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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Parent's Assistant
+       Stories for Children
+
+Author: Maria Edgeworth
+
+Illustrator: Chris Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2011 [EBook #36132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT
+
+
+  [Illustration: _'I thought I saw----' poor Franklin began._--P. 61.]
+
+
+  THE
+  PARENT'S ASSISTANT
+  or, Stories for Children
+
+  BY
+  MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+
+  WITH AN INTRODUCTION
+  BY
+  ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+  BY
+  CHRIS HAMMOND
+
+
+  LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+  NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+  1903
+
+
+
+  _First printed with Illustrations by Chris Hammond 1897._
+  _Illustrated Pocket Classics 1903._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Once when the present writer was a very little girl she suffered for a
+short time from some inflammation of the eyes, which prevented her from
+reading, or amusing herself in any way. Her father, who had just then
+returned from the East, in order to help her to pass the weary hours
+began telling her the story of the 'Forty Thieves,' and when he had
+finished, and had boiled down the wicked thieves in oil, and when she
+asked him to tell it all over again, he said that he would try and find
+something else to amuse her, and looking about the room he took up a
+volume of the _Parent's Assistant_ which was lying on the table, and
+began to read aloud the story of the 'Little Merchants.' The story
+lasted two mornings, and an odd, confused impression still remains in
+the listener's mind to this day of Naples, Vesuvius, pink and white
+sugar plums--of a darkened room, of a lonely country house in Belgium,
+of a sloping garden full of flowers outside the shutters, of the back of
+a big sofa covered with yellow velvet, and of her father's voice reading
+on and on. When she visited Naples in after days she found herself
+looking about unconsciously for her early playfellows.
+
+Not only Francisco and Piedro, but all those various members of the
+Edgeworth family who play their parts in fancy names and dresses in
+Miss Edgeworth's stories, became her daily familiar companions from that
+day forth.
+
+Many of the stories in the _Parent's Assistant_ were written in a time
+when wars and rumours of wars were in the air; these quiet scenes of
+village life were devised to the sound of clarions. Rebels were marching
+and countermarching; volunteers were assembling; husbandmen, throwing
+away their spades, were arming and turning into soldiers; the French
+were landing in Ireland. 'I cannot be a Captain of Dragoons,' writes
+Miss Edgeworth, 'and it would not make any of us one degree safer if I
+were sitting with my hands before me.' So she quietly goes on with her
+stories. One or two of them were written at Clifton, and very early in
+her career an illustrated edition had been suggested by the publishers.
+A young Irish neighbour, with a taste for the fine arts, was asked to
+make the drawings to these stories, and it was this lady, Miss Beaufort,
+the daughter of the Rector of Colon, who afterwards became the fourth
+Mrs. Edgeworth. Not long after his third wife's death in 1797, Mr.
+Edgeworth wrote a letter to Dr. Darwin at Lichfield, in which he gives
+him various items of family news. He writes of portraits (Dr. Darwin,
+Mr. Thomas Day, and Mr. Edgeworth, had all sat for their portraits); he
+writes of Upas trees, of frozen frogs, of farming and rack-rents; of
+pipes for hot-houses to be heated by stable dung, of speaking machines,
+and finally in a postscript he announces the fact of his being engaged
+to be married for the fourth time, 'to a young lady of small fortune and
+large accomplishments, much youth, some beauty, more sense, uncommon
+talents, more uncommon temper, liked by my family, loved by me.'
+
+These were stormy times for Ireland: a few days after the letter was
+written, a conspiracy was discovered in Dublin, and the city was under
+arms. Mr. Edgeworth set out immediately to join the Beauforts, who were
+there. The true-hearted daughter now admires her father for urging on
+the marriage. 'Instead of delaying, as some would have advised, my
+father urged for an immediate day. He brought his bride home through a
+part of the country in actual insurrection.'
+
+There is a grim story of the new-married pair on their way to
+Edgeworthstown passing the suspended corpse of a man hanging between the
+shafts of a cart. Miss Edgeworth in her Memoirs of her father gives a
+striking account of the family assembled to receive the new wife. It is
+a grandson of this last Mrs. Edgeworth who is the present owner of
+Edgeworthstown.
+
+_The Parent's Assistant_ had just been written; but one or two of the
+stories in the present collection were not added till much later, such
+as 'The Bracelets,' which were written in Switzerland to make up a
+proper allowance of copy for a new edition. It is hard to make a choice
+among these charming and familiar histories. They open like fairy tales,
+recounting in simple diction the histories of widows living in flowery
+cottages, with assiduous devoted little sons, who work in the garden and
+earn money to make up the rent. There are also village children busily
+employed, and good little orphans whose parents generally die in the
+opening pages. Fairies were not much in Miss Edgeworth's line, but
+philanthropic manufacturers, liberal noblemen, and benevolent ladies in
+travelling carriages, do as well and appear in the nick of time to
+distribute rewards or to point a moral. Rosamond of the Purple Jar
+reappears in the _Birthday Present_, which gives one an odd picture of
+the customs of those days. We read of the little lace girl who leaves
+her pillow upon a stone before the door, and of the footman laced with
+silver, who having entangled the bobbins and kicked the pillow into the
+lane, jumps up behind his mistress's coach and is out of sight in a
+minute. Wise Laura, who had not, like Rosamond, spent her half-guinea
+upon filigree paper, consoles the little weeping lace-maker, and presses
+her golden coin into her hand.
+
+Lazy Lawrence is one of the prettiest stories in the collection. Who
+could read the story of Dutiful Jim and his love for old Lightfoot
+unmoved? Lightfoot deserves to take his humble place among the immortal
+winged steeds of mythology along with Pegasus, or with Black Bess, or
+Balaam's Ass, or any other celebrated steeds.
+
+Most children like the history of the Orphans; that quiet history in
+which the sister of twelve years old acts a mother's part by the little
+children. I believe the story is founded on some real and modest heroine
+of those bygone days. Then, again, who has not sympathised with 'Waste
+not, Want not,' and with thoughtful Ben and his careful assiduity? It
+would be curious to calculate how much good time has been sacrificed to
+saving worthless pieces of string in imitation of this thrifty but
+fascinating hero. But after all nothing is to compare to Simple Susan:
+how pretty the scene is where Susan, working in her arbour, hears the
+sound of her friend Philip's pipe and tabor; the children come across
+the green with their garlands, leading up Susan's lamb tied up with
+ribbons, the wicked agent skulks away; innocence and beauty triumph over
+wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Friendship plays a no less important part in Miss Edgeworth's stories
+than it did in her own actual experience. Many of the scenes of Miss
+Edgeworth's stories are laid in manufacturing districts, and I have
+already quoted from the correspondence with Mr. Strutt, on whose
+sympathy and help she so greatly relied. Young Edward Strutt,
+afterwards Lord Belper, used to write to the young men at Edgeworthstown
+when he was a child of only nine years old. 'I shall not be satisfied
+with any letter from you that does not mention every member of your
+uncle's family and your own,' says one of the young Edgeworths, writing
+back in answer to the boy. Mr. Edgeworth sends his sons in succession to
+visit his friend Mr. Strutt, and quotes from Pliny, saying: 'The claim I
+now make to your favour is your having already done me favours. I
+introduce my fourth son to your notice simply upon the foundation of
+your having been very kind to his brothers.'
+
+In 1823 Miss Edgeworth, who has been writing to Mr. Strutt for years,
+addresses him as 'my dear sir--my dear friend, I think I may venture to
+say!' She consults him upon details in her stories, and asks his advice
+on some matter connected with spinning-jennies. There also are many
+family events, charmingly chronicled in the orderly flowing characters
+of the lady, or the bolder writing of her correspondent; one letter
+concerns the election to Parliament of Mr. Edward Strutt in 1830.
+
+  The Strutts are all clever,
+  Here's Edward for ever,
+
+she writes, and defends her doggerel by the 'natural Irish spirits where
+the interests of a friend are concerned.' As time goes on Lord Belper's
+own letters appear, keeping up the family tradition of kindness and
+hospitality. The author's conscientious painstaking strikes one, as one
+realises the care she bestowed upon her work. _La Triste Réalité_, of
+which Mme. de Stael complained, has certainly its charm for the infant
+mind, and also for some maturer readers.
+
+Archbishop Whately in one of his reviews upon Miss Edgeworth points out
+the change which has gradually come over story-telling. 'Instead of the
+splendid scenes of an imaginary world, striking representations of that
+which is daily taking place around us are set forth,' he says. 'We now
+turn to _Flemish painting_'--so he calls the descriptions; and he adds
+that a novel which makes good its pretensions of giving a perfectly
+correct picture of common life, becomes a far more instructive work than
+one of superior merit belonging to the imaginative class; for, as he
+tells us, 'It guides the judgment and supplies a kind of artificial
+experience of life.' It is also Whately who complains--not exactly as
+one would expect an archbishop to complain--that Miss Edgeworth's
+stories are too improving, too didactic. 'She would, we think, instruct
+more successfully, and we are sure please more frequently, if she kept
+the design of teaching more out of sight,' he writes. If Whately were
+alive to review the novels of our own day, he might after all prefer
+'the splendid scenes of an imaginary world' to the favourite experiments
+in garbage of our present Laura Matildas. It is true the books sell by
+thousands. They certainly prove that the successful discovery of the age
+is _not_ to point out what is right but what is wrong. Books used to be
+coarse and jocular; our books are earnest and indecent on principle. One
+hears of the _revolting_ daughters who are so much to the front, the
+same word in a different sense may perhaps apply to a favourite school
+of authors now in vogue.
+
+There is, however, a compensating balance in every adjustment of the
+scales of life: along with the minor virtues which are so much out of
+fashion, such as modesty, decency, good breeding, etc., follows the
+expulsion of a great many minor vices, such as affectation,
+disingenuousness, exclusiveness, and worldly wisdom. The latter
+qualities still exist of course, but in a rather shame-stricken,
+apologetic sort of way. Besides the gibes of literature, they have to
+contend with all sorts of opposing influences,--with omnibuses,
+depreciated investments, penny papers, county councils, all of which
+certainly place altruism and public spirit in the place of the more
+personal egotisms of our grandfathers.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                   PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                                             1
+
+  THE ORPHANS                                                         5
+
+  LAZY LAWRENCE                                                      27
+
+  THE FALSE KEY                                                      55
+
+  SIMPLE SUSAN                                                       79
+
+  THE WHITE PIGEON                                                  141
+
+  THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT                                              153
+
+  ETON MONTEM                                                       169
+
+  FORGIVE AND FORGET                                                215
+
+  WASTE NOT, WANT NOT; OR, TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW                  231
+
+  OLD POZ                                                           257
+
+  THE MIMIC                                                         273
+
+  THE BARRING OUT; OR, PARTY SPIRIT                                 307
+
+  THE BRACELETS                                                     347
+
+  THE LITTLE MERCHANTS                                              373
+
+  TARLTON                                                           431
+
+  THE BASKET-WOMAN                                                  451
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                   PAGE
+
+  'I thought I saw----' poor Franklin began              _Frontispiece_
+
+  Inquired what it was she most wanted                               10
+
+  'Well, and what have you done with the treasure you had the
+  luck to find?'                                                     20
+
+  'See what you've done for me--look!--look, look, I say!'           38
+
+  'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God bless the boy!'
+  said his mother                                                    48
+
+  'You know this key? I shall trust it in your care'                 72
+
+  'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning her back                      85
+
+  Tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts                        100
+
+  Let it eat out of her hand for the last time                      116
+
+  'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off'                          144
+
+  The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon painted
+  upon the sign                                                     151
+
+  She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced, the bobbins,
+  while the footman stood laughing at her distress                  156
+
+  'I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own hands'           161
+
+  'Then shake hands, my honest landlord'                            176
+
+  Enter Miss Bursal, in a riding dress                              181
+
+  'I say I saw _him_ there take the jump which strained
+  the horse.'                                                       209
+
+  'Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza'                                212
+
+  'Stay! Stand still, sir! or you will break your china jar'        217
+
+  When Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the
+  ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much
+  astonishment                                                      228
+
+  Playing at cat's cradle                                           236
+
+  He dragged poor Hal out of the red mud                            253
+
+  _Lucy._ What's this, papa? _Just._ Pshaw! pshaw!
+  pshaw!--it is not melted, child--it is the same as no sugar       260
+
+  'Five times have I commanded silence, and I won't command
+  anything five times in vain--_that's poz!_'                       264
+
+  'And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the doctor,
+  sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table'                      270
+
+  The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour to
+  wait upon Mrs. Montague                                           276
+
+  'She dashed and splashed without minding exactness, or the
+  recipe, or anything'                                              284
+
+  'And like a man--and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,' said
+  the good Quaker, shaking Frederick's hand affectionately          304
+
+  'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your _sister_ Livy, do you
+  mean?'                                                            313
+
+  Archer leaped up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a powerful
+  grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by this?'                  335
+
+  He sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice                     345
+
+  'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her                        352
+
+  'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia                               363
+
+  'I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his father by
+  turning the bruised side to the customer'                         377
+
+  Piedro was hissed and hooted out of the market-place              400
+
+  The Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of villainy, contrived
+  to cheat both his associates                                      413
+
+  Returned in safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet         419
+
+  'Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting back with horror       441
+
+  'May God bless you!'                                              448
+
+  'But, oh, brother, look at this! this is not the same as the
+  other halfpence'                                                  456
+
+  His master came in with a face of indignation, and demanded
+  '_The guinea_--the _guinea_, _sir_!'                              464
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+ADDRESSED TO PARENTS
+
+
+Our great lexicographer, in his celebrated eulogium on Dr. Watts, thus
+speaks in commendation of those productions which he so successfully
+penned for the pleasure and instruction of the juvenile portion of the
+community.
+
+'For children,' says Dr. Johnson, 'he condescended to lay aside the
+philosopher, the scholar, and the wit, to write little poems of
+devotion, and systems of instruction adapted to their wants and
+capacities, from the dawn of reason to its gradation of advance in the
+morning of life. Every man acquainted with the common principles of
+human action will look with veneration on the writer who is at one time
+combating Locke and at another time making a catechism for _children in
+their fourth year_. A voluntary descent from the dignity of science is
+perhaps the hardest lesson which humility can teach.'
+
+It seems, however, no very easy task to write for children. Those only
+who have been interested in the education of a family, who have
+patiently followed children through the first processes of reasoning,
+who have daily watched over their thoughts and feelings--those only who
+know with what ease and rapidity the early associations of ideas are
+formed, on which the future taste, character, and happiness depend, can
+feel the dangers and difficulties of such an undertaking.
+
+Indeed, in all sciences the grand difficulty has been to ascertain
+facts--a difficulty which, in the science of education, peculiar
+circumstances conspire to increase. Here the objects of every experiment
+are so interesting that we cannot hold our minds indifferent to the
+result. Nor is it to be expected that many registers of experiments,
+successful and unsuccessful, should be kept, much less should be
+published, when we consider that the combined powers of affection and
+vanity, of partiality to his child and to his theory, will act upon the
+mind of a parent, in opposition to the abstract love of justice, and the
+general desire to increase the wisdom and happiness of mankind.
+Notwithstanding these difficulties, an attempt to keep such a register
+has actually been made. The design has from time to time been pursued.
+Though much has not been collected, every circumstance and conversation
+that have been preserved are faithfully and accurately related, and
+these notes have been of great advantage to the writer of the following
+stories.
+
+The question, whether society could exist without the distinction of
+ranks, is a question involving a variety of complicated discussions,
+which we leave to the politician and the legislator. At present it is
+necessary that the education of different ranks should, in some
+respects, be different. They have few ideas, few habits, in common;
+their peculiar vices and virtues do not arise from the same causes, and
+their ambition is to be directed to different objects. But justice,
+truth, and humanity are confined to no particular rank, and should be
+enforced with equal care and energy upon the minds of young people of
+every station; and it is hoped that these principles have never been
+forgotten in the following pages.
+
+As the ideas of children multiply, the language of their books should
+become less simple; else their taste will quickly be disgusted, or will
+remain stationary. Children that live with people who converse with
+elegance will not be contented with a style inferior to what they hear
+from everybody near them.
+
+All poetical allusions, however, have been avoided in this book; such
+situations only are described as children can easily imagine, and which
+may consequently interest their feelings. Such examples of virtue are
+painted as are not above their conception of excellence, or their powers
+of sympathy and emulation.
+
+It is not easy to give _rewards_ to children which shall not indirectly
+do them harm by fostering some hurtful taste or passion. In the story of
+'Lazy Lawrence,' where the object was to excite a spirit of industry,
+care has been taken to proportion the reward to the exertion, and to
+demonstrate that people feel cheerful and happy whilst they are
+employed. The reward of our industrious boy, though it be money, is only
+money considered as the means of gratifying a benevolent wish. In a
+commercial nation it is especially necessary to separate, as much as
+possible, the spirit of industry and avarice; and to beware lest we
+introduce Vice under the form of Virtue.
+
+In the story of 'Tarlton and Loveit' are represented the danger and the
+folly of that weakness of mind, and that easiness to be led, which too
+often pass for good nature; and in the tale of the 'False Key' are
+pointed out some of the evils to which a well-educated boy, on first
+going to service, is exposed from the profligacy of his fellow-servants.
+
+In the 'Birthday Present,' and in the character of Mrs. Theresa Tattle,
+the _Parent's Assistant_ has pointed out the dangers which may arise in
+education from a bad servant or a common acquaintance.
+
+In the 'Barring Out' the errors to which a high spirit and the love of
+party are apt to lead have been made the subject of correction, and it
+is hoped that the common fault of making the most mischievous characters
+appear the most _active_ and the most ingenious has been as much as
+possible avoided. _Unsuccessful_ cunning will not be admired, and cannot
+induce imitation.
+
+It has been attempted, in these stories, to provide antidotes against
+ill-humour, the epidemic rage for dissipation, and the fatal propensity
+to admire and imitate whatever the fashion of the moment may
+distinguish. Were young people, either in public schools or in private
+families, absolutely free from bad examples, it would not be advisable
+to introduce despicable and vicious characters in books intended for
+their improvement. But in real life they _must_ see vice, and it is best
+that they should be early shocked with the representation of what they
+are to avoid. There is a great deal of difference between innocence and
+ignorance.
+
+To prevent the precepts of morality from tiring the ear and the mind, it
+was necessary to make the stories in which they are introduced in some
+measure dramatic; to keep alive hope and fear and curiosity, by some
+degree of intricacy. At the same time, care has been taken to avoid
+inflaming the imagination, or exciting a restless spirit of adventure,
+by exhibiting false views of life, and creating hopes which, in the
+ordinary course of things, cannot be realised.
+
+
+
+
+THE ORPHANS
+
+
+Near the ruins of the castle of Rossmore, in Ireland, is a small cabin,
+in which there once lived a widow and her four children. As long as she
+was able to work, she was very industrious, and was accounted the best
+spinner in the parish; but she overworked herself at last, and fell ill,
+so that she could not sit to her wheel as she used to do, and was
+obliged to give it up to her eldest daughter, Mary.
+
+Mary was at this time about twelve years old. One evening she was
+sitting at the foot of her mother's bed spinning, and her little
+brothers and sisters were gathered round the fire eating their potatoes
+and milk for supper. 'Bless them, the poor young creatures!' said the
+widow, who, as she lay on her bed, which she knew must be her deathbed,
+was thinking of what would become of her children after she was gone.
+Mary stopped her wheel, for she was afraid that the noise of it had
+wakened her mother, and would hinder her from going to sleep again.
+
+'No need to stop the wheel, Mary, dear, for me,' said her mother, 'I was
+not asleep; nor is it _that_ which keeps me from sleep. But don't
+overwork yourself, Mary.' 'Oh, no fear of that,' replied Mary; 'I'm
+strong and hearty.' 'So was I once,' said her mother. 'And so you will
+be again, I hope,' said Mary, 'when the fine weather comes again.'
+
+'The fine weather will never come again to me,' said her mother. ''Tis a
+folly, Mary, to hope for that; but what I hope is, that you'll find some
+friend--some help--orphans as you'll soon all of you be. And one thing
+comforts my heart, even as I _am_ lying here, that not a soul in the
+wide world I am leaving has to complain of me. Though poor I have lived
+honest, and I have brought you up to be the same, Mary; and I am sure
+the little ones will take after you; for you'll be good to them--as good
+to them as you can.'
+
+Here the children, who had finished eating their suppers, came round the
+bed, to listen to what their mother was saying. She was tired of
+speaking, for she was very weak; but she took their little hands as they
+laid them on the bed, and joining them all together, she said, 'Bless
+you, dears--bless you; love and help one another all you can. Good
+night!--good-bye!'
+
+Mary took the children away to their bed, for she saw that their mother
+was too ill to say more; but Mary did not herself know how ill she was.
+Her mother never spoke rightly afterwards, but talked in a confused way
+about some debts, and one in particular, which she owed to a
+schoolmistress for Mary's schooling; and then she charged Mary to go and
+pay it, because she was not able to _go in_ with it. At the end of the
+week she was dead and buried, and the orphans were left alone in their
+cabin.
+
+The two youngest girls, Peggy and Nancy, were six and seven years old.
+Edmund was not yet nine, but he was a stout-grown, healthy boy, and well
+disposed to work. He had been used to bring home turf from the bog on
+his back, to lead carthorses, and often to go on errands for gentlemen's
+families, who paid him a sixpence or a shilling, according to the
+distance which he went, so that Edmund, by some or other of these little
+employments, was, as he said, likely enough to earn his bread; and he
+told Mary to have a good heart, for that he should every year grow able
+to do more and more, and that he should never forget his mother's words
+when she last gave him her blessing and joined their hands all together.
+
+As for Peggy and Nancy, it was little that they could do; but they were
+good children, and Mary, when she considered that so much depended upon
+her, was resolved to exert herself to the utmost. Her first care was to
+pay those debts which her mother had mentioned to her, for which she
+left money done up carefully in separate papers. When all these were
+paid away, there was not enough left to pay both the rent of the cabin
+and a year's schooling for herself and sisters which was due to the
+schoolmistress in a neighbouring village.
+
+Mary was in hopes that the rent would not be called for immediately,
+but in this she was disappointed. Mr. Harvey, the gentleman on whose
+estate she lived, was in England, and in his absence all was managed by
+a Mr. Hopkins, an agent, who was a _hard man_.[1] The driver came to
+Mary about a week after her mother's death and told her that the rent
+must be brought in the next day, and that she must leave the cabin, for
+a new tenant was coming into it; that she was too young to have a house
+to herself, and that the only thing she had to do was to get some
+neighbour to take her and her brother and her sisters in for charity's
+sake.
+
+  [1] A hard-hearted man.
+
+The driver finished by hinting that she would not be so hardly used if
+she had not brought upon herself the ill-will of Miss Alice, the agent's
+daughter. Mary, it is true, had refused to give Miss Alice a goat upon
+which she had set her fancy; but this was the only offence of which she
+had been guilty, and at the time she refused it her mother wanted the
+goat's milk, which was the only thing she then liked to drink.
+
+Mary went immediately to Mr. Hopkins, the agent, to pay her rent; and
+she begged of him to let her stay another year in her cabin; but this he
+refused. It was now September 25th, and he said that the new tenant must
+come in on the 29th, so that she must quit it directly. Mary could not
+bear the thoughts of begging any of the neighbours to take her and her
+brother and sisters in _for charity's sake_; for the neighbours were
+all poor enough themselves. So she bethought herself that she might find
+shelter in the ruins of the old castle of Rossmore, where she and her
+brother, in better times, had often played at hide and seek. The kitchen
+and two other rooms near it were yet covered in tolerably well; and a
+little thatch, she thought, would make them comfortable through the
+winter. The agent consented to let her and her brother and sisters go in
+there, upon her paying him half a guinea in hand, and promising to pay
+the same yearly.
+
+Into these lodgings the orphans now removed, taking with them two
+bedsteads, a stool, chair, and a table, a sort of press, which contained
+what little clothes they had, and a chest in which they had two hundred
+of meal. The chest was carried for them by some of the charitable
+neighbours, who likewise added to their scanty stock of potatoes and
+turf what would make it last through the winter.
+
+These children were well thought of and pitied, because their mother was
+known to have been all her life honest and industrious. 'Sure,' says one
+of the neighbours, 'we can do no less than give a helping hand to the
+poor orphans, that are so ready to help themselves.' So one helped to
+thatch the room in which they were to sleep, and another took their cow
+to graze upon his bit of land on condition of having half the milk; and
+one and all said they should be welcome to take share of their potatoes
+and buttermilk if they should find their own ever fall short.
+
+The half-guinea which Mr. Hopkins, the agent, required for letting Mary
+into the castle was part of what she had to pay to the schoolmistress,
+to whom above a guinea was due. Mary went to her, and took her goat
+along with her, and offered it in part of payment of the debt, but the
+schoolmistress would not receive the goat. She said that she could
+afford to wait for her money till Mary was able to pay it; that she knew
+her to be an honest, industrious little girl, and she would trust her
+with more than a guinea. Mary thanked her; and she was glad to take the
+goat home again, as she was very fond of it.
+
+Being now settled in their house, they went every day regularly to work;
+Mary spun nine cuts a day, besides doing all that was to be done in the
+house; Edmund got fourpence a day by his work; and Peggie and Annie
+earned twopence apiece at the paper-mills near Navan, where they were
+employed to sort rags and to cut them into small pieces.
+
+When they had done work one day, Annie went to the master of the
+paper-mill and asked him if she might have two sheets of large white
+paper which were lying on the press. She offered a penny for the paper;
+but the master would not take anything from her, but gave her the paper
+when he found that she wanted it to make a garland for her mother's
+grave. Annie and Peggy cut out the garland, and Mary, when it was
+finished, went along with them and Edmund to put it up. It was just a
+month after their mother's death.
+
+It happened, at the time the orphans were putting up this garland, that
+two young ladies, who were returning home after their evening walk,
+stopped at the gate of the churchyard to look at the red light which the
+setting sun cast upon the window of the church. As the ladies were
+standing at the gate, they heard a voice near them crying, 'O mother!
+mother! are you gone for ever?' They could not see any one; so they
+walked softly round to the other side of the church, and there they saw
+Mary kneeling beside a grave, on which her brother and sisters were
+hanging their white garlands.
+
+The children all stood still when they saw the two ladies passing near
+them; but Mary did not know anybody was passing, for her face was hid in
+her hands.
+
+Isabella and Caroline (so these ladies were called) would not disturb
+the poor children; but they stopped in the village to inquire about
+them. It was at the house of the schoolmistress that they stopped, and
+she gave them a good account of these orphans. She particularly
+commended Mary's honesty, in having immediately paid all her mother's
+debts to the utmost farthing, as far as her money would go. She told the
+ladies how Mary had been turned out of her house, and how she had
+offered her goat, of which she was very fond, to discharge a debt due
+for her schooling; and, in short, the schoolmistress, who had known Mary
+for several years, spoke so well of her that these ladies resolved that
+they would go to the old castle of Rossmore to see her the next day.
+
+When they went there, they found the room in which the children lived as
+clean and neat as such a ruined place could be made. Edmund was out
+working with a farmer, Mary was spinning, and her little sisters were
+measuring out some bogberries, of which they had gathered a basketful,
+for sale. Isabella, after telling Mary what an excellent character she
+had heard of her, inquired what it was she most wanted; and Mary said
+that she had just worked up all her flax, and she was most in want of
+more flax for her wheel.
+
+Isabella promised that she would send her a fresh supply of flax, and
+Caroline bought the bogberries from the little girls, and gave them
+money enough to buy a pound of coarse cotton for knitting, as Mary said
+that she could teach them how to knit.
+
+The supply of flax, which Isabella sent the next day, was of great
+service to Mary, as it kept her in employment for above a month; and
+when she sold the yarn which she had spun with it, she had money enough
+to buy some warm flannel for winter wear. Besides spinning well, she had
+learned at school to do plain work tolerably neatly, and Isabella and
+Caroline employed her to work for them; by which she earned a great
+deal more than she could by spinning. At her leisure hours she taught
+her sisters to read and write; and Edmund, with part of the money which
+he earned by his work out of doors, paid a schoolmaster for teaching him
+a little arithmetic. When the winter nights came on, he used to light
+his rush candles for Mary to work by. He had gathered and stripped a
+good provision of rushes in the month of August, and a neighbour gave
+him grease to dip them in.
+
+[Illustration: _Inquired what it was she most wanted._]
+
+One evening, just as he had lighted his candle, a footman came in, who
+was sent by Isabella with some plain work to Mary. This servant was an
+Englishman, and he was but newly come over to Ireland. The rush candles
+caught his attention; for he had never seen any of them before, as he
+came from a part of England where they were not used. Edmund, who was
+ready to oblige, and proud that his candles were noticed, showed the
+Englishman how they were made, and gave him a bundle of rushes.[2]
+
+  [2] 'The proper species of rush,' says White, in his _Natural History
+      of Selborne_, 'seems to be the _Juncus effusus_, or common soft
+      rush, which is to be found in moist pastures, by the sides of
+      streams, and under hedges. These rushes are in best condition
+      in the height of summer, but may be gathered so as to serve the
+      purpose well quite on to autumn. The largest and longest are
+      the best. Decayed labourers, women, and children make it their
+      business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut,
+      they must be flung into water, and kept there; for otherwise they
+      will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. When these _junci_
+      are thus far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be
+      bleached, and take the dew for some nights, and afterwards be
+      dried in the sun. Some address is required in dipping these rushes
+      in the scalding fat or grease; but this knack is also to be
+      attained by practice. A pound of common grease may be procured for
+      fourpence, and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of
+      rushes, and one pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling;
+      so that a pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will
+      cost three shillings.'
+
+The servant was pleased with his good nature in this trifling instance,
+and remembered it long after it was forgotten by Edmund. Whenever his
+master wanted to send a messenger anywhere, Gilbert (for that was the
+servant's name) always employed his little friend Edmund, whom, upon
+further acquaintance, he liked better and better. He found that Edmund
+was both quick and exact in executing commissions.
+
+One day, after he had waited a great while at a gentleman's house for an
+answer to a letter, he was so impatient to get home that he ran off
+without it. When he was questioned by Gilbert why he did not bring an
+answer, he did not attempt to make any excuse; he did not say, '_There
+was no answer, please your honour_' or, '_They bid me not wait_' etc.;
+but he told exactly the truth; and though Gilbert scolded him for being
+so impatient as not to wait, yet his telling the truth was more to the
+boy's advantage than any excuse he could have made. After this he was
+always believed when he said, '_There was no answer_' or, '_They bid me
+not wait_'; for Gilbert knew that he would not tell a lie to save
+himself from being scolded.
+
+The orphans continued to assist one another in their work according to
+their strength and abilities; and they went on in this manner for three
+years. With what Mary got by her spinning and plain work, and Edmund by
+leading of carthorses, going on errands, etc., and with little Peggy and
+Anne's earnings, the family contrived to live comfortably. Isabella and
+Caroline often visited them, and sometimes gave them clothes, and
+sometimes flax or cotton for their spinning and knitting; and these
+children did not _expect_ that, because the ladies did something for
+them, they should do everything. They did not grow idle or wasteful.
+
+When Edmund was about twelve years old, his friend Gilbert sent for him
+one day, and told him that his master had given him leave to have a boy
+in the house to assist him, and that his master told him he might choose
+one in the neighbourhood. Several were anxious to get into such a good
+place; but Gilbert said that he preferred Edmund before them all,
+because he knew him to be an industrious, honest, good-natured lad, who
+always told the truth. So Edmund went into service at _the vicarage_;
+and his master was the father of Isabella and Caroline. He found his new
+way of life very pleasant; for he was well fed, well clothed, and well
+treated; and he every day learned more of his business, in which at
+first he was rather awkward. He was mindful to do all that Mr. Gilbert
+required of him; and he was so obliging to all his fellow-servants that
+they could not help liking him. But there was one thing which was at
+first rather disagreeable to him: he was obliged to wear shoes and
+stockings, and they hurt his feet. Besides this, when he waited at
+dinner he made such a noise in walking that his fellow-servants laughed
+at him. He told his sister Mary of his distress, and she made for him,
+after many trials, a pair of cloth shoes, with soles of platted
+hemp.[3] In these he could walk without making the least noise; and as
+these shoes could not be worn out of doors, he was always sure to change
+them before he went out; and consequently he had always clean shoes to
+wear in the house.
+
+  [3] The author has seen a pair of shoes, such as here described, made
+      in a few hours.
+
+It was soon remarked by the men-servants that he had left off clumping
+so heavily, and it was observed by the maids that he never dirtied the
+stairs or passages with his shoes. When he was praised for these things,
+he said it was his sister Mary who should be thanked, and not he; and he
+showed the shoes which she had made for him.
+
+Isabella's maid bespoke a pair immediately, and sent Mary a piece of
+pretty calico for the outside. The last-maker made a last for her, and
+over this Mary sewed the calico vamps tight. Her brother advised her to
+try platted packthread instead of hemp for the soles; and she found that
+this looked more neat than the hemp soles, and was likely to last
+longer. She platted the packthread together in strands of about half an
+inch thick, and these were sewed firmly together at the bottom of the
+shoe. When they were finished they fitted well, and the maid showed them
+to her mistress.
+
+Isabella and Caroline were so well pleased with Mary's ingenuity and
+kindness to her brother, that they bespoke from her two dozen of these
+shoes, and gave her three yards of coloured fustian to make them of, and
+galloon for the binding. When the shoes were completed, Isabella and
+Caroline disposed of them for her amongst their acquaintance, and got
+three shillings a pair for them. The young ladies, as soon as they had
+collected the money, walked to the old castle, where they found
+everything neat and clean as usual. They had great pleasure in giving to
+this industrious girl the reward of her ingenuity, which she received
+with some surprise and more gratitude. They advised her to continue the
+shoemaking trade, as they found the shoes were liked, and they knew that
+they could have a sale for them at the _Repository_ in Dublin.
+
+Mary, encouraged by these kind friends, went on with her little
+manufacture with increased activity. Peggy and Anne platted the
+packthread, and basted the vamps and linings together ready for her.
+Edmund was allowed to come home for an hour every morning, provided he
+was back again before eight o'clock. It was summer time, and he got up
+early, because he liked to go home to see his sisters, and he took his
+share in the manufactory. It was his business to hammer the soles flat;
+and as soon as he came home every morning he performed his task with so
+much cheerfulness, and sang so merrily at his work, that the hour of his
+arrival was always an hour of joy to the family.
+
+Mary had presently employment enough upon her hands. Orders came to her
+for shoes from many families in the neighbourhood, and she could not get
+them finished fast enough. She, however, in the midst of her hurry,
+found time to make a very pretty pair, with neat roses, as a present for
+her schoolmistress, who, now that she saw her pupil in a good way of
+business, consented to receive the amount of her old debt. Several of
+the children who went to her school were delighted with the sight of
+Mary's present, and went to the little manufactory at Rossmore Castle,
+to find out how these shoes were made. Some went from curiosity, others
+from idleness; but when they saw how happy the little shoemakers seemed
+whilst busy at work, they longed to take some share in what was going
+forward. One begged Mary to let her plat some packthread for the soles;
+another helped Peggy and Anne to baste in the linings; and all who could
+get employment were pleased, for the idle ones were shoved out of the
+way. It became a custom with the children of the village to resort to
+the old castle at their play hours; and it was surprising to see how
+much was done by ten or twelve of them, each doing but a little at a
+time.
+
+One morning Edmund and the little manufacturers were assembled very
+early, and they were busy at their work, all sitting round the meal
+chest, which served them for a table.
+
+'My hands must be washed,' said George, a little boy who came running
+in; 'I ran so fast that I might be in time, to go to work along with you
+all, that I tumbled down, and look how I have dirtied my hands. Most
+haste worst speed. My hands must be washed before I can do anything.'
+
+Whilst George was washing his hands, two other little children, who had
+just finished their morning's work, came to him to beg that he would
+blow some soap bubbles for them, and they were all three eagerly blowing
+bubbles, and watching them mount into the air, when suddenly they were
+startled by a noise as loud as thunder. They were in a sort of outer
+court of the castle, next to the room in which all their companions were
+at work, and they ran precipitately into the room, exclaiming, 'Did you
+hear that noise?'
+
+'I thought I heard a clap of thunder,' said Mary, 'but why do you look
+so frightened?'
+
+As she finished speaking, another and a louder noise, and the walls
+round about them shook. The children turned pale and stood motionless;
+but Edmund threw down his hammer and ran out to see what was the matter.
+Mary followed him, and they saw that a great chimney of the old ruins at
+the farthest side of the castle had fallen down, and this was the cause
+of the prodigious noise.
+
+The part of the castle in which they lived seemed, as Edmund said, to be
+perfectly safe; but the children of the village were terrified, and
+thinking that the whole would come tumbling down directly, they ran to
+their homes as fast as they could. Edmund, who was a courageous lad, and
+proud of showing his courage, laughed at their cowardice; but Mary, who
+was very prudent, persuaded her brother to ask an experienced mason, who
+was building at his master's, to come and give his opinion whether their
+part of the castle was safe to live in or not. The mason came, and gave
+it as his opinion that the rooms they inhabited might last through the
+winter, but that no part of the ruins could stand another year. Mary was
+sorry to leave a place of which she had grown fond, poor as it was,
+having lived in it in peace and contentment ever since her mother's
+death, which was now nearly four years; but she determined to look out
+for some other place to live in; and she had now money enough to pay the
+rent of a comfortable cabin. Without losing any time, she went to the
+village that was at the end of the avenue leading to _the vicarage_, for
+she wished to get a lodging in this village because it was so near to
+her brother, and to the ladies who had been so kind to her. She found
+that there was one newly built house in this village unoccupied; it
+belonged to Mr. Harvey, her landlord, who was still in England; it was
+slated, and neatly fitted up inside; but the rent of it was six guineas
+a year, and this was far above what Mary could afford to pay. Three
+guineas a year she thought was the highest rent for which she could
+venture to engage. Besides, she heard that several proposals had been
+made to Mr. Harvey for this house, and she knew that Mr. Hopkins, the
+agent, was not her friend; therefore she despaired of getting it. There
+was no other to be had in this village. Her brother was still more vexed
+than she was, that she could not find a place near him. He offered to
+give a guinea yearly towards the rent out of his wages; and Mr. Gilbert
+spoke about it for him to the steward, and inquired whether, amongst any
+of those who had given in proposals, there might not be one who would be
+content with a part of the house, and who would join with Mary in paying
+the rent. None could be found but a woman who was a great scold, and a
+man who was famous for going to law about every trifle with his
+neighbours. Mary did not choose to have anything to do with these
+people. She did not like to speak either to Miss Isabella or Caroline
+about it, because she was not of an encroaching temper; and when they
+had done so much for her, she would have been ashamed to beg for more.
+She returned home to the old castle, mortified that she had no good news
+to tell Anne and Peggy, who she knew expected to hear that she had found
+a nice house for them in the village near their brother.
+
+'Bad news for you, Peggy,' cried she, as soon as she got home. 'And bad
+news for you, Mary,' replied her sisters, who looked very sorrowful.
+'What's the matter?' 'Your poor goat is dead,' replied Peggy. 'There she
+is, yonder, lying under the great corner stone; you can just see her
+leg. We cannot lift the stone from off her, it is so heavy. Betsy (_one
+of the neighbour's girls_) says she remembers, when she came to us to
+work early this morning, she saw the goat rubbing itself and butting
+with its horns against that old tottering chimney.'
+
+'Many's the time,' said Mary, 'that I have driven the poor thing away
+from that place; I was always afraid she would shake that great ugly
+stone down upon her at last.'
+
+The goat, who had long been the favourite of Mary and her sisters, was
+lamented by them all. When Edmund came, he helped them to move the great
+stone from off the poor animal, who was crushed so as to be a terrible
+sight. As they were moving away this stone in order to bury the goat,
+Anne found an odd-looking piece of money, which seemed neither like a
+halfpenny, nor a shilling, nor a guinea.
+
+'Here are more, a great many more of them,' cried Peggy; and upon
+searching amongst the rubbish, they discovered a small iron pot, which
+seemed as if it had been filled with these coins, as a vast number of
+them were found about the spot where it fell. On examining these coins,
+Edmund thought that several of them looked like gold, and the girls
+exclaimed with great joy--'O Mary! Mary! this is come to us just in
+right time--now you can pay for the slated house. Never was anything so
+lucky!'
+
+But Mary, though nothing could have pleased her better than to have been
+able to pay for the house, observed that they could not honestly touch
+any of this treasure, as it belonged to the owner of the castle. Edmund
+agreed with her that they ought to carry it all immediately to Mr.
+Hopkins, the agent. Peggy and Anne were convinced by what Mary said, and
+they begged to go along with her and her brother, to take the coins to
+Mr. Hopkins. On their way they stopped at the vicarage, to show the
+treasure to Mr. Gilbert, who took it to the young ladies, Isabella and
+Caroline, and told them how it had been found.
+
+It is not only by their superior riches, but it is yet more by their
+superior knowledge, that persons in the higher rank of life may assist
+those in a lower condition.
+
+Isabella, who had some knowledge of chemistry, discovered, by touching
+the coins with nitric acid, that several of them were of gold, and
+consequently of great value. Caroline also found out that many of the
+coins were very valuable as curiosities. She recollected her father's
+having shown to her the prints of the coins at the end of each king's
+reign in Rapin's _History of England_; and upon comparing these
+impressions with the coins found by the orphans, she perceived that many
+of them were of the reign of Henry the Seventh, which, from their
+scarcity, were highly appreciated by numismatic collectors.
+
+Isabella and Caroline, knowing something of the character of Mr.
+Hopkins, the agent, had the precaution to count the coins, and to mark
+each of them with a cross, so small that it was scarcely visible to the
+naked eye, though it was easily to be seen through a magnifying glass.
+They also begged that their father, who was well acquainted with Mr.
+Harvey, the gentleman to whom Rossmore Castle belonged, would write to
+him, and tell him how well these orphans had behaved about the treasure
+which they had found. The value of the coins was estimated at about
+thirty or forty guineas.
+
+A few days after the fall of the chimney at Rossmore Castle, as Mary and
+her sisters were sitting at their work, there came hobbling in an old
+woman, leaning on a crab stick that seemed to have been newly cut. She
+had a broken tobacco-pipe in her mouth; her head was wrapped up in two
+large red and blue handkerchiefs, with their crooked corners hanging far
+down over the back of her neck, no shoes on her broad feet, nor
+stockings on her many-coloured legs. Her petticoat was jagged at the
+bottom, and the skirt of her gown turned up over her shoulders to serve
+instead of a cloak, which she had sold for whisky. This old woman was
+well known amongst the country people by the name of _Goody Grope_;[4]
+because she had for many years been in the habit of groping in old
+castles and in moats,[5] and at the bottom of a round tower[6] in the
+neighbourhood, in search of treasure. In her youth she had heard some
+one talking in a whisper of an old prophecy, found in a bog, which said
+that before many
+
+    St. Patrick's days should come about,
+    There would be found
+    A treasure under ground,
+    By one within twenty miles around.
+
+This prophecy made a deep impression upon her. She also dreamed of it
+three times: and as the dream, she thought, was a sure token that the
+prophecy was to come true, she, from that time forwards, gave up her
+spinning-wheel and her knitting, and could think of nothing but hunting
+for the treasure that was to be found by one '_within twenty miles
+round_'.
+
+  [4] _Goody_ is not a word used in Ireland. _Collyogh_ is the Irish
+      appellation of an old woman; but as _Collyogh_ might sound
+      strangely to English ears, we have translated it by the word
+      Goody.
+
+  [5] What are in Ireland called moats, are, in England, called Danish
+      mounds, or barrows.
+
+  [6] Near Kells, in Ireland, there is a round tower, which was in
+      imminent danger of being pulled down by an old woman's rooting
+      at its foundation, in hopes of finding treasure.
+
+Year after year St. Patrick's day came about without her ever finding a
+farthing by all her groping; and, as she was always idle, she grew
+poorer and poorer; besides, to comfort herself for her disappointments,
+and to give her spirits for fresh searches, she took to drinking. She
+sold all she had by degrees; but still she fancied that the lucky day
+would come, sooner or later, _that would pay for all_.
+
+Goody Grope, however, reached her sixtieth year without ever seeing this
+lucky day; and now, in her old age, she was a beggar, without a house to
+shelter her, a bed to lie on, or food to put into her mouth, but what
+she begged from the charity of those who had trusted more than she had
+to industry and less to _luck_.
+
+'Ah, Mary, honey! give me a potato and a sup of something, for the love
+o' mercy; for not a bit have I had all day, except half a glass of
+whisky and a halfpenny-worth of tobacco!'
+
+Mary immediately set before her some milk, and picked a good potato out
+of the bowl for her. She was sorry to see such an old woman in such a
+wretched condition. Goody Grope said she would rather have spirits of
+some kind or other than milk; but Mary had no spirits to give her; so
+she sat herself down close to the fire, and after she had sighed and
+groaned and smoked for some time, she said to Mary, 'Well, and what have
+you done with the treasure you had the luck to find?' Mary told her that
+she had carried it to Mr. Hopkins, the agent.
+
+'That's not what I would have done in your place,' replied the old
+woman. 'When good luck came to you, what a shame to turn your back upon
+it! But it is idle talking of what's done--that's past; but I'll try my
+luck in this here castle before next St. Patrick's day comes about. I
+was told it was more than twenty miles from our bog, or I would have
+been here long ago; but better late than never.'
+
+Mary was much alarmed, and not without reason, at this speech; for she
+knew that if Goody Grope once set to work at the foundation of the old
+castle of Rossmore, she would soon bring it all down. It was in vain to
+talk to Goody Grope of the danger of burying herself under the ruins, or
+of the improbability of her meeting with another pot of gold coins. She
+set her elbow upon her knees, and stopping her ears with her hands, bid
+Mary and her sisters not to waste their breath advising their elders;
+for that, let them say what they would, she would fall to work the next
+morning, '_barring_ you'll make it worth my while to let it alone.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Well, and what have you done with the treasure you had
+the luck to find?'_]
+
+'And what will make it worth your while to let it alone?' said Mary; for
+she saw that she must either get into a quarrel or give up her
+habitation, or comply with the conditions of this provoking old woman.
+
+Half a crown, Goody Grope said, was the least she could be content to
+take. Mary paid the half-crown, and was in hopes that she had got rid
+for ever of her tormentor, but she was mistaken, for scarcely was the
+week at an end before the old woman appeared before her again, and
+repeated her threats of falling to work the next morning, unless she had
+something given to her to buy tobacco.
+
+The next day and the next, and the next, Goody Grope came on the same
+errand, and poor Mary, who could ill afford to supply her constantly
+with halfpence, at last exclaimed, 'I am sure the finding of this
+treasure has not been any good luck to us, but quite the contrary; and I
+wish we never had found it.'
+
+Mary did not yet know how much she was to suffer on account of this
+unfortunate pot of gold coins. Mr. Hopkins, the agent, imagined that no
+one knew of the discovery of this treasure but himself and these poor
+children; so, not being as honest as they were, he resolved to keep it
+for his own use. He was surprised some weeks afterwards to receive a
+letter from his employer, Mr. Harvey, demanding from him the coins which
+had been discovered at Rossmore Castle. Hopkins had sold the gold coins,
+and some of the others; and he flattered himself that the children, and
+the young ladies, to whom he now found they had been shown, could not
+tell whether what they had seen were gold or not, and he was not in the
+least apprehensive that those of Henry the Seventh's reign should be
+reclaimed from him as he thought they had escaped attention. So he sent
+over the silver coins and others of little value, and apologised for his
+not having mentioned them before, by saying that he considered them as
+mere rubbish.
+
+Mr. Harvey, in reply, observed that he could not consider as rubbish the
+gold coins which were amongst them when they were discovered; and he
+inquired why these gold coins, and those of the reign of Henry the
+Seventh, were not now sent to him.
+
+Mr. Hopkins denied that he had ever received any such; but he was
+thunderstruck when Mr. Harvey, in reply to this falsehood, sent him a
+list of the coins which the orphans had deposited with him, and exact
+drawings of those that were missing. He informed him that this list and
+these drawings came from two ladies who had seen the coins in question.
+
+Mr. Hopkins thought that he had no means of escape but by boldly
+persisting in falsehood. He replied, that it was very likely such coins
+had been found at Rossmore Castle, and that the ladies alluded to had
+probably seen them; but he positively declared that they never came to
+his hands; that he had restored all that were deposited with him; and
+that, as to the others, he supposed they must have been taken out of the
+pot by the children, or by Edmund or Mary on their way from the ladies'
+house to his.
+
+The orphans were shocked and astonished when they heard, from Isabella
+and Caroline, the charge that was made against them. They looked at one
+another in silence for some moments. Then Peggy exclaimed--'_Sure!_ Mr.
+Hopkins has forgotten himself strangely. Does not he remember Edmund's
+counting the things to him upon the great table in his hall, and we all
+standing by? I remember it as well as if it was this instant.'
+
+'And so do I,' cried Anne. 'And don't you recollect, Mary, your picking
+out the gold ones, and telling Mr. Hopkins that they were gold; and he
+said you knew nothing of the matter; and I was going to tell him that
+Miss Isabella had tried them, and knew that they were gold? but just
+then there came in some tenants to pay their rent, and he pushed us out,
+and twitched from my hand the piece of gold which I had taken up to show
+him the bright spot which Miss Isabella had cleaned by the stuff that
+she had poured on it? I believe he was afraid I should steal it; he
+twitched it from my hand in such a hurry. Do, Edmund; do, Mary--let us
+go to him, and put him in mind of all this.' 'I'll go to him no more,'
+said Edmund sturdily. 'He is a bad man--I'll never go to him again.
+Mary, don't be cast down--we have no need to be cast down--we are
+honest.' 'True,' said Mary; 'but is not it a hard case that we, who have
+lived, as my mother did all her life before us, in peace and honesty
+with all the world, should now have our good name taken from us,
+when----' Mary's voice faltered and stopped. 'It can't be taken from
+us,' cried Edmund, 'poor orphans though we are, and he a rich gentleman,
+as he calls himself. Let him say and do what he will, he can't hurt our
+good name.'
+
+Edmund was mistaken, alas! and Mary had but too much reason for her
+fears. The affair was a great deal talked of; and the agent spared no
+pains to have the story told his own way. The orphans, conscious of
+their own innocence, took no pains about the matter; and the consequence
+was, that all who knew them well had no doubt of their honesty; but
+many, who knew nothing of them, concluded that the agent must be in the
+right and the children in the wrong. The buzz of scandal went on for
+some time without reaching their ears, because they lived very
+retiredly. But one day, when Mary went to sell some stockings of Peggy's
+knitting at the neighbouring fair, the man to whom she sold them bid her
+write her name on the back of a note, and exclaimed, on seeing it--'Ho!
+ho! mistress; I'd not have had any dealings with you, had I known your
+name sooner. Where's the gold that you found at Rossmore Castle?'
+
+It was in vain that Mary related the fact. She saw that she gained no
+belief, as her character was not known to this man, or to any of those
+who were present. She left the fair as soon as she could; and though she
+struggled against it, she felt very melancholy. Still she exerted
+herself every day at her little manufacture; and she endeavoured to
+console herself by reflecting that she had two friends left who would
+not give up her character, and who continued steadily to protect her and
+her sisters.
+
+Isabella and Caroline everywhere asserted their belief in the integrity
+of the orphans, but to prove it was in this instance out of their power.
+Mr. Hopkins, the agent, and his friends, constantly repeated that the
+gold coins were taken away in coming from their house to his; and these
+ladies were blamed by many people for continuing to countenance those
+that were, with great reason, suspected to be thieves. The orphans were
+in a worse condition than ever when the winter came on, and their
+benefactresses left the country to spend some months in Dublin. The old
+castle, it was true, was likely to last through the winter, as the mason
+said; but though the want of a comfortable house to live in was, a
+little while ago, the uppermost thing in Mary's thoughts, now it was not
+so.
+
+One night, as Mary was going to bed, she heard some one knocking hard at
+the door. 'Mary, are you up? let us in,' cried a voice, which she knew
+to be the voice of Betsy Green, the postmaster's daughter, who lived in
+the village near them.
+
+She let Betsy in, and asked what she could want at such a time of night.
+
+'Give me sixpence, and I'll tell you,' said Betsy; 'but waken Anne and
+Peggy. Here's a letter just come by post for you, and I stepped over to
+you with it; because I guessed you'd be glad to have it, seeing it is
+your brother's handwriting.'
+
+Peggy and Anne were soon roused, when they heard that there was a letter
+from Edmund. It was by one of his rush candles that Mary read it; and
+the letter was as follows:--
+
+  'DEAR MARY, NANCY, AND LITTLE PEG--Joy! joy!--I always said the
+  truth would come out at last; and that he could not take our good
+  name from us. But I will not tell you how it all came about till we
+  meet, which will be next week, as we are (I mean, master and
+  mistress, and the young ladies--bless them!--and Mr. Gilbert
+  and I) coming down to the vicarage to keep Christmas; and a happy
+  Christmas 'tis likely to be for honest folks. As for they that are
+  not honest, it is not for them to expect to be happy, at Christmas,
+  or any other time. You shall know all when we meet. So, till then,
+  fare ye well, dear Mary, Nancy, and little Peg.--Your joyful and
+  affectionate brother,                                     EDMUND.'
+
+To comprehend why Edmund is joyful, our readers must be informed of
+certain things which happened after Isabella and Caroline went to
+Dublin. One morning they went with their father and mother to see the
+magnificent library of a nobleman, who took generous and polite pleasure
+in thus sharing the advantages of his wealth and station with all who
+had any pretensions to science or literature. Knowing that the gentleman
+who was now come to see his library was skilled in antiquities, the
+nobleman opened a drawer of medals, to ask his opinion concerning the
+age of some coins, which he had lately purchased at a high price. They
+were the very same which the orphans had found at Rossmore Castle.
+Isabella and Caroline knew them again instantly; and as the cross which
+Isabella had made on each of them was still visible through a
+magnifying glass, there could be no possibility of doubt.
+
+The nobleman, who was much interested both by the story of these
+orphans, and the manner in which it was told to him, sent immediately
+for the person from whom he had purchased the coins. He was a Jew
+broker. At first he refused to tell them from whom he got them, because
+he had bought them, he said, under a promise of secrecy. Being further
+pressed, he acknowledged that it was made a condition in his bargain
+that he should not sell them to any one in Ireland, but that he had been
+tempted by the high price the present noble possessor had offered.
+
+At last, when the Jew was informed that the coins were stolen, and that
+he would be proceeded against as a receiver of stolen goods if he did
+not confess the whole truth, he declared that he had purchased them from
+a gentleman, whom he had never seen before or since; but he added that
+he could swear to his person, if he saw him again.
+
+Now, Mr. Hopkins, the agent, was at this time in Dublin, and Caroline's
+father posted the Jew, the next day, in the back-parlour of a banker's
+house, with whom Mr. Hopkins had, on this day, appointed to settle some
+accounts. Mr. Hopkins came--the Jew knew him--swore that he was the man
+who had sold the coins to him; and thus the guilt of the agent and the
+innocence of the orphans were completely proved.
+
+A full account of all that happened was sent to England to Mr. Harvey,
+their landlord, and a few posts afterwards there came a letter from him,
+containing a dismissal of the dishonest agent, and a reward for the
+honest and industrious orphans. Mr. Harvey desired that Mary and her
+sisters might have the slated house, rent-free, from this time forward,
+under the care of ladies Isabella and Caroline, as long as Mary or her
+sisters should carry on in it any useful business. This was the joyful
+news which Edmund had to tell his sisters.
+
+All the neighbours shared in their joy, and the day of their removal
+from the ruins of Rossmore Castle to their new house was the happiest of
+the Christmas holidays. They were not envied for their prosperity;
+because everybody saw that it was the reward of their good conduct;
+everybody except Goody Grope. She exclaimed, as she wrung her hands with
+violent expressions of sorrow--'Bad luck to me! bad luck to me!--Why
+didn't I go sooner to that there Castle? It is all luck, all luck in
+this world; but I never had no luck. Think of the luck of these
+_childer_, that have found a pot of gold, and such great, grand friends,
+and a slated house, and all: and here am I, with scarce a rag to cover
+me, and not a potato to put into my mouth!--I, that have been looking
+under ground all my days for treasure, not to have a halfpenny at the
+last, to buy me tobacco!'
+
+'That is the very reason that you have not a halfpenny,' said Betsy.
+'Here Mary has been working hard, and so have her two little sisters and
+her brother, for these five years past; and they have made money for
+themselves by their own industry--and friends too--not by luck, but
+by----'
+
+'Phoo! phoo!' interrupted Goody Grope; 'don't be prating; don't I know
+as well as you do that they found a pot of gold, _by good luck_? and is
+not that the cause why they are going to live in a slated house now?'
+
+'No,' replied the postmaster's daughter; 'this house is given to them
+_as a reward_--that was the word in the letter; for I saw it. Edmund
+showed it to me, and will show it to any one that wants to see. This
+house was given to them "_as a reward for their honesty_."'
+
+
+
+
+LAZY LAWRENCE
+
+
+In the pleasant valley of Ashton there lived an elderly woman of the
+name of Preston. She had a small neat cottage, and there was not a weed
+to be seen in her garden. It was upon her garden that she chiefly
+depended for support; it consisted of strawberry beds, and one small
+border for flowers. The pinks and roses she tied up in nice nosegays,
+and sent either to Clifton or Bristol to be sold. As to her
+strawberries, she did not send them to market, because it was the custom
+for numbers of people to come from Clifton, in the summer time, to eat
+strawberries and cream at the gardens in Ashton.
+
+Now, the widow Preston was so obliging, active, and good-humoured, that
+every one who came to see her was pleased. She lived happily in this
+manner for several years; but, alas! one autumn she fell sick, and,
+during her illness, everything went wrong; her garden was neglected, her
+cow died, and all the money which she had saved was spent in paying for
+medicines. The winter passed away, while she was so weak that she could
+earn but little by her work; and when the summer came, her rent was
+called for, and the rent was not ready in her little purse as usual. She
+begged a few months' delay, and they were granted to her; but at the end
+of that time there was no resource but to sell her horse Lightfoot. Now
+Lightfoot, though perhaps he had seen his best days, was a very great
+favourite. In his youth he had always carried the dame to the market
+behind her husband; and it was now her little son Jem's turn to ride
+him. It was Jem's business to feed Lightfoot, and to take care of him--a
+charge which he never neglected, for, besides being a very good-natured,
+he was a very industrious boy.
+
+'It will go near to break my Jem's heart,' said Dame Preston to herself,
+as she sat one evening beside the fire stirring the embers, and
+considering how she had best open the matter to her son, who stood
+opposite to her, eating a dry crust of bread very heartily for supper.
+
+'Jem,' said the old woman, 'what, art hungry?' 'That I am, brave and
+hungry!'
+
+'Ay! no wonder, you've been brave hard at work--Eh?' 'Brave hard! I wish
+it was not so dark, mother, that you might just step out and see the
+great bed I've dug; I know you'd say it was no bad day's work--and oh,
+mother! I've good news: Farmer Truck will give us the giant
+strawberries, and I'm to go for 'em to-morrow morning, and I'll be back
+afore breakfast.'
+
+'God bless the boy! how he talks!--Four mile there, and four mile back
+again, afore breakfast.' 'Ay, upon Lightfoot, you know, mother, very
+easily; mayn't I?' 'Ay, child!' 'Why do you sigh, mother?' 'Finish thy
+supper, child.' 'I've done!' cried Jem, swallowing the last mouthful
+hastily, as if he thought he had been too long at supper--'and now for
+the great needle; I must see and mend Lightfoot's bridle afore I go to
+bed.'
+
+To work he set, by the light of the fire, and the dame having once more
+stirred it, began again with 'Jem, dear, does he go lame at all now?'
+'What, Lightfoot! Oh la, no, not he!--never was so well of his lameness
+in all his life. He's grown quite young again, I think, and then he's so
+fat he can hardly wag.' 'God bless him--that's right. We must see, Jem,
+and keep him fat.' 'For what, mother!' 'For Monday fortnight at the
+fair. He's to be--sold!' 'Lightfoot!' cried Jem, and let the bridle fall
+from his hand; 'and _will_ mother sell Lightfoot?' '_Will_? no: but I
+_must_, Jem.' 'Must! who says you _must_? why _must_ you, mother?' 'I
+must, I say, child. Why, must not I pay my debts honestly; and must not
+I pay my rent, and was not it called for long and long ago; and have not
+I had time; and did not I promise to pay it for certain Monday
+fortnight, and am not I two guineas short; and where am I to get two
+guineas? So what signifies talking, child?' said the widow, leaning her
+head upon her arm. 'Lightfoot _must_ go.'
+
+Jem was silent for a few minutes--'Two guineas, that's a great, great
+deal. If I worked, and worked, and worked ever so hard, I could no ways
+earn two guineas _afore_ Monday fortnight--could I, mother?' 'Lord help
+thee, no; not an' work thyself to death.' 'But I could earn something,
+though, I say,' cried Jem proudly; 'and I _will_ earn _something_--if it
+be ever so little, it will be _something_--and I shall do my very best;
+so I will.' 'That I'm sure of, my child,' said his mother, drawing him
+towards her and kissing him; 'you were always a good, industrious lad,
+_that_ I will say afore your face or behind your back;--but it won't do
+now--Lightfoot _must_ go.'
+
+Jem turned away struggling to hide his tears, and went to bed without
+saying a word more. But he knew that crying would do no good; so he
+presently wiped his eyes, and lay awake, considering what he could
+possibly do to save the horse. 'If I get ever so little,' he still said
+to himself, 'it will be _something_, and who knows but landlord might
+then wait a bit longer? and we might make it all up in time; for a penny
+a day might come to two guineas in time.'
+
+But how to get the first penny was the question. Then he recollected
+that one day, when he had been sent to Clifton to sell some flowers, he
+had seen an old woman with a board beside her covered with various
+sparkling stones, which people stopped to look at as they passed, and he
+remembered that some people bought the stones; one paid twopence,
+another threepence, and another sixpence for them; and Jem heard her say
+that she got them amongst the neighbouring rocks: so he thought that if
+he tried he might find some too, and sell them as she had done.
+
+Early in the morning he wakened full of this scheme, jumped up, dressed
+himself, and, having given one look at poor Lightfoot in his stable, set
+off to Clifton in search of the old woman, to inquire where she found
+her sparkling stones. But it was too early in the morning, the old woman
+was not at her seat; so he turned back again, disappointed. He did not
+waste his time waiting for her, but saddled and bridled Lightfoot, and
+went to Farmer Truck's for the giant strawberries.
+
+A great part of the morning was spent in putting them into the ground;
+and, as soon as that was finished, he set out again in quest of the old
+woman, whom, to his great joy, he spied sitting at her corner of the
+street with her board before her. But this old woman was deaf and
+cross; and when at last Jem made her hear his questions, he could get no
+answer from her, but that she found the fossils where he would never
+find any more. 'But can't I look where you looked?' 'Look away, nobody
+hinders you,' replied the old woman; and these were the only words she
+would say.
+
+Jem was not, however, a boy to be easily discouraged; he went to the
+rocks, and walked slowly along, looking at all the stones as he passed.
+Presently he came to a place where a number of men were at work
+loosening some large rocks, and one amongst the workmen was stooping
+down looking for something very eagerly; Jem ran up and asked if he
+could help him. 'Yes,' said the man, 'you can; I've just dropped,
+amongst this heap of rubbish, a fine piece of crystal that I got
+to-day.' 'What kind of a looking thing is it?' said Jem. 'White, and
+like glass,' said the man, and went on working whilst Jem looked very
+carefully over the heap of rubbish for a great while.
+
+'Come,' said the man, 'it's gone for ever; don't trouble yourself any
+more, my boy.' 'It's no trouble; I'll look a little longer; we'll not
+give it up so soon,' said Jem; and after he had looked a little longer,
+he found the piece of crystal. 'Thank'e,' said the man, 'you are a fine
+little industrious fellow.' Jem, encouraged by the tone of voice in
+which the man spoke this, ventured to ask him the same questions which
+he had asked the old woman.
+
+'One good turn deserves another,' said the man; 'we are going to dinner
+just now, and shall leave off work--wait for me here, and I'll make it
+worth your while.'
+
+Jem waited; and, as he was very attentively observing how the workmen
+went on with their work, he heard somebody near him give a great yawn,
+and, turning round, he saw stretched upon the grass, beside the river, a
+boy about his own age, who, in the village of Ashton, as he knew, went
+by the name of Lazy Lawrence--a name which he most justly deserved, for
+he never did anything from morning to night. He neither worked nor
+played, but sauntered or lounged about restless and yawning. His father
+was an ale-house keeper, and being generally drunk, could take no care
+of his son; so that Lazy Lawrence grew every day worse and worse.
+However, some of the neighbours said that he was a good-natured poor
+fellow enough, and would never do any one harm but himself; whilst
+others, who were wiser, often shook their heads, and told him that
+idleness was the root of all evil.
+
+'What, Lawrence!' cried Jem to him, when he saw him lying upon the
+grass; 'what, are you asleep?' 'Not quite.' 'Are you awake?' 'Not
+quite.' 'What are you doing there?' 'Nothing.' 'What are you thinking
+of?' 'Nothing.' 'What makes you lie there?' 'I don't know--because I
+can't find anybody to play with me to-day. Will you come and play?' 'No,
+I can't; I'm busy.' 'Busy,' cried Lawrence, stretching himself, 'you are
+always busy. I would not be you for the world to have so much to do
+always.' 'And I,' said Jem, laughing, 'would not be you for the world,
+to have nothing to do.'
+
+They then parted, for the workman just then called Jem to follow him. He
+took him home to his own house, and showed him a parcel of fossils,
+which he had gathered, he said, on purpose to sell, but had never had
+time enough to sell them. Now, however, he set about the task; and
+having picked out those which he judged to be the best, he put them in a
+small basket, and gave them to Jem to sell, upon condition that he
+should bring him half of what he got. Jem, pleased to be employed, was
+ready to agree to what the man proposed, provided his mother had no
+objection. When he went home to dinner, he told his mother his scheme,
+and she smiled, and said he might do as he pleased; for she was not
+afraid of his being from home. 'You are not an idle boy,' said she; 'so
+there is little danger of your getting into any mischief.'
+
+Accordingly Jem that evening took his stand, with his little basket,
+upon the bank of the river, just at the place where people land from a
+ferry-boat, and the walk turns to the wells, and numbers of people
+perpetually pass to drink the waters. He chose his place well, and
+waited nearly all the evening, offering his fossils with great assiduity
+to every passenger; but not one person bought any.
+
+'Hallo!' cried some sailors, who had just rowed a boat to land, 'bear a
+hand here, will you, my little fellow, and carry these parcels for us
+into yonder house?'
+
+Jem ran down immediately for the parcels, and did what he was asked to
+do so quickly, and with so much good-will, that the master of the boat
+took notice of him, and, when he was going away, stopped to ask him
+what he had got in his little basket; and when he saw that they were
+fossils, he immediately told Jem to follow him, for that he was going to
+carry some shells he had brought from abroad to a lady in the
+neighbourhood who was making a grotto. 'She will very likely buy your
+stones into the bargain. Come along, my lad; we can but try.'
+
+The lady lived but a very little way off, so that they were soon at her
+house. She was alone in her parlour, and was sorting a bundle of
+feathers of different colours; they lay on a sheet of pasteboard upon a
+window seat, and it happened that as the sailor was bustling round the
+table to show off his shells, he knocked down the sheet of pasteboard,
+and scattered all the feathers. The lady looked very sorry, which Jem
+observing, he took the opportunity, whilst she was busy looking over the
+sailor's bag of shells, to gather together all the feathers, and sort
+them according to their different colours, as he had seen them sorted
+when he first came into the room.
+
+'Where is the little boy you brought with you? I thought I saw him here
+just now.' 'And here I am, ma'am,' cried Jem, creeping from under the
+table with some few remaining feathers which he had picked from the
+carpet; 'I thought,' added he, pointing to the others, 'I had better be
+doing something than standing idle, ma'am.' She smiled, and, pleased
+with his activity and simplicity, began to ask him several questions;
+such as who he was, where he lived, what employment he had, and how much
+a day he earned by gathering fossils.
+
+'This is the first day I ever tried,' said Jem; 'I never sold any yet,
+and if you don't buy 'em now, ma'am, I'm afraid nobody else will; for
+I've asked everybody else.'
+
+'Come, then,' said the lady, laughing, 'if that is the case, I think I
+had better buy them all.' So, emptying all the fossils out of his
+basket, she put half a crown into it.
+
+Jem's eyes sparkled with joy. 'Oh, thank you, ma'am,' said he, 'I will
+be sure and bring you as many more, to-morrow.' 'Yes, but I don't
+promise you,' said she, 'to give you half a crown, to-morrow.' 'But,
+perhaps, though you don't promise it, you will.' 'No,' said the lady,
+'do not deceive yourself; I assure you that I will not. _That_, instead
+of encouraging you to be industrious, would teach you to be idle.'
+
+Jem did not quite understand what she meant by this, but answered, 'I'm
+sure I don't wish to be idle; what I want is to earn something every
+day, if I knew how; I'm sure I don't wish to be idle. If you knew all,
+you'd know I did not.' 'How do you mean, _if I knew all_?' 'Why, I mean,
+if you knew about Lightfoot.' 'Who's Lightfoot?' 'Why, mammy's horse,'
+added Jem, looking out of the window; 'I must make haste home, and feed
+him afore it gets dark; he'll wonder what's gone with me.' 'Let him
+wonder a few minutes longer,' said the lady, 'and tell me the rest of
+your story.' 'I've no story, ma'am, to tell, but as how mammy says he
+must go to the fair Monday fortnight, to be sold, if she can't get the
+two guineas for her rent; and I should be main sorry to part with him,
+for I love him, and he loves me; so I'll work for him, I will, all I
+can. To be sure, as mammy says, I have no chance, such a little fellow
+as I am, of earning two guineas afore Monday fortnight.' 'But are you
+willing earnestly to work?' said the lady; 'you know there is a great
+deal of difference between picking up a few stones and working steadily
+every day, and all day long.' 'But,' said Jem, 'I would work every day,
+and all day long.' 'Then,' said the lady, 'I will give you work. Come
+here to-morrow morning, and my gardener will set you to weed the
+shrubberies, and I will pay you sixpence a day. Remember, you must be at
+the gates by six o'clock.' Jem bowed, thanked her, and went away.
+
+It was late in the evening, and Jem was impatient to get home to feed
+Lightfoot; yet he recollected that he had promised the man who had
+trusted him to sell the fossils, that he would bring him half of what he
+got for them; so he thought that he had better go to him directly; and
+away he went, running along by the water-side about a quarter of a mile,
+till he came to the man's house. He was just come home from work, and
+was surprised when Jem showed him the half-crown, saying, 'Look what I
+got for the stones; you are to have half, you know.' 'No,' said the man,
+when he had heard his story, I shall not take half of that; it was given
+to you. I expected but a shilling at the most, and the half of that is
+but sixpence, and that I'll take. 'Wife, give the lad two shillings, and
+take this half-crown.' So the wife opened an old glove, and took out two
+shillings; and the man, as she opened the glove, put in his fingers and
+took out a little silver penny. 'There, he shall have that into the
+bargain for his honesty--honesty is the best policy--there's a lucky
+penny for you, that I've kept ever since I can remember.' 'Don't you
+ever go to part with it, do ye hear!' cried the woman. 'Let him do what
+he will with it, wife,' said the man. 'But,' argued the wife, 'another
+penny would do just as well to buy gingerbread; and that's what it will
+go for.' 'No, that it shall not, I promise you,' said Jem; and so he ran
+away home, fed Lightfoot, stroked him, went to bed, jumped up at five
+o'clock in the morning, and went singing to work as gay as a lark.
+
+Four days he worked 'every day and all day long'; and every evening the
+lady, when she came out to walk in her gardens, looked at his work. At
+last she said to her gardener, 'This little boy works very hard.' 'Never
+had so good a little boy about the grounds,' said the gardener; 'he's
+always at his work, let me come by when I will, and he has got twice as
+much done as another would do; yes, twice as much, ma'am; for look
+here--he began at this 'ere rose-bush, and now he's got to where you
+stand, ma'am; and here is the day's work that t'other boy, and he's
+three years older too, did to-day--I say, measure Jem's fairly, and it's
+twice as much, I'm sure.' 'Well,' said the lady to her gardener, 'show
+me how much is a fair good day's work for a boy of his age.' 'Come at
+six o'clock and go at six? why, about this much, ma'am,' said the
+gardener, marking off a piece of the border with his spade.
+
+'Then, little boy,' said the lady, 'so much shall be your task every
+day. The gardener will mark it off for you; and when you've done, the
+rest of the day you may do what you please.'
+
+Jem was extremely glad of this; and the next day he had finished his
+task by four o'clock; so that he had all the rest of the evening to
+himself. He was as fond of play as any little boy could be; and when he
+was at it he played with all the eagerness and gaiety imaginable; so as
+soon as he had finished his task, fed Lightfoot, and put by the sixpence
+he had earned that day, he ran to the playground in the village, where
+he found a party of boys playing, and amongst them Lazy Lawrence, who
+indeed was not playing, but lounging upon a gate, with his thumb in his
+mouth. The rest were playing at cricket. Jem joined them, and was the
+merriest and most active amongst them; till, at last, when quite out of
+breath with running, he was obliged to give up to rest himself, and sat
+down upon the stile, close to the gate on which Lazy Lawrence was
+swinging.
+
+'And why don't you play, Lawrence?' said he. 'I'm tired,' said Lawrence.
+'Tired of what?' 'I don't know well what tires me; grandmother says I'm
+ill, and I must take something--I don't know what ails me.' 'Oh, pugh!
+take a good race--one, two, three, and away--and you'll find yourself as
+well as ever. Come, run--one, two, three, and away.' 'Ah, no, I can't
+run, indeed,' said he hanging back heavily; 'you know I can play all day
+long if I like it, so I don't mind play as you do, who have only one
+hour for it.' 'So much the worse for you. Come now, I'm quite fresh
+again, will you have one game at ball? do.' 'No, I tell you I can't; I'm
+as tired as if I had been working all day long as hard as a horse.' 'Ten
+times more,' said Jem, 'for I have been working all day long as hard as
+a horse, and yet you see I'm not a bit tired, only a little out of
+breath just now.' 'That's very odd,' said Lawrence, and yawned, for want
+of some better answer; then taking out a handful of halfpence,--'See
+what I got from father to-day, because I asked him just at the right
+time, when he had drunk a glass or two; then I can get anything I want
+out of him--see! a penny, twopence, threepence, fourpence--there's
+eightpence in all; would not you be happy if you had _eightpence_?'
+'Why, I don't know,' said Jem, laughing, 'for you don't seem happy, and
+you _have eightpence_.' 'That does not signify, though. I'm sure you
+only say that because you envy me. You don't know what it is to have
+eightpence. You never had more than twopence or threepence at a time in
+all your life.'
+
+Jem smiled. 'Oh, as to that,' said he, 'you are mistaken, for I have at
+this very time more than twopence, threepence, or eightpence either. I
+have--let me--see--stones, two shillings; then five days' work that's
+five sixpences, that's two shillings and sixpence; in all, makes four
+shillings and sixpence; and my silver penny, is four and
+sevenpence--four and sevenpence!' 'You have not!' said Lawrence, roused
+so as absolutely to stand upright, 'four and sevenpence, have you? Show
+it me and then I'll believe you.' 'Follow me, then,' cried Jem, 'and
+I'll soon make you believe me; come.' 'Is it far?' said Lawrence,
+following half-running, half-hobbling, till he came to the stable, where
+Jem showed him his treasure. 'And how did you come by it--honestly?'
+'Honestly! to be sure I did; I earned it all.' 'Lord bless me, earned
+it! well, I've a great mind to work; but then it's such hot weather,
+besides, grandmother says I'm not strong enough yet for hard work; and
+besides, I know how to coax daddy out of money when I want it, so I need
+not work. But four and sevenpence; let's see, what will you do with it
+all?' 'That's a secret,' said Jem, looking great. 'I can guess; I know
+what I'd do with it if it was mine. First, I'd buy pocketfuls of
+gingerbread; then I'd buy ever so many apples and nuts. Don't you love
+nuts? I'd buy nuts enough to last me from this time to Christmas, and
+I'd make little Newton crack 'em for me, for that's the worst of nuts,
+there's the trouble of cracking 'em.' 'Well, you never deserve to have a
+nut.' 'But you'll give me some of yours,' said Lawrence, in a fawning
+tone; for he thought it easier to coax than to work--'you'll give me
+some of your good things, won't you?' 'I shall not have any of those
+good things,' said Jem. 'Then, what will you do with all your money?'
+'Oh, I know very well what to do with it; but, as I told you, that's a
+secret, and I shan't tell it anybody. Come now, let's go back and
+play--their game's up, I daresay.'
+
+Lawrence went back with him, full of curiosity, and out of humour with
+himself and his eightpence. 'If I had four and sevenpence,' said he to
+himself, 'I certainly should be happy!'
+
+The next day, as usual, Jem jumped up before six o'clock and went to his
+work, whilst Lazy Lawrence sauntered about without knowing what to do
+with himself. In the course of two days he laid out sixpence of his
+money in apples and gingerbread; and as long as these lasted, he found
+himself well received by his companions; but at length the third day he
+spent his last halfpenny, and when it was gone, unfortunately some nuts
+tempted him very much, but he had no money to pay for them; so he ran
+home to coax his father, as he called it.
+
+When he got home he heard his father talking very loud, and at first he
+thought he was drunk; but when he opened the kitchen door, he saw that
+he was not drunk, but angry.
+
+'You lazy dog!' cried he, turning suddenly upon Lawrence, and gave him
+such a violent box on the ear as made the light flash from his eyes;
+'you lazy dog! See what you've done for me--look!--look, look, I say!'
+
+Lawrence looked as soon as he came to the use of his senses, and with
+fear, amazement, and remorse beheld at least a dozen bottles burst, and
+the fine Worcestershire cider streaming over the floor.
+
+'Now, did not I order you three days ago to carry these bottles to the
+cellar, and did not I charge you to wire the corks? answer me, you lazy
+rascal; did not I?' 'Yes,' said Lawrence, scratching his head. 'And why
+was not it done, I ask you?' cried his father, with renewed anger, as
+another bottle burst at the moment. 'What do you stand there for, you
+lazy brat? why don't you move, I say? No, no,' catching hold of him, 'I
+believe you can't move; but I'll make you.' And he shook him till
+Lawrence was so giddy he could not stand. 'What had you to think of?
+What had you to do all day long, that you could not carry my cider, my
+Worcestershire cider, to the cellar when I bid you? But go, you'll never
+be good for anything; you are such a lazy rascal--get out of my sight!'
+So saying, he pushed him, out of the house door, and Lawrence sneaked
+off, seeing that this was no time to make his petition for halfpence.
+
+The next day he saw the nuts again, and wishing for them more than ever,
+he went home, in hopes that his father, as he said to himself, would be
+in a better humour. But the cider was still fresh in his recollection;
+and the moment Lawrence began to whisper the word 'halfpenny' in his
+ear, his father swore with a loud oath, 'I will not give you a
+halfpenny, no, not a farthing, for a month to come. If you want money,
+go work for it; I've had enough of your laziness--go work!'
+
+At these terrible words Lawrence burst into tears, and, going to the
+side of a ditch, sat down and cried for an hour; and when he had cried
+till he could cry no more, he exerted himself so far as to empty his
+pockets, to see whether there might not happen to be one halfpenny left;
+and, to his great joy, in the farthest corner of his pocket one
+halfpenny was found. With this he proceeded to the fruit-woman's stall.
+She was busy weighing out some plums, so he was obliged to wait; and
+whilst he was waiting he heard some people near him talking and laughing
+very loud.
+
+[Illustration: _'See what you've done for me--look!--look, look, I
+say!'_]
+
+The fruit-woman's stall was at the gate of an inn yard; and peeping
+through the gate in this yard, Lawrence saw a postilion and a
+stable-boy, about his own size, playing at pitch farthing. He stood by
+watching them for a few minutes. 'I began but with one halfpenny,' cried
+the stable-boy, with an oath, 'and now I've got twopence!' added he,
+jingling the halfpence in his waistcoat pocket. Lawrence was moved at
+the sound, and said to himself, 'If _I_ begin with one halfpenny I may
+end, like him, with having twopence; and it is easier to play at pitch
+farthing than to work.'
+
+So he stepped forward, presenting his halfpenny, offering to toss up
+with the stable-boy, who, after looking him full in the face, accepted
+the proposal, and threw his halfpenny into the air. 'Head or tail?'
+cried he. 'Head,' replied Lawrence, and it came up head. He seized the
+penny, surprised at his own success, and would have gone instantly to
+have laid it out in nuts; but the stable-boy stopped him, and tempted
+him to throw it again. This time Lawrence lost; he threw again and won;
+and so he went on, sometimes losing, but most frequently winning, till
+half the morning was lost. At last, however, finding himself the master
+of three halfpence, he said he would play no more.
+
+The stable-boy, grumbling, swore he would have his revenge another time,
+and Lawrence went and bought his nuts. 'It is a good thing,' said he to
+himself, 'to play at pitch farthing; the next time I want a halfpenny
+I'll not ask my father for it, nor go to work neither.' Satisfied with
+this resolution, he sat down to crack his nuts at his leisure, upon the
+horse-block in the inn yard. Here, whilst he ate, he overheard the
+conversation of the stable-boys and postilions. At first their shocking
+oaths and loud wrangling frightened and shocked him; for Lawrence,
+though _lazy_, had not yet learned to be a _wicked_ boy. But, by
+degrees, he was accustomed to the swearing and quarrelling, and took a
+delight and interest in their disputes and battles. As this was an
+amusement which he could enjoy without any sort of exertion, he soon
+grew so fond of it, that every day he returned to the stable yard, and
+the horse-block became his constant seat. Here he found some relief from
+the insupportable fatigue of doing nothing, and here, hour after hour,
+with his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands, he sat, the
+spectator of wickedness. Gaming, cheating, and lying soon became
+familiar to him; and, to complete his ruin, he formed a sudden and close
+intimacy with the stable-boy (a very bad boy) with whom he had first
+begun to game.
+
+The consequences of this intimacy we shall presently see. But it is now
+time to inquire what little Jem had been doing all this while.
+
+One day, after Jem had finished his task, the gardener asked him to stay
+a little while, to help him to carry some geranium pots into the hall.
+Jem, always active and obliging, readily stayed from play, and was
+carrying in a heavy flower pot, when his mistress crossed the hall.
+'What a terrible litter!' said she, 'you are making here--why don't you
+wipe your shoes upon the mat?' Jem turned to look for the mat, but he
+saw none. 'Oh,' said the lady, recollecting herself, 'I can't blame you,
+for there is no mat.' 'No, ma'am,' said the gardener, 'nor I don't know
+when, if ever, the man will bring home those mats you bespoke, ma'am.'
+'I am very sorry to hear that,' said the lady; 'I wish we could find
+somebody who would do them, if he can't. I should not care what sort of
+mats they were, so that one could wipe one's feet on them.'
+
+Jem, as he was sweeping away the litter, when he heard these last words,
+said to himself, 'Perhaps I could make a mat.' And all the way home, as
+he trudged along whistling, he was thinking over a scheme for making
+mats, which, however bold it may appear, he did not despair of
+executing, with patience and industry. Many were the difficulties which
+his '_prophetic eye_' foresaw; but he felt within himself that spirit
+which spurs men on to great enterprises, and makes them 'trample on
+impossibilities.' In the first place, he recollected that he had seen
+Lazy Lawrence, whilst he lounged upon the gate, twist a bit of heath
+into different shapes; and he thought that, if he could find some way of
+plaiting heath firmly together, it would make a very pretty green, soft
+mat, which would do very well for one to wipe one's shoes on. About a
+mile from his mother's house, on the common which Jem rode over when he
+went to Farmer Truck's for the giant strawberries, he remembered to have
+seen a great quantity of this heath; and, as it was now only six o'clock
+in the evening, he knew that he should have time to feed Lightfoot,
+stroke him, go to the common, return, and make one trial of his skill
+before he went to bed.
+
+Lightfoot carried him swiftly to the common, and there Jem gathered as
+much of the heath as he thought he should want. But what toil! what
+time! what pains did it cost him, before he could make anything like a
+mat! Twenty times he was ready to throw aside the heath, and give up his
+project, from impatience of repeated disappointments. But still he
+persevered. Nothing _truly great_ can be accomplished without toil and
+time. Two hours he worked before he went to bed. All his play hours the
+next day he spent at his mat; which, in all, made five hours of
+fruitless attempts. The sixth, however, repaid him for the labours of
+the other five. He conquered his grand difficulty of fastening the heath
+substantially together, and at length completely finished a mat, which
+far surpassed his most sanguine expectations. He was extremely
+happy--sang, danced round it--whistled--looked at it again and again,
+and could hardly leave off looking at it when it was time to go to bed.
+He laid it by his bedside, that he might see it the moment he awoke in
+the morning.
+
+And now came the grand pleasure of carrying it to his mistress. She
+looked fully as much surprised as he expected, when she saw it, and when
+she heard who made it. After having duly admired it, she asked how much
+he expected for his mat. 'Expect!--Nothing, ma'am,' said Jem; 'I meant
+to give it you, if you'd have it; I did not mean to sell it. I made it
+in my play hours, I was very happy in making it; and I'm very glad, too,
+that you like it; and if you please to keep it, ma'am, that's all.' 'But
+that's not all,' said the lady. 'Spend your time no more in weeding in
+my garden, you can employ yourself much better; you shall have the
+reward of your ingenuity as well as of your industry. Make as many more
+such mats as you can, and I will take care and dispose of them for you.'
+
+'Thank'e, ma'am,' said Jem, making his best bow, for he thought by the
+lady's looks that she meant to do him a favour, though he repeated to
+himself, 'Dispose of them, what does that mean?'
+
+The next day he went to work to make more mats, and he soon learned to
+make them so well and quickly, that he was surprised at his own success.
+In every one he made he found less difficulty, so that, instead of
+making two, he could soon make four, in a day. In a fortnight he made
+eighteen.
+
+It was Saturday night when he finished, and he carried, at three
+journeys, his eighteen mats to his mistress's house; piled them all up
+in the hall, and stood with his hat off, with a look of proud humility,
+beside the pile, waiting for his mistress's appearance. Presently a
+folding-door, at one end of the hall, opened, and he saw his mistress,
+with a great many gentlemen and ladies, rising from several tables.
+
+'Oh! there is my little boy and his mats,' cried the lady; and, followed
+by all the rest of the company, she came into the hall. Jem modestly
+retired whilst they looked at his mats; but in a minute or two his
+mistress beckoned to him, and when he came into the middle of the
+circle, he saw that his pile of mats had disappeared.
+
+'Well,' said the lady, smiling, 'what do you see that makes you look so
+surprised?' 'That all my mats are gone,' said Jem; 'but you are very
+welcome.' 'Are we?' said the lady, 'well, take up your hat and go home
+then, for you see that it is getting late, and you know Lightfoot will
+wonder what's become of you.' Jem turned round to take up his hat, which
+he had left on the floor.
+
+But how his countenance changed! the hat was heavy with shillings. Every
+one who had taken a mat had put in two shillings; so that for the
+eighteen mats he had got thirty-six shillings. 'Thirty-six shillings,'
+said the lady; 'five and sevenpence I think you told me you had earned
+already--how much does that make? I must add, I believe, one other
+sixpence to make out your two guineas.'
+
+'Two guineas!' exclaimed Jem, now quite conquering his bashfulness, for
+at the moment he forgot where he was, and saw nobody that was by. 'Two
+guineas!' cried he, clapping his hands together,--'O Lightfoot! O
+mother!' Then, recollecting himself, he saw his mistress, whom he now
+looked up to quite as a friend. 'Will _you_ thank them all?' said he,
+scarcely daring to glance his eyes round upon the company; 'will _you_
+thank 'em, for you knew I don't know how to thank 'em _rightly_.'
+Everybody thought, however, that they had been thanked _rightly_. 'Now
+we won't keep you any longer, only,' said his mistress, 'I have one
+thing to ask you, that I may be by when you show your treasure to your
+mother.'
+
+'Come, then,' said Jem, 'come with me now.' 'Not now,' said the lady,
+laughing; 'but I will come to Ashton to-morrow evening; perhaps your
+mother can find me a few strawberries.'
+
+'That she will,' said Jem; 'I'll search the garden myself.'
+
+He now went home, but felt it a great restraint to wait till to-morrow
+evening before he told his mother. To console himself he flew to the
+stable:--'Lightfoot, you're not to be sold on Monday, poor fellow!' said
+he, patting him, and then could not refrain from counting out his money.
+Whilst he was intent upon this, Jem was startled by a noise at the door:
+somebody was trying to pull up the latch. It opened, and there came in
+Lazy Lawrence, with a boy in a red jacket, who had a cock under his arm.
+They started when they got into the middle of the stable, and when they
+saw Jem, who had been at first hidden by the horse.
+
+'We--we--we came,' stammered Lazy Lawrence--'I mean, I came
+to--to--to----' 'To ask you,' continued the stable-boy, in a bold tone,
+'whether you will go with us to the cock-fight on Monday? See, I've a
+fine cock here, and Lawrence told me you were a great friend of his; so
+I came.'
+
+Lawrence now attempted to say something in praise of the pleasures of
+cock-fighting and in recommendation of his new companion. But Jem looked
+at the stable-boy with dislike, and a sort of dread. Then turning his
+eyes upon the cock with a look of compassion, said, in a low voice, to
+Lawrence, 'Shall you like to stand by and see its eyes pecked out?' 'I
+don't know,' said Lawrence, 'as to that; but they say a cockfight's a
+fine sight, and it's no more cruel in me to go than another; and a great
+many go, and I've nothing else to do, so I shall go.' 'But I have
+something else to do,' said Jem, laughing, 'so I shall not go.' 'But,'
+continued Lawrence, 'you know Monday is a great Bristol fair, and one
+must be merry then, of all the days in the year.' 'One day in the year,
+sure, there's no harm in being merry,' said the stable-boy. 'I hope
+not,' said Jem; 'for I know, for my part, I am merry every day in the
+year.' 'That's very odd,' said Lawrence; 'but I know, for my part, I
+would not for all the world miss going to the fair, for at least it will
+be something to talk of for half a year after. Come, you'll go, won't
+you?' 'No,' said Jem, still looking as if he did not like to talk before
+the ill-looking stranger. 'Then what will you do with all your money?'
+'I'll tell you about that another time,' whispered Jem; 'and don't you
+go to see that cock's eyes pecked out; it won't make you merry, I'm
+sure.' 'If I had anything else to divert me,' said Lawrence, hesitating
+and yawning. 'Come,' cried the stable-boy, seizing his stretching arm,
+'come along,' cried he; and, pulling him away from Jem, upon whom he
+cast a look of extreme contempt; 'leave him alone, he's not the sort.'
+
+'What a fool you are,' said he to Lawrence, the moment he got him out of
+the stable; 'you might have known he would not go, else we should soon
+have trimmed him out of his four and sevenpence. But how came you to
+talk of four and sevenpence? I saw in the manger a hat full of silver.'
+'Indeed!' exclaimed Lawrence. 'Yes, indeed; but why did you stammer so
+when we first got in? You had like to have blown us all up.' 'I was so
+ashamed,' said Lawrence, hanging down his head. 'Ashamed! but you must
+not talk of shame now you are in for it, and I shan't let you off; you
+owe us half a crown, recollect, and I must be paid to-night, so see and
+get the money somehow or other.' After a considerable pause he added, 'I
+answer for it he'd never miss half a crown out of all that silver.' 'But
+to steal,' said Lawrence, drawing back with horror; 'I never thought I
+should come to that--and from poor Jem, too--the money that he has
+worked so hard for, too.' 'But it is not stealing; we don't mean to
+steal; only to borrow it; and if we win, which we certainly shall, at
+the cock-fight, pay it back again, and he'll never know anything about
+the matter, and what harm will it do him? Besides, what signifies
+talking? you can't go to the cock-fight, or the fair either, if you
+don't; and I tell ye we don't mean to steal it; we'll pay it by Monday
+night.'
+
+Lawrence made no reply, and they parted without his coming to any
+determination.
+
+Here let us pause in our story. We are almost afraid to go on. The rest
+is very shocking. Our little readers will shudder as they read. But it
+is better that they should know the truth and see what the idle boy came
+to at last.
+
+In the dead of the night, Lawrence heard somebody tap at his window. He
+knew well who it was, for this was the signal agreed upon between him
+and his wicked companion. He trembled at the thoughts of what he was
+about to do, and lay quite still, with his head under the bedclothes,
+till he heard the second tap. Then he got up, dressed himself, and
+opened his window. It was almost even with the ground. His companion
+said to him, in a hollow voice, 'Are you ready?' He made no answer, but
+got out of the window and followed.
+
+When he got to the stable a black cloud was just passing over the moon,
+and it was quite dark. 'Where are you?' whispered Lawrence, groping
+about, 'where are you? Speak to me.' 'I am here; give me your hand.'
+Lawrence stretched out his hand. 'Is that your hand?' said the wicked
+boy, as Lawrence laid hold of him; 'how cold it feels.' 'Let us go
+back,' said Lawrence; 'it is time yet.' 'It is no time to go back,'
+replied the other, opening the door: 'you've gone too far now to go
+back,' and he pushed Lawrence into the stable. 'Have you found it? Take
+care of the horse. Have you done? What are you about? Make haste, I hear
+a noise,' said the stable-boy, who watched at the door. 'I am feeling
+for the half-crown, but I can't find it.' 'Bring all together.' He
+brought Jem's broken flower-pot, with all the money in it, to the door.
+
+The black cloud had now passed over the moon, and the light shone full
+upon them. 'What do we stand here for?' said the stable-boy, snatching
+the flower-pot out of Lawrence's trembling hands, and pulled him away
+from the door.
+
+'Good God!' cried Lawrence, 'you won't take all. You said you'd only
+take half a crown, and pay it back on Monday. You said you'd only take
+half a crown!' 'Hold your tongue,' replied the other, walking on, deaf
+to all remonstrances--'if ever I am to be hanged, it shan't be for half
+a crown.'
+
+Lawrence's blood ran cold in his veins, and he felt as if all his hair
+stood on end. Not another word passed. His accomplice carried off the
+money, and Lawrence crept, with all the horrors of guilt upon him, to
+his restless bed. All night he was starting from frightful dreams; or
+else, broad awake, he lay listening to every small noise, unable to
+stir, and scarcely daring to breathe--tormented by that most dreadful of
+all kinds of fear, that fear which is the constant companion of an evil
+conscience.
+
+He thought the morning would never come; but when it was day, when he
+heard the birds sing, and saw everything look cheerful as usual, he felt
+still more miserable. It was Sunday morning, and the bell rang for
+church. All the children of the village, dressed in their Sunday
+clothes, innocent and gay, and little Jem, the best and gayest amongst
+them, went flocking by his door to church.
+
+'Well, Lawrence,' said Jem, pulling his coat as he passed, and saw
+Lawrence leaning against his father's door, 'what makes you look so
+black?' 'I?' said Lawrence, starting; 'why do you say that I look
+black?' 'Nay, then,' said Jem, 'you look white enough now, if that will
+please you, for you're turned as pale as death.' 'Pale!' replied
+Lawrence, not knowing what he said, and turned abruptly away, for he
+dared not stand another look of Jem's; conscious that guilt was written
+in his face, he shunned every eye. He would now have given the world to
+have thrown off the load of guilt which lay upon his mind. He longed to
+follow Jem, to fall upon his knees and confess all.
+
+Dreading the moment when Jem should discover his loss, Lawrence dared
+not stay at home, and not knowing what to do, or where to go, he
+mechanically went to his old haunt at the stable yard, and lurked
+thereabouts all day, with his accomplice, who tried in vain to quiet his
+fears and raise his spirits by talking of the next day's cock-fight. It
+was agreed that, as soon as the dusk of the evening came on, they should
+go together into a certain lonely field, and there divide their booty.
+
+In the meantime, Jem, when he returned from church, was very full of
+business, preparing for the reception of his mistress, of whose intended
+visit he had informed his mother; and whilst she was arranging the
+kitchen and their little parlour, he ran to search the strawberry beds.
+
+'Why, my Jem, how merry you are to-day!' said his mother, when he came
+in with the strawberries, and was jumping about the room playfully.
+'Now, keep those spirits of yours, Jem, till you want 'em, and don't let
+it come upon you all at once. Have it in mind that to-morrow's fair day,
+and Lightfoot must go. I bid Farmer Truck call for him to-night. He said
+he'd take him along with his own, and he'll be here just now--and then I
+know how it will be with you, Jem!' 'So do I!' cried Jem, swallowing his
+secret with great difficulty, and then tumbling head over heels four
+times running.
+
+A carriage passed the window, and stopped at the door. Jem ran out; it
+was his mistress. She came in smiling, and soon made the old woman
+smile, too, by praising the neatness of everything in the house.
+
+We shall pass over, however important as they were deemed at the time,
+the praises of the strawberries, and of 'my grandmother's china plate.'
+
+Another knock was heard at the door. 'Run, Jem,' said his mother. 'I
+hope it's our milk-woman with cream for the lady.' No; it was Farmer
+Truck come for Lightfoot. The old woman's countenance fell. 'Fetch him
+out, dear,' said she, turning to her son; but Jem was gone; he flew out
+to the stable the moment he saw the flap of Farmer Truck's greatcoat.
+
+'Sit ye down, farmer,' said the old woman, after they had waited about
+five minutes in expectation of Jem's return. 'You'd best sit down, if
+the lady will give you leave; for he'll not hurry himself back again. My
+boy's a fool, madam, about that there horse.' Trying to laugh, she
+added, 'I knew how Lightfoot and he would be loth enough to part. He
+won't bring him out to the last minute; so do sit ye down, neighbour.'
+
+The farmer had scarcely sat down when Jem, with a pale, wild
+countenance, came back. 'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God
+bless the boy!' said his mother, looking at him quite frightened, whilst
+he tried to speak but could not.
+
+She went up to him, and then leaning his head against her, he cried,
+'It's gone!--it's all gone!' and, bursting into tears, he sobbed as if
+his little heart would break. 'What's gone, love?' said his mother. 'My
+two guineas--Lightfoot's two guineas. I went to fetch 'em to give you,
+mammy; but the broken flower-pot that I put them in and all's
+gone!--quite gone!' repeated he, checking his sobs. 'I saw them safe
+last night, and was showing 'em to Lightfoot; and I was so glad to think
+I had earned them all myself; and I thought how surprised you'd look,
+and how glad you'd be, and how you'd kiss me, and all!'
+
+His mother listened to him with the greatest surprise, whilst his
+mistress stood in silence, looking first at the old woman and then at
+Jem with a penetrating eye, as if she suspected the truth of his story,
+and was afraid of becoming the dupe of her own compassion.
+
+[Illustration: _'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God bless the
+boy!' said his mother._]
+
+'This is a very strange thing!' said she gravely. 'How came you to leave
+all your money in a broken flower-pot in the stable? How came you not to
+give it to your mother to take care of?' 'Why, don't you remember?' said
+Jem, looking up in the midst of his tears--'why, don't you remember you,
+your own self, bid me not tell her about it till you were by?' 'And did
+you not tell her?' 'Nay, ask mammy,' said Jem, a little offended; and
+when afterwards the lady went on questioning him in a severe manner, as
+if she did not believe him, he at last made no answer. 'O Jem! Jem! why
+don't you speak to the lady?' said his mother. 'I have spoke, and spoke
+the truth,' said Jem proudly; 'and she did not believe me.'
+
+Still the lady, who had lived too long in the world to be without
+suspicion, maintained a cold manner, and determined to wait the event
+without interfering, saying only that she hoped the money would be
+found, and advised Jem to have done crying.
+
+'I have done,' said Jem; 'I shall cry no more.' And as he had the
+greatest command over himself, he actually did not shed another tear,
+not even when the farmer got up to go, saying he could wait no longer.
+
+Jem silently went to bring out Lightfoot. The lady now took her seat,
+where she could see all that passed at the open parlour-window. The old
+woman stood at the door, and several idle people of the village, who had
+gathered round the lady's carriage examining it, turned about to listen.
+In a minute or two Jem appeared, with a steady countenance, leading
+Lightfoot, and, when he came up, without saying a word, put the bridle
+into Farmer Truck's hand. 'He _has been_ a good horse,' said the farmer.
+'He _is_ a good horse!' cried Jem, and threw his arm over Lightfoot's
+neck, hiding his own face as he leaned upon him.
+
+At this instant a party of milk-women went by; and one of them, having
+set down her pail, came behind Jem and gave him a pretty smart blow upon
+the back. He looked up. 'And don't you know me?' said she. 'I forget,'
+said Jem; 'I think I have seen your face before, but I forget.' 'Do you
+so? and you'll tell me just now,' said she, half opening her hand, 'that
+you forget who gave you this, and who charged you not to part with it,
+too.' Here she quite opened her large hand, and on the palm of it
+appeared Jem's silver penny.
+
+'Where?' exclaimed Jem, seizing it, 'oh, where did you find it? and have
+you--oh, tell me, have you got the rest of my money?' 'I know nothing of
+your money--I don't know what you would be at,' said the milk-woman.
+'But where--pray tell me where--did you find this?' 'With them that you
+gave it to, I suppose,' said the milk-woman, turning away suddenly to
+take up her milk-pail. But now Jem's mistress called to her through the
+window, begging her to stop, and joining in his entreaties to know how
+she came by the silver penny.
+
+'Why, madam,' said she, taking up the corner of her apron, 'I came by it
+in an odd way, too. You must know my Betty is sick, so I came with the
+milk myself, though it's not what I'm used to; for my Betty--you know my
+Betty?' said she, turning round to the old woman, 'my Betty serves you,
+and she's a tight and stirring lassy, ma'am, I can assure----' 'Yes, I
+don't doubt it,' said the lady impatiently; 'but about the silver
+penny?' 'Why, that's true; as I was coming along all alone, for the rest
+came round, and I came a short cut across yon field--no, you can't see
+it, madam, where you stand--but if you were here----' 'I see it--I know
+it,' said Jem, out of breath with anxiety. 'Well--well--I rested my pail
+upon the stile, and sets me down awhile, and there comes out of the
+hedge--I don't know well how, for they startled me so I'd like to have
+thrown down my milk--two boys, one about the size of he,' said she,
+pointing to Jem, 'and one a matter taller, but ill-looking like; so I
+did not think to stir to make way for them, and they were like in a
+desperate hurry: so, without waiting for the stile, one of 'em pulled at
+the gate, and when it would not open (for it was tied with a pretty
+stout cord) one of 'em whips out with his knife and cuts it----Now, have
+you a knife about you, sir?' continued the milk-woman to the farmer. He
+gave her his knife. 'Here, now, ma'am, just sticking, as it were here,
+between the blade and the haft, was the silver penny. The lad took no
+notice; but when he opened it, out it falls. Still he takes no heed, but
+cuts the cord, as I said before, and through the gate they went, and out
+of sight in half a minute. I picks up the penny, for my heart misgave me
+that it was the very one my husband had had a long time, and had given
+against my voice to he,' pointing to Jem; 'and I charged him not to part
+with it; and, ma'am, when I looked I knew it by the mark, so I thought
+I would show it to _he_,' again pointing to Jem, 'and let him give it
+back to those it belongs to.' 'It belongs to me,' said Jem, 'I never
+gave it to anybody--but----' 'But,' cried the farmer, 'those boys have
+robbed him; it is they who have all his money.' 'Oh, which way did they
+go?' cried Jem, 'I'll run after them.'
+
+'No, no,' said the lady, calling to her servant; and she desired him to
+take his horse and ride after them. 'Ay,' added Farmer Truck, 'do you
+take the road, and I'll take the field way, and I'll be bound we'll have
+'em presently.'
+
+Whilst they were gone in pursuit of the thieves, the lady, who was now
+thoroughly convinced of Jem's truth, desired her coachman would produce
+what she had ordered him to bring with him that evening. Out of the boot
+of the carriage the coachman immediately produced a new saddle and
+bridle.
+
+How Jem's eyes sparkled when the saddle was thrown upon Lightfoot's
+back! 'Put it on your horse yourself, Jem,' said the lady; 'it is
+yours.'
+
+Confused reports of Lightfoot's splendid accoutrements, of the pursuit
+of thieves, and of the fine and generous lady who was standing at dame
+Preston's window, quickly spread through the village, and drew everybody
+from their houses. They crowded round Jem to hear the story. The
+children especially, who were fond of him, expressed the strongest
+indignation against the thieves. Every eye was on the stretch; and now
+some, who had run down the lane, came back shouting, 'Here they are!
+they've got the thieves!'
+
+The footman on horseback carried one boy before him; and the farmer,
+striding along, dragged another. The latter had on a red jacket, which
+little Jem immediately recollected, and scarcely dared lift his eyes to
+look at the boy on horseback. 'Good God!' said he to himself, 'it must
+be--yet surely it can't be Lawrence!' The footman rode on as fast as the
+people would let him. The boy's hat was slouched, and his head hung
+down, so that nobody could see his face.
+
+At this instant there was a disturbance in the crowd. A man who was
+half-drunk pushed his way forwards, swearing that nobody should stop
+him; that he had a right to see--and he _would_ see. And so he did; for,
+forcing through all resistance, he staggered up to the footman just as
+he was lifting down the boy he had carried before him. 'I _will_--I
+tell you I _will_ see the thief!' cried the drunken man, pushing up the
+boy's hat. It was his own son. 'Lawrence!' exclaimed the wretched
+father. The shock sobered him at once, and he hid his face in his hands.
+
+There was an awful silence. Lawrence fell on his knees, and in a voice
+that could scarcely be heard made a full confession of all the
+circumstances of his guilt.
+
+'Such a young creature so wicked!' the bystanders exclaimed; 'what could
+put such wickedness in your head?' 'Bad company,' said Lawrence. 'And
+how came you--what brought you into bad company?' 'I don't know, except
+it was idleness.'
+
+While this was saying, the farmer was emptying Lazy Lawrence's pockets;
+and when the money appeared, all his former companions in the village
+looked at each other with astonishment and terror. Their parents grasped
+their little hands closer, and cried, 'Thank God! he is not my son. How
+often when he was little we used, as he lounged about, to tell him that
+idleness was the root of all evil.'
+
+As for the hardened wretch, his accomplice, every one was impatient to
+have him sent to gaol. He put on a bold, insolent countenance, till he
+heard Lawrence's confession; till the money was found upon him; and he
+heard the milk-woman declare that she would swear to the silver penny
+which he had dropped. Then he turned pale, and betrayed the strongest
+signs of fear.
+
+'We must take him before the justice,' said the farmer, 'and he'll be
+lodged in Bristol gaol.'
+
+'Oh!' said Jem, springing forwards when Lawrence's hands were going to
+be tied, 'let him go--won't you?--can't you let him go?' 'Yes, madam,
+for mercy's sake,' said Jem's mother to the lady; 'think what a disgrace
+to his family to be sent to gaol.'
+
+His father stood by wringing his hands in an agony of despair. 'It's all
+my fault,' cried he; 'brought him up in _idleness_.' 'But he'll never be
+idle any more,' said Jem; 'won't you speak for him, ma'am?' 'Don't ask
+the lady to speak for him,' said the farmer; 'it's better he should go
+to Bridewell now, than to the gallows by and by.'
+
+Nothing more was said; for everybody felt the truth of the farmer's
+speech.
+
+Lawrence was eventually sent to Bridewell for a month, and the
+stable-boy was sent for trial, convicted, and transported to Botany Bay.
+
+During Lawrence's confinement, Jem often visited him, and carried him
+such little presents as he could afford to give; and Jem could afford to
+be _generous_, because he was _industrious_. Lawrence's heart was
+touched by his kindness, and his example struck him so forcibly that,
+when his confinement was ended, he resolved to set immediately to work;
+and, to the astonishment of all who knew him, soon became remarkable for
+industry. He was found early and late at his work, established a new
+character, and for ever lost the name of '_Lazy Lawrence_.'
+
+
+
+
+THE FALSE KEY
+
+
+Mr. Spencer, a very benevolent and sensible man, undertook the education
+of several poor children. Among the best was a boy of the name of
+Franklin, whom he had bred up from the time he was five years old.
+Franklin had the misfortune to be the son of a man of infamous
+character; and for many years this was a disgrace and reproach to his
+child. When any of the neighbours' children quarrelled with him, they
+used to tell him that he would turn out like his father. But Mr. Spencer
+always assured him that he might make himself whatever he pleased; that
+by behaving well he would certainly, sooner or later, secure the esteem
+and love of all who knew him, even of those who had the strongest
+prejudice against him on his father's account.
+
+This hope was very delightful to Franklin, and he showed the strongest
+desire to learn and to do everything that was right; so that Mr. Spencer
+soon grew fond of him, and took great pains to instruct him, and to give
+him all the good habits and principles which might make him a useful,
+respectable, and happy man.
+
+When he was about thirteen years of age, Mr. Spencer one day sent for
+him into his closet; and as he was folding up a letter which he had been
+writing, said to him, with a very kind look, but in a graver tone than
+usual, 'Franklin, you are going to leave me.' 'Sir!' said Franklin. 'You
+are now going to leave me, and to begin the world for yourself. You will
+carry this letter to my sister, Mrs. Churchill, in Queen's Square. You
+know Queen's Square?' Franklin bowed. 'You must expect,' continued Mr.
+Spencer, 'to meet with several disagreeable things, and a great deal of
+rough work, at your first setting out; but be faithful and obedient to
+your mistress, and obliging to your fellow-servants, and all will go
+well. Mrs. Churchill will make you a very good mistress, if you behave
+properly; and I have no doubt but you will.' 'Thank you, sir.' 'And you
+will always--I mean, as long as you deserve it--find a friend in me.'
+'Thank you, sir--I am sure you are----' There Franklin stopped short,
+for the recollection of all Mr. Spencer's goodness rushed upon him at
+once, and he could not say another word. 'Bring me a candle to seal this
+letter,' said his master; and he was very glad to get out of the room.
+He came back with the candle, and, with a stout heart, stood by whilst
+the letter was sealing; and, when his master put it into his hand, said,
+in a cheerful voice, 'I hope you will let me see you again, sir,
+sometimes.' 'Certainly; whenever your mistress can spare you, I shall be
+very glad to see you; and remember, if ever you get into any difficulty,
+don't be afraid to come to me. I have sometimes spoken harshly to you;
+but you will not meet with a more indulgent friend.' Franklin at this
+turned away with a full heart; and, after making two or three attempts
+to express his gratitude, left the room without being able to speak.
+
+He got to Queen's Square about three o'clock. The door was opened by a
+large, red-faced man, in a blue coat and scarlet waistcoat, to whom he
+felt afraid to give his message, lest he should not be a servant. 'Well,
+what's your business, sir?' said the butler. 'I have a letter for Mrs.
+Churchill, _sir_,' said Franklin, endeavouring to pronounce his _sir_ in
+a tone as respectful as the butler's was insolent.
+
+The man, having examined the direction, seal, and edges of the letter,
+carried it upstairs, and in a few minutes returned, and ordered Franklin
+to rub his shoes well and follow him. He was then shown into a handsome
+room, where he found his mistress--an elderly lady. She asked him a few
+questions, examining him attentively as she spoke; and her severe eye at
+first and her gracious smile afterwards, made him feel that she was a
+person to be both loved and feared. 'I shall give you in charge,' said
+she, ringing a bell, 'to my housekeeper, and I hope she will have no
+reason to be displeased with you.'
+
+The housekeeper, when she first came in, appeared with a smiling
+countenance; but the moment she cast her eyes on Franklin, it changed to
+a look of surprise and suspicion. Her mistress recommended him to her
+protection, saying, 'Pomfret, I hope you will keep this boy under your
+own eye.' And she received him with a cold 'Very well, ma'am,' which
+plainly showed that she was not disposed to like him. In fact, Mrs.
+Pomfret was a woman so fond of power, and so jealous of favour, that she
+would have quarrelled with an angel who had got so near her mistress
+without her introduction. She smothered her displeasure, however, till
+night; when, as she attended her mistress's toilette, she could not
+refrain from expressing her sentiments. She began cautiously: 'Ma'am, is
+not this the boy Mr. Spencer was talking of one day--that has been
+brought up by the _Villaintropic Society_, I think they call
+it?'--'Philanthropic Society; yes,' said her mistress; 'and my brother
+gives him a high character: I hope he will do very well.' 'I'm sure I
+hope so too,' observed Mrs. Pomfret; 'but I can't say; for my part, I've
+no great notion of those low people. They say all those children are
+taken from the very lowest _drugs_ and _refuges_ of the town, and surely
+they are like enough, ma'am, to take after their own fathers and
+mothers.' 'But they are not suffered to be with their parents,' rejoined
+the lady; 'and therefore cannot be hurt by their example. This little
+boy, to be sure, was unfortunate in his father, but he has had an
+excellent education.' 'Oh, _edication_! to be sure, ma'am, I know. I
+don't say but what _edication_ is a great thing. But then, ma'am,
+_edication_ can't change the _natur_ that's in one, they say; and one
+that's born naturally bad and low, they say, all the _edication_ in the
+world won't do no good; and, for my part, ma'am, I know you knows best;
+but I should be afraid to let any of those _Villaintropic_ folks get
+into my house; for nobody can tell the _natur_ of them aforehand. I
+declare it frights me.' 'Pomfret, I thought you had better sense: how
+would this poor boy earn his bread? he would be forced to starve or
+steal, if everybody had such prejudices.'
+
+Pomfret, who really was a good woman, was softened at this idea, and
+said, 'God forbid he should starve or steal, and God forbid I should say
+anything _prejudiciary_ of the boy; for there may be no harm in him.'
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Churchill, changing her tone, 'but, Pomfret, if we
+don't like the boy at the end of the month, we have done with him; for I
+have only promised Mr. Spencer to keep him a month upon trial: there is
+no harm done.' 'Dear, no, ma'am, to be sure; and cook must put up with
+her disappointment, that's all.' 'What disappointment?' 'About her
+nephew, ma'am; the boy she and I was speaking to you for.' 'When?' 'The
+day you called her up about the almond pudding, ma'am. If you remember,
+you said you should have no objections to try the boy; and upon that
+cook bought him new shirts; but they are to the good, as I tell her.'
+'But I did not promise to take her nephew.' 'Oh no, ma'am, not at all;
+she does not think to _say that_, else I should be very angry; but the
+poor woman never let fall a word, any more than frets that the boy
+should miss such a good place.' 'Well, but since I did say that I should
+have no objection to try him, I shall keep my word; let him come
+to-morrow. Let them both have a fair trial, and at the end of the month
+I can decide which I like best, and which we had better keep.'
+
+Dismissed with these orders, Mrs. Pomfret hastened to report all that
+had passed to the cook, like a favourite minister, proud to display the
+extent of her secret influence. In the morning Felix, the cook's nephew,
+arrived; and, the moment he came into the kitchen, every eye, even the
+scullion's, was fixed upon him with approbation, and afterwards glanced
+upon Franklin with contempt--contempt which Franklin could not endure
+without some confusion, though quite unconscious of having deserved it;
+nor, upon the most impartial and cool self-examination, could he
+comprehend the justice of his judges. He perceived indeed--for the
+comparisons were minutely made in audible and scornful whispers--that
+Felix was a much handsomer, or as the kitchen maid expressed it, a much
+more genteeler gentlemanly looking like sort of person than he was; and
+he was made to understand that he wanted a frill to his shirt, a cravat,
+a pair of thin shoes, and, above all, shoe-strings, besides other
+nameless advantages, which justly made his rival the admiration of the
+kitchen. However, upon calling to mind all that his friend Mr. Spencer
+had ever said to him, he could not recollect his having warned him that
+shoe-strings were indispensable requisites to the character of a good
+servant; so that he could only comfort himself with resolving, if
+possible, to make amends for these deficiencies, and to dissipate the
+prejudices which he saw were formed against him, by the strictest
+adherence to all that his tutor had taught him to be his duty. He hoped
+to secure the approbation of his mistress by scrupulous obedience to all
+her commands, and faithful care of all that belonged to her. At the same
+time he flattered himself he should win the goodwill of his
+fellow-servants by showing a constant desire to oblige them. He pursued
+this plan of conduct steadily for nearly three weeks, and found that he
+succeeded beyond his expectations in pleasing his mistress; but
+unfortunately he found it more difficult to please his fellow-servants,
+and he sometimes offended when he least expected it. He had made great
+progress in the affections of Corkscrew, the butler, by working indeed
+very hard for him, and doing every day at least half his business. But
+one unfortunate night the butler was gone out; the bell rang: he went
+upstairs; and his mistress asking where Corkscrew was, he answered that
+he was gone out. 'Where to?' said his mistress. 'I don't know,' answered
+Franklin. And, as he had told exactly the truth, and meant to do no
+harm, he was surprised, at the butler's return, when he repeated to him
+what had passed, at receiving a sudden box on the ear, and the
+appellation of a mischievous, impertinent, mean-spirited brat.
+
+'Mischievous, impertinent, mean!' repeated Franklin to himself; but,
+looking in the butler's face, which was a deeper scarlet than usual, he
+judged that he was far from sober, and did not doubt but that the next
+morning, when he came to the use of his reason, he would be sensible of
+his injustice, and apologise for his box of the ear. But no apology
+coming all day, Franklin at last ventured to request an explanation, or
+rather, to ask what he had best do on the next occasion. 'Why,' said
+Corkscrew, 'when mistress asked for me, how came you to say I was gone
+out?' 'Because, you know, I saw you go out.' 'And when she asked you
+where I was gone, how came you to say that you did not know?' 'Because,
+indeed, I did not.' 'You are a stupid blockhead! could you not say I was
+gone to the washerwoman's?' 'But _were_ you?' said Franklin. 'Was I?'
+cried Corkscrew, and looked as if he would have struck him again: 'how
+dare you give me the lie, Mr. Hypocrite? You would be ready enough, I'll
+be bound, to make excuses for yourself. Why are not mistress's clogs
+cleaned? Go along and blacken 'em, this minute, and send Felix to me.'
+
+From this time forward Felix alone was privileged to enter the butler's
+pantry. Felix became the favourite of Corkscrew; and, though Franklin by
+no means sought to pry into the mysteries of their private conferences,
+nor ever entered without knocking at the door, yet it was his fate once
+to be sent of a message at an unlucky time; and, as the door was
+half-open, he could not avoid seeing Felix drinking a bumper of red
+liquor, which he could not help suspecting to be wine; and, as the
+decanter, which usually went upstairs after dinner, was at this time in
+the butler's grasp, without any stopper in it, he was involuntarily
+forced to suspect they were drinking his mistress's wine.
+
+Nor were the bumpers of port the only unlawful rewards which Felix
+received: his aunt, the cook, had occasion for his assistance, and she
+had many delicious _douceurs_ in her gift. Many a handful of currants,
+many a half-custard, many a triangular remnant of pie, besides the
+choice of his own meal at breakfast, dinner, and supper, fell to the
+share of the favourite Felix; whilst Franklin was neglected, though he
+took the utmost pains to please the cook in all honourable service, and,
+when she was hot, angry, or hurried, he was always at hand to help her;
+and in the hour of adversity, when the clock struck five, and no dinner
+was dished, and no kitchen-maid with twenty pair of hands was to be had,
+Franklin would answer to her call, with flowers to garnish her dishes,
+and presence of mind to know, in the midst of the commotion, where
+everything that was wanting was to be found; so that, quick as
+lightning, all difficulties vanished before him. Yet when the danger was
+over, and the hour of adversity had passed, the ungrateful cook would
+forget her benefactor, and, when it came to his supper time, would throw
+him, with a carelessness that touched him sensibly, anything which the
+other servants were too nice to eat. All this Franklin bore with
+fortitude; nor did he envy Felix the dainties which he ate, sometimes
+close beside him: 'For,' said he to himself, 'I have a clear conscience,
+and that is more than Felix can have. I know how he wins cook's favour
+too well, and I fancy I know how I have offended her; for since the day
+I saw the basket, she has done nothing but huff me.'
+
+The history of the basket was this. Mrs. Pomfret, the housekeeper, had
+several times, directly and indirectly, given the world below to
+understand that she and her mistress thought there was a prodigious
+quantity of meat eaten of late. Now, when she spoke, it was usually at
+dinner time; she always looked, or Franklin imagined that she looked,
+suspiciously at him. Other people looked more maliciously; but, as he
+felt himself perfectly innocent, he went on eating his dinner in
+silence.
+
+But at length it was time to explain. One Sunday there appeared a
+handsome sirloin of beef, which before noon on Monday had shrunk almost
+to the bare bone, and presented such a deplorable spectacle to the
+opening eyes of Mrs. Pomfret that her long-smothered indignation burst
+forth, and she boldly declared she was now certain there had been foul
+play, and she would have the beef found, or she would know why. She
+spoke, but no beef appeared, till Franklin, with a look of sudden
+recollection, cried, 'Did not I see something like a piece of beef in a
+basket in the dairy?--I think----'
+
+The cook, as if somebody had smote her a deadly blow, grew pale; but,
+suddenly recovering the use of her speech, turned upon Franklin, and,
+with a voice of thunder, gave him the lie direct; and forthwith, taking
+Mrs. Pomfret by the ruffle, led the way to the dairy, declaring she
+could defy the world--'that so she could, and would.' 'There, ma'am,'
+said she kicking an empty basket which lay on the floor--'there's malice
+for you. Ask him why he don't show you the beef in the basket.' 'I
+thought I saw----' poor Franklin began. 'You thought you saw!' cried the
+cook, coming close up to him with kimboed arms, and looking like a
+dragon; 'and pray, sir, what business has such a one as you to think you
+see? And pray, ma'am, will you be pleased to speak--perhaps, ma'am,
+he'll condescend to obey you--ma'am, will you be pleased to forbid him
+my dairy? for here he comes prying and spying about; and how, ma'am, am
+I to answer for my butter and cream, or anything at all? I'm sure it's
+what I can't pretend to, unless you do me the justice to forbid him my
+places.'
+
+Mrs. Pomfret, whose eyes were blinded by her prejudices against the
+folks of the _Villaintropic Society_, and also by her secret jealousy of
+a boy whom she deemed to be a growing favourite of her mistress's, took
+part with the cook, and ended, as she began, with a firm persuasion
+that Franklin was the guilty person. 'Let him alone, let him alone!'
+said she, 'he has as many turns and windings as a hare; but we shall
+catch him yet, I'll be bound, in some of his doublings. I knew the
+nature of him well enough, from the first time I ever set my eyes upon
+him; but mistress shall have her own way, and see the end of it.'
+
+These words, and the bitter sense of injustice, drew tears at length
+fast down the proud cheek of Franklin, which might possibly have touched
+Mrs. Pomfret, if Felix, with a sneer, had not called them _crocodile
+tears_. 'Felix, too!' thought he; 'this is too much.' In fact, Felix had
+till now professed himself his firm ally, and had on his part received
+from Franklin unequivocal proofs of friendship; for it must be told that
+every other morning, when it was Felix's turn to get breakfast, Felix
+never was up in decent time, and must inevitably have come to public
+disgrace if Franklin had not got all the breakfast things ready for him,
+the bread and butter spread, and the toast toasted; and had not,
+moreover, regularly, when the clock struck eight, and Mrs. Pomfret's
+foot was heard overhead, run to call the sleeping Felix, and helped him
+constantly through the hurry of getting dressed one instant before the
+housekeeper came downstairs. All this could not but be present to his
+memory; but, scorning to reproach him, Franklin wiped away his crocodile
+tears, and preserved a magnanimous silence.
+
+The hour of retribution was; however, not so far off as Felix imagined.
+Cunning people may go on cleverly in their devices for some time; but
+although they may escape once, twice, perhaps ninety-nine times, what
+does that signify?--for the hundredth time they come to shame, and lose
+all their character. Grown bold by frequent success, Felix became more
+careless in his operations; and it happened that one day he met his
+mistress full in the passage, as he was going on one of the cook's
+secret errands. 'Where are you going, Felix?' said his mistress. 'To the
+washerwoman's, ma'am,' answered he, with his usual effrontery. 'Very
+well,' said she. 'Call at the bookseller's in--stay, I must write down
+the direction. Pomfret,' said she, opening the housekeeper's room door.
+'have you a bit of paper?' Pomfret came with the writing-paper, and
+looked very angry to see that Felix was going out without her
+knowledge; so, while Mrs. Churchill was writing the direction, she stood
+talking to him about it; whilst he, in the greatest terror imaginable,
+looked up in her face as she spoke; but was all the time intent on
+parrying on the other side the attacks of a little French dog of his
+mistress's, which, unluckily for him, had followed her into the passage.
+Manchon was extremely fond of Felix, who, by way of pleasing his
+mistress, had paid most assiduous court to her dog; yet now his caresses
+were rather troublesome. Manchon leaped up, and was not to be rebuffed.
+'Poor fellow--poor fellow--down! down! poor fellow!' cried Felix, and
+put him away. But Manchon leaped up again, and began smelling near the
+fatal pocket in a most alarming manner. 'You will see by this direction
+where you are to go,' said his mistress. 'Manchon, come here--and you
+will be so good as to bring me--down! down! Manchon, be quiet!' But
+Manchon knew better--he had now got his head into Felix's pocket, and
+would not be quiet till he had drawn from thence, rustling out of its
+brown paper, half a cold turkey, which had been missing since morning.
+'My cold turkey, as I'm alive!' exclaimed the housekeeper, darting upon
+it with horror and amazement. 'What is all this?' said Mrs. Churchill,
+in a composed voice. 'I don't know, ma'am,' answered Felix, so confused
+that he knew not what to say; 'but----' 'But what?' cried Mrs. Pomfret,
+indignation flashing from her eyes. 'But what?' repeated his mistress,
+waiting for his reply with a calm air of attention, which still more
+disconcerted Felix; for, though with an angry person he might have some
+chance of escape, he knew that he could not invent any excuse in such
+circumstances, which could stand the examination of a person in her
+sober senses. He was struck dumb. 'Speak,' said Mrs. Churchill, in a
+still lower tone; 'I am ready to hear all you have to say. In my house
+everybody shall have justice; speak--but what?' '_But_,' stammered
+Felix; and, after in vain attempting to equivocate, confessed that he
+was going to take the turkey to his cousin's; but he threw all the blame
+upon his aunt, the cook, who, he said, had ordered him upon this
+expedition.
+
+The cook was now summoned; but she totally denied all knowledge of the
+affair, with the same violence with which she had lately confounded
+Franklin about the beef in the basket; not entirely, however, with the
+same success; for Felix, perceiving by his mistress's eye that she was
+on the point of desiring him to leave the house immediately; and not
+being very willing to leave a place in which he had lived so well with
+the butler, did not hesitate to confront his aunt with assurance equal
+to her own. He knew how to bring his charge home to her. He produced a
+note in her own handwriting, the purport of which was to request her
+cousin's acceptance of 'some _delicate cold turkey_,' and to beg she
+would send her, by the return of the bearer, a little of her
+cherry-brandy.
+
+Mrs. Churchill coolly wrote upon the back of the note her cook's
+discharge, and informed Felix she had no further occasion for his
+services, but, upon his pleading with many tears, which Franklin did not
+call _crocodile tears_, that he was so young, that he was under the
+dominion of his aunt, he touched Mrs. Pomfret's compassion, and she
+obtained for him permission to stay till the end of the month, to give
+him yet a chance of redeeming his character.
+
+Mrs. Pomfret, now seeing how far she had been imposed upon, resolved,
+for the future, to be more upon her guard with Felix, and felt that she
+had treated Franklin with great injustice, when she accused him of
+malpractices about the sirloin of beef.
+
+Good people, when they are made sensible that they have treated any one
+with injustice, are impatient to have an opportunity to rectify their
+mistake; and Mrs. Pomfret was now prepared to see everything which
+Franklin did in the most favourable point of view; especially as the
+next day she discovered that it was he who every morning boiled the
+water for her tea, and buttered her toast--services for which she had
+always thought she was indebted to Felix. Besides, she had rated Felix's
+abilities very highly, because he made up her weekly accounts for her;
+but unluckily once, when Franklin was out of the way, and she brought a
+bill in a hurry to her favourite to cast up, she discovered that he did
+not know how to cast up pounds, shillings, and pence, and he was obliged
+to confess that she must wait till Franklin came home.
+
+But, passing over a number of small incidents which gradually unfolded
+the character of the two boys, we must proceed to a more serious affair.
+
+Corkscrew frequently, after he had finished taking away supper, and
+after the housekeeper was gone to bed, sallied forth to a neighbouring
+alehouse to drink with his friends. The alehouse was kept by that cousin
+of Felix's who was so fond of '_delicate_ cold turkey,' and who had such
+choice cherry-brandy. Corkscrew kept the key of the house door, so that
+he could return home whenever he thought proper; and, if he should by
+accident be called for by his mistress after supper, Felix knew where to
+find him, and did not scruple to make any of those excuses which poor
+Franklin had too much integrity to use.
+
+All these precautions taken, the butler was at liberty to indulge his
+favourite passion, which so increased with indulgence that his wages
+were by no means sufficient to support him in this way of life. Every
+day he felt less resolution to break through his bad habits; for every
+day drinking became more necessary to him. His health was ruined. With a
+red, pimpled, bloated face, emaciated legs, and a swelled, diseased
+body, he appeared the victim of intoxication. In the morning, when he
+got up, his hands trembled, his spirits flagged, he could do nothing
+until he had taken a dram--an operation which he was obliged to repeat
+several times in the course of the day, as all those wretched people
+_must_ who once acquire this habit.
+
+He had run up a long bill at the alehouse which he frequented; and the
+landlord, who grew urgent for his money, refused to give further credit.
+
+One night, when Corkscrew had drunk enough only to make him fretful, he
+leaned with his elbow surlily upon the table, began to quarrel with the
+landlord, and swore that he had not of late treated him like a
+gentleman. To which the landlord coolly replied, 'That as long as he had
+paid like a gentleman, he had been treated like one, and _that_ was as
+much as any one could expect, or, at any rate, as much as any one would
+meet with in this world.' For the truth of this assertion he appealed,
+laughing, to a party of men who were drinking in the room. The men,
+however, took part with Corkscrew, and, drawing him over to their table,
+made him sit down with them. They were in high good-humour, and the
+butler soon grew so intimate with them that, in the openness of his
+heart, he soon communicated to them not only all his own affairs, but
+all that he knew, and more than all that he knew, of his mistress's.
+
+His new friends were by no means uninterested by his conversation, and
+encouraged him as much as possible to talk; for they had secret views,
+which the butler was by no means sufficiently sober to discover.
+
+Mrs. Churchill had some fine old family plate; and these men belonged to
+a gang of housebreakers. Before they parted with Corkscrew, they engaged
+him to meet them again the next night; their intimacy was still more
+closely cemented. One of the men actually offered to lend Corkscrew
+three guineas towards the payment of his debt, and hinted that, if he
+thought proper, he could easily get the whole cleared off. Upon this
+hint, Corkscrew became all attention, till, after some hesitation on
+their part, and repeated promises of secrecy on his, they at length
+disclosed their plans to him. They gave him to understand that, if he
+would assist in letting them into his mistress's house, they would let
+him have an ample share in the booty. The butler, who had the reputation
+of being an honest man, and indeed whose integrity had hitherto been
+proof against everything but his mistress's port, turned pale and
+trembled at this proposal, drank two or three bumpers to drown thought,
+and promised to give an answer the next day.
+
+He went home more than half-intoxicated. His mind was so full of what
+had passed, that he could not help bragging to Felix, whom he found
+awake at his return, that he could have his bill paid off at the
+alehouse whenever he pleased; dropping, besides, some hints which were
+not lost upon Felix.
+
+In the morning Felix reminded him of the things which he had said; and
+Corkscrew, alarmed, endeavoured to evade his questions by saying that he
+was not in his senses when he talked in that manner. Nothing, however,
+that he could urge made any impression upon Felix, whose recollection on
+the subject was perfectly distinct, and who had too much cunning
+himself, and too little confidence in his companion, to be the dupe of
+his dissimulation. The butler knew not what to do when he saw that Felix
+was absolutely determined either to betray their scheme or to become a
+sharer in the booty.
+
+The next night came, and he was now to make a final decision; either to
+determine on breaking off entirely with his new acquaintances, or taking
+Felix with him to join in the plot.
+
+His debt, his love of drinking, the impossibility of indulging it
+without a fresh supply of money, all came into his mind at once and
+conquered his remaining scruples. It is said by those whose fatal
+experience gives them a right to be believed, that a drunkard will
+sacrifice anything, everything, sooner than the pleasure of habitual
+intoxication.
+
+How much easier is it never to begin a bad custom than to break through
+it when once formed!
+
+The hour of rendezvous came, and Corkscrew went to the alehouse, where
+he found the housebreakers waiting for him, and a glass of brandy ready
+poured out. He sighed--drank--hesitated--drank again--heard the landlord
+talk of his bill, saw the money produced which would pay it in a
+moment--drank again--cursed himself, and, giving his hand to the villain
+who was whispering in his ear, swore that he could not help it, and must
+do as they would have him. They required of him to give up the key of
+the house door, that they might get another made by it. He had left it
+with Felix, and was now obliged to explain the new difficulty which had
+arisen. Felix knew enough to ruin them, and must therefore be won over.
+This was no very difficult task; he had a strong desire to have some
+worked cravats, and the butler knew enough of him to believe that this
+would be a sufficient bribe. The cravats were bought and shown to Felix.
+He thought them the only things wanting to make him a complete fine
+gentleman; and to go without them, especially when he had once seen
+himself in the glass with one tied on in a splendid bow, appeared
+impossible. Even this paltry temptation, working upon his vanity, at
+length prevailed with a boy whose integrity had long been corrupted by
+the habits of petty pilfering and daily falsehood. It was agreed that,
+the first time his mistress sent him out on a message, he should carry
+the key of the house door to his cousin's, and deliver it into the hands
+of one of the gang, who were there in waiting for it. Such was the
+scheme.
+
+Felix, the night after all this had been planned, went to bed and fell
+fast asleep; but the butler, who had not yet stifled the voice of
+conscience, felt, in the silence of the night, so insupportably
+miserable that, instead of going to rest, he stole softly into the
+pantry for a bottle of his mistress's wine, and there drinking glass
+after glass, he stayed till he became so far intoxicated that, though he
+contrived to find his way back to bed, he could by no means undress
+himself. Without any power of recollection, he flung himself upon the
+bed, leaving his candle half hanging out of the candlestick beside him.
+Franklin slept in the next room to him, and presently awaking, thought
+he perceived a strong smell of something burning. He jumped up, and
+seeing a light under the butler's door, gently opened it, and, to his
+astonishment, beheld one of the bed curtains in flames. He immediately
+ran to the butler, and pulled him with all his force to rouse him from
+his lethargy. He came to his senses at length, but was so terrified and
+so helpless that, if it had not been for Franklin, the whole house would
+soon inevitably have been on fire. Felix, trembling and cowardly, knew
+not what to do; and it was curious to see him obeying Franklin, whose
+turn it now was to command. Franklin ran upstairs to awaken Mrs.
+Pomfret, whose terror of fire was so great that she came from her room
+almost out of her senses, whilst he, with the greatest presence of mind,
+recollected where he had seen two large tubs of water, which the maids
+had prepared the night before for their washing, and seizing the wet
+linen which had been left to soak, he threw them upon the flames. He
+exerted himself with so much good sense, that the fire was presently
+extinguished.
+
+Everything was now once more safe and quiet. Mrs. Pomfret, recovering
+from her fright, postponed all inquiries till the morning, and rejoiced
+that her mistress had not been awakened, whilst Corkscrew flattered
+himself that he should be able to conceal the true cause of the
+accident.
+
+'Don't you tell Mrs. Pomfret where you found the candle when you came
+into the room,' said he to Franklin. 'If she asks me, you know I must
+tell the truth,' replied he. 'Must!' repeated Felix, sneeringly; 'what,
+you _must_ be a tell-tale!' 'No, I never told any tales of anybody, and
+I should be very sorry to get any one into a scrape; but for all that I
+shall not tell a lie, either for myself or anybody else, let you call me
+what names you will.' 'But if I were to give you something that you
+would like,' said Corkscrew--'something that I know you would like?'
+repeated Felix. 'Nothing you can give me will do,' answered Franklin,
+steadily; 'so it is useless to say any more about it--I hope I shall not
+be questioned.' In this hope he was mistaken; for the first thing Mrs.
+Pomfret did in the morning was to come into the room to examine and
+deplore the burnt curtains, whilst Corkscrew stood by, endeavouring to
+exculpate himself by all the excuses he could invent.
+
+Mrs. Pomfret, however, though sometimes blinded by her prejudices, was
+no fool; and it was absolutely impossible to make her believe that a
+candle which had been left on the hearth, where Corkscrew protested he
+had left it, could have set curtains on fire which were at least six
+feet distant. Turning short round to Franklin, she desired that he would
+show her where he found the candle when he came into the room. He took
+up the candlestick; but the moment the housekeeper cast her eye upon it,
+she snatched it from his hands. 'How did this candlestick come here?
+This was not the candlestick you found here last night,' cried she.
+'Yes, indeed it was,' answered Franklin. 'That is impossible,' retorted
+she, vehemently, 'for I left this candlestick with my own hands, last
+night, in the hall, the last thing I did, after you,' said she, turning
+to the butler, 'was gone to bed--I'm sure of it. Nay, don't you
+recollect my taking this _japanned candlestick_ out of your hand, and
+making you to go up to bed with the brass one, and I bolted the door at
+the stair-head after you?'
+
+This was all very true; but Corkscrew had afterwards gone down from his
+room by a back staircase, unbolted that door, and, upon his return from
+the alehouse, had taken the japanned candlestick by mistake upstairs,
+and had left the brass one in its stead upon the hall table.
+
+'Oh, ma'am,' said Felix, 'indeed you forget; for Mr. Corkscrew came into
+my room to desire me to call him betimes in the morning, and I happened
+to take particular notice, and he had the japanned candlestick in his
+hand, and that was just as I heard you bolting the door. Indeed, ma'am,
+you forget.' 'Indeed, sir,' retorted Mrs. Pomfret, rising in anger, 'I
+do not forget; I'm not come to be _superannuated_ yet, I hope. How do
+you dare to tell me I forget?' 'Oh, ma'am,' cried Felix, 'I beg your
+pardon, I did not--I did not mean to say you forgot, but only I thought,
+perhaps, you might not particularly remember; for if you please to
+recollect----' 'I won't please to recollect just whatever you please,
+sir! Hold your tongue; why should you poke yourself into this scrape;
+what have you to do with it, I should be glad to know?' 'Nothing in the
+world, oh nothing in the world; I'm sure I beg your pardon, ma'am,'
+answered Felix, in a soft tone; and, sneaking off, left his friend
+Corkscrew to fight his own battle, secretly resolving to desert in good
+time, if he saw any danger of the alehouse transactions coming to light.
+
+Corkscrew could make but very blundering excuses for himself; and,
+conscious of guilt, he turned pale, and appeared so much more terrified
+than butlers usually appear when detected in a lie, that Mrs. Pomfret
+resolved, as she said, to sift the matter to the bottom. Impatiently did
+she wait till the clock struck nine, and her mistress's bell rang, the
+signal for her attendance at her levee. 'How do you find yourself this
+morning, ma'am?' said she, undrawing the curtains. 'Very sleepy,
+indeed,' answered her mistress in a drowsy voice; 'I think I must sleep
+half an hour longer--shut the curtains.' 'As you please, ma'am; but I
+suppose I had better open a little of the window shutter, for it's past
+nine.' 'But just struck.' 'Oh dear, ma'am, it struck before I came
+upstairs, and you know we are twenty minutes slow--Lord bless us!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Pomfret, as she let fall the bar of the window, which
+roused her mistress. 'I'm sure I beg your pardon a thousand times--it's
+only the bar--because I had this great key in my hand.' 'Put down the
+key, then, or you'll knock something else down; and you may open the
+shutters now, for I'm quite awake.' 'Dear me! I'm so sorry to think of
+disturbing you,' cried Mrs. Pomfret, at the same time throwing the
+shutters wide open; 'but, to be sure, ma'am, I have something to tell
+you which won't let you sleep again in a hurry. I brought up this here
+key of the house door for reasons of my own, which I'm sure you'll
+approve of; but I'm not come to that part of my story yet. I hope you
+were not disturbed by the noise in the house last night, ma'am.' 'I
+heard no noise.' 'I am surprised at that, though,' continued Mrs.
+Pomfret, and proceeded to give a most ample account of the fire, of her
+fears and her suspicions. 'To be sure, ma'am, what I say _is_, that
+without the spirit of prophecy one can nowadays account for what has
+passed. I'm quite clear in my own judgment that Mr. Corkscrew must have
+been out last night after I went to bed; for, besides the japanned
+candlestick, which of itself I'm sure is strong enough to hang a man,
+there's another circumstance, ma'am, that certifies it to me--though I
+have not mentioned it, ma'am, to no one yet,' lowering her
+voice--'Franklin, when I questioned him, told me that he left the
+lantern in the outside porch in the court last night, and this morning
+it was on the kitchen table. Now, ma'am, that lantern could not come
+without hands; and I could not forget about that, you know; for Franklin
+says he's sure he left the lantern out.' 'And do you believe _him_?'
+inquired her mistress. 'To be sure, ma'am--how can I help believing him?
+I never found him out in the least symptom of a lie since ever he came
+into the house; so one can't help believing in him, like him or not.'
+'Without meaning to tell a falsehood, however,' said the lady, 'he might
+make a mistake.' 'No, ma'am, he never makes mistakes; it is not his way
+to go gossiping and tattling; he never tells anything till he's asked,
+and then it's fit he should. About the sirloin of beef, and all, he was
+right in the end, I found, to do him justice; and I'm sure he's right
+now about the lantern--he's _always right_.'
+
+Mrs. Churchill could not help smiling.
+
+'If you had seen him, ma'am, last night in the midst of the fire--I'm
+sure we may thank him that we were not burned alive in our beds--and I
+shall never forget his coming to call me. Poor fellow! he that I was
+always scolding and scolding, enough to make him hate me. But he's too
+good to hate anybody; and I'll be bound I'll make it up to him now.'
+'Take care that you don't go from one extreme into another, Pomfret;
+don't spoil the boy.' 'No, ma'am, there's no danger of that; but I'm
+sure if you had seen him last night yourself, you would think he
+deserved to be rewarded.' 'And so he shall be rewarded,' said Mrs.
+Churchill; 'but I will try him more fully yet.' 'There's no occasion, I
+think, for trying him any more, ma'am,' said Mrs. Pomfret, who was as
+violent in her likings as in her dislikes. 'Pray desire,' continued her
+mistress, 'that he will bring up breakfast this morning; and leave the
+key of the house door, Pomfret, with me.'
+
+When Franklin brought the urn into the breakfast-parlour, his mistress
+was standing by the fire with the key in her hand. She spoke to him of
+his last night's exertions in terms of much approbation. 'How long have
+you lived with me?' said she, pausing; 'three weeks, I think?' 'Three
+weeks and four days, madam.' 'That is but a short time; yet you have
+conducted yourself so as to make me think I may depend upon you. You
+know this key?' 'I believe, madam, it is the key of the house door.' 'It
+is; I shall trust it in your care. It is a great trust for so young a
+person as you are.' Franklin stood silent, with a firm but modest
+look. 'If you take the charge of this key,' continued his mistress,
+'remember it is upon condition that you never give it out of your own
+hands. In the daytime it must not be left in the door. You must not tell
+anybody where you keep it at night; and the house door must not be
+unlocked after eleven o'clock at night, unless by my orders. Will you
+take charge of the key upon these conditions?' 'I will, madam, do
+anything you order me,' said Franklin, and received the key from her
+hands.
+
+[Illustration: _'You know this key? I shall trust it in your care.'_]
+
+When Mrs. Churchill's orders were made known, they caused many secret
+marvellings and murmurings. Corkscrew and Felix were disconcerted, and
+dared not openly avow their discontent; and they treated Franklin with
+the greatest seeming kindness and cordiality.
+
+Everything went on smoothly for three days. The butler never attempted
+his usual midnight visits to the alehouse, but went to bed in proper
+time, and paid particular court to Mrs. Pomfret, in order to dispel her
+suspicions. She had never had any idea of the real fact, that he and
+Felix were joined in a plot with housebreakers to rob the house, but
+thought he only went out at irregular hours to indulge himself in his
+passion for drinking.
+
+Thus stood affairs the night before Mrs. Churchill's birthday.
+Corkscrew, by the housekeeper's means, ventured to present a petition
+that he might go to the play the next day, and his request was granted.
