Tim was reared to the useful occupation of a shoemaker, but leaving his master, he came to London, and soon found out companions suited to his disposition. He and his associates frequented an alehouse at Wapping; and one day being run short of cash, Tim asked the landlord for ten shillings, which he refused. Tim was so exasperated, that, along with some of his associates, he broke into his house, and bound him, his wife, and maid. When Tim was about this operation, the landlord conjured him to be favorable. “No, no, you must not expect any favor from my hands, whose prodigality makes you lord it over the people here like a boatswain over a ship’s crew; but I shall go to another part of the town, where I will be more civilly used, and spend a little of your money there.” Accordingly, Tim and his companions robbed the house of forty pounds, three silver tankards, a silver watch, and three gold rings. Upon another day Tim was airing in Hyde-park-corner, and met with Dr. Cateby, the famous mountebank. At the words “Stand and deliver!” the doctor went into a long harangue about the honesty of his calling, and of the great difficulty with which he made a living. Tim laughed heartily, saying, “Quacks pretend to honesty! there is not such a pack of cheating knaves in the nation. Their impudence is intolerable for deceiving honest simple people, and pretending that more men were not slain at the battle of the Boyne, than they have recovered from death, or beckoned their souls back when they have been many leagues from their bodies: therefore, deliver! or this pistol shall put a stop to your further ramblings and deception.” The doctor preferring his life to his gold, presented Tim with six guineas, and a watch, to show him how to keep time while spending the money. Tim was once apprehended by a baker, in the character of a constable, and sent to Flanders as a soldier. He deserted, and returning to London, one day met with the baker’s wife. He presented a pistol, and demanded her money; she exclaimed, “Is this justice or conscience, sir?” “Don’t tell me of justice, for I hate her as much as your husband can, because her scales are even! And as for conscience, I have as little of that as any baker in England, who cheats other people’s bellies to fill his own!--Nay, a baker is a worse rogue than a tailor; for, whereas the latter commonly pinches his cabbage from the rich, the former, by making his bread too light, robs all without distinction, but chiefly the poor, for which he deserves hanging more than I, or any of my honest fraternity.” Then, taking from her eleven shillings and two gold rings, he sent her home to relate her adventure to her husband.