Peter the Whaler | Page 3

my father
with his clerical duties or his literary pursuits; so that I was forgotten,
and allowed to look after myself. I am unable to account for the neglect
to which I was subjected, but such was the case; and consequently I ran
wild, and contrived, to become acquainted with some scampish youths

in the neighbourhood, in every way my inferiors except in age; and
they gave me lessons which I was, I own, too willing to learn, in all that
was bad.
Sporting was my greatest amusement; and, for my age, I was perhaps
one of the best shots in all the country round. While I confined myself
to my father's glebe, and to the grounds of two or three friends who had
given me leave to shoot, he did not object to my indulging my
propensity; but, not content with so narrow a sphere of action, I used
frequently, in company of some of the youths I speak of, to wander
over property where I not only had no right to kill game, but where I
had positively been forbidden to trespass, and where I even knew
people were on the look-out to detect me.
I had just returned from one of these lawless expeditions, when I was
encountered by my father, laden with game, and the scene I have
described took place. As I before said (and I repeat it with shame), I felt
the loss of my gun more than I cared for the lecture, or the grief my
conduct caused my father. I can scarcely now account for the obstinacy
and hardness of heart which made me shut my ears to all remonstrances.
I have since then grown wiser, and I hope better; and I feel that I ought
at once to have asked my father's forgiveness, and to have cheerfully
set to work on some occupation of which he approved. With me, as it
will be with every one, idleness was the mother of all mischief.
For two days I sulked, and would speak to no one. On the third I set off
to take a walk by myself, across the bogs, and over the hills in the far
distance. I had got into a better spirit from the fresh air and exercise;
and I truly believe that I was beginning to see my error, and was
resolving to do my best to make amends for it, and to give up my bad
habits, when who should I encounter but Pat Doolan, one of the wildest
of my wild acquaintances!
Before a word of salutation had passed, he asked me why I had not got
my gun with me; and after a weak and vain endeavour to avoid
answering the question, I confessed all that had occurred. He sneered at
my fears and my fathers' warnings, and laughed away all my
half-formed good resolutions,--telling me that I might just as well go

and borrow one of my sister's petticoats at once, for to that I should
come at last if I was going to give up all manly pursuits. Unhappy,
indeed, it was for me that I listened to the voice of the tempter, instead
of keeping my good resolutions safely locked up in my own breast, and
instantly hurrying away from him, as I ought to have done. Or perhaps
I might have answered him, "No; I must not, and will not, listen to you.
I know that what I have resolved to do is right, and that which you want
to persuade me to do is wicked--an instigation of the evil one; so go
away and leave me." And if he persisted in remaining near me, I should
have set off and run from him as hard as I could go. This is the only
way to treat temptation in whatever form it appears. Fly from it as you
would from the slippery edge of a precipice.
Instead of acting thus, I sat down on the heather by his side, and,
looking foolish and humbled, I began plucking off the crisp flowers and
leaves, and throwing them to the winds. He asked me if I knew where
the gun was locked up. When I told him that it was not locked up at all,
but merely placed on the mantelpiece in my father's dressing-room, he
laughed at me for fool because I had not before re-possessed myself of
it. Fool I was, in truth; but it was to yield to the bad advice my false
and false-hearted friend tendered. I own that I at first was rather
shocked at what he said; but still I sat and listened, and made only
weak objections, so that he very speedily overcame all my scruples;
and I undertook to get back my gun at all cost, and