Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/219

 such miseries on the best of brothers. This consideration, added to all my other sufferings, had very nigh got the better of me; and how I was able to go through all this I cannot conceive. If I had had nothing but myself to have taken care of, I certainly should have sat down and been starved to death, without making any struggle to have withstood my hard fate; but when I looked on Valentine, my heart was ready to burst, and my head was full of schemes what way I should find out to bring him comfort. At last a thought came into my head, that I would put on rags, and go a-begging. I immediately put this scheme into execution, and accordingly took my stand at a corner of a street, where I stood a whole day, and told as much of my story as they would hear, to every person that passed by. Numbers shook their heads, and cried, It was a shame so many beggars were suffered to be in the streets, that people could not go about their business without being molested by them, and walked on without giving me anything; but amongst the crowds that passed by, a good many threw me a penny, or a halfpenny, till I found in the evening my gains amounted to half a crown. "When it grew dark, I was going joyfully home, and was very thankful for what little I had got; but on a sudden I was surrounded by three or four fellows, who hustled me amongst them, so that I had no way to escape; one of them whispered me in the ear, that if I made the least noise, I should be immediately murdered. I have often since wondered how that threat could have any terror on one in my circumstances; but I don't know how it was, whether it was owing to the timidity of my temper, or that I was stumied with the suddenness of the thing, I let them carry me where they would, without daring to cry out. They took me under the arm, as if 1 had been of their company, and pulled