He Had Not The Impudence
To Beg; Although, As He Said, 'when I Had Money Of My Own, I Always
Gave it.' It was only on Saturday morning, after three whole days
of starvation, that he asked a scone
From a milkwoman, who added of
her own accord a glass of milk. He had now made up his mind to
stow away, not from any desire to see America, but merely to obtain
the comfort of a place in the forecastle and a supply of familiar
sea-fare. He lived by begging, always from milkwomen, and always
scones and milk, and was not once refused. It was vile wet
weather, and he could never have been dry. By night he walked the
streets, and by day slept upon Glasgow Green, and heard, in the
intervals of his dozing, the famous theologians of the spot clear
up intricate points of doctrine and appraise the merits of the
clergy. He had not much instruction; he could 'read bills on the
street,' but was 'main bad at writing'; yet these theologians seem
to have impressed him with a genuine sense of amusement. Why he
did not go to the Sailors' House I know not; I presume there is in
Glasgow one of these institutions, which are by far the happiest
and the wisest effort of contemporaneous charity; but I must stand
to my author, as they say in old books, and relate the story as I
heard it. In the meantime, he had tried four times to stow away in
different vessels, and four times had been discovered and handed
back to starvation.
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