me time I told him that he had paid me before handsomely, and that I
did not want any other reward. He told me that must rest with him, and
that I was fairly entitled to it. He then bade me good-bye.

With a joyful heart I returned home to record to my friends all that had
happened.

Mr Wells was as good as his word, and the following day I saw him on
horseback, inquiring his way to the street where I lived. I went up to
him, and led him to the house. He then dismounted, and giving his horse
to another boy to hold, he called me in, and told my friends that he had
spoken to the curate of the parish about me, and that I might go to him
two hours every evening after I had done my work. He then gave me five
pounds, advising me to rig myself out neatly; and he told me besides
that he had spoken to some of the boatmen in the neighbourhood, who he
thought were very likely to employ me if I applied to them. After a few
more words of advice the good gentleman took his departure.

Now Mr Wells was a man of sound sense, and his conduct was, I have
reason to know, most judicious. He saw that I was accustomed to act for
myself, young as I was, and that I should have less chance of slipping
off the ladder, if I mounted each ratlin by myself; and he considered
that as I was of somewhat a poetical temperament, if my mind received a
hot bed forcing at too early an age, I should be unfitted to struggle on
in this every-day working world. Had he, as his wife recommended him,
sent me to a boarding school, where I should have had everything done
for me, I should probably very soon have lost that habit of dependence
on my own exertions which has been the great cause of my success in
life; and the routine style of education I should there have received
would certainly not have compensated for the loss of the other
advantage, nor would the amount of knowledge I should have gained have
been in all probability in any way equal to that I obtained from my
evenings' study with the good curate, Mr Hamlin.

Depend upon it, after children are shown what is right, the sooner they
are taught self-reliance the better. It is the principle I have
followed out with my own, and they are now independent men, and are
grateful to me for it. I began with them as soon as they were weaned;
before that time I did not consider I ought to interfere with my wife.
I never let one of them have a meal before he had performed some task
for it, nor a new frock