Page:Beautiful and interesting account of the shepherd of Salisbury Plain.pdf/11

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crows off the fields, and after they get home at night. As for the knitting the girls and their mother do, that is chiefly for sale, which helps to pay our rent.

Mr Johnson lifted up his eyes in silent astonishment at the shifts which honest poverty can make, rather than beg or steal; and was surprised to think how many ways of subsisting there are, which those who live at their ease little suspect. He secretly resolved to be more attentive to his petty expences than he had hitherto been and to be more watchful that nothing was wasted in his family.

But to return to the Shepherd: Mr Johnson told him that as he must needs be at his friend's house, who lived many miles off, that night, on his return he would certainly visit the Shepherd's cottage.

One Sunday afternoon, my wife being very ill, as I was coming out of church, for I went one part of the day, and my eldest daughter the other, so