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his ruin. How much better would it be for all Servants, if instead of wasting their leisure in card-playing, they would amuse themselves in reading some Godly book, or improve themselves in writing, or cyphering. It was by this means, for I was never taught to write, that I qualified myself for the place of Bailiff, which I now fill.
I remember Nic used to say, ‘Whilst my master plays cards in the parlour, why shoudst thou be so sqeamish as not to play in the kitchen? But Nic did not consider that his master being rich, and playing for small sums, his loses laid under no temptation of dishonesty in order to pay them; besides the Squire could read and write at any time, whereas this was our only leisure time, and if we did not improve ourselves then, we never could; what might be comparalively innocent in him, might be ruinous to us. And even if my master be a professed gambler, that is no reason I should be so too. A servant is to do what is right, let his master do what he will. If a master swears and gets drunk, and talks at table with decency, or against God and religion, to God he must account for it, and a sorry account it will be, I doubt; but his example will not excuse our crimes, though it will aggravate his. We must take care of our own souls, whether our masters take care of theirs or not.
But to return to my history; I am ashamed to say that I was guilty more than once in the earlier part of my servitude, of the shocking and detestable crime of lying, in order to excuse or screen my faults.— Happily I was cured of it in
