238 TWENTY-FOURTH EVENING.

them, rather than another should unjustly reap the
fruit of my labours. But I checked myself, and { am
glad I did. We took lodgings in a neighbouring vil-
lage, and I went round among the gentlemen of the
country to see if I could get a little employment. In
the mean time, the former steward came down to scttle
accounts with his successor, and was much concerned
to find me in such a situation. He was a very able
and honest man, and had been engaged by another
nobleman to superintend a large, improveable estate in
a distant part of the kingdom. He told me, if I would
try my fortune with him once more, he would endea-
vour to procure me a new settlement. I had nothing
to lose, and therefore was willing enough to run any
hazard, but I was destitute of means to convey my
family to such a distance. My good friend, who was
inuch provoked at the injustice of the new steward,
said so much to him, that he brought him to make me
an allowance for my garden; and with that 1 was
enabled to make another removal. It was to the place
f now inhabit.

“When I came here, sir, all this farm was a naked
common, like that you crossed In coming. My lord
got an enclosure bil for his part of it, and the
steward divided it into different farms, and let it on
improving leases to several tenants. A dreary spot, to
be sure, 1t looked at first, enough to sink a man’s hear’
to sit down upon it. I had a little unfinished cottage
given me to live in; and, as I had nothing to stock a
farm, I was for some years employed as head labourer
and planter about the new enclosures. By very hard
working and saving, together with a little help, I was
at length enabled to take a small part of the ground
I now occupy. I had various discouragements, fron
bad seasons, and other accidents. One year the dis-
temper carried off four out of seven cows that I kept;
another year I lost two of my best horses. A high
wind once almost entirely destroyed an orchard I had
just planted, and blew down my largest barn. But I