etched life
of shame and guilt.

"I wish we had a pack of cards here," said one of the boys, one
weary afternoon.

"Can't we make a pack?" inquired another.

And then the lads set their wits to work, and soon manufactured
a substitute for a pack of cards. They had a couple of old
newspapers, which they folded and cut into small, regular
pieces, and marked each piece with the spots that are found on
playing cards, making rude shapes of faces, and writing
"_Jack_," "_King_," "_Knave_," &c., under them. With these, they
used to spend hours shuffling and dealing and playing, until
Rodney understood the pernicious game as well as the rest.

"Joe," said Rodney, one day, to the oldest boy, "what did they
put you in here for?"

"Well," said he, "I'll tell you. Sam and I run with the
Moyamensing Hose Company. Many a jolly time we have had of it,
running to fires, and many a good drink of liquor we have had,
too; for when the people about the fires treated the firemen, we
boys used to come in for our share of the treat. There was a
standing quarrel between us and the 'Franklin' boys, and we used
to have a fight whenever we could get at them. I heard one of
the men say, one day, that if there was only a fire down Twelfth
or Thirteenth-street, and the 'Franklin' should come up in that
direction, we could get them foul, and give them a good
drubbing. Well, there _was_ a fire down Twelfth-street the next
night! I don't mean to say who kindled it; but a watchman saw
Sam and me about the stable, and then running away from it as
fast as we could. The fellow marked us, and as we were going
back to the fire with the machine, he nabbed us, and walked us
off to the watch-house, and the next day we were stuck into this
hole."

"But _did_ you set fire to the stable?"

"What would you give to know? I make no confessions; and if you
ever tell out of doors what I have said here, I'll knock your
teeth down your throat, if I ever catch you."

These two boys had actually been guilty of the dreadful crime
of setting fire to a stable. It was used by two or three poor
men for their horses and carts, which was the only means they
had of making an honest living; and yet these wicked boys had
tried to burn it down, just for the fun of going to a fire, and
getting up a fight! There are other boys, in large cities, who
will commit similar acts; but such young villains are ripe for
almost any crime, and must, in all human probability, come to