THE FURZE-BUSH. 25 



ing character ; for, on the evening in question, 

 I elbowed my way through the laughing, scream 

 ing little folks, and secretly ejaculating, ' Nothing 

 venture, nothing have,' I bravely plunged my hand 

 into the dish, and bore off a noble plum, enveloped 

 in those alarming flames, which I blew out ; and 

 certainly I thought the morsel that my own chival 

 rous exploit had secured, infinitely superior in 

 flavour to any of the more ignoble spoils of former 

 times. 



How far this successful application of an old 

 saw might influence my after life, I know not 

 but certain it is, that I have done many things 

 which wiser people call rash, and imprudent in 

 the highest degree, under an impulse very similar 

 to the foregoing. Not that, in the darkest days of 

 my ignorance, I ever looked to what is called 

 chance, or luck : even in childhood, I regarded 

 with inexpressible contempt what the grace of 

 God subsequently taught me to reject as decided- 

 ly sinful. I was taken to church every Sunday, 

 even before I could read the bible, and when 

 sufficiently advanced in learning to do so, I was 

 told to receive every word that I read in it, as the 

 declaration of God himself. This I did : and I 

 believe that a reverential reception of our Lord's 

 plain assurance, that the very hairs of our head 

 are all numbered, and that not a sparrow could 

 fall to the ground without our Father, proved suf 



3 



