e good fortune that my caul brought me--that is, being first
half-drowned, then breaking my leg, and lastly my back. To compensate,
however, in some measure, for these mischances, I turned out an
excellent scholar; and, especially, became a very expert Latinist--a
circumstance which my father, who had a great veneration for the
language, thought sufficient alone to make my fortune; and it certainly
procured me--that is, very nearly procured me--in the meantime, some of
the chief honours of the school. I say very nearly--for I did not
actually obtain them; but it was only by the merest accident in the
world that I did not. The misapprehension of a single word deprived me
of a prize which was about to be awarded to me, and gave it to one of my
competitors. This was reckoned a very hard case; but there was no help
for it.

Still there was luck in the caul, gentlemen (continued the little man in
the bright yellow waistcoat), as you shall hear. Going home from school
one day, a distance of about a mile and a half, I found a very handsome
gold watch, with valuable appendages, lying upon the road. I was at
first afraid to lift the glittering treasure, hardly believing it
possible that so rich and splendid a thing could be without an owner;
but, gradually picking up courage, I seized on the watch, hurried it
into my pocket, and ran onwards like a madman. I had not run far,
however, when a man, respectably dressed, but who seemed the worse of
liquor, or rather like one just recovering from a debauch, met me, and,
seizing me by the breast, fiercely asked me if I had seen anything of a
gold watch. I instantly confessed that I had found such a thing; and,
trembling with apprehension, for the fellow continued to look furiously
at me, produced the watch.

"Very well," said he, taking it from me. "Now, you little villain you,
confess. You did not find the watch, but stole it from me whilst I slept
on the roadside."

I protested that it was not so--that I had found it as I had said. To
this protest the fellow replied by striking me a violent blow on the
side of the head, which stretched me on the road; where, after
administering two or three parting kicks, to teach me honesty, as he
said, he left me in a state of insensibility. I was shortly afterwards
picked up and carried home; but so severe had been the drubbing I got,
that I was obliged to keep my bed for three weeks after. And this was
all I gained by finding a gold watch. Had