boy was a favourite with the cook of the house, and she would have no other to sweep her kitchen-chimney; a matter of business which was performed the last Saturday in every month.  It was concerted between the man and the boy, that the former should dress himself in the character of a sweep, and accompany the latter as his over-looker, or assistant.  The real sweep-over-looker, of course, must be kept out of the way; and here laid all their difficulty.  It cost the boy (to use his own expression) six months’ longer punishment as a sweep, and the man six appearances, at an early hour of the morning, in the same character, before the object could be carried, namely, to get rid of the real sweep.

At length, one Saturday, by pretending to forget the job until all the men were gone out about other work, the boy, affecting suddenly to recollect it, persuaded the master to let him go alone, saying he himself could perform the duty.  It was five o’clock in the morning when he and the disguised robber reached the house; the cook opened the door, having nothing on save a blanket thrown over her shoulders.  The arch young rogue said, “It’s only me and Harry; it’s a very cold morning; if you like to go to bed again, cookey, we will do it well, and leave all clean, and shut the door fast after us.”  She went to bed, and they went to the plate depository, which had been well noted oft times before.  They put the whole of its contents into the soot-bag, and fearlessly walked through the streets with it on their backs.  The boy, a few hours afterwards, was so metamorphosed, being dressed in the smartest manner, with cane in hand and fifty pounds in his pocket, that he walked the streets in full confidence that not even his master or his fellow-apprentices would know him.

Pickpockets.

The qualifications for a pickpocket are a light tread, a delicate sense of touch, combined with firm nerves.  These boys may be known by their shoes in the street; they generally wear pumps, or shoes of a very light make, having long quarters.  There is about their countenance an affected determination of purpose, and they walk forward, as if bent on some object of business:  it is a rule with them never to stop in the street.  When they want to confer for a moment they drop into some by-court or alley, where they will fix on an object of attack, as the people pass down a main street; when they start off in the same manner, the boy going first, to do what they call “stunning,” that is to pick the pocket.  The first rate hands never, on any occasion, loiter in the streets, unless at a procession or any exhibition, when there is an excuse for so doing.  Many have a notion that instruments are used in disencumbering the pockets:  this is a false idea; the only instrument they use is a good pair of small scissors, and which will always be found on the person of a pickpocket when searched; these they use to cut the pocket and all off, when they cannot abstract its contents.