her word to the deceased, and she suffered the orphan to wax in strength and understanding until the age of twelve, a period at which we are now about to reintroduce him to our readers.
The boy evinced great hardihood of temper, and no inconsiderable quickness of intellect. In whatever he attempted, his success was rapid, and a remarkable strength of limb and muscle seconded well the dictates of an ambition turned, it must be confessed, rather to physical than mental exertion. It is not to be supposed, however, that his boyish life passed in unbroken tranquillity. Although Mrs. Lobkins was a good woman on the whole, and greatly attached to her protegé, she was violent and rude in temper, or, as she herself more flatteringly expressed it, "her feelings were unkimmonly strong," and alternate quarrel and reconciliation constituted the chief occupations of the protegé's domestic life. As previous to his becoming the ward of Mrs. Lobkins, he had never received any other appellation than "the child," the duty of christening him devolved upon our hostess of "The Mug;" and, after some deliberation, she blest him with the
