I could but get
the vessel to the water he would give me anything I asked, and earnestly
begged me to come the next morning, if possible. I did come with the lad
and four horses. I went before the team, and set the men to work to
break a hole through a great old wall, which stood as it were before the
ship. We then laid a piece of timber across the hole from which was a
chain, to which the tackle, that is the rope and pulleys, was hooked. We
then hooked one end of the rope to the ship, and set the horses to pull
at the other. The ship came out of the hole prosperously enough, and
then we had to hook the tackle to a tree, which was growing near, and by
this means we got the ship forward; but when we came to soft ground we
were obliged to put planks under the wheels to prevent their sinking
under the immense weight; when we came to the end of the foremost planks
we put the hinder ones before, and so on; when there was no tree at hand
to which we could hook the tackle, we were obliged to drive a post down
to hook it to. So from tree to post it got down to the river in a few
days. I was promised noble wages by the merchant, but I never got
anything from him but promises and praises. Some people came to look at
us, and gave us money to get ale, and that was all."

The merchant subsequently turned out a very great knave, cheating Tom on
various occasions, and finally broke very much in his debt. Tom was
obliged to sell off everything, and left South Wales without horses or
waggon; his old friend the Muse, however, stood him in good stead.

"Before I left," says he, "I went to Brecon, and printed the 'Interlude
of the King, the Justice, the Bishop, and the Husbandman,' and got an old
acquaintance of mine to play it with me, and help me to sell the books.
I likewise busied myself in getting subscribers to a book of songs called
the 'Garden of Minstrelsy.' It was printed at Trefecca. The expense
attending the printing amounted to fifty-two pounds, but I was fortunate
enough to dispose of two thousand copies. I subsequently composed an
interlude called 'Pleasure and Care,' and printed it; and after that I
made an interlude called the 'Three Powerful Ones of the World: Poverty,
Love, and Death.'"

The poet's daughters were not successful in the tavern speculation at
Llandeilo, and followed their father into North Wales. The second he
apprenticed to a milliner, the other two lived with him till the day of
his death.