The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel JackDefoe, Daniel
General
The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel Jack
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories, English; England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction; Picaresque fiction
The first happy chance that offered itself to me in the world was now
over. I had got money, but I neither knew the value of it or the use of
it; the way of living I had begun was so natural to me, I had no notion
of bettering it; I had not so much as any desire of buying me any
clothes—no, not so much as a shirt; and much less had I any thought of
getting any other lodging than in the glass-house, and loitering about
the streets, as I had done; for I knew no good, and had tasted no evil;
that is to say, the life I had led being not evil in my account.
In this state of ignorance I returned to my really miserable life; so
it was in itself, and was only not so to me because I did not
understand how to judge of it, and had known no better.
My comrade that gave me back the bills, and who, if I had not pressed
him, designed never to have restored them, never asked me what I had
given me, but told me if they gave me anything it should be my own;
for, as he said he would not run the venture of being seen in the
restoring them, I deserved the reward if there was any; neither did he
trouble his head with inquiring what I had, or whether I had anything
or no; so my title to what I had got was clear.
I went now up and down just as I did before. I had money indeed in my
pocket, but I let nobody know it. I went of errands cheerfully as
before, and accepted of what anybody gave me with as much thankfulness
as ever. The only difference that I made with myself was, that if I was
hungry, and nobody employed me, or gave me anything to eat, I did not
beg from door to door, as I did at first, but went to a boiling-house,
as I said once before, and got a mess of broth and a piece of bread,
price a halfpenny; very seldom any meat; or if I treated myself, it was
a halfpennyworth of cheese; all which expense did not amount to above
twopence or three pence a week; for, contrary to the usage of the rest
of the tribe, I was extremely frugal, and I had not disposed of any of
the guineas which I had at first; neither, as I said to the
custom-house gentleman, could I tell what a guinea was made of, or what
it was worth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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