+Franklin came into the kitchen just when all the servants had gathered
+round the butler, who, with great importance, was reading aloud the
+play-bill. Everybody present soon began to speak at once, and with great
+enthusiasm talked of the playhouse, the actors and actresses; and then
+Felix, in the first pause, turned to Franklin and said, 'Lord, you know
+nothing of all this! _you_ never went to a play, did you?' 'Never,' said
+Franklin, and felt, he did not know why, a little ashamed; and he longed
+extremely to go to one. 'How should you like to go to the play with me
+to-morrow?' said Corkscrew. 'Oh,' exclaimed Franklin, 'I should like it
+exceedingly.' 'And do you think mistress would let you if I asked?' 'I
+think--maybe she would, if Mrs. Pomfret asked her.' 'But then you have
+no money, have you?' 'No,' said Franklin, sighing. 'But stay,' said
+Corkscrew, 'what I'm thinking of is, that if mistress will let you go,
+I'll treat you myself, rather than that you should be disappointed.'
+
+Delight, surprise, and gratitude appeared in Franklin's face at these
+words. Corkscrew rejoiced to see that now, at least, he had found a most
+powerful temptation. 'Well, then, I'll go just now and ask her. In the
+meantime, lend me the key of the house door for a minute or two.' 'The
+key!' answered Franklin, starting; 'I'm sorry, but I can't do that, for
+I've promised my mistress never to let it out of my own hands.' 'But how
+will she know anything of the matter? Run, run, and get it for us.' 'No,
+I _cannot_,' replied Franklin, resisting the push which the butler gave
+his shoulder. 'You can't?' cried Corkscrew, changing his tone; 'then,
+sir, I can't take you to the play.' 'Very well, sir,' said Franklin,
+sorrowfully, but with steadiness. 'Very well, sir,' said Felix,
+mimicking him, 'you need not look so important, nor fancy yourself such
+a great man, because you're master of a key.'
+
+'Say no more to him,' interrupted Corkscrew; 'let him alone to take his
+own way. Felix, you would have no objection, I suppose, to going to the
+play with me?' 'Oh, I should like it of all things, if I did not come
+between anybody else. But come, come!' added the hypocrite, assuming a
+tone of friendly persuasion, 'you won't be such a blockhead, Franklin,
+as to lose going to the play for nothing; it's only just obstinacy. What
+harm can it do to lend Mr. Corkscrew the key for five minutes? he'll
+give it you back again safe and sound.' 'I don't doubt _that_,' answered
+Franklin. 'Then it must be all because you don't wish to oblige Mr.
+Corkscrew.' 'No, but I can't oblige him in this; for, as I told you
+before, my mistress trusted me. I promised never to let the key out of
+my own hands, and you would not have me break my trust. Mr. Spencer told
+me _that_ was worse than _robbing_.'
+
+At the word _robbing_ both Corkscrew and Felix involuntarily cast down
+their eyes, and turned the conversation immediately, saying that he did
+very right, that they did not really want the key, and had only asked
+for it just to try if he would keep his word. 'Shake hands,' said
+Corkscrew, 'I am glad to find you out to be an honest fellow!' 'I am
+sorry you did not think me an honest fellow before, Mr. Corkscrew,' said
+Franklin giving his hand rather proudly, and he walked away.
+
+'We shall make no hand of this prig,' said Corkscrew. 'But we'll have
+the key from him in spite of all his obstinacy,' said Felix; 'and let
+him make his story good as he can afterwards. He shall repent of these
+airs. To-night I'll watch him, and find out where he hides the key; and
+when he's asleep we'll get it without thanking him.'
+
+This plan Felix put into execution. They discovered the place where
+Franklin kept the key at night, stole it whilst he slept, took off the
+impression in wax, and carefully replaced it in Franklin's trunk,
+exactly where they found it.
+
+Probably our young readers cannot guess what use they could mean to make
+of this impression of the key in wax. Knowing how to do mischief is very
+different from wishing to do it, and the most innocent persons are
+generally the least ignorant. By means of the impression which they had
+thus obtained, Corkscrew and Felix proposed to get a false key made by
+Picklock, a smith who belonged to their gang of housebreakers; and with
+this false key knew they could open the door whenever they pleased.
+
+Little suspecting what had happened, Franklin, the next morning, went to
+unlock the house door as usual; but finding the key entangled in the
+lock, he took it out to examine it, and perceived a lump of wax sticking
+in one of the wards. Struck with this circumstance, it brought to his
+mind all that had passed the preceding evening, and, being sure that he
+had no wax near the key, he began to suspect what had happened; and he
+could not help recollecting what he had once heard Felix say, that 'give
+him but a halfpenny worth of wax, and he could open the strongest lock
+that ever was made by hands.'
+
+All these things considered, Franklin resolved to take the key just as
+it was, with the wax sticking to it, to his mistress.
+
+'I was not mistaken when I thought I might trust _you_ with this key,'
+said Mrs. Churchill, after she had heard his story. 'My brother will be
+here to-day, and I shall consult him. In the meantime, say nothing of
+what has passed.'
+
+Evening came, and after tea Mr. Spencer sent for Franklin upstairs. 'So,
+Mr. Franklin,' said he, 'I'm glad to find you are in such high _trust_
+in this family.' Franklin bowed. 'But you have lost, I understand, the
+pleasure of going to the play to-night.' 'I don't think anything--much,
+I mean, of that, sir,' answered Franklin, smiling. 'Are Corkscrew and
+Felix _gone_ to the play?' 'Yes; half an hour ago, sir.' 'Then I shall
+look into his room and examine the pantry and the plate that is under
+his care.'
+
+When Mr. Spencer came to examine the pantry, he found the large salvers
+and cups in a basket behind the door, and the other things placed so as
+to be easily carried off. Nothing at first appeared in Corkscrew's
+bedchamber to strengthen their suspicions, till, just as they were going
+to leave the room, Mrs. Pomfret exclaimed, 'Why, if there is not Mr.
+Corkscrew's dress coat hanging up there! and if here isn't Felix's fine
+cravat that he wanted in such a hurry to go to the play! Why, sir, they
+can't be gone to the play. Look at the cravat. Ah! upon my word I am
+afraid they are not at the play. No, sir, you may be sure that they are
+plotting with their barbarous gang at the alehouse; and they'll
+certainly break into the house to-night. We shall all be murdered in our
+beds, as sure as I'm a living woman, sir; but if you'll only take my
+advice----' 'Pray, good Mrs. Pomfret,' Mr. Spencer observed, 'don't be
+alarmed.' 'Nay, sir, but I won't pretend to sleep in the house, if
+Franklin isn't to have a blunderbuss, and I a _baggonet_.' 'You shall
+have both, indeed, Mrs. Pomfret; but don't make such a noise, for
+everybody will hear you.'
+
+The love of mystery was the only thing which could have conquered Mrs.
+Pomfret's love of talking. She was silent; and contented herself the
+rest of the evening with making signs, looking _ominous_, and stalking
+about the house like one possessed with a secret.
+
+Escaped from Mrs. Pomfret's fears and advice, Mr. Spencer went to a shop
+within a few doors of the alehouse which he heard Corkscrew frequented,
+and sent to beg to speak to the landlord. He came; and, when Mr. Spencer
+questioned him, confessed that Corkscrew and Felix were actually
+drinking in his house, with two men of suspicious appearance; that, as
+he passed through the passage, he heard them disputing about a key; and
+that one of them said, 'Since we've got the key, we'll go about it
+to-night.' This was sufficient information. Mr. Spencer, lest the
+landlord should give them information of what was going forwards, took
+him along with him to Bow Street.
+
+A constable and proper assistance was sent to Mrs. Churchill's. They
+stationed themselves in a back parlour which opened on a passage leading
+to the butler's pantry, where the plate was kept. A little after
+midnight they heard the hall door open. Corkscrew and his accomplices
+went directly to the pantry; and there Mr. Spencer and the constable
+immediately secured them, as they were carrying off their booty.
+
+Mrs. Churchill and Pomfret had spent the night at the house of an
+acquaintance in the same street. 'Well, ma'am,' said Mrs. Pomfret, who
+had heard all the news in the morning, 'the villains are all safe, thank
+God. I was afraid to go to the window this morning; but it was my luck
+to see them all go by to gaol. They looked so shocking! I am sure I
+never shall forget Felix's look to my dying day! But poor Franklin!
+ma'am; that boy has the best heart in the world. I could not get him to
+give a second look at them as they passed. Poor fellow! I thought he
+would have dropped; and he was so modest, ma'am, when Mr. Spencer spoke
+to him, and told him he had done his duty.' 'And did my brother tell him
+what reward I intend for him?' 'No, ma'am, and I'm sure Franklin thinks
+no more of _reward_ than I do.' 'I intend,' continued Mrs. Churchill,
+'to sell some of my old useless plate, and to lay it out in an annuity
+for Franklin's life.' 'La, ma'am!' exclaimed Mrs. Pomfret, with
+unfeigned joy, 'I'm sure you are very good; and I'm very glad of it.'
+'And,' continued Mrs. Churchill, 'here are some tickets for the play,
+which I shall beg you, Pomfret, to give him, and to take him with you.'
+
+'I am very much obliged to you, indeed, ma'am; and I'll go with him with
+all my heart, and choose such plays as won't do no prejudice to his
+morality. And, ma'am,' continued Mrs. Pomfret, 'the night after the fire
+I left him my great Bible and my watch, in my will; for I never was more
+mistaken at the first in any boy in my born days; but he has won me by
+his own _deserts_, and I shall from this time forth love all the
+_Villaintropic_ folks for his sake.'
+
+
+
+
+SIMPLE SUSAN
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+  Waked, as her custom was, before the day,
+  To do the observance due to sprightly May.
+                                      DRYDEN.
+
+In a retired hamlet on the borders of Wales, between Oswestry and
+Shrewsbury, it is still the custom to celebrate the 1st of May.
+
+The children of the village, who look forward to this rural festival
+with joyful eagerness, usually meet on the last day of April to make up
+their nosegays for the morning and to choose their queen. Their
+customary place of meeting is at a hawthorn which stands in a little
+green nook, open on one side to a shady lane, and separated on the other
+side by a thick sweet-brier and hawthorn hedge from the garden of an
+attorney.
+
+This attorney began the world with nothing, but he contrived to scrape
+together a good deal of money, everybody knew how. He built a new house
+at the entrance of the village, and had a large well-fenced garden, yet,
+notwithstanding his fences, he never felt himself secure. Such were his
+litigious habits and his suspicious temper that he was constantly at
+variance with his simple and peaceable neighbours. Some pig, or dog, or
+goat, or goose was for ever trespassing. His complaints and his
+extortions wearied and alarmed the whole hamlet. The paths in his fields
+were at length unfrequented, his stiles were blocked up with stones, or
+stuffed with brambles and briers, so that not a gosling could creep
+under, or a giant get over them. Indeed, so careful were even the
+village children of giving offence to this irritable man of the law,
+that they would not venture to fly a kite near his fields lest it should
+entangle in his trees or fall upon his meadow.
+
+Mr. Case, for this was the name of our attorney, had a son and a
+daughter, to whose education he had not time to attend, as his whole
+soul was intent upon accumulating for them a fortune. For several years
+he suffered his children to run wild in the village; but suddenly, on
+his being appointed to a considerable agency, he began to think of
+making his children a little genteel. He sent his son to learn Latin; he
+hired a maid to wait upon his daughter Barbara, and he strictly forbade
+her _thenceforward_ to keep company with any of the poor children who
+had hitherto been her playfellows. They were not sorry for this
+prohibition, because she had been their tyrant rather than their
+companion. She was vexed to observe that her absence was not regretted,
+and she was mortified to perceive that she could not humble them by any
+display of airs and finery.
+
+There was one poor girl, amongst her former associates, to whom she had
+a peculiar dislike,--Susan Price, a sweet-tempered, modest, sprightly,
+industrious lass, who was the pride and delight of the village. Her
+father rented a small farm, and, unfortunately for him, he lived near
+Attorney Case.
+
+Barbara used often to sit at her window, watching Susan at work.
+Sometimes she saw her in the neat garden raking the beds or weeding the
+borders; sometimes she was kneeling at her beehive with fresh flowers
+for her bees; sometimes she was in the poultry yard, scattering corn
+from her sieve amongst the eager chickens; and in the evening she was
+often seated in a little honeysuckle arbour, with a clean, light,
+three-legged deal table before her, upon which she put her plain work.
+
+Susan had been taught to work neatly by her good mother, who was very
+fond of her, and to whom she was most gratefully attached.
+
+Mrs. Price was an intelligent, active, domestic woman; but her health
+was not robust. She earned money, however, by taking in plain work; and
+she was famous for baking excellent bread and breakfast cakes. She was
+respected in the village, for her conduct as a wife and as a mother, and
+all were eager to show her attention. At her door the first branch of
+hawthorn was always placed on May morning, and her Susan was usually
+Queen of the May.
+
+It was now time to choose the Queen. The setting sun shone full upon the
+pink blossoms of the hawthorn, when the merry group assembled upon their
+little green. Barbara was now walking in sullen state in her father's
+garden. She heard the busy voices in the lane, and she concealed herself
+behind the high hedge, that she might listen to their conversation.
+
+'Where's Susan?' were the first unwelcome words which she overheard.
+'Ay, where's Susan?' repeated Philip, stopping short in the middle of a
+new tune that he was playing on his pipe. 'I wish Susan would come! I
+want her to sing me this same tune over again; I have not it yet.'
+
+'And I wish Susan would come, I'm sure,' cried a little girl, whose lap
+was full of primroses. 'Susan will give me some thread to tie up my
+nosegays, and she'll show me where the fresh violets grow; and she has
+promised to give me a great bunch of her double cowslips to wear
+to-morrow. I wish she would come.'
+
+'Nothing can be done without Susan! She always shows us where the nicest
+flowers are to be found in the lanes and meadows,' said they. 'She must
+make up the garlands; and she shall be Queen of the May!' exclaimed a
+multitude of little voices.
+
+'But she does not come!' said Philip.
+
+Rose, who was her particular friend, now came forward to assure the
+impatient assembly 'that she would answer for it Susan would come as
+soon as she possibly could, and that she probably was detained by
+business at home.'
+
+The little electors thought that all business should give way to theirs,
+and Rose was despatched to summon her friend immediately.
+
+'Tell her to make haste,' cried Philip. 'Attorney Case dined at the
+Abbey to-day--luckily for us. If he comes home and finds us here, maybe
+he'll drive us away; for he says this bit of ground belongs to his
+garden: though that is not true, I'm sure; for Farmer Price knows, and
+says, it was always open to the road. The Attorney wants to get our
+playground, so he does. I wish he and his daughter Bab, or Miss
+Barbara, as she must now be called, were a hundred miles off, out of
+our way, I know. No later than yesterday she threw down my ninepins in
+one of her ill-humours, as she was walking by with her gown all trailing
+in the dust.'
+
+'Yes,' cried Mary, the little primrose-girl, 'her gown is always
+trailing. She does not hold it up nicely, like Susan; and with all her
+fine clothes she never looks half so neat. Mamma says she wishes I may
+be like Susan, when I grow up to be a great girl, and so do I. I should
+not like to look conceited as Barbara does, if I was ever so rich.'
+
+'Rich or poor,' said Philip, 'it does not become a girl to look
+conceited, much less _bold_, as Barbara did the other day, when she was
+at her father's door without a hat upon her head, staring at the strange
+gentleman who stopped hereabout to let his horse drink. I know what he
+thought of Bab by his looks, and of Susan too; for Susan was in her
+garden, bending down a branch of the laburnum tree, looking at its
+yellow flowers, which were just come out; and when the gentleman asked
+her how many miles it was from Shrewsbury, she answered him so
+modest!--not bashful, like as if she had never seen nobody before--but
+just right: and then she pulled on her straw hat, which was fallen back
+with her looking up at the laburnum, and she went her ways home; and the
+gentleman says to me, after she was gone, "Pray, who is that neat modest
+girl----?" But I wish Susan would come,' cried Philip, interrupting
+himself.
+
+Susan was all this time, as her friend Rose rightly guessed, busy at
+home. She was detained by her father's returning later than usual. His
+supper was ready for him nearly an hour before he came home; and Susan
+swept up the ashes twice, and twice put on wood to make a cheerful blaze
+for him; but at last, when he did come in, he took no notice of the
+blaze or of Susan; and when his wife asked him how he did, he made no
+answer, but stood with his back to the fire, looking very gloomy. Susan
+put his supper upon the table, and set his own chair for him; but he
+pushed away the chair and turned from the table, saying--'I shall eat
+nothing, child! Why have you such a fire to roast me at this time of the
+year?'
+
+'You said yesterday, father, I thought, that you liked a little cheerful
+wood fire in the evening; and there was a great shower of hail; your
+coat is quite wet, we must dry it.'
+
+'Take it, then, child,' said he, pulling it off--'I shall soon have no
+coat to dry--and take my hat too,' said he, throwing it upon the ground.
+
+Susan hung up his hat, put his coat over the back of a chair to dry, and
+then stood anxiously looking at her mother, who was not well; she had
+this day fatigued herself with baking; and now, alarmed by her husband's
+moody behaviour, she sat down pale and trembling. He threw himself into
+a chair, folded his arms, and fixed his eyes upon the fire.
+
+Susan was the first who ventured to break silence. Happy the father who
+has such a daughter as Susan!--her unaltered sweetness of temper, and
+her playful, affectionate caresses, at last somewhat dissipated her
+father's melancholy.
+
+He could not be prevailed upon to eat any of the supper which had been
+prepared for him; however, with a faint smile, he told Susan that he
+thought he could eat one of her guinea-hen's eggs. She thanked him, and
+with that nimble alacrity which marks the desire to please, she ran to
+her neat chicken-yard; but, alas! her guinea-hen was not there--it had
+strayed into the attorney's garden. She saw it through the paling, and
+timidly opening the little gate, she asked Miss Barbara, who was walking
+slowly by, to let her come in and take her guinea-hen. Barbara, who was
+at this instant reflecting, with no agreeable feelings, upon the
+conversation of the village children, to which she had recently
+listened, started when she heard Susan's voice, and with a proud,
+ill-humoured look and voice, refused her request.
+
+'Shut the gate,' said Barbara, 'you have no business in _our_ garden;
+and as for your hen, I shall keep it; it is always flying in here and
+plaguing us, and my father says it is a trespasser; and he told me I
+might catch it and keep it the next time it got in, and it is in now.'
+Then Barbara called to her maid, Betty, and bid her catch the
+mischievous hen.
+
+'Oh, my guinea-hen! my pretty guinea-hen!' cried Susan, as they hunted
+the frightened, screaming creature from corner to corner.
+
+'Here we have got it!' said Betty, holding it fast by the legs.
+
+'Now pay damages, Queen Susan, or good-bye to your pretty guinea-hen,'
+said Barbara, in an insulting tone.
+
+'Damages! what damages?' said Susan; 'tell me what I must pay.' 'A
+shilling,' said Barbara. 'Oh, if sixpence would do!' said Susan; 'I have
+but sixpence of my own in the world, and here it is.' 'It won't do,'
+said Barbara, turning her back. 'Nay, but hear me,' cried Susan; 'let me
+at least come in to look for its eggs. I only want _one_ for my father's
+supper; you shall have all the rest.' 'What's your father, or his supper
+to us? is he so nice that he can eat none but guinea-hen's eggs?' said
+Barbara. 'If you want your hen and your eggs, pay for them, and you'll
+have them.' 'I have but sixpence, and you say that won't do,' said
+Susan, with a sigh, as she looked at her favourite, which was in the
+maid's grasping hands, struggling and screaming in vain.
+
+Susan retired disconsolate. At the door of her father's cottage she saw
+her friend Rose, who was just come to summon her to the hawthorn bush.
+
+'They are all at the hawthorn, and I am come for you. We can do nothing
+without _you_, dear Susan,' cried Rose, running to meet her, at the
+moment she saw her. 'You are chosen Queen of the May--come, make haste.
+But what is the matter? why do you look so sad?'
+
+'Ah!' said Susan, 'don't wait for me; I can't come to you, but,' added
+she, pointing to the tuft of double cowslips in the garden, 'gather
+those for poor little Mary; I promised them to her, and tell her the
+violets are under a hedge just opposite the turnstile, on the right as
+we go to church. Good-bye! never mind me; I can't come--I can't stay,
+for my father wants me.'
+
+'But don't turn away your face; I won't keep you a moment; only tell me
+what's the matter,' said her friend, following her into the cottage.
+
+'Oh, nothing, not much,' said Susan; 'only that I wanted the egg in a
+great hurry for father, it would not have vexed me--to be sure I should
+have clipped my guinea-hen's wings, and then she could not have flown
+over the hedge; but let us think no more about it, now,' added she,
+twinkling away a tear.
+
+When Rose, however, learnt that her friend's guinea-hen was detained
+prisoner by the attorney's daughter, she exclaimed, with all the honest
+warmth of indignation, and instantly ran back to tell the story to her
+companions.
+
+[Illustration: _'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning her back._]
+
+'Barbara! ay; like father, like daughter,' cried Farmer Price, starting
+from the thoughtful attitude in which he had been fixed, and drawing his
+chair closer to his wife.
+
+'You see something is amiss with me, wife--I'll tell you what it is.' As
+he lowered his voice, Susan, who was not sure that he wished she should
+hear what he was going to say, retired from behind his chair. 'Susan,
+don't go; sit you down here, my sweet Susan,' said he, making room for
+her upon his chair; 'I believe I was a little cross when I came in first
+to-night; but I had something to vex me, as you shall hear.
+
+'About a fortnight ago, you know, wife,' continued he, 'there was a
+balloting in our town for the militia; now at that time I wanted but ten
+days of forty years of age; and the attorney told me I was a fool for
+not calling myself plump forty. But the truth is the truth, and it is
+what I think fittest to be spoken at all times come what will of it. So
+I was drawn for a militiaman; but when I thought how loth you and I
+would be to part, I was main glad to hear that I could get off by paying
+eight or nine guineas for a substitute--only I had not the nine
+guineas--for, you know, we had bad luck with our sheep this year, and
+they died away one after another--but that was no excuse, so I went to
+Attorney Case, and, with a power of difficulty, I got him to lend me the
+money; for which, to be sure, I gave him something, and left my lease of
+our farm with him, as he insisted upon it, by way of security for the
+loan. Attorney Case is too many for me. He has found what he calls a
+_flaw_ in my lease; and the lease, he tells me, is not worth a farthing,
+and that he can turn us all out of our farm to-morrow if he pleases; and
+sure enough he will please; for I have thwarted him this day, and he
+swears he'll be revenged of me. Indeed, he has begun with me badly
+enough already. I'm not come to the worst part of my story yet----'
+
+Here Farmer Price made a dead stop; and his wife and Susan looked up in
+his face, breathless with anxiety.
+
+'It must come out,' said he, with a short sigh; 'I must leave you in
+three days, wife.'
+
+'Must you?' said his wife, in a faint, resigned voice. 'Susan, love,
+open the window.' Susan ran to open the window, and then returned to
+support her mother's head. When she came a little to herself she sat up,
+begged that her husband would go on, and that nothing might be concealed
+from her. Her husband had no wish indeed to conceal anything from a
+wife he loved so well; but, firm as he was, and steady to his maxim,
+that the truth was the thing the fittest to be spoken at all times, his
+voice faltered, and it was with great difficulty that he brought himself
+to speak the whole truth at this moment.
+
+The fact was this. Case met Farmer Price as he was coming home,
+whistling, from a new-ploughed field. The attorney had just dined at
+_The Abbey_. The Abbey was the family seat of an opulent baronet in the
+neighbourhood, to whom Mr. Case had been agent. The baronet died
+suddenly, and his estate and title devolved to a younger brother, who
+was now just arrived in the country, and to whom Mr. Case was eager to
+pay his court, in hopes of obtaining his favour. Of the agency he
+flattered himself that he was pretty secure; and he thought that he
+might assume a tone of command towards the tenants, especially towards
+one who was some guineas in debt, and in whose lease there was a flaw.
+
+Accosting the farmer in a haughty manner, the attorney began with, 'So,
+Farmer Price, a word with you, if you please. Walk on here, man, beside
+my horse, and you'll hear me. You have changed your opinion, I hope,
+about that bit of land--that corner at the end of my garden?' 'As how,
+Mr. Case?' said the farmer. 'As how, man! Why, you said something about
+it's not belonging to me, when you heard me talk of enclosing it the
+other day.' 'So I did,' said Price, 'and so I do.'
+
+Provoked and astonished at the firm tone in which these words were
+pronounced, the attorney was upon the point of swearing that he would
+have his revenge; but, as his passions were habitually attentive to the
+_letter_ of the law, he refrained from any hasty expression, which
+might, he was aware, in a court of justice, be hereafter brought against
+him.
+
+'My good friend, Mr. Price,' said he, in a soft voice, and pale with
+suppressed rage. He forced a smile. 'I'm under the necessity of calling
+in the money I lent you some time ago, and you will please to take
+notice that it must be paid to-morrow morning. I wish you a good
+evening. You have the money ready for me, I daresay.'
+
+'No,' said the farmer, 'not a guinea of it; but John Simpson, who was my
+substitute, has not left our village yet. I'll get the money back from
+him, and go myself, if so be it must be so, into the militia--so I
+will.'
+
+The attorney did not expect such a determination, and he represented, in
+a friendly, hypocritical tone to Price, that he had no wish to drive him
+to such an extremity; that it would be the height of folly in him _to
+run his head against a wall for no purpose_. 'You don't mean to take the
+corner into your own garden, do you, Price?' said he. 'I,' said the
+farmer, 'God forbid! it's none of mine; I never take what does not
+belong to me.' 'True, right, very proper, of course,' said Mr. Case;
+'but then you have no interest in life in the land in question?' 'None.'
+'Then why so stiff about it, Price? All I want of you to say----' 'To
+say that black is white, which I won't do, Mr. Case. The ground is a
+thing not worth talking of; but it's neither yours nor mine. In my
+memory, since the _new_ lane was made, it has always been open to the
+parish; and no man shall enclose it with my good-will. Truth is truth,
+and must be spoken; justice is justice, and should be done, Mr.
+Attorney.'
+
+'And law is law, Mr. Farmer, and shall have its course, to your cost,'
+cried the attorney, exasperated by the dauntless spirit of this village
+Hampden.
+
+Here they parted. The glow of enthusiasm, the pride of virtue, which
+made our hero brave, could not render him insensible. As he drew nearer
+home, many melancholy thoughts pressed upon his heart. He passed the
+door of his own cottage with resolute steps, however, and went through
+the village in search of the man who had engaged to be his substitute.
+He found him, told him how the matter stood; and luckily the man, who
+had not yet spent the money, was willing to return it; as there were
+many others drawn for the militia, who, he observed, would be glad to
+give him the same price, or more, for his services.
+
+The moment Price got the money, he hastened to Mr. Case's house, walked
+straight forward into his room, and laying the money down upon his desk,
+'There, Mr. Attorney, are your nine guineas; count them; now I have done
+with you.'
+
+'Not yet,' said the attorney, jingling the money triumphantly in his
+hand. 'We'll give you a taste of the law, my good sir, or I'm mistaken.
+You forgot the flaw in your lease, which I have safe in this desk.'
+
+'Ah, my lease,' said the farmer, who had almost forgot to ask for it
+till he was thus put in mind of it by the attorney's imprudent threat.
+
+'Give me my lease, Mr. Case. I've paid my money; you have no right to
+keep the lease any longer, whether it is a bad one or a good one.'
+
+'Pardon me,' said the attorney, locking his desk and putting the key
+into his pocket, 'possession, my honest friend,' cried he, striking his
+hand upon the desk, 'is nine points of the law. Good-night to you. I
+cannot in conscience return a lease to a tenant in which I know there is
+a capital flaw. It is my duty to show it to my employer; or, in other
+words, to your new landlord, whose agent I have good reasons to expect I
+shall be. You will live to repent your obstinacy, Mr. Price. Your
+servant, sir.'
+
+Price retired with melancholy feelings, but not intimidated. Many a man
+returns home with a gloomy countenance, who has not quite so much cause
+for vexation.
+
+When Susan heard her father's story, she quite forgot her guinea-hen,
+and her whole soul was intent upon her poor mother, who, notwithstanding
+her utmost exertion, could not support herself under this sudden stroke
+of misfortune.
+
+In the middle of the night Susan was called up; her mother's fever ran
+high for some hours; but towards morning it abated, and she fell into a
+soft sleep with Susan's hand locked fast in hers.
+
+Susan sat motionless, and breathed softly, lest she should disturb her.
+The rushlight, which stood beside the bed, was now burnt low; the long
+shadow of the tall wicker chair flitted, faded, appeared, and vanished,
+as the flame rose and sank in the socket. Susan was afraid that the
+disagreeable smell might waken her mother; and, gently disengaging her
+hand, she went on tiptoe to extinguish the candle. All was silent: the
+gray light of the morning was now spreading over every object; the sun
+rose slowly, and Susan stood at the lattice window, looking through the
+small leaded, crossbarred panes at the splendid spectacle. A few birds
+began to chirp; but, as Susan was listening to them, her mother started
+in her sleep, and spoke unintelligibly. Susan hung up a white apron
+before the window to keep out the light, and just then she heard the
+sound of music at a distance in the village. As it approached nearer,
+she knew that it was Philip playing upon his pipe and tabor. She
+distinguished the merry voices of her companions 'carolling in honour of
+the May,' and soon she saw them coming towards her father's cottage,
+with branches and garlands in their hands. She opened quick, but gently,
+the latch of the door, and ran out to meet them.
+
+'Here she is!--here's Susan!' they exclaimed joyfully. 'Here's the Queen
+of the May.' 'And here's her crown!' cried Rose, pressing forward; but
+Susan put her finger upon her lips, and pointed to her mother's window.
+Philip's pipe stopped instantly.
+
+'Thank you,' said Susan, 'my mother is ill; I can't leave her, you
+know.' Then gently putting aside the crown, her companions bid her say
+who should wear it for her.
+
+'Will you, dear Rose?' said she, placing the garland upon her friend's
+head. 'It's a charming May morning,' added she, with a smile; 'good-bye.
+We shan't hear your voices or the pipe when you have turned the corner
+into the village; so you need only stop till then, Philip.'
+
+'I shall stop for all day,' said Philip; 'I've no mind to play any
+more.'
+
+'Good-bye, poor Susan. It is a pity you can't come with us,' said all
+the children; and little Mary ran after Susan to the cottage door.
+
+'I forgot to thank you,' said she, 'for the double cowslips; look how
+pretty they are, and smell how sweet the violets are in my bosom, and
+kiss me quick, for I shall be left behind.' Susan kissed the little
+breathless girl, and returned softly to the side of her mother's bed.
+
+'How grateful that child is to me for a cowslip only! How can I be
+grateful enough to such a mother as this?' said Susan to herself, as she
+bent over her sleeping mother's pale countenance.
+
+Her mother's unfinished knitting lay upon a table near the bed, and
+Susan sat down in her wicker arm-chair, and went on with the row, in the
+middle of which her hand stopped the preceding evening. 'She taught me
+to knit, she taught me everything that I know,' thought Susan, 'and the
+best of all, she taught me to love her, to wish to be like her.'
+
+Her mother, when she awakened, felt much refreshed by her tranquil
+sleep, and observing that it was a delightful morning, said 'that she
+had been dreaming she heard music; but that the drum frightened her,
+because she thought it was the signal for her husband to be carried away
+by a whole regiment of soldiers, who had pointed their bayonets at him.
+But that was but a dream, Susan; I awoke, and knew it was a dream, and I
+then fell asleep, and have slept soundly ever since.'
+
+How painful it is to awake to the remembrance of misfortune. Gradually
+as this poor woman collected her scattered thoughts, she recalled the
+circumstances of the preceding evening. She was too certain that she had
+heard from her husband's own lips the words, '_I must leave you in three
+days_'; and she wished that she could sleep again, and think it all a
+dream.
+
+'But he'll want, he'll want a hundred things,' said she, starting up. 'I
+must get his linen ready for him. I'm afraid it's very late. Susan, why
+did you let me lie so long?'
+
+'Everything shall be ready, dear mother; only don't hurry yourself,'
+said Susan. And indeed her mother was ill able to bear any hurry, or to
+do any work this day. Susan's affectionate, dexterous, sensible activity
+was never more wanted, or more effectual. She understood so readily, she
+obeyed so exactly; and when she was left to her own discretion, judged
+so prudently, that her mother had little trouble and no anxiety in
+directing her. She said that Susan never did too little, or too much.
+
+Susan was mending her father's linen, when Rose tapped softly at the
+window, and beckoned to her to come out. She went out. 'How does your
+mother do, in the first place?' said Rose. 'Better, thank you.' 'That's
+well, and I have a little bit of good news for you besides--here,' said
+she, pulling out a glove, in which there was money, 'we'll get the
+guinea-hen back again--we have all agreed about it. This is the money
+that has been given to us in the village this May morning. At every door
+they gave silver. See how generous they have been--twelve shillings, I
+assure you. Now we are a match for Miss Barbara. You won't like to leave
+home; I'll go to Barbara, and you shall see your guinea-hen in ten
+minutes.'
+
+Rose hurried away, pleased with her commission, and eager to accomplish
+her business. Miss Barbara's maid, Betty, was the first person that was
+visible at the attorney's house. Rose insisted upon seeing Miss Barbara
+herself, and she was shown into a parlour to the young lady, who was
+reading a dirty novel, which she put under a heap of law papers as they
+entered.
+
+'Dear, how you _startled_ me! Is it only you?' said she to her maid; but
+as soon as she saw Rose behind the maid, she put on a scornful air.
+'Could not ye say I was not at home, Betty? Well, my good girl, what
+brings you here? Something to borrow or beg, I suppose.'
+
+May every ambassador--every ambassador in as good a cause--answer with
+as much dignity and moderation as Rose replied to Barbara upon the
+present occasion. She assured her that the person from whom she came did
+not send her either to beg or borrow; that she was able to pay the full
+value of that for which she came to ask; and, producing her well-filled
+purse, 'I believe that this is a very good shilling,' said she. 'If you
+don't like it, I will change it, and now you will be so good as to give
+me Susan's guinea-hen. It is in her name I ask for it.'
+
+'No matter in whose name you ask for it,' replied Barbara, 'you will not
+have it. Take up your shilling, if you please. I would have taken a
+shilling yesterday, if it had been paid at the time properly; but I told
+Susan, that if it was not paid then, I should keep the hen, and so I
+shall, I promise her. You may go back, and tell her so.'
+
+The attorney's daughter had, whilst Rose opened her negotiation,
+measured the depth of her purse with a keen eye; and her penetration
+discovered that it contained at least ten shillings. With proper
+management she had some hopes that the guinea-hen might be made to bring
+in at least half the money.
+
+Rose, who was of a warm temper, not quite so fit a match as she had
+thought herself for the wily Barbara, incautiously exclaimed, 'Whatever
+it costs us, we are determined to have Susan's favourite hen; so, if one
+shilling won't do, take two; and if two won't do, why, take three.'
+
+The shillings sounded provoking upon the table, as she threw them down
+one after another, and Barbara coolly replied, 'Three won't do.' 'Have
+you no conscience, Miss Barbara? Then take four.' Barbara shook her
+head. A fifth shilling was instantly proffered; but Bab, who now saw
+plainly that she had the game in her own hands, preserved a cold, cruel
+silence. Rose went on rapidly, bidding shilling after shilling, till she
+had completely emptied her purse. The twelve shillings were spread upon
+the table. Barbara's avarice was moved; she consented for this ransom to
+liberate her prisoner.
+
+Rose pushed the money towards her; but just then, recollecting that she
+was acting for others more than for herself, and doubting whether she
+had full powers to conclude such an extravagant bargain, she gathered up
+the public treasure, and with newly-recovered prudence observed that she
+must go back to consult her friends. Her generous little friends were
+amazed at Barbara's meanness, but with one accord declared that they
+were most willing, for their parts, to give up every farthing of the
+money. They all went to Susan in a body, and told her so. 'There's our
+purse,' said they; 'do what you please with it.' They would not wait for
+one word of thanks, but ran away, leaving only Rose with her to settle
+the treaty for the guinea-hen.
+
+There is a certain manner of accepting a favour, which shows true
+generosity of mind. Many know how to give, but few know how to accept a
+gift properly. Susan was touched, but not astonished, by the kindness of
+her young friends, and she received the purse with as much simplicity as
+she would have given it.
+
+'Well,' said Rose, 'shall I go back for the guinea-hen?' 'The
+guinea-hen!' said Susan, starting from a reverie into which she had
+fallen, as she contemplated the purse. 'Certainly I _do_ long to see my
+pretty guinea-hen once more; but I was not thinking of her just then--I
+was thinking of my father.'
+
+Now Susan had heard her mother often, in the course of this day, wish
+that she had but money enough in the world to pay John Simpson for going
+to serve in the militia instead of her husband. 'This, to be sure, will
+go but a little way,' thought Susan; 'but still it may be of some use to
+my father.' She told her mind to Rose, and concluded by saying,
+decidedly, that 'if the money was given to her to dispose of as she
+pleased, she would give it to her father.'
+
+'It is all yours, my dear good Susan,' cried Rose, with a look of warm
+approbation. 'This is so like you!--but I'm sorry that Miss Bab must
+keep your guinea-hen. I would not be her for all the guinea-hens, or
+guineas either, in the whole world. Why, I'll answer for it, the
+guinea-hen won't make her happy, and you'll be happy _even_ without;
+because you are good. Let me come and help you to-morrow,' continued
+she, looking at Susan's work, 'if you have any more mending work to
+do--I never liked work till I worked with you. I won't forget my thimble
+or my scissors,' added she, laughing--'though I used to forget them when
+I was a giddy girl. I assure you I am a great hand at my needle,
+now--try me.'
+
+Susan assured her friend that she did not doubt the powers of her
+needle, and that she would most willingly accept of her services, but
+that _unluckily_ she had finished all her needlework that was
+immediately wanted.
+
+'But do you know,' said she, 'I shall have a great deal of business
+to-morrow; but I won't tell you what it is that I have to do, for I am
+afraid I shall not succeed; but if I do succeed, I'll come and tell you
+directly, because you will be so glad of it.'
+
+Susan, who had always been attentive to what her mother taught her, and
+who had often assisted her when she was baking bread and cakes for the
+family at the Abbey, had now formed the courageous, but not
+presumptuous, idea that she could herself undertake to bake a batch of
+bread. One of the servants from the Abbey had been sent all round the
+village in the morning in search of bread, and had not been able to
+procure any that was tolerable. Mrs. Price's last baking failed for want
+of good barm. She was not now strong enough to attempt another herself;
+and when the brewer's boy came with eagerness to tell her that he had
+some fine fresh yeast, she thanked him, but sighed, and said it would be
+of no use to her. Accordingly she went to work with much prudent care,
+and when her bread the next morning came out of the oven, it was
+excellent; at least her mother said so, and she was a good judge. It was
+sent to the Abbey; and as the family there had not tasted any good bread
+since their arrival in the country, they also were earnest and warm in
+its praise. Inquiries were made from the housekeeper, and they heard,
+with some surprise, that this excellent bread was made by a young girl
+only twelve years old.
+
+The housekeeper, who had known Susan from a child, was pleased to have
+an opportunity in speaking in her favour. 'She is the most industrious
+little creature, ma'am, in the world,' said she to her mistress. 'Little
+I can't so well call her now, since she's grown tall and slender to look
+at; and glad I am she is grown up likely to look at; for handsome is
+that handsome does; she thinks no more of her being handsome than I do
+myself; yet she has as proper a respect for herself, ma'am, as you have;
+and I always see her neat, and with her mother, ma'am, or fit people, as
+a girl should be. As for her mother, she dotes upon her, as well she
+may; for I should myself if I had half such a daughter; and then she has
+two little brothers; and she's as good to them, and, my boy Philip says,
+taught 'em to read more than the schoolmistress, all with tenderness and
+good nature; but I beg your pardon, ma'am, I cannot stop myself when I
+once begin to talk of Susan.'
+
+'You have really said enough to excite my curiosity,' said her mistress;
+'pray send for her immediately; we can see her before we go out to
+walk.'
+
+The benevolent housekeeper despatched her boy Philip for Susan, who
+never happened to be in such an _untidy_ state as to be unable to obey a
+summons without a long preparation. She had, it is true, been very busy;
+but orderly people can be busy and neat at the same time. She put on her
+usual straw hat, and accompanied Rose's mother, who was going with a
+basket of cleared muslin to the Abbey.
+
+The modest simplicity of Susan's appearance, and the artless good sense
+and propriety of the answers she gave to all the questions that were
+asked her, pleased the ladies at the Abbey, who were good judges of
+character and manners.
+
+Sir Arthur Somers had two sisters, sensible, benevolent women. They were
+not of that race of fine ladies who are miserable the moment they come
+to _the country_; nor yet were they of that bustling sort, who quack and
+direct all their poor neighbours, for the mere love of managing, or the
+want of something to do. They were judiciously generous; and whilst they
+wished to diffuse happiness, they were not peremptory in requiring that
+people should be happy precisely their own way. With these dispositions,
+and with a well-informed brother, who, though he never wished to
+direct, was always willing to assist in their efforts to do good, there
+were reasonable hopes that these ladies would be a blessing to the poor
+villagers amongst whom they were now settled.
+
+As soon as Miss Somers had spoken to Susan, she inquired for her
+brother; but Sir Arthur was in his study, and a gentleman was with him
+on business.
+
+Susan was desirous of returning to her mother, and the ladies therefore
+would not detain her. Miss Somers told her, with a smile, when she took
+leave, that she would call upon her in the evening at six o'clock.
+
+It was impossible that such a grand event as Susan's visit to the Abbey
+could long remain unknown to Barbara Case and her gossiping maid. They
+watched eagerly for the moment of her return, that they might satisfy
+their curiosity. 'There she is, I declare, just come into her garden,'
+cried Bab; 'I'll run in and get it all out of her in a minute.'
+
+Bab could descend, without shame, whenever it suited her purposes, from
+the height of insolent pride to the lowest meanness of fawning
+familiarity.
+
+Susan was gathering some marigolds and some parsley for her mother's
+broth.
+
+'So, Susan,' said Bab, who came close up to her before she perceived it,
+'how goes the world with you to-day?' 'My mother is rather better
+to-day, she says, ma'am--thank you,' replies Susan, coldly but civilly.
+'_Ma'am!_ dear, how polite we are grown of a sudden!' cried Bab, winking
+at her maid. 'One may see you've been in good company this morning--hey,
+Susan? Come, let's hear about it.' 'Did you see the ladies themselves,
+or was it only the housekeeper sent for you?' said the maid. 'What room
+did you go into?' continued Bab. 'Did you see Miss Somers, or Sir
+Arthur?' 'Miss Somers.' 'La! she saw Miss Somers! Betty, I must hear
+about it. Can't you stop gathering those things for a minute and chat a
+bit with us, Susan?' 'I can't stay, indeed, Miss Barbara; for my
+mother's broth is just wanted, and I'm in a hurry.' Susan ran home.
+
+'Lord, her head is full of broth now,' said Bab to her maid; 'and she
+has not a word for herself, though she has been abroad. My papa may well
+call her _Simple Susan_; for simple she is, and simple she will be, all
+the world over. For my part, I think she's little better than a
+downright simpleton. But, however, simple or not, I'll get what I want
+out of her. She'll be able to speak, maybe, when she has settled the
+grand matter of the broth. I'll step in and ask to see her mother, that
+will put her in a good humour in a trice.'
+
+Barbara followed Susan into the cottage, and found her occupied with the
+grand affair of the broth. 'Is it ready?' said Bab, peeping into the pot
+that was over the fire. 'Dear, how savoury it smells! I'll wait till you
+go in with it to your mother; for I must ask her how she does myself.'
+'Will you please to sit down then, miss?' said Simple Susan, with a
+smile; for at this instant she forgot the guinea-hen; 'I have but just
+put the parsley into the broth; but it soon will be ready.'
+
+During this interval Bab employed herself, much to her own satisfaction,
+in cross-questioning Susan. She was rather provoked indeed that she
+could not learn exactly how each of the ladies was dressed, and what
+there was to be for dinner at the Abbey; and she was curious beyond
+measure to find out what Miss Somers meant by saying that she would call
+at Mr. Price's cottage at six o'clock in the evening. 'What do you think
+she could mean?' 'I thought she meant what she said,' replied Susan,
+'that she would come here at six o'clock.' 'Ay, that's as plain as a
+pike-staff,' said Barbara; 'but what else did she mean, think you?
+People, you know, don't always mean exactly, downright, neither more nor
+less than what they say.' 'Not always,' said Susan, with an arch smile,
+which convinced Barbara that she was not quite a simpleton. '_Not
+always_,' repeated Barbara colouring,--'oh, then I suppose you have some
+guess at what Miss Somers meant.' 'No,' said Susan, 'I was not thinking
+about Miss Somers, when I said not always.' 'How nice that broth does
+look,' resumed Barbara, after a pause.
+
+Susan had now poured the broth into a basin, and as she strewed over it
+the bright orange marigolds, it looked very tempting. She tasted it, and
+added now a little salt, and now a little more, till she thought it was
+just to her mother's taste. 'Oh, _I_ must taste it,' said Bab, taking
+the basin up greedily. 'Won't you take a spoon?' said Susan, trembling
+at the large mouthfuls which Barbara sucked up with a terrible noise.
+'Take a spoonful, indeed!' exclaimed Barbara, setting down the basin in
+high anger. 'The next time I taste your broth you shall affront me, if
+you dare! The next time I set my foot in this house, you shall be as
+saucy to me as you please.' And she flounced out of the house, repeating
+'_Take a spoon, pig_, was what you meant to say.'
+
+Susan stood in amazement at the beginning of this speech; but the
+concluding words explained to her the mystery.
+
+Some years before this time, when Susan was a very little girl, and
+could scarcely speak plain, as she was eating a basin of bread and milk
+for her supper at the cottage door, a great pig came up and put his nose
+into the basin. Susan was willing that the pig should have some share of
+the bread and milk; but as she ate with a spoon and he with his large
+mouth, she presently discovered that he was likely to have more than his
+share; and in a simple tone of expostulation she said to him, 'Take a
+_poon_, pig.'[7] The saying became proverbial in the village. Susan's
+little companions repeated it, and applied it upon many occasions,
+whenever any one claimed more than his share of anything good. Barbara,
+who was then not Miss Barbara, but plain Bab, and who had played with
+all the poor children in the neighbourhood, was often reproved in her
+unjust methods of division by Susan's proverb. Susan, as she grew up,
+forgot the childish saying; but the remembrance of it rankled in
+Barbara's mind, and it was to this that she suspected Susan had alluded,
+when she recommended a spoon to her, whilst she was swallowing the basin
+of broth.
+
+  [7] This is a true anecdote.
+
+'La, miss,' said Barbara's maid, when she found her mistress in a
+passion upon her return from Susan's, 'I only wondered you did her the
+honour to set your foot within her doors. What need have you to trouble
+her for news about the Abbey folks, when your own papa has been there
+all the morning, and is just come in, and can tell you everything?'
+
+Barbara did not know that her father meant to go to the Abbey that
+morning, for Attorney Case was mysterious even to his own family about
+his morning rides. He never chose to be asked where he was going, or
+where he had been; and this made his servants more than commonly
+inquisitive to trace him.
+
+Barbara, against whose apparent childishness and real cunning he was not
+sufficiently on his guard, had often the art of drawing him into
+conversation about his visits. She ran into her father's parlour; but
+she knew, the moment she saw his face, that it was no time to ask
+questions; his pen was across his mouth, and his brown wig pushed
+oblique upon his contracted forehead. The wig was always pushed crooked
+whenever he was in a brown, or rather a black, study. Barbara, who did
+not, like Susan, bear with her father's testy humour from affection and
+gentleness of disposition, but who always humoured him from artifice,
+tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts, and when she found that _it_
+would not do, she went to tell her maid so, and to complain that her
+father was so cross there was no bearing him.
+
+It is true that Attorney Case was not in the happiest mood possible; for
+he was by no means satisfied with his morning's work at the Abbey. Sir
+Arthur Somers, the _new man_, did not suit him, and he began to be
+rather apprehensive that he should not suit Sir Arthur. He had sound
+reasons for his doubts.
+
+Sir Arthur Somers was an excellent lawyer, and a perfectly honest man.
+This seemed to our attorney a contradiction in terms; in the course of
+his practice the case had not occurred; and he had no precedents ready
+to direct his proceedings. Sir Arthur was also a man of wit and
+eloquence, yet of plain dealing and humanity. The attorney could not
+persuade himself to believe that his benevolence was anything but
+enlightened cunning, and his plain dealing he one minute dreaded as the
+masterpiece of art, and the next despised as the characteristic of
+folly. In short, he had not yet decided whether he was an honest man or
+a knave. He had settled accounts with him for his late agency, and had
+talked about sundry matters of business. He constantly perceived,
+however, that he could not impose upon Sir Arthur; but the idea that he
+could know all the mazes of the law, and yet prefer the straight road,
+was incomprehensible.
+
+Mr. Case having paid Sir Arthur some compliments on his great legal
+abilities, and his high reputation at the bar, he coolly replied, 'I
+have left the bar.' The attorney looked in unfeigned astonishment that a
+man who was actually making £3000 per annum at the bar should leave it.
+
+'I am come,' said Sir Arthur, 'to enjoy that kind of domestic life in
+the country which I prefer to all others, and amongst people whose
+happiness I hope to increase.' At this speech the attorney changed his
+ground, flattering himself that he should find his man averse to
+business, and ignorant of country affairs. He talked of the value of
+land, and of new leases.
+
+[Illustration: _Tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts._]
+
+Sir Arthur wished to enlarge his domain, and to make a ride round it. A
+map of it was lying upon the table, and Farmer Price's garden came
+exactly across the new road for the ride. Sir Arthur looked
+disappointed; and the keen attorney seized the moment to inform him that
+'Price's whole land was at his disposal.'
+
+'At my disposal! how so?' cried Sir Arthur, eagerly; 'it will not be out
+of lease, I believe, these ten years. I'll look into the rent-roll
+again; perhaps I am mistaken.'
+
+'You are mistaken, my good sir, and you are not mistaken,' said Mr.
+Case, with a shrewd smile. 'In one sense, the land will not be out of
+lease these ten years, and in another it is out of lease at this present
+time. To come to the point at once, the lease is, _ab origine_, null and
+void. I have detected a capital flaw in the body of it. I pledge my
+credit upon it, sir, it can't stand a single term in law or equity.'
+
+The attorney observed that at these words Sir Arthur's eye was fixed
+with a look of earnest attention. 'Now I have him,' said the cunning
+tempter to himself.
+
+'Neither in law nor equity,' repeated Sir Arthur, with apparent
+incredulity. 'Are you sure of that, Mr. Case?' 'Sure! As I told you
+before, sir, I'd pledge my whole credit upon the thing--I'd stake my
+existence.' '_That's something_,' said Sir Arthur, as if he was
+pondering upon the matter.
+
+The attorney went on with all the eagerness of a keen man, who sees a
+chance at one stroke of winning a rich friend and of ruining a poor
+enemy. He explained, with legal volubility and technical amplification,
+the nature of the mistake in Mr. Price's lease. 'It was, sir,' said he,
+'a lease for the life of Peter Price, Susanna his wife, and to the
+survivor or survivors of them, or for the full time and term of twenty
+years, to be computed from the first day of May then next ensuing. Now,
+sir, this, you see, is a lease in reversion, which the late Sir Benjamin
+Somers had not, by his settlement, a right to make. This is a curious
+mistake, you see, Sir Arthur; and in filling up those printed leases
+there's always a good chance of some flaw. I find it perpetually; but I
+never found a better than this in the whole course of my practice.'
+
+Sir Arthur stood in silence.
+
+'My dear sir,' said the attorney, taking him by the button, 'you have no
+scruple of stirring in this business?'
+
+'A little,' said Sir Arthur.
+
+'Why, then, that can be done away in a moment. Your name shall not
+appear in it at all. You have nothing to do but to make over the lease
+to me. I make all safe to you with my bond. Now, being in possession, I
+come forward in my own proper person. _Shall I proceed?_'
+
+'No--you have said enough,' replied Sir Arthur.
+
+'The case, indeed, lies in a nutshell,' said the attorney, who had by
+this time worked himself up to such a pitch of professional enthusiasm
+that, intent upon his vision of a lawsuit, he totally forgot to observe
+the impression his words made upon Sir Arthur.
+
+'There's only one thing we have forgotten all this time,' said Sir
+Arthur. 'What can that be, sir?' 'That we shall ruin this poor man.'
+
+Case was thunderstruck at these words, or rather, by the look which
+accompanied them. He recollected that he had laid himself open before he
+was sure of Sir Arthur's _real_ character. He softened, and said he
+should have had certainly more _consideration_ in the case of any but a
+litigious, pig-headed fellow, as he knew Price to be.
+
+'If he be litigious,' said Sir Arthur, 'I shall certainly be glad to get
+him fairly out of the parish as soon as possible. When you go home, you
+will be so good, sir, as to send me his lease, that I may satisfy myself
+before we stir in this business.'
+
+The attorney, brightening up, prepared to take leave; but he could not
+persuade himself to take his departure without making one push at Sir
+Arthur about the agency.
+
+'I will not trouble _you_, Sir Arthur, with this lease of Price's,'
+said Case; 'I'll leave it with your agent. Whom shall I apply to?'
+'_To myself_, sir, if you please,' replied Sir Arthur.
+
+The courtiers of Louis the Fourteenth could not have looked more
+astounded than our attorney, when they received from their monarch a
+similar answer. It was this unexpected reply of Sir Arthur's which had
+deranged the temper of Mr. Case, and caused his wig to stand so crooked
+upon his forehead, and which had rendered him impenetrably silent to his
+inquisitive daughter Barbara.
+
+After having walked up and down his room, conversing with himself, for
+some time, the attorney concluded that the agency must be given to
+somebody when Sir Arthur should have to attend his duty in Parliament;
+that the agency, even for the winter season, was not a thing to be
+neglected; and that, if he managed well, he might yet secure it for
+himself. He had often found that small timely presents worked
+wonderfully upon his own mind, and he judged of others by himself. The
+tenants had been in the reluctant but constant practice of making him
+continual petty offerings; and he resolved to try the same course with
+Sir Arthur, whose resolution to be his own agent, he thought, argued a
+close, saving, avaricious disposition. He had heard the housekeeper at
+the Abbey inquiring, as he passed through the servants, whether there
+was any lamb to be gotten. She said that Sir Arthur was remarkably fond
+of lamb, and that she wished she could get a quarter for him.
+Immediately he sallied into his kitchen, as soon as the idea struck him,
+and asked a shepherd, who was waiting there, whether he knew of a nice
+fat lamb to be had anywhere in the neighbourhood.
+
+'I know of one,' cried Barbara. 'Susan Price has a pet lamb that's as
+fat as fat could be.' The attorney easily caught at these words, and
+speedily devised a scheme for obtaining Susan's lamb for nothing.
+
+It would be something strange if an attorney of his talents and standing
+was not an over-match for Simple Susan. He prowled forth in search of
+his prey. He found Susan packing up her father's little wardrobe; and
+when she looked up as she knelt, he saw that she had been in tears.
+
+'How is your mother to-day, Susan?' inquired the attorney. 'Worse, sir.
+My father goes to-morrow.' 'That's a pity.' 'It can't be helped,' said
+Susan, with a sigh. 'It can't be helped--how do you know that?' said
+Case. 'Sir, _dear_ sir!' cried she, looking up at him, and a sudden ray
+of hope beamed in her ingenuous countenance. 'And if _you_ could help
+it, Susan?' said he. Susan clasped her hands in silence, more
+expressive than words. 'You _can_ help it, Susan.' She started up in an
+ecstasy. 'What would you give now to have your father at home for a
+whole week longer?' 'Anything!--but I have nothing.' 'Yes, but you have,
+a lamb,' said the hard-hearted attorney. 'My poor little lamb!' said
+Susan; 'but what can that do?' 'What good can any lamb do? Is not lamb
+good to eat? Why do you look so pale, girl? Are not sheep killed every
+day, and don't you eat mutton? Is your lamb better than anybody else's,
+think you?' 'I don't know,' said Susan, 'but I love it better.' 'More
+fool you,' said he. 'It feeds out of hand, it follows me about; I have
+always taken care of it; my mother gave it to me.' 'Well, say no more
+about it, then,' he cynically observed; 'if you love your lamb better
+than both your father and your mother, keep it, and good morning to
+you.'
+
+'Stay, oh stay!' cried Susan, catching the skirt of his coat with an
+eager, trembling hand;--'a whole week, did you say? My mother may get
+better in that time. No, I do not love my lamb half so well.' The
+struggle of her mind ceased, and with a placid countenance and calm
+voice, 'Take the lamb,' said she. 'Where is it?' said the attorney.
+'Grazing in the meadow, by the river-side.' 'It must be brought up
+before nightfall for the butcher, remember.' 'I shall not forget it,'
+said Susan, steadily.
+
+As soon, however, as her persecutor turned his back and quitted the
+house, Susan sat down and hid her face in her hands. She was soon
+aroused by the sound of her mother's feeble voice, who was calling
+_Susan_ from the inner room where she lay. Susan went in, but did not
+undraw the curtain as she stood beside the bed.
+
+'Are you there, love? Undraw the curtain, that I may see you, and tell
+me;--I thought I heard some strange voice just now talking to my child.
+Something's amiss, Susan,' said her mother, raising herself as well as
+she was able in the bed, to examine her daughter's countenance.
+
+'Would you think it amiss, then, my dear mother,' said Susan, stooping
+to kiss her--'would you think it amiss, if my father was to stay with us
+a week longer?' 'Susan! you don't say so?' 'He is, indeed, a whole
+week;--but how burning hot your hand is still.' 'Are you sure he will
+stay?' inquired her mother. 'How do you know? Who told you so? Tell me
+all quick.' 'Attorney Case told me so; he can get him a week's longer
+leave of absence, and he has promised he will.' 'God bless him for it,
+for ever and ever!' said the poor woman, joining her hands. 'May the
+blessing of heaven be with him!'
+
+Susan closed the curtains, and was silent. She _could not say Amen_. She
+was called out of the room at this moment, for a messenger was come from
+the Abbey for the bread-bills. It was she who always made out the bills,
+for though she had not a great number of lessons from the
+writing-master, she had taken so much pains to learn that she could
+write a very neat, legible hand, and she found this very useful. She was
+not, to be sure, particularly inclined to draw out a long bill at this
+instant, but business must be done. She set to work, ruled her lines for
+the pounds, shillings, and pence, made out the bill for the Abbey, and
+despatched the impatient messenger. She then resolved to make out all
+the bills for the neighbours, who had many of them taken a few loaves
+and rolls of her baking. 'I had better get all my business finished,'
+said she to herself, 'before I go down to the meadow to take leave of my
+poor lamb.'
+
+This was sooner said than done, for she found that she had a great
+number of bills to write, and the slate on which she had entered the
+account was not immediately to be found, and when it was found the
+figures were almost rubbed out. Barbara had sat down upon it. Susan
+pored over the number of loaves, and the names of the persons who took
+them; and she wrote and cast up sums, and corrected and re-corrected
+them, till her head grew quite puzzled.
+
+The table was covered with little square bits of paper, on which she had
+been writing bills over and over again, when her father came in with a
+bill in his hand. 'How's this, Susan?' said he. 'How can ye be so
+careless, child? What is your head running upon? Here, look at the bill
+you were sending up to the Abbey? I met the messenger, and luckily asked
+to see how much it was. Look at it.'
+
+Susan looked and blushed; it was written, 'Sir Arthur Somers, to John
+Price, debtor, six dozen _lambs_, so much.' She altered it, and returned
+it to her father; but he had taken up some of the papers which lay upon
+the table. 'What are all these, child?' 'Some of them are wrong, and
+I've written them out again,' said Susan. 'Some of them! All of them, I
+think, seem to be wrong, if I can read,' said her father, rather
+angrily, and he pointed out to her sundry strange mistakes. Her head,
+indeed, had been running upon her poor lamb. She corrected all the
+mistakes with so much patience, and bore to be blamed with so much good
+humour, that her father at last said that it was impossible ever to
+scold Susan, without being in the wrong at the last.
+
+As soon as all was set right, Price took the bills, and said he would go
+round to the neighbours and collect the money himself; for that he
+should be very proud to have it to say to them that it was all earned by
+his own little daughter.
+
+Susan resolved to keep the pleasure of telling him of his week's
+reprieve till he should come home to sup, as he had promised to do, in
+her mother's room. She was not sorry to hear him sigh as he passed the
+knapsack, which she had been packing up for his journey. 'How delighted
+he will be when he hears the good news!' said she to herself; 'but I
+know he will be a little sorry too for my poor lamb.'
+
+As Susan had now settled all her business, she thought she could have
+time to go down to the meadow by the river-side to see her favourite;
+but just as she had tied on her straw hat the village clock struck four,
+and this was the hour at which she always went to fetch her little
+brothers home from a dame-school near the village. She knew that they
+would be disappointed if she was later than usual, and she did not like
+to keep them waiting, because they were very patient, good boys; so she
+put off the visit to her lamb, and went immediately for her brothers.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+    Evn in the spring and playtime of the year,
+    That calls th' unwonted villager abroad,
+    With all her little ones, a sportive train,
+    To gather kingcups in the yellow mead,
+    And prink their heads with daisies.
+                                        COWPER.
+
+The dame-school, which was about a mile from the hamlet, was not a showy
+edifice: but it was reverenced as much by the young race of village
+scholars as if it had been the most stately mansion in the land; it was
+a low-roofed, long, thatched tenement, sheltered by a few reverend oaks,
+under which many generations of hopeful children had gambolled in their
+turn.
+
+The close-shaven green, which sloped down from the hatch-door of the
+schoolroom, was paled round with a rude paling, which, though decayed in
+some parts by time, was not in any place broken by violence.
+
+The place bespoke order and peace. The dame who governed was well
+obeyed, because she was just and well beloved, and because she was ever
+glad to give well-earned praise and pleasure to her little subjects.
+
+Susan had once been under her gentle dominion, and had been deservedly
+her favourite scholar. The dame often cited her as the best example to
+the succeeding tribe of emulous youngsters. She had scarcely opened the
+wicket which separated the green before the schoolroom door from the
+lane, when she heard the merry voices of the children, and saw the
+little troup issuing from the hatchway and spreading over the green.
+
+'Oh, there's Susan!' cried her two little brothers, running, leaping,
+and bounding up to her; and many of the other rosy girls and boys
+crowded round her, to talk of their plays; for Susan was easily
+interested in all that made others happy; but she could not make them
+comprehend that, if they all spoke at once, it was not possible that she
+could hear what was said.
+
+The voices were still raised one above another, all eager to establish
+some important observation about ninepins, or marbles, or tops, or bows
+and arrows, when suddenly music was heard and the crowd was silenced.
+The music seemed to be near the spot where the children were standing,
+and they looked round to see whence it could come. Susan pointed to the
+great oak tree, and they beheld, seated under its shade, an old man
+playing upon his harp. The children all approached--at first timidly,
+for the sounds were solemn; but as the harper heard their little
+footsteps coming towards him, he changed his hand and played one of his
+most lively tunes. The circle closed, and pressed nearer and nearer to
+him; some who were in the foremost row whispered to each other, 'He is
+blind!' 'What a pity!' and 'He looks very poor,--what a ragged coat he
+wears!' said others. 'He must be very old, for all his hair is white:
+and he must have travelled a great way, for his shoes are quite worn
+out,' observed another.
+
+All these remarks were made whilst he was tuning his harp, for when he
+once more began to play, not a word was uttered. He seemed pleased by
+their simple exclamations of wonder and delight, and, eager to amuse his
+young audience, he played now a gay and now a pathetic air, to suit
+their several humours.
+
+Susan's voice, which was soft and sweet, expressive of gentleness and
+good nature, caught his ear the moment she spoke. He turned his face
+eagerly to the place where she stood; and it was observed that, whenever
+she said that she liked any tune particularly, he played it over again.
+
+'I am blind,' said the old man, 'and cannot see your faces; but I know
+you all asunder by your voices, and I can guess pretty well at all your
+humours and characters by your voices.'
+
+'Can you so, indeed?' cried Susan's little brother William, who had
+stationed himself between the old man's knees. 'Then you heard _my_
+sister Susan speak just now. Can you tell us what sort of person she
+is?' 'That I can, I think, without being a conjurer,' said the old man,
+lifting the boy up on his knee; '_your_ sister Susan is good-natured.'
+The boy clapped his hands. 'And good-tempered.' '_Right_,' said little
+William, with a louder clap of applause. 'And very fond of the little
+boy who sits upon my knee.' 'O right! right! quite right!' exclaimed the
+child, and 'quite right' echoed on all sides.
+
+'But how came you to know so much, when you are blind?' said William,
+examining the old man attentively.
+
+'Hush,' said John, who was a year older than his brother, and very sage,
+'you should not put him in mind of his being blind.'
+
+'Though I am blind,' said the harper, 'I can hear, you know, and I heard
+from your sister herself all that I told you of her, that she was
+good-tempered and good-natured and fond of you.' 'Oh, that's wrong--you
+did not hear all that from herself, I'm sure,' said John, 'for nobody
+ever hears her praising herself.' 'Did not I hear her tell you,' said
+the harper, 'when you first came round me, that she was in a great hurry
+to go home, but that she would stay a little while, since you wished it
+so much? Was not that good-natured? And when you said you did not like
+the tune she liked best, she was not angry with you, but said, "Then
+play William's first, if you please,"--was not that good-tempered?'
+'Oh,' interrupted William, 'it's all true; but how did you find out that
+she was fond of me?' 'That is such a difficult question,' said the
+harper, 'that I must take time to consider.' The harper tuned his
+instrument, as he pondered, or seemed to ponder; and at this instant two
+boys who had been searching for birds' nests in the hedges, and who had
+heard the sound of the harp, came blustering up, and pushing their way
+through the circle, one of them exclaimed, 'What's going on here? Who
+are you, my old fellow? A blind harper! Well, play us a tune, if you can
+play ever a good one--play me--let's see, what shall he play, Bob?'
+added he, turning to his companion. 'Bumper Squire Jones.'
+
+The old man, though he did not seem quite pleased with the peremptory
+manner of the request, played, as he was desired, 'Bumper Squire Jones';
+and several other tunes were afterwards bespoke by the same rough and
+tyrannical voice.
+
+The little children shrank back in timid silence, and eyed the brutal
+boy with dislike. This boy was the son of Attorney Case; and as his
+father had neglected to correct his temper when he was a child, as he
+grew up it became insufferable. All who were younger and weaker than
+himself dreaded his approach, and detested him as a tyrant.
+
+When the old harper was so tired that he could play no more, a lad, who
+usually carried his harp for him, and who was within call, came up, and
+held his master's hat to the company, saying, 'Will you be pleased to
+remember us?' The children readily produced their halfpence, and
+thought their wealth well bestowed upon this poor, good-natured man, who
+had taken so much pains to entertain them, better even than upon the
+gingerbread woman, whose stall they loved to frequent. The hat was held
+some time to the attorney's son before he chose to see it. At last he
+put his hand surlily into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a
+shilling. There were sixpennyworth of halfpence in the hat. 'I'll take
+these halfpence,' said he, 'and here's a shilling for you.'
+
+'God bless you, sir,' said the lad; but as he took the shilling, which
+the young gentleman had slily put _into the blind man's hand_, he saw
+that it was not worth one farthing. 'I am afraid it is not good, sir,'
+said the lad, whose business it was to examine the money for his master.
+'I am afraid, then, you'll get no other,' said young Case, with an
+insulting laugh. 'It never will do, sir,' persisted the lad; 'look at it
+yourself; the edges are all yellow! you can see the copper through it
+quite plain. Sir, nobody will take it from us.' 'That's your affair,'
+said the brutal boy, pushing away his hand. 'You may pass it, you know,
+as well as I do, if you look sharp. You have taken it from me, and I
+shan't take it back again, I promise you.'
+
+A whisper of 'that's very unjust,' was heard. The little assembly,
+though under evident constraint, could no longer suppress their
+indignation.
+
+'Who says it's unjust?' cried the tyrant sternly, looking down upon his
+judges.
+
+Susan's little brothers had held her gown fast, to prevent her from
+moving at the beginning of this contest, and she was now so much
+interested to see the end of it, that she stood still, without making
+any resistance.
+
+'Is any one here amongst yourselves a judge of silver?' said the old
+man. 'Yes, here's the butcher's boy,' said the attorney's son; 'show it
+to him.' He was a sickly-looking boy, and of a remarkably peaceful
+disposition. Young Case fancied that he would be afraid to give judgment
+against him. However, after some moments' hesitation, and after turning
+the shilling round several times, he pronounced, 'that, as far as his
+judgment went, but he did not pretend to be a downright _certain sure_
+of it, the shilling was not over and above good.' Then turning to Susan,
+to screen himself from manifest danger, for the attorney's son looked
+upon him with a vengeful mien, 'But here's Susan here, who understands
+silver a great deal better than I do; she takes a power of it for bread,
+you know.'
+
+'I'll leave it to her,' said the old harper; 'if she says the shilling
+is good, keep it, Jack.' The shilling was handed to Susan, who, though
+she had with becoming modesty forborne all interference, did not
+hesitate, when she was called upon, to speak the truth: 'I think that
+this shilling is a bad one,' said she; and the gentle but firm tone in
+which she pronounced the words for a moment awed and silenced the angry
+and brutal boy. 'There's another, then,' cried he; 'I have sixpences and
+shillings too in plenty, thank my stars.'
+
+Susan now walked away with her two little brothers, and all the other
+children separated to go to their several homes. The old harper called
+to Susan, and begged that, if she was going towards the village, she
+would be so kind as to show him the way. His lad took up his harp, and
+little William took the old man by the hand. 'I'll lead him, I can lead
+him,' said he; and John ran on before them, to gather kingcups in the
+meadow.
+
+There was a small rivulet which they had to cross, and as a plank which
+served for a bridge over it was rather narrow, Susan was afraid to trust
+the old blind man to his little conductor; she therefore went on the
+tottering plank first herself, and then led the old harper carefully
+over. They were now come to a gate, which opened upon the highroad to
+the village. 'There is the highroad straight before you,' said Susan to
+the lad, who was carrying his master's harp; 'you can't miss it. Now I
+must bid you a good evening; for I'm in a great hurry to get home, and
+must go the short way across the fields here, which would not be so
+pleasant for you, because of the stiles. Good-bye.' The old harper
+thanked her, and went along the highroad, whilst she and her brothers
+tripped on as fast as they could by the short way across the fields.
+
+'Miss Somers, I am afraid, will be waiting for us,' said Susan. 'You
+know she said she would call at six; and by the length of our shadows
+I'm sure it is late.'
+
+When they came to their own cottage door, they heard many voices, and
+they saw, when they entered, several ladies standing in the kitchen.
+'Come in, Susan; we thought you had quite forsaken us,' said Miss
+Somers to Susan, who advanced timidly. 'I fancy you forgot that we
+promised to pay you a visit this evening; but you need not blush so much
+about the matter; there is no great harm done; we have only been here
+about five minutes; and we have been well employed in admiring your neat
+garden and your orderly shelves. Is it you, Susan, who keep these things
+in such nice order?' continued Miss Somers, looking round the kitchen.
+
+Before Susan could reply, little William pushed forward and answered,
+'Yes, ma'am, it is _my_ sister Susan that keeps everything neat; and she
+always comes to school for us, too, which was what caused her to be so
+late.' 'Because as how,' continued John, 'she was loth to refuse us the
+hearing a blind man play on the harp. It was we kept her, and we hopes,
+ma'am, as you _are_--as you _seem_ so good, you won't take it amiss.'
+
+Miss Somers and her sister smiled at the affectionate simplicity with
+which Susan's little brothers undertook her defence, and they were, from
+this slight circumstance, disposed to think yet more favourably of a
+family which seemed so well united. They took Susan along with them
+through the village. Many neighbours came to their doors, and far from
+envying, they all secretly wished Susan well as she passed.
+
+'I fancy we shall find what we want here,' said Miss Somers, stopping
+before a shop, where unfolded sheets of pins and glass buttons glistened
+in the window, and where rolls of many coloured ribbons appeared ranged
+in tempting order. She went in, and was rejoiced to see the shelves at
+the back of the counter well furnished with glossy tiers of stuffs, and
+gay, neat printed linens and calicoes.
+
+'Now, Susan, choose yourself a gown,' said Miss Somers; 'you set an
+example of industry and good conduct, of which we wish to take public
+notice, for the benefit of others.'
+
+The shopkeeper, who was father to Susan's friend Rose, looked much
+satisfied by this speech, and as if a compliment had been paid to
+himself, bowed low to Miss Somers, and then with alertness, which a
+London linendraper might have admired, produced piece after piece of his
+best goods to his young customer--unrolled, unfolded, held the bright
+stuffs and calendered calicoes in various lights. Now stretched his arm
+to the highest shelves, and brought down in a trice what seemed to be
+beyond the reach of any but a giant's arm; now dived into some hidden
+recess beneath the counter, and brought to light fresh beauties and
+fresh temptations.
+
+Susan looked on with more indifference than most of the spectators. She
+was thinking much of her lamb, and more of her father.
+
+Miss Somers had put a bright guinea into her hand, and had bid her pay
+for her own gown; but Susan, as she looked at the guinea, thought it was
+a great deal of money to lay out upon herself, and she wished, but did
+not know how to ask, that she might keep it for a better purpose.
+
+Some people are wholly inattentive to the lesser feelings, and incapable
+of reading the countenances of those on whom they bestow their bounty.
+Miss Somers and her sister were not of this roughly charitable class.
+
+'She does not like any of these things,' whispered Miss Somers to her
+sister. Her sister observed that Susan looked as if her thoughts were
+far distant from gowns.
+
+'If you don't fancy any of these things,' said the civil shopkeeper to
+Susan, 'we shall have a new assortment of calicoes for the spring season
+soon from town.' 'Oh,' interrupted Susan, with a smile and a blush,
+'these are all pretty, and too good for me, but----' '_But_ what,
+Susan?' said Miss Somers. 'Tell us what is passing in your little mind.'
+Susan hesitated. 'Well then, we will not press you, you are scarcely
+acquainted with us yet; when you are, you will not be afraid, I hope, to
+speak your mind. Put this shining yellow counter,' continued she,
+pointing to the guinea, 'in your pocket, and make what use of it you
+please. From what we know, and from what we have heard of you, we are
+persuaded that you will make a good use of it.'
+
+'I think, madam,' said the master of the shop, with a shrewd,
+good-natured look, 'I could give a pretty good guess myself what will
+become of that guinea; but I say nothing.'
+
+'No, that is right,' said Miss Somers; 'we leave Susan entirely at
+liberty; and now we will not detain her any longer. Good night, Susan,
+we shall soon come again to your neat cottage.' Susan curtsied, with an
+expressive look of gratitude, and with a modest frankness in her
+countenance which seemed to say, 'I would tell you, and welcome, what I
+want to do with the guinea; but I am not used to speak before so many
+people. When you come to our cottage again you shall know all.'
+
+When Susan had departed, Miss Somers turned to the obliging shopkeeper,
+who was folding up all the things he had opened. 'You have had a great
+deal of trouble with us, sir,' said she; 'and since Susan will not
+choose a gown for herself, I must.' She selected the prettiest; and
+whilst the man was rolling it in paper, she asked him several questions
+about Susan and her family, which he was delighted to answer, because he
+had now an opportunity of saying as much as he wished in her praise.
+
+'No later back, ma'am, than last May morning,' said he, 'as my daughter
+Rose was telling us, Susan did a turn, in her quiet way, by her mother,
+that would not displease you if you were to hear it. She was to have
+been Queen of the May, which in our little village, amongst the younger
+tribe, is a thing that is thought of a good deal; but Susan's mother was
+ill, and Susan, after sitting up with her all night, would not leave her
+in the morning, even when they brought the crown to her. She put the
+crown upon my daughter Rose's head with her own hands; and, to be sure,
+Rose loves her as well as if she was her own sister. But I don't speak
+from partiality; for I am no relation whatever to the Prices--only a
+well-wisher, as every one, I believe, who knows them is. I'll send the
+parcel up to the Abbey, shall I, ma'am?'
+
+'If you please,' said Miss Somers, 'and, as soon as you receive your new
+things from town, let us know. You will, I hope, find us good customers
+and well-wishers,' added she, with a smile; 'for those who wish well to
+their neighbours surely deserve to have well-wishers themselves.'
+
+A few words may encourage the benevolent passions, and may dispose
+people to live in peace and happiness; a few words may set them at
+variance, and may lead to misery and lawsuits. Attorney Case and Miss
+Somers were both equally convinced of this, and their practice was
+uniformly consistent with their principles.
+
+But now to return to Susan. She put the bright guinea carefully into the
+glove with the twelve shillings which she had received from her
+companions on May day. Besides this treasure, she calculated that the
+amount of the bills for bread could not be less than eight or nine and
+thirty shillings; and as her father was now sure of a week's reprieve,
+she had great hopes that, by some means or other, it would be possible
+to make up the whole sum necessary to pay for a substitute. 'If that
+could but be done,' said she to herself, 'how happy would my mother be.
+She would be quite stout again, for she certainly is a great deal better
+since I told her that father would stay a week longer. Ah! but she would
+not have blessed Attorney Case, though, if she had known about my poor
+Daisy.'
+
+Susan took the path that led to the meadow by the water-side, resolved
+to go by herself and take leave of her innocent favourite. But she did
+not pass by unperceived. Her little brothers were watching for her
+return, and as soon as they saw her they ran after her, and overtook her
+as she reached the meadow.
+
+'What did that good lady want with you?' cried William; but looking up
+in his sister's face he saw tears in her eyes, and he was silent, and
+walked on quietly. Susan saw her lamb by the water-side. 'Who are those
+two men?' said William. 'What are they going to do with _Daisy_?' The
+two men were Attorney Case and the butcher. The butcher was feeling
+whether the lamb was fat.
+
+Susan sat down upon the bank in silent sorrow; her little brothers ran
+up to the butcher, and demanded whether he was going to _do any harm_ to
+the lamb. The butcher did not answer, but the attorney replied, 'It is
+not your sister's lamb any longer; it's mine--mine to all intents and
+purposes.' 'Yours!' cried the children, with terror; 'and will you kill
+it?' 'That's the butcher's business.'
+
+The little boys now burst into piercing lamentations. They pushed away
+the butcher's hand; they threw their arms round the neck of the lamb;
+they kissed its forehead--it bleated. 'It will not bleat to-morrow!'
+said William, and he wept bitterly. The butcher looked aside, and
+hastily rubbed his eyes with the corner of his blue apron. The attorney
+stood unmoved; he pulled up the head of the lamb, which had just stooped
+to crop a mouthful of clover. 'I have no time to waste,' said he;
+'butcher, you'll account with me. If it's fat--the sooner the better.
+I've no more to say.' And he walked off, deaf to the prayers of the poor
+children.
+
+As soon as the attorney was out of sight, Susan rose from the bank where
+she was seated, came up to her lamb, and stooped to gather some of the
+fresh dewy trefoil, to let it eat out of her hand for the last time.
+Poor Daisy licked her well-known hand.
+
+[Illustration: _Let it eat out of her hand for the last time._]
+
+'Now, let us go,' said Susan. 'I'll wait as long as you please,' said
+the butcher. Susan thanked him, but walked away quickly, without looking
+again at her lamb. Her little brothers begged the man to stay a few
+minutes, for they had gathered a handful of blue speedwell and yellow
+crowsfoot, and they were decking the poor animal. As it followed the
+boys through the village, the children collected as they passed, and the
+butcher's own son was amongst the number. Susan's steadiness about the
+bad shilling was full in this boy's memory; it had saved him a beating.
+He went directly to his father to beg the life of Susan's lamb.
+
+'I was thinking about it, boy, myself,' said the butcher; 'it's a sin to
+kill a _pet lamb_, I'm thinking--any way, it's what I'm not used to, and
+don't fancy doing, and I'll go and say as much to Attorney Case; but
+he's a hard man; there's but one way to deal with him, and that's the
+way I must take, though so be I shall be the loser thereby; but we'll
+say nothing to the boys, for fear it might be the thing would not take;
+and then it would be worse again to poor Susan, who is a good girl, and
+always was, as well she may, being of a good breed, and well reared from
+the first.'
+
+'Come, lads, don't keep a crowd and a scandal about my door,' continued
+he, aloud, to the children; 'turn the lamb in here, John, in the
+paddock, for to-night, and go your ways home.'
+
+The crowd dispersed, but murmured, and the butcher went to the attorney.
+'Seeing that all you want is a good, fat, tender lamb, for a present for
+Sir Arthur, as you told me,' said the butcher, 'I could let you have
+what's as good or better for your purpose.' 'Better--if it's better, I'm
+ready to hear reason.' The butcher had choice, tender lamb, he said, fit
+to eat the next day; and as Mr. Case was impatient to make his offering
+to Sir Arthur, he accepted the butcher's proposal, though with such
+seeming reluctance, that he actually squeezed out of him, before he
+would complete the bargain, a bribe of a fine sweetbread.
+
+In the meantime Susan's brothers ran home to tell her that her lamb was
+put into the paddock for the night; this was all they knew, and even
+this was some comfort to her. Rose, her good friend, was with her, and
+she had before her the pleasure of telling her father of his week's
+reprieve. Her mother was better, and even said she was determined to sit
+up to supper in her wicker armchair.
+
+Susan was getting things ready for supper, when little William, who was
+standing at the house door, watching in the dusk for his father's
+return, suddenly exclaimed, 'Susan! if here is not our old man!'
+
+'Yes,' said the old harper, 'I have found my way to you. The neighbours
+were kind enough to show me whereabouts you lived; for, though I didn't
+know your name, they guessed who I meant by what I said of you all.'
+Susan came to the door, and the old man was delighted to hear her speak
+again. 'If it would not be too bold,' said he, 'I'm a stranger in this
+part of the country, and come from afar off. My boy has got a bed for
+himself here in the village, but I have no place. Could you be so
+charitable as to give an old blind man a night's lodging?' Susan said
+she would step in and ask her mother; and she soon returned with an
+answer that he was heartily welcome, if he could sleep upon the
+children's bed, which was but small.
+
+The old man thankfully entered the hospitable cottage. He struck his
+head against the low roof, as he stepped over the door-sill. 'Many roofs
+that are twice as high are not half so good,' said he. Of this he had
+just had experience at the house of the Attorney Case, while he had
+asked, but had been roughly refused all assistance by Miss Barbara, who
+was, according to her usual custom, standing staring at the hall door.
+
+The old man's harp was set down in Farmer Price's kitchen, and he
+promised to play a tune for the boys before they went to bed; their
+mother giving them leave to sit up to supper with their father. He came
+home with a sorrowful countenance; but how soon did it brighten when
+Susan, with a smile, said to him, 'Father, we've good news for you! good
+news for us all!--You have a whole week longer to stay with us; and
+perhaps,' continued she, putting her little purse into his hands,
+'perhaps with what's here and the bread bills, and what may somehow be
+got together before a week's at an end, we may make up the nine guineas
+for the substitute, as they call him. Who knows, dearest mother, but we
+may keep him with us for ever!' As she spoke, she threw her arms round
+her father, who pressed her to his bosom without speaking, for his heart
+was full. He was some little time before he could perfectly believe that
+what he heard was true; but the revived smiles of his wife, the noisy
+joy of his little boys, and the satisfaction that shone in Susan's
+countenance, convinced him that he was not in a dream.
+
+As they sat down to supper, the old harper was made welcome to his share
+of the cheerful though frugal meal.
+
+Susan's father, as soon as supper was finished, even before he would let
+the harper play a tune for his boys, opened the little purse which Susan
+had given him. He was surprised at the sight of the twelve shillings,
+and still more, when he came to the bottom of the purse, to see the
+bright golden guinea.
+
+'How did you come by all this money, Susan?' said he. 'Honestly and
+handsomely, that I'm sure of beforehand,' said her proud mother; 'but
+how I can't make out, except by the baking. Hey, Susan, is this your
+first baking?' 'Oh no, no,' said her father, 'I have her first baking
+snug here, besides, in my pocket. I kept it for a surprise, to do your
+mother's heart good, Susan. Here's twenty-nine shillings, and the Abbey
+bill, which is not paid yet, comes to ten more. What think you of this,
+wife? Have we not a right to be proud of our Susan? Why,' continued he,
+turning to the harper, 'I ask your pardon for speaking out so free
+before strangers in praise of my own, which I know is not mannerly; but
+the truth is the fittest thing to be spoken, as I think, at all times;
+therefore, here's your good health, Susan; why, by-and-by she'll be
+worth her weight in gold--in silver at least. But tell us, child, how
+came you by all this riches? and how comes it that I don't go to-morrow?
+All this happy news makes me so gay in myself, I'm afraid I shall hardly
+understand it rightly. But speak on, child--first bringing us a bottle
+of the good mead you made last year from your own honey.'
+
+Susan did not much like to tell the history of her guinea-hen--of the
+gown and of her poor lamb. Part of this would seem as if she was
+vaunting of her own generosity, and part of it she did not like to
+recollect. But her mother pressed to know the whole, and she related it
+as simply as she could. When she came to the story of her lamb, her
+voice faltered, and everybody present was touched. The old harper sighed
+once, and cleared his throat several times. He then asked for his harp,
+and, after tuning it for a considerable time, he recollected--for he had
+often fits of absence--that he had sent for it to play the tune he had
+promised to the boys.
+
+This harper came from a great distance, from the mountains of Wales, to
+contend with several other competitors for a prize, which had been
+advertised by a musical society about a year before this time. There was
+to be a splendid ball given upon the occasion at Shrewsbury, which was
+about five miles from our village. The prize was ten guineas for the
+best performer on the harp, and the prize was now to be decided in a few
+days.
+
+All this intelligence Barbara had long since gained from her maid, who
+often paid visits to the town of Shrewsbury, and she had long had her
+imagination inflamed with the idea of this splendid music-meeting and
+ball. Often had she sighed to be there, and often had she revolved in
+her mind schemes for introducing herself to some _genteel_ neighbours,
+who might take her to the ball _in their carriage_. How rejoiced, how
+triumphant was she when this very evening, just about the time when the
+butcher was bargaining with her father about Susan's lamb, a _livery_
+servant from the Abbey rapped at the door, and left a card for Mr. and
+Miss Barbara Case.
+
+'There,' cried Bab, '_I_ and _papa_ are to dine and drink tea at the
+Abbey to-morrow. Who knows? I daresay, when they see that I'm not a
+vulgar-looking person, and all that, and if I go cunningly to work with
+Miss Somers, as I shall, to be sure--I daresay she'll take me to the
+ball with her.'
+
+'To be sure,' said the maid; 'it's the least one may expect from a lady
+who _demeans_ herself to visit Susan Price, and goes about a-shopping
+for her. The least she can do for you is to take you in her carriage,
+_which_ costs nothing, but is just a common civility, to a ball.'
+
+'Then pray, Betty,' continued Miss Barbara, 'don't forget to-morrow, the
+first thing you do, to send off to Shrewsbury for my new bonnet. I must
+have it _to dine in_, at the Abbey, or the ladies will think nothing of
+me; and, Betty, remember the mantua-maker too. I must see and coax papa
+to buy me a new gown against the ball. I can see, you know, something of
+the fashions to-morrow at the Abbey. I shall _look the ladies well
+over_, I promise you. And, Betty, I have thought of the most charming
+present for Miss Somers, as papa says it's good never to go empty-handed
+to a great house, I'll make Miss Somers, who is fond, as her maid told
+you, of such things--I'll make Miss Somers a present of that guinea-hen
+of Susan's; it's of no use to me, so do you carry it up early in the
+morning to the Abbey, with my compliments. That's the thing.'
+
+In full confidence that her present and her bonnet would operate
+effectually in her favour, Miss Barbara paid her first visit at the
+Abbey. She expected to see wonders. She was dressed in all the finery
+which she had heard from her maid, who had heard from the 'prentice of a
+Shrewsbury milliner, was _the thing_ in London; and she was much
+surprised and disappointed, when she was shown into the room where the
+Miss Somerses and the ladies of the Abbey were sitting, to see that they
+did not, in any one part of their dress, agree with the picture her
+imagination had formed of fashionable ladies. She was embarrassed when
+she saw books and work and drawings upon the table, and she began to
+think that some affront was meant to her, because _the company_ did not
+sit with their hands before them.
+
+When Miss Somers endeavoured to find out conversation that would
+interest her, and spoke of walks and flowers and gardening, of which she
+was herself fond, Miss Barbara still thought herself undervalued, and
+soon contrived to expose her ignorance most completely, by talking of
+things which she did not understand.
+
+Those who never attempt to appear what they are not--those who do not in
+their manners pretend to anything unsuited to their habits and situation
+in life, never are in danger of being laughed at by sensible, well-bred
+people of any rank; but affectation is the constant and just object of
+ridicule.
+
+Miss Barbara Case, with her mistaken airs of gentility, aiming to be
+thought a woman and a fine lady, whilst she was, in reality, a child and
+a vulgar attorney's daughter, rendered herself so thoroughly ridiculous,
+that the good-natured, yet discerning spectators were painfully divided
+between their sense of comic absurdity and a feeling of shame for one
+who could feel nothing for herself.
+
+One by one the ladies dropped off. Miss Somers went out of the room for
+a few minutes to alter her dress, as it was the custom of the family,
+before dinner. She left a portfolio of pretty drawings and good prints
+for Miss Barbara's amusement; but Miss Barbara's thoughts were so intent
+upon the harpers' ball, that she could not be entertained with such
+_trifles_. How unhappy are those who spend their time in expectation!
+They can never enjoy the present moment. Whilst Barbara was contriving
+means of interesting Miss Somers in her favour, she recollected, with
+surprise, that not one word had yet been said of her present of the
+guinea-hen. Mrs. Betty, in the hurry of her dressing her young lady in
+the morning, had forgotten it; but it came just whilst Miss Somers was
+dressing; and the housekeeper came into her mistress's room to announce
+its arrival.
+
+'Ma'am,' said she, 'here's a beautiful guinea-hen just come, _with_ Miss
+Barbara Case's compliments to you.'
+
+Miss Somers knew, by the tone in which the housekeeper delivered this
+message, that there was something in the business which did not
+perfectly please her. She made no answer, in expectation that the
+housekeeper, who was a woman of a very open temper, would explain her
+cause of dissatisfaction. In this she was not mistaken. The housekeeper
+came close up to the dressing-table, and continued, 'I never like to
+speak till I'm sure, ma'am, and I'm not quite sure, to say certain, in
+this case, ma'am, but still I think it right to tell you, which can't
+wrong anybody, what came across my mind about this same guinea-hen,
+ma'am; and you can inquire into it, and do as you please afterwards,
+ma'am. Some time ago we had fine guinea-fowls of our own, and I made
+bold, not thinking, to be sure, that all our own would die away from us,
+as they have done, to give a fine couple last Christmas to Susan Price,
+and very fond and pleased she was at the time, and I'm sure would never
+have parted with the hen with her good-will; but if my eyes don't
+strangely mistake, this hen, that comes from Miss Barbara, is the
+self-same identical guinea-hen that I gave to Susan. And how Miss Bab
+came by it is the thing that puzzles me. If my boy Philip was at home,
+maybe, as he's often at Mrs. Price's (which I don't disapprove), he
+might know the history of the guinea-hen. I expect him home this night,
+and if you have no objection, I will sift the affair.'
+
+'The shortest way, I think,' said Henrietta, 'would be to ask Miss Case
+herself about it, which I will do this evening.' 'If you please, ma'am,'
+said the housekeeper, coldly; for she knew that Miss Barbara was not
+famous in the village for speaking truth.
+
+Dinner was now served. Attorney Case expected to smell mint sauce, and,
+as the covers were taken from off the dishes, looked around for lamb;
+but no lamb appeared. He had a dexterous knack of twisting the
+conversation to his point. Sir Arthur was speaking, when they sat down
+to dinner, of a new carving knife, which he lately had had made for his
+sister. The Attorney immediately went from carving-knives to poultry;
+thence to butchers meat. Some joints, he observed, were much more
+difficult to carve than others. He never saw a man carve better than the
+gentleman opposite him, who was the curate of the parish. 'But, sir,'
+said the vulgar attorney, 'I must make bold to differ with you in one
+point, and I'll appeal to Sir Arthur. Sir Arthur, pray may I ask, when
+you carve a forequarter of lamb, do you, when you raise the shoulder,
+throw in salt, or not?' This well-prepared question was not lost upon
+Sir Arthur. The attorney was thanked for his intended present; but
+mortified and surprised to hear Sir Arthur say that it was a constant
+rule of his never to accept of any presents from his neighbours. 'If we
+were to accept a lamb from a rich neighbour on my estate,' said he, 'I
+am afraid we should mortify many of our poor tenants, who can have
+little to offer, though, perhaps, they may bear us thorough good-will
+notwithstanding.'
+
+After the ladies left the dining-room, as they were walking up and down
+the large hall, Miss Barbara had a fair opportunity of imitating her
+keen father's method of conversing. One of the ladies observed that this
+hall would be a charming place for music. Bab brought in harps and
+harpers, and the harpers' ball, in a breath. 'I know so much about
+it,--about the ball I mean,' said she, 'because a lady in Shrewsbury, a
+friend of papa's, offered to take me with her; but papa did not like to
+give her the trouble of sending so far for me, though she has a coach of
+her own.' Barbara fixed her eyes upon Miss Somers as she spoke; but she
+could not read her countenance as distinctly as she wished, because Miss
+Somers was at this moment letting down the veil of her hat.
+
+'Shall we walk out before tea?' said Miss Somers to her companions;
+'I have a pretty guinea-hen to show you.' Barbara, secretly drawing
+propitious omens from the guinea-hen, followed with a confidential
+step. The pheasantry was well filled with pheasants, peacocks, etc.;
+and Susan's pretty little guinea-hen appeared well, even in this high
+company. It was much admired. Barbara was in glory; but her glory was of
+short duration.
+
+Just as Miss Somers was going to inquire into the guinea-hen's history,
+Philip came up, to ask permission to have a bit of sycamore, to turn a
+nutmeg box for his mother. He was an ingenious lad, and a good turner
+for his age. Sir Arthur had put by a bit of sycamore on purpose for him;
+and Miss Somers told him where it was to be found. He thanked her; but
+in the midst of his bow of thanks his eye was struck by the sight of the
+guinea-hen, and he involuntarily exclaimed, 'Susan's guinea-hen, I
+declare!' 'No, it's not Susan's guinea-hen,' said Miss Barbara,
+colouring furiously; 'it is mine, and I have made a present of it to
+Miss Somers.'
+
+At the sound of Bab's voice, Philip turned--saw her--and indignation,
+unrestrained by the presence of all the amazed spectators, flashed in
+his countenance.
+
+'What is the matter, Philip?' said Miss Somers, in a pacifying tone; but
+Philip was not inclined to be pacified. 'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'may I
+speak out?' and, without waiting for permission, he spoke out, and gave
+a full, true, and warm account of Rose's embassy, and of Miss Barbara's
+cruel and avaricious proceedings.
+
+Barbara denied, prevaricated, stammered, and at last was overcome with
+confusion; for which even the most indulgent spectators could scarcely
+pity her.
+
+Miss Somers, however, mindful of what was due to her guest, was anxious
+to despatch Philip for his piece of sycamore. Bab recovered herself as
+soon as he was out of sight; but she further exposed herself by
+exclaiming, 'I'm sure I wish this pitiful guinea-hen had never come into
+my possession. I wish Susan had kept it at home, as she should have
+done!'
+
+'Perhaps she will be more careful now that she has received so strong a
+lesson,' said Miss Somers. 'Shall we try her?' continued she. 'Philip
+will, I daresay, take the guinea-hen back to Susan, if we desire it.'
+'If you please, ma'am,' said Barbara, sullenly; 'I have nothing more to
+do with it.'
+
+So the guinea-hen was delivered to Philip, who set off joyfully with
+his prize, and was soon in sight of Farmer Price's cottage. He stopped
+when he came to the door. He recollected Rose and her generous
+friendship for Susan. He was determined that she should have the
+pleasure of restoring the guinea-hen. He ran into the village. All the
+children who had given up their little purse on May-day were assembled
+on the play-green. They were delighted to see the guinea-hen once more.
+Philip took his pipe and tabor, and they marched in innocent triumph
+towards the white washed cottage.
+
+'Let me come with you--let me come with you,' said the butcher's boy to
+Philip. 'Stop one minute! my father has something to say to you.' He
+darted into his father's house. The little procession stopped, and in a
+few minutes the bleating of a lamb was heard. Through a back passage,
+which led into the paddock behind the house, they saw the butcher
+leading a lamb.
+
+'It is Daisy!' exclaimed Rose. 'It's Daisy!' repeated all her
+companions. 'Susan's lamb! Susan's lamb!' and there was a universal
+shout of joy.
+
+'Well, for my part,' said the good butcher, as soon as he could be
+heard,--'for my part, I would not be so cruel as Attorney Case for the
+whole world. These poor brute beasts don't know aforehand what's going
+to happen to them; and as for dying, it's what we must all do some time
+or another; but to keep wringing the hearts of the living, that have as
+much sense as one's self, is what I call cruel; and is not this what
+Attorney Case has been doing by poor Susan and her whole family, ever
+since he took a spite against them? But, at any rate, here's Susan's
+lamb safe and sound. I'd have taken it back sooner, but I was off before
+day to the fair, and am but just come back. Daisy, however, has been as
+well off in my paddock as he would have been in the field by the
+water-side.'
+
+The obliging shopkeeper, who showed the pretty calicoes to Susan, was
+now at his door, and when he saw the lamb, and heard that it was
+Susan's, and learned its history, he said that he would add his mite;
+and he gave the children some ends of narrow riband, with which Rose
+decorated her friend's lamb.
+
+The pipe and tabor now once more began to play, and the procession
+moved on in joyful order, after giving the humane butcher three cheers;
+three cheers which were better deserved than 'loud huzzas' usually are.
+
+Susan was working in her arbour, with her little deal table before her.
+When she heard the sound of the music, she put down her work and
+listened. She saw the crowd of children coming nearer and nearer. They
+had closed round Daisy, so that she did not see it; but as they came up
+to the garden gate she saw that Rose beckoned to her. Philip played as
+loud as he could, that she might not hear, till the proper moment, the
+bleating of the lamb. Susan opened the garden-wicket, and at this signal
+the crowd divided, and the first thing that Susan saw, in the midst of
+her taller friends, was little smiling Mary, with the guinea-hen in her
+arms.
+
+'Come on! Come on!' cried Mary, as Susan started with joyful surprise;
+'you have more to see.'
+
+At this instant the music paused, Susan heard the bleating of a lamb,
+and scarcely daring to believe her senses, she pressed eagerly forward,
+and beheld poor Daisy!--she burst into tears. 'I did not shed one tear
+when I parted with you, my dear little Daisy!' said she. 'It was for my
+father and mother. I would not have parted with you for anything else in
+the whole world. Thank you, thank you all,' added she, to her
+companions, who sympathised in her joy, even more than they had
+sympathised in her sorrow. 'Now, if my father was not to go away from us
+next week, and if my mother was quite stout, I should be the happiest
+person in the world!'
+
+As Susan pronounced these words, a voice behind the little listening
+crowd cried, in a brutal tone, 'Let us pass, if you please; you have no
+right to stop up the public road!' This was the voice of Attorney Case,
+who was returning with his daughter Barbara from his visit to the Abbey.
+He saw the lamb, and tried to whistle as he went on. Barbara also saw
+the guinea-hen, and turned her head another way, that she might avoid
+the contemptuous, reproachful looks of those whom she only affected to
+despise. Even her new bonnet, in which she had expected to be so much
+admired, was now only serviceable to hide her face and conceal her
+mortification.
+
+'I am glad she saw the guinea-hen,' cried Rose, who now held it in her
+hands. 'Yes,' said Philip, 'she'll not forget May-day in a hurry.' 'Nor
+I neither, I hope,' said Susan, looking round upon her companions with
+a most affectionate smile: 'I hope, whilst I live, I shall never forget
+your goodness to me last May-day. Now I've my pretty guinea-hen safe
+once more, I should think of returning your money.' 'No! no! no!' was
+the general cry. 'We don't want the money--keep it, keep it--you want it
+for your father.' 'Well,' said Susan, 'I am not too proud to be obliged.
+I _will_ keep your money for my father. Perhaps some time or other I may
+be able to earn----' 'Oh,' interrupted Philip, 'don't let us talk of
+earning; don't let us talk to her of money now; she has not had time
+hardly to look at poor Daisy and her guinea-hen. Come, we had best go
+about our business, and let her have them all to herself.'
+
+The crowd moved away in consequence of Philip's considerate advice; but
+it was observed that he was the very last to stir from the garden-wicket
+himself. He stayed, first, to inform Susan that it was Rose who tied the
+ribands on Daisy's head. Then he stayed a little longer to let her into
+the history of the guinea-hen, and to tell her who it was that brought
+the hen home from the Abbey.
+
+Rose held the sieve, and Susan was feeding her long-lost favourite,
+whilst Philip leaned over the wicket, prolonging his narration. 'Now, my
+pretty guinea-hen,' said Susan--'my naughty guinea-hen, that flew away
+from me, you shall never serve me so again. I must cut your nice wings;
+but I won't hurt you.' 'Take care,' cried Philip; 'you'd better, indeed
+you'd better let me hold her whilst you cut her wings.'
+
+When this operation was successfully performed, which it certainly could
+never have been if Philip had not held the hen for Susan, he recollected
+that his mother had sent him with a message to Mrs. Price. This message
+led to another quarter of an hour's delay; for he had the whole history
+of the guinea-hen to tell over again to Mrs. Price, and the farmer
+himself luckily came in whilst it was going on, so it was but civil to
+begin it afresh; and then the farmer was so rejoiced to see his Susan so
+happy again with her two little favourites, that he declared he must see
+Daisy fed himself; and Philip found that he was wanted to hold the
+jugful of milk, out of which Farmer Price filled the pan for Daisy.
+Happy Daisy! who lapped at his ease whilst Susan caressed him, and
+thanked her fond father and her pleased mother.
+
+'But, Philip,' said Mrs. Price, 'I'll hold the jug--you'll be late with
+your message to your mother; we'll not detain you any longer.'
+
+Philip departed, and as he went out of the garden-wicket he looked up,
+and saw Bab and her maid Betty staring out of the window, as usual. On
+this, he immediately turned back to try whether he had shut the gate
+fast, lest the guinea-hen might stray, out and fall again into the hands
+of the enemy.
+
+Miss Barbara, in the course of this day, felt considerable
+mortification, but no contrition. She was vexed that her meanness was
+discovered, but she felt no desire to cure herself of any of her faults.
+The ball was still uppermost in her vain, selfish soul. 'Well,' said she
+to her _confidante_, Betty, 'you hear how things have turned out; but if
+Miss Somers won't think of asking me to go out with her, I've a notion I
+know who will. As papa says, it's a good thing to have two strings to
+one's bow.'
+
+Now some officers, who were quartered at Shrewsbury, had become
+acquainted with Mr. Case. They had gotten into some quarrel with a
+tradesman of the town, and Attorney Case had promised to bring them
+through the affair, as the man threatened to take the law of them. Upon
+the faith of this promise, and with the vain hope that, by civility,
+they might dispose him to bring in a _reasonable_ bill of costs, these
+officers sometimes invited Mr. Case to the mess; and one of them, who
+had lately been married, prevailed upon his bride _sometimes_ to take a
+little notice of Miss Barbara. It was with this lady that Miss Barbara
+now hoped to go to the harpers' ball.
+
+'The officers and Mrs. Strathspey, or, more properly, Mrs. Strathspey
+and the officers, are to breakfast here, to-morrow, do you know?' said
+Bab to Betty. 'One of them dined at the Abbey to-day, and told papa
+they'd all come. They are going out on a party, somewhere into the
+country, and breakfast here on their way. Pray, Betty, don't forget that
+Mrs. Strathspey can't breakfast without honey. I heard her say so
+myself.' 'Then, indeed,' said Betty, 'I'm afraid Mrs. Strathspey will be
+likely to go without her breakfast here; for not a spoonful of honey
+have we, let her long for it ever so much.' 'But, surely,' said Bab, 'we
+can contrive to get some honey in the neighbourhood.' 'There's none to
+be bought, as I know of,' said Betty. 'But is there none to be begged
+or borrowed?' said Bab, laughing. 'Do you forget Susan's beehive? Step
+over to her in the morning with _my compliments_, and see what you can
+do. Tell her it's for Mrs. Strathspey.'
+
+In the morning Betty went with Miss Barbara's compliments to Susan, to
+beg some honey for Mrs. Strathspey who could not breakfast without it.
+Susan did not like to part with her honey, because her mother loved it,
+and she therefore gave Betty but a small quantity. When Barbara saw how
+little Susan sent, she called her a _miser_, and she said she _must_
+have some more for Mrs. Strathspey. 'I'll go myself and speak to her.
+Come with me, Betty,' said the young lady, who found it at present
+convenient to forget her having declared, the day that she sucked up the
+broth, that she never would honour Susan with another visit. 'Susan,'
+said she, accosting the poor girl, whom she had done everything in her
+power to injure, 'I must beg a little more honey from you for Mrs.
+Strathspey's breakfast. You know, on a particular occasion such as this,
+neighbours must help one another.' 'To be sure they should,' added
+Betty.
+
+Susan, though she was generous, was not weak; she was willing to give to
+those she loved, but not disposed to let anything be taken from her, or
+coaxed out of her, by those she had reason to despise. She civilly
+answered that she was sorry she had no more honey to spare.
+
+Barbara grew angry, and lost all command of herself, when she saw that
+Susan, without regarding her reproaches, went on looking through the
+glass pane in the beehive. 'I'll tell you what, Susan Price,' said she,
+in a high tone, 'the honey I _will_ have, so you may as well give it to
+me by fair means. Yes or no? Speak! Will you give it me or not? Will you
+give me that piece of the honeycomb that lies there?' 'That bit of
+honeycomb is for my mother's breakfast,' said Susan; 'I cannot give it
+you.' 'Can't you?' said Bab, 'then see if I don't take it!' She
+stretched across Susan for the honeycomb, which was lying by some
+rosemary leaves that Susan had freshly gathered for her mother's tea.
+Bab grasped, but at her first effort she only reached the rosemary. She
+made a second dart at the honeycomb, and, in her struggle to obtain it,
+she overset the beehive. The bees swarmed about her. Her maid Betty
+screamed and ran away. Susan, who was sheltered by a laburnum tree,
+called to Barbara, upon whom the black clusters of bees were now
+settling, and begged her to stand still, and not to beat them away. 'If
+you stand quietly you won't be stung, perhaps.' But instead of standing
+quietly, Bab buffeted and stamped and roared, and the bees stung her
+terribly. Her arms and her face swelled in a frightful manner. She was
+helped home by poor Susan and treacherous Mrs. Betty, who, now the
+mischief was done, thought only of exculpating herself to her master.
+
+'Indeed, Miss Barbara,' said she, 'this was quite wrong of you to go and
+get yourself into such a scrape. I shall be turned away for it, you'll
+see.'
+
+'I don't care whether you are turned away or not,' said Barbara; 'I
+never felt such pain in my life. Can't you do something for me? I don't
+mind the pain either so much as being such a fright. Pray, how am I to
+be fit to be seen at breakfast by Mrs. Strathspey; and I suppose I can't
+go to the ball either to-morrow, after all!'
+
+'No, that you can't expect to do, indeed,' said Betty, the comforter.
+'You need not think of balls; for those lumps and swellings won't go off
+your face this week. That's not what pains me; but I'm thinking of what
+your papa will say to me when he sees you, miss.'
+
+Whilst this amiable mistress and maid were in their adversity reviling
+one another, Susan, when she saw that she could be of no further use,
+was preparing to depart, but at the house-door she was met by Mr. Case.
+Mr. Case had revolved things in his mind; for his second visit at the
+Abbey pleased him as little as his first, owing to a few words which Sir
+Arthur and Miss Somers dropped in speaking of Susan and Farmer Price.
+Mr. Case began to fear that he had mistaken his game in quarrelling with
+this family. The refusal of his present dwelt upon the attorney's mind;
+and he was aware that, if the history of Susan's lamb ever reached the
+Abbey, he was undone. He now thought that the most prudent course he
+could possibly follow would be to _hush up_ matters with the _Prices_
+with all convenient speed. Consequently, when he met Susan at his door,
+he forced a gracious smile. 'How is your mother, Susan?' said he. 'Is
+there anything in our house can be of service to her?' On hearing his
+daughter he cried out, 'Barbara, Barbara--Bab! come downstairs, child,
+and speak to Susan Price.' But as no Barbara answered, her father
+stalked upstairs directly, opened the door, and stood amazed at the
+spectacle of her swelled visage.
+
+Betty instantly began to tell the story of Barbara's mishap her own way.
+Bab contradicted her as fast as she spoke. The attorney turned the maid
+away on the spot; and partly with real anger, and partly with feigned
+affectation of anger, he demanded from his daughter how she dared to
+treat Susan Price so ill, 'when,' as he said, 'she was so neighbourly
+and obliging as to give you some of her honey? Couldn't you be content,
+without seizing upon the honeycomb by force? This is scandalous
+behaviour, and what, I assure you, I can't countenance.'
+
+Susan now interceded for Barbara; and the attorney, softening his voice,
+said that 'Susan was a great deal too good to her; as you are, indeed,'
+added he, 'to everybody. I forgive her for your sake.' Susan curtsied,
+in great surprise; but her lamb could not be forgotten, and she left the
+attorney's house as soon as she could, to make her mother's rosemary tea
+breakfast.
+
+Mr. Case saw that Susan was not so simple as to be taken in by a few
+fair words. His next attempt was to conciliate Farmer Price. The farmer
+was a blunt, honest man, and his countenance remained inflexibly
+contemptuous, when the attorney addressed him in his softest tone.
+
+So stood matters the day of the long-expected harpers' ball. Miss
+Barbara Case, stung by Susan's bees, could not, after all her
+manoeuvres, go with Mrs. Strathspey to the ball. The ballroom was
+filled early in the evening. There was a numerous assembly. The harpers,
+who contended for the prize, were placed under the music-gallery at the
+lower end of the room. Amongst them was our old blind friend, who, as he
+was not so well clad as his competitors, seemed to be disdained by many
+of the spectators. Six ladies and six gentlemen were now appointed to be
+judges of the performance. They were seated in a semicircle, opposite to
+the harpers. The Miss Somerses, who were fond of music, were amongst the
+ladies in the semicircle; and the prize was lodged in the hands of Sir
+Arthur. There was now silence. The first harp sounded, and as each
+musician tried his skill, the audience seemed to think that each
+deserved the prize. The old blind man was the last. He tuned his
+instrument; and such a simple pathetic strain was heard as touched every
+heart. All were fixed in delighted attention; and when the music ceased,
+the silence for some moments continued.
+
+The silence was followed by a universal buzz of applause. The judges
+were unanimous in their opinions, and it was declared that the old blind
+harper, who played the last, deserved the prize.
+
+The simple pathetic air which won the suffrages of the whole assembly,
+was his own composition. He was pressed to give the words belonging to
+the music; and at last he modestly offered to repeat them, as he could
+not see to write. Miss Somers' ready pencil was instantly produced; and
+the old harper dictated the words of his ballad, which he
+called--_Susan's Lamentation for her Lamb_.
+
+Miss Somers looked at her brother from time to time, as she wrote; and
+Sir Arthur, as soon as the old man had finished, took him aside, and
+asked him some questions, which brought the whole history of Susan's
+lamb and of Attorney Case's cruelty to light.
+
+The attorney himself was present when the harper began to dictate his
+ballad. His colour, as Sir Arthur steadily looked at him, varied
+continually; till at length, when he heard the words 'Susan's
+Lamentation for her Lamb,' he suddenly shrank back, skulked through the
+crowd, and disappeared. We shall not follow him; we had rather follow
+our old friend, the victorious harper.
+
+No sooner had he received the ten guineas, his well-merited prize, than
+he retired to a small room belonging to the people of the house, asked
+for pen, ink, and paper, and dictated, in a low voice, to his boy, who
+was a tolerably good scribe, a letter, which he ordered him to put
+directly into the Shrewsbury post-office. The boy ran with the letter to
+the post-office. He was but just in time, for the postman's horn was
+sounding.
+
+The next morning, when Farmer Price, his wife, and Susan, were sitting
+together, reflecting that his week's leave of absence was nearly at an
+end, and that the money was not yet made up for John Simpson, the
+substitute, a knock was heard at the door, and the person who usually
+delivered the letters in the village put a letter into Susan's hand,
+saying, 'A penny, if you please--here's a letter for your father.'
+
+'For me!' said Farmer Price; 'here's the penny then; but who can it be
+from, I wonder? Who can think of writing to me, in this world?' He tore
+open the letter; but the hard name at the bottom of the page puzzled
+him--'_your obliged friend_, Llewellyn.'
+
+'And what's this?' said he, opening a paper that was enclosed in the
+letter. 'It's a song, seemingly; it must be somebody that has a mind to
+make an April fool of me.' 'But it is not April, it is May, father,'
+said Susan. 'Well, let us read the letter, and we shall come to the
+truth all in good time.'
+
+Farmer Price sat down in his own chair, for he could not read entirely
+to his satisfaction in any other, and read as follows:--
+
+  'MY WORTHY FRIEND--I am sure you will be glad to hear that I have had
+  good success this night. I have won the ten guinea prize, and for that
+  I am in a great measure indebted to your sweet daughter Susan; as you
+  will see by a little ballad I enclose for her. Your hospitality to me
+  has afforded to me an opportunity of learning some of your family
+  history. You do not, I hope, forget that I was present when you were
+  counting the treasure in Susan's little purse, and that I heard for
+  what purpose it was all destined. You have not, I know, yet made up
+  the full sum for your substitute, John Simpson; therefore do me the
+  favour to use the five guinea banknote which you will find within the
+  ballad. You shall not find me as hard a creditor as Attorney Case.
+  Pay me the money at your own convenience. If it is never convenient
+  to you to pay it, I shall never ask it. I shall go my rounds again
+  through this country, I believe, about this time next year, and will
+  call to see how you do, and to play the new tune for Susan and the
+  dear little boys.
+
+  'I should just add, to set you hearts at rest about the money, that it
+  does not distress me at all to lend it to you. I am not quite so poor
+  as I appear to be. But it is my humour to go about as I do. I see more
+  of the world under my tattered garb than, perhaps, I should ever see
+  in a better dress. There are many of my profession who are of the same
+  mind as myself in this respect; and we are glad, when it lies in our
+  way, to do any kindness to such a worthy family as yours. So, fare ye
+  well.--Your obliged Friend, LLEWELLYN.'
+
+Susan now, by her father's desire, opened the ballad. He picked up the
+five-guinea banknote, whilst she read, with surprise, 'Susan's
+Lamentation for her Lamb.' Her mother leaned over her shoulder to read
+the words; but they were interrupted, before they had finished the first
+stanza, by another knock at the door. It was not the postman with
+another letter. It was Sir Arthur and his sisters.
+
+They came with an intention, which they were much disappointed to find
+that the old harper had rendered vain--they came to lend the farmer and
+his good family the money to pay for his substitute.
+
+'But, since we are here,' said Sir Arthur, 'let me do my own business,
+which I had like to have forgotten. Mr. Price, will you come out with
+me, and let me show you a piece of your land, through which I want to
+make a road? Look there,' said Sir Arthur, pointing to the spot; 'I am
+laying out a ride round my estate, and that bit of land of yours stops
+me.'
+
+'Why, sir,' said Price, 'the land's mine, to be sure, for that matter;
+but I hope you don't look upon me to be that sort of person that would
+be stiff about a trifle or so.'
+
+'The fact is,' said Sir Arthur, 'I had heard you were a litigious,
+pig-headed fellow; but you do not seem to deserve this character.'
+
+'Hope not, sir,' said the farmer; 'but about the matter of the land, I
+don't want to take any advantage of your wishing for it. You are welcome
+to it; and I leave it to you to find me out another bit of land
+convenient to me that will be worth neither more nor less; or else to
+make up the value to me some way or other. I need say no more about it.'
+
+'I hear something,' continued Sir Arthur, after a short silence--'I hear
+something, Mr. Price, of a _flaw_ in your lease. I would not speak to
+you about it whilst we were bargaining about your land, lest I should
+overawe you; but, tell me, what is this _flaw_?'
+
+'In truth, and the truth is the fittest thing to be spoken at all
+times,' said the farmer, 'I didn't know myself what a _flaw_, as they
+call it, meant, till I heard of the word from Attorney Case; and, I take
+it, a _flaw_ is neither more nor less than a mistake, as one should say.
+Now, by reason a man does not make a mistake on purpose, it seems to me
+to be the fair thing that if a man finds out his mistake, he might set
+it right; but Attorney Case says this is not law; and I've no more to
+say. The man who drew up my lease made a mistake; and if I must suffer
+for it, I must,' said the farmer. 'However, I can show you, Sir Arthur,
+just for my own satisfaction and yours, a few lines of a memorandum on a
+slip of paper, which was given me by your relation, the gentleman who
+lived here before, and let me my farm. You'll see, by that bit of paper,
+what was meant; but the attorney says the paper's not worth a button in
+a court of justice, and I don't understand these things. All I
+understand is the common honesty of the matter. I've no more to say.'
+
+'This attorney, whom you speak of so often,' said Sir Arthur, 'you seem
+to have some quarrel with. Now, would you tell me frankly what is the
+matter between----?'
+
+'The matter between us, then,' said Price, 'is a little bit of ground,
+not worth much, that is there open to the lane at the end of Mr. Case's
+garden, and he wanted to take it in. Now I told him my mind, that it
+belonged to the parish, and that I never would willingly give my consent
+to his cribbing it in that way. Sir, I was the more loth to see it shut
+into his garden, which, moreover, is large enough of all conscience
+without it, because you must know, Sir Arthur, the children in our
+village are fond of making a little play-green of it; and they have a
+custom of meeting on May-day at a hawthorn that stands in the middle of
+it, and altogether I was very loth to see 'em turned out of it by those
+who have no right.'
+
+'Let us go and see this nook,' said Sir Arthur. 'It is not far off, is
+it?'
+
+'Oh no, sir, just hard by here.'
+
+When they got to the ground, Mr. Case, who saw them walking together,
+was in a hurry to join them, that he might put a stop to any
+explanations. Explanations were things of which he had a great dread;
+but, fortunately, he was upon this occasion a little too late.
+
+'Is this the nook in dispute?' said Sir Arthur. 'Yes; this is the whole
+thing,' said Price. 'Why, Sir Arthur,' interposed the politic attorney,
+with an assumed air of generosity, 'don't let us talk any more about it.
+Let it belong to whom it will, I give it up to you.'
+
+'So great a lawyer, Mr. Case, as you are,' replied Sir Arthur, 'must
+know that a man cannot give up that to which he has no legal title; and
+in this case it is impossible that, with the best intentions to oblige
+me in the world, you can give up this bit of land to me, because it is
+mine already, as I can convince you effectually by a map of the
+adjoining land, which I have fortunately safe amongst my papers. This
+piece of ground belonged to the farm on the opposite side of the road,
+and it was cut off when the lane was made.'
+
+'Very possibly. I daresay you are quite correct; you must know best,'
+said the attorney, trembling for the agency.
+
+'Then,' said Sir Arthur, 'Mr. Price, you will observe that I now promise
+this little green to the children for a playground; and I hope they may
+gather hawthorn many a May-day at this their favourite bush.' Mr. Price
+bowed low, which he seldom did, even when he received a favour himself.
+'And now, Mr. Case,' said Sir Arthur, turning to the attorney, who did
+not know which way to look, 'you sent me a lease to look over.'
+
+'Ye--ye--yes,' stammered Mr. Case. 'I thought it my duty to do so; not
+out of any malice or ill-will to this good man.'
+
+'You have done him no injury,' said Sir Arthur coolly. 'I am ready to
+make him a new lease, whenever he pleases, of his farm, and I shall be
+guided by a memorandum of the original bargain, which he has in his
+possession. I hope I never shall take an unfair advantage of any one.'
+
+'Heaven forbid, sir,' said the attorney, sanctifying his face, 'that I
+should suggest the taking an _unfair_ advantage of any man, rich or
+poor; but to break a bad lease is not taking an unfair advantage.'
+
+'You really think so?' said Sir Arthur. 'Certainly I do, and I hope I
+have not hazarded your good opinion by speaking my mind concerning the
+flaw so plainly. I always understood that there could be nothing
+ungentlemanlike, in the way of business, in taking advantage of the flaw
+in a lease.'
+
+'Now,' said Sir Arthur, 'you have pronounced judgment _undesignedly_ in
+your own case. You intended to send me this poor man's lease; but your
+son, by some mistake, brought me your own, and I have discovered a fatal
+error in it.' 'A fatal error!' said the alarmed attorney. 'Yes, sir,'
+said Sir Arthur, pulling the lease out of his pocket. 'Here it is. You
+will observe that it is neither signed nor sealed by the grantor.' 'But
+you won't take advantage of me, surely, Sir Arthur?' said Mr. Case,
+forgetting his own principles. 'I shall not take advantage of you, as
+you would have taken of this honest man. In both cases I shall be guided
+by memoranda which I have in my possession. I shall not, Mr. Case,
+defraud you of one shilling of your property. I am ready, at a fair
+valuation, to pay the exact value of your house and land; but upon this
+condition--that you quit the parish within one month!'
+
+Attorney Case was thus compelled to submit to the hard necessity of the
+case, for he knew that he could not legally resist. Indeed he was glad
+to be let off so easily; and he bowed and sneaked away, secretly
+comforting himself with the hope that when they came to the valuation of
+the house and land he should be the gainer, perhaps, of a few guineas.
+His reputation he justly held very cheap.
+
+'You are a scholar; you write a good hand; you can keep accounts, cannot
+you?' said Sir Arthur to Mr. Price, as they walked home towards the
+cottage. 'I think I saw a bill of your little daughter's drawing out the
+other day, which was very neatly written. Did you teach her to write?'
+
+'No, sir,' said Price, 'I can't say I did _that_; for she mostly taught
+it herself; but I taught her a little arithmetic, as far as I knew, on
+our winter nights, when I had nothing better to do.'
+
+'Your daughter shows that she has been well taught,' said Sir Arthur;
+'and her good conduct and good character speak strongly in favour of her
+parents.'
+
+'You are very good, very good indeed, sir, to speak in this sort of
+way,' said the delighted father.
+
+'But I mean to do more than _pay you with words_,' said Sir Arthur. 'You
+are attached to your own family, perhaps you may become attached to me,
+when you come to know me, and we shall have frequent opportunities of
+judging of one another. I want no agent to squeeze my tenants, or do my
+dirty work. I only want a steady, intelligent, honest man, like you, to
+collect my rents, and I hope, Mr. Price, you will have no objection to
+the employment.' 'I hope, sir,' said Price, with joy and gratitude
+glowing in his honest countenance, 'that you'll never have cause to
+repent your goodness.'
+
+'And what are my sisters about here?' said Sir Arthur, entering the
+cottage, and going behind his sisters, who were busily engaged in
+measuring an extremely pretty coloured calico.
+
+'It is for Susan, my dear brother,' said they. 'I knew she did not keep
+that guinea for herself,' said Miss Somers. 'I have just prevailed upon
+her mother to tell me what became of it. Susan gave it to her father;
+but she must not refuse a gown of our choosing this time; and I am sure
+she will not, because her mother, I see, likes it. And, Susan, I hear
+that instead of becoming Queen of the May this year, you were sitting in
+your sick mother's room. Your mother has a little colour in her cheeks
+now.'
+
+'Oh, ma'am,' interrupted Mrs. Price, 'I'm quite well. Joy, I think, has
+made me quite well.'
+
+'Then,' said Miss Somers, 'I hope you will be able to come out on your
+daughter's birthday, which, I hear, is the 25th of this month. Make
+haste and get quite well before that day; for my brother intends that
+all the lads and lassies of the village shall have a dance on Susan's
+birthday.'
+
+'Yes,' said Sir Arthur, 'and I hope on that day, Susan, you will be very
+happy with your little friends upon their play-green. I shall tell them
+that it is your good conduct which has obtained it for them; and if you
+have anything to ask, any little favour for any of your companions,
+which we can grant, now ask, Susan. These ladies look as if they would
+not refuse you anything that is reasonable; and, I think, you look as if
+you would not ask anything unreasonable.'
+
+'Sir,' said Susan, after consulting her mother's eyes, 'there is, to be
+sure, a favour I should like to ask; it is for Rose.'
+
+'Well, I don't know who Rose is,' said Sir Arthur, smiling; 'but go on.'
+
+'Ma'am, you have seen her, I believe; she is a very good girl, indeed,'
+said Mrs. Price. 'And works very neatly, indeed,' continued Susan,
+eagerly, to Miss Somers; 'and she and her mother heard you were looking
+out for some one to wait upon you.'
+
+'Say no more,' said Miss Somers; 'your wish is granted. Tell Rose to
+come to the Abbey to-morrow morning, or, rather, come with her yourself;
+for our housekeeper, I know, wants to talk to you about a certain cake.
+She wishes, Susan, that you should be the maker of the cake for the
+dance; and she has good things ready looked out for it already, I know.
+It must be large enough for everybody to have a slice, and the
+housekeeper will ice it for you. I only hope your cake will be as good
+as your bread. Fare ye well.'
+
+How happy are those who bid farewell to a whole family, silent with
+gratitude, who will bless them aloud when they are far out of hearing!
+
+'How do I wish, now,' said Farmer Price, 'and it's almost a sin for one
+who has had such a power of favours done him to wish for anything more;
+but how I _do_ wish, wife, that our good friend, the harper, was only
+here at this time. It would do his old warm heart good. Well, the best
+of it is, we shall be able next year, when he comes his rounds, to pay
+him his money with thanks, being all the time, and for ever, as much
+obliged to him as if we kept it. I long, so I do, to see him in this
+house again, drinking, as he did, just in this spot, a glass of Susan's
+mead, to her very good health.'
+
+'Yes,' said Susan, 'and the next time he comes, I can give him one of my
+guinea-hen's eggs, and I shall show my lamb, Daisy.'
+
+'True, love,' said her mother, 'and he will play that tune and sing that
+pretty ballad. Where is it? for I have not finished it.'
+
+'Rose ran away with it, mother, but I'll step after her, and bring it
+back to you this minute,' said Susan.
+
+Susan found her friend Rose at the hawthorn, in the midst of a crowded
+circle of her companions, to whom she was reading 'Susan's Lamentation
+for her Lamb.'
+
+'The words are something, but the tune--the tune--I must have the tune,'
+cried Philip. 'I'll ask my mother to ask Sir Arthur to try and find out
+which way that good old man went after the ball; and if he's above
+ground, we'll have him back by Susan's birthday, and he shall sit
+here--just exactly here--by this, our bush, and he shall play--I mean,
+if he pleases--that same tune for us, and I shall learn it--I mean, if I
+can--in a minute.'
+
+The good news that Farmer Price was to be employed to collect the rents,
+and that Attorney Case was to leave the parish in a month, soon spread
+over the village. Many came out of their houses to have the pleasure of
+hearing the joyful tidings confirmed by Susan herself. The crowd on the
+play-green increased every minute.
+
+'Yes,' cried the triumphant Philip, 'I tell you it's all true, every
+word of it. Susan's too modest to say it herself; but I tell ye all, Sir
+Arthur gave us this play-green for ever, on account of her being so
+good.'
+
+You see, at last Attorney Case, with all his cunning, has not proved a
+match for 'Simple Susan.'
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE PIGEON
+
+
+The little town of Somerville, in Ireland, has, within these few years,
+assumed the neat and cheerful appearance of an English village. Mr.
+Somerville, to whom this town belongs, wished to inspire his tenantry
+with a taste for order and domestic happiness, and took every means in
+his power to encourage industrious, well-behaved people to settle in his
+neighbourhood. When he had finished building a row of good slated houses
+in his town, he declared that he would let them to the best tenants he
+could find, and proposals were publicly sent to him from all parts of
+the country.
+
+By the best tenants, Mr. Somerville did not, however, mean the best
+bidders; and many, who had offered an extravagant price for the houses,
+were surprised to find their proposals rejected. Amongst these was Mr.
+Cox, an alehouse-keeper, who did not bear a very good character.
+
+'Please your honour, sir,' said he to Mr. Somerville, 'I _expected_,
+since I bid as fair and fairer for it than any other, that you would
+have let me the house next the apothecary's. Was not it fifteen guineas
+I mentioned in my proposal? and did not your honour give it against me
+for thirteen?' 'My honour did just so,' replied Mr. Somerville calmly.
+'And please your honour, but I don't know what it is I or mine have done
+to offend you. I'm sure there is not a gentleman in all Ireland I'd go
+further to sarve. Would not I go to Cork to-morrow for the least word
+from your honour?' 'I am much obliged to you, Mr. Cox, but I have no
+business at Cork at present,' answered Mr. Somerville drily. 'It is all
+I wish,' exclaimed Mr. Cox, 'that I could find out and light upon the
+man that has belied me to your honour.' 'No man has belied you, Mr.
+Cox, but your nose belies you much, if you do not love drinking a
+little, and your black eye and cut chin belie you much if you do not
+love quarrelling a little.'
+
+'Quarrel! I quarrel, please your honour! I defy any man, or set of men,
+ten mile round, to prove such a thing, and I am ready to fight him that
+dares to say the like of me. I'd fight him here in your honour's
+presence, if he'd only come out this minute and meet me like a man.'
+
+Here Mr. Cox put himself into a boxing attitude, but observing that Mr.
+Somerville looked at his threatening gesture with a smile, and that
+several people, who had gathered round him as he stood in the street,
+laughed at the proof he gave of his peaceable disposition, he changed
+his attitude, and went on to vindicate himself against the charge of
+drinking.
+
+'And as to drink, please your honour, there's no truth in it. Not a drop
+of whisky, good or bad, have I touched these six months, except what I
+took with Jemmy M'Doole the night I had the misfortune to meet your
+honour coming home from the fair of Ballynagrish.'
+
+To this speech Mr. Somerville made no answer, but turned away to look at
+the bow-window of a handsome new inn, which the glazier was at this
+instant glazing. 'Please your honour, that new inn is not let, I hear,
+as yet,' resumed Mr. Cox; 'if your honour recollects, you promised to
+make me a compliment of it last Seraphtide was twelvemonth.'
+
+'Impossible!' cried Mr. Somerville, 'for I had no thoughts of building
+an inn at that time.' 'Oh, I beg your honour's pardon, but if you'd be
+just pleased to recollect, it was coming through the gap in the bog
+meadows, _forenent_ Thady O'Connor, you made me the promise--I'll leave
+it to him, so I will.' 'But I will not leave it to him, I assure you,'
+cried Mr. Somerville; 'I never made any such promise. I never thought of
+letting this inn to you.' 'Then your honour won't let me have it?' 'No;
+you have told me a dozen falsehoods. I do not wish to have you for a
+tenant.'
+
+'Well, God bless your honour; I've no more to say, but God bless your
+honour,' said Mr. Cox; and he walked away, muttering to himself, as he
+slouched his hat over his face, 'I hope I'll live to be revenged on
+him!'
+
+Mr. Somerville the next morning went with his family to look at the new
+inn, which he expected to see perfectly finished; but he was met by the
+carpenter, who, with a rueful face, informed him that six panes of glass
+in the large bow-window had been broken during the night.
+
+'Ha! perhaps Mr. Cox has broken my windows, in revenge for my refusing
+to let him my house,' said Mr. Somerville; and many of the neighbours,
+who knew the malicious character of this Mr. Cox, observed that this was
+like one of his tricks. A boy of about twelve years old, however,
+stepped forward and said, 'I don't like Mr. Cox, I'm sure; for once he
+beat me when he was drunk; but, for all that, no one should be accused
+wrongfully. He _could_ not be the person that broke these windows last
+night, for he was six miles off. He slept at his cousin's last night,
+and he has not returned home yet. So I think he knows nothing of the
+matter.'
+
+Mr. Somerville was pleased with the honest simplicity of this boy, and
+observing that he looked in eagerly at the staircase, when the house
+door was opened, he asked him whether he would like to go in and see the
+new house. 'Yes, sir,' said the boy, 'I should like to go up those
+stairs, and to see what I should come to.' 'Up with you, then!' said Mr.
+Somerville; and the boy ran up the stairs. He went from room to room
+with great expressions of admiration and delight. At length, as he was
+examining one of the garrets, he was startled by a fluttering noise over
+his head; and looking up he saw a white pigeon, who, frightened at his
+appearance, began to fly round and round the room, till it found its way
+out of the door, and flew into the staircase.
+
+The carpenter was speaking to Mr. Somerville upon the landing-place of
+the stairs; but, the moment he spied the white pigeon, he broke off in
+the midst of a speech about _the nose_ of the stairs, and exclaimed,
+'There he is, please your honour! There's he that has done all the
+damage to our bow-window--that's the very same wicked white pigeon that
+broke the church windows last Sunday was se'nnight; but he's down for it
+now; we have him safe, and I'll chop his head off, as he deserves, this
+minute.'
+
+'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off: he does not deserve it,' cried
+the boy, who came running out of the garret with the greatest
+eagerness--'_I_ broke your window, sir,' said he to Mr. Somerville. 'I
+broke your window with this ball; but I did not know that I had done it,
+till this moment, I assure you, or I should have told you before.
+Don't chop his head off,' added the boy to the carpenter, who had now
+the white pigeon in his hands. 'No,' said Mr. Somerville, 'the pigeon's
+head shall not be chopped off, nor yours either, my good boy, for
+breaking a window. I am persuaded by your open, honest countenance, that
+you are speaking the truth; but pray explain this matter to us; for you
+have not made it quite clear. How happened it that you could break my
+windows without knowing it? and how came you to find it out at last?'
+'Sir,' said the boy, 'if you'll come up here, I'll show you all I know,
+and how I came to know it.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off.'_]
+
+Mr. Somerville followed the boy into the garret, who pointed to a pane
+of glass that was broken in a small window that looked out upon a piece
+of waste ground behind the house. Upon this piece of waste ground the
+children of the village often used to play. 'We were playing there at
+ball yesterday evening,' continued the boy, addressing himself to Mr.
+Somerville, 'and one of the lads challenged me to hit a mark in the
+wall, which I did; but he said I did not hit it, and bade me give him up
+my ball as the forfeit. This I would not do; and when he began to
+wrestle with me for it, I threw the ball, as I thought, over the house.
+He ran to look for it in the street, but could not find it, which I was
+very glad of; but I was very sorry just now to find it myself lying upon
+this heap of shavings, sir, under this broken window; for, as soon as I
+saw it lying there, I knew I must have been the person that broke the
+window; and through this window came the white pigeon. Here's one of his
+white feathers sticking in the gap.'
+
+'Yes,' said the carpenter, 'and in the bow-window room below there's
+plenty of his feathers to be seen; for I've just been down to look. It
+was the pigeon broke _them_ windows, sure enough.' 'But he could not
+have got in had I not broke this little window,' said the boy eagerly;
+'and I am able to earn sixpence a day, and I'll pay for all the
+mischief, and welcome. The white pigeon belongs to a poor neighbour, a
+friend of ours, who is very fond of him, and I would not have him killed
+for twice as much money.'
+
+'Take the pigeon, my honest, generous lad,' said Mr. Somerville, 'and
+carry him back to your neighbour. I forgive him all the mischief he has
+done me, tell your friend, for your sake. As to the rest, we can have
+the windows mended; and do you keep all the sixpences you earn for
+yourself.'
+
+'That's what he never did yet,' said the carpenter. 'Many's the sixpence
+he earns, but not a halfpenny goes into his own pocket: it goes every
+farthing to his poor father and mother. Happy for them to have such a
+son!'
+
+'More happy for him to have such a father and mother,' exclaimed the
+boy. 'Their good days they took all the best care of me that was to be
+had for love or money, and would, if I would let them, go on paying for
+my schooling now, falling as they be in the world; but I must learn to
+mind the shop now. Good morning to you, sir; and thank you kindly,' said
+he to Mr. Somerville.
+
+'And where does this boy live, and who are his father and mother? They
+cannot live in town,' said Mr. Somerville, 'or I should have heard of
+them.'
+
+'They are but just come into the town, please your honour,' said the
+carpenter. 'They lived formerly upon Counsellor O'Donnel's estate; but
+they were ruined, please your honour, by taking a joint lease with a man
+who fell afterwards into bad company, ran out all he had, so could not
+pay the landlord; and these poor people were forced to pay his share and
+their own too, which almost ruined them. They were obliged to give up
+the land; and now they have furnished a little shop in this town with
+what goods they could afford to buy with the money they got by the sale
+of their cattle and stock. They have the goodwill of all who know them;
+and I am sure I hope they will do well. The boy is very ready in the
+shop, though he said only that he could earn sixpence a day. He writes a
+good hand, and is quick at casting up accounts, for his age. Besides, he
+is likely to do well in the world, because he is never in idle company,
+and I've known him since he was two foot high, and never heard of his
+telling a lie.'
+
+'This is an excellent character of the boy, indeed,' said Mr.
+Somerville, 'and from his behaviour this morning I am inclined to think
+that he deserves all your praises.'
+
+Mr. Somerville resolved to inquire more fully concerning this poor
+family, and to attend to their conduct himself, fully determined to
+assist them if he should find them such as they had been represented.
+
+In the meantime, this boy, whose name was Brian O'Neill, went to return
+the white pigeon to its owner. 'You have saved its life,' said the woman
+to whom it belonged, 'and I'll make you a present of it.' Brian thanked
+her; and he from that day began to grow fond of the pigeon. He always
+took care to scatter some oats for it in his father's yard; and the
+pigeon grew so tame at last that it would hop about the kitchen, and eat
+off the same trencher with the dog.
+
+Brian, after the shop was shut up at night, used to amuse himself with
+reading some little books which the schoolmaster who formerly taught him
+arithmetic was so good as to lend him. Amongst these he one evening met
+with a little book full of the history of birds and beasts; he looked
+immediately to see whether the pigeon was mentioned amongst the birds,
+and, to his great joy, he found a full description and history of his
+favourite bird.
+
+'So, Brian, I see your schooling has not been thrown away upon you; you
+like your book, I see, when you have no master over you to bid you
+read,' said his father, when he came in and saw Brian reading his book
+very attentively.
+
+'Thank you for having me taught to read, father,' said Brian. 'Here I've
+made a great discovery: I've found out in this book, little as it looks,
+father, a most curious way of making a fortune; and I hope it will make
+your fortune, father, and if you'll sit down, I'll tell it to you.'
+
+Mr. O'Neill, in hopes of pleasing his son rather than in the expectation
+of having his fortune made, immediately sat down to listen; and his son
+explained to him that he had found in his book an account of pigeons who
+carried notes and letters: 'and, father,' continued Brian, 'I find my
+pigeon is of this sort; and I intend to make my pigeon carry messages.
+Why should not he? If other pigeons have done so before him, I think he
+is as good, and, I daresay, will be as easy to teach as any pigeon in
+the world. I shall begin to teach him to-morrow morning; and then,
+father, you know people often pay a great deal for sending messengers:
+and no boy can run, no horse can gallop, so fast as a bird can fly;
+therefore the bird must be the best messenger, and I should be paid the
+best price. Hey, father?'
+
+'To be sure, to be sure, my boy,' said his father, laughing; 'I wish you
+may make the best messenger in Ireland of your pigeon; but all I beg, my
+dear boy, is that you won't neglect our shop for your pigeon; for I've
+a notion we have a better chance of making a fortune by the shop than by
+the white pigeon.'
+
+Brian never neglected the shop: but in his leisure hours he amused
+himself with training his pigeon; and after much patience he at last
+succeeded so well, that one day he went to his father and offered to
+send him word by his pigeon what beef was a pound in the market of
+Ballynagrish, where he was going. 'The pigeon will be home long before
+me, father; and he will come in at the kitchen window and light upon the
+dresser; then you must untie the little note which I shall have tied
+under his left wing, and you'll know the price of beef directly.'
+
+The pigeon carried his message well; and Brian was much delighted with
+his success. He soon was employed by the neighbours, who were aroused by
+Brian's fondness of his swift messenger; and soon the fame of the white
+pigeon was spread amongst all who frequented the markets and fairs of
+Somerville.
+
+At one of these fairs a set of men of desperate fortunes met to drink,
+and to concert plans of robberies. Their place of meeting was at the
+alehouse of Mr. Cox, the man who, as our readers may remember, was
+offended by Mr. Somerville's hinting that he was fond of drinking and of
+quarrelling, and who threatened vengeance for having been refused the
+new inn.
+
+Whilst these men were talking over their schemes, one of them observed
+that one of their companions was not arrived. Another said, 'No.' 'He's
+six miles off,' said another; and a third wished that he could make him
+hear at that distance. This turned the discourse upon the difficulties
+of sending messages secretly and quickly. Cox's son, a lad of about
+nineteen, who was one of this gang, mentioned the white carrier pigeon,
+and he was desired to try all means to get it into his possession.
+Accordingly, the next day young Cox went to Brian O'Neill, and tried, at
+first by persuasion and afterwards by threats, to prevail upon him to
+give up the pigeon. Brian was resolute in his refusal, more especially
+when the petitioner began to bully him.
+
+'If we can't have it by fair means, we will by foul,' said Cox; and a
+few days afterwards the pigeon was gone. Brian searched for it in
+vain--inquired from all the neighbours if they had seen it, and
+applied, but to no purpose, to Cox. He swore that he knew nothing about
+the matter. But this was false, for it was he who during the night-time
+had stolen the white pigeon. He conveyed it to his employers, and they
+rejoiced that they had gotten it into their possession, as they thought
+it would serve them for a useful messenger.
+
+Nothing can be more short-sighted than cunning. The very means which
+these people took to secure secrecy were the means of bringing their
+plots to light. They endeavoured to teach the pigeon, which they had
+stolen, to carry messages for them in a part of the country at some
+distance from Somerville; and when they fancied that it had forgotten
+its former habits and its old master, they thought that they might
+venture to employ him nearer home. The pigeon, however, had a better
+memory than they imagined. They loosed him from a bag near the town of
+Ballynagrish, in hopes that he would stop at the house of Cox's cousin,
+which was on its road between Ballynagrish and Somerville. But the
+pigeon, though he had been purposely fed at this house for a week before
+this trial, did not stop there, but flew on to his old master's house in
+Somerville, and pecked at the kitchen window, as he had formerly been
+taught to do. His father, fortunately, was within hearing, and poor
+Brian ran with the greatest joy to open the window and to let him in.
+
+'Oh, father, here's my white pigeon come back of his own accord,'
+exclaimed Brian; 'I must run and show him to my mother.' At this instant
+the pigeon spread his wings, and Brian discovered under one of its wings
+a small and very dirty-looking billet. He opened it in his father's
+presence. The scrawl was scarcely legible; but these words were at
+length deciphered:--
+
+  'Thare are eight of uz sworn: I send yo at botom thare names. We meat
+  at tin this nite at my faders, and have harms and all in radiness to
+  brak into the grate 'ouse. Mr. Summervill is to lye out to nite--kip
+  the pigeon untill to-morrow. For ever yours,      MURTAGH COX, JUN.'
+
+Scarcely had they finished reading this note, than both father and son
+exclaimed, 'Let us go and show it to Mr. Somerville.' Before they set
+out, they had, however, the prudence to secure the pigeon, so that he
+should not be seen by any one but themselves.
+
+Mr. Somerville, in consequence of this fortunate discovery, took proper
+measures for the apprehension of the eight men who had sworn to rob his
+house. When they were all safely lodged in the county gaol, he sent for
+Brian O'Neill and his father; and after thanking them for the service
+they had done him, he counted out ten bright guineas upon a table, and
+pushed them towards Brian, saying, 'I suppose you know that a reward of
+ten guineas was offered some weeks ago for the discovery of John
+MacDermod, one of the eight men whom we have just taken up?'
+
+'No, sir,' said Brian; 'I did not know it, and I did not bring that note
+to you to get ten guineas, but because I thought it was right. I don't
+want to be paid for doing it.' 'That's my own boy,' said his father. 'We
+thank you, sir; but we'll not take the money; _I don't like to take the
+price of blood._'
+
+'I know the difference, my good friends,' said Mr. Somerville, 'between
+vile informers and courageous, honest men.' 'Why, as to that, please
+your honour, though we are poor, I hope we are honest.' 'And, what is
+more,' said Mr. Somerville, 'I have a notion that you would continue to
+be honest, even if you were rich.
