learned Bible-verses so well they
thought I was a crack scholar; an' we all laughed, thinkin' how easy
you can humbug a teacher. But the last year I was wild to get away an'
try my hand at some of the new kinks I'd learned. I was fourteen and
full grown, so't I was always taken for twenty; an' I thought I was a
man, sure. I run away twice, an' was brought back, an' it went hard with
me, for they flogged me each time so't I couldn't stir for a week.

"At last time was up. I'd made up my mind what to do: I'd settled it by
that time that everybody was ready to humbug, an' the pious-talkin' ones
worst of all, for I'd seen some that I'd spotted in lies many a time.
The first thing I did was to chuck away the Bible they'd given me an'
make straight for Micky Hagan's. You don't know what that means? I'll
tell you. Micky Hagan's was one of the receivin'-places for
river-thievin'. He had boats to let, an' bought out an' out or advanced
on the swag, just as you pleased; an' mostly you're in his debt, because
you get into the way of swappin', an' he sets his own price on the thing
you fancy.

"Now, I've thought it all out, ma'am, many a time. If there'd been
anybody to take hold of us in the right way I don't believe we should
have come out as we did. I wasn't bad all through then: I mean, I was
ready to do a good turn if I could, an' bound for a lark anyhow. But
we'd smuggled in novels and story-papers till our heads was full of what
fine things we'd do. They didn't give us better things. There was
books--yes, plenty of 'em--but mostly long-winded stuff about fellers
that died young, bein' too good for this world. There wasn't anybody to
tell us we'd a right to some fun, and the Lord meant us to enjoy life,
nor to get us busy in some way that would take our minds off real
wickedness. These preachers hadn't ever been boys: they'd been born in
their white chokers, I believe, an' knew no more of real human nature
than they did of common sense. If I had a boy growin' up I'd keep him
hard at something, an' try an' have him like it, too. A boy don't mind
work if there's anything he can see to be got by it. Why, see how I did.
At fifteen out all night long, up an' down the river, schemin' all ways
to circumvent the watchmen, for they're that 'cute it needs all your
brains an' more to get ahead of 'em. You see, a ship'll come in an'
unload partly, an' there's two or three days they're on the keen lookout
till they're nigh empty; an' the