my own; and the desire of contributing to their support was an
additional spur to my endeavors to repurchase the boat. I entered
myself as a day-laborer in the garden of our squire; and my wife was
called occasionally to perform some services at the house, and
employed herself in needle-work, spinning, or knitting at home. Not
a moment in the day was suffered to pass unemployed. We spared for
ourselves, and furnished all the comforts we could to the poor about
us; and every week we dropped a little overplus into a fairing-box,
to buy the boat. If any accident of charity brought us an additional
shilling, we did not enlarge our expense, but kept it for the boat.
The more care we took, the more comfortable we felt, for we were the
nearer the possession of our little boat. Our labor was lightened by
looking forward to the attainment of our wishes.

"Our family indeed increased, but with it our friends increased also;
for the cleanliness and frugality which furnished our cottage, and the
content and cheerfulness that appeared in it, drew the notice of our
rich neighbors--of my master and mistress particularly, whose rule was
to assist the industrious, but not to encourage the idle. They did not
approve of giving money to the poor, but in cold winters, or dear
times, allowed us to buy things at a cheaper rate; this was _money to
us_, for when we counted our little cash for the week's marketing, all
that was saved to us by our tickets to purchase things at reduced
prices, went into our 'little box.' If my children got a penny at
school for a reward to buy gingerbread, they brought it home, they
said, to help me to buy the boat--for they would have no gingerbread
till father had got his boat again. Thus, from time to time, our
little store insensibly increased, till one pound only was wanting of
the five, when the following accident happened.