Tales and Novels, vol 2 | Page 4

to work to baffle and overreach
the viewer.
"I was now about fourteen, and, had I grown up with these notions and
habits, I must have spent my life in wretchedness, and I should
probably have ended my days in a workhouse; but fortunately for me,
an accident happened, which made as great a change in my mind as in
my body.
"One of my companions bribed me, with a strong dram, to go down

into a hole in the mine to search for his _gad_; which he, being half
intoxicated, had dropped. My head could not stand the strength of the
dram which he made me swallow to give me courage: and being quite
insensible to the danger, I took a leap down a precipice which I should
have shuddered to look at, if I had not lost my recollection.
"I soon came to my senses, for I broke my leg; and it is wonderful I did
not break my neck by my fall. I was drawn up by cords, and was
carried to a hut in the mine, near the stables, where I lay in great pain.
"My master was in the mine at the time the accident happened; and,
hearing where I was, he had the goodness to come directly to me
himself, to let me know that he had sent for a surgeon.
"The surgeon, who lived in the neighbourhood, was not at home; but
there was then upon a visit at my master's a Mr. Y----, an old gentleman
who had been a surgeon; and, though he had for many years left off
practice, he no sooner heard of the accident that had happened to me
than he had the goodness to come down into the mine, to set my leg.
"After the operation was over, my master returned to tell me that I
should want for nothing. Never shall I forget the humanity with which
he treated me. I do not remember that I had ever heard him speak to me
before this time; but now his voice and manner were so full of
compassion and kindness, that I looked up to him as to a new sort of
being.
"His goodness wakened and warmed me to a sense of gratitude--the
first virtuous emotion I was conscious of having ever felt.
"I was attended with the greatest care, during my illness, by the
benevolent surgeon, Mr. Y----. The circumstance of my having been
intoxicated, when I took the leap, had been concealed by the man who
gave me the dram; who declared that I had fallen by accident, as I was
looking down the hole for a gad that I had dropped. I did not join in
this falsehood: for, the moment my master spoke to me with so much
goodness about my mishap, my heart opened to him, and I told him just
how the thing happened.

"Mr. Y---- also heard the truth from me, and I had no reason to repent
having told it, for this gave him, as he said, hopes that I might turn out
well, and was the cause of his taking some pains to instruct me. He
observed to me, that it was a pity a lad like me should so early in my
days take to dram-drinking; and he explained the consequences of
intemperance, of which I had never before heard or thought.
"While I was confined to my bed, I had leisure for many reflections.
The drunken and brutal among the miners, with whom I formerly
associated, never came near me in my illness; but the better sort used to
come and see me often, and I began to take a liking to their ways, and
to wish to imitate them.
"As they stood talking over their own affairs in my hut, I learned how
they laid out their time and their money; and I now began to desire to
have, as they had, a little garden, and property of my own, for which I
knew I must work hard. So I rose from my bed with very different
views from those which I had when I was laid down upon it; and from
this time forward I kept company with the sober and industrious as
much as I could. I saw things with different eyes: formerly I used, like
my companions, to be ready enough to take any advantage that lay in
my way of my employer; but my gratitude to him who had befriended
me in my helpless state wrought such a change in me, that I now took
part with my master on all occasions, and could not bear to see him
wronged--so gratitude first made me honest.
"My master would not let the viewer turn me out of the work, as he
wanted to