In the Bridewell I remained a month, when, being
dismissed, I went in quest of my companions, whom,
after some time, I found up, but they refused to keep
my company any longer; telling me that I was a dangerous
character, likely to bring them more trouble than profit;
they had, moreover, filled up my place. Going
into a cottage to ask for a drink of water, they saw
a country fellow making faces to amuse his children;
the faces were so wonderful that Hopping Ned and Biting
Giles at once proposed taking him into partnership,
and the man— who was a fellow not very
fond of work—after a little entreaty, went
away with them. I saw him exhibit his gift, and
couldn’t blame the others for preferring him
to me; he was a proper ugly fellow at all times, but
when he made faces his countenance was like nothing
human. He was called Ugly Moses. I was
so amazed at his faces, that though poor myself I
gave him sixpence, which I have never grudged to this
day, for I never saw anything like them. The
firm throve wonderfully after he had been admitted
into it. He died some little time ago, keeper
of a public-house, which he had been enabled to take
from the profits of his faces. A son of his,
one of the children he was making faces to when my
comrades entered his door, is at present a barrister,
and a very rising one. He has his gift—he
has not, it is true, the gift of the gab, but he has
something better, he was born with a grin on his face,
a quiet grin; he would not have done to grin through
a collar like his father, and would never have been
taken up by Hopping Ned and Biting Giles, but that
grin of his caused him to be noticed by a much greater
person than either; an attorney observing it took a
liking to the lad, and prophesied that he would some
day be heard of in the world; and in order to give
him the first lift, took him into his office, at first
to light fires and do such kind of work, and after
a little time taught him to write, then promoted him
to a desk, articled him afterwards, and being unmarried,
and without children, left him what he had when he
died. The young fellow, after practising at
the law some time, went to the bar, where, in a few
years, helped on by his grin, for he had nothing else
to recommend him, he became, as I said before, a rising
barrister. He comes our circuit, and I occasionally
employ him, when I am obliged to go to law about such
a thing as an unsound horse. He generally brings
me through—or rather that grin of his does—and
yet I don’t like the fellow, confound him, but
I’m an oddity—no, the one I like,
and whom I generally employ, is a fellow quite different,
a bluff sturdy dog, with no grin on his face, but
with a look that seems to say I am an honest man,
and what cares I for any one? And an honest
man he is, and something more. I have known coves
with a better gift of the gab, though not many, but
he always speaks to the purpose, and understands law
thoroughly; and that’s not all. When at
college, for he has been at college, he carried off
everything before him as a Latiner, and was first-rate
at a game they call matthew mattocks. I don’t
exactly know what it is, but I have heard that he
who is first-rate at matthew mattocks is thought more
of than if he were first-rate Latiner.