42 WET SEASON. 



sensibility; but as it is necessary to con- 

 nect my former life with the character I 

 have assumed in the title-page, I shall 

 proceed, however reluctantly, to give it a 

 place in this narrative. 



Some of my readers will be able to call 

 to mind the disastrous year of 1816, more 

 particularly those engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits. This, it may be remembered, was 

 a very wet season, so much so, that in 

 some parts of the country the harvest 

 was not gathered in till October or No- 

 vember, and I have since heard from un- 

 doubted authority that beans were stand- 

 ing in the field at Christmas. 



Now, I have before related that I had 

 hired a farm, of not very large dimensions, 

 certainly about 120 acres, to which was 

 attached 200 acres of unbroke land, con- 

 sisting chiefly of forest. The timber, with 

 the expense of cutting it, was the land- 

 lord's, but clearing the land of the moors 



