; and without any visible means of livelihood, rushing forward
into a world of strangers, undismayed at the prospect before him; "full
of life, and hope, and joy," and, like the lark of a summer's morning,
caroling as he winged his way. Any reader who has felt the fears and
anxieties of a parent when the dear boy of his heart has been for a
short time missing, and remembers the pangs of doubt, the apprehension,
the painful forebodings, nay, the despair itself into which an absence
protracted beyond custom, and not to be accounted for, has thrown him,
will be able, from a retrospect of his reflections on such an occasion,
to imagine what must have been the danger of this boy, and what the
courage he must have had to encounter it--and will, while pondering with
admiration upon his fortitude and manliness, tremble for his fate. This
writer once asked him if he was not horror-struck when he found himself
in Bristol separated from all his friends, and well remembers his
answer.--"No," said he, "Though I was little instructed and no
book-scholar, I was not ignorant. Young as I was, I had formed opinions
of life from its pictures in plays and farces, and taken full measure of
my situation. I knew that I had nothing to expect in Manchester, or any
other place, but from my own exertions, and therefore thought that the
sooner I set to work the better. Those whom you call my friends, could
do little for me if they were ever so well disposed, and I cannot say
much for their disposition. I looked upon them and their purposes
respecting me, rather as clogs and fetters, than as aids; and I am
convinced I was right. I had no fear, because I had health and strength
to do several things to earn my bread, (I could sing if I could do
nothing else) and never once lost sight of the persuasion that I should
one time or other be something better than a pot-boy or a mechanic. Nor
did I meet in my journey anything to discourage me. Some suspected me of
being a runaway 'tis true, and looked severely at me; but I minded them
not; and one man, a wagoner who carried me a whole night in his wagon,
owned that he had taken me in gratuitously, for the purpose of having me
delivered up; but that I fairly sung and talked him into a regard for
me, during the night. Few charged me anything for what I eat, and I
brought more than half my crown into Bristol with me. I had besides a
pair of silver buckles in my shoes, and a silver seal to my watch."

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