ew the wills,
contracts, and deeds, charging for such services a moderate fee, which
added to his little store of cash. His labors of this kind, at the
beginning of the year, when most contracts were made, were often
extremely severe, occupying sometimes half the night, or even all night.
Then he made the most of his garden, which was tilled by his own hands,
until his children were old enough to help him. Upon the mountains near
by, having a right of pasturage, he kept two cows and some sheep, which
supplied the family with all their milk and butter, nearly all their
meat, and most of their clothes. He also rented two or three acres of
land, upon which he raised various crops. In sheep-shearing time, he
turned out and helped his neighbors shear their sheep, a kind of work in
which he had eminent skill. As compensation, each farmer thus assisted
gave him a fleece. In haying time, too, he and his boys were in the
fields lending a hand, and got some good hay-cocks for their pains.

Besides all this, he was the schoolmaster of the parish. Mr. Wordsworth
positively says that, during most of the year, except when farm work was
very pressing, he taught school eight hours a day for five days in the
week, and four hours on Saturday. The school-room was the church. The
master's seat was inside the rails of the altar; he used the communion
table for a desk; and there, during the whole day, while the children
were learning and saying their lessons, he kept his spinning-wheel in
motion. In the evening, when school was over, feeling the need of
exercise, he changed the small spinning-wheel at which he had sat all
day for a large one, which required the spinner to step to and fro.

There was absolutely no waste and no luxury known in his house. The only
indulgence which looked like luxury was that, on a Saturday afternoon,
he would read a newspaper or a magazine. The clothes of the whole family
were grown, spun, woven, and made by themselves. The fuel of the house,
which was peat, was dug, dried, and carried by themselves. They made
their own candles. Once a month a sheep was selected from their little
flock and killed for the use of the family, and in the fall a cow would
be salted and dried for the winter, the hide being tanned for the
family shoes. No house was more hospitable, nor any hand more generous,
than those of this excellent man. Old parishioners, who walked to church
from a distance and wished to remain for the afternoon