uncomfortable gloominess which so lately possessed
me: I returned to my companions, and by every winning art in my power,
strove to make them forget my former repulsive ways. In this I was not
unsuccessful; I recovered their good will, and by degrees grew to be
somewhat of a favourite.

My master still murmured; for the business of the shop went on no better
than before: I comforted myself, however, with the reflection, that my
apprenticeship was drawing to a conclusion, when I determined to
renounce the employment forever, and to open a private school.

In this humble and obscure state, poor beyond the common lot, yet
flattering my ambition with day-dreams which, perhaps, would never have
been realized, I was found in the twentieth year of my age by Mr.
William Cookesley, a name never to be pronounced by me without
veneration. The lamentable doggerel which I have already mentioned, and
which had passed from mouth to mouth among people of my own degree, had
by some accident or other reached his ear, and given him a curiosity to
inquire after the author.

It was my good fortune to interest his benevolence. My little history
was not untinctured with melancholy, and I laid it fairly before him:
his first care was to console: his second, which he cherished to the
last moment of his existence, was to relieve and support me.

Mr. Cookesley was not rich: his eminence in his profession which was
that of a surgeon, procured him, indeed, much employment; but in a
country town, men of science are not the most liberally rewarded; he
had, besides, a very numerous family, which left him little for the
purposes of general benevolence; that little, however, was cheerfully
bestowed, and his activity and zeal were always at hand to supply the
deficiencies of his fortune.

On examining into the nature of my literary attainments, he found them
absolutely nothing; he heard, however, with equal surprise and pleasure,
that amidst the grossest ignorance of books, I had made a very
considerable progress in the mathematics. He engaged me to enter into
the details of this affair; and when he learned that I had made it in
circumstances of discouragement and danger, he became more warmly
interested in my favour, as he now saw a possibility of serving me.

The plan that occurred to him was naturally that which had so often
suggested itself to me. There were, indeed, several obstacles to be
overcome. I had eighteen months yet to serve; my hand