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Article THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF PETER PORCUPINE; ← Page 3 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Of Peter Porcupine;
By a commencement of that good luck , which has hitherto attended me through all the situations in which fortune has placed ' me , I was preserved from ruin . A gentleman , who was e-ne of the passengers in the stage , felfinto conversation with me at dinner , and he soon learnt that I was going I knew not whither , nor for what . This gentleman was a hop-merchant in the Borough of Southwarkand
, , upon closer enquiry , it appeared that he had often dealt with my father at Wey-IIill . He knew the danger I was in ; he was himself a father , and he felt for my parents . His house became my home , he wrote to my father , and endeavoured to prevail on me to obe 3 ' his orders , which were to return immediately home . I am ashamed to 533-, that 1 was disobedient . It was thefirst time 1 had ever been so , and
I have repented of it from that moment to this . Willingly would I have returned , but pride would not suffer me to do it . I feared the scoffs of my acquaintances more than the real evils that threatened
me . My generous preserver , finding my obstinacy not to be overcome , began to look out for an employment for me . He was preparing an advertisement for the newspaper , when an acquaintance of his , an attorney , called in to see him . He related my adventure to this gentleman , whose name was Holland , and who , happening to want an understrapping- quill-driverdid me the honour to take me into his
, service , and the next day saw me perched upon a great high stool , in an obscure chamber in Gray ' s Inn , endeavouring to deeypher the crabbed draughts of my employer . I could write a good plain hand , but I could not read the pot-hooks and hangers of Mr . Holland . He was a month in learning me to copy without almost continual assistance , and even then 1 was but of little
use to him : for , besides that I wrote a snail ' s pace , my want of knowledge in orthography gave him infinite trouble : so that for the first two months I was a dead weight upon his hands . Time , however , rendered rne useful , and Mr . Holland was pleased to tell me that he was very well satisfied with me , just at the very moment when I began to grow extremely dissatisfied with him .
No part of my lue has been totally unattended with pleasure , except the eig ht or nine months I passed in Gray ' s Inn . The office ( for so the dungeon , where I wrote , was called ) was so dark , that , on cloudy days , we were obliged to burn candle . I worked like a galley-slave , from five in the morning till eight or nine at ni g ht , and sometimes all night long . Flow many quarrels have 1 assisted to foment and perpetuate between those poor innocent fellows , John
Doe aud Richard Roe I How many times ( God forgive me !) have I set them to assault each other with guns , swords , staves , and pitchforks , and then brought them to answer for their misdeeds before our Sovereign Lord the King , seated in his Court of Westminster ! When I think of the saids and so-forths , and the counts of tautology that 1 scribbled over ; when I think of those sheets of seventy-two words , and those lines two inches apart , my brain turns . Gracious heaven ! if I am doomed to be wretched , bury me beneath Iceland
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Of Peter Porcupine;
By a commencement of that good luck , which has hitherto attended me through all the situations in which fortune has placed ' me , I was preserved from ruin . A gentleman , who was e-ne of the passengers in the stage , felfinto conversation with me at dinner , and he soon learnt that I was going I knew not whither , nor for what . This gentleman was a hop-merchant in the Borough of Southwarkand
, , upon closer enquiry , it appeared that he had often dealt with my father at Wey-IIill . He knew the danger I was in ; he was himself a father , and he felt for my parents . His house became my home , he wrote to my father , and endeavoured to prevail on me to obe 3 ' his orders , which were to return immediately home . I am ashamed to 533-, that 1 was disobedient . It was thefirst time 1 had ever been so , and
I have repented of it from that moment to this . Willingly would I have returned , but pride would not suffer me to do it . I feared the scoffs of my acquaintances more than the real evils that threatened
me . My generous preserver , finding my obstinacy not to be overcome , began to look out for an employment for me . He was preparing an advertisement for the newspaper , when an acquaintance of his , an attorney , called in to see him . He related my adventure to this gentleman , whose name was Holland , and who , happening to want an understrapping- quill-driverdid me the honour to take me into his
, service , and the next day saw me perched upon a great high stool , in an obscure chamber in Gray ' s Inn , endeavouring to deeypher the crabbed draughts of my employer . I could write a good plain hand , but I could not read the pot-hooks and hangers of Mr . Holland . He was a month in learning me to copy without almost continual assistance , and even then 1 was but of little
use to him : for , besides that I wrote a snail ' s pace , my want of knowledge in orthography gave him infinite trouble : so that for the first two months I was a dead weight upon his hands . Time , however , rendered rne useful , and Mr . Holland was pleased to tell me that he was very well satisfied with me , just at the very moment when I began to grow extremely dissatisfied with him .
No part of my lue has been totally unattended with pleasure , except the eig ht or nine months I passed in Gray ' s Inn . The office ( for so the dungeon , where I wrote , was called ) was so dark , that , on cloudy days , we were obliged to burn candle . I worked like a galley-slave , from five in the morning till eight or nine at ni g ht , and sometimes all night long . Flow many quarrels have 1 assisted to foment and perpetuate between those poor innocent fellows , John
Doe aud Richard Roe I How many times ( God forgive me !) have I set them to assault each other with guns , swords , staves , and pitchforks , and then brought them to answer for their misdeeds before our Sovereign Lord the King , seated in his Court of Westminster ! When I think of the saids and so-forths , and the counts of tautology that 1 scribbled over ; when I think of those sheets of seventy-two words , and those lines two inches apart , my brain turns . Gracious heaven ! if I am doomed to be wretched , bury me beneath Iceland