ered that the young man had been for sometime a stable-boy
at Manchester, and was in the habit of going to his mother's house with
the gentlemen of the long whip; but being elder than John had not been
much noticed by him. H. understood from him that his singing at night
was the first thing that raised his suspicions, and that he determined
to know all about it in the morning. "I was pretty sure at the first
sight, said he, that thee wert Jack Meadowcroft; but still I was not
quite certain till I heard thee chattering with the folks at breakfast:
so being ostler, I called thee out to the stable to speak to thee _in
private_: for I'll tell thee what Jack, I will not betray thee."
Hodgkinson then told him that though he loved music and acting, and
should be glad to be a good player (at which the fellow shook his head)
he had not yet mixed with any strollers, nor did he believe any
strollers would let him mix with them; as he was too young and had not a
figure or person fit for their purpose; but his object was to go to sea
to escape from tyranny, hard fare, and oppression.

How often are the intentions of the best heart frustrated by the
blunders of an uninformed head. Who can, without respect and admiration,
contemplate the sturdy integrity, and simple zeal with which this rustic
moralist enforced his laudable though mistaken notions? who can help
reflecting with some surprise upon the fact, that before he ceased to
apothegmatise and advise his young friend against having anything to do
with the actors he was actually the first who put him seriously in the
notion of going directly upon the stage as a public actor? It was a
curious process, and we will endeavour to relate it as nearly as
possible in the way Hodgkinson related it to us:

"A plague upon going to sea," said the honest fellow, "I can't abide it,
thoff it be a hard, honest way of getting one's bread, and for that
reason ought to wear well--but some how or other I never seed a sailor
having anything to the fore; but always poor and dirty, except now and
then for a spurt. There's my two brothers went to sea, and it makes my
hair stand on end to hear what they go through; I would not lead such a
life--no, not for fifty pound a year; evermore some danger or some
trouble. One time a storm, expecting to be drowned--another a battle
with cannon, expecting to be murdered--one time pressed--another time
chased like a hare, that I wonder how they live. No, Jack, doan't