portioned, although so very small; indeed, she was
considered quite a model in figure, at least my mother used to say so,
and I never heard any one disagree with her. Janet had, moreover, large
eyes, penciled eyebrows, and a dimpled chin. Now, as Bessy was away at
the time when I first made her acquaintance, if all these perfections
were not enough for me to fall in love with, I must have been difficult
to please at the age of eighteen, when one is not so very difficult; and
the consequence was, I was her most devoted slave. Mr. Wilson laughed at
us, and seemed either to think that it would end in nothing, or that if
it did end in something he had no objection. Thus was I fixed; and with
Virginia for a confidante, what was to prevent the course of true love
running smooth? Janet received all my sighs, all my protestations, all
my oaths, and all my presents--and many were the latter, although
perhaps not equal to the former three. It was, therefore, not surprising
that Bessy, who had been out of the way, had been forestalled by this
diamond edition of Nature's handiwork. Such was the state of my heart at
the commencement of the year 1805.

I have mentioned that my mother had taken a house in the principal
street; but I must now add that in the year 1804 she found it necessary
to remove into one much larger, and had therefore shifted more to the
upper part of the town. Instead of being in a row, this house was
detached, with a small garden in front and a good piece of ground at the
back, which looked down toward the river. The situation not being so
central did no harm to my mother, as she was so well known; on the
contrary, it made her even more fashionable. She now kept no shop, but a
show room; and had not only accommodation for more workpeople, but very
handsome apartments to let. In another point it was advantageous, which
was on account of my father. At the end of the garden there was an
octangular summer-house, looking upon the river: it was a good-sized
room, boarded floor, and, moreover, it had a fireplace in it, and when
shut up was very warm and comfortable. My mother made this house over to
my father as his own, to smoke and drink beer in; and my father
preferred a place in which he could sit alone with his friends, to a
public house, especially as the garden had a gate at the end of it by
which he could admit himself whenever he pleased. Here my father, Ben
the Whaler, Anderson, and others would sit, having a