proper mark for deception.«
    »My dear sir,« returned the other, »it was not your face, but your white
stockings and the black ribband in your hair, that allured me. But no
disparagement to your parts, I have deceived wiser men than you in my time; and
yet, with all my tricks, the blockheads have been too many for me at last.«
    »I suppose,« cried my son, »that the narrative of such a life as yours must
be extremely instructive and amusing.«
    »Not much of either,« returned Mr. Jenkinson. »Those relations which
describe the tricks and vices only of mankind, by increasing our suspicion in
life, retard our success. The traveller that distrusts every person he meets,
and turns back upon the appearance of every man that looks like a robber, seldom
arrives in time at his journey's end.
    Indeed I think from my own experience, that the knowing one is the silliest
fellow under the sun. I was thought cunning from my very childhood; when but
seven years old the ladies would say that I was a perfect little man; at
fourteen I knew the world, cocked my hat, and loved the ladies; at twenty,
though I was perfectly honest, yet every one thought me so cunning, that not one
would trust me. Thus I was at last obliged to turn sharper in my own defence,
and have lived ever since, my head throbbing with schemes to deceive, and my
heart palpitating with fears of detection.
    I used often to laugh at your honest simple neighbour Flamborough, and one
way or another generally cheated him once a year. Yet still the honest man went
forward without suspicion, and grew rich, while I still continued tricksy and
cunning, and was poor, without the consolation of being honest.
    However,« continued he, »let me know your case, and what has brought you
here; perhaps though I have not skill to avoid a gaol myself, I may extricate my
friends.«
    In compliance with his curiosity, I informed him of the whole train of
accidents and follies that had plunged me into my present troubles, and my utter
inability to get free.
    After hearing my story, and pausing some minutes, he slapt his forehead, as
if he had hit upon something material, and took his leave, saying he would try
what could be done.
 

                                  Chap. XXVII.

                          The same subject continued.
 
The next morning I communicated to my wife and children the scheme I had planned
of reforming the prisoners, which they received with universal