When I had gone through this
ceremony, leering with a wishful eye at the roast meat, which looked
so inviting, and smelt so savory, I could not abstain from making that
a bow likewise, adding in a pitiful tone, good-by, roast meat! This
unpremeditated pleasantry put them in such good humor, that I was
permitted to stay, and partake of it. Perhaps the same thing might
have produced a similar effect at my master's, but such a thought
could never have occurred to me, or, if it had, I should not have
had courage to express it.
Thus I learned to covet, dissemble, lie, and, at length, to steal, a
propensity I never felt the least idea of before, though since that
time I have never been able entirely to divest myself of it. Desire
and inability united naturally led to this vice, which is the reason
pilfering is so common among footmen and apprentices, though the
latter, as they grow up, and find themselves in a situation where
everything is at their command, lose this shameful propensity. As I
never experienced the advantage, I never enjoyed the benefit.
Good sentiments, ill directed, frequently lead children into vice.
Notwithstanding my continual wants and temptations, it was more than a
year before I could resolve to take even eatables. My first theft
was occasioned by complaisance, but it was productive of others
which had not so plausible an excuse.
My master had a journeyman named Verrat, whose mother lived in the
neighborhood, and had a garden at a considerable distance from the
house, which produced excellent asparagus.
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