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ter; convinced of the folly of not keeping up a good understanding with those among whom we are destined to live.

After this I lived in the utmost harmony with my fellow-laborers, aad soon acquired considerable influence among them. I proposed some alterations in the laws of the chapel, which I carried without opposition. My example prevailed with several of them to renounce their abominable practice of bread and cheese with beer; and they procured, like me, from a neighboring house, a good bason of warm gruel, in which was a small slice of butter, with toasted bread and nutmeg. This was a much bet ter breakfast, which did not cost more than a pint of beer, namely, three-half-pence, and at the same time preserved the head clearer. Those who continued to gorge themselves with beer, often lost their credit with the publican, from neglecting to pay their score. They had then recourse to me, to become security for them; their light, as they used to call it, being out. I attended at the pay table every Saturday evening, to take up the little sum which I had made myself answerable for; and which sometimes amounted to nearly thirty shillings a week.

This circumstance, added to my reputation of being a tolerable good gabber, or, in other words, skilful in the art of Burlesque, kept up my impor tance in the chapel. I had besides recommended myself to the esteem of my master by assiduous application to business, never observing Saint Monday. My extraordinary quickness in composing always procured me such work as was most urgent, and which is commonly best paid; and thus my time passed away in a very pleasant manner.

How, who had a daughter, a servant, and a shop pov; but the latter slept out of the house. After sending to the people with whom I lodged in Little Britain, to enquire into my character, she agreed to take me at the same price, three-and-six-pence a week; contenting herself she said, with so little, be cause the security she would derive, as they were all women, from having a man lodge in the house.

She was a woman rather advanced in life, the daughter of a clergyman. She had been educated a Protestant; but her husband, whose memory she highly revered, had converted her to the Catholic religion. She had lived in the habits of intimacy with persons of distinction; of which she knew various anecdotes as far back as the time of Charles II. Being subject to fits of the gout, which often confined her to her room, she was sometimes disposed to see company. Hers was so amusing to me, I was glad to pass the evening with her as often as she desired it. Our supper consisted only of half an anchovy a piece, upon a slice of bread and butter, with half a pint of ale between us. But the enter

tainment was in her conversation.

that

The early hours I kept, and the little trouble I.occasioned in the family, made her loath to part with me, and when I mentioned another lodging I had found, nearer the printing-house, at two shillings a week, which fell in with my plan of saving, she persuaded me to give it up, making herself an abatement of two shillings: and thus I continued to lodge with her, during the remainder of my abode in London, at eighteen pence a week.

In the garret of the house there lived, in the most retired manner, a lady seventy years of age, of whom I received the following account from my landlady. She was a Roman Catholic. In her early years she had been sent to the continent, and entered a convent with the design of becoming a nun; but the climate not agreeing with her constitution, she was obliged to return to England, where, as the re were no monasteries, she made a vow to lead a monastic life, in as rigid a manner as circumstances would permit. She accordingly disposed of all her property to be applied to charitable uses, reserving to herself only twelve pounds a year, and of this small pittance she gave a part to the poor, living on water-gruel, and never making use of fire but to boil it. She had lived in this garret a great many years, without paying rent to the successive Catholic inhabitants that had kept the house; who in deed considered her abode with them as a blessing. A priest came every day to confess her. I asked her, said my landlady, how, living as she dil, she could find so much employment for a confessor ? To which she answered, that it was impossible to avoid vain thoughts.

I was once permitted to visit her. She was cheerful and polite, and her conversation agreeable. Her apartment was neat; but the whole furniture consisted of a mattrass, a table, on which were a cracifix and a book, a chair, which she gave me to sit on, and over the mantle piece a picture of St. Veronica displaying her handkerchief, on which was seen the miraculous impression of the face of Christ, which she explained to me with great gravity.Her countenance was pale, but had never experienced sickness; and I may adduce her as another proof how little is sufficient to maintain life and health,

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printers. He was a to rable latin scholar, spoke French fluently, and was fond of reading. I taught him, as well as a friend of his, to swim, by taking them twice only into the river; after which they stood in need of no farther assistance. We one day made a party to go by water to Chelsea, in order to see the College and Don Soltero's curiosities. On our return, at the request of the company, whose curiosity Wigate had excited, I undressed myself, and leaped into the river. I swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriars Bridge, exhibiting, during my course, a variety of feats of activity and address, both upon the surface of the water, as well as under it. This sight occasioned much astonishment and pleasure to those to whom it was new. In my youth I took great delight in this exercise. I knew, and could execute, all the evolutions and positions of Thevenot; and I added to them some of my own invention, in which I endeavored to unite gracefulness and utility. I took a pleasure in displaying them all on this occasion, and was highly flattered with the admiration they excited.

Wygate, besides his being desirous of perfecting himself in this art, was the more attached to me from there being, in other respects, a conformity in our tastes and studies. He at length proposed to me to make the tour of Europe with him, maintaining ourselves at the same time by working at our profession. I was on the point of consenting, when I mentioned it to my friend Denham, with whom I was glad to pass an hour whenever I had leisure. He dissuaded me from the project, and advised me

to return to Philadelphia, which he was about to do himself. I must relate in this place a trait of this worthy man's character.

He had formerly been in business at Bristol, but failing, he compounded with his creditors, and departed for America, where, by assiduous application as a merchant, he acquired in a few years a very considerable fortune. Returning to England in the same vessel with myself, as I have related above, he invited all his old creditors to a feast. When assembled, he thanked them for the readiness with which they had received his small composition; and while they expected nothing more than a single entertainment, each found under his plate. when it came to be removed, a draft u oa banker for the residue of his debt, with interest.

He told me it was his intention to carry back with hin to Philadelphia a great quantity of goods, in order to open a store; and he off red to take me with him in the capacity of clerk, to keep his books, in which he would instruct me, copy letters, and superintend the store. He added, that, as soon as I had acquired a knowledge of mercantile transactions, he would improve my situation, by sending me with a cargo of corn and floor to the American islands, and by procuring me other lucrative commissions; so that, with good management and œconomy, I might in time begin business with advantage for myself.

I relished these proposals. London began to tire me, the agreeable hours I had passed at Philadelphia presented themselves to my mind, and I wished to see them revive. I consequently engaged myself to Mr. Denham, at a salary of fifty pounds a year. This was indeed less than I earned as a compositor, but then I had a much fairer

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