When school hours were over, he was even the companion and playmate of the larger boys; and on holiday afternoons would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for the comforts of the cupboard. Indeed, it behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to help out his maintenance, he was, according to country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he instructed. With these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighborhood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief.
That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, (Чтобы всё это не стало слишком обременительным для кошельков его деревенских покровителей: onerous – обременительный; purse – кошелёк; rustic – деревенский; patron – покровитель, наниматель) who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, (которые склонны считать расходы на обучение тяжким бременем: apt – склонный; grievous – тяжкий, мучительный; burden – бремя) and schoolmasters as mere drones, (а школьных учителей – просто бездельниками: mere – просто, всего лишь; drone – трутень, лентяй) he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. (у него было множество способов быть одновременно полезным и приятным: various – различные; to render – делать; agreeable – приятный) He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of their farms, (Он время от времени помогал фермерам в лёгких хозяйственных работах: to assist – помогать; occasionally – время от времени; labor – труд, работа) helped to make hay, mended the fences, (помогал заготавливать сено, чинил заборы: to make hay – косить/делать сено; to mend – чинить; fence – забор) took the horses to water, drove the cows from pasture, and cut wood for the winter fire. (водил лошадей на водопой, гнал коров с пастбища и рубил дрова для зимнего огня: to take to water – вести на водопой; to drive – гнать; pasture – пастбище; to cut wood – рубить дрова)