elled to Ashburton twice a week with fish,
and who had known my parents, did not see me without kind concern,
running about the beach in ragged jacket and trowsers. They mentioned
this to the people of Ashburton, and never without commiserating my
change of condition. This tale often repeated, awakened at length the
pity of their auditors, and, as the next step, their resentment against
the man who had reduced me to such a state of wretchedness. In a large
town, this would have little effect, but a place like Ashburton, where
every report speedily becomes the common property of all the
inhabitants, it raised a murmur which my godfather found himself either
unable or unwilling to withstand: he therefore determined, as I have
just observed, to recall me; which he could easily do, as I wanted some
months of fourteen, and consequently was not yet bound.

All this I learned on my arrival; and my heart, which had been cruelly
shut up, now opened to kinder sentiments, and fairer views.

After the holydays I returned to my darling pursuit, arithmetic: my
progress was now so rapid, that in a few months I was at the head of the
school, and qualified to assist my master (Mr. E. Furlong) on any
extraordinary emergency. As he usually gave me a trifle on those
occasions, it raised a thought in me, that by engaging with him as a
regular assistant, and undertaking the instruction of a few evening
scholars, I might, with a little additional aid, be enabled to support
myself. God knows, my ideas of support at this time, were of no very
extravagant nature. I had, besides, another object in view. Mr. Hugh
Smerdon, my first master, was now grown old and infirm; it seemed
unlikely that he should hold out above three or four years; and I fondly
flattered myself that, notwithstanding my youth, I might possibly be
appointed to succeed him. I was in my fifteenth year, when I built these
castles: a storm, however, was collecting, which unexpectedly burst upon
me, and swept them all away.

On mentioning my little plan to C----, he treated it with the utmost
contempt; and told me, in his turn, that as I had learned enough, and
more than enough, at school, he must be considered as having fairly
discharged his duty (so indeed he had); he added, that he had been
negotiating with his cousin, a shoemaker of some respectability; who had
liberally agreed to take me without a fee, as an apprentice. I was so
shocked at this intelligence, that I did not re