THE BLIND MOB.
"He that is stricken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost."
--SHAKESPEARE.
The day after the doctor told me that I could go with the "blind mob,"
I joined them. These blind people used to carry on a little gardening
and other occupations, such as the blind were suited for. And goodness
knows what they were not suited for--they could play cards, dice, toss,
and all sorts and conditions of things.
I had not been in the camp ten minutes before a notorious character,
named "Teddy," came up and said to me: "Come on, come on, we will go
and 'shake' some melons!" "Where abouts?" I inquired. "Oh! I'll show
you," he answered, "out on the Glebe." Just fancy a man as "blind as a
bat" asking me to go stealing melons. "No," I said, "I'm not going to
get into any trouble over melons," and he called me all the crawling
hounds and scoundrels that he could think of. Shortly afterwards he
said to me, "Do you ever kill snakes?" "Not often," I said; "Why, what
do you want to know that for?" "Well," he returned, "I want to get a
snake's head to put teeth upwards in the overseer's boot--I'll do for
him yet." I told him to be careful, or he would pull up on the scaffold.
I soon found out that I had got amongst the biggest lot of thieves and
robbers in the place. I became possessed of a few pence, and they knew
it. That night I retired, as usual, and put my trousers under my head.
As soon as things were quiet the trousers were eased from under my
head. I knew it but said nothing, and as soon as they found there was
no money in them, back came the pants. I came from London as well as
they did, and the money was hidden in a place that they dreamt not of.
This was quite enough of the "blind mob" for me. The next day at
dinner time I went up to the boss and told him I would rather go into
the road party than stay with thieves.