+
+'Will you, my good lad,' continued Mr. Somerville, after a moment's
+pause--'will you trust me with your pigeon a few days?' 'Oh, and
+welcome, sir,' said the boy, with a smile; and he brought the pigeon to
+Mr. Somerville when it was dark, and nobody saw him.
+
+A few days afterwards, Mr. Somerville called at O'Neill's house, and bid
+him and his son follow him. They followed till he stopped opposite to
+the bow-window of the new inn. The carpenter had just put up a sign,
+which was covered over with a bit of carpeting.
+
+'Go up the ladder, will you?' said Mr. Somerville to Brian, 'and pull
+that sign straight, for it hangs quite crooked. There, now it is
+straight. Now pull off the carpet, and let us see the new sign.'
+
+The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon painted upon the
+sign, and the name of O'Neill in large letters underneath.
+
+[Illustration: _The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon
+painted upon the sign._]
+
+'Take care you do not tumble down and break your neck upon this joyful
+occasion,' said Mr. Somerville, who saw that Brian's surprise was too
+great for his situation. 'Come down from the ladder, and wish your
+father joy of being master of the new inn called the "White Pigeon." And
+I wish him joy of having such a son as you are. Those who bring up their
+children well, will certainly be rewarded for it, be they poor or
+rich.'
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT
+
+
+'Mamma,' said Rosamond, after a long silence, 'do you know what I have
+been thinking of all this time?' 'No, my dear--What?' 'Why, mamma, about
+my cousin Bell's birthday; do you know what day it is?' 'No, I don't
+remember.' 'Dear mother! don't you remember it's the 22nd of December;
+and her birthday is the day after to-morrow? Don't you recollect now?
+But you never remember about birthdays, mamma. That was just what I was
+thinking of, that you never remember my sister Laura's birthday,
+or--or--or _mine_, mamma.'
+
+'What do you mean, my dear? I remember your birthday perfectly well.'
+'Indeed! but you never _keep_ it, though.' 'What do you mean by keeping
+your birthday?' 'Oh, mamma, you know very well--as Bell's birthday is
+kept. In the first place, there is a great dinner.' 'And can Bell eat
+more upon her birthday than upon any other day?' 'No; nor I should not
+mind about the dinner, except the mince-pies. But Bell has a great many
+nice things--I don't mean nice eatable things, but nice new playthings,
+given to her always on her birthday; and everybody drinks her health,
+and she's so happy.'
+
+'But stay, Rosamond, how you jumble things together! Is it everybody's
+drinking her health that makes her so happy? or the new playthings, or
+the nice mince-pies? I can easily believe that she is happy whilst she
+is eating a mince-pie, or whilst she is playing; but how does
+everybody's drinking her health at dinner make her happy?'
+
+Rosamond paused, and then said she did not know. 'But,' added she, 'the
+_nice new_ playthings, mother!' 'But why the nice new playthings? Do you
+like them only because they are _new_?' 'Not _only_--_I_ do not like
+playthings _only_ because they are new: but Bell _does_, I believe--for
+that puts me in mind--Do you know, mother, she had a great drawer full
+of _old_ playthings that she never used, and she said that they were
+good for nothing, because they were _old_; but I thought many of them
+were good for a great deal more than the new ones. Now you shall be
+judge, mamma; I'll tell you all that was in the drawer.'
+
+'Nay, Rosamond, thank you, not just now; I have not time to listen to
+you.'
+
+'Well then, mamma, the day after to-morrow I can show you the drawer. I
+want you to judge very much, because I am sure I was in the right. And,
+mother,' added Rosamond, stopping her as she was going out of the room,
+'will you--not now, but when you've time--will you tell me why you never
+keep my birthday--why you never make any difference between that day and
+any other day?' 'And will you, Rosamond--not now, but when you have time
+to think about it--tell me why I should make any difference between your
+birthday and any other day?'
+
+Rosamond thought, but she could not find out any reason; besides, she
+suddenly recollected that she had not time to think any longer; for
+there was a certain work-basket to be finished, which she was making for
+her cousin Bell, as a present upon her birthday. The work was at a stand
+for want of some filigree-paper, and, as her mother was going out, she
+asked her to take her with her, that she might buy some. Her sister
+Laura went with them.
+
+'Sister,' said Rosamond, as they were walking along, 'what have you done
+with your half-guinea?' 'I have it in my pocket.' 'Dear! you will keep
+it for ever in your pocket. You know, my godmother when she gave it to
+you said you would keep it longer than I should keep mine; and I know
+what she thought by her look at the time. I heard her say something to
+my mother.' 'Yes,' said Laura, smiling; 'she whispered so loud that I
+could not help hearing her too. She said I was a little miser.' 'But did
+not you hear her say that I was very _generous_? and she'll see that she
+was not mistaken. I hope she'll be by when I give my basket to
+Bell--won't it be beautiful? There is to be a wreath of myrtle, you
+know, round the handle, and a frost ground, and then the
+medallions----'
+
+'Stay,' interrupted her sister, for Rosamond, anticipating the glories
+of her work-basket, talked and walked so fast that she had passed,
+without perceiving it, the shop where the filigree-paper was to be
+bought. They turned back. Now it happened that the shop was the corner
+house of a street, and one of the windows looked out into a narrow lane.
+A coach full of ladies stopped at the door, just before they went in, so
+that no one had time immediately to think of Rosamond and her
+filigree-paper, and she went to the window where she saw her sister
+Laura looking earnestly at something that was passing in the lane.
+
+Opposite to the window, at the door of a poor-looking house, there was
+sitting a little girl weaving lace. Her bobbins moved as quick as
+lightning, and she never once looked up from her work. 'Is not she very
+industrious?' said Laura; 'and very honest, too?' added she in a minute
+afterwards; for just then a baker with a basket of rolls on his head
+passed, and by accident one of the rolls fell close to the little girl.
+She took it up eagerly, looked at it as if she was very hungry, then put
+aside her work, and ran after the baker to return it to him. Whilst she
+was gone, a footman in a livery laced with silver, who belonged to the
+coach that stood at the shop door, as he was lounging with one of his
+companions, chanced to spy the weaving pillow, which she had left upon a
+stone before the door. To divert himself (for idle people do mischief
+often to divert themselves) he took up the pillow, and entangled all the
+bobbins. The little girl came back out of breath to her work; but what
+was her surprise and sorrow to find it spoiled. She twisted and
+untwisted, placed and replaced, the bobbins, while the footman stood
+laughing at her distress. She got up gently, and was retiring into the
+house, when the silver-laced footman stopped her, saying, insolently,
+'Sit still, child.' 'I must go to my mother, sir,' said the child;
+'besides, you have spoiled all my lace. I can't stay.' 'Can't you?' said
+the brutal footman, snatching her weaving-pillow again, 'I'll teach you
+to complain of me.' And he broke off, one after another, all the
+bobbins, put them into his pocket, rolled her weaving-pillow down the
+dirty lane, then jumped up behind his mistress's coach, and was out of
+sight in an instant.
+
+'Poor girl!' exclaimed Rosamond, no longer able to restrain her
+indignation at this injustice; 'poor little girl!'
+
+[Illustration: _She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced, the
+bobbins, while the footman stood laughing at her distress._]
+
+At this instant her mother said to Rosamond--'Come, now, my dear, if you
+want this filigree-paper, buy it.' 'Yes, madam,' said Rosamond; and the
+idea of what her godmother and her cousin Bell would think of her
+generosity rushed again upon her imagination. All her feelings of pity
+were immediately suppressed. Satisfied with bestowing another
+exclamation upon the '_poor little girl_!' she went to spend her
+half-guinea upon her filigree basket. In the meantime, she that was
+called the '_little miser_' beckoned to the poor girl, and, opening the
+window, said, pointing to the cushion, 'Is it quite spoiled?' 'Quite!
+quite spoiled! and I can't, nor mother neither, buy another; and I can't
+do anything else for my bread.' A few, but very few, tears fell as she
+said this.
+
+'How much would another cost?' said Laura. 'Oh, a great--_great_ deal.'
+'More than that?' said Laura, holding up her half-guinea. 'Oh no.' 'Then
+you can buy another with that,' said Laura, dropping the half-guinea
+into her hand; and she shut the window before the child could find words
+to thank her, but not before she saw a look of joy and gratitude, which
+gave Laura more pleasure probably than all the praise which could have
+been bestowed upon her generosity.
+
+Late on the morning of her cousin's birthday, Rosamond finished her
+work-basket. The carriage was at the door--Laura came running to call
+her; her father's voice was heard at the same instant; so she was
+obliged to go down with her basket but half wrapped up in silver
+paper--a circumstance at which she was a good deal disconcerted; for the
+pleasure of surprising Bell would be utterly lost if one bit of the
+filigree should peep out before the proper time. As the carriage went
+on, Rosamond pulled the paper to one side and to the other, and by each
+of the four corners.
+
+'It will never do, my dear,' said her father, who had been watching her
+operations. 'I am afraid you will never make a sheet of paper cover a
+box which is twice as large as itself.'
+
+'It is not a box, father,' said Rosamond, a little peevishly; 'it's a
+basket.'
+
+'Let us look at this basket,' said he, taking it out of her unwilling
+hands, for she knew of what frail materials it was made, and she dreaded
+its coming to pieces under her father's examination. He took hold of the
+handle rather roughly; when, starting off the coach seat, she cried,
+'Oh, sir! father! sir! you will spoil it indeed!' said she, with
+increased vehemence, when, after drawing aside the veil of silver paper,
+she saw him grasp the myrtle-wreathed handle. 'Indeed, sir, you will
+spoil the poor handle.'
+
+'But what is the use of _the poor handle_,' said her father, 'if we are
+not to take hold of it? And pray,' continued he, turning the basket
+round with his finger and thumb, rather in a disrespectful manner,
+'pray, is this the thing you have been about all this week? I have seen
+you all this week dabbling with paste and rags; I could not conceive
+what you were about. Is this the thing?' 'Yes, sir. You think, then,
+that I have wasted my time, because the basket is of no use; but then it
+is for a present for my cousin Bell.' 'Your cousin Bell will be very
+much obliged to you for a present that is of no use. You had better have
+given her the purple jar.'
+
+'Oh, father! I thought you had forgotten that--it was two years ago; I'm
+not so silly now. But Bell will like the basket, I know, though it is of
+no use.'
+
+'Then you think Bell is sillier _now_ than you were two years
+ago,--well, perhaps that is true; but how comes it, Rosamond, now that
+you are so wise, that you are fond of such a silly person?' '_I_,
+father?' said Rosamond, hesitating; 'I don't think I am _very_ fond of
+her.' 'I did not say _very_ fond.' 'Well, but I don't think I am at all
+fond of her.' 'But you have spent a whole week in making this thing for
+her.' 'Yes, and all my half-guinea besides.'
+
+'Yet you think her silly, and you are not fond of her at all; and you
+say you know this thing will be of no use to her.'
+
+'But it is her birthday, sir; and I am sure she will _expect_ something,
+and everybody else will give her something.'
+
+'Then your reason for giving is because she expects you to give her
+something. And will you, or can you, or should you, always give, merely
+because others _expect_, or because somebody else gives?' 'Always?--no,
+not always.' 'Oh, only on birthdays.'
+
+Rosamond, laughing: 'Now you are making a joke of me, papa, I see; but I
+thought you liked that people should be generous,--my godmother said
+that she did.' 'So do I, full as well as your godmother; but we have not
+yet quite settled what it is to be generous.' 'Why, is it not generous
+to make presents?' said Rosamond. 'That is the question which it would
+take up a great deal of time to answer. But, for instance, to make a
+present of a thing that you know can be of no use to a person you
+neither love nor esteem, because it is her birthday, and because
+everybody gives her something, and because she expects something, and
+because your godmother says she likes that people should be generous,
+seems to me, my dear Rosamond, to be, since I must say it, rather more
+like folly than generosity.'
+
+Rosamond looked down upon the basket, and was silent. 'Then I am a fool,
+am I?' said she, looking up at last. 'Because you have made _one_
+mistake? No. If you have sense enough to see your own mistakes, and can
+afterwards avoid them, you will never be a fool.'
+
+Here the carriage stopped, and Rosamond recollected that the basket was
+uncovered.
+
+Now we must observe that Rosamond's father had not been too severe upon
+Bell when he called her a silly girl. From her infancy she had been
+humoured; and at eight years old she had the misfortune to be a spoiled
+child. She was idle, fretful, and selfish; so that nothing could make
+her happy. On her birthday she expected, however, to be perfectly happy.
+Everybody in the house tried to please her, and they succeeded so well
+that between breakfast and dinner she had only six fits of crying. The
+cause of five of these fits no one could discover: but the last, and
+most lamentable, was occasioned by a disappointment about a worked
+muslin frock; and accordingly, at dressing time, her maid brought it to
+her, exclaiming, 'See here, miss, what your mamma has sent you on your
+birthday. Here's a frock fit for a queen--if it had but lace round the
+cuffs.' 'And why has not it lace around the cuffs? mamma said it
+should.' 'Yes, but mistress was disappointed about the lace; it is not
+come home.' 'Not come home, indeed! and didn't they know it was my
+birthday? But then I say I won't wear it without the lace--I can't wear
+it without the lace, and I won't.'
+
+The lace, however, could not be had; and Bell at length submitted to let
+the frock be put on. 'Come, Miss Bell, dry your eyes,' said the maid who
+_educated_ her; 'dry your eyes, and I'll tell you something that will
+please you.'
+
+'What, then?' said the child, pouting and sobbing. 'Why----but you must
+not tell that I told you.' 'No,--but if I am asked?' 'Why, if you are
+asked, you must tell the truth, to be sure. So I'll hold my tongue,
+miss.' 'Nay, tell me, though, and I'll never tell--if I _am_ asked.'
+'Well, then,' said the maid, 'your cousin Rosamond is come, and has
+brought you the most _beautifullest_ thing you ever saw in your life;
+but you are not to know anything about it till after dinner, because she
+wants to surprise you; and mistress has put it into her wardrobe till
+after dinner.' 'Till after dinner!' repeated Bell impatiently; 'I can't
+wait till then; I must see it this minute.' The maid refused her several
+times, till Bell burst into another fit of crying, and the maid, fearing
+that her mistress would be angry with _her_, if Bell's eyes were red at
+dinner time, consented to show her the basket.
+
+'How pretty!--but let me have it in my own hands,' said Bell, as the
+maid held the basket up out of her reach. 'Oh, no, you must not touch
+it; for if you should spoil it, what would become of me?' 'Become of
+you, indeed!' exclaimed the spoiled child, who never considered anything
+but her own immediate gratification--'Become of _you_, indeed! what
+signifies that?--I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own hands.
+If you don't hold it down for me directly, I'll tell that you showed it
+to me.' 'Then you won't snatch it?' 'No, no, I won't indeed,' said Bell;
+but she had learned from her maid a total disregard of truth. She
+snatched the basket the moment it was within her reach. A struggle
+ensued, in which the handle and lid were torn off, and one of the
+medallions crushed inwards, before the little fury returned to her
+senses.
+
+Calmed at this sight, the next question was, how she should conceal the
+mischief which she had done. After many attempts, the handle and lid
+were replaced; the basket was put exactly in the same spot in which it
+had stood before, and the maid charged the child '_to look as if nothing
+was the matter_.'
+
+We hope that both children and parents will here pause for a moment to
+reflect. The habits of tyranny, meanness, and falsehood, which children
+acquire from living with bad servants, are scarcely ever conquered in
+the whole course of their future lives.
+
+After shutting up the basket they left the room, and in the adjoining
+passage they found a poor girl waiting with a small parcel in her
+hand. 'What's your business?' said the maid. 'I have brought home the
+lace, madam, that was bespoke for the young lady.' 'Oh, you have, have
+you, at last?' said Bell; 'and pray why didn't you bring it sooner?' The
+girl was going to answer, but the maid interrupted her, saying, 'Come,
+come, none of your excuses; you are a little idle, good-for-nothing
+thing, to disappoint Miss Bell upon her birthday. But now you have
+brought it, let us look at it!'
+
+[Illustration: _'I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own
+hands.'_]
+
+The little girl gave the lace without reply, and the maid desired her to
+go about her business, and not to expect to be paid; for that her
+mistress could not see anybody, _because_ she was in a room full of
+company.
+
+'May I call again, madam, this afternoon?' said the child, timidly.
+
+'Lord bless my stars!' replied the maid, 'what makes people so poor, I
+_wonders_! I wish mistress would buy her lace at the warehouse, as I
+told her, and not of these folks. Call again! yes, to be sure. I believe
+you'd call, call, call twenty times for twopence.'
+
+However ungraciously the permission to call again was granted, it was
+received with gratitude. The little girl departed with a cheerful
+countenance, and Bell teased her maid till she got her to sew the
+long-wished-for lace upon her cuffs.
+
+Unfortunate Bell!--All dinner time passed, and people were so hungry, so
+busy, or so stupid, that not an eye observed her favourite piece of
+finery. Till at length she was no longer able to conceal her impatience,
+and turning to Laura, who sat next to her, she said, 'You have no lace
+upon your cuffs. Look how beautiful mine is!--is not it? Don't you wish
+your mamma could afford to give some like it? But you can't get any if
+she would, for this was made on purpose for me on my birthday, and
+nobody can get a bit more anywhere, if they would give the world for
+it.' 'But cannot the person who made it,' said Laura, 'make any more
+like it?' 'No, no, no!' cried Bell; for she had already learned, either
+from her maid or her mother, the mean pride which values things not for
+being really pretty or useful, but for being such as nobody else can
+procure. 'Nobody can get any like it, I say,' repeated Bell; 'nobody in
+all London can make it but one person, and that person will never make a
+bit for anybody but me, I am sure. Mamma won't let her, if I ask her
+not.' 'Very well,' said Laura coolly, 'I do not want any of it; you
+need not be so violent: I assure you that I don't want any of it.' 'Yes,
+but you do, though,' said Bell, more angrily. 'No, indeed,' said Laura,
+smiling. 'You do, in the bottom of your heart; but you say you don't to
+plague me, I know,' cried Bell, swelling with disappointed vanity. 'It
+is pretty for all that, and it cost a great deal of money too, and
+nobody shall have any like it, if they cried their eyes out.'
+
+Laura received this declaration in silence--Rosamond smiled; and at her
+smile the ill-suppressed rage of the spoiled child burst forth into the
+seventh and loudest fit of crying which had yet been heard on her
+birthday.
+
+'What's the matter, my pet?' cried her mother; 'come to me and tell me
+what's the matter.' Bell ran roaring to her mother; but no otherwise
+explained the cause of her sorrow than by tearing the fine lace with
+frantic gestures from her cuffs, and throwing the fragments into her
+mother's lap. 'Oh! the lace, child!--are you mad?' said her mother,
+catching hold of both her hands. 'Your beautiful lace, my dear love--do
+you know how much it cost?' 'I don't care how much it cost--it is not
+beautiful, and I'll have none of it,' replied Bell, sobbing; 'for it is
+not beautiful.' 'But it is beautiful,' retorted her mother; 'I chose the
+pattern myself. Who has put it into your head, child, to dislike it? Was
+it Nancy?' 'No, not Nancy, but _them_, mamma,' said Bell, pointing to
+Laura and Rosamond. 'Oh, fie! don't _point_,' said her mother, putting
+down her stubborn finger; 'nor say _them_, like Nancy; I am sure you
+misunderstood. Miss Laura, I am sure, did not mean any such thing.' 'No,
+madam; and I did not say any such thing, that I recollect,' said Laura,
+gently. 'Oh no, indeed!' cried Rosamond, warmly, rising in her sister's
+defence.
+
+No defence or explanation, however, was to be heard, for everybody had
+now gathered round Bell, to dry her tears, and to comfort her for the
+mischief she had done to her own cuffs. They succeeded so well, that in
+about a quarter of an hour the young lady's eyes and the reddened arches
+over her eyebrows came to their natural colour; and the business being
+thus happily hushed up, the mother, as a reward to her daughter for her
+good humour, begged that Rosamond would now be so good as to produce her
+'charming present.'
+
+Rosamond, followed by all the company, amongst whom, to her great joy,
+was her godmother, proceeded to the dressing-room. 'Now I am sure,'
+thought she, 'Bell will be surprised, and my godmother will see she was
+right about my generosity.'
+
+The doors of the wardrobe were opened with due ceremony, and the
+filigree basket appeared in all its glory. 'Well, this is a charming
+present, indeed!' said the godmother, who was one of the company; '_my_
+Rosamond knows how to make presents.' And as she spoke, she took hold of
+the basket, to lift it down to the admiring audience. Scarcely had she
+touched it, when, lo! the basket fell to the ground, and only the handle
+remained in her hand. All eyes were fixed upon the wreck. Exclamations
+of sorrow were heard in various tones; and 'Who can have done this?' was
+all that Rosamond could say. Bell stood in sullen silence, which she
+obstinately preserved in the midst of the inquiries that were made about
+the disaster.
+
+At length the servants were summoned, and amongst them Nancy, Miss
+Bell's maid and governess. She affected much surprise when she saw what
+had befallen the basket, and declared that she knew nothing of the
+matter, but that she had seen her mistress in the morning put it quite
+safe into the wardrobe; and that, for her part, she had never touched
+it, or thought of touching it, in her born days. 'Nor Miss Bell,
+neither, ma'am,--I can answer for her; for she never knew of its being
+there, because I never so much as mentioned it to her, that there was
+such a thing in the house, because I knew Miss Rosamond wanted to
+surprise her with the secret; so I never mentioned a sentence of it--did
+I, Miss Bell?'
+
+Bell, putting on the deceitful look which her maid had taught her,
+answered boldly, '_No_'; but she had hold of Rosamond's hand, and at the
+instant she uttered this falsehood she squeezed it terribly. 'Why do you
+squeeze my hand so?' said Rosamond, in a low voice; 'what are you afraid
+of?' 'Afraid of!' cried Bell, turning angrily; 'I'm not afraid of
+anything--I've nothing to be afraid about.' 'Nay, I did not say you
+had,' whispered Rosamond; 'but only if you did by accident--you know
+what I mean--I should not be angry if you did--only say so.' 'I say I
+did not!' cried Bell furiously. 'Mamma, mamma! Nancy! my cousin Rosamond
+won't believe me! That's very hard. It's very rude, and I won't bear
+it--I won't.' 'Don't be angry, love. Don't,' said the maid. 'Nobody
+suspects you, darling,' said her mother; 'but she has too much
+sensibility. Don't cry, love; nobody suspected you.' 'But you know,'
+continued she, turning to the maid, 'somebody must have done this, and I
+must know how it was done. Miss Rosamond's charming present must not be
+spoiled in this way, in my house, without my taking proper notice of it.
+I assure you I am very angry about it, Rosamond.'
+
+Rosamond did not rejoice in her anger, and had nearly made a sad mistake
+by speaking aloud her thoughts--'_I was very foolish_----' she began and
+stopped.
+
+'Ma'am,' cried the maid, suddenly, 'I'll venture to say I know who did
+it.' 'Who?' said every one, eagerly. 'Who?' said Bell, trembling. 'Why,
+miss, don't you recollect that little girl with the lace, that we saw
+peeping about in the passage? I'm sure she must have done it; for here
+she was by herself half an hour or more, and not another creature has
+been in mistress's dressing-room, to my certain knowledge, since
+morning. Those sort of people have so much curiosity. I'm sure she must
+have been meddling with it,' added the maid.
+
+'Oh yes, that's the thing,' said the mistress, decidedly. 'Well, Miss
+Rosamond, for your comfort she shall never come into my house again.'
+'Oh, that would not comfort me at all,' said Rosamond; 'besides, we are
+not sure that she did it, and if----' A single knock at the door was
+heard at this instant. It was the little girl, who came to be paid for
+her lace. 'Call her in,' said the lady of the house; 'let us see her
+directly.'
+
+The maid, who was afraid that the girl's innocence would appear if she
+were produced, hesitated; but upon her mistress repeating her commands,
+she was forced to obey. The girl came in with a look of simplicity; but
+when she saw a room full of company she was a little abashed. Rosamond
+and Laura looked at her and one another with surprise, for it was the
+same little girl whom they had seen weaving lace. 'Is not it she?'
+whispered Rosamond to her sister. 'Yes, it is; but hush,' said Laura,
+'she does not know us. Don't say a word, let us hear what she will say.'
+
+Laura got behind the rest of the company as she spoke, so that the
+little girl could not see her.
+
+'Vastly well!' said Bell's mother; 'I am waiting to see how long you
+will have the assurance to stand there with that innocent look. Did you
+ever see that basket before?' 'Yes, ma'am,' said the girl. '_Yes,
+ma'am!_' cried the maid; 'and what else do you know about it? You had
+better confess it at once, and mistress, perhaps, will say no more about
+it.' 'Yes, do confess it,' added Bell, earnestly. 'Confess what, madam?'
+said the little girl; 'I never touched the basket, madam.' 'You never
+_touched_ it; but you confess,' interrupted Bell's mother, 'that you
+_did see_ it before. And, pray, how came you to see it? You must have
+opened my wardrobe.' 'No, indeed, ma'am,' said the little girl; 'but I
+was waiting in the passage, ma'am, and this door was partly open; and
+looking at the maid, you know, I could not help seeing it.' 'Why, how
+could you see through the doors of my wardrobe?' rejoined the lady.
+
+The maid, frightened, pulled the little girl by the sleeve.
+
+'Answer me,' said the lady, 'where did you see this basket?' Another
+stronger pull. 'I saw it, madam, in her hands,' looking at
+the maid; 'and----' 'Well, and what became of it afterwards?'
+'Ma'am'--hesitating--'miss pulled, and by accident--I believe, I saw,
+ma'am--miss, you know what I saw.' 'I do not know--I do not know; and if
+I did, you had no business there; and mamma won't believe you, I am
+sure.' Everybody else, however, did believe; and their eyes were fixed
+upon Bell in a manner which made her feel rather ashamed. 'What do you
+all look at me so for? Why do you all look so? And am I to be put to
+shame on my birthday?' cried she, bursting into a roar of passion; 'and
+all for this nasty thing!' added she, pushing away the remains of the
+basket, and looking angrily at Rosamond. 'Bell! Bell! oh, fie! fie!--Now
+I _am_ ashamed of you; that's quite rude to your cousin,' said her
+mother, who was more shocked at her daughter's want of politeness than
+at her falsehood. 'Take her away, Nancy, till she has done crying,'
+added she to the maid, who accordingly carried off her pupil.
+
+Rosamond, during this scene, especially at the moment when her present
+was pushed away with such disdain, had been making reflections upon the
+nature of true generosity. A smile from her father, who stood by, a
+silent spectator of the catastrophe of the filigree basket, gave rise to
+these reflections; nor were they entirely dissipated by the condolence
+of the rest of the company, nor even by the praises of her godmother,
+who, for the purpose of condoling with her, said, 'Well, my dear
+Rosamond, I admire your generous spirit. You know I prophesied that your
+half-guinea would be gone the soonest. Did I not, Laura?' said she,
+appealing, in a sarcastic tone, to where she thought Laura was. 'Where
+is Laura? I don't see her.' Laura came forward. 'You are too _prudent_
+to throw away your money like your sister. Your half-guinea, I'll answer
+for it, is snug in your pocket--is it not?' 'No, madam,' answered she,
+in a low voice.
+
+But low as the voice of Laura was, the poor little lace-girl heard it;
+and now, for the first time, fixing her eyes upon Laura, recollected her
+benefactress. 'Oh, that's the young lady!' she exclaimed, in a tone of
+joyful gratitude, 'the good, good young lady who gave me the
+half-guinea, and would not stay to be thanked for it; but I _will_ thank
+her now.'
+
+'The half-guinea, Laura!' said her godmother. 'What is all this?' 'I'll
+tell you, madam, if you please,' said the little girl.
+
+It was not in expectation of being praised for it that Laura had been
+generous, and therefore everybody was really touched with the history of
+the weaving-pillow; and whilst they praised, felt a certain degree of
+respect, which is not always felt by those who pour forth eulogiums.
+_Respect_ is not an improper word, even applied to a child of Laura's
+age; for let the age or situation of the person be what it may, they
+command respect who deserve it.
+
+'Ah, madam!' said Rosamond to her godmother, 'now you see--you see she
+is _not_ a little miser. I'm sure that's better than wasting half a
+guinea upon a filigree basket; is it not, ma'am?' said she, with an
+eagerness which showed that she had forgotten all her own misfortunes in
+sympathy with her sister. 'This is being _really generous_, father, is
+it not?'
+
+'Yes, Rosamond,' said her father, and he kissed her; 'this _is_ being
+really generous. It is not only by giving away money that we can show
+generosity; it is by giving up to others anything that we like
+ourselves; and therefore,' added he, smiling, 'it is really generous of
+you to give your sister the thing you like best of all others.'
+
+'The thing I like the best of all others, father,' said Rosamond, half
+pleased, half vexed. 'What is that, I wonder? You don't mean _praise_,
+do you, sir?' 'Nay, you must decide that yourself, Rosamond.' 'Why,
+sir,' said she, ingenuously, 'perhaps it _was_ ONCE the thing I liked
+best; but the pleasure I have just felt makes me like something else
+much better.'
+
+
+
+
+ETON MONTEM
+
+[_Extracted from the 'Courier' of May 1799._]
+
+
+'Yesterday this triennial ceremony took place, with which the public are
+too well acquainted to require a particular description. A collection,
+called _Salt_, is taken from the public, which forms a purse, to support
+the Captain of the School in his studies at Cambridge. This collection
+is made by the Scholars, dressed in fancy dresses, all round the
+country.
+
+'At eleven o'clock, the youths being assembled in their habiliments at
+the College, the Royal Family set off from the Castle to see them, and,
+after walking round the Courtyard, they proceeded to Salt Hill in the
+following order:--
+
+'His Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Earl of
+Uxbridge.
+
+'Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent and Cumberland, Earl Morton,
+and General Gwynne, all on horseback, dressed in the Windsor uniform,
+except the Prince of Wales, who wore a suit of dark blue, and a brown
+surtout over.
+
+'Then followed the Scholars, preceded by the Marechal Serjeant, the
+Musicians of the Staffordshire Band, and Mr. Ford, Captain of the
+Seminary, the Serjeant-Major, Serjeants, Colonels, Corporals, Musicians,
+Ensign, Lieutenant, Steward, Salt-Bearers, Polemen, and Runners.
+
+'The cavalcade was brought up by Her Majesty and her amiable daughters
+in two carriages, and a numerous company of equestrians and pedestrians,
+all eager to behold their Sovereign and his family. Among the former,
+Lady Lade was foremost in the throng; only two others dared venture
+their persons on horseback in such a multitude.
+
+'The King and Royal Family were stopped on Eton Bridge by Messrs. Young
+and Mansfield, the Salt-Bearers, to whom their Majesties delivered their
+customary donation of fifty guineas each.
+
+'At Salt Hill, His Majesty, with his usual affability, took upon himself
+to arrange the procession round the Royal carriages; and even when the
+horses were taken off, with the assistance of the Duke of Kent,
+fastened the traces round the pole of the coaches, to prevent any
+inconvenience.
+
+'An exceeding heavy shower of rain coming on, the Prince took leave, and
+went to the "Windmill Inn" till it subsided. The King and his attendants
+weathered it out in their greatcoats.
+
+'After the young gentlemen walked round the carriage, Ensign Vince and
+the Salt-Bearers proceeded to the summit of the hill; but the wind being
+boisterous, he could not exhibit his dexterity in displaying his flag,
+and the space being too small before the carriages, from the concourse
+of spectators, the King kindly acquiesced in not having it displayed
+under such inconvenience.
+
+'Their Majesties and the Princesses then returned home, the King
+occasionally stopping to converse with the Dean of Windsor, the Earl of
+Harrington, and other noblemen.
+
+'The Scholars partook of an elegant dinner at the "Windmill Inn," and in
+the evening walked on Windsor Terrace.
+
+'Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cumberland,
+after taking leave of their Majesties, set off for town, and honoured
+the Opera House with their presence in the evening.
+
+'The profit arising from the Salt collected, according to account,
+amounted to £800.
+
+'The Stadtholder, the Duke of Gordon, Lord and Lady Melbourne, Viscount
+Brome, and a numerous train of fashionable nobility were present.
+
+'The following is an account of their dresses, made as usual, very
+handsomely, by Mrs. Snow, milliner, of Windsor:--
+
+    'Mr. Ford, Captain, with eight Gentlemen to attend him as servitors.
+
+                          'Mr. Sarjeant, Marechal.
+
+                           'Mr. Bradith, Colonel.
+
+                         'Mr. Plumtree, Lieutenant.
+
+                            'Mr. Vince, Ensign.
+
+   'Mr. Young, College Salt-Bearer; white and gold dress, rich satin
+                       bag, covered with gold netting.
+
+   'Mr. Mansfield, Oppidin, white, purple, and orange dress, trimmed
+     with silver; rich satin bag, purple and silver: each carrying
+                elegant poles, with gold and silver cord.
+
+     'Mr. Keity, yellow and black velvet; helmet trimmed with silver.
+
+     'Mr. Bartelot, plain mantle and sandals, Scotch bonnet, a very
+                                 Douglas.
+
+      'Mr. Knapp, flesh-colour and blue; Spanish hat and feathers.
+
+                      'Mr. Ripley, rose-colour; helmet.
+
+  'Mr. Islip (being in mourning), a scarf; helmet, black velvet; and
+                                white satin.
+
+                  'Mr. Tomkins, violet and silver; helmet.
+
+                 'Mr. Thackery, lilac and silver; Roman cap.
+
+                    'Mr. Drury, mazarin blue; fancy cap.
+
+                    'Mr. Davis, slate-colour and straw.
+
+                 'Mr. Routh, pink and silver; Spanish hat.
+
+                      'Mr. Curtis, purple; fancy cap.
+
+                          'Mr. Lloyd, blue; ditto.
+
+'At the conclusion of the ceremony the Royal Family returned to Windsor,
+and the boys were all sumptuously entertained at the tavern at Salt
+Hill. About six in the evening all the boys returned in the order of
+procession, and, marching round the great square of Eton, were
+dismissed. The Captain then paid his respects to the Royal Family, at
+the Queen's Lodge, Windsor, previously to his departure for King's
+College, Cambridge, to defray which expense the produce of the Montem
+was presented to him.
+
+'The day concluded by a brilliant promenade of beauty, rank, and fashion
+on Windsor Terrace, enlivened by the performance of several bands of
+music.
+
+'The origin of the procession is from the custom by which the Manor was
+held.
+
+'The custom of hunting the Ram belonged to Eton College, as well as the
+custom of Salt; but it was discontinued by Dr. Cook, late Dean of Ely.
+Now this custom we know to have been entered on the register of the
+Royal Abbey of Bee, in Normandy, as one belonging to the Manor of East
+or Great Wrotham, in Norfolk, given by Ralph de Toni to the Abbey of
+Bee, and was as follows:--When the harvest was finished, the tenants
+were to have half an acre of barley, and a ram let loose; and if they
+caught him he was their own to make merry with, but if he escaped from
+them he was the Lord's. The Etonians, in order to secure the ram,
+houghed him in the Irish fashion, and then attacked him with great
+clubs. The cruelty of this proceeding brought it into disuse, and now it
+exists no longer.--_See Register of the Royal Abbey of Bee_, folio 58.
+
+'After the dissolution of the alien priories, in 1414, by the Parliament
+of Leicester, they remained in the Crown till Henry VI., who gave
+Wrotham Manor to Eton College; and if the Eton Fellows would search,
+they would perhaps find the Manor in their possession, that was held by
+the custom of Salt.'
+
+MEN
+
+  Alderman Bursal, Father of young Bursal.
+  Lord John,  }
+  Talbot,     }
+  Wheeler,    } Young Gentlemen of Eton, from 17 to 19 years of age.
+  Bursal,     }
+  Rory O'Ryan }
+  Mr. Newington, Landlord of the Inn at Salt Hill.
+  Farmer Hearty.
+  A Waiter and crowd of Eton Lads.
+
+WOMEN
+
+  The Marchioness of Piercefield, Mother of Lord John.
+  Lady Violetta--her Daughter, a Child of six or seven years old.
+  Mrs. Talbot.
+  Louisa Talbot, her Daughter.
+  Miss Bursal, Daughter to the Alderman.
+  Mrs. Newington, Landlady of the Inn at Salt Hill.
+  Sally, a Chambermaid.
+  Patty, a Country Girl.
+
+Pipe and Tabor, and Dance of Peasants.
+
+
+ACT THE FIRST
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _The Bar of the 'Windmill Inn' at Salt Hill_
+
+    MR. _and_ MRS. NEWINGTON, _the Landlord and Landlady_
+
+_Landlady._ 'Tis an unpossibility, Mr. Newington; and that's enough. Say
+no more about it; 'tis an unpossibility in the _natur_ of things. (_She
+ranges jellies, etc., in the Bar._) And pray, do you take your great
+old-fashioned tankard, Mr. Newington, from among my jellies and
+confectioneries.
+
+_Landlord_ (_takes his tankard and drinks_). Anything for a quiet life.
+If it is an unpossibility, I've no more to say; only, for the soul of
+me, I can't see the great unpossibility, wife.
+
+_Landlady._ Wife, indeed!--wife!--wife! wife every minute.
+
+_Landlord._ Heyday! Why, what a plague would you have me call you? The
+other day you quarrelled with me for calling you Mrs. Landlady.
+
+_Landlady._ To be sure I did, and very proper in me I should. I've
+turned off three waiters and five chambermaids already, for screaming
+after me _Mrs. Landlady!_ _Mrs. Landlady!_ But 'tis all your ill
+manners.
+
+_Landlord._ Ill manners! Why, if I may be so bold, if you are not Mrs.
+Landlady, in the name of wonder what are you?
+
+_Landlady._ Mrs. Newington, Mr. Newington.
+
+_Landlord_ (_drinks_). Mrs. Newington, Mr. Newington drinks your health;
+for I suppose I must not be landlord any more in my own house
+(_shrugs_).
+
+_Landlady._ Oh, as to that, I have no objections nor impediments to your
+being called _Landlord_. You look it, and become it very proper.
+
+_Landlord._ Why, yes, indeed, thank my tankard, I do look it, and become
+it, and am nowise ashamed of it; but every one to their mind, as you,
+wife, don't fancy the being called Mrs. Landlady.
+
+_Landlady._ To be sure I don't. Why, when folks hear the old-fashioned
+cry of Mrs. Landlady! Mrs. Landlady! who do they expect, think you, to
+see, but an overgrown, fat, featherbed of a woman coming waddling along
+with her thumbs sticking on each side of her apron, o' this fashion?
+Now, to see me coming, nobody would take me to be a landlady.
+
+_Landlord._ Very true, indeed, wife--Mrs. Newington, I mean--I ask
+pardon; but now to go on with what we were saying about the
+unpossibility of letting that old lady and the civil-spoken young lady
+there above have them there rooms for another day.
+
+_Landlady._ Now, Mr. Newington, let me hear no more about that old
+gentlewoman and that civil-spoken young lady. Fair words cost nothing;
+and I've a notion that's the cause they are so plenty with the young
+lady. Neither o' them, I take it, by what they've ordered since their
+coming into the house, are such grand folk that one need be so
+_petticular_ about them.
+
+_Landlord._ Why, they came only in a chaise and pair, to be sure; I
+can't deny that.
+
+_Landlady._ But, bless my stars! what signifies talking? Don't you know,
+as well as I do, Mr. Newington, that to-morrow is Eton Montem, and that
+if we had twenty times as many rooms and as many more to the back of
+them, it would not be one too many for all the company we've a right to
+expect, and those the highest quality of the land? Nay, what do I talk
+of to-morrow? isn't my Lady Piercefield and suite expected? and,
+moreover, Mr. and Miss Bursal's to be here, and will call for as much in
+an hour as your civil-spoken young lady in a twelvemonth, I reckon. So,
+Mr. Newington, if you don't think proper to go up and inform the ladies
+above that the Dolphin rooms are not for them, I must _speak_ myself,
+though 'tis a thing I never do when I can help it.
+
+_Landlord_ (_aside_). She not like to speak! (_Aloud._) My dear, you
+can speak a power better than I can; so take it all upon yourself, if
+you please; for, old-fashioned as I and my tankard here be, I can't make
+a speech that borders on the uncivil order, to a lady like, for the life
+and lungs of me. So, in the name of goodness, do you go up, Mrs.
+Newington.
+
+_Landlady._ And so I will, Mr. Newington. Help ye! Civilities and
+rarities are out o' season for them that can't pay for them in this
+world; and very proper.
+
+        (_Exit Landlady._)
+
+_Landlord._ And very proper! Ha! who comes yonder? The Eton chap who
+wheedled me into lending him my best hunter last year, and was the
+ruination of him; but that must be paid for, wheedle or no wheedle; and,
+for the matter of wheedling, I'd stake this here Mr. Wheeler, that is
+making up to me, do you see, against e'er a boy, or hobbledehoy, in all
+Eton, London, or Christendom, let the other be who he will.
+
+    _Enter_ WHEELER.
+
+_Wheeler._ A fine day, Mr. Newington.
+
+_Landlord._ A fine day, Mr. Wheeler.
+
+_Wheel._ And I hope, for _your_ sake, we may have as fine a day for the
+Montem to-morrow. It will be a pretty penny in your pocket! Why, all the
+world will be here; and (_looking round at the jellies_, _etc._) so much
+the better for them; for here are good things enough, and enough for
+them. And here's the best thing of all, the good old tankard still; not
+empty, I hope.
+
+_Landlord._ Not empty, I hope. Here's to you, Mr. Wheeler.
+
+_Wheel._ _Mr._ Wheeler!--_Captain_ Wheeler, if you please.
+
+_Landlord._ _You_, Captain Wheeler!--Why, I thought in former times it
+was always the oldest scholar at Eton that was Captain at the Montems;
+and didn't Mr. Talbot come afore you?
+
+_Wheel._ Not at all; we came on the same day. Some say I came first;
+some say Talbot. So the choice of which of us is to be captain is to be
+put to the vote amongst the lads--most votes carry it; and I have most
+votes, I fancy; so I shall be captain, to-morrow, and a pretty deal of
+_salt_[8] I reckon I shall pocket. Why, the collection at the last
+Montem, they say, came to a plump thousand! No bad thing for a young
+fellow to set out with for Oxford or Cambridge--hey?
+
+  [8] _Salt_, the _cant_ name given by the Eton lads to the money
+      collected at Montem.
+
+_Landlord._ And no bad thing, before he sets out for Cambridge or
+Oxford, 'twould be for a young gentleman to pay his debts.
+
+_Wheel._ Debts! Oh, time enough for that. I've a little account with you
+in horses, I know; but that's between you and me, you know--mum.
+
+_Landlord._ Mum me no mums, Mr. Wheeler. Between you and me, my best
+hunter has been ruinationed; and I can't afford to be mum. So you'll
+take no offence if I speak; and as you'll set off to-morrow, as soon as
+the Montem's over, you'll be pleased to settle with me some way or other
+to-day, as we've no other time.
+
+_Wheel._ No time so proper, certainly. Where's the little account?--I
+have money sent me for my Montem dress, and I can squeeze that much out
+of it. I came home from Eton on purpose to settle with you. But as to
+the hunter, you must call upon Talbot--do you understand? to pay for
+him; for though Talbot and I had him the same day, 'twas Talbot did for
+him, and Talbot must pay. I spoke to him about it, and charged him to
+remember you; for I never forget to speak a good word for my friends.
+
+_Landlord._ So I perceive.
+
+_Wheel._ I'll make bold just to give you my opinion of these jellies
+whilst you are getting my account, Mr. Newington.
+
+        (_He swallows down a jelly or two--Landlord is going._)
+
+    _Enter_ TALBOT.
+
+_Talbot._ Hallo, Landlord! where are you making off so fast? Here, your
+jellies are all going as fast as yourself.
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside_). Talbot!--I wish I was a hundred miles off.
+
+_Landlord._ You are heartily welcome, Mr. Talbot. A good morning to you,
+sir; I'm glad to see you--very glad to see you, Mr. Talbot.
+
+_Talb._ Then shake hands, my honest landlord.
+
+        (_Talbot, in shaking hands with him, puts a purse into the
+        Landlord's hands._)
+
+[Illustration: _'Then shake hands, my honest landlord.'_]
+
+_Landlord._ What's here? Guineas?
+
+_Talb._ The hunter, you know; since Wheeler won't pay, I must--that's
+all. Good morning.
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside._) What a fool!
+
+        (_Landlord, as Talbot is going catches hold of his coat._)
+
+_Landlord._ Hold, Mr. Talbot, this won't do!
+
+_Talb._ Won't it? Well, then, my watch must go.
+
+_Landlord._ Nay, nay! but you are in such a hurry to pay--you won't hear
+a man. Half this is enough for your share o' the mischief, in all
+conscience. Mr. Wheeler, there, had the horse on the same day.
+
+_Wheel._ But Bursal's my witness----
+
+_Talb._ Oh, say no more about witnesses; a man's conscience is always
+his best witness, or his worst. Landlord, take your money, and no more
+words.
+
+_Wheel._ This is very genteel of you, Talbot. I always thought you would
+do the genteel thing, as I knew you to be so generous and considerate.
+
+_Talb._ Don't waste your fine speeches, Wheeler, I advise you, this
+election time. Keep them for Bursal or Lord John, or some of those who
+like them. They won't go down with _me_. Good morning to you. I give you
+notice, I'm going back to Eton as fast as I can gallop; and who knows
+what plain speaking may do with the Eton lads? I may be captain yet,
+Wheeler. Have a care! Is my horse ready there?
+
+_Landlord._ Mr. Talbot's horse, there! Mr. Talbot's horse, I say.
+
+    _Talbot sings._
+
+      He carries weight--he rides a race--
+      'Tis for a thousand pound!
+
+        (_Exit Talbot._)
+
+_Wheel._ And, dear me! I shall be left behind. A horse for me, pray; a
+horse for Mr. Wheeler!
+
+        (_Exit Wheeler._)
+
+_Landlord_ (_calls very loud_). Mr. Talbot's horse! Hang the hostler!
+I'll saddle him myself.
+
+        (_Exit Landlord._)
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    _A Dining-room in the Inn at Salt Hill_
+
+    MRS. TALBOT _and_ LOUISA
+
+_Louisa_ (_laughing_). With what an air Mrs. Landlady made her exit!
+
+_Mrs. Talbot._ When I was young, they say, I was proud; but I am humble
+enough now: these petty mortifications do not vex me.
+
+_Louisa._ It is well my brother was gone before Mrs. Landlady made her
+_entrée_; for if he had heard her rude speech, he would at least have
+given her the retort courteous.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Now tell me honestly, my Louisa----You were, a few days
+ago, at Bursal House. Since you have left it and have felt something of
+the difference that is made in this world between splendour and no
+splendour, you have never regretted that you did not stay there, and
+that you did not bear more patiently with Miss Bursal's little airs?
+
+_Louisa._ Never for a moment. At first Miss Bursal paid me a vast deal
+of attention; but, for what reason I know not, she suddenly changed her
+manner, grew first strangely cold, then condescendingly familiar, and at
+last downright rude. I could not guess the cause of these variations.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ (_aside_). I guess the cause too well.
+
+_Louisa._ But as I perceived the lady was out of tune, I was in haste to
+leave her. I should make a very bad, and, I am sure, a miserable toad
+eater. I had much rather, if I were obliged to choose, earn my own
+bread, than live as toad eater with anybody.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Fine talking, dear Louisa!
+
+_Louisa._ Don't you believe me to be in earnest, mother? To be sure, you
+cannot know what I would do, unless I were put to the trial.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Nor you either, my dear.
+
+        (_She sighs, and is silent._)
+
+_Louisa_ (_takes her mother's hand_). What is the matter, dear mother?
+You used to say that seeing my brother always made you feel ten years
+younger; yet even while he was here, you had, in spite of all your
+efforts to conceal them, those sudden fits of sadness.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ The Montem--is not it to-morrow? Ay, but my boy is not sure
+of being captain.
+
+_Louisa._ No; there is one Wheeler, who, as he says, is most likely to
+be chosen captain. He has taken prodigious pains to flatter and win over
+many to his interest. My brother does not so much care about it; he is
+not avaricious.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ I love your generous spirit and his! but, alas! my dear,
+people may live to want, and wish for money, without being avaricious. I
+would not say a word to Talbot; full of spirits as he was this morning,
+I would not say a word to him, till after the Montem, of what has
+happened.
+
+_Louisa._ And what has happened, dear mother? Sit down,--you tremble.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ (_sits down and puts a letter into Louisa's hand_). Read
+that, love. A messenger brought me that from town a few hours ago.
+
+_Louisa_ (_reads_). 'By an express from Portsmouth, we hear the _Bombay
+Castle_ East Indiaman is lost, with all your fortune on board.' _All!_ I
+hope there is something left for you to live upon.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ About £150 a year for us all.
+
+_Louisa._ That is enough, is it not, for you?
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ For me, love? I am an old woman, and want but little in
+this world, and shall be soon out of it.
+
+_Louisa_ (_kneels down beside her_). Do not speak so, dearest mother.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Enough for me, love! Yes, enough, and too much for me. I am
+not thinking of myself.
+
+_Louisa._ Then, as to my brother, he has such abilities, and such
+industry, he will make a fortune at the bar for himself, most certainly.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ But his education is not completed. How shall we provide
+him with money at Cambridge?
+
+_Louisa._ This Montem. The last time the captain had eight hundred, the
+time before a thousand, pounds. Oh, I hope--I fear! Now, indeed, I know
+that, without being avaricious, we may want, and wish for money.
+
+        (_Landlady's voice heard behind the scenes._)
+
+_Landlady._ Waiter!--Miss Bursal's curricle, and Mr. Bursal's
+_vis-à-vis_. Run! see that the Dolphin's empty. I say run!--run!
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ I will rest for a few moments upon the sofa, in this
+bedchamber, before we set off.
+
+_Louisa_ (_goes to open the door_). They have bolted or locked it. How
+unlucky!
+
+        (_She turns the key, and tries to unlock the door._)
+
+    _Enter_ WAITER.
+
+_Waiter._ Ladies, I'm sorry--Miss Bursal and Mr. Bursal are come--just
+coming upstairs.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Then, will you be so good, sir, as to unlock this door?
+
+        (_Waiter tries to unlock the door._)
+
+_Waiter._ It must be bolted on the inside. Chambermaid! Sally! Are you
+within there? Unbolt this door.
+
+_Mr. Bursal's voice behind the scenes._ Let me have a basin of good soup
+directly.
+
+_Waiter._ I'll go round and have the door unbolted immediately, ladies.
+
+        (_Exit Waiter._)
+
+    _Enter_ MISS BURSAL, _in a riding dress, and with a long whip._
+
+_Miss Bursal._ Those creatures, the ponies, have a'most pulled my _'and_
+off. Who _'ave_ we _'ere_? Ha! Mrs. Talbot! Louisa, _'ow_ are ye? I'm so
+vastly glad to see you; but I'm so shocked to _'ear_ of the loss of the
+_Bombay Castle_. Mrs. Talbot, you look but poorly; but this Montem will
+put everybody in spirits. I _'ear_ everybody's to be _'ere_; and my
+brother tells me, 'twill be the finest ever seen at _H_Eton. Louisa, my
+dear, I'm sorry I've not a seat for you in my curricle for to-morrow;
+but I've promised Lady Betty; so, you know, 'tis impossible for me.
+
+[Illustration: _Enter Miss Bursal, in a riding dress._]
+
+_Louisa._ Certainly; and it would be impossible for me to leave my
+mother at present.
+
+_Chambermaid_ (_opens the bedchamber door_). The room's ready now,
+ladies.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Miss Bursal, we intrude upon you no longer.
+
+_Miss Burs._ Nay, why do you decamp, Mrs. Talbot? I _'ad_ a thousand
+things to say to you, Louisa; but am so tired and so annoyed----
+
+        (_Seats herself. Exeunt Mrs. Talbot, Louisa, and Chambermaid._)
+
+    _Enter_ MR. BURSAL, _with a basin of soup in his hand._
+
+_Mr. Burs._ Well, thank my stars the _Airly Castle_ is safe in the
+Downs.
+
+_Miss Burs._ Mr. Bursal, can you inform me why Joe, my groom, does not
+make his appearance?
+
+_Mr. Burs._ (_eating and speaking_). Yes, that I can, child; because he
+is with his _'orses_, where he ought to be. 'Tis fit they should be
+looked after well; for they cost me a pretty penny--more than their
+heads are worth, and yours into the bargain; but I was resolved, as we
+were to come to this Montem, to come in style.
+
+_Miss Burs._ In style, to be sure; for all the world's to be here--the
+King, the Prince of W_h_ales, and Duke o' York, and all the first
+people; and we shall cut a dash! Dash! dash! will be the word
+to-morrow!--(_playing with her whip_).
+
+_Mr. Burs._ (_aside_). Dash! dash! ay, just like her brother. He'll pay
+away finely, I warrant, by the time he's her age. Well, well, he can
+afford it; and I do love to see my children make a figure for their
+money. As Jack Bursal says, what's money for, if it e'nt to make a
+figure? (_Aloud._) There's your brother Jack, now. The extravagant dog!
+he'll have such a dress as never was seen, I suppose, at this here
+Montem. Why, now, Jack Bursal spends more money at Eton, and has more to
+spend, than my Lord John, though my Lord John's the son of a
+marchioness.
+
+_Miss Burs._ Oh, that makes no difference nowadays. I wonder whether her
+ladyship is to be at this Montem. The only good I ever got out of these
+stupid Talbots was an introduction to their friend Lady Piercefield.
+What she could find to like in the Talbots, heaven knows. I've a notion
+she'll drop them, when she hears of the loss of the _Bombay Castle_.
+
+    _Enter a_ WAITER, _with a note._
+
+_Waiter._ A note from my Lady Piercefield, sir.
+
+_Miss B._ Charming woman! Is she here, pray, sir?
+
+_Waiter._ Just come. Yes, ma'am.
+
+        (_Exit Waiter._)
+
+_Miss B._ Well, Mr. Bursal, what is it?
+
+_Mr. B._ (_reads_). 'Business of importance to communicate----' Hum!
+what can it be?--(_going_).
+
+_Miss B._ (_aside_). Perhaps some match to propose for me! (_Aloud._)
+Mr. Bursal, pray before you go to her ladyship, do send my _ooman_ to me
+to make me _presentable_.
+
+        (_Exit Miss Bursal at one door._)
+
+_Mr. B._ (_at the opposite door_). 'Business of importance!' Hum! I'm
+glad I'm prepared with a good basin of soup. There's no doing business
+well upon an empty stomach. Perhaps the business is to lend cash; and
+I've no great stomach for that. But it will be an honour, to be sure.
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+
+    SCENE III
+
+    _Landlady's Parlour_
+
+    _Landlady_--MR. FINSBURY, _a man-milliner, with bandboxes--a fancy
+    cap, or helmet, with feathers, in the Landlady's hand--a satin bag,
+    covered with gold netting, in the man-milliner's hand--a mantle
+    hanging over his arm. A rough-looking Farmer is sitting with his
+    back towards them, eating bread and cheese, and reading a
+    newspaper._
+
+_Landlady._ Well, this, to be sure, will be the best-dressed Montem that
+ever was seen at Eton; and you Lon'on gentlemen have the most
+fashionablest notions; and this is the most elegantest fancy cap----
+
+_Finsbury._ Why, as you observe, ma'm, that is the most elegant fancy
+cap of them all. That is Mr. Hector Hogmorton's fancy cap, ma'm; and
+here, ma'm, is Mr. Saul's rich satin bag, covered with gold net. He is
+college salt-bearer, I understand, and has a prodigious superb white and
+gold dress. But, in my humble opinion, ma'm, the marshal's white and
+purple and orange fancy-dress, trimmed with silver, will bear the bell;
+though, indeed, I shouldn't say that,--for the colonel's and
+lieutenant's, and ensign's, are beautiful in the extreme. And, to be
+sure, nothing could be better imagined than Mr. Marlborough's lilac and
+silver, with a Roman cap. And it must be allowed that nothing in nature
+can have a better effect than Mr. Drake's flesh-colour and blue, with
+this Spanish hat, ma'm, you see.
+
+        (_The Farmer looks over his shoulder from time to time during
+        this speech, with contempt._)
+
+_Farmer_ (_reads the newspaper_). French fleet at sea--Hum!
+
+_Landlady._ O gemini: Mr. Drake's Spanish hat is the sweetest, tastiest
+thing! Mr. Finsbury, I protest----
+
+_Finsb._ Why, _ma'm_, I knew a lady of your taste couldn't but approve
+of it. My own invention entirely, ma'm. But it's nothing to the
+captain's cap, ma'm. Indeed, ma'm, Mr. Wheeler, the captain that is to
+be, has the prettiest taste in dress. To be sure, his sandals were my
+suggestion; but the mantle he has the entire credit of, to do him
+justice; and when you see it, ma'm, you will be really surprised; for
+(for contrast and elegance, and richness, and lightness, and propriety,
+and effect, and costume) you've never yet seen anything at all to be
+compared to Captain Wheeler's mantle, ma'm.
+
+_Farmer_ (_to the Landlady_). Why, now, pray, Mrs. Landlady, how long
+may it have been the fashion for milliners to go about in men's clothes?
+
+_Landlady_ (_aside to Farmer_). Lord, Mr. Hearty, hush! This is Mr.
+Finsbury, the great man-milliner.
+
+_Farm._ The great man-milliner! This is a sight I never thought to see
+in Old England.
+
+_Finsb._ (_packing up bandboxes_). Well, ma'm, I'm glad I have your
+approbation. It has ever been my study to please the ladies.
+
+_Farm._ (_throws a fancy mantle over his frieze coat_). And is this the
+way to please the ladies, Mrs. Landlady, nowadays?
+
+_Finsb._ (_taking off the mantle_). Sir, with your leave--I ask
+pardon--but the least thing detriments these tender colours; and as you
+have just been eating cheese with your hands----
+
+_Farm._ 'Tis my way to eat cheese with my mouth, man.
+
+_Finsb._ _Man!_
+
+_Farm._ I ask pardon--man-milliner, I mean.
+
+    _Enter_ LANDLORD.
+
+_Landlord._ Why, wife!
+
+_Landlady._ Wife!
+
+_Landlord._ I ask pardon--Mrs. Newington I mean. Do you know who them
+ladies are that you have been and turned out of the Dolphin?
+
+_Landlady_ (_alarmed_). Not I, indeed. Who are they, pray? Why, if they
+are quality it's no fault of mine. It is their own fault for coming,
+like scrubs, without four horses. Why, if quality will travel the road
+this way, incognito, how can they expect to be known and treated as
+quality? 'Tis no fault of mine. Why didn't you find out sooner who they
+were, Mr. Newington? What else in the 'versal world have you to do, but
+to go basking about in the yards and places with your tankard in your
+hand, from morning till night? What have you else to ruminate, all day
+long, but to find out who's who, I say?
+
+_Farm._ Clapper! clapper! clapper! like my mill in a high wind,
+landlord. Clapper! clapper! clapper!--enough to stun a body.
+
+_Landlord._ That is not used to it; but use is all, they say.
+
+_Landlady._ Will you answer me, Mr. Newington? Who are the grandees that
+were in the Dolphin?--and what's become _on_ them?
+
+_Landlord._ Grandees was your own word, wife. They be not to call
+grandees; but I reckon you'd be sorry not to treat 'em civil, when I
+tell you their name is Talbot, mother and sister to our young Talbot of
+Eton; he that paid me so handsome for the hunter this very morning.
+
+_Landlady._ Mercy! is that all? What a combustion for nothing in life!
+
+_Finsb._ For nothing in life, as you say, ma'm; that is, nothing in high
+life, I'm sure, ma'm; nay, I dare a'most venture to swear. Would you
+believe it, Mr. Talbot is one of the few young gentlemen of Eton that
+has not bespoke from me a fancy-dress for this grand Montem?
+
+_Landlady._ There, Mr. Newington; there's your Talbot for you! and
+there's your grandees! Oh, trust me, I know your scrubs at first sight.
+
+_Landlord._ Scrubs, I don't, nor can't, nor won't call them that pay
+their debts honestly. Scrubs, I don't, nor won't, nor can't call them
+that behave as handsome as young Mr. Talbot did here to me this morning
+about the hunter. A scrub he is not, wife. Fancy-dress or no
+fancy-dress, Mr. Finsbury, this young gentleman is no scrub.
+
+_Finsb._ Dear me! 'Twas not I said _scrub_. Did I say scrub?
+
+_Farm._ No matter if you did.
+
+_Finsb._ No matter, certainly; and yet it is a matter; for I'm confident
+I wouldn't for the world leave it in any one's power to say that I
+said--that I called--any young gentleman of Eton a _scrub_! Why, you
+know, sir, it might breed a riot!
+
+_Farm._ And a pretty figure you'd make in a riot!
+
+_Landlady._ Pray let me hear nothing about riots in my house.
+
+_Farm._ Nor about scrubs.
+
+_Finsb._ But I beg leave to explain, gentlemen. All I ventured to remark
+or suggest was, that as there was some talk of Mr. Talbot's being
+captain to-morrow, I didn't conceive how he could well appear without
+any dress. That was all, upon my word and honour. A good morning to you,
+gentlemen; it is time for me to be off. Mrs. Newington, you were so
+obliging as to promise to accommodate me with a return chaise as far as
+Eton.
+
+        (_Finsbury bows and exit._)
+
+_Farm._ A good day to you and your bandboxes. There's a fellow for you
+now! Ha! ha! ha!--A man-milliner, forsooth!
+
+_Landlord._ Mrs. Talbot's coming--stand back.
+
+_Landlady._ Lord! why does Bob show them through this way?
+
+    _Enter_ MRS. TALBOT, _leaning on_ LOUISA; _Waiter showing the way._
+
+_Landlady._ You are going on, I suppose, ma'am?
+
+_Waiter_ (_aside to Landlord_). Not if she could help it; but there's no
+beds, since Mr. Bursal and Miss Bursal's come.
+
+_Landlord._ I say nothing, for it is vain to say more. But isn't it a
+pity she can't stay for the Montem, poor old lady! Her son--as good and
+fine a lad as ever you saw--they say, has a chance, too, of being
+captain. She may never live to see another such a sight.
+
+        (_As Mrs. Talbot walks slowly on, the Farmer puts himself across
+        her way, so as to stop her short._)
+
+_Farm._ No offence, madam, I hope; but I have a good snug farmhouse, not
+far off hand; and if so be you'd be so good to take a night's lodging,
+you and the young lady with you, you'd have a hearty welcome. That's all
+I can say; and you'd make my wife very happy; for she's a good woman, to
+say nothing of myself.
+
+_Landlord._ If I may be so bold to put in my word, madam, you'd have as
+good beds, and be as well lodged, with Farmer Hearty, as in e'er a house
+at Salt Hill.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ I am very much obliged----
+
+_Farm._ Oh, say nothing o' that, madam. I am sure I shall be as much
+obliged if you do come. Do, miss, speak for me.
+
+_Louisa._ Pray, dear mother----
+
+_Farm._ She will. (_Calls behind the scenes._) Here, waiter! hostler!
+driver! what's your name? drive the chaise up here to the door, smart,
+close. Lean on my arm, madam, and we'll have you in and home in a whiff.
+
+        (_Exeunt Mrs. Talbot, Louisa, Farmer, Landlord, and Waiter._)
+
+_Landlady_ (_sola_). What a noise and a rout this farmer man makes! and
+my husband, with his great broad face, bowing, as great a nincompoop as
+t'other. The folks are all bewitched with the old woman, I verily
+believe. (_Aloud._) A good morning to you, ladies.
+
+
+ACT THE SECOND
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _A field near Eton College;--several boys crossing backwards and
+    forwards in the background. In front,_ TALBOT, WHEELER, LORD JOHN
+    _and_ BURSAL.
+
+_Talbot._ Fair play, Wheeler! Have at 'em, my boy! There they stand,
+fair game! There's Bursal there, with his _dead_ forty-five votes at
+command; and Lord John with his--how many live friends?
+
+_Lord John_ (_coolly_). Sir, I have fifty-six friends, I believe.
+
+_Talb._ Fifty-six friends, his lordship believes--Wheeler inclusive no
+doubt.
+
+_Lord J._ That's as hereafter may be.
+
+_Wheeler._ Hereafter! Oh, fie, my _lud_! You know your own Wheeler has,
+from the first minute he ever saw you, been your fast friend.
+
+_Talb._ Your fast friend from the first minute he ever saw you, my lord!
+That's well hit, Wheeler; stick to that; stick fast. Fifty-six friends,
+Wheeler _in_clusive, hey, my lord! hey, my _lud_!
+
+_Lord J._ Talbot _ex_clusive, I find, contrary to my expectations.
+
+_Talb._ Ay, contrary to your expectations, you find that Talbot is not a
+dog that will lick the dust: but then there's enough of the true spaniel
+breed to be had for whistling for; hey, Wheeler?
+
+_Bursal_ (_aside to Wheeler_). A pretty electioneerer. So much the
+better for you, Wheeler. Why, unless he bought a vote, he'd never win
+one, if he talked from this to the day of judgment.
+
+_Wheeler_ (_aside to Bursal_). And as he has no money to buy votes--he!
+he! he!--we are safe enough.
+
+_Talb._ That's well done, Wheeler; fight the by-battle there with
+Bursal, now you are sure of the main with Lord John.
+
+_Lord J._ Sure! I never made Mr. Wheeler any promise yet.
+
+_Wheel._ Oh, I ask no promise from his lordship; we are upon honour: I
+trust entirely to his lordship's good nature and generosity, and to his
+regard for his own family; I having the honour, though distantly, to be
+related.
+
+_Lord J._ Related! How, Wheeler?
+
+_Wheel._ Connected, I mean, which is next door, as I may say, to being
+related. Related slipped out by mistake; I beg pardon, my Lord John.
+
+_Lord J._ Related!--a strange mistake, Wheeler.
+
+_Talb._ Overshot yourself, Wheeler; overshot yourself, by all that's
+awkward. And yet, till now, I always took you for '_a dead-shot at a
+yellow-hammer_.'[9]
+
+  [9] Young noblemen at Oxford wear yellow tufts at the tops of
+      their caps. Hence their flatterers are said to be dead-shots
+      at yellow-hammers.
+
+_Wheel._ (_taking Bursal by the arm_). Bursal, a word with you. (_Aside
+to Bursal._) What a lump of family pride that Lord John is.
+
+_Talb._ Keep out of my hearing, Wheeler, lest I should spoil sport. But
+never fear: you'll please Bursal sooner than I shall. I can't, for the
+soul of me, bring myself to say that Bursal's not purse-proud, and you
+can. Give you joy.
+
+_Burs._ A choice electioneerer!--ha! ha! ha!
+
+_Wheel._ (_faintly_). He! he! he!--a choice electioneerer, as you say.
+
+        (_Exeunt Wheeler and Bursal; manent Lord J. and Talbot._)
+
+_Lord J._ There was a time, Talbot----
+
+_Talb._ There was a time, my lord--to save trouble and a long
+explanation--there was a time when you liked Talbots better than
+spaniels; you understand me?
+
+_Lord J._ I have found it very difficult to understand you of late, Mr.
+Talbot.
+
+_Talb._ Yes, because you have used other people's understandings instead
+of your own. Be yourself, my lord. See with your own eyes, and hear with
+your own ears, and then you'll find me still, what I've been these seven
+years; not your under-strapper, your hanger-on, your flatterer, but your
+friend! If you choose to have me for a friend, here's my hand. I am your
+friend, and you'll not find a better.
+
+_Lord J._ (_giving his hand_). You are a strange fellow, Talbot; I
+thought I never could have forgiven you for what you said last night.
+
+_Talb._ What? for I don't keep a register of my sayings. Oh, it was
+something about gaming--Wheeler was flattering your taste for it, and he
+put me into a passion--I forget what I said. But, whatever it was, I'm
+sure it was well meant, and I believe it was well said.
+
+_Lord J._ But you laugh at me sometimes to my face.
+
+_Talb._ Would you rather I should laugh at you behind your back?
+
+_Lord J._ But of all things in the world I hate to be laughed at. Listen
+to me, and don't fumble in your pockets while I'm talking to you.
+
+_Talb._ I'm fumbling for--oh, here it is. Now, Lord John, I once did
+laugh at you behind your back, and what's droll enough, it was _at_ your
+back I laughed. Here's a caricature I drew of you--I really am sorry I
+did it; but 'tis best to show it to you myself.
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). It is all I can do to forgive this. (_After a
+pause, he tears the paper._) I have heard of this caricature before; but
+I did not expect, Talbot, that you would come and show it to me
+yourself, Talbot, so handsomely, especially at such a time as this.
+Wheeler might well say you are a bad electioneerer.
+
+_Talb._ Oh, hang it! I forgot my election, and your fifty-six friends.
+
+    _Enter_ RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory_ (_claps Talbot on the back_). Fifty-six friends, have you,
+Talbot? Say seven--fifty-seven, I mean; for I'll lay you a wager, you've
+forgot me; and that's a shame for you, too; for out of the whole
+posse-comitatus entirely now, you have not a stauncher friend than poor
+little Rory O'Ryan. And a good right he has to befriend you; for you
+stood by him when many who ought to have known better were hunting him
+down for a wild Irishman. Now that same wild Irishman has as much
+gratitude in him as any tame Englishman of them all. But don't let's be
+talking s_i_ntim_i_nt; for, for my share I'd not give a bogberry a
+bushel for s_i_ntim_i_nt, when I could get anything better.
+
+_Lord J._ And pray, sir, what may a bogberry be?
+
+_Rory._ Phoo! don't be playing the innocent, now. Where have you lived
+all your life (I ask pardon, my l_a_rd) not to know a bogberry when you
+see or hear of it? (_Turns to Talbot._) But what are ye standing idling
+here for? Sure, there's Wheeler, and Bursal along with him, canvassing
+out yonder at a terrible fine rate. And haven't I been huzzaing for you
+there till I'm hoarse? So I am, and just stepped away to suck an orange
+for my voice--(_sucks an orange_). I am a _thoroughgoing_ friend, at any
+rate.
+
+_Talb._ Now, Rory, you are the best fellow in the world, and a
+_thoroughgoing_ friend; but have a care, or you'll get yourself and me
+into some scrape, before you have done with this violent _thoroughgoing_
+work.
+
+_Rory._ Never fear! never fear, man!--a warm _frind_ and a bitter enemy,
+that's my maxim.
+
+_Talb._ Yes, but too warm a friend is as bad as a bitter enemy.
+
+_Rory._ Oh, never fear me! I'm as cool as a cucumber all the time; and
+whilst they _tink_ I'm _tinking_ of nothing in life but making a noise,
+I make my own snug little remarks in prose and verse, as--now my voice
+is after coming back to me, you shall hear, if you _plase_.
+
+_Talb._ I do please.
+
+_Rory._ I call it Rory's song. Now, mind, I have a verse for
+everybody--o' the leading lads, I mean; and I shall put 'em in or _lave_
+'em out, according to their inclinations and deserts, _wise-a-wee_ to
+you, my little _frind_. So you comprehend it will be Rory's song, with
+variations.
+
+_Talbot and Lord John._ Let's have it; let's have it without further
+preface.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      I'm true game to the last, and no _Wheeler_ for me.
+
+_Rory._ There's a stroke, in the first place, for Wheeler,--you take it?
+
+_Talb._ Oh yes, yes, we take it; go on.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      I'm true game to the last, and no Wheeler for me.
+      Of all birds, beasts, or fishes, that swim in the sea,
+      Webb'd or finn'd, black or white, man or child, Whig or Tory,
+      None but Talbot, O Talbot's the dog for Rory.
+
+_Talb._ 'Talbot the dog' is much obliged to you.
+
+_Lord J._ But if I have any ear, one of your lines is a foot too long,
+Mr. O'Ryan.
+
+_Rory._ Phoo, put the best foot foremost for a _frind_. Slur it in the
+singing, and don't be quarrelling, anyhow, for a foot more or less. The
+more feet the better it will stand, you know. Only let me go on, and
+you'll come to something that will _plase_ you.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm.
+
+_Rory._ That's Bursal, mind now, whom I mean to allude to in this verse.
+
+_Lord J._ If the allusion's good, we shall probably find out your
+meaning.
+
+_Talb._ On with you, Rory, and don't read us notes on a song.
+
+_Lord J._ Go on, and let us hear what you say of Bursal.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm;
+      His father's a tanner,--but then where's the harm?
+      Heir to houses, and hunters, and horseponds in fee,
+      Won't his skins sure soon buy him a pedigree?
+
+_Lord J._ Encore! encore! Why, Rory, I did not think you could make so
+good a song.
+
+_Rory._ Sure 'twas none of I made it--'twas Talbot here.
+
+_Talb._ I!
+
+_Rory_ (_aside_). Not a word: I'll make you a present of it: sure, then,
+it's your own.
+
+_Talb._ I never wrote a word of it.
+
+_Rory_ (_to Lord J._) Phoo, phoo! he's only denying it out of false
+modesty.
+
+_Lord J._ Well, no matter who wrote it,--sing it again.
+
+_Rory._ Be easy; so I will, and as many more verses as you will to the
+back of it. (_Winking at Talbot aside._) You shall have the credit of
+all. (_Aloud._) Put me in when I'm out, Talbot, and you (_to Lord John_)
+join--join.
+
+    _Rory sings, and Lord John sings with him._
+
+      Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm;
+      His father's a tanner,--but then where's the harm?
+      Heir to houses, and hunters, and horseponds in fee,
+      Won't his skins sure soon buy him a pedigree?
+      There's my lord with the back that never was bent----
+
+        (_Lord John stops singing; Talbot makes signs to Rory to stop;
+        but Rory does not see him, and sings on._)
+
+      There's my lord with the back that never was bent;
+      Let him live with his ancestors, I am content.
+
+        (_Rory pushes Lord J. and Talbot with his elbows._)
+
+_Rory._ Join, join, both of ye--why don't you join? (_Sings._)
+
+      Who'll buy my Lord John? the arch fishwoman cried,
+      A nice oyster shut up in a choice shell of pride.
+
+_Rory._ But join or ye spoil all.
+
+_Talb._ You have spoiled all, indeed.
+
+_Lord J._ (_making a formal low bow_). Mr. Talbot, Lord John thanks you.
+
+_Rory._ Lord John! blood and thunder! I forgot you were by--quite and
+clean.
+
+_Lord J._ (_puts him aside and continues speaking to Talbot_). Lord John
+thanks you, Mr. Talbot: this is the second part of the caricature. Lord
+John thanks you for these proofs of friendship--Lord John has reason to
+thank you, Mr. Talbot.
+
+_Rory._ No reason in life now. Don't be thanking so much for nothing in
+life; or if you must be thanking of somebody, it's me you ought to
+thank.
+
+_Lord J._ I ought and do, sir, for unmasking one who----
+
+_Talb._ (_warmly_). Unmasking, my lord----
+
+_Rory_ (_holding them asunder_). Phoo! phoo! phoo! be easy, can't
+ye?--there's no unmasking at all in the case. My Lord John, Talbot's
+writing the song was all a mistake.
+
+_Lord J._ As much a mistake as your singing it, sir, I presume----
+
+_Rory._ Just as much. 'Twas all a mistake. So now don't you go and make
+a mistake into a misunderstanding. It was I made every word of the song
+_out o' the face_[10]--that about the back that never was bent, and the
+ancestors of the oyster, and all. He did not waste a word of it; upon my
+conscience, I wrote it all--though I'll engage you didn't think I could
+write such a good thing. (_Lord John turns away._) I'm telling you the
+truth, and not a word of a lie, and yet you won't believe me.
+
+  [10] From beginning to end.
+
+_Lord J._ You will excuse me, sir, if I cannot believe two contradictory
+assertions within two minutes. Mr. Talbot, I thank you (_going_).
+
+        (_Rory tries to stop Lord John from going, but cannot.--Exit
+        Lord John._)
+
+_Rory._ Well, if he _will_ go, let him go then, and much good may it do
+him. Nay, but don't you go too.
+
+_Talb._ O Rory, what have you done?--(_Talbot runs after Lord J._) Hear
+me, my lord.
+
+        (_Exit Talbot._)
+
+_Rory._ Hear him! hear him! hear him!--Well, I'm point blank mad with
+myself for making this blunder; but how could I help it? As sure as ever
+I am meaning to do the best thing on earth, it turns out the worst.
+
+    _Enter a party of lads, huzzaing._
+
+_Rory_ (_joins_). Huzza! huzza!--Who, pray, are ye huzzaing for?
+
+_1st Boy._ Wheeler! Wheeler for ever! huzza!
+
+_Rory._ Talbot! Talbot for ever! huzza! Captain Talbot for ever! huzza!
+
+_2nd Boy._ _Captain_ he'll never be,--at least not to-morrow; for Lord
+John has just declared for Wheeler.
+
+_1st Boy._ And that turns the scale.
+
+_Rory._ Oh, the scale may turn back again.
+
+_3rd Boy._ Impossible! Lord John has just given his _promise_ to
+Wheeler. I heard him with my own ears.
+
+(_Several speak at once._) And I heard him; and I! and I! and I!--Huzza!
+Wheeler for ever!
+
+_Rory._ Oh, murder! murder! murder! (_Aside._) This goes to my heart!
+it's all my doing. O, my poor Talbot! murder! murder! murder! But I
+won't let them see me cast down, and it is good to be huzzaing at all
+events. Huzza for Talbot! Talbot for ever! huzza!
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+    _Enter_ WHEELER _and_ BURSAL.
+
+_Wheel._ Who was that huzzaing for Talbot?
+
+        (_Rory behind the scenes_, 'Huzza for Talbot! Talbot for ever!
+        huzza!')
+
+_Burs._ Pooh, it is only Rory O'Ryan, or the roaring lion, as I call
+him. Ha! ha! ha! Rory O'Ryan, _alias_ O'Ryan, the roaring lion; that's a
+good one; put it about--Rory O'Ryan, the roaring lion, ha! ha! ha! but
+you don't take it--you don't laugh, Wheeler.
+
+_Wheeler._ Ha! ha! ha! Oh, upon my honour I do laugh; ha! ha! ha! (_It
+is the hardest work to laugh at his wit--aside._) (_Aloud._) Rory
+O'Ryan, the roaring lion--ha! ha! ha! You know I always laugh, Bursal,
+at your jokes--he! he! he!--ready to kill myself.
+
+_Burs._ (_sullenly_). You are easily killed, then, if that much laughing
+will do the business.
+
+_Wheel._ (_coughing_). Just then--something stuck in my throat; I beg
+your pardon.
+
+_Burs._ (_still sullen_). Oh, you need not beg my pardon about the
+matter; I don't care whether you laugh or no--not I. Now you have got
+Lord John to declare for you, you are above laughing at my jokes, I
+suppose.
+
+_Wheel._ No, upon my word and honour, _I did_ laugh.
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). A fig for your word and honour. (_Aloud._) I know I'm
+of no consequence now; but you'll remember that, if his lordship has the
+honour of making you captain, he must have the honour to pay for your
+captain's accoutrements; for I shan't pay the piper, I promise you,
+since I'm of no consequence.
+
+_Wheel._ Of no consequence! But, my dear Bursal, what could put that
+into your head? that's the strangest, oddest fancy. Of no consequence!
+Bursal, of no consequence! Why, everybody that knows anything--everybody
+that has seen Bursal House--knows that you are of the greatest
+consequence, my dear Bursal.
+
+_Burs._ (_taking out his watch, and opening it, looks at it_). No, I'm
+of no consequence. I wonder that rascal Finsbury is not come yet with
+the dresses (_still looking at his watch_).
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside_). If Bursal takes it into his head not to lend me the
+money to pay for my captain's dress, what will become of me? for I have
+not a shilling--and Lord John won't pay for me--and Finsbury has orders
+not to leave the house till he is paid by everybody. What will become of
+me?--(_bites his nails_).
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). How I love to make him bite his nails! (_Aloud._) I
+know I'm of no consequence. (_Strikes his repeater._)
+
+_Wheel._ What a fine repeater that is of yours, Bursal! It is the best I
+ever heard.
+
+_Burs._ So it well may be; for it cost a mint of money.
+
+_Wheel._ No matter to you what anything costs. Happy dog as you are! You
+roll in money; and yet you talk of being of no consequence.
+
+_Burs._ But I am not of half so much consequence as Lord John--am I?
+
+_Wheel._ Are you? Why, aren't you twice as rich as he!
+
+_Burs._ Very true, but I'm not purse-proud.
+
+_Wheel._ You purse-proud! I should never have thought of such a thing.
+
+_Burs._ Nor I, if Talbot had not used the word.
+
+_Wheel._ But Talbot thinks everybody purse-proud that has a purse.
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). Well, this Wheeler does put one into a good humour
+with one's self in spite of one's teeth. (_Aloud._) Talbot says blunt
+things; but I don't think he's what you can call clever--hey, Wheeler?
+
+_Wheel._ Clever! Oh, not he.
+
+_Burs._ I think I could walk round him.
+
+_Wheel._ To be sure you could. Why, do you know, I've _quizzed_ him
+famously myself within this quarter of an hour?
+
+_Burs._ Indeed! I wish I had been by.
+
+_Wheel._ So do I, 'faith! It was the best thing. I wanted, you see, to
+get him out of my way, that I might have the field clear for
+electioneering to-day. So I bowls up to him with a long face--such a
+face as this. 'Mr. Talbot, do you know--I'm sorry to tell you, here's
+Jack Smith has just brought the news from Salt Hill. Your mother, in
+getting into the carriage, slipped, and has _broke_ her leg, and there
+she's lying at a farmhouse, two miles off. Is not it true, Jack?' said
+I. 'I saw the farmer helping her in with my own eyes,' cries Jack. Off
+goes Talbot like an arrow. '_Quizzed_ him, _quizzed_ him!' said I.
+
+_Burs._ Ha! ha! ha! quizzed him indeed, with all his cleverness; that
+was famously done.
+
+_Wheel._ Ha! ha! ha! With all his cleverness he will be all the evening
+hunting for the farmhouse and the mother that has _broke_ her leg; so he
+is out of our way.
+
+_Burs._ But what need have you to want him out of your way, now Lord
+John has come over to your side? You have the thing at a dead beat.
+
+_Wheel._ Not so dead either; for there's a great independent party, you
+know; and if _you_ don't help me, Bursal, to canvass them, I shall be no
+captain. It is you I depend upon after all. Will you come and canvass
+them with me? Dear Bursal, pray--all depends upon you.
+
+        (_Pulls him by the arm--Bursal follows._)
+
+_Burs._ Well, if all depends upon me, I'll see what I can do for you.
+(_Aside._) Then I am of some consequence! Money makes a man of some
+consequence, I see; at least with some folks.
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    _In the back scene a flock of sheep are seen penned. In front, a
+    party of country lads and lasses, gaily dressed, as in
+    sheep-shearing time, with ribands and garlands of flowers, etc., are
+    dancing and singing._
+
+    _Enter_ PATTY, _dressed as the Queen of the Festival, with a lamb in
+    her arms. The dancers break off when she comes in, and direct their
+    attention towards her._
+
+_1st Peasant._ Oh, here comes Patty! Here comes the Queen o' the day.
+What has kept you from us so long, Patty?
+
+_2nd Peasant._ '_Please your Majesty_,' you should say.
+
+_Patty._ This poor little lamb of mine was what kept me so long. It
+strayed away from the rest; and I should have lost him, so I should, for
+ever, if it had not been for a good young gentleman. Yonder he is,
+talking to Farmer Hearty. That's the young gentleman who pulled my lamb
+out of the ditch for me, into which he had fallen--pretty creature!
+
+_1st Peasant._ Pretty creature--or, your Majesty, whichever you choose
+to be called--come and dance with them, and I'll carry your lamb.
+
+        (_Exeunt, singing and dancing._)
+
+    _Enter_ FARMER HEARTY _and_ TALBOT.
+
+_Farmer._ Why, young gentleman, I'm glad I happened to light upon you
+here, and so to hinder you from going farther astray, and set your heart
+at ease like.
+
+_Talb._ Thanks, good farmer, you have set my heart at ease, indeed. But
+the truth is, they did frighten me confoundedly--more fool I.
+
+_Farm._ No fool at all, to my notion. I should, at your age, ay, or at
+my age, just the self-same way have been frightened myself, if so be
+that mention had been made to me, that way, of my own mother's having
+broke her leg or so. And greater, by a great deal, the shame for them
+that frighted you, than for you to be frighted. How young gentlemen,
+now, can bring themselves for to tell such lies, is to me, now, a matter
+of amazement, like, that I can't noways get over.
+
+_Talb._ Oh, farmer, such lies are very witty, though you and I don't
+just now like the wit of them. This is fun, this is _quizzing_; but you
+don't know what we young gentlemen mean by _quizzing_.
+
+_Farm._ Ay, but I do though, to my cost, ever since last year. Look you,
+now, at yon fine field of wheat. Well, it was just as fine, and finer,
+last year, till a young Eton jackanapes----
+
+_Talb._ Take care what you say, farmer; for I am a young Eton
+jackanapes.
+
+_Farm._ No; but you be not the young Eton jackanapes that I'm a-thinking
+on. I tell you it was this time last year, man; he was a-horseback, I
+tell ye, mounted upon a fine bay hunter, out o' hunting, like.
+
+_Talb._ I tell you it was this time last year, man, that I was mounted
+upon a fine bay hunter, out a-hunting.
+
+_Farm._ Zooks! would you argufy a man out of his wits? You won't go for
+to tell me that you are that impertinent little jackanapes!
+
+_Talb._ No! no! I'll not tell you that I am an impertinent little
+jackanapes!
+
+_Farm._ (_wiping his forehead_). Well, don't then, for I can't believe
+it; and you put me out. Where was I?
+
+_Talb._ Mounted upon a fine bay hunter.
+
+_Farm._ Ay, so he was. 'Here, _you_,' says he, meaning me--'open this
+gate for me.' Now, if he had but a-spoke me fair, I would not have
+gainsaid him; but he falls to swearing, so I bid him open the gate for
+himself. 'There's a bull behind you, farmer,' says he. I turns.
+'_Quizzed_ him!' cries my jackanapes, and off he gallops him, through
+the very thick of my corn; but he got a fall, leaping the ditch out
+yonder, which pacified me, like, at the minute. So I goes up to see
+whether he was killed; but he was not a whit the worse for his tumble.
+So I should ha' fell into a passion with him then, to be sure, about my
+corn; but his horse had got such a terrible sprain, I couldn't say
+anything to him; for I was a-pitying the poor animal. As fine a hunter
+as ever you saw! I am s_a_rtain sure he could never come to good after.
+
+_Talb._ (_aside_). I do think, from the description, that this was
+Wheeler; and I have paid for the horse which he spoiled! (_Aloud._)
+Should you know either the man or the horse again, if you were to see
+them?
+
+_Farm._ Ay, that I should, to my dying day.
+
+_Talb._ Will you come with me, then, and you'll do me some guineas'
+worth of service?
+
+_Farm._ Ay, that I will, with a deal of pleasure; for you be a
+civil-spoken young gentleman; and, besides, I don't think the worse _on_
+you for being _frighted_ a little about your mother; being what I might
+ha' been, at your age, myself; for I had a mother myself once. So lead
+on, master.
+
+        (_Exeunt._)
+
+
+ACT THE THIRD
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _The Garden of the 'Windmill Inn' at Salt Hill_
+
+    MISS BURSAL, MRS. NEWINGTON, SALLY _the Chambermaid_
+
+    (_Miss Bursal, in a fainting state, is sitting on a garden stool,
+    and leaning her head against the Landlady. Sally is holding a glass
+    of water and a smelling bottle._)
+
+_Miss Bursal._ Where am I? Where am I?
+
+_Landlady._ At the 'Windmill,' at Salt Hill, young lady; and ill or
+well, you can't be better.
+
+_Sally._ Do you find yourself better since coming into the air, miss?
+
+_Miss B._ Better! Oh, I shall never be better!
+
+        (_Leans her head on hand, and rocks herself backwards and
+        forwards._)
+
+_Landlady._ My dear young lady, don't take on so. (_Aside._) Now would I
+give something to know what it was my Lady Piercefield said to the
+father, and what the father said to this one, and what's the matter at
+the bottom of affairs. Sally, did you hear anything at the doors?
+
+_Sally_ (_aside_). No, indeed, ma'am; I never _be's_ at the doors.
+
+_Landlady_ (_aside_). Simpleton! (_Aloud._) But, my dear Miss Bursal, if
+I may be so bold--if you'd only disembosom your mind of what's on it----
+
+_Miss B._ Disembosom my mind! Nonsense! I've nothing on my mind. Pray
+leave me, madam.
+
+_Landlady_ (_aside_). Madam, indeed! madam, forsooth! Oh, I'll make her
+pay for that! That _madam_ shall go down in the bill as sure as my
+name's Newington. (_In a higher tone._) Well, I wish you better, ma'am.
+I suppose I'd best send your own servant?
+
+_Miss B._ (_sullenly_). Yes, I suppose so. (_To Sally._) You need not
+wait, child, nor look so curious.
+
+_Sally._ _Cur'ous!_ Indeed, miss, if I look a little _cur'ous_, or so
+(_looking at her dress_), 'tis only because I was _frighted_ to see you
+take on, which made me forget my clean apron when I came out; and this
+apron----
+
+_Miss B._ Hush! hush! child. Don't tell me about clean aprons, nor run
+on with your vulgar talk. Is there ever a seat one can set on in that
+_h_arbour yonder?
+
+_Sally._ O dear _'art_, yes, miss; 'tis the pleasantest _h_arbour on
+_h_earth. Be pleased to lean on my _h_arm, and you'll soon be there.
+
+_Miss B._ (_going_). Then tell my woman she need not come to me, and let
+nobody _interude_ on me--do you _'ear_? (_Aside._) Oh, what will become
+of me? and the Talbots will soon know it! And the ponies, and the
+curricle, and the _vis-à-vis_--what will become of them? and how shall I
+make my appearance at the Montem, or any _ware_ else?
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    LORD JOHN--WHEELER--BURSAL
+
+_Wheeler._ Well, but, my lord--Well, but, Bursal--though my Lady
+Piercefield--though Miss Bursal is come to Salt Hill, you won't leave us
+all at sixes and sevens. What can we do without you?
+
+_Lord J._ You can do very well without _me_.
+
+_Bursal._ You can do very well without _me_.
+
+_Wheel._ (_to Burs._). Impossible!--impossible! You know Mr. Finsbury
+will be here just now, with the dresses; and we have to try them on.
+
+_Burs._ And to pay for them.
+
+_Wheel._ And to settle about the procession. And then, my lord, the
+election is to come on this evening. You won't go till that's over, as
+your lordship has _promised_ me your lordship's vote and interest.
+
+_Lord J._ My vote I promised you, Mr. Wheeler; but I said not a syllable
+about my _interest_. My friends, perhaps, have not been offended, though
+I have, by Mr. Talbot. I shall leave them to their own inclinations.
+
+_Burs._ (_whistling_). Wheugh! wheugh! wheugh! Wheeler, the principal's
+nothing without the interest.
+
+_Wheel._ Oh, the interest will go along with the principal, of course;
+for I'm persuaded, if my lord leaves his friends to their inclinations,
+it will be the inclination of my lord's friends to vote as he does, if
+he says nothing to them to the contrary.
+
+_Lord J._ I told you, Mr. Wheeler, that I should leave them to
+themselves.
+
+_Burs._ (_still whistling_). Well, I'll do my best to make that father
+of mine send me off to Oxford. I'm sure I'm fit to go--along with
+Wheeler. Why, you'd best be my tutor, Wheeler!--a devilish good thought.
+
+_Wheel._ An excellent thought.
+
+_Burs._ And a cursed fine dust we should kick up at Oxford, with your
+Montem money and all!--Money's _the go_ after all. I wish it was come to
+my making you my last bow, 'ye distant spires, ye _antic_ towers!'
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside to Lord J._). Ye _antic_ towers!--fit for Oxford, my
+lord!
+
+_Lord J._ _Antique_ towers, I suppose Mr. Bursal means.
+
+_Burs._ Antique, to be sure!--I said antique, did not I, Wheeler?
+
+_Wheel._ Oh yes.
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). What a mean animal is this!
+
+    _Enter_ RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory._ Why, now, what's become of Talbot, I want to know? There he is
+not to be found anywhere in the wide world; and there's a hullabaloo
+amongst his friends for him.
+
+        (_Wheeler and Bursal wink at one another._)
+
+_Wheel._ We know nothing of him.
+
+_Lord J._ I have not the honour, sir, to be one of Mr. Talbot's friends.
+It is his own fault, and I am sorry for it.
+
+_Rory._ 'Faith, so am I, especially as it is mine--fault I mean; and
+especially as the election is just going to come on.
+
+_Enter a party of boys, who cry_, Finsbury's come!--Finsbury's come with
+the dresses!
+
+_Wheel._ Finsbury's come? Oh, let us see the dresses, and let us try 'em
+on to-night.
+
+_Burs._ (_pushing the crowd_). On with ye--on with ye, there!--Let's try
+'em on!--Try 'em on--I'm to be colonel.
+
+_1st Boy._ And I lieutenant.
+
+_2nd Boy._ And I ensign.
+
+_3rd Boy._ And I college salt-bearer.
+
+_4th Boy._ And I oppidan.
+
+_5th Boy._ Oh, what a pity I'm in mourning.
+
+(_Several speak at once._) And we are servitors. We are to be the eight
+servitors.
+
+_Wheel._ And I am to be your Captain, I hope. Come on, my Colonel (_to
+Bursal_). My lord, you are coming?
+
+_Rory._ By-and-by--I've a word in his ear, by your _lave_ and his.
+
+_Burs._ Why, what the devil stops the way, there?--Push on--on with
+them.
+
+_6th Boy._ I'm marshal.
+
+_Burs._ On with you--on with you--who cares what you are?
+
+_Wheel._ (_to Bursal, aside_). You'll pay Finsbury for me, you rich Jew?
+(_To Lord John._) Your lordship will remember your lordship's promise?
+
+_Lord J._ I do not usually forget my promises, sir; and therefore need
+not to be reminded of them.
+
+_Wheel._ I beg pardon--I beg ten thousand pardons, my lord.
+
+_Burs._ (_taking him by the arm_). Come on, man, and don't stand begging
+pardon there, or I'll leave you.
+
+_Wheel._ (_to Burs._). I beg pardon, Bursal--I beg pardon, ten thousand
+times.
+
+        (_Exeunt._)
+
+    MANENT LORD JOHN and RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory._ Wheugh!--Now put the case. If I was going to be hanged, for the
+life of me I couldn't be after begging so many pardons for nothing at
+all. But many men, many minds--(_Hums._) True game to the last! No
+Wheeler for me. Oh, murder! I forgot, I was nigh letting the cat out o'
+the bag again.
+
+_Lord J._ You had something to say to me, sir? I wait till your
+recollection returns.
+
+_Rory._ 'Faith, and that's very kind of you; and if you had always done
+so, you would never have been offended with me, my lord.
+
+_Lord J._ You are mistaken, Mr. O'Ryan, if you think that you did or
+could offend me.
+
+_Rory._ Mistaken was I, then, sure enough; but we are all liable to
+mistakes, and should forget and forgive one another; that's the way to
+go through.
+
+_Lord J._ You will go through the world your own way, Mr. O'Ryan, and
+allow me to go through it my way.
+
+_Rory._ Very fair--fair enough--then we shan't cross. But now, to come
+to the point. I don't like to be making disagreeable retrospects, if I
+could any way avoid it; nor to be going about the bush, especially at
+this time o' day; when, as Mr. Finsbury's come, we've not so much time
+to lose as we had. Is there any truth, then, my lord, in the report that
+is going about this hour past, that you have gone in a huff and given
+your promise there to that sneaking Wheeler to vote for him now?
+
+_Lord J._ In answer to your question, sir, I am to inform you that I
+_have_ promised Mr. Wheeler to vote for him.
+
+_Rory._ In a huff?--Ay, now, there it is!--Well, when a man's _mad_, to
+be sure, he's mad--and that's all that can be said about it. And I know,
+if I had been _mad_ myself, I might have done a foolish thing as well as
+another. But now, my lord, that you are not mad----
+
+_Lord J._ I protest, sir, I cannot understand you. In one word, sir, I'm
+neither mad nor a fool!--Your most obedient (_going, angrily_).
+
+_Rory_ (_holding him_). Take care, now; you are going mad with me again.
+But phoo! I like you the better for being mad. I'm very often mad
+myself, and I would not give a potato for one that had never been mad in
+his life.
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). He'll not be quiet till he makes me knock him down.
+
+_Rory._ Agh! agh! agh!--I begin to guess whereabouts I am at last.
+_Mad_, in your country, I take it, means fit for Bedlam; but with us in
+Ireland, now, 'tis no such thing; it means nothing in life but the being
+in a passion. Well, one comfort is, my lord, as you're a bit of a
+scholar, we have the Latin proverb in our favour--'_Ira furor brevis
+est_' (Anger is short madness). The shorter the better, I think. So, my
+lord, to put an end to whatever of the kind you may have felt against
+poor Talbot, I'll assure you he's as innocent o' that unfortunate song
+as the babe unborn.
+
+_Lord J._ It is rather late for Mr. Talbot to make apologies to me.
+
+_Rory._ He make apologies! Not he, 'faith; he'd send me to Coventry, or
+maybe to a worse place, did he but know I was condescending to make
+this bit of explanation, unknown to him. But, upon my conscience, I've a
+regard for you both, and don't like to see you go together by the ears.
+Now, look you, my lord. By this book, and all the books that were ever
+shut and opened, he never saw or heard of that unlucky song of mine till
+I came out with it this morning.
+
+_Lord J._ But you told me this morning that it was he who wrote it.
+
+_Rory._ For that I take shame to myself, as it turned out; but it was
+only a _white_ lie to s_a_rve a friend, and make him cut a dash with a
+new song at election time. But I've done for ever with white lies.
+
+_Lord J._ (_walking about as if agitated_). I wish you had never begun
+with them, Mr. O'Ryan. This may be a good joke to you, but it is none to
+me or Talbot. So Talbot never wrote a word of the song?
+
+_Rory._ Not a word or syllable, good or bad.
+
+_Lord J._ And I have given my promise to vote against him. He'll lose
+his election.
+
+_Rory._ Not if you'll give me leave to speak to your friends in your
+name.
+
+_Lord J._ I have promised to leave them to themselves; and Wheeler, I am
+sure, has engaged them by this time.
+
+_Rory._ Bless my body! I'll not stay prating here then.
+
+        (_Exit Rory._)
+
+_Lord J._ (_follows_). But what can have become of Talbot? I have been
+too hasty for once in my life. Well, I shall suffer for it more than
+anybody else; for I love Talbot, since he did not make the song, of
+which I hate to think.
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+
+    SCENE III
+
+    _A large hall in Eton College--A staircase at the end--Eton lads,
+    dressed in their Montem Dresses, in the Scene--In front,_ WHEELER
+    (_dressed as Captain_), BURSAL, _and_ FINSBURY.
+
+_Fins._ I give you infinite credit, Mr. Wheeler, for this dress.
+
+_Burs._ _Infinite credit!_ Why, he'll have no objection to that--hey,
+Wheeler? But I thought Finsbury knew you too well to give you credit for
+anything.
+
+_Fins._ You are pleased to be pleasant, sir. Mr. Wheeler knows, in that
+sense of the word, it is out of my power to give him credit, and I'm
+sure he would not ask it.
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside_). O, Bursal, pay him, and I'll pay you to-morrow.
+
+_Burs._ Now, if you weren't to be captain after all, Wheeler, what a
+pretty figure you'd cut. Ha! ha! ha!--Hey?
+
+_Wheel._ Oh, I am as sure of being captain as of being alive. (_Aside._)
+Do pay for me, now, there's a good, dear fellow, before _they_ (_looking
+back_) come up.
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). I love to make him lick the dust. (_Aloud._) Hollo!
+here's Finsbury waiting to be paid, lads. (_To the lads who are in the
+back scene._) Who has paid, and who has not paid? I say.
+
+(_The lads come forward, and several exclaim at once_,) I've paid! I've
+paid!
+
+    _Enter_ LORD JOHN _and_ RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory._ Oh, King of Fashion, how fine we are! Why, now, to look at ye
+all one might fancy one's self at the playhouse at once, or at a fancy
+ball in dear little Dublin. Come, strike up a dance.
+
+_Burs._ Pshaw! Wherever you come, Rory O'Ryan, no one else can be heard.
+Who has paid, and who has not paid? I say.
+
+_Several boys exclaim_, We've all paid.
+
+_1st Boy._ I've not paid, but here's my money.
+
+_Several Boys._ We have not paid, but here's our money.
+
+_6th Boy._ Order there, I am marshal. All that have paid march off to
+the staircase, and take your seats there, one by one. March!
+
+        (_As they march by, one by one, so as to display their dresses,
+        Mr. Finsbury bows, and says,_)
+
+A thousand thanks, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen. Thanks, gentlemen.
+The finest sight ever I saw out of Lon'on.
+
+_Rory, as each lad passes, catches his arm,_ Are you a Talbot_ite_, or a
+Wheeler_ite_? _To each who answers_ 'A Wheelerite,' _Rory replies_,
+'Phoo! dance off, then. Go to the devil and shake yourself.'[11] _Each
+who answers_ 'A Talbotite,' _Rory shakes by the hand violently,
+singing,_
+
+      Talbot, oh, Talbot's the dog for Rory.
+
+_When they have almost all passed, Lord John says,_ But where can Mr.
+Talbot be all this time?
+
+  [11] This is the name of a country dance.
+
+_Burs._ Who knows? Who cares?
+
+_Wheel._ A pretty electioneerer! (_Aside to Bursal._) Finsbury's waiting
+to be paid.
+
+_Lord J._ You don't wait for me, Mr. Finsbury. You know, I have settled
+with you.
+
+_Fins._ Yes, my lord--yes. Many thanks; and I have left your lordship's
+dress here, and everybody's dress, I believe, as bespoke.
+
+_Burs._ Here, Finsbury, is the money for Wheeler, who, between you and
+me, is as poor as a rat.
+
+_Wheeler_ (_affecting to laugh_). Well, I hope I shall be as rich as a
+Jew to-morrow.
+
+        (_Bursal counts money, in an ostentatious manner, into
+        Finsbury's hand._)
+
+_Fins._ A thousand thanks for all favours.
+
+_Rory._ You will be kind enough to _lave_ Mr. Talbot's dress with me,
+Mr. Finsbury, for I'm a friend.
+
+_Fins._ Indubitably, sir; but the misfortune is--he! he! he!--Mr.
+Talbot, sir, has bespoke no dress. Your servant, gentlemen.
+
+        (_Exit Finsbury._)
+
+_Burs._ So your friend Mr. Talbot could not afford to bespeak a
+dress--(_Bursal and Wheeler laugh insolently_). How comes that, I
+wonder?
+
+_Lord J._ If I'm not mistaken, here comes Talbot to answer for himself.
+
+_Rory._ But who, in the name of St. Patrick, has he along with him?
+
+    _Enter_ TALBOT _and_ LANDLORD.
+
+_Talb._ Come in along with us, Farmer Hearty--come in.
+
+        (_Whilst the Farmer comes in, the boys who were sitting on the
+        stairs rise and exclaim,_)
+
+Whom have we here? What now? Come down, lads; here's more fun.
+
+_Rory._ What's here, Talbot?
+
+_Talb._ An honest farmer and a good-natured landlord, who _would_ come
+here along with me to speak----
+
+_Farm._ (_interrupting_). To speak the truth--(_strikes his stick on the
+ground_).
+
+_Landlord_ (_unbuttoning his waistcoat_). But I am so hot--so
+short-winded, that (_panting and puffing_)--that for the soul and body
+of me, I cannot say what I have got for to say.
+
+_Rory._ 'Faith, now, the more short-winded a story, the better, to my
+fancy.
+
+_Burs._ Wheeler, what's the matter, man? you look as if your under jaw
+was broke.
+
+_Farm._ The matter is, young gentlemen, that there was once upon a time
+a fine bay hunter.
+
+_Wheel._ (_squeezing up to Talbot, aside_). Don't expose me, don't let
+him tell. (_To the Farmer._) I'll pay for the corn I spoiled. (_To the
+Landlord._) I'll pay for the horse.
+
+_Farm._ I does not want to be paid for my corn. The short of it is,
+young gentlemen, this 'un here, in the fine thing-em-bobs (_pointing to
+Wheeler_), is a shabby fellow; he went and spoiled Master Newington's
+best hunter.
+
+_Land._ (_panting_). Ruinationed him! ruinationed him!
+
+_Rory._ But was that all the shabbiness? Now I might, or any of us
+might, have had such an accident as that. I suppose he paid the
+gentleman for the horse, or will do so, in good time.
+
+_Land._ (_holding his sides_). Oh, that I had but a little breath in
+this body o' mine to speak all--speak on, Farmer.
+
+_Farm._ (_striking his stick on the floor_). Oons, sir, when a man's put
+out, he can't go on with his story.
+
+_Omnes._ Be quiet, Rory--hush!
+
+        (_Rory puts his finger on his lips._)
+
+_Farm._ Why, sir, I was a-going to tell you the shabbiness--why, sir, he
+did not pay the landlord, here, for the horse; but he goes and says to
+the landlord, here--'Mr. Talbot had your horse on the self-same day;
+'twas he did the damage; 'tis from he you must get your money.' So Mr.
+Talbot, here, who is another sort of a gentleman (though he has not so
+fine a coat), would not see a man at a loss, that could not afford it;
+and not knowing which of 'em it was that spoiled the horse, goes, when
+he finds the other would not pay a farthing, and pays all.
+
+_Rory_ (_rubbing his hands_). There's Talbot for ye. And now, gentlemen
+(_to Wheeler and Bursal_), you guess the _rason_, as I do, I suppose,
+why he bespoke no dress; he had not money enough to be fine--and honest,
+too. You are very fine, Mr. Wheeler, to do you justice.
+
+_Lord J._ Pray, Mr. O'Ryan, let the farmer go on; he has more to say.
+How did you find out, pray, my good friend, that it was not Talbot who
+spoiled the horse? Speak loud enough to be heard by everybody.
+
+_Farm._ Ay, that I will--I say (_very loudly_) I say I saw _him_ there
+(_pointing to Wheeler_) take the jump which strained the horse; and I'm
+ready to swear to it. Yet he let another pay; there's the shabbiness.
+
+        (_A general groan from all the lads._ 'Oh, shabby Wheeler,
+        shabby! I'll not vote for shabby Wheeler!')
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). Alas! I must vote for him.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      True game to the last; no Wheeler for me;
+      Talbot, oh, Talbot's the dog for me.
+
+        (_Several voices join the chorus._)
+
+_Burs._ Wheeler, if you are not chosen Captain, you must see and pay me
+for the dress.
+
+_Wheel._ I am as poor as a rat.
+
+_Rory._ Oh yes! oh yes! hear ye! hear ye, all manner of men--the
+election is now going to begin forthwith in the big field, and Rory
+O'Ryan holds the poll for Talbot. Talbot for ever!--huzza!
+
+        (_Exit Rory followed by the Boys, who exclaim,_ Talbot for
+        ever!--huzza! _The Landlord and Farmer join them._)
+
+_Lord J._ Talbot, I am glad you _are_ what I always thought you--I'm
+glad you did not write that odious song. I would not lose such a friend
+for all the songs in the world. Forgive me for my hastiness this
+morning. I've punished myself--I've promised to vote for Wheeler.
+
+_Talb._ Oh, no matter whom you vote for, my lord, if you are still my
+friend, and if you know me to be yours.
+
+        (_They shake hands._)
+
+_Lord J._ I must not say, '_Huzza for Talbot!_'
+
+        (_Exeunt._)
+
+[Illustration: _'I say I saw_ him _there take the jump which strained
+the horse.'_]
+
+
+    SCENE IV
+
+    WINDSOR TERRACE
+
+    LADY PIERCEFIELD, MRS. TALBOT, LOUISA, _and a little girl of six
+    years old_, LADY VIOLETTA, _daughter to_ LADY PIERCEFIELD.
+
+_Violetta_ (_looking at a paper which Louisa holds_). I like it _very_
+much.
+
+_Lady P._ What is it you like _very_ much, Violetta?
+
+_Violet._ You are not to know _yet_, mamma; it is--I may tell her
+that--it is a little drawing that Louisa is doing for me. Louisa, I wish
+you would let me show it to mamma.
+
+_Louisa._ And welcome, my dear; it is only a sketch of 'The Little
+Merchants,' a story which Violetta was reading, and she asked me to try
+to draw the pictures of the little merchants for her.
+
+        (_Whilst Lady P. looks at the drawing, Violetta says to Louisa_)
+
+But are you in earnest, Louisa, about what you were saying to me just
+now,--quite in earnest?
+
+_Louisa._ Yes, in earnest,--quite in earnest, my dear.
+
+_Violet._ And may I ask mamma _now_?
+
+_Louisa._ If you please, my dear.
+
+_Violet._ (_runs to her mother_). Stoop down to me, mamma; I've
+something to whisper to you.
+
+        (_Lady Piercefield stoops down; Violetta throws her arms round
+        her mother's neck._)
+
+_Violet._ (_aside to her mother_). Mamma, do you know--you know you want
+a governess for me.
+
+_Lady P._ Yes, if I could find a good one.
+
+_Violet._ (_aloud_). Stoop again, mamma, I've more to whisper. (_Aside
+to her mother._) _She_ says she will be my governess, if you please.
+
+_Lady P._ _She!_--who is _she_?
+
+_Violet._ Louisa.
+
+_Lady P._ (_patting Violetta's cheek_). You are a little fool. Miss
+Talbot is only playing with you.
+
+_Violet._ No, indeed, mamma; she is in earnest; are not you,
+Louisa?--Oh, say yes!
+
+_Louisa._ Yes.
+
+_Violet._ (_claps her hands_). _Yes_, mamma; do you hear _yes_?
+
+_Louisa._ If Lady Piercefield will trust you to my care, I am persuaded
+that I should be much happier as your governess, my good little
+Violetta, than as an humble dependent of Miss Bursal's. (_Aside to her
+mother._) You see that, now I am put to the trial, I keep to my
+resolution, dear mother.
+
+_Mrs. T._ Your ladyship would not be surprised at this offer of my
+Louisa, if you had heard, as we have done within these few hours, of the
+loss of the East India ship in which almost our whole property was
+embarked.
+
+_Louisa._ The _Bombay Castle_ is wrecked.
+
+_Lady P._ The _Bombay Castle_! I have the pleasure to tell you that you
+are misinformed--it was the _Airly Castle_ that was wrecked.
+
+_Louisa and Mrs. T._ Indeed!
+
+_Lady P._ Yes; you may depend upon it--it was the _Airly Castle_ that
+was lost. You know I am just come from Portsmouth, where I went to meet
+my brother, Governor Morton, who came home with the last India fleet,
+and from whom I had the intelligence.
+
+        (_Here Violetta interrupts, to ask her mother for her
+        nosegay--Lady P. gives it to her,--then goes on speaking._)
+
+_Lady P._ They were in such haste, foolish people! to carry their news
+to London, that they mistook one castle for another. But do you know
+that Mr. Bursal loses fifty thousand pounds, it is said, by the _Airly
+Castle_? When I told him she was lost, I thought he would have dropped
+down. However, I found he comforted himself afterwards with a bottle of
+Burgundy; but poor Miss Bursal has been in hysterics ever since.
+
+_Mrs. T._ Poor girl! My Louisa, _you_ did not fall into hysterics, when
+I told you of the loss of our whole fortune.
+
+        (_Violetta, during this dialogue, has been seated on the ground
+        making up a nosegay._)
+
+_Violet._ (_aside_). Fall into hysterics! What are hysterics, I wonder.
+
+[Illustration: _'Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza.'_]
+
+_Louisa._ Miss Bursal is much to be pitied; for the loss of wealth will
+be the loss of happiness to her.
+
+_Lady P._ It is to be hoped that the loss may at least check the
+foolish pride and extravagance of young Bursal, who, as my son tells
+me----
+
+        (_A cry of_ 'Huzza! huzza!' _behind the scenes._)
+
+    _Enter_ LORD JOHN.
+
+_Lord J._ (_hastily_). How d'ye do, mother? Miss Talbot, I give you joy.
+
+_Lady P._ Take breath--take breath.
+
+_Louisa._ It is my brother.
+
+_Mrs. T._ Here he is!--Hark! hark!
+
+        (_A cry behind the scenes of_ 'Talbot and truth for ever!
+        Huzza!')
+
+_Louisa._ They are chairing him.
+
+_Lord J._ Yes, they are chairing him; and he has been chosen for his
+honourable conduct, not for his electioneering skill; for, to do him
+justice, Coriolanus himself was not a worse electioneerer.
+
+    _Enter_ RORY O'RYAN _and another Eton lad, carrying_ TALBOT _in a
+    chair, followed by a crowd of Eton lads._
+
+_Rory._ By your _lave_, my lord--by your _lave_, ladies.
+
+_Omnes._ Huzza! Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza!
+
+_Talb._ Set me down! There's my mother! There's my sister!
+
+_Rory._ Easy, easy. Set him down! No such _ting_! give him t'other
+huzza! There's nothing like a good loud huzza in this world. Yes, there
+is! for, as my Lord John said just now, out of some book or out of his
+own head--
+
+      One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
+      Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.
+
+
+CURTAIN FALLS
+
+
+
+
+FORGIVE AND FORGET
+
+
+In the neighbourhood of a seaport town in the west of England there
+lived a gardener, who had one son, called Maurice, to whom he was very
+partial. One day his father sent him to the neighbouring town to
+purchase some garden seeds for him. When Maurice got to the seed-shop,
+it was full of people, who were all impatient to be served: first a
+great tall man, and next a great fat woman pushed before him; and he
+stood quietly beside the counter, waiting till somebody should be at
+leisure to attend to him. At length, when all the other people who were
+in the shop had got what they wanted, the shopman turned to
+Maurice--'And what do you want, my patient little fellow?' said he.
+
+'I want all these seeds for my father,' said Maurice, putting a list of
+seeds into the shopman's hand; 'and I have brought money to pay for them
+all.'
+
+The seedsman looked out all the seeds that Maurice wanted, and packed
+them up in paper: he was folding up some painted lady-peas, when, from a
+door at the back of the shop, there came in a square, rough-faced man,
+who exclaimed, the moment he came in, 'Are the seeds I ordered
+ready?--The wind's fair--they ought to have been aboard yesterday. And
+my china jar, is it packed up and directed? where is it?'
+
+'It is up there on the shelf over your head, sir,' answered the
+seedsman. 'It is very safe, you see; but we have not had time to pack it
+yet. It shall be done to-day; and we will get the seeds ready for you,
+sir, immediately.'
+
+'Immediately! then stir about it. The seeds will not pack themselves up.
+Make haste, pray.' 'Immediately, sir, as soon as I have done up the
+parcel for this little boy.' 'What signifies the parcel for this little
+boy? He can wait, and I cannot--wind and tide wait for no man. Here, my
+good lad, take your parcel and sheer off,' said the impatient man; and,
+as he spoke, he took up the parcel of seeds from the counter, as the
+shopman stooped to look for a sheet of thick brown paper and packthread
+to tie it up.
+
+The parcel was but loosely folded up, and as the impatient man lifted
+it, the weight of the peas which were withinside of it burst the paper,
+and all the seeds fell out upon the floor, whilst Maurice in vain held
+his hands to catch them. The peas rolled to all parts of the shop; the
+impatient man swore at them, but Maurice, without being out of humour,
+set about collecting them as fast as possible.
+
+Whilst the boy was busied in this manner, the man got what seeds he
+wanted; and as he was talking about them, a sailor came into the shop,
+and said, 'Captain, the wind has changed within these five minutes, and
+it looks as if we should have ugly weather.'
+
+'Well, I'm glad of it,' replied the rough-faced man, who was the captain
+of a ship. 'I am glad to have a day longer to stay ashore, and I've
+business enough on my hands.' The captain pushed forward towards the
+shop door. Maurice, who was kneeling on the floor, picking up his seeds,
+saw that the captain's foot was entangled in some packthread which hung
+down from the shelf on which the china jar stood. Maurice saw that, if
+the captain took one more step forward, he must pull the string, so that
+it would throw down the jar, round the bottom of which the packthread
+was entangled. He immediately caught hold of the captain's leg, and
+stopped him, 'Stay! Stand still, sir!' said he, 'or you will break your
+china jar.'
+
+The man stood still, looked, and saw how the packthread had caught in
+his shoe buckle, and how it was near dragging down his beautiful china
+jar. 'I am really very much obliged to you, my little fellow,' said he.
+'You have saved my jar, which I would not have broken for ten guineas,
+for it is for my wife, and I've brought it safe from abroad many a
+league. It would have been a pity if I had broken it just when it was
+safe landed. I am really much obliged to you, my little fellow, this was
+returning good for evil. I am sorry I threw down your seeds, as you are
+such a good-natured, forgiving boy. Be so kind,' continued he, turning
+to the shopman, 'as to reach down that china jar for me.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Stay! Stand still, sir! or you will break your china
+jar.'_]
+
+The shopman lifted down the jar very carefully, and the captain took off
+the cover, and pulled out some tulip-roots. 'You seem, by the quantity
+of seeds you have got, to belong to a gardener. Are you fond of
+gardening?' said he to Maurice.
+
+'Yes, sir,' replied Maurice, 'very fond of it; for my father is a
+gardener, and he lets me help him at his work, and he has given me a
+little garden of my own.'
+
+'Then here are a couple of tulip-roots for you; and if you take care of
+them, I'll promise you that you will have the finest tulips in England
+in your little garden. These tulips were given to me by a Dutch
+merchant, who told me that they were some of the rarest and finest in
+Holland. They will prosper with you, I'm sure, wind and weather
+permitting.'
+
+Maurice thanked the gentleman, and returned home, eager to show his
+precious tulip-roots to his father, and to a companion of his, the son
+of a nurseryman, who lived near him. Arthur was the name of the
+nurseryman's son.
+
+The first thing Maurice did, after showing his tulip-roots to his
+father, was to run to Arthur's garden in search of him. Their gardens
+were separated only by a low wall of loose stones:--'Arthur! Arthur!
+where are you? Are you in your garden? I want you.' But Arthur made no
+answer, and did not, as usual, come running to meet his friend. 'I know
+where you are,' continued Maurice, 'and I'm coming to you as fast as the
+raspberry-bushes will let me. I have good news for you--something you'll
+be delighted to see, Arthur!--Ha!--but here is something that I am not
+delighted to see, I am sure,' said poor Maurice, who, when he had got
+through the raspberry-bushes, and had come in sight of his own garden,
+beheld his bell-glass--his beloved bell-glass, under which his cucumbers
+were grown so finely--his only bell-glass, broken to pieces!
+
+'I am sorry for it,' said Arthur, who stood leaning upon his spade in
+his own garden; 'I am afraid you will be very angry with me.' 'Why, was
+it you, Arthur, broke my bell-glass? Oh, how could you do so?' 'I was
+throwing weeds and rubbish over the wall, and by accident a great lump
+of couch-grass, with stones hanging to the roots, fell upon your
+bell-glass, and broke it, as you see.'
+
+Maurice lifted up the lump of couch-grass, which had fallen through the
+broken glass upon his cucumbers, and he looked at his cucumbers for a
+moment in silence--'Oh, my poor cucumbers! you must all die now. I shall
+see all your yellow flowers withered to-morrow; but it is done, and it
+cannot be helped; so, Arthur, let us say no more about it.'
+
+'You are very good; I thought you would have been angry. I am sure I
+should have been exceedingly angry if you had broken the glass, if it
+had been mine.'
+
+'Oh, forgive and forget, as my father always says; that's the best way.
+Look what I have got for you.' Then he told Arthur the story of the
+captain of the ship, and the china jar; the seeds having been thrown
+down, and of the fine tulip-roots which had been given to him; and
+Maurice concluded by offering one of the precious roots to Arthur, who
+thanked him with great joy, and repeatedly said, 'How good you were not
+to be angry with me for breaking your bell-glass! I am much more sorry
+for it than if you had been in a passion with me!'
+
+Arthur now went to plant his tulip-root; and Maurice looked at the beds
+which his companion had been digging, and at all the things which were
+coming up in his garden.
+
+'I don't know how it is,' said Arthur, 'but you always seem as glad to
+see the things in my garden coming up, and doing well, as if they were
+all your own. I am much happier since my father came to live here, and
+since you and I have been allowed to work and to play together, than I
+ever was before; for you must know, before we came to live here, I had a
+cousin in the house with me, who used to plague me. He was not nearly so
+good-natured as you are. He never took pleasure in looking at my garden,
+or at anything that I did that was well done; and he never gave me a
+share of anything that he had; and so I did not like him; how could I?
+But, I believe that hating people makes us unhappy; for I know I never
+was happy when I was quarrelling with him; and I am always happy with
+you, Maurice. You know we never quarrel.'
+
+It would be well for all the world if they could be convinced, like
+Arthur, that to live in friendship is better than to quarrel. It would
+be well for all the world if they followed Maurice's maxim of 'Forgive
+and Forget,' when they receive, or when they imagine that they receive,
+an injury.
+
+Arthur's father, Mr. Oakly, the nurseryman, was apt to take offence at
+trifles; and when he thought that any of his neighbours disobliged him,
+he was too proud to ask them to explain their conduct; therefore he was
+often mistaken in his judgment of them. He thought that it showed
+_spirit_, to remember and to resent an injury; and, therefore, though he
+was not an ill-natured man, he was sometimes led, by this mistaken idea
+of _spirit_, to do ill-natured things: 'A warm friend and a bitter
+enemy,' was one of his maxims, and he had many more enemies than
+friends. He was not very rich, but he was proud; and his favourite
+proverb was, 'Better live in spite than in pity.'
+
+When first he settled near Mr. Grant, the gardener, he felt inclined to
+dislike him, because he was told that Mr. Grant was a Scotchman, and he
+had a prejudice against Scotchmen; all of whom he believed to be cunning
+and avaricious, because he had once been overreached by a Scotch
+peddler. Grant's friendly manners in some degree conquered this
+prepossession; but still he secretly suspected that _this civility_, as
+he said, '_was all show_, and _that he was not, nor could not, being a
+Scotchman, be such a hearty friend as a true-born Englishman_.'
+
+Grant had some remarkably fine raspberries. The fruit was so large as to
+be quite a curiosity. When it was in season, many strangers came from
+the neighbouring town, which was a sea-bathing place, to look at these
+raspberries, which obtained the name of _Brobdingnag_ raspberries.
+
+'How came you, pray, neighbour Grant, if a man may ask, by these
+wonderful fine raspberries?' said Mr. Oakly, one evening, to the
+gardener. 'That's a secret,' replied Grant, with an arch smile.
+
+'Oh, in case it's a secret, I've no more to say; for I never meddle with
+any man's secrets that he does not choose to trust me with. But I wish,
+neighbour Grant, you would put down that book. You are always poring
+over some book or another when a man comes to see you, which is not,
+according to my notions (being a plain, _unlarned_ Englishman bred and
+born), so civil and neighbourly as might be.'
+
+Mr. Grant hastily shut his book, but remarked, with a shrewd glance at
+his son, that it was in that book he found his Brobdingnag raspberries.
+
+'You are pleased to be pleasant upon them that have not the luck to be
+as book-_larned_ as yourself, Mr. Grant; but I take it, being only a
+plain-spoken Englishman, as I observed afore, that one is to the full as
+like to find a raspberry in one's garden as in one's book, Mr. Grant.'
+
+Grant, observing that his neighbour spoke rather in a surly tone, did
+not contradict him; being well versed in the Bible, he knew that 'A soft
+word turneth away wrath,' and he answered, in a good-humoured voice, 'I
+hear, neighbour Oakly, you are likely to make a great deal of money of
+your nursery this year. Here's to the health of you and yours, not
+forgetting the seedling larches, which I see are coming on finely.'
+
+'Thank ye, neighbour, kindly; the larches are coming on
+tolerably well, that's certain; and here's to your good health,
+Mr. Grant--you and yours, not forgetting your, what d'ye call 'em
+raspberries'--(_drinks_)--and, after a pause, resumes, 'I'm not apt to
+be a beggar, neighbour, but if you could give me----'
+
+Here Mr. Oakly was interrupted by the entrance of some strangers, and he
+did not finish making his request--Mr. Oakly was not, as he said of
+himself, apt to ask favours, and nothing but Grant's cordiality could
+have conquered his prejudices so far as to tempt him to ask a favour
+from a Scotchman. He was going to have asked for some of the Brobdingnag
+raspberry-plants. The next day the thought of the raspberry-plants
+recurred to his memory, but, being a bashful man, he did not like to go
+himself on purpose to make his request, and he desired his wife, who was
+just setting out to market, to call at Grant's gate, and, if he was at
+work in his garden, to ask him for a few plants of his raspberries.
+
+The answer which Oakly's wife brought to him was that Mr. Grant had not
+a raspberry-plant in the world to give him, and that if he had ever so
+many, he would not give one away, except to his own son.
+
+Oakly flew into a passion when he received such a message, declared it
+was just such a mean, shabby trick as might have been expected from a
+Scotchman--called himself a booby, a dupe, and a blockhead, for ever
+having trusted to the civil speeches of a Scotchman--swore that he would
+die in the parish workhouse before he would ever ask another favour, be
+it ever so small, from a Scotchman; related to his wife, for the
+hundredth time, the way in which he had been taken in by the Scotch
+peddler ten years ago, and concluded by forswearing all further
+intercourse with Mr. Grant, and all belonging to him.
+
+'Son Arthur,' said he, addressing himself to the boy, who just then came
+in from work--'Son Arthur, do you hear me? let me never again see you
+with Grant's son.' 'With Maurice, father?' 'With Maurice Grant, I say; I
+forbid you from this day and hour forward to have anything to do with
+him.' 'Oh, why, dear father?' 'Ask me no questions, but do as I bid
+you.'
+
+Arthur burst out a-crying, and only said, 'Yes, father, I'll do as you
+bid me, to be sure.'
+
+'Why now, what does the boy cry for? Is there no other boy, simpleton,
+think you, to play with, but this Scotchman's son? I'll find out another
+playfellow for ye, child, if that be all.' 'That's not all, father,'
+said Arthur, trying to stop himself from sobbing; 'but the thing is, I
+shall never have such another playfellow,--I shall never have such
+another friend as Maurice Grant.'
+
+'Like father like son--you may think yourself well off to have done with
+him.' 'Done with him! Oh, father, and shall I never go again to work in
+his garden, and may not he come to mine?' 'No,' replied Oakly sturdily;
+'his father has used me uncivil, and no man shall use me uncivil twice.
+I say no. Wife, sweep up this hearth. Boy, don't take on like a fool;
+but eat thy bacon and greens, and let's hear no more of Maurice Grant.'
+
+Arthur promised to obey his father. He only begged that he might once
+more speak to Maurice, and tell him that it was by his father's orders
+he acted. This request was granted; but when Arthur further begged to
+know what reason he might give for this separation, his father refused
+to tell his reasons. The two friends took leave of one another very
+sorrowfully.
+
+Mr. Grant, when he heard of all this, endeavoured to discover what could
+have offended his neighbour; but all explanation was prevented by the
+obstinate silence of Oakly.
+
+Now, the message which Grant really sent about the Brobdingnag
+raspberries was somewhat different from that which Mr. Oakly received.
+The message was, that the raspberries were not Mr. Grant's; that
+therefore he had no right to give them away; that they belonged to his
+son Maurice, and that this was not the right time of year for planting
+them. This message had been unluckily misunderstood. Grant gave his
+answer to his wife; she to a Welsh servant-girl, who did not perfectly
+comprehend her mistress's broad Scotch; and she in her turn could not
+make herself intelligible to Mrs. Oakly, who hated the Welsh accent, and
+whose attention, when the servant-girl delivered the message, was
+principally engrossed by the management of her own horse. The horse on
+which Mrs. Oakly rode this day, being ill-broken, would not stand still
+quietly at the gate, and she was extremely impatient to receive her
+answer, and to ride on to market.
+
+Oakly, when he had once resolved to dislike his neighbour Grant, could
+not long remain without finding out fresh causes of complaint. There was
+in Grant's garden a plum-tree, which was planted close to the loose
+stone wall that divided the garden from the nursery. The soil in which
+the plum-tree was planted happened not to be quite so good as that which
+was on the opposite side of the wall, and the plum-tree had forced its
+way through the wall, and gradually had taken possession of the ground
+which it liked best.
+
+Oakly thought the plum-tree, as it belonged to Mr. Grant, had no right
+to make its appearance on his ground: an attorney told him that he might
+oblige Grant to cut it down; but Mr. Grant refused to cut down his
+plum-tree at the attorney's desire, and the attorney persuaded Oakly to
+go to law about the business, and the lawsuit went on for some months.
+
+The attorney, at the end of this time, came to Oakly with a demand for
+money to carry on his suit, assuring him that, in a short time, it would
+be determined in his favour. Oakly paid his attorney ten golden guineas,
+remarked that it was a great sum for him to pay, and that nothing but
+the love of justice could make him persevere in this lawsuit about a bit
+of ground, 'which, after all,' said he, 'is not worth twopence. The
+plum-tree does me little or no damage, but I don't like to be imposed
+upon by a Scotchman.'
+
+The attorney saw and took advantage of Oakly's prejudice against the
+natives of Scotland; and he persuaded him, that to show the _spirit_ of
+a true-born Englishman it was necessary, whatever it might cost him, to
+persist in this lawsuit.
+
+It was soon after this conversation with the attorney that Mr. Oakly
+walked with resolute steps towards the plum-tree, saying to himself, 'If
+it cost me a hundred pounds I will not let this cunning Scotchman get
+the better of me.'
+
+Arthur interrupted his father's reverie by pointing to a book and some
+young plants which lay upon the wall. 'I fancy, father,' said he, 'those
+things are for you, for there is a little note directed to you in
+Maurice's handwriting. Shall I bring it to you?' 'Yes, let me read it,
+child, since I must.' It contained these words:
+
+  'DEAR MR. OAKLY--I don't know why you have quarrelled with us; I am
+  very sorry for it. But though you are angry with me, I am not angry
+  with you. I hope you will not refuse some of my Brobdingnag
+  raspberry-plants, which you asked for a great while ago, when we were
+  all good friends. It was not the right time of the year to plant them,
+  which was the reason they were not sent to you; but it is just the
+  right time to plant them now; and I send you the book, in which you
+  will find the reason why we always put seaweed ashes about their
+  roots; and I have got some seaweed ashes for you. You will find the
+  ashes in the flower-pot upon the wall. I have never spoken to Arthur,
+  nor he to me, since you bid us not. So, wishing your Brobdingnag
+  raspberries may turn out as well as ours, and longing to be all
+  friends again, I am, with love to dear Arthur and self, your
+  affectionate neighbour's son,                       MAURICE GRANT.
+
+  'P.S.--It is now about four months since the quarrel began, and that
+  is a very long while.'
+
+A great part of the effect of this letter was lost upon Oakly, because
+he was not very expert in reading writing, and it cost him much trouble
+to spell it and put it together. However, he seemed affected by it, and
+said, 'I believe this Maurice loves you well enough, Arthur, and he
+seems a good sort of boy; but as to the raspberries, I believe all that
+he says about them is but an excuse; and, at any rate, as I could not
+get 'em when I asked for them, I'll not have 'em now. Do you hear me, I
+say, Arthur? What are you reading there?'
+
+Arthur was reading the page that was doubled down in the book which
+Maurice had left along with the raspberry-plants upon the wall. Arthur
+read aloud as follows:--
+
+
+(_Monthly Magazine_, Dec. '98, p. 421.)
+
+'There is a sort of strawberry cultivated at Jersey which is almost
+covered with seaweed in the winter, in like manner as many plants in
+England are with litter from the stable. These strawberries are usually
+of the largeness of a middle-sized apricot, and the flavour is
+particularly grateful. In Jersey and Guernsey, situate scarcely one
+degree farther south than Cornwall, all kinds of fruit, pulse, and
+vegetables are produced in their seasons a fortnight or three weeks
+sooner than in England, even on the southern shores; and snow will
+scarcely remain twenty-four hours on the earth. Although this may be
+attributed to these islands being surrounded with a salt, and
+consequently a moist atmosphere, yet the ashes (seaweed ashes) made use
+of as manure may also have their portion of influence.'[12]
+
+  [12] It is necessary to observe that this experiment has never been
+       actually tried upon raspberry-plants.
+
+'And here,' continued Arthur, 'is something written with a pencil, on a
+slip of paper, and it is Maurice's writing. I will read it to you.
+
+'When I read in this book what is said about the strawberries growing as
+large as apricots, after they had been covered over with seaweed, I
+thought that perhaps seaweed ashes might be good for my father's
+raspberries; and I asked him if he would give me leave to try them. He
+gave me leave, and I went directly and gathered together some seaweed
+that had been cast on shore; and I dried it, and burned it, and then I
+manured the raspberries with it, and the year afterwards the raspberries
+grew to the size that you have seen. Now, the reason I tell you this is,
+first, that you may know how to manage your raspberries, and next,
+because I remember you looked very grave, as if you were not pleased
+with my father, Mr. Grant, when he told you that the way by which he
+came by his Brobdingnag raspberries was a secret. Perhaps this was the
+thing that has made you so angry with us all; for you never have come to
+see father since that evening. Now I have told you all I know; and so I
+hope you will not be angry with us any longer.'
+
+Mr. Oakly was much pleased by this openness, and said, 'Why now, Arthur,
+this is something like, this is telling one the thing one wants to
+know, without fine speeches. This is like an Englishman more than a
+Scotchman. Pray, Arthur, do you know whether your friend Maurice was
+born in England or in Scotland?'
+
+'No, indeed, sir, I don't know--I never asked--I did not think it
+signified. All I know is that, wherever he was born, he is _very_ good.
+Look, papa, my tulip is blowing.' 'Upon my word,' said his father, 'this
+will be a beautiful tulip!' 'It was given to me by Maurice.' 'And did
+you give him nothing for it?' was the father's inquiry. 'Nothing in the
+world; and he gave it to me just at the time when he had good cause to
+be angry with me, just when I had broken his bell-glass.'
+
+'I have a great mind to let you play together again,' said Arthur's
+father. 'Oh, if you would,' cried Arthur, clapping his hands, 'how happy
+we should be! Do you know, father, I have often sat for an hour at a
+time up in that crab-tree, looking at Maurice at work in his garden, and
+wishing that I was at work with him.'
+
+Here Arthur was interrupted by the attorney, who came to ask Mr. Oakly
+some question about the lawsuit concerning the plum-tree. Oakly showed
+him Maurice's letter; and to Arthur's extreme astonishment, the attorney
+had no sooner read it than he exclaimed, 'What an artful little
+gentleman this is! I never, in the course of all my practice, met with
+anything better. Why, this is the most cunning letter I ever read.'
+'Where's the cunning?' said Oakly, and he put on his spectacles. 'My
+good sir, don't you see that all this stuff about Brobdingnag
+raspberries is to ward off your suit about the plum-tree? They
+know--that is, Mr. Grant, who is sharp enough, knows--that he will be
+worsted in that suit; that he must, in short, pay you a good round sum
+for damages, if it goes on----'
+
+'Damages!' said Oakly, staring round him at the plum-tree; 'but I don't
+know what you mean. I mean nothing but what's honest. I don't mean to
+ask for any good round sum; for the plum-tree has done me no great harm
+by coming into my garden; but only I don't choose it should come there
+without my leave.'
+
+'Well, well,' said the attorney, 'I understand all that; but what I want
+to make you, Mr. Oakly, understand is, that this Grant and his son only
+want to make up matters with you, and prevent the thing's coming to a
+fair trial, by sending you, in this underhand sort of way, a bribe of a
+few raspberries.'
+
+'A bribe!' exclaimed Oakly, 'I never took a bribe, and I never will';
+and, with sudden indignation, he pulled the raspberry plants from the
+ground in which Arthur was planting them; and he threw them over the
+wall into Grant's garden.
+
+Maurice had put his tulip, which was beginning to blow, in a flower-pot,
+on the top of the wall, in hopes that his friend Arthur would see it
+from day to day. Alas! he knew not in what a dangerous situation he had
+placed it. One of his own Brobdingnag raspberry-plants, swung by the
+angry arm of Oakly, struck off the head of his precious tulip! Arthur,
+who was full of the thought of convincing his father that the attorney
+was mistaken in his judgment of poor Maurice, did not observe the fall
+of the tulip.
+
+The next day, when Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the
+ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much astonishment,
+and, for some moments, angry; but anger, with him, never lasted long. He
+was convinced that all this must be owing to some accident or mistake.
+He could not believe that any one could be so malicious as to injure him
+on purpose--'And even if they did all this on purpose to vex me,' said
+he to himself, 'the best thing I can do is not to let it vex me. Forgive
+and forget.' This temper of mind Maurice was more happy in enjoying than
+he could have been made, without it, by the possession of all the tulips
+in Holland.
+
+Tulips were, at this time, things of great consequence in the estimation
+of the country several miles round where Maurice and Arthur lived. There
+was a florist's feast to be held at the neighbouring town, at which a
+prize of a handsome set of gardening tools was to be given to the person
+who could produce the finest flower of its kind. A tulip was the flower
+which was thought the finest the preceding year, and consequently
+numbers of people afterwards endeavoured to procure tulip-roots, in
+hopes of obtaining the prize this year. Arthur's tulip was beautiful. As
+he examined it from day to day, and every day thought it improving, he
+longed to thank his friend Maurice for it; and he often mounted into his
+crab-tree, to look into Maurice's garden, in hopes of seeing his tulip
+also in full bloom and beauty. He never could see it.
+
+The day of the florist's feast arrived, and Oakly went with his son
+and the fine tulip to the place of meeting. It was on a spacious
+bowling-green. All the flowers of various sorts were ranged upon a
+terrace at the upper end of the bowling-green; and, amongst all this gay
+variety, the tulip which Maurice had given to Arthur appeared
+conspicuously beautiful. To the owner of this tulip the prize was
+adjudged; and, as the handsome garden-tools were delivered to Arthur, he
+heard a well-known voice wish him joy. He turned, looked about him, and
+saw his friend Maurice.
+
+[Illustration: _When Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the
+ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much astonishment._]
+
+'But, Maurice, where is your own tulip?' said Mr. Oakly; 'I thought,
+Arthur, you told me that he kept one for himself.' 'So I did,' said
+Maurice; 'but somebody (I suppose by accident) broke it.' 'Somebody!
+who?' cried Arthur and Mr. Oakly at once. 'Somebody who threw the
+raspberry-plants back again over the wall,' replied Maurice. 'That was
+me--that somebody was me,' said Oakly. 'I scorn to deny it; but I did
+not intend to break your tulip, Maurice.'
+
+'Dear Maurice,' said Arthur--'you know I may call him dear Maurice--now
+you are by, papa; here are all the garden-tools; take them, and
+welcome.' 'Not one of them,' said Maurice, drawing back. 'Offer them to
+the father--offer them to Mr. Grant,' whispered Oakly; 'he'll take them,
+I'll answer for it.'
+
+Mr. Oakly was mistaken: the father would not accept of the tools. Mr.
+Oakly stood surprised--'Certainly,' said he to himself, 'this cannot be
+such a miser as I took him for'; and he walked immediately up to Grant,
+and bluntly said to him, 'Mr. Grant, your son has behaved very
+handsomely to my son, and you seem to be glad of it.' 'To be sure I am,'
+said Grant. 'Which,' continued Oakly, 'gives me a better opinion of you
+than ever I had before--I mean, than ever I had since the day you sent
+me the shabby answer about those foolish, what d'ye call 'em, cursed
+raspberries.'
+
+'What shabby answer?' said Grant, with surprise; and Oakly repeated
+exactly the message which he received; and Grant declared that he never
+sent any such message. He repeated exactly the answer which he really
+sent, and Oakly immediately stretched out his hand to him, saying, 'I
+believe you; no more need be said. I'm only sorry I did not ask you
+about this four months ago; and so I should have done if you had not
+been a Scotchman. Till now, I never rightly liked a Scotchman. We may
+thank this good little fellow,' continued he, turning to Maurice, 'for
+our coming at last to a right understanding. There was no holding out
+against his good nature. I'm sure, from the bottom of my heart, I'm
+sorry I broke his tulip. Shake hands, boys; I'm glad to see you, Arthur,
+look so happy again, and hope Mr. Grant will forgive----' 'Oh, forgive
+and forget,' said Grant and his son at the same moment. And from this
+time forward the two families lived in friendship with each other.
+
+Oakly laughed at his own folly, in having been persuaded to go to law
+about the plum-tree; and he, in process of time, so completely conquered
+his early prejudice against Scotchmen, that he and Grant became partners
+in business. Mr. Grant's book-_larning_ and knowledge of arithmetic he
+found highly useful to him; and he, on his side, possessed a great many
+active, good qualities, which became serviceable to his partner.
+
+The two boys rejoiced in this family union; and Arthur often declared
+that they owed all their happiness to Maurice's favourite maxim,
+'Forgive and Forget.'
+
+
+
+
+WASTE NOT, WANT NOT;
+
+OR,
+
+TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW
+
+
+Mr. Gresham, a Bristol merchant, who had, by honourable industry and
+economy, accumulated a considerable fortune, retired from business to a
+new house which he had built upon the Downs, near Clifton. Mr. Gresham,
+however, did not imagine that a new house alone could make him happy. He
+did not propose to live in idleness and extravagance; for such a life
+would have been equally incompatible with his habits and his principles.
+He was fond of children; and as he had no sons, he determined to adopt
+one of his relations. He had two nephews, and he invited both of them to
+his house, that he might have an opportunity of judging of their
+dispositions, and of the habits which they had acquired.
+
+Hal and Benjamin, Mr. Gresham's nephews, were about ten years old. They
+had been educated very differently. Hal was the son of the elder branch
+of the family. His father was a gentleman, who spent rather more than he
+could afford; and Hal, from the example of the servants in his father's
+family, with whom he had passed the first years of his childhood,
+learned to waste more of everything than he used. He had been told that
+'gentlemen should be above being careful and saving'; and he had
+unfortunately imbibed a notion that extravagance was the sign of a
+generous disposition, and economy of an avaricious one.
+
+Benjamin, on the contrary, had been taught habits of care and foresight.
+His father had but a very small fortune, and was anxious that his son
+should early learn that economy ensures independence, and sometimes puts
+it in the power of those who are not very rich to be very generous.
+
+The morning after these two boys arrived at their uncle's they were
+eager to see all the rooms in the house. Mr. Gresham accompanied them,
+and attended to their remarks and exclamations.
+
+'Oh! what an excellent motto!' exclaimed Ben, when he read the following
+words, which were written in large characters over the chimneypiece in
+his uncle's spacious kitchen--
+
+  'WASTE NOT, WANT NOT.'
+
+'"Waste not, want not!"' repeated his cousin Hal, in rather a
+contemptuous tone; 'I think it looks stingy to servants; and no
+gentleman's servants, cooks especially, would like to have such a mean
+motto always staring them in the face.' Ben, who was not so conversant
+as his cousin in the ways of cooks and gentlemen's servants, made no
+reply to these observations.
+
+Mr. Gresham was called away whilst his nephews were looking at the other
+rooms in the house. Some time afterwards, he heard their voices in the
+hall.
+
+'Boys,' said he, 'what are you doing there?' 'Nothing, sir,' said Hal;
+'you were called away from us and we did not know which way to go.' 'And
+have you nothing to do?' said Mr. Gresham. 'No, sir, nothing,' answered
+Hal, in a careless tone, like one who was well content with the state of
+habitual idleness. 'No, sir, nothing!' replied Ben, in a voice of
+lamentation. 'Come,' said Mr. Gresham, 'if you have nothing to do, lads,
+will you unpack those two parcels for me?'
+
+The two parcels were exactly alike, both of them well tied up with good
+whipcord. Ben took his parcel to a table, and, after breaking off the
+sealing-wax, began carefully to examine the knot, and then to untie it.
+Hal stood still, exactly in the spot where the parcel was put into his
+hands, and tried, first at one corner and then at another, to pull the
+string off by force. 'I wish these people wouldn't tie up their parcels
+so tight, as if they were never to be undone,' cried he, as he tugged at
+the cord; and he pulled the knot closer instead of loosening it.
+
+'Ben! why, how did you get yours undone, man? what's in your parcel?--I
+wonder what is in mine! I wish I could get this string off--I must cut
+it.'
+
+'Oh no,' said Ben, who now had undone the last knot of his parcel, and
+who drew out the length of string with exultation, 'don't cut it,
+Hal,--look what a nice cord this is, and yours is the same; it's a pity
+to cut it; "_Waste not, want not!_" you know.'
