THE next morning early I was awakened by my family, whom I found in tears at my bedside. The gloomy strength of every
thing about us, it seems, had daunted them. I gently rebuked their sorrow, assuring them I had never slept with greater
tranquillity, and next inquired after my eldest daughter, who was not among them. They informed me that yesterday's uneasiness
and fatigue had increased her fever, and it was judged proper to leave her behind. My next care was to send my son to procure
a room or two for to lodge the family in, as near the prison as conveniently could be found. He obeyed; but could find only one
apartment, which was hired at a small expense for his mother and sisters, the gaoler, with humanity, consenting to let him and
his two little brothers lie in the prison with me. A bed was therefore prepared for them in a corner of the room, which I thought
answered very conveniently. I was willing, however, previously to know whether my little children chose to

lie in a place which seemed to fright them upon entrance.

   "Well," cried I, "my good boys, how do you like your new bed? I hope you are not afraid to lie in this room, dark as it
appears?"

   "No, papa," says Dick, "I am not afraid to lie anywhere where you are."

   "And I," says Bill, who was yet but four years old, "love every place that my papa is in."

   After this, I allotted to each of the family what they were to do. My daughter was particularly directed to watch her sister's
declining health; my wife was to attend me; my little boys were to read to me: "And as for you, my son," continued I, "it is by
the labor of your hands, we must all hope to be supported. Your wages as a day laborer will be fully sufficient, with proper
frugality, to maintain us all, and comfortably, too. Thou art now sixteen years old, and hast strength, and it was given thee, my
son, for very useful purposes; for it must save from famine your helpless parents and family. Prepare, then, this evening to look
out for work against to-morrow, and bring home every night what money you earn, for our support."

   Having thus instructed him and settled the rest, I walked down to the common prison, where I could enjoy more air and
room. But I was not long there, when the execrations, lewdness and brutality that invaded me on every side, drove me back to
my apartment

again. Here I sat for some time, pondering upon the strange infatuation of wretches, who, finding all mankind in open arms
against them, were laboring to make themselves a future and a tremendous-enemy.

   Their insensibility excited my highest compassion, and blotted my own uneasiness from my mind. It even appeared a duty
incumbent upon me to attempt to reclaim them. I resolved, therefore, once more to return, and, in spite of their contempt, to
give them my advice, and conquer them by perseverance. Going, therefore, among them again, I informed Mr. Jenkinson of my
design, at which he laughed heartily, but communicated it to the rest. The proposal was received with the greatest good-humor,
as it promised to afford a new fund of entertainment to persons who had now no other resource for mirth but what could be
derived from ridicule or debauchery.

   I therefore read them a portion of the service with a loud, unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon the
occasion. Lewd whispers, groans of contrition burlesqued, winking and coughing, alternately excited laughter. However, I
continued with my natural solemnity to read on, sensible that what I did might mend some, but could itself receive no
contamination from any.

   After reading, I entered upon my exhortation, which was rather calculated at first to amuse them than to reprove. I previously
observed that no other motive

but their welfare could induce me to this; that I was their fellow-prisoner, and now got nothing by preaching.I was sorry, I said,
to hear them so very profane; because they got nothing by it, but might lose a great deal: "For be assured, my friends," cried
I,"for you are my friends, however the world may disclaim your friendship,-though you swore twelve thousand oaths in a day, it
would not put one penny in your purse. Then what signifies calling every moment upon the Devil and courting his friendship,
since you find how scurvily he uses you. He has given you nothing here, you find, but a mouthful of oaths and an empty belly;
and by the best accounts I have of him, he will give you nothing that's good hereafter.

   "If used ill in our dealings with one man, we naturally go elsewhere. Were it not worth your while, then, just to try how you
may like the usage of another Master, who gives you fair promises at least to come to Him. Surely, my friends, of all stupidity in
the world, his must be the greatest who, after robbing a house, runs to the thief-takers for protection. And yet how are you
more wise? You are all seeking comfort from one that has already betrayed you, applying to a more malicious being than any
thief-taker of them all; for they only decoy and then hang you; but he decoys and hangs, and, what is worst of all, will not let
you loose after the hangman has done."

   When I had concluded, I received the compliments

of my audience, some of whom came and shook me by the hand, swearing that I was a very honest fellow, and that they
desired my further acquaintance. I therefore promised to repeat my lecture next day, and actually conceived some hopes of
making a reformation here; for it had ever been my opinion, that no man was past the hour of amendment, every heart lying
open to the shafts of reproof, if the archer could but take a proper aim. When I had thus satisfied my mind, I went back to my
apartment, where my wife prepared a frugal meal, while Mr. Jenkinson begged leave to add his dinner to ours, and partake of
the pleasure, as he was kind enough to express it, of my conversation. He had not yet seen my family; for as they came to my
apartment by a door in the narrow passage already described, by this means they avoided the common prison. Jenkinson, at
the first interview, therefore, seemed not a little struck with the beauty of my youngest daughter, which her pensive air
contributed to heighten, and my little ones did not pass unnoticed.

   "Alas! doctor," cried he, "these children are too handsome and too good for such a place as this!"

   "Why, Mr. Jenkinson," replied I, "thank Heaven my children are pretty tolerable in morals; and if they be good, it matters little
for the rest."

   "I fancy, sir," returned my fellow-prisoner, "that

it must give you great comfort to have all this little family about you."

   "A comfort, Mr. Jenkinson," replied I; "yes, it is indeed a comfort, and I would not be without them for all the world; for they
can make a dungeon seem a palace. There is but one way in this life of wounding my happiness, and that is by injuring them."

   "I am afraid then, sir," cried he, "that I am in some measure culpable; for I think I see here," looking at my son Moses, "one
that I have injured, and by whom I wish to be forgiven."

   My son immediately recollected his voice and features, though he had before seen him in disguise, and taking him by the
hand, with a smile forgave him. "Yet," continued he, "I can't help wondering at what you could see in my face to think me a
proper mark for deception."

   "My dear sir," returned the other, "it was not your face, but your white stockings and the black riband 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 that 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 no 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 neighbor
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 this 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 slapped his forehead, as if he had hit upon something material, and took
his leave, saying he would try what could be done.