Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ [Illustration] THE HISTORY OF _ROGER_. [Illustration] HONESTY the best POLICY: OR, THE HISTORY OF _ROGER_. _LONDON_: Printed for T. FREEMAN. M,DCC,LII. THE HISTORY OF _ROGER_. _Roger_ was born of honest parents in _Yorkshire_, and very well to pass, who gave him a good education; and tho’ he had no liking to any of the _professions_, yet was not without his share of the _greek_ and _latin_; from which he got this advantage, that he could _spell_ better than most _farmers_ in the parish, and knew the _signification of words_, as well as if he had been bred at _Cambridge_, and turn’d out _master of arts_. He seemed to have no design of pushing his fortune in the wide world; but sat down early on his own farm, followed husbandry, and improving a _headland_ or two he had near him, which were quite run out of heart by the slovenly management of his ancestors, who had, most of them, too much wit to mind their business, and let things run to wreck strangely. _ROGER_ looked into every thing himself, ditched, fenced, and limed, but never _burn’d_ his land, and soon grew a _topping farmer_. There was a cousin of his, who had a power of special farms in the _West-riding_, great royalties, and stately woods. _Roger_ prevailed on him to put the management of them into his hands; and he not only preserved and enlarged them, but made the family interest better than ever it was. This got _Roger_ great credit in his own parish, and all the manor about him; they began to find out he was a prudent, managing man; and resorted to him for advice at vestries, leets, and quarter-sessions. Whoever he recommended for overseers, waywardens, headboroughs, or the like, were sure to be chosen, and always behaved honestly.