y by carrying
and partly by playing interludes, soon raised money enough to pay his
debt. He then made another interlude, called "Riches and Poverty," by
which he gained a great deal of money. He then wrote two others, one
called "The Three Associates of Man, namely, the World, Nature, and
Conscience;" the other entitled "The King, the Justice, the Bishop and
the Husbandman," both of which he and certain of his companions acted
with great success. After he had made all that he could by acting these
pieces he printed them. When printed they had a considerable sale, and
Tom was soon able to set up again as a carter. He went on carting and
carrying for upwards of twelve years, at the end of which time he was
worth, with one thing and the other, upwards of three hundred pounds,
which was considered a very considerable property about ninety years ago
in Wales. He then, in a luckless hour, "when," to use his own words, "he
was at leisure at home, like King David on the top of his house," mixed
himself up with the concerns of an uncle of his, a brother of his father.
He first became bail for him, and subsequently made himself answerable
for the amount of a bill, due by his uncle to a lawyer. His becoming
answerable for the bill nearly proved the utter ruin of our hero. His
uncle failed, and left him to pay it. The lawyer took out a writ against
him. It would have been well for Tom if he had paid the money at once,
but he went on dallying and compromising with the lawyer, till he became
terribly involved in his web. To increase his difficulties work became
slack; so at last he packed his things upon his carts, and with his
family, consisting of his wife and three daughters, fled into
Montgomeryshire. The lawyer, however, soon got information of his
whereabouts, and threatened to arrest him. Tom, after trying in vain to
arrange matters with him, fled into South Wales, to Carmarthenshire,
where he carried wood for a timber-merchant, and kept a turnpike gate,
which belonged to the same individual. But the "old cancer" still
followed him, and his horses were seized for the debt. His neighbours,
however, assisted him, and bought the horses in at a low price when they
were put up for sale, and restored them to him for what they had given.
Even then the matter was not satisfactorily settled, for, years
afterwards, on the decease of Tom's father, the lawyer seized upon the
property, which by law descended to Tom O'r Nant,