The good old Dame was not disposed to mar her act of genuine charity,--the adoption of an orphan,--by imprisoning his young limbs too early in the bonds of labour. She did not place him on the humble _stall_ to bend over the _last_, till she supposed he had reached the age of fourteen. The ten preceding years of his orphanage passed away in a course of happy quietude. The staid age of his venerated protectress forbade any outbreaks of juvenile buoyancy in her sedate presence; but in Joe's lonely wanderings through the fields and lanes, as well as in his silent readings of the pictured Scriptures, he found pleasures which abundantly repaid the irksomeness of occasional restraint. His simple heart danced with joy at each return of the gladsome Spring, when his beloved acquaintances, the wild flowers, shewed their beautiful faces by brook and hedgerow; and he became familiar with all their localities, and felt a glowing and mysterious rapture in the renewed survey of their glorious tints and delicate pencillings, long before he learnt their names. The commencement of his apprenticeship was marked by an event of no less importance than his introduction to Toby Lackpenny,--the most learned tailor in the Isle of Axholme,--and a personage of such exalted merit, that we purpose to pluck a sprig of "immortal amaranth," by making the world acquainted with his separate history:--"but let that pass." Toby,--from the rich immensity--for such it seemed to Joe--of his "library,"--furnished the young disciple of St. Crispin with two books which completely fascinated him: they were--the immortal fables of "The Pilgrim's Progress" and "Robinson Crusoe,"--by the immortal toilers, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. Joe was assured by his new friend that Crusoe's adventures were no less veritable true than wonderful,--while the "Pilgrim" had a hidden and all-important meaning, which he must endeavour to discover, and apply to his own spiritual state as he went along.