, that he had been a fellow-servant with her in the Squire's
employ; that he quarrelled with her shortly after I was born, and left
her, and she did not know what had become of him, but she believed he
went to America, and from his long silence, she concluded that he had
been dead for some years. That out of respect for his services, Mr.
Carlos had placed her in her present comfortable situation, and that I
must show my gratitude to Mr. Carlos for all he had done for us, by the
most dutiful and obliging behaviour. I likewise learned from her, that I
was called Noah after my father.

This brief sketch of our family history was perfectly satisfactory to me
at that time. I remember feeling a strong interest in my unknown
progenitor, and used to build castles and speculate about his fate.

In the meanwhile, I found it good policy strictly to obey my mother's
injunctions, and the alacrity which I displayed in waiting upon the
Squire and his guests, never failed to secure a harvest of small coin,
which gave me no small importance in the eyes of the lads in the
village, who waited upon me with the same diligence that I did upon the
Squire, in order no doubt to come in for a share of the spoil. Thus a
love of acquiring without labour, and of obtaining admirers without any
merit of my own, was early fostered in my heart, which led to a taste
for fine dress and a boastful display of superiority, by no means
consistent with my low birth and humble means.

In due time I was placed by Mr. Carlos at the village school, and the
wish to be thought the first scholar in the school, and excel all my
companions, stimulated me to learn with a diligence and determination of
purpose, which soon placed me at the top of my class.

There was only one boy in the school who dared to dispute my supremacy,
and he had by nature what I acquired with great toil and difficulty, a
most retentive memory, which enabled him to repeat after once reading, a
task which took me several days of hard study to learn. How I envied him
this faculty, which I justly considered possessed no real merit in
itself, but was a natural gift! It was not learning with him, it was
mere reading. He would just throw a glance over the book, after idling
half his time in play; and then walk up to the master, and say it off
without making a single blunder. He was the most careless, reckless boy
in the school, and certainly the cleverest. I hated him. I could not
bear that he shou