+
+'Pooh!' said Hal, 'what signifies a bit of packthread?' 'It is
+whipcord,' said Ben. 'Well, whipcord! what signifies a bit of whipcord!
+you can get a bit of whipcord twice as long as that for twopence; and
+who cares for twopence? Not I, for one! so here it goes,' cried Hal,
+drawing out his knife; and he cut the cord, precipitately, in sundry
+places.
+
+'Lads, have you undone the parcels for me?' said Mr. Gresham, opening
+the parlour door as he spoke. 'Yes, sir,' cried Hal; and he dragged off
+his half-cut, half-entangled string--'here's the parcel.' 'And here's my
+parcel, uncle; and here's the string,' said Ben. 'You may keep the
+string for your pains,' said Mr. Gresham. 'Thank you, sir,' said Ben;
+'what an excellent whipcord it is!' 'And you, Hal,' continued Mr.
+Gresham, 'you may keep your string too, if it will be of any use to
+you.' 'It will be of no use to me, thank you, sir,' said Hal. 'No, I am
+afraid not, if this be it,' said his uncle, taking up the jagged knotted
+remains of Hal's cord.
+
+A few days after this, Mr. Gresham gave to each of his nephews a new
+top.
+
+'But how's this?' said Hal; 'these tops have no strings; what shall we
+do for strings?' 'I have a string that will do very well for mine,' said
+Ben; and he pulled out of his pocket the fine, long, smooth string which
+had tied up the parcel. With this he soon set up his top, which spun
+admirably well.
+
+'Oh, how I wish I had but a string,' said Hal. 'What shall I do for a
+string? I'll tell you what, I can use the string that goes round my
+hat!' 'But then,' said Ben, 'what will you do for a hat-band?' 'I'll
+manage to do without one,' said Hal, and he took the string off his hat
+for his top. It soon was worn through; and he split his top by driving
+the peg too tightly into it. His cousin Ben let him set up his the next
+day; but Hal was not more fortunate or more careful when he meddled with
+other people's things than when he managed his own. He had scarcely
+played half an hour before he split it, by driving the peg too
+violently.
+
+Ben bore this misfortune with good humour. 'Come,' said he, 'it can't be
+helped; but give me the string, because _that_ may still be of use for
+something else.'
+
+It happened some time afterwards that a lady, who had been intimately
+acquainted with Hal's mother at Bath--that is to say, who had frequently
+met her at the card-table during the winter--now arrived at Clifton. She
+was informed by his mother that Hal was at Mr. Gresham's, and her sons,
+who were _friends_ of his, came to see him, and invited him to spend the
+next day with them.
+
+Hal joyfully accepted the invitation. He was always glad to go out to
+dine, because it gave him something to do, something to think of, or at
+least something to say. Besides this, he had been educated to think it
+was a fine thing to visit fine people; and Lady Diana Sweepstakes (for
+that was the name of his mother's acquaintance) was a very fine lady,
+and her two sons intended to be very _great_ gentlemen. He was in a
+prodigious hurry when these young gentlemen knocked at his uncle's door
+the next day; but just as he got to the hall door, little Patty called
+to him from the top of the stairs, and told him that he had dropped his
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+'Pick it up, then, and bring it to me, quick, can't you, child?' cried
+Hal, 'for Lady Di's sons are waiting for me.'
+
+Little Patty did not know anything about Lady Di's sons; but as she was
+very good-natured, and saw that her cousin Hal was, for some reason or
+other, in a desperate hurry, she ran downstairs as fast as she possibly
+could towards the landing-place, where the handkerchief lay; but, alas!
+before she reached the handkerchief, she fell, rolling down a whole
+flight of stairs, and when her fall was at last stopped by the
+landing-place, she did not cry out, she writhed, as if she was in great
+pain.
+
+'Where are you hurt, my love?' said Mr. Gresham, who came instantly, on
+hearing the noise of some one falling downstairs. 'Where are you hurt,
+my dear?'
+
+'Here, papa,' said the little girl, touching her ankle, which she had
+decently covered with her gown. 'I believe I am hurt here, but not
+much,' added she, trying to rise; 'only it hurts me when I move.' 'I'll
+carry you; don't move then,' said her father, and he took her up in his
+arms. 'My shoe! I've lost one of my shoes,' said she.
+
+Ben looked for it upon the stairs, and he found it sticking in a loop of
+whipcord, which was entangled round one of the banisters. When this cord
+was drawn forth, it appeared that it was the very same jagged, entangled
+piece which Hal had pulled off his parcel. He had diverted himself with
+running up and down stairs, whipping the banisters with it, as he
+thought he could convert it to no better use; and, with his usual
+carelessness, he at last left it hanging just where he happened to throw
+it when the dinner bell rang. Poor little Patty's ankle was terribly
+strained, and Hal reproached himself for his folly, and would have
+reproached himself longer, perhaps, if Lady Di Sweepstakes' sons had not
+hurried him away.
+
+In the evening, Patty could not run about as she used to do; but she sat
+upon the sofa, and she said that she did not feel the pain of her ankle
+_so much_ whilst Ben was so good as to play at _jack straws_ with her.
+
+'That's right, Ben; never be ashamed of being good-natured to those who
+are younger and weaker than yourself,' said his uncle, smiling at seeing
+him produce his whipcord, to indulge his little cousin with a game at
+her favourite cat's cradle. 'I shall not think you one bit less manly,
+because I see you playing at cat's cradle with a little child of six
+years old.'
+
+Hal, however, was not precisely of his uncle's opinion; for when he
+returned in the evening, and saw Ben playing with his little cousin, he
+could not help smiling contemptuously, and asked if he had been playing
+at cat's cradle all night. In a heedless manner he made some inquiries
+after Patty's sprained ankle, and then he ran on to tell all the news he
+had heard at Lady Diana Sweepstakes'--news which he thought would make
+him appear a person of vast importance.
+
+'Do you know, uncle--do you know, Ben,' said he, 'there's to be the most
+_famous_ doings that ever were heard of upon the Downs here, the first
+day of next month, which will be in a fortnight, thank my stars! I wish
+the fortnight was over; I shall think of nothing else, I know, till that
+happy day comes!'
+
+Mr. Gresham inquired why the first of September was to be so much
+happier than any other day in the year. 'Why,' replied Hal, 'Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes, you know, is a _famous_ rider, and archer, and _all
+that_----' 'Very likely,' said Mr. Gresham, soberly; 'but what then?'
+
+'Dear uncle!' cried Hal, 'but you shall hear. There's to be a race upon
+the Downs on the first of September, and after the race, there's to be
+an archery meeting for the ladies, and Lady Diana Sweepstakes is to be
+one of _them_. And after the ladies have done shooting--now, Ben, comes
+the best part of it!--we boys are to have our turn, and Lady Di is to
+give a prize to the best marksman amongst us, of a very handsome bow and
+arrow. Do you know, I've been practising already, and I'll show you,
+to-morrow, as soon as it comes home, the _famous_ bow and arrow that
+Lady Diana has given me; but, perhaps,' added he, with a scornful laugh,
+'you like a cat's cradle better than a bow and arrow.'
+
+[Illustration: _Playing at cat's cradle._]
+
+Ben made no reply to this taunt at the moment; but the next day, when
+Hal's new bow and arrow came home, he convinced him that he knew how to
+use it very well.
+
+'Ben,' said his uncle, 'you seem to be a good marksman, though you have
+not boasted of yourself. I'll give you a bow and arrow, and, perhaps, if
+you practise, you may make yourself an archer before the first of
+September; and, in the meantime, you will not wish the fortnight to be
+over, for you will have something to do.'
+
+'Oh, sir,' interrupted Hal, 'but if you mean that Ben should put in for
+the prize, he must have a uniform.' 'Why _must_ he?' said Mr. Gresham.
+'Why, sir, because everybody has--I mean everybody that's anybody; and
+Lady Diana was talking about the uniform all dinner time, and it's
+settled, all about it, except the buttons: the young Sweepstakes are to
+get theirs made first for patterns--they are to be white, faced with
+green, and they'll look very handsome, I'm sure; and I shall write to
+mamma to-night, as Lady Diana bid me, about mine; and I shall tell her
+to be sure to answer my letter, without fail, by return of post; and
+then, if mamma makes no objection, which I know she won't, because she
+never thinks much about expense, and _all that_--then I shall bespeak my
+uniform, and get it made by the same tailor that makes for Lady Diana
+and the young Sweepstakes.'
+
+'Mercy upon us!' said Mr. Gresham, who was almost stunned by the rapid
+vociferation with which this long speech about a uniform was pronounced.
+'I don't pretend to understand these things,' added he, with an air of
+simplicity; 'but we will inquire, Ben, into the necessity of the case;
+and if it is necessary--or, if you think it necessary, that you shall
+have a uniform--why, I'll give you one.'
+
+'_You_, uncle? Will you, _indeed_?' exclaimed Hal, with amazement
+painted in his countenance. 'Well that's the last thing in the world I
+should have expected! You are not at all the sort of person I should
+have thought would care about a uniform; and now I should have supposed
+you'd have thought it extravagant to have a coat on purpose only for one
+day; and I'm sure Lady Diana Sweepstakes thought as I do; for when I
+told her of that motto over your kitchen chimney, 'WASTE NOT, WANT NOT,'
+she laughed, and said that I had better not talk to you about uniforms,
+and that my mother was the proper person to write to about my uniform;
+but I'll tell Lady Diana, uncle, how good you are, and how much she was
+mistaken.'
+
+'Take care how you do that,' said Mr. Gresham; 'for perhaps the lady was
+not mistaken.' 'Nay, did not you say, just now, you would give poor Ben
+a uniform?' 'I said I would, if he thought it necessary to have one.'
+'Oh, I'll answer for it, he'll think it necessary,' said Hal, laughing,
+'because it is necessary.' 'Allow him, at least, to judge for himself,'
+said Mr. Gresham. 'My dear uncle, but I assure you,' said Hal,
+earnestly, 'there's no judging about the matter, because really, upon my
+word, Lady Diana said distinctly that her sons were to have uniforms,
+white faced with green, and a green and white cockade in their hats.'
+'May be so,' said Mr. Gresham, still with the same look of calm
+simplicity; 'put on your hats, boys, and come with me. I know a
+gentleman whose sons are to be at this archery meeting, and we will
+inquire into all the particulars from him. Then, after we have seen him
+(it is not eleven o'clock yet), we shall have time enough to walk on to
+Bristol, and choose the cloth for Ben's uniform, if it is necessary.'
+
+'I cannot tell what to make of all he says,' whispered Hal, as he
+reached down his hat; 'do you think, Ben, he means to give you this
+uniform, or not?' 'I think,' said Ben, 'that he means to give me one, if
+it is necessary; or, as he said, if I think it is necessary.'
+
+'And that to be sure you will; won't you? or else you'll be a great
+fool, I know, after all I've told you. How can any one in the world know
+so much about the matter as I, who have dined with Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes but yesterday, and heard all about it from beginning to end?
+And as for this gentleman that we are going to, I'm sure, if he knows
+anything about the matter, he'll say exactly the same as I do.' 'We
+shall hear,' said Ben, with a degree of composure which Hal could by no
+means comprehend when a uniform was in question.
+
+The gentleman upon whom Mr. Gresham called had three sons, who were all
+to be at this archery meeting; and they unanimously assured him, in the
+presence of Hal and Ben, that they had never thought of buying uniforms
+for this grand occasion, and that, amongst the number of their
+acquaintance, they knew of but three boys whose friends intended to be
+at such an _unnecessary_ expense. Hal stood amazed.
+
+'Such are the varieties of opinion upon all the grand affairs of life,'
+said Mr. Gresham, looking at his nephews. 'What amongst one set of
+people you hear asserted to be absolutely necessary, you will hear from
+another set of people is quite unnecessary. All that can be done, my
+dear boys, in these difficult cases, is to judge for yourselves which
+opinions and which people are the most reasonable.'
+
+Hal, who had been more accustomed to think of what was fashionable than
+of what was reasonable, without at all considering the good sense of
+what his uncle said to him, replied, with childish petulance, 'Indeed,
+sir, I don't know what other people think; but I only know what Lady
+Diana Sweepstakes said.' The name of Lady Diana Sweepstakes, Hal
+thought, must impress all present with respect; he was highly astonished
+when, as he looked round, he saw a smile of contempt upon every one's
+countenance; and he was yet further bewildered when he heard her spoken
+of as a very silly, extravagant, ridiculous woman, whose opinion no
+prudent person would ask upon any subject, and whose example was to be
+shunned instead of being imitated.
+
+'Ay, my dear Hal,' said his uncle, smiling at his look of amazement,
+'these are some of the things that young people must learn from
+experience. All the world do not agree in opinion about characters: you
+will hear the same person admired in one company and blamed in another;
+so that we must still come round to the same point, _Judge for
+yourself_.'
+
+Hal's thoughts were, however, at present too full of the uniform to
+allow his judgment to act with perfect impartiality. As soon as their
+visit was over, and all the time they walked down the hill from Prince's
+Buildings towards Bristol, he continued to repeat nearly the same
+arguments which he had formerly used respecting necessity, the uniform,
+and Lady Diana Sweepstakes. To all this Mr. Gresham made no reply, and
+longer had the young gentleman expatiated upon the subject, which had so
+strongly seized upon his imagination, had not his senses been forcibly
+assailed at this instant by the delicious odours and tempting sight of
+certain cakes and jellies in a pastrycook's shop. 'Oh, uncle,' said he,
+as his uncle was going to turn the corner to pursue the road to Bristol,
+'look at those jellies!' pointing to a confectioner's shop. 'I must buy
+some of those good things, for I have got some halfpence in my pocket.'
+'Your having halfpence in your pocket is an excellent reason for
+eating,' said Mr. Gresham, smiling. 'But I really am hungry,' said Hal;
+'you know, uncle, it is a good while since breakfast.'
+
+His uncle, who was desirous to see his nephews act without restraint,
+that he might judge their characters, bid them do as they pleased.
+
+'Come, then, Ben, if you've any halfpence in your pocket.' 'I'm not
+hungry,' said Ben. 'I suppose _that_ means that you've no halfpence,'
+said Hal, laughing, with the look of superiority which he had been
+taught to think _the rich_ might assume towards those who were convicted
+either of poverty or economy. 'Waste not, want not,' said Ben to
+himself. Contrary to his cousin's surmise, he happened to have two
+pennyworth of halfpence actually in his pocket.
+
+At the very moment Hal stepped into the pastrycook's shop, a poor,
+industrious man, with a wooden leg, who usually sweeps the dirty corner
+of the walk which turns at this spot to the Wells, held his hat to Ben,
+who, after glancing his eye at the petitioner's well-worn broom,
+instantly produced his twopence. 'I wish I had more halfpence for you,
+my good man,' said he; 'but I've only twopence.'
+
+Hal came out of Mr. Millar's, the confectioner's shop, with a hatful of
+cakes in his hand. Mr. Millar's dog was sitting on the flags before the
+door, and he looked up with a wistful, begging eye at Hal, who was
+eating a queen-cake. Hal, who was wasteful even in his good-nature,
+threw a whole queen-cake to the dog, who swallowed it for a single
+mouthful.
+
+'There goes twopence in the form of a queen-cake,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+Hal next offered some of his cakes to his uncle and cousin; but they
+thanked him, and refused to eat any, because, they said, they were not
+hungry; so he ate and ate as he walked along, till at last he stopped
+and said, 'This bun tastes so bad after the queen-cakes, I can't bear
+it!' and he was going to fling it from him into the river. 'Oh, it is a
+pity to waste that good bun; we may be glad of it yet,' said Ben; 'give
+it me rather than throw it away.' 'Why, I thought you said you were not
+hungry,' said Hal. 'True, I am not hungry now; but that is no reason why
+I should never be hungry again.' 'Well, there is the cake for you. Take
+it; for it has made me sick, and I don't care what becomes of it.'
+
+Ben folded the refuse bit of his cousin's bun in a piece of paper, and
+put it into his pocket.
+
+'I'm beginning to be exceeding tired or sick or something,' said Hal;
+'and as there is a stand of coaches somewhere hereabouts, had we not
+better take a coach, instead of walking all the way to Bristol?'
+
+'For a stout archer,' said Mr. Gresham, 'you are more easily tired than
+one might have expected. However, with all my heart, let us take a
+coach, for Ben asked me to show him the cathedral yesterday; and I
+believe I should find it rather too much for me to walk so far, though I
+am not sick with eating good things.'
+
+'_The cathedral!_' said Hal, after he had been seated in the coach about
+a quarter of an hour, and had somewhat recovered from his sickness--'the
+cathedral! Why, are we only going to Bristol to see the cathedral? I
+thought we came out to see about a uniform.'
+
+There was a dulness and melancholy kind of stupidity in Hal's
+countenance as he pronounced these words, like one wakening from a
+dream, which made both his uncle and his cousin burst out a-laughing.
+
+'Why,' said Hal, who was now piqued, 'I'm sure you _did_ say, uncle, you
+would go to Mr. Hall's to choose the cloth for the uniform.' 'Very true,
+and so I will,' said Mr. Gresham; 'but we need not make a whole
+morning's work, need we, of looking at a piece of cloth? Cannot we see a
+uniform and a cathedral both in one morning?'
+
+They went first to the cathedral. Hal's head was too full of the uniform
+to take any notice of the painted window, which immediately caught Ben's
+embarrassed attention. He looked at the large stained figures on the
+Gothic window, and he observed their coloured shadows on the floor and
+walls.
+
+Mr. Gresham, who perceived that he was eager on all subjects to gain
+information, took this opportunity of telling him several things about
+the lost art of painting on glass, Gothic arches, etc., which Hal
+thought extremely tiresome.
+
+'Come! come! we shall be late indeed,' said Hal; 'surely you've looked
+long enough, Ben, at this blue and red window.' 'I'm only thinking about
+these coloured shadows,' said Ben. 'I can show you when we go home,
+Ben,' said his uncle, 'an entertaining paper upon such shadows.'[13]
+'Hark!' cried Ben, 'did you hear that noise?' They all listened; and
+they heard a bird singing in the cathedral. 'It's our old robin, sir,'
+said the lad who had opened the cathedral door for them.
+
+  [13] Vide Priestley's _History of Vision_, chapter on coloured
+       shadows.
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Gresham, 'there he is, boys--look--perched upon the
+organ; he often sits there, and sings, whilst the organ is playing.'
+'And,' continued the lad who showed the cathedral, 'he has lived here
+these many, many winters. They say he is fifteen years old; and he is so
+tame, poor fellow! that if I had a bit of bread he'd come down and feed
+in my hand.' 'I've a bit of bun here,' cried Ben joyfully, producing the
+remains of the bun which Hal but an hour before would have thrown away.
+'Pray, let us see the poor robin eat out of your hand.'
+
+The lad crumbled the bun, and called to the robin, who fluttered and
+chirped, and seemed rejoiced at the sight of the bread; but yet he did
+not come down from his pinnacle on the organ.
+
+'He is afraid of _us_,' said Ben; 'he is not used to eat before
+strangers, I suppose.'
+
+'Ah, no, sir,' said the young man, with a deep sigh, 'that is not the
+thing. He is used enough to eat afore company. Time was he'd have come
+down for me before ever so many fine folks, and have eat his crumbs out
+of my hand, at my first call; but, poor fellow! it's not his fault now.
+He does not know me now, sir, since my accident, because of this great
+black patch.' The young man put his hand to his right eye, which was
+covered with a huge black patch. Ben asked what _accident_ he meant; and
+the lad told him that, but a few weeks ago, he had lost the sight of his
+eye by the stroke of a stone, which reached him as he was passing under
+the rocks at Clifton, unluckily when the workmen were blasting. 'I don't
+mind so much for myself, sir,' said the lad; 'but I can't work so well
+now, as I used to do before my accident, for my old mother, who has had
+a _stroke_ of the palsy; and I've a many little brothers and sisters not
+well able yet to get their own livelihood, though they be as willing as
+willing can be.'
+
+'Where does your mother live?' said Mr. Gresham. 'Hard by, sir, just
+close to the church here: it was _her_ that always had the showing of it
+to strangers, till she lost the use of her poor limbs.'
+
+'Shall we, may we, uncle, go that way? This is the house; is not it?'
+said Ben, when they went out of the cathedral.
+
+They went into the house; it was rather a hovel than a house; but, poor
+as it was, it was as neat as misery could make it. The old woman was
+sitting up in her wretched bed, winding worsted; four meagre,
+ill-clothed, pale children, were all busy, some of them sticking pins in
+paper for the pin-maker, and others sorting rags for the paper-maker.
+
+'What a horrid place it is!' said Hal, sighing; 'I did not know there
+were such shocking places in the world. I've often seen
+terrible-looking, tumble-down places, as we drove through the town in
+mamma's carriage; but then I did not know who lived in them; and I never
+saw the inside of any of them. It is very dreadful, indeed, to think
+that people are forced to live in this way. I wish mamma would send me
+some more pocket-money, that I might do something for them. I had half a
+crown; but,' continued he, feeling in his pockets, 'I'm afraid I spent
+the last shilling of it this morning upon those cakes that made me sick.
+I wish I had my shilling now, I'd give it to _these poor people_.'
+
+Ben, though he was all this time silent, was as sorry as his talkative
+cousin for all these poor people. But there was some difference between
+the sorrow of these two boys.
+
+Hal, after he was again seated in the hackney-coach, and had rattled
+through the busy streets of Bristol for a few minutes, quite forgot the
+spectacle of misery which he had seen; and the gay shops in Wine Street
+and the idea of his green and white uniform wholly occupied his
+imagination.
+
+'Now for our uniforms!' cried he, as he jumped eagerly out of the coach,
+when his uncle stopped at the woollen-draper's door.
+
+'Uncle,' said Ben, stopping Mr. Gresham before he got out of the
+carriage, 'I don't think a uniform is at all necessary for me. I'm very
+much obliged to you; but I would rather not have one. I have a very good
+coat, and I think it would be waste.'
+
+'Well, let me get out of the carriage, and we will see about it,' said
+Mr. Gresham; 'perhaps the sight of the beautiful green and white cloth,
+and the epaulette (have you ever considered the epaulettes?) may tempt
+you to change your mind.' 'Oh no,' said Ben, laughing; 'I shall not
+change my mind.'
+
+The green cloth, and the white cloth, and the epaulettes were produced,
+to Hal's infinite satisfaction. His uncle took up a pen, and calculated
+for a few minutes; then, showing the back of the letter, upon which he
+was writing, to his nephews, 'Cast up these sums, boys,' said he, 'and
+tell me whether I am right.' 'Ben, do you do it,' said Hal, a little
+embarrassed; 'I am not quick at figures.' Ben _was_, and he went over
+his uncle's calculation very expeditiously.
+
+'It is right, is it?' said Mr. Gresham. 'Yes, sir, quite right.' 'Then,
+by this calculation, I find I could, for less than half the money your
+uniforms would cost, purchase for each of you boys a warm greatcoat,
+which you will want, I have a notion, this winter upon the Downs.'
+
+'Oh, sir,' said Hal, with an alarmed look; 'but it is not winter _yet_;
+it is not cold weather _yet_. We shan't want greatcoats _yet_.'
+
+'Don't you remember how cold we were, Hal, the day before yesterday, in
+that sharp wind, when we were flying our kite upon the Downs? and winter
+will come, though it is not come yet--I am sure, I should like to have a
+good warm greatcoat very much.'
+
+Mr. Gresham took six guineas out of his purse; and he placed three of
+them before Hal, and three before Ben. 'Young gentlemen,' said he, 'I
+believe your uniforms would come to about three guineas apiece. Now I
+will lay out this money for you just as you please. Hal, what say you?'
+'Why, sir,' said Hal, 'a greatcoat is a good thing, to be sure; and
+then, after the greatcoat, as you said it would only cost half as much
+as the uniform, there would be some money to spare, would not there?'
+'Yes, my dear, about five-and-twenty shillings.' 'Five-and-twenty
+shillings?--I could buy and do a great many things, to be sure, with
+five-and-twenty shillings; but then, _the thing is_, I must go without
+the uniform, if I have the greatcoat.' 'Certainly,' said his uncle.
+'Ah!' said Hal, sighing, as he looked at the epaulette, 'uncle, if you
+would not be displeased, if I choose the uniform----' 'I shall not be
+displeased at your choosing whatever you like best,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+'Well, then, thank you, sir,' said Hal; 'I think I had better have the
+uniform, because, if I have not the uniform, now, directly, it will be
+of no use to me, as the archery meeting is the week after next, you
+know; and, as to the greatcoat, perhaps between this time and the _very_
+cold weather, which, perhaps, won't be till Christmas, papa will buy a
+greatcoat for me; and I'll ask mamma to give me some pocket-money to
+give away, and she will, perhaps.' To all this conclusive, conditional
+reasoning, which depended upon the word _perhaps_, three times repeated,
+Mr. Gresham made no reply; but he immediately bought the uniform for
+Hal, and desired that it should be sent to Lady Diana Sweepstakes' son's
+tailor, to be made up. The measure of Hal's happiness was now complete.
+
+'And how am I to lay out the three guineas for you, Ben?' said Mr.
+Gresham; 'speak, what do you wish for first?' 'A greatcoat, uncle, if
+you please.' Mr. Gresham bought the coat; and, after it was paid for,
+five-and-twenty shillings of Ben's three guineas remained. 'What next,
+my boy?' said his uncle. 'Arrows, uncle, if you please; three arrows.'
+'My dear, I promised you a bow and arrows.' 'No, uncle, you only said a
+bow.' 'Well, I meant a bow and arrows. I'm glad you are so exact,
+however. It is better to claim less than more than what is promised. The
+three arrows you shall have. But go on; how shall I dispose of these
+five-and-twenty shillings for you?' 'In clothes, if you will be so good,
+uncle, for that poor boy who has the great black patch on his eye.'
+
+'I always believed,' said Mr. Gresham, shaking hands with Ben, 'that
+economy and generosity were the best friends, instead of being enemies,
+as some silly, extravagant people would have us think them. Choose the
+poor, blind boy's coat, my dear nephew, and pay for it. There's no
+occasion for my praising you about the matter. Your best reward is in
+your own mind, child; and you want no other, or I'm mistaken. Now, jump
+into the coach, boys, and let's be off. We shall be late, I'm afraid,'
+continued he, as the coach drove on; 'but I must let you stop, Ben, with
+your goods, at the poor boy's door.'
+
+When they came to the house, Mr. Gresham opened the coach door, and Ben
+jumped out with his parcel under his arm.
+
+'Stay, stay! you must take me with you,' said his pleased uncle; 'I like
+to see people made happy as well as you do.' 'And so do I, too,' said
+Hal; 'let me come with you. I almost wish my uniform was not gone to the
+tailor's, so I do.' And when he saw the look of delight and gratitude
+with which the poor boy received the clothes which Ben gave him, and
+when he heard the mother and children thank him, Hal sighed, and said,
+'Well, I hope mamma will give me some more pocket-money soon.'
+
+Upon his return home, however, the sight of the _famous_ bow and arrow,
+which Lady Diana Sweepstakes had sent him, recalled to his imagination
+all the joys of his green and white uniform; and he no longer wished
+that it had not been sent to the tailor's. 'But I don't understand,
+Cousin Hal,' said little Patty, 'why you call this bow a _famous_ bow.
+You say _famous_ very often; and I don't know exactly what it means; a
+_famous_ uniform--_famous_ doings. I remember you said there are to be
+_famous_ doings, the first of September, upon the Downs. What does
+_famous_ mean?' 'Oh, why, _famous_ means--now, don't you know what
+_famous_ means? It means--it is a word that people say--it is the
+fashion to say it--it means--it means _famous_.' Patty laughed, and
+said, '_This_ does not explain it to me.'
+
+'No,' said Hal, 'nor can it be explained: if you don't understand it,
+that's not my fault. Everybody but little children, I suppose,
+understands it; but there's no explaining _those sort_ of words, if you
+don't _take them_ at once. There's to be _famous_ doings upon the Downs,
+the first of September; that is grand, fine. In short, what does it
+signify talking any longer, Patty, about the matter? Give me my bow, for
+I must go out upon the Downs and practise.'
+
+Ben accompanied him with the bow and the three arrows which his uncle
+had now given to him; and, every day, these two boys went out upon the
+Downs and practised shooting with indefatigable perseverance. Where
+equal pains are taken, success is usually found to be pretty nearly
+equal. Our two archers, by constant practice, became expert marksmen;
+and before the day of trial, they were so exactly matched in point of
+dexterity, that it was scarcely possible to decide which was superior.
+
+The long-expected 1st of September at length arrived. 'What sort of a
+day is it?' was the first question that was asked by Hal and Ben the
+moment that they wakened. The sun shone bright, but there was a sharp
+and high wind. 'Ha!' said Ben, 'I shall be glad of my good greatcoat
+to-day; for I've a notion it will be rather cold upon the Downs,
+especially when we are standing still, as we must, whilst all the people
+are shooting.' 'Oh, never mind! I don't think I shall feel it cold at
+all,' said Hal, as he dressed himself in his new green and white
+uniform; and he viewed himself with much complacency.
+
+'Good morning to you, uncle; how do you do?' said he, in a voice of
+exultation, when he entered the breakfast-room. How do you do? seemed
+rather to mean 'How do you like me in my uniform?' And his uncle's cool
+'Very well, I thank you, Hal,' disappointed him, as it seemed only to
+say, 'Your uniform makes no difference in my opinion of you.'
+
+Even little Patty went on eating her breakfast much as usual, and talked
+of the pleasure of walking with her father to the Downs, and of all the
+little things which interested her; so that Hal's epaulettes were not
+the principal object in any one's imagination but his own.
+
+'Papa,' said Patty, 'as we go up the hill where there is so much red
+mud, I must take care to pick my way nicely; and I must hold up my
+frock, as you desired me, and, perhaps, you will be so good, if I am not
+troublesome, to lift me over the very bad place where are no
+stepping-stones. My ankle is entirely well, and I'm glad of that, or
+else I should not be able to walk so far as the Downs. How good you were
+to me, Ben, when I was in pain the day I sprained my ankle! You played
+at jack straws and at cat's cradle with me. Oh, that puts me in
+mind--here are your gloves which I asked you that night to let me mend.
+I've been a great while about them; but are not they very neatly mended,
+papa? Look at the sewing.'
+
+'I am not a very good judge of sewing, my dear little girl,' said Mr.
+Gresham, examining the work with a close and scrupulous eye; 'but, in my
+opinion, here is one stitch that is rather too long. The white teeth are
+not quite even.' 'Oh, papa, I'll take out that long tooth in a minute,'
+said Patty, laughing; 'I did not think that you would observe it so
+soon.'
+
+'I would not have you trust to my blindness,' said her father, stroking
+her head fondly; 'I observe everything. I observe, for instance, that
+you are a grateful little girl, and that you are glad to be of use to
+those who have been kind to you; and for this I forgive you the long
+stitch.' 'But it's out, it's out, papa,' said Patty; 'and the next time
+your gloves want mending, Ben, I'll mend them better.'
+
+'They are very nice, I think,' said Ben, drawing them on; 'and I am much
+obliged to you. I was just wishing I had a pair of gloves to keep my
+fingers warm to-day, for I never can shoot well when my hands are
+benumbed. Look, Hal; you know how ragged these gloves were; you said
+they were good for nothing but to throw away; now look, there's not a
+hole in them,' said he, spreading his fingers.
+
+'Now, is it not very extraordinary,' said Hal to himself, 'that they
+should go on so long talking about an old pair of gloves, without saying
+scarcely a word about my new uniform? Well, the young Sweepstakes and
+Lady Diana will talk enough about it; that's one comfort. Is not it time
+to think of setting out, sir?' said Hal to his uncle. 'The company, you
+know, are to meet at the Ostrich at twelve, and the race to begin at
+one, and Lady Diana's horses, I know, were ordered to be at the door at
+ten.'
+
+Mr. Stephen, the butler, here interrupted the hurrying young gentleman
+in his calculations. 'There's a poor lad, sir, below, with a great black
+patch on his right eye, who is come from Bristol, and wants to speak a
+word with the young gentlemen, if you please. I told him they were just
+going out with you; but he says he won't detain them more than half a
+minute.'
+
+'Show him up, show him up,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+'But, I suppose,' said Hal, with a sigh, 'that Stephen mistook, when he
+said the young _gentlemen_; he only wants to see Ben, I daresay; I'm
+sure he has no reason to want to see me.'
+
+'Here he comes--O Ben, he is dressed in the new coat you gave him,'
+whispered Hal, who was really a good-natured boy, though extravagant.
+'How much better he looks than he did in the ragged coat! Ah! he looked
+at you first, Ben--and well he may!'
+
+The boy bowed, without any cringing civility, but with an open, decent
+freedom in his manner, which expressed that he had been obliged, but
+that he knew his young benefactor was not thinking of the obligation.
+He made as little distinction as possible between his bows to the two
+cousins.
+
+'As I was sent with a message, by the clerk of our parish, to Redland
+chapel out on the Downs, to-day, sir,' said he to Mr. Gresham, 'knowing
+your house lay in my way, my mother, sir, bid me call, and make bold to
+offer the young gentlemen two little worsted balls that she has worked
+for them,' continued the lad, pulling out of his pocket two worsted
+balls worked in green and orange-coloured stripes. 'They are but poor
+things, sir, she bid me say, to look at; but, considering she has but
+one hand to work with, and _that_ her left hand, you'll not despise 'em,
+we hopes.' He held the balls to Ben and Hal. 'They are both alike,
+gentlemen,' said he. 'If you'll be pleased to take 'em, they're better
+than they look, for they bound higher than your head. I cut the cork
+round for the inside myself, which was all I could do.'
+
+'They are nice balls, indeed: we are much obliged to you,' said the boys
+as they received them, and they proved them immediately. The balls
+struck the floor with a delightful sound, and rebounded higher than Mr.
+Gresham's head. Little Patty clapped her hands joyfully. But now a
+thundering double rap at the door was heard.
+
+'The Master Sweepstakes, sir,' said Stephen, 'are come for Master Hal.
+They say that all the young gentlemen who have archery uniforms are to
+walk together, in a body, I think they say, sir; and they are to parade
+along the Well Walk, they desired me to say, sir, with a drum and fife,
+and so up the hill by Prince's Place, and all to go upon the Downs
+together, to the place of meeting. I am not sure I'm right, sir; for
+both the young gentlemen spoke at once, and the wind is very high at the
+street door; so that I could not well make out all they said; but I
+believe this is the sense of it.'
+
+'Yes, yes,' said Hal eagerly, 'it's all right. I know that is just what
+was settled the day I dined at Lady Diana's; and Lady Diana and a great
+party of gentlemen are to ride----'
+
+'Well, that is nothing to the purpose,' interrupted Mr. Gresham. 'Don't
+keep these Master Sweepstakes waiting. Decide--do you choose to go with
+them or with us?' 'Sir--uncle--sir, you know, since all the _uniforms_
+agreed to go together----' 'Off with you, then, Mr. Uniform, if you mean
+to go,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+Hal ran downstairs in such a hurry that he forgot his bow and arrows.
+Ben discovered this when he went to fetch his own; and the lad from
+Bristol, who had been ordered by Mr. Gresham to eat his breakfast before
+he proceeded to Redland Chapel, heard Ben talking about his cousin's bow
+and arrows. 'I know,' said Ben, 'he will be sorry not to have his bow
+with him, because here are the green knots tied to it, to match his
+cockade; and he said that the boys were all to carry their bows, as part
+of the show.'
+
+'If you'll give me leave, sir,' said the poor Bristol lad, 'I shall have
+plenty of time; and I'll run down to the Well Walk after the young
+gentleman, and take him his bow and arrows.'
+
+'Will you? I shall be much obliged to you,' said Ben; and away went the
+boy with the bow that was ornamented with green ribands.
+
+The public walk leading to the Wells was full of company. The windows of
+all the houses in St. Vincent's Parade were crowded with well-dressed
+ladies, who were looking out in expectation of the archery procession.
+Parties of gentlemen and ladies, and a motley crowd of spectators, were
+seen moving backwards and forwards, under the rocks, on the opposite
+side of the water. A barge, with coloured streamers flying, was waiting
+to take up a party who were going upon the water. The bargemen rested
+upon their oars, and gazed with broad face of curiosity upon the busy
+scene that appeared upon the public walk.
+
+The archers and archeresses were now drawn up on the flags under the
+semicircular piazza just before Mrs. Yearsley's library. A little band
+of children, who had been mustered by Lady Diana Sweepstakes' _spirited
+exertions_, closed the procession. They were now all in readiness. The
+drummer only waited for her ladyship's signal; and the archers' corps
+only waited for her ladyship's word of command to march.
+
+'Where are your bow and arrows, my little man?' said her ladyship to
+Hal, as she reviewed her Lilliputian regiment. 'You can't march, man,
+without your arms?'
+
+Hal had despatched a messenger for his forgotten bow, but the messenger
+returned not. He looked from side to side in great distress--'Oh,
+there's my bow coming, I declare!' cried he; 'look, I see the bow and
+the ribands. Look now, between the trees, Charles Sweepstakes, on the
+Hotwell Walk; it is coming!' 'But you've kept us all waiting a
+confounded time,' said his impatient friend. 'It is that good-natured
+poor fellow from Bristol, I protest, that has brought it me; I'm sure I
+don't deserve it from him,' said Hal to himself, when he saw the lad
+with the black patch on his eye running, quite out of breath, towards
+him, with his bow and arrows.
+
+'Fall back, my good friend--fall back,' said the military lady, as soon
+as he had delivered the bow to Hal; 'I mean, stand out of the way, for
+your great patch cuts no figure amongst us. Don't follow so close, now,
+as if you belonged to us, pray.'
+
+The poor boy had no ambition to partake the triumph; he _fell back_ as
+soon as he understood the meaning of the lady's words. The drum beat,
+the fife played, the archers marched, the spectators admired. Hal
+stepped proudly, and felt as if the eyes of the whole universe were upon
+his epaulettes, or upon the facings of his uniform; whilst all the time
+he was considered only as part of a show.
+
+The walk appeared much shorter than usual, and he was extremely sorry
+that Lady Diana, when they were half-way up the hill leading to Prince's
+Place, mounted her horse, because the road was dirty, and all the
+gentlemen and ladies who accompanied her followed her example.
+
+'We can leave the children to walk, you know,' said she to the gentleman
+who helped her to mount her horse. 'I must call to some of them, though,
+and leave orders where they are to _join_.'
+
+She beckoned: and Hal, who was foremost, and proud to show his alacrity,
+ran on to receive her ladyship's orders. Now, as we have before
+observed, it was a sharp and windy day; and though Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes was actually speaking to him, and looking at him, he could
+not prevent his nose from wanting to be blowed: he pulled out his
+handkerchief and out rolled the new ball which had been given to him
+just before he left home, and which, according to his usual careless
+habits, he had stuffed into his pocket in his hurry. 'Oh, my new ball!'
+cried he, as he ran after it. As he stopped to pick it up, he let go his
+hat, which he had hitherto held on with anxious care; for the hat,
+though it had a fine green and white cockade, had no band or string
+round it. The string, as we may recollect, our wasteful hero had used
+in spinning his top. The hat was too large for his head without this
+band; a sudden gust of wind blew it off. Lady Diana's horse started and
+reared. She was a _famous_ horsewoman, and sat him to the admiration of
+all beholders; but there was a puddle of red clay and water in this
+spot, and her ladyship's uniform habit was a sufferer by the accident.
+'Careless brat!' said she, 'why can't he keep his hat upon his head?' In
+the meantime, the wind blew the hat down the hill, and Hal ran after it
+amidst the laughter of his kind friends, the young Sweepstakes, and the
+rest of the little regiment. The hat was lodged, at length, upon a bank.
+Hal pursued it: he thought this bank was hard, but, alas! the moment he
+set his foot upon it the foot sank. He tried to draw it back; his other
+foot slipped, and he fell prostrate, in his green and white uniform,
+into the treacherous bed of red mud. His companions, who had halted upon
+the top of the hill, stood laughing spectators of his misfortune.
+
+It happened that the poor boy with the black patch upon his eye, who had
+been ordered by Lady Diana to '_fall back_,' and to '_keep at a
+distance_' was now coming up the hill; and the moment he saw our fallen
+hero, he hastened to his assistance. He dragged poor Hal, who was a
+deplorable spectacle, out of the red mud. The obliging mistress of a
+lodging-house, as soon as she understood that the young gentleman was
+nephew to Mr. Gresham, to whom she had formerly let her house, received
+Hal, covered as he was with dirt.
+
+The poor Bristol lad hastened to Mr. Gresham's for clean stockings and
+shoes for Hal. He was willing to give up his uniform: it was rubbed and
+rubbed, and a spot here and there was washed out; and he kept
+continually repeating,--'When it's dry it will all brush off--when it's
+dry it will all brush off, won't it?' But soon the fear of being too
+late at the archery meeting began to balance the dread of appearing in
+his stained habiliments; and he now as anxiously repeated, whilst the
+woman held the wet coat to the fire, 'Oh, I shall be too late; indeed, I
+shall be too late; make haste; it will never dry; hold it nearer--nearer
+to the fire. I shall lose my turn to shoot; oh, give me the coat; I
+don't mind how it is, if I can but get it on.'
+
+Holding it nearer and nearer to the fire dried it quickly, to be sure;
+but it shrank it also, so that it was no easy matter to get the coat
+on again. However, Hal, who did not see the red splashes, which, in
+spite of all these operations, were too visible upon his shoulders, and
+upon the skirts of his white coat behind, was pretty well satisfied to
+observe that there was not one spot upon the facings. 'Nobody,' said he,
+'will take notice of my coat behind, I daresay. I think it looks as
+smart almost as ever!'--and under this persuasion our young archer
+resumed his bow--his bow with green ribands, now no more!--and he
+pursued his way to the Downs.
+
+[Illustration: _He dragged poor Hal out of the red mud._]
+
+All his companions were far out of sight. 'I suppose,' said he to his
+friend with the black patch--'I suppose my uncle and Ben had left home
+before you went for the shoes and stockings for me?'
+
+'Oh yes, sir; the butler said they had been gone to the Downs the matter
+of a good half-hour or more.'
+
+Hal trudged on as fast as he possibly could. When he got upon the Downs,
+he saw numbers of carriages, and crowds of people, all going towards the
+place of meeting at the Ostrich. He pressed forwards. He was at first so
+much afraid of being late, that he did not take notice of the mirth his
+motley appearance excited in all beholders. At length he reached the
+appointed spot. There was a great crowd of people. In the midst he heard
+Lady Diana's loud voice betting upon some one who was just going to
+shoot at the mark.
+
+'So then the shooting is begun, is it?' said Hal. 'Oh, let me in! pray
+let me into the circle! I'm one of the archers--I am, indeed; don't you
+see my green and white uniform?'
+
+'Your red and white uniform, you mean,' said the man to whom he
+addressed himself; and the people, as they opened a passage for him,
+could not refrain laughing at the mixture of dirt and finery which it
+exhibited. In vain, when he got into the midst of the formidable circle,
+he looked to his friends, the young Sweepstakes, for their countenance
+and support. They were amongst the most unmerciful of the laughers. Lady
+Diana also seemed more to enjoy than to pity his confusion.
+
+'Why could you not keep your hat upon your head, man?' said she, in her
+masculine tone. 'You have been almost the ruin of my poor uniform habit;
+but I've escaped rather better than you have. Don't stand there, in the
+middle of the circle, or you'll have an arrow in your eyes just now,
+I've a notion.'
+
+Hal looked round in search of better friends. 'Oh, where's my
+uncle?--where's Ben?' said he. He was in such confusion, that, amongst
+the number of faces, he could scarcely distinguish one from another; but
+he felt somebody at this moment pull his elbow, and, to his great
+relief, he heard the friendly voice and saw the good-natured face of his
+cousin Ben.
+
+'Come back--come behind these people,' said Ben, 'and put on my
+greatcoat; here it is for you.'
+
+Right glad was Hal to cover his disgraced uniform with the rough
+greatcoat which he had formerly despised. He pulled the stained,
+drooping cockade out of his unfortunate hat; and he was now sufficiently
+recovered from his vexation to give an intelligible account of his
+accident to his uncle and Patty, who anxiously inquired what had
+detained him so long, and what had been the matter. In the midst of the
+history of his disaster, he was just proving to Patty that his taking
+the hatband to spin his top had nothing to do with his misfortune, and
+he was at the same time endeavouring to refute his uncle's opinion that
+the waste of the whipcord that tied the parcel was the original cause of
+all his evils, when he was summoned to try his skill with his _famous_
+bow.
+
+'My hands are benumbed; I can scarcely feel,' said he, rubbing them, and
+blowing upon the ends of his fingers.
+
+'Come, come,' cried young Sweepstakes, 'I'm within one inch of the mark;
+who'll go nearer? I shall like to see. Shoot away, Hal; but first
+understand our laws; we settled them before you came upon the green. You
+are to have three shots, with your own bow and your own arrows; and
+nobody's to borrow or lend under pretence of other's bows being better
+or worse, or under any pretence. Do you hear, Hal?'
+
+This young gentleman had good reasons for being so strict in these laws,
+as he had observed that none of his companions had such an excellent bow
+as he had provided for himself. Some of the boys had forgotten to bring
+more than one arrow with them, and by his cunning regulation that each
+person should shoot with his own arrows, many had lost one or two of
+their shots.
+
+'You are a lucky fellow; you have your three arrows,' said young
+Sweepstakes. 'Come, we can't wait whilst you rub your fingers,
+man--shoot away.'
+
+Hal was rather surprised at the asperity with which his friend spoke. He
+little knew how easily acquaintance who call themselves friends can
+change when their interest comes in the slightest degree in competition
+with their friendship. Hurried by his impatient rival, and with his
+hands so much benumbed that he could scarcely feel how to fix the arrow
+in the string, he drew the bow. The arrow was within a quarter of an
+inch of Master Sweepstakes' mark, which was the nearest that had yet
+been hit. Hal seized his second arrow. 'If I have any luck----' said he.
+But just as he pronounced the word _luck_, and as he bent his bow, the
+string broke in two, and the bow fell from his hands.
+
+'There, it's all over with you!' cried Master Sweepstakes, with a
+triumphant laugh.
+
+'Here's my bow for him, and welcome,' said Ben. 'No, no, sir,' said
+Master Sweepstakes, 'that is not fair; that's against the regulation.
+You may shoot with your own bow, if you choose it, or you may not, just
+as you think proper; but you must not lend it, sir.'
+
+It was now Ben's turn to make his trial. His first arrow was not
+successful. His second was exactly as near as Hal's first. 'You have but
+one more,' said Master Sweepstakes; 'now for it!' Ben, before he
+ventured his last arrow, prudently examined the string of his bow; and,
+as he pulled it to try its strength, it cracked. Master Sweepstakes
+clapped his hands, with loud exultations and insulting laughter. But his
+laughter ceased when our provident hero calmly drew from his pocket an
+excellent piece of whipcord.
+
+'The everlasting whipcord, I declare!' exclaimed Hal, when he saw that
+it was the very same that had tied up the parcel. 'Yes,' said Ben, as he
+fastened it to his bow, 'I put it into my pocket to-day on purpose,
+because I thought I might happen to want it.' He drew his bow the third
+and last time.
+
+'Oh, papa!' cried little Patty, as his arrow hit the mark, 'it's the
+nearest; is it not the nearest?'
+
+Master Sweepstakes, with anxiety, examined the hit. There could be no
+doubt. Ben was victorious! The bow, the prize bow, was now delivered to
+him; and Hal, as he looked at the whipcord, exclaimed, 'How _lucky_ this
+whipcord has been to you, Ben!'
+
+'It is _lucky_, perhaps, you mean, that he took care of it,' said Mr.
+Gresham.
+
+'Ay,' said Hal, 'very true; he might well say, "Waste not, want not." It
+is a good thing to have two strings to one's bow.'
+
+
+
+
+OLD POZ
+
+
+    LUCY, _daughter to the Justice._
+    MRS. BUSTLE, _landlady of the 'Saracen's Head.'_
+    JUSTICE HEADSTRONG.
+    OLD MAN.
+    WILLIAM, _a Servant._
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _The House of Justice Headstrong--A hall--Lucy watering some
+    myrtles--A servant behind the scenes is heard to say--_
+
+I tell you my master is not up. You can't see him, so go about your
+business, I say.
+
+_Lucy._ To whom are you speaking, William? Who's that?
+
+_Will._ Only an old man, miss, with a complaint for my master.
+
+_Lucy._ Oh, then, don't send him away--don't send him away.
+
+_Will._ But master has not had his chocolate, ma'am. He won't ever see
+anybody before he drinks his chocolate, you know, ma'am.
+
+_Lucy._ But let the old man, then, come in here. Perhaps he can wait a
+little while. Call him.
+
+        (_Exit servant._)
+
+        (_Lucy sings, and goes on watering her myrtles; the servant
+        shows in the Old Man._)
+
+_Will._ You can't see my master this hour; but miss will let you stay
+here.
+
+_Lucy_ (_aside_). Poor old man! how he trembles as he walks. (_Aloud._)
+Sit down, sit down. My father will see you soon; pray sit down.
+
+        (_He hesitates; she pushes a chair towards him._)
+
+_Lucy._ Pray sit down.
+
+        (_He sits down._)
+
+_Old Man._ You are very good, miss; very good.
+
+        (_Lucy goes to her myrtles again._)
+
+_Lucy._ Ah! I'm afraid this poor myrtle is quite dead--quite dead.
+
+        (_The Old Man sighs, and she turns round._)
+
+_Lucy_ (_aside_). I wonder what can make him sigh so! (_Aloud._) My
+father won't make you wait long.
+
+_Old M._ Oh, ma'am, as long as he pleases. I'm in no haste--no haste.
+It's only a small matter.
+
+_Lucy._ But does a small matter make you sigh so?
+
+_Old M._ Ah, miss; because though it is a small matter in itself, it is
+not a small matter to me (_sighing again_); it was my all, and I've lost
+it.
+
+_Lucy._ What do you mean? What have you lost?
+
+_Old M._ Why, miss--but I won't trouble you about it.
+
+_Lucy._ But it won't trouble me at all--I mean, I wish to hear it; so
+tell it me.
+
+_Old M._ Why, miss, I slept last night at the inn here, in town--the
+'Saracen's Head'----
+
+_Lucy_ (_interrupts him_). Hark! there is my father coming downstairs;
+follow me. You may tell me your story as we go along.
+
+_Old M._ I slept at the 'Saracen's Head,' miss, and----
+
+        (_Exit talking._)
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    _Justice Headstrong's Study_
+
+    (_He appears in his nightgown and cap, with his gouty foot upon a
+    stool--a table and chocolate beside him--Lucy is leaning on the arm
+    of his chair._)
+
+_Just._ Well, well, my darling, presently; I'll see him presently.
+
+_Lucy._ Whilst you are drinking your chocolate, papa?
+
+_Just._ No, no, no--I never see anybody till I have done my chocolate,
+darling. (_He tastes his chocolate._) There's no sugar in this, child.
+
+_Lucy._ Yes, indeed, papa.
+
+_Just._ No, child--there's _no_ sugar, I tell you; that's poz!
+
+_Lucy._ Oh, but, papa, I assure you I put in two lumps myself.
+
+_Just._ There's _no_ sugar, I say; why will you contradict me, child,
+for ever? There's no sugar, I say.
+
+        (_Lucy leans over him playfully, and with his teaspoon pulls out
+        two lumps of sugar._)
+
+_Lucy._ What's this, papa?
+
+_Just._ Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw!--it is not melted, child--it is the same as
+no sugar.--Oh, my foot, girl, my foot!--you kill me. Go, go, I'm busy.
+I've business to do. Go and send William to me; do you hear, love?
+
+_Lucy._ And the old man, papa?
+
+_Just._ What old man? I tell you what, I've been plagued ever since I
+was awake, and before I was awake, about that old man. If he can't wait,
+let him go about his business. Don't you know, child, I never see
+anybody till I've drunk my chocolate; and I never will, if it were a
+duke--that's poz! Why, it has but just struck twelve; if he can't wait,
+he can go about his business, can't he?
+
+_Lucy._ Oh, sir, he _can_ wait. It was not he who was impatient. (_She
+comes back playfully._) It was only I, papa; don't be angry.
+
+_Just._ Well, well, well (_finishing his cup of chocolate, and pushing
+his dish away_); and at any rate there was not sugar enough. Send
+William, send William, child; and I'll finish my own business, and
+then----
+
+        (_Exit Lucy, dancing, 'And then!--and then!'_)
+
+    JUSTICE, _alone._
+
+_Just._ Oh, this foot of mine!--(_twinges_)--Oh, this foot! Ay, if Dr.
+Sparerib could cure one of the gout, then, indeed, I should think
+something of him; but as to my leaving off my bottle of port, it's
+nonsense; it's all nonsense; I can't do it; I can't, and I won't for all
+the Dr. Spareribs in Christendom; that's poz!
+
+    _Enter_ WILLIAM.
+
+_Just._ William--oh! ay! hey! what answer, pray, did you bring from the
+'Saracen's Head'? Did you see Mrs. Bustle herself, as I bid you?
+
+_Will._ Yes, sir, I saw the landlady herself; she said she would come up
+immediately, sir.
+
+[Illustration: Lucy. _What's this, papa?_ Just. _Pshaw! pshaw!
+pshaw!--it is not melted, child--it is the same as no sugar._]
+
+_Just._ Ah, that's well--immediately?
+
+_Will._ Yes, sir, and I hear her voice below now.
+
+_Just._ Oh, show her up; show Mrs. Bustle in.
+
+    _Enter_ MRS. BUSTLE, _the landlady of the 'Saracen's Head.'_
+
+_Land._ Good-morrow to your worship! I'm glad to see your worship look
+so purely. I came up with all speed (_taking breath_). Our pie is in the
+oven; that was what you sent for me about, I take it.
+
+_Just._ True, true; sit down, good Mrs. Bustle, pray----
+
+_Land._ Oh, your worship's always very good (_settling her apron_). I
+came up just as I was--only threw my shawl over me. I thought your
+worship would excuse--I'm quite, as it were, rejoiced to see your
+worship look so purely, and to find you up so hearty----
+
+_Just._ Oh, I'm very hearty (_coughing_), always hearty, and thankful
+for it. I hope to see many Christmas doings yet, Mrs. Bustle. And so our
+pie is in the oven, I think you say?
+
+_Land._ In the oven it is. I put it in with my own hands; and if we have
+but good luck in the baking, it will be as pretty a goose-pie--though I
+say it that should not say it--as pretty a goose-pie as ever your
+worship set your eyes upon.
+
+_Just._ Will you take a glass of anything this morning, Mrs. Bustle?--I
+have some nice usquebaugh.
+
+_Land._ Oh, no, your worship!--I thank your worship, though, as much as
+if I took it; but I just took my luncheon before I came up; or more
+proper, _my sandwich_, I should say, for the fashion's sake, to be sure.
+A _luncheon_ won't go down with nobody nowadays (_laughs_). I expect
+hostler and boots will be calling for their sandwiches just now (_laughs
+again_). I'm sure I beg your worship's pardon for mentioning a
+_luncheon_.
+
+_Just._ Oh, Mrs. Bustle, the word's a good word, for it means a good
+thing--ha! ha! ha! (_pulls out his watch_); but pray, is it luncheon
+time? Why, it's past one, I declare; and I thought I was up in
+remarkably good time, too.
+
+_Land._ Well, and to be sure so it was, remarkably good time for _your
+worship_; but folks in our way must be up betimes, you know. I've been
+up and about these seven hours.
+
+_Just._ (_stretching_). Seven hours!
+
+_Land._ Ay, indeed--eight, I might say, for I am an early little body;
+though I say it that should not say it--I _am_ an early little body.
+
+_Just._ An early little body, as you say, Mrs. Bustle--so I shall have
+my goose-pie for dinner, hey?
+
+_Land._ For dinner, as sure as the clock strikes four--but I mustn't
+stay prating, for it may be spoiling if I'm away; so I must wish your
+worship a good morning.
+
+        (_She curtsies._)
+
+_Just._ No ceremony--no ceremony; good Mrs. Bustle, your servant.
+
+    _Enter_ WILLIAM, _to take away the chocolate. The Landlady is
+    putting on her shawl._
+
+_Just._ You may let that man know, William, that I have dispatched my
+_own_ business, and am at leisure for his now (_taking a pinch of
+snuff_). Hum! pray, William (_Justice leans back gravely_), what sort of
+a looking fellow is he, pray?
+
+_Will._ Most like a sort of travelling man, in my opinion, sir--or
+something that way, I take it.
+
+        (_At these words the Landlady turns round inquisitively, and
+        delays, that she may listen, while she is putting on and pinning
+        her shawl._)
+
+_Just._ Hum! a sort of a travelling man. Hum! lay my books out open at
+the title Vagrant; and, William, tell the cook that Mrs. Bustle promises
+me the goose-pie for dinner. Four o'clock, do you hear? And show the old
+man in now.
+
+        (_The Landlady looks eagerly towards the door, as it opens, and
+        exclaims,_)
+
+_Land._ My old gentleman, as I hope to breathe!
+
+    _Enter the_ OLD MAN.
+
+    (_Lucy follows the Old Man on tiptoe--The Justice leans back and
+    looks consequential--The Landlady sets her arms akimbo--The Old Man
+    starts as he sees her._)
+
+_Just._ What stops you, friend? Come forward, if you please.
+
+_Land._ (_advancing_). So, sir, is it you, sir? Ay, you little thought,
+I warrant ye, to meet me here with his worship; but there you reckoned
+without your host--Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
+
+_Just._ What is all this? What is this?
+
+_Land._ (_running on_). None of your flummery stuff will go down with
+his worship no more than with me, I give you warning; so you may go
+further and far worse, and spare your breath to cool your porridge.
+
+_Just._ (_waves his hand with dignity_). Mrs. Bustle, good Mrs. Bustle,
+remember where you are. Silence! silence! Come forward, sir, and let me
+hear what you have to say.
+
+        (_The Old Man comes forward._)
+
+_Just._ Who and what may you be, friend, and what is your business with
+me?
+
+_Land._ Sir, if your worship will give me leave----
+
+        (_Justice makes a sign to her to be silent._)
+
+_Old M._ Please your worship, I am an old soldier.
+
+_Land._ (_interrupting_). An old hypocrite, say.
+
+_Just._ Mrs. Bustle, pray, I desire, let the man speak.
+
+_Old M._ For these two years past--ever since, please your worship--I
+wasn't able to work any longer; for in my youth I did work as well as
+the best of them.
+
+_Land._ (_eager to interrupt_). You work--you----
+
+_Just._ Let him finish his story, I say.
+
+_Lucy._ Ay, do, do, papa, speak for him. Pray, Mrs. Bustle----
+
+_Land._ (_turning suddenly round to Lucy_). Miss, a good morrow to you,
+ma'am. I humbly beg your apologies for not seeing you sooner, Miss Lucy.
+
+        (_Justice nods to the Old Man, who goes on._)
+
+_Old Man._ But, please your worship, it pleased God to take away the use
+of my left arm; and since that I have never been able to work.
+
+_Land._ Flummery! flummery!
+
+_Just._ (_angrily_). Mrs. Bustle, I have desired silence, and I will
+have it, that's poz! You shall have your turn presently.
+
+_Old M._ For these two years past (for why should I be ashamed to tell
+the truth?) I have lived upon charity, and I scraped together a guinea
+and a half and upwards, and I was travelling with it to my grandson, in
+the north, with him to end my days--_but_ (_sighing_)----
+
+_Just._ _But_ what? Proceed, pray, to the point.
+
+_Old M._ But last night I slept here in town, please your worship, at
+the 'Saracen's Head.'
+
+_Land._ (_in a rage_). At the 'Saracen's Head!' Yes, forsooth! none such
+ever slept at the 'Saracen's Head' afore, or ever shall afterwards, as
+long as my name's Bustle and the 'Saracen's Head' is the 'Saracen's
+Head.'
+
+_Just._ Again! again! Mrs. Landlady, this is downright--I have said you
+should speak presently. He _shall_ speak first, since I've said
+it--that's poz! Speak on, friend. You slept last night at the 'Saracen's
+Head.'
+
+[Illustration: '_Five times have I commanded silence, and I won't
+command anything five times in vain_--that's poz!']
+
+_Old M._ Yes, please your worship, and I accuse nobody; but at night I
+had my little money safe, and in the morning it was gone.
+
+_Land._ Gone!--gone, indeed, in my house! and this is the way I'm to be
+treated! Is it so? I couldn't but speak, your worship, to such an
+inhuman like, out o' the way, scandalous charge, if King George and all
+the Royal Family were sitting in your worship's chair, beside you, to
+silence me (_turning to the Old Man_). And this is your gratitude,
+forsooth! Didn't you tell me that any hole in my house was good enough
+for you, wheedling hypocrite? And the thanks I receive is to call me and
+mine a pack of thieves.
+
+_Old M._ Oh, no, no, no, _No_--a pack of thieves, by no means.
+
+_Land._ Ay, I thought when _I_ came to speak we should have you upon
+your marrow-bones in----
+
+_Just._ (_imperiously_). Silence! Five times have I commanded silence,
+and five times in vain; and I won't command anything five times in
+vain--_that's poz_!
+
+_Land._ (_in a pet, aside_). Old Poz! (_Aloud._) Then, your worship, I
+don't see any business I have to be waiting here; the folks want me at
+home (_returning and whispering_). Shall I send the goose-pie up, your
+worship, if it's ready?
+
+_Just._ (_with magnanimity_). I care not for the goose-pie, Mrs. Bustle.
+Do not talk to me of goose-pies; this is no place to talk of pies.
+
+_Land._ Oh, for that matter, your worship knows best, to be sure.
+
+        (_Exit Landlady, angry._)
+
+
+    SCENE III
+
+    JUSTICE HEADSTRONG, OLD MAN, _and_ LUCY
+
+_Lucy._ Ah, now, I'm glad he can speak; now tell papa; and you need not
+be afraid to speak to him, for he is very good-natured. Don't contradict
+him, though, because he told _me_ not.
+
+_Just._ Oh, darling, _you_ shall contradict me as often as you
+please--only not before I've drunk my chocolate, child--hey? Go on, my
+good friend; you see what it is to live in Old England, where, thank
+Heaven, the poorest of His Majesty's subjects may have justice, and
+speak his mind before the first in the land. Now speak on; and you hear
+she tells you that you need not be afraid of me. Speak on.
+
+_Old M._ I thank your worship, I'm sure.
+
+_Just._ Thank me! for what, sir? I won't be thanked for doing justice,
+sir; so--but explain this matter. You lost your money, hey, at the
+'Saracen's Head'? You had it safe last night, hey?--and you missed it
+this morning? Are you sure you had it safe at night?
+
+_Old M._ Oh, please your worship, quite sure; for I took it out and
+looked at it just before I said my prayers.
+
+_Just._ You did--did ye so?--hum! Pray, my good friend, where might you
+put your money when you went to bed?
+
+_Old M._ Please, your worship, where I always put it--always--in my
+tobacco-box.
+
+_Just._ Your tobacco-box! I never heard of such a thing--to make a
+_strong box_ of a tobacco-box. Ha! ha! ha! hum!--and you say the box and
+all were gone in the morning?
+
+_Old M._ No, please your worship, no; not the box--the box was never
+stirred from the place where I put it. They left me the box.
+
+_Just._ Tut, tut, tut, man!--took the money and left the box? I'll never
+believe _that_! I'll never believe that any one could be such a fool.
+Tut, tut! the thing's impossible! It's well you are not upon oath.
+
+_Old M._ If I were, please your worship, I should say the same; for it
+is the truth.
+
+_Just._ Don't tell me, don't tell me; I say the thing is impossible.
+
+_Old M._ Please your worship, here's the box.
+
+_Just._ (_goes on without looking at it_). Nonsense! nonsense! it's no
+such thing; it's no such thing, I say--no man would take the money and
+leave the tobacco-box. I won't believe it. Nothing shall make me believe
+it ever--that's poz.
+
+_Lucy_ (_takes the box and holds it up before her father's eyes_). You
+did not see the box, did you, papa?
+
+_Just._ Yes, yes, yes, child--nonsense! it's all a lie from beginning to
+end. A man who tells one lie will tell a hundred. All a lie!--all a lie!
+
+_Old M._ If your worship would give me leave----
+
+_Just._ Sir, it does not signify--it does not signify! I've said it,
+I've said it, and that's enough to convince me, and I'll tell you more;
+if my Lord Chief Justice of England told it to me, I would not believe
+it--that's poz!
+
+_Lucy_ (_still playing with the box_). But how comes the box here, I
+wonder?
+
+_Just._ Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw! darling. Go to your dolls, darling, and
+don't be positive--go to your dolls, and don't talk of what you don't
+understand. What can you understand, I want to know, of the law?
+
+_Lucy._ No, papa, I didn't mean about the law, but about the box;
+because, if the man had taken it, how could it be here, you know, papa?
+
+_Just._ Hey, hey, what? Why, what I say is this, that I don't dispute
+that that box, that you hold in your hands, is a box; nay, for aught I
+know, it may be a tobacco-box--but it's clear to me that if they left
+the box they did not take the money; and how do you dare, sir, to come
+before Justice Headstrong with a lie in your mouth? recollect yourself,
+I'll give you time to recollect yourself.
+
+    (_A pause._)
+
+_Just._ Well, sir; and what do you say now about the box?
+
+_Old M._ Please your worship, with submission, I _can_ say nothing but
+what I said before.
+
+_Just._ What, contradict me again, after I gave you time to recollect
+yourself! I've done with you; I have done. Contradict me as often as you
+please, but you cannot impose upon me; I defy you to impose upon me!
+
+_Old M._ Impose!
+
+_Just._ I know the law!--I know the law!--and I'll make you know it,
+too. One hour I'll give you to recollect yourself, and if you don't give
+up this idle story, I'll--I'll commit you as a vagrant--that's poz! Go,
+go, for the present. William, take him into the servants' hall, do you
+hear?--What, take the money, and leave the box? I'll never do it--that's
+poz!
+
+        (_Lucy speaks to the Old Man as he is going off._)
+
+_Lucy._ Don't be frightened! don't be frightened!--I mean, if you tell
+the truth, never be frightened.
+
+_Old M._ _If_ I tell the truth--(_turning up his eyes_).
+
+        (_Old Man is still held back by the young lady._)
+
+_Lucy._ One moment--answer me one question--because of something that
+just came into my head. Was the box shut fast when you left it?
+
+_Old M._ No, miss, no!--open--it was open; for I could not find the lid
+in the dark--my candle went out. _If_ I tell the truth--oh!
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+
+    SCENE IV
+
+    _Justice's Study--the Justice is writing_
+
+_Old M._ Well!--I shall have but few days' more misery in this world!
+
+_Just._ (_looks up_). Why! why--why then, why will you be so positive to
+persist in a lie? Take the money and leave the box! Obstinate blockhead!
+Here, William (_showing the committal_), take this old gentleman to
+Holdfast, the constable, and give him this warrant.
+
+    _Enter_ LUCY, _running, out of breath._
+
+_Lucy._ I've found it! I've found it! Here, old man; here's your
+money--here it is all--a guinea and a half, and a shilling and a
+sixpence, just as he said, papa.
+
+    _Enter_ LANDLADY.
+
+_Land._ Oh la! your worship, did you ever hear the like?
+
+_Just._ I've heard nothing yet that I can understand. First, have you
+secured the thief, I say?
+
+_Lucy_ (_makes signs to the landlady to be silent_). Yes, yes, yes! we
+have him safe--we have him prisoner. Shall he come in, papa?
+
+_Just._ Yes, child, by all means; and now I shall hear what possessed
+him to leave the box. I don't understand--there's something deep in all
+this; I don't understand it. Now I do desire, Mrs. Landlady, nobody may
+speak a single word whilst I am cross-examining the thief.
+
+        (_Landlady puts her finger upon her lips--Everybody looks
+        eagerly towards the door._)
+
+    _Re-enter_ LUCY, _with a huge wicker cage in her hand, containing a
+    magpie--The Justice drops the committal out of his hand._
+
+_Just._ Hey!--what, Mrs. Landlady--the old magpie? hey?
+
+_Land._ Ay, your worship, my old magpie. Who'd have thought it? Miss
+was very clever--it was she caught the thief. Miss was very clever.
+
+_Old M._ Very good! very good!
+
+_Just._ Ay, darling, her father's own child! How was it, child? Caught
+the thief, _with the mainour_, hey? Tell us all; I will hear all--that's
+poz.
+
+_Lucy._ Oh! then first I must tell you how I came to suspect Mr. Magpie.
+Do you remember, papa, that day last summer when I went with you to the
+bowling-green at the 'Saracen's Head'?
+
+_Land._ Oh, of all days in the year! but I ask pardon, miss.
+
+_Lucy._ Well, that day I heard my uncle and another gentleman telling
+stories of magpies hiding money; and they laid a wager about this old
+magpie and they tried him--they put a shilling upon the table, and he
+ran away with it and hid it; so I thought that he might do so again, you
+know, this time.
+
+_Just._ Right, right. It's a pity, child, you are not upon the
+Bench--ha! ha! ha!
+
+_Lucy._ And when I went to his old hiding-place, there it was; but you
+see, papa, he did not take the box.
+
+_Just._ No, no, no! because the thief was a magpie. No _man_ would have
+taken the money and left the box. You see I was right; no _man_ would
+have left the box, hey?
+
+_Lucy._ Certainly not, I suppose; but I'm so very glad, old man, that
+you have obtained your money.
+
+_Just._ Well then, child, here--take my purse, and add that to it. We
+were a little too hasty with the committal--hey?
+
+_Land._ Ay, and I fear I was, too; but when one is touched about the
+credit of one's house, one's apt to speak warmly.
+
+_Old M._ Oh, I'm the happiest old man alive! You are all convinced that
+I told you no lies. Say no more--say no more. I am the happiest man!
+Miss, you have made me the happiest man alive! Bless you for it!
+
+_Land._ Well, now, I'll tell you what. I know what I think--you must
+keep that there magpie, and make a show of him, and I warrant he'll
+bring you many an honest penny; for it's a _true story_, and folks would
+like to hear it, I hopes----
+
+_Just._ (_eagerly_). And, friend, do you hear? You'll dine here to-day,
+you'll dine here. We have some excellent ale. I will have you drink my
+health--that's poz!--hey? You'll drink my health, won't you--hey?
+
+[Illustration: _'And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the
+doctor, sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table.'_]
+
+_Old M._ (_bows_). Oh! and the young lady's, if you please.
+
+_Just._ Ay, ay, drink her health--she deserves it. Ay, drink my
+darling's health.
+
+_Land._ And please your worship, it's the right time, I believe, to
+speak of the goose-pie now; and a charming pie it is, and it's on the
+table.
+
+_Will._ And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the doctor,
+sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table.
+
+_Just._ Then let us say no more, but do justice immediately to the
+goose-pie; and, darling, put me in mind to tell this story after dinner.
+
+        (_After they go out, the Justice stops._)
+
+'Tell this story'--I don't know whether it tells well for me; but I'll
+never be positive any more--_that's poz_!
+
+
+
+
+THE MIMIC
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Montague spent the summer of the year 1795 at Clifton with
+their son Frederick, and their two daughters Sophia and Marianne. They
+had taken much care of the education of their children; nor were they
+ever tempted, by any motive of personal convenience or temporary
+amusement, to hazard the permanent happiness of their pupils.
+
+Sensible of the extreme importance of early impressions, and of the
+powerful influence of external circumstances in forming the characters
+and the manners, they were now anxious that the variety of new ideas and
+new objects which would strike the minds of their children should appear
+in a just point of view.
+
+'Let children see and judge for themselves,' is often inconsiderately
+said. Where children see only a part they cannot judge of the whole; and
+from the superficial view which they can have in short visits and
+desultory conversation, they can form only a false estimate of the
+objects of human happiness, a false notion of the nature of society, and
+false opinions of characters.
+
+For the above reasons, Mr. and Mrs. Montague were particularly cautious
+in the choice of their acquaintances, as they were well aware that
+whatever passed in conversation before their children became part of
+their education.
+
+When they came to Clifton, they wished to have a house entirely to
+themselves; but, as they came late in the season, almost all the
+lodging-houses were full, and for a few weeks they were obliged to
+remain in a house where some of the apartments were already occupied.
+
+During the first fortnight they scarcely saw or heard anything of one of
+the families who lodged on the same floor with them. An elderly Quaker
+and his sister Bertha were their silent neighbours. The blooming
+complexion of the lady had indeed attracted the attention of the
+children, as they caught a glimpse of her face when she was getting into
+her carriage to go out upon the Downs. They could scarcely believe that
+she came to the Wells on account of her health.
+
+Besides her blooming complexion, the delicate white of her garments had
+struck them with admiration; and they observed that her brother
+carefully guarded her dress from the wheel of the carriage, as he handed
+her in. From this circumstance, and from the benevolent countenance of
+the old gentleman, they concluded that he was very fond of his sister,
+and that they were certainly very happy, except that they never spoke,
+and could be seen only for a moment.
+
+Not so the maiden lady who occupied the ground-floor. On the stairs, in
+the passages, at her window, she was continually visible; and she
+appeared to possess the art of being present in all these places at
+once. Her voice was eternally to be heard, and it was not particularly
+melodious. The very first day she met Mrs. Montague's children on the
+stairs, she stopped to tell Marianne that she was a charming dear, and a
+charming little dear; to kiss her, to inquire her name, and to inform
+her that her own name was 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle,' a circumstance of which
+there was little danger of their long remaining in ignorance; for, in
+the course of one morning, at least twenty single and as many double
+raps at the door were succeeded by vociferations of 'Mrs. Theresa
+Tattle's servant!' 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle at home?' 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle
+not at home!'
+
+No person at the Wells was oftener at home and abroad than Mrs. Tattle.
+She had, as she deemed it, the happiness to have a most extensive
+acquaintance residing at Clifton. She had for years kept a register of
+arrivals. She regularly consulted the subscriptions to the circulating
+libraries, and the lists at the Ball and the Pump rooms; so that, with a
+memory unencumbered with literature and free from all domestic cares,
+she contrived to retain a most astonishing and correct list of births,
+deaths, and marriages, together with all the anecdotes, amusing,
+instructive, or scandalous, which are necessary to the conversation of
+a water-drinking place, and essential to the character of a 'very
+pleasant woman.'
+
+'A very pleasant woman' Mrs. Tattle was usually called; and, conscious
+of her accomplishments, she was eager to introduce herself to the
+acquaintance of her new neighbours; having, with her ordinary
+expedition, collected from their servants, by means of her own, all that
+could be known, or rather all that could be told about them. The name of
+Montague, at all events, she knew was a good name, and justified in
+courting the acquaintance. She courted it first by nods and becks and
+smiles at Marianne whenever she met her; and Marianne, who was a very
+little girl, began presently to nod and smile in return, persuaded that
+a lady who smiled so much could not be ill-natured. Besides, Mrs.
+Theresa's parlour door was sometimes left more than half open, to afford
+a view of a green parrot. Marianne sometimes passed very slowly by this
+door. One morning it was left quite wide open, when she stopped to say
+'Pretty Poll'; and immediately Mrs. Tattle begged she would do her the
+honour to walk in and see 'Pretty Poll,' at the same time taking the
+liberty to offer her a piece of iced plum-cake.
+
+The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour to wait upon
+Mrs. Montague, 'to apologise for the liberty she had taken in inviting
+Mrs. Montague's charming Miss Marianne into her apartment to see Pretty
+Poll, and for the still greater liberty she had taken in offering her a
+piece of plum-cake--inconsiderate creature that she was!--which might
+possibly have disagreed with her, and which certainly were liberties she
+never should have been induced to take, if she had not been
+unaccountably bewitched by Miss Marianne's striking though highly
+flattering resemblance to a young gentleman (an officer) with whom she
+had danced, now nearly twelve years ago, of the name of Montague, a most
+respectable young man, and of a most respectable family, with which, in
+a remote degree, she might presume to say, she herself was someway
+connected, having the honour to be nearly related to the Joneses of
+Merionethshire, who were cousins to the Mainwarings of Bedfordshire, who
+married into the family of the Griffiths, the eldest branch of which,
+she understood, had the honour to be cousin-german to Mr. Montague; on
+which account she had been impatient to pay a visit, so likely to be
+productive of most agreeable consequences, by the acquisition of an
+acquaintance whose society must do her infinite honour.'
+
+[Illustration: _The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour
+to wait upon Mrs. Montague._]
+
+Having thus happily accomplished her first visit, there seemed little
+probability of escaping Mrs. Tattle's further acquaintance. In the
+course of the first week she only hinted to Mr. Montague that 'some
+people thought his system of education rather odd; that she should be
+obliged to him if he would, some time or other, when he had nothing else
+to do, just sit down and make her understand his notions, that she might
+have something to say to her acquaintance, as she always wished to have
+when she heard any friend attacked, or any friend's opinions.'
+
+Mr. Montague declining to sit down and make this lady understand a
+system of education only to give her something to say, and showing
+unaccountable indifference about the attacks with which he was
+threatened, Mrs. Tattle next addressed herself to Mrs. Montague,
+prophesying, in a most serious whisper, 'that the charming Miss Marianne
+would shortly and inevitably grow quite crooked, if she were not
+immediately provided with a back-board, a French dancing-master, and a
+pair of stocks.'
+
+This alarming whisper could not, however, have a permanent effect upon
+Mrs. Montague's understanding, because three days afterwards Mrs.
+Theresa, upon the most anxious inspection, entirely mistook the just and
+natural proportions of the hip and shoulder.
+
+This danger vanishing, Mrs. Tattle presently, with a rueful length of
+face, and formal preface, 'hesitated to assure Mrs. Montague that she
+was greatly distressed about her daughter Sophy; that she was convinced
+her lungs were affected; and that she certainly ought to drink the
+waters morning and evening; and, above all things, must keep one of the
+patirosa lozenges constantly in her mouth, and directly consult Dr.
+Cardamum, the best physician in the world, and the person she would send
+for herself upon her death-bed; because, to her certain knowledge, he
+had recovered a young lady, a relation of her own, after she had lost
+one whole _globe_[14] of her lungs.'
+
+  [14] Lobe.
+
+The medical opinion of a lady of so much anatomical precision could not
+have much weight. Neither was this universal adviser more successful in
+an attempt to introduce a tutor to Frederick, who, she apprehended, must
+want some one to perfect him in the Latin and Greek, and dead languages,
+of which, she observed, it would be impertinent for a woman to talk;
+only she might venture to repeat what she had heard said by good
+authority, that a competency of the dead tongues could be had nowhere
+but at a public school, or else from a private tutor who had been abroad
+(after the advantage of a classical education, finished in one of the
+universities) with a good family; without which introduction it was idle
+to think of reaping solid advantages from any continental tour; all
+which requisites, from personal knowledge, she could aver to be
+concentrated in the gentleman she had the honour to recommend, as having
+been tutor to a young nobleman, who had no further occasion for him,
+having, unfortunately for himself and his family, been killed in an
+untimely duel.
+
+All Mrs. Theresa Tattle's suggestions being lost upon these stoical
+parents, her powers were next tried upon the children, and her success
+soon became apparent. On Sophy, indeed, she could not make any
+impression, though she had expended on her some of her finest strokes of
+flattery. Sophy, though very desirous of the approbation of her friends,
+was not very desirous of winning the favour of strangers. She was about
+thirteen--that dangerous age at which ill-educated girls, in their
+anxiety to display their accomplishments, are apt to become dependent
+for applause upon the praise of every idle visitor; when the habits not
+being formed, and the attention being suddenly turned to dress and
+manners, girls are apt to affect and imitate, indiscriminately,
+everything that they conceive to be agreeable.
+
+Sophy, whose taste had been cultivated at the same time with her powers
+of reasoning, was not liable to fall into these errors. She found that
+she could please those whom she wished to please, without affecting to
+be anything but what she really was; and her friends listened to what
+she said, though she never repeated the sentiments, or adopted the
+phrases, which she might easily have copied from the conversation of
+those who were older or more fashionable than herself.
+
+This word _fashionable_, Mrs. Theresa Tattle knew, had usually a great
+effect, even at thirteen; but she had not observed that it had much
+power upon Sophy; nor were her remarks concerning grace and manners much
+attended to. Her mother had taught Sophy that it was best to let herself
+alone, and not to distort either her person or her mind in acquiring
+grimace, which nothing but the fashion of the moment can support, and
+which is always detected and despised by people of real good sense and
+politeness.
+
+'Bless me!' said Mrs. Tattle, to herself, 'if I had such a tall
+daughter, and so unformed, before my eyes from morning to night, it
+would certainly break my poor heart. Thank heaven, I am not a mother! if
+I were, Miss Marianne for me!'
+
+Miss Marianne had heard so often from Mrs. Tattle that she was very
+charming, that she could not help believing it; and from being a very
+pleasing, unaffected little girl, she in a short time grew so conceited,
+that she could neither speak, look, move, nor be silent, without
+imagining that everybody was, or ought to be, looking at her; and when
+Mrs. Theresa saw that Mrs. Montague looked very grave upon these
+occasions, she, to repair the ill she had done, would say, after
+praising Marianne's hair or her eyes, 'Oh, but little ladies should
+never think about their beauty, you know. Nobody loves anybody for being
+handsome, but for being good.' People must think children are very
+silly, or else they can never have reflected upon the nature of belief
+in their own minds, if they imagine that children will believe the words
+that are said to them, by way of moral, when the countenance, manner,
+and every concomitant circumstance tell them a different tale. Children
+are excellent physiognomists--they quickly learn the universal language
+of looks; and what is said _of_ them always makes a greater impression
+than what is said _to_ them, a truth of which those prudent people
+surely cannot be aware who comfort themselves, and apologise to parents,
+by saying, 'Oh, but I would not say so and so to the child.'
+
+Mrs. Theresa had seldom said to Frederick Montague 'that he had a vast
+deal of drollery, and was a most incomparable mimic'; but she had said
+so of him in whispers, which magnified the sound to his imagination, if
+not to his ear. He was a boy of much vivacity, and had considerable
+abilities; but his appetite for vulgar praise had not yet been
+surfeited. Even Mrs. Theresa Tattle's flattery pleased him, and he
+exerted himself for her entertainment so much that he became quite a
+buffoon. Instead of observing characters and manners, that he might
+judge of them, and form his own, he now watched every person he saw,
+that he might detect some foible, or catch some singularity in their
+gesture or pronunciation, which he might successfully mimic.
+
+Alarmed by the rapid progress of these evils, Mr. and Mrs. Montague,
+who, from the first day that they had been honoured with Mrs. Tattle's
+visit, had begun to look out for new lodgings, were now extremely
+impatient to decamp. They were not people who, from the weak fear of
+offending a silly acquaintance, would hazard the happiness of their
+family. They had heard of a house in the country which was likely to
+suit them, and they determined to go directly to look at it. As they
+were to be absent all day, they foresaw that their officious neighbour
+would probably interfere with their children. They did not choose to
+exact any promise from them which they might be tempted to break, and
+therefore they only said at parting, 'If Mrs. Theresa Tattle should ask
+you to come to her, do as you think proper.'
+
+Scarcely had Mrs. Montague's carriage got out of hearing when a note was
+brought, directed to 'Frederick Montague, Junior, Esq.,' which he
+immediately opened, and read as follows:--
+
+  'Mrs. Theresa Tattle presents her very best compliments to the
+  entertaining Mr. Frederick Montague; she hopes he will have the
+  charity to drink tea with her this evening, and bring his charming
+  sister, Miss Marianne, with him, as Mrs. Theresa will be quite alone
+  with a shocking headache, and is sensible her nerves are affected;
+  and Dr. Cardamum says that (especially in Mrs. T. T.'s case) it is
+  downright death to nervous patients to be alone an instant. She
+  therefore trusts Mr. Frederick will not refuse to come and make her
+  laugh. Mrs. Theresa has taken care to provide a few macaroons for
+  her little favourite, who said she was particularly fond of them the
+  other day. Mrs. Theresa hopes they will all come at six, or before,
+  not forgetting Miss Sophy, if she will condescend to be of the
+  party.'
+
+At the first reading of this note, 'the entertaining' Mr. Frederick and
+the 'charming' Miss Marianne laughed heartily, and looked at Sophy, as
+if they were afraid that she should think it possible they could like
+such gross flattery; but upon a second perusal, Marianne observed that
+it certainly was very good-natured of Mrs. Theresa to remember the
+macaroons; and Frederick allowed that it was wrong to laugh at the poor
+woman because she had the headache. Then twisting the note in his
+fingers, he appealed to Sophy:--
+
+'Well, Sophy, leave off drawing for an instant,' said Frederick, 'and
+tell us what answer can we send?'
+
+'Can!--we can send what answer we please.'
+
+'Yes, I know that,' said Frederick; 'I would refuse if I could; but we
+ought not to do anything rude, should we? So I think we might as well
+go, because we could not refuse, if we would, I say.'
+
+'You have made such confusion,' replied Sophy, 'between "couldn't" and
+"wouldn't" and "shouldn't," that I can't understand you: surely they are
+all different things.'
+
+'Different! no,' cried Frederick--'_could_, _would_, _should_, _might_,
+and _ought_ are all the same thing in the Latin grammar; all of 'em
+signs of the potential mood, you know.'
+
+Sophy, whose powers of reasoning were not to be confounded, even by
+quotations from the Latin grammar, looked up soberly from her drawing,
+and answered 'that very likely those words might be signs of the same
+thing in the Latin grammar, but she believed that they meant perfectly
+different things in real life.'
+
+'That's just as people please,' said her sophistical brother. 'You know
+words mean nothing in themselves. If I choose to call my hat my
+cadwallader, you would understand me just as well, after I had once
+explained it to you, that by cadwallader I meant this black thing that I
+put upon my head; cadwallader and hat would then be just the same thing
+to you.'
+
+'Then why have two words for the same thing?' said Sophy; 'and what has
+this to do with _could_ and _should_? You wanted to prove----'
+
+'I wanted to prove,' interrupted Frederick, 'that it's not worth while
+to dispute for two hours about two words. Do keep to the point, Sophy,
+and don't dispute with me.'
+
+'I was not disputing, I was reasoning.'
+
+'Well, reasoning or disputing. Women have no business to do either;
+for, how should they know how to chop logic like men?'
+
+At this contemptuous sarcasm upon her sex, Sophy's colour rose.
+
+'There!' cried Frederick, exulting, 'now we shall see a philosopheress
+in a passion; I'd give sixpence, half-price, for a harlequin
+entertainment, to see Sophy in a passion. Now, Marianne, look at her
+brush dabbing so fast in the water!'
+
+Sophy, who could not easily bear to be laughed at, with some little
+indignation, said, 'Brother, I wish----'
+
+'There! there!' cried Frederick, pointing to the colour which rose in
+her cheeks almost to her temples--'rising! rising! rising! look at the
+thermometer! blood heat! blood! fever heat! boiling water heat!
+Marianne.'
+
+'Then,' said Sophy, smiling, 'you should stand a little farther off,
+both of you. Leave the thermometer to itself a little while. Give it
+time to cool. It will come down to "temperate" by the time you look
+again.'
+
+'Oh, brother!' cried Marianne, 'she's so good-humoured, don't tease her
+any more, and don't draw heads upon her paper, and don't stretch her
+india-rubber, and don't let us dirty any more of her brushes. See! the
+sides of her tumbler are all manner of colours.'
+
+'Oh, I only mixed red, blue, green, and yellow to show you, Marianne,
+that all colours mixed together make white. But she is temperate now,
+and I won't plague her; she shall chop logic, if she likes it, though
+she is a woman.'
+
+'But that's not fair, brother,' said Marianne, 'to say "woman" in that
+way. I'm sure Sophy found out how to tie that difficult knot, which papa
+showed us yesterday, long before you did, though you are a man.' 'Not
+long,' said Frederick. 'Besides, that was only a conjuring trick.'
+
+'It was very ingenious, though,' said Marianne; 'and papa said so.
+Besides, she understood the "Rule of Three," which was no conjuring
+trick, better than you did, though she is a woman; and she can reason,
+too, mamma says.'
+
+'Very well, let her reason away,' said the provoking wit. 'All I have to
+say is, that she'll never be able to make a pudding.'
+
+'Why not, pray, brother?' inquired Sophy, looking up again, very
+gravely.
+
+'Why, you know papa himself, the other day at dinner, said that that
+woman who talks Greek and Latin as well as I do, is a fool after all;
+and that she had better have learned something useful; and Mrs. Tattle
+said, she'd answer for it she did not know how to make a pudding.'
+
+'Well! but I am not talking Greek and Latin, am I?'
+
+'No, but you are drawing, and that's the same thing.'
+
+'The same thing! Oh, Frederick!' said little Marianne, laughing.
+
+'You may laugh; but I say it is the same sort of thing. Women who are
+always drawing and reasoning never know how to make puddings. Mrs.
+Theresa Tattle said so, when I showed her Sophy's beautiful drawing
+yesterday.'
+
+'Mrs. Theresa Tattle might say so,' replied Sophy, calmly; 'but I do not
+perceive the reason, brother, why drawing should prevent me from
+learning how to make a pudding.'
+
+'Well, I say you'll never learn how to make a good pudding.'
+
+'I have learned,' continued Sophy, who was mixing her colours, 'to mix
+such and such colours together to make the colour that I want; and why
+should I not be able to learn to mix flour and butter, and sugar and
+egg, together, to produce the taste that I want?'
+
+'Oh, but mixing will never do, unless you know the quantities, like a
+cook; and you would never learn the right quantities.'
+
+'How did the cook learn them? Cannot I learn them as she did?'
+
+'Yes, but you'd never do it exactly, and mind the spoonfuls right, by
+the recipe, like a cook.'
+
+'Indeed! indeed! but she would,' cried Marianne, eagerly; 'and a great
+deal more exactly, for mamma has taught her to weigh and measure things
+very carefully; and when I was ill she always weighed the bark in
+nicely, and dropped my drops so carefully: better than the cook. When
+mamma took me down to see the cook make a cake once, I saw her
+spoonfuls, and her ounces, and her handfuls: she dashed and splashed
+without minding exactness, or the recipe, or anything. I'm sure Sophy
+would make a much better pudding, if exactness only were wanting.'
+
+'Well, granting that she could make the best pudding in the whole
+world, what does that signify? I say she never would, so it comes to the
+same thing.'
+
+[Illustration: _'She dashed and splashed without minding exactness, or
+the recipe, or anything.'_]
+
+'Never would! how can you tell that, brother?'
+
+'Why, now look at her, with her books, and her drawings, and all this
+apparatus. Do you think she would ever jump up, with all her nicety,
+too, and put by all these things, to go down into the greasy kitchen,
+and plump up to the elbows in suet, like a cook, for a plum-pudding?'
+
+'I need not plump up to the elbows, brother,' said Sophy, smiling, 'nor
+is it necessary that I should be a cook; but, if it were necessary, I
+hope I should be able to make a pudding.'
+
+'Yes, yes,' cried Marianne, warmly; 'and she would jump up, and put by
+all her things in a minute if it were necessary, and run downstairs and
+up again like lightning, or do anything that was ever so disagreeable to
+her, even about the suet, with all her nicety, brother, I assure you, as
+she used to do anything, everything for me, when I was ill last winter.
+Oh, brother, she can do anything; and she could make the best
+plum-pudding in the whole world, I'm sure, in a minute, if it were
+necessary.'
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A knock at the door, from Mrs. Theresa Tattle's servant, recalled
+Marianne to the business of the day.
+
+'There,' said Frederick, 'we have sent no answer all this time. It's
+necessary to think of that in a minute.'
+
+The servant came with his mistress's compliments, to let the young
+ladies and Mr. Frederick know that she was waiting tea for them.
+
+'Waiting! then we must go,' said Frederick.
+
+The servant opened the door wider, to let him pass, and Marianne thought
+she must follow her brother; so they went downstairs together, while
+Sophy gave her own message to the servant, and quietly stayed at her
+usual occupations.
+
+Mrs. Tattle was seated at her tea-table, with a large plate of macaroons
+beside her, when Frederick and Marianne entered. She was 'delighted'
+they were come, and 'grieved' not to see Miss Sophy along with them.
+Marianne coloured a little; for though she had precipitately followed
+her brother, and though he had quieted her conscience for a moment by
+saying, 'You know, papa and mamma told us to do what we thought best,'
+yet she did not feel quite pleased with herself; and it was not till
+after Mrs. Theresa had exhausted all her compliments and half her
+macaroons, that she could restore her spirits to their usual height.
+
+'Come, Mr. Frederick,' said she after tea, 'you promised to make me
+laugh; and nobody can make me laugh so well as yourself.'
+
+'Oh, brother,' said Marianne, 'show Mrs. Theresa Dr. Carbuncle eating
+his dinner; and I'll be Mrs. Carbuncle.'
+
+_Marianne._ Now, my dear, what shall I help you to?
+
+_Frederick._ 'My dear!' she never calls him my dear, you know, but
+always Doctor.
+
+_Mar._ Well then, doctor, what will you eat to-day?
+
+_Fred._ Eat, madam! eat! nothing! nothing! I don't see anything here I
+can eat, ma'am.
+
+_Mar._ Here's eels, sir; let me help you to some eel--stewed eel;--you
+used to be fond of stewed eel.
+
+_Fred._ Used, ma'am, used! But I'm sick of stewed eels. You would tire
+one of anything. Am I to see nothing but eels? And what's this at the
+bottom?
+
+_Mar._ Mutton, doctor, roast mutton; if you'll be so good as to cut it.
+
+_Fred._ Cut it, ma'am! I can't cut it, I say; it's as hard as a deal
+board. You might as well tell me to cut the table, ma'am. Mutton,
+indeed! not a bit of fat. Roast mutton, indeed! not a drop of gravy.
+Mutton, truly! quite a cinder. I'll have none of it. Here, take it away;
+take it downstairs to the cook. It's a very hard case, Mrs. Carbuncle,
+that I can never have a bit of anything that I can eat at my own table,
+Mrs. Carbuncle, since I was married, ma'am, I that am the easiest man in
+the whole world to please about my dinner. It's really very
+extraordinary, Mrs. Carbuncle! What have you at that corner there, under
+the cover?
+
+_Mar._ Patties, sir; oyster patties.
+
+_Fred._ Patties, ma'am! kickshaws! I hate kickshaws. Not worth putting
+under a cover, ma'am. And why not have glass covers, that one may see
+one's dinner before one, before it grows cold with asking questions,
+Mrs. Carbuncle, and lifting up covers? But nobody has any sense; and I
+see no water plates anywhere, lately.
+
+_Mar._ Do, pray, doctor, let me help you to a bit of chicken before it
+gets cold, my dear.
+
+_Fred._ (_aside_). 'My dear,' again, Marianne!
+
+_Mar._ Yes, brother, because she is frightened, you know, and Mrs.
+Carbuncle always says 'my dear' to him when she's frightened, and looks
+so pale from side to side; and sometimes she cries before dinner's done,
+and then all the company are quite silent, and don't know what to do.
+
+'Oh, such a little creature; to have so much sense, too!' exclaimed Mrs.
+Theresa, with rapture. 'Mr. Frederick, you'll make me die with laughing!
+Pray go on, Dr. Carbuncle.'
+
+_Fred._ Well, ma'am, then if I must eat something, send me a bit of
+fowl; a leg and wing, the liver wing, and a bit of the breast, oyster
+sauce, and a slice of that ham, if you please, ma'am.
+
+        (_Dr. Carbuncle eats voraciously, with his head down to his
+        plate, and, dropping the sauce, he buttons up his coat tight
+        across the breast._)
+
+_Fred._ Here; a plate, knife and fork, bit o' bread, a glass of
+Dorchester ale!
+
+'Oh, admirable!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle, clapping her hands.
+
+'Now, brother, suppose that it is after dinner,' said Marianne; 'and
+show us how the doctor goes to sleep.'
+
+Frederick threw himself back in an arm-chair, leaning his head back,
+with his mouth open, snoring; nodded from time to time, crossed and
+uncrossed his legs, tried to awake himself by twitching his wig,
+settling his collar, blowing his nose, and rapping on the lid of his
+snuff-box.
+
+All which infinitely diverted Mrs. Tattle, who, when she could stop
+herself from laughing, declared 'it made her sigh, too, to think of the
+life poor Mrs. Carbuncle led with that man, and all for nothing, too;
+for her jointure was nothing, next to nothing, though a great thing, to
+be sure, her friends thought, for her, when she was only Sally Ridgeway
+before she was married. Such a wife as she makes,' continued Mrs.
+Theresa, lifting up her hands and eyes to heaven, 'and so much as she
+has gone through, the brute ought to be ashamed of himself if he does
+not leave her something extraordinary in his will; for turn it which
+way she will, she can never keep a carriage, or live like anybody else,
+on her jointure, after all, she tells me, poor soul! A sad prospect,
+after her husband's death, to look forward to, instead of being
+comfortable, as her friends expected; and she, poor young thing! knowing
+no better when they married her! People should look into these things
+beforehand, or never marry at all, I say, Miss Marianne.'
+
+Miss Marianne, who did not clearly comprehend this affair of the
+jointure, or the reason why Mrs. Carbuncle would be so unhappy after her
+husband's death, turned to Frederick, who was at that instant studying
+Mrs. Theresa as a future character to mimic. 'Brother,' said Marianne,
+'now sing an Italian song for us like Miss Croker. Pray, Miss Croker,
+favour us with a song. Mrs. Theresa Tattle has never had the pleasure of
+hearing you sing; she's quite impatient to hear you sing.'
+
+'Yes, indeed, I am,' said Mrs. Theresa.
+
+Frederick put his hands before him affectedly. 'Oh, indeed, ma'am!
+indeed, ladies! I really am so hoarse, it distresses me so to be pressed
+to sing; besides, upon my word, I have quite left off singing. I've
+never sung once, except for very particular people, this winter.'
+
+_Mar._ But Mrs. Theresa Tattle is a very particular person. I'm sure
+you'll sing for her.
+
+_Fred._ Certainly, ma'am, I allow that you use a powerful argument; but
+I assure you now, I would do my best to oblige you, but I absolutely
+have forgotten all my English songs. Nobody hears anything but Italian
+now, and I have been so giddy as to leave my Italian music behind me.
+Besides, I make it a rule never to hazard myself without an
+accompaniment.
+
+_Mar._ Oh, try, Miss Croker, for once.
+
+    (_Frederick sings, after much preluding._)
+
+      Violante in the pantry,
+      Gnawing of a mutton-bone;
+        How she gnawed it,
+        How she claw'd it,
+      When she found herself alone!
+
+'Charming!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle; 'so like Miss Croker, I'm sure I
+shall think of you, Mr. Frederick, when I hear her asked to sing again.
+Her voice, however, introduces her to very pleasant parties, and she's
+a girl that's very much taken notice of, and I don't doubt will go off
+vastly well. She's a particular favourite of mine, you must know; and I
+mean to do her a piece of service the first opportunity, by saying
+something or other, that shall go round to her relations in
+Northumberland, and make them do something for her; as well they may,
+for they are all rolling in gold, and won't give her a penny.
+
+_Mar._ Now, brother, read the newspaper like Counsellor Puff.
+
+'Oh, pray do, Mr. Frederick, for I declare I admire you of all things!
+You are quite yourself to-night. Here's a newspaper, sir, pray let us
+have Counsellor Puff. It's not late.'
+
+    (_Frederick reads in a pompous voice._)
+
+'As a delicate white hand has ever been deemed a distinguishing ornament
+in either sex, Messrs. Valiant and Wise conceive it to be their duty to
+take the earliest opportunity to advertise the nobility and gentry of
+Great Britain in general, and their friends in particular, that they
+have now ready for sale, as usual, at the Hippocrates' Head, a fresh
+assortment of new-invented, much-admired primrose soap. To prevent
+impositions and counterfeits, the public are requested to take notice,
+that the only genuine primrose soap is stamped on the outside, "Valiant
+and Wise."'
+
+'Oh, you most incomparable mimic! 'tis absolutely the counsellor
+himself. I absolutely must show you, some day, to my friend Lady
+Battersby; you'd absolutely make her die with laughing; and she'd quite
+adore you,' said Mrs. Theresa, who was well aware that every pause must
+be filled with flattery. 'Pray go on, pray go on. I shall never be
+tired, if I sit looking at you these hundred years.'
+
+Stimulated by these plaudits, Frederick proceeded to show how Colonel
+Epaulette blew his nose, flourished his cambric handkerchief, bowed to
+Lady Diana Periwinkle, and admired her work, saying, 'Done by no hands,
+as you may guess, but those of Fairly Fair.' Whilst Lady Diana, he
+observed, simpered so prettily, and took herself so quietly for Fairly
+Fair, not perceiving that the colonel was admiring his own nails all the
+while.
+
+Next to Colonel Epaulette, Frederick, at Marianne's particular desire,
+came into the room like Sir Charles Slang.
+
+'Very well, brother,' cried she, 'your hand down to the very bottom of
+your pocket, and your other shoulder up to your ear; but you are not
+quite wooden enough, and you should walk as if your hip were out of
+joint. There now, Mrs. Tattle, are not those good eyes? They stare so
+like his, without seeming to see anything all the while.'
+
+'Excellent! admirable! Mr. Frederick. I must say that you are the best
+mimic of your age I ever saw, and I'm sure Lady Battersby will think so
+too. That is Sir Charles to the very life. But with all that, you must
+know he's a mighty pleasant, fashionable young man when you come to know
+him, and has a great deal of sense under all that, and is of a very good
+family--the Slangs, you know. Sir Charles will come into a fine fortune
+himself next year, if he can keep clear of gambling, which I hear is his
+foible, poor young man! Pray go on. I interrupt you, Mr. Frederick.'
+
+'Now, brother,' said Marianne.
+
+'No, Marianne, I can do no more. I'm quite tired, and I will do no
+more,' said Frederick, stretching himself at full length upon a sofa.
+
+Even in the midst of laughter, and whilst the voice of flattery yet
+sounded in his ear, Frederick felt sad, displeased with himself, and
+disgusted with Mrs. Theresa.
+
+'What a deep sigh was there!' said Mrs. Theresa; 'what can make you sigh
+so bitterly? You, who make everybody else laugh. Oh, such another sigh
+again!'
+
+'Marianne,' cried Frederick, 'do you remember the man in the mask?'
+
+'What man in the mask, brother?'
+
+'The man--the actor--the buffoon, that my father told us of, who used to
+cry behind the mask that made everybody else laugh.'
+
+'Cry! bless me,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'mighty odd! very extraordinary! but
+one can't be surprised at meeting with extraordinary characters amongst
+that race of people, actors by profession, you know; for they are
+brought up from the egg to make their fortune, or at least their bread,
+by their oddities. But, my dear Mr. Frederick, you are quite pale, quite
+exhausted; no wonder--what will you have? a glass of cowslip-wine?'
+
+'Oh no, thank you, ma'am,' said Frederick.
+
+'Oh yes; indeed you must not leave me without taking something; and Miss
+Marianne must have another macaroon. I insist upon it,' said Mrs.
+Theresa, ringing the bell. 'It is not late, and my man Christopher will
+bring up the cowslip-wine in a minute.'
+
+'But, Sophy! and papa and mamma, you know, will come home presently,'
+said Marianne.
+
+'Oh! Miss Sophy has her books and drawings. You know she's never afraid
+of being alone. Besides, to-night it was her own choice. And as to your
+papa and mamma, they won't be home to-night, I'm pretty sure; for a
+gentleman, who had it from their own authority, told me where they were
+going, which is further off than they think; but they did not consult
+me; and I fancy they'll be obliged to sleep out; so you need not be in a
+hurry about them. We'll have candles.'
+
+The door opened just as Mrs. Tattle was going to ring the bell again for
+candles and the cowslip-wine. 'Christopher! Christopher!' said Mrs.
+Theresa, who was standing at the fire, with her back to the door, when
+it opened, 'Christopher! pray bring----Do you hear?' but no Christopher
+answered; and, upon turning round, Mrs. Tattle, instead of Christopher,
+beheld two little black figures, which stood perfectly still and silent.
+It was so dark, that their forms could scarcely be discerned.
+
+'In the name of heaven, who and what may you be? Speak, I conjure you!
+what are ye?'
+
+'The chimney-sweepers, ma'am, an' please your ladyship.'
+
+'Chimney-sweepers!' repeated Frederick and Marianne, bursting out
+a-laughing.
+
+'Chimney-sweepers!' repeated Mrs. Theresa, provoked at the recollection
+of her late solemn address to them. 'Chimney-sweepers! and could not you
+say so a little sooner? Pray, what brings you here, gentlemen, at this
+time of night?'
+
+'The bell rang, ma'am,' answered a squeaking voice.
+
+'The bell rang! yes, for Christopher. The boy's mad, or drunk.'
+
+'Ma'am,' said the taller of the chimney-sweepers, who had not yet
+spoken, and who now began in a very blunt manner; 'ma'am, your brother
+desired us to come up when the bell rang; so we did.'
+
+'My brother? I have no brother, dunce,' said Mrs. Theresa.
+
+'Mr. Eden, madam.'
+
+'Ho, ho!' said Mrs. Tattle, in a more complacent tone, 'the boy takes me
+for Miss Bertha Eden, I perceive'; and, flattered to be taken in the
+dark by a chimney-sweeper for a young and handsome lady, Mrs. Theresa
+laughed, and informed him 'that they had mistaken the room; and they
+must go up another pair of stairs, and turn to the left.'
+
+The chimney-sweeper with the squeaking voice bowed, thanked her ladyship
+for this information, said, 'Good-night to ye, quality'; and they both
+moved towards the door.
+
+'Stay,' said Mrs. Tattle, whose curiosity was excited; 'what can the
+Edens want with chimney-sweepers at this time o' night, I wonder?
+Christopher, did you hear anything about it?' said the lady to her
+footman, who was now lighting the candles.
+
+'Upon my word, ma'am,' said the servant, 'I can't say; but I'll step
+down below and inquire. I heard them talking about it in the kitchen;
+but I only got a word here and there, for I was hunting for the
+snuff-dish, as I knew it must be for candles when I heard the bell ring,
+ma'am; so I thought to find the snuff-dish before I answered the bell,
+for I knew it must be for candles you rang. But, if you please, I'll
+step down now, ma'am, and see about the chimney-sweepers.'
+
+'Yes, step down, do; and, Christopher, bring up the cowslip-wine, and
+some more macaroons for my little Marianne.'
+
+Marianne withdrew rather coldly from a kiss which Mrs. Tattle was going
+to give her; for she was somewhat surprised at the familiarity with
+which this lady talked to her footman. She had not been accustomed to
+these familiarities in her father and mother, and she did not like them.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Tattle to Christopher, who was now returned, 'what is
+the news?'
+
+'Ma'am, the little fellow with the squeaking voice has been telling me
+the whole story. The other morning, ma'am, early, he and the other were
+down the hill sweeping in Paradise Row. Those chimneys, they say, are
+difficult; and the square fellow, ma'am, the biggest of the two boys,
+got wedged in the chimney. The other little fellow was up at the top at
+the time, and he heard the cry; but in his fright, and all, he did not
+know what to do, ma'am; for he looked about from the top of the chimney,
+and not a soul could he see stirring, but a few that he could not make
+attend to his screech; the boy within almost stifling too. So he
+screeched, and screeched, all he could; and by the greatest chance in
+life, ma'am, old Mr. Eden was just going down the hill to fetch his
+morning walk.'
+
+'Ay,' interrupted Mrs. Theresa, 'friend Ephraim is one of your early
+risers.'
+
+'Well?' said Marianne, impatiently.
+
+'So, ma'am, hearing the screech, he turns and sees the sweep; and at
+once he understands the matter----'
+
+'I'm sure he must have taken some time to understand it,' interposed
+Mrs. Tattle, 'for he's the slowest creature breathing, and the deafest
+in company. Go on, Christopher. So the sweep did make him hear.'
+
+'So he says, ma'am; and so the old gentleman went in and pulled the boy
+out of the chimney, with much ado, ma'am.'
+
+'Bless me!' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa; 'but did old Eden go up the chimney
+himself after the boy, wig and all?'
+
+'Why, ma'am,' said Christopher, with a look of great delight, 'that was
+all as one, as the very 'dentical words I put to the boy myself, when he
+telled me his story. But, ma'am, that was what I couldn't get out of
+him, neither, rightly, for he is a churl--the big boy that was stuck in
+the chimney, I mean; for when I put the question to him about the wig,
+laughing like, he wouldn't take it laughing like at all; but would only
+make answer to us like a bear, 'He saved my life, that's all I know';
+and this over again, ma'am, to all the kitchen round, that
+cross-questioned him. But I finds him stupid and ill-mannered like, for
+I offered him a shilling, ma'am, myself, to tell about the wig; but he
+put it back in a way that did not become such as he, to no lady's
+butler, ma'am; whereupon I turns to the slim fellow (and he's smarterer,
+and more mannerly, ma'am, with a tongue in his head for his betters),
+but he could not resolve me my question either; for he was up at the top
+of the chimney the best part o' the time; and when he came down Mr. Eden
+had his wig on, but had his arm all bare and bloody, ma'am.'
+
+'Poor Mr. Eden!' exclaimed Marianne.
+
+'Oh, miss,' continued the servant, 'and the chimney-sweep himself was so
+bruised, and must have been killed.'
+
+'Well, well! but he's alive now; go on with your story, Christopher,'
+said Mrs. T. 'Chimney-sweepers get wedged in chimneys every day; it's
+part of their trade, and it's a happy thing when they come off with a
+few bruises.[15] To be sure,' added she, observing that both Frederick
+and Marianne looked displeased at this speech, 'to be sure, if one may
+believe this story, there was some real danger.'
+
+  [15] This atrocious practice is now happily superseded by the use of
+       sweeping machines.
+
+'Real danger! yes, indeed,' said Marianne; 'and I'm sure I think Mr.
+Eden was very good.'
+
+'Certainly it was a most commendable action, and quite providential. So
+I shall take an opportunity of saying, when I tell the story in all
+companies; and the boy may thank his kind stars, I'm sure, to the end of
+his days, for such an escape----But pray, Christopher,' said she,
+persisting in her conversation with Christopher, who was now laying the
+cloth for supper, 'pray, which house was it in Paradise Row? where the
+Eagles or the Miss Ropers lodge? or which?'
+
+'It was at my Lady Battersby's, ma'am.'
+
+'Ha! ha!' cried Mrs. Theresa, 'I thought we should get to the bottom of
+the affair at last. This is excellent! This will make an admirable story
+for my Lady Battersby the next time I see her. These Quakers are so sly!
+Old Eden, I know, has long wanted to obtain an introduction into that
+house; and a charming charitable expedient hit upon! My Lady Battersby
+will enjoy this, of all things.'
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+'Now,' continued Mrs. Theresa, turning to Frederick, as soon as the
+servant had left the room, 'now, Mr. Frederick Montague, I have a
+favour--such a favour--to ask of you; it's a favour which only you can
+grant; you have such talents, and would do the thing so admirably; and
+my Lady Battersby would quite adore you for it. She will do me the
+honour to be here to spend an evening to-morrow. I'm convinced Mr. and
+Mrs. Montague will find themselves obliged to stay out another day, and
+I so long to show you off to her ladyship; and your Doctor Carbuncle,
+and your Counsellor Puff, and your Miss Croker, and all your charming
+characters. You must let me introduce you to her ladyship to-morrow
+evening. Promise me.'
+
+'Oh, ma'am,' said Frederick, 'I cannot promise you any such thing,
+indeed. I am much obliged to you; but indeed I cannot come.'
+
+'Why not, my dear sir? why not? You don't think I mean you should
+promise, if you are certain your papa and mamma will be home.'
+
+'If they do come home, I will ask them about it,' said Frederick,
+hesitating; for though he by no means wished to accept the invitation,
+he had not yet acquired the necessary power of decidedly saying No.
+
+'Ask them!' repeated Mrs. Theresa. 'My dear sir, at your age, must you
+ask your papa and mamma about such things?'
+
+'Must! no, ma'am,' said Frederick; 'but I said I would. I know I need
+not, because my father and mother always let me judge for myself almost
+about everything.'
+
+'And about this, I am sure,' cried Marianne. 'Papa and mamma, you know,
+just as they were going away, said, "If Mrs. Theresa asks you to come,
+do as you think best."'
+
+'Well, then,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'you know it rests with yourselves, if
+you may do as you please.'
+
+'To be sure I may, madam,' said Frederick, colouring from that species
+of emotion which is justly called false shame, and which often conquers
+real shame; 'to be sure, ma'am, I may do as I please.'
+
+'Then I may make sure of you,' said Mrs. Theresa; 'for now it would be
+downright rudeness to tell a lady you won't do as she pleases. Mr.
+Frederick Montague, I'm sure, is too well-bred a young gentleman to do
+so unpolite, so ungallant a thing!'
+
+The jargon of politeness and gallantry is frequently brought by the
+silly acquaintance of young people to confuse their simple morality and
+clear good sense. A new and unintelligible system is presented to them
+in a language foreign to their understanding, and contradictory to their
+feelings. They hesitate between new motives and old principles. From the
+fear of being thought ignorant, they become affected; and from the dread
+of being thought to be children act like fools. But all this they feel
+only when they are in the company of such people as Mrs. Theresa Tattle.
+
+'Ma'am,' Frederick began, 'I don't mean to be rude; but I hope you'll
+excuse me from coming to drink tea with you to-morrow, because my father
+and mother are not acquainted with Lady Battersby, and maybe they might
+not like----'
+
+'Take care, take care,' said Mrs. Theresa, laughing at his perplexity;
+'you want to get off from obliging me, and you don't know how. You had
+very nearly made a most shocking blunder in putting it all upon poor
+Lady Battersby. Now you know it's impossible that Mr. and Mrs. Montague
+could have in nature the slightest objection to introducing you to my
+Lady Battersby at my own house; for, don't you know, that, besides her
+ladyship's many unquestionable qualities, which one need not talk of,
+she is cousin, but once removed, to the Trotters of Lancashire--your
+mother's great favourites? And there is not a person at the Wells, I'll
+venture to say, could be of more advantage to your sister Sophy, in the
+way of partners, when she comes to go to balls, which it's to be
+supposed she will, some time or other; and as you are so good a brother,
+that's a thing to be looked to, you know. Besides, as to yourself,
+there's nothing her ladyship delights in so much as in a good mimic; and
+she'll quite adore you!'
+
+'But I don't want her to adore me, ma'am,' said Frederick, bluntly;
+then, correcting himself, added, 'I mean for being a mimic.'
+
+'Why not, my love? Between friends, can there be any harm in showing
+one's talents? You that have such talents to show. She'll keep your
+secret, I'll answer for her; and,' added she, 'you needn't be afraid of
+her criticism; for, between you and me, she's no great critic: so you'll
+come. Well, thank you, that's settled. How you have made me beg and
+pray! but you know your own value, I see; as you entertaining people
+always do. One must ask a wit, like a fine singer, so often. Well, but
+now for the favour I was going to ask you.'
+
+Frederick looked surprised; for he thought that the favour of his
+company was what she meant; but she explained herself farther.
+
+'As to the old Quaker who lodges above, old Ephraim Eden--my Lady
+Battersby and I have so much diversion about him. He is the best
+character, the oddest creature! If you were but to see him come into the
+rooms with those stiff skirts, or walking with his eternal sister
+Bertha, and his everlasting broad-brimmed hat! One knows him a mile off!
+But then his voice and way, and altogether, if one could get them to
+the life, they'd be better than anything on the stage; better even than
+anything I've seen to-night; and I think you'd make a capital Quaker for
+my Lady Battersby; but then the thing is, one can never get to hear the
+old quiz talk. Now you, who have so much invention and cleverness--I
+have no invention myself--but could you not hit upon some way of seeing
+him, so that you might get him by heart? I'm sure you, who are so quick,
+would only want to see him, and hear him, for half a minute, to be able
+to take him off, so as to kill one with laughing. But I have no
+invention.'
+
+'Oh, as to the invention,' said Frederick, 'I know an admirable way of
+doing the thing, if that is all; but then remember, I don't say I will
+do the thing, for I will not. But I know a way of getting up into his
+room, and seeing him, without his knowing me to be there.'
+
+'Oh, tell it me, you charming, clever creature!'
+
+'But, remember, I do not say I will do it.'
+
+'Well, well, let us hear it; and you shall do as you please afterwards.
+Merciful goodness!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle, 'do my ears deceive me? I
+declare I looked round, and thought I heard the squeaking
+chimney-sweeper was in the room!'
+
+'So did I, Frederick, I declare,' cried Marianne, laughing, 'I never
+heard anything so like his voice in my life.'
+
+Frederick imitated the squeaking voice of this chimney-sweeper to great
+perfection.
+
+'Now,' continued he, 'this fellow is just my height. The old Quaker, if
+my face were blackened, and if I were to change clothes with the
+chimney-sweeper, I'll answer for it, would never know me.'
+
+'Oh, it's an admirable invention! I give you infinite credit for it!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Theresa. 'It shall, it must be done. I'll ring, and have
+the fellow up this minute.'
+
+'Oh, no; do not ring,' said Frederick, stopping her hand, 'I don't mean
+to do it. You know you promised that I should do as I pleased. I only
+told you my invention.'
+
+'Well, well; but only let me ring, and ask whether the chimney-sweepers
+are below. You shall do as you please afterwards.'
+
+'Christopher, shut the door. Christopher,' said she to the servant who
+came up when she rang, 'pray are the sweeps gone yet?' 'No, ma'am.'
+'But have they been up to old Eden yet?' 'Oh no, ma'am; nor be not to go
+till the bell rings; for Miss Bertha, ma'am, was asleep a-lying down,
+and her brother wouldn't have her wakened on no account whatsomever. He
+came down hisself to the kitchen to the sweeps, though; but wouldn't
+have, as I heard him say, his sister waked for no account. But Miss
+Bertha's bell will ring when she wakens for the sweeps, ma'am. 'Twas she
+wanted to see the boy as her brother saved, and I suppose sent for 'em
+to give him something charitable, ma'am.' 'Well, never mind your
+suppositions,' said Mrs. Theresa; 'run down this very minute to the
+little squeaking chimney-sweep, and send him up to me. Quick, but don't
+let the other bear come up with him.'
+
+Christopher, who had curiosity as well as his mistress, when he returned
+with the chimney-sweeper, prolonged his own stay in the room by sweeping
+the hearth, throwing down the tongs and shovel, and picking them up
+again.
+
+'That will do, Christopher! Christopher, that will do, I say,' Mrs.
+Theresa repeated in vain. She was obliged to say, 'Christopher, you may
+go,' before he would depart.
+
+'Now,' said she to Frederick, 'step in here to the next room with this
+candle, and you'll be equipped in an instant. Only just change clothes
+with the boy; only just let me see what a charming chimney-sweeper you'd
+make. You shall do as you please afterwards.' 'Well, I'll only change
+clothes with him, just to show you for one minute.'
+
+'But,' said Marianne to Mrs. Theresa whilst Frederick was changing his
+clothes, 'I think Frederick is right about----' 'About what, love?' 'I
+think he is in the right not to go up, though he can do it so easily, to
+see that gentleman; I mean on purpose to mimic and laugh at him
+afterwards. I don't think that would be quite right.' 'Why, pray, Miss
+Marianne?' 'Why, because he is so good-natured to his sister. He would
+not let her be wakened.' 'Dear, it's easy to be good in such little
+things; and he won't have long to be good to her neither; for I don't
+think she will trouble him long in this world, anyhow.' 'What do you
+mean?' said Marianne. 'That she'll die, child.' 'Die! die with that
+beautiful colour in her cheeks! How sorry her poor, poor brother will
+be! But she will not die, I'm sure, for she walks about, and runs
+upstairs so lightly! Oh, you must be quite mistaken, I hope.' 'If I'm
+mistaken, Dr. Panado Cardamum's mistaken too, then, that's my comfort.
+He says, unless the waters work a miracle, she stands a bad chance; and
+she won't follow my advice, and consult the doctor for her health.' 'He
+would frighten her to death, perhaps,' said Marianne. 'I hope Frederick
+won't go up to disturb her.' 'Lud, child, you are turned simpleton all
+of a sudden; how can your brother disturb her more than the real
+chimney-sweeper?' 'But I don't think it's right,' persisted Marianne,
+'and I shall tell him so.' 'Nay, Miss Marianne, I don't commend you now.
+Young ladies should not be so forward to give opinions and advice to
+their elder brothers unasked; and I presume that Mr. Frederick and I
+must know what's right as well as Miss Marianne. Hush! here he is. Oh,
+the capital figure!' cried Mrs. Theresa. 'Bravo, bravo!' cried she, as
+Frederick entered in the chimney-sweeper's dress; and as he spoke,
+saying, 'I'm afraid, please your ladyship, to dirt your ladyship's
+carpet,' she broke out into immoderate raptures, calling him 'her
+charming chimney-sweeper!' and repeating that she knew beforehand the
+character would do for him.
+
+Mrs. Theresa instantly rang the bell, in spite of all
+expostulation--ordered Christopher to send up the other
+chimney-sweeper--triumphed in observing that Christopher did not know
+Frederick when he came into the room; and offered to lay any wager that
+the other chimney-sweeper would mistake him for his companion. And so he
+did; and when Frederick spoke, the voice was so very like, that it was
+scarcely possible that he should have perceived the difference.
+
+Marianne was diverted by this scene; but she started when, in the midst
+of it, they heard a bell ring. 'That's the lady's bell, and we must go,'
+said the blunt chimney-sweeper. 'Go, then, about your business,' said
+Mrs. Theresa, 'and here's a shilling for you, to drink, my honest
+fellow. I did not know you were so much bruised when I first saw you. I
+won't detain you. Go,' said she, pushing Frederick towards the door.
+Marianne sprang forward to speak to him; but Mrs. Theresa kept her off;
+and, though Frederick resisted, the lady shut the door upon him by
+superior force, and, having locked it, there was no retreat. Mrs. Tattle
+and Marianne waited impatiently for Frederick's return. 'I hear them,'
+cried Marianne, 'I hear them coming downstairs.' They listened again,
+and all was silent. At length they suddenly heard a great noise of many
+steps in the hall. 'Merciful!' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa, 'it must be your
+father and mother come back.' Marianne ran to unlock the room door, and
+Mrs. Theresa followed her into the hall. The hall was rather dark, but
+under the lamp a crowd of people; all the servants in the house having
+gathered together.
+
+As Mrs. Theresa approached, the crowd opened in silence, and in the
+midst she beheld Frederick, with blood streaming from his face. His head
+was held by Christopher; and the chimney-sweeper was holding a basin for
+him. 'Merciful! what will become of me?' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa.
+'Bleeding! he'll bleed to death! Can nobody think of anything that will
+stop blood in a minute? A key, a large key down his back--a key--has
+nobody a key? Mr. and Mrs. Montague will be here before he has done
+bleeding. A key! cobwebs! a puff ball! for mercy's sake! Can nobody
+think of anything that will stop blood in a minute? Gracious me! he'll
+bleed to death, I believe.'
+
+'He'll bleed to death! Oh, my brother!' cried Marianne, catching hold of
+the words; and terrified, she ran upstairs, crying, 'Sophy, oh, Sophy!
+come down this minute, or he'll be dead! My brother's bleeding to death!
+Sophy! Sophy! come down, or he'll be dead!'
+
+'Let go the basin, you,' said Christopher, pulling the basin out of the
+chimney-sweeper's hand, who had all this time stood in silence; 'you are
+not fit to hold the basin for a gentleman.' 'Let him hold it,' said
+Frederick; 'he did not mean to hurt me.' 'That's more than he deserves.
+I'm certain sure he might have known well enough it was Mr. Frederick
+all the time, and he'd no business to go to fight--such a one as
+he--with a gentleman.' 'I did not know he was a gentleman,' said the
+chimney-sweeper! 'how could I?' 'How could he, indeed?' said Frederick;
+'he shall hold the basin.'
+
+'Gracious me! I'm glad to hear him speak like himself again, at any
+rate,' cried Mrs. Theresa. 'And here comes Miss Sophy, too.' 'Sophy!'
+cried Frederick. 'Oh, Sophy, don't you come--don't look at me; you'll
+despise me.' 'My brother!--where? where?' said Sophy, looking, as she
+thought, at the two chimney-sweepers.
+
+'It's Frederick,' said Marianne; 'that's my brother.'
+
+'Miss Sophy, don't be alarmed,' Mrs. Theresa began; 'but gracious
+goodness! I wish Miss Bertha----'
+
+At this instant a female figure in white appeared upon the stairs; she
+passed swiftly on, whilst every one gave way before her. 'Oh, Miss
+Bertha!' cried Mrs. Theresa, catching hold of her gown to stop her, as
+she came near Frederick. 'Oh, Miss Eden, your beautiful India muslin!
+take care of the chimney-sweeper, for heaven's sake.' But she pressed
+forward.
+
+'It's my brother, will he die?' cried Marianne, throwing her arms round
+her, and looking up as if to a being of a superior order. 'Will he bleed
+to death?' 'No, my love!' answered a sweet voice; 'do not frighten
+thyself.'
+
+'I've done bleeding,' said Frederick. 'Dear me, Miss Marianne, if you
+would not make such a rout,' cried Mrs. Tattle. 'Miss Bertha, it's
+nothing but a frolic. You see Mr. Frederick Montague only in a
+masquerade dress. Nothing in the world but a frolic, ma'am. You see he's
+stopped bleeding. I was frightened out of my wits at first. I thought it
+was his eye, but I see it's only his nose. All's well that ends well.
+Mr. Frederick, we'll keep your counsel. Pray, ma'am, let us ask no
+questions; it's only a boyish frolic. Come, Mr. Frederick, this way,
+into my room, and I'll give you a towel and some clean water, and you
+can get rid of this masquerade dress. Make haste, for fear your father
+and mother should drop in upon us.'
+
+'Do not be afraid of thy father and mother. They are surely thy best
+friends,' said a voice. It was the voice of an elderly gentleman, who
+now stood behind Frederick. 'Oh, sir, oh, Mr. Eden,' said Frederick,
+turning to him. 'Don't betray me! for goodness' sake!' whispered Mrs.
+Tattle, 'say nothing about me.' 'I'm not thinking about you. Let me
+speak,' cried he, pushing away her hand, which stopped his mouth. 'I
+shall say nothing about you, I promise you,' said Frederick, with a look
+of contempt. 'No, but for your own sake, my dear sir, your papa and
+mamma. Bless me! is not that Mrs. Montague's carriage?'
+
+'My brother, ma'am,' said Sophy, 'is not afraid of my father and
+mother's coming back. Let him speak; he was going to speak the truth.'
+
+'To be sure, Miss Sophia, I wouldn't hinder him from speaking the truth;
+but it's not proper, I presume, ma'am, to speak truth at all times, and
+in all places, and before everybody, servants and all. I only wanted,
+ma'am, to hinder your brother from exposing himself. A hall, I
+apprehend, is not a proper place for explanation.'
+
+'Here,' said Mr. Eden, opening the door of his room, which was on the
+opposite side of the hall to Mrs. Tattle's. 'Here is a place,' said he
+to Frederick, 'where thou mayst speak the truth at all times, and before
+everybody.' 'Nay, my room's at Mr. Frederick Montague's service, and my
+door's open too. This way, pray,' said she, pulling his arm. But
+Frederick broke from her, and followed Mr. Eden. 'Oh, sir, will you
+forgive me?' cried he. 'Forgive thee!--and what have I to forgive?'
+'Forgive, brother, without asking what,' said Bertha, smiling.
+
+'He shall know all!' cried Frederick; 'all that concerns myself, I mean.
+Sir, I disguised myself in this dress; I came up to your room to-night
+on purpose to see you, without your knowing it, that I might mimic you.
+The chimney-sweeper, where is he?' said Frederick, looking round; and he
+ran into the hall to seek for him. 'May he come in? he may--he is a
+brave, an honest, good, grateful boy. He never guessed who I was. After
+we left you we went down to the kitchen together, and there, fool as I
+was, for the pleasure of making Mr. Christopher and the servants laugh,
+began to mimic you. This boy said he would not stand by and hear you
+laughed at; that you had saved his life; that I ought to be ashamed of
+myself; that you had just given me half a crown; and so you had; but I
+went on, and told him I'd knock him down if he said another word. He
+did; I gave the first blow; we fought; I came to the ground; the
+servants pulled me up again. They found out, I don't know how, that I
+was not a chimney-sweeper. The rest you saw. And now can you forgive me,
+sir?' said Frederick to Mr. Eden, seizing hold of his hand.
+
+'The other hand, friend,' said the Quaker, gently withdrawing his right
+hand, which everybody now observed was much swelled, and putting it into
+his bosom again. 'This, and welcome,' offering his other hand to
+Frederick, and shaking his with a smile. 'Oh, that other hand!' said
+Frederick, 'that was hurt, I remember. How ill I have behaved--extremely
+ill! But this is a lesson that I shall never forget as long as I live.
+I hope for the future I shall behave like a gentleman.' 'And like a
+man--and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,' said the good Quaker,
+shaking Frederick's hand affectionately; 'or I am much mistaken, friend,
+in that black countenance.'
+
+'You are not mistaken,' cried Marianne. 'Frederick will never be
+persuaded again by anybody to do what he does not think right; and now,
+brother you may wash your black countenance.'
+
+Just when Frederick had got rid of half his black countenance, a double
+knock was heard at the door. It was Mr. and Mrs. Montague. 'What will
+you do now?' whispered Mrs. Theresa to Frederick, as his father and
+mother came into the room. 'A chimney-sweeper covered with blood!'
+exclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Montague. 'Father, I am Frederick,' said he,
+stepping forward towards them, as they stood in astonishment.
+'Frederick! my son!' 'Yes, mother, I'm not hurt half so much as I
+deserve; I'll tell you----' 'Nay,' interrupted Bertha, 'let my brother
+tell the story this time. Thou hast told it once, and told it well; no
+one but my brother could tell it better.'
+
+'A story never tells so well the second time, to be sure,' said Mrs.
+Theresa; 'but Mr. Eden will certainly make the best of it.'
+
+Without taking any notice of Mrs. Tattle, or her apprehensive looks, Mr.
+Eden explained all he knew of the affair in a few words. 'Your son,'
+concluded he, 'will quickly put off his dirty dress. The dress hath not
+stained the mind; that is fair and honourable. When he found himself in
+the wrong, he said so; nor was he in haste to conceal his adventure from
+his father; this made me think well of both father and son. I speak
+plainly, friend, for that is best. But what is become of the other
+chimney-sweeper? He will want to go home,' said Mr. Eden, turning to
+Mrs. Theresa. Without making any reply, she hurried out of the room as
+fast as possible, and returned in a few moments, with a look of extreme
+consternation.
+
+'Here is a catastrophe indeed! Now, indeed, Mr. Frederick, your papa and
+mamma have reason to be angry. A new suit of clothes!--the barefaced
+villain! gone! no sign of them in my closet, or anywhere. The door was
+locked; he must have gone up the chimney, out upon the leads, and so
+escaped; but Christopher is after him. I protest, Mrs. Montague, you
+take it too quietly. The wretch!--a new suit of clothes, blue coat and
+buff waistcoat. I never heard of such a thing! I declare, Mr. Montague,
+you are vastly good, not to be in a passion,' added Mrs. Theresa.
+
+[Illustration: _'And like a man--and like a good man, I am sure thou
+wilt,' said the good Quaker shaking Frederick's hand affectionately_]
+
+'Madam,' replied Mr. Montague, with a look of much civil contempt, 'I
+think the loss of a suit of clothes, and even the disgrace that my son
+has been brought to this evening, fortunate circumstances in his
+education. He will, I am persuaded, judge and act for himself more
+wisely in future. Not will he be tempted to offend against humanity, for
+the sake of being called "The best mimic in the world."'
+
+
+
+
+THE BARRING OUT;
+
+OR,
+
+PARTY SPIRIT
+
+
+'The mother of mischief,' says an old proverb, 'is no bigger than a
+midge's wing.'
+
+At Doctor Middleton's school there was a great tall dunce of the name of
+Fisher, who never could be taught how to look out a word in the
+dictionary. He used to torment everybody with--'Do pray help me! I can't
+make out this one word.' The person who usually helped him in his
+distress was a very clever, good-natured boy, of the name of De Grey,
+who had been many years under Dr. Middleton's care, and who, by his
+abilities and good conduct, did him great credit. The doctor certainly
+was both proud and fond of him; but he was so well beloved, or so much
+esteemed, by his companions, that nobody had ever called him by the
+odious name of favourite, until the arrival of a new scholar of the name
+of Archer.
+
+Till Archer came, the ideas of _favourites_ and _parties_ were almost
+unknown at Dr. Middleton's; but he brought all these ideas fresh from a
+great public school, at which he had been educated--at which he had
+acquired a sufficient quantity of Greek and Latin, and a superabundant
+quantity of party spirit. His aim, the moment he came to a new school,
+was to get to the head of it, or at least to form the strongest party.
+His influence, for he was a boy of considerable abilities, was quickly
+felt, though he had a powerful rival, as he thought proper to call him,
+in De Grey; and, with _him_, a rival was always an enemy. De Grey, so
+far from giving him any cause of hatred, treated him with a degree of
+cordiality which would probably have had an effect upon Archer's mind,
+if it had not been for the artifices of Fisher.
+
+It may seem surprising that a _great dunce_ should be able to work upon
+a boy like Archer, who was called a great genius; but when genius is
+joined to a violent temper, instead of being united to good sense, it is
+at the mercy even of dunces.
+
+Fisher was mortally offended one morning by De Grey's refusing to
+translate his whole lesson for him. He went over to Archer, who,
+considering him as a partisan deserting from the enemy, received him
+with open arms, and translated his whole lesson, without expressing
+_much_ contempt for his stupidity. From this moment Fisher forgot all De
+Grey's former kindness, and considered only how he could in his turn
+mortify the person whom he felt to be so much his superior.
+
+De Grey and Archer were now reading for a premium, which was to be given
+in their class. Fisher betted on Archer's head, who had not sense enough
+to despise the bet of a blockhead. On the contrary, he suffered him to
+excite the spirit of rivalship in its utmost fury by collecting the bets
+of all the school. So that this premium now became a matter of the
+greatest consequence, and Archer, instead of taking the means to secure
+a judgment in his favour, was listening to the opinions of all his
+companions. It was a prize which was to be won by his own exertions; but
+he suffered himself to consider it as an affair of chance. The
+consequence was, that he trusted to chance--his partisans lost their
+wagers, and he the premium--and his temper.
+
+'Mr. Archer,' said Dr. Middleton, after the grand affair was decided,
+'you have done all that genius alone could do; but you, De Grey, have
+done all that genius and industry united could do.'
+
+'Well!' cried Archer, with affected gaiety, as soon as the doctor had
+left the room--'well, I'm content with _my_ sentence. Genius alone for
+me--industry for those who _want_ it,' added he, with a significant look
+at De Grey.
+
+Fisher applauded this as a very spirited speech; and, by insinuations
+that Dr. Middleton 'always gave the premium to De Grey,' and 'that those
+who had lost their bets might thank themselves for it, for being such
+simpletons as to bet against the favourite,' he raised a murmur highly
+flattering to Archer amongst some of the most credulous boys; whilst
+others loudly proclaimed their belief in Dr. Middleton's impartiality.
+These warmly congratulated De Grey. At this Archer grew more and more
+angry, and when Fisher was proceeding to speak nonsense _for_ him,
+pushed forward into the circle to De Grey, crying, 'I wish, Mr. Fisher,
+you would let me fight my own battles!'
+
+'And _I_ wish,' said young Townsend, who was fonder of diversions than
+of premiums, or battles, or of anything else--'_I_ wish that we were not
+to have any battles; after having worked like horses, don't set about to
+fight like dogs. Come,' said he, tapping De Grey's shoulder, 'let us see
+your new playhouse, do--it's a holiday, and let us make the most of it.
+Let us have the "School for Scandal," do; and I'll play Charles for you,
+and you, De Grey, shall be _my little Premium_. Come, do open this new
+playhouse of yours to-night.'
+
+'Come then!' said De Grey, and he ran across the playground to a waste
+building at the farthest end of it, in which, at the earnest request of
+the whole community, and with the permission of Dr. Middleton, he had
+with much pain and ingenuity erected a theatre.
+
+'The new theatre is going to be opened! Follow the manager! Follow the
+manager!' echoed a multitude of voices.
+
+'_Follow the manager!_' echoed very disagreeably in Archer's ear; but as
+he could not be _left alone_, he was also obliged to follow the manager.
+The moment that the door was unlocked, the crowd rushed in; the delight
+and wonder expressed at the sight were great, and the applause and
+thanks which were bestowed upon the manager were long and loud.
+
+Archer at least thought them long, for he was impatient till his voice
+could be heard. When at length the acclamations had spent themselves, he
+walked across the stage with a knowing air, and looking round
+contemptuously--
+
+'And is _this_ your famous playhouse?' cried he. 'I wish you had, any of
+you, seen the playhouse _I_ have been used to?'
+
+These words made a great and visible change in the feelings and opinions
+of the public. 'Who would be a servant of the public? or who would toil
+for popular applause?' A few words spoken in a decisive tone by a new
+voice operated as a charm, and the playhouse was in an instant
+metamorphosed in the eyes of the spectators. All gratitude for the past
+was forgotten, and the expectation of something better justified to the
+capricious multitude their disdain of what they had so lately pronounced
+to be excellent.
+
+Every one now began to criticise. One observed 'that the green curtain
+was full of holes, and would not draw up.' Another attacked the scenes.
+'Scenes! they were not like real scenes--Archer must know best, because
+he was used to these things.' So everybody crowded to hear something of
+the _other_ playhouse. They gathered round Archer to hear the
+description of his playhouse, and at every sentence insulting
+comparisons were made. When he had done, his auditors looked round,
+sighed, and wished that Archer had been their manager. They turned from
+De Grey as from a person who had done them an injury. Some of his
+friends--for he had friends who were not swayed by the popular
+opinion--felt indignation at this ingratitude, and were going to express
+their feelings; but De Grey stopped them, and begged that he might speak
+for himself.
+
+'Gentlemen,' said he, coming forward, as soon as he felt that he had
+sufficient command of himself. 'My friends, I see you are discontented
+with me and my playhouse. I have done my best to please you; but if
+anybody else can please you better, I shall be glad of it. I did not
+work so hard for the glory of being your manager. You have my free leave
+to tear down----' Here his voice faltered, but he hurried on--'You have
+my free leave to tear down all my work as fast as you please. Archer,
+shake hands first, however, to show that there's no malice in the case.'
+
+Archer, who was touched by what his rival said, and stopping the hand of
+his new partisan, Fisher, cried, 'No, Fisher! no!--no pulling down. We
+can alter it. There is a great deal of ingenuity in it, considering.'
+
+In vain Archer would now have recalled the public to reason,--the time
+for reason was past: enthusiasm had taken hold of their minds. 'Down
+with it! Down with it! Archer for ever!' cried Fisher, and tore down the
+curtain. The riot once begun, nothing could stop the little mob, till
+the whole theatre was demolished. The love of power prevailed in the
+mind of Archer; he was secretly flattered by the zeal of his _party_,
+and he mistook their love of mischief for attachment to himself. De Grey
+looked on superior. 'I said I could bear to see all this, and I can,'
+said he; 'now it is all over.' And now it was all over, there was
+silence. The rioters stood still to take breath, and to look at what
+they had done. There was a blank space before them.
+
+In this moment of silence there was heard something like a female voice.
+'Hush! What strange voice is that?' said Archer. Fisher caught fast hold
+of his arm. Everybody looked round to see where the voice came from. It
+was dusk. Two window-shutters at the farthest end of the building were
+seen to move slowly inwards. De Grey, and in the same instant Archer,
+went forward; and, as the shutters opened, there appeared through the
+hole the dark face and shrivelled hands of a very old gipsy. She did not
+speak; but she looked first at one and then at another. At length she
+fixed her eyes on De Grey. 'Well, my good woman,' said he, 'what do you
+want with me?' 'Want!--nothing--with _you_,' said the old woman; 'do you
+want nothing with _me_?' 'Nothing,' said De Grey. Her eye immediately
+turned upon Archer,--'_You_ want something with me,' said she, with
+emphasis. 'I--what do I want?' replied Archer. 'No,' said she, changing
+her tone, 'you want nothing--nothing will you ever want, or I am much
+mistaken in that _face_.'
+
+In that _watch-chain_, she should have said, for her quick eye had
+espied Archer's watch-chain. He was the only person in the company who
+had a watch, and she therefore judged him to be the richest.
+
+'Had you ever your fortune told, sir, in your life?' 'Not I,' said he,
+looking at De Grey, as if he was afraid of his ridicule, if he listened
+to the gipsy. 'Not you! No! for you will make your own fortune, and the
+fortune of all that belong to you!'
+
+'There's good news for my friends,' cried Archer. 'And I'm one of them,
+remember that,' cried Fisher. 'And I,' 'And I,' joined a number of
+voices. 'Good luck to them!' cried the gipsy, 'good luck to them all!'
+
+Then, as soon as they had acquired sufficient confidence in her good
+will, they pressed up to the window. 'There,' cried Townsend, as he
+chanced to stumble over the carpenter's mitre box, which stood in the
+way, 'there's a good omen for me. I've stumbled on the mitre box; I
+shall certainly be a bishop.'
+
+Happy he who had sixpence, for he bid fair to be a judge upon the bench.
+And happier he who had a shilling, for he was in the high road to be one
+day upon the woolsack, Lord High Chancellor of England. No one had
+half-a-crown, or no one would surely have kept it in his pocket upon
+such an occasion, for he might have been an archbishop, a king, or what
+he pleased.
+
+Fisher, who like all weak people was extremely credulous, had kept his
+post immovable in the front row all the time, his mouth open, and his
+stupid eyes fixed upon the gipsy, in whom he felt implicit faith.
+
+Those who have least confidence in their own powers, and who have least
+expectation from the success of their own exertions, are always most
+disposed to trust in fortune-tellers and fortune. They hope to _win_,
+when they cannot _earn_; and as they can never be convinced by those who
+speak sense, it is no wonder they are always persuaded by those who talk
+nonsense.
+
+'I have a question to put,' said Fisher, in a solemn tone. 'Put it,
+then,' said Archer, 'what hinders you?' 'But they will hear me,' said
+he, looking suspiciously at De Grey. '_I_ shall not hear you,' said De
+Grey, 'I am going.' Everybody else drew back, and left him to whisper
+his question in the gipsy's ear. 'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your
+_sister_ Livy, do you mean?' said the gipsy. 'No, my _Latin_ Livy.'
+
+The gipsy paused for information. 'It had a leaf torn out in the
+beginning, and _I hate Dr. Middleton_----' 'Written in it,' interrupted
+the gipsy. 'Right--the very book!' cried Fisher with joy. 'But how
+_could_ you know it was Dr. Middleton's name? I thought I had scratched
+it, so that nobody could make it out.' 'Nobody _could_ make it out but
+_me_,' replied the gipsy. 'But never think to deceive me,' said she,
+shaking her head at him in a manner that made him tremble. 'I don't
+deceive you indeed, I tell you the whole truth. I lost it a week ago.'
+'True.' 'And when shall I find it?' 'Meet me here at this hour to-morrow
+evening, and I will answer you. No more! I must be gone. Not a word more
+to-night.'
+
+She pulled the shutters towards her, and left the youth in darkness. All
+his companions were gone. He had been so deeply engaged in this
+conference, that he had not perceived their departure. He found all the
+world at supper, but no entreaties could prevail upon him to disclose
+his secret. Townsend rallied in vain. As for Archer, he was not disposed
+to destroy by ridicule the effect which he saw that the old woman's
+predictions in his favour had had upon the imagination of many of his
+little partisans. He had privately slipped two good shillings into the
+gipsy's hand to secure her; for he was willing to pay any price for
+_any_ means of acquiring power.
+
+[Illustration: _'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your sister Livy, do you
+mean?'_]
+
+The watch-chain had not deceived the gipsy, for Archer was the richest
+person in the community. His friends had imprudently supplied him with
+more money than is usually trusted to boys of his age. Dr. Middleton had
+refused to give him a larger monthly allowance than the rest of his
+companions; but he brought to school with him secretly the sum of five
+guineas. This appeared to his friends and to himself an inexhaustible
+treasure.
+
+Riches and talents would, he flattered himself, secure to him that
+ascendency of which he was so ambitious. 'Am I your manager or not?' was
+now his question. 'I scorn to take advantage of a hasty moment; but
+since last night you have had time to consider. If you desire me to be
+your manager, you shall see what a theatre I will make for you. In this
+purse,' said he, showing through the network a glimpse of the shining
+treasure--'in this purse is Aladdin's wonderful lamp. Am I your manager?
+Put it to the vote.'
