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 had ventured to do for three years before, and upward.

But I observed all this while, that though major Jack was so prosperous, and had thriven so well, and notwithstanding he was very kind, and even generous to me, in giving me money upon many occasions, yet he never invited me to enter myself into the society, or to embark with him, whereby I might have been made as happy as he, no, nor did he recommend the employment to me at all.

I was not very well pleased with his being thus reserved to me I had learned from him in general, that the business was picking of pockets, and I fancied, that though the ingenuity of the trade consisted very much in slight of hand, a good address, and being very nimble, yet that it was not at all difficult to learn; and especially I thought the opportunities were so many, the country people that come to London so foolish, so gaping, and so engaged in looking about them, that it was a trade with no great hazard annexed to it, and might be easily learned, if I did but know in general the manner of it, and how they went about it.