction as the boy
should in his opinion deserve. This authority he did not neglect to
use, his pupil was regularly flogged twice a day; and after having been
subjected to this course of discipline for the space of eighteen months,
declared the most obstinate, dull, and untoward genius that ever had
fallen under his cultivation; instead of being reformed, he seemed
rather hardened and confirmed in his vicious inclinations, and was dead
to all sense of fear as well as shame.

His mother was extremely mortified at these symptoms of stupidity, which
she considered as an inheritance derived from the spirit of his father,
and consequently insurmountable by all the efforts of human care.
But the commodore rejoiced over the ruggedness of his nature, and was
particularly pleased when, upon inquiry, he found that Perry had beaten
all the boys in the school; a circumstance from which he prognosticated
everything that was fair and fortunate in his future fate: observing,
that at his age he himself was just such another. The boy, who was
now turned of six, having profited so little under the birch of
his unsparing governor, Mrs. Pickle was counselled to send him to a
boarding-school not far from London, which was kept by a certain person
very eminent for his successful method of education. This advice she the
more readily embraced, because at that time she found herself pretty
far gone with another child that she hoped would console her for the
disappointment she had met with in the unpromising talents of Perry,
or at any rate divide her concern, so as to enable her to endure the
absence of either.

CHAPTER XII.

Peregrine is sent to a boarding-school--Becomes remarkable for his
Genius and Ambition.

The commodore, understanding her determination, to which her husband did
not venture to make the least objection, interested himself so much
in behalf of his favourite, as to fit him out at his own charge, and
accompany him in person to the place of his destination; where he
defrayed the expense of his entrance, and left him to the particular
care and inspection of the usher, who having been recommended to him
as a person of parts and integrity, received pe