+
+It was put to the vote. About ten of the most reasonable of the assembly
+declared their gratitude and high approbation of their old friend, De
+Grey; but the numbers were in favour of the new friend. And as no
+metaphysical distinctions relative to the idea of a majority had ever
+entered their thoughts, the most numerous party considered themselves as
+now beyond dispute in the right. They drew off on one side in triumph,
+and their leader, who knew the consequence of a name in party matters,
+immediately distinguished his partisans by the gallant name of
+_Archers_, stigmatising the friends of De Grey by the odious epithet of
+Greybeards.
+
+Amongst the Archers was a class not very remarkable for their mental
+qualifications; but who, by their bodily activity, and by the peculiar
+advantages annexed to their way of life, rendered themselves of the
+highest consequence, especially to the rich and enterprising.
+
+The judicious reader will apprehend that I allude to the persons called
+day scholars. Amongst these, Fisher was distinguished by his knowledge
+of all the streets and shops in the adjacent town; and, though a dull
+scholar, he had such reputation as a man of business that whoever had
+commissions to execute at the confectioner's was sure to apply to him.
+Some of the youngest of his employers had, it is true, at times
+complained that he made mistakes of halfpence and pence in their
+accounts; but as these affairs could never be brought to a public trial,
+Fisher's character and consequence were undiminished, till the fatal day
+when his Aunt Barbara forbade his visits to the confectioner's; or
+rather, till she requested the confectioner, who had his private reasons
+for obeying her, not _to receive_ her nephew's visits, as he had made
+himself sick at his house, and Mrs. Barbara's fears for his health were
+incessant.
+
+Though his visits to the confectioner's were thus at an end, there were
+many other shops open to him; and with officious zeal he offered his
+services to the new manager, to purchase whatever might be wanting for
+the theatre.
+
+Since his father's death Fisher had become a boarder at Dr. Middleton's,
+but his frequent visits to his Aunt Barbara afforded him opportunities
+of going into the town. The carpenter, De Grey's friend, was discarded
+by Archer, for having said '_lack-a-daisy!_' when he saw that the old
+theatre was pulled down. A new carpenter and paper-hanger, recommended
+by Fisher, were appointed to attend, with their tools, for orders, at
+two o'clock. Archer, impatient to show his ingenuity and his generosity,
+gave his plan and his orders in a few minutes, in a most decided manner.
+'These things,' he observed, 'should be done with some spirit.'
+
+To which the carpenter readily assented, and added that 'gentlemen of
+spirit never looked to the _expense_, but always to the _effect_.' Upon
+this principle Mr. Chip set to work with all possible alacrity. In a few
+hours' time he promised to produce a grand effect. High expectations
+were formed. Nothing was talked of but the new playhouse; and so intent
+upon it was every head, that no lessons could be got. Archer was
+obliged, in the midst of his various occupations, to perform the part of
+grammar and dictionary for twenty different people.
+
+'O ye Athenians!' he exclaimed, 'how hard do I work to obtain your
+praise!'
+
+Impatient to return to the theatre, the moment the hours destined for
+instruction, or, as they are termed by schoolboys, school-hours, were
+over each prisoner started up with a shout of joy.
+
+'Stop one moment, gentlemen, if you please,' said Dr. Middleton, in an
+awful voice. 'Mr. Archer, return to your place. Are you all here?' The
+names of all the boys were called over, and when each had answered to
+his name, Dr. Middleton said--
+
+'Gentlemen, I am sorry to interrupt your amusements; but, till you have
+contrary orders from me, no one, on pain of my serious displeasure, must
+go into _that_ building' (pointing to the place where the theatre was
+erecting). 'Mr. Archer, your carpenter is at the door. You will be so
+good as to dismiss him. I do not think proper to give my reasons for
+these orders; but you who _know_ me,' said the doctor, and his eye
+turned towards De Grey, 'will not suspect me of caprice. I depend,
+gentlemen, upon your obedience.'
+
+To the dead silence with which these orders were received, succeeded in
+a few minutes a universal groan. 'So!' said Townsend, 'all our diversion
+is over.' 'So,' whispered Fisher in the manager's ear, 'this is some
+trick of the Greybeards'. Did you not observe how he looked at De Grey?'
+
+Fired by this thought, which had never entered his mind before, Archer
+started from his reverie, and striking his hand upon the table, swore
+that he 'would not be outwitted by any Greybeard in Europe--no, nor by
+all of them put together. The Archers were surely a match for them. He
+would stand by them, if they would stand by him,' he declared, with a
+loud voice, 'against the whole world, and Dr. Middleton himself, with
+"_Little Premium_" at his right hand.'
+
+Everybody admired Archer's spirit, but was a little appalled at the
+sound of standing against Dr. Middleton.
+
+'Why not?' resumed the indignant manager. 'Neither Dr. Middleton nor any
+doctor upon earth shall treat me with injustice. This, you see, is a
+stroke at me and my party, and I won't bear it.'
+
+'Oh, you are mistaken!' said De Grey, who was the only one who dared to
+oppose reason to the angry orator. 'It cannot be a stroke aimed at "you
+and your party," for he does not know that you _have_ a party.'
+
+'I'll make him know it, and I'll make _you_ know it, too,' said Archer.
+'Before I came here you reigned alone; now your reign is over, Mr. De
+Grey. Remember my majority this morning, and your theatre last night.'
+
+'He has remembered it,' said Fisher. 'You see, the moment he was not to
+be our manager, we were to have no theatre, no playhouse, no plays. We
+must all sit down with our hands before us--all for "_good reasons_" of
+Dr. Middleton's, which he does not vouchsafe to tell us.'
+
+'I won't be governed by any man's reasons that he won't tell me,' cried
+Archer. 'He cannot have good reasons, or why not tell them?' 'Nonsense!'
+said De Grey. '_We shall not suspect him of caprice!_' 'Why not?'
+'Because we who know him have never known him capricious.' 'Perhaps not.
+_I_ know nothing about him,' said Archer. 'No,' said De Grey; 'for that
+very reason _I_ speak who do know him. Don't be in a passion, Archer.'
+'I will be in a passion. I won't submit to tyranny. I won't be made a
+fool of by a few soft words. You don't know me, De Grey. I'll go through
+with what I've begun. I am manager, and I will be manager; and you shall
+see my theatre finished in spite of you, and _my_ party triumphant.'
+
+'Party,' repeated De Grey. 'I cannot imagine what is in the word "party"
+that seems to drive you mad. We never heard of parties till you came
+amongst us.'
+
+'No; before I came, I say, nobody dared oppose you; but _I_ dare; and I
+tell you to your face, take care of me--a warm friend and a bitter enemy
+is my motto.' 'I am not your enemy! I believe you are out of your
+senses, Archer!' said he, laughing. 'Out of my senses! No; you are my
+enemy! Are you not my rival? Did you not win the premium? Did not you
+want to be manager? Answer me, are not you, in one word, a Greybeard?'
+'You called me a Greybeard, but my name is De Grey,' said he, still
+laughing. 'Laugh on!' cried the other, furiously. 'Come, _Archers_,
+follow me. _We_ shall laugh by-and-by, I promise you.' At the door
+Archer was stopped by Mr. Chip. 'Oh, Mr. Chip, I am ordered to discharge
+you.' 'Yes, sir; and here's a little bill----' 'Bill, Mr. Chip! why, you
+have not been at work for two hours!' 'Not much over, sir; but if
+you'll please to look into it, you'll see 'tis for a few things you
+ordered. The stuff is all laid out and delivered. The paper and the
+festoon-bordering for the drawing-room scene is cut out, and left
+y_a_nder within.' 'Y_a_nder within! I wish you had not been in such a
+confounded hurry--six-and-twenty shillings!' cried he; 'but I can't stay
+to talk about it now. I'll tell you, Mr. Chip,' said Archer, lowering
+his voice, 'what you must do for me, my good fellow.'
+
+Then, drawing Mr. Chip aside, he begged him to pull down some of the
+woodwork which had been put up, and to cut it into a certain number of
+wooden bars, of which he gave him the dimensions, with orders to place
+them all, when ready, under a haystack, which he pointed out.
+
+Mr. Chip scrupled and hesitated, and began to talk of '_the doctor_.'
+Archer immediately began to talk of the bill, and throwing down a guinea
+and a half, the conscientious carpenter pocketed the money directly, and
+made his bow.
+
+'Well, Master Archer,' said he, 'there's no refusing you nothing. You
+have such a way of talking one out of it. You manage me just like a
+child.'
+
+'Ay, ay!' said Archer, knowing that he had been cheated, and yet proud
+of managing a carpenter, 'ay, ay! I know the way to manage everybody.
+Let the things be ready in an hour's time; and hark'e! leave your tools
+by mistake behind you, and a thousand of twenty-penny nails. Ask no
+questions, and keep your own counsel like a wise man. Off with you, and
+take care of "_the doctor_."'
+
+'Archers, Archers, to the Archers' tree! Follow your leader,' cried he,
+sounding his well-known whistle as a signal. His followers gathered
+round him, and he, raising himself upon the mount at the foot of the
+tree, counted his numbers, and then, in a voice lower than usual,
+addressed them thus:--'My friends, is there a Greybeard amongst us? If
+there is, let him walk off at once, he has my free leave.' No one
+stirred. 'Then we are all Archers, and we will stand by one another.
+Join hands, my friends.' They all joined hands. 'Promise me not to
+betray me, and I will go on. I ask no security but your honour.' They
+all gave their honour to be secret and _faithful_, as he called it, and
+he went on. 'Did you ever hear of such a thing as a "_Barring Out_," my
+friends?' They had heard of such a thing, but they had only heard of
+it.
+
+Archer gave the history of a 'Barring Out' in which he had been
+concerned at his school, in which the boys stood out against the master,
+and gained their point at last, which was a week's more holidays at
+Easter.[16] 'But if _we_ should not succeed,' said they, 'Dr. Middleton
+is so steady; he never goes back from what he has said.' 'Did you ever
+try to push him back? Let us be steady and he'll tremble. Tyrants always
+tremble when----' 'Oh,' interrupted a number of voices, 'but he is not a
+tyrant--is he?' 'All schoolmasters are tyrants--are not they?' replied
+Archer; 'and is not he a schoolmaster?' To this logic there was no
+answer; but, still reluctant, they asked, 'What they should _get_ by a
+Barring Out?' 'Get!--everything!--what we want!--which is everything to
+lads of spirit--victory and liberty! Bar him out till he repeals his
+tyrannical law; till he lets us into our own theatre again, or till he
+tells us his "_good reasons_" against it.' 'But perhaps he has reasons
+for not telling us.' 'Impossible!' cried Archer; 'that's the way we are
+always to be governed by a man in a wig, who says he has good reasons,
+and can't tell them. Are you fools? Go! go back to De Grey! I see you
+are all Greybeards. Go! Who goes first?' Nobody would go _first_. 'I
+will have nothing to do with ye, if ye are resolved to be slaves!' 'We
+won't be slaves!' they all exclaimed at once. 'Then,' said Archer,
+'stand out in the right and be free.'
+
+  [16] This custom of 'BARRING OUT' was very general (especially in the
+       northern parts of England) during the 17th and 18th centuries,
+       and it has been fully described by Brand and other antiquarian
+       writers.
+
+Dr. Johnson mentions that Addison, while under the tuition of Mr. Shaw,
+master of the Lichfield Grammar School, led, and successfully conducted,
+'a plan for _barring out_ his master. A disorderly privilege,' says the
+doctor, 'which, in his time, prevailed in the principal seminaries of
+education.'
+
+In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1828, Dr. P. A. Nuttall, under the
+signature of P. A. N., has given a spirited sketch of a 'BARRING OUT' at
+the Ormskirk Grammar School, which has since been republished at length
+(though without acknowledgment) by Sir Henry Ellis, in Bonn's recent
+edition of Brand's _Popular Antiquities_. This operation took place
+early in the present century, and is interesting from its being,
+perhaps, the last attempt on record, and also from the circumstance of
+the writer himself having been one of the juvenile leaders in the daring
+adventure, 'quorum pars magna fuit.'--ED.
+
+'_The right._' It would have taken up too much time to examine what 'the
+right' was. Archer was always sure that '_the right_' was what his
+party chose to do; that is, what he chose to do himself; and such is the
+influence of numbers upon each other, in conquering the feelings of
+shame and in confusing the powers of reasoning, that in a few minutes
+'the right' was forgotten, and each said to himself, 'To be sure, Archer
+is a very clever boy, and he can't be mistaken'; or, 'To be sure,
+Townsend thinks so, and he would not do anything to get us into a
+scrape'; or, 'To be sure, everybody will agree to this but myself, and I
+can't stand out alone, to be pointed at as a Greybeard and a slave.
+Everybody thinks it is right, and everybody can't be wrong.'
+
+By some of these arguments, which passed rapidly through the mind
+without his being conscious of them, each boy decided, and deceived
+himself--what none would have done alone, none scrupled to do as a
+party. It was determined, then, that there should be a Barring Out. The
+arrangement of the affair was left to their new manager, to whom they
+all pledged implicit obedience. Obedience, it seems, is necessary, even
+from rebels to their ringleaders; not reasonable, but implicit
+obedience.
+
+Scarcely had the assembly adjourned to the Ball-alley, when Fisher, with
+an important length of face, came up to the manager, and desired to
+speak one word to him. 'My advice to you, Archer, is, to do nothing in
+this till we have consulted _you know who_, about whether it's right or
+wrong.' '"_You know who_"! Whom do you mean? Make haste, and don't make
+so many faces, for I'm in a hurry. Who is "_You know who_"?' 'The old
+woman,' said Fisher, gravely; 'the gipsy.' 'You may consult the old
+woman,' said Archer, bursting out a-laughing, 'about what's right and
+wrong, if you please, but no old woman shall decide for me.' 'No; but
+you don't _take_ me,' said Fisher; 'you don't _take_ me. By right and
+wrong, I mean lucky and unlucky.' 'Whatever _I_ do will be lucky,'
+replied Archer. 'My gipsy told you that already.' 'I know, I know,' said
+Fisher, 'and what she said about your friends being lucky--that went a
+great way with many,' added he, with a sagacious nod of his head, 'I can
+tell you _that_--more than you think. Do you know,' said he, laying hold
+of Archer's button, 'I'm in the secret? There are nine of us have
+crooked our little fingers upon it, not to stir a step till we get her
+advice; and she has appointed me to meet her about particular business
+of my own at eight. So I'm to consult her and to bring her answer.'
+
+Archer knew too well how to govern fools to attempt to reason with them;
+and, instead of laughing any longer at Fisher's ridiculous superstition,
+he was determined to take advantage of it. He affected to be persuaded
+of the wisdom of the measure; looked at his watch; urged him to be exact
+to a moment; conjured him to remember exactly the words of the oracle;
+and, above all things, to demand the lucky hour and minute when the
+Barring Out should begin. With these instructions Archer put his watch
+into the solemn dupe's hand, and left him to count the seconds till the
+moment of his appointment, whilst he ran off himself to prepare the
+oracle.
+
+At a little gate which looked into a lane, through which he guessed that
+the gipsy must pass, he stationed himself, saw her, gave her
+half-a-crown and her instructions, made his escape, and got back
+unsuspected to Fisher, whom he found in the attitude in which he had
+left him, watching the motion of the minute hand.
+
+Proud of his secret commission, Fisher slouched his hat, he knew not
+why, over his face, and proceeded towards the appointed spot. To keep,
+as he had been charged by Archer, within the letter of the law, he stood
+_behind_ the forbidden building, and waited some minutes.
+
+Through a gap in the hedge the old woman at length made her appearance,
+muffled up, and looking cautiously about her. 'There's nobody near us!'
+said Fisher, and he began to be a little afraid. 'What answer,' said he,
+recollecting himself, 'about my Livy?' 'Lost! lost! lost!' said the
+gipsy, lifting up her hands; 'never, never, never to be found! But no
+matter for that now: that is not your errand to-night; no tricks with
+me; speak to me of what is next your heart.'
+
+Fisher, astonished, put his hand upon his heart, told her all that she
+knew before, and received the answers that Archer had dictated: 'That
+the Archers should be lucky as long as they stuck to their manager and
+to one another; that the Barring Out should end in woe, if not begun
+precisely as the clock should strike nine on Wednesday night; but if
+begun in that _lucky_ moment, and all obedient to their _lucky_ leader,
+all should end well.'
+
+A thought, a provident thought, now struck Fisher; for even he had some
+foresight where his favourite passion was concerned. 'Pray, in our
+Barring Out shall we be starved?' 'No,' said the gipsy, 'not if you
+trust to me for food, and if you give me money enough. Silver won't do
+for so many; gold is what must cross my hand.' 'I have no gold,' said
+Fisher, 'and I don't know what you mean by "so many." I'm only talking
+of number one, you know. I must take care of that first.'
+
+So, as Fisher thought it was possible that Archer, clever as he was,
+might be disappointed in his supplies, he determined to take secret
+measures for himself. His Aunt Barbara's interdiction had shut him out
+of the confectioner's shop; but he flattered himself that he could
+outwit his aunt; he therefore begged the gipsy to procure him twelve
+buns by Thursday morning, and bring them secretly to one of the windows
+of the schoolroom.
+
+As Fisher did not produce any money when he made this proposal, it was
+at first absolutely rejected; but a bribe at length conquered his
+difficulties: and the bribe which Fisher found himself obliged to
+give--for he had no pocket money left of his own, he being as much
+_restricted_ in that article as Archer was _indulged_--the bribe that he
+found himself obliged to give to quiet the gipsy was half-a-crown, which
+Archer had entrusted to him to buy candles for the theatre. 'Oh,'
+thought he to himself, 'Archer's so careless about money, he will never
+think of asking me for the half-crown again; and now he'll want no
+candles for the _theatre_; or, at any rate, it will be some time first;
+and maybe Aunt Barbara may be got to give me that much at Christmas;
+then, if the worst comes to the worst, one can pay Archer. My mouth
+waters for the buns, and have 'em I must now.'
+
+So, for the hope of twelve buns, he sacrificed the money which had been
+entrusted to him. Thus the meanest motives, in mean minds, often prompt
+to the commission of those great faults to which one should think
+nothing but some violent passion could have tempted.
+
+The ambassador having thus, in his opinion, concluded his own and the
+public business, returned well satisfied with the result, after
+receiving the gipsy's reiterated promise to tap _three times_ at the
+window on Thursday morning.
+
+The day appointed for the Barring Out at length arrived; and Archer,
+assembling the confederates, informed them that all was prepared for
+carrying their design into execution; that he now depended for success
+upon their punctuality and courage. He had, within the last two hours,
+got all their bars ready to fasten the doors and window shutters of the
+schoolroom; he had, with the assistance of two of the day scholars who
+were of the party, sent into the town for provisions, at his own
+expense, which would make a handsome supper for that night; he had also
+negotiated with some cousins of his, who lived in the town, for a
+constant supply in future. 'Bless me,' exclaimed Archer, suddenly
+stopping in this narration of his services, 'there's one thing, after
+all, I've forgot, we shall be undone without it. Fisher, pray did you
+ever buy the candles for the playhouse?' 'No, to be sure,' replied
+Fisher, extremely frightened; 'you know you don't want candles for the
+playhouse now.' 'Not for the playhouse, but for the Barring Out. We
+shall be in the dark, man. You must run this minute, run.' 'For
+candles?' said Fisher, confused; 'how many?--what sort?' 'Stupidity!'
+exclaimed Archer, 'you are a pretty fellow at a dead lift! Lend me a
+pencil and a bit of paper, do; I'll write down what I want myself! Well,
+what are you fumbling for?' 'For money!' said Fisher, colouring. 'Money,
+man! Didn't I give you half-a-crown the other day?' 'Yes,' replied
+Fisher, stammering; 'but I wasn't sure that that might be enough.'
+'Enough! yes, to be sure it will. I don't know what you are _at_.'
+'Nothing, nothing,' said Fisher; 'here, write upon this, then,' said
+Fisher, putting a piece of paper into Archer's hand, upon which Archer
+wrote his orders. 'Away, away!' cried he.
+
+Away went Fisher. He returned; but not until a considerable time
+afterwards. They were at supper when he returned. 'Fisher always comes
+in at supper-time,' observed one of the Greybeards, carelessly. 'Well,
+and would you have him come in _after_ supper-time?' said Townsend, who
+always supplied his party with ready _wit_. 'I've got the candles,'
+whispered Fisher as he passed by Archer to his place. 'And the
+tinder-box?' said Archer. 'Yes; I got back from my Aunt Barbara under
+pretence that I must study for repetition day an hour later to-night. So
+I got leave. Was not that clever?'
+
+A dunce always thinks it clever to cheat even by _sober lies_. How Mr.
+Fisher procured the candles and the tinder-box without money and without
+credit we shall discover further on.
+
+Archer and his associates had agreed to stay the last in the schoolroom;
+and as soon as the Greybeards were gone out to bed, he, as the signal,
+was to shut and lock one door, Townsend the other. A third conspirator
+was to strike a light, in case they should not be able to secure a
+candle. A fourth was to take charge of the candle as soon as lighted;
+and all the rest were to run to their bars, which were secreted in a
+room; then to fix them to the common fastening bars of the window, in
+the manner in which they had been previously instructed by the manager.
+Thus each had his part assigned, and each was warned that the success of
+the whole depended upon their order and punctuality.
+
+Order and punctuality, it appears, are necessary even in a Barring Out;
+and even rebellion must have its laws.
+
+The long-expected moment at length arrived. De Grey and his friends,
+unconscious of what was going forward, walked out of the schoolroom as
+usual at bedtime. The clock began to strike nine. There was one
+Greybeard left in the room, who was packing up some of his books, which
+had been left about by accident. It is impossible to describe the
+impatience with which he was watched, especially by Fisher and the nine
+who depended upon the gipsy oracle.
+
+When he had got all his books together under his arm, he let one of them
+fall; and whilst he stooped to pick it up, Archer gave the signal. The
+doors were shut, locked, and double-locked in an instant. A light was
+struck and each ran to his post. The bars were all in the same moment
+put up to the windows, and Archer, when he had tried them all, and seen
+that they were secure, gave a loud 'Huzza!'--in which he was joined by
+all the party most manfully--by all but the poor Greybeard, who, the
+picture of astonishment, stood stock still in the midst of them with his
+books under his arm; at which spectacle Townsend, who enjoyed the
+_frolic_ of the fray more than anything else, burst into an immoderate
+fit of laughter. 'So, my little Greybeard,' said he, holding a candle
+full in his eyes, 'what think you of all this?--How came you amongst the
+wicked ones?' 'I don't know, indeed,' said the little boy, very gravely;
+'you shut me up amongst you. Won't you let me out?' 'Let you out! No,
+no, my little Greybeard,' said Archer, catching hold of him and dragging
+him to the window bars. 'Look ye here--touch these--put your hand to
+them--pull, push, kick--put a little spirit into it, man--kick like an
+Archer, if you can; away with ye. It's a pity that the king of the
+Greybeards is not here to admire me. I should like to show him our
+fortifications. But come, my merry men all, now to the feast. Out with
+the table into the middle of the room. Good cheer, my jolly Archers! I'm
+your manager!'
+
+Townsend, delighted with the bustle, rubbed his hands and capered about
+the room, whilst the preparations for the feast were hurried forward.
+'Four candles!--Four candles on the table. Let's have things in style
+when we are about it, Mr. Manager,' cried Townsend. 'Places!--Places!
+There's nothing like a fair scramble, my boys. Let every one take care
+of himself. Hallo, Greybeard! I've knocked Greybeard down here in the
+scuffle. Get up again, my lad, and see a little life.'
+
+'No, no,' cried Fisher, 'he shan't _sup_ with us.' 'No, no,' cried the
+manager, 'he shan't _live_ with us; a Greybeard is not fit company for
+Archers.' 'No, no,' cried Townsend, 'evil communication corrupts good
+manners.'
+
+So with one unanimous hiss they hunted the poor little gentle boy into a
+corner; and having pent him up with benches, Fisher opened his books for
+him, which he thought the greatest mortification, and set up a candle
+beside him. 'There, now he looks like a Greybeard as he is!' cried they.
+'Tell me what's the Latin for cold roast beef?' said Fisher, exultingly,
+and they returned to their feast.
+
+Long and loud they revelled. They had a few bottles of cider. 'Give me
+the corkscrew, the cider shan't be kept till it's sour,' cried Townsend,
+in answer to the manager, who, when he beheld the provisions vanishing
+with surprising rapidity, began to fear for the morrow. 'Hang
+to-morrow!' cried Townsend, 'let Greybeards think of to-morrow; Mr.
+Manager, here's your good health.'
+
+The Archers all stood up as their cups were filled, to drink the health
+of their chief with a universal cheer. But at the moment that the cups
+were at their lips, and as Archer bowed to thank the company, a sudden
+shower from above astonished the whole assembly. They looked up, and
+beheld the rose of a watering-engine, whose long neck appeared through a
+trap-door in the ceiling. 'Your good health, Mr. Manager!' said a voice,
+which was known to be the gardener's; and in the midst of their surprise
+and dismay the candles were suddenly extinguished; the trap-door shut
+down; and they were left in utter darkness.
+
+'The _Devil_!' said Archer. 'Don't swear, Mr. Manager,' said the same
+voice from the ceiling, 'I hear every word you say.' 'Mercy upon us!'
+exclaimed Fisher. 'The clock,' added he, whispering, 'must have been
+wrong, for it had not done striking when we began. Only, you remember,
+Archer, it had just done before you had done locking your door.' 'Hold
+your tongue, blockhead!' said Archer. 'Well, boys! were ye never in the
+dark before? You are not afraid of a shower of rain, I hope. Is anybody
+drowned?' 'No,' said they, with a faint laugh, 'but what shall we do
+here in the dark all night long, and all day to-morrow? We can't unbar
+the shutters.' 'It's a wonder _nobody_ ever thought of the trap-door!'
+said Townsend.
+
+The trap-door had indeed escaped the manager's observation. As the house
+was new to him, and the ceiling being newly whitewashed, the opening was
+scarcely perceptible. Vexed to be out-generalled, and still more vexed
+to have it remarked, Archer poured forth a volley of incoherent
+exclamations and reproaches against those who were thus so soon
+discouraged by a trifle; and groping for the tinder-box, he asked if
+anything could be easier than to strike a light again.[17] The light
+appeared. But at the moment that it made the tinder-box visible, another
+shower from above, aimed, and aimed exactly, at the tinder-box, drenched
+it with water, and rendered it totally unfit for further service. Archer
+in a fury dashed it to the ground. And now for the first time he felt
+what it was to be the unsuccessful head of a party. He heard in his turn
+the murmurs of a discontented, changeable populace; and recollecting all
+his bars and bolts, and ingenious contrivances, he was more provoked at
+their blaming him for this one only oversight than he was grieved at the
+disaster itself.
+
+  [17] Lucifer matches were then unknown.--ED.
+
+'Oh, my hair is all wet!' cried one, dolefully. 'Wring it then,' said
+Archer. 'My hand's cut with your broken glass,' cried another. 'Glass!'
+cried a third; 'mercy! is there broken glass? and it's all about, I
+suppose, amongst the supper; and I had but one bit of bread all the
+time.' 'Bread!' cried Archer; 'eat if you want it. Here's a piece here,
+and no glass near it.' 'It's all wet, and I don't like dry bread by
+itself; that's no feast.'
+
+'Heigh-day! What, nothing but moaning and grumbling! If these are the
+joys of _a Barring Out_,' cried Townsend, 'I'd rather be snug in my bed.
+I expected that we should have sat up till twelve o'clock, talking, and
+laughing, and singing.' 'So you may still; what hinders you?' said
+Archer. 'Sing, and we'll join you, and I should be glad those fellows
+overhead heard us singing. Begin, Townsend--
+
+  Come, now, all ye social Powers,
+  Spread your influence o'er us--
+
+Or else--
+
+  Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!
+  Britons never will be slaves.'
+
+Nothing can be more melancholy than forced merriment. In vain they
+roared in chorus. In vain they tried to appear gay. It would not do. The
+voices died away, and dropped off one by one. They had each provided
+himself with a greatcoat to sleep upon; but now, in the dark, there was
+a peevish scrambling contest for the coats, and half the company, in
+very bad humour, stretched themselves upon the benches for the night.
+
+There is great pleasure in bearing anything that has the appearance of
+hardship, as long as there is any glory to be acquired by it; but when
+people feel themselves foiled, there is no further pleasure in
+endurance; and if, in their misfortune, there is any mixture of the
+ridiculous, the motives for heroism are immediately destroyed. Dr.
+Middleton had probably considered this in the choice he made of his
+first attack.
+
+Archer, who had spent the night as a man who had the cares of government
+upon his shoulders, rose early in the morning, whilst everybody else was
+fast asleep. In the night he had resolved the affair of the trap-door,
+and a new danger had alarmed him. It was possible that the enemy might
+descend upon them through the trap-door. The room had been built high to
+admit a free circulation of air. It was twenty feet, so that it was in
+vain to think of reaching to the trap-door.
+
+As soon as the daylight appeared, Archer rose softly, that he might
+_reconnoitre_, and devise some method of guarding against this new
+danger. Luckily there were round holes in the top of the
+window-shutters, which admitted sufficient light for him to work by. The
+remains of the soaked feast, wet candles, and broken glass spread over
+the table in the middle of the room, looked rather dismal this morning.
+
+'A pretty set of fellows I have to manage!' said Archer, contemplating
+the group of sleepers before him. 'It is well they have somebody to
+think for them. Now if I wanted--which, thank goodness, I don't--but if
+I did want to call a cabinet council to my assistance, whom could I
+pitch upon?--not this stupid snorer, who is dreaming of gipsies, if he
+is dreaming of anything,' continued Archer, as he looked into Fisher's
+open mouth. 'This next chap is quick enough; but, then, he is so fond of
+having everything his own way. And this curl-pated monkey, who is
+grinning in his sleep, is all tongue and no brains. Here are brains,
+though nobody would think it, in this lump,' said he, looking at a fat,
+rolled up, heavy-breathing sleeper; 'but what signify brains to such a
+lazy dog? I might kick him for my football this half-hour before I
+should get him awake. This lank-jawed harlequin beside him is a handy
+fellow, to be sure; but then, if he has hands, he has no head--and he'd
+be afraid of his own shadow too, by this light, he is such a coward! And
+Townsend, why he has puns in plenty; but, when there's any work to be
+done, he's the worst fellow to be near one in the world--he can do
+nothing but laugh at his own puns. This poor little fellow that we
+hunted into the corner has more sense than all of them put together; but
+then he is a Greybeard.'
+
+Thus speculated the chief of a party upon his sleeping friends. And how
+did it happen that he should be so ambitious to please and govern this
+set, when for each individual of which it was composed he felt such
+supreme contempt? He had formed them into a _party_, had given them a
+name, and he was at their head. If these be not good reasons, none
+better can be assigned for Archer's conduct.
+
+'I wish ye could all sleep on,' said he; 'but I must waken ye, though
+you will be only in my way. The sound of my hammering must waken them;
+so I may as well do the thing handsomely, and flatter some of them by
+pretending to ask their advice.'
+
+Accordingly, he pulled two or three to waken them. 'Come, Townsend,
+waken, my boy! Here's some diversion for you--up! up!'
+
+'Diversion!' cried Townsend; 'I'm your man! I'm up--_up to anything_.'
+
+So, under the name of _diversion_, Archer set Townsend to work at four
+o'clock in the morning. They had nails, a few tools, and several spars,
+still left from the wreck of the playhouse. These, by Archer's
+directions, they sharpened at one end, and nailed them to the ends of
+several forms.
+
+All hands were now called to clear away the supper things, and to erect
+these forms perpendicularly under the trap-door; and with the assistance
+of a few braces, a _chevaux-de-frise_ was formed, upon which nobody
+could venture to descend. At the farthest end of the room they likewise
+formed a penthouse of the tables, under which they proposed to
+breakfast, secure from the pelting storm, if it should again assail them
+through the trap-door. They crowded under the penthouse as soon as it
+was ready, and their admiration of its ingenuity paid the workmen for
+the job.
+
+'Lord! I shall like to see the gardener's phiz through the trap-door,
+when he beholds the spikes under him!' cried Townsend. 'Now for
+breakfast!' 'Ay, now for breakfast,' said Archer, looking at his watch;
+'past eight o'clock, and my town boys not come! I don't understand
+this!'
+
+Archer had expected a constant supply of provisions from two boys who
+lived in the town, who were cousins of his, and who had promised to come
+every day, and put food in at a certain hole in the wall, in which a
+ventilator usually turned. This ventilator Archer had taken down, and
+had contrived it so that it could be easily removed and replaced at
+pleasure; but, upon examination, it was now perceived that the hole had
+been newly stopped up by an iron back, which it was impossible to
+penetrate or remove.
+
+'It never came into my head that anybody would ever have thought of the
+ventilator but myself!' exclaimed Archer, in great perplexity. He
+listened and waited for his cousins; but no cousins came, and at a late
+hour the company were obliged to breakfast upon the scattered fragments
+of the last night's feast. That feast had been spread with such
+imprudent profusion, that little now remained to satisfy the hungry
+guests.
+
+Archer, who well knew the effect which the apprehension of a scarcity
+would have upon his associates, did everything that could be done by a
+bold countenance and reiterated assertions to persuade them that his
+cousins would certainly come at last, and that the supplies were only
+delayed. The delay, however, was alarming.
+
+Fisher alone heard the manager's calculations and saw the public fears
+unmoved. Secretly rejoicing in his own wisdom, he walked from window to
+window, slily listening for the gipsy's signal. 'There it is!' cried he,
+with more joy sparkling in his eyes than had ever enlightened them
+before. 'Come this way, Archer; but don't tell anybody. Hark! do ye hear
+those three taps at the window? This is the old woman with twelve buns
+for me. I'll give you one whole one for yourself, if you will unbar the
+window for me.'
+
+'Unbar the window!' interrupted Archer; 'no, that I won't, for you or
+the gipsy either; but I have heard enough to get your buns without that.
+But stay; there is something of more consequence than your twelve buns.
+I must think for ye all, I see, regularly.'
+
+So he summoned a council, and proposed that every one should subscribe,
+and trust the subscription to the gipsy, to purchase a fresh supply of
+provisions. Archer laid down a guinea of his own money for his
+subscription; at which sight all the company clapped their hands, and
+his popularity rose to a high pitch with their renewed hopes of plenty.
+Now, having made a list of their wants, they folded the money in the
+paper, put it into a bag, which Archer tied to a long string, and,
+having broken the pane of glass behind the round hole in the
+window-shutter, he let down the bag to the gipsy. She promised to be
+punctual, and having filled the bag with Fishers twelve buns, they were
+drawn up in triumph, and everybody anticipated the pleasure with which
+they should see the same bag drawn up at dinner-time. The buns were a
+little squeezed in being drawn through the hole in the window-shutter,
+but Archer immediately sawed out a piece of the shutter, and broke the
+corresponding panes in each of the other windows, to prevent suspicion,
+and to make it appear that they had all been broken to admit air.
+
+What a pity that so much ingenuity should have been employed to no
+purpose!
+
+It may have surprised the intelligent reader that the gipsy was so
+punctual to her promise to Fisher, but we must recollect that her
+apparent integrity was only cunning; she was punctual that she might be
+employed again, that she might be entrusted with the contribution which,
+she foresaw, must be raised amongst the famishing garrison. No sooner
+had she received the money than her end was gained.
+
+Dinner-time came; it struck three, four, five, six. They listened with
+hungry ears, but no signal was heard. The morning had been very long,
+and Archer had in vain tried to dissuade them from devouring the
+remainder of the provisions before they were sure of a fresh supply. And
+now those who had been the most confident were the most impatient of
+their disappointment.
+
+Archer, in the division of the food, had attempted, by the most
+scrupulous exactness, to content the public, and he was both astonished
+and provoked to perceive that his impartiality was impeached. So
+differently do people judge in different situations! He was the first
+person to accuse his master of injustice, and the least capable of
+bearing such an imputation upon himself from others. He now experienced
+some of the joys of power, and the delight of managing unreasonable
+numbers.
+
+'Have not I done everything I could to please you? Have not I spent my
+money to buy you food? Have not I divided the last morsel with you? I
+have not tasted one mouthful to-day! Did not I set to work for you at
+sunrise? Did not I lie awake all night for you? Have not I had all the
+labour and all the anxiety? Look round and see _my_ contrivances, _my_
+work, _my_ generosity! And, after all, you think me a tyrant, because I
+want you to have common sense. Is not this bun which I hold in my hand
+my own? Did not I earn it by my own ingenuity from that selfish dunce
+(pointing to Fisher), who could never have gotten one of his twelve
+buns, if I had not shown him how? Eleven of them he has eaten since
+morning for his own share, without offering any one a morsel; but I
+scorn to eat even what is justly my own, when I see so many hungry
+creatures longing for it. I was not going to touch this last morsel
+myself. I only begged you to keep it till supper-time, when perhaps
+you'll want it more, and Townsend, who can't bear the slightest thing
+that crosses his own whims, and who thinks there's nothing in this world
+to be minded but his own diversion, calls me a _tyrant_. You all of you
+promised to obey me. The first thing I ask you to do for your own good,
+and when, if you had common sense, you must know I can want nothing but
+your good, you rebel against me. Traitors! fools! ungrateful fools!'
+
+Archer walked up and down, unable to command his emotion, whilst, for
+the moment, the discontented multitude was silenced.
+
+'Here,' said he, striking his hand upon the little boy's shoulder,
+'here's the only one amongst you who has not uttered one word of
+reproach or complaint, and he has had but one bit of bread--a bit that I
+gave him myself this day. Here!' said he, snatching the bun, which
+nobody had dared to touch, 'take it--it's mine--I give it to you, though
+you are a Greybeard; you deserve it. Eat it, and be an Archer. You shall
+be my captain; will you?' said he, lifting him up in his arm above the
+rest.
+
+'I like you now,' said the little boy, courageously; 'but I love De Grey
+better; he has always been my friend, and he advised me never to call
+myself any of those names, Archer or Greybeard; so I won't. Though I am
+shut in here, I have nothing to do with it. I love Dr. Middleton; he was
+never unjust to _me_, and I daresay that he has very good reasons, as De
+Grey said, for forbidding us to go into that house. Besides, it's his
+own.'
+
+Instead of admiring the good sense and steadiness of this little lad,
+Archer suffered Townsend to snatch the untasted bun out of his hands. He
+flung it at a hole in the window, but it fell back. The Archers
+scrambled for it, and Fisher ate it.
+
+Archer saw this, and was sensible that he had not done handsomely in
+suffering it. A few moments ago he had admired his own generosity, and
+though he had felt the injustice of others, he had not accused himself
+of any. He turned away from the little boy, and sitting down at one end
+of the table, hid his face in his hands. He continued immovable in this
+posture for some time.
+
+'Lord!' said Townsend; 'it was an excellent joke!' 'Pooh!' said Fisher;
+'what a fool, to think so much about a bun!' 'Never mind, Mr. Archer, if
+you are thinking about me,' said the little boy, trying gently to pull
+his hands from his face.
+
+Archer stooped down and lifted him up upon the table, at which sight the
+partisans set up a general hiss. 'He has forsaken us! He deserts his
+party! He wants to be a Greybeard! After he has got us all into this
+scrape, he will leave us!'
+
+'I am not going to leave you,' cried Archer. 'No one shall ever accuse
+me of deserting my party. I'll stick by the Archers, right or wrong, I
+tell you, to the last moment. But this little fellow--take it as you
+please, mutiny if you will, and throw me out of the window. Call me
+traitor! coward! Greybeard!--this little fellow is worth you all put
+together, and I'll stand by him against any one who dares to lay a
+finger upon him; and the next morsel of food that I see shall be his.
+Touch him who dares!'
+
+The commanding air with which Archer spoke and looked, and the belief
+that the little boy deserved his protection, silenced the crowd. But the
+storm was only hushed.
+
+No sound of merriment was now to be heard--no battledore and
+shuttlecock--no ball, no marbles. Some sat in a corner, whispering their
+wishes that Archer would unbar the doors and give up. Others, stretching
+their arms, and gaping as they sauntered up and down the room, wished
+for air, or food, or water. Fisher and his nine, who had such firm
+dependence upon the gipsy, now gave themselves up to utter despair. It
+was eight o'clock, growing darker and darker every minute, and no
+candles, no light, could they have. The prospect of another long dark
+night made them still more discontented.
+
+Townsend, at the head of the yawners, and Fisher, at the head of the
+hungry malcontents, gathered round Archer and the few yet unconquered
+spirits, demanding 'How long he meant to keep them in this dark dungeon?
+and whether he expected that they should starve themselves for his
+sake?'
+
+The idea of _giving up_ was more intolerable to Archer than all the
+rest. He saw that the majority, his own convincing argument, was against
+him. He was therefore obliged to condescend to the arts of persuasion.
+He flattered some with hopes of food from the town boys. Some he
+reminded of their promises; others he praised for former prowess; and
+others he shamed by the repetition of their high vaunts in the beginning
+of the business.
+
+It was at length resolved that at all events they _would hold out_. With
+this determination they stretched themselves again to sleep, for the
+second night, in weak and weary obstinacy.
+
+Archer slept longer and more soundly than usual the next morning, and
+when he awoke, he found his hands tied behind him! Three or four boys
+had just got hold of his feet, which they pressed down, whilst the
+trembling hands of Fisher were fastening the cord round them.
+
+With all the force which rage could inspire, Archer struggled and roared
+to '_his Archers_!'--his friends, his party--for help against the
+traitors. But all kept aloof. Townsend, in particular, stood laughing
+and looking on. 'I beg your pardon, Archer, but really you look so
+droll. All alive and kicking! Don't be angry. I'm so weak, I cannot help
+laughing to-day.'
+
+The packthread cracked. 'His hands are free! He's loose!' cried the
+least of the boys, and ran away, whilst Archer leaped up, and seizing
+hold of Fisher with a powerful grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by
+this?'
+
+'Ask my party,' said Fisher, terrified; 'they set me on; ask my party.'
+
+'Your party!' cried Archer, with a look of ineffable contempt; 'you
+reptile!--_your_ party? Can such a thing as _you_ have a party?'
+
+'To be sure!' said Fisher, settling his collar, which Archer in his
+surprise had let go; 'to be sure! Why not? Any man who chooses it may
+have a party as well as yourself, I suppose. I have nine Fishermen.'
+
+At these words, spoken with much sullen importance, Archer, in spite of
+his vexation, could not help laughing. 'Fishermen!' cried he,
+'_Fishermen!_' 'And why not Fishermen as well as Archers?' cried they.
+'One party is just as good as another; it is only a question which can
+get the upper hand; and we had your hands tied just now.'
+
+'That's right, Townsend,' said Archer, 'laugh on, my boy! Friend or foe,
+it's all the same to you. I know how to value your friendship now. You
+are a mighty good fellow when the sun shines; but let a storm come, and
+how you slink away!'
+
+At this instant, Archer felt the difference between _a good companion_
+and a good friend, a difference which some people do not discover till
+late in life.
+
+[Illustration: _Archer leaped-up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a
+powerful grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by this?'_]
+
+'Have I no friend?--no real friend amongst you all? And could ye stand
+by and see my hands tied behind me like a thief's? What signifies such a
+party--all mute?'
+
+'We want something to eat,' answered the Fishermen. 'What signifies
+_such_ a party, indeed? and _such_ a manager, who can do nothing for
+one?'
+
+'And have _I_ done nothing?'
+
+'Don't let's hear any more prosing,' said Fisher; 'we are too many for
+you. I've advised my party, if they've a mind not to be starved, to give
+you up for the ringleader, as you were; and Dr. Middleton will not let
+us all off, I daresay.' So, depending upon the sullen silence of the
+assembly, he again approached Archer with a cord. A cry of 'No, no, no!
+Don't tie him,' was feebly raised.
+
+Archer stood still, but the moment Fisher touched him, he knocked him
+down to the ground, and turning to the rest, with eyes sparkling with
+indignation, 'Archers!' cried he. A voice at this instant was heard at
+the door. It was De Grey's voice. 'I have got a large basket of
+provisions for your breakfast.' A general shout of joy was sent forth by
+the voracious public. 'Breakfast! Provisions! A large basket! De Grey
+for ever! Huzza!'
+
+De Grey promised, upon his honour, that if he would unbar the door
+nobody should come in with him, and no advantage should be taken of
+them. This promise was enough even for Archer. 'I will let him in,' said
+he, 'myself; for I'm sure he'll never break his word.' He pulled away
+the bar; the door opened; and having bargained for the liberty of
+Melsom, the little boy who had been shut in by mistake, De Grey entered
+with his basket of provisions, when he locked and barred the door
+instantly.
+
+Joy and gratitude sparkled in every face when he unpacked his basket and
+spread the table with a plentiful breakfast. A hundred questions were
+asked him at once. 'Eat first,' said he, 'and we will talk afterwards.'
+This business was quickly despatched by those who had not tasted food
+for a long while. Their curiosity increased as their hunger diminished.
+'Who sent us breakfast? Does Dr. Middleton know?' were questions
+reiterated from every mouth.
+
+'He does know,' answered De Grey; 'and the first thing I have to tell
+you is, that I am your fellow-prisoner. I am to stay here till you give
+up. This was the only condition on which Dr. Middleton would allow me to
+bring you food, and he will allow no more.'
+
+Every one looked at the empty basket. But Archer, in whom
+half-vanquished party spirit revived with the strength he had got from
+his breakfast, broke into exclamations in praise of De Grey's
+magnanimity, as he now imagined that De Grey had become one of
+themselves.
+
+'And you will join us, will you? That's a noble fellow!' 'No,' answered
+De Grey, calmly; 'but I hope to persuade, or rather to convince you,
+that you ought to join me.' 'You would have found it no hard task to
+have persuaded or convinced us, whichever you pleased,' said Townsend,
+'if you had appealed to Archers fasting; but Archers feasting are quite
+other animals. Even Cæsar himself, after breakfast, is quite another
+thing!' added he, pointing to Archer. 'You may speak for yourself, Mr.
+Townsend,' replied the insulted hero, 'but not for me, or for Archers in
+general, if you please. We unbarred the door upon the faith of De Grey's
+promise--_that_ was not giving up. And it would have been just as
+difficult, I promise you, to persuade or convince me either that I
+should give up against my honour before breakfast as after.'
+
+This spirited speech was applauded by many, who had now forgotten the
+feelings of famine. Not so Fisher, whose memory was upon this occasion
+very distinct.
+
+'What nonsense,' and the orator paused for a synonymous expression, but
+none was at hand. 'What nonsense and--nonsense is here! Why, don't you
+remember that dinner-time, and supper-time, and breakfast-time will come
+again? So what signifies mouthing about persuading and convincing? We
+will not go through again what we did yesterday! Honour me no honour. I
+don't understand it. I'd rather be flogged at once, as I have been
+many's the good time for a less thing. I say, we'd better all be flogged
+at once, which must be the end of it sooner or later, than wait here to
+be without dinner, breakfast, and supper, all only because Mr. Archer
+won't give up because of his honour and nonsense!'
+
+Many prudent faces amongst the Fishermen seemed to deliberate at the
+close of this oration, in which the arguments were brought so 'home to
+each man's business and bosom.'
+
+'But,' said De Grey, 'when we yield, I hope it will not be merely to get
+our dinner, gentlemen. When we yield, Archer----' 'Don't address
+yourself to me,' interrupted Archer, struggling with his pride; 'you
+have no further occasion to try to win me. I have no power, no party,
+you see! And now I find that I have no friends, I don't care what
+becomes of myself. I suppose I'm to be given up as a ringleader. Here's
+this Fisher, and a party of his Fishermen, were going to tie me hand and
+foot, if I had not knocked him down, just as you came to the door, De
+Grey; and now perhaps you will join Fisher's party against me.'
+
+De Grey was going to assure him that he had no intention of joining any
+party, when a sudden change appeared on Archer's countenance. 'Silence!'
+cried Archer, in an imperious tone, and there was silence. Some one was
+heard to whistle the beginning of a tune, that was perfectly new to
+everybody present except to Archer, who immediately whistled the
+conclusion. 'There!' cried he, looking at De Grey with triumph; 'that's
+a method of holding secret correspondence, whilst a prisoner, which I
+learned from "Richard Coeur de Lion." I know how to make use of
+everything. Hallo! friend! are you there at last?' cried he, going to
+the ventilator. 'Yes, but we are barred out here.' 'Round to the window
+then, and fill our bag. We'll let it down, my lad, in a trice; bar me
+out who can!'
+
+Archer let down the bag with all the expedition of joy, and it was
+filled with all the expedition of fear. 'Pull away! make haste, for
+Heaven's sake!' said the voice from without; 'the gardener will come
+from dinner, else, and we shall be caught. He mounted guard all
+yesterday at the ventilator; and though I watched and watched till it
+was darker than pitch, I could not get near you. I don't know what has
+taken him out of the way now. Make haste, pull away!' The heavy bag was
+soon pulled up. 'Have you any more?' said Archer. 'Yes, plenty. Let down
+quick! I've got the tailor's bag full, which is three times as large as
+yours, and I've changed clothes with the tailor's boy; so nobody took
+notice of me as I came down the street.'
+
+'There's my own cousin!' exclaimed Archer, 'there's a noble fellow!
+there's my own cousin, I acknowledge. Fill the bag, then.' Several times
+the bag descended and ascended; and at every unlading of the crane,
+fresh acclamations were heard. 'I have no more!' at length the boy with
+the tailor's bag cried. 'Off with you, then; we've enough, and thank
+you.'
+
+A delightful review was now made of their treasure. Busy hands arranged
+and sorted the heterogeneous mass. Archer, in the height of his glory,
+looked on, the acknowledged master of the whole. Townsend, who, in his
+prosperity as in adversity, saw and enjoyed the comic foibles of his
+friends, pushed De Grey, who was looking on with a more good-natured and
+more thoughtful air. 'Friend,' said he, 'you look like a great
+philosopher, and Archer a great hero.' 'And you, Townsend,' said Archer,
+'may look like a wit, if you will; but you will never be a hero.' 'No,
+no,' replied Townsend; 'wits were never heroes, because they are wits.
+You are out of your wits, and therefore may set up for a hero.' 'Laugh,
+and welcome. I'm not a tyrant. I don't want to restrain anybody's wit;
+but I cannot say I admire puns.' 'Nor I, either,' said the time-serving
+Fisher, sidling up to the manager, and picking the ice off a piece of
+plum-cake, 'nor I either; I hate puns. I can never understand Townsend's
+_puns_. Besides, anybody can make puns; and one doesn't want wit,
+either, at all times; for instance, when one is going to settle about
+dinner, or business of consequence. Bless us all, Archer!' continued he,
+with sudden familiarity, '_what a sight of good things are here_! I'm
+sure we are much obliged to you and your cousin. I never thought he'd
+have come. Why, now we can hold out as long as you please. Let us see,'
+said he, dividing the provisions upon the table; 'we can hold out
+to-day, and all to-morrow, and part of next day, maybe. Why, now we may
+defy the doctor and the Greybeards. The doctor will surely give up to
+us; for, you see, he knows nothing of all this, and he'll think we are
+starving all this while; and he'd be afraid, you see, to let us starve
+quite, in reality, for three whole days, because of what would be said
+in the town. My Aunt Barbara, for one, would be _at him_ long before
+that time was out; and besides, you know, in that case, he'd be hanged
+for murder, which is quite another thing, in law, from a _Barring Out_,
+you know.'
+
+Archer had not given to this harangue all the attention which it
+deserved, for his eye was fixed upon De Grey. 'What is De Grey thinking
+of?' he asked, impatiently. 'I am thinking,' said De Grey, 'that Dr.
+Middleton must believe that I have betrayed his confidence in me. The
+gardener was ordered away from his watch-post for one half-hour when I
+was admitted. This half-hour the gardener has made nearly an hour. I
+never would have come near you if I had foreseen all this. Dr. Middleton
+trusted me, and now he will repent of his confidence in me.' 'De Grey!'
+cried Archer, with energy, 'he shall not repent of his confidence in
+you--nor shall you repent of coming amongst us. You shall find that we
+have some honour as well as yourself, and I will take care of your
+honour as if it were my _own_!' 'Hey-day!' interrupted Townsend; 'are
+heroes allowed to change sides, pray? And does the chief of the Archers
+stand talking sentiment to the chief of the Greybeards? In the middle of
+his own party too!' 'Party!' repeated Archer, disdainfully; 'I have done
+with parties! I see what parties are made of! I have felt the want of a
+friend, and I am determined to make one if I can.' 'That you may do,'
+said De Grey, stretching out his hand.
+
+'Unbar the doors! unbar the windows!' exclaimed Archer. 'Away with all
+these things! I give up for De Grey's sake. He shall not lose his credit
+on my account.' 'No,' said De Grey, 'you shall not give up for my sake.'
+'Well, then, I'll give up to do what is _honourable_,' said Archer. 'Why
+not to do what is _reasonable_?' said De Grey. '_Reasonable!_ Oh, the
+first thing that a man of spirit should think of is, what is
+_honourable_.' 'But how will he find out _what is_ honourable, unless he
+can reason?' replied De Grey. 'Oh,' said Archer, 'his own feelings
+always tell him what is honourable.' 'Have not _your feelings_,' asked
+De Grey, 'changed within these few hours?' 'Yes, with circumstances,'
+replied Archer; 'but, right or wrong, as long as I think it honourable
+to do so and so, I'm satisfied.' 'But you cannot think anything
+honourable, or the contrary,' observed De Grey, 'without reasoning; and
+as to what you call feeling, it's only a quick sort of reasoning.' 'The
+quicker the better,' said Archer. 'Perhaps not,' said De Grey. 'We are
+apt to reason best when we are not in quite so great a hurry.' 'But,'
+said Archer, 'we have not always time enough to reason _at first_.' 'You
+must, however, acknowledge,' replied De Grey, smiling, 'that no man but
+a fool thinks it honourable to be in the wrong _at last_. Is it not,
+therefore, best to begin by reasoning to find out the right _at first_?'
+'To be sure,' said Archer. 'And did you reason with yourself at first?
+And did you find out that it was right to bar Dr. Middleton out of his
+own schoolroom, because he desired you not to go into one of his own
+houses?' 'No,' replied Archer; 'but I should never have thought of
+heading a Barring Out, if he had not shown partiality; and if you had
+flown into a passion with me openly at once for pulling down your
+scenery, which would have been quite natural, and not have gone slily
+and forbid us the house out of revenge, there would have been none of
+this work.' 'Why,' said De Grey, 'should you suspect me of such a mean
+action, when you have never seen or known me do anything mean, and when
+in this instance you have no proofs?' 'Will you give me your word and
+honour now, De Grey, before everybody here, that you did not do what I
+suspected?' 'I do assure you, upon my honour, I never, indirectly, spoke
+to Dr. Middleton about the playhouse.' 'Then,' said Archer, 'I'm as glad
+as if I had found a thousand pounds! Now you are my friend indeed.' 'And
+Dr. Middleton--why should you suspect him without reason any more than
+me?' 'As to that,' said Archer, 'he is your friend, and you are right to
+defend him; and I won't say another word against him. Will that satisfy
+you?' 'Not quite.' 'Not quite! Then, indeed, you are unreasonable!'
+'No,' replied De Grey; 'for I don't wish you to yield out of friendship
+to me, any more than to honour. If you yield to reason, you will be
+governed by reason another time.' 'Well, but then don't triumph over me,
+because you have the best side of the argument.' 'Not I! How can I?'
+said De Grey; 'for now you are on _the best side_ as well as myself, are
+not you? So we may triumph together.'
+
+'You are a good friend!' said Archer; and with great eagerness he pulled
+down the fortifications, whilst every hand assisted. The room was
+restored to order in a few minutes--the shutters were thrown open, the
+cheerful light let in. The windows were thrown up, and the first feeling
+of the fresh air was delightful. The green playground opened before
+them, and the hopes of exercise and liberty brightened the countenances
+of these voluntary prisoners.
+
+But, alas! they were not yet at liberty. The idea of Dr. Middleton, and
+the dread of his vengeance, smote their hearts. When the rebels had sent
+an ambassador with their surrender, they stood in pale and silent
+suspense, waiting for their doom.
+
+'Ah!' said Fisher, looking up at the broken panes in the windows, 'the
+doctor will think the most of _that_--he'll never forgive us for that.'
+
+'Hush! here he comes!' His steady step was heard approaching nearer and
+nearer. Archer threw open the door, and Dr. Middleton entered. Fisher
+instantly fell on his knees. 'It is no delight to me to see people on
+their knees. Stand up, Mr. Fisher. I hope you are all conscious that you
+have done wrong?' 'Sir,' said Archer, 'they are conscious that they have
+done wrong, and so am I. I am the ringleader. Punish me as you think
+proper. I submit. Your punishments--your vengeance ought to fall on me
+alone!'
+
+'Sir,' said Dr. Middleton, calmly, 'I perceive that whatever else you
+may have learned in the course of your education, you have not been
+taught the meaning of the word punishment. Punishment and vengeance do
+not with us mean the same thing. _Punishment_ is pain given, with the
+reasonable hope of preventing those on whom it is inflicted from doing,
+_in future_, what will hurt themselves or others. _Vengeance_ never
+looks to the _future_, but is the expression of anger for an injury that
+is past. I feel no anger; you have done me no injury.'
+
+Here many of the little boys looked timidly up to the windows. 'Yes, I
+see that you have broken my windows; that is a small evil.' 'Oh, sir!
+How good! How merciful!' exclaimed those who had been most panic-struck.
+'He forgives us!'
+
+'Stay,' resumed Dr. Middleton; 'I cannot forgive you. I shall never
+revenge, but it is my duty to punish. You have rebelled against the just
+authority which is necessary to conduct and govern you whilst you have
+not sufficient reason to govern and conduct yourselves. Without
+obedience to the laws,' added he, turning to Archer, 'as men, you cannot
+be suffered in society. You, sir, think yourself a man, I observe; and
+you think it the part of a man not to submit to the will of another. I
+have no pleasure in making others, whether men or children, submit to my
+_will_; but my reason and experience are superior to yours. Your parents
+at least think so, or they would not have entrusted me with the care of
+your education. As long as they do entrust you to my care, and as long
+as I have any hopes of making you wiser and better by punishment, I
+shall steadily inflict it, whenever I judge it to be necessary, and I
+judge it to be necessary _now_. This is a long sermon, Mr. Archer, not
+preached to show my own eloquence, but to convince your understanding.
+Now, as to your punishment!'
+
+'Name it, sir,' said Archer; 'whatever it is, I will cheerfully submit
+to it.' 'Name it yourself,' said Dr. Middleton, 'and show me that you
+now understand the nature of punishment.'
+
+Archer, proud to be treated like a reasonable creature, and sorry that
+he had behaved like a foolish schoolboy, was silent for some time, but
+at length replied, 'That he would rather not name his own punishment.'
+He repeated, however, that he trusted he should bear it well, whatever
+it might be.
+
+'I shall then,' said Dr. Middleton, 'deprive you, for two months, of
+pocket-money, as you have had too much, and have made a bad use of it.'
+
+'Sir,' said Archer, 'I brought five guineas with me to school. This
+guinea is all that I have left.'
+
+Dr. Middleton received the guinea which Archer offered him with a look
+of approbation, and told him that it should be applied to the repairs of
+the schoolroom. The rest of the boys waited in silence for the doctor's
+sentence against them, but not with those looks of abject fear with
+which boys usually expect the sentence of a schoolmaster.
+
+'You shall return from the playground, all of you,' said Dr. Middleton,
+'one quarter of an hour sooner, for two months to come, than the rest of
+your companions. A bell shall ring at the appointed time. I give you an
+opportunity of recovering my confidence by your punctuality.'
+
+'Oh, sir! we will come the instant, the very instant the bell rings; you
+shall have confidence in us,' cried they, eagerly.
+
+'I deserve your confidence, I hope,' said Dr. Middleton; 'for it is my
+first wish to make you all happy. You do not know the pain that it has
+cost me to deprive you of food for so many hours.'
+
+Here the boys, with one accord, ran to the place where they had
+deposited their last supplies. Archer delivered them up to the doctor,
+proud to show that they were not reduced to obedience merely by
+necessity.
+
+'The reason,' resumed Dr. Middleton, having now returned to the usual
+benignity of his manner--'the reason why I desired that none of you
+should go to that building,' pointing out of the window, 'was this:--I
+had been informed that a gang of gipsies had slept there the night
+before I spoke to you, one of whom was dangerously ill of a putrid
+fever. I did not choose to mention my reason to you or your friends. I
+have had the place cleaned, and you may return to it when you please.
+The gipsies were yesterday removed from the town.'
+
+'De Grey, you were in the right,' whispered Archer, 'and it was I that
+was _unjust_.'
+
+'The old woman,' continued the doctor, 'whom you employed to buy food
+has escaped the fever, but she has not escaped a gaol, whither she was
+sent yesterday, for having defrauded you of your money.
+
+'Mr. Fisher,' said Dr. Middleton, 'as to you, I shall not punish you: I
+have no hope of making you either wiser or better. Do you know this
+paper?'--the paper appeared to be a bill for candles and a tinder-box.
+'I desired him to buy those things, sir,' said Archer, colouring. 'And
+did you desire him not to pay for them?' 'No,' said Archer, 'he had
+half-a-crown on purpose to pay for them.' 'I know he had, but he chose
+to apply it to his private use, and gave it to the gipsy to buy twelve
+buns for his own eating. To obtain credit for the tinder-box and
+candles, he made use of _this_ name,' said he, turning to the other side
+of the bill, and pointing to De Grey's name, which was written at the
+end of a copy of one of De Grey's exercises.
+
+[Illustration: _He sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice._]
+
+'I assure you, sir----' cried Archer. 'You need not assure me, sir,'
+said Dr. Middleton; 'I cannot suspect a boy of your temper of having any
+part in so base an action. When the people in the shop refused to let
+Mr. Fisher have the things without paying for them, he made use of De
+Grey's name, who was known there. Suspecting some mischief, however,
+from the purchase of the tinder-box, the shopkeeper informed me of the
+circumstance. Nothing in this whole business gave me half so much pain
+as I felt, for a moment, when I suspected that De Grey was concerned in
+it.' A loud cry, in which Archer's voice was heard most distinctly,
+declared De Grey's innocence. Dr. Middleton looked round at their
+eager, honest faces with benevolent approbation. 'Archer,' said he,
+taking him by the hand, 'I am heartily glad to see that you have got the
+better of your party spirit. I wish you may keep such a friend as you
+have now beside you; one such friend is worth two such parties. As for
+you, Mr. Fisher, depart; you must never return hither again.' In vain he
+solicited Archer and De Grey to intercede for him. Everybody turned away
+with contempt; and he sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice, 'What
+shall I say to my Aunt Barbara?'
+
+
+
+
+THE BRACELETS
+
+
+In a beautiful and retired part of England lived Mrs. Villars, a lady
+whose accurate understanding, benevolent heart, and steady temper
+peculiarly fitted her for the most difficult, as well as most important,
+of all occupations--the education of youth. This task she had
+undertaken; and twenty young persons were put under her care, with the
+perfect confidence of their parents. No young people could be happier;
+they were good and gay, emulous, but not envious of each other; for Mrs.
+Villars was impartially just; her praise they felt to be the reward of
+merit, and her blame they knew to be the necessary consequence of
+ill-conduct. To the one, therefore, they patiently submitted, and in the
+other consciously rejoiced. They rose with fresh cheerfulness in the
+morning, eager to pursue their various occupations. They returned in the
+evening with renewed ardour to their amusements, and retired to rest
+satisfied with themselves and pleased with each other.
+
+Nothing so much contributed to preserve a spirit of emulation in this
+little society as a small honorary distinction, given annually, as a
+prize of successful application. The prize this year was peculiarly dear
+to each individual, as it was the picture of a friend whom they dearly
+loved. It was the picture of Mrs. Villars in a small bracelet. It wanted
+neither gold, pearls, nor precious stones to give it value.
+
+The two foremost candidates for this prize were Cecilia and Leonora.
+Cecilia was the most intimate friend of Leonora; but Leonora was only
+the favourite companion of Cecilia.
+
+Cecilia was of an active, ambitious, enterprising disposition, more
+eager in the pursuit than happy in the enjoyment of her wishes. Leonora
+was of a contented, unaspiring, temperate character; not easily roused
+to action, but indefatigable when once excited. Leonora was proud;
+Cecilia was vain. Her vanity made her more dependent upon the
+approbation of others, and therefore more anxious to please, than
+Leonora; but that very vanity made her, at the same time, more apt to
+offend. In short, Leonora was the most anxious to avoid what was wrong;
+Cecilia the most ambitious to do what was right. Few of her companions
+loved, but many were led by, Cecilia, for she was often successful. Many
+loved Leonora, but none were ever governed by her, for she was too
+indolent to govern.
+
+On the first day of May, about six o'clock in the evening, a great bell
+rang, to summon this little society into a hall, where the prize was to
+be decided. A number of small tables were placed in a circle in the
+middle of the hall. Seats for the young competitors were raised one
+above another, in a semicircle, some yards distant from the table, and
+the judges' chairs, under canopies of lilacs and laburnums, forming
+another semicircle, closed the amphitheatre.
+
+Every one put their writings, their drawings, their works of various
+kinds, upon the tables appropriated for each. How unsteady were the last
+steps to these tables! How each little hand trembled as it laid down its
+claims! Till this moment every one thought herself secure of success;
+and the heart which exulted with hope now palpitated with fear.
+
+The works were examined, the preference adjudged, and the prize was
+declared to be the happy Cecilia's. Mrs. Villars came forward, smiling,
+with the bracelet in her hand. Cecilia was behind her companions, on the
+highest row. All the others gave way, and she was on the floor in an
+instant. Mrs. Villars clasped the bracelet on her arm; the clasp was
+heard through the whole hall, and a universal smile of congratulation
+followed. Mrs. Villars kissed Cecilia's little hand. 'And now,' said
+she, 'go and rejoice with your companions; the remainder of the day is
+yours.'
+
+Oh! you whose hearts are elated with success, whose bosoms beat high
+with joy in the moment of triumph, command yourselves. Let that triumph
+be moderate, that it may be lasting. Consider, that though you are good,
+you may be better; and, though wise, you may be weak.
+
+As soon as Mrs. Villars had given her the bracelet, all Cecilia's little
+companions crowded round her, and they all left the hall in an instant.
+She was full of spirits and vanity. She ran on. Running down the flight
+of steps which led to the garden, in her violent haste Cecilia threw
+down the little Louisa, who had a china mandarin in her hand, which her
+mother had sent her that very morning, and which was all broken to
+pieces by her fall.
+
+'Oh, my mandarin!' cried Louisa, bursting into tears. The crowd behind
+Cecilia suddenly stopped. Louisa sat on the lowest step, fixing her eyes
+upon the broken pieces. Then, turning round, she hid her face in her
+hands upon the step above her. In turning, Louisa threw down the remains
+of the mandarin. The head, which she placed in the socket, fell from the
+shoulders, and rolled, bounding along the gravel walk. Cecilia pointed
+to the head and to the socket, and burst into laughter. The crowd behind
+laughed too.
+
+At any other time they would have been more inclined to cry with Louisa;
+but Cecilia had just been successful, and sympathy with the victorious
+often makes us forget justice.
+
+Leonora, however, preserved her usual consistency. 'Poor Louisa!' said
+she, looking first at her, and then reproachfully at Cecilia. Cecilia
+turned sharply round, colouring, half with shame and half with vexation.
+'I could not help it, Leonora,' said she. 'But you could have helped
+laughing, Cecilia.' 'I didn't laugh at Louisa; and I surely may laugh,
+for it does nobody any harm.' 'I am sure, however,' replied Leonora, 'I
+should not have laughed if I had----' 'No, to be sure, you wouldn't,
+because Louisa is your favourite. I can buy her another mandarin when
+the old peddler comes to the door, if that's all. I _can_ do no more,
+_can_ I?' said she, again turning round to her companions. 'No, to be
+sure,' said they; 'that's all fair.'
+
+Cecilia looked triumphantly at Leonora. Leonora let go her hand; she ran
+on, and the crowd followed. When she got to the end of the garden, she
+turned round to see if Leonora had followed her too; but was vexed to
+see her still sitting on the steps with Louisa. 'I'm sure I can do no
+more than buy her another, _can_ I?' said she, again appealing to her
+companions. 'No, to be sure,' said they, eager to begin their play.
+
+How many games did these juvenile playmates begin and leave off, before
+Cecilia could be satisfied with any! Her thoughts were discomposed, and
+her mind was running upon something else. No wonder, then, that she did
+not play with her usual address. She grew still more impatient. She
+threw down the ninepins. 'Come, let us play at something else--at
+threading the needle,' said she, holding out her hand. They all yielded
+to the hand which wore the bracelet. But Cecilia, dissatisfied with
+herself, was discontented with everybody else. Her tone grew more and
+more peremptory. One was too rude, another too stiff; one too slow,
+another too quick; in short, everything went wrong, and everybody was
+tired of her humours.
+
+The triumph of _success_ is absolute, but short. Cecilia's companions at
+length recollected that, though she had embroidered a tulip and painted
+a peach better than they, yet that they could play as well, and keep
+their tempers better; for she was discomposed.
+
+Walking towards the house in a peevish mood, Cecilia met Leonora, but
+passed on. 'Cecilia!' cried Leonora. 'Well, what do you want with me?'
+'Are we friends?' 'You know best,' said Cecilia. 'We are, if you will
+let me tell Louisa that you are sorry----' Cecilia, interrupting her,
+'Oh, pray let me hear no more about Louisa!' 'What! not confess that you
+were in the wrong? O Cecilia! I had a better opinion of you.' 'Your
+opinion is of no consequence to me now, for you don't love me.' 'No; not
+when you are unjust, Cecilia.' 'Unjust! I am not unjust; and if I were,
+you are not my governess.' 'No, but am not I your friend?' 'I don't
+desire to have such a friend, who would quarrel with me for happening to
+throw down little Louisa. How could I tell that she had a mandarin in
+her hand? and when it was broken, could I do more than promise her
+another; was that unjust?' 'But you know, Cecilia----' 'I _know_,'
+ironically. 'I know, Leonora, that you love Louisa better than you love
+me; that's the injustice!' 'If I did,' replied Leonora, gravely, 'it
+would be no injustice, if she deserved it better.' 'How can you compare
+Louisa to me!' exclaimed Cecilia, indignantly.
+
+Leonora made no answer; for she was really hurt at her friend's conduct.
+She walked on to join the rest of her companions. They were dancing in a
+round upon the grass. Leonora declined dancing; but they prevailed upon
+her to sing for them. Her voice was not so sprightly, but it was sweeter
+than usual. Who sang so sweetly as Leonora? or who danced so nimbly as
+Louisa? Away she was flying, all spirits and gaiety, when Leonora's
+eyes, full of tears, caught hers. Louisa silently let go her companion's
+hand, and quitting the dance, ran up to Leonora to inquire what was the
+matter with her. 'Nothing,' replied she, 'that need interrupt you. Go,
+my dear; go and dance again.'
+
+Louisa immediately ran away to her garden, and pulling off her little
+straw hat, she lined it with the freshest strawberry-leaves, and was
+upon her knees before the strawberry-bed when Cecilia came by. Cecilia
+was not disposed to be pleased with Louisa at that instant, for two
+reasons; because she was jealous of her, and because she had injured
+her. The injury, however, Louisa had already forgotten. Perhaps, to tell
+things just as they were, she was not quite so much inclined to kiss
+Cecilia as she would have been before the fall of her mandarin; but this
+was the utmost extent of her malice, if it can be called malice.
+
+'What are you doing there, little one?' said Cecilia, in a sharp tone.
+'Are you eating your early strawberries here all alone?' 'No,' said
+Louisa, mysteriously, 'I am not eating them.' 'What are you doing with
+them? can't you answer, then? I'm not playing with you, child!' 'Oh, as
+to that, Cecilia, you know I need not answer you unless I choose it; not
+but what I would if you would only ask me civilly, and if you
+would not call me _child_.' 'Why should not I call you child?'
+'Because--because--I don't know; but I wish you would stand out of my
+light, Cecilia, for you are trampling upon all my strawberries.' 'I have
+not touched one, you covetous little creature!' 'Indeed--indeed,
+Cecilia, I am not covetous. I have not eaten one of them; they are all
+for your friend Leonora. See how unjust you are!'
+
+'Unjust! that's a cant word which you learnt of my friend Leonora, as
+you call her; but she is not my friend now.' 'Not your friend now!'
+exclaimed Louisa; 'then I am sure you must have done something _very_
+naughty.' 'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her. 'Let me go, let me
+go!' cried Louisa, struggling. 'I won't give you one of my strawberries,
+for I don't like you at all!' 'You don't, don't you?' cried Cecilia,
+provoked, and, catching the hat from Louisa, she flung the strawberries
+over the hedge.
+
+'Will nobody help me?' exclaimed Louisa, snatching her hat again, and
+running away with all her force.
+
+[Illustration: _'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her._]
+
+'What have I done?' said Cecilia, recollecting herself; 'Louisa!
+Louisa!' she called very loud, but Louisa would not turn back: she was
+running to her companions, who were still dancing, hand in hand, upon
+the grass, whilst Leonora, sitting in the middle, was singing to them.
+
+'Stop! stop! and hear me!' cried Louisa, breaking through them; and,
+rushing up to Leonora, she threw her hat at her feet, and panting for
+breath--'It was full--almost full of my own strawberries,' said she,
+'the first I ever got out of my own garden. They should all have been
+for you, Leonora; but now I have not one left. They are all gone!' said
+she; and she hid her face in Leonora's lap.
+
+'Gone! gone where?' said every one, at once running up to her. 'Cecilia!
+Cecilia!' said she, sobbing. 'Cecilia,' repeated Leonora, 'what of
+Cecilia?' 'Yes, it was--it was.' 'Come along with me,' said Leonora,
+unwilling to have her friend exposed. 'Come, and I will get you some
+more strawberries.' 'Oh, I don't mind the strawberries, indeed; but I
+wanted to have had the pleasure of giving them to you.'
+
+Leonora took her up in her arms to carry her away, but it was too late.
+
+'What, Cecilia! Cecilia, who won the prize! It could not surely be
+Cecilia,' whispered every busy tongue.
+
+At this instant the bell summoned them in. 'There she is! There she is!'
+cried they, pointing to an arbour, where Cecilia was standing ashamed
+and alone; and, as they passed her, some lifted up their hands and eyes
+with astonishment, others whispered and huddled mysteriously together,
+as if to avoid her. Leonora walked on, her head a little higher than
+usual. 'Leonora!' said Cecilia, timorously, as she passed. 'Oh, Cecilia!
+who would have thought that you had a bad heart?' Cecilia turned her
+head aside and burst into tears.
+
+'Oh no, indeed, she has not a bad heart!' cried Louisa, running up to
+her and throwing her arms around her neck. 'She's very sorry; are not
+you, Cecilia? But don't cry any more, for I forgive you, with all my
+heart--and I love you now, though I said I did not when I was in a
+passion.'
+
+'Oh, you sweet-tempered girl! how I love you!' said Cecilia, kissing
+her. 'Well, then, if you do, come along with me, and dry your eyes, for
+they are so red!' 'Go, my dear, and I'll come presently.' 'Then I will
+keep a place for you, next to me; but you must make haste, or you will
+have to come in when we have all sat down to supper, and then you will
+be so stared at! So don't stay now.'
+
+Cecilia followed Louisa with her eyes till she was out of sight. 'And is
+Louisa,' said she to herself, 'the only one who would stop to pity me?
+Mrs. Villars told me that this day should be mine. She little thought
+how it would end!'
+
+Saying these words, Cecilia threw herself down upon the ground; her arm
+leaned upon a heap of turf which she had raised in the morning, and
+which, in the pride and gaiety of her heart, she had called her throne.
+
+At this instant, Mrs. Villars came out to enjoy the serenity of the
+evening, and, passing by the arbour where Cecilia lay, she started.
+Cecilia rose hastily.
+
+'Who is there?' said Mrs. Villars. 'It is I, madam.' 'And who is _I_?'
+'Cecilia.' 'Why, what keeps you here, my dear? Where are your
+companions? This is, perhaps, one of the happiest days of your life.'
+'Oh no, madam,' said Cecilia, hardly able to repress her tears. 'Why, my
+dear, what is the matter?' Cecilia hesitated.
+
+'Speak, my dear. You know that when I ask you to tell me anything as
+your friend, I never punish you as your governess; therefore you need
+not be afraid to tell me what is the matter.' 'No, madam, I am not
+afraid, but ashamed. You asked me why I was not with my companions. Why,
+madam, because they have all left me, and----' 'And what, my dear?' 'And
+I see that they all dislike me; and yet I don't know why they should,
+for I take as much pains to please as any of them. All my masters seem
+satisfied with me; and you yourself, madam, were pleased this very
+morning to give me this bracelet; and I am sure you would not have given
+it to any one who did not deserve it.'
+
+'Certainly not,' said Mrs. Villars. 'You well deserve it for your
+application--for your successful application. The prize was for the most
+assiduous, not for the most amiable.'
+
+'Then, if it had been for the most amiable, it would not have been for
+me?'
+
+Mrs. Villars, smiling--'Why, what do you think yourself, Cecilia? You
+are better able to judge than I am. I can determine whether or no you
+apply to what I give you to learn; whether you attend to what I desire
+you to do, and avoid what I desire you not to do. I know that I like
+you as a pupil, but I cannot know that I should like you as a companion,
+unless I were your companion. Therefore I must judge of what I should
+do, by seeing what others do in the same circumstances.'
+
+'Oh, pray don't, madam! for then you would not love me either. And yet I
+think you would love me; for I hope that I am as ready to oblige, and as
+good-natured as----'
+
+'Yes, Cecilia, I don't doubt but that you would be very good-natured to
+me; but I'm afraid that I should not like you unless you were
+good-tempered too.' 'But, madam, by good-natured I mean
+good-tempered--it's all the same thing.' 'No, indeed, I understand by
+them two very different things. You are good-natured, Cecilia; for you
+are desirous to oblige and serve your companions--to gain them praise,
+and save them from blame--to give them pleasure, and relieve them from
+pain; but Leonora is good-tempered, for she can bear with their foibles,
+and acknowledge her own. Without disputing about the right, she
+sometimes yields to those who are in the wrong. In short, her temper is
+perfectly good; for it can bear and forbear.' 'I wish that mine could!'
+said Cecilia, sighing. 'It may,' replied Mrs. Villars; 'but it is not
+wishes alone which can improve us in anything. Turn the same exertion
+and perseverance which have won you the prize to-day to this object, and
+you will meet with the same success; perhaps not on the first, the
+second, or the third attempt; but depend upon it that you will at last.
+Every new effort will weaken your bad habits and strengthen your good
+ones. But you must not expect to succeed all at once. I repeat it to
+you, for habit must be counteracted by habit. It would be as extravagant
+in us to expect that all our faults could be destroyed by one
+punishment, were it ever so severe, as it was in the Roman emperor we
+were reading of a few days ago to wish that all the heads of his enemies
+were upon one neck, that he might cut them off at one blow.'
+
+Here Mrs. Villars took Cecilia by the hand, and they began to walk home.
+Such was the nature of Cecilia's mind, that when any object was forcibly
+impressed on her imagination, it caused a temporary suspension of her
+reasoning faculties. Hope was too strong a stimulus for her spirits; and
+when fear did take possession of her mind, it was attended with total
+debility. Her vanity was now as much mortified as in the morning it had
+been elated. She walked on with Mrs. Villars in silence, until they came
+under the shade of the elm-tree walk, and there, fixing her eyes upon
+Mrs. Villars, she stopped short.
+
+'Do you think, madam,' said she, with hesitation--'do you think, madam,
+that I have a bad heart?' 'A bad heart, my dear! why, what put that into
+your head?' 'Leonora said that I had, madam, and I felt ashamed when she
+said so.' 'But, my dear, how can Leonora tell whether your heart be good
+or bad? However, in the first place, tell me what you mean by a bad
+heart.' 'Indeed, I do not know what is meant by it, madam; but it is
+something which everybody hates.' 'And why do they hate it?' 'Because
+they think that it will hurt them, ma'am, I believe; and that those who
+have bad hearts take delight in doing mischief; and that they never do
+anybody any good but for their own ends.'
+
+'Then the best definition,' said Mrs. Villars, 'which you can give me of
+a bad heart is, that it is some constant propensity to hurt others, and
+to do wrong for the sake of doing wrong.' 'Yes, madam; but that is not
+all either. There is still something else meant; something which I
+cannot express--which, indeed, I never distinctly understood; but of
+which, therefore, I was the more afraid.'
+
+'Well, then, to begin with what you do understand, tell me, Cecilia, do
+you really think it possible to be wicked merely for the love of
+wickedness? No human being becomes wicked all at once. A man begins by
+doing wrong because it is, or because he thinks it, for his interest. If
+he continue to do so, he must conquer his sense of shame and lose his
+love of virtue. But how can you, Cecilia, who feel such a strong sense
+of shame, and such an eager desire to improve, imagine that you have a
+bad heart?'
+
+'Indeed, madam, I never did, until everybody told me so, and then I
+began to be frightened about it. This very evening, madam, when I was in
+a passion, I threw little Louisa's strawberries away, which, I am sure,
+I was very sorry for afterwards; and Leonora and everybody cried out
+that I had a bad heart--but I am sure I was only in a passion.'
+
+'Very likely. And when you are in a passion, as you call it, Cecilia,
+you see that you are tempted to do harm to others. If they do not feel
+angry themselves, they do not sympathise with you. They do not perceive
+the motive which actuates you; and then they say that you have a bad
+heart. I daresay, however, when your passion is over, and when you
+recollect yourself, you are very sorry for what you have done and said;
+are not you?' 'Yes, indeed, madam--very sorry.' 'Then make that sorry of
+use to you, Cecilia, and fix it steadily in your thoughts, as you hope
+to be good and happy, that if you suffer yourself to yield to your
+passion upon every trifling occasion, anger and its consequences will
+become familiar to your mind; and, in the same proportion, your sense of
+shame will be weakened, till what you began with doing from sudden
+impulse you will end with doing from habit and choice; and then you
+would, indeed, according to our definition, have a bad heart.' 'Oh,
+madam! I hope--I am sure I never shall.' 'No, indeed, Cecilia; I do,
+indeed, believe that you never will; on the contrary, I think that you
+have a very good disposition, and what is of infinitely more consequence
+to you, an active desire of improvement. Show me that you have as much
+perseverance as you have candour, and I shall not despair of your
+becoming everything that I could wish.'
+
+Here Cecilia's countenance brightened, and she ran up the steps in
+almost as high spirits as she ran down them in the morning.
+
+'Good-night to you, Cecilia,' said Mrs. Villars, as she was crossing the
+hall. 'Good-night to you, madam,' said Cecilia; and she ran upstairs to
+bed. She could not go to sleep; but she lay awake, reflecting upon the
+events of the preceding day, and forming resolutions for the future, at
+the same time considering that she had resolved, and resolved without
+effect, she wished to give her mind some more powerful motive. Ambition
+she knew to be its most powerful incentive. 'Have I not,' said she to
+herself, 'already won the prize of application, and cannot the same
+application procure me a much higher prize? Mrs. Villars said that if
+the prize had been promised to the most amiable, it would not have been
+given to me. Perhaps it would not yesterday, perhaps it might not
+to-morrow; but that is no reason that I should despair of ever deserving
+it.'
+
+In consequence of this reasoning, Cecilia formed a design of proposing
+to her companions that they should give a prize, the first of the
+ensuing month (the 1st of June), to the most amiable. Mrs. Villars
+applauded the scheme, and her companions adopted it with the greatest
+alacrity.
+
+'Let the prize,' said they, 'be a bracelet of our own hair'; and
+instantly their shining scissors were produced, and each contributed a
+lock of her hair. They formed the most beautiful gradation of colours,
+from the palest auburn to the brightest black. Who was to have the
+honour of plaiting them? was now the question. Caroline begged that she
+might, as she could plait very neatly, she said. Cecilia, however, was
+equally sure that she could do it much better; and a dispute would have
+inevitably ensued, if Cecilia, recollecting herself just as her colour
+rose to scarlet, had not yielded--yielded, with no very good grace
+indeed, but as well as could be expected for the first time. For it is
+habit which confers ease; and without ease, even in moral actions, there
+can be no grace.
+
+The bracelet was plaited in the neatest manner by Caroline, finished
+round the edge with silver twist, and on it was worked, in the smallest
+silver letters, this motto, 'TO THE MOST AMIABLE.' The moment it was
+completed, everybody begged to try it on. It fastened with little silver
+clasps, and as it was made large enough for the eldest girls, it was too
+large for the youngest. Of this they bitterly complained, and
+unanimously entreated that it might be cut to fit them.
+
+'How foolish!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'don't you perceive that if any of you
+win it, you have nothing to do but to put the clasps a little further
+from the edge, but, if we get it, we can't make it larger?' 'Very true,'
+said they; 'but you need not to have called us foolish, Cecilia.'
+
+It was by such hasty and unguarded expressions as these that Cecilia
+offended. A slight difference in the manner makes a very material one in
+the effect. Cecilia lost more love by general petulance than she could
+gain by the greatest particular exertions.
+
+How far she succeeded in curing herself of this defect--how far she
+became deserving of the bracelet, and to whom the bracelet was
+given--shall be told in the History of the First of June.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The First of June was now arrived, and all the young competitors were
+in a state of the most anxious suspense. Leonora and Cecilia continued
+to be the foremost candidates. Their quarrel had never been finally
+adjusted, and their different pretensions now retarded all thoughts of a
+reconciliation. Cecilia, though she was capable of acknowledging any of
+her faults in public before all her companions, could not humble herself
+in private to Leonora. Leonora was her equal; they were her inferiors,
+and submission is much easier to a vain mind, where it appears to be
+voluntary, than when it is the necessary tribute to justice or candour.
+So strongly did Cecilia feel this truth, that she even delayed making
+any apology, or coming to any explanation with Leonora, until success
+should once more give her the palm.
+
+'If I win the bracelet to-day,' said she to herself, 'I will solicit the
+return of Leonora's friendship; it will be more valuable to me than even
+the bracelet, and at such a time, and asked in such a manner, she surely
+cannot refuse it to me.' Animated with this hope of a double triumph,
+Cecilia canvassed with the most zealous activity. By constant attention
+and exertion she had considerably abated the violence of her temper, and
+changed the course of her habits. Her powers of pleasing were now
+excited, instead of her abilities to excel; and, if her talents appeared
+less brilliant, her character was acknowledged to be more amiable. So
+great an influence upon our manners and conduct have the objects of our
+ambition.
+
+Cecilia was now, if possible, more than ever desirous of doing what was
+right, but she had not yet acquired sufficient fear of doing wrong. This
+was the fundamental error of her mind; it arose in a great measure from
+her early education. Her mother died when she was very young; and though
+her father had supplied her place in the best and kindest manner, he had
+insensibly infused into his daughter's mind a portion of that
+enterprising, independent spirit which he justly deemed essential to the
+character of her brother. This brother was some years older than
+Cecilia, but he had always been the favourite companion of her youth.
+What her father's precepts inculcated, his example enforced; and even
+Cecilia's virtues consequently became such as were more estimable in a
+man than desirable in a female. All small objects and small errors she
+had been taught to disregard as trifles; and her impatient disposition
+was perpetually leading her into more material faults; yet her candour
+in confessing these, she had been suffered to believe, was sufficient
+reparation and atonement.
+
+Leonora, on the contrary, who had been educated by her mother in a
+manner more suited to her sex, had a character and virtues more peculiar
+to a female. Her judgment had been early cultivated, and her good sense
+employed in the regulation of her conduct. She had been habituated to
+that restraint which, as a woman, she was to expect in life, and early
+accustomed to yield. Compliance in her seemed natural and graceful; yet,
+notwithstanding the gentleness of her temper, she was in reality more
+independent than Cecilia. She had more reliance upon her own judgment,
+and more satisfaction in her own approbation. The uniform kindness of
+her manner, the consistency and equality of her character, had fixed the
+esteem and passive love of her companions.
+
+By passive love we mean that species of affection which makes us
+unwilling to offend rather than anxious to oblige, which is more a habit
+than an emotion of the mind. For Cecilia her companions felt active
+love, for she was active in showing her love to them.
+
+Active love arises spontaneously in the mind, after feeling particular
+instances of kindness, without reflection on the past conduct or general
+character. It exceeds the merits of its object, and is connected with a
+feeling of generosity, rather than with a sense of justice.
+
+Without determining which species of love is the most flattering to
+others, we can easily decide which is the most agreeable feeling to our
+minds. We give our hearts more credit for being generous than for being
+just; and we feel more self-complacency when we give our love
+voluntarily, than when we yield it as a tribute which we cannot
+withhold. Though Cecilia's companions might not know all this in theory,
+they proved it in practice; for they loved her in a much higher
+proportion to her merits than they loved Leonora.
+
+Each of the young judges was to signify her choice by putting a red or a
+white shell into a vase prepared for the purpose. Cecilia's colour was
+red, Leonora's white.
+
+In the morning nothing was to be seen but these shells; nothing talked
+of but the long-expected event of the evening. Cecilia, following
+Leonora's example, had made it a point of honour not to inquire of any
+individual her vote, previously to their final determination.
+
+They were both sitting together in Louisa's room. Louisa was recovering
+from the measles. Every one during her illness had been desirous of
+attending her; but Leonora and Cecilia were the only two that were
+permitted to see her, as they alone had had the distemper. They were
+both assiduous in their care of Louisa, but Leonora's want of exertion
+to overcome any disagreeable feelings of sensibility often deprived her
+of presence of mind, and prevented her from being so constantly useful
+as Cecilia. Cecilia, on the contrary, often made too much noise and
+bustle with her officious assistance, and was too anxious to invent
+amusements and procure comforts for Louisa, without perceiving that
+illness takes away the power of enjoying them.
+
+As she was sitting at the window in the morning, exerting herself to
+entertain Louisa, she heard the voice of an old peddler who often used
+to come to the house. Downstairs, they ran immediately, to ask Mrs.
+Villars's permission to bring him into the hall. Mrs. Villars consented,
+and away Cecilia ran to proclaim the news to her companions. Then, first
+returning into the hall, she found the peddler just unbuckling his box,
+and taking it off his shoulders.
+
+'What would you be pleased to want, miss?' said the peddler; 'I've all
+kinds of tweezer-cases, rings, and lockets of all sorts,' continued he,
+opening all the glittering drawers successively.
+
+'Oh!' said Cecilia, shutting the drawer of lockets which tempted her
+most, 'these are not the things which I want. Have you any china
+figures? any mandarins?'
+
+'Alack-a-day, miss, I had a great stock of that same chinaware; but now
+I'm quite out of them kind of things; but I believe,' said he, rummaging
+one of the deepest drawers, 'I believe I have one left, and here it is.'
+'Oh, that is the very thing! what's its price?' 'Only three shillings,
+ma'am.' Cecilia paid the money, and was just going to carry off the
+mandarin, when the peddler took out of his greatcoat pocket a neat
+mahogany case. It was about a foot long, and fastened at each end by two
+little clasps. It had, besides, a small lock in the middle.
+
+'What is that?' said Cecilia, eagerly. 'It's only a china figure, miss,
+which I am going to carry to an elderly lady, who lives nigh hand, and
+who is mighty fond of such things.' 'Could you let me look at it?' 'And
+welcome, miss,' said he, and opened the case. 'Oh, goodness! how
+beautiful!' exclaimed Cecilia.
+
+It was a figure of Flora, crowned with roses, and carrying a basket of
+flowers in her hand. Cecilia contemplated it with delight. 'How I should
+like to give this to Louisa!' said she to herself; and, at last,
+breaking silence, 'Did you promise it to the old lady?' 'Oh no, miss, I
+didn't promise it--she never saw it; and if so be that you'd like to
+take it, I'd make no more words about it.' 'And how much does it cost?'
+'Why, miss, as to that, I'll let you have it for half-a-guinea.'
+
+Cecilia immediately produced the box in which she kept her treasure,
+and, emptying it upon the table, she began to count the shillings. Alas!
+there were but six shillings. 'How provoking!' said she; 'then I can't
+have it. Where's the mandarin? Oh, I have it,' said she, taking it up,
+and looking at it with the utmost disgust. 'Is this the same that I had
+before?' 'Yes, miss, the very same,' replied the peddler, who, during
+this time, had been examining the little box out of which Cecilia had
+taken her money--it was of silver. 'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'since you've
+taken such a fancy to the piece, if you've a mind to make up the
+remainder of the money, I will take this here little box, if you care to
+part with it.'
+
+Now this box was a keepsake from Leonora to Cecilia. 'No,' said Cecilia
+hastily, blushing a little, and stretching out her hand to receive it.
+
+'Oh, miss!' said he, returning it carelessly, 'I hope there's no
+offence. I meant but to serve you, that's all. Such a rare piece of
+china-work has no cause to go a-begging,' added he. Then, putting the
+Flora deliberately into the case, and turning the key with a jerk, he
+let it drop into his pocket; when, lifting up his box by the leather
+straps, he was preparing to depart.
+
+'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia, in whose mind there had passed a
+very warm conflict during the peddler's harangue. 'Louisa would so like
+this Flora,' said she, arguing with herself. 'Besides, it would be so
+generous in me to give it to her instead of that ugly mandarin; that
+would be doing only common justice, for I promised it to her, and she
+expects it. Though, when I come to look at this mandarin, it is not
+even so good as hers was. The gilding is all rubbed off, so that I
+absolutely must buy this for her. Oh yes! I will, and she will be so
+delighted! and then everybody will say it is the prettiest thing they
+ever saw, and the broken mandarin will be forgotten for ever.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia._]
+
+Here Cecilia's hand moved, and she was just going to decide: 'Oh, but
+stop,' said she to herself, 'consider--Leonora gave me this box, and it
+is a keepsake. However, we have now quarrelled, and I daresay that she
+would not mind my parting with it. I'm sure that I should not care if
+she was to give away my keepsake, the smelling-bottle, or the ring which
+I gave her. Then what does it signify? Besides, is it not my own? and
+have I not a right to do what I please with it?'
+
+At this moment, so critical for Cecilia, a party of her companions
+opened the door. She knew that they came as purchasers, and she dreaded
+her Flora's becoming the prize of some higher bidder. 'Here,' said she,
+hastily putting the box into the peddler's hand, without looking at it,
+'take it, and give me the Flora.' Her hand trembled, though she snatched
+it impatiently. She ran by, without seeming to mind any of her
+companions.
+
+Let those who are tempted to do wrong by the hopes of future
+gratification, or the prospect of certain concealment and impunity,
+remember that, unless they are totally depraved, they bear in their own
+hearts a monitor, who will prevent their enjoying what they ill
+obtained.
+
+In vain Cecilia ran to the rest of her companions, to display her
+present, in hopes that the applause of others would restore her own
+self-complacency; in vain she saw the Flora pass in due pomp from hand
+to hand, each vying with the other in extolling the beauty of the gift
+and the generosity of the giver. Cecilia was still displeased with
+herself, with them, and even with their praise. From Louisa's gratitude,
+however, she yet expected much pleasure, and immediately she ran
+upstairs to her room.
+
+In the meantime, Leonora had gone into the hall to buy a bodkin; she had
+just broken hers. In giving her change, the peddler took out of his
+pocket, with some halfpence, the very box which Cecilia had sold to him.
+Leonora did not in the least suspect the truth, for her mind was above
+suspicion; and besides, she had the utmost confidence in Cecilia.
+
+'I should like to have that box,' said she, 'for it is like one of which
+I was very fond.'
+
+The peddler named the price, and Leonora took the box. She intended to
+give it to little Louisa. On going to her room she found her asleep, and
+she sat softly down by her bedside. Louisa opened her eyes.
+
+'I hope I didn't disturb you,' said Leonora. 'Oh no; I didn't hear you
+come in; but what have you got there?' 'It is only a little box; would
+you like to have it? I bought it on purpose for you, as I thought
+perhaps it would please you, because it's like that which I gave
+Cecilia.' 'Oh yes! that out of which she used to give me Barbary drops.
+I am very much obliged to you; I always thought _that_ exceedingly
+pretty, and this, indeed, is as like it as possible. I can't unscrew it;
+will you try?'
+
+Leonora unscrewed it. 'Goodness!' exclaimed Louisa, 'this must be
+Cecilia's box. Look, don't you see a great L at the bottom of it?'
+
+Leonora's colour changed. 'Yes,' she replied calmly, 'I see that; but it
+is no proof that it is Cecilia's. You know that I bought this box just
+now of the peddler.' 'That may be,' said Louisa; 'but I remember
+scratching that L with my own needle, and Cecilia scolded me for it,
+too. Do go and ask her if she has lost her box--do,' repeated Louisa,
+pulling her by the ruffle, as she did not seem to listen.
+
+Leonora, indeed, did not hear, for she was lost in thought. She was
+comparing circumstances which had before escaped her attention. She
+recollected that Cecilia had passed her as she came into the hall,
+without seeming to see her, but had blushed as she passed. She
+remembered that the peddler appeared unwilling to part with the box, and
+was going to put it again in his pocket with the halfpence. 'And why
+should he keep it in his pocket, and not show it with his other things?'
+Combining all these circumstances, Leonora had no longer any doubt of
+the truth, for though she had an honourable confidence in her friends,
+she had too much penetration to be implicitly credulous.
+
+'Louisa,' she began, but at this instant she heard a step, which, by its
+quickness, she knew to be Cecilia's, coming along the passage.
+
+'If you love me, Louisa,' said Leonora, 'say nothing about the box.'
+'Nay, but why not? I daresay she had lost it.' 'No, my dear, I'm afraid
+she has not.' Louisa looked surprised. 'But I have reasons for desiring
+you not to say anything about it.' 'Well, then, I won't, indeed.'
+
+Cecilia opened the door, came forward smiling, as if secure of a good
+reception, and taking the Flora out of the case, she placed it on the
+mantelpiece, opposite to Louisa's bed.
+
+'Dear, how beautiful!' cried Louisa, starting up. 'Yes,' said Cecilia,
+'and guess who it's for.' 'For me, perhaps!' said the ingenuous Louisa.
+'Yes, take it, and keep it for my sake. You know that I broke your
+mandarin.' 'Oh, but this is a great deal prettier and larger than that.'
+'Yes, I know it is; and I meant that it should be so. I should only have
+done what I was bound to do if I had only given you a mandarin.'
+
+'Well,' replied Louisa, 'and that would have been enough, surely; but
+what a beautiful crown of roses! and then that basket of flowers! they
+almost look as if I could smell them. Dear Cecilia, I'm very much
+obliged to you; but I won't take it by way of payment for the mandarin
+you broke; for I'm sure you could not help that, and, besides, I should
+have broken it myself by this time. You shall give it to me entirely;
+and, as your keepsake, I'll keep it as long as I live.'
+
+Louisa stopped short and coloured; the word keepsake recalled the box to
+her mind, and all the train of ideas which the Flora had banished.
+'But,' said she, looking up wistfully in Cecilia's face, and holding the
+Flora doubtfully, 'did you----'
+
+Leonora, who was just quitting the room, turned her head back, and gave
+Louisa a look, which silenced her.
+
+Cecilia was so infatuated with her vanity, that she neither perceived
+Leonora's sign nor Louisa's confusion, but continued showing off her
+present, by placing it in various situations, till at length she put it
+into the case, and laying it down with an affected carelessness upon the
+bed, 'I must go now, Louisa. Good-bye,' said she, running up and kissing
+her; 'but I'll come again presently'; then, clapping the door after her,
+she went. But as soon as the fermentation of her spirits subsided, the
+sense of shame, which had been scarcely felt when mixed with so many
+other sensations, rose uppermost in her mind. 'What!' said she to
+herself, 'is it possible that I have sold what I promised to keep for
+ever? and what Leonora gave me? and I have concealed it too, and have
+been making a parade of my generosity. Oh! what would Leonora, what
+would Louisa--what would everybody think of me if the truth were known?'
+
+Humiliated and grieved by these reflections, Cecilia began to search in
+her own mind for some consoling idea. She began to compare her conduct
+with that of others of her own age; and at length, fixing her comparison
+upon her brother George, as the companion of whom, from her infancy, she
+had been habitually the most emulous, she recollected that an almost
+similar circumstance had once happened to him, and that he had not only
+escaped disgrace, but had acquired glory, by an intrepid confession of
+his fault. Her father's word to her brother, on the occasion, she also
+perfectly recollected.
+
+'Come to me, George,' he said, holding out his hand, 'you are a
+generous, brave boy: they who dare to confess their faults will make
+great and good men.'
+
+These were his words; but Cecilia, in repeating them to herself, forgot
+to lay that emphasis on the word _men_ which would have placed it in
+contradistinction to the word women. She willingly believed that the
+observation extended equally to both sexes, and flattered herself that
+she should exceed her brother in merit if she owned a fault which she
+thought that it would be so much more difficult to confess. 'Yes, but,'
+said she, stopping herself, 'how can I confess it? This very evening, in
+a few hours, the prize will be decided. Leonora or I shall win it. I
+have now as good a chance as Leonora, perhaps a better; and must I give
+up all my hopes--all that I have been labouring for this month past? Oh,
+I never can! If it were but to-morrow, or yesterday, or any day but
+this, I would not hesitate; but now I am almost certain of the prize,
+and if I win it--well, why then I will--I think I will tell all--yes I
+will; I am determined,' said Cecilia.
+
+Here a bell summoned them to dinner. Leonora sat opposite to her, and
+she was not a little surprised to see Cecilia look so gay and
+unconstrained. 'Surely,' said she to herself, 'if Cecilia had done that
+which I suspect, she would not, she could not, look as she does.' But
+Leonora little knew the cause of her gaiety. Cecilia was never in higher
+spirits, or better pleased with herself, than when she had resolved upon
+a sacrifice or a confession.
+
+'Must not this evening be given to the most amiable? Whose, then, will
+it be?' All eyes glanced first at Cecilia, and then at Leonora. Cecilia
+smiled; Leonora blushed. 'I see that it is not yet decided,' said Mrs.
+Villars; and immediately they ran upstairs, amidst confused whisperings.
+
+Cecilia's voice could be distinguished far above the rest. 'How can she
+be so happy!' said Leonora to herself. 'O Cecilia, there was a time when
+you could not have neglected me so! when we were always together the
+best of friends and companions; our wishes, tastes, and pleasures the
+same! Surely she did once love me,' said Leonora; 'but now she is quite
+changed. She has even sold my keepsake; and she would rather win a
+bracelet of hair from girls whom she did not always think so much
+superior to Leonora than have my esteem, my confidence, and my
+friendship for her whole life--yes, for her whole life, for I am sure
+she will be an amiable woman. Oh that this bracelet had never been
+thought of, or that I were certain of her winning it; for I am sure that
+I do not wish to win it from her. I would rather--a thousand times
+rather--that we were as we used to be than have all the glory in the
+world. And how pleasing Cecilia can be when she wishes to please!--how
+candid she is!--how much she can improve herself! Let me be just, though
+she has offended me; she is wonderfully improved within this last month.
+For one fault, and _that_ against myself, shall I forget all her
+merits?'
+
+As Leonora said these last words, she could but just hear the voices of
+her companions. They had left her alone in the gallery. She knocked
+softly at Louisa's door. 'Come in,' said Louisa; 'I'm not asleep. Oh,'
+said she, starting up with the Flora in her hand, the instant that the
+door was opened, 'I'm so glad you are come, Leonora, for I did so long
+to hear what you all were making such a noise about. Have you forgot
+that the bracelet----' 'Oh yes! is this the evening?' inquired Leonora.
+'Well, here's my white shell for you,' said Louisa. 'I've kept it in my
+pocket this fortnight; and though Cecilia did give me this Flora, I
+still love you a great deal better.' 'I thank you, Louisa,' said
+Leonora, gratefully. 'I will take your shell, and I shall value it as
+long as I live; but here is a red one, and if you wish to show me that
+you love me, you will give this to Cecilia. I know that she is
+particularly anxious for your preference, and I am sure that she
+deserves it.' 'Yes, if I could I would choose both of you,' said
+Louisa, 'but you know I can only choose which I like the best.' 'If you
+mean, my dear Louisa,' said Leonora, 'that you like me the best, I am
+very much obliged to you, for, indeed, I wish you to love me; but it is
+enough for me to know it in private. I should not feel the least more
+pleasure at hearing it in public, or in having it made known to all my
+companions, especially at a time when it would give poor Cecilia a great
+deal of pain.' 'But why should it give her pain?' asked Louisa; 'I don't
+like her for being jealous of you.' 'Nay, Louisa, surely you don't think
+Cecilia jealous? She only tries to excel, and to please; she is more
+anxious to succeed than I am, it is true, because she has a great deal
+more activity, and perhaps more ambition. And it would really mortify
+her to lose this prize--you know that she proposed it herself. It has
+been her object for this month past, and I am sure she has taken great
+pains to obtain it.' 'But, dear Leonora, why should you lose it?'
+'Indeed, my dear, it would be no loss to me; and, if it were, I would
+willingly suffer it for Cecilia; for, though we seem not to be such good
+friends as we used to be, I love her very much, and she will love me
+again--I'm sure she will; when she no longer fears me as a rival, she
+will again love me as a friend.'
+
+Here Leonora heard a number of her companions running along the gallery.
+They all knocked hastily at the door, calling 'Leonora! Leonora! will
+you never come? Cecilia has been with us this half-hour.' Leonora
+smiled. 'Well, Louisa,' said she, smiling, 'will you promise me?' 'Oh, I
+am sure, by the way they speak to you, that they won't give you the
+prize!' said the little Louisa, and the tears started into her eyes.
+'They love me, though, for all that,' said Leonora; 'and as for the
+prize, you know whom I wish to have it.'
+
+'Leonora! Leonora!' called her impatient companions; 'don't you hear us?
+What are you about?' 'Oh, she never will take any trouble about
+anything,' said one of the party; 'let's go away.' 'Oh, go, go! make
+haste!' cried Louisa; 'don't stay; they are so angry.' 'Remember, then,
+that you have promised me,' said Leonora, and she left the room.
+
+During all this time, Cecilia had been in the garden with her
+companions. The ambition which she had felt to win the first prize--the
+prize of superior talents and superior application--was not to be
+compared to the absolute anxiety which she now expressed to win this
+simple testimony of the love and approbation of her equals and rivals.
+
+To employ her exuberant activity, Cecilia had been dragging branches of
+lilacs and laburnums, roses and sweet brier, to ornament the bower in
+which her fate was to be decided. It was excessively hot, but her mind
+was engaged, and she was indefatigable. She stood still at last to
+admire her works. Her companions all joined in loud applause. They were
+not a little prejudiced in her favour by the great eagerness which she
+expressed to win their prize, and by the great importance which she
+seemed to affix to the preference of each individual. At last, 'Where is
+Leonora?' cried one of them; and immediately, as we have seen, they ran
+to call her.
+
+Cecilia was left alone. Overcome with heat and too violent exertion, she
+had hardly strength to support herself; each moment appeared to her
+intolerably long. She was in a state of the utmost suspense, and all her
+courage failed her. Even hope forsook her; and hope is a cordial which
+leaves the mind depressed and enfeebled.
+
+'The time is now come,' said Cecilia; 'in a few moments all will be
+decided. In a few moments--goodness! How much do I hazard? If I should
+not win the prize, how shall I confess what I have done? How shall I beg
+Leonora to forgive me? I, who hoped to restore my friendship to her as
+an honour! They are gone to seek for her. The moment she appears I shall
+be forgotten. What--what shall I do?' said Cecilia, covering her face
+with her hands.
+
+Such was Cecilia's situation when Leonora, accompanied by her
+companions, opened the hall door. They most of them ran forwards to
+Cecilia. As Leonora came into the bower, she held out her hand to
+Cecilia. 'We are not rivals, but friends, I hope,' said she. Cecilia
+clasped her hand; but she was in too great agitation to speak.
+
+The table was now set in the arbour--the vase was now placed in the
+middle. 'Well,' said Cecilia, eagerly, 'who begins?' Caroline, one of
+her friends, came forward first, and then all the others successively.
+Cecilia's emotion was hardly conceivable. 'Now they are all in! Count
+them, Caroline!'
+
+'One, two, three, four; the numbers are both equal.' There was a dead
+silence. 'No, they are not,' exclaimed Cecilia, pressing forward, and
+putting a shell into a vase. 'I have not given mine, and I give it to
+Leonora.' Then, snatching the bracelet, 'It is yours, Leonora,' said
+she; 'take it, and give me back your friendship.' The whole assembly
+gave one universal clap and a general shout of applause.
+
+'I cannot be surprised at this from you, Cecilia,' said Leonora; 'and do
+you then still love me as you used to do?'
+
+'O Leonora, stop! don't praise me; I don't deserve this,' said she,
+turning to her loudly-applauding companions. 'You will soon despise me.
+O Leonora, you will never forgive me! I have deceived you; I have
+sold----'
+
+At this instant Mrs. Villars appeared. The crowd divided. She had heard
+all that passed, from her window. 'I applaud your generosity, Cecilia,'
+said she, 'but I am to tell you that in this instance it is
+unsuccessful. You have it not in your power to give the prize to
+Leonora. It is yours. I have another vote to give to you. You have
+forgotten Louisa.'
+
+'Louisa!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'but surely, ma'am, Louisa loves Leonora
+better than she does me.' 'She commissioned me, however,' said Mrs.
+Villars, 'to give you a red shell; and you will find it in this box.'
+
+Cecilia started, and turned as pale as death; it was the fatal box!
+
+Mrs. Villars produced another box. She opened it; it contained the
+Flora. 'And Louisa also desired me,' said she, 'to return you this
+Flora.' She put it into Cecilia's hand. Cecilia trembled so that she
+could not hold it. Leonora caught it.
+
+'Oh, madam! Oh, Leonora!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'now I have no hope left. I
+intended--I was just going to tell----' 'Dear Cecilia,' said Leonora,
+'you need not tell it me; I know it already; and I forgive you with all
+my heart.'
+
+'Yes, I can prove to you,' said Mrs. Villars, 'that Leonora has forgiven
+you. It is she who has given you the prize; it was she who persuaded
+Louisa to give you her vote. I went to see her a little while ago; and
+perceiving, by her countenance, that something was the matter, I pressed
+her to tell me what it was.
+
+'"Why, madam," said she, "Leonora has made me promise to give my shell
+to Cecilia. Now I don't love Cecilia half so well as I do Leonora.
+Besides, I would not have Cecilia think I vote for her because she gave
+me a Flora." Whilst Louisa was speaking,' continued Mrs. Villars, 'I saw
+this silver box lying on the bed. I took it up, and asked if it was not
+yours, and how she came by it. "Indeed, madam," said Louisa, "I could
+have been almost certain that it was Cecilia's; but Leonora gave it me,
+and she said that she bought it of the peddler this morning. If anybody
+else had told me so, I could not have believed them, because I remember
+the box so well; but I can't help believing Leonora." "But did not you
+ask Cecilia about it?" said I. "No, madam," replied Louisa; "for Leonora
+forbade me." I guessed her reason. "Well," said I, "give me the box, and
+I will carry your shell in it to Cecilia." "Then, madam," said she, "if
+I must give it her, pray do take the Flora, and return it to her first,
+that she may not think it is for that I do it."'
+
+'Oh, generous Leonora!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'but, indeed, Louisa, I
+cannot take your shell.'
+
+'Then, dear Cecilia, accept of mine instead of it! you cannot refuse it;
+I only follow your example. As for the bracelet,' added Leonora, taking
+Cecilia's hand, 'I assure you I don't wish for it, and you do, and you
+deserve it.' 'No,' said Cecilia, 'indeed I do not deserve it. Next to
+you, surely Louisa deserves it best.'
+
+'Louisa! oh yes, Louisa,' exclaimed everybody with one voice.
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Villars, 'and let Cecilia carry the bracelet to her;
+she deserves that reward. For one fault I cannot forget all your merits,
+Cecilia, nor, I am sure, will your companions.' 'Then, surely, not your
+best friend,' said Leonora, kissing her.
+
+Everybody present was moved. They looked up to Leonora with respectful
+and affectionate admiration.
+
+'Oh, Leonora, how I love you! and how I wish to be like you!' exclaimed
+Cecilia--'to be as good, as generous!'
+
+'Rather wish, Cecilia,' interrupted Mrs. Villars, 'to be as just; to be
+as strictly honourable, and as invariably consistent. Remember, that
+many of our sex are capable of great efforts--of making what they call
+great sacrifices to virtue or to friendship; but few treat their friends
+with habitual gentleness, or uniformly conduct themselves with prudence
+and good sense.'
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE MERCHANTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+  _Chi di gallina nasce, convien che rozole._
+  As the old cock crows, so crows the young.
+
+Those who have visited Italy give us an agreeable picture of the
+cheerful industry of the children of all ages in the celebrated city of
+Naples. Their manner of living and their numerous employments are
+exactly described in the following 'Extract from a Traveller's
+Journal.'[18]
+
+  [18] _Varieties of Literature_, vol. i. p. 299.
+
+'The children are busied in various ways. A great number of them bring
+fish for sale to town from Santa Lucia; others are very often seen about
+the arsenals, or wherever carpenters are at work, employed in gathering
+up the chips and pieces of wood; or by the seaside, picking up sticks,
+and whatever else has drifted ashore, which, when their basket is full,
+they carry away.
+
+'Children of two or three years old, who can scarcely crawl along upon
+the ground, in company with boys of five or six, are employed in this
+petty trade. Hence they proceed with their baskets into the heart of the
+city, where in several places they form a sort of little market, sitting
+round with their stock of wood before them. Labourers, and the lower
+order of citizens, buy it of them to burn in the tripods for warming
+themselves, or to use in their scanty kitchens.
+
+'Other children carry about for sale the water of the sulphurous wells,
+which, particularly in the spring season, is drunk in great abundance.
+Others again endeavour to turn a few pence by buying a small matter of
+fruit, of pressed honey, cakes, and comfits, and then, like little
+peddlers, offer and sell them to other children, always for no more
+profit than that they may have their share of them free of expense.
+
+'It is really curious to see how an urchin, whose whole stock and
+property consist in a board and a knife, will carry about a water-melon,
+or a half-roasted gourd, collect a troup of children round him, set down
+his board, and proceed to divide the fruit into small pieces among them.
+
+'The buyers keep a sharp look-out to see that they have enough for their
+little piece of copper; and the Lilliputian tradesmen act with no less
+caution as the exigencies of the case may require, to prevent his being
+cheated out of a morsel.'
+
+The advantages of truth and honesty, and the value of a character for
+integrity, are very early felt amongst these little merchants in their
+daily intercourse with each other. The fair dealer is always sooner or
+later seen to prosper. The most cunning cheat is at last detected and
+disgraced.
+
+Numerous instances of the truth of this common observation were remarked
+by many Neapolitan children, especially by those who were acquainted
+with the characters and history of Piedro and Francisco, two boys
+originally equal in birth, fortune, and capacity, but different in their
+education, and consequently in their habits and conduct. Francisco was
+the son of an honest gardener, who, from the time he could speak, taught
+him to love to speak the truth, showed him that liars are never
+believed--that cheats and thieves cannot be trusted, and that the
+shortest way to obtain a good character is to deserve it.
+
+Youth and white paper, as the proverb says, take all impressions. The
+boy profited much by his father's precepts, and more by his example; he
+always heard his father speak the truth, and saw that he dealt fairly
+with everybody. In all his childish traffic, Francisco, imitating his
+parents, was scrupulously honest, and therefore all his companions
+trusted him--'As honest as Francisco,' became a sort of proverb amongst
+them.
+
+'As honest as Francisco,' repeated Piedro's father, when he one day
+heard this saying. 'Let them say so; I say, "As sharp as Piedro"; and
+let us see which will go through the world best.' With the idea of
+making his son _sharp_ he made him cunning. He taught him, that to make
+a _good bargain_ was to deceive as to the value and price of whatever
+he wanted to dispose of; to get as much money as possible from customers
+by taking advantage of their ignorance or of their confidence. He often
+repeated his favourite proverb--'The buyer has need of a hundred eyes;
+the seller has need but of one.'[19] And he took frequent opportunities
+of explaining the meaning of this maxim to his son. He was a fisherman;
+and as his gains depended more upon fortune than upon prudence, he
+trusted habitually to his good luck. After being idle for a whole day,
+he would cast his line or his nets, and if he was lucky enough to catch
+a fine fish, he would go and show it in triumph to his neighbour the
+gardener.
+
+  [19] Chi compra ha bisogna di cent' occhi; chi vende n' ha assai di
+       uno.
+
+'You are obliged to work all day long for your daily bread,' he would
+say. 'Look here; I work but five minutes, and I have not only daily
+bread, but daily fish.'
+
+Upon these occasions, our fisherman always forgot, or neglected to
+count, the hours and days which were wasted in waiting for a fair wind
+to put to sea, or angling in vain on the shore.
+
+Little Piedro, who used to bask in the sun upon the sea-shore beside his
+father, and to lounge or sleep away his time in a fishing-boat, acquired
+habits of idleness, which seemed to his father of little consequence
+whilst he was _but a child_.
+
+'What will you do with Piedro as he grows up, neighbour?' said the
+gardener. 'He is smart and quick enough, but he is always in mischief.
+Scarcely a day has passed for this fortnight but I have caught him
+amongst my grapes. I track his footsteps all over my vineyard.' '_He is
+but a child_ yet, and knows no better,' replied the fisherman. 'But if
+you don't teach him better now he is a child, how will he know when he
+is a man?' said the gardener. 'A mighty noise about a bunch of grapes,
+truly!' cried the fisherman; 'a few grapes more or less in your
+vineyard, what does it signify?' 'I speak for your son's sake, and not
+for the sake of my grapes,' said the gardener; 'and I tell you again,
+the boy will not do well in the world, neighbour, if you don't look
+after him in time.' 'He'll do well enough in the world, you will find,'
+answered the fisherman, carelessly. 'Whenever he casts my nets, they
+never come up empty. "It is better to be lucky than wise."'[20]
+
+  [20] E meglio esser fortunato che savio.
+
+This was a proverb which Piedro had frequently heard from his father,
+and to which he most willingly trusted, because it gave him less trouble
+to fancy himself fortunate than to make himself wise.
+
+'Come here, child,' said his father to him, when he returned home after
+the preceding conversation with the gardener; 'how old are you, my
+boy?--twelve years old, is not it?' 'As old as Francisco, and older by
+six months,' said Piedro. 'And smarter and more knowing by six years,'
+said his father. 'Here, take these fish to Naples, and let us see how
+you'll sell them for me. Venture a small fish, as the proverb says, to
+catch a great one.[21] I was too late with them at the market yesterday,
+but nobody will know but what they are just fresh out of the water,
+unless you go and tell them.'
+
+  [21] Butta una sardella per pigliar un luccio.
+
+'Not I; trust me for that; I'm not such a fool,' replied Piedro,
+laughing; 'I leave that to Francisco. Do you know, I saw him the other
+day miss selling a melon for his father by turning the bruised side to
+the customer, who was just laying down the money for it, and who was a
+raw servant-boy, moreover--one who would never have guessed there were
+two sides to a melon, if he had not, as you say, father, been told of
+it?'
+
+'Off with you to market. You are a droll chap,' said his father, 'and
+will sell my fish cleverly, I'll be bound. As to the rest, let every man
+take care of his own grapes. You understand me, Piedro?'
+
+'Perfectly,' said the boy, who perceived that his father was indifferent
+as to his honesty, provided he sold fish at the highest price possible.
+He proceeded to the market, and he offered his fish with assiduity to
+every person whom he thought likely to buy it, especially to those upon
+whom he thought he could impose. He positively asserted to all who
+looked at his fish that they were just fresh out of the water. Good
+judges of men and fish knew that he said what was false, and passed him
+by with neglect; but it was at last what he called _good luck_ to meet
+with the very same young raw servant-boy who would have bought the
+bruised melon from Francisco. He made up to him directly, crying, 'Fish!
+Fine fresh fish! fresh fish!'
+
+'Was it caught to-day?' said the boy.
+
+[Illustration: _'I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his
+father by turning the bruised side to the customer.'_]
+
+'Yes, this morning; not an hour ago,' said Piedro, with the greatest
+effrontery.
+
+The servant-boy was imposed upon; and being a foreigner, speaking the
+Italian language but imperfectly, and not being expert at reckoning the
+Italian money, he was no match for the cunning Piedro, who cheated him
+not only as to the freshness but as to the price of the commodity.
+Piedro received nearly half as much again for his fish as he ought to
+have done.
+
+On his road homewards from Naples to the little village of Resina, where
+his father lived, he overtook Francisco, who was leading his father's
+ass. The ass was laden with large panniers, which were filled with the
+stalks and leaves of cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli, lettuces,
+etc.--all the refuse of the Neapolitan kitchens, which are usually
+collected by the gardeners' boys, and carried to the gardens round
+Naples, to be mixed with other manure.
+
+'Well-filled panniers, truly,' said Piedro, as he overtook Francisco and
+the ass. The panniers were indeed not only filled to the top, but piled
+up with much skill and care, so that the load met over the animal's
+back.
+
+'It is not a very heavy load for the ass, though it looks so large,'
+said Francisco. 'The poor fellow, however, shall have a little of this
+water,' added he, leading the ass to a pool by the roadside.
+
+'I was not thinking of the ass, boy; I was not thinking of any ass, but
+of you, when I said, "Well-filled panniers, truly!" This is your
+morning's work, I presume, and you'll make another journey to Naples
+to-day, on the same errand, I warrant, before your father thinks you
+have done enough?'
+
+'Not before _my father_ thinks I have done enough, but before I think so
+myself,' replied Francisco.
+
+'I do enough to satisfy myself and my father too,' said Piedro, 'without
+slaving myself after your fashion. Look here,' producing the money he
+had received for the fish; 'all this was had for asking. It is no bad
+thing, you'll allow, to know how to ask for money properly.'
+
+'I should be ashamed to beg, or borrow either,' said Francisco.
+
+'Neither did I get what you see by begging, or borrowing either,' said
+Piedro, 'but by using my wits; not as you did yesterday, when, like a
+novice, you showed the bruised side of your melon, and so spoiled your
+market by your wisdom.'
+
+'Wisdom I think it still,' said Francisco.
+
+'And your father?' asked Piedro.
+
+'And my father,' said Francisco.
+
+'Mine is of a different way of thinking,' said Piedro. 'He always tells
+me that the buyer has need of a hundred eyes, and if one can blind the
+whole hundred, so much the better. You must know, I got off the fish
+to-day that my father could not sell yesterday in the market--got it off
+for fresh just out of the river--got twice as much as the market price
+for it; and from whom, think you? Why, from the very booby that would
+have bought the bruised melon for a sound one if you would have let him.
+You'll allow I'm no fool, Francisco, and that I'm in a fair way to grow
+rich, if I go on as I have begun.'
+
+'Stay,' said Francisco; 'you forgot that the booby you took in to-day
+will not be so easily taken in to-morrow. He will buy no more fish from
+you, because he will be afraid of your cheating him; but he will be
+ready enough to buy fruit from me, because he will know I shall not
+cheat him--so you'll have lost a customer, and I gained one.'
+
+'With all my heart,' said Piedro. 'One customer does not make a market;
+if he buys no more from me, what care I? there are people enough to buy
+fish in Naples.'
+
+'And do you mean to serve them all in the same manner?' asked Francisco.
+
+'If they will be only so good as to give me leave,' said Piedro,
+laughing, and repeating his father's proverb, '"Venture a small fish to
+catch a large one."'[22] He had learned to think that to cheat in making
+bargains was witty and clever.
+
+  [22] See _antea_.
+
+'And you have never considered, then,' said Francisco, 'that all these
+people will, one after another, find you out in time?'
+
+'Ay, in time; but it will be some time first. There are a great many of
+them, enough to last me all the summer, if I lose a customer a day,'
+said Piedro.
+
+'And next summer,' observed Francisco, 'what will you do?'
+
+'Next summer is not come yet; there is time enough to think what I
+shall do before next summer comes. Why, now, suppose the blockheads,
+after they had been taken in and found it out, all joined against me,
+and would buy none of our fish--what then? Are there no trades but that
+of a fisherman? In Naples, are there not a hundred ways of making money
+for a smart lad like me? as my father says. What do you think of turning
+merchant, and selling sugar-plums and cakes to the children in their
+market? Would they be hard to deal with, think you?'
+
+'I think not,' said Francisco; 'but I think the children would find out
+in time if they were cheated, and would like it as little as the men.'
+
+'I don't doubt them. Then _in time_ I could, you know, change my
+trade--sell chips and sticks in the wood-market--hand about the lemonade
+to the fine folks, or twenty other things. There are trades enough,
+boy.'
+
+'Yes, for the honest dealer,' said Francisco, 'but for no other; for in
+all of them you'll find, as _my_ father says, that a good character is
+the best fortune to set up with. Change your trade ever so often, you'll
+be found out for what you are at last.'
+
+'And what am I, pray?' said Piedro, angrily. 'The whole truth of the
+matter is, Francisco, that you envy my good luck, and can't bear to hear
+this money jingle in my hand. Ay, stroke the long ears of your ass, and
+look as wise as you please. It's better to be lucky than wise, as _my_
+father says. Good morning to you. When I am found out for what I am, or
+when the worst comes to the worst, I can drive a stupid ass, with his
+panniers filled with rubbish, as well as you do now, _honest Francisco_?
+
+'Not quite so well. Unless you were _honest Francisco_, you would not
+fill his panniers quite so readily.'
+
+This was certain, that Francisco was so well known for his honesty
+amongst all the people at Naples with whom his father was acquainted,
+that every one was glad to deal with him; and as he never wronged any
+one, all were willing to serve him--at least, as much as they could
+without loss to themselves; so that after the market was over, his
+panniers were regularly filled by the gardeners and others with whatever
+he wanted. His industry was constant, his gains small but certain, and
+he every day had more and more reason to trust to his father's
+maxim--That honesty is the best policy.
+
+The foreign servant lad, to whom Francisco had so honestly, or, as
+Piedro said, so sillily, shown the bruised side of the melon, was an
+Englishman. He left his native country, of which he was extremely fond,
+to attend upon his master, to whom he was still more attached. His
+master was in a declining state of health, and this young lad waited on
+him a little more to his mind than his other servants. We must, in
+consideration of his zeal, fidelity, and inexperience, pardon him for
+not being a good judge of fish. Though he had simplicity enough to be
+easily cheated once, he had too much sense to be twice made a dupe. The
+next time he met Piedro in the market, he happened to be in company with
+several English gentlemen's servants, and he pointed Piedro out to them
+all as an arrant knave. They heard his cry of 'Fresh fish! fresh fish!
+fine fresh fish!' with incredulous smiles, and let him pass, but not
+without some expressions of contempt, though uttered in English, he
+tolerably well understood; for the tone of contempt is sufficiently
+expressive in all languages. He lost more by not selling his fish to
+these people than he had gained the day before by cheating the _English
+booby_. The market was well supplied, and he could not get rid of his
+cargo.
+
+'Is not this truly provoking?' said Piedro, as he passed by Francisco,
+who was selling fruit for his father. 'Look, my basket is as heavy as
+when I left home; and look at 'em yourself, they really are fine fresh
+fish to-day; and yet, because that revengeful booby told how I took him
+in yesterday, not one of yonder crowd would buy them; and all the time
+they really are fresh to-day!'
+
+'So they are,' said Francisco; 'but you said so yesterday, when they
+were not; and he that was duped then is not ready to believe you to-day.
+How does he know that you deserve it better?'
+
+'He might have looked at the fish,' repeated Piedro; 'they are fresh
+to-day. I am sure he need not have been afraid.'
+
+'Ay,' said Francisco; 'but as my father said to you once--the scalded
+dog fears cold water.'[23]
+
+  [23] Il cane scottato dell' acqua calda ha paura poi della fredda.
+
+Here their conversation was interrupted by the same English lad, who
+smiled as he came up to Francisco, and taking up a fine pine-apple, he
+said, in a mixture of bad Italian and English--'I need not look at the
+other side of this; you will tell me if it is not as good as it looks.
+Name your price; I know you have but one, and that an honest one; and as
+to the rest, I am able and willing to pay for what I buy; that is to
+say, my master is, which comes to the same thing. I wish your fruit
+could make him well, and it would be worth its weight in gold--to me, at
+least. We must have some of your grapes for him.'
+
+'Is he not well?' inquired Francisco. 'We must, then, pick out the best
+for him,' at the same time singling out a tempting bunch. 'I hope he
+will like these; but if you could some day come as far as Resina (it is
+a village but a few miles out of town, where we have our vineyard), you
+could there choose for yourself, and pluck them fresh from the vines for
+your poor master.'
+
+'Bless you, my good boy; I should take you for an Englishman, by your
+way of dealing. I'll come to your village. Only write me down the name;
+for your Italian names slip through my head. I'll come to the vineyard
+if it was ten miles off; and all the time we stay in Naples (may it not
+be so long as I fear it will!), with my master's leave, which he never
+refuses me to anything that's proper, I'll deal with you for all our
+fruit, as sure as my name's Arthur, and with none else, with my good
+will. I wish all your countrymen would take after you in honesty, indeed
+I do,' concluded the Englishman, looking full at Piedro, who took up his
+unsold basket of fish, looking somewhat silly, and gloomily walked off.
+
+Arthur, the English servant, was as good as his word. He dealt
+constantly with Francisco, and proved an excellent customer, buying from
+him during the whole season as much fruit as his master wanted. His
+master, who was an Englishman of distinction, was invited to take up his
+residence, during his stay in Italy, at the Count de F.'s villa, which
+was in the environs of Naples--an easy walk from Resina. Francisco had
+the pleasure of seeing his father's vineyard often full of generous
+visitors, and Arthur, who had circulated the anecdote of the bruised
+melon, was, he said, 'proud to think that some of this was his doing,
+and that an Englishman never forgot a good turn, be it from a countryman
+or foreigner.'
+
+'My dear boy,' said Francisco's father to him, whilst Arthur was in the
+vineyard helping to tend the vines, 'I am to thank you and your honesty,
+it seems, for our having our hands so full of business this season. It
+is fair you should have a share of our profits.'
+
+'So I have, father, enough and enough, when I see you and mother going
+on so well. What can I want more?'
+
+'Oh, my brave boy, we know you are a grateful, good son; but I have been
+your age myself; you have companions, you have little expenses of your
+own. Here; this vine, this fig-tree, and a melon a week next summer
+shall be yours. With these make a fine figure amongst the little
+Neapolitan merchants; and all I wish is that you may prosper as well,
+and by the same honest means, in managing for yourself, as you have done
+managing for me.'
+
+'Thank you, father; and if I prosper at all, it shall be by those means,
+and no other, or I should not be worthy to be called your son.'
+
+Piedro the cunning did not make quite so successful a summer's work as
+did Francisco the honest. No extraordinary events happened, no singular
+instance of bad or good luck occurred; but he felt, as persons usually
+do, the natural consequences of his own actions. He pursued his scheme
+of imposing, as far as he could, upon every person he dealt with; and
+the consequence was, that at last nobody would deal with him.
+
+'It is easy to outwit one person, but impossible to outwit all the
+world,' said a man[24] who knew the world at least as well as either
+Piedro or his father.
+
+  [24] The Duc de Rochefoucault.--'On peut être plus fin qu'un autre,
+       mais pas plus fin que tous les autres.'
+
+Piedro's father, amongst others, had reason to complain. He saw his own
+customers fall off from him, and was told, whenever he went into the
+market, that his son was such a cheat there was no dealing with him. One
+day, when he was returning from the market in a very bad humour, in
+consequence of these reproaches, and of his not having found customers
+for his goods, he espied his _smart_ son Piedro at a little merchant's
+fruit-board, devouring a fine gourd with prodigious greediness. 'Where,
+glutton, do you find money to pay for these dainties?' exclaimed his
+father, coming close up to him, with angry gestures. Piedro's mouth was
+much too full to make an immediate reply, nor did his father wait for
+any, but darting his hand into the youth's pocket, pulled forth a
+handful of silver.
+
+'The money, father,' said Piedro, 'that I got for the fish yesterday,
+and that I meant to give you to-day, before you went out.'
+
+'Then I'll make you remember it against another time, sirrah!' said his
+father. 'I'll teach you to fill your stomach with my money. Am I to lose
+my customers by your tricks, and then find you here eating my all? You
+are a rogue, and everybody has found you out to be a rogue; and the
+worst of rogues I find you, who scruples not to cheat his own father.'
+
+Saying these words, with great vehemence he seized hold of Piedro, and
+in the very midst of the little fruit-market gave him a severe beating.
+This beating did the boy no good; it was vengeance not punishment.
+Piedro saw that his father was in a passion, and knew that he was beaten
+because he was found out to be a rogue, rather than for being one. He
+recollected perfectly that his father once said to him: 'Let every one
+take care of his own grapes.'
+
+Indeed, it was scarcely reasonable to expect that a boy who had been
+educated to think that he might cheat every customer he could in the way
+of trade, should be afterwards scrupulously honest in his conduct
+towards the father whose proverbs encouraged his childhood in cunning.
+
+Piedro writhed with bodily pain as he left the market after his
+drubbing, but his mind was not in the least amended. On the contrary, he
+was hardened to the sense of shame by the loss of reputation. All the
+little merchants were spectators of this scene, and heard his father's
+words: 'You _are_ a rogue, and the worst of rogues, who scruples not to
+cheat his own father.'
+
+These words were long remembered, and long did Piedro feel their
+effects. He once flattered himself that, when his trade of selling fish
+failed him, he could readily engage in some other; but he now found, to
+his mortification, that what Francisco's father said proved true: 'In
+all trades the best fortune to set up with is a good character.'
+
+Not one of the little Neapolitan merchants would either enter into
+partnership with him, give him credit, or even trade with him for ready
+money.--'If you would cheat your own father, to be sure you will cheat
+us,' was continually said to him by these prudent little people.
+
+Piedro was taunted and treated with contempt at home and abroad. His
+father, when he found that his son's _smartness_ was no longer useful
+in making bargains, shoved him out of his way whenever he met him. All
+the food or clothes that he had at home seemed to be given to him
+grudgingly, and with such expressions as these: 'Take that; but it is
+too good for you. You must eat this, now, instead of gourds and
+figs--and be thankful you have even this.'
+
+Piedro spent a whole winter very unhappily. He expected that all his old
+tricks, and especially what his father had said of him in the
+market-place, would be soon forgotten; but month passed after month, and
+still these things were fresh in the memory of all who had known them.
+
+It is not easy to get rid of a bad character. A very great rogue[25] was
+once heard to say, that he would, with all his heart, give ten thousand
+pounds for a good character, because he knew that he could make twenty
+thousand by it.
+
+  [25] Chartres.
+
+Something like this was the sentiment of our cunning hero when he
+experienced the evils of a bad reputation, and when he saw the numerous
+advantages which Francisco's good character procured. Such had been
+Piedro's wretched education, that even the hard lessons of experience
+could not alter its pernicious effects. He was sorry his knavery had
+been detected, but he still thought it clever to cheat, and was secretly
+persuaded that, if he had cheated successfully, he should have been
+happy. 'But I know I am not happy now,' said he to himself one morning,
+as he sat alone disconsolate by the sea-shore, dressed in tattered
+garments, weak and hungry, with an empty basket beside him. His
+fishing-rod, which he held between his knees, bent over the dry sands
+instead of into the water, for he was not thinking of what he was about;
+his arms were folded, his head hung down, and his ragged hat was
+slouched over his face. He was a melancholy spectacle.
+
+Francisco, as he was coming from his father's vineyard with a large dish
+of purple and white grapes upon his head, and a basket of melons and
+figs hanging upon his arm, chanced to see Piedro seated in this
+melancholy posture. Touched with compassion, Francisco approached him
+softly; his footsteps were not heard upon the sands, and Piedro did not
+perceive that any one was near him till he felt something cold touch his
+hand; he then started, and, looking up, saw a bunch of ripe grapes,
+which Francisco was holding over his head.
+
+'Eat them; you'll find them very good, I hope,' said Francisco, with a
+benevolent smile.
+
+'They are excellent--most excellent, and I am much obliged to you,
+Francisco,' said Piedro. 'I was very hungry, and that's what I am now,
+without anybody's caring anything about it. I am not the favourite I was
+with my father, but I know it is all my own fault.'
+
+'Well, but cheer up,' said Francisco; 'my father always says, "One who
+knows he has been in fault, and acknowledges it, will scarcely be in
+fault again." Yes, take as many figs as you will,' continued he; and
+held his basket closer to Piedro, who, as he saw, cast a hungry eye upon
+one of the ripe figs.
+
+'But,' said Piedro, after he had taken several, 'shall not I get you
+into a scrape by taking so many? Won't your father be apt to miss them?'
+
+'Do you think I would give them to you if they were not my own?' said
+Francisco, with a sudden glance of indignation.
+
+'Well, don't be angry that I asked the question; it was only from fear
+of getting you into disgrace that I asked it.'
+
+'It would not be easy for anybody to do that, I hope,' said Francisco,
+rather proudly.
+
+'And to me less than anybody,' replied Piedro, in an insinuating tone,
+'_I_, that am so much obliged to you!'
+
+'A bunch of grapes and a few figs are no mighty obligation,' said
+Francisco, smiling; 'I wish I could do more for you. You seem, indeed,
+to have been very unhappy of late. We never see you in the markets as we
+used to do.'
+
+'No; ever since my father beat me, and called me rogue before all the
+children there, I have never been able to show my face without being
+gibed at by one or t'other. If you would but take me along with you
+amongst them, and only just _seem_ my friend for a day or two, or so, it
+would quite set me up again; for they all like you.'
+
+'I would rather _be_ than seem your friend, if I could,' said Francisco.
+
+'Ay, to be sure; that would be still better,' said Piedro, observing
+that Francisco, as he uttered his last sentence, was separating the
+grapes and other fruits into two equal divisions. 'To be sure I would
+rather you would _be_ than _seem_ a friend to me; but I thought that was
+too much to ask at first, though I have a notion, notwithstanding I
+have been so _unlucky_ lately--I have a notion you would have no reason
+to repent of it. You would find me no bad hand, if you were to try, and
+take me into partnership.'
+
+'Partnership!' interrupted Francisco, drawing back alarmed; 'I had no
+thoughts of that.'
+
+'But won't you? can't you?' said Piedro, in a supplicating tone;
+'_can't_ you have thoughts of it? You'd find me a very active partner.'
+
+Francisco still drew back, and kept his eyes fixed upon the ground. He
+was embarrassed; for he pitied Piedro, and he scarcely knew how to point
+out to him that something more is necessary in a partner in trade
+besides activity, and that is honesty.
+
+'Can't you?' repeated Piedro, thinking that he hesitated from merely
+mercenary motives. 'You shall have what share of the profits you
+please.'
+
+'I was not thinking of the profits,' said Francisco; 'but without
+meaning to be ill-natured to you, Piedro, I must say that I cannot enter
+into any partnership with you at present; but I will do what, perhaps,
+you will like as well,' said he, taking half the fruit out of his
+basket; 'you are heartily welcome to this; try and sell it in the
+children's fruit-market.' 'I'll go on before you, and speak to those
+I am acquainted with, and tell them you are going to set up a new
+character, and that you hope to make it a good one.'
+
+'Hey, shall I! Thank you for ever, dear Francisco,' cried Piedro,
+seizing his plentiful gift of fruit. 'Say what you please for me.'
+
+'But don't make me say anything that is not true,' said Francisco,
+pausing.
+
+'No, to be sure not,' said Piedro; 'I _do_ mean to give no room for
+scandal. If I could get them to trust me as they do you, I should be
+happy indeed.'
+
+'That is what you may do, if you please,' said Francisco. 'Adieu, I wish
+you well with all my heart; but I must leave you now, or I shall be too
+late for the market.'
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+  _Chi va piano va sano, e anché lontano._
+  Fair and softly goes far in a day.
+
+Piedro had now an opportunity of establishing a good character. When he
+went into the market with his grapes and figs, he found that he was not
+shunned or taunted as usual. All seemed disposed to believe in his
+intended reformation, and to give him a fair trial.
+
+These favourable dispositions towards him were the consequence of
+Francisco's benevolent representations. He told them that he thought
+Piedro had suffered enough to cure him of his tricks, and that it would
+be cruelty in them, because he might once have been in fault, to banish
+him by their reproaches from amongst them, and thus to prevent him from
+the means of gaining his livelihood honestly.
+
+Piedro made a good beginning, and gave what several of the younger
+customers thought excellent bargains. His grapes and figs were quickly
+sold, and with the money that he got for them he the next day purchased
+from a fruit-dealer a fresh supply; and thus he went on for some time,
+conducting himself with scrupulous honesty, so that he acquired some
+credit among his companions. They no longer watched him with suspicious
+eyes. They trusted to his measures and weights, and they counted less
+carefully the change which they received from him.
+
+The satisfaction he felt from this alteration in their manners was at
+first delightful, to Piedro; but in proportion to his credit, his
+opportunities of defrauding increased; and these became temptations
+which he had not the firmness to resist. His old manner of thinking
+recurred.
+
+'I make but a few shillings a day, and this is but slow work,' said he
+to himself. 'What signifies my good character, if I make so little by
+it?'
+
+Light gains, and frequent, make a heavy purse,[26] was one of
+Francisco's proverbs. But Piedro was in too great haste to get rich to
+take time into his account. He set his invention to work, and he did not
+want for ingenuity, to devise means of cheating without running the risk
+of detection. He observed that the younger part of the community were
+extremely fond of certain coloured sugar-plums, and of burnt almonds.
+
+  [26] Poco e spesso empie il l' orsetto.
+
+With the money he had earned by two months' trading in fruit he laid in
+a large stock of what appeared to these little merchants a stock of
+almonds and sugar-plums, and he painted in capital gold coloured letters
+upon his board, 'Sweetest, largest, most admirable sugar-plums of all
+colours ever sold in Naples, to be had here; and in gratitude to his
+numerous customers, Piedro adds to these "Burnt almonds gratis."'
+
+This advertisement attracted the attention of all who could read; and
+many who could not read heard it repeated with delight. Crowds of
+children surrounded Piedro's board of promise, and they all went away
+the first day amply satisfied. Each had a full measure of coloured
+sugar-plums at the usual price, and along with these a burnt almond
+gratis. The burnt almond had such an effect upon the public judgment,
+that it was universally allowed that the sugar-plums were, as the
+advertisement set forth, the largest, sweetest, most admirable ever sold
+in Naples; though all the time they were, in no respect, better than any
+other sugar-plums.
+
+It was generally reported that Piedro gave full measure--fuller than any
+other board in the city. He measured the sugar-plums in a little cubical
+tin box; and this, it was affirmed, he heaped up to the top and pressed
+down before he poured out the contents into the open hands of his
+approving customers. This belief, and Piedro's popularity, continued
+longer even than he had expected; and, as he thought his sugar-plums had
+secured their reputation with the _generous public_, he gradually
+neglected to add burnt almonds gratis.
+
+One day a boy of about ten years old passed carelessly by, whistling as
+he went along, and swinging a carpenter's rule in his hand. 'Ha! what
+have we here?' cried he, stopping to read what was written on Piedro's
+board. 'This promises rarely. Old as I am, and tall of my age, which
+makes the matter worse, I am still as fond of sugar-plums as my little
+sister, who is five years younger than I. Come, Signor, fill me quick,
+for I'm in haste to taste them, two measures of the sweetest, largest,
+most admirable sugar-plums in Naples--one measure for myself, and one
+for my little Rosetta.'
+
+'You'll pay for yourself and your sister, then,' said Piedro, 'for no
+credit is given here.'
+
+'No credit do I ask,' replied the lively boy; 'when I told you I loved
+sugar-plums, did I tell you I loved them, or even my sister, so well as
+to run in debt for them? Here's for myself, and here's for my sister's
+share,' said he, laying down his money; 'and now for the burnt almonds
+gratis, my good fellow.'
+
+'They are all out; I have been out of burnt almonds this great while,'
+said Piedro.
+
+'Then why are they in your advertisement here?' said Carlo.
+
+'I have not had time to scratch them out of the board.'
+
+'What! not when you have, by your own account, been out of them a great
+while? I did not know it required so much time to blot out a few
+words--let us try'; and as he spoke, Carlo, for that was the name of
+Piedro's new customer, pulled a bit of white chalk out of his pocket,
+and drew a broad score across the line on the board which promised burnt
+almonds gratis.
+
+'You are most impatient,' said Piedro; 'I shall have a fresh stock of
+almonds to-morrow.' 'Why must the board tell a lie to-day?' 'It would
+ruin me to alter it,' said Piedro. 'A lie may ruin you, but I could
+scarcely think the truth could.' 'You have no right to meddle with me or
+my board,' said Piedro, put off his guard, and out of his usual soft
+voice of civility, by this last observation. 'My character, and that of
+my board, are too firmly established now for any chance customer like
+you to injure.' 'I never dreamed of injuring you or any one else,' said
+Carlo--'I wish, moreover, you may not injure yourself. Do as you please
+with your board, but give me my sugar-plums, for I have some right to
+meddle with those, having paid for them.' 'Hold out your hand, then.'
