Toys in those days were poor, as well as very expensive to purchase.

But the nursery soon became a little workshop under her directions; and the boys were usually engaged, one in making a cart, another in carving out a horse, and a third in cutting out a boat; while the girls were making harness, or sewing sails, or cutting out and making perfect dresses for their dolls--whose houses were completely furnished with everything, from the kitchen to the attic, all made at home.
It was in a house of such industry and mechanism that I was brought up.
As a youth, I was slow at my lessons; preferring to watch and assist workmen when I had an opportunity of doing so, even with the certainty of having a thrashing from the schoolmaster for my neglect.

Thus I got to know every workshop and every workman in the town.

At any rate I picked up a smattering of a variety of trades, which afterwards proved of the greatest use to me.

The chief of these was wooden shipbuilding, a branch of industry then extensively carried on by Messrs.