ke a schedule of, as you call it: but this I
know, his mother had an estate in land, near two hundred a year, and
also a good sum of money when I married her; but the estate she settled
on me before her marriage, to dispose of after her decease as I saw fit;
and her money and goods are all come to my sole use, as her husband." I
was just ready to drop while Mr. G. gave this relation, and was not able
to reply a word; but my master, though sufficiently shocked at what he
had heard, replied, "Sir, I am informed the estate, and also the money
you mention, was Mr. Wilkins's father's at his death; and I am surprised
to think any one should have a better title to them than my pupil, his
only child."--"Sir," says Mr. G., "you are deceived; and though what you
say seems plausible enough, and is in some part true, as that the late
Mr. Wilkins had such estate, and some hundreds--I may say thousands--at
his death; yet you seem ignorant that he made a deed, just before
entering into the fatal rebellion, by which he gave my late wife both
the estate, money, and everything else he had, absolutely, without any
conditions whatsoever; all which, on his unhappy execution, she enjoyed,
and now of right, as I told you before, belongs to me. However, as
I have no child, if Peter behaves well under your direction, I have
thoughts of paying another year's board for him, and then he must shift
for himself."--"Oh!" cried I, "for the mercy of some savage beast to
devour me! Is this what I have been cockered up for? Why was I not
placed out to some laborious craft, where I might have drudged for bread
in my proper station? But I fear it is too late to inquire into what is
past, and must submit."

My master, good man! was thunderstruck at what he had heard; and finding
our business done there, we took our leaves; after Mr. G. had again
repeated, that if I behaved well, my preceptor should keep me another
year, which was all I must expect from him; and at my departure he gave
me a crown-piece, which I then durst not refuse, for fear of offending
my master.

We made the best of our way home again to my tutor's, where I stayed but
a week to consider what I should do for myself. In this time he did all
he could to comfort me; telling me if I would stay with him and become
his usher, he would complete my learning for nothing, and allow me a
salary for my trouble. But my heart was too lofty to think of becoming
an usher within so little way from mine o