I said, some months ago, that I should like to learn a trade, but everyone was against it, then.

They seemed to think that, as I should some day have the land, it was flying in the face of Providence to think of anything else.

But I suppose the fact that everything is so unsettled now, and that there is no saying what may come of these events in England, may have made them think differently.
"At any rate, my father said to me yesterday: 'We have been talking over what you said, about wishing to learn a trade.

If all goes on well, there is no occasion for you to learn any business save that of farming; but none can say what the Lord may not have in store for us, or what troubles may come upon us.

In any case, it will do you no harm to see a little of the world outside our farm; and, therefore, your grandfather and I have settled that you shall go for a few months to my cousin, who, as you know, is a currier in Derry.