+'No, put them in here, if you please; put my sister's, at least, in
+here; she likes to have them in this box: I bought some for her in it
+yesterday, and she'll think they'll taste the better out of the same
+box. But how is this? your measure does not fill my box nearly; you give
+us very few sugar-plums for our money.' 'I give you full measure, as I
+give to everybody.' 'The measure should be an inch cube, I know,' said
+Carlo; 'that's what all the little merchants have agreed to, you know.'
+'True,' said Piedro, 'so it is.' 'And so it is, I must allow,' said
+Carlo, measuring the outside of it with the carpenter's rule which he
+held in his hand. 'An inch every way; and yet by my eye--and I have no
+bad one, being used to measuring carpenter's work for my father--by my
+eye, I should think this would have held more sugar-plums.' 'The eye
+often deceives us,' said Piedro. 'There's nothing like measuring, you
+find.' 'There's nothing like measuring, I find, indeed,' replied Carlo,
+as he looked closely at the end of his rule, which, since he spoke last,
+he had put into the tin cube to take its depth in the inside. 'This is
+not as deep by a quarter of an inch, Signor Piedro, measured within as
+it is measured without.'
+
+Piedro changed colour terribly, and seizing hold of the tin box,
+endeavoured to wrest it from the youth who measured so accurately. Carlo
+held his prize fast, and lifting it above his head, he ran into the
+midst of the square where the little market was held, exclaiming, 'A
+discovery! a discovery! that concerns all who love sugar-plums. A
+discovery! a discovery! that concerns all who have ever bought the
+sweetest, largest, and most admirable sugar-plums ever sold in Naples.'
+
+The crowd gathered from all parts of the square as he spoke.
+
+'We have bought,' and 'We have bought of those sugar-plums,' cried
+several little voices at once, 'if you mean Piedro's.'
+
+'The same,' continued Carlo--'he who, out of gratitude to his numerous
+customers, gives, or promises to give, burnt almonds gratis.'
+
+'Excellent they were!' cried several voices. 'We all know Piedro well;
+but what's your discovery?'
+
+'My discovery is,' said Carlo, 'that you, none of you, know Piedro. Look
+you here; look at this box--this is his measure; it has a false
+bottom--it holds only three-quarters as much as it ought to do; and his
+numerous customers have all been cheated of one-quarter of every measure
+of the admirable sugar-plums they have bought from him. "Think twice of
+a good bargain," says the proverb.'
+
+'So we have been finely duped, indeed,' cried some of the bystanders,
+looking at one another with a mortified air. Full of courtesy, full of
+craft![27] 'So this is the meaning of his burnt almonds gratis,' cried
+others; all joined in an uproar of indignation, except one, who, as he
+stood behind the rest, expressed in his countenance silent surprise and
+sorrow.
+
+  [27] Chi te fa piu carezza che non vuole, O ingannato t' ha, o
+       ingannar te vuole.
+
+'Is this Piedro a relation of yours?' said Carlo, going up to this
+silent person. 'I am sorry, if he be, that I have published his
+disgrace, for I would not hurt _you_. You don't sell sugar-plums as he
+does, I'm sure; for my little sister Rosetta has often bought from you.
+Can this Piedro be a friend of yours?'
+
+'I wished to have been his friend, but I see I can't,' said Francisco.
+'He is a neighbour of ours, and I pitied him; but since he is at his old
+tricks again, there's an end of the matter. I have reason to be obliged
+to you, for I was nearly taken in. He has behaved so well for some time
+past, that I intended this very evening to have gone to him, and to have
+told him that I was willing to do for him what he has long begged of me
+to do--to enter into partnership with him.'
+
+'Francisco! Francisco! your measure, lend us your measure!' exclaimed a
+number of little merchants crowding round him. 'You have a measure for
+sugar-plums; and we have all agreed to refer to that, and to see how
+much we have been cheated before we go to break Piedro's bench and
+declare him bankrupt,[28]--the punishment for all knaves.'
+
+  [28] This word comes from two Italian words, _banco rotto_--broken
+       bench. Bankers and merchants used formerly to count their money
+       and write their bills of exchange upon benches in the streets;
+       and when a merchant or banker lost his credit, and was unable
+       to pay his debts, his bench was broken.
+
+They pressed on to Francisco's board, obtained his measure, found that
+it held something more than a quarter above the quantity that could be
+contained in Piedro's. The cries of the enraged populace were now most
+clamorous. They hung the just and the unjust measures upon high poles;
+and, forming themselves into a formidable phalanx, they proceeded
+towards Piedro's well-known yellow-lettered beard, exclaiming, as they
+went along, 'Common cause! common cause! The little Neapolitan merchants
+will have no knaves amongst them! Break his bench! break his bench! He
+is a bankrupt in honesty.'
+
+Piedro saw the mob, heard the indignant clamour, and terrified at the
+approach of numbers, he fled with the utmost precipitation, having
+scarcely time to pack up half his sugar-plums. There was a prodigious
+number, more than would have filled many honest measures, scattered upon
+the ground and trampled under foot by the crowd. Piedro's bench was
+broken, and the public vengeance wreaked itself also upon his
+treacherous painted board. It was, after being much disfigured by
+various inscriptions expressive of the universal contempt for Piedro,
+hung up in a conspicuous part of the market-place; and the false measure
+was fastened like a cap upon one of its corners. Piedro could never more
+show his face in this market, and all hopes of friendship--all hopes of
+partnership with Francisco--were for ever at an end.
+
+If rogues would calculate, they would cease to be rogues; for they would
+certainly discover that it is most for their interest to be
+honest--setting aside the pleasure of being esteemed and beloved, of
+having a safe conscience, with perfect freedom from all the various
+embarrassments and terror to which knaves are subject. Is it not clear
+that our crafty hero would have gained rather more by a partnership with
+Francisco, and by a fair character, than he could possibly obtain by
+fraudulent dealing in comfits?
+
+When the mob had dispersed, after satisfying themselves with executing
+summary justice upon Piedro's bench and board, Francisco found a
+carpenter's rule lying upon the ground near Piedro's broken bench, which
+he recollected to have seen in the hands of Carlo. He examined it
+carefully, and he found Carlo's name written upon it, and the name of
+the street where he lived; and though it was considerably out of his
+way, he set out immediately to restore the rule, which was a very
+handsome one, to its rightful owner. After a hot walk through several
+streets, he overtook Carlo, who had just reached the door of his own
+house. Carlo was particularly obliged to him, he said, for restoring
+this rule to him, as it was a present from the master of a vessel, who
+employed his father to do carpenter's work for him. 'One should not
+praise one's self, they say,' continued Carlo; 'but I long so much to
+gain your good opinion, that I must tell you the whole history of the
+rule you have restored. It was given to me for having measured the work
+and made up the bill of a whole pleasure-boat myself. You may guess I
+should have been sorry enough to have lost it. Thank you for its being
+once more in my careless hands, and tell me, I beg, whenever I can do
+you any service. By-the-bye, I can make up for you a fruit stall. I'll
+do it to-morrow, and it shall be the admiration of the market. Is there
+anything else you could think of for me?'
+
+'Why, yes,' said Francisco; 'since you are so good-natured, perhaps
+you'd be kind enough to tell me the meaning of some of those lines and
+figures that I see upon your rule. I have a great curiosity to know
+their use.'
+
+'That I'll explain to you with pleasure, as far as I know them myself;
+but when I'm at fault, my father, who is cleverer than I am, and
+understands trigonometry, can help us out.'
+
+'Trigonometry!' repeated Francisco, not a little alarmed at the
+high-sounding word; 'that's what I certainly shall never understand.'
+
+'Oh, never fear,' replied Carlo, laughing. 'I looked just as you do
+now--I felt just as you do now--all in a fright and a puzzle, when I
+first heard of angles and sines, and co-sines, and arcs and centres, and
+complements and tangents.'
+
+'Oh, mercy! mercy!' interrupted Francisco, whilst Carlo laughed, with a
+benevolent sense of superiority.
+
+'Why,' said Carlo, 'you'll find all these things are nothing when you
+are used to them. But I cannot explain my rule to you here broiling in
+the sun. Besides, it will not be the work of a day, I promise you; but
+come and see us at your leisure hours, and we'll study it together. I
+have a great notion we shall become friends; and, to begin, step in with
+me now,' said Carlo, 'and eat a little macaroni with us. I know it is
+ready by this time. Besides, you'll see my father, and he'll show you
+plenty of rules and compasses, as you like such things; and then I'll go
+home with you in the cool of the evening, and you shall show me your
+melons and vines, and teach me, in time, something of gardening. Oh, I
+see we must be good friends, just made for each other; so come in--no
+ceremony.'
+
+Carlo was not mistaken in his predictions; he and Francisco became very
+good friends, spent all their leisure hours together, either in Carlo's
+workshop or in Francisco's vineyard, and they mutually improved each
+other. Francisco, before he saw his friend's rule, knew but just enough
+of arithmetic to calculate in his head the price of the fruit which he
+sold in the market; but with Carlo's assistance, and the ambition to
+understand the tables and figures upon the wonderful rule, he set to
+work in earnest, and in due time satisfied both himself and his master.
+
+'Who knows but these things that I am learning now may be of some use to
+me before I die?' said Francisco, as he was sitting one morning with his
+tutor, the carpenter.
+
+'To be sure it will,' said the carpenter, putting down his compasses,
+with which he was drawing a circle. 'Arithmetic is a most useful, and I
+was going to say necessary thing to be known by men in all stations; and
+a little trigonometry does no harm. In short, my maxim is, that no
+knowledge comes amiss; for a man's head is of as much use to him as his
+hands; and even more so.
+
+  'A word to the wise will always suffice.
+
+'Besides, to say nothing of making a fortune, is not there a great
+pleasure in being something of a scholar, and being able to pass one's
+time with one's book, and one's compasses and pencil? Safe companions
+these for young and old. No one gets into mischief that has pleasant
+things to think of and to do when alone; and I know, for my part, that
+trigonometry is----'
+
+Here the carpenter, just as he was going to pronounce a fresh panegyric
+upon his favourite trigonometry, was interrupted by the sudden entrance
+of his little daughter Rosetta, all in tears: a very unusual spectacle,
+for, taking the year round, she shed fewer tears than any child of her
+age in Naples.
+
+'Why, my dear good-humoured little Rosetta, what has happened? Why these
+large tears?' said her brother Carlo, and he went up to her, and wiped
+them from her cheeks. 'And these that are going over the bridge of the
+nose so fast? I must stop these tears too,' said Carlo.
+
+Rosetta, at this speech, burst out laughing, and said that she did not
+know till then that she had any bridge on her nose.
+
+'And were these shells the cause of the tears?' said her brother,
+looking at a heap of shells which she held before her in her frock.
+
+'Yes, partly,' said Rosetta. 'It was partly my own fault, but not all.
+You know I went out to the carpenters' yard, near the arsenal, where all
+the children are picking up chips and sticks so busily; and I was as
+busy as any of them, because I wanted to fill my basket soon; and then I
+thought I should sell my basketful directly in the little wood-market.
+As soon as I had filled my basket, and made up my faggot (which was not
+done, brother, till I was almost baked by the sun, for I was forced to
+wait by the carpenters for the bits of wood to make up my faggot)--I
+say, when it was all ready, and my basket full, I left it all together
+in the yard.' 'That was not wise to leave it,' said Carlo. 'But I only
+left it for a few minutes, brother, and I could not think anybody would
+be so dishonest as to take it whilst I was away. I only just ran to tell
+a boy, who had picked up all these beautiful shells upon the sea-shore,
+and who wanted to sell them, that I should be glad to buy them from him,
+if he would only be so good as to keep them for me, for an hour or so,
+till I had carried my wood to market, and till I had sold it, and so had
+money to pay him for the shells.'
+
+'Your heart was set mightily on these shells, Rosetta.'
+
+'Yes; for I thought you and Francisco, brother, would like to have them
+for your nice grotto that you are making at Resina. That was the reason
+I was in such a hurry to get them. The boy who had them to sell was very
+good-natured; he poured them into my lap, and said I had such an honest
+face he would trust me, and that as he was in a great hurry, he could
+not wait an hour whilst I sold my wood; but that he was sure I would pay
+him in the evening, and he told me that he would call here this evening
+for the money. But now what shall I do, Carlo? I shall have no money to
+give him: I must give him back his shells, and that's a great pity.'
+
+'But how happened it that you did not sell your wood?'
+
+'Oh, I forgot; did not I tell you that? When I went back for my basket,
+do you know it was empty, quite empty, not a chip left? Some dishonest
+person had carried it all off. Had not I reason to cry now, Carlo?'
+
+'I'll go this minute into the wood-market, and see if I can find your
+faggot. Won't that be better than crying?' said her brother. 'Should you
+know any one of your pieces of wood again if you were to see them?'
+
+'Yes, one of them, I am sure, I should know again,' said Rosetta. 'It
+had a notch at one end of it, where one of the carpenters cut it off
+from another piece of wood for me.'
+
+'And is this piece of wood from which the carpenter cut it still to be
+seen?' said Francisco. 'Yes, it is in the yard; but I cannot bring it to
+you, for it is very heavy.'
+
+'We can go to it,' said Francisco, 'and I hope we shall recover your
+basketful.'
+
+Carlo and his friend went with Rosetta immediately to the yard, near the
+arsenal, saw the notched piece of wood, and then proceeded to the little
+wood-market, and searched every heap that lay before the little factors;
+but no notched bit was to be found, and Rosetta declared that she did
+not see one stick that looked at all like any of hers.
+
+On their part, her companions eagerly untied their faggots to show them
+to her, and exclaimed, 'that they were incapable of taking what did not
+belong to them; that of all persons they should never have thought of
+taking anything from the good-natured little Rosetta, who was always
+ready to give to others, and to help them in making up their loads.'
+
+Despairing of discovering the thief, Francisco and Carlo left the
+market. As they were returning home, they were met by the English
+servant Arthur, who asked Francisco where he had been, and where he was
+going.
+
+As soon as he heard of Rosetta's lost faggot, and of the bit of wood,
+notched at one end, of which Rosetta drew the shape with a piece of
+chalk which her brother had lent her, Arthur exclaimed, 'I have seen
+such a bit of wood as this within this quarter of an hour; but I cannot
+recollect where. Stay! this was at the baker's, I think, where I went
+for some rolls for my master. It was lying beside his oven.'
+
+To the baker's they all went as fast as possible, and they got there but
+just in time. The baker had in his hand the bit of wood with which he
+was that instant going to feed his oven.
+
+'Stop, good Mr. Baker!' cried Rosetta, who ran into the baker's shop
+first; and as he heard 'Stop! stop!' re-echoed by many voices, the baker
+stopped; and turning to Francisco, Carlo, and Arthur, begged, with a
+countenance of some surprise, to know why they had desired him to stop.
+
+The case was easily explained, and the baker told them that he did not
+buy any wood in the little market that morning; that this faggot he had
+purchased between the hours of twelve and one from a lad about
+Francisco's height, whom he met near the yard of the arsenal.
+
+'This is my bit of wood, I am sure; I know it by this notch,' said
+Rosetta.
+
+'Well,' said the baker, 'if you will stay here a few minutes, you will
+probably see the lad who sold it to me. He desired to be paid in bread,
+and my bread was not quite baked when he was here. I bid him call again
+in an hour, and I fancy he will be pretty punctual, for he looked
+desperately hungry.'
+
+The baker had scarcely finished speaking when Francisco, who was
+standing watching at the door, exclaimed, 'Here comes Piedro! I hope he
+is not the boy who sold you the wood, Mr. Baker?' 'He is the boy,
+though,' replied the baker, and Piedro, who now entered the shop,
+started at the sight of Carlo and Francisco, whom he had never seen
+since the day of disgrace in the fruit-market.
+
+'Your servant, Signor Piedro,' said Carlo; 'I have the honour to tell
+you that this piece of wood, and all that you took out of the basket,
+which you found in the yard of the arsenal, belongs to my sister.' 'Yes,
+indeed,' cried Rosetta.
+
+Piedro being very certain that nobody saw him when he emptied Rosetta's
+basket, and imagining that he was suspected only upon the bare assertion
+of a child like Rosetta, who might be baffled and frightened out of her
+story, boldly denied the charge, and defied any one to prove him guilty.
+
+'He has a right to be heard in his own defence,' said Arthur, with the
+cool justice of an Englishman; and he stopped the angry Carlo's arm, who
+was going up to the culprit with all the Italian vehemence of oratory
+and gesture. Arthur went on to say something in bad Italian about the
+excellence of an English trial by jury, which Carlo was too much enraged
+to hear, but to which Francisco paid attention, and turning to Piedro,
+he asked him if he was willing to be judged by twelve of his equals.
+'With all my heart,' said Piedro, still maintaining an unmoved
+countenance, and they returned immediately to the little wood-market. On
+their way, they had passed through the fruit-market, and crowds of those
+who were well acquainted with Piedro's former transactions followed, to
+hear the event of the present trial.
+
+Arthur could not, especially as he spoke wretched Italian, make the
+eager little merchants understand the nature and advantages of an
+English trial by jury. They preferred their own summary mode of
+proceeding. Francisco, in whose integrity all had perfect confidence,
+was chosen with unanimous shouts for the judge; but he declined the
+office, and another was appointed. He was raised upon a bench, and the
+guilty but insolent-looking Piedro, and the ingenuous, modest Rosetta
+stood before him. She made her complaint in a very artless manner; and
+Piedro, with ingenuity, which in a better cause would have deserved
+admiration, spoke volubly and craftily in his own defence. But all that
+he could say could not alter facts. The judge compared the notched bit
+of wood found at the baker's with a piece from which it was cut, which
+he went to see in the yard of the arsenal. It was found to fit exactly.
+The judge then found it impossible to restrain the loud indignation of
+all the spectators. The prisoner was sentenced never more to sell wood
+in the market; and the moment sentence was pronounced, Piedro was hissed
+and hooted out of the market-place. Thus a third time he deprived
+himself of the means of earning his bread.
+
+We shall not dwell upon all his petty methods of cheating in the trades
+he next attempted. He handed lemonade about in a part of Naples where he
+was not known, but he lost his customers by putting too much water and
+too little lemon into this beverage. He then took to the waters from the
+sulphurous springs, and served them about to foreigners; but one day, as
+he was trying to jostle a competitor from the coach door, he slipped his
+foot and broke his glasses. They had been borrowed from an old woman who
+hired out glasses to the boys who sold lemonade. Piedro knew that it was
+the custom to pay, of course, for all that was broken; but this he was
+not inclined to do. He had a few shillings in his pocket, and thought
+that it would be very clever to defraud this poor woman of her right,
+and to spend his shillings upon what he valued much more than he did his
+good name--macaroni. The shillings were soon gone.
+
+We shall now for the present leave Piedro to his follies and his fate;
+or, to speak more properly, to his follies and their inevitable
+consequences.
+
+Francisco was all this time acquiring knowledge from his new friends,
+without neglecting his own or his father's business. He contrived,
+during the course of autumn and winter, to make himself a tolerable
+arithmetician. Carlo's father could draw plans in architecture neatly;
+and, pleased with the eagerness Francisco showed to receive instruction,
+he willingly put a pencil and compasses into his hand, and taught him
+all he knew himself. Francisco had great perseverance, and, by repeated
+trials, he at length succeeded in copying exactly all the plans which
+his master lent him. His copies, in time, surpassed the originals, and
+Carlo exclaimed, with astonishment: 'Why, Francisco, what an astonishing
+_genius_ you have for drawing!--Absolutely you draw plans better than my
+father!'
+
+[Illustration: _Piedro was hissed and hooted out of the market-place._]
+
+'As to genius,' said Francisco, honestly, 'I have none. All that I have
+done has been done by hard labour. I don't know how other people do
+things; but I am sure that I never have been able to get anything done
+well but by patience. Don't you remember, Carlo, how you and even
+Rosetta laughed at me the first time your father put a pencil into my
+awkward, clumsy hands?'
+
+'Because,' said Carlo, laughing again at the recollection, 'you held
+your pencil so drolly; and when you were to cut it, you cut it just as
+if you were using a pruning-knife to your vines; but now it is your turn
+to laugh, for you surpass us all. And the times are changed since I set
+about to explain this rule of mine to you.'
+
+'Ay, that rule,' said Francisco--'how much I owe to it! Some great
+people, when they lose any of their fine things, cause the crier to
+promise a reward of so much money to anyone who shall find and restore
+their trinket. How richly have you and your father rewarded me for
+returning this rule!'
+
+Francisco's modesty and gratitude, as they were perfectly sincere,
+attached his friends to him most powerfully; but there was one person
+who regretted our hero's frequent absences from his vineyard at Resina.
+Not Francisco's father, for he was well satisfied his son never
+neglected his business; and as to the hours spent in Naples, he had so
+much confidence in Francisco, that he felt no apprehensions of his
+getting into bad company. When his son had once said to him, 'I spend my
+time at such a place, and in such and such a manner,' he was as well
+convinced of its being so as if he had watched and seen him every
+moment of the day. But it was Arthur who complained of Francisco's
+absence.
+
+'I see, because I am an Englishman,' said he, 'you don't value my
+friendship, and yet that is the very reason you ought to value it; no
+friends so good as the English, be it spoken without offence to your
+Italian friend, for whom you now continually leave me to dodge up and
+down here in Resina, without a soul that I like to speak to, for you are
+the only Italian I ever liked.'
+
+'You _shall_ like another, I promise you,' said Francisco. 'You must
+come with me to Carlo's, and see how I spend my evenings; then complain
+of me, if you can.'
+
+It was the utmost stretch of Arthur's complaisance to pay this visit;
+but, in spite of his national prejudices and habitual reserve of temper,
+he was pleased with the reception he met with from the generous Carlo
+and the playful Rosetta. They showed him Francisco's drawings with
+enthusiastic eagerness; and Arthur, though no great judge of drawing,
+was in astonishment, and frequently repeated, 'I know a gentleman who
+visits my master who would like these things. I wish I might have them
+to show him.'
+
+'Take them, then,' said Carlo; 'I wish all Naples could see them,
+provided they might be liked half as well as I like them.'
+
+Arthur carried off the drawings, and one day, when his master was better
+than usual, and when he was at leisure, eating a dessert of Francisco's
+grapes, he entered respectfully, with his little portfolio under his
+arm, and begged permission to show his master a few drawings done by the
+gardener's son, whose grapes he was eating.
+
+Though not quite so partial a judge as the enthusiastic Carlo, this
+gentleman was both pleased and surprised at the sight of these drawings,
+considering how short a time Francisco had applied himself to this art,
+and what slight instructions he had received. Arthur was desired to
+summon the young artist. Francisco's honest, open manner, joined to the
+proofs he had given of his abilities, and the character Arthur gave him
+for strict honesty, and constant kindness to his parents, interested Mr.
+Lee, the name of this English gentleman, much in his favour. Mr. Lee was
+at this time in treaty with an Italian painter, whom he wished to engage
+to copy for him exactly some of the cornices, mouldings, tablets, and
+antique ornaments which are to be seen amongst the ruins of the ancient
+city of Herculaneum.
+
+    We must give those of our young English readers who may not be
+    acquainted with the ancient city of Herculaneum some idea of it.
+    None can be ignorant that near Naples is the celebrated volcanic
+    mountain of Vesuvius;--that, from time to time, there happen violent
+    eruptions from this mountain; that is to say, flames and immense
+    clouds of smoke issue from different openings, mouths, or _craters_,
+    as they are called, but more especially from the summit of the
+    mountain, which is distinguished by the name of _the_ crater. A
+    rumbling, and afterwards a roaring noise is heard within, and
+    prodigious quantities of stones and minerals burnt into masses
+    (scoriæ) are thrown out of the crater, sometimes to a great
+    distance. The hot ashes from Mount Vesuvius have often been seen
+    upon the roofs of the houses of Naples, from which it is six miles
+    distant. Streams of lava run down the sides of the mountain during
+    the time of an eruption, destroying everything in their way, and
+    overwhelm the houses and vineyards which are in the neighbourhood.
+
+    About 1700 years ago, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Titus,
+    there happened a terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius; and a large
+    city called Herculaneum, which was situated at about four miles'
+    distance from the volcano, was overwhelmed by the streams of lava
+    which poured into it, filled up the streets, and quickly covered
+    over the tops of the houses, so that the whole was no more visible.
+    It remained for many years buried. The lava which covered it became
+    in time fit for vegetation, plants grew there, a new soil was
+    formed, and a new town called Portici was built over the place where
+    Herculaneum formerly stood. The little village of Resina is also
+    situated near the spot. About fifty years ago, in a poor man's
+    garden at Resina, a hole in a well about thirty feet below the
+    surface of the earth was observed. Some persons had the curiosity to
+    enter into this hole, and, after creeping underground for some time,
+    they came to the foundations of houses. The peasants, inhabitants of
+    the village, who had probably never heard of Herculaneum, were
+    somewhat surprised at their discovery.[29] About the same time, in
+    a pit in the town of Portici, a similar passage under ground was
+    discovered, and, by orders of the King of Naples, workmen were
+    employed to dig away the earth, and clear the passages. They found,
+    at length, the entrance into the town, which, during the reign of
+    Titus, was buried under lava. It was about eighty-eight Neapolitan
+    palms (a palm contains near nine inches) below the top of the pit.
+    The workmen, as they cleared the passages, marked their way with
+    chalk when they came to any turning, lest they should lose
+    themselves. The streets branched out in many directions, and, lying
+    across them, the workmen often found large pieces of timber, beams,
+    and rafters; some broken in the fall, others entire. These beams and
+    rafters are burned quite black, and look like charcoal, except those
+    that were found in moist places, which have more the colour of
+    rotten wood, and which are like a soft paste, into which you might
+    run your hand. The walls of the houses slant, some one way, some
+    another, and some are upright. Several magnificent buildings of
+    brick, faced with marble of different colours, are partly seen,
+    where the workmen have cleared away the earth and lava with which
+    they were encrusted. Columns of red and white marble, and flights of
+    marble steps, are seen in different places; and out of the ruins of
+    the palaces some very fine statues and pictures have been dug.
+    Foreigners who visit Naples are very curious to see this
+    subterraneous city, and are desirous to carry with them into their
+    own country some proofs of their having examined this wonderful
+    place.
+
+  [29] _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. ix. p. 440.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+  _Tutte le gran faciende si fanno di foca cosa._
+  What great events from trivial causes spring.
+
+Signor Camillo, the artist employed by Mr. Lee to copy some of the
+antique ornaments in Herculaneum, was a liberal-minded man, perfectly
+free from that mean jealousy which would repress the efforts of rising
+genius.
+
+'Here is a lad scarcely fifteen, a poor gardener's son, who, with merely
+the instructions he could obtain from a common carpenter, has learned to
+draw these plans and elevations, which you see are tolerably neat. What
+an advantage your instruction would be to him,' said Mr. Lee, as he
+introduced Francisco to Signor Camillo. 'I am interested in this lad
+from what I have learned of his good conduct. I hear he is strictly
+honest, and one of the best of sons. Let us do something for him. If you
+will give him some knowledge of your art, I will, as far as money can
+recompense you for your loss of time, pay whatever you may think
+reasonable for his instruction.'
+
+Signor Camillo made no difficulties; he was pleased with his pupil's
+appearance, and every day he liked him better and better. In the room
+where they worked together there were some large books of drawings and
+plates, which Francisco saw now and then opened by his master, and which
+he had a great desire to look over; but when he was left in the room by
+himself he never touched them, because he had not permission. Signor
+Camillo, the first day he came into his room with his pupil, said to
+him, 'Here are many valuable books and drawings, young man. I trust,
+from the character I have heard of you, that they will be perfectly safe
+here.'
+
+Some weeks after Francisco had been with the painter, they had occasion
+to look for the front of a temple in one of these large books. 'What!
+don't you know in which book to look for it, Francisco?' cried his
+master, with some impatience. 'Is it possible that you have been here so
+long with these books, and that you cannot find the print I mean? Had
+you half the taste I gave you credit for, you would have singled it out
+from all the rest, and have it fixed in your memory.'
+
+'But, signor, I never saw it,' said Francisco, respectfully, 'or perhaps
+I should have preferred it.'
+
+'That you never saw it, young man, is the very thing of which I
+complain. Is a taste for the arts to be learned, think you, by looking
+at the cover of a book like this? Is it possible that you never thought
+of opening it?'
+
+'Often and often,' cried Francisco, 'have I longed to open it; but I
+thought it was forbidden me, and however great my curiosity in your
+absence, I have never touched them. I hoped, indeed, that the time would
+come when you would have the goodness to show them to me.'
+
+'And so the time is come, excellent young man,' cried Camillo; 'much as
+I love taste, I love integrity more. I am now sure of your having the
+one, and let me see whether you have, as I believe you have, the other.
+Sit you down here beside me; and we will look over these books
+together.'
+
+The attention with which his young pupil examined everything, and the
+pleasure he unaffectedly expressed in seeing these excellent prints,
+sufficiently convinced his judicious master that it was not from the
+want of curiosity or taste that he had never opened these tempting
+volumes. His confidence in Francisco was much increased by this
+circumstance, slight as it may appear.
+
+One day Signor Camillo came behind Francisco, as he was drawing with
+much intentness, and tapping him upon the shoulder, he said to him: 'Put
+up your pencils and follow me. I can depend upon your integrity; I have
+pledged myself for it. Bring your note-book with you, and follow me; I
+will this day show you something that will entertain you at least as
+much as my large book of prints. Follow me.'
+
+Francisco followed, till they came to the pit near the entrance of
+Herculaneum. 'I have obtained leave for you to accompany me,' said his
+master, 'and you know, I suppose, that this is not a permission granted
+to every one?' Paintings of great value, besides ornaments of gold and
+silver, antique bracelets, rings, etc., are from time to time found
+amongst these ruins, and therefore it is necessary that no person should
+be admitted whose honesty cannot be depended upon. Thus, even
+Francisco's talents could not have advanced him in the world, unless
+they had been united to integrity. He was much delighted and astonished
+by the new scene that was now opened to his view; and as, day after day,
+he accompanied his master to this subterraneous city, he had leisure for
+observation. He was employed, as soon as he had gratified his curiosity,
+in drawing. There are niches in the walls in several places, from which
+pictures have been dug, and these niches are often adorned with elegant
+masks, figures and animals, which have been left by the ignorant or
+careless workmen, and which are going fast to destruction. Signor
+Camillo, who was copying these for his English employer, had a mind to
+try his pupil's skill, and, pointing to a niche bordered with grotesque
+figures, he desired him to try if he could make any hand of it.
+Francisco made several trials, and at last finished such an excellent
+copy, that his enthusiastic and generous master, with warm encomiums,
+carried it immediately to his patron, and he had the pleasure to receive
+from Mr. Lee a purse containing five guineas, as a reward and
+encouragement for his pupil.
+
+Francisco had no sooner received this money than he hurried home to his
+father and mother's cottage. His mother, some months before this time,
+had taken a small dairy farm; and her son had once heard her express a
+wish that she was but rich enough to purchase a remarkably fine brindled
+cow, which belonged to a farmer in the neighbourhood.
+
+'Here, my dear mother,' cried Francisco, pouring the guineas into her
+lap; 'and here,' continued he, emptying a bag, which contained about as
+much more, in small Italian coins, the profits of trade-money he had
+fairly earned during the two years he sold fruit amongst the little
+Neapolitan merchants; 'this is all yours, dearest mother, and I hope it
+will be enough to pay for the brindled cow. Nay, you must not refuse
+me--I have set my heart upon the cow being milked by you this very
+evening; and I'll produce my best bunches of grapes, and my father,
+perhaps, will give us a melon, for I've had no time for melons this
+season; and I'll step to Naples and invite--may I, mother?--my good
+friends, dear Carlo and your favourite little Rosetta, and my old
+drawing master, and my friend Arthur, and we'll sup with you at your
+dairy.'
+
+The happy mother thanked her son, and the father assured him that
+neither melon nor pine-apple should be spared, to make a supper worthy
+of his friends.
+
+The brindled cow was bought, and Arthur and Carlo and Rosetta most
+joyfully accepted the invitation.
+
+The carpenter had unluckily appointed to settle a long account that day
+with one of his employers, and he could not accompany his children. It
+was a delicious evening; they left Naples just as the sea-breeze, after
+the heats of the day, was most refreshingly felt. The walk to Resina,
+the vineyard, the dairy, and most of all, the brindled cow, were praised
+by Carlo and Rosetta with all the Italian superlatives which signify,
+'Most beautiful! most delightful! most charming!' Whilst the English
+Arthur, with as warm a heart, was more temperate in his praise,
+declaring that this was 'the most like an English summer's evening of
+any he had ever felt since he came to Italy; and that, moreover, the
+cream was almost as good as what he had been used to drink in Cheshire.'
+The company, who were all pleased with each other, and with the
+gardener's good fruit, which he produced in great abundance, did not
+think of separating till late.
+
+It was a bright moonlight night, and Carlo asked his friend if he would
+walk with them part of the way to Naples. 'Yes, all the way most
+willingly,' cried Francisco, 'that I may have the pleasure of giving to
+your father, with my own hands, this fine bunch of grapes, that I have
+reserved for him out of my own share.' 'Add this fine pine-apple for my
+share, then,' said his father, 'and a pleasant walk to you, my young
+friends.'
+
+They proceeded gaily along, and when they reached Naples, as they passed
+through the square where the little merchants held their market,
+Francisco pointed to the spot where he found Carlo's rule. He never
+missed an opportunity of showing his friends that he did not forget
+their former kindness to him. 'That rule,' said he, 'has been the cause
+of all my present happiness, and I thank you for----'
+
+'Oh, never mind thanking him now,' interrupted Rosetta, 'but look
+yonder, and tell me what all those people are about.' She pointed to a
+group of men, women, and children, who were assembled under a piazza,
+listening in various attitudes of attention to a man, who was standing
+upon a flight of steps, speaking in a loud voice, and with much action,
+to the people who surrounded him. Francisco, Carlo, and Rosetta joined
+his audience. The moon shone full upon his countenance, which was very
+expressive, and which varied frequently according to the characters of
+the persons whose history he was telling, and according to all the
+changes of their fortune. This man was one of those who are called
+Improvisatori--persons who, in Italian towns, go about reciting verses
+or telling stories, which they are supposed to invent as they go on
+speaking. Some of these people speak with great fluency, and collect
+crowds round them in the public streets. When an Improvisatore sees the
+attention of his audience fixed, and when he comes to some very
+interesting part of his narrative, he dexterously drops his hat upon the
+ground, and pauses till his auditors have paid tribute to his eloquence.
+When he thinks the hat sufficiently full, he takes it up again, and
+proceeds with his story. The hat was dropped just as Francisco and his
+two friends came under the piazza. The orator had finished one story,
+and was going to commence another. He fixed his eyes upon Francisco,
+then glanced at Carlo and Rosetta, and after a moment's consideration he
+began a story which bore some resemblance to one that our young English
+readers may, perhaps, know by the name of 'Cornaro, or the Grateful
+Turk.'
+
+Francisco was deeply interested in this narrative, and when the hat was
+dropped, he eagerly threw in his contribution. At the end of the story,
+when the speaker's voice stopped, there was a momentary silence, which
+was broken by the orator himself, who exclaimed, as he took up the hat
+which lay at his feet, 'My friends, here is some mistake! this is not my
+hat; it has been changed whilst I was taken up with my story. Pray,
+gentlemen, find my hat amongst you; it was a remarkably good one, a
+present from a nobleman for an epigram I made. I would not lose my hat
+for twice its value. It has my name written withinside of it, Dominicho,
+Improvisatore. Pray, gentlemen, examine your hats.'
+
+Everybody present examined their hats, and showed them to Dominicho, but
+his was not amongst them. No one had left the company; the piazza was
+cleared, and searched in vain. 'The hat has vanished by magic.' said
+Dominicho. 'Yes, and by the same magic a statue moves,' cried Carlo,
+pointing to a figure standing in a niche, which had hitherto escaped
+observation. The face was so much in the shade, that Carlo did not at
+first perceive that the statue was Piedro. Piedro, when he saw himself
+discovered, burst into a loud laugh, and throwing down Dominicho's hat,
+which he held in his hand behind him, cried, 'A pretty set of novices!
+Most excellent players at hide-and-seek you would make.'
+
+Whether Piedro really meant to have carried off the poor man's hat, or
+whether he was, as he said, merely in jest, we leave it to those who
+know his general character to decide.
+
+Carlo shook his head. 'Still at your old tricks, Piedro,' said he.
+'Remember the old proverb: No fox so cunning but he comes to the
+furrier's at last.'[30]
+
+  [30] Tutte le volpi si trovano in pellicera.
+
+'I defy the furrier and you too,' replied Piedro, taking up his own
+ragged hat. 'I have no need to steal hats; I can afford to buy better
+than you'll have upon your head. Francisco, a word with you, if you have
+done crying at the pitiful story you have been listening to so
+attentively.'
+
+'And what would you say to me?' said Francisco, following him a few
+steps. 'Do not detain me long, because my friends will wait for me.'
+
+'If they are friends, they can wait,' said Piedro. 'You need not be
+ashamed of being seen in my company now, I can tell you; for I am, as I
+always told you I should be, the richest man of the two.'
+
+'Rich! you rich?' cried Francisco. 'Well, then, it was impossible you
+could mean to trick that poor man out of his good hat.'
+
+'Impossible!' said Piedro. Francisco did not consider that those who
+have habits of pilfering continue to practise them often, when the
+poverty which first tempted them to dishonesty ceases. 'Impossible! You
+stare when I tell you I am rich; but the thing is so. Moreover, I am
+well with my father at home. I have friends in Naples, and I call myself
+Piedro the Lucky. Look you here,' said he, producing an old gold coin.
+'This does not smell of fish, does it? My father is no longer a
+fisherman, nor I either. Neither do I sell sugar-plums to children; nor
+do I slave myself in a vineyard, like some folks; but fortune, when I
+least expected it, has stood my friend. I have many pieces of gold like
+this. Digging in my father's garden, it was my luck to come to an old
+Roman vessel full of gold. I have this day agreed for a house in Naples
+for my father. We shall live, whilst we can afford it, like great folks,
+you will see; and I shall enjoy the envy that will be felt by some of my
+old friends, the little Neapolitan merchants, who will change their note
+when they see my change of fortune. What say you to all this, Francisco
+the Honest?'
+
+'That I wish you joy of your prosperity, and hope you may enjoy it long
+and well.'
+
+'Well, no doubt of that. Every one who has it enjoys it _well_. He
+always dances well to whom fortune pipes.'[31]
+
+  [31] Assai ben balla a chi fortuna suona.
+
+'Yes, no longer pipe, no longer dance,' replied Francisco; and here they
+parted; for Piedro walked away abruptly, much mortified to perceive that
+his prosperity did not excite much envy, or command any additional
+respect from Francisco.
+
+'I would rather,' said Francisco, when he returned to Carlo and Rosetta,
+who waited for him under the portico, when he left them--'I would rather
+have such good friends as you, Carlo and Arthur, and some more I could
+name, and, besides that, have a clear conscience, and work honestly for
+my bread, than be as lucky as Piedro. Do you know he has found a
+treasure, he says, in his father's garden--a vase full of gold? He
+showed me one of the gold pieces.'
+
+'Much good may they do him. I hope he came honestly by them,' said
+Carlo; 'but ever since the affair of the double measure, I suspect
+double-dealing always from him. It is not our affair, however. Let him
+make himself happy his way, and we ours.
+
+  'He that would live in peace and rest,
+  Must hear, and see, and say the best.'[32]
+
+All Piedro's neighbours did not follow this peaceable maxim; for when he
+and his father began to circulate the story of the treasure found in the
+garden, the village of Resina did not give them implicit faith. People
+nodded and whispered, and shrugged their shoulders; then crossed
+themselves and declared that they would not, for all the riches of
+Naples, change places with either Piedro or his father. Regardless, or
+pretending to be regardless, of these suspicions, Piedro and his father
+persisted in their assertions. The fishing-nets were sold, and
+everything in their cottage was disposed of; they left Resina, went to
+live at Naples, and, after a few weeks, the matter began to be almost
+forgotten in the village.
+
+  [32] Odi, vedi, taci, se vuoi viver in pace.
+
+The old gardener, Francisco's father, was one of those who endeavoured
+to _think the best_; and all that he said upon the subject was, that he
+would not exchange Francisco the Honest for Piedro the Lucky; that one
+can't judge of the day till one sees the evening as well as the
+morning.[33]
+
+  [33] La vita il fine,--e di loda la sera. Compute the morn and evening
+       of their day.--POPE.
+
+Not to leave our readers longer in suspense, we must inform them that
+the peasants of Resina were right in their suspicions. Piedro had never
+found any treasure in his father's garden, but he came by his gold in
+the following manner:--
+
+After he was banished from the little wood-market for stealing Rosetta's
+basketful of wood, after he had cheated the poor woman, who let glasses
+out to hire, out of the value of the glasses which he broke, and, in
+short, after he had entirely lost his credit with all who knew him, he
+roamed about the streets of Naples, reckless of what became of him.
+
+He found the truth of the proverb, 'that credit lost is like a Venice
+glass broken--it can't be mended again.' The few shillings which he had
+in his pocket supplied him with food for a few days. At last he was glad
+to be employed by one of the peasants who came to Naples to load their
+asses with manure out of the streets. They often follow very early in
+the morning, or during the night-time, the trace of carriages that are
+gone, or that are returning from the opera; and Piedro was one night at
+this work, when the horses of a nobleman's carriage took fright at the
+sudden blaze of some fireworks. The carriage was overturned near him; a
+lady was taken out of it, and was hurried by her attendants into a shop,
+where she stayed till her carriage was set to rights. She was too much
+alarmed for the first ten minutes after her accident to think of
+anything; but after some time, she perceived that she had lost a
+valuable diamond cross, which she had worn that night at the opera. She
+was uncertain where she had dropped it; the shop, the carriage, the
+street were searched for it in vain.
+
+Piedro saw it fall as the lady was lifted out of the carriage, seized
+upon it, and carried it off. Ignorant as he was of the full value of
+what he had stolen, he knew not how to satisfy himself as to this point,
+without trusting some one with the secret.
+
+After some hesitation, he determined to apply to a Jew, who, as it was
+whispered, was ready to buy everything that was offered to him for sale,
+without making any _troublesome_ inquiries. It was late; he waited till
+the streets were cleared, and then knocked softly at the back door of
+the Jew's house. The person who opened the door for Piedro was his own
+father. Piedro started back; but his father had fast hold of him.
+
+'What brings you here?' said the father, in a low voice, a voice which
+expressed fear and rage mixed.
+
+'Only to ask my way--my shortest way,' stammered Piedro.
+
+'No equivocations! Tell me what brings you here at this time of the
+night? I _will_ know.'
+
+Piedro, who felt himself in his father's grasp, and who knew that his
+father would certainly search him, to find out what he had brought to
+sell, thought it most prudent to produce the diamond cross. His father
+could but just see its lustre by the light of a dim lamp which hung over
+their heads in the gloomy passage in which they stood.
+
+'You would have been duped, if you had gone to sell this to the Jew. It
+is well it has fallen into my hands. How came you by it?' Piedro
+answered that he had found it in the street. 'Go your ways home, then,'
+said the father; 'it is safe with me. Concern yourself no more about
+it.'
+
+Piedro was not inclined thus to relinquish his booty, and he now thought
+proper to vary in his account of the manner in which he found the cross.
+He now confessed that it had dropped from the dress of a lady, whose
+carriage was overturned as she was coming home from the opera, and he
+concluded by saying that, if his father took his prize from him without
+giving him his share of the profits, he would go directly to the shop
+where the lady stopped whilst her servants were raising the carriage,
+and that he would give notice of his having found the cross.
+
+Piedro's father saw that his _smart_ son, though scarcely sixteen years
+of age, was a match for him in villainy. He promised him that he should
+have half of whatever the Jew would give for the diamonds, and Piedro
+insisted upon being present at the transaction.
+
+[Illustration: _The Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of villainy,
+contrived to cheat both his associates._]
+
+We do not wish to lay open to our young readers scenes of iniquity. It
+is sufficient to say that the Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of
+villainy, contrived to cheat both his associates, and obtained the
+diamond cross for less than half its value. The matter was managed so
+that the transaction remained undiscovered. The lady who lost the cross,
+after making fruitless inquiries, gave up the search, and Piedro and his
+father rejoiced in the success of their manoeuvres.
+
+It is said that 'Ill-gotten wealth is quickly spent';[34] and so it
+proved in this instance. Both father and son lived a riotous life as
+long as their money lasted, and it did not last many months. What his
+bad education began, bad company finished, and Piedro's mind was
+completely ruined by the associates with whom he became connected during
+what he called his _prosperity_. When his money was at an end, these
+unprincipled friends began to look cold upon him, and at last plainly
+told him--'If you mean to _live with us_, you must _live as we do_.'
+They lived by robbery.
+
+  [34] Vien presto consumato l' ingiustamente acquistato.
+
+Piedro, though familiarised to the idea of fraud, was shocked at the
+thought of becoming a robber by profession. How difficult it is to stop
+in the career of vice! Whether Piedro had power to stop, or whether he
+was hurried on by his associates, we shall, for the present, leave in
+doubt.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+We turn with pleasure from Piedro the Cunning to Francisco the Honest.
+Francisco continued the happy and useful course of his life. By his
+unremitting perseverance he improved himself rapidly under the
+instructions of his master and friend, Signor Camillo; his friend, we
+say, for the fair and open character of Francisco won, or rather earned,
+the friendship of this benevolent artist. The English gentleman seemed
+to take a pride in our hero's success and good conduct. He was not one
+of those patrons who think that they have done enough when they have
+given five guineas. His servant Arthur always considered every generous
+action of his master's as his own, and was particularly pleased whenever
+this generosity was directed towards Francisco.
+
+As for Carlo and the little Rosetta, they were the companions of all the
+pleasant walks which Francisco used to take in the cool of the evening,
+after he had been shut up all day at his work. And the old carpenter,
+delighted with the gratitude of his pupil, frequently repeated--'That he
+was proud to have given the first instructions to such a _genius_; and
+that he had always prophesied Francisco would be a _great_ man.' 'And a
+good man, papa,' said Rosetta; 'for though he has grown so great, and
+though he goes into palaces now, to say nothing of that place
+underground, where he has leave to go, yet, notwithstanding all this, he
+never forgets my brother Carlo and you.'
+
+'That's the way to have good friends,' said the carpenter. 'And I like
+his way; he does more than he says. Facts are masculine, and words are
+feminine.'[35]
+
+  [35] I fatti sono maschii, le parole femmine.
+
+These good friends seemed to make Francisco happier than Piedro could be
+made by his stolen diamonds.
+
+One morning, Francisco was sent to finish a sketch of the front of an
+ancient temple, amongst the ruins of Herculaneum. He had just reached
+the pit, and the men were about to let him down with cords, in the usual
+manner, when his attention was caught by the shrill sound of a scolding
+woman's voice. He looked, and saw at some paces distant this female
+fury, who stood guarding the windlass of a well, to which, with
+threatening gestures and most voluble menaces, she forbade all access.
+The peasants--men, women, and children, who had come with their pitchers
+to draw water at this well--were held at bay by the enraged female. Not
+one dared to be the first to advance; whilst she grasped with one hand
+the handle of the windlass, and, with the other tanned muscular arm
+extended, governed the populace, bidding them remember that she was
+padrona, or mistress of the well. They retired, in hopes of finding a
+more gentle padrona at some other well in the neighbourhood; and the
+fury, when they were out of sight, divided the long black hair which
+hung over her face, and, turning to one of the spectators, appealed to
+them in a sober voice, and asked if she was not right in what she had
+done. 'I, that am padrona of the well,' said she, addressing herself to
+Francisco, who, with great attention, was contemplating her with the eye
+of a painter--'I, that am padrona of the well, must in times of
+scarcity do strict justice, and preserve for ourselves alone the water
+of our well. There is scarcely enough even for ourselves. I have been
+obliged to make my husband lengthen the ropes every day for this week
+past. If things go on at this rate, there will soon be not one drop of
+water left in my well.'
+
+'Nor in any of the wells of the neighbourhood,' added one of the
+workmen, who was standing by; and he mentioned several in which the
+water had lately suddenly decreased; and a miller affirmed that his mill
+had stopped for want of water.
+
+Francisco was struck by these remarks. They brought to his recollection
+similar facts, which he had often heard his father mention in his
+childhood, as having been observed previous to the last eruption of
+Mount Vesuvius.[36] He had also heard from his father, in his childhood,
+that it is better to trust to prudence than to fortune; and therefore,
+though the peasants and workmen, to whom he mentioned his fears,
+laughed, and said, 'That as the burning mountain had been favourable to
+them for so many years, they would trust to it and St. Januarius one day
+longer,' yet Francisco immediately gave up all thoughts of spending this
+day amidst the ruins of Herculaneum. After having inquired sufficiently,
+after having seen several wells, in which the water had evidently
+decreased, and after having seen the mill-wheels that were standing
+still for want of their usual supply, he hastened home to his father and
+mother, reported what he had heard and seen, and begged of them to
+remove, and to take what things of value they could to some distance
+from the dangerous spot where they now resided.
+
+  [36] _Phil. Trans._ vol. ix.
+
+Some of the inhabitants of Resina, whom he questioned, declared that
+they had heard strange rumbling noises underground; and a peasant and
+his son, who had been at work the preceding day in a vineyard, a little
+above the village, related that they had seen a sudden puff of smoke
+come out of the earth, close to them; and that they had, at the same
+time, heard a noise like the going off of a pistol.[37]
+
+  [37] These facts are mentioned in Sir William Hamilton's account of an
+       eruption of Mount Vesuvius.--See _Phil. Trans._ 1795, first part.
+
+The villagers listened with large eyes and open ears to these
+relations; yet such was their habitual attachment to the spot they lived
+upon, or such the security in their own good fortune, that few of them
+would believe that there could be any necessity for removing. 'We'll see
+what will happen to-morrow; we shall be safe here one day longer,' said
+they.
+
+Francisco's father and mother, more prudent than the generality of their
+neighbours, went to the house of a relation, at some miles' distance
+from Vesuvius, and carried with them all their effects.
+
+In the meantime, Francisco went to the villa where his English friends
+resided. The villa was in a most dangerous situation, near Torre del
+Greco--a town that stands at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. He related all
+the facts that he had heard to Arthur, who, not having been, like the
+inhabitants of Resina, familiarised to the idea of living in the
+vicinity of a burning mountain and habituated to trust in St. Januarius,
+was sufficiently alarmed by Francisco's representations. He ran to his
+master's apartment, and communicated all that he had just heard. The
+Count de Flora and his lady, who were at this time in the house,
+ridiculed the fears of Arthur, and could not be prevailed upon to remove
+even as far as Naples. The lady was intent upon preparations for her
+birthday, which was to be celebrated in a few days with great
+magnificence at their villa; and she observed that it would be a pity to
+return to town before that day, and they had everything arranged for the
+festival. The prudent Englishman had not the gallantry to appear to be
+convinced by these arguments, and he left the place of danger. He left
+it not too soon, for the next morning exhibited a scene--a scene which
+we shall not attempt to describe.
+
+We refer our young readers to the account of this dreadful eruption of
+Mount Vesuvius, published by Sir W. Hamilton in the _Philosophical
+Transactions_. It is sufficient here to say that, in the space of about
+five hours, the wretched inhabitants of Torre del Greco saw their town
+utterly destroyed by the streams of burning lava which poured from the
+mountain. The villa of Count de Flora, with some others, which were at a
+little distance from the town, escaped; but they were absolutely
+surrounded by the lava. The count and countess were obliged to fly from
+their house with the utmost precipitation in the night-time; and they
+had not time to remove any of their furniture, their plate, clothes, or
+jewels.
+
+A few days after the eruption, the surface of the lava became so cool
+that people could walk upon it, though several feet beneath the surface
+it was still exceedingly hot. Numbers of those who had been forced from
+their houses now returned to the ruins to try to save whatever they
+could. But these unfortunate persons frequently found their houses had
+been pillaged by robbers, who, in these moments of general confusion,
+enrich themselves with the spoils of their fellow-creatures.
+
+'Has the count abandoned his villa? and is there no one to take care of
+his plate and furniture? The house will certainly be ransacked before
+morning,' said the old carpenter to Francisco, who was at his house
+giving him an account of their flight. Francisco immediately went to the
+count's house in Naples, to warn him of his danger. The first person he
+saw was Arthur, who, with a face of terror, said to him, 'Do you know
+what has happened? It is all over with Resina!' 'All over with Resina!
+What, has there been a fresh eruption? Has the lava reached Resina?'
+'No; but it will inevitably be blown up. There,' said Arthur, pointing
+to a thin figure of an Italian, who stood pale and trembling, and
+looking up to heaven as he crossed himself repeatedly--'There,' said
+Arthur, 'is a man who has left a parcel of his cursed rockets and
+fireworks, with I don't know how much gunpowder, in the count's house,
+from which we have just fled. The wind blows that way. One spark of
+fire, and the whole is blown up.'
+
+Francisco waited not to hear more; but instantly, without explaining his
+intentions to any one, set out for the count's villa, and, with a bucket
+of water in his hand, crossed the beds of lava with which the house was
+encompassed; when, reaching the hall where the rockets and gunpowder
+were left, he plunged them into the water, and returned with them in
+safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet.
+
+What was the surprise and joy of the poor firework-maker when he saw
+Francisco return from this dangerous expedition! He could scarcely
+believe his eyes, when he saw the rockets and the gunpowder all safe.
+
+The count, who had given up the hopes of saving his palace, was in
+admiration when he heard of this instance of intrepidity, which probably
+saved not only his villa, but the whole village of Resina, from
+destruction. These fireworks had been prepared for the celebration of
+the countess's birthday, and were forgotten in the hurry of the night on
+which the inhabitants fled from Torre del Greco.
+
+[Illustration: _Returned in safety over the lava, yet warm under his
+feet._]
+
+'Brave young man!' said the count to Francisco, 'I thank you, and shall
+not limit my gratitude to thanks. You tell me that there is danger of my
+villa being pillaged by robbers. It is from this moment your interest as
+well as mine to prevent their depredations; for (trust to my liberality)
+a portion of all that is saved of mine shall be yours.'
+
+'Bravo! bravissimo!' exclaimed one who started from a recessed window in
+the hall where all this passed. 'Bravo! bravissimo!' Francisco thought
+he knew the voice and the countenance of this man, who exclaimed with so
+much enthusiasm. He remembered to have seen him before, but when, or
+where, he could not recollect. As soon as the count left the hall, the
+stranger came up to Francisco. 'Is it possible,' said he, 'that you
+don't know me? It is scarcely a twelvemonth since I drew tears from your
+eyes.' 'Tears from my eyes?' repeated Francisco, smiling; 'I have shed
+but few tears. I have had but few misfortunes in my life.' The stranger
+answered him by two extempore Italian lines, which conveyed nearly the
+same idea that has been so well expressed by an English poet:--
+
+  To each their sufferings--all are men
+    Condemn'd alike to groan;
+  The feeling for another's woes,
+    Th' unfeeling for his own.
+
+'I know you now perfectly well,' cried Francisco; 'you are the
+Improvisatore who, one fine moonlight night last summer, told us the
+story of Cornaro the Turk.'
+
+'The same,' said the Improvisatore; 'the same, though in a better dress,
+which I should not have thought would have made so much difference in
+your eyes, though it makes all the difference between man and man in the
+eyes of the stupid vulgar. My genius has broken through the clouds of
+misfortune of late. A few happy impromptu verses I made on the Count de
+Flora's fall from his horse attracted attention. The count patronises
+me. I am here now to learn the fate of an ode I have just composed for
+his lady's birthday. My ode was to have been set to music, and to have
+been performed at his villa near Torre del Greco, if these troubles had
+not intervened. Now that the mountain is quiet again, people will return
+to their senses. I expect to be munificently rewarded. But perhaps I
+detain you. Go; I shall not forget to celebrate the heroic action you
+have performed this day. I still amuse myself amongst the populace in my
+tattered garb late in the evenings, and I shall sound your praises
+through Naples in a poem I mean to recite on the late eruption of Mount
+Vesuvius. Adieu.'
+
+The Improvisatore was as good as his word. That evening, with more than
+his usual enthusiasm, he recited his verses to a great crowd of people
+in one of the public squares. Amongst the crowd were several to whom the
+name of Francisco was well known, and by whom he was well beloved. These
+were his young companions, who remembered him as a fruit-seller amongst
+the little merchants. They rejoiced to hear his praises, and repeated
+the lines with shouts of applause.
+
+'Let us pass. What is all this disturbance in the streets?' said a man,
+pushing his way through the crowd. A lad who held by his arm stopped
+suddenly on hearing the name of Francisco, which the people were
+repeating with so much enthusiasm.
+
+'Ha! I have found at last a story that interests you more than that of
+Cornaro the Turk,' cried the Improvisatore, looking in the face of the
+youth who had stopped so suddenly. 'You are the young man who, last
+summer, had liked to have tricked me out of my new hat. Promise me you
+won't touch it now,' said he, throwing down the hat at his feet, 'or you
+hear not one word I have to say. Not one word of the heroic action
+performed at the villa of the Count de Flora, near Torre del Greco, this
+morning, by Signor Francisco.'
+
+'_Signor_ Francisco!' repeated the lad with disdain. 'Well, let us hear
+what you have to tell of him,' added he. 'Your hat is very safe, I
+promise you; I shall not touch it. What of _Signor_ Francisco?'
+
+'_Signor_ Francisco I may, without impropriety, call him,' said the
+Improvisatore, 'for he is likely to become rich enough to command the
+title from those who might not otherwise respect his merit.'
+
+'Likely to become rich! how?' said the lad, whom our readers have
+probably before this time discovered to be Piedro. 'How, pray, is he
+likely to become rich enough to be a signor?'
+
+'The Count de Flora has promised him a liberal portion of all the fine
+furniture, plate, and jewels that can be saved from his villa at Torre
+del Greco. Francisco is gone down hither now with some of the count's
+domestics to protect the valuable goods against those villainous
+plunderers, who robbed their fellow-creatures of what even the flames of
+Vesuvius would spare.'
+
+'Come, we have had enough of this stuff,' cried the man whose arm Piedro
+held. 'Come away,' and he hurried forwards.
+
+This man was one of the villains against whom the honest orator
+expressed such indignation. He was one of those with whom Piedro got
+acquainted during the time that he was living extravagantly upon the
+money he gained by the sale of the stolen diamond cross. That robbery
+was not discovered; and his _success_, as he called it, hardened him in
+guilt. He was both unwilling and unable to withdraw himself from the bad
+company with whom his ill-gotten wealth connected him. He did not
+consider that bad company leads to the gallows.[38]
+
+  [38] La mala compagnia è quella che mena uomini a la forca.
+
+The universal confusion which followed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
+was to these villains a time of rejoicing. No sooner did Piedro's
+companion hear of the rich furniture, plate, etc., which the imprudent
+orator had described as belonging to the Count de Flora's villa, than he
+longed to make himself master of the whole.
+
+'It is a pity,' said Piedro, 'that the count has sent Francisco with his
+servants down to guard it.' 'And who is this Francisco of whom you seem
+to stand in so much awe?' 'A boy, a young lad only, of about my own age;
+but I know him to be sturdily honest. The servants we might corrupt; but
+even the old proverb of "Angle with a silver hook,"[39] won't hold good
+with him.'
+
+  [39] Pescar col hamo d' argento.
+
+'And if he cannot be won by fair means, he must be conquered by foul,'
+said the desperate villain; 'but if we offer him rather more than the
+count has already promised for his share of the booty, of course he
+will consult at once his safety and his interest.'
+
+'No,' said Piedro; 'that is not his nature. I know him from a child, and
+we'd better think of some other house for to-night's business.'
+
+'None other; none but this,' cried his companion, with an oath. 'My mind
+is determined upon this, and you must obey your leader: recollect the
+fate of him who failed me yesterday.'
+
+The person to whom he alluded was one of the gang of robbers who had
+been assassinated by his companions for hesitating to commit some crime
+suggested by their leader. No tyranny is so dreadful as that which is
+exercised by villains over their young accomplices, who become their
+slaves. Piedro, who was of a cowardly nature, trembled at the
+threatening countenance of his captain, and promised submission.
+
+In the course of the morning, inquiries were made secretly amongst the
+count's servants; and the two men who were engaged to sit up at the
+villa that night along with Francisco were bribed to second the views of
+this gang of thieves. It was agreed that about midnight the robbers
+should be let into the house; that Francisco should be tied hand and
+foot, whilst they carried off their booty. 'He is a stubborn chap,
+though so young, I understand,' said the captain of the robbers to his
+men; 'but we carry poniards, and know how to use them. Piedro, you look
+pale. You don't require to be reminded of what I said to you when we
+were alone just now?'
+
+Piedro's voice failed, and some of his comrades observed that he was
+young and new to the business. The captain, who, from being his
+pretended friend during his wealthy days, had of late become his tyrant,
+cast a stern look at Piedro, and bid him be sure to be at the old Jew's,
+which was the place of meeting, in the dusk of the evening. After saying
+this he departed.
+
+Piedro, when he was alone, tried to collect his thoughts--all his
+thoughts were full of horror. 'Where am I?' said he to himself; 'what am
+I about? Did I understand rightly what he said about poniards?
+Francisco; oh, Francisco! Excellent, kind, generous Francisco! Yes, I
+recollect your look when you held the bunch of grapes to my lips, as I
+sat by the sea-shore deserted by all the world; and now, what friends
+have I? Robbers and----' The word _murderers_ he could not utter. He
+again recollected what had been said about poniards, and the longer his
+mind fixed upon the words, and the look that accompanied them, the more
+he was shocked. He could not doubt that it was the serious intention of
+his accomplices to murder Francisco, if he should make any resistance.
+
+Piedro had at this moment no friend in the world to whom he could apply
+for advice or assistance. His wretched father died some weeks before
+this time, in a fit of intoxication. Piedro walked up and down the
+street, scarcely capable of thinking, much less of coming to any
+rational resolution.
+
+The hours passed away, the shadows of the houses lengthened under his
+footsteps, the evening came on, and when it grew dusk, after hesitating
+in great agony of mind for some time, his fear of the robbers' vengeance
+prevailed over every other feeling, and he went at the appointed hour to
+the place of meeting.
+
+The place of meeting was at the house of that Jew to whom he, several
+months before, sold the diamond cross. That cross which he thought
+himself so lucky to have stolen, and to have disposed of undetected,
+was, in fact, the cause of his being in his present dreadful situation.
+It was at the Jew's that he connected himself with this gang of robbers,
+to whom he was now become an absolute slave.
+
+'Oh that I dared to disobey!' said he to himself, with a deep sigh, as
+he knocked softly at the back door of the Jew's house. The back door
+opened into a narrow, unfrequented street, and some small rooms at this
+side of the house were set apart for the reception of guests who desired
+to have their business kept secret. These rooms were separated by a dark
+passage from the rest of the house, and numbers of people came to the
+shop in the front of the house, which looked into a creditable street,
+without knowing anything more, from the ostensible appearance of the
+shop, than that it was a kind of pawnbroker's, where old clothes, old
+iron, and all sorts of refuse goods might be disposed of conveniently.
+
+At the moment Piedro knocked at the back door, the front shop was full
+of customers; and the Jew's boy, whose office it was to attend to these
+signals, let Piedro in, told him that none of his comrades were yet
+come, and left him in a room by himself.
+
+He was pale and trembling, and felt a cold dew spread over him. He had a
+leaden image of Saint Januarius tied round his neck, which, in the midst
+of his wickedness, he superstitiously preserved as a sort of charm, and
+on this he kept his eyes stupidly fixed, as he sat alone in this gloomy
+place.
+
+He listened from time to time, but he heard no noise at the side of the
+house where he was. His accomplices did not arrive, and, in a sort of
+impatient terror, the attendant upon an evil conscience, he flung open
+the door of his cell, and groped his way through the passage which he
+knew led to the public shop. He longed to hear some noise, and to mix
+with the living. The Jew, when Piedro entered the shop, was bargaining
+with a poor, thin-looking man about some gunpowder.
+
+'I don't deny that it has been wet,' said the man, 'but since it was in
+the bucket of water, it has been carefully dried. I tell you the simple
+truth, that so soon after the grand eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the
+people of Naples will not relish fireworks. My poor little rockets, and
+even my Catherine-wheels, will have no effect. I am glad to part with
+all I have in this line of business. A few days ago I had fine things in
+readiness for the Countess de Flora's birthday, which was to have been
+celebrated at the count's villa.'
+
+'Why do you fix your eyes on me, friend? What is your discourse to me?'
+said Piedro, who imagined that the man fixed his eyes upon him as he
+mentioned the name of the count's villa.
+
+'I did not know that I fixed my eyes upon you; I was thinking of my
+fireworks,' said the poor man, simply. 'But now that I do look at you
+and hear your voice, I recollect having had the pleasure of seeing you
+before.'
+
+'When? where?' said Piedro.
+
+'A great while ago; no wonder you have forgotten me,' said the man; 'but
+I can recall the night to your recollection. You were in the street with
+me the night I let off that unlucky rocket which frightened the horses,
+and was the cause of overturning a lady's coach. Don't you remember the
+circumstance?'
+
+'I have a confused recollection of some such thing,' said Piedro, in
+great embarrassment; and he looked suspiciously at this man, in doubt
+whether he was cunning, and wanted to sound him, or whether he was so
+simple as he appeared.
+
+'You did not, perhaps, hear, then,' continued the man 'that there was a
+great search made, after the overturn, for a fine diamond cross
+belonging to the lady in the carriage? That lady, though I did not know
+it till lately, was the Countess de Flora.'
+
+'I know nothing of the matter,' interrupted Piedro, in great agitation.
+His confusion was so marked that the firework-maker could not avoid
+taking notice of it; and a silence of some moments ensued. The Jew, more
+practised in dissimulation than Piedro, endeavoured to turn the man's
+attention back to his rockets and his gunpowder--agreed to take the
+gunpowder--paid for it in haste, and was, though apparently unconcerned,
+eager to get rid of him. But this was not so easily done. The man's
+curiosity was excited, and his suspicions of Piedro were increased every
+moment by all the dark changes of his countenance. Piedro, overpowered
+with the sense of guilt, surprised at the unexpected mention of the
+diamond cross, and of the Count de Flora's villa, stood like one
+convicted, and seemed fixed to the spot, without power of motion.
+
+'I want to look at the old cambric that you said you had--that would do
+for making--that you could let me have cheap for artificial flowers,'
+said the firework-maker to the Jew; and as he spoke, his eye from time
+to time looked towards Piedro.
+
+Piedro felt for the leaden image of the saint, which he wore round his
+neck. The string which held it cracked, and broke with the pull he gave
+it. This slight circumstance affected his terrified and superstitious
+mind more than all the rest. He imagined that at this moment his fate
+was decided; that Saint Januarius deserted him, and that he was undone.
+He precipitately followed the firework-man the instant he left the shop,
+and seizing hold of his arm, whispered, 'I must speak to you.' 'Speak,
+then,' said the man, astonished. 'Not here; this way,' said he, drawing
+him towards the dark passage; 'what I have to say must not be overheard.
+You are going to the Count de Flora's, are not you?' 'I am,' said the
+man. He was going there to speak to the countess about some artificial
+flowers; but Piedro thought he was going to speak to her about the
+diamond cross. 'You are going to give information against me? Nay, hear
+me, I confess that I purloined that diamond cross; but I can do the
+count a great service, upon condition that he pardons me. His villa is
+to be attacked this night by four well-armed men. They will set out five
+hours hence. I am compelled, under the threat of assassination, to
+accompany them; but I shall do no more. I throw myself upon the count's
+mercy. Hasten to him--we have no time to lose.'
+
+The poor man, who heard this confession, escaped from Piedro the moment
+he loosed his arm. With all possible expedition he ran to the count's
+palace in Naples, and related to him all that had been said by Piedro.
+Some of the count's servants, on whom he could most depend, were at a
+distant part of the city attending their mistress, but the English
+gentleman offered the services of his man Arthur. Arthur no sooner heard
+the business, and understood that Francisco was in danger, than he armed
+himself without saying one word, saddled his English horse, and was
+ready to depart before any one else had finished his exclamations and
+conjectures.
+
+'But we are not to set out yet,' said the servant; 'it is but four miles
+to Torre del Greco; the sbirri (officers of justice) are summoned--they
+are to go with us--we must wait for them.'
+
+They waited, much against Arthur's inclination, a considerable time for
+these sbirri. At length they set out, and just as they reached the
+villa, the flash of a pistol was seen from one of the apartments in the
+house. The robbers were there. This pistol was snapped by their captain
+at poor Francisco, who had bravely asserted that he would, as long as he
+had life, defend the property committed to his care. The pistol missed
+fire, for it was charged with some of the damaged powder which the Jew
+had bought that evening from the firework-maker, and which he had sold
+as excellent immediately afterwards to his favourite customers--the
+robbers who met at his house.
+
+Arthur, as soon as he perceived the flash of the piece, pressed forward
+through all the apartments, followed by the count's servants and the
+officers of justice. At the sudden appearance of so many armed men, the
+robbers stood dismayed. Arthur eagerly shook Francisco's hand,
+congratulating him upon his safety, and did not perceive, till he had
+given him several rough friendly shakes, that his arm was wounded, and
+that he was pale with the loss of blood.
+
+'It is not much--only a slight wound,' said Francisco; 'one that I
+should have escaped if I had been upon my guard; but the sight of a face
+that I little expected to see in such company took from me all presence
+of mind; and one of the ruffians stabbed me here in the arm, whilst I
+stood in stupid astonishment.'
+
+'Oh! take me to prison! take me to prison--I am weary of life--I am a
+wretch not fit to live!' cried Piedro, holding his hands to be tied by
+the sbirri.
+
+The next morning Piedro was conveyed to prison; and as he passed through
+the streets of Naples he was met by several of those who had known him
+when he was a child. 'Ay,' said they, as he went by, 'his father
+encouraged him in cheating when he was _but a child_; and see what he is
+come to, now he is a man!' He was ordered to remain twelve months in
+solitary confinement. His captain and his accomplices were sent to the
+galleys, and the Jew was banished from Naples.
+
+And now, having got these villains out of the way, let us return to
+honest Francisco. His wound was soon healed. Arthur was no bad surgeon,
+for he let his patient get well as fast as he pleased; and Carlo and
+Rosetta nursed him with so much kindness, that he was almost sorry to
+find himself perfectly recovered.
+
+'Now that you are able to go out,' said Francisco's father to him, 'you
+must come and look at my new house, my dear son.' 'Your new house,
+father?' 'Yes, son, and a charming one it is, and a handsome piece of
+land near it--all at a safe distance, too, from Mount Vesuvius; and can
+you guess how I came by it?--it was given to me for having a good son.'
+
+'Yes,' cried Carlo; 'the inhabitants of Resina, and several who had
+property near Torre del Greco, and whose houses and lives were saved by
+your intrepidity in carrying the materials for the fireworks and the
+gunpowder out of this dangerous place, went in a body to the duke, and
+requested that he would mention your name and these facts to the king,
+who, amongst the grants he has made to the sufferers by the late
+eruption of Mount Vesuvius, has been pleased to say that he gives this
+house and garden to your father, because you have saved the property and
+lives of many of his subjects.'
+
+The value of a handsome portion of furniture, plate, etc., in the Count
+de Flora's villa, was, according to the count's promise, given to him;
+and this money he divided between his own family and that of the good
+carpenter who first put a pencil into his hands. Arthur would not accept
+of any present from him. To Mr. Lee, the English gentleman, he offered
+one of his own drawings--a fruit-piece. 'I like this very well,' said
+Arthur, as he examined the drawing, 'but I should like this melon better
+if it was a little bruised. It is now three years ago since I was going
+to buy that bruised melon from you; you showed me your honest nature
+then, though you were but a boy; and I have found you the same ever
+since. A good beginning makes a good ending--an honest boy will make an
+honest man; and honesty is the best policy, as you have proved to all
+who wanted the proof, I hope.'
+
+'Yes,' added Francisco's father, 'I think it is pretty plain that Piedro
+the Cunning has not managed quite so well as Francisco the Honest.'
+
+
+
+
+TARLTON
+
+  Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,--
+  To teach the young idea how to shoot,--
+  To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,--
+  To breathe th' enlivening spirit,--and to fix
+  The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
+                                                THOMSON.
+
+
+Young Hardy was educated by Mr. Trueman, a very excellent master, at one
+of our rural Sunday schools. He was honest, obedient, active, and
+good-natured, hence he was esteemed by his master; and being beloved by
+all his companions who were good, he did not desire to be loved by the
+bad; nor was he at all vexed or ashamed when idle, mischievous, or
+dishonest boys attempted to plague or ridicule him. His friend Loveit,
+on the contrary, wished to be universally liked, and his highest
+ambition was to be thought the best-natured boy in the school--and so he
+was. He usually went by the name of _Poor Loveit_, and everybody pitied
+him when he got into disgrace, which he frequently did, for, though he
+had a good disposition, he was often led to do things which he knew to
+be wrong merely because he could never have the courage to say '_No_,'
+because he was afraid to offend the ill-natured, and could not bear to
+be laughed at by fools.
+
+One fine autumn evening, all the boys were permitted to go out to play
+in a pleasant green meadow near the school. Loveit and another boy,
+called Tarlton, began to play a game at battledore and shuttlecock, and
+a large party stood by to look on, for they were the best players at
+battledore and shuttlecock in the school, and this was a trial of skill
+between them. When they had got it up to three hundred and twenty, the
+game became very interesting. The arms of the combatants grew so tired
+that they could scarcely wield the battledores. The shuttlecock began to
+waver in the air; now it almost touched the ground, and now, to the
+astonishment of the spectators, mounted again high over their heads; yet
+the strokes became feebler and feebler; and 'Now, Loveit!' 'Now,
+Tarlton!' resounded on all sides. For another minute the victory was
+doubtful; but at length the setting sun, shining full in Loveit's face,
+so dazzled his eyes that he could no longer see the shuttlecock, and it
+fell at his feet.
+
+After the first shout for Tarlton's triumph was over, everybody
+exclaimed, 'Poor Loveit! he's the best-natured fellow in the world! What
+a pity that he did not stand with his back to the sun!'
+
+'Now, I dare you all to play another game with me,' cried Tarlton,
+vauntingly; and as he spoke, he tossed the shuttlecock up with all his
+force--with so much force that it went over the hedge and dropped into a
+lane which went close beside the field. 'Heyday!' said Tarlton, 'what
+shall we do now?'
+
+The boys were strictly forbidden to go into the lane; and it was upon
+their promise not to break this command, that they were allowed to play
+in the adjoining field.
+
+No other shuttlecock was to be had, and their play was stopped. They
+stood on the top of the bank, peeping over the hedge. 'I see it yonder,'
+said Tarlton; 'I wish somebody would get it. One could get over the gate
+at the bottom of the field, and be back again in half a minute,' added
+he, looking at Loveit. 'But you know we must not go into the lane,' said
+Loveit, hesitatingly. 'Pugh!' said Tarlton, 'why, now, what harm could
+it do?' 'I don't know,' said Loveit, drumming upon his battledore;
+'but----' 'You don't know, man! why, then, what are you afraid of, I ask
+you?' Loveit coloured, went on drumming, and again, in a lower voice,
+said '_he didn't know_.' But upon Tarlton's repeating, in a more
+insolent tone, 'I ask you, man, what you're afraid of?' he suddenly left
+off drumming, and looking round, said, 'he was not afraid of anything
+that he knew of.' 'Yes, but you are,' said Hardy, coming forward. 'Am
+I?' said Loveit; 'of what, pray, am I afraid?' 'Of doing wrong!' 'Afraid
+_of doing wrong_!' repeated Tarlton, mimicking him, so that he made
+everybody laugh. 'Now, hadn't you better say afraid of being flogged?'
+'No,' said Hardy, coolly, after the laugh had somewhat subsided, 'I am
+as little afraid of being flogged as you are, Tarlton; but I meant----'
+'No matter what you meant; why should you interfere with your wisdom and
+your meanings; nobody thought of asking _you_ to stir a step for us; but
+we asked Loveit, because he's the best fellow in the world.' 'And for
+that very reason you should not ask him, because you know he can't
+refuse you anything.' 'Indeed, though,' cried Loveit, piqued, '_there_
+you're mistaken, for I could refuse if I chose it.'
+
+Hardy smiled; and Loveit, half afraid of his contempt, and half afraid
+of Tarlton's ridicule, stood doubtful, and again had recourse to his
+battledore, which he balanced most curiously upon his forefinger. 'Look
+at him!--now do look at him!' cried Tarlton; 'did you ever in your life
+see anybody look so silly!--Hardy has him quite under his thumb; he's so
+mortally afraid of Parson Prig, that he dare not, for the soul of him,
+turn either of his eyes from the tip of his nose; look how he squints!'
+'I don't squint,' said Loveit, looking up, 'and nobody has me under his
+thumb! and what Hardy said was only for fear I should get in disgrace;
+he's the best friend I have.'
+
+Loveit spoke this with more than usual spirit, for both his heart and
+his pride were touched. 'Come along, then,' said Hardy, taking him by
+the arm in an affectionate manner; and he was just going, when Tarlton
+called after him, 'Ay, go along with its best friend, and take care it
+does not get into a scrape;--good-bye, Little Panado!' 'Whom do they
+call Little Panado?' said Loveit, turning his head hastily back. 'Never
+mind,' said Hardy, 'what does it signify?' 'No,' said Loveit, 'to be
+sure it does not signify; but one does not like to be called Little
+Panado; besides,' added he, after going a few steps farther, 'they'll
+all think it so ill-natured. I had better go back, and just tell them
+that I'm very sorry I can't get their shuttlecock;--do come back with
+me.' 'No,' said Hardy, 'I can't go back; and you'd better not.' 'But, I
+assure you, I won't stay a minute; wait for me,' added Loveit; and he
+slunk back again to prove that he was not Little Panado.
+
+Once returned, the rest followed, of course; for to support his
+character of good nature he was obliged to yield to the entreaties of
+his companions, and, to show his spirit, leapt over the gate, amidst the
+acclamations of the little mob:--he was quickly out of sight.
+
+'Here,' cried he, returning in about five minutes, quite out of breath,
+'I've got the shuttlecock; and I'll tell you what I've seen,' cried he,
+panting for breath. 'What?' cried everybody, eagerly. 'Why, just at the
+turn of the corner, at the end of the lane'--panting. 'Well,' said
+Tarlton, impatiently, 'do go on.' 'Let me just take breath first.'
+'Pugh--never mind your breath.' 'Well, then, just at the turn of the
+corner, at the end of the lane, as I was looking about for the
+shuttlecock, I heard a great rustling somewhere near me, and so I looked
+where it could come from; and I saw, in a nice little garden, on the
+opposite side of the way, a boy, about as big as Tarlton, sitting in a
+great tree, shaking the branches; so I called to the boy, to beg one;
+but he said he could not give me one, for that they were his
+grandfather's; and just at that minute, from behind a gooseberry bush,
+up popped the uncle; the grandfather poked his head out of the window;
+so I ran off as fast as my legs would carry me, though I heard him
+bawling after me all the way.'
+
+'And let him bawl,' cried Tarlton; 'he shan't bawl for nothing; I'm
+determined we'll have some of his fine large rosy apples before I sleep
+to-night.'
+
+At this speech a general silence ensued; everybody kept his eyes fixed
+upon Tarlton, except Loveit, who looked down, apprehensive that he
+should be drawn on much farther than he intended. 'Oh, indeed!' said he
+to himself, 'as Hardy told me, I had better not have come back!'
+
+Regardless of this confusion, Tarlton continued, 'But before I say any
+more, I hope we have no spies amongst us. If there is any one of you
+afraid to be flogged, let him march off this instant!'
+
+Loveit coloured, bit his lips, wished to go, but had not the courage to
+move first. He waited to see what everybody else would do: nobody
+stirred; so Loveit stood still.
+
+'Well, then,' cried Tarlton, giving his hand to the boy next him, then
+to the next, 'your word and honour that you won't betray me; but stand
+by me, and I'll stand by you.' Each boy gave his hand and his promise,
+repeating, 'Stand by me, and I'll stand by you.'
+
+Loveit hung back till the last; and had almost twisted off the button of
+the boy's coat who screened him, when Tarlton came up, holding out his
+hand, 'Come, Loveit, lad, you're in for it: stand by me, and I'll stand
+by you.' 'Indeed, Tarlton,' expostulated he, without looking him in the
+face, 'I do wish you'd give up this scheme; I daresay all the apples are
+gone by this time; I wish you would. Do, pray, give up this scheme.'
+'What scheme, man? you haven't heard it yet; you may as well know your
+text before you begin preaching.'
+
+The corners of Loveit's mouth could not refuse to smile, though in his
+heart he felt not the slightest inclination to laugh.
+
+'Why, I don't know you, I declare I don't know you to-day,' said
+Tarlton; 'you used to be the best-natured, most agreeable lad in the
+world, and would do anything one asked you; but you're quite altered of
+late, as we were saying just now, when you skulked away with Hardy;
+come,--do, man, pluck up a little spirit, and be one of us, or you'll
+make us all _hate you_.' '_Hate_ me!' repeated Loveit, with terror; 'no,
+surely, you won't all _hate_ me!' and he mechanically stretched out his
+hand, which Tarlton shook violently, saying, '_Ay, now, that's right._'
+'_Ay, now, that's wrong!_' whispered Loveit's conscience; but his
+conscience was of no use to him, for it was always overpowered by the
+voice of numbers; and though he had the wish, he never had the power, to
+do right. 'Poor Loveit! I knew he would not refuse us,' cried his
+companions; and even Tarlton, the moment he shook hands with him,
+despised him. It is certain that weakness of mind is despised both by
+the good and the bad.
+
+The league being thus formed, Tarlton assumed all the airs of commander,
+explained his schemes, and laid the plan of attack upon the poor old
+man's apple-tree. It was the only one he had in the world. We shall not
+dwell upon their consultation; for the amusement of contriving such
+expeditions is often the chief thing which induces idle boys to engage
+in them.
+
+There was a small window at the end of the back staircase, through
+which, between nine and ten o'clock at night, Tarlton, accompanied by
+Loveit and another boy, crept out. It was a moonlight night, and after
+crossing the field, and climbing the gate, directed by Loveit, who now
+resolved to go through the affair with spirit, they proceeded down the
+lane with rash yet fearful steps.
+
+At a distance Loveit saw the whitewashed cottage, and the apple-tree
+beside it. They quickened their pace, and with some difficulty scrambled
+through the hedge which fenced the garden, though not without being
+scratched and torn by the briers. Everything was silent. Yet now and
+then, at every rustling of the leaves, they started, and their hearts
+beat violently. Once, as Loveit was climbing the apple-tree, he thought
+he heard a door in the cottage open, and earnestly begged his companions
+to desist and return home. This, however, he could by no means persuade
+them to do, until they had filled their pockets with apples; then, to
+his great joy, they returned, crept in at the staircase window, and each
+retired, as softly as possible, to his own apartment.
+
+Loveit slept in the room with Hardy, whom he had left fast asleep, and
+whom he now was extremely afraid of awakening. All the apples were
+emptied out of Loveit's pockets, and lodged with Tarlton till the
+morning, for fear the smell should betray the secret to Hardy. The room
+door was apt to creak, but it was opened with such precaution that no
+noise could be heard, and Loveit found his friend as fast asleep as when
+he left him.
+
+'Ah,' said he to himself, 'how quietly he sleeps! I wish I had been
+sleeping too.' The reproaches of Loveit's conscience, however, served no
+other purpose but to torment him; he had not sufficient strength of mind
+to be good. The very next night, in spite of all his fears, and all his
+penitence, and all his resolutions, by a little fresh ridicule and
+persuasion he was induced to accompany the same party on a similar
+expedition. We must observe that the necessity for continuing their
+depredations became stronger the third day; for, though at first only a
+small party had been in the secret, by degrees it was divulged to the
+whole school; and it was necessary to secure secrecy by sharing the
+booty.
+
+Every one was astonished that Hardy, with all his quickness and
+penetration, had not yet discovered their proceedings; but Loveit could
+not help suspecting that he was not quite so ignorant as he appeared to
+be. Loveit had strictly kept his promise of secrecy; but he was by no
+means an artful boy; and in talking to his friend, conscious that he had
+something to conceal, he was perpetually on the point of betraying
+himself; then, recollecting his engagement, he blushed, stammered,
+bungled; and upon Hardy's asking what he meant, would answer with a
+silly, guilty countenance that he did not know; or abruptly break off,
+saying, 'Oh, nothing! nothing at all!'
+
+It was in vain that he urged Tarlton to permit him to consult his
+friend. A gloom overspread Tarlton's brow when he began to speak on the
+subject, and he always returned a peremptory refusal, accompanied with
+some such taunting expression as this--'I wish we had nothing to do with
+such a sneaking fellow; he'll betray us all, I see, before we have done
+with him.' 'Well,' said Loveit to himself, 'so I am abused after all,
+and called a sneaking fellow for my pains; that's rather hard, to be
+sure, when I've got so little by the job.'
+
+In truth he had not got much; for in the division of the booty only one
+apple, and half of another which was only half ripe, happened to fall to
+his share; though, to be sure, when they had all eaten their apples, he
+had the satisfaction to hear everybody declare they were very sorry they
+had forgotten to offer some of theirs to '_poor Loveit_.'
+
+In the meantime, the visits to the apple-tree had been now too
+frequently repeated to remain concealed from the old man who lived in
+the cottage. He used to examine his only tree very frequently, and
+missing numbers of rosy apples, which he had watched ripening, he,
+though not prone to suspicion, began to think that there was something
+going wrong; especially as a gap was made in his hedge, and there were
+several small footsteps in his flower-beds.
+
+The good old man was not at all inclined to give pain to any living
+creature, much less to children, of whom he was particularly fond. Nor
+was he in the least avaricious, for though he was not rich, he had
+enough to live upon, because he had been very industrious in his youth;
+and he was always very ready to part with the little he had. Nor was he
+a cross old man. If anything would have made him angry, it would have
+been the seeing his favourite tree robbed, as he had promised himself
+the pleasure of giving his red apples to his grandchildren on his
+birthday. However, he looked up at the tree in sorrow rather than in
+anger, and leaning upon his staff, he began to consider what he had best
+do.
+
+'If I complain to their master,' said he to himself, 'they will
+certainly be flogged, and that I should be sorry for; yet they must not
+be let to go on stealing; that would be worse still, for it would
+surely bring them to the gallows in the end. Let me see--oh, ay, that
+will do; I will borrow farmer Kent's dog Barker, he'll keep them off,
+I'll answer for it.'
+
+Farmer Kent lent his dog Barker, cautioning his neighbour, at the same
+time, to be sure to chain him well, for he was the fiercest mastiff in
+England. The old man, with farmer Kent's assistance, chained him fast to
+the trunk of the apple-tree.
+
+Night came; and Tarlton, Loveit, and his companions returned at the
+usual hour. Grown bolder now by frequent success, they came on talking
+and laughing. But the moment they had set their foot in the garden, the
+dog started up; and, shaking his chain as he sprang forward, barked with
+unremitting fury. They stood still as if fixed to the spot. There was
+just moonlight enough to see the dog. 'Let us try the other side of the
+tree,' said Tarlton. But to whichever side they turned, the dog flew
+round in an instant, barking with increased fury.
+
+'He'll break his chain and tear us to pieces,' cried Tarlton; and,
+struck with terror, he immediately threw down the basket he had brought
+with him, and betook himself to flight, with the greatest precipitation.
+'Help me! oh, pray, help me! I can't get through the hedge,' cried
+Loveit, in a lamentable tone, whilst the dog growled hideously, and
+sprang forward to the extremity of his chain. 'I can't get out! Oh, for
+God's sake, stay for me one minute, dear Tarlton!' He called in vain; he
+was left to struggle through his difficulties by himself; and of all his
+dear friends not one turned back to help him. At last, torn and
+terrified, he got through the hedge and ran home, despising his
+companions for their selfishness. Nor could he help observing that
+Tarlton, with all his vaunted prowess, was the first to run away from
+the appearance of danger.
+
+The next morning Loveit could not help reproaching the party with their
+conduct. 'Why could not you, any of you, stay one minute to help me?'
+said he. 'We did not hear you call,' answered one. 'I was so
+frightened,' said another, 'I would not have turned back for the whole
+world.' 'And you, Tarlton?' 'I,' said Tarlton; 'had not I enough to do
+to take care of myself, you blockhead? Every one for himself in this
+world!' 'So I see,' said Loveit, gravely. 'Well, man! is there anything
+strange in that?' 'Strange! why, yes; I thought you all loved me!'
+'Lord love you, lad! so we do; but we love ourselves better.' 'Hardy
+would not have served me so, however,' said Loveit, turning away in
+disgust. Tarlton was alarmed. 'Pugh!' said he; 'what nonsense have you
+taken into your brain? Think no more about it. We are all very sorry,
+and beg your pardon; come, shake hands,--forgive and forget.'
+
+Loveit gave his hand, but gave it rather coldly. 'I forgive it with all
+my heart,' said he; 'but I cannot forget it so soon!' 'Why, then, you
+are not such a good-humoured fellow as we thought you were. Surely you
+cannot bear malice, Loveit.' Loveit smiled, and allowed that he
+certainly could not bear malice. 'Well, then, come; you know at the
+bottom we all love you, and would do anything in the world for you.'
+Poor Loveit, flattered in his foible, began to believe that they did
+love him at the bottom, as they said, and even with his eyes open
+consented again to be duped.
+
+'How strange it is,' thought he, 'that I should set such value upon the
+love of those I despise! When I'm once out of this scrape, I'll have no
+more to do with them, I'm determined.'
+
+Compared with his friend Hardy, his new associates did indeed appear
+contemptible; for all this time Hardy had treated him with uniform
+kindness, avoided to pry into his secrets, yet seemed ready to receive
+his confidence, if it had been offered.
+
+After school in the evening, as he was standing silently beside Hardy,
+who was ruling a sheet of paper for him, Tarlton, in his brutal manner,
+came up, and seizing him by the arm, cried, 'Come along with me, Loveit,
+I've something to say to you.' 'I can't come now,' said Loveit, drawing
+away his arm. 'Ah, do come now,' said Tarlton, in a voice of persuasion.
+'Well, I'll come presently.' 'Nay, but do, pray; there's a good fellow,
+come now, because I've something to say to you.' 'What is it you've got
+to say to me? I wish you'd let me alone,' said Loveit; yet at the same
+time he suffered himself to be led away.
+
+Tarlton took particular pains to humour him and bring him into temper
+again; and even, though he was not very apt to part with his playthings,
+went so far as to say, 'Loveit, the other day you wanted a top; I'll
+give you mine if you desire it.' Loveit thanked him, and was overjoyed
+at the thoughts of possessing this top. 'But what did you want to say to
+me just now?' 'Ay, we'll talk of that presently; not yet--when we get
+out of hearing.' 'Nobody is near us,' said Loveit. 'Come a little
+farther, however,' said Tarlton, looking round suspiciously. 'Well now,
+well?' 'You know the dog that frightened us so last night?' 'Yes.' 'It
+will never frighten us again.' 'Won't it? how so?' 'Look here,' said
+Tarlton, drawing something from his pocket wrapped in a blue
+handkerchief. 'What's that?' Tarlton opened it. 'Raw meat!' exclaimed
+Loveit. 'How came you by it?' 'Tom, the servant boy, Tom got it for me,
+and I'm to give him sixpence.' 'And is it for the dog?' 'Yes, I vowed
+I'd be revenged on him, and after this he'll never bark again.' 'Never
+bark again! What do you mean? Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting
+back with horror. 'Only poison for _a dog_;' said Tarlton, confused;
+'you could not look more shocked if it was poison for a Christian.'
+
+Loveit stood for nearly a minute in profound silence. 'Tarlton,' said he
+at last, in a changed tone and altered manner, 'I did not know you; I
+will have no more to do with you.' 'Nay, but stay,' said Tarlton,
+catching hold of his arm, 'stay; I was only joking.' 'Let go my arm--you
+were in earnest.' 'But then that was before I knew there was any harm.
+If you think there's any harm?' '_If_,' said Loveit. 'Why, you know, I
+might not know; for Tom told me it's a thing that's often done. Ask
+Tom.' 'I'll ask nobody! Surely we know better what's right and wrong
+than Tom does.' 'But only just ask him, to hear what he'll say.' 'I
+don't want to hear what he'll say,' cried Loveit, vehemently; 'the dog
+will die in agonies--in agonies! There was a dog poisoned at my
+father's--I saw him in the yard. Poor creature! He lay and howled and
+writhed himself!' 'Poor creature! Well, there's no harm done now,' cried
+Tarlton, in a hypocritical tone. But though he thought fit to dissemble
+with Loveit, he was thoroughly determined in his purpose.
+
+Poor Loveit, in haste to get away, returned to his friend Hardy; but his
+mind was in such agitation, that he neither talked nor moved like
+himself; and two or three times his heart was so full that he was ready
+to burst into tears.
+
+'How good-natured you are to me,' said he to Hardy, as he was trying
+vainly to entertain him; 'but if you knew----' Here he stopped short,
+for the bell for evening prayer rang, and they all took their places and
+knelt down. After prayers, as they were going to bed, Loveit stopped
+Tarlton,--'_Well?_' asked he, in an inquiring manner, fixing his eyes
+upon him. '_Well?_' replied Tarlton, in an audacious tone, as if he
+meant to set his inquiring eye at defiance. 'What do you mean to do
+to-night?' 'To go to sleep, as you do, I suppose,' replied Tarlton,
+turning away abruptly, and whistling as he walked off.
+
+[Illustration: _'Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting back with
+horror._]
+
+'Oh, he has certainly changed his mind!' said Loveit to himself, 'else
+he could not whistle.'
+
+About ten minutes after this, as he and Hardy were undressing, Hardy
+suddenly recollected that he had left his new kite out upon the grass.
+'Oh,' said he, 'it will be quite spoiled before morning!' 'Call Tom,'
+said Loveit, 'and bid him bring it in for you in a minute.' They both
+went to the top of the stairs to call Tom; no one answered. They called
+again louder, 'Is Tom below?' 'I'm here,' answered he at last, coming
+out of Tarlton's room with a look of mixed embarrassment and effrontery.
+And as he was receiving Hardy's commission, Loveit saw the corner of the
+blue handkerchief hanging out of his pocket. This excited fresh
+suspicions in Loveit's mind; but, without saying one word, he
+immediately stationed himself at the window in his room, which looked
+out towards the lane; and, as the moon was risen, he could see if any
+one passed that way. 'What are you doing there?' said Hardy, after he
+had been watching some time; 'why don't you come to bed?' Loveit
+returned no answer, but continued standing at the window. Nor did he
+watch long in vain. Presently he saw Tom gliding slowly along a bypath,
+and get over the gate into the lane.
+
+'He's gone to do it!' exclaimed Loveit aloud, with an emotion which he
+could not command. 'Who's gone? to do what?' cried Hardy, starting up.
+'How cruel! how wicked!' continued Loveit. 'What's cruel--what's wicked?
+speak out at once!' returned Hardy, in that commanding tone which, in
+moments of danger, strong minds feel themselves entitled to assume
+towards weak ones. Loveit instantly, though in an incoherent manner,
+explained the affair to him. Scarcely had the words passed his lips,
+when Hardy sprang up and began dressing himself without saying one
+syllable. 'For God's sake, what are you going to do?' said Loveit in
+great anxiety. 'They'll never forgive me! don't betray me! they'll never
+forgive! pray, speak to me! only say you won't betray us.' 'I will not
+betray you, trust to me,' said Hardy; and he left the room, and Loveit
+stood in amazement; whilst, in the meantime, Hardy, in hopes of
+overtaking Tom before the fate of the poor dog was decided, ran with all
+possible speed across the meadow, and then down the lane. He came up
+with Tom just as he was climbing the bank into the old man's garden.
+Hardy, too much out of breath to speak, seized hold of him, dragged him
+down, detaining him with a firm grasp, whilst he panted for utterance.
+'What, Master Hardy, is it you? what's the matter? what do you want?' 'I
+want the poisoned meat that you have in your pocket.' 'Who told you that
+I had any such thing?' said Tom, clapping his hand upon his guilty
+pocket. 'Give it me quietly, and I'll let you off.' 'Sir, upon my word,
+I haven't! I didn't! I don't know what you mean,' said Tom, trembling,
+though he was by far the stronger of the two. 'Indeed, I don't know what
+you mean.' 'You do,' said Hardy, with great indignation, and a violent
+struggle immediately commenced.
+
+The dog, now alarmed by the voices, began to bark outrageously. Tom was
+terrified lest the old man should come out to see what was the matter;
+his strength forsook him, and flinging the handkerchief and meat over
+the hedge, he ran away with all his speed. The handkerchief fell within
+reach of the dog, who instantly snapped at it; luckily it did not come
+untied. Hardy saw a pitchfork on a dunghill close beside him, and,
+seizing upon it, stuck it into the handkerchief. The dog pulled, tore,
+growled, grappled, yelled; it was impossible to get the handkerchief
+from between his teeth; but the knot was loosed, the meat, unperceived
+by the dog, dropped out, and while he dragged off the handkerchief in
+triumph, Hardy, with inexpressible joy, plunged the pitchfork into the
+poisoned meat and bore it away.
+
+Never did hero retire with more satisfaction from a field of battle.
+Full of the pleasure of successful benevolence, Hardy tripped joyfully
+home, and vaulted over the window-sill, when the first object he beheld
+was Mr. Power, the usher, standing at the head of the stairs, with his
+candle in his hand.
+
+'Come up, whoever you are,' said Mr. William Power, in a stern voice;
+'I thought I should find you out at last. Come up, whoever you are!'
+Hardy obeyed without reply.--'Hardy!' exclaimed Mr. Power, starting back
+with astonishment; 'is it you, Mr. Hardy?' repeated he, holding the
+light to his face. 'Why, sir,' said he, in a sneering tone, 'I'm sure if
+Mr. Trueman was here he wouldn't believe his own eyes; but for my part I
+saw through you long since; I never liked saints, for my share. Will you
+please do me the favour, sir, if it is not too much trouble, to empty
+your pockets?' Hardy obeyed in silence. 'Heyday! meat! raw meat! what
+next?' 'That's all,' said Hardy, emptying his pockets inside out. 'This
+is _all_,' said Mr. Power, taking up the meat. 'Pray, sir,' said Hardy,
+eagerly, 'let that meat be burned; it is poisoned.' 'Poisoned!' cried
+Mr. William Power, letting it drop out of his fingers; 'you wretch!'
+looking at him with a menacing air, 'what is all this? Speak.' Hardy was
+silent. 'Why don't you speak?' cried he, shaking him by the shoulder
+impatiently. Still Hardy was silent. 'Down upon your knees this minute
+and confess all; tell me where you've been, what you've been doing, and
+who are your accomplices, for I know there is a gang of you; so,' added
+he, pressing heavily upon Hardy's shoulder, 'down upon your knees this
+minute, and confess the whole, that's your only way now to get off
+yourself. If you hope for _my_ pardon, I can tell you it's not to be had
+without asking for.'
+
+'Sir,' said Hardy, in a firm but respectful voice, 'I have no pardon to
+ask, I have nothing to confess; I am innocent; but if I were not, I
+would never try to get off myself by betraying my companions.' 'Very
+well, sir! very well! very fine! stick to it, stick to it, I advise you,
+and we shall see. And how will you look to-morrow, Mr. Innocent, when my
+uncle, the doctor, comes home?' 'As I do now, sir,' said Hardy, unmoved.
+
+His composure threw Mr. Power into a rage too great for utterance.
+'Sir,' continued Hardy, 'ever since I have been at school, I never told
+a lie, and therefore, sir, I hope you will believe me now. Upon my word
+and honour, sir, I have done nothing wrong.' 'Nothing wrong? Better and
+better! what, when I caught you going out at night?' '_That_, to be
+sure, was wrong,' said Hardy, recollecting himself; 'but except
+that----' 'Except that, sir! I will except nothing. Come along with me,
+young gentleman, your time for pardon is past.'
+
+Saying these words, he pulled Hardy along a narrow passage to a small
+closet, set apart for desperate offenders, and usually known by the name
+of the _Black Hole_. 'There, sir, take up your lodging there for
+to-night,' said he, pushing him in; 'to-morrow I'll know more, or I'll
+know why,' added he, double-locking the door, with a tremendous noise,
+upon his prisoner, and locking also the door at the end of the passage,
+so that no one could have access to him. 'So now I think I have you
+safe!' said Mr. William Power to himself, stalking off with steps which
+made the whole gallery resound, and which made many a guilty heart
+tremble.
+
+The conversation which had passed between Hardy and Mr. Power at the
+head of the stairs had been anxiously listened to; but only a word or
+two here and there had been distinctly overheard.
+
+The locking of the Black Hole door was a terrible sound--some knew not
+what it portended, and others knew _too well_. All assembled in the
+morning with faces of anxiety. Tarlton's and Loveit's were the most
+agitated: Tarlton for himself, Loveit for his friend, for himself, for
+everybody. Every one of the party, and Tarlton at their head, surrounded
+him with reproaches; and considered him as the author of the evils which
+hung over them. 'How could you do so? and why did you say anything to
+Hardy about it? when you had promised, too! Oh! what shall we all do?
+what a scrape you have brought us into! Loveit, it's all your fault!'
+'_All my fault!_' repeated poor Loveit, with a sigh; 'well, that is
+hard.'
+
+'Goodness! there's the bell,' exclaimed a number of voices at once. 'Now
+for it!' They all stood in a half-circle for morning prayers. They
+listened--'Here he is coming! No--Yes--Here he is!' And Mr. William
+Power, with a gloomy brow, appeared and walked up to his place at the
+head of the room. They knelt down to prayers, and the moment they rose,
+Mr. William Power, laying his hand upon the table, cried, 'Stand still,
+gentlemen, if you please.' Everybody stood stock still; he walked out of
+the circle; they guessed that he was gone for Hardy, and the whole room
+was in commotion. Each with eagerness asked each what none could answer,
+'_Has he told?_' '_What_ has he told?' 'Who has he told of?' 'I hope he
+has not told of me,' cried they. 'I'll answer for it he has told of all
+of us,' said Tarlton. 'And I'll answer for it he has told of none of
+us,' answered Loveit, with a sigh. 'You don't think he's such a fool,
+when he can get himself off,' said Tarlton.
+
+At this instant the prisoner was led in, and as he passed through the
+circle, every eye was fixed upon him. His eye fell upon no one, not even
+upon Loveit, who pulled him by the coat as he passed--every one felt
+almost afraid to breathe. 'Well, sir,' said Mr. Power, sitting down in
+Mr. Trueman's elbow-chair, and placing the prisoner opposite to him;
+'well, sir, what have you to say to me this morning?' 'Nothing, sir,'
+answered Hardy, in a decided, yet modest manner; 'nothing but what I
+said last night.' 'Nothing more?' 'Nothing more, sir.' 'But I have
+something more to say to you, sir, then; and a great deal more, I
+promise you, before I have done with you;' and then, seizing him in a
+fury, he was just going to give him a severe flogging, when the
+schoolroom door opened, and Mr. Trueman appeared, followed by an old man
+whom Loveit immediately knew. He leaned upon his stick as he walked, and
+in his other hand carried a basket of apples. When they came within the
+circle, Mr. Trueman stopped short 'Hardy!' exclaimed he, with a voice of
+unfeigned surprise, whilst Mr. William Power stood with his hand
+suspended. 'Ay, Hardy, sir,' repeated he. 'I told him you'd not believe
+your own eyes.'
+
+Mr. Trueman advanced with a slow step. 'Now, sir, give me leave,' said
+the usher, eagerly drawing him aside and whispering.
+
+'So, sir,' said Mr. T. when the whisper was done, addressing himself to
+Hardy, with a voice and manner which, had he been guilty, must have
+pierced him to the heart, 'I find I have been deceived in you; it is but
+three hours ago that I told your uncle I never had a boy in my school in
+whom I placed so much confidence; but, after all this show of honour and
+integrity, the moment my back is turned, you are the first to set an
+example of disobedience of my orders. Why do I talk of disobeying my
+commands,--you are a thief!' 'I, sir?' exclaimed Hardy, no longer able
+to repress his feelings. 'You, sir,--you and some others,' said Mr.
+Trueman, looking round the room with a penetrating glance--'you and some
+others,' 'Ay, sir,' interrupted Mr. William Power, 'get that out of him
+if you can--ask him.' 'I will ask him nothing; I shall neither put his
+truth nor his honour to the trial; truth and honour are not to be
+expected amongst thieves.' 'I am not a thief! I have never had anything
+to do with thieves,' cried Hardy, indignantly. 'Have you not robbed this
+old man? Don't you know the taste of these apples?' said Mr. Trueman,
+taking one out of the basket. 'No, sir; I do not. I never touched one of
+that old man's apples.' 'Never touched one of them! I suppose this is
+some vile equivocation; you have done worse, you have had the barbarity,
+the baseness, to attempt to poison his dog; the poisoned meat was found
+in your pocket last night.' 'The poisoned meat was found in my pocket,
+sir; but I never intended to poison the dog--I saved his life.' 'Lord
+bless him!' said the old man. 'Nonsense--cunning!' said Mr. Power. 'I
+hope you won't let him impose upon you, sir.' 'No, he cannot impose upon
+me; I have a proof he is little prepared for,' said Mr. Trueman,
+producing the blue handkerchief in which the meat had been wrapped.
+
+Tarlton turned pale; Hardy's countenance never changed. 'Don't you know
+this handkerchief, sir?' 'I do, sir.' 'Is it not yours?' 'No, sir.'
+'Don't you know whose it is?' cried Mr. Power. Hardy was silent.
+
+'Now, gentlemen,' said Mr. Trueman, 'I am not fond of punishing you; but
+when I do it, you know, it is always in earnest. I will begin with the
+eldest of you; I will begin with Hardy, and flog you with my own hands
+till this handkerchief is owned.' 'I'm sure it's not mine,' and 'I'm
+sure it's none of mine,' burst from every mouth, whilst they looked at
+each other in dismay; for none but Hardy, Loveit, and Tarlton knew the
+secret. 'My cane,' said Mr. Trueman, and Mr. Power handed him the cane.
+Loveit groaned from the bottom of his heart. Tarlton leaned back against
+the wall with a black countenance. Hardy looked with a steady eye at the
+cane.
+
+'But first,' said Mr. Trueman, laying down the cane, 'let us see.
+Perhaps we may find out the owner of this handkerchief another way,'
+examining the corners. It was torn almost to pieces; but luckily the
+corner that was marked remained.
+
+'J. T.!' cried Mr. Trueman. Every eye turned upon the guilty Tarlton,
+who, now as pale as ashes and trembling in every limb, sank down upon
+his knees, and in a whining voice begged for mercy. 'Upon my word and
+honour, sir, I'll tell you all; I should never have thought of stealing
+the apples if Loveit had not first told me of them; and it was Tom who
+first put the poisoning the dog into my head. It was he that carried the
+meat; _wasn't it_?' said he, appealing to Hardy, whose word he knew must
+be believed. 'Oh, dear sir!' continued he as Mr. Trueman began to move
+towards him, 'do let me off; do pray let me off this time! I'm not the
+only one, indeed, sir! I hope you won't make me an example for the rest.
+It's very hard I'm to be flogged more than they!' 'I'm not going to flog
+you.' 'Thank you, sir,' said Tarlton, getting up and wiping his eyes.
+'You need not thank me,' said Mr. Trueman. 'Take your handkerchief--go
+out of this room--out of this house; let me never see you more.'
+
+[Illustration: _'May God bless you!'_]
+
+'If I had any hopes of him,' said Mr. Trueman, as he shut the door after
+him--'if I had any hopes of him, I would have punished him; but I have
+none. Punishment is meant only to make people better; and those who have
+any hopes of themselves will know how to submit to it.'
+
+At these words Loveit first, and immediately all the rest of the guilty
+party, stepped out of the ranks, confessed their fault and declared
+themselves ready to bear any punishment their master thought proper.
+
+'Oh, they have been punished enough,' said the old man; 'forgive them,
+sir.'
+
+Hardy looked as if he wished to speak. 'Not because you ask it,' said
+Mr. Trueman to the guilty penitents, 'though I should be glad to oblige
+you--it wouldn't be just; but there,' pointing to Hardy, 'there is one
+who has merited a reward; the highest I can give him is that of
+pardoning his companions.'
+
+Hardy bowed and his face glowed with pleasure, whilst everybody present
+sympathised in his feelings.
+
+'I am sure,' thought Loveit, 'this is a lesson I shall never forget.'
+
+'Gentlemen,' said the old man, with a faltering voice, 'it wasn't for
+the sake of my apples that I spoke; and you, sir,' said he to Hardy, 'I
+thank you for saving my dog. If you please, I'll plant on that mount,
+opposite the window, a young apple-tree, from my old one. I will water
+it, and take care of it with my own hands for your sake, as long as I am
+able. And may God bless you!' laying his trembling hand on Hardy's head;
+'may God bless you--I'm sure God _will_ bless all such boys as you
+are.'
+
+
+
+
+THE BASKET-WOMAN.
+
+  Toute leur étude était de se complaire et de s'entr'aider.[40]
+                                                   PAUL ET VIRGINIE.
+
+
+At the foot of a steep, slippery, white hill, near Dunstable, in
+Bedfordshire, called Chalk Hill, there is a hut, or rather a hovel,
+which travellers could scarcely suppose could be inhabited, if they did
+not see the smoke rising from its peaked roof. An old woman lives in
+this hovel,[41] and with her a little boy and girl, the children of a
+beggar who died and left these orphans perishing with hunger. They
+thought themselves very happy when the good old woman first took them
+into her hut and bid them warm themselves at her small fire, and gave
+them a crust of mouldy bread to eat. She had not much to give, but what
+she had she gave with good-will. She was very kind to these poor
+children, and worked hard at her spinning-wheel and at her knitting, to
+support herself and them. She earned money also in another way. She used
+to follow all the carriages as they went up Chalk Hill, and when the
+horses stopped to take breath or to rest themselves, she put stones
+behind the carriage wheels to prevent them from rolling backwards down
+the steep, slippery hill.
+
+  [40] Their whole study was how to please and to help one another.
+
+  [41] This was about the close of the last century.
+
+The little boy and girl loved to stand beside the good-natured old
+woman's spinning-wheel when she was spinning, and to talk to her. At
+these times she taught them something which, she said, she hoped they
+would remember all their lives. She explained to them what is meant by
+telling the truth, and what it is to be honest. She taught them to
+dislike idleness, and to wish that they could be useful.
+
+One evening, as they were standing beside her, the little boy said to
+her, 'Grandmother,' for that was the name by which she liked that these
+children should call her--'grandmother, how often you are forced to get
+up from your spinning-wheel, and to follow the chaises and coaches up
+that steep hill, to put stones underneath the wheels, to hinder them
+from rolling back! The people who are in the carriages give you a
+halfpenny or a penny for doing this, don't they?' 'Yes, child.' 'But it
+is very hard work for you to go up and down that hill. You often say
+that you are tired, and then you know that you cannot spin all that
+time. Now if we might go up the hill, and put the stones behind the
+wheels, you could sit still at your work, and would not the people give
+us the halfpence? and could not we bring them all to you? Do, pray, dear
+grandmother, try us for one day--to-morrow, will you?'
+
+'Yes,' said the old woman; 'I will try what you can do; but I must go up
+the hill along with you for the first two or three times, for fear you
+should get yourselves hurt.'
+
+So, the next day, the little boy and girl went with their grandmother,
+as they used to call her, up the steep hill; and she showed the boy how
+to prevent the wheels from rolling back, by putting stones behind them;
+and she said, 'This is called scotching the wheels'; and she took off
+the boy's hat and gave it to the little girl, to hold up to the
+carriage-windows, ready for the halfpence.
+
+When she thought that the children knew how to manage by themselves, she
+left them, and returned to her spinning-wheel. A great many carriages
+happened to go by this day, and the little girl received a great many
+halfpence. She carried them all in her brother's hat to her grandmother
+in the evening; and the old woman smiled, and thanked the children. She
+said that they had been useful to her, and that her spinning had gone on
+finely, because she had been able to sit still at her wheel all day.
+'But, Paul, my boy,' said she, 'what is the matter with your hand?'
+
+'Only a pinch--only one pinch that I got, as I was putting a stone
+behind a wheel of a chaise. It does not hurt me much, grandmother; and
+I've thought of a good thing for to-morrow. I shall never be hurt again,
+if you will only be so good as to give me the old handle of the broken
+crutch, grandmother, and the block of wood that lies in the
+chimney-corner, and that is of no use. I'll make it of some use, if I
+may have it.'
+
+'Take it then, dear,' said the old woman; 'and you'll find the handle of
+the broken crutch under my bed.'
+
+Paul went to work immediately, and fastened one end of the pole into the
+block of wood, so as to make something like a dry-rubbing brush. 'Look,
+grandmamma, look at my _scotcher_. I call this thing my _scotcher_,'
+said Paul, 'because I shall always scotch the wheels with it. I shall
+never pinch my fingers again; my hands, you see, will be safe at the end
+of this long stick; and, sister Anne, you need not be at the trouble of
+carrying any more stones after me up the hill; we shall never want
+stones any more. My scotcher will do without anything else, I hope. I
+wish it was morning, and that a carriage would come, that I might run up
+the hill and try my scotcher.'
+
+'And I wish that as many chaises may go by to-morrow as there did
+to-day, and that we may bring you as many halfpence, too, grandmother,'
+said the little girl.
+
+'So do I, my dear Anne,' said the old woman; 'for I mean that you and
+your brother shall have all the money that you get to-morrow. You may
+buy some gingerbread for yourselves, or some of those ripe plums that
+you saw at the fruit-stall, the other day, which is just going into
+Dunstable. I told you then that I could not afford to buy such things
+for you; but now that you can earn halfpence for yourselves, children,
+it is fair you should taste a ripe plum and bit of gingerbread for once
+and a way in your lives.'
+
+'We'll bring some of the gingerbread home to her, shan't we, brother?'
+whispered little Anne. The morning came; but no carriages were heard,
+though Paul and his sister had risen at five o'clock, that they might be
+sure to be ready for early travellers. Paul kept his scotcher poised
+upon his shoulder, and watched eagerly at his station at the bottom of
+the hill. He did not wait long before a carriage came. He followed it up
+the hill; and the instant the postillion called to him, and bid him stop
+the wheels, he put his scotcher behind them, and found that it answered
+the purpose perfectly well.
+
+Many carriages went by this day, and Paul and Anne received a great many
+halfpence from the travellers.
+
+When it grew dusk in the evening, Anne said to her brother--'I don't
+think any more carriages will come by to-day. Let us count the
+halfpence, and carry them home now to grandmother.'
+
+'No, not yet,' answered Paul, 'let them alone--let them lie still in the
+hole where I have put them. I daresay more carriages will come by before
+it is quite dark, and then we shall have more halfpence.'
+
+Paul had taken the halfpence out of his hat, and he had put them into a
+hole in the high bank by the roadside; and Anne said she would not
+meddle with them, and that she would wait till her brother liked to
+count them; and Paul said--'If you will stay and watch here, I will go
+and gather some blackberries for you in the hedge in yonder field. Stand
+you hereabouts, half-way up the hill, and the moment you see any
+carriage coming along the road, run as fast as you can and call me.'
+
+Anne waited a long time, or what she thought a long time; and she saw no
+carriage, and she trailed her brother's scotcher up and down till she
+was tired. Then she stood still, and looked again, and she saw no
+carriage; so she went sorrowfully into the field, and to the hedge where
+her brother was gathering blackberries, and she said, 'Paul, I'm sadly
+tired, _sadly tired_!' said she, 'and my eyes are quite strained with
+looking for chaises; no more chaises will come to-night; and your
+scotcher is lying there, of no use, upon the ground. Have not I waited
+long enough for to-day, Paul?' 'Oh no,' said Paul; 'here are some
+blackberries for you; you had better wait a little bit longer. Perhaps a
+carriage might go by whilst you are standing here talking to me.'
+
+Anne, who was of a very obliging temper, and who liked to do what she
+was asked to do, went back to the place where the scotcher lay; and
+scarcely had she reached the spot, when she heard the noise of a
+carriage. She ran to call her brother, and, to their great joy, they now
+saw four chaises coming towards them. Paul, as soon as they went up the
+hill, followed with his scotcher; first he scotched the wheels of one
+carriage, then of another; and Anne was so much delighted with observing
+how well the scotcher stopped the wheels, and how much better it was
+than stones, that she forgot to go and hold her brother's hat to the
+travellers for halfpence, till she was roused by the voice of a little
+rosy girl, who was looking out of the window of one of the chaises.
+'Come close to the chaise-door,' said the little girl; 'here are some
+halfpence for you.'
+
+Anne held the hat; and she afterwards went on to the other carriages.
+Money was thrown to her from each of them; and when they had all gotten
+safely to the top of the hill, she and her brother sat down upon a large
+stone by the roadside, to count their treasure. First they began by
+counting what was in the hat--'One, two, three, four halfpence.'
+
+'But, oh, brother, look at this!' exclaimed Anne; 'this is not the same
+as the other halfpence.'
+
+'No, indeed, it is not,' cried Paul, 'it is no halfpenny; it is a
+guinea, a bright golden guinea!' 'Is it?' said Anne, who had never seen
+a guinea in her life before, and who did not know its value; 'and will
+it do as well as a halfpenny to buy gingerbread? I'll run to the
+fruit-stall and ask the woman; shall I?'
+
+'No, no,' said Paul, 'you need not ask any woman, or anybody but me; I
+can tell you all about it, as well as anybody in the whole world.'
+
+'The whole world! Oh, Paul, you forgot. Not so well as my grandmother.'
+
+'Why, not so well as my grandmother, perhaps; but, Anne, I can tell you
+that you must not talk yourself, Anne, but you must listen to me
+quietly, or else you won't understand what I am going to tell you, for I
+can assure you that I don't think I quite understood it myself, Anne,
+the first time my grandmother told it to me, though I stood stock still
+listening my best.'
+
+Prepared by this speech to hear something very difficult to be
+understood, Anne looked very grave, and her brother explained to her
+that, with a guinea, she might buy two hundred and fifty-two times as
+many plums as she could get for a penny.
+
+'Why, Paul, you know the fruit-woman said she would give us a dozen
+plums for a penny. Now, for this little guinea, would she give us two
+hundred and fifty-two dozen?'
+
+'If she has so many, and if we like to have so many, to be sure she
+will,' said Paul, 'but I think we should not like to have two hundred
+and fifty-two dozen of plums; we could not eat such a number.'
+
+'But we could give some of them to my grandmother,' said Anne. 'But
+still there would be too many for her, and for us too,' said Paul, 'and
+when we had eaten the plums, there would be an end to all the pleasure.
+But now I'll tell you what I am thinking of, Anne, that we might buy
+something for my grandmother that would be very useful to her indeed,
+with the guinea--something that would last a great while.'
+
+[Illustration: _'But, oh, brother, look at this! this is not the same as
+the other halfpence.'_]
+
+'What, brother? What sort of thing?' 'Something that she said she
+wanted very much last winter, when she was so ill with the
+rheumatism--something that she said yesterday, when you were making her
+bed, she wished she might be able to buy before next winter.'
+
+'I know, I know what you mean!' said Anne--'a blanket. Oh, yes, Paul,
+that will be much better than plums; do let us buy a blanket for her;
+how glad she will be to see it! I will make her bed with the new
+blanket, and then bring her to look at it. But, Paul, how shall we buy a
+blanket? Where are blankets to be got?'
+
+'Leave that to me, I'll manage that. I know where blankets can be got; I
+saw one hanging out of a shop the day I went last to Dunstable.'
+
+'You have seen a great many things at Dunstable, brother.'
+
+'Yes, a great many; but I never saw anything there or anywhere else that
+I wished for half so much as I did for the blanket for my grandmother.
+Do you remember how she used to shiver with the cold last winter? I'll
+buy the blanket to-morrow. I'm going to Dunstable with her spinning.'
+
+'And you'll bring the blanket to me, and I shall make the bed very
+neatly, that will be all right--all happy!' said Anne, clapping her
+hands.
+
+'But stay! Hush! don't clap your hands so, Anne; it will not be all
+happy, I'm afraid,' said Paul, and his countenance changed, and he
+looked very grave. 'It will not be all right, I'm afraid, for there is
+one thing we have neither of us thought of, but that we ought to think
+about. We cannot buy the blanket, I'm afraid.' 'Why, Paul, why?'
+'Because I don't think this guinea is honestly ours.'
+
+'Nay, brother, but I'm sure it is honestly ours. It was given to us, and
+grandmother said all that was given to us to-day was to be our own.'
+'But who gave it to you, Anne?' 'Some of the people in those chaises,
+Paul. I don't know which of them, but I daresay it was the little rosy
+girl.'
+
+'No,' said Paul, 'for when she called you to the chaise door, she said,
+"Here's some halfpence for you." Now, if she gave you the guinea, she
+must have given it to you by mistake.'
+
+'Well, but perhaps some of the people in the other chaises gave it to
+me, and did not give it to me by mistake, Paul. There was a gentleman
+reading in one of the chaises and a lady, who looked very good-naturedly
+at me, and then the gentleman put down his book and put his head out of
+the window, and looked at your scotcher, brother, and he asked me if
+that was your own making; and when I said yes, and that I was your
+sister, he smiled at me, and put his hand into his waistcoat pocket, and
+threw a handful of halfpence into the hat, and I daresay he gave us the
+guinea along with them because he liked your scotcher so much.' 'Why,'
+said Paul, 'that might be, to be sure, but I wish I was quite certain of
+it.' 'Then, as we are not quite certain, had not we best go and ask my
+grandmother what she thinks about it?'
+
+Paul thought this was excellent advice; and he was not a silly boy, who
+did not like to follow good advice. He went with his sister directly to
+his grandmother, showed her the guinea, and told her how they came by
+it.
+
+'My dear, honest children,' said she, 'I am very glad you told me all
+this. I am very glad that you did not buy either the plums or the
+blanket with this guinea. I'm sure it is not honestly ours. Those who
+threw it you gave it you by mistake, I warrant; and what I would have
+you do is, to go to Dunstable, and try if you can at either of the inns
+find out the person who gave it to you. It is now so late in the evening
+that perhaps the travellers will sleep at Dunstable, instead of going on
+the next stage; and it is likely that whosoever gave you a guinea
+instead of a halfpenny has found out their mistake by this time. All you
+can do is to go and inquire for the gentleman who was reading in the
+chaise.'
+
+'Oh!' interrupted Paul, 'I know a good way of finding him out. I
+remember it was a dark green chaise with red wheels: and I remember I
+read the innkeeper's name upon the chaise, "_John Nelson_." (I am much
+obliged to you for teaching me to read, grandmother.) You told me
+yesterday, grandmother, that the names written upon chaises are the
+innkeepers to whom they belong. I read the name of the innkeeper upon
+that chaise. It was John Nelson. So Anne and I will go to both the inns
+in Dunstable, and try to find out this chaise--John Nelson's. Come,
+Anne, let us set out before it gets quite dark.'
+
+Anne and her brother passed with great courage the tempting stall that
+was covered with gingerbread and ripe plums, and pursued their way
+steadily through the streets of Dunstable; but Paul, when he came to the
+shop where he had seen the blanket, stopped for a moment and said, 'It
+is a great pity, Anne, that the guinea is not ours. However, we are
+doing what is honest, and that is a comfort. Here, we must go through
+this gateway, into the inn-yard; we are come to the "Dun Cow."' 'Cow!'
+said Anne, 'I see no cow.' 'Look up, and you'll see the cow over your
+head,' said Paul--'the sign--the picture. Come, never mind looking at it
+now; I want to find out the green chaise that has John Nelson's name
+upon it.'
+
+Paul pushed forward, through a crowded passage, till he got into the
+inn-yard. There was a great noise and bustle. The hostlers were carrying
+in luggage. The postillions were rubbing down the horses, or rolling the
+chaises into the coachhouse.
+
+'What now? What business have you here, pray?' said a waiter, who almost
+ran over Paul, as he was crossing the yard in a great hurry to get some
+empty bottles from the bottle-rack. 'You've no business here, crowding
+up the yard. Walk off, young gentleman, if you please.'
+
+'Pray give me leave, sir,' said Paul, 'to stay a few minutes, to look
+amongst these chaises for one dark green chaise with red wheels, that
+has Mr. John Nelson's name written upon it.'
+
+'What's that he says about a dark green chaise?' said one of the
+postillions.
+
+'What should such a one as he is know about chaises?' interrupted the
+hasty waiter, and he was going to turn Paul out of the yard; but the
+hostler caught hold of his arm and said, 'Maybe the child _has_ some
+business here; let's know what he has to say for himself.'
+
+The waiter was at this instant luckily obliged to leave them to attend
+the bell; and Paul told his business to the hostler, who, as soon as he
+saw the guinea and heard the story, shook Paul by the hand, and said,
+'Stand steady, my honest lad; I'll find the chaise for you, if it is to
+be found here; but John Nelson's chaises almost always drive to the
+"Black Bull."'
+
+After some difficulty, the green chaise, with John Nelson's name upon
+it, and the postillion who drove that chaise, were found; and the
+postillion told Paul that he was just going into the parlour to the
+gentleman he had driven, to be paid, and that he would carry the guinea
+with him.
+
+'No,' said Paul, 'we should like to give it back ourselves.'
+
+'Yes,' said the hostler; 'that they have a right to do.'
+
+The postillion made no reply, but looked vexed, and went on towards the
+house, desiring the children would wait in the passage till his return.
+In the passage there was standing a decent, clean, good-natured-looking
+woman, with two huge straw baskets on each side of her. One of the
+baskets stood a little in the way of the entrance. A man who was pushing
+his way in, and carried in his hand a string of dead larks hung to a
+pole, impatient at being stopped, kicked down the straw basket, and all
+its contents were thrown out. Bright straw hats, and boxes, and slippers
+were all thrown in disorder upon the dirty ground.
+
+'Oh, they will be trampled upon! They will be all spoiled!' exclaimed
+the woman to whom they belonged.
+
+'We'll help you to pick them up, if you will let us,' cried Paul and
+Anne, and they immediately ran to her assistance.
+
+When the things were all safe in the basket again, the children
+expressed a desire to know how such beautiful things could be made of
+straw; but the woman had not time to answer before the postillion came
+out of the parlour, and with him a gentleman's servant, who came to
+Paul, and clapping him upon the back, said, 'So, my little chap, I gave
+you a guinea for a halfpenny, I hear; and I understand you've brought it
+back again; that's right, give me hold of it.' 'No, brother,' said Anne,
+'this is not the gentleman that was reading.' 'Pooh, child, I came in
+Mr. Nelson's green chaise. Here's the postillion can tell you so. I and
+my master came in that chaise. I and my master that was reading, as you
+say, and it was he that threw the money out to you. He is going to bed;
+he is tired and can't see you himself. He desires that you'll give me
+the guinea.'
+
+Paul was too honest himself to suspect that this man was telling him a
+falsehood; and he now readily produced his bright guinea, and delivered
+it into the servant's hands. 'Here's sixpence apiece for you, children,'
+said he, 'and goodnight to you.' He pushed them towards the door; but
+the basket-woman whispered to them as they went out, 'Wait in the street
+till I come to you.'
+
+'Pray, Mrs. Landlady,' cried this gentleman's servant, addressing
+himself to the landlady, who just then came out of a room where some
+company were at supper--'Pray, Mrs. Landlady, please to let me have
+roasted larks for my supper. You are famous for larks at Dunstable; and
+I make it a rule to taste the best of everything wherever I go; and,
+waiter, let me have a bottle of claret. Do you hear?'
+
+'Larks and claret for his supper,' said the basket-woman to herself, as
+she looked at him from head to foot. The postillion was still waiting,
+as if to speak to him; and she observed them afterwards whispering and
+laughing together. '_No bad hit,_' was a sentence which the servant
+pronounced several times.
+
+Now it occurred to the basket-woman that this man had cheated the
+children out of the guinea to pay for the larks and claret; and she
+thought that perhaps she could discover the truth. She waited quietly in
+the passage.
+
+'Waiter! Joe! Joe!' cried the landlady, 'why don't you carry in the
+sweetmeat-puffs and the tarts here to the company in the best parlour?'
+
+'Coming, ma'am,' answered the waiter; and with a large dish of tarts and
+puffs, the waiter came from the bar; the landlady threw open the door of
+the best parlour, to let him in; and the basket-woman had now a full
+view of a large cheerful company, and amongst them several children,
+sitting round a supper-table.
+
+'Ay,' whispered the landlady, as the door closed after the waiter and
+the tarts, 'there are customers enough, I warrant, for you in that room,
+if you had but the luck to be called in. Pray, what would you have the
+conscience, I wonder now, to charge me for these here half-dozen little
+mats to put under my dishes?'
+
+'A trifle, ma'am,' said the basket-woman. She let the landlady have the
+mats cheap, and the landlady then declared she would step in and see if
+the company in the best parlour had done supper. 'When they come to
+their wine,' added she, 'I'll speak a good word for you, and get you
+called in afore the children are sent to bed.'
+
+The landlady, after the usual speech of, '_I hope the supper and
+everything is to your liking, ladies and gentlemen,_' began with, 'If
+any of the young gentlemen or ladies would have a _cur'osity_ to see any
+of our famous Dunstable straw-work, there's a decent body without
+would, I daresay, be proud to show them her pincushion-boxes, and her
+baskets and slippers, and her other _cur'osities_.'
+
+The eyes of the children all turned towards their mother; their mother
+smiled, and immediately their father called in the basket-woman, and
+desired her to produce her _curiosities_. The children gathered round
+her large pannier as it opened, but they did not touch any of her
+things.
+
+'Ah, papa!' cried a little rosy girl, 'here are a pair of straw slippers
+that would just fit you, I think; but would not straw shoes wear out
+very soon? and would not they let in the wet?'
+
+'Yes, my dear,' said her father, 'but these slippers are meant----' 'For
+powdering-slippers, miss,' interrupted the basket-woman. 'To wear when
+people are powdering their hair,' continued the gentleman, 'that they
+may not spoil their other shoes.' 'And will you buy them, papa?' 'No, I
+cannot indulge myself,' said her father, 'in buying them now. I must
+make amends,' said he, laughing, 'for my carelessness; and as I threw
+away a guinea to-day, I must endeavour to save sixpence at least?'
+
+'Ah, the guinea that you threw by mistake into the little girl's hat as
+we were coming up Chalk Hill. Mamma, I wonder that the little girl did
+not take notice of its being a guinea, and that she did not run after
+the chaise to give it back again. I should think, if she had been an
+honest girl, she would have returned it.'
+
+'Miss!--ma'am!--sir!' said the basket-woman, 'if it would not be
+impertinent, may I speak a word? A little boy and girl have just been
+here inquiring for a gentleman who gave them a guinea instead of a
+halfpenny by mistake; and not five minutes ago I saw the boy give the
+guinea to a gentleman's servant, who is there without, and who said his
+master desired it should be returned to him.'
+
+'There must be some mistake, or some trick in this,' said the gentleman.
+'Are the children gone? I must see them--send after them.' 'I'll go for
+them myself,' said the good-natured basket-woman; 'I bid them wait in
+the street yonder, for my mind misgave me that the man who spoke so
+short to them was a cheat, with his larks and his claret.'
+
+Paul and Anne were speedily summoned, and brought back by their friend
+the basket-woman; and Anne, the moment she saw the gentleman, knew that
+he was the very person who smiled upon her, who admired her brother's
+scotcher, and who threw a handful of halfpence into the hat; but she
+could not be certain, she said, that she received the guinea from him;
+she only thought it most likely that she did.
+
+'But I can be certain whether the guinea you returned be mine or no,'
+said the gentleman. 'I marked the guinea; it was a light one; the only
+guinea I had, which I put into my waistcoat pocket this morning.' He
+rang the bell, and desired the waiter to let the gentleman who was in
+the room opposite to him know that he wished to see him. 'The gentleman
+in the white parlour, sir, do you mean?' 'I mean the master of the
+servant who received a guinea from this child.' 'He is a Mr. Pembroke,
+sir,' said the waiter.
+
+Mr. Pembroke came; and as soon as he heard what had happened, he desired
+the waiter to show him to the room where his servant was at supper. The
+dishonest servant, who was supping upon larks and claret, knew nothing
+of what was going on; but his knife and fork dropped from his hand, and
+he overturned a bumper of claret as he started up from the table, in
+great surprise and terror, when his master came in with a face of
+indignation, and demanded '_The guinea_--the _guinea, sir_! that you got
+from this child; that guinea which you said I ordered you to ask for
+from this child.'
+
+The servant, confounded and half-intoxicated, could only stammer out
+that he had more guineas than one about him, and that he really did not
+know which it was. He pulled his money out, and spread it upon the table
+with trembling hands. The marked guinea appeared. His master instantly
+turned him out of his service with strong expressions of contempt.
+
+'And now, my little honest girl,' said the gentleman who had admired her
+brother's scotcher, turning to Anne, 'and now tell me who you are, and
+what you and your brother want or wish for most in the world.'
+
+In the same moment Anne and Paul exclaimed, 'The thing we wish for the
+most in the world is a blanket for our grandmother.'
+
+'She is not our grandmother in reality, I believe, sir,' said Paul; 'but
+she is just as good to us, and taught me to read, and taught Anne to
+knit, and taught us both that we should be honest--so she has; and I
+wish she had a new blanket before next winter, to keep her from the cold
+and the rheumatism. She had the rheumatism sadly last winter, sir; and
+there is a blanket in this street that would be just the thing for her.'
+
+[Illustration: _His master came in with a face of indignation, and
+demanded_ 'The guinea--_the_ guinea, sir!']
+
+'She shall have it, then; and,' continued the gentleman, 'I will do
+something more for you. Do you like to be employed or to be idle best?'
+
+'We like to have something to do always, if we could, sir,' said Paul;
+'but we are forced to be idle sometimes, because grandmother has not
+always things for us to do that we _can_ do well.'
+
+'Should you like to learn how to make such baskets as these?' said the
+gentleman, pointing to one of the Dunstable straw-baskets. 'Oh, very
+much!' said Paul. 'Very much!' said Anne. 'Then I should like to teach
+you how to make them,' said the basket-woman; 'for I'm sure of one
+thing, that you'd behave honestly to me.'
+
+The gentleman put a guinea into the good-natured basket-woman's hand,
+and told her that he knew she could not afford to teach them her trade
+for nothing. 'I shall come through Dunstable again in a few months,'
+added he; 'and I hope to see that you and your scholars are going on
+well. If I find that they are, I will do something more for you.' 'But,'
+said Anne, 'we must tell all this to grandmother, and ask her about it;
+and I'm afraid--though I'm very happy--that it is getting very late, and
+that we should not stay here any longer.' 'It is a fine moonlight
+night,' said the basket-woman; 'and is not far. I'll walk with you, and
+see you safe home myself.'
+
+The gentleman detained them a few minutes longer, till a messenger whom
+he had dispatched to purchase the much-wished-for blanket returned.
+
+'Your grandmother will sleep well upon this good blanket, I hope,' said
+the gentleman, as he gave it into Paul's opened arms. 'It has been
+obtained for her by the honesty of her adopted children.'
+
+THE END
+
+
+_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Macmillan's Illustrated Pocket Classics.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+HUGH THOMSON, LINLEY SAMBOURNE, CHARLES E. BROCK, CHRIS HAMMOND, AND
+OTHERS.
+
+_Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net each. Leather Limp, 3s. net each._
+
+  =CRANFORD.= By Mrs. GASKELL. With Preface by ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE,
+  and 100 Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+  =OUR VILLAGE.= By MARY RUSSELL MITFORD. With Preface by ANNE THACKERAY
+  RITCHIE, and 100 Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+  =THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.= With Preface by AUSTIN DOBSON, and 182
+  Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+  =TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL-DAYS.= By THOMAS HUGHES. With Illustrations by
+  E. J. SULLIVAN.
+
+  =THE WATER BABIES: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby.= By CHARLES KINGSLEY.
+  With 100 Illustrations by LINLEY SAMBOURNE.
+
+  =COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS.= By W. OUTRAM TRISTRAM. With
+  Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON and HERBERT RAILTON.
+
+  =THE HUMOROUS POEMS OF THOMAS HOOD.= With Preface by Canon AINGER, and
+  130 Illustrations by CHARLES E. BROCK.
+
+  =OLD CHRISTMAS.= By WASHINGTON IRVING. With Illustrations by RANDOLPH
+  CALDECOTT.
+
+  =BRACEBRIDGE HALL.= By WASHINGTON IRVING. With Illustrations by
+  RANDOLPH CALDECOTT.
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+
+Macmillan's Illustrated Pocket Classics.
+
+_Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net. Leather Limp, 3s. net._
+
+
+THE WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN
+
+WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY AUSTIN DOBSON.
+
+  =PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.= With Illustrations by CHARLES E. BROCK.
+  =SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+  =EMMA.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+  =MANSFIELD PARK.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+  =NORTHANGER ABBEY.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+
+THE WORKS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE.
+
+  =CASTLE RACKRENT AND THE ABSENTEE.= With Illustrations by CHRIS
+          HAMMOND.
+  =ORMOND.= With Illustrations by C. SCHLOESSER.
+  =POPULAR TALES.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+  =HELEN.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+  =BELINDA.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+  =THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+
+Minor punctuation errors corrected without note.
+
+Italic words and phrases are marked _like this_.
+
+Bold words and phrases are marked =LIKE THIS=.
+
+Small caps are converted to ALL CAPS.
+
+Words spelled multiple ways are left as in the original.
+
+Within the drama sections, the following convention is used:
+
+  All lines and line groups centered in the original are indented
+  four spaces. All other lines and line groups right-aligned in the
+  original (stage directions) are indented eight spaces.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Parent's Assistant
+       Stories for Children
+
+Author: Maria Edgeworth
+
+Illustrator: Chris Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2011 [EBook #36132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div>
+
+<h1 id="booktitle">THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT</h1>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+ <img  border="0" src="images/i001t.jpg" alt="i001t" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece">[Front]</a></span>
+ <a href="images/i002f.jpg">
+  <img  border="0" src="images/i002t.jpg" alt="i002t" />
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'I thought I saw&mdash;&mdash;' poor Franklin began.</i>&mdash;P. 61.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="topbox">
+<p class="h5">THE</p>
+<p class="h4">PARENT'S ASSISTANT</p>
+<p class="h5">or, Stories for Children</p>
+<p class="h6">BY</p>
+<p class="h3">MARIA EDGEWORTH</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="bottombox" style="border-style:none solid solid solid">
+<p class="h4">WITH AN INTRODUCTION</p>
+<p class="h5">BY</p>
+<p class="h4">ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="bottombox" style="border-style:none solid solid solid">
+<p class="h4">ILLUSTRATED</p>
+<p class="h5">BY</p>
+<p class="h4">CHRIS HAMMOND</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="bottombox" style="border-style:none solid solid solid">
+<p class="h4">LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO, LIMITED</p>
+<p class="h4">NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</p>
+<p class="h4">1903</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h5"><i>First printed with Illustrations by Chris Hammond 1897.</i>
+ <br />
+ <i>Illustrated Pocket Classics 1903.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[vii]</span></p>
+<p class="h2">INTRODUCTION</p>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Once</span> when the present writer was a very little girl she
+suffered for a short time from some inflammation of the
+eyes, which prevented her from reading, or amusing herself
+in any way. Her father, who had just then returned from
+the East, in order to help her to pass the weary hours
+began telling her the story of the 'Forty Thieves,' and when
+he had finished, and had boiled down the wicked thieves in
+oil, and when she asked him to tell it all over again, he
+said that he would try and find something else to amuse
+her, and looking about the room he took up a volume of
+the <i>Parent's Assistant</i> which was lying on the table, and
+began to read aloud the story of the 'Little Merchants.'
+The story lasted two mornings, and an odd, confused impression
+still remains in the listener's mind to this day of
+Naples, Vesuvius, pink and white sugar plums&mdash;of a
+darkened room, of a lonely country house in Belgium, of a
+sloping garden full of flowers outside the shutters, of the
+back of a big sofa covered with yellow velvet, and of her
+father's voice reading on and on. When she visited Naples
+in after days she found herself looking about unconsciously
+for her early playfellows.</p>
+
+<p>Not only Francisco and Piedro, but all those various
+members of the Edgeworth family who play their parts in<span class="pagenum">[viii]</span>
+fancy names and dresses in Miss Edgeworth's stories,
+became her daily familiar companions from that day forth.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the stories in the <i>Parent's Assistant</i> were
+written in a time when wars and rumours of wars were in
+the air; these quiet scenes of village life were devised to
+the sound of clarions. Rebels were marching and countermarching;
+volunteers were assembling; husbandmen, throwing
+away their spades, were arming and turning into
+soldiers; the French were landing in Ireland. 'I cannot
+be a Captain of Dragoons,' writes Miss Edgeworth, 'and
+it would not make any of us one degree safer if I were sitting
+with my hands before me.' So she quietly goes on
+with her stories. One or two of them were written at
+Clifton, and very early in her career an illustrated edition
+had been suggested by the publishers. A young Irish
+neighbour, with a taste for the fine arts, was asked to make
+the drawings to these stories, and it was this lady, Miss
+Beaufort, the daughter of the Rector of Colon, who afterwards
+became the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth. Not long after
+his third wife's death in 1797, Mr. Edgeworth wrote a letter
+to Dr. Darwin at Lichfield, in which he gives him various
+items of family news. He writes of portraits (Dr. Darwin,
+Mr. Thomas Day, and Mr. Edgeworth, had all sat for their
+portraits); he writes of Upas trees, of frozen frogs, of farming
+and rack-rents; of pipes for hot-houses to be heated by
+stable dung, of speaking machines, and finally in a postscript
+he announces the fact of his being engaged to be
+married for the fourth time, 'to a young lady of small
+fortune and large accomplishments, much youth, some
+beauty, more sense, uncommon talents, more uncommon
+temper, liked by my family, loved by me.'</p>
+
+<p>These were stormy times for Ireland: a few days after
+the letter was written, a conspiracy was discovered in<span class="pagenum">[ix]</span>
+Dublin, and the city was under arms. Mr. Edgeworth set
+out immediately to join the Beauforts, who were there.
+The true-hearted daughter now admires her father for
+urging on the marriage. 'Instead of delaying, as some
+would have advised, my father urged for an immediate day.
+He brought his bride home through a part of the country
+in actual insurrection.'</p>
+
+<p>There is a grim story of the new-married pair on their
+way to Edgeworthstown passing the suspended corpse of a
+man hanging between the shafts of a cart. Miss Edgeworth
+in her Memoirs of her father gives a striking account
+of the family assembled to receive the new wife. It is a
+grandson of this last Mrs. Edgeworth who is the present
+owner of Edgeworthstown.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Parent's Assistant</i> had just been written; but one or
+two of the stories in the present collection were not added
+till much later, such as 'The Bracelets,' which were written
+in Switzerland to make up a proper allowance of copy for a
+new edition. It is hard to make a choice among these
+charming and familiar histories. They open like fairy
+tales, recounting in simple diction the histories of widows
+living in flowery cottages, with assiduous devoted little sons,
+who work in the garden and earn money to make up the
+rent. There are also village children busily employed, and
+good little orphans whose parents generally die in the opening
+pages. Fairies were not much in Miss Edgeworth's
+line, but philanthropic manufacturers, liberal noblemen,
+and benevolent ladies in travelling carriages, do as well and
+appear in the nick of time to distribute rewards or to point
+a moral. Rosamond of the Purple Jar reappears in the
+<i>Birthday Present</i>, which gives one an odd picture of the
+customs of those days. We read of the little lace girl who
+leaves her pillow upon a stone before the door, and of the<span class="pagenum">[x]</span>
+footman laced with silver, who having entangled the
+bobbins and kicked the pillow into the lane, jumps up
+behind his mistress's coach and is out of sight in a
+minute. Wise Laura, who had not, like Rosamond, spent
+her half-guinea upon filigree paper, consoles the little weeping
+lace-maker, and presses her golden coin into her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Lazy Lawrence is one of the prettiest stories in the
+collection. Who could read the story of Dutiful Jim and
+his love for old Lightfoot unmoved? Lightfoot deserves
+to take his humble place among the immortal winged
+steeds of mythology along with Pegasus, or with Black Bess,
+or Balaam's Ass, or any other celebrated steeds.</p>
+
+<p>Most children like the history of the Orphans; that
+quiet history in which the sister of twelve years old acts a
+mother's part by the little children. I believe the story is
+founded on some real and modest heroine of those bygone
+days. Then, again, who has not sympathised with 'Waste
+not, Want not,' and with thoughtful Ben and his careful
+assiduity? It would be curious to calculate how much
+good time has been sacrificed to saving worthless pieces of
+string in imitation of this thrifty but fascinating hero. But
+after all nothing is to compare to Simple Susan: how pretty
+the scene is where Susan, working in her arbour, hears the
+sound of her friend Philip's pipe and tabor; the children
+come across the green with their garlands, leading up Susan's
+lamb tied up with ribbons, the wicked agent skulks away;
+innocence and beauty triumph over wrong.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Friendship plays a no less important part in Miss Edgeworth's
+stories than it did in her own actual experience.
