. . .urally conclude that he was no great friend to learning; and, indeed, so remarkable was his aversion to the useful arts of reading and writing, that his greatest improvement amounted only to an indifferent knowledge of the alphabet, and the poor accomplishment of being just able to scrawl his own name in characters which were scarcely legible. He was equally distinguished for his speed and fidelity when his parents sent him on an errand; for he could hardly make shift to saunter a mile in an hour, and when he arrived at the place of his destination, he usually forgot three fourths of his message, and endeavoured to supply the defect by some blundering tale of his own invention. He was once dispatched by his father, in great haste, to a gentleman who lived not a quarter of a mile off, to request the favour of his company, in half an hour's time, to settle matters with a grazer, of whom they had purchased several head of cattle; when Jack arrived at the gentleman's house, w. . . Read More