The room in which she sat was a portion of the garret, assigned, as
we have just stated, by Mr. Wood as a play-room to the two boys; and,
like most boy's playrooms, it exhibited a total absence of order, or
neatness. Things were thrown here and there, to be taken up, or again
cast aside, as the whim arose; while the broken-backed chairs and
crazy table bore the marks of many a conflict. The characters of the
youthful occupants of the room might be detected in every article it
contained. Darell's peculiar bent of mind was exemplified in a rusty
broadsword, a tall grenadier's cap, a musket without lock or ramrod,
a belt and cartouch-box, with other matters evincing a decided
military taste. Among his books, Plutarch's Lives, and the Histories
of Great Commanders, appeared to have been frequently consulted;
but the dust had gathered thickly upon the Carpenter's Manual, and a
Treatise on Trigonometry and Geometry. Beneath the shelf, containing
these books, hung the fine old ballad of '_St. George for England_'
and a loyal ditty, then much in vogue, called '_True Protestant
Gratitude, or, Britain's Thanksgiving for the First of August,
Being the Day of His Majesty's Happy Accession to the Throne_.' Jack
Sheppard's library consisted of a few ragged and well-thumbed volumes
abstracted from the tremendous chronicles bequeathed to the world by
those Froissarts and Holinsheds of crime--the Ordinaries of Newgate.
His vocal collection comprised a couple of flash songs pasted against
the wall, entitled '_The Thief-Catcher's Prophecy_,' and the
'_Life and Death of the Darkman's Budge_;' while his extraordinary
mechanical skill was displayed in what he termed (Jack had a supreme
contempt for
====
orthography,) a '_Moddle of his Ma^{s}. Jale off Newgate_;' another
model of the pillory at Fleet Bridge; and a third of the permanent
gibbet at Tyburn. The latter specimen, of his workmanship was adorned
with a little scarecrow figure, intended to represent a housebreaking
chimney-sweeper of the time, described in Sheppard's own
hand-writing, as '_Jack Hall a-hanging_.' We must not omit to mention
that a family group from the pencil of little Winifred, representing
Mr. and Mrs. Wood in very characteristic attitudes, occupied a
prominent place on the walls.
For a few moments, Thames regarded the little girl through the
half-opened door in silence. On a sudden, a change came over her
countenance, which, up to this moment, had worn a smiling and
satisfied expression. Throwing down the pencil, she snatched up a
piece of India-rubber, and exclaiming,--“It isn't at all like him!
it isn't half handsome enough!” was about to efface the sketch, when
Thames darted into the room.
“Who isn't it like?” he asked, endeavouring to gain possession of the
drawing, which, af the sound of his footstep, she crushed between her
fingers.
“I can't tell you!” she replied, blushing deeply, and clinching her
little hand as tightly as possible; “it's a secret!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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