+Many of the scenes of Miss Edgeworth's stories are laid in
+manufacturing districts, and I have already quoted from the
+correspondence with Mr. Strutt, on whose sympathy and<span class="pagenum">[xi]</span>
+help she so greatly relied. Young Edward Strutt, afterwards
+Lord Belper, used to write to the young men at
+Edgeworthstown when he was a child of only nine years
+old. 'I shall not be satisfied with any letter from you that
+does not mention every member of your uncle's family and
+your own,' says one of the young Edgeworths, writing back
+in answer to the boy. Mr. Edgeworth sends his sons in
+succession to visit his friend Mr. Strutt, and quotes from
+Pliny, saying: 'The claim I now make to your favour
+is your having already done me favours. I introduce my
+fourth son to your notice simply upon the foundation of
+your having been very kind to his brothers.'</p>
+
+<p>In 1823 Miss Edgeworth, who has been writing to Mr.
+Strutt for years, addresses him as 'my dear sir&mdash;my dear
+friend, I think I may venture to say!' She consults him
+upon details in her stories, and asks his advice on some
+matter connected with spinning-jennies. There also are
+many family events, charmingly chronicled in the orderly
+flowing characters of the lady, or the bolder writing of her
+correspondent; one letter concerns the election to Parliament
+of Mr. Edward Strutt in 1830.</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+The Strutts are all clever,<br />
+Here's Edward for ever,
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin">she writes, and defends her doggerel by the 'natural Irish
+spirits where the interests of a friend are concerned.' As
+time goes on Lord Belper's own letters appear, keeping up
+the family tradition of kindness and hospitality. The
+author's conscientious painstaking strikes one, as one realises
+the care she bestowed upon her work. <i>La Triste R&eacute;alit&eacute;</i>, of
+which Mme. de Stael complained, has certainly its charm for
+the infant mind, and also for some maturer readers.</p>
+
+<p>Archbishop Whately in one of his reviews upon Miss<span class="pagenum">[xii]</span>
+Edgeworth points out the change which has gradually
+come over story-telling. 'Instead of the splendid scenes of
+an imaginary world, striking representations of that which
+is daily taking place around us are set forth,' he says.
+'We now turn to <i>Flemish painting</i>'&mdash;so he calls the
+descriptions; and he adds that a novel which makes
+good its pretensions of giving a perfectly correct picture
+of common life, becomes a far more instructive work
+than one of superior merit belonging to the imaginative
+class; for, as he tells us, 'It guides the judgment and
+supplies a kind of artificial experience of life.' It is also
+Whately who complains&mdash;not exactly as one would expect
+an archbishop to complain&mdash;that Miss Edgeworth's stories
+are too improving, too didactic. 'She would, we think, instruct
+more successfully, and we are sure please more frequently,
+if she kept the design of teaching more out of
+sight,' he writes. If Whately were alive to review the
+novels of our own day, he might after all prefer 'the splendid
+scenes of an imaginary world' to the favourite experiments
+in garbage of our present Laura Matildas. It is
+true the books sell by thousands. They certainly prove
+that the successful discovery of the age is <i>not</i> to point out
+what is right but what is wrong. Books used to be coarse
+and jocular; our books are earnest and indecent on principle.
+One hears of the <i>revolting</i> daughters who are so
+much to the front, the same word in a different sense may
+perhaps apply to a favourite school of authors now in
+vogue.</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, a compensating balance in every adjustment
+of the scales of life: along with the minor virtues which
+are so much out of fashion, such as modesty, decency, good
+breeding, etc., follows the expulsion of a great many minor
+vices, such as affectation, disingenuousness, exclusiveness,<span class="pagenum">[xiii]</span>
+and worldly wisdom. The latter qualities still exist of
+course, but in a rather shame-stricken, apologetic sort of
+way. Besides the gibes of literature, they have to contend
+with all sorts of opposing influences,&mdash;with omnibuses,
+depreciated investments, penny papers, county councils, all
+of which certainly place altruism and public spirit in the
+place of the more personal egotisms of our grandfathers.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[xv]</span></p>
+<p class="h2">CONTENTS</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#PREFACE">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Orphans</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_ORPHANS">5</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Lazy Lawrence</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#LAZY_LAWRENCE">27</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The False Key</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_FALSE_KEY">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Simple Susan</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#SIMPLE_SUSAN">79</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The White Pigeon</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_WHITE_PIGEON">141</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Birthday Present</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BIRTHDAY_PRESENT">153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Eton Montem</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#ETON_MONTEM">169</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Forgive and Forget</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#FORGIVE_AND_FORGET">215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Waste not, Want not; or, Two Strings to your Bow</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#WASTE_NOT_WANT_NOT">231</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Old Poz</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#OLD_POZ">257</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Mimic</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_MIMIC">273</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Barring Out; or, Party Spirit</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BARRING_OUT">307</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Bracelets</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BRACELETS">347</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Little Merchants</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_LITTLE_MERCHANTS">373</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Tarlton</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#TARLTON">431</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Basket-Woman</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BASKET-WOMAN">451</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[xvii]</span></p>
+
+<p class="h2">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'I thought I saw&mdash;&mdash;' poor Franklin began</td>
+ <td align="right"><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Inquired what it was she most wanted</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Well, and what have you done with the treasure you had the luck to find?'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'See what you've done for me&mdash;look!&mdash;look, look, I say!'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God bless the boy!' said his mother</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'You know this key? I shall trust it in your care'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning her back</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Let it eat out of her hand for the last time</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon painted upon the sign</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced, the bobbins, while the footman stood laughing at her distress</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own hands'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Then shake hands, my honest landlord'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Enter Miss Bursal, in a riding dress</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'I say I saw <i>him</i> there take the jump which strained the horse.'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Stay! Stand still, sir! or you will break your china jar'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">When Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the ground,
+and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much astonishment</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Playing at cat's cradle</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">He dragged poor Hal out of the red mud</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><i>Lucy.</i> What's this, papa? <i>Just.</i> Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw!&mdash;it is not melted, child&mdash;it is the same as no sugar</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_260">260</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Five times have I commanded silence, and I won't command anything five times in vain&mdash;<i>that's poz!</i>'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_264">264</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the doctor, sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour to wait upon Mrs. Montague</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'She dashed and splashed without minding exactness, or the recipe, or anything'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'And like a man&mdash;and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,' said the good Quaker, shaking Frederick's hand affectionately</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_304">304</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your <i>sister</i> Livy, do you mean?'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Archer leaped up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a powerful grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by this?'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_335">335</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">He sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_352">352</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his father by turning the bruised side to the customer'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Piedro was hissed and hooted out of the market-place</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_400">400</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of villainy, contrived to cheat both his associates</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_413">413</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Returned in safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_419">419</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting back with horror</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_441">441</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'May God bless you!'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_448">448</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">'But, oh, brother, look at this! this is not the same as the other halfpence'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_456">456</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">His master came in with a face of indignation, and demanded '<i>The guinea</i>&mdash;the <i>guinea</i>, <i>sir</i>!'</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_464">464</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<h4>ADDRESSED TO PARENTS</h4>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Our</span> great lexicographer, in his celebrated eulogium on Dr.
+Watts, thus speaks in commendation of those productions
+which he so successfully penned for the pleasure and instruction
+of the juvenile portion of the community.</p>
+
+<p>'For children,' says Dr. Johnson, 'he condescended to lay
+aside the philosopher, the scholar, and the wit, to write little
+poems of devotion, and systems of instruction adapted to their
+wants and capacities, from the dawn of reason to its gradation
+of advance in the morning of life. Every man acquainted with
+the common principles of human action will look with veneration
+on the writer who is at one time combating Locke and at
+another time making a catechism for <i>children in their fourth
+year</i>. A voluntary descent from the dignity of science is
+perhaps the hardest lesson which humility can teach.'</p>
+
+<p>It seems, however, no very easy task to write for children.
+Those only who have been interested in the education of a
+family, who have patiently followed children through the first
+processes of reasoning, who have daily watched over their
+thoughts and feelings&mdash;those only who know with what ease
+and rapidity the early associations of ideas are formed, on which
+the future taste, character, and happiness depend, can feel the
+dangers and difficulties of such an undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, in all sciences the grand difficulty has been to
+ascertain facts&mdash;a difficulty which, in the science of education,<span class="pagenum">[2]</span>
+peculiar circumstances conspire to increase. Here the objects of
+every experiment are so interesting that we cannot hold our
+minds indifferent to the result. Nor is it to be expected that
+many registers of experiments, successful and unsuccessful,
+should be kept, much less should be published, when we
+consider that the combined powers of affection and vanity, of
+partiality to his child and to his theory, will act upon the mind
+of a parent, in opposition to the abstract love of justice, and the
+general desire to increase the wisdom and happiness of mankind.
+Notwithstanding these difficulties, an attempt to keep such a
+register has actually been made. The design has from time to
+time been pursued. Though much has not been collected, every
+circumstance and conversation that have been preserved are
+faithfully and accurately related, and these notes have been of
+great advantage to the writer of the following stories.</p>
+
+<p>The question, whether society could exist without the distinction
+of ranks, is a question involving a variety of complicated
+discussions, which we leave to the politician and the legislator.
+At present it is necessary that the education of different ranks
+should, in some respects, be different. They have few ideas,
+few habits, in common; their peculiar vices and virtues do not
+arise from the same causes, and their ambition is to be directed
+to different objects. But justice, truth, and humanity are confined
+to no particular rank, and should be enforced with equal
+care and energy upon the minds of young people of every
+station; and it is hoped that these principles have never been
+forgotten in the following pages.</p>
+
+<p>As the ideas of children multiply, the language of their books
+should become less simple; else their taste will quickly be disgusted,
+or will remain stationary. Children that live with
+people who converse with elegance will not be contented with
+a style inferior to what they hear from everybody near them.</p>
+
+<p>All poetical allusions, however, have been avoided in this
+book; such situations only are described as children can easily
+imagine, and which may consequently interest their feelings.<span class="pagenum">[3]</span>
+Such examples of virtue are painted as are not above their
+conception of excellence, or their powers of sympathy and
+emulation.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to give <i>rewards</i> to children which shall not
+indirectly do them harm by fostering some hurtful taste or
+passion. In the story of 'Lazy Lawrence,' where the object
+was to excite a spirit of industry, care has been taken to proportion
+the reward to the exertion, and to demonstrate that people
+feel cheerful and happy whilst they are employed. The reward
+of our industrious boy, though it be money, is only money considered
+as the means of gratifying a benevolent wish. In a
+commercial nation it is especially necessary to separate, as much
+as possible, the spirit of industry and avarice; and to beware
+lest we introduce Vice under the form of Virtue.</p>
+
+<p>In the story of 'Tarlton and Loveit' are represented the
+danger and the folly of that weakness of mind, and that easiness
+to be led, which too often pass for good nature; and in the tale
+of the 'False Key' are pointed out some of the evils to which
+a well-educated boy, on first going to service, is exposed from
+the profligacy of his fellow-servants.</p>
+
+<p>In the 'Birthday Present,' and in the character of Mrs.
+Theresa Tattle, the <i>Parent's Assistant</i> has pointed out the
+dangers which may arise in education from a bad servant or
+a common acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>In the 'Barring Out' the errors to which a high spirit and
+the love of party are apt to lead have been made the subject of
+correction, and it is hoped that the common fault of making the
+most mischievous characters appear the most <i>active</i> and the
+most ingenious has been as much as possible avoided.
+<i>Unsuccessful</i> cunning will not be admired, and cannot induce
+imitation.</p>
+
+<p>It has been attempted, in these stories, to provide antidotes
+against ill-humour, the epidemic rage for dissipation, and the
+fatal propensity to admire and imitate whatever the fashion of
+the moment may distinguish. Were young people, either in<span class="pagenum">[4]</span>
+public schools or in private families, absolutely free from bad
+examples, it would not be advisable to introduce despicable and
+vicious characters in books intended for their improvement.
+But in real life they <i>must</i> see vice, and it is best that they
+should be early shocked with the representation of what they
+are to avoid. There is a great deal of difference between
+innocence and ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>To prevent the precepts of morality from tiring the ear and
+the mind, it was necessary to make the stories in which they are
+introduced in some measure dramatic; to keep alive hope and
+fear and curiosity, by some degree of intricacy. At the same
+time, care has been taken to avoid inflaming the imagination,
+or exciting a restless spirit of adventure, by exhibiting false
+views of life, and creating hopes which, in the ordinary course
+of things, cannot be realised.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[5]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_ORPHANS" id="THE_ORPHANS"></a>THE ORPHANS</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Near</span> the ruins of the castle of Rossmore, in Ireland, is a
+small cabin, in which there once lived a widow and her four
+children. As long as she was able to work, she was very
+industrious, and was accounted the best spinner in the parish;
+but she overworked herself at last, and fell ill, so that she
+could not sit to her wheel as she used to do, and was obliged
+to give it up to her eldest daughter, Mary.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was at this time about twelve years old. One evening
+she was sitting at the foot of her mother's bed spinning, and
+her little brothers and sisters were gathered round the fire
+eating their potatoes and milk for supper. 'Bless them, the
+poor young creatures!' said the widow, who, as she lay on her
+bed, which she knew must be her deathbed, was thinking of
+what would become of her children after she was gone. Mary
+stopped her wheel, for she was afraid that the noise of it had
+wakened her mother, and would hinder her from going to
+sleep again.</p>
+
+<p>'No need to stop the wheel, Mary, dear, for me,' said her
+mother, 'I was not asleep; nor is it <i>that</i> which keeps me from
+sleep. But don't overwork yourself, Mary.' 'Oh, no fear of
+that,' replied Mary; 'I'm strong and hearty.' 'So was I
+once,' said her mother. 'And so you will be again, I hope,'
+said Mary, 'when the fine weather comes again.'</p>
+
+<p>'The fine weather will never come again to me,' said her
+mother. ''Tis a folly, Mary, to hope for that; but what I hope
+is, that you'll find some friend&mdash;some help&mdash;orphans as you'll
+soon all of you be. And one thing comforts my heart, even as
+I <i>am</i> lying here, that not a soul in the wide world I am leaving
+has to complain of me. Though poor I have lived honest,<span class="pagenum">[6]</span>
+and I have brought you up to be the same, Mary; and I am
+sure the little ones will take after you; for you'll be good to
+them&mdash;as good to them as you can.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the children, who had finished eating their suppers,
+came round the bed, to listen to what their mother was saying.
+She was tired of speaking, for she was very weak; but she
+took their little hands as they laid them on the bed, and
+joining them all together, she said, 'Bless you, dears&mdash;bless
+you; love and help one another all you can. Good night!&mdash;good-bye!'</p>
+
+<p>Mary took the children away to their bed, for she saw that
+their mother was too ill to say more; but Mary did not herself
+know how ill she was. Her mother never spoke rightly afterwards,
+but talked in a confused way about some debts, and one
+in particular, which she owed to a schoolmistress for Mary's
+schooling; and then she charged Mary to go and pay it,
+because she was not able to <i>go in</i> with it. At the end of the
+week she was dead and buried, and the orphans were left alone
+in their cabin.</p>
+
+<p>The two youngest girls, Peggy and Nancy, were six and
+seven years old. Edmund was not yet nine, but he was a
+stout-grown, healthy boy, and well disposed to work. He had
+been used to bring home turf from the bog on his back, to lead
+carthorses, and often to go on errands for gentlemen's families,
+who paid him a sixpence or a shilling, according to the distance
+which he went, so that Edmund, by some or other of these
+little employments, was, as he said, likely enough to earn his
+bread; and he told Mary to have a good heart, for that he
+should every year grow able to do more and more, and that he
+should never forget his mother's words when she last gave him
+her blessing and joined their hands all together.</p>
+
+<p>As for Peggy and Nancy, it was little that they could do;
+but they were good children, and Mary, when she considered
+that so much depended upon her, was resolved to exert herself
+to the utmost. Her first care was to pay those debts which
+her mother had mentioned to her, for which she left money
+done up carefully in separate papers. When all these were
+paid away, there was not enough left to pay both the rent of
+the cabin and a year's schooling for herself and sisters which
+was due to the schoolmistress in a neighbouring village.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was in hopes that the rent would not be called for<span class="pagenum">[7]</span>
+immediately, but in this she was disappointed. Mr. Harvey,
+the gentleman on whose estate she lived, was in England, and
+in his absence all was managed by a Mr. Hopkins, an agent,
+who was a <i>hard man</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> The driver came to Mary about a week
+after her mother's death and told her that the rent must be
+brought in the next day, and that she must leave the cabin, for
+a new tenant was coming into it; that she was too young to
+have a house to herself, and that the only thing she had to do
+was to get some neighbour to take her and her brother and
+her sisters in for charity's sake.</p>
+
+<p>The driver finished by hinting that she would not be so
+hardly used if she had not brought upon herself the ill-will of
+Miss Alice, the agent's daughter. Mary, it is true, had refused
+to give Miss Alice a goat upon which she had set her fancy;
+but this was the only offence of which she had been guilty, and
+at the time she refused it her mother wanted the goat's milk,
+which was the only thing she then liked to drink.</p>
+
+<p>Mary went immediately to Mr. Hopkins, the agent, to pay
+her rent; and she begged of him to let her stay another year
+in her cabin; but this he refused. It was now September 25th,
+and he said that the new tenant must come in on the 29th, so
+that she must quit it directly. Mary could not bear the
+thoughts of begging any of the neighbours to take her and her
+brother and sisters in <i>for charity's sake</i>; for the neighbours
+were all poor enough themselves. So she bethought herself
+that she might find shelter in the ruins of the old castle of
+Rossmore, where she and her brother, in better times, had often
+played at hide and seek. The kitchen and two other rooms
+near it were yet covered in tolerably well; and a little thatch,
+she thought, would make them comfortable through the winter.
+The agent consented to let her and her brother and sisters go
+in there, upon her paying him half a guinea in hand, and
+promising to pay the same yearly.</p>
+
+<p>Into these lodgings the orphans now removed, taking with
+them two bedsteads, a stool, chair, and a table, a sort of press,
+which contained what little clothes they had, and a chest in
+which they had two hundred of meal. The chest was carried
+for them by some of the charitable neighbours, who likewise
+added to their scanty stock of potatoes and turf what would
+make it last through the winter.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[8]</span></p>
+<p>These children were well thought of and pitied, because
+their mother was known to have been all her life honest and
+industrious. 'Sure,' says one of the neighbours, 'we can do
+no less than give a helping hand to the poor orphans, that are
+so ready to help themselves.' So one helped to thatch the
+room in which they were to sleep, and another took their cow
+to graze upon his bit of land on condition of having half the
+milk; and one and all said they should be welcome to take
+share of their potatoes and buttermilk if they should find their
+own ever fall short.</p>
+
+<p>The half-guinea which Mr. Hopkins, the agent, required for
+letting Mary into the castle was part of what she had to pay
+to the schoolmistress, to whom above a guinea was due. Mary
+went to her, and took her goat along with her, and offered it
+in part of payment of the debt, but the schoolmistress would
+not receive the goat. She said that she could afford to wait
+for her money till Mary was able to pay it; that she knew her
+to be an honest, industrious little girl, and she would trust her
+with more than a guinea. Mary thanked her; and she was
+glad to take the goat home again, as she was very fond of it.</p>
+
+<p>Being now settled in their house, they went every day
+regularly to work; Mary spun nine cuts a day, besides doing
+all that was to be done in the house; Edmund got fourpence a
+day by his work; and Peggie and Annie earned twopence
+apiece at the paper-mills near Navan, where they were employed
+to sort rags and to cut them into small pieces.</p>
+
+<p>When they had done work one day, Annie went to the
+master of the paper-mill and asked him if she might have two
+sheets of large white paper which were lying on the press.
+She offered a penny for the paper; but the master would not
+take anything from her, but gave her the paper when he found
+that she wanted it to make a garland for her mother's grave.
+Annie and Peggy cut out the garland, and Mary, when it was
+finished, went along with them and Edmund to put it up. It
+was just a month after their mother's death.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, at the time the orphans were putting up this
+garland, that two young ladies, who were returning home after
+their evening walk, stopped at the gate of the churchyard to
+look at the red light which the setting sun cast upon the window
+of the church. As the ladies were standing at the gate, they
+heard a voice near them crying, 'O mother! mother! are you<span class="pagenum">[9]</span>
+gone for ever?' They could not see any one; so they walked
+softly round to the other side of the church, and there they saw
+Mary kneeling beside a grave, on which her brother and
+sisters were hanging their white garlands.</p>
+
+<p>The children all stood still when they saw the two ladies
+passing near them; but Mary did not know anybody was
+passing, for her face was hid in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella and Caroline (so these ladies were called) would
+not disturb the poor children; but they stopped in the village
+to inquire about them. It was at the house of the schoolmistress
+that they stopped, and she gave them a good account
+of these orphans. She particularly commended Mary's honesty,
+in having immediately paid all her mother's debts to the
+utmost farthing, as far as her money would go. She told the
+ladies how Mary had been turned out of her house, and how
+she had offered her goat, of which she was very fond, to discharge
+a debt due for her schooling; and, in short, the schoolmistress,
+who had known Mary for several years, spoke so well
+of her that these ladies resolved that they would go to the old
+castle of Rossmore to see her the next day.</p>
+
+<p>When they went there, they found the room in which the
+children lived as clean and neat as such a ruined place could
+be made. Edmund was out working with a farmer, Mary was
+spinning, and her little sisters were measuring out some bogberries,
+of which they had gathered a basketful, for sale.
+Isabella, after telling Mary what an excellent character she
+had heard of her, inquired what it was she most wanted; and
+Mary said that she had just worked up all her flax, and she
+was most in want of more flax for her wheel.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella promised that she would send her a fresh supply
+of flax, and Caroline bought the bogberries from the little
+girls, and gave them money enough to buy a pound of coarse
+cotton for knitting, as Mary said that she could teach them how
+to knit.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+ <a href="images/i004f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i004t.jpg" alt="i004t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Inquired what it was she most wanted.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The supply of flax, which Isabella sent the next day, was of
+great service to Mary, as it kept her in employment for above
+a month; and when she sold the yarn which she had spun
+with it, she had money enough to buy some warm flannel for
+winter wear. Besides spinning well, she had learned at school
+to do plain work tolerably neatly, and Isabella and Caroline
+employed her to work for them; by which she earned a great
+<span class="pagenum">[11]</span>deal more than she could by spinning. At her leisure hours
+she taught her sisters to read and write; and Edmund, with
+part of the money which he earned by his work out of doors,
+paid a schoolmaster for teaching him a little arithmetic.
+When the winter nights came on, he used to light his rush
+candles for Mary to work by. He had gathered and stripped
+a good provision of rushes in the month of August, and a
+neighbour gave him grease to dip them in.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, just as he had lighted his candle, a footman
+came in, who was sent by Isabella with some plain work to
+Mary. This servant was an Englishman, and he was but
+newly come over to Ireland. The rush candles caught his
+attention; for he had never seen any of them before, as he
+came from a part of England where they were not used.
+Edmund, who was ready to oblige, and proud that his candles
+were noticed, showed the Englishman how they were made,
+and gave him a bundle of rushes.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a></p>
+
+<p>The servant was pleased with his good nature in this trifling
+instance, and remembered it long after it was forgotten by
+Edmund. Whenever his master wanted to send a messenger
+anywhere, Gilbert (for that was the servant's name) always
+employed his little friend Edmund, whom, upon further
+acquaintance, he liked better and better. He found that
+Edmund was both quick and exact in executing commissions.</p>
+
+<p>One day, after he had waited a great while at a gentleman's
+house for an answer to a letter, he was so impatient to get
+home that he ran off without it. When he was questioned by
+<span class="pagenum">[12]</span>Gilbert why he did not bring an answer, he did not attempt to
+make any excuse; he did not say, '<i>There was no answer,
+please your honour</i>' or, '<i>They bid me not wait</i>' etc.; but he
+told exactly the truth; and though Gilbert scolded him for
+being so impatient as not to wait, yet his telling the truth was
+more to the boy's advantage than any excuse he could have
+made. After this he was always believed when he said,
+'<i>There was no answer</i>' or, '<i>They bid me not wait</i>'; for
+Gilbert knew that he would not tell a lie to save himself from
+being scolded.</p>
+
+<p>The orphans continued to assist one another in their work
+according to their strength and abilities; and they went on in
+this manner for three years. With what Mary got by her
+spinning and plain work, and Edmund by leading of carthorses,
+going on errands, etc., and with little Peggy and Anne's
+earnings, the family contrived to live comfortably. Isabella
+and Caroline often visited them, and sometimes gave them
+clothes, and sometimes flax or cotton for their spinning and
+knitting; and these children did not <i>expect</i> that, because the
+ladies did something for them, they should do everything.
+They did not grow idle or wasteful.</p>
+
+<p>When Edmund was about twelve years old, his friend
+Gilbert sent for him one day, and told him that his master had
+given him leave to have a boy in the house to assist him, and
+that his master told him he might choose one in the neighbourhood.
+Several were anxious to get into such a good place;
+but Gilbert said that he preferred Edmund before them all,
+because he knew him to be an industrious, honest, good-natured
+lad, who always told the truth. So Edmund went
+into service at <i>the vicarage</i>; and his master was the father of
+Isabella and Caroline. He found his new way of life very
+pleasant; for he was well fed, well clothed, and well treated;
+and he every day learned more of his business, in which at
+first he was rather awkward. He was mindful to do all that
+Mr. Gilbert required of him; and he was so obliging to all his
+fellow-servants that they could not help liking him. But there
+was one thing which was at first rather disagreeable to him:
+he was obliged to wear shoes and stockings, and they hurt his
+feet. Besides this, when he waited at dinner he made such a
+noise in walking that his fellow-servants laughed at him. He
+told his sister Mary of his distress, and she made for him, after<span class="pagenum">[13]</span>
+many trials, a pair of cloth shoes, with soles of platted hemp.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a>
+In these he could walk without making the least noise; and
+as these shoes could not be worn out of doors, he was always
+sure to change them before he went out; and consequently he
+had always clean shoes to wear in the house.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon remarked by the men-servants that he had left
+off clumping so heavily, and it was observed by the maids that
+he never dirtied the stairs or passages with his shoes. When
+he was praised for these things, he said it was his sister Mary
+who should be thanked, and not he; and he showed the shoes
+which she had made for him.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella's maid bespoke a pair immediately, and sent Mary
+a piece of pretty calico for the outside. The last-maker made
+a last for her, and over this Mary sewed the calico vamps
+tight. Her brother advised her to try platted packthread
+instead of hemp for the soles; and she found that this looked
+more neat than the hemp soles, and was likely to last longer.
+She platted the packthread together in strands of about half
+an inch thick, and these were sewed firmly together at the
+bottom of the shoe. When they were finished they fitted well,
+and the maid showed them to her mistress.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella and Caroline were so well pleased with Mary's
+ingenuity and kindness to her brother, that they bespoke from
+her two dozen of these shoes, and gave her three yards of
+coloured fustian to make them of, and galloon for the binding.
+When the shoes were completed, Isabella and Caroline disposed
+of them for her amongst their acquaintance, and got
+three shillings a pair for them. The young ladies, as soon as
+they had collected the money, walked to the old castle, where
+they found everything neat and clean as usual. They had
+great pleasure in giving to this industrious girl the reward of
+her ingenuity, which she received with some surprise and more
+gratitude. They advised her to continue the shoemaking
+trade, as they found the shoes were liked, and they knew that
+they could have a sale for them at the <i>Repository</i> in Dublin.</p>
+
+<p>Mary, encouraged by these kind friends, went on with her
+little manufacture with increased activity. Peggy and Anne
+platted the packthread, and basted the vamps and linings
+together ready for her. Edmund was allowed to come home
+<span class="pagenum">[14]</span>for an hour every morning, provided he was back again before
+eight o'clock. It was summer time, and he got up early,
+because he liked to go home to see his sisters, and he took his
+share in the manufactory. It was his business to hammer the
+soles flat; and as soon as he came home every morning he
+performed his task with so much cheerfulness, and sang so
+merrily at his work, that the hour of his arrival was always an
+hour of joy to the family.</p>
+
+<p>Mary had presently employment enough upon her hands.
+Orders came to her for shoes from many families in the
+neighbourhood, and she could not get them finished fast
+enough. She, however, in the midst of her hurry, found time
+to make a very pretty pair, with neat roses, as a present for
+her schoolmistress, who, now that she saw her pupil in a good
+way of business, consented to receive the amount of her old
+debt. Several of the children who went to her school were
+delighted with the sight of Mary's present, and went to the
+little manufactory at Rossmore Castle, to find out how these
+shoes were made. Some went from curiosity, others from
+idleness; but when they saw how happy the little shoemakers
+seemed whilst busy at work, they longed to take some share in
+what was going forward. One begged Mary to let her plat
+some packthread for the soles; another helped Peggy and
+Anne to baste in the linings; and all who could get employment
+were pleased, for the idle ones were shoved out of the
+way. It became a custom with the children of the village to
+resort to the old castle at their play hours; and it was surprising
+to see how much was done by ten or twelve of them,
+each doing but a little at a time.</p>
+
+<p>One morning Edmund and the little manufacturers were
+assembled very early, and they were busy at their work, all
+sitting round the meal chest, which served them for a table.</p>
+
+<p>'My hands must be washed,' said George, a little boy who
+came running in; 'I ran so fast that I might be in time, to go
+to work along with you all, that I tumbled down, and look how
+I have dirtied my hands. Most haste worst speed. My
+hands must be washed before I can do anything.'</p>
+
+<p>Whilst George was washing his hands, two other little
+children, who had just finished their morning's work, came to
+him to beg that he would blow some soap bubbles for them,
+and they were all three eagerly blowing bubbles, and watching<span class="pagenum">[15]</span>
+them mount into the air, when suddenly they were startled by
+a noise as loud as thunder. They were in a sort of outer
+court of the castle, next to the room in which all their companions
+were at work, and they ran precipitately into the
+room, exclaiming, 'Did you hear that noise?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I heard a clap of thunder,' said Mary, 'but why
+do you look so frightened?'</p>
+
+<p>As she finished speaking, another and a louder noise, and
+the walls round about them shook. The children turned pale
+and stood motionless; but Edmund threw down his hammer
+and ran out to see what was the matter. Mary followed him,
+and they saw that a great chimney of the old ruins at the
+farthest side of the castle had fallen down, and this was the
+cause of the prodigious noise.</p>
+
+<p>The part of the castle in which they lived seemed, as
+Edmund said, to be perfectly safe; but the children of the
+village were terrified, and thinking that the whole would come
+tumbling down directly, they ran to their homes as fast as
+they could. Edmund, who was a courageous lad, and proud
+of showing his courage, laughed at their cowardice; but
+Mary, who was very prudent, persuaded her brother to ask
+an experienced mason, who was building at his master's, to
+come and give his opinion whether their part of the castle
+was safe to live in or not. The mason came, and gave it as
+his opinion that the rooms they inhabited might last through
+the winter, but that no part of the ruins could stand another
+year. Mary was sorry to leave a place of which she had
+grown fond, poor as it was, having lived in it in peace and
+contentment ever since her mother's death, which was now
+nearly four years; but she determined to look out for some
+other place to live in; and she had now money enough to
+pay the rent of a comfortable cabin. Without losing any
+time, she went to the village that was at the end of the
+avenue leading to <i>the vicarage</i>, for she wished to get a
+lodging in this village because it was so near to her brother,
+and to the ladies who had been so kind to her. She found
+that there was one newly built house in this village unoccupied;
+it belonged to Mr. Harvey, her landlord, who was
+still in England; it was slated, and neatly fitted up inside;
+but the rent of it was six guineas a year, and this was far
+above what Mary could afford to pay. Three guineas a year<span class="pagenum">[16]</span>
+she thought was the highest rent for which she could venture
+to engage. Besides, she heard that several proposals had
+been made to Mr. Harvey for this house, and she knew that
+Mr. Hopkins, the agent, was not her friend; therefore she
+despaired of getting it. There was no other to be had in
+this village. Her brother was still more vexed than she was,
+that she could not find a place near him. He offered to give
+a guinea yearly towards the rent out of his wages; and Mr.
+Gilbert spoke about it for him to the steward, and inquired
+whether, amongst any of those who had given in proposals,
+there might not be one who would be content with a part of
+the house, and who would join with Mary in paying the rent.
+None could be found but a woman who was a great scold,
+and a man who was famous for going to law about every trifle
+with his neighbours. Mary did not choose to have anything
+to do with these people. She did not like to speak either to
+Miss Isabella or Caroline about it, because she was not of an
+encroaching temper; and when they had done so much for
+her, she would have been ashamed to beg for more. She
+returned home to the old castle, mortified that she had no
+good news to tell Anne and Peggy, who she knew expected
+to hear that she had found a nice house for them in the
+village near their brother.</p>
+
+<p>'Bad news for you, Peggy,' cried she, as soon as she got
+home. 'And bad news for you, Mary,' replied her sisters,
+who looked very sorrowful. 'What's the matter?' 'Your
+poor goat is dead,' replied Peggy. 'There she is, yonder,
+lying under the great corner stone; you can just see her leg.
+We cannot lift the stone from off her, it is so heavy. Betsy
+(<i>one of the neighbour's girls</i>) says she remembers, when she
+came to us to work early this morning, she saw the goat
+rubbing itself and butting with its horns against that old
+tottering chimney.'</p>
+
+<p>'Many's the time,' said Mary, 'that I have driven the poor
+thing away from that place; I was always afraid she would
+shake that great ugly stone down upon her at last.'</p>
+
+<p>The goat, who had long been the favourite of Mary and her
+sisters, was lamented by them all. When Edmund came, he
+helped them to move the great stone from off the poor animal,
+who was crushed so as to be a terrible sight. As they were
+moving away this stone in order to bury the goat, Anne found<span class="pagenum">[17]</span>
+an odd-looking piece of money, which seemed neither like a
+halfpenny, nor a shilling, nor a guinea.</p>
+
+<p>'Here are more, a great many more of them,' cried Peggy;
+and upon searching amongst the rubbish, they discovered a
+small iron pot, which seemed as if it had been filled with
+these coins, as a vast number of them were found about the
+spot where it fell. On examining these coins, Edmund
+thought that several of them looked like gold, and the girls
+exclaimed with great joy&mdash;'O Mary! Mary! this is come
+to us just in right time&mdash;now you can pay for the slated house.
+Never was anything so lucky!'</p>
+
+<p>But Mary, though nothing could have pleased her better
+than to have been able to pay for the house, observed that
+they could not honestly touch any of this treasure, as it
+belonged to the owner of the castle. Edmund agreed with
+her that they ought to carry it all immediately to Mr. Hopkins,
+the agent. Peggy and Anne were convinced by what Mary
+said, and they begged to go along with her and her brother,
+to take the coins to Mr. Hopkins. On their way they stopped
+at the vicarage, to show the treasure to Mr. Gilbert, who took
+it to the young ladies, Isabella and Caroline, and told them
+how it had been found.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only by their superior riches, but it is yet more
+by their superior knowledge, that persons in the higher rank of
+life may assist those in a lower condition.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella, who had some knowledge of chemistry, discovered,
+by touching the coins with nitric acid, that several of them
+were of gold, and consequently of great value. Caroline also
+found out that many of the coins were very valuable as
+curiosities. She recollected her father's having shown to her
+the prints of the coins at the end of each king's reign in
+Rapin's <i>History of England</i>; and upon comparing these
+impressions with the coins found by the orphans, she perceived
+that many of them were of the reign of Henry the
+Seventh, which, from their scarcity, were highly appreciated
+by numismatic collectors.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella and Caroline, knowing something of the character
+of Mr. Hopkins, the agent, had the precaution to count the
+coins, and to mark each of them with a cross, so small that it
+was scarcely visible to the naked eye, though it was easily to
+be seen through a magnifying glass. They also begged that<span class="pagenum">[18]</span>
+their father, who was well acquainted with Mr. Harvey, the
+gentleman to whom Rossmore Castle belonged, would write to
+him, and tell him how well these orphans had behaved about
+the treasure which they had found. The value of the coins
+was estimated at about thirty or forty guineas.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the fall of the chimney at Rossmore Castle,
+as Mary and her sisters were sitting at their work, there came
+hobbling in an old woman, leaning on a crab stick that seemed
+to have been newly cut. She had a broken tobacco-pipe in
+her mouth; her head was wrapped up in two large red and
+blue handkerchiefs, with their crooked corners hanging far
+down over the back of her neck, no shoes on her broad feet,
+nor stockings on her many-coloured legs. Her petticoat was
+jagged at the bottom, and the skirt of her gown turned up over
+her shoulders to serve instead of a cloak, which she had sold
+for whisky. This old woman was well known amongst the
+country people by the name of <i>Goody Grope</i>;<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> because she
+had for many years been in the habit of groping in old castles
+and in moats,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> and at the bottom of a round tower<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> in the
+neighbourhood, in search of treasure. In her youth she had
+heard some one talking in a whisper of an old prophecy, found
+in a bog, which said that before many</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+St. Patrick's days should come about,<br />
+There would be found<br />
+A treasure under ground,<br />
+By one within twenty miles around.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This prophecy made a deep impression upon her. She
+also dreamed of it three times: and as the dream, she thought,
+was a sure token that the prophecy was to come true, she, from
+that time forwards, gave up her spinning-wheel and her
+knitting, and could think of nothing but hunting for the
+treasure that was to be found by one '<i>within twenty miles
+round</i>.'</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[19]</span></p>
+<p>Year after year St. Patrick's day came about without her
+ever finding a farthing by all her groping; and, as she was
+always idle, she grew poorer and poorer; besides, to comfort
+herself for her disappointments, and to give her spirits for
+fresh searches, she took to drinking. She sold all she had by
+degrees; but still she fancied that the lucky day would come,
+sooner or later, <i>that would pay for all</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Goody Grope, however, reached her sixtieth year without
+ever seeing this lucky day; and now, in her old age, she was
+a beggar, without a house to shelter her, a bed to lie on, or
+food to put into her mouth, but what she begged from the
+charity of those who had trusted more than she had to industry
+and less to <i>luck</i>.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Mary, honey! give me a potato and a sup of something,
+for the love o' mercy; for not a bit have I had all day,
+except half a glass of whisky and a halfpenny-worth of tobacco!'</p>
+
+<p>Mary immediately set before her some milk, and picked a
+good potato out of the bowl for her. She was sorry to see
+such an old woman in such a wretched condition. Goody
+Grope said she would rather have spirits of some kind or other
+than milk; but Mary had no spirits to give her; so she sat
+herself down close to the fire, and after she had sighed and
+groaned and smoked for some time, she said to Mary, 'Well,
+and what have you done with the treasure you had the luck to
+find?' Mary told her that she had carried it to Mr. Hopkins,
+the agent.</p>
+
+<p>'That's not what I would have done in your place,' replied
+the old woman. 'When good luck came to you, what a shame
+to turn your back upon it! But it is idle talking of what's
+done&mdash;that's past; but I'll try my luck in this here castle
+before next St. Patrick's day comes about. I was told it was
+more than twenty miles from our bog, or I would have been
+here long ago; but better late than never.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i005f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i005t.jpg" alt="i005t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Well, and what have you done with the treasure you had the luck to find?</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mary was much alarmed, and not without reason, at this
+speech; for she knew that if Goody Grope once set to work at
+the foundation of the old castle of Rossmore, she would soon
+bring it all down. It was in vain to talk to Goody Grope of
+the danger of burying herself under the ruins, or of the improbability
+of her meeting with another pot of gold coins.
+She set her elbow upon her knees, and stopping her ears with
+her hands, bid Mary and her sisters not to waste their breath
+<span class="pagenum">[21]</span>advising their elders; for that, let them say what they would,
+she would fall to work the next morning, '<i>barring</i> you'll make
+it worth my while to let it alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what will make it worth your while to let it alone?'
+said Mary; for she saw that she must either get into a quarrel
+or give up her habitation, or comply with the conditions of
+this provoking old woman.</p>
+
+<p>Half a crown, Goody Grope said, was the least she could be
+content to take. Mary paid the half-crown, and was in hopes
+that she had got rid for ever of her tormentor, but she was
+mistaken, for scarcely was the week at an end before the old
+woman appeared before her again, and repeated her threats of
+falling to work the next morning, unless she had something
+given to her to buy tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>The next day and the next, and the next, Goody Grope
+came on the same errand, and poor Mary, who could ill afford
+to supply her constantly with halfpence, at last exclaimed, 'I am
+sure the finding of this treasure has not been any good luck
+to us, but quite the contrary; and I wish we never had found it.'</p>
+
+<p>Mary did not yet know how much she was to suffer on
+account of this unfortunate pot of gold coins. Mr. Hopkins,
+the agent, imagined that no one knew of the discovery of this
+treasure but himself and these poor children; so, not being as
+honest as they were, he resolved to keep it for his own use.
+He was surprised some weeks afterwards to receive a letter
+from his employer, Mr. Harvey, demanding from him the coins
+which had been discovered at Rossmore Castle. Hopkins
+had sold the gold coins, and some of the others; and he
+flattered himself that the children, and the young ladies, to
+whom he now found they had been shown, could not tell
+whether what they had seen were gold or not, and he was not in
+the least apprehensive that those of Henry the Seventh's reign
+should be reclaimed from him as he thought they had escaped
+attention. So he sent over the silver coins and others of little
+value, and apologised for his not having mentioned them
+before, by saying that he considered them as mere rubbish.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Harvey, in reply, observed that he could not consider
+as rubbish the gold coins which were amongst them when they
+were discovered; and he inquired why these gold coins, and those
+of the reign of Henry the Seventh, were not now sent to him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins denied that he had ever received any such;<span class="pagenum">[22]</span>
+but he was thunderstruck when Mr. Harvey, in reply to this
+falsehood, sent him a list of the coins which the orphans had
+deposited with him, and exact drawings of those that were
+missing. He informed him that this list and these drawings
+came from two ladies who had seen the coins in question.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins thought that he had no means of escape but
+by boldly persisting in falsehood. He replied, that it was very
+likely such coins had been found at Rossmore Castle, and that
+the ladies alluded to had probably seen them; but he positively
+declared that they never came to his hands; that he had
+restored all that were deposited with him; and that, as to the
+others, he supposed they must have been taken out of the pot
+by the children, or by Edmund or Mary on their way from the
+ladies' house to his.</p>
+
+<p>The orphans were shocked and astonished when they heard,
+from Isabella and Caroline, the charge that was made against
+them. They looked at one another in silence for some
+moments. Then Peggy exclaimed&mdash;'<i>Sure!</i> Mr. Hopkins has
+forgotten himself strangely. Does not he remember Edmund's
+counting the things to him upon the great table in his hall,
+and we all standing by? I remember it as well as if it was
+this instant.'</p>
+
+<p>'And so do I,' cried Anne. 'And don't you recollect,
+Mary, your picking out the gold ones, and telling Mr. Hopkins
+that they were gold; and he said you knew nothing of the
+matter; and I was going to tell him that Miss Isabella had
+tried them, and knew that they were gold? but just then there
+came in some tenants to pay their rent, and he pushed us out,
+and twitched from my hand the piece of gold which I had
+taken up to show him the bright spot which Miss Isabella had
+cleaned by the stuff that she had poured on it? I believe he
+was afraid I should steal it; he twitched it from my hand in
+such a hurry. Do, Edmund; do, Mary&mdash;let us go to him,
+and put him in mind of all this.' 'I'll go to him no more,'
+said Edmund sturdily. 'He is a bad man&mdash;I'll never go to
+him again. Mary, don't be cast down&mdash;we have no need to
+be cast down&mdash;we are honest.' 'True,' said Mary; 'but is
+not it a hard case that we, who have lived, as my mother did
+all her life before us, in peace and honesty with all the world,
+should now have our good name taken from us, when&mdash;&mdash;' Mary's
+voice faltered and stopped. 'It can't be taken from<span class="pagenum">[23]</span>
+us,' cried Edmund, 'poor orphans though we are, and he a
+rich gentleman, as he calls himself. Let him say and do what
+he will, he can't hurt our good name.'</p>
+
+<p>Edmund was mistaken, alas! and Mary had but too much
+reason for her fears. The affair was a great deal talked of;
+and the agent spared no pains to have the story told his own
+way. The orphans, conscious of their own innocence, took no
+pains about the matter; and the consequence was, that all
+who knew them well had no doubt of their honesty; but many,
+who knew nothing of them, concluded that the agent must be
+in the right and the children in the wrong. The buzz of
+scandal went on for some time without reaching their ears,
+because they lived very retiredly. But one day, when Mary
+went to sell some stockings of Peggy's knitting at the neighbouring
+fair, the man to whom she sold them bid her write her
+name on the back of a note, and exclaimed, on seeing it&mdash;'Ho!
+ho! mistress; I'd not have had any dealings with you,
+had I known your name sooner. Where's the gold that you
+found at Rossmore Castle?'</p>
+
+<p>It was in vain that Mary related the fact. She saw that
+she gained no belief, as her character was not known to this
+man, or to any of those who were present. She left the fair
+as soon as she could; and though she struggled against it, she
+felt very melancholy. Still she exerted herself every day at
+her little manufacture; and she endeavoured to console herself
+by reflecting that she had two friends left who would not give
+up her character, and who continued steadily to protect her
+and her sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella and Caroline everywhere asserted their belief in the
+integrity of the orphans, but to prove it was in this instance out
+of their power. Mr. Hopkins, the agent, and his friends, constantly
+repeated that the gold coins were taken away in coming
+from their house to his; and these ladies were blamed by many
+people for continuing to countenance those that were, with
+great reason, suspected to be thieves. The orphans were in a
+worse condition than ever when the winter came on, and their
+benefactresses left the country to spend some months in
+Dublin. The old castle, it was true, was likely to last through
+the winter, as the mason said; but though the want of a comfortable
+house to live in was, a little while ago, the uppermost
+thing in Mary's thoughts, now it was not so.<span class="pagenum">[24]</span></p>
+
+<p>One night, as Mary was going to bed, she heard some one
+knocking hard at the door. 'Mary, are you up? let us in,'
+cried a voice, which she knew to be the voice of Betsy Green,
+the postmaster's daughter, who lived in the village near them.</p>
+
+<p>She let Betsy in, and asked what she could want at such a
+time of night.</p>
+
+<p>'Give me sixpence, and I'll tell you,' said Betsy; 'but
+waken Anne and Peggy. Here's a letter just come by post
+for you, and I stepped over to you with it; because I guessed
+you'd be glad to have it, seeing it is your brother's handwriting.'</p>
+
+<p>Peggy and Anne were soon roused, when they heard that
+there was a letter from Edmund. It was by one of his rush
+candles that Mary read it; and the letter was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<br />
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Dear Mary, Nancy, and little Peg</span>&mdash;Joy! joy!&mdash;I
+always said the truth would come out at last; and that he
+could not take our good name from us. But I will not tell
+you how it all came about till we meet, which will be next
+week, as we are (I mean, master and mistress, and the young
+ladies&mdash;bless them!&mdash;and Mr. Gilbert and I) coming down to
+the vicarage to keep Christmas; and a happy Christmas 'tis
+likely to be for honest folks. As for they that are not honest,
+it is not for them to expect to be happy, at Christmas, or any
+other time. You shall know all when we meet. So, till then,
+fare ye well, dear Mary, Nancy, and little Peg.&mdash;Your joyful
+and affectionate brother, <span class="smcap" style="float : right">Edmund.'</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<p>To comprehend why Edmund is joyful, our readers must be
+informed of certain things which happened after Isabella and
+Caroline went to Dublin. One morning they went with their
+father and mother to see the magnificent library of a nobleman,
+who took generous and polite pleasure in thus sharing the
+advantages of his wealth and station with all who had any pretensions
+to science or literature. Knowing that the gentleman
+who was now come to see his library was skilled in antiquities,
+the nobleman opened a drawer of medals, to ask his opinion
+concerning the age of some coins, which he had lately purchased
+at a high price. They were the very same which the orphans
+had found at Rossmore Castle. Isabella and Caroline knew
+them again instantly; and as the cross which Isabella had<span class="pagenum">[25]</span>
+made on each of them was still visible through a magnifying
+glass, there could be no possibility of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>The nobleman, who was much interested both by the story
+of these orphans, and the manner in which it was told to him,
+sent immediately for the person from whom he had purchased
+the coins. He was a Jew broker. At first he refused to tell
+them from whom he got them, because he had bought them, he
+said, under a promise of secrecy. Being further pressed, he
+acknowledged that it was made a condition in his bargain that
+he should not sell them to any one in Ireland, but that he had
+been tempted by the high price the present noble possessor
+had offered.</p>
+
+<p>At last, when the Jew was informed that the coins were
+stolen, and that he would be proceeded against as a receiver
+of stolen goods if he did not confess the whole truth, he
+declared that he had purchased them from a gentleman, whom
+he had never seen before or since; but he added that he could
+swear to his person, if he saw him again.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Mr. Hopkins, the agent, was at this time in Dublin,
+and Caroline's father posted the Jew, the next day, in the
+back-parlour of a banker's house, with whom Mr. Hopkins had,
+on this day, appointed to settle some accounts. Mr. Hopkins
+came&mdash;the Jew knew him&mdash;swore that he was the man who
+had sold the coins to him; and thus the guilt of the agent and
+the innocence of the orphans were completely proved.</p>
+
+<p>A full account of all that happened was sent to England to
+Mr. Harvey, their landlord, and a few posts afterwards there
+came a letter from him, containing a dismissal of the dishonest
+agent, and a reward for the honest and industrious orphans.
+Mr. Harvey desired that Mary and her sisters might have the
+slated house, rent-free, from this time forward, under the care
+of ladies Isabella and Caroline, as long as Mary or her sisters
+should carry on in it any useful business. This was the joyful
+news which Edmund had to tell his sisters.</p>
+
+<p>All the neighbours shared in their joy, and the day of their
+removal from the ruins of Rossmore Castle to their new house
+was the happiest of the Christmas holidays. They were not
+envied for their prosperity; because everybody saw that it was
+the reward of their good conduct; everybody except Goody
+Grope. She exclaimed, as she wrung her hands with violent
+expressions of sorrow&mdash;'Bad luck to me! bad luck to me!
+<span class="pagenum">[26]</span>&mdash;Why didn't I go sooner to that there Castle? It is all luck,
+all luck in this world; but I never had no luck. Think of the
+luck of these <i>childer</i>, that have found a pot of gold, and such
+great, grand friends, and a slated house, and all: and here am
+I, with scarce a rag to cover me, and not a potato to put into
+my mouth!&mdash;I, that have been looking under ground all my
+days for treasure, not to have a halfpenny at the last, to buy
+me tobacco!'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the very reason that you have not a halfpenny,'
+said Betsy. 'Here Mary has been working hard, and so have
+her two little sisters and her brother, for these five years past;
+and they have made money for themselves by their own
+industry&mdash;and friends too&mdash;not by luck, but by&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Phoo! phoo!' interrupted Goody Grope; 'don't be
+prating; don't I know as well as you do that they found a
+pot of gold, <i>by good luck</i>? and is not that the cause why they
+are going to live in a slated house now?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' replied the postmaster's daughter; 'this house is
+given to them <i>as a reward</i>&mdash;that was the word in the letter;
+for I saw it. Edmund showed it to me, and will show it to
+any one that wants to see. This house was given to them "<i>as
+a reward for their honesty</i>."'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[27]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="LAZY_LAWRENCE" id="LAZY_LAWRENCE"></a>LAZY LAWRENCE</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">In</span> the pleasant valley of Ashton there lived an elderly woman
+of the name of Preston. She had a small neat cottage, and
+there was not a weed to be seen in her garden. It was upon
+her garden that she chiefly depended for support; it consisted
+of strawberry beds, and one small border for flowers. The
+pinks and roses she tied up in nice nosegays, and sent either
+to Clifton or Bristol to be sold. As to her strawberries, she
+did not send them to market, because it was the custom for
+numbers of people to come from Clifton, in the summer time,
+to eat strawberries and cream at the gardens in Ashton.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the widow Preston was so obliging, active, and good-humoured,
+that every one who came to see her was pleased.
+She lived happily in this manner for several years; but, alas!
+one autumn she fell sick, and, during her illness, everything
+went wrong; her garden was neglected, her cow died, and all
+the money which she had saved was spent in paying for
+medicines. The winter passed away, while she was so weak
+that she could earn but little by her work; and when the
+summer came, her rent was called for, and the rent was not
+ready in her little purse as usual. She begged a few months'
+delay, and they were granted to her; but at the end of that
+time there was no resource but to sell her horse Lightfoot.
+Now Lightfoot, though perhaps he had seen his best days, was
+a very great favourite. In his youth he had always carried
+the dame to the market behind her husband; and it was now
+her little son Jem's turn to ride him. It was Jem's business
+to feed Lightfoot, and to take care of him&mdash;a charge which he
+never neglected, for, besides being a very good-natured, he
+was a very industrious boy.<span class="pagenum">[28]</span></p>
+
+<p>'It will go near to break my Jem's heart,' said Dame
+Preston to herself, as she sat one evening beside the fire
+stirring the embers, and considering how she had best open
+the matter to her son, who stood opposite to her, eating a dry
+crust of bread very heartily for supper.</p>
+
+<p>'Jem,' said the old woman, 'what, art hungry?' 'That I
+am, brave and hungry!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay! no wonder, you've been brave hard at work&mdash;Eh?'
+'Brave hard! I wish it was not so dark, mother, that you
+might just step out and see the great bed I've dug; I know
+you'd say it was no bad day's work&mdash;and oh, mother! I've
+good news: Farmer Truck will give us the giant strawberries,
+and I'm to go for 'em to-morrow morning, and I'll be back
+afore breakfast.'</p>
+
+<p>'God bless the boy! how he talks!&mdash;Four mile there, and
+four mile back again, afore breakfast.' 'Ay, upon Lightfoot,
+you know, mother, very easily; mayn't I?' 'Ay, child!'
+'Why do you sigh, mother?' 'Finish thy supper, child.'
+'I've done!' cried Jem, swallowing the last mouthful hastily,
+as if he thought he had been too long at supper&mdash;'and now
+for the great needle; I must see and mend Lightfoot's bridle
+afore I go to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>To work he set, by the light of the fire, and the dame
+having once more stirred it, began again with 'Jem, dear,
+does he go lame at all now?' 'What, Lightfoot! Oh la,
+no, not he!&mdash;never was so well of his lameness in all his life.
+He's grown quite young again, I think, and then he's so fat
+he can hardly wag.' 'God bless him&mdash;that's right. We must
+see, Jem, and keep him fat.' 'For what, mother!' 'For
+Monday fortnight at the fair. He's to be&mdash;sold!' 'Lightfoot!'
+cried Jem, and let the bridle fall from his hand; 'and <i>will</i>
+mother sell Lightfoot?' '<i>Will</i>? no: but I <i>must</i>, Jem.'
+'Must! who says you <i>must</i>? why <i>must</i> you, mother?' 'I
+must, I say, child. Why, must not I pay my debts honestly;
+and must not I pay my rent, and was not it called for long and
+long ago; and have not I had time; and did not I promise
+to pay it for certain Monday fortnight, and am not I two
+guineas short; and where am I to get two guineas? So what
+signifies talking, child?' said the widow, leaning her head
+upon her arm. 'Lightfoot <i>must</i> go.'</p>
+
+<p>Jem was silent for a few minutes&mdash;'Two guineas, that's a<span class="pagenum">[29]</span>
+great, great deal. If I worked, and worked, and worked
+ever so hard, I could no ways earn two guineas <i>afore</i> Monday
+fortnight&mdash;could I, mother?' 'Lord help thee, no; not an'
+work thyself to death.' 'But I could earn something, though,
+I say,' cried Jem proudly; 'and I <i>will</i> earn <i>something</i>&mdash;if it
+be ever so little, it will be <i>something</i>&mdash;and I shall do my very
+best; so I will.' 'That I'm sure of, my child,' said his
+mother, drawing him towards her and kissing him; 'you
+were always a good, industrious lad, <i>that</i> I will say afore your
+face or behind your back;&mdash;but it won't do now&mdash;Lightfoot
+<i>must</i> go.'</p>
+
+<p>Jem turned away struggling to hide his tears, and went to
+bed without saying a word more. But he knew that crying
+would do no good; so he presently wiped his eyes, and lay
+awake, considering what he could possibly do to save the
+horse. 'If I get ever so little,' he still said to himself, 'it
+will be <i>something</i>, and who knows but landlord might then
+wait a bit longer? and we might make it all up in time;
+for a penny a day might come to two guineas in time.'</p>
+
+<p>But how to get the first penny was the question. Then
+he recollected that one day, when he had been sent to Clifton
+to sell some flowers, he had seen an old woman with a board
+beside her covered with various sparkling stones, which people
+stopped to look at as they passed, and he remembered that
+some people bought the stones; one paid twopence, another
+threepence, and another sixpence for them; and Jem heard
+her say that she got them amongst the neighbouring rocks:
+so he thought that if he tried he might find some too, and sell
+them as she had done.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning he wakened full of this scheme,
+jumped up, dressed himself, and, having given one look at
+poor Lightfoot in his stable, set off to Clifton in search of the
+old woman, to inquire where she found her sparkling stones.
+But it was too early in the morning, the old woman was not at
+her seat; so he turned back again, disappointed. He did not
+waste his time waiting for her, but saddled and bridled Lightfoot,
+and went to Farmer Truck's for the giant strawberries.</p>
+
+<p>A great part of the morning was spent in putting them into
+the ground; and, as soon as that was finished, he set out again
+in quest of the old woman, whom, to his great joy, he spied
+sitting at her corner of the street with her board before her.<span class="pagenum">[30]</span>
+But this old woman was deaf and cross; and when at last
+Jem made her hear his questions, he could get no answer
+from her, but that she found the fossils where he would never
+find any more. 'But can't I look where you looked?' 'Look
+away, nobody hinders you,' replied the old woman; and these
+were the only words she would say.</p>
+
+<p>Jem was not, however, a boy to be easily discouraged; he
+went to the rocks, and walked slowly along, looking at all
+the stones as he passed. Presently he came to a place where
+a number of men were at work loosening some large rocks,
+and one amongst the workmen was stooping down looking for
+something very eagerly; Jem ran up and asked if he could
+help him. 'Yes,' said the man, 'you can; I've just dropped,
+amongst this heap of rubbish, a fine piece of crystal that I got
+to-day.' 'What kind of a looking thing is it?' said Jem.
+'White, and like glass,' said the man, and went on working
+whilst Jem looked very carefully over the heap of rubbish for
+a great while.</p>
+
+<p>'Come,' said the man, 'it's gone for ever; don't trouble
+yourself any more, my boy.' 'It's no trouble; I'll look a little
+longer; we'll not give it up so soon,' said Jem; and after he
+had looked a little longer, he found the piece of crystal.
+'Thank'e,' said the man, 'you are a fine little industrious
+fellow.' Jem, encouraged by the tone of voice in which the
+man spoke this, ventured to ask him the same questions which
+he had asked the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>'One good turn deserves another,' said the man; 'we are
+going to dinner just now, and shall leave off work&mdash;wait for
+me here, and I'll make it worth your while.'</p>
+
+<p>Jem waited; and, as he was very attentively observing how
+the workmen went on with their work, he heard somebody
+near him give a great yawn, and, turning round, he saw
+stretched upon the grass, beside the river, a boy about his own
+age, who, in the village of Ashton, as he knew, went by the
+name of Lazy Lawrence&mdash;a name which he most justly
+deserved, for he never did anything from morning to night.
+He neither worked nor played, but sauntered or lounged about
+restless and yawning. His father was an ale-house keeper,
+and being generally drunk, could take no care of his son; so
+that Lazy Lawrence grew every day worse and worse. However,
+some of the neighbours said that he was a good-natured<span class="pagenum">[31]</span>
+poor fellow enough, and would never do any one harm but
+himself; whilst others, who were wiser, often shook their
+heads, and told him that idleness was the root of all evil.</p>
+
+<p>'What, Lawrence!' cried Jem to him, when he saw him
+lying upon the grass; 'what, are you asleep?' 'Not quite.'
+'Are you awake?' 'Not quite.' 'What are you doing there?'
+'Nothing.' 'What are you thinking of?' 'Nothing.'
+'What makes you lie there?' 'I don't know&mdash;because I
+can't find anybody to play with me to-day. Will you come
+and play?' 'No, I can't; I'm busy.' 'Busy,' cried Lawrence,
+stretching himself, 'you are always busy. I would not be you for
+the world to have so much to do always.' 'And I,' said Jem,
+laughing, 'would not be you for the world, to have nothing
+to do.'</p>
+
+<p>They then parted, for the workman just then called Jem to
+follow him. He took him home to his own house, and showed
+him a parcel of fossils, which he had gathered, he said, on
+purpose to sell, but had never had time enough to sell them.
+Now, however, he set about the task; and having picked out
+those which he judged to be the best, he put them in a small
+basket, and gave them to Jem to sell, upon condition that he
+should bring him half of what he got. Jem, pleased to be
+employed, was ready to agree to what the man proposed,
+provided his mother had no objection. When he went home
+to dinner, he told his mother his scheme, and she smiled, and
+said he might do as he pleased; for she was not afraid of his
+being from home. 'You are not an idle boy,' said she; 'so
+there is little danger of your getting into any mischief.'</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly Jem that evening took his stand, with his little
+basket, upon the bank of the river, just at the place where
+people land from a ferry-boat, and the walk turns to the wells,
+and numbers of people perpetually pass to drink the waters.
+He chose his place well, and waited nearly all the evening,
+offering his fossils with great assiduity to every passenger; but
+not one person bought any.</p>
+
+<p>'Hallo!' cried some sailors, who had just rowed a boat to
+land, 'bear a hand here, will you, my little fellow, and carry
+these parcels for us into yonder house?'</p>
+
+<p>Jem ran down immediately for the parcels, and did what he
+was asked to do so quickly, and with so much good-will, that
+the master of the boat took notice of him, and, when he was<span class="pagenum">[32]</span>
+going away, stopped to ask him what he had got in his little
+basket; and when he saw that they were fossils, he immediately
+told Jem to follow him, for that he was going to carry some
+shells he had brought from abroad to a lady in the neighbourhood
+who was making a grotto. 'She will very likely buy
+your stones into the bargain. Come along, my lad; we can
+but try.'</p>
+
+<p>The lady lived but a very little way off, so that they were
+soon at her house. She was alone in her parlour, and was
+sorting a bundle of feathers of different colours; they lay on a
+sheet of pasteboard upon a window seat, and it happened that
+as the sailor was bustling round the table to show off his shells,
+he knocked down the sheet of pasteboard, and scattered all the
+feathers. The lady looked very sorry, which Jem observing,
+he took the opportunity, whilst she was busy looking over the
+sailor's bag of shells, to gather together all the feathers, and
+sort them according to their different colours, as he had seen
+them sorted when he first came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is the little boy you brought with you? I thought
+I saw him here just now.' 'And here I am, ma'am,' cried
+Jem, creeping from under the table with some few remaining
+feathers which he had picked from the carpet; 'I thought,'
+added he, pointing to the others, 'I had better be doing something
+than standing idle, ma'am.' She smiled, and, pleased
+with his activity and simplicity, began to ask him several
+questions; such as who he was, where he lived, what employment
+he had, and how much a day he earned by gathering
+fossils.</p>
+
+<p>'This is the first day I ever tried,' said Jem; 'I never sold
+any yet, and if you don't buy 'em now, ma'am, I'm afraid
+nobody else will; for I've asked everybody else.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, then,' said the lady, laughing, 'if that is the case, I
+think I had better buy them all.' So, emptying all the fossils
+out of his basket, she put half a crown into it.</p>
+
+<p>Jem's eyes sparkled with joy. 'Oh, thank you, ma'am,'
+said he, 'I will be sure and bring you as many more, to-morrow.'
+'Yes, but I don't promise you,' said she, 'to give you half a
+crown, to-morrow.' 'But, perhaps, though you don't promise
+it, you will.' 'No,' said the lady, 'do not deceive yourself;
+I assure you that I will not. <i>That</i>, instead of encouraging you
+to be industrious, would teach you to be idle.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[33]</span></p>
+
+<p>Jem did not quite understand what she meant by this, but
+answered, 'I'm sure I don't wish to be idle; what I want is to
+earn something every day, if I knew how; I'm sure I don't wish
+to be idle. If you knew all, you'd know I did not.' 'How
+do you mean, <i>if I knew all</i>?' 'Why, I mean, if you knew
+about Lightfoot.' 'Who's Lightfoot?' 'Why, mammy's
+horse,' added Jem, looking out of the window; 'I must make
+haste home, and feed him afore it gets dark; he'll wonder
+what's gone with me.' 'Let him wonder a few minutes longer,'
+said the lady, 'and tell me the rest of your story.' 'I've no
+story, ma'am, to tell, but as how mammy says he must go to
+the fair Monday fortnight, to be sold, if she can't get the two
+guineas for her rent; and I should be main sorry to part with
+him, for I love him, and he loves me; so I'll work for him, I
+will, all I can. To be sure, as mammy says, I have no chance,
+such a little fellow as I am, of earning two guineas afore
+Monday fortnight.' 'But are you willing earnestly to work?'
+said the lady; 'you know there is a great deal of difference
+between picking up a few stones and working steadily every
+day, and all day long.' 'But,' said Jem, 'I would work
+every day, and all day long.' 'Then,' said the lady, 'I will
+give you work. Come here to-morrow morning, and my gardener
+will set you to weed the shrubberies, and I will pay you
+sixpence a day. Remember, you must be at the gates by six
+o'clock.' Jem bowed, thanked her, and went away.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the evening, and Jem was impatient to get
+home to feed Lightfoot; yet he recollected that he had promised
+the man who had trusted him to sell the fossils, that he would
+bring him half of what he got for them; so he thought that he
+had better go to him directly; and away he went, running
+along by the water-side about a quarter of a mile, till he came
+to the man's house. He was just come home from work, and
+was surprised when Jem showed him the half-crown, saying,
+'Look what I got for the stones; you are to have half, you
+know.' 'No,' said the man, when he had heard his story, I
+shall not take half of that; it was given to you. I expected
+but a shilling at the most, and the half of that is but sixpence,
+and that I'll take. 'Wife, give the lad two shillings, and take
+this half-crown.' So the wife opened an old glove, and took
+out two shillings; and the man, as she opened the glove, put
+in his fingers and took out a little silver penny. 'There, he<span class="pagenum">[34]</span>
+shall have that into the bargain for his honesty&mdash;honesty is the
+best policy&mdash;there's a lucky penny for you, that I've kept ever
+since I can remember.' 'Don't you ever go to part with it,
+do ye hear!' cried the woman. 'Let him do what he will with
+it, wife,' said the man. 'But,' argued the wife, 'another penny
+would do just as well to buy gingerbread; and that's what it
+will go for.' 'No, that it shall not, I promise you,' said Jem;
+and so he ran away home, fed Lightfoot, stroked him, went to
+bed, jumped up at five o'clock in the morning, and went singing
+to work as gay as a lark.</p>
+
+<p>Four days he worked 'every day and all day long'; and
+every evening the lady, when she came out to walk in her
+gardens, looked at his work. At last she said to her gardener,
+'This little boy works very hard.' 'Never had so good a
+little boy about the grounds,' said the gardener; 'he's always
+at his work, let me come by when I will, and he has got twice
+as much done as another would do; yes, twice as much,
+ma'am; for look here&mdash;he began at this 'ere rose-bush, and
+now he's got to where you stand, ma'am; and here is the
+day's work that t'other boy, and he's three years older too, did
+to-day&mdash;I say, measure Jem's fairly, and it's twice as much,
+I'm sure.' 'Well,' said the lady to her gardener, 'show me
+how much is a fair good day's work for a boy of his age.'
+'Come at six o'clock and go at six? why, about this much,
+ma'am,' said the gardener, marking off a piece of the border
+with his spade.</p>
+
+<p>'Then, little boy,' said the lady, 'so much shall be your
+task every day. The gardener will mark it off for you; and
+when you've done, the rest of the day you may do what you
+please.'</p>
+
+<p>Jem was extremely glad of this; and the next day he had
+finished his task by four o'clock; so that he had all the rest
+of the evening to himself. He was as fond of play as any
+little boy could be; and when he was at it he played with all
+the eagerness and gaiety imaginable; so as soon as he had
+finished his task, fed Lightfoot, and put by the sixpence he
+had earned that day, he ran to the playground in the village,
+where he found a party of boys playing, and amongst them
+Lazy Lawrence, who indeed was not playing, but lounging
+upon a gate, with his thumb in his mouth. The rest were
+playing at cricket. Jem joined them, and was the merriest<span class="pagenum">[35]</span>
+and most active amongst them; till, at last, when quite out of
+breath with running, he was obliged to give up to rest himself,
+and sat down upon the stile, close to the gate on which Lazy
+Lawrence was swinging.</p>
+
+<p>'And why don't you play, Lawrence?' said he. 'I'm
+tired,' said Lawrence. 'Tired of what?' 'I don't know well
+what tires me; grandmother says I'm ill, and I must take
+something&mdash;I don't know what ails me.' 'Oh, pugh! take a
+good race&mdash;one, two, three, and away&mdash;and you'll find yourself
+as well as ever. Come, run&mdash;one, two, three, and away.'
+'Ah, no, I can't run, indeed,' said he hanging back heavily;
+'you know I can play all day long if I like it, so I don't mind
+play as you do, who have only one hour for it.' 'So much
+the worse for you. Come now, I'm quite fresh again, will
+you have one game at ball? do.' 'No, I tell you I can't;
+I'm as tired as if I had been working all day long as hard as
+a horse.' 'Ten times more,' said Jem, 'for I have been
+working all day long as hard as a horse, and yet you see I'm
+not a bit tired, only a little out of breath just now.' 'That's
+very odd,' said Lawrence, and yawned, for want of some better
+answer; then taking out a handful of halfpence,&mdash;'See what I
+got from father to-day, because I asked him just at the right
+time, when he had drunk a glass or two; then I can get anything
+I want out of him&mdash;see! a penny, twopence, threepence,
+fourpence&mdash;there's eightpence in all; would not you be happy
+if you had <i>eightpence</i>?' 'Why, I don't know,' said Jem,
+laughing, 'for you don't seem happy, and you <i>have eightpence</i>.'
+'That does not signify, though. I'm sure you only say that
+because you envy me. You don't know what it is to have
+eightpence. You never had more than twopence or threepence
+at a time in all your life.'</p>
+
+<p>Jem smiled. 'Oh, as to that,' said he, 'you are mistaken,
+for I have at this very time more than twopence, threepence,
+or eightpence either. I have&mdash;let me&mdash;see&mdash;stones, two
+shillings; then five days' work that's five sixpences, that's two
+shillings and sixpence; in all, makes four shillings and sixpence;
+and my silver penny, is four and sevenpence&mdash;four and
+sevenpence!' 'You have not!' said Lawrence, roused so as
+absolutely to stand upright, 'four and sevenpence, have you?
+Show it me and then I'll believe you.' 'Follow me, then,'
+cried Jem, 'and I'll soon make you believe me; come.' 'Is<span class="pagenum">[36]</span>
+it far?' said Lawrence, following half-running, half-hobbling,
+till he came to the stable, where Jem showed him his treasure.
+'And how did you come by it&mdash;honestly?' 'Honestly! to be
+sure I did; I earned it all.' 'Lord bless me, earned it! well,
+I've a great mind to work; but then it's such hot weather,
+besides, grandmother says I'm not strong enough yet for hard
+work; and besides, I know how to coax daddy out of money
+when I want it, so I need not work. But four and sevenpence;
+let's see, what will you do with it all?' 'That's a secret,' said
+Jem, looking great. 'I can guess; I know what I'd do with
+it if it was mine. First, I'd buy pocketfuls of gingerbread;
+then I'd buy ever so many apples and nuts. Don't you love
+nuts? I'd buy nuts enough to last me from this time to
+Christmas, and I'd make little Newton crack 'em for me, for
+that's the worst of nuts, there's the trouble of cracking 'em.'
+'Well, you never deserve to have a nut.' 'But you'll give me
+some of yours,' said Lawrence, in a fawning tone; for he
+thought it easier to coax than to work&mdash;'you'll give me some
+of your good things, won't you?' 'I shall not have any of
+those good things,' said Jem. 'Then, what will you do with
+all your money?' 'Oh, I know very well what to do with
+it; but, as I told you, that's a secret, and I shan't tell it anybody.
+Come now, let's go back and play&mdash;their game's up, I
+daresay.'</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence went back with him, full of curiosity, and out of
+humour with himself and his eightpence. 'If I had four and
+sevenpence,' said he to himself, 'I certainly should be happy!'</p>
+
+<p>The next day, as usual, Jem jumped up before six o'clock
+and went to his work, whilst Lazy Lawrence sauntered about
+without knowing what to do with himself. In the course of
+two days he laid out sixpence of his money in apples and
+gingerbread; and as long as these lasted, he found himself
+well received by his companions; but at length the third day
+he spent his last halfpenny, and when it was gone, unfortunately
+some nuts tempted him very much, but he had no
+money to pay for them; so he ran home to coax his father, as
+he called it.</p>
+
+<p>When he got home he heard his father talking very loud,
+and at first he thought he was drunk; but when he opened
+the kitchen door, he saw that he was not drunk, but angry.</p>
+
+<p>'You lazy dog!' cried he, turning suddenly upon Lawrence,<span class="pagenum">[37]</span>
+and gave him such a violent box on the ear as made the light
+flash from his eyes; 'you lazy dog! See what you've done for
+me&mdash;look!&mdash;look, look, I say!'</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence looked as soon as he came to the use of his
+senses, and with fear, amazement, and remorse beheld at least
+a dozen bottles burst, and the fine Worcestershire cider streaming
+over the floor.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, did not I order you three days ago to carry these
+bottles to the cellar, and did not I charge you to wire the
+corks? answer me, you lazy rascal; did not I?' 'Yes,' said
+Lawrence, scratching his head. 'And why was not it done,
+I ask you?' cried his father, with renewed anger, as another
+bottle burst at the moment. 'What do you stand there for,
+you lazy brat? why don't you move, I say? No, no,' catching
+hold of him, 'I believe you can't move; but I'll make you.'
+And he shook him till Lawrence was so giddy he could not
+stand. 'What had you to think of? What had you to do all
+day long, that you could not carry my cider, my Worcestershire
+cider, to the cellar when I bid you? But go, you'll never be
+good for anything; you are such a lazy rascal&mdash;get out of my
+sight!' So saying, he pushed him, out of the house door, and
+Lawrence sneaked off, seeing that this was no time to make
+his petition for halfpence.</p>
+
+<p>The next day he saw the nuts again, and wishing for them
+more than ever, he went home, in hopes that his father, as he
+said to himself, would be in a better humour. But the cider
+was still fresh in his recollection; and the moment Lawrence
+began to whisper the word 'halfpenny' in his ear, his father
+swore with a loud oath, 'I will not give you a halfpenny, no,
+not a farthing, for a month to come. If you want money, go
+work for it; I've had enough of your laziness&mdash;go work!'</p>
+
+<p>At these terrible words Lawrence burst into tears, and, going
+to the side of a ditch, sat down and cried for an hour; and
+when he had cried till he could cry no more, he exerted himself
+so far as to empty his pockets, to see whether there might not
+happen to be one halfpenny left; and, to his great joy, in the
+farthest corner of his pocket one halfpenny was found. With
+this he proceeded to the fruit-woman's stall. She was busy
+weighing out some plums, so he was obliged to wait; and
+whilst he was waiting he heard some people near him talking
+and laughing very loud.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i006f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i006t.jpg" alt="i006t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>See what you've done for me&mdash;look!&mdash;look, look, I say!</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[39]</span>The fruit-woman's stall was at the gate of an inn yard; and
+peeping through the gate in this yard, Lawrence saw a postilion
+and a stable-boy, about his own size, playing at pitch farthing.
+He stood by watching them for a few minutes. 'I began but
+with one halfpenny,' cried the stable-boy, with an oath, 'and
+now I've got twopence!' added he, jingling the halfpence in his
+waistcoat pocket. Lawrence was moved at the sound, and
+said to himself, 'If <i>I</i> begin with one halfpenny I may end, like
+him, with having twopence; and it is easier to play at pitch
+farthing than to work.'</p>
+
+<p>So he stepped forward, presenting his halfpenny, offering to
+toss up with the stable-boy, who, after looking him full in the
+face, accepted the proposal, and threw his halfpenny into the
+air. 'Head or tail?' cried he. 'Head,' replied Lawrence,
+and it came up head. He seized the penny, surprised at his
+own success, and would have gone instantly to have laid it out
+in nuts; but the stable-boy stopped him, and tempted him to
+throw it again. This time Lawrence lost; he threw again and
+won; and so he went on, sometimes losing, but most frequently
+winning, till half the morning was lost. At last, however,
+finding himself the master of three halfpence, he said he would
+play no more.</p>
+
+<p>The stable-boy, grumbling, swore he would have his
+revenge another time, and Lawrence went and bought his nuts.
+'It is a good thing,' said he to himself, 'to play at pitch
+farthing; the next time I want a halfpenny I'll not ask my
+father for it, nor go to work neither.' Satisfied with this
+resolution, he sat down to crack his nuts at his leisure, upon
+the horse-block in the inn yard. Here, whilst he ate, he
+overheard the conversation of the stable-boys and postilions.
+At first their shocking oaths and loud wrangling frightened
+and shocked him; for Lawrence, though <i>lazy</i>, had not yet
+learned to be a <i>wicked</i> boy. But, by degrees, he was accustomed
+to the swearing and quarrelling, and took a delight and
+interest in their disputes and battles. As this was an amusement
+which he could enjoy without any sort of exertion, he
+soon grew so fond of it, that every day he returned to the
+stable yard, and the horse-block became his constant seat.
+Here he found some relief from the insupportable fatigue of
+doing nothing, and here, hour after hour, with his elbows on
+his knees and his head on his hands, he sat, the spectator of<span class="pagenum">[40]</span>
+wickedness. Gaming, cheating, and lying soon became
+familiar to him; and, to complete his ruin, he formed a sudden
+and close intimacy with the stable-boy (a very bad boy) with
+whom he had first begun to game.</p>
+
+<p>The consequences of this intimacy we shall presently see.
+But it is now time to inquire what little Jem had been doing
+all this while.</p>
+
+<p>One day, after Jem had finished his task, the gardener
+asked him to stay a little while, to help him to carry some
+geranium pots into the hall. Jem, always active and obliging,
+readily stayed from play, and was carrying in a heavy flower
+pot, when his mistress crossed the hall. 'What a terrible
+litter!' said she, 'you are making here&mdash;why don't you wipe
+your shoes upon the mat?' Jem turned to look for the mat,
+but he saw none. 'Oh,' said the lady, recollecting herself, 'I
+can't blame you, for there is no mat.' 'No, ma'am,' said the
+gardener, 'nor I don't know when, if ever, the man will bring
+home those mats you bespoke, ma'am.' 'I am very sorry to
+hear that,' said the lady; 'I wish we could find somebody
+who would do them, if he can't. I should not care what
+sort of mats they were, so that one could wipe one's feet on
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>Jem, as he was sweeping away the litter, when he heard
+these last words, said to himself, 'Perhaps I could make a
+mat.' And all the way home, as he trudged along whistling,
+he was thinking over a scheme for making mats, which,
+however bold it may appear, he did not despair of executing,
+with patience and industry. Many were the difficulties which
+his '<i>prophetic eye</i>' foresaw; but he felt within himself that
+spirit which spurs men on to great enterprises, and makes
+them 'trample on impossibilities.' In the first place, he
+recollected that he had seen Lazy Lawrence, whilst he lounged
+upon the gate, twist a bit of heath into different shapes; and
+he thought that, if he could find some way of plaiting heath
+firmly together, it would make a very pretty green, soft mat,
+which would do very well for one to wipe one's shoes on.
+About a mile from his mother's house, on the common which
+Jem rode over when he went to Farmer Truck's for the giant
+strawberries, he remembered to have seen a great quantity of
+this heath; and, as it was now only six o'clock in the evening,
+he knew that he should have time to feed Lightfoot, stroke<span class="pagenum">[41]</span>
+him, go to the common, return, and make one trial of his
+skill before he went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Lightfoot carried him swiftly to the common, and there
+Jem gathered as much of the heath as he thought he should
+want. But what toil! what time! what pains did it cost him,
+before he could make anything like a mat! Twenty times he
+was ready to throw aside the heath, and give up his project,
+from impatience of repeated disappointments. But still he
+persevered. Nothing <i>truly great</i> can be accomplished without
+toil and time. Two hours he worked before he went to bed.
+All his play hours the next day he spent at his mat; which, in
+all, made five hours of fruitless attempts. The sixth, however,
+repaid him for the labours of the other five. He conquered
+his grand difficulty of fastening the heath substantially together,
+and at length completely finished a mat, which far surpassed
+his most sanguine expectations. He was extremely happy&mdash;sang,
+danced round it&mdash;whistled&mdash;looked at it again and again,
+and could hardly leave off looking at it when it was time to go
+to bed. He laid it by his bedside, that he might see it the
+moment he awoke in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>And now came the grand pleasure of carrying it to his
+mistress. She looked fully as much surprised as he expected,
+when she saw it, and when she heard who made it. After
+having duly admired it, she asked how much he expected for
+his mat. 'Expect!&mdash;Nothing, ma'am,' said Jem; 'I meant
+to give it you, if you'd have it; I did not mean to sell it. I
+made it in my play hours, I was very happy in making it; and
+I'm very glad, too, that you like it; and if you please to keep
+it, ma'am, that's all.' 'But that's not all,' said the lady.
+'Spend your time no more in weeding in my garden, you can
+employ yourself much better; you shall have the reward of
+your ingenuity as well as of your industry. Make as many
+more such mats as you can, and I will take care and dispose
+of them for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank'e, ma'am,' said Jem, making his best bow, for he
+thought by the lady's looks that she meant to do him a favour,
+though he repeated to himself, 'Dispose of them, what does
+that mean?'</p>
+
+<p>The next day he went to work to make more mats, and he
+soon learned to make them so well and quickly, that he was
+surprised at his own success. In every one he made he found<span class="pagenum">[42]</span>
+less difficulty, so that, instead of making two, he could soon
+make four, in a day. In a fortnight he made eighteen.</p>
+
+<p>It was Saturday night when he finished, and he carried, at
+three journeys, his eighteen mats to his mistress's house; piled
+them all up in the hall, and stood with his hat off, with a look
+of proud humility, beside the pile, waiting for his mistress's
+appearance. Presently a folding-door, at one end of the hall,
+opened, and he saw his mistress, with a great many gentlemen
+and ladies, rising from several tables.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! there is my little boy and his mats,' cried the lady;
+and, followed by all the rest of the company, she came into the
+hall. Jem modestly retired whilst they looked at his mats;
+but in a minute or two his mistress beckoned to him, and
+when he came into the middle of the circle, he saw that his
+pile of mats had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said the lady, smiling, 'what do you see that makes
+you look so surprised?' 'That all my mats are gone,' said
+Jem; 'but you are very welcome.' 'Are we?' said the lady,
+'well, take up your hat and go home then, for you see that it
+is getting late, and you know Lightfoot will wonder what's
+become of you.' Jem turned round to take up his hat, which
+he had left on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>But how his countenance changed! the hat was heavy with
+shillings. Every one who had taken a mat had put in two
+shillings; so that for the eighteen mats he had got thirty-six
+shillings. 'Thirty-six shillings,' said the lady; 'five and
+sevenpence I think you told me you had earned already&mdash;how
+much does that make? I must add, I believe, one other
+sixpence to make out your two guineas.'</p>
+
+<p>'Two guineas!' exclaimed Jem, now quite conquering his
+bashfulness, for at the moment he forgot where he was, and
+saw nobody that was by. 'Two guineas!' cried he, clapping
+his hands together,&mdash;'O Lightfoot! O mother!' Then,
+recollecting himself, he saw his mistress, whom he now looked
+up to quite as a friend. 'Will <i>you</i> thank them all?' said he,
+scarcely daring to glance his eyes round upon the company;
+'will <i>you</i> thank 'em, for you knew I don't know how to thank
+'em <i>rightly</i>.' Everybody thought, however, that they had
+been thanked <i>rightly</i>. 'Now we won't keep you any longer,
+only,' said his mistress, 'I have one thing to ask you, that I
+may be by when you show your treasure to your mother.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[43]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Come, then,' said Jem, 'come with me now.' 'Not now,'
+said the lady, laughing; 'but I will come to Ashton to-morrow
+evening; perhaps your mother can find me a few strawberries.'</p>
+
+<p>'That she will,' said Jem; 'I'll search the garden myself.'</p>
+
+<p>He now went home, but felt it a great restraint to wait till
+to-morrow evening before he told his mother. To console
+himself he flew to the stable:&mdash;'Lightfoot, you're not to be
+sold on Monday, poor fellow!' said he, patting him, and then
+could not refrain from counting out his money. Whilst he was
+intent upon this, Jem was startled by a noise at the door:
+somebody was trying to pull up the latch. It opened, and
+there came in Lazy Lawrence, with a boy in a red jacket, who
+had a cock under his arm. They started when they got into
+the middle of the stable, and when they saw Jem, who had
+been at first hidden by the horse.</p>
+
+<p>'We&mdash;we&mdash;we came,' stammered Lazy Lawrence&mdash;'I mean,
+I came to&mdash;to&mdash;to&mdash;&mdash;' 'To ask you,' continued the stable-boy,
+in a bold tone, 'whether you will go with us to the cock-fight
+on Monday? See, I've a fine cock here, and Lawrence
+told me you were a great friend of his; so I came.'</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence now attempted to say something in praise of the
+pleasures of cock-fighting and in recommendation of his new
+companion. But Jem looked at the stable-boy with dislike, and
+a sort of dread. Then turning his eyes upon the cock with a
+look of compassion, said, in a low voice, to Lawrence, 'Shall
+you like to stand by and see its eyes pecked out?' 'I don't
+know,' said Lawrence, 'as to that; but they say a cockfight's
+a fine sight, and it's no more cruel in me to go than
+another; and a great many go, and I've nothing else to do, so
+I shall go.' 'But I have something else to do,' said Jem,
+laughing, 'so I shall not go.' 'But,' continued Lawrence,
+'you know Monday is a great Bristol fair, and one must be
+merry then, of all the days in the year.' 'One day in the
+year, sure, there's no harm in being merry,' said the stable-boy.
+'I hope not,' said Jem; 'for I know, for my part, I am merry
+every day in the year.' 'That's very odd,' said Lawrence;
+'but I know, for my part, I would not for all the world miss
+going to the fair, for at least it will be something to talk of for
+half a year after. Come, you'll go, won't you?' 'No,' said
+Jem, still looking as if he did not like to talk before the ill-looking
+stranger. 'Then what will you do with all your<span class="pagenum">[44]</span>
+money?' 'I'll tell you about that another time,' whispered
+Jem; 'and don't you go to see that cock's eyes pecked out;
+it won't make you merry, I'm sure.' 'If I had anything
+else to divert me,' said Lawrence, hesitating and yawning.
+'Come,' cried the stable-boy, seizing his stretching arm,
+'come along,' cried he; and, pulling him away from Jem,
+upon whom he cast a look of extreme contempt; 'leave him
+alone, he's not the sort.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a fool you are,' said he to Lawrence, the moment he
+got him out of the stable; 'you might have known he would
+not go, else we should soon have trimmed him out of his four
+and sevenpence. But how came you to talk of four and sevenpence?
+I saw in the manger a hat full of silver.' 'Indeed!'
+exclaimed Lawrence. 'Yes, indeed; but why did you
+stammer so when we first got in? You had like to have
+blown us all up.' 'I was so ashamed,' said Lawrence,
+hanging down his head. 'Ashamed! but you must not talk
+of shame now you are in for it, and I shan't let you off; you
+owe us half a crown, recollect, and I must be paid to-night, so
+see and get the money somehow or other.' After a considerable
+pause he added, 'I answer for it he'd never miss half a
+crown out of all that silver.' 'But to steal,' said Lawrence,
+drawing back with horror; 'I never thought I should come to
+that&mdash;and from poor Jem, too&mdash;the money that he has worked
+so hard for, too.' 'But it is not stealing; we don't mean to
+steal; only to borrow it; and if we win, which we certainly
+shall, at the cock-fight, pay it back again, and he'll never know
+anything about the matter, and what harm will it do him?
+Besides, what signifies talking? you can't go to the cock-fight,
+or the fair either, if you don't; and I tell ye we don't mean to
+steal it; we'll pay it by Monday night.'</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence made no reply, and they parted without his
+coming to any determination.</p>
+
+<p>Here let us pause in our story. We are almost afraid to
+go on. The rest is very shocking. Our little readers will
+shudder as they read. But it is better that they should know
+the truth and see what the idle boy came to at last.</p>
+
+<p>In the dead of the night, Lawrence heard somebody tap at
+his window. He knew well who it was, for this was the signal
+agreed upon between him and his wicked companion. He
+trembled at the thoughts of what he was about to do, and lay<span class="pagenum">[45]</span>
+quite still, with his head under the bedclothes, till he heard the
+second tap. Then he got up, dressed himself, and opened his
+window. It was almost even with the ground. His companion
+said to him, in a hollow voice, 'Are you ready?' He
+made no answer, but got out of the window and followed.</p>
+
+<p>When he got to the stable a black cloud was just passing
+over the moon, and it was quite dark. 'Where are you?'
+whispered Lawrence, groping about, 'where are you? Speak
+to me.' 'I am here; give me your hand.' Lawrence
+stretched out his hand. 'Is that your hand?' said the wicked
+boy, as Lawrence laid hold of him; 'how cold it feels.'
+'Let us go back,' said Lawrence; 'it is time yet.' 'It is
+no time to go back,' replied the other, opening the door:
+'you've gone too far now to go back,' and he pushed Lawrence
+into the stable. 'Have you found it? Take care of the
+horse. Have you done? What are you about? Make haste,
+I hear a noise,' said the stable-boy, who watched at the door.
+'I am feeling for the half-crown, but I can't find it.' 'Bring
+all together.' He brought Jem's broken flower-pot, with all
+the money in it, to the door.</p>
+
+<p>The black cloud had now passed over the moon, and the
+light shone full upon them. 'What do we stand here for?'
+said the stable-boy, snatching the flower-pot out of Lawrence's
+trembling hands, and pulled him away from the door.</p>
+
+<p>'Good God!' cried Lawrence, 'you won't take all. You
+said you'd only take half a crown, and pay it back on Monday.
+You said you'd only take half a crown!' 'Hold your tongue,'
+replied the other, walking on, deaf to all remonstrances&mdash;'if
+ever I am to be hanged, it shan't be for half a crown.'</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence's blood ran cold in his veins, and he felt as if
+all his hair stood on end. Not another word passed. His
+accomplice carried off the money, and Lawrence crept, with
+all the horrors of guilt upon him, to his restless bed. All
+night he was starting from frightful dreams; or else, broad
+awake, he lay listening to every small noise, unable to stir,
+and scarcely daring to breathe&mdash;tormented by that most
+dreadful of all kinds of fear, that fear which is the constant
+companion of an evil conscience.</p>
+
+<p>He thought the morning would never come; but when it
+was day, when he heard the birds sing, and saw everything
+look cheerful as usual, he felt still more miserable. It was<span class="pagenum">[46]</span>
+Sunday morning, and the bell rang for church. All the
+children of the village, dressed in their Sunday clothes,
+innocent and gay, and little Jem, the best and gayest amongst
+them, went flocking by his door to church.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Lawrence,' said Jem, pulling his coat as he passed,
+and saw Lawrence leaning against his father's door, 'what
+makes you look so black?' 'I?' said Lawrence, starting;
+'why do you say that I look black?' 'Nay, then,' said Jem,
+'you look white enough now, if that will please you, for you're
+turned as pale as death.' 'Pale!' replied Lawrence, not
+knowing what he said, and turned abruptly away, for he
+dared not stand another look of Jem's; conscious that guilt
+was written in his face, he shunned every eye. He would
+now have given the world to have thrown off the load of guilt
+which lay upon his mind. He longed to follow Jem, to fall
+upon his knees and confess all.</p>
+
+<p>Dreading the moment when Jem should discover his loss,
+Lawrence dared not stay at home, and not knowing what to
+do, or where to go, he mechanically went to his old haunt
+at the stable yard, and lurked thereabouts all day, with his
+accomplice, who tried in vain to quiet his fears and raise his
+spirits by talking of the next day's cock-fight. It was agreed
+that, as soon as the dusk of the evening came on, they should
+go together into a certain lonely field, and there divide their
+booty.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Jem, when he returned from church, was
+very full of business, preparing for the reception of his mistress,
+of whose intended visit he had informed his mother; and
+whilst she was arranging the kitchen and their little parlour,
+he ran to search the strawberry beds.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, my Jem, how merry you are to-day!' said his
+mother, when he came in with the strawberries, and was
+jumping about the room playfully. 'Now, keep those spirits
+of yours, Jem, till you want 'em, and don't let it come upon
+you all at once. Have it in mind that to-morrow's fair day,
+and Lightfoot must go. I bid Farmer Truck call for him
+to-night. He said he'd take him along with his own, and
+he'll be here just now&mdash;and then I know how it will be with
+you, Jem!' 'So do I!' cried Jem, swallowing his secret with
+great difficulty, and then tumbling head over heels four times
+running.<span class="pagenum">[47]</span></p>
+
+<p>A carriage passed the window, and stopped at the door.
+Jem ran out; it was his mistress. She came in smiling, and
+soon made the old woman smile, too, by praising the neatness
+of everything in the house.</p>
+
+<p>We shall pass over, however important as they were deemed
+at the time, the praises of the strawberries, and of 'my grandmother's
+china plate.'</p>
+
+<p>Another knock was heard at the door. 'Run, Jem,' said
+his mother. 'I hope it's our milk-woman with cream for the
+lady.' No; it was Farmer Truck come for Lightfoot. The
+old woman's countenance fell. 'Fetch him out, dear,' said she,
+turning to her son; but Jem was gone; he flew out to the
+stable the moment he saw the flap of Farmer Truck's greatcoat.</p>
+
+<p>'Sit ye down, farmer,' said the old woman, after they had
+waited about five minutes in expectation of Jem's return.
+'You'd best sit down, if the lady will give you leave; for
+he'll not hurry himself back again. My boy's a fool, madam,
+about that there horse.' Trying to laugh, she added, 'I knew
+how Lightfoot and he would be loth enough to part. He
+won't bring him out to the last minute; so do sit ye down,
+neighbour.'</p>
+
+<p>The farmer had scarcely sat down when Jem, with a pale,
+wild countenance, came back. 'What's the matter?' said his
+mistress. 'God bless the boy!' said his mother, looking at
+him quite frightened, whilst he tried to speak but could not.</p>
+
+<p>She went up to him, and then leaning his head against her,
+he cried, 'It's gone!&mdash;it's all gone!' and, bursting into tears,
+he sobbed as if his little heart would break. 'What's gone,
+love?' said his mother. 'My two guineas&mdash;Lightfoot's two
+guineas. I went to fetch 'em to give you, mammy; but the
+broken flower-pot that I put them in and all's gone!&mdash;quite
+gone!' repeated he, checking his sobs. 'I saw them safe last
+night, and was showing 'em to Lightfoot; and I was so glad
+to think I had earned them all myself; and I thought how
+surprised you'd look, and how glad you'd be, and how you'd
+kiss me, and all!'</p>
+
+<p>His mother listened to him with the greatest surprise, whilst
+his mistress stood in silence, looking first at the old woman
+and then at Jem with a penetrating eye, as if she suspected
+the truth of his story, and was afraid of becoming the dupe of
+her own compassion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i007f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i007t.jpg" alt="i007t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God bless the boy!' said his mother.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[49]</span></p>
+
+<p>'This is a very strange thing!' said she gravely. 'How
+came you to leave all your money in a broken flower-pot in
+the stable? How came you not to give it to your mother to
+take care of?' 'Why, don't you remember?' said Jem, looking
+up in the midst of his tears&mdash;'why, don't you remember
+you, your own self, bid me not tell her about it till you were
+by?' 'And did you not tell her?' 'Nay, ask mammy,' said
+Jem, a little offended; and when afterwards the lady went on
+questioning him in a severe manner, as if she did not believe
+him, he at last made no answer. 'O Jem! Jem! why don't
+you speak to the lady?' said his mother. 'I have spoke, and
+spoke the truth,' said Jem proudly; 'and she did not believe me.'</p>
+
+<p>Still the lady, who had lived too long in the world to be
+without suspicion, maintained a cold manner, and determined
+to wait the event without interfering, saying only that she
+hoped the money would be found, and advised Jem to have
+done crying.</p>
+
+<p>'I have done,' said Jem; 'I shall cry no more.' And as
+he had the greatest command over himself, he actually did not
+shed another tear, not even when the farmer got up to go,
+saying he could wait no longer.</p>
+
+<p>Jem silently went to bring out Lightfoot. The lady now
+took her seat, where she could see all that passed at the open
+parlour-window. The old woman stood at the door, and
+several idle people of the village, who had gathered round the
+lady's carriage examining it, turned about to listen. In a
+minute or two Jem appeared, with a steady countenance,
+leading Lightfoot, and, when he came up, without saying a
+word, put the bridle into Farmer Truck's hand. 'He <i>has been</i>
+a good horse,' said the farmer. 'He <i>is</i> a good horse!' cried
+Jem, and threw his arm over Lightfoot's neck, hiding his own
+face as he leaned upon him.</p>
+
+<p>At this instant a party of milk-women went by; and one of
+them, having set down her pail, came behind Jem and gave
+him a pretty smart blow upon the back. He looked up.
+'And don't you know me?' said she. 'I forget,' said Jem;
+'I think I have seen your face before, but I forget.' 'Do you
+so? and you'll tell me just now,' said she, half opening her
+hand, 'that you forget who gave you this, and who charged
+you not to part with it, too.' Here she quite opened her large
+hand, and on the palm of it appeared Jem's silver penny.<span class="pagenum">[50]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Where?' exclaimed Jem, seizing it, 'oh, where did you
+find it? and have you&mdash;oh, tell me, have you got the rest of
+my money?' 'I know nothing of your money&mdash;I don't know
+what you would be at,' said the milk-woman. 'But where&mdash;pray
+tell me where&mdash;did you find this?' 'With them that
+you gave it to, I suppose,' said the milk-woman, turning away
+suddenly to take up her milk-pail. But now Jem's mistress
+called to her through the window, begging her to stop, and
+joining in his entreaties to know how she came by the silver
+penny.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, madam,' said she, taking up the corner of her apron,
+'I came by it in an odd way, too. You must know my Betty
+is sick, so I came with the milk myself, though it's not what
+I'm used to; for my Betty&mdash;you know my Betty?' said she,
+turning round to the old woman, 'my Betty serves you, and
+she's a tight and stirring lassy, ma'am, I can assure&mdash;&mdash;'
+'Yes, I don't doubt it,' said the lady impatiently; 'but about
+the silver penny?' 'Why, that's true; as I was coming along
+all alone, for the rest came round, and I came a short cut
+across yon field&mdash;no, you can't see it, madam, where you stand&mdash;but
+if you were here&mdash;&mdash;' 'I see it&mdash;I know it,' said Jem,
+out of breath with anxiety. 'Well&mdash;well&mdash;I rested my pail
+upon the stile, and sets me down awhile, and there comes out
+of the hedge&mdash;I don't know well how, for they startled me so
+I'd like to have thrown down my milk&mdash;two boys, one about
+the size of he,' said she, pointing to Jem, 'and one a matter
+taller, but ill-looking like; so I did not think to stir to make
+way for them, and they were like in a desperate hurry: so,
+without waiting for the stile, one of 'em pulled at the gate,
+and when it would not open (for it was tied with a pretty stout
+cord) one of 'em whips out with his knife and cuts it&mdash;&mdash;Now,
+have you a knife about you, sir?' continued the milk-woman
+to the farmer. He gave her his knife. 'Here, now, ma'am,
+just sticking, as it were here, between the blade and the haft,
+was the silver penny. The lad took no notice; but when he
+opened it, out it falls. Still he takes no heed, but cuts the
+cord, as I said before, and through the gate they went, and
+out of sight in half a minute. I picks up the penny, for my
+heart misgave me that it was the very one my husband had had
+a long time, and had given against my voice to he,' pointing
+to Jem; 'and I charged him not to part with it; and, ma'am,<span class="pagenum">[51]</span>
+when I looked I knew it by the mark, so I thought I would
+show it to <i>he</i>,' again pointing to Jem, 'and let him give it
+back to those it belongs to.' 'It belongs to me,' said Jem, 'I
+never gave it to anybody&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;' 'But,' cried the farmer,
+'those boys have robbed him; it is they who have all his
+money.' 'Oh, which way did they go?' cried Jem, 'I'll run
+after them.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' said the lady, calling to her servant; and she
+desired him to take his horse and ride after them. 'Ay,'
+added Farmer Truck, 'do you take the road, and I'll take the
+field way, and I'll be bound we'll have 'em presently.'</p>
+
+<p>Whilst they were gone in pursuit of the thieves, the lady,
+who was now thoroughly convinced of Jem's truth, desired her
+coachman would produce what she had ordered him to bring
+with him that evening. Out of the boot of the carriage the
+coachman immediately produced a new saddle and bridle.</p>
+
+<p>How Jem's eyes sparkled when the saddle was thrown
+upon Lightfoot's back! 'Put it on your horse yourself, Jem,'
+said the lady; 'it is yours.'</p>
+
+<p>Confused reports of Lightfoot's splendid accoutrements, of
+the pursuit of thieves, and of the fine and generous lady who
+was standing at dame Preston's window, quickly spread through
+the village, and drew everybody from their houses. They
+crowded round Jem to hear the story. The children especially,
+who were fond of him, expressed the strongest indignation
+against the thieves. Every eye was on the stretch; and now
+some, who had run down the lane, came back shouting, 'Here
+they are! they've got the thieves!'</p>
+
+<p>The footman on horseback carried one boy before him;
+and the farmer, striding along, dragged another. The latter
+had on a red jacket, which little Jem immediately recollected,
+and scarcely dared lift his eyes to look at the boy on horseback.
+'Good God!' said he to himself, 'it must be&mdash;yet
+surely it can't be Lawrence!' The footman rode on as fast
+as the people would let him. The boy's hat was slouched,
+and his head hung down, so that nobody could see his face.</p>
+
+<p>At this instant there was a disturbance in the crowd. A
+man who was half-drunk pushed his way forwards, swearing
+that nobody should stop him; that he had a right to see&mdash;and
+he <i>would</i> see. And so he did; for, forcing through all
+resistance, he staggered up to the footman just as he was lifting<span class="pagenum">[52]</span>
+down the boy he had carried before him. 'I <i>will</i>&mdash;I tell
+you I <i>will</i> see the thief!' cried the drunken man, pushing up
+the boy's hat. It was his own son. 'Lawrence!' exclaimed
+the wretched father. The shock sobered him at once, and he
+hid his face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>There was an awful silence. Lawrence fell on his knees,
+and in a voice that could scarcely be heard made a full confession
+of all the circumstances of his guilt.</p>
+
+<p>'Such a young creature so wicked!' the bystanders exclaimed;
+'what could put such wickedness in your head?' 'Bad
+company,' said Lawrence. 'And how came you&mdash;what brought
+you into bad company?' 'I don't know, except it was idleness.'</p>
+
+<p>While this was saying, the farmer was emptying Lazy
+Lawrence's pockets; and when the money appeared, all his
+former companions in the village looked at each other with
+astonishment and terror. Their parents grasped their little
+hands closer, and cried, 'Thank God! he is not my son.
+How often when he was little we used, as he lounged about,
+to tell him that idleness was the root of all evil.'</p>
+
+<p>As for the hardened wretch, his accomplice, every one was
+impatient to have him sent to gaol. He put on a bold, insolent
+countenance, till he heard Lawrence's confession; till the
+money was found upon him; and he heard the milk-woman
+declare that she would swear to the silver penny which he had
+dropped. Then he turned pale, and betrayed the strongest
+signs of fear.</p>
+
+<p>'We must take him before the justice,' said the farmer,
+'and he'll be lodged in Bristol gaol.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' said Jem, springing forwards when Lawrence's hands
+were going to be tied, 'let him go&mdash;won't you?&mdash;can't you let
+him go?' 'Yes, madam, for mercy's sake,' said Jem's mother
+to the lady; 'think what a disgrace to his family to be sent to
+gaol.'</p>
+
+<p>His father stood by wringing his hands in an agony of
+despair. 'It's all my fault,' cried he; 'brought him up in
+<i>idleness</i>.' 'But he'll never be idle any more,' said Jem; 'won't
+you speak for him, ma'am?' 'Don't ask the lady to speak
+for him,' said the farmer; 'it's better he should go to Bridewell
+now, than to the gallows by and by.'</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more was said; for everybody felt the truth of the
+farmer's speech.<span class="pagenum">[53]</span></p>
+
+<p>Lawrence was eventually sent to Bridewell for a month,
+and the stable-boy was sent for trial, convicted, and transported
+to Botany Bay.</p>
+
+<p>During Lawrence's confinement, Jem often visited him,
+and carried him such little presents as he could afford to give;
+and Jem could afford to be <i>generous</i>, because he was <i>industrious</i>.
+Lawrence's heart was touched by his kindness, and his example
+struck him so forcibly that, when his confinement was ended,
+he resolved to set immediately to work; and, to the astonishment
+of all who knew him, soon became remarkable for
+industry. He was found early and late at his work, established
+a new character, and for ever lost the name of '<i>Lazy Lawrence</i>.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[55]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_FALSE_KEY" id="THE_FALSE_KEY"></a>THE FALSE KEY</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Mr. Spencer</span>, a very benevolent and sensible man, undertook
+the education of several poor children. Among the best was
+a boy of the name of Franklin, whom he had bred up from
+the time he was five years old. Franklin had the misfortune
+to be the son of a man of infamous character; and for many
+years this was a disgrace and reproach to his child. When
+any of the neighbours' children quarrelled with him, they used
+to tell him that he would turn out like his father. But Mr.
+Spencer always assured him that he might make himself whatever
+he pleased; that by behaving well he would certainly,
+sooner or later, secure the esteem and love of all who knew
+him, even of those who had the strongest prejudice against
+him on his father's account.</p>
+
+<p>This hope was very delightful to Franklin, and he showed
+the strongest desire to learn and to do everything that was
+right; so that Mr. Spencer soon grew fond of him, and took
+great pains to instruct him, and to give him all the good habits
+and principles which might make him a useful, respectable,
+and happy man.</p>
+
+<p>When he was about thirteen years of age, Mr. Spencer one
+day sent for him into his closet; and as he was folding up a
+letter which he had been writing, said to him, with a very kind
+look, but in a graver tone than usual, 'Franklin, you are going
+to leave me.' 'Sir!' said Franklin. 'You are now going to
+leave me, and to begin the world for yourself. You will carry
+this letter to my sister, Mrs. Churchill, in Queen's Square.
+You know Queen's Square?' Franklin bowed. 'You must
+expect,' continued Mr. Spencer, 'to meet with several disagreeable
+things, and a great deal of rough work, at your first
+setting out; but be faithful and obedient to your mistress, and<span class="pagenum">[56]</span>
+obliging to your fellow-servants, and all will go well. Mrs.
+Churchill will make you a very good mistress, if you behave
+properly; and I have no doubt but you will.' 'Thank you,
+sir.' 'And you will always&mdash;I mean, as long as you deserve
+it&mdash;find a friend in me.' 'Thank you, sir&mdash;I am sure you
+are&mdash;&mdash;' There Franklin stopped short, for the recollection
+of all Mr. Spencer's goodness rushed upon him at once, and
+he could not say another word. 'Bring me a candle to seal
+this letter,' said his master; and he was very glad to get out
+of the room. He came back with the candle, and, with a
+stout heart, stood by whilst the letter was sealing; and, when
+his master put it into his hand, said, in a cheerful voice, 'I
+hope you will let me see you again, sir, sometimes.' 'Certainly;
+whenever your mistress can spare you, I shall be very glad to
+see you; and remember, if ever you get into any difficulty,
+don't be afraid to come to me. I have sometimes spoken
+harshly to you; but you will not meet with a more indulgent
+friend.' Franklin at this turned away with a full heart; and,
+after making two or three attempts to express his gratitude,
+left the room without being able to speak.</p>
+
+<p>He got to Queen's Square about three o'clock. The door
+was opened by a large, red-faced man, in a blue coat and
+scarlet waistcoat, to whom he felt afraid to give his message,
+lest he should not be a servant. 'Well, what's your business,
+sir?' said the butler. 'I have a letter for Mrs. Churchill, <i>sir</i>,'
+said Franklin, endeavouring to pronounce his <i>sir</i> in a tone as
+respectful as the butler's was insolent.</p>
+
+<p>The man, having examined the direction, seal, and edges of
+the letter, carried it upstairs, and in a few minutes returned,
+and ordered Franklin to rub his shoes well and follow him.
+He was then shown into a handsome room, where he found
+his mistress&mdash;an elderly lady. She asked him a few questions,
+examining him attentively as she spoke; and her severe eye
+at first and her gracious smile afterwards, made him feel that
+she was a person to be both loved and feared. 'I shall give
+you in charge,' said she, ringing a bell, 'to my housekeeper,
+and I hope she will have no reason to be displeased with you.'</p>
+
+<p>The housekeeper, when she first came in, appeared with a
+smiling countenance; but the moment she cast her eyes on
+Franklin, it changed to a look of surprise and suspicion. Her
+mistress recommended him to her protection, saying, 'Pomfret,<span class="pagenum">[57]</span>
+I hope you will keep this boy under your own eye.' And she
+received him with a cold 'Very well, ma'am,' which plainly
+showed that she was not disposed to like him. In fact, Mrs.
+Pomfret was a woman so fond of power, and so jealous of
+favour, that she would have quarrelled with an angel who had
+got so near her mistress without her introduction. She
+smothered her displeasure, however, till night; when, as she
+attended her mistress's toilette, she could not refrain from expressing
+her sentiments. She began cautiously: 'Ma'am, is
+not this the boy Mr. Spencer was talking of one day&mdash;that
+has been brought up by the <i>Villaintropic Society</i>, I think they
+call it?'&mdash;'Philanthropic Society; yes,' said her mistress;
+'and my brother gives him a high character: I hope he will
+do very well.' 'I'm sure I hope so too,' observed Mrs.
+Pomfret; 'but I can't say; for my part, I've no great notion
+of those low people. They say all those children are taken
+from the very lowest <i>drugs</i> and <i>refuges</i> of the town, and surely
+they are like enough, ma'am, to take after their own fathers
+and mothers.' 'But they are not suffered to be with their
+parents,' rejoined the lady; 'and therefore cannot be hurt by
+their example. This little boy, to be sure, was unfortunate in
+his father, but he has had an excellent education.' 'Oh,
+<i>edication</i>! to be sure, ma'am, I know. I don't say but what
+<i>edication</i> is a great thing. But then, ma'am, <i>edication</i> can't
+change the <i>natur</i> that's in one, they say; and one that's born
+naturally bad and low, they say, all the <i>edication</i> in the world
+won't do no good; and, for my part, ma'am, I know you
+knows best; but I should be afraid to let any of those <i>Villaintropic</i>
+folks get into my house; for nobody can tell the <i>natur</i>
+of them aforehand. I declare it frights me.' 'Pomfret, I
+thought you had better sense: how would this poor boy earn
+his bread? he would be forced to starve or steal, if everybody
+had such prejudices.'</p>
+
+<p>Pomfret, who really was a good woman, was softened at
+this idea, and said, 'God forbid he should starve or steal, and
+God forbid I should say anything <i>prejudiciary</i> of the boy;
+for there may be no harm in him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Mrs. Churchill, changing her tone, 'but,
+Pomfret, if we don't like the boy at the end of the month, we
+have done with him; for I have only promised Mr. Spencer to
+keep him a month upon trial: there is no harm done.' 'Dear,<span class="pagenum">[58]</span>
+no, ma'am, to be sure; and cook must put up with her
+disappointment, that's all.' 'What disappointment?' 'About
+her nephew, ma'am; the boy she and I was speaking to you
+for.' 'When?' 'The day you called her up about the
+almond pudding, ma'am. If you remember, you said you
+should have no objections to try the boy; and upon that cook
+bought him new shirts; but they are to the good, as I tell
+her.' 'But I did not promise to take her nephew.' 'Oh no,
+ma'am, not at all; she does not think to <i>say that</i>, else I
+should be very angry; but the poor woman never let fall a
+word, any more than frets that the boy should miss such a
+good place.' 'Well, but since I did say that I should have no
+objection to try him, I shall keep my word; let him come
+to-morrow. Let them both have a fair trial, and at the end of
+the month I can decide which I like best, and which we had
+better keep.'</p>
+
+<p>Dismissed with these orders, Mrs. Pomfret hastened to
+report all that had passed to the cook, like a favourite minister,
+proud to display the extent of her secret influence. In the
+morning Felix, the cook's nephew, arrived; and, the moment
+he came into the kitchen, every eye, even the scullion's, was
+fixed upon him with approbation, and afterwards glanced upon
+Franklin with contempt&mdash;contempt which Franklin could not
+endure without some confusion, though quite unconscious of
+having deserved it; nor, upon the most impartial and cool
+self-examination, could he comprehend the justice of his
+judges. He perceived indeed&mdash;for the comparisons were
+minutely made in audible and scornful whispers&mdash;that Felix
+was a much handsomer, or as the kitchen maid expressed it,
+a much more genteeler gentlemanly looking like sort of person
+than he was; and he was made to understand that he wanted
+a frill to his shirt, a cravat, a pair of thin shoes, and, above
+all, shoe-strings, besides other nameless advantages, which
+justly made his rival the admiration of the kitchen. However,
+upon calling to mind all that his friend Mr. Spencer had ever
+said to him, he could not recollect his having warned him that
+shoe-strings were indispensable requisites to the character of
+a good servant; so that he could only comfort himself with
+resolving, if possible, to make amends for these deficiencies,
+and to dissipate the prejudices which he saw were formed
+against him, by the strictest adherence to all that his tutor<span class="pagenum">[59]</span>
+had taught him to be his duty. He hoped to secure the
+approbation of his mistress by scrupulous obedience to all
+her commands, and faithful care of all that belonged to her.
+At the same time he flattered himself he should win the
+goodwill of his fellow-servants by showing a constant desire to
+oblige them. He pursued this plan of conduct steadily for
+nearly three weeks, and found that he succeeded beyond his expectations
+in pleasing his mistress; but unfortunately he found
+it more difficult to please his fellow-servants, and he sometimes
+offended when he least expected it. He had made great
+progress in the affections of Corkscrew, the butler, by working
+indeed very hard for him, and doing every day at least half
+his business. But one unfortunate night the butler was gone
+out; the bell rang: he went upstairs; and his mistress asking
+where Corkscrew was, he answered that he was gone out.
+'Where to?' said his mistress. 'I don't know,' answered
+Franklin. And, as he had told exactly the truth, and meant
+to do no harm, he was surprised, at the butler's return, when
+he repeated to him what had passed, at receiving a sudden
+box on the ear, and the appellation of a mischievous, impertinent,
+mean-spirited brat.</p>
+
+<p>'Mischievous, impertinent, mean!' repeated Franklin to
+himself; but, looking in the butler's face, which was a deeper
+scarlet than usual, he judged that he was far from sober, and
+did not doubt but that the next morning, when he came to the
+use of his reason, he would be sensible of his injustice, and
+apologise for his box of the ear. But no apology coming all
+day, Franklin at last ventured to request an explanation, or
+rather, to ask what he had best do on the next occasion.
+'Why,' said Corkscrew, 'when mistress asked for me, how
+came you to say I was gone out?' 'Because, you know, I
+saw you go out.' 'And when she asked you where I was
+gone, how came you to say that you did not know?'
+'Because, indeed, I did not.' 'You are a stupid blockhead!
+could you not say I was gone to the washerwoman's?' 'But
+<i>were</i> you?' said Franklin. 'Was I?' cried Corkscrew, and
+looked as if he would have struck him again: 'how dare you
+give me the lie, Mr. Hypocrite? You would be ready enough,
+I'll be bound, to make excuses for yourself. Why are not
+mistress's clogs cleaned? Go along and blacken 'em, this
+minute, and send Felix to me.'<span class="pagenum">[60]</span></p>
+
+<p>From this time forward Felix alone was privileged to enter
+the butler's pantry. Felix became the favourite of Corkscrew;
+and, though Franklin by no means sought to pry into the
+mysteries of their private conferences, nor ever entered without
+knocking at the door, yet it was his fate once to be sent of a
+message at an unlucky time; and, as the door was half-open,
+he could not avoid seeing Felix drinking a bumper of red
+liquor, which he could not help suspecting to be wine; and,
+as the decanter, which usually went upstairs after dinner, was
+at this time in the butler's grasp, without any stopper in it, he
+was involuntarily forced to suspect they were drinking his
+mistress's wine.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were the bumpers of port the only unlawful rewards
+which Felix received: his aunt, the cook, had occasion for his
+assistance, and she had many delicious <i>douceurs</i> in her gift.
+Many a handful of currants, many a half-custard, many a
+triangular remnant of pie, besides the choice of his own meal
+at breakfast, dinner, and supper, fell to the share of the
+favourite Felix; whilst Franklin was neglected, though he
+took the utmost pains to please the cook in all honourable
+service, and, when she was hot, angry, or hurried, he was
+always at hand to help her; and in the hour of adversity,
+when the clock struck five, and no dinner was dished, and no
+kitchen-maid with twenty pair of hands was to be had,
+Franklin would answer to her call, with flowers to garnish her
+dishes, and presence of mind to know, in the midst of the
+commotion, where everything that was wanting was to be
+found; so that, quick as lightning, all difficulties vanished
+before him. Yet when the danger was over, and the hour
+of adversity had passed, the ungrateful cook would forget her
+benefactor, and, when it came to his supper time, would throw
+him, with a carelessness that touched him sensibly, anything
+which the other servants were too nice to eat. All this
+Franklin bore with fortitude; nor did he envy Felix the
+dainties which he ate, sometimes close beside him: 'For,'
+said he to himself, 'I have a clear conscience, and that is
+more than Felix can have. I know how he wins cook's
+favour too well, and I fancy I know how I have offended her;
+for since the day I saw the basket, she has done nothing but
+huff me.'</p>
+
+<p>The history of the basket was this. Mrs. Pomfret, the<span class="pagenum">[61]</span>
+housekeeper, had several times, directly and indirectly, given
+the world below to understand that she and her mistress
+thought there was a prodigious quantity of meat eaten of late.
+Now, when she spoke, it was usually at dinner time; she
+always looked, or Franklin imagined that she looked, suspiciously
+at him. Other people looked more maliciously; but,
+as he felt himself perfectly innocent, he went on eating his
+dinner in silence.</p>
+
+<p>But at length it was time to explain. One Sunday there
+appeared a handsome sirloin of beef, which before noon on
+Monday had shrunk almost to the bare bone, and presented
+such a deplorable spectacle to the opening eyes of Mrs.
+Pomfret that her long-smothered indignation burst forth, and
+she boldly declared she was now certain there had been foul
+play, and she would have the beef found, or she would know
+why. She spoke, but no beef appeared, till Franklin, with a
+look of sudden recollection, cried, 'Did not I see something
+like a piece of beef in a basket in the dairy?&mdash;I think&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>The cook, as if somebody had smote her a deadly blow,
+grew pale; but, suddenly recovering the use of her speech,
+turned upon Franklin, and, with a voice of thunder, gave him
+the lie direct; and forthwith, taking Mrs. Pomfret by the ruffle,
+led the way to the dairy, declaring she could defy the world&mdash;'that
+so she could, and would.' 'There, ma'am,' said she
+kicking an empty basket which lay on the floor&mdash;'there's
+malice for you. Ask him why he don't show you the beef in
+the basket.' 'I thought I saw&mdash;&mdash;' poor Franklin began.
+'You thought you saw!' cried the cook, coming close up to
+him with kimboed arms, and looking like a dragon; 'and
+pray, sir, what business has such a one as you to think you
+see? And pray, ma'am, will you be pleased to speak&mdash;perhaps,
+ma'am, he'll condescend to obey you&mdash;ma'am, will
+you be pleased to forbid him my dairy? for here he comes
+prying and spying about; and how, ma'am, am I to answer
+for my butter and cream, or anything at all? I'm sure it's
+what I can't pretend to, unless you do me the justice to forbid
+him my places.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Pomfret, whose eyes were blinded by her prejudices
+against the folks of the <i>Villaintropic Society</i>, and also by her
+secret jealousy of a boy whom she deemed to be a growing
+favourite of her mistress's, took part with the cook, and ended,<span class="pagenum">[62]</span>
+as she began, with a firm persuasion that Franklin was the
+guilty person. 'Let him alone, let him alone!' said she, 'he
+has as many turns and windings as a hare; but we shall catch
+him yet, I'll be bound, in some of his doublings. I knew the
+nature of him well enough, from the first time I ever set my
+eyes upon him; but mistress shall have her own way, and see
+the end of it.'</p>
+
+<p>These words, and the bitter sense of injustice, drew tears at
+length fast down the proud cheek of Franklin, which might
+possibly have touched Mrs. Pomfret, if Felix, with a sneer, had
+not called them <i>crocodile tears</i>. 'Felix, too!' thought he;
+'this is too much.' In fact, Felix had till now professed himself
+his firm ally, and had on his part received from Franklin
+unequivocal proofs of friendship; for it must be told that every
+other morning, when it was Felix's turn to get breakfast, Felix
+never was up in decent time, and must inevitably have come
+to public disgrace if Franklin had not got all the breakfast
+things ready for him, the bread and butter spread, and the
+toast toasted; and had not, moreover, regularly, when the
+clock struck eight, and Mrs. Pomfret's foot was heard overhead,
+run to call the sleeping Felix, and helped him constantly
+through the hurry of getting dressed one instant before the
+housekeeper came downstairs. All this could not but be
+present to his memory; but, scorning to reproach him,
+Franklin wiped away his crocodile tears, and preserved a
+magnanimous silence.</p>
+
+<p>The hour of retribution was; however, not so far off as Felix
+imagined. Cunning people may go on cleverly in their devices
+for some time; but although they may escape once, twice,
+perhaps ninety-nine times, what does that signify?&mdash;for the
+hundredth time they come to shame, and lose all their character.
+Grown bold by frequent success, Felix became more careless
+in his operations; and it happened that one day he met his
+mistress full in the passage, as he was going on one of the
+cook's secret errands. 'Where are you going, Felix?' said
+his mistress. 'To the washerwoman's, ma'am,' answered he,
+with his usual effrontery. 'Very well,' said she. 'Call at the
+bookseller's in&mdash;stay, I must write down the direction.
+Pomfret,' said she, opening the housekeeper's room door.
+'have you a bit of paper?' Pomfret came with the writing-paper,
+and looked very angry to see that Felix was going out<span class="pagenum">[63]</span>
+without her knowledge; so, while Mrs. Churchill was writing
+the direction, she stood talking to him about it; whilst he, in
+the greatest terror imaginable, looked up in her face as she
+spoke; but was all the time intent on parrying on the other
+side the attacks of a little French dog of his mistress's, which,
+unluckily for him, had followed her into the passage. Manchon
+was extremely fond of Felix, who, by way of pleasing his
+mistress, had paid most assiduous court to her dog; yet now
+his caresses were rather troublesome. Manchon leaped up,
+and was not to be rebuffed. 'Poor fellow&mdash;poor fellow&mdash;down!
+down! poor fellow!' cried Felix, and put him away. But
+Manchon leaped up again, and began smelling near the fatal
+pocket in a most alarming manner. 'You will see by this
+direction where you are to go,' said his mistress. 'Manchon,
+come here&mdash;and you will be so good as to bring me&mdash;down!
+down! Manchon, be quiet!' But Manchon knew better&mdash;he
+had now got his head into Felix's pocket, and would not
+be quiet till he had drawn from thence, rustling out of its brown
+paper, half a cold turkey, which had been missing since morning.
+'My cold turkey, as I'm alive!' exclaimed the housekeeper,
+darting upon it with horror and amazement. 'What
+is all this?' said Mrs. Churchill, in a composed voice. 'I
+don't know, ma'am,' answered Felix, so confused that he knew
+not what to say; 'but&mdash;&mdash;' 'But what?' cried Mrs. Pomfret,
+indignation flashing from her eyes. 'But what?' repeated
+his mistress, waiting for his reply with a calm air of attention,
+which still more disconcerted Felix; for, though with an angry
+person he might have some chance of escape, he knew that he
+could not invent any excuse in such circumstances, which could
+stand the examination of a person in her sober senses. He
+was struck dumb. 'Speak,' said Mrs. Churchill, in a still
+lower tone; 'I am ready to hear all you have to say. In my
+house everybody shall have justice; speak&mdash;but what?'
+'<i>But</i>,' stammered Felix; and, after in vain attempting to
+equivocate, confessed that he was going to take the turkey to
+his cousin's; but he threw all the blame upon his aunt, the
+cook, who, he said, had ordered him upon this expedition.</p>
+
+<p>The cook was now summoned; but she totally denied all
+knowledge of the affair, with the same violence with which she
+had lately confounded Franklin about the beef in the basket;
+not entirely, however, with the same success; for Felix, perceiving<span class="pagenum">[64]</span>
+by his mistress's eye that she was on the point of
+desiring him to leave the house immediately; and not being
+very willing to leave a place in which he had lived so well with
+the butler, did not hesitate to confront his aunt with assurance
+equal to her own. He knew how to bring his charge home to
+her. He produced a note in her own handwriting, the purport
+of which was to request her cousin's acceptance of 'some
+<i>delicate cold turkey</i>,' and to beg she would send her, by the
+return of the bearer, a little of her cherry-brandy.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Churchill coolly wrote upon the back of the note her
+cook's discharge, and informed Felix she had no further
+occasion for his services, but, upon his pleading with many
+tears, which Franklin did not call <i>crocodile tears</i>, that he was
+so young, that he was under the dominion of his aunt, he
+touched Mrs. Pomfret's compassion, and she obtained for him
+permission to stay till the end of the month, to give him yet
+a chance of redeeming his character.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Pomfret, now seeing how far she had been imposed
+upon, resolved, for the future, to be more upon her guard with
+Felix, and felt that she had treated Franklin with great injustice,
+when she accused him of malpractices about the sirloin of
+beef.</p>
+
+<p>Good people, when they are made sensible that they have
+treated any one with injustice, are impatient to have an opportunity
+to rectify their mistake; and Mrs. Pomfret was now
+prepared to see everything which Franklin did in the most
+favourable point of view; especially as the next day she
+discovered that it was he who every morning boiled the water
+for her tea, and buttered her toast&mdash;services for which she had
+always thought she was indebted to Felix. Besides, she had
+rated Felix's abilities very highly, because he made up her
+weekly accounts for her; but unluckily once, when Franklin
+was out of the way, and she brought a bill in a hurry to her
+favourite to cast up, she discovered that he did not know how
+to cast up pounds, shillings, and pence, and he was obliged to
+confess that she must wait till Franklin came home.</p>
+
+<p>But, passing over a number of small incidents which
+gradually unfolded the character of the two boys, we must
+proceed to a more serious affair.</p>
+
+<p>Corkscrew frequently, after he had finished taking away
+supper, and after the housekeeper was gone to bed, sallied forth<span class="pagenum">[65]</span>
+to a neighbouring alehouse to drink with his friends. The alehouse
+was kept by that cousin of Felix's who was so fond of
+'<i>delicate</i> cold turkey,' and who had such choice cherry-brandy.
+Corkscrew kept the key of the house door, so that he could
+return home whenever he thought proper; and, if he should
+by accident be called for by his mistress after supper, Felix
+knew where to find him, and did not scruple to make any of
+those excuses which poor Franklin had too much integrity
+to use.</p>
+
+<p>All these precautions taken, the butler was at liberty to
+indulge his favourite passion, which so increased with indulgence
+that his wages were by no means sufficient to support
+him in this way of life. Every day he felt less resolution to
+break through his bad habits; for every day drinking became
+more necessary to him. His health was ruined. With a red,
+pimpled, bloated face, emaciated legs, and a swelled, diseased
+body, he appeared the victim of intoxication. In the morning,
+when he got up, his hands trembled, his spirits flagged, he
+could do nothing until he had taken a dram&mdash;an operation
+which he was obliged to repeat several times in the course of
+the day, as all those wretched people <i>must</i> who once acquire
+this habit.</p>
+
+<p>He had run up a long bill at the alehouse which he frequented;
+and the landlord, who grew urgent for his money,
+refused to give further credit.</p>
+
+<p>One night, when Corkscrew had drunk enough only to
+make him fretful, he leaned with his elbow surlily upon the
+table, began to quarrel with the landlord, and swore that he
+had not of late treated him like a gentleman. To which the
+landlord coolly replied, 'That as long as he had paid like a
+gentleman, he had been treated like one, and <i>that</i> was as much
+as any one could expect, or, at any rate, as much as any one
+would meet with in this world.' For the truth of this assertion
+he appealed, laughing, to a party of men who were drinking in
+the room. The men, however, took part with Corkscrew, and,
+drawing him over to their table, made him sit down with them.
+They were in high good-humour, and the butler soon grew so
+intimate with them that, in the openness of his heart, he soon
+communicated to them not only all his own affairs, but all that
+he knew, and more than all that he knew, of his mistress's.</p>
+
+<p>His new friends were by no means uninterested by his conversation,<span class="pagenum">[66]</span>
+and encouraged him as much as possible to talk;
+for they had secret views, which the butler was by no means
+sufficiently sober to discover.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Churchill had some fine old family plate; and these
+men belonged to a gang of housebreakers. Before they parted
+with Corkscrew, they engaged him to meet them again the
+next night; their intimacy was still more closely cemented.
+One of the men actually offered to lend Corkscrew three guineas
+towards the payment of his debt, and hinted that, if he thought
+proper, he could easily get the whole cleared off. Upon this
+hint, Corkscrew became all attention, till, after some hesitation
+on their part, and repeated promises of secrecy on his, they
+at length disclosed their plans to him. They gave him to
+understand that, if he would assist in letting them into his
+mistress's house, they would let him have an ample share in
+the booty. The butler, who had the reputation of being an
+honest man, and indeed whose integrity had hitherto been
+proof against everything but his mistress's port, turned pale
+and trembled at this proposal, drank two or three bumpers to
+drown thought, and promised to give an answer the next day.</p>
+
+<p>He went home more than half-intoxicated. His mind was
+so full of what had passed, that he could not help bragging to
+Felix, whom he found awake at his return, that he could have
+his bill paid off at the alehouse whenever he pleased; dropping,
+besides, some hints which were not lost upon Felix.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Felix reminded him of the things which he
+had said; and Corkscrew, alarmed, endeavoured to evade his
+questions by saying that he was not in his senses when he
+talked in that manner. Nothing, however, that he could urge
+made any impression upon Felix, whose recollection on the
+subject was perfectly distinct, and who had too much cunning
+himself, and too little confidence in his companion, to be the
+dupe of his dissimulation. The butler knew not what to do
+when he saw that Felix was absolutely determined either to
+betray their scheme or to become a sharer in the booty.</p>
+
+<p>The next night came, and he was now to make a final
+decision; either to determine on breaking off entirely with his
+new acquaintances, or taking Felix with him to join in the
+plot.</p>
+
+<p>His debt, his love of drinking, the impossibility of indulging
+it without a fresh supply of money, all came into his mind at<span class="pagenum">[67]</span>
+once and conquered his remaining scruples. It is said by
+those whose fatal experience gives them a right to be believed,
+that a drunkard will sacrifice anything, everything, sooner than
+the pleasure of habitual intoxication.</p>
+
+<p>How much easier is it never to begin a bad custom than to
+break through it when once formed!</p>
+
+<p>The hour of rendezvous came, and Corkscrew went to the
+alehouse, where he found the housebreakers waiting for him,
+and a glass of brandy ready poured out. He sighed&mdash;drank&mdash;hesitated&mdash;drank
+again&mdash;heard the landlord talk of his bill,
+saw the money produced which would pay it in a moment&mdash;drank
+again&mdash;cursed himself, and, giving his hand to the villain
+who was whispering in his ear, swore that he could not help it,
+and must do as they would have him. They required of him
+to give up the key of the house door, that they might get
+another made by it. He had left it with Felix, and was now
+obliged to explain the new difficulty which had arisen. Felix
+knew enough to ruin them, and must therefore be won over.
+This was no very difficult task; he had a strong desire to have
+some worked cravats, and the butler knew enough of him to
+believe that this would be a sufficient bribe. The cravats were
+bought and shown to Felix. He thought them the only things
+wanting to make him a complete fine gentleman; and to go
+without them, especially when he had once seen himself in the
+glass with one tied on in a splendid bow, appeared impossible.
+Even this paltry temptation, working upon his vanity, at length
+prevailed with a boy whose integrity had long been corrupted
+by the habits of petty pilfering and daily falsehood.
+It was agreed that, the first time his mistress sent him out on
+a message, he should carry the key of the house door to his
+cousin's, and deliver it into the hands of one of the gang, who
+were there in waiting for it. Such was the scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Felix, the night after all this had been planned, went to bed
+and fell fast asleep; but the butler, who had not yet stifled the
+voice of conscience, felt, in the silence of the night, so insupportably
+miserable that, instead of going to rest, he stole
+softly into the pantry for a bottle of his mistress's wine, and
+there drinking glass after glass, he stayed till he became so far
+intoxicated that, though he contrived to find his way back to
+bed, he could by no means undress himself. Without any
+power of recollection, he flung himself upon the bed, leaving<span class="pagenum">[68]</span>
+his candle half hanging out of the candlestick beside him.
+Franklin slept in the next room to him, and presently awaking,
+thought he perceived a strong smell of something burning. He
+jumped up, and seeing a light under the butler's door, gently
+opened it, and, to his astonishment, beheld one of the bed
+curtains in flames. He immediately ran to the butler, and
+pulled him with all his force to rouse him from his lethargy.
+He came to his senses at length, but was so terrified and so
+helpless that, if it had not been for Franklin, the whole house
+would soon inevitably have been on fire. Felix, trembling
+and cowardly, knew not what to do; and it was curious to see
+him obeying Franklin, whose turn it now was to command.
+Franklin ran upstairs to awaken Mrs. Pomfret, whose terror of
+fire was so great that she came from her room almost out of
+her senses, whilst he, with the greatest presence of mind,
+recollected where he had seen two large tubs of water, which
+the maids had prepared the night before for their washing, and
+seizing the wet linen which had been left to soak, he threw them
+upon the flames. He exerted himself with so much good
+sense, that the fire was presently extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was now once more safe and quiet. Mrs. Pomfret,
+recovering from her fright, postponed all inquiries till the
+morning, and rejoiced that her mistress had not been awakened,
+whilst Corkscrew flattered himself that he should be able to
+conceal the true cause of the accident.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you tell Mrs. Pomfret where you found the candle
+when you came into the room,' said he to Franklin. 'If she
+asks me, you know I must tell the truth,' replied he. 'Must!'
+repeated Felix, sneeringly; 'what, you <i>must</i> be a tell-tale!'
+'No, I never told any tales of anybody, and I should be very
+sorry to get any one into a scrape; but for all that I shall not
+tell a lie, either for myself or anybody else, let you call me
+what names you will.' 'But if I were to give you something
+that you would like,' said Corkscrew&mdash;'something that I know
+you would like?' repeated Felix. 'Nothing you can give me
+will do,' answered Franklin, steadily; 'so it is useless to say
+any more about it&mdash;I hope I shall not be questioned.' In this
+hope he was mistaken; for the first thing Mrs. Pomfret did in
+the morning was to come into the room to examine and deplore
+the burnt curtains, whilst Corkscrew stood by, endeavouring to
+exculpate himself by all the excuses he could invent.<span class="pagenum">[69]</span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Pomfret, however, though sometimes blinded by her
+prejudices, was no fool; and it was absolutely impossible to
+make her believe that a candle which had been left on the
+hearth, where Corkscrew protested he had left it, could
+have set curtains on fire which were at least six feet distant.
+Turning short round to Franklin, she desired that he would
+show her where he found the candle when he came into the
+room. He took up the candlestick; but the moment the
+housekeeper cast her eye upon it, she snatched it from his
+hands. 'How did this candlestick come here? This was not
+the candlestick you found here last night,' cried she. 'Yes,
+indeed it was,' answered Franklin. 'That is impossible,'
+retorted she, vehemently, 'for I left this candlestick with my
+own hands, last night, in the hall, the last thing I did, after you,'
+said she, turning to the butler, 'was gone to bed&mdash;I'm sure of
+it. Nay, don't you recollect my taking this <i>japanned candlestick</i>
+out of your hand, and making you to go up to bed with
+the brass one, and I bolted the door at the stair-head after
+you?'</p>
+
+<p>This was all very true; but Corkscrew had afterwards gone
+down from his room by a back staircase, unbolted that door,
+and, upon his return from the alehouse, had taken the japanned
+candlestick by mistake upstairs, and had left the brass one in
+its stead upon the hall table.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, ma'am,' said Felix, 'indeed you forget; for Mr.
+Corkscrew came into my room to desire me to call him betimes
+in the morning, and I happened to take particular notice, and
+he had the japanned candlestick in his hand, and that was just
+as I heard you bolting the door. Indeed, ma'am, you forget.'
+'Indeed, sir,' retorted Mrs. Pomfret, rising in anger, 'I do not
+forget; I'm not come to be <i>superannuated</i> yet, I hope. How
+do you dare to tell me I forget?' 'Oh, ma'am,' cried Felix,
+'I beg your pardon, I did not&mdash;I did not mean to say you
+forgot, but only I thought, perhaps, you might not particularly
+remember; for if you please to recollect&mdash;&mdash;' 'I won't please
+to recollect just whatever you please, sir! Hold your tongue;
+why should you poke yourself into this scrape; what have you
+to do with it, I should be glad to know?' 'Nothing in the
+world, oh nothing in the world; I'm sure I beg your pardon,
+ma'am,' answered Felix, in a soft tone; and, sneaking off, left
+his friend Corkscrew to fight his own battle, secretly resolving<span class="pagenum">[70]</span>
+to desert in good time, if he saw any danger of the alehouse
+transactions coming to light.</p>
+
+<p>Corkscrew could make but very blundering excuses for himself;
+and, conscious of guilt, he turned pale, and appeared so
+much more terrified than butlers usually appear when detected
+in a lie, that Mrs. Pomfret resolved, as she said, to sift the
+matter to the bottom. Impatiently did she wait till the clock
+struck nine, and her mistress's bell rang, the signal for her
+attendance at her levee. 'How do you find yourself this
+morning, ma'am?' said she, undrawing the curtains. 'Very
+sleepy, indeed,' answered her mistress in a drowsy voice; 'I
+think I must sleep half an hour longer&mdash;shut the curtains.'
+'As you please, ma'am; but I suppose I had better open a
+little of the window shutter, for it's past nine.' 'But just
+struck.' 'Oh dear, ma'am, it struck before I came upstairs,
+and you know we are twenty minutes slow&mdash;Lord bless us!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Pomfret, as she let fall the bar of the window,
+which roused her mistress. 'I'm sure I beg your pardon a
+thousand times&mdash;it's only the bar&mdash;because I had this great
+key in my hand.' 'Put down the key, then, or you'll knock
+something else down; and you may open the shutters now, for
+I'm quite awake.' 'Dear me! I'm so sorry to think of disturbing
+you,' cried Mrs. Pomfret, at the same time throwing
+the shutters wide open; 'but, to be sure, ma'am, I have something
+to tell you which won't let you sleep again in a hurry. I
+brought up this here key of the house door for reasons of my
+own, which I'm sure you'll approve of; but I'm not come to
+that part of my story yet. I hope you were not disturbed by
+the noise in the house last night, ma'am.' 'I heard no noise.'
+'I am surprised at that, though,' continued Mrs. Pomfret, and
+proceeded to give a most ample account of the fire, of her fears
+and her suspicions. 'To be sure, ma'am, what I say <i>is</i>, that
+without the spirit of prophecy one can nowadays account for
+what has passed. I'm quite clear in my own judgment that
+Mr. Corkscrew must have been out last night after I went to
+bed; for, besides the japanned candlestick, which of itself I'm
+sure is strong enough to hang a man, there's another circumstance,
+ma'am, that certifies it to me&mdash;though I have not mentioned
+it, ma'am, to no one yet,' lowering her voice&mdash;'Franklin,
+when I questioned him, told me that he left the lantern in the
+outside porch in the court last night, and this morning it was on<span class="pagenum">[71]</span>
+the kitchen table. Now, ma'am, that lantern could not come
+without hands; and I could not forget about that, you know;
+for Franklin says he's sure he left the lantern out.' 'And do
+you believe <i>him</i>?' inquired her mistress. 'To be sure, ma'am&mdash;how
+can I help believing him? I never found him out in
+the least symptom of a lie since ever he came into the house;
+so one can't help believing in him, like him or not.' 'Without
+meaning to tell a falsehood, however,' said the lady, 'he might
+make a mistake.' 'No, ma'am, he never makes mistakes; it is
+not his way to go gossiping and tattling; he never tells anything
+till he's asked, and then it's fit he should. About the
+sirloin of beef, and all, he was right in the end, I found, to do
+him justice; and I'm sure he's right now about the lantern&mdash;he's
+<i>always right</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Churchill could not help smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'If you had seen him, ma'am, last night in the midst of the
+fire&mdash;I'm sure we may thank him that we were not burned
+alive in our beds&mdash;and I shall never forget his coming to call
+me. Poor fellow! he that I was always scolding and scolding,
+enough to make him hate me. But he's too good to hate
+anybody; and I'll be bound I'll make it up to him now.'
+'Take care that you don't go from one extreme into another,
+Pomfret; don't spoil the boy.' 'No, ma'am, there's no danger
+of that; but I'm sure if you had seen him last night yourself,
+you would think he deserved to be rewarded.' 'And so he
+shall be rewarded,' said Mrs. Churchill; 'but I will try him
+more fully yet.' 'There's no occasion, I think, for trying him
+any more, ma'am,' said Mrs. Pomfret, who was as violent in
+her likings as in her dislikes. 'Pray desire,' continued her
+mistress, 'that he will bring up breakfast this morning; and
+leave the key of the house door, Pomfret, with me.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i008f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i008t.jpg" alt="i008t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>You know this key? I shall trust it in your care.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Franklin brought the urn into the breakfast-parlour,
+his mistress was standing by the fire with the key in her hand.
+She spoke to him of his last night's exertions in terms of much
+approbation. 'How long have you lived with me?' said she,
+pausing; 'three weeks, I think?' 'Three weeks and four
+days, madam.' 'That is but a short time; yet you have conducted
+yourself so as to make me think I may depend upon
+you. You know this key?' 'I believe, madam, it is the
+key of the house door.' 'It is; I shall trust it in your care.
+It is a great trust for so young a person as you are.' Franklin
+<span class="pagenum">[73]</span>stood silent, with a firm but modest look. 'If you take the
+charge of this key,' continued his mistress, 'remember it is
+upon condition that you never give it out of your own hands.
+In the daytime it must not be left in the door. You must
+not tell anybody where you keep it at night; and the house
+door must not be unlocked after eleven o'clock at night,
+unless by my orders. Will you take charge of the key upon
+these conditions?' 'I will, madam, do anything you order
+me,' said Franklin, and received the key from her hands.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Churchill's orders were made known, they caused
+many secret marvellings and murmurings. Corkscrew and
+Felix were disconcerted, and dared not openly avow their discontent;
+and they treated Franklin with the greatest seeming
+kindness and cordiality.</p>
+
+<p>Everything went on smoothly for three days. The butler
+never attempted his usual midnight visits to the alehouse, but
+went to bed in proper time, and paid particular court to Mrs.
