-a brother from whom she had been estranged some years, on
account of her marriage with my grandfather, who had been in an inferior
station to herself--died, leaving all his property to her and the child.
This property consisted of a farm of about a hundred acres, with its
stock, and some money besides. My grandmother, who knew something of
business, instantly went into the country, where she farmed the property
for her own benefit and that of her son, to whom she gave an education
suitable to a person in his condition, till he was old enough to manage
the farm himself. Shortly after the young man came of age, my
grandmother died, and my father, in about a year, married the daughter of
a farmer, from whom he expected some little fortune, but who very much
deceived him, becoming a bankrupt almost immediately after the marriage
of his daughter, and himself and family going to the workhouse.

"My mother, however, made my father an excellent wife; and if my father
in the long run did not do well, it was no fault of hers. My father was
not a bad man by nature; he was of an easy, generous temper, the most
unfortunate temper, by-the-bye, for success in this life that any person
can be possessed of, as those who have it are almost sure to be made
dupes of by the designing. But, though easy and generous, he was
anything but a fool; he had a quick and witty tongue of his own when he
chose to exert it, and woe be to those who insulted him openly, for there
was not a better boxer in the whole country round. My parents were
married several years before I came into the world, who was their first
and only child. I may be called an unfortunate creature; I was born with
this beam or scale on my left eye, which does not allow me to see with
it; and though I can see tolerably sharply with the other, indeed more
than most people can with both of theirs, it is a great misfortune not to
have two eyes like other people. Moreover, setting aside the affair of
my eye, I had a very ugly countenance; my mouth being slightly wrung
aside, and my complexion rather swarthy. In fact, I looked so queer that
the gossips and neighbours, when they first saw me, swore I was a
changeling--perhaps it would have been well if I had never been born; for
my poor father, who had been particularly anxious to have a son, no
sooner saw me than he turned away, went to the neighbouring town, and did
not return for two days. I am by no means certain that I was no