ly ten pounds per annum. The major part of the said island
was stocked with cabbage plants; but on one side there was half a boat
set upright, with a patch of green before it. At the time that old
Beazeley hired it there was a bridge rudely constructed of old ship
plank, by which you could gain a path which led across the Battersea
Fields; but as all the communications of old Tom were by water, and Mrs
Beazeley never ventured over the bridge, it was gradually knocked away
for firewood, and when it was low-water, one old post, redolent of mud,
marked the spot where the bridge had been. The interior was far more
inviting. Mrs Beazeley was a clean person and frugal housewife, and
every article in the kitchen, which was the first room you entered, was
as clean and as bright as industry could make it. There was a parlour
also, seldom used; both of the inmates, when they did meet, which was
not above a day or two in three weeks, during the time that old Beazeley
was in charge of the lighter, preferring comfort to grandeur. In this
isolated house, upon this isolated spot, did Mrs Beazeley pass a life
of most isolation.

And yet, perhaps there never was a more lively or a more happy woman
than Mrs Beazeley, for she was strong and in good health, and always
employed. She knew that her husband was following up his avocation on
the river, and laying by a provision for their old age, which she
herself was adding considerably to it by her own exertions. She had
married old Tom long before he had lost his legs, at a time when he was
a prime, active sailor, and the best man of the ship. She was a
net-maker's daughter, and had been brought up to the business, at which
she was very expert. The most difficult part of the art is that of
making large _seines_ for taking sea-fish; and when she had no order for
those to complete, the making of casting-nets beguiled away her time as
soon as her household cares had been disposed of. She made money and
husbanded it, not only for herself and her partner, but for her son,
young Tom, upon whom she doted. So accustomed was she to work hard and
be alone that it was most difficult to say whether she was most pleased
or most annoyed when her husband and son made their appearance for a day
or two, and the latter was alternately fondled and scolded during the
whole of his sojourn. Tom, as the reader may suppose from a knowledge
of his character, caring about as much for the one as the other.