knew that I should be
miserable if Susan wouldn't be mine, so I asked her to marry me. How my
heart did beat when she said yes. The captain and his lady were
agreeable, and when they heard that I had a matter of three hundred
pounds prize-money, or more, they observed that it was a prudent match;
and so I took a cottage and furnished it, not far off, that Susan might
go up and see Mrs Leslie and the children whenever they wished, and we
were married and were as happy as the day was long. I know I was, and
Susan seemed contented with her lot.

Susan was a prudent young woman, and one day she says to me, "We must do
something, Ben, to make a living."

"Why do you think that, Susan?" I asked; "I have got no end of
prize-money."

"It's just this," says she; "you may think there is no end, but it will
come to an end, notwithstanding: what with the rent, and furnishing the
house, and the new clothes you got me, and the weekly bills, we have
spent fifty pounds of it already. Now, if we could set up a shop, or
you could turn carpenter or gardener, or go into service with someone
living hereabouts, we could lay up the rest of the money till a rainy
day; and as we have a pretty spare room, I might take in a lodger to
help out the rent."

I had never before thought of that sort of thing; but I was sure that
Susan was right, and I began to turn in my mind what to do. I soon
found that I was not fit for anything Susan proposed. I never was much
of a carpenter, and I knew nothing about gardening. I tried my hand in
my own garden, and had got everything shipshape as far as the palings,
walks, and borders were concerned, but I could get nothing to come up.
Still I kept thinking of Susan's remark, and, seeing the wisdom of it, I
knew that there was only one thing I was fit for, and that was to go to
sea. I was loath to part from Susan, but there was no help for it.
There came about this time a hot press at Portsmouth; and as more than
once the pressgangs had landed in the Isle of Wight, I was very sure
that unless I got stowed away securely I should be picked up. Now,
thinks I, it's better to enter as a free man; and hearing that my old
ship, the _Royal George_, which was lying at Spithead, was in want of
hands, after a talk with the captain and poor Susan, whose heart was
well-nigh ready to break, though she could not help acknowledging that I
was right, I went on board and entered. Captain Leslie had given me a
note to