Nevertheless, Mrs. Pickle
was not so blindly partial as to be pleased with such unseasonable
indulgence. Perry was taken out of the hands of this courteous
teacher, and committed to the instruction of a pedagogue, who was
ordered to administer such correction as the boy should in his
opinion deserve. This authority he did not neglect to use, his pupil
was regularly flogged twice a day; and after having been subjected
to this course of discipline for the space of eighteen months,
declared the most obstinate, dull, and untoward genius that ever
had fallen under his cultivation; instead of being reformed, he
seemed rather hardened and confirmed in his vicious inclinations,
and was dead to all sense of fear as well as shame.
His mother was extremely mortified at these symptoms of stupidity,
which she considered as an inheritance derived from the spirit of
his father, and consequently insurmountable by all the efforts of
human care. But the commodore rejoiced over the ruggedness of his
nature, and was particularly pleased when, upon inquiry, he found
that Perry had beaten all the boys in the school; a circumstance
from which he prognosticated everything that was fair and fortunate
in his future fate: observing, that at his age he himself was just
such another.
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