21
PRIDE.
(illegible text) yearly to my parents, my savings, the interest being added yearly to the principal in the hands of my master, amounted to two hundred pounds. And as Fanny's father promised to give her another hundred, I thought we might with this take a small farm, and maintain ourselves comfortably and decently. I therefore comunicated the affair to my master. 'Charles, (said he) though I am loth to part with so good a servant, yet I think it an act of grattitude due to you for your long and faithful services, to consent readily to any thing which may be for your welfare. But I do not think it necessary for us to part at all. I am at present in want of a bailiff. You may, if you approve it, undertake that office, and still retain your present wages. Your father-in-law, who is an experienced farmer, will instruct and assist you in the duties of it. I will, besides, let you a small farm on an advantageous lease, which you may make the most of for yourself.'
To this kind and generous offer I freely assented. And Fanny and myself have now lived together six years in the farm-house near the park-gate, happy and prosperous. My father being dead,, and my brother and sister settled, my mother, who is now very old, lives with me; and by her example and exhortation I find a sense of religion sink deeper into my soul every day, and indeed I am very well convinced by long experience, that there is nothing in this world can make us truly happy but that.
