The thoughts of this booty put out all the thoughts of the first, and
the reflections I had made wore quickly off; poverty, as I have said,
hardened my heart, and my own necessities made me regardless of
anything. The last affair left no great concern upon me, for as I did
the poor child no harm, I only said to myself, I had given the parents
a just reproof for their negligence in leaving the poor little lamb to
come home by itself, and it would teach them to take more care of it
another time.
This string of beads was worth about twelve or fourteen pounds. I
suppose it might have been formerly the mother's, for it was too big
for the child's wear, but that perhaps the vanity of the mother, to
have her child look fine at the dancing-school, had made her let the
child wear it; and no doubt the child had a maid sent to take care of
it, but she, careless jade, was taken up perhaps with some fellow that
had met her by the way, and so the poor baby wandered till it fell into
my hands.
However, I did the child no harm; I did not so much as fright it, for I
had a great many tender thoughts about me yet, and did nothing but
what, as I may say, mere necessity drove me to.
I had a great many adventures after this, but I was young in the
business, and did not know how to manage, otherwise than as the devil
put things into my head; and indeed he was seldom backward to me. One
adventure I had which was very lucky to me. I was going through
Lombard Street in the dusk of the evening, just by the end of Three
King court, when on a sudden comes a fellow running by me as swift as
lightning, and throws a bundle that was in his hand, just behind me, as
I stood up against the corner of the house at the turning into the
alley. Just as he threw it in he said, 'God bless you, mistress, let
it lie there a little,' and away he runs swift as the wind. After him
comes two more, and immediately a young fellow without his hat, crying
'Stop thief!' and after him two or three more. They pursued the two
last fellows so close, that they were forced to drop what they had got,
and one of them was taken into the bargain, and other got off free.
I stood stock-still all this while, till they came back, dragging the
poor fellow they had taken, and lugging the things they had found,
extremely well satisfied that they had recovered the booty and taken
the thief; and thus they passed by me, for I looked only like one who
stood up while the crowd was gone.