But early rising is a thing I never cared for or practised; and indeed I can think of no worse way of beginning a day than getting up at eight to be hanged.
And this brings me back to my first proposition. “I’ll be hanged if I do!” said I.
As I uttered the words I brought down my cane with a smart rap on the stones—for if the intention and the deed be the same thing, as learned legists tell us, it was on the stones that I brought it down. But between the deed and the intention a plaguy fellow must needs thrust the foot on which he wore his largest and tenderest corn.
Mine is a sensitive heart, and of a truth tenderness is a failing that is always leading me into difficulties.
I could not support the sight of his anguish; and as soon as he found the use of his voice—which was pretty soon—I thought it best to move away.
CHAPTER II.
I had not gone many steps ere I fell in with a donkey. Now an ass is an animal I can never pass without giving him the time of day. There is a gentle patience with which he listens to my discourses that wins my heart in spite of myself.
He was harnessed to a sort of barrow, laden with mackerel, and he was standing in Farringdon-street to allow the stream of traffic to pass up Ludgate-hill.
“’Tis ever so, Honesty!” said I; “thou and I must e’en wait to let our betters go by. See how yon ‘Bow and Stratford’ rolls by—mark that Pickford’s van—and thou’rt obliged to wait with thy fish, though they be perishable goods at best.”
As I said this I had taken up one of the mackerel, and was moralizing over it.