Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/186

170 of age, who went by no other name than "the tall-one." He always had one or two books upon him (as Paddy Byrne used to phrase it,) and I really thhik he was religious in the main; for he never swore at all, nor was he flash to slang, however ordinary. There is a north country saying, that "the silent sow sucks up the most broth; so this tall-one, who had but little to say upon any subject, and nothing upon several, had a happy knack of disposing of his books, so as to make them tell double and treble. It was thus: going into a bookseller's to sell what he might have, he chaffered a good deal about price; and during the interest this would excite in the mind of the buyer, he endeavoured to pocket some other books. Should this not be possible, in consequence of superior vigilance, or of the undivided attention of the people of the shop, he would make some excuse to leave his book, and calling again when the first person was out of the way, or at dinner, would reclaim his book, but send it up stairs, &c. the better for the person to assure himself that the application was all correct and honest. This manœuvre enabled him to pick and cull, or to pocket any article he might have fixed upon. I have known him to sell an article by description, before he stole it.