Poor Jake was never taught that lying was wrong, but was praised if
he could get money by an artful story, and did not know that begging was any more dishonorable than working. How thankful ought those children to be who are taught what is right, while so many others are taught to do wrong.
When Jake grew older, he became very expert in learning how to frame and tell a tale of wo, and how to assume an appearance of want. In this country we see little of the deception practised by beggars in other countries. The appearance of feebleness or lameness is put on, a
leg is sometimes doubled up and a wooden leg substituted for it, deafness and blindness are assumed, and many other arts are resorted to, to move the charitable feelings of the benevolent.
When Jake became a man he continued to beg, assuming more and more the appearance of misery; sometimes professing to be a soldier,
or a wrecked sailor, sometimes pretending to have lost all he had by fire, sometimes to have been disabled by a long sickness. Sometimes he appeared to be a very old and infirm man, but when teazed by rude boys they would learn to their sorrow that he could run after them very rapidly, and lay his staff over them with heavy blows; but directly
would appear a feeble old man again. Jake gained a living without work, but it was but a poor living, in ignorance, and sin, and often in want.