in this falsehood: for, the moment my master spoke to me with so much
goodness about my mishap, my heart opened to him, and I told him just
how the thing happened.

"Mr. Y---- also heard the truth from me, and I had no reason to repent
having told it, for this gave him, as he said, hopes that I might turn
out well, and was the cause of his taking some pains to instruct me. He
observed to me, that it was a pity a lad like me should so early in
my days take to dram-drinking; and he explained the consequences of
intemperance, of which I had never before heard or thought.

"While I was confined to my bed, I had leisure for many reflections. The
drunken and brutal among the miners, with whom I formerly associated,
never came near me in my illness; but the better sort used to come and
see me often, and I began to take a liking to their ways, and to wish to
imitate them.

"As they stood talking over their own affairs in my hut, I learned how
they laid out their time and their money; and I now began to desire to
have, as they had, a little garden, and property of my own, for which I
knew I must work hard. So I rose from my bed with very different views
from those which I had when I was laid down upon it; and from this time
forward I kept company with the sober and industrious as much as I
could. I saw things with different eyes: formerly I used, like my
companions, to be ready enough to take any advantage that lay in my way
of my employer; but my gratitude to him who had befriended me in my
helpless state wrought such a change in me, that I now took part with
my master on all occasions, and could not bear to see him wronged--so
gratitude first made me honest.