his day-labour was over; and often by moonlight: and was up again by four the next morning, having to go to Cambridge, nearly five miles, to his work, and to return in the evening. His brother sometimes assisted him. In this manner, with singular industry and economy, in the course of ten years, he built himself a house; which he began with only fourteen shillings in his pocket. During that time, his wife had four children; and they lost as many four are now living ;

the eldest is seventeen, the youngest, four years of age.

Joseph Austin's garden is not less the object of his attention than his house. It contains above a dozen apple-trees, and about half a dozen plum-trees, besides gooseberry and currant bushes. A nectarine and a peach-tree, and a grape vine, grow against the back of the house; and one of the fences in the garden is made of dwarf plum-trees. Another fence is made of rosebushes and sweetbriars mixed with honeysuckles and the garden always produces a good crop of potatoes, parsnips, cabbages, and other vegetables.

But the most pleasing part of Joseph Austin's history, is, that he bears a very good character for honesty, sobriety, and regular attendance at church. His wife, though she has but ill health, is nevertheless a very industrious woman; she is always employed: and the children are brought up in habits of industry. The eldest boy, during his intervals from his father's trade, when he cannot work in the garden, often employs himself in knitting.

20. The turf house.

William Pearce, a day-labourer, near Helston, in Cornwall, earning only a shilling a day, and maintain

ing a family of seven children, took, when he was fifty years of age, twelve acres of swampy land: which he drained and cultivated so successfully, that after eighteen years of labour, they produced, in 1803, ten Cornish bushels of barley, nine trusses of hay, two hogsheads of oats, and ten bushels of wheat, besides pasture for cattle. He also built his own dwellinghouse and outbuildings, which are of turf, and covered and finished them himself; though bred only to husbandry, and having but little use of his left hand, on which there was, from his birth, a large swelling that reached almost to his elbow. "When I first began the undertaking," said he, "I had no property, except one mare, and the shilling a day which I earned by my labour. I used to work hard, in order that I might finish my day's work as soon as possible; not to leave off work, but to go to still harder work, that of improving my land. I was induced to the undertaking, from a great love of husbandry; a wish to serve my family; and a desire to employ myself in that part of agriculture, which I thought most useful to my country, and beneficial to mankind."

21. The collier's wife.

Within two miles and a half of Shrewsbury, a collier, whose name is Richard Millward, has (in 1805) a cottage, and adjoining to it a garden and land, making together rather more than one acre. The management of the ground, is, in a great measure, left to his wife Jane. They have six children now living; five boys and one girl: and they have buried five.

The soil of this ground, when it was enclosed by the collier, long ago, was considered as the worst of soils:

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but it is now changed, chiefly by the labour, and excellent management, of Jane; and it yields good crops of potatoes and wheat, of late fully equal, or rather superior, to those of the neighbouring farms, and with little or no expense. She provides manure by keeping a pig; and by collecting all she can from the refuse of her house, and the scrapings of the road. No part of the land is ploughed. Her husband always assists in digging, after his hours of usual labour in the colliery.

22. The sober tinker.

John Fewings, a tinker, died at Chumleigh, in Devonshire, in September, 1807, aged upwards of ninety years. Very unlike most of his business, he was never known to take a dram; and was never seen in a state of intoxication. Till within a year or two before his death, he followed his employment without the assistance of glasses. At that advanced age, he would walk five or six miles, with his tools on his back, to do a job, and return the same day.

In a little village on the sea coast of Lancashire, lives (in 1807) a poor, lame, and blind old woman, who is remarkably frugal, industrious, and contented. She has been blind from her sixth year; and has maintained herself from early life, without any assistance from the parish. The little cottage in which she lives, is her own. She has besides about fifteen pounds, for which she receives some little interest: but this is not sufficient even to buy her fuel; so that it is her own earnings which support her. She spins silk for making ferret.

By her constant labour from Monday until Saturday, she can earn only one shilling a week.

Clap-bread, which is made of oatmeal and water, is the chief article of her support. This is rolled into thin cakes, and baked on a stone over the fire; which she does herself, without any help, making at once enough to last three or four weeks. A halfpenny worth of blue milk serves her for breakfast; and potatoes are her common dinner. Some of the neighbours give her a little buttermilk; of this she makes porridge, thickened with clap-bread, which is her usual supper. An ounce of tea serves her six weeks, as she seldom allows herself to taste it but when she washes. She never buys any meat, except a small piece of beef against Christmas.

During the last twenty-five years she has lived by herself; and she is quite satisfied, saying, "Unless one had somebody very agreeable, one had better be by oneself." She never begs any thing, not even of her neighbours. When she has neither bread, nor potatoes, for dinner, she makes broth merely of water, an onion, and a little pepper and salt; and she thinks it good. She says: "God knows better what I want than I do myself; and he always sends what is needful for me." A murmur, or a complaint, is never heard from her lips. She says: "I am always happy while I can go to church; be out of debt; and get any thing to live on." Her best gown she bought fifty years ago. It is still whole, neat, and clean; and in this, she makes a very decent appearance: but it is put on only on sacrament days, and on very fine Sundays. She sometimes cheers herself at her wheel, by singing a psalm. The twentythird psalm particularly comforts her in her darkness. When she can have the Word of God read to her,

many parts of which she can repeat, she wants no other enjoyment.

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On receiving a little unexpected assistance, she seemed as if she knew not how to be grateful enough. She said: "I cannot be so thankful as I ought, but I must be as thankful as I can; I must thank God for sending such folks.-I can only pray for my friends: which I always do, begging that God would give them all that is good for them in this world; and, in the world to come, life everlasting."

SECTION 13.

The good clergyman's legacy.

THE following valuable legacy, was wrtten, a few months before his death, by that excellent and exemplary man, the Rev. Mr. Gilpin, vicar of Boldre; and, by his direction, was distributed among his parishioners on the day of his funeral. It is very pleasing to behold the truly Christian desire of contributing to the present and eternal happiness of his fellow-creatures, preserved by him to the closing hour of life. Let us rejoice that though he has passed the gates of death, and is gone to receive his reward, he still admonishes us, "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God."

"As the last advice of a dying friend may often have a better effect than his living advice, I have ordered these few rules, my brethren, to be printed, and distributed among you at my funeral. They contain the sum of what instruction I may, at different times, have given you.

To God our first duties are owing. As we receive