+Pomfret, in order to dispel her suspicions. She had never had
+any idea of the real fact, that he and Felix were joined in a
+plot with housebreakers to rob the house, but thought he only
+went out at irregular hours to indulge himself in his passion
+for drinking.</p>
+
+<p>Thus stood affairs the night before Mrs. Churchill's birthday.
+Corkscrew, by the housekeeper's means, ventured to
+present a petition that he might go to the play the next day,
+and his request was granted. Franklin came into the kitchen
+just when all the servants had gathered round the butler, who,
+with great importance, was reading aloud the play-bill. Everybody
+present soon began to speak at once, and with great enthusiasm
+talked of the playhouse, the actors and actresses;
+and then Felix, in the first pause, turned to Franklin and
+said, 'Lord, you know nothing of all this! <i>you</i> never went to
+a play, did you?' 'Never,' said Franklin, and felt, he did
+not know why, a little ashamed; and he longed extremely
+to go to one. 'How should you like to go to the play with
+me to-morrow?' said Corkscrew. 'Oh,' exclaimed Franklin,
+'I should like it exceedingly.' 'And do you think mistress
+would let you if I asked?' 'I think&mdash;maybe she would, if
+Mrs. Pomfret asked her.' 'But then you have no money,
+have you?' 'No,' said Franklin, sighing. 'But stay,' said
+Corkscrew, 'what I'm thinking of is, that if mistress will let<span class="pagenum">[74]</span>
+you go, I'll treat you myself, rather than that you should be
+disappointed.'</p>
+
+<p>Delight, surprise, and gratitude appeared in Franklin's face
+at these words. Corkscrew rejoiced to see that now, at least,
+he had found a most powerful temptation. 'Well, then, I'll
+go just now and ask her. In the meantime, lend me the key
+of the house door for a minute or two.' 'The key!' answered
+Franklin, starting; 'I'm sorry, but I can't do that, for I've
+promised my mistress never to let it out of my own hands.'
+'But how will she know anything of the matter? Run, run,
+and get it for us.' 'No, I <i>cannot</i>,' replied Franklin, resisting
+the push which the butler gave his shoulder. 'You can't?'
+cried Corkscrew, changing his tone; 'then, sir, I can't take
+you to the play.' 'Very well, sir,' said Franklin, sorrowfully,
+but with steadiness. 'Very well, sir,' said Felix, mimicking
+him, 'you need not look so important, nor fancy yourself such
+a great man, because you're master of a key.'</p>
+
+<p>'Say no more to him,' interrupted Corkscrew; 'let him
+alone to take his own way. Felix, you would have no objection,
+I suppose, to going to the play with me?' 'Oh, I should
+like it of all things, if I did not come between anybody else.
+But come, come!' added the hypocrite, assuming a tone of
+friendly persuasion, 'you won't be such a blockhead, Franklin,
+as to lose going to the play for nothing; it's only just obstinacy.
+What harm can it do to lend Mr. Corkscrew the key for five
+minutes? he'll give it you back again safe and sound.' 'I
+don't doubt <i>that</i>,' answered Franklin. 'Then it must be all
+because you don't wish to oblige Mr. Corkscrew.' 'No, but
+I can't oblige him in this; for, as I told you before, my
+mistress trusted me. I promised never to let the key out of
+my own hands, and you would not have me break my trust.
+Mr. Spencer told me <i>that</i> was worse than <i>robbing</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>At the word <i>robbing</i> both Corkscrew and Felix involuntarily
+cast down their eyes, and turned the conversation immediately,
+saying that he did very right, that they did not really want
+the key, and had only asked for it just to try if he would keep
+his word. 'Shake hands,' said Corkscrew, 'I am glad to find
+you out to be an honest fellow!' 'I am sorry you did not
+think me an honest fellow before, Mr. Corkscrew,' said
+Franklin giving his hand rather proudly, and he walked
+away.<span class="pagenum">[75]</span></p>
+
+<p>'We shall make no hand of this prig,' said Corkscrew. 'But
+we'll have the key from him in spite of all his obstinacy,' said
+Felix; 'and let him make his story good as he can afterwards.
+He shall repent of these airs. To-night I'll watch him, and
+find out where he hides the key; and when he's asleep we'll
+get it without thanking him.'</p>
+
+<p>This plan Felix put into execution. They discovered the
+place where Franklin kept the key at night, stole it whilst he
+slept, took off the impression in wax, and carefully replaced it
+in Franklin's trunk, exactly where they found it.</p>
+
+<p>Probably our young readers cannot guess what use they
+could mean to make of this impression of the key in wax.
+Knowing how to do mischief is very different from wishing to
+do it, and the most innocent persons are generally the least
+ignorant. By means of the impression which they had thus
+obtained, Corkscrew and Felix proposed to get a false key made
+by Picklock, a smith who belonged to their gang of housebreakers;
+and with this false key knew they could open the
+door whenever they pleased.</p>
+
+<p>Little suspecting what had happened, Franklin, the next
+morning, went to unlock the house door as usual; but finding
+the key entangled in the lock, he took it out to examine it,
+and perceived a lump of wax sticking in one of the wards.
+Struck with this circumstance, it brought to his mind all that
+had passed the preceding evening, and, being sure that he
+had no wax near the key, he began to suspect what had
+happened; and he could not help recollecting what he had
+once heard Felix say, that 'give him but a halfpenny worth of
+wax, and he could open the strongest lock that ever was made
+by hands.'</p>
+
+<p>All these things considered, Franklin resolved to take the
+key just as it was, with the wax sticking to it, to his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>'I was not mistaken when I thought I might trust <i>you</i> with
+this key,' said Mrs. Churchill, after she had heard his story.
+'My brother will be here to-day, and I shall consult him. In
+the meantime, say nothing of what has passed.'</p>
+
+<p>Evening came, and after tea Mr. Spencer sent for Franklin
+upstairs. 'So, Mr. Franklin,' said he, 'I'm glad to find you
+are in such high <i>trust</i> in this family.' Franklin bowed. 'But
+you have lost, I understand, the pleasure of going to the play
+to-night.' 'I don't think anything&mdash;much, I mean, of that,<span class="pagenum">[76]</span>
+sir,' answered Franklin, smiling. 'Are Corkscrew and Felix
+<i>gone</i> to the play?' 'Yes; half an hour ago, sir.' 'Then I
+shall look into his room and examine the pantry and the plate
+that is under his care.'</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Spencer came to examine the pantry, he found
+the large salvers and cups in a basket behind the door, and
+the other things placed so as to be easily carried off. Nothing
+at first appeared in Corkscrew's bedchamber to strengthen
+their suspicions, till, just as they were going to leave the room,
+Mrs. Pomfret exclaimed, 'Why, if there is not Mr. Corkscrew's
+dress coat hanging up there! and if here isn't Felix's fine
+cravat that he wanted in such a hurry to go to the play! Why,
+sir, they can't be gone to the play. Look at the cravat. Ah!
+upon my word I am afraid they are not at the play. No, sir,
+you may be sure that they are plotting with their barbarous
+gang at the alehouse; and they'll certainly break into the
+house to-night. We shall all be murdered in our beds, as
+sure as I'm a living woman, sir; but if you'll only take my
+advice&mdash;&mdash;' 'Pray, good Mrs. Pomfret,' Mr. Spencer observed,
+'don't be alarmed.' 'Nay, sir, but I won't pretend to sleep
+in the house, if Franklin isn't to have a blunderbuss, and I a
+<i>baggonet</i>.' 'You shall have both, indeed, Mrs. Pomfret; but
+don't make such a noise, for everybody will hear you.'</p>
+
+<p>The love of mystery was the only thing which could have
+conquered Mrs. Pomfret's love of talking. She was silent;
+and contented herself the rest of the evening with making
+signs, looking <i>ominous</i>, and stalking about the house like one
+possessed with a secret.</p>
+
+<p>Escaped from Mrs. Pomfret's fears and advice, Mr. Spencer
+went to a shop within a few doors of the alehouse which he
+heard Corkscrew frequented, and sent to beg to speak to the
+landlord. He came; and, when Mr. Spencer questioned him,
+confessed that Corkscrew and Felix were actually drinking in
+his house, with two men of suspicious appearance; that, as he
+passed through the passage, he heard them disputing about a
+key; and that one of them said, 'Since we've got the key,
+we'll go about it to-night.' This was sufficient information.
+Mr. Spencer, lest the landlord should give them information of
+what was going forwards, took him along with him to Bow
+Street.</p>
+
+<p>A constable and proper assistance was sent to Mrs.<span class="pagenum">[77]</span>
+Churchill's. They stationed themselves in a back parlour
+which opened on a passage leading to the butler's pantry,
+where the plate was kept. A little after midnight they heard
+the hall door open. Corkscrew and his accomplices went
+directly to the pantry; and there Mr. Spencer and the
+constable immediately secured them, as they were carrying off
+their booty.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Churchill and Pomfret had spent the night at the
+house of an acquaintance in the same street. 'Well, ma'am,'
+said Mrs. Pomfret, who had heard all the news in the morning,
+'the villains are all safe, thank God. I was afraid to go to
+the window this morning; but it was my luck to see them all
+go by to gaol. They looked so shocking! I am sure I never
+shall forget Felix's look to my dying day! But poor Franklin!
+ma'am; that boy has the best heart in the world. I could not
+get him to give a second look at them as they passed. Poor
+fellow! I thought he would have dropped; and he was so
+modest, ma'am, when Mr. Spencer spoke to him, and told
+him he had done his duty.' 'And did my brother tell him
+what reward I intend for him?' 'No, ma'am, and I'm sure
+Franklin thinks no more of <i>reward</i> than I do.' 'I intend,'
+continued Mrs. Churchill, 'to sell some of my old useless plate,
+and to lay it out in an annuity for Franklin's life.' 'La,
+ma'am!' exclaimed Mrs. Pomfret, with unfeigned joy, 'I'm
+sure you are very good; and I'm very glad of it.' 'And,'
+continued Mrs. Churchill, 'here are some tickets for the play,
+which I shall beg you, Pomfret, to give him, and to take him
+with you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very much obliged to you, indeed, ma'am; and I'll
+go with him with all my heart, and choose such plays as won't
+do no prejudice to his morality. And, ma'am,' continued
+Mrs. Pomfret, 'the night after the fire I left him my great
+Bible and my watch, in my will; for I never was more mistaken
+at the first in any boy in my born days; but he has won
+me by his own <i>deserts</i>, and I shall from this time forth love
+all the <i>Villaintropic</i> folks for his sake.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[79]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="SIMPLE_SUSAN" id="SIMPLE_SUSAN"></a>SIMPLE SUSAN</h2>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Waked, as her custom was, before the day,<br />
+To do the observance due to sprightly May.
+</p>
+<p class="right smcap">
+Dryden.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">In</span> a retired hamlet on the borders of Wales, between Oswestry
+and Shrewsbury, it is still the custom to celebrate the 1st of
+May.</p>
+
+<p>The children of the village, who look forward to this
+rural festival with joyful eagerness, usually meet on the last
+day of April to make up their nosegays for the morning and
+to choose their queen. Their customary place of meeting is
+at a hawthorn which stands in a little green nook, open on one
+side to a shady lane, and separated on the other side by a
+thick sweet-brier and hawthorn hedge from the garden of an
+attorney.</p>
+
+<p>This attorney began the world with nothing, but he
+contrived to scrape together a good deal of money, everybody
+knew how. He built a new house at the entrance of
+the village, and had a large well-fenced garden, yet, notwithstanding
+his fences, he never felt himself secure. Such were
+his litigious habits and his suspicious temper that he was
+constantly at variance with his simple and peaceable neighbours.
+Some pig, or dog, or goat, or goose was for ever
+trespassing. His complaints and his extortions wearied and
+alarmed the whole hamlet. The paths in his fields were at
+length unfrequented, his stiles were blocked up with stones, or
+stuffed with brambles and briers, so that not a gosling could
+creep under, or a giant get over them. Indeed, so careful<span class="pagenum">[80]</span>
+were even the village children of giving offence to this irritable
+man of the law, that they would not venture to fly a kite near
+his fields lest it should entangle in his trees or fall upon his
+meadow.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Case, for this was the name of our attorney, had a son
+and a daughter, to whose education he had not time to attend,
+as his whole soul was intent upon accumulating for them a
+fortune. For several years he suffered his children to run
+wild in the village; but suddenly, on his being appointed to a
+considerable agency, he began to think of making his children
+a little genteel. He sent his son to learn Latin; he hired a
+maid to wait upon his daughter Barbara, and he strictly
+forbade her <i>thenceforward</i> to keep company with any of the
+poor children who had hitherto been her playfellows. They
+were not sorry for this prohibition, because she had been
+their tyrant rather than their companion. She was vexed to
+observe that her absence was not regretted, and she was
+mortified to perceive that she could not humble them by any
+display of airs and finery.</p>
+
+<p>There was one poor girl, amongst her former associates,
+to whom she had a peculiar dislike,&mdash;Susan Price, a sweet-tempered,
+modest, sprightly, industrious lass, who was the
+pride and delight of the village. Her father rented a small
+farm, and, unfortunately for him, he lived near Attorney Case.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara used often to sit at her window, watching Susan
+at work. Sometimes she saw her in the neat garden raking
+the beds or weeding the borders; sometimes she was kneeling
+at her beehive with fresh flowers for her bees; sometimes she
+was in the poultry yard, scattering corn from her sieve
+amongst the eager chickens; and in the evening she was often
+seated in a little honeysuckle arbour, with a clean, light, three-legged
+deal table before her, upon which she put her plain
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Susan had been taught to work neatly by her good mother,
+who was very fond of her, and to whom she was most gratefully
+attached.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Price was an intelligent, active, domestic woman; but
+her health was not robust. She earned money, however, by
+taking in plain work; and she was famous for baking excellent
+bread and breakfast cakes. She was respected in the village,
+for her conduct as a wife and as a mother, and all were eager<span class="pagenum">[81]</span>
+to show her attention. At her door the first branch of hawthorn
+was always placed on May morning, and her Susan was
+usually Queen of the May.</p>
+
+<p>It was now time to choose the Queen. The setting sun
+shone full upon the pink blossoms of the hawthorn, when the
+merry group assembled upon their little green. Barbara was
+now walking in sullen state in her father's garden. She
+heard the busy voices in the lane, and she concealed herself
+behind the high hedge, that she might listen to their
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'Where's Susan?' were the first unwelcome words which
+she overheard. 'Ay, where's Susan?' repeated Philip, stopping
+short in the middle of a new tune that he was playing on
+his pipe. 'I wish Susan would come! I want her to sing me
+this same tune over again; I have not it yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I wish Susan would come, I'm sure,' cried a little
+girl, whose lap was full of primroses. 'Susan will give me
+some thread to tie up my nosegays, and she'll show me where
+the fresh violets grow; and she has promised to give me a
+great bunch of her double cowslips to wear to-morrow. I wish
+she would come.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing can be done without Susan! She always shows
+us where the nicest flowers are to be found in the lanes and
+meadows,' said they. 'She must make up the garlands; and
+she shall be Queen of the May!' exclaimed a multitude of
+little voices.</p>
+
+<p>'But she does not come!' said Philip.</p>
+
+<p>Rose, who was her particular friend, now came forward to
+assure the impatient assembly 'that she would answer for it
+Susan would come as soon as she possibly could, and that she
+probably was detained by business at home.'</p>
+
+<p>The little electors thought that all business should give way
+to theirs, and Rose was despatched to summon her friend
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>'Tell her to make haste,' cried Philip. 'Attorney Case
+dined at the Abbey to-day&mdash;luckily for us. If he comes home
+and finds us here, maybe he'll drive us away; for he says this
+bit of ground belongs to his garden: though that is not true,
+I'm sure; for Farmer Price knows, and says, it was always
+open to the road. The Attorney wants to get our playground,
+so he does. I wish he and his daughter Bab, or Miss Barbara,<span class="pagenum">[82]</span>
+as she must now be called, were a hundred miles off, out of
+our way, I know. No later than yesterday she threw down
+my ninepins in one of her ill-humours, as she was walking by
+with her gown all trailing in the dust.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' cried Mary, the little primrose-girl, 'her gown is
+always trailing. She does not hold it up nicely, like Susan;
+and with all her fine clothes she never looks half so neat.
+Mamma says she wishes I may be like Susan, when I grow up
+to be a great girl, and so do I. I should not like to look conceited
+as Barbara does, if I was ever so rich.'</p>
+
+<p>'Rich or poor,' said Philip, 'it does not become a girl to
+look conceited, much less <i>bold</i>, as Barbara did the other day,
+when she was at her father's door without a hat upon her head,
+staring at the strange gentleman who stopped hereabout to let
+his horse drink. I know what he thought of Bab by his looks,
+and of Susan too; for Susan was in her garden, bending
+down a branch of the laburnum tree, looking at its yellow
+flowers, which were just come out; and when the gentleman
+asked her how many miles it was from Shrewsbury, she
+answered him so modest!&mdash;not bashful, like as if she had
+never seen nobody before&mdash;but just right: and then she pulled
+on her straw hat, which was fallen back with her looking up
+at the laburnum, and she went her ways home; and the
+gentleman says to me, after she was gone, "Pray, who is that
+neat modest girl&mdash;&mdash;?" But I wish Susan would come,' cried
+Philip, interrupting himself.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was all this time, as her friend Rose rightly guessed,
+busy at home. She was detained by her father's returning
+later than usual. His supper was ready for him nearly an
+hour before he came home; and Susan swept up the ashes
+twice, and twice put on wood to make a cheerful blaze for him;
+but at last, when he did come in, he took no notice of the
+blaze or of Susan; and when his wife asked him how he did,
+he made no answer, but stood with his back to the fire, looking
+very gloomy. Susan put his supper upon the table, and
+set his own chair for him; but he pushed away the chair and
+turned from the table, saying&mdash;'I shall eat nothing, child!
+Why have you such a fire to roast me at this time of the year?'</p>
+
+<p>'You said yesterday, father, I thought, that you liked a
+little cheerful wood fire in the evening; and there was a great
+shower of hail; your coat is quite wet, we must dry it.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[83]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Take it, then, child,' said he, pulling it off&mdash;'I shall soon
+have no coat to dry&mdash;and take my hat too,' said he, throwing
+it upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Susan hung up his hat, put his coat over the back of a chair
+to dry, and then stood anxiously looking at her mother, who
+was not well; she had this day fatigued herself with baking;
+and now, alarmed by her husband's moody behaviour, she sat
+down pale and trembling. He threw himself into a chair,
+folded his arms, and fixed his eyes upon the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was the first who ventured to break silence. Happy
+the father who has such a daughter as Susan!&mdash;her unaltered
+sweetness of temper, and her playful, affectionate caresses, at
+last somewhat dissipated her father's melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>He could not be prevailed upon to eat any of the supper
+which had been prepared for him; however, with a faint
+smile, he told Susan that he thought he could eat one of her
+guinea-hen's eggs. She thanked him, and with that nimble
+alacrity which marks the desire to please, she ran to her neat
+chicken-yard; but, alas! her guinea-hen was not there&mdash;it had
+strayed into the attorney's garden. She saw it through the
+paling, and timidly opening the little gate, she asked Miss
+Barbara, who was walking slowly by, to let her come in and
+take her guinea-hen. Barbara, who was at this instant reflecting,
+with no agreeable feelings, upon the conversation of the
+village children, to which she had recently listened, started
+when she heard Susan's voice, and with a proud, ill-humoured
+look and voice, refused her request.</p>
+
+<p>'Shut the gate,' said Barbara, 'you have no business in <i>our</i>
+garden; and as for your hen, I shall keep it; it is always
+flying in here and plaguing us, and my father says it is a
+trespasser; and he told me I might catch it and keep it the
+next time it got in, and it is in now.' Then Barbara called to
+her maid, Betty, and bid her catch the mischievous hen.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my guinea-hen! my pretty guinea-hen!' cried Susan,
+as they hunted the frightened, screaming creature from corner
+to corner.</p>
+
+<p>'Here we have got it!' said Betty, holding it fast by the
+legs.</p>
+
+<p>'Now pay damages, Queen Susan, or good-bye to your
+pretty guinea-hen,' said Barbara, in an insulting tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Damages! what damages?' said Susan; 'tell me what I<span class="pagenum">[84]</span>
+must pay.' 'A shilling,' said Barbara. 'Oh, if sixpence
+would do!' said Susan; 'I have but sixpence of my own in
+the world, and here it is.' 'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning
+her back. 'Nay, but hear me,' cried Susan; 'let me at
+least come in to look for its eggs. I only want <i>one</i> for my
+father's supper; you shall have all the rest.' 'What's your
+father, or his supper to us? is he so nice that he can eat none
+but guinea-hen's eggs?' said Barbara. 'If you want your hen
+and your eggs, pay for them, and you'll have them.' 'I have
+but sixpence, and you say that won't do,' said Susan, with a
+sigh, as she looked at her favourite, which was in the maid's
+grasping hands, struggling and screaming in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Susan retired disconsolate. At the door of her father's
+cottage she saw her friend Rose, who was just come to
+summon her to the hawthorn bush.</p>
+
+<p>'They are all at the hawthorn, and I am come for you.
+We can do nothing without <i>you</i>, dear Susan,' cried Rose, running
+to meet her, at the moment she saw her. 'You are
+chosen Queen of the May&mdash;come, make haste. But what is
+the matter? why do you look so sad?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' said Susan, 'don't wait for me; I can't come to you,
+but,' added she, pointing to the tuft of double cowslips in the
+garden, 'gather those for poor little Mary; I promised them
+to her, and tell her the violets are under a hedge just opposite
+the turnstile, on the right as we go to church. Good-bye!
+never mind me; I can't come&mdash;I can't stay, for my father
+wants me.'</p>
+
+<p>'But don't turn away your face; I won't keep you a
+moment; only tell me what's the matter,' said her friend,
+following her into the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, nothing, not much,' said Susan; 'only that I wanted
+the egg in a great hurry for father, it would not have vexed
+me&mdash;to be sure I should have clipped my guinea-hen's wings,
+and then she could not have flown over the hedge; but let us
+think no more about it, now,' added she, twinkling away a
+tear.</p>
+
+<p>When Rose, however, learnt that her friend's guinea-hen
+was detained prisoner by the attorney's daughter, she exclaimed,
+with all the honest warmth of indignation, and instantly ran
+back to tell the story to her companions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i009f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i009t.jpg" alt="i009t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning her back.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Barbara! ay; like father, like daughter,' cried Farmer
+<span class="pagenum">[86]</span>
+Price, starting from the thoughtful attitude in which he had
+been fixed, and drawing his chair closer to his wife.</p>
+
+<p>'You see something is amiss with me, wife&mdash;I'll tell you
+what it is.' As he lowered his voice, Susan, who was not sure
+that he wished she should hear what he was going to say,
+retired from behind his chair. 'Susan, don't go; sit you down
+here, my sweet Susan,' said he, making room for her upon his
+chair; 'I believe I was a little cross when I came in first to-night;
+but I had something to vex me, as you shall hear.</p>
+
+<p>'About a fortnight ago, you know, wife,' continued he,
+'there was a balloting in our town for the militia; now at that
+time I wanted but ten days of forty years of age; and the
+attorney told me I was a fool for not calling myself plump
+forty. But the truth is the truth, and it is what I think fittest
+to be spoken at all times come what will of it. So I was
+drawn for a militiaman; but when I thought how loth you and
+I would be to part, I was main glad to hear that I could get
+off by paying eight or nine guineas for a substitute&mdash;only I
+had not the nine guineas&mdash;for, you know, we had bad luck
+with our sheep this year, and they died away one after another&mdash;but
+that was no excuse, so I went to Attorney Case, and,
+with a power of difficulty, I got him to lend me the money;
+for which, to be sure, I gave him something, and left my lease
+of our farm with him, as he insisted upon it, by way of security
+for the loan. Attorney Case is too many for me. He has
+found what he calls a <i>flaw</i> in my lease; and the lease, he tells
+me, is not worth a farthing, and that he can turn us all out of
+our farm to-morrow if he pleases; and sure enough he will
+please; for I have thwarted him this day, and he swears
+he'll be revenged of me. Indeed, he has begun with me
+badly enough already. I'm not come to the worst part of my
+story yet&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Here Farmer Price made a dead stop; and his wife and
+Susan looked up in his face, breathless with anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>'It must come out,' said he, with a short sigh; 'I must
+leave you in three days, wife.'</p>
+
+<p>'Must you?' said his wife, in a faint, resigned voice. 'Susan,
+love, open the window.' Susan ran to open the window, and
+then returned to support her mother's head. When she came
+a little to herself she sat up, begged that her husband would
+go on, and that nothing might be concealed from her. Her<span class="pagenum">[87]</span>
+husband had no wish indeed to conceal anything from a wife he
+loved so well; but, firm as he was, and steady to his maxim,
+that the truth was the thing the fittest to be spoken at all
+times, his voice faltered, and it was with great difficulty that
+he brought himself to speak the whole truth at this moment.</p>
+
+<p>The fact was this. Case met Farmer Price as he was
+coming home, whistling, from a new-ploughed field. The
+attorney had just dined at <i>The Abbey</i>. The Abbey was the
+family seat of an opulent baronet in the neighbourhood, to
+whom Mr. Case had been agent. The baronet died suddenly,
+and his estate and title devolved to a younger brother, who was
+now just arrived in the country, and to whom Mr. Case was
+eager to pay his court, in hopes of obtaining his favour. Of
+the agency he flattered himself that he was pretty secure; and
+he thought that he might assume a tone of command towards
+the tenants, especially towards one who was some guineas in
+debt, and in whose lease there was a flaw.</p>
+
+<p>Accosting the farmer in a haughty manner, the attorney
+began with, 'So, Farmer Price, a word with you, if you please.
+Walk on here, man, beside my horse, and you'll hear me.
+You have changed your opinion, I hope, about that bit of land&mdash;that
+corner at the end of my garden?' 'As how, Mr.
+Case?' said the farmer. 'As how, man! Why, you said something
+about it's not belonging to me, when you heard me talk of
+enclosing it the other day.' 'So I did,' said Price, 'and so I do.'</p>
+
+<p>Provoked and astonished at the firm tone in which these
+words were pronounced, the attorney was upon the point of
+swearing that he would have his revenge; but, as his passions
+were habitually attentive to the <i>letter</i> of the law, he refrained
+from any hasty expression, which might, he was aware, in a
+court of justice, be hereafter brought against him.</p>
+
+<p>'My good friend, Mr. Price,' said he, in a soft voice, and
+pale with suppressed rage. He forced a smile. 'I'm under
+the necessity of calling in the money I lent you some time ago,
+and you will please to take notice that it must be paid to-morrow
+morning. I wish you a good evening. You have the
+money ready for me, I daresay.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said the farmer, 'not a guinea of it; but John
+Simpson, who was my substitute, has not left our village yet.
+I'll get the money back from him, and go myself, if so be it
+must be so, into the militia&mdash;so I will.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[88]</span></p>
+
+<p>The attorney did not expect such a determination, and he
+represented, in a friendly, hypocritical tone to Price, that he
+had no wish to drive him to such an extremity; that it would
+be the height of folly in him <i>to run his head against a wall
+for no purpose</i>. 'You don't mean to take the corner into your
+own garden, do you, Price?' said he. 'I,' said the farmer,
+'God forbid! it's none of mine; I never take what does not
+belong to me.' 'True, right, very proper, of course,' said Mr.
+Case; 'but then you have no interest in life in the land in
+question?' 'None.' 'Then why so stiff about it, Price? All
+I want of you to say&mdash;&mdash;' 'To say that black is white, which
+I won't do, Mr. Case. The ground is a thing not worth talking
+of; but it's neither yours nor mine. In my memory, since
+the <i>new</i> lane was made, it has always been open to the parish;
+and no man shall enclose it with my good-will. Truth is truth,
+and must be spoken; justice is justice, and should be done,
+Mr. Attorney.'</p>
+
+<p>'And law is law, Mr. Farmer, and shall have its course, to
+your cost,' cried the attorney, exasperated by the dauntless
+spirit of this village Hampden.</p>
+
+<p>Here they parted. The glow of enthusiasm, the pride of
+virtue, which made our hero brave, could not render him
+insensible. As he drew nearer home, many melancholy
+thoughts pressed upon his heart. He passed the door of his
+own cottage with resolute steps, however, and went through
+the village in search of the man who had engaged to be his
+substitute. He found him, told him how the matter stood; and
+luckily the man, who had not yet spent the money, was willing
+to return it; as there were many others drawn for the militia,
+who, he observed, would be glad to give him the same price,
+or more, for his services.</p>
+
+<p>The moment Price got the money, he hastened to Mr.
+Case's house, walked straight forward into his room, and
+laying the money down upon his desk, 'There, Mr. Attorney,
+are your nine guineas; count them; now I have done with
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not yet,' said the attorney, jingling the money triumphantly
+in his hand. 'We'll give you a taste of the law, my good sir,
+or I'm mistaken. You forgot the flaw in your lease, which I
+have safe in this desk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, my lease,' said the farmer, who had almost forgot to<span class="pagenum">[89]</span>
+ask for it till he was thus put in mind of it by the attorney's
+imprudent threat.</p>
+
+<p>'Give me my lease, Mr. Case. I've paid my money; you
+have no right to keep the lease any longer, whether it is a bad
+one or a good one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pardon me,' said the attorney, locking his desk and putting
+the key into his pocket, 'possession, my honest friend,' cried
+he, striking his hand upon the desk, 'is nine points of the
+law. Good-night to you. I cannot in conscience return a
+lease to a tenant in which I know there is a capital flaw. It
+is my duty to show it to my employer; or, in other words, to
+your new landlord, whose agent I have good reasons to expect
+I shall be. You will live to repent your obstinacy, Mr. Price.
+Your servant, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>Price retired with melancholy feelings, but not intimidated.
+Many a man returns home with a gloomy countenance, who
+has not quite so much cause for vexation.</p>
+
+<p>When Susan heard her father's story, she quite forgot her
+guinea-hen, and her whole soul was intent upon her poor
+mother, who, notwithstanding her utmost exertion, could not
+support herself under this sudden stroke of misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the night Susan was called up; her
+mother's fever ran high for some hours; but towards morning
+it abated, and she fell into a soft sleep with Susan's hand locked
+fast in hers.</p>
+
+<p>Susan sat motionless, and breathed softly, lest she should
+disturb her. The rushlight, which stood beside the bed, was
+now burnt low; the long shadow of the tall wicker chair
+flitted, faded, appeared, and vanished, as the flame rose and
+sank in the socket. Susan was afraid that the disagreeable
+smell might waken her mother; and, gently disengaging her
+hand, she went on tiptoe to extinguish the candle. All was
+silent: the gray light of the morning was now spreading over
+every object; the sun rose slowly, and Susan stood at the lattice
+window, looking through the small leaded, crossbarred panes
+at the splendid spectacle. A few birds began to chirp; but,
+as Susan was listening to them, her mother started in her
+sleep, and spoke unintelligibly. Susan hung up a white apron
+before the window to keep out the light, and just then she heard
+the sound of music at a distance in the village. As it
+approached nearer, she knew that it was Philip playing upon<span class="pagenum">[90]</span>
+his pipe and tabor. She distinguished the merry voices of her
+companions 'carolling in honour of the May,' and soon she
+saw them coming towards her father's cottage, with branches
+and garlands in their hands. She opened quick, but gently,
+the latch of the door, and ran out to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>'Here she is!&mdash;here's Susan!' they exclaimed joyfully.
+'Here's the Queen of the May.' 'And here's her crown!'
+cried Rose, pressing forward; but Susan put her finger upon
+her lips, and pointed to her mother's window. Philip's pipe
+stopped instantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' said Susan, 'my mother is ill; I can't leave
+her, you know.' Then gently putting aside the crown, her
+companions bid her say who should wear it for her.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you, dear Rose?' said she, placing the garland upon
+her friend's head. 'It's a charming May morning,' added
+she, with a smile; 'good-bye. We shan't hear your voices or
+the pipe when you have turned the corner into the village; so
+you need only stop till then, Philip.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall stop for all day,' said Philip; 'I've no mind to
+play any more.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good-bye, poor Susan. It is a pity you can't come with
+us,' said all the children; and little Mary ran after Susan to
+the cottage door.</p>
+
+<p>'I forgot to thank you,' said she, 'for the double cowslips;
+look how pretty they are, and smell how sweet the violets are
+in my bosom, and kiss me quick, for I shall be left behind.'
+Susan kissed the little breathless girl, and returned softly to
+the side of her mother's bed.</p>
+
+<p>'How grateful that child is to me for a cowslip only! How
+can I be grateful enough to such a mother as this?' said
+Susan to herself, as she bent over her sleeping mother's pale
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother's unfinished knitting lay upon a table near
+the bed, and Susan sat down in her wicker arm-chair, and
+went on with the row, in the middle of which her hand stopped
+the preceding evening. 'She taught me to knit, she taught
+me everything that I know,' thought Susan, 'and the best of
+all, she taught me to love her, to wish to be like her.'</p>
+
+<p>Her mother, when she awakened, felt much refreshed by
+her tranquil sleep, and observing that it was a delightful
+morning, said 'that she had been dreaming she heard music;<span class="pagenum">[91]</span>
+but that the drum frightened her, because she thought it was
+the signal for her husband to be carried away by a whole
+regiment of soldiers, who had pointed their bayonets at him.
+But that was but a dream, Susan; I awoke, and knew it was
+a dream, and I then fell asleep, and have slept soundly ever
+since.'</p>
+
+<p>How painful it is to awake to the remembrance of misfortune.
+Gradually as this poor woman collected her scattered
+thoughts, she recalled the circumstances of the preceding
+evening. She was too certain that she had heard from her
+husband's own lips the words, '<i>I must leave you in three
+days</i>'; and she wished that she could sleep again, and think
+it all a dream.</p>
+
+<p>'But he'll want, he'll want a hundred things,' said she,
+starting up. 'I must get his linen ready for him. I'm afraid
+it's very late. Susan, why did you let me lie so long?'</p>
+
+<p>'Everything shall be ready, dear mother; only don't hurry
+yourself,' said Susan. And indeed her mother was ill able to
+bear any hurry, or to do any work this day. Susan's affectionate,
+dexterous, sensible activity was never more wanted, or
+more effectual. She understood so readily, she obeyed so
+exactly; and when she was left to her own discretion, judged
+so prudently, that her mother had little trouble and no anxiety
+in directing her. She said that Susan never did too little, or
+too much.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was mending her father's linen, when Rose tapped
+softly at the window, and beckoned to her to come out. She
+went out. 'How does your mother do, in the first place?'
+said Rose. 'Better, thank you.' 'That's well, and I have a
+little bit of good news for you besides&mdash;here,' said she, pulling
+out a glove, in which there was money, 'we'll get the guinea-hen
+back again&mdash;we have all agreed about it. This is the
+money that has been given to us in the village this May
+morning. At every door they gave silver. See how generous
+they have been&mdash;twelve shillings, I assure you. Now we are
+a match for Miss Barbara. You won't like to leave home;
+I'll go to Barbara, and you shall see your guinea-hen in ten
+minutes.'</p>
+
+<p>Rose hurried away, pleased with her commission, and eager
+to accomplish her business. Miss Barbara's maid, Betty, was
+the first person that was visible at the attorney's house. Rose<span class="pagenum">[92]</span>
+insisted upon seeing Miss Barbara herself, and she was shown
+into a parlour to the young lady, who was reading a dirty
+novel, which she put under a heap of law papers as they
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear, how you <i>startled</i> me! Is it only you?' said she to
+her maid; but as soon as she saw Rose behind the maid, she
+put on a scornful air. 'Could not ye say I was not at home,
+Betty? Well, my good girl, what brings you here? Something
+to borrow or beg, I suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>May every ambassador&mdash;every ambassador in as good a
+cause&mdash;answer with as much dignity and moderation as Rose
+replied to Barbara upon the present occasion. She assured
+her that the person from whom she came did not send her
+either to beg or borrow; that she was able to pay the full
+value of that for which she came to ask; and, producing her
+well-filled purse, 'I believe that this is a very good shilling,'
+said she. 'If you don't like it, I will change it, and now you
+will be so good as to give me Susan's guinea-hen. It is in her
+name I ask for it.'</p>
+
+<p>'No matter in whose name you ask for it,' replied Barbara,
+'you will not have it. Take up your shilling, if you please.
+I would have taken a shilling yesterday, if it had been paid at
+the time properly; but I told Susan, that if it was not paid
+then, I should keep the hen, and so I shall, I promise her.
+You may go back, and tell her so.'</p>
+
+<p>The attorney's daughter had, whilst Rose opened her
+negotiation, measured the depth of her purse with a keen eye;
+and her penetration discovered that it contained at least ten
+shillings. With proper management she had some hopes that
+the guinea-hen might be made to bring in at least half the
+money.</p>
+
+<p>Rose, who was of a warm temper, not quite so fit a match
+as she had thought herself for the wily Barbara, incautiously
+exclaimed, 'Whatever it costs us, we are determined to have
+Susan's favourite hen; so, if one shilling won't do, take two;
+and if two won't do, why, take three.'</p>
+
+<p>The shillings sounded provoking upon the table, as she
+threw them down one after another, and Barbara coolly replied,
+'Three won't do.' 'Have you no conscience, Miss
+Barbara? Then take four.' Barbara shook her head. A
+fifth shilling was instantly proffered; but Bab, who now saw<span class="pagenum">[93]</span>
+plainly that she had the game in her own hands, preserved a
+cold, cruel silence. Rose went on rapidly, bidding shilling
+after shilling, till she had completely emptied her purse. The
+twelve shillings were spread upon the table. Barbara's avarice
+was moved; she consented for this ransom to liberate her
+prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Rose pushed the money towards her; but just then, recollecting
+that she was acting for others more than for herself,
+and doubting whether she had full powers to conclude such an
+extravagant bargain, she gathered up the public treasure, and
+with newly-recovered prudence observed that she must go
+back to consult her friends. Her generous little friends were
+amazed at Barbara's meanness, but with one accord declared
+that they were most willing, for their parts, to give up every
+farthing of the money. They all went to Susan in a body, and
+told her so. 'There's our purse,' said they; 'do what you
+please with it.' They would not wait for one word of thanks,
+but ran away, leaving only Rose with her to settle the treaty
+for the guinea-hen.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain manner of accepting a favour, which
+shows true generosity of mind. Many know how to give, but
+few know how to accept a gift properly. Susan was touched,
+but not astonished, by the kindness of her young friends, and
+she received the purse with as much simplicity as she would
+have given it.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Rose, 'shall I go back for the guinea-hen?'
+'The guinea-hen!' said Susan, starting from a reverie into
+which she had fallen, as she contemplated the purse. 'Certainly
+I <i>do</i> long to see my pretty guinea-hen once more; but
+I was not thinking of her just then&mdash;I was thinking of my
+father.'</p>
+
+<p>Now Susan had heard her mother often, in the course of
+this day, wish that she had but money enough in the world to
+pay John Simpson for going to serve in the militia instead of
+her husband. 'This, to be sure, will go but a little way,'
+thought Susan; 'but still it may be of some use to my father.'
+She told her mind to Rose, and concluded by saying, decidedly,
+that 'if the money was given to her to dispose of as she
+pleased, she would give it to her father.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is all yours, my dear good Susan,' cried Rose, with a
+look of warm approbation. 'This is so like you!&mdash;but I'm<span class="pagenum">[94]</span>
+sorry that Miss Bab must keep your guinea-hen. I would
+not be her for all the guinea-hens, or guineas either, in the
+whole world. Why, I'll answer for it, the guinea-hen won't
+make her happy, and you'll be happy <i>even</i> without; because
+you are good. Let me come and help you to-morrow,' continued
+she, looking at Susan's work, 'if you have any more
+mending work to do&mdash;I never liked work till I worked with
+you. I won't forget my thimble or my scissors,' added she,
+laughing&mdash;'though I used to forget them when I was a giddy
+girl. I assure you I am a great hand at my needle, now&mdash;try
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan assured her friend that she did not doubt the powers
+of her needle, and that she would most willingly accept of her
+services, but that <i>unluckily</i> she had finished all her needlework
+that was immediately wanted.</p>
+
+<p>'But do you know,' said she, 'I shall have a great deal of
+business to-morrow; but I won't tell you what it is that I
+have to do, for I am afraid I shall not succeed; but if I do
+succeed, I'll come and tell you directly, because you will be so
+glad of it.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan, who had always been attentive to what her mother
+taught her, and who had often assisted her when she was baking
+bread and cakes for the family at the Abbey, had now formed
+the courageous, but not presumptuous, idea that she could herself
+undertake to bake a batch of bread. One of the servants
+from the Abbey had been sent all round the village in the
+morning in search of bread, and had not been able to procure
+any that was tolerable. Mrs. Price's last baking failed for
+want of good barm. She was not now strong enough to
+attempt another herself; and when the brewer's boy came
+with eagerness to tell her that he had some fine fresh yeast,
+she thanked him, but sighed, and said it would be of no use
+to her. Accordingly she went to work with much prudent care,
+and when her bread the next morning came out of the oven,
+it was excellent; at least her mother said so, and she was a
+good judge. It was sent to the Abbey; and as the family
+there had not tasted any good bread since their arrival in the
+country, they also were earnest and warm in its praise. Inquiries
+were made from the housekeeper, and they heard, with
+some surprise, that this excellent bread was made by a young
+girl only twelve years old.<span class="pagenum">[95]</span></p>
+
+<p>The housekeeper, who had known Susan from a child, was
+pleased to have an opportunity in speaking in her favour.
+'She is the most industrious little creature, ma'am, in the
+world,' said she to her mistress. 'Little I can't so well call
+her now, since she's grown tall and slender to look at; and glad
+I am she is grown up likely to look at; for handsome is that
+handsome does; she thinks no more of her being handsome
+than I do myself; yet she has as proper a respect for herself,
+ma'am, as you have; and I always see her neat, and with her
+mother, ma'am, or fit people, as a girl should be. As for her
+mother, she dotes upon her, as well she may; for I should
+myself if I had half such a daughter; and then she has two
+little brothers; and she's as good to them, and, my boy Philip
+says, taught 'em to read more than the schoolmistress, all
+with tenderness and good nature; but I beg your pardon,
+ma'am, I cannot stop myself when I once begin to talk of
+Susan.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have really said enough to excite my curiosity,' said
+her mistress; 'pray send for her immediately; we can see her
+before we go out to walk.'</p>
+
+<p>The benevolent housekeeper despatched her boy Philip for
+Susan, who never happened to be in such an <i>untidy</i> state as to
+be unable to obey a summons without a long preparation.
+She had, it is true, been very busy; but orderly people can be
+busy and neat at the same time. She put on her usual straw
+hat, and accompanied Rose's mother, who was going with a
+basket of cleared muslin to the Abbey.</p>
+
+<p>The modest simplicity of Susan's appearance, and the artless
+good sense and propriety of the answers she gave to all the
+questions that were asked her, pleased the ladies at the Abbey,
+who were good judges of character and manners.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur Somers had two sisters, sensible, benevolent
+women. They were not of that race of fine ladies who are
+miserable the moment they come to <i>the country</i>; nor yet were
+they of that bustling sort, who quack and direct all their poor
+neighbours, for the mere love of managing, or the want of
+something to do. They were judiciously generous; and
+whilst they wished to diffuse happiness, they were not peremptory
+in requiring that people should be happy precisely
+their own way. With these dispositions, and with a well-informed
+brother, who, though he never wished to direct,<span class="pagenum">[96]</span>
+was always willing to assist in their efforts to do good, there
+were reasonable hopes that these ladies would be a blessing
+to the poor villagers amongst whom they were now settled.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Miss Somers had spoken to Susan, she inquired
+for her brother; but Sir Arthur was in his study, and a gentleman
+was with him on business.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was desirous of returning to her mother, and the
+ladies therefore would not detain her. Miss Somers told her,
+with a smile, when she took leave, that she would call upon
+her in the evening at six o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible that such a grand event as Susan's visit
+to the Abbey could long remain unknown to Barbara Case
+and her gossiping maid. They watched eagerly for the
+moment of her return, that they might satisfy their curiosity.
+'There she is, I declare, just come into her garden,' cried
+Bab; 'I'll run in and get it all out of her in a minute.'</p>
+
+<p>Bab could descend, without shame, whenever it suited her
+purposes, from the height of insolent pride to the lowest meanness
+of fawning familiarity.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was gathering some marigolds and some parsley for
+her mother's broth.</p>
+
+<p>'So, Susan,' said Bab, who came close up to her before she
+perceived it, 'how goes the world with you to-day?' 'My
+mother is rather better to-day, she says, ma'am&mdash;thank you,'
+replies Susan, coldly but civilly. '<i>Ma'am!</i> dear, how polite
+we are grown of a sudden!' cried Bab, winking at her maid.
+'One may see you've been in good company this morning&mdash;hey,
+Susan? Come, let's hear about it.' 'Did you see the
+ladies themselves, or was it only the housekeeper sent for
+you?' said the maid. 'What room did you go into?' continued
+Bab. 'Did you see Miss Somers, or Sir Arthur?'
+'Miss Somers.' 'La! she saw Miss Somers! Betty, I must
+hear about it. Can't you stop gathering those things for a
+minute and chat a bit with us, Susan?' 'I can't stay,
+indeed, Miss Barbara; for my mother's broth is just wanted,
+and I'm in a hurry.' Susan ran home.</p>
+
+<p>'Lord, her head is full of broth now,' said Bab to her
+maid; 'and she has not a word for herself, though she has
+been abroad. My papa may well call her <i>Simple Susan</i>;
+for simple she is, and simple she will be, all the world over.
+For my part, I think she's little better than a downright<span class="pagenum">[97]</span>
+simpleton. But, however, simple or not, I'll get what I want
+out of her. She'll be able to speak, maybe, when she has
+settled the grand matter of the broth. I'll step in and ask
+to see her mother, that will put her in a good humour in a
+trice.'</p>
+
+<p>Barbara followed Susan into the cottage, and found her
+occupied with the grand affair of the broth. 'Is it ready?'
+said Bab, peeping into the pot that was over the fire. 'Dear,
+how savoury it smells! I'll wait till you go in with it to your
+mother; for I must ask her how she does myself.' 'Will you
+please to sit down then, miss?' said Simple Susan, with a
+smile; for at this instant she forgot the guinea-hen; 'I have
+but just put the parsley into the broth; but it soon will be
+ready.'</p>
+
+<p>During this interval Bab employed herself, much to her
+own satisfaction, in cross-questioning Susan. She was rather
+provoked indeed that she could not learn exactly how each of
+the ladies was dressed, and what there was to be for dinner at
+the Abbey; and she was curious beyond measure to find out
+what Miss Somers meant by saying that she would call at Mr.
+Price's cottage at six o'clock in the evening. 'What do you
+think she could mean?' 'I thought she meant what she
+said,' replied Susan, 'that she would come here at six o'clock.'
+'Ay, that's as plain as a pike-staff,' said Barbara; 'but what
+else did she mean, think you? People, you know, don't
+always mean exactly, downright, neither more nor less than
+what they say.' 'Not always,' said Susan, with an arch
+smile, which convinced Barbara that she was not quite a
+simpleton. '<i>Not always</i>,' repeated Barbara colouring,&mdash;'oh,
+then I suppose you have some guess at what Miss Somers
+meant.' 'No,' said Susan, 'I was not thinking about Miss
+Somers, when I said not always.' 'How nice that broth does
+look,' resumed Barbara, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>Susan had now poured the broth into a basin, and as she
+strewed over it the bright orange marigolds, it looked very
+tempting. She tasted it, and added now a little salt, and now
+a little more, till she thought it was just to her mother's taste.
+'Oh, <i>I</i> must taste it,' said Bab, taking the basin up greedily.
+'Won't you take a spoon?' said Susan, trembling at the large
+mouthfuls which Barbara sucked up with a terrible noise.
+'Take a spoonful, indeed!' exclaimed Barbara, setting down<span class="pagenum">[98]</span>
+the basin in high anger. 'The next time I taste your broth
+you shall affront me, if you dare! The next time I set my
+foot in this house, you shall be as saucy to me as you please.'
+And she flounced out of the house, repeating '<i>Take a spoon,
+pig</i>, was what you meant to say.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan stood in amazement at the beginning of this speech;
+but the concluding words explained to her the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Some years before this time, when Susan was a very little
+girl, and could scarcely speak plain, as she was eating a basin
+of bread and milk for her supper at the cottage door, a great
+pig came up and put his nose into the basin. Susan was
+willing that the pig should have some share of the bread and
+milk; but as she ate with a spoon and he with his large
+mouth, she presently discovered that he was likely to have
+more than his share; and in a simple tone of expostulation she
+said to him, 'Take a <i>poon</i>, pig.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> The saying became proverbial
+in the village. Susan's little companions repeated it,
+and applied it upon many occasions, whenever any one claimed
+more than his share of anything good. Barbara, who was
+then not Miss Barbara, but plain Bab, and who had played
+with all the poor children in the neighbourhood, was often
+reproved in her unjust methods of division by Susan's proverb.
+Susan, as she grew up, forgot the childish saying; but the
+remembrance of it rankled in Barbara's mind, and it was to
+this that she suspected Susan had alluded, when she recommended
+a spoon to her, whilst she was swallowing the basin
+of broth.</p>
+
+<p>'La, miss,' said Barbara's maid, when she found her
+mistress in a passion upon her return from Susan's, 'I only
+wondered you did her the honour to set your foot within her
+doors. What need have you to trouble her for news about
+the Abbey folks, when your own papa has been there all
+the morning, and is just come in, and can tell you everything?'</p>
+
+<p>Barbara did not know that her father meant to go to the
+Abbey that morning, for Attorney Case was mysterious even
+to his own family about his morning rides. He never chose
+to be asked where he was going, or where he had been; and
+this made his servants more than commonly inquisitive to
+trace him.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[99]</span></p>
+<p>Barbara, against whose apparent childishness and real
+cunning he was not sufficiently on his guard, had often the art
+of drawing him into conversation about his visits. She ran
+into her father's parlour; but she knew, the moment she saw
+his face, that it was no time to ask questions; his pen was
+across his mouth, and his brown wig pushed oblique upon
+his contracted forehead. The wig was always pushed crooked
+whenever he was in a brown, or rather a black, study. Barbara,
+who did not, like Susan, bear with her father's testy humour
+from affection and gentleness of disposition, but who always
+humoured him from artifice, tried all her skill to fathom his
+thoughts, and when she found that <i>it</i> would not do, she went
+to tell her maid so, and to complain that her father was so
+cross there was no bearing him.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that Attorney Case was not in the happiest mood
+possible; for he was by no means satisfied with his morning's
+work at the Abbey. Sir Arthur Somers, the <i>new man</i>, did
+not suit him, and he began to be rather apprehensive that he
+should not suit Sir Arthur. He had sound reasons for his doubts.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur Somers was an excellent lawyer, and a perfectly
+honest man. This seemed to our attorney a contradiction in
+terms; in the course of his practice the case had not occurred;
+and he had no precedents ready to direct his proceedings.
+Sir Arthur was also a man of wit and eloquence, yet of plain
+dealing and humanity. The attorney could not persuade
+himself to believe that his benevolence was anything but
+enlightened cunning, and his plain dealing he one minute
+dreaded as the masterpiece of art, and the next despised as
+the characteristic of folly. In short, he had not yet decided
+whether he was an honest man or a knave. He had settled
+accounts with him for his late agency, and had talked about
+sundry matters of business. He constantly perceived, however,
+that he could not impose upon Sir Arthur; but the idea
+that he could know all the mazes of the law, and yet prefer
+the straight road, was incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Case having paid Sir Arthur some compliments on his
+great legal abilities, and his high reputation at the bar, he
+coolly replied, 'I have left the bar.' The attorney looked in
+unfeigned astonishment that a man who was actually making
+&pound;3000 per annum at the bar should leave it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i010f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i010t.jpg" alt="i010t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'I am come,' said Sir Arthur, 'to enjoy that kind of
+<span class="pagenum">[101]</span>domestic life in the country which I prefer to all others, and
+amongst people whose happiness I hope to increase.' At this
+speech the attorney changed his ground, flattering himself that
+he should find his man averse to business, and ignorant of
+country affairs. He talked of the value of land, and of new
+leases.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur wished to enlarge his domain, and to make a
+ride round it. A map of it was lying upon the table, and
+Farmer Price's garden came exactly across the new road for
+the ride. Sir Arthur looked disappointed; and the keen
+attorney seized the moment to inform him that 'Price's whole
+land was at his disposal.'</p>
+
+<p>'At my disposal! how so?' cried Sir Arthur, eagerly; 'it
+will not be out of lease, I believe, these ten years. I'll look
+into the rent-roll again; perhaps I am mistaken.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are mistaken, my good sir, and you are not mistaken,'
+said Mr. Case, with a shrewd smile. 'In one sense, the land
+will not be out of lease these ten years, and in another it is out
+of lease at this present time. To come to the point at once,
+the lease is, <i>ab origine</i>, null and void. I have detected a
+capital flaw in the body of it. I pledge my credit upon it,
+sir, it can't stand a single term in law or equity.'</p>
+
+<p>The attorney observed that at these words Sir Arthur's eye
+was fixed with a look of earnest attention. 'Now I have him,'
+said the cunning tempter to himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Neither in law nor equity,' repeated Sir Arthur, with
+apparent incredulity. 'Are you sure of that, Mr. Case?'
+'Sure! As I told you before, sir, I'd pledge my whole credit
+upon the thing&mdash;I'd stake my existence.' '<i>That's something</i>,'
+said Sir Arthur, as if he was pondering upon the matter.</p>
+
+<p>The attorney went on with all the eagerness of a keen man,
+who sees a chance at one stroke of winning a rich friend and
+of ruining a poor enemy. He explained, with legal volubility
+and technical amplification, the nature of the mistake in Mr.
+Price's lease. 'It was, sir,' said he, 'a lease for the life of
+Peter Price, Susanna his wife, and to the survivor or survivors
+of them, or for the full time and term of twenty years, to be
+computed from the first day of May then next ensuing. Now,
+sir, this, you see, is a lease in reversion, which the late Sir
+Benjamin Somers had not, by his settlement, a right to make.
+This is a curious mistake, you see, Sir Arthur; and in filling<span class="pagenum">[102]</span>
+up those printed leases there's always a good chance of some
+flaw. I find it perpetually; but I never found a better than
+this in the whole course of my practice.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur stood in silence.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear sir,' said the attorney, taking him by the button,
+'you have no scruple of stirring in this business?'</p>
+
+<p>'A little,' said Sir Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, then, that can be done away in a moment. Your
+name shall not appear in it at all. You have nothing to do
+but to make over the lease to me. I make all safe to you
+with my bond. Now, being in possession, I come forward in
+my own proper person. <i>Shall I proceed?</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'No&mdash;you have said enough,' replied Sir Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>'The case, indeed, lies in a nutshell,' said the attorney, who
+had by this time worked himself up to such a pitch of professional
+enthusiasm that, intent upon his vision of a lawsuit,
+he totally forgot to observe the impression his words made
+upon Sir Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>'There's only one thing we have forgotten all this time,'
+said Sir Arthur. 'What can that be, sir?' 'That we shall
+ruin this poor man.'</p>
+
+<p>Case was thunderstruck at these words, or rather, by the
+look which accompanied them. He recollected that he had
+laid himself open before he was sure of Sir Arthur's <i>real</i>
+character. He softened, and said he should have had certainly
+more <i>consideration</i> in the case of any but a litigious,
+pig-headed fellow, as he knew Price to be.</p>
+
+<p>'If he be litigious,' said Sir Arthur, 'I shall certainly be
+glad to get him fairly out of the parish as soon as possible.
+When you go home, you will be so good, sir, as to send me
+his lease, that I may satisfy myself before we stir in this
+business.'</p>
+
+<p>The attorney, brightening up, prepared to take leave; but
+he could not persuade himself to take his departure without
+making one push at Sir Arthur about the agency.</p>
+
+<p>'I will not trouble <i>you</i>, Sir Arthur, with this lease of
+Price's,' said Case; 'I'll leave it with your agent. Whom
+shall I apply to?' '<i>To myself</i>, sir, if you please,' replied Sir
+Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>The courtiers of Louis the Fourteenth could not have
+looked more astounded than our attorney, when they received<span class="pagenum">[103]</span>
+from their monarch a similar answer. It was this unexpected
+reply of Sir Arthur's which had deranged the temper of Mr.
+Case, and caused his wig to stand so crooked upon his forehead,
+and which had rendered him impenetrably silent to his
+inquisitive daughter Barbara.</p>
+
+<p>After having walked up and down his room, conversing
+with himself, for some time, the attorney concluded that the
+agency must be given to somebody when Sir Arthur should
+have to attend his duty in Parliament; that the agency, even
+for the winter season, was not a thing to be neglected; and
+that, if he managed well, he might yet secure it for himself.
+He had often found that small timely presents worked wonderfully
+upon his own mind, and he judged of others by himself.
+The tenants had been in the reluctant but constant practice of
+making him continual petty offerings; and he resolved to try
+the same course with Sir Arthur, whose resolution to be his
+own agent, he thought, argued a close, saving, avaricious
+disposition. He had heard the housekeeper at the Abbey
+inquiring, as he passed through the servants, whether there
+was any lamb to be gotten. She said that Sir Arthur was
+remarkably fond of lamb, and that she wished she could get a
+quarter for him. Immediately he sallied into his kitchen, as
+soon as the idea struck him, and asked a shepherd, who was
+waiting there, whether he knew of a nice fat lamb to be had
+anywhere in the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>'I know of one,' cried Barbara. 'Susan Price has a pet
+lamb that's as fat as fat could be.' The attorney easily caught
+at these words, and speedily devised a scheme for obtaining
+Susan's lamb for nothing.</p>
+
+<p>It would be something strange if an attorney of his talents
+and standing was not an over-match for Simple Susan. He
+prowled forth in search of his prey. He found Susan packing
+up her father's little wardrobe; and when she looked up as
+she knelt, he saw that she had been in tears.</p>
+
+<p>'How is your mother to-day, Susan?' inquired the attorney.
+'Worse, sir. My father goes to-morrow.' 'That's a pity.'
+'It can't be helped,' said Susan, with a sigh. 'It can't be
+helped&mdash;how do you know that?' said Case. 'Sir, <i>dear</i> sir!'
+cried she, looking up at him, and a sudden ray of hope beamed
+in her ingenuous countenance. 'And if <i>you</i> could help it,
+Susan?' said he. Susan clasped her hands in silence, more<span class="pagenum">[104]</span>
+expressive than words. 'You <i>can</i> help it, Susan.' She started
+up in an ecstasy. 'What would you give now to have your
+father at home for a whole week longer?' 'Anything!&mdash;but I
+have nothing.' 'Yes, but you have, a lamb,' said the hard-hearted
+attorney. 'My poor little lamb!' said Susan; 'but
+what can that do?' 'What good can any lamb do? Is not
+lamb good to eat? Why do you look so pale, girl? Are not
+sheep killed every day, and don't you eat mutton? Is your
+lamb better than anybody else's, think you?' 'I don't know,'
+said Susan, 'but I love it better.' 'More fool you,' said he.
+'It feeds out of hand, it follows me about; I have always taken
+care of it; my mother gave it to me.' 'Well, say no more
+about it, then,' he cynically observed; 'if you love your lamb
+better than both your father and your mother, keep it, and good
+morning to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, oh stay!' cried Susan, catching the skirt of his coat
+with an eager, trembling hand;&mdash;'a whole week, did you say?
+My mother may get better in that time. No, I do not love
+my lamb half so well.' The struggle of her mind ceased, and
+with a placid countenance and calm voice, 'Take the lamb,'
+said she. 'Where is it?' said the attorney. 'Grazing in the
+meadow, by the river-side.' 'It must be brought up before
+nightfall for the butcher, remember.' 'I shall not forget it,'
+said Susan, steadily.</p>
+
+<p>As soon, however, as her persecutor turned his back and
+quitted the house, Susan sat down and hid her face in her
+hands. She was soon aroused by the sound of her mother's
+feeble voice, who was calling <i>Susan</i> from the inner room where
+she lay. Susan went in, but did not undraw the curtain as she
+stood beside the bed.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you there, love? Undraw the curtain, that I may see
+you, and tell me;&mdash;I thought I heard some strange voice just
+now talking to my child. Something's amiss, Susan,' said her
+mother, raising herself as well as she was able in the bed, to
+examine her daughter's countenance.</p>
+
+<p>'Would you think it amiss, then, my dear mother,' said
+Susan, stooping to kiss her&mdash;'would you think it amiss, if my
+father was to stay with us a week longer?' 'Susan! you
+don't say so?' 'He is, indeed, a whole week;&mdash;but how
+burning hot your hand is still.' 'Are you sure he will stay?'
+inquired her mother. 'How do you know? Who told you<span class="pagenum">[105]</span>
+so? Tell me all quick.' 'Attorney Case told me so; he can
+get him a week's longer leave of absence, and he has promised
+he will.' 'God bless him for it, for ever and ever!' said the
+poor woman, joining her hands. 'May the blessing of heaven
+be with him!'</p>
+
+<p>Susan closed the curtains, and was silent. She <i>could not
+say Amen</i>. She was called out of the room at this moment,
+for a messenger was come from the Abbey for the bread-bills.
+It was she who always made out the bills, for though she had
+not a great number of lessons from the writing-master, she had
+taken so much pains to learn that she could write a very neat,
+legible hand, and she found this very useful. She was not, to
+be sure, particularly inclined to draw out a long bill at this
+instant, but business must be done. She set to work, ruled
+her lines for the pounds, shillings, and pence, made out the
+bill for the Abbey, and despatched the impatient messenger.
+She then resolved to make out all the bills for the neighbours,
+who had many of them taken a few loaves and rolls of her
+baking. 'I had better get all my business finished,' said she
+to herself, 'before I go down to the meadow to take leave of
+my poor lamb.'</p>
+
+<p>This was sooner said than done, for she found that she had
+a great number of bills to write, and the slate on which she
+had entered the account was not immediately to be found,
+and when it was found the figures were almost rubbed out.
+Barbara had sat down upon it. Susan pored over the number
+of loaves, and the names of the persons who took them; and
+she wrote and cast up sums, and corrected and re-corrected
+them, till her head grew quite puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>The table was covered with little square bits of paper, on
+which she had been writing bills over and over again, when
+her father came in with a bill in his hand. 'How's this,
+Susan?' said he. 'How can ye be so careless, child? What
+is your head running upon? Here, look at the bill you were
+sending up to the Abbey? I met the messenger, and luckily
+asked to see how much it was. Look at it.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan looked and blushed; it was written, 'Sir Arthur
+Somers, to John Price, debtor, six dozen <i>lambs</i>, so much.' She
+altered it, and returned it to her father; but he had taken up
+some of the papers which lay upon the table. 'What are all
+these, child?' 'Some of them are wrong, and I've written<span class="pagenum">[106]</span>
+them out again,' said Susan. 'Some of them! All of them, I
+think, seem to be wrong, if I can read,' said her father, rather
+angrily, and he pointed out to her sundry strange mistakes.
+Her head, indeed, had been running upon her poor lamb. She
+corrected all the mistakes with so much patience, and bore to
+be blamed with so much good humour, that her father at last
+said that it was impossible ever to scold Susan, without being
+in the wrong at the last.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as all was set right, Price took the bills, and said
+he would go round to the neighbours and collect the money
+himself; for that he should be very proud to have it to say to
+them that it was all earned by his own little daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Susan resolved to keep the pleasure of telling him of his
+week's reprieve till he should come home to sup, as he had
+promised to do, in her mother's room. She was not sorry to
+hear him sigh as he passed the knapsack, which she had been
+packing up for his journey. 'How delighted he will be when
+he hears the good news!' said she to herself; 'but I know
+he will be a little sorry too for my poor lamb.'</p>
+
+<p>As Susan had now settled all her business, she thought she
+could have time to go down to the meadow by the river-side
+to see her favourite; but just as she had tied on her straw hat
+the village clock struck four, and this was the hour at which
+she always went to fetch her little brothers home from a dame-school
+near the village. She knew that they would be disappointed
+if she was later than usual, and she did not like to
+keep them waiting, because they were very patient, good boys;
+so she put off the visit to her lamb, and went immediately for
+her brothers.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[107]</span>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Evn in the spring and playtime of the year,<br />
+That calls th' unwonted villager abroad,<br />
+With all her little ones, a sportive train,<br />
+To gather kingcups in the yellow mead,<br />
+And prink their heads with daisies.
+</p>
+<p class="right smcap">Cowper.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> dame-school, which was about a mile from the hamlet,
+was not a showy edifice: but it was reverenced as much by
+the young race of village scholars as if it had been the most
+stately mansion in the land; it was a low-roofed, long, thatched
+tenement, sheltered by a few reverend oaks, under which many
+generations of hopeful children had gambolled in their turn.</p>
+
+<p>The close-shaven green, which sloped down from the hatch-door
+of the schoolroom, was paled round with a rude paling,
+which, though decayed in some parts by time, was not in any
+place broken by violence.</p>
+
+<p>The place bespoke order and peace. The dame who
+governed was well obeyed, because she was just and well
+beloved, and because she was ever glad to give well-earned
+praise and pleasure to her little subjects.</p>
+
+<p>Susan had once been under her gentle dominion, and had
+been deservedly her favourite scholar. The dame often cited
+her as the best example to the succeeding tribe of emulous
+youngsters. She had scarcely opened the wicket which
+separated the green before the schoolroom door from the lane,
+when she heard the merry voices of the children, and saw the
+little troup issuing from the hatchway and spreading over the
+green.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there's Susan!' cried her two little brothers, running,
+leaping, and bounding up to her; and many of the other rosy
+girls and boys crowded round her, to talk of their plays; for
+Susan was easily interested in all that made others happy; but
+she could not make them comprehend that, if they all spoke
+at once, it was not possible that she could hear what was said.</p>
+
+<p>The voices were still raised one above another, all eager to
+establish some important observation about ninepins, or marbles,<span class="pagenum">[108]</span>
+or tops, or bows and arrows, when suddenly music was heard
+and the crowd was silenced. The music seemed to be near
+the spot where the children were standing, and they looked
+round to see whence it could come. Susan pointed to the
+great oak tree, and they beheld, seated under its shade, an old
+man playing upon his harp. The children all approached&mdash;at
+first timidly, for the sounds were solemn; but as the harper
+heard their little footsteps coming towards him, he changed
+his hand and played one of his most lively tunes. The circle
+closed, and pressed nearer and nearer to him; some who were
+in the foremost row whispered to each other, 'He is blind!'
+'What a pity!' and 'He looks very poor,&mdash;what a ragged
+coat he wears!' said others. 'He must be very old, for all
+his hair is white: and he must have travelled a great way, for
+his shoes are quite worn out,' observed another.</p>
+
+<p>All these remarks were made whilst he was tuning his harp,
+for when he once more began to play, not a word was uttered.
+He seemed pleased by their simple exclamations of wonder
+and delight, and, eager to amuse his young audience, he played
+now a gay and now a pathetic air, to suit their several humours.</p>
+
+<p>Susan's voice, which was soft and sweet, expressive of
+gentleness and good nature, caught his ear the moment she
+spoke. He turned his face eagerly to the place where she
+stood; and it was observed that, whenever she said that she
+liked any tune particularly, he played it over again.</p>
+
+<p>'I am blind,' said the old man, 'and cannot see your faces;
+but I know you all asunder by your voices, and I can guess
+pretty well at all your humours and characters by your voices.'</p>
+
+<p>'Can you so, indeed?' cried Susan's little brother William,
+who had stationed himself between the old man's knees.
+'Then you heard <i>my</i> sister Susan speak just now. Can you
+tell us what sort of person she is?' 'That I can, I think,
+without being a conjurer,' said the old man, lifting the boy up
+on his knee; '<i>your</i> sister Susan is good-natured.' The boy
+clapped his hands. 'And good-tempered.' '<i>Right</i>,' said little
+William, with a louder clap of applause. 'And very fond of
+the little boy who sits upon my knee.' 'O right! right! quite
+right!' exclaimed the child, and 'quite right' echoed on all
+sides.</p>
+
+<p>'But how came you to know so much, when you are blind?'
+said William, examining the old man attentively.<span class="pagenum">[109]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Hush,' said John, who was a year older than his brother,
+and very sage, 'you should not put him in mind of his being
+blind.'</p>
+
+<p>'Though I am blind,' said the harper, 'I can hear, you
+know, and I heard from your sister herself all that I told you
+of her, that she was good-tempered and good-natured and fond
+of you.' 'Oh, that's wrong&mdash;you did not hear all that from
+herself, I'm sure,' said John, 'for nobody ever hears her
+praising herself.' 'Did not I hear her tell you,' said the
+harper, 'when you first came round me, that she was in a
+great hurry to go home, but that she would stay a little while,
+since you wished it so much? Was not that good-natured?
+And when you said you did not like the tune she liked best,
+she was not angry with you, but said, "Then play William's
+first, if you please,"&mdash;was not that good-tempered?' 'Oh,'
+interrupted William, 'it's all true; but how did you find out
+that she was fond of me?' 'That is such a difficult question,'
+said the harper, 'that I must take time to consider.' The
+harper tuned his instrument, as he pondered, or seemed to
+ponder; and at this instant two boys who had been searching
+for birds' nests in the hedges, and who had heard the sound of
+the harp, came blustering up, and pushing their way through
+the circle, one of them exclaimed, 'What's going on here?
+Who are you, my old fellow? A blind harper! Well, play
+us a tune, if you can play ever a good one&mdash;play me&mdash;let's see,
+what shall he play, Bob?' added he, turning to his companion.
+'Bumper Squire Jones.'</p>
+
+<p>The old man, though he did not seem quite pleased with
+the peremptory manner of the request, played, as he was
+desired, 'Bumper Squire Jones'; and several other tunes were
+afterwards bespoke by the same rough and tyrannical voice.</p>
+
+<p>The little children shrank back in timid silence, and eyed
+the brutal boy with dislike. This boy was the son of Attorney
+Case; and as his father had neglected to correct his temper
+when he was a child, as he grew up it became insufferable.
+All who were younger and weaker than himself dreaded his
+approach, and detested him as a tyrant.</p>
+
+<p>When the old harper was so tired that he could play no
+more, a lad, who usually carried his harp for him, and who
+was within call, came up, and held his master's hat to the
+company, saying, 'Will you be pleased to remember us?' The<span class="pagenum">[110]</span>
+children readily produced their halfpence, and thought their
+wealth well bestowed upon this poor, good-natured man, who
+had taken so much pains to entertain them, better even than
+upon the gingerbread woman, whose stall they loved to
+frequent. The hat was held some time to the attorney's son
+before he chose to see it. At last he put his hand surlily into
+his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a shilling. There were
+sixpennyworth of halfpence in the hat. 'I'll take these halfpence,'
+said he, 'and here's a shilling for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'God bless you, sir,' said the lad; but as he took the
+shilling, which the young gentleman had slily put <i>into the blind
+man's hand</i>, he saw that it was not worth one farthing. 'I
+am afraid it is not good, sir,' said the lad, whose business it
+was to examine the money for his master. 'I am afraid, then,
+you'll get no other,' said young Case, with an insulting laugh.
+'It never will do, sir,' persisted the lad; 'look at it yourself;
+the edges are all yellow! you can see the copper through it
+quite plain. Sir, nobody will take it from us.' 'That's your
+affair,' said the brutal boy, pushing away his hand. 'You may
+pass it, you know, as well as I do, if you look sharp. You
+have taken it from me, and I shan't take it back again, I
+promise you.'</p>
+
+<p>A whisper of 'that's very unjust,' was heard. The little
+assembly, though under evident constraint, could no longer
+suppress their indignation.</p>
+
+<p>'Who says it's unjust?' cried the tyrant sternly, looking
+down upon his judges.</p>
+
+<p>Susan's little brothers had held her gown fast, to prevent
+her from moving at the beginning of this contest, and she was
+now so much interested to see the end of it, that she stood
+still, without making any resistance.</p>
+
+<p>'Is any one here amongst yourselves a judge of silver?'
+said the old man. 'Yes, here's the butcher's boy,' said the
+attorney's son; 'show it to him.' He was a sickly-looking
+boy, and of a remarkably peaceful disposition. Young Case
+fancied that he would be afraid to give judgment against him.
+However, after some moments' hesitation, and after turning
+the shilling round several times, he pronounced, 'that, as far
+as his judgment went, but he did not pretend to be a downright
+<i>certain sure</i> of it, the shilling was not over and above
+good.' Then turning to Susan, to screen himself from manifest<span class="pagenum">[111]</span>
+danger, for the attorney's son looked upon him with a vengeful
+mien, 'But here's Susan here, who understands silver a great
+deal better than I do; she takes a power of it for bread,
+you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll leave it to her,' said the old harper; 'if she says the
+shilling is good, keep it, Jack.' The shilling was handed to
+Susan, who, though she had with becoming modesty forborne
+all interference, did not hesitate, when she was called upon, to
+speak the truth: 'I think that this shilling is a bad one,' said
+she; and the gentle but firm tone in which she pronounced
+the words for a moment awed and silenced the angry and
+brutal boy. 'There's another, then,' cried he; 'I have sixpences
+and shillings too in plenty, thank my stars.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan now walked away with her two little brothers, and all
+the other children separated to go to their several homes.
+The old harper called to Susan, and begged that, if she was
+going towards the village, she would be so kind as to show
+him the way. His lad took up his harp, and little William
+took the old man by the hand. 'I'll lead him, I can lead him,'
+said he; and John ran on before them, to gather kingcups in
+the meadow.</p>
+
+<p>There was a small rivulet which they had to cross, and as
+a plank which served for a bridge over it was rather narrow,
+Susan was afraid to trust the old blind man to his little
+conductor; she therefore went on the tottering plank first herself,
+and then led the old harper carefully over. They were
+now come to a gate, which opened upon the highroad to the
+village. 'There is the highroad straight before you,' said
+Susan to the lad, who was carrying his master's harp; 'you can't
+miss it. Now I must bid you a good evening; for I'm in a
+great hurry to get home, and must go the short way across the
+fields here, which would not be so pleasant for you, because of
+the stiles. Good-bye.' The old harper thanked her, and went
+along the highroad, whilst she and her brothers tripped on as
+fast as they could by the short way across the fields.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Somers, I am afraid, will be waiting for us,' said
+Susan. 'You know she said she would call at six; and by
+the length of our shadows I'm sure it is late.'</p>
+
+<p>When they came to their own cottage door, they heard
+many voices, and they saw, when they entered, several ladies
+standing in the kitchen. 'Come in, Susan; we thought you<span class="pagenum">[112]</span>
+had quite forsaken us,' said Miss Somers to Susan, who
+advanced timidly. 'I fancy you forgot that we promised to
+pay you a visit this evening; but you need not blush so much
+about the matter; there is no great harm done; we have only
+been here about five minutes; and we have been well employed
+in admiring your neat garden and your orderly shelves. Is it
+you, Susan, who keep these things in such nice order?'
+continued Miss Somers, looking round the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Before Susan could reply, little William pushed forward
+and answered, 'Yes, ma'am, it is <i>my</i> sister Susan that keeps
+everything neat; and she always comes to school for us, too,
+which was what caused her to be so late.' 'Because as how,'
+continued John, 'she was loth to refuse us the hearing a blind
+man play on the harp. It was we kept her, and we hopes,
+ma'am, as you <i>are</i>&mdash;as you <i>seem</i> so good, you won't take it amiss.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Somers and her sister smiled at the affectionate simplicity
+with which Susan's little brothers undertook her defence,
+and they were, from this slight circumstance, disposed to think
+yet more favourably of a family which seemed so well united.
+They took Susan along with them through the village. Many
+neighbours came to their doors, and far from envying, they all
+secretly wished Susan well as she passed.</p>
+
+<p>'I fancy we shall find what we want here,' said Miss Somers,
+stopping before a shop, where unfolded sheets of pins and glass
+buttons glistened in the window, and where rolls of many
+coloured ribbons appeared ranged in tempting order. She
+went in, and was rejoiced to see the shelves at the back of the
+counter well furnished with glossy tiers of stuffs, and gay, neat
+printed linens and calicoes.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Susan, choose yourself a gown,' said Miss Somers;
+'you set an example of industry and good conduct, of which
+we wish to take public notice, for the benefit of others.'</p>
+
+<p>The shopkeeper, who was father to Susan's friend Rose,
+looked much satisfied by this speech, and as if a compliment
+had been paid to himself, bowed low to Miss Somers, and then
+with alertness, which a London linendraper might have admired,
+produced piece after piece of his best goods to his young
+customer&mdash;unrolled, unfolded, held the bright stuffs and
+calendered calicoes in various lights. Now stretched his arm
+to the highest shelves, and brought down in a trice what
+seemed to be beyond the reach of any but a giant's arm; now<span class="pagenum">[113]</span>
+dived into some hidden recess beneath the counter, and
+brought to light fresh beauties and fresh temptations.</p>
+
+<p>Susan looked on with more indifference than most of the
+spectators. She was thinking much of her lamb, and more of
+her father.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Somers had put a bright guinea into her hand, and
+had bid her pay for her own gown; but Susan, as she looked
+at the guinea, thought it was a great deal of money to lay out
+upon herself, and she wished, but did not know how to ask,
+that she might keep it for a better purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Some people are wholly inattentive to the lesser feelings,
+and incapable of reading the countenances of those on whom
+they bestow their bounty. Miss Somers and her sister were
+not of this roughly charitable class.</p>
+
+<p>'She does not like any of these things,' whispered Miss
+Somers to her sister. Her sister observed that Susan looked
+as if her thoughts were far distant from gowns.</p>
+
+<p>'If you don't fancy any of these things,' said the civil shopkeeper
+to Susan, 'we shall have a new assortment of calicoes
+for the spring season soon from town.' 'Oh,' interrupted
+Susan, with a smile and a blush, 'these are all pretty, and
+too good for me, but&mdash;&mdash;' '<i>But</i> what, Susan?' said Miss
+Somers. 'Tell us what is passing in your little mind.' Susan
+hesitated. 'Well then, we will not press you, you are scarcely
+acquainted with us yet; when you are, you will not be afraid,
+I hope, to speak your mind. Put this shining yellow counter,'
+continued she, pointing to the guinea, 'in your pocket, and
+make what use of it you please. From what we know, and
+from what we have heard of you, we are persuaded that you
+will make a good use of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think, madam,' said the master of the shop, with a
+shrewd, good-natured look, 'I could give a pretty good guess
+myself what will become of that guinea; but I say nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, that is right,' said Miss Somers; 'we leave Susan
+entirely at liberty; and now we will not detain her any longer.
+Good night, Susan, we shall soon come again to your neat
+cottage.' Susan curtsied, with an expressive look of gratitude,
+and with a modest frankness in her countenance which seemed
+to say, 'I would tell you, and welcome, what I want to do with
+the guinea; but I am not used to speak before so many people.
+When you come to our cottage again you shall know all.'<span class="pagenum">[114]</span></p>
+
+<p>When Susan had departed, Miss Somers turned to the
+obliging shopkeeper, who was folding up all the things he had
+opened. 'You have had a great deal of trouble with us, sir,'
+said she; 'and since Susan will not choose a gown for herself,
+I must.' She selected the prettiest; and whilst the man was
+rolling it in paper, she asked him several questions about
+Susan and her family, which he was delighted to answer,
+because he had now an opportunity of saying as much as he
+wished in her praise.</p>
+
+<p>'No later back, ma'am, than last May morning,' said he,
+'as my daughter Rose was telling us, Susan did a turn, in her
+quiet way, by her mother, that would not displease you if you
+were to hear it. She was to have been Queen of the May,
+which in our little village, amongst the younger tribe, is a
+thing that is thought of a good deal; but Susan's mother was
+ill, and Susan, after sitting up with her all night, would not
+leave her in the morning, even when they brought the crown
+to her. She put the crown upon my daughter Rose's head
+with her own hands; and, to be sure, Rose loves her as well
+as if she was her own sister. But I don't speak from partiality;
+for I am no relation whatever to the Prices&mdash;only a well-wisher,
+as every one, I believe, who knows them is. I'll send the
+parcel up to the Abbey, shall I, ma'am?'</p>
+
+<p>'If you please,' said Miss Somers, 'and, as soon as you
+receive your new things from town, let us know. You will, I
+hope, find us good customers and well-wishers,' added she,
+with a smile; 'for those who wish well to their neighbours
+surely deserve to have well-wishers themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>A few words may encourage the benevolent passions, and
+may dispose people to live in peace and happiness; a few
+words may set them at variance, and may lead to misery and
+lawsuits. Attorney Case and Miss Somers were both equally
+convinced of this, and their practice was uniformly consistent
+with their principles.</p>
+
+<p>But now to return to Susan. She put the bright guinea
+carefully into the glove with the twelve shillings which she
+had received from her companions on May day. Besides this
+treasure, she calculated that the amount of the bills for bread
+could not be less than eight or nine and thirty shillings; and
+as her father was now sure of a week's reprieve, she had great
+hopes that, by some means or other, it would be possible to<span class="pagenum">[115]</span>
+make up the whole sum necessary to pay for a substitute. 'If
+that could but be done,' said she to herself, 'how happy would
+my mother be. She would be quite stout again, for she
+certainly is a great deal better since I told her that father
+would stay a week longer. Ah! but she would not have
+blessed Attorney Case, though, if she had known about my
+poor Daisy.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan took the path that led to the meadow by the water-side,
+resolved to go by herself and take leave of her innocent
+favourite. But she did not pass by unperceived. Her little
+brothers were watching for her return, and as soon as they
+saw her they ran after her, and overtook her as she reached
+the meadow.</p>
+
+<p>'What did that good lady want with you?' cried William;
+but looking up in his sister's face he saw tears in her eyes,
+and he was silent, and walked on quietly. Susan saw her
+lamb by the water-side. 'Who are those two men?' said
+William. 'What are they going to do with <i>Daisy</i>?' The
+two men were Attorney Case and the butcher. The butcher
+was feeling whether the lamb was fat.</p>
+
+<p>Susan sat down upon the bank in silent sorrow; her little
+brothers ran up to the butcher, and demanded whether he was
+going to <i>do any harm</i> to the lamb. The butcher did not
+answer, but the attorney replied, 'It is not your sister's lamb
+any longer; it's mine&mdash;mine to all intents and purposes.'
+'Yours!' cried the children, with terror; 'and will you kill
+it?' 'That's the butcher's business.'</p>
+
+<p>The little boys now burst into piercing lamentations. They
+pushed away the butcher's hand; they threw their arms round
+the neck of the lamb; they kissed its forehead&mdash;it bleated.
+'It will not bleat to-morrow!' said William, and he wept
+bitterly. The butcher looked aside, and hastily rubbed his
+eyes with the corner of his blue apron. The attorney stood
+unmoved; he pulled up the head of the lamb, which had just
+stooped to crop a mouthful of clover. 'I have no time to
+waste,' said he; 'butcher, you'll account with me. If it's fat&mdash;the
+sooner the better. I've no more to say.' And he
+walked off, deaf to the prayers of the poor children.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i011f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i011t.jpg" alt="i011t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Let it eat out of her hand for the last time.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As soon as the attorney was out of sight, Susan rose from
+the bank where she was seated, came up to her lamb, and
+stooped to gather some of the fresh dewy trefoil, to let it eat
+<span class="pagenum">[117]</span>out of her hand for the last time. Poor Daisy licked her well-known
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, let us go,' said Susan. 'I'll wait as long as you
+please,' said the butcher. Susan thanked him, but walked
+away quickly, without looking again at her lamb. Her little
+brothers begged the man to stay a few minutes, for they had
+gathered a handful of blue speedwell and yellow crowsfoot, and
+they were decking the poor animal. As it followed the boys
+through the village, the children collected as they passed, and
+the butcher's own son was amongst the number. Susan's
+steadiness about the bad shilling was full in this boy's memory;
+it had saved him a beating. He went directly to his father to
+beg the life of Susan's lamb.</p>
+
+<p>'I was thinking about it, boy, myself,' said the butcher;
+'it's a sin to kill a <i>pet lamb</i>, I'm thinking&mdash;any way, it's what
+I'm not used to, and don't fancy doing, and I'll go and say as
+much to Attorney Case; but he's a hard man; there's but one
+way to deal with him, and that's the way I must take, though
+so be I shall be the loser thereby; but we'll say nothing to the
+boys, for fear it might be the thing would not take; and then
+it would be worse again to poor Susan, who is a good girl, and
+always was, as well she may, being of a good breed, and
+well reared from the first.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, lads, don't keep a crowd and a scandal about my
+door,' continued he, aloud, to the children; 'turn the lamb in
+here, John, in the paddock, for to-night, and go your ways
+home.'</p>
+
+<p>The crowd dispersed, but murmured, and the butcher went
+to the attorney. 'Seeing that all you want is a good, fat,
+tender lamb, for a present for Sir Arthur, as you told me,' said
+the butcher, 'I could let you have what's as good or better for
+your purpose.' 'Better&mdash;if it's better, I'm ready to hear
+reason.' The butcher had choice, tender lamb, he said, fit to
+eat the next day; and as Mr. Case was impatient to make his
+offering to Sir Arthur, he accepted the butcher's proposal,
+though with such seeming reluctance, that he actually squeezed
+out of him, before he would complete the bargain, a bribe of a
+fine sweetbread.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Susan's brothers ran home to tell her that
+her lamb was put into the paddock for the night; this was all
+they knew, and even this was some comfort to her. Rose, her<span class="pagenum">[118]</span>
+good friend, was with her, and she had before her the pleasure
+of telling her father of his week's reprieve. Her mother was
+better, and even said she was determined to sit up to supper
+in her wicker armchair.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was getting things ready for supper, when little
+William, who was standing at the house door, watching in the
+dusk for his father's return, suddenly exclaimed, 'Susan! if
+here is not our old man!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said the old harper, 'I have found my way to you.
+The neighbours were kind enough to show me whereabouts
+you lived; for, though I didn't know your name, they guessed
+who I meant by what I said of you all.' Susan came to the
+door, and the old man was delighted to hear her speak again.
+'If it would not be too bold,' said he, 'I'm a stranger in this
+part of the country, and come from afar off. My boy has got
+a bed for himself here in the village, but I have no place.
+Could you be so charitable as to give an old blind man a
+night's lodging?' Susan said she would step in and ask her
+mother; and she soon returned with an answer that he was
+heartily welcome, if he could sleep upon the children's bed,
+which was but small.</p>
+
+<p>The old man thankfully entered the hospitable cottage.
+He struck his head against the low roof, as he stepped over
+the door-sill. 'Many roofs that are twice as high are not half
+so good,' said he. Of this he had just had experience at the
+house of the Attorney Case, while he had asked, but had been
+roughly refused all assistance by Miss Barbara, who was,
+according to her usual custom, standing staring at the hall
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The old man's harp was set down in Farmer Price's kitchen,
+and he promised to play a tune for the boys before they went
+to bed; their mother giving them leave to sit up to supper
+with their father. He came home with a sorrowful countenance;
+but how soon did it brighten when Susan, with a smile,
+said to him, 'Father, we've good news for you! good news for
+us all!&mdash;You have a whole week longer to stay with us; and
+perhaps,' continued she, putting her little purse into his hands,
+'perhaps with what's here and the bread bills, and what
+may somehow be got together before a week's at an end, we
+may make up the nine guineas for the substitute, as they call
+him. Who knows, dearest mother, but we may keep him with<span class="pagenum">[119]</span>
+us for ever!' As she spoke, she threw her arms round her
+father, who pressed her to his bosom without speaking, for his
+heart was full. He was some little time before he could perfectly
+believe that what he heard was true; but the revived
+smiles of his wife, the noisy joy of his little boys, and the
+satisfaction that shone in Susan's countenance, convinced him
+that he was not in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>As they sat down to supper, the old harper was made welcome
+to his share of the cheerful though frugal meal.</p>
+
+<p>Susan's father, as soon as supper was finished, even before
+he would let the harper play a tune for his boys, opened the
+little purse which Susan had given him. He was surprised at
+the sight of the twelve shillings, and still more, when he came
+to the bottom of the purse, to see the bright golden guinea.</p>
+
+<p>'How did you come by all this money, Susan?' said he.
+'Honestly and handsomely, that I'm sure of beforehand,' said
+her proud mother; 'but how I can't make out, except by the
+baking. Hey, Susan, is this your first baking?' 'Oh no,
+no,' said her father, 'I have her first baking snug here, besides,
+in my pocket. I kept it for a surprise, to do your mother's
+heart good, Susan. Here's twenty-nine shillings, and the
+Abbey bill, which is not paid yet, comes to ten more. What
+think you of this, wife? Have we not a right to be proud of
+our Susan? Why,' continued he, turning to the harper, 'I
+ask your pardon for speaking out so free before strangers in
+praise of my own, which I know is not mannerly; but the
+truth is the fittest thing to be spoken, as I think, at all times;
+therefore, here's your good health, Susan; why, by-and-by
+she'll be worth her weight in gold&mdash;in silver at least. But tell
+us, child, how came you by all this riches? and how comes it
+that I don't go to-morrow? All this happy news makes me so
+gay in myself, I'm afraid I shall hardly understand it rightly.
+But speak on, child&mdash;first bringing us a bottle of the good
+mead you made last year from your own honey.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan did not much like to tell the history of her guinea-hen&mdash;of
+the gown and of her poor lamb. Part of this would seem
+as if she was vaunting of her own generosity, and part of it she
+did not like to recollect. But her mother pressed to know the
+whole, and she related it as simply as she could. When she
+came to the story of her lamb, her voice faltered, and everybody
+present was touched. The old harper sighed once, and<span class="pagenum">[120]</span>
+cleared his throat several times. He then asked for his harp,
+and, after tuning it for a considerable time, he recollected&mdash;for
+he had often fits of absence&mdash;that he had sent for it to play
+the tune he had promised to the boys.</p>
+
+<p>This harper came from a great distance, from the mountains
+of Wales, to contend with several other competitors for a prize,
+which had been advertised by a musical society about a year
+before this time. There was to be a splendid ball given upon
+the occasion at Shrewsbury, which was about five miles from
+our village. The prize was ten guineas for the best performer
+on the harp, and the prize was now to be decided in a few
+days.</p>
+
+<p>All this intelligence Barbara had long since gained from her
+maid, who often paid visits to the town of Shrewsbury, and
+she had long had her imagination inflamed with the idea of
+this splendid music-meeting and ball. Often had she sighed
+to be there, and often had she revolved in her mind schemes
+for introducing herself to some <i>genteel</i> neighbours, who might
+take her to the ball <i>in their carriage</i>. How rejoiced, how
+triumphant was she when this very evening, just about the time
+when the butcher was bargaining with her father about Susan's
+lamb, a <i>livery</i> servant from the Abbey rapped at the door, and
+left a card for Mr. and Miss Barbara Case.</p>
+
+<p>'There,' cried Bab, '<i>I</i> and <i>papa</i> are to dine and drink tea
+at the Abbey to-morrow. Who knows? I daresay, when they
+see that I'm not a vulgar-looking person, and all that, and if
+I go cunningly to work with Miss Somers, as I shall, to be
+sure&mdash;I daresay she'll take me to the ball with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure,' said the maid; 'it's the least one may expect
+from a lady who <i>demeans</i> herself to visit Susan Price, and goes
+about a-shopping for her. The least she can do for you is to
+take you in her carriage, <i>which</i> costs nothing, but is just a
+common civility, to a ball.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then pray, Betty,' continued Miss Barbara, 'don't forget
+to-morrow, the first thing you do, to send off to Shrewsbury for
+my new bonnet. I must have it <i>to dine in</i>, at the Abbey, or
+the ladies will think nothing of me; and, Betty, remember the
+mantua-maker too. I must see and coax papa to buy me a
+new gown against the ball. I can see, you know, something
+of the fashions to-morrow at the Abbey. I shall <i>look the ladies
+well over</i>, I promise you. And, Betty, I have thought of the<span class="pagenum">[121]</span>
+most charming present for Miss Somers, as papa says it's good
+never to go empty-handed to a great house, I'll make Miss
+Somers, who is fond, as her maid told you, of such things&mdash;I'll
+make Miss Somers a present of that guinea-hen of Susan's; it's
+of no use to me, so do you carry it up early in the morning to
+the Abbey, with my compliments. That's the thing.'</p>
+
+<p>In full confidence that her present and her bonnet would
+operate effectually in her favour, Miss Barbara paid her first
+visit at the Abbey. She expected to see wonders. She was
+dressed in all the finery which she had heard from her maid,
+who had heard from the 'prentice of a Shrewsbury milliner, was
+<i>the thing</i> in London; and she was much surprised and disappointed,
+when she was shown into the room where the Miss
+Somerses and the ladies of the Abbey were sitting, to see that
+they did not, in any one part of their dress, agree with the
+picture her imagination had formed of fashionable ladies. She
+was embarrassed when she saw books and work and drawings
+upon the table, and she began to think that some affront was
+meant to her, because <i>the company</i> did not sit with their hands
+before them.</p>
+
+<p>When Miss Somers endeavoured to find out conversation
+that would interest her, and spoke of walks and flowers and
+gardening, of which she was herself fond, Miss Barbara still
+thought herself undervalued, and soon contrived to expose her
+ignorance most completely, by talking of things which she did
+not understand.</p>
+
+<p>Those who never attempt to appear what they are not&mdash;those
+who do not in their manners pretend to anything unsuited
+to their habits and situation in life, never are in danger of
+being laughed at by sensible, well-bred people of any rank;
+but affectation is the constant and just object of ridicule.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barbara Case, with her mistaken airs of gentility, aiming
+to be thought a woman and a fine lady, whilst she was, in
+reality, a child and a vulgar attorney's daughter, rendered herself
+so thoroughly ridiculous, that the good-natured, yet discerning
+spectators were painfully divided between their sense of
+comic absurdity and a feeling of shame for one who could feel
+nothing for herself.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the ladies dropped off. Miss Somers went out
+of the room for a few minutes to alter her dress, as it was the
+custom of the family, before dinner. She left a portfolio of<span class="pagenum">[122]</span>
+pretty drawings and good prints for Miss Barbara's amusement;
+but Miss Barbara's thoughts were so intent upon the
+harpers' ball, that she could not be entertained with such <i>trifles</i>.
+How unhappy are those who spend their time in expectation!
+They can never enjoy the present moment. Whilst Barbara
+was contriving means of interesting Miss Somers in her favour,
+she recollected, with surprise, that not one word had yet been
+said of her present of the guinea-hen. Mrs. Betty, in the
+hurry of her dressing her young lady in the morning, had forgotten
+it; but it came just whilst Miss Somers was dressing;
+and the housekeeper came into her mistress's room to announce
+its arrival.</p>
+
+<p>'Ma'am,' said she, 'here's a beautiful guinea-hen just come,
+<i>with</i> Miss Barbara Case's compliments to you.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Somers knew, by the tone in which the housekeeper
+delivered this message, that there was something in the business
+which did not perfectly please her. She made no answer, in
+expectation that the housekeeper, who was a woman of a very
+open temper, would explain her cause of dissatisfaction. In
+this she was not mistaken. The housekeeper came close up to
+the dressing-table, and continued, 'I never like to speak till I'm
+sure, ma'am, and I'm not quite sure, to say certain, in this case,
+ma'am, but still I think it right to tell you, which can't wrong
+anybody, what came across my mind about this same guinea-hen,
+ma'am; and you can inquire into it, and do as you please
+afterwards, ma'am. Some time ago we had fine guinea-fowls
+of our own, and I made bold, not thinking, to be sure, that all
+our own would die away from us, as they have done, to give a
+fine couple last Christmas to Susan Price, and very fond and
+pleased she was at the time, and I'm sure would never have
+parted with the hen with her good-will; but if my eyes don't
+strangely mistake, this hen, that comes from Miss Barbara, is
+the self-same identical guinea-hen that I gave to Susan. And
+how Miss Bab came by it is the thing that puzzles me. If my
+boy Philip was at home, maybe, as he's often at Mrs. Price's
+(which I don't disapprove), he might know the history of the
+guinea-hen. I expect him home this night, and if you have no
+objection, I will sift the affair.'</p>
+
+<p>'The shortest way, I think,' said Henrietta, 'would be to
+ask Miss Case herself about it, which I will do this evening.'
+'If you please, ma'am,' said the housekeeper, coldly; for she<span class="pagenum">[123]</span>
+knew that Miss Barbara was not famous in the village for
+speaking truth.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner was now served. Attorney Case expected to smell
+mint sauce, and, as the covers were taken from off the dishes,
+looked around for lamb; but no lamb appeared. He had a
+dexterous knack of twisting the conversation to his point. Sir
+Arthur was speaking, when they sat down to dinner, of a new
+carving knife, which he lately had had made for his sister.
+The Attorney immediately went from carving-knives to poultry;
+thence to butchers meat. Some joints, he observed, were
+much more difficult to carve than others. He never saw a man
+carve better than the gentleman opposite him, who was the
+curate of the parish. 'But, sir,' said the vulgar attorney, 'I
+must make bold to differ with you in one point, and I'll appeal
+to Sir Arthur. Sir Arthur, pray may I ask, when you carve a
+forequarter of lamb, do you, when you raise the shoulder,
+throw in salt, or not?' This well-prepared question was not
+lost upon Sir Arthur. The attorney was thanked for his
+intended present; but mortified and surprised to hear Sir
+Arthur say that it was a constant rule of his never to accept of
+any presents from his neighbours. 'If we were to accept a
+lamb from a rich neighbour on my estate,' said he, 'I am afraid
+we should mortify many of our poor tenants, who can have
+little to offer, though, perhaps, they may bear us thorough
+good-will notwithstanding.'</p>
+
+<p>After the ladies left the dining-room, as they were walking
+up and down the large hall, Miss Barbara had a fair opportunity
+of imitating her keen father's method of conversing. One of
+the ladies observed that this hall would be a charming place
+for music. Bab brought in harps and harpers, and the harpers'
+ball, in a breath. 'I know so much about it,&mdash;about the ball
+I mean,' said she, 'because a lady in Shrewsbury, a friend of
+papa's, offered to take me with her; but papa did not like to
+give her the trouble of sending so far for me, though she has a
+coach of her own.' Barbara fixed her eyes upon Miss Somers
+as she spoke; but she could not read her countenance as
+distinctly as she wished, because Miss Somers was at this
+moment letting down the veil of her hat.</p>
+
+<p>'Shall we walk out before tea?' said Miss Somers to her
+companions; 'I have a pretty guinea-hen to show you.'
+Barbara, secretly drawing propitious omens from the guinea-hen,<span class="pagenum">[124]</span>
+followed with a confidential step. The pheasantry was
+well filled with pheasants, peacocks, etc.; and Susan's pretty
+little guinea-hen appeared well, even in this high company. It
+was much admired. Barbara was in glory; but her glory was
+of short duration.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Miss Somers was going to inquire into the guinea-hen's
+history, Philip came up, to ask permission to have a bit
+of sycamore, to turn a nutmeg box for his mother. He was
+an ingenious lad, and a good turner for his age. Sir Arthur
+had put by a bit of sycamore on purpose for him; and Miss
+Somers told him where it was to be found. He thanked her;
+but in the midst of his bow of thanks his eye was struck by
+the sight of the guinea-hen, and he involuntarily exclaimed,
+'Susan's guinea-hen, I declare!' 'No, it's not Susan's guinea-hen,'
+said Miss Barbara, colouring furiously; 'it is mine, and
+I have made a present of it to Miss Somers.'</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of Bab's voice, Philip turned&mdash;saw her&mdash;and
+indignation, unrestrained by the presence of all the amazed
+spectators, flashed in his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>'What is the matter, Philip?' said Miss Somers, in a
+pacifying tone; but Philip was not inclined to be pacified.
+'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'may I speak out?' and, without
+waiting for permission, he spoke out, and gave a full, true, and
+warm account of Rose's embassy, and of Miss Barbara's cruel
+and avaricious proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara denied, prevaricated, stammered, and at last was
+overcome with confusion; for which even the most indulgent
+spectators could scarcely pity her.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Somers, however, mindful of what was due to her
+guest, was anxious to despatch Philip for his piece of sycamore.
+Bab recovered herself as soon as he was out of sight; but she
+further exposed herself by exclaiming, 'I'm sure I wish this
+pitiful guinea-hen had never come into my possession. I wish
+Susan had kept it at home, as she should have done!'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps she will be more careful now that she has
+received so strong a lesson,' said Miss Somers. 'Shall we
+try her?' continued she. 'Philip will, I daresay, take the
+guinea-hen back to Susan, if we desire it.' 'If you please,
+ma'am,' said Barbara, sullenly; 'I have nothing more to do
+with it.'</p>
+
+<p>So the guinea-hen was delivered to Philip, who set off<span class="pagenum">[125]</span>
+joyfully with his prize, and was soon in sight of Farmer
+Price's cottage. He stopped when he came to the door. He
+recollected Rose and her generous friendship for Susan. He
+was determined that she should have the pleasure of restoring
+the guinea-hen. He ran into the village. All the children
+who had given up their little purse on May-day were
+assembled on the play-green. They were delighted to see
+the guinea-hen once more. Philip took his pipe and tabor,
+and they marched in innocent triumph towards the white
+washed cottage.</p>
+
+<p>'Let me come with you&mdash;let me come with you,' said the
+butcher's boy to Philip. 'Stop one minute! my father has
+something to say to you.' He darted into his father's house.
+The little procession stopped, and in a few minutes the
+bleating of a lamb was heard. Through a back passage,
+which led into the paddock behind the house, they saw the
+butcher leading a lamb.</p>
+
+<p>'It is Daisy!' exclaimed Rose. 'It's Daisy!' repeated all
+her companions. 'Susan's lamb! Susan's lamb!' and there
+was a universal shout of joy.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, for my part,' said the good butcher, as soon as he
+could be heard,&mdash;'for my part, I would not be so cruel as
+Attorney Case for the whole world. These poor brute beasts
+don't know aforehand what's going to happen to them; and
+as for dying, it's what we must all do some time or another;
+but to keep wringing the hearts of the living, that have as
+much sense as one's self, is what I call cruel; and is not this
+what Attorney Case has been doing by poor Susan and her
+whole family, ever since he took a spite against them? But,
+at any rate, here's Susan's lamb safe and sound. I'd have
+taken it back sooner, but I was off before day to the fair, and
+am but just come back. Daisy, however, has been as well off
+in my paddock as he would have been in the field by the
+water-side.'</p>
+
+<p>The obliging shopkeeper, who showed the pretty calicoes
+to Susan, was now at his door, and when he saw the lamb,
+and heard that it was Susan's, and learned its history, he said
+that he would add his mite; and he gave the children some
+ends of narrow riband, with which Rose decorated her friend's
+lamb.</p>
+
+<p>The pipe and tabor now once more began to play, and the<span class="pagenum">[126]</span>
+procession moved on in joyful order, after giving the humane
+butcher three cheers; three cheers which were better deserved
+than 'loud huzzas' usually are.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was working in her arbour, with her little deal table
+before her. When she heard the sound of the music, she put
+down her work and listened. She saw the crowd of children
+coming nearer and nearer. They had closed round Daisy, so
+that she did not see it; but as they came up to the garden
+gate she saw that Rose beckoned to her. Philip played as
+loud as he could, that she might not hear, till the proper
+moment, the bleating of the lamb. Susan opened the garden-wicket,
+and at this signal the crowd divided, and the first
+thing that Susan saw, in the midst of her taller friends, was
+little smiling Mary, with the guinea-hen in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>'Come on! Come on!' cried Mary, as Susan started with
+joyful surprise; 'you have more to see.'</p>
+
+<p>At this instant the music paused, Susan heard the bleating
+of a lamb, and scarcely daring to believe her senses, she
+pressed eagerly forward, and beheld poor Daisy!&mdash;she burst
+into tears. 'I did not shed one tear when I parted with you,
+my dear little Daisy!' said she. 'It was for my father and
+mother. I would not have parted with you for anything else
+in the whole world. Thank you, thank you all,' added she, to
+her companions, who sympathised in her joy, even more than
+they had sympathised in her sorrow. 'Now, if my father was
+not to go away from us next week, and if my mother was
+quite stout, I should be the happiest person in the world!'</p>
+
+<p>As Susan pronounced these words, a voice behind the little
+listening crowd cried, in a brutal tone, 'Let us pass, if you
+please; you have no right to stop up the public road!' This
+was the voice of Attorney Case, who was returning with his
+daughter Barbara from his visit to the Abbey. He saw the
+lamb, and tried to whistle as he went on. Barbara also saw
+the guinea-hen, and turned her head another way, that she
+might avoid the contemptuous, reproachful looks of those whom
+she only affected to despise. Even her new bonnet, in which
+she had expected to be so much admired, was now only
+serviceable to hide her face and conceal her mortification.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad she saw the guinea-hen,' cried Rose, who now
+held it in her hands. 'Yes,' said Philip, 'she'll not forget
+May-day in a hurry.' 'Nor I neither, I hope,' said Susan,<span class="pagenum">[127]</span>
+looking round upon her companions with a most affectionate
+smile: 'I hope, whilst I live, I shall never forget your goodness
+to me last May-day. Now I've my pretty guinea-hen
+safe once more, I should think of returning your money.'
+'No! no! no!' was the general cry. 'We don't want the
+money&mdash;keep it, keep it&mdash;you want it for your father.' 'Well,'
+said Susan, 'I am not too proud to be obliged. I <i>will</i> keep
+your money for my father. Perhaps some time or other I
+may be able to earn&mdash;&mdash;' 'Oh,' interrupted Philip, 'don't
+let us talk of earning; don't let us talk to her of money now;
+she has not had time hardly to look at poor Daisy and her
+guinea-hen. Come, we had best go about our business, and
+let her have them all to herself.'</p>
+
+<p>The crowd moved away in consequence of Philip's considerate
+advice; but it was observed that he was the very last
+to stir from the garden-wicket himself. He stayed, first, to
+inform Susan that it was Rose who tied the ribands on Daisy's
+head. Then he stayed a little longer to let her into the history
+of the guinea-hen, and to tell her who it was that brought the
+hen home from the Abbey.</p>
+
+<p>Rose held the sieve, and Susan was feeding her long-lost
+favourite, whilst Philip leaned over the wicket, prolonging his
+narration. 'Now, my pretty guinea-hen,' said Susan&mdash;'my
+naughty guinea-hen, that flew away from me, you shall never
+serve me so again. I must cut your nice wings; but I won't
+hurt you.' 'Take care,' cried Philip; 'you'd better, indeed
+you'd better let me hold her whilst you cut her wings.'</p>
+
+<p>When this operation was successfully performed, which it
+certainly could never have been if Philip had not held the hen
+for Susan, he recollected that his mother had sent him with a
+message to Mrs. Price. This message led to another quarter
+of an hour's delay; for he had the whole history of the
+guinea-hen to tell over again to Mrs. Price, and the farmer
+himself luckily came in whilst it was going on, so it was but
+civil to begin it afresh; and then the farmer was so rejoiced
+to see his Susan so happy again with her two little favourites,
+that he declared he must see Daisy fed himself; and Philip
+found that he was wanted to hold the jugful of milk, out of
+which Farmer Price filled the pan for Daisy. Happy Daisy!
+who lapped at his ease whilst Susan caressed him, and
+thanked her fond father and her pleased mother.<span class="pagenum">[128]</span></p>
+
+<p>'But, Philip,' said Mrs. Price, 'I'll hold the jug&mdash;you'll be
+late with your message to your mother; we'll not detain you
+any longer.'</p>
+
+<p>Philip departed, and as he went out of the garden-wicket
+he looked up, and saw Bab and her maid Betty staring out of
+the window, as usual. On this, he immediately turned back
+to try whether he had shut the gate fast, lest the guinea-hen
+might stray, out and fall again into the hands of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barbara, in the course of this day, felt considerable
+mortification, but no contrition. She was vexed that her
+meanness was discovered, but she felt no desire to cure herself
+of any of her faults. The ball was still uppermost in her
+vain, selfish soul. 'Well,' said she to her <i>confidante</i>, Betty,
+'you hear how things have turned out; but if Miss Somers
+won't think of asking me to go out with her, I've a notion I
+know who will. As papa says, it's a good thing to have two
+strings to one's bow.'</p>
+
+<p>Now some officers, who were quartered at Shrewsbury,
+had become acquainted with Mr. Case. They had gotten into
+some quarrel with a tradesman of the town, and Attorney Case
+had promised to bring them through the affair, as the man
+threatened to take the law of them. Upon the faith of this
+promise, and with the vain hope that, by civility, they might
+dispose him to bring in a <i>reasonable</i> bill of costs, these officers
+sometimes invited Mr. Case to the mess; and one of them,
+who had lately been married, prevailed upon his bride <i>sometimes</i>
+to take a little notice of Miss Barbara. It was with
+this lady that Miss Barbara now hoped to go to the harpers'
+ball.</p>
+
+<p>'The officers and Mrs. Strathspey, or, more properly, Mrs.
+Strathspey and the officers, are to breakfast here, to-morrow,
+do you know?' said Bab to Betty. 'One of them dined at the
+Abbey to-day, and told papa they'd all come. They are going
+out on a party, somewhere into the country, and breakfast
+here on their way. Pray, Betty, don't forget that Mrs.
+Strathspey can't breakfast without honey. I heard her say so
+myself.' 'Then, indeed,' said Betty, 'I'm afraid Mrs.
+Strathspey will be likely to go without her breakfast here; for
+not a spoonful of honey have we, let her long for it ever so
+much.' 'But, surely,' said Bab, 'we can contrive to get some
+honey in the neighbourhood.' 'There's none to be bought, as<span class="pagenum">[129]</span>
+I know of,' said Betty. 'But is there none to be begged or
+borrowed?' said Bab, laughing. 'Do you forget Susan's beehive?
+Step over to her in the morning with <i>my compliments</i>,
+and see what you can do. Tell her it's for Mrs. Strathspey.'</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Betty went with Miss Barbara's compliments
+to Susan, to beg some honey for Mrs. Strathspey who could
+not breakfast without it. Susan did not like to part with her
+honey, because her mother loved it, and she therefore gave
+Betty but a small quantity. When Barbara saw how little
+Susan sent, she called her a <i>miser</i>, and she said she <i>must</i> have
+some more for Mrs. Strathspey. 'I'll go myself and speak to
+her. Come with me, Betty,' said the young lady, who found it
+at present convenient to forget her having declared, the day
+that she sucked up the broth, that she never would honour Susan
+with another visit. 'Susan,' said she, accosting the poor
+girl, whom she had done everything in her power to injure, 'I
+must beg a little more honey from you for Mrs. Strathspey's
+breakfast. You know, on a particular occasion such as this,
+neighbours must help one another.' 'To be sure they should,'
+added Betty.</p>
+
+<p>Susan, though she was generous, was not weak; she was
+willing to give to those she loved, but not disposed to let anything
+be taken from her, or coaxed out of her, by those she had
+reason to despise. She civilly answered that she was sorry
+she had no more honey to spare.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara grew angry, and lost all command of herself, when
+she saw that Susan, without regarding her reproaches, went on
+looking through the glass pane in the beehive. 'I'll tell you
+what, Susan Price,' said she, in a high tone, 'the honey I <i>will</i>
+have, so you may as well give it to me by fair means. Yes or
+no? Speak! Will you give it me or not? Will you give me
+that piece of the honeycomb that lies there?' 'That bit of
+honeycomb is for my mother's breakfast,' said Susan; 'I cannot
+give it you.' 'Can't you?' said Bab, 'then see if I don't take
+it!' She stretched across Susan for the honeycomb, which was
+lying by some rosemary leaves that Susan had freshly gathered
+for her mother's tea. Bab grasped, but at her first effort she
+only reached the rosemary. She made a second dart at the
+honeycomb, and, in her struggle to obtain it, she overset the
+beehive. The bees swarmed about her. Her maid Betty
+screamed and ran away. Susan, who was sheltered by a<span class="pagenum">[130]</span>
+laburnum tree, called to Barbara, upon whom the black clusters
+of bees were now settling, and begged her to stand still, and
+not to beat them away. 'If you stand quietly you won't be
+stung, perhaps.' But instead of standing quietly, Bab buffeted
+and stamped and roared, and the bees stung her terribly. Her
+arms and her face swelled in a frightful manner. She was
+helped home by poor Susan and treacherous Mrs. Betty, who,
+now the mischief was done, thought only of exculpating herself
+to her master.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Miss Barbara,' said she, 'this was quite wrong of
+you to go and get yourself into such a scrape. I shall be turned
+away for it, you'll see.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't care whether you are turned away or not,' said
+Barbara; 'I never felt such pain in my life. Can't you do
+something for me? I don't mind the pain either so much as
+being such a fright. Pray, how am I to be fit to be seen at
+breakfast by Mrs. Strathspey; and I suppose I can't go to the
+ball either to-morrow, after all!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, that you can't expect to do, indeed,' said Betty, the
+comforter. 'You need not think of balls; for those lumps and
+swellings won't go off your face this week. That's not what
+pains me; but I'm thinking of what your papa will say to me
+when he sees you, miss.'</p>
+
+<p>Whilst this amiable mistress and maid were in their
+adversity reviling one another, Susan, when she saw that she
+could be of no further use, was preparing to depart, but at the
+house-door she was met by Mr. Case. Mr. Case had revolved
+things in his mind; for his second visit at the Abbey pleased
+him as little as his first, owing to a few words which Sir Arthur
+and Miss Somers dropped in speaking of Susan and Farmer
+Price. Mr. Case began to fear that he had mistaken his game
+in quarrelling with this family. The refusal of his present
+dwelt upon the attorney's mind; and he was aware that, if the
+history of Susan's lamb ever reached the Abbey, he was undone.
+He now thought that the most prudent course he could
+possibly follow would be to <i>hush up</i> matters with the <i>Prices</i>
+with all convenient speed. Consequently, when he met Susan
+at his door, he forced a gracious smile. 'How is your mother,
+Susan?' said he. 'Is there anything in our house can be of
+service to her?' On hearing his daughter he cried out,
+'Barbara, Barbara&mdash;Bab! come downstairs, child, and speak to<span class="pagenum">[131]</span>
+Susan Price.' But as no Barbara answered, her father stalked
+upstairs directly, opened the door, and stood amazed at the
+spectacle of her swelled visage.</p>
+
+<p>Betty instantly began to tell the story of Barbara's mishap
+her own way. Bab contradicted her as fast as she spoke.
+The attorney turned the maid away on the spot; and partly
+with real anger, and partly with feigned affectation of anger, he
+demanded from his daughter how she dared to treat Susan
+Price so ill, 'when,' as he said, 'she was so neighbourly and
+obliging as to give you some of her honey? Couldn't you be
+content, without seizing upon the honeycomb by force? This
+is scandalous behaviour, and what, I assure you, I can't
+countenance.'</p>
+
+<p>Susan now interceded for Barbara; and the attorney, softening
+his voice, said that 'Susan was a great deal too good to
+her; as you are, indeed,' added he, 'to everybody. I forgive
+her for your sake.' Susan curtsied, in great surprise; but her
+lamb could not be forgotten, and she left the attorney's house
+as soon as she could, to make her mother's rosemary tea
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Case saw that Susan was not so simple as to be taken
+in by a few fair words. His next attempt was to conciliate
+Farmer Price. The farmer was a blunt, honest man, and his
+countenance remained inflexibly contemptuous, when the
+attorney addressed him in his softest tone.</p>
+
+<p>So stood matters the day of the long-expected harpers' ball.
+Miss Barbara Case, stung by Susan's bees, could not, after all
+her man&oelig;uvres, go with Mrs. Strathspey to the ball. The ballroom
+was filled early in the evening. There was a numerous
+assembly. The harpers, who contended for the prize, were
+placed under the music-gallery at the lower end of the room.
+Amongst them was our old blind friend, who, as he was not so
+well clad as his competitors, seemed to be disdained by many of
+the spectators. Six ladies and six gentlemen were now appointed
+to be judges of the performance. They were seated in a semicircle,
+opposite to the harpers. The Miss Somerses, who were
+fond of music, were amongst the ladies in the semicircle; and
+the prize was lodged in the hands of Sir Arthur. There was
+now silence. The first harp sounded, and as each musician
+tried his skill, the audience seemed to think that each deserved
+the prize. The old blind man was the last. He tuned his<span class="pagenum">[132]</span>
+instrument; and such a simple pathetic strain was heard as
+touched every heart. All were fixed in delighted attention;
+and when the music ceased, the silence for some moments
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>The silence was followed by a universal buzz of applause.
+The judges were unanimous in their opinions, and it was declared
+that the old blind harper, who played the last, deserved
+the prize.</p>
+
+<p>The simple pathetic air which won the suffrages of the whole
+assembly, was his own composition. He was pressed to give
+the words belonging to the music; and at last he modestly
+offered to repeat them, as he could not see to write. Miss
+Somers' ready pencil was instantly produced; and the old harper
+dictated the words of his ballad, which he called&mdash;<i>Susan's
+Lamentation for her Lamb</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Somers looked at her brother from time to time, as she
+wrote; and Sir Arthur, as soon as the old man had finished,
+took him aside, and asked him some questions, which brought
+the whole history of Susan's lamb and of Attorney Case's cruelty
+to light.</p>
+
+<p>The attorney himself was present when the harper began to
+dictate his ballad. His colour, as Sir Arthur steadily looked at
+him, varied continually; till at length, when he heard the words
+'Susan's Lamentation for her Lamb,' he suddenly shrank back,
+skulked through the crowd, and disappeared. We shall not
+follow him; we had rather follow our old friend, the victorious
+harper.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had he received the ten guineas, his well-merited
+prize, than he retired to a small room belonging to the people
+of the house, asked for pen, ink, and paper, and dictated, in a
+low voice, to his boy, who was a tolerably good scribe, a letter,
+which he ordered him to put directly into the Shrewsbury post-office.
+The boy ran with the letter to the post-office. He was
+but just in time, for the postman's horn was sounding.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, when Farmer Price, his wife, and Susan,
+were sitting together, reflecting that his week's leave of absence
+was nearly at an end, and that the money was not yet made up
+for John Simpson, the substitute, a knock was heard at the
+door, and the person who usually delivered the letters in the
+village put a letter into Susan's hand, saying, 'A penny, if you
+please&mdash;here's a letter for your father.'<span class="pagenum">[133]</span></p>
+
+<p>'For me!' said Farmer Price; 'here's the penny then; but
+who can it be from, I wonder? Who can think of writing to me,
+in this world?' He tore open the letter; but the hard name
+at the bottom of the page puzzled him&mdash;'<i>your obliged friend</i>,
+Llewellyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what's this?' said he, opening a paper that was
+enclosed in the letter. 'It's a song, seemingly; it must be
+somebody that has a mind to make an April fool of me.' 'But
+it is not April, it is May, father,' said Susan. 'Well, let us read
+the letter, and we shall come to the truth all in good time.'</p>
+
+<p>Farmer Price sat down in his own chair, for he could not
+read entirely to his satisfaction in any other, and read as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">My worthy Friend</span>&mdash;I am sure you will be glad to
+hear that I have had good success this night. I have won the
+ten guinea prize, and for that I am in a great measure indebted
+to your sweet daughter Susan; as you will see by a little ballad
+I enclose for her. Your hospitality to me has afforded to me
+an opportunity of learning some of your family history. You
+do not, I hope, forget that I was present when you were
+counting the treasure in Susan's little purse, and that I heard
+for what purpose it was all destined. You have not, I know,
+yet made up the full sum for your substitute, John Simpson;
+therefore do me the favour to use the five guinea banknote
+which you will find within the ballad. You shall not find me
+as hard a creditor as Attorney Case. Pay me the money at
+your own convenience. If it is never convenient to you to pay
+it, I shall never ask it. I shall go my rounds again through
+this country, I believe, about this time next year, and will call
+to see how you do, and to play the new tune for Susan and
+the dear little boys.</p>
+
+<p>'I should just add, to set you hearts at rest about the money,
+that it does not distress me at all to lend it to you. I am not
+quite so poor as I appear to be. But it is my humour to go
+about as I do. I see more of the world under my tattered
+garb than, perhaps, I should ever see in a better dress. There
+are many of my profession who are of the same mind as myself
+in this respect; and we are glad, when it lies in our way, to
+do any kindness to such a worthy family as yours. So, fare
+ye well.&mdash;Your obliged Friend, <span class="smcap">Llewellyn</span>.'<span class="pagenum">[134]</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>Susan now, by her father's desire, opened the ballad. He
+picked up the five-guinea banknote, whilst she read, with
+surprise, 'Susan's Lamentation for her Lamb.' Her mother
+leaned over her shoulder to read the words; but they were
+interrupted, before they had finished the first stanza, by another
+knock at the door. It was not the postman with another
+letter. It was Sir Arthur and his sisters.</p>
+
+<p>They came with an intention, which they were much disappointed
+to find that the old harper had rendered vain&mdash;they
+came to lend the farmer and his good family the money to pay
+for his substitute.</p>
+
+<p>'But, since we are here,' said Sir Arthur, 'let me do my
+own business, which I had like to have forgotten. Mr. Price,
+will you come out with me, and let me show you a piece of
+your land, through which I want to make a road? Look
+there,' said Sir Arthur, pointing to the spot; 'I am laying out
+a ride round my estate, and that bit of land of yours stops
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, sir,' said Price, 'the land's mine, to be sure, for that
+matter; but I hope you don't look upon me to be that sort of
+person that would be stiff about a trifle or so.'</p>
+
+<p>'The fact is,' said Sir Arthur, 'I had heard you were a
+litigious, pig-headed fellow; but you do not seem to deserve
+this character.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hope not, sir,' said the farmer; 'but about the matter of
+the land, I don't want to take any advantage of your wishing
+for it. You are welcome to it; and I leave it to you to find me
+out another bit of land convenient to me that will be worth
+neither more nor less; or else to make up the value to me some
+way or other. I need say no more about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hear something,' continued Sir Arthur, after a short
+silence&mdash;'I hear something, Mr. Price, of a <i>flaw</i> in your lease.
+I would not speak to you about it whilst we were bargaining
+about your land, lest I should overawe you; but, tell me, what
+is this <i>flaw</i>?'</p>
+
+<p>'In truth, and the truth is the fittest thing to be spoken at
+all times,' said the farmer, 'I didn't know myself what a <i>flaw</i>,
+as they call it, meant, till I heard of the word from Attorney
+Case; and, I take it, a <i>flaw</i> is neither more nor less than a
+mistake, as one should say. Now, by reason a man does not
+make a mistake on purpose, it seems to me to be the fair thing<span class="pagenum">[135]</span>
+that if a man finds out his mistake, he might set it right; but
+Attorney Case says this is not law; and I've no more to say.
+The man who drew up my lease made a mistake; and if I must
+suffer for it, I must,' said the farmer. 'However, I can show
+you, Sir Arthur, just for my own satisfaction and yours, a few
+lines of a memorandum on a slip of paper, which was given me
+by your relation, the gentleman who lived here before, and let
+me my farm. You'll see, by that bit of paper, what was meant;
+but the attorney says the paper's not worth a button in a court
+of justice, and I don't understand these things. All I understand
+is the common honesty of the matter. I've no more to
+say.'</p>
+
+<p>'This attorney, whom you speak of so often,' said Sir
+Arthur, 'you seem to have some quarrel with. Now, would
+you tell me frankly what is the matter between&mdash;&mdash;?'</p>
+
+<p>'The matter between us, then,' said Price, 'is a little bit of
+ground, not worth much, that is there open to the lane at the
+end of Mr. Case's garden, and he wanted to take it in. Now
+I told him my mind, that it belonged to the parish, and that I
+never would willingly give my consent to his cribbing it in
+that way. Sir, I was the more loth to see it shut into his
+garden, which, moreover, is large enough of all conscience
+without it, because you must know, Sir Arthur, the children in
+our village are fond of making a little play-green of it; and
+they have a custom of meeting on May-day at a hawthorn that
+stands in the middle of it, and altogether I was very loth to
+see 'em turned out of it by those who have no right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let us go and see this nook,' said Sir Arthur. 'It is not
+far off, is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, sir, just hard by here.'</p>
+
+<p>When they got to the ground, Mr. Case, who saw them
+walking together, was in a hurry to join them, that he might
+put a stop to any explanations. Explanations were things of
+which he had a great dread; but, fortunately, he was upon this
+occasion a little too late.</p>
+
+<p>'Is this the nook in dispute?' said Sir Arthur. 'Yes; this
+is the whole thing,' said Price. 'Why, Sir Arthur,' interposed
+the politic attorney, with an assumed air of generosity, 'don't
+let us talk any more about it. Let it belong to whom it will,
+I give it up to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'So great a lawyer, Mr. Case, as you are,' replied Sir<span class="pagenum">[136]</span>
+Arthur, 'must know that a man cannot give up that to which
+he has no legal title; and in this case it is impossible that,
+with the best intentions to oblige me in the world, you can
+give up this bit of land to me, because it is mine already, as I
+can convince you effectually by a map of the adjoining land,
+which I have fortunately safe amongst my papers. This piece
+of ground belonged to the farm on the opposite side of the
+road, and it was cut off when the lane was made.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very possibly. I daresay you are quite correct; you
+must know best,' said the attorney, trembling for the agency.</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said Sir Arthur, 'Mr. Price, you will observe that
+I now promise this little green to the children for a playground;
+and I hope they may gather hawthorn many a May-day
+at this their favourite bush.' Mr. Price bowed low, which
+he seldom did, even when he received a favour himself. 'And
+now, Mr. Case,' said Sir Arthur, turning to the attorney, who
+did not know which way to look, 'you sent me a lease to look
+over.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ye&mdash;ye&mdash;yes,' stammered Mr. Case. 'I thought it my
+duty to do so; not out of any malice or ill-will to this good
+man.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have done him no injury,' said Sir Arthur coolly. 'I
+am ready to make him a new lease, whenever he pleases, of
+his farm, and I shall be guided by a memorandum of the
+original bargain, which he has in his possession. I hope I
+never shall take an unfair advantage of any one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Heaven forbid, sir,' said the attorney, sanctifying his face,
+'that I should suggest the taking an <i>unfair</i> advantage of any
+man, rich or poor; but to break a bad lease is not taking an
+unfair advantage.'</p>
+
+<p>'You really think so?' said Sir Arthur. 'Certainly I do,
+and I hope I have not hazarded your good opinion by speaking
+my mind concerning the flaw so plainly. I always understood
+that there could be nothing ungentlemanlike, in the way of
+business, in taking advantage of the flaw in a lease.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said Sir Arthur, 'you have pronounced judgment
+<i>undesignedly</i> in your own case. You intended to send me this
+poor man's lease; but your son, by some mistake, brought me
+your own, and I have discovered a fatal error in it.' 'A fatal
+error!' said the alarmed attorney. 'Yes, sir,' said Sir Arthur,
+pulling the lease out of his pocket. 'Here it is. You will<span class="pagenum">[137]</span>
+observe that it is neither signed nor sealed by the grantor.'
+'But you won't take advantage of me, surely, Sir Arthur?'
+said Mr. Case, forgetting his own principles. 'I shall not
+take advantage of you, as you would have taken of this honest
+man. In both cases I shall be guided by memoranda which I
+have in my possession. I shall not, Mr. Case, defraud you of
+one shilling of your property. I am ready, at a fair valuation,
+to pay the exact value of your house and land; but upon this
+condition&mdash;that you quit the parish within one month!'</p>
+
+<p>Attorney Case was thus compelled to submit to the hard
+necessity of the case, for he knew that he could not legally resist.
+Indeed he was glad to be let off so easily; and he bowed and
+sneaked away, secretly comforting himself with the hope that
+when they came to the valuation of the house and land he should
+be the gainer, perhaps, of a few guineas. His reputation he
+justly held very cheap.</p>
+
+<p>'You are a scholar; you write a good hand; you can keep
+accounts, cannot you?' said Sir Arthur to Mr. Price, as they
+walked home towards the cottage. 'I think I saw a bill of
+your little daughter's drawing out the other day, which was
+very neatly written. Did you teach her to write?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir,' said Price, 'I can't say I did <i>that</i>; for she
+mostly taught it herself; but I taught her a little arithmetic,
+as far as I knew, on our winter nights, when I had nothing
+better to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your daughter shows that she has been well taught,' said
+Sir Arthur; 'and her good conduct and good character speak
+strongly in favour of her parents.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are very good, very good indeed, sir, to speak in this
+sort of way,' said the delighted father.</p>
+
+<p>'But I mean to do more than <i>pay you with words</i>,' said Sir
+Arthur. 'You are attached to your own family, perhaps you
+may become attached to me, when you come to know me, and
+we shall have frequent opportunities of judging of one another.
+I want no agent to squeeze my tenants, or do my dirty work.
+I only want a steady, intelligent, honest man, like you, to
+collect my rents, and I hope, Mr. Price, you will have no
+objection to the employment.' 'I hope, sir,' said Price, with
+joy and gratitude glowing in his honest countenance, 'that
+you'll never have cause to repent your goodness.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what are my sisters about here?' said Sir Arthur,<span class="pagenum">[138]</span>
+entering the cottage, and going behind his sisters, who were
+busily engaged in measuring an extremely pretty coloured
+calico.</p>
+
+<p>'It is for Susan, my dear brother,' said they. 'I knew she
+did not keep that guinea for herself,' said Miss Somers. 'I
+have just prevailed upon her mother to tell me what became of
+it. Susan gave it to her father; but she must not refuse a
+gown of our choosing this time; and I am sure she will not,
+because her mother, I see, likes it. And, Susan, I hear that
+instead of becoming Queen of the May this year, you were
+sitting in your sick mother's room. Your mother has a little
+colour in her cheeks now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, ma'am,' interrupted Mrs. Price, 'I'm quite well. Joy,
+I think, has made me quite well.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said Miss Somers, 'I hope you will be able to
+come out on your daughter's birthday, which, I hear, is the
+25th of this month. Make haste and get quite well before that
+day; for my brother intends that all the lads and lassies of the
+village shall have a dance on Susan's birthday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Sir Arthur, 'and I hope on that day, Susan, you
+will be very happy with your little friends upon their play-green.
+I shall tell them that it is your good conduct which has
+obtained it for them; and if you have anything to ask, any
+little favour for any of your companions, which we can grant,
+now ask, Susan. These ladies look as if they would not
+refuse you anything that is reasonable; and, I think, you look
+as if you would not ask anything unreasonable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said Susan, after consulting her mother's eyes,
+'there is, to be sure, a favour I should like to ask; it is for
+Rose.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I don't know who Rose is,' said Sir Arthur, smiling;
+'but go on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ma'am, you have seen her, I believe; she is a very good
+girl, indeed,' said Mrs. Price. 'And works very neatly,
+indeed,' continued Susan, eagerly, to Miss Somers; 'and she
+and her mother heard you were looking out for some one to
+wait upon you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Say no more,' said Miss Somers; 'your wish is granted.
+Tell Rose to come to the Abbey to-morrow morning, or, rather,
+come with her yourself; for our housekeeper, I know, wants to
+talk to you about a certain cake. She wishes, Susan, that you<span class="pagenum">[139]</span>
+should be the maker of the cake for the dance; and she has
+good things ready looked out for it already, I know. It must
+be large enough for everybody to have a slice, and the housekeeper
+will ice it for you. I only hope your cake will be as
+good as your bread. Fare ye well.'</p>
+
+<p>How happy are those who bid farewell to a whole family,
+silent with gratitude, who will bless them aloud when they are
+far out of hearing!</p>
+
+<p>'How do I wish, now,' said Farmer Price, 'and it's almost
+a sin for one who has had such a power of favours done him to
+wish for anything more; but how I <i>do</i> wish, wife, that our good
+friend, the harper, was only here at this time. It would do his
+old warm heart good. Well, the best of it is, we shall be able
+next year, when he comes his rounds, to pay him his money
+with thanks, being all the time, and for ever, as much obliged
+to him as if we kept it. I long, so I do, to see him in this
+house again, drinking, as he did, just in this spot, a glass of
+Susan's mead, to her very good health.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Susan, 'and the next time he comes, I can give
+him one of my guinea-hen's eggs, and I shall show my lamb,
+Daisy.'</p>
+
+<p>'True, love,' said her mother, 'and he will play that tune
+and sing that pretty ballad. Where is it? for I have not
+finished it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Rose ran away with it, mother, but I'll step after her, and
+bring it back to you this minute,' said Susan.</p>
+
+<p>Susan found her friend Rose at the hawthorn, in the midst
+of a crowded circle of her companions, to whom she was
+reading 'Susan's Lamentation for her Lamb.'</p>
+
+<p>'The words are something, but the tune&mdash;the tune&mdash;I
+must have the tune,' cried Philip. 'I'll ask my mother to ask
+Sir Arthur to try and find out which way that good old man
+went after the ball; and if he's above ground, we'll have him
+back by Susan's birthday, and he shall sit here&mdash;just exactly
+here&mdash;by this, our bush, and he shall play&mdash;I mean, if he
+pleases&mdash;that same tune for us, and I shall learn it&mdash;I mean, if
+I can&mdash;in a minute.'</p>
+
+<p>The good news that Farmer Price was to be employed to
+collect the rents, and that Attorney Case was to leave the
+parish in a month, soon spread over the village. Many came
+out of their houses to have the pleasure of hearing the joyful<span class="pagenum">[140]</span>
+tidings confirmed by Susan herself. The crowd on the play-green
+increased every minute.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' cried the triumphant Philip, 'I tell you it's all true,
+every word of it. Susan's too modest to say it herself; but I
+tell ye all, Sir Arthur gave us this play-green for ever, on
+account of her being so good.'</p>
+
+<p>You see, at last Attorney Case, with all his cunning, has not
+proved a match for 'Simple Susan.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[141]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_WHITE_PIGEON" id="THE_WHITE_PIGEON"></a>THE WHITE PIGEON</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> little town of Somerville, in Ireland, has, within these
+few years, assumed the neat and cheerful appearance of an
+English village. Mr. Somerville, to whom this town belongs,
+wished to inspire his tenantry with a taste for order and
+domestic happiness, and took every means in his power to
+encourage industrious, well-behaved people to settle in his
+neighbourhood. When he had finished building a row of
+good slated houses in his town, he declared that he would let
+them to the best tenants he could find, and proposals were
+publicly sent to him from all parts of the country.</p>
+
+<p>By the best tenants, Mr. Somerville did not, however, mean
+the best bidders; and many, who had offered an extravagant
+price for the houses, were surprised to find their proposals
+rejected. Amongst these was Mr. Cox, an alehouse-keeper,
+who did not bear a very good character.</p>
+
+<p>'Please your honour, sir,' said he to Mr. Somerville, 'I
+<i>expected</i>, since I bid as fair and fairer for it than any other, that
+you would have let me the house next the apothecary's. Was
+not it fifteen guineas I mentioned in my proposal? and did not
+your honour give it against me for thirteen?' 'My honour
+did just so,' replied Mr. Somerville calmly. 'And please
+your honour, but I don't know what it is I or mine have done
+to offend you. I'm sure there is not a gentleman in all Ireland
+I'd go further to sarve. Would not I go to Cork to-morrow
+for the least word from your honour?' 'I am much obliged
+to you, Mr. Cox, but I have no business at Cork at present,'
+answered Mr. Somerville drily. 'It is all I wish,' exclaimed
+Mr. Cox, 'that I could find out and light upon the man that
+has belied me to your honour.' 'No man has belied you, Mr.<span class="pagenum">[142]</span>
+Cox, but your nose belies you much, if you do not love drinking
+a little, and your black eye and cut chin belie you much if you
+do not love quarrelling a little.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quarrel! I quarrel, please your honour! I defy any man,
+or set of men, ten mile round, to prove such a thing, and I am
+ready to fight him that dares to say the like of me. I'd fight
+him here in your honour's presence, if he'd only come out this
+minute and meet me like a man.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Mr. Cox put himself into a boxing attitude, but
+observing that Mr. Somerville looked at his threatening
+gesture with a smile, and that several people, who had gathered
+round him as he stood in the street, laughed at the proof he
+gave of his peaceable disposition, he changed his attitude, and
+went on to vindicate himself against the charge of drinking.</p>
+
+<p>'And as to drink, please your honour, there's no truth in it.
+Not a drop of whisky, good or bad, have I touched these six
+months, except what I took with Jemmy M'Doole the night I
+had the misfortune to meet your honour coming home from the
+fair of Ballynagrish.'</p>
+
+<p>To this speech Mr. Somerville made no answer, but turned
+away to look at the bow-window of a handsome new inn, which
+the glazier was at this instant glazing. 'Please your honour,
+that new inn is not let, I hear, as yet,' resumed Mr. Cox; 'if
+your honour recollects, you promised to make me a compliment
+of it last Seraphtide was twelvemonth.'</p>
+
+<p>'Impossible!' cried Mr. Somerville, 'for I had no thoughts
+of building an inn at that time.' 'Oh, I beg your honour's
+pardon, but if you'd be just pleased to recollect, it was coming
+through the gap in the bog meadows, <i>forenent</i> Thady
+O'Connor, you made me the promise&mdash;I'll leave it to him, so I
+will.' 'But I will not leave it to him, I assure you,' cried Mr.
+Somerville; 'I never made any such promise. I never
+thought of letting this inn to you.' 'Then your honour won't
+let me have it?' 'No; you have told me a dozen falsehoods.
+I do not wish to have you for a tenant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, God bless your honour; I've no more to say, but
+God bless your honour,' said Mr. Cox; and he walked away,
+muttering to himself, as he slouched his hat over his face, 'I
+hope I'll live to be revenged on him!'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Somerville the next morning went with his family to
+look at the new inn, which he expected to see perfectly<span class="pagenum">[143]</span>
+finished; but he was met by the carpenter, who, with a rueful
+face, informed him that six panes of glass in the large bow-window
+had been broken during the night.</p>
+
+<p>'Ha! perhaps Mr. Cox has broken my windows, in revenge
+for my refusing to let him my house,' said Mr. Somerville; and
+many of the neighbours, who knew the malicious character of
+this Mr. Cox, observed that this was like one of his tricks. A
+boy of about twelve years old, however, stepped forward and
+said, 'I don't like Mr. Cox, I'm sure; for once he beat me
+when he was drunk; but, for all that, no one should be
+accused wrongfully. He <i>could</i> not be the person that broke
+these windows last night, for he was six miles off. He slept at
+his cousin's last night, and he has not returned home yet. So
+I think he knows nothing of the matter.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Somerville was pleased with the honest simplicity of
+this boy, and observing that he looked in eagerly at the staircase,
+when the house door was opened, he asked him whether
+he would like to go in and see the new house. 'Yes, sir,' said
+the boy, 'I should like to go up those stairs, and to see what I
+should come to.' 'Up with you, then!' said Mr. Somerville;
+and the boy ran up the stairs. He went from room to room
+with great expressions of admiration and delight. At length,
+as he was examining one of the garrets, he was startled by a
+fluttering noise over his head; and looking up he saw a white
+pigeon, who, frightened at his appearance, began to fly round
+and round the room, till it found its way out of the door, and
+flew into the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>The carpenter was speaking to Mr. Somerville upon the
+landing-place of the stairs; but, the moment he spied the white
+pigeon, he broke off in the midst of a speech about <i>the nose</i> of
+the stairs, and exclaimed, 'There he is, please your honour!
+There's he that has done all the damage to our bow-window&mdash;that's
+the very same wicked white pigeon that broke the church
+windows last Sunday was se'nnight; but he's down for it now;
+we have him safe, and I'll chop his head off, as he deserves,
+this minute.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i012f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i012t.jpg" alt="i012t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off: he does not
+deserve it,' cried the boy, who came running out of the garret
+with the greatest eagerness&mdash;'<i>I</i> broke your window, sir,' said he
+to Mr. Somerville. 'I broke your window with this ball; but I
+did not know that I had done it, till this moment, I assure
+<span class="pagenum">[145]</span>you, or I should have told you before. Don't chop his head
+off,' added the boy to the carpenter, who had now the white
+pigeon in his hands. 'No,' said Mr. Somerville, 'the pigeon's
+head shall not be chopped off, nor yours either, my good boy,
+for breaking a window. I am persuaded by your open,
+honest countenance, that you are speaking the truth; but
+pray explain this matter to us; for you have not made it quite
+clear. How happened it that you could break my windows
+without knowing it? and how came you to find it out at last?'
+'Sir,' said the boy, 'if you'll come up here, I'll show you all I
+know, and how I came to know it.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Somerville followed the boy into the garret, who pointed
+to a pane of glass that was broken in a small window that
+looked out upon a piece of waste ground behind the house.
+Upon this piece of waste ground the children of the village
+often used to play. 'We were playing there at ball yesterday
+evening,' continued the boy, addressing himself to Mr. Somerville,
+'and one of the lads challenged me to hit a mark in the
+wall, which I did; but he said I did not hit it, and bade me
+give him up my ball as the forfeit. This I would not do; and
+when he began to wrestle with me for it, I threw the ball, as I
+thought, over the house. He ran to look for it in the street,
+but could not find it, which I was very glad of; but I was
+very sorry just now to find it myself lying upon this heap of
+shavings, sir, under this broken window; for, as soon as I
+saw it lying there, I knew I must have been the person
+that broke the window; and through this window came the
+white pigeon. Here's one of his white feathers sticking in
+the gap.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said the carpenter, 'and in the bow-window room
+below there's plenty of his feathers to be seen; for I've just
+been down to look. It was the pigeon broke <i>them</i> windows,
+sure enough.' 'But he could not have got in had I not broke
+this little window,' said the boy eagerly; 'and I am able to
+earn sixpence a day, and I'll pay for all the mischief, and
+welcome. The white pigeon belongs to a poor neighbour, a
+friend of ours, who is very fond of him, and I would not have
+him killed for twice as much money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take the pigeon, my honest, generous lad,' said Mr.
+Somerville, 'and carry him back to your neighbour. I forgive
+him all the mischief he has done me, tell your friend, for your<span class="pagenum">[146]</span>
+sake. As to the rest, we can have the windows mended; and
+do you keep all the sixpences you earn for yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what he never did yet,' said the carpenter. 'Many's
+the sixpence he earns, but not a halfpenny goes into his own
+pocket: it goes every farthing to his poor father and mother.
+Happy for them to have such a son!'</p>
+
+<p>'More happy for him to have such a father and mother,'
+exclaimed the boy. 'Their good days they took all the best
+care of me that was to be had for love or money, and would,
+if I would let them, go on paying for my schooling now, falling
+as they be in the world; but I must learn to mind the shop
+now. Good morning to you, sir; and thank you kindly,' said
+he to Mr. Somerville.</p>
+
+<p>'And where does this boy live, and who are his father and
+mother? They cannot live in town,' said Mr. Somerville, 'or
+I should have heard of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are but just come into the town, please your honour,'
+said the carpenter. 'They lived formerly upon Counsellor
+O'Donnel's estate; but they were ruined, please your honour,
+by taking a joint lease with a man who fell afterwards into bad
+company, ran out all he had, so could not pay the landlord;
+and these poor people were forced to pay his share and their
+own too, which almost ruined them. They were obliged to
+give up the land; and now they have furnished a little shop
+in this town with what goods they could afford to buy with the
+money they got by the sale of their cattle and stock. They
+have the goodwill of all who know them; and I am sure I
+hope they will do well. The boy is very ready in the shop,
+though he said only that he could earn sixpence a day. He
+writes a good hand, and is quick at casting up accounts, for
+his age. Besides, he is likely to do well in the world, because
+he is never in idle company, and I've known him since he was
+two foot high, and never heard of his telling a lie.'</p>
+
+<p>'This is an excellent character of the boy, indeed,' said
+Mr. Somerville, 'and from his behaviour this morning I am
+inclined to think that he deserves all your praises.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Somerville resolved to inquire more fully concerning
+this poor family, and to attend to their conduct himself, fully
+determined to assist them if he should find them such as they
+had been represented.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, this boy, whose name was Brian O'Neill,<span class="pagenum">[147]</span>
+went to return the white pigeon to its owner. 'You have saved
+its life,' said the woman to whom it belonged, 'and I'll make
+you a present of it.' Brian thanked her; and he from that day
+began to grow fond of the pigeon. He always took care to
+scatter some oats for it in his father's yard; and the pigeon
+grew so tame at last that it would hop about the kitchen, and
+eat off the same trencher with the dog.</p>
+
+<p>Brian, after the shop was shut up at night, used to amuse
+himself with reading some little books which the schoolmaster
+who formerly taught him arithmetic was so good as to lend
+him. Amongst these he one evening met with a little book
+full of the history of birds and beasts; he looked immediately
+to see whether the pigeon was mentioned amongst the birds,
+and, to his great joy, he found a full description and history of
+his favourite bird.</p>
+
+<p>'So, Brian, I see your schooling has not been thrown away
+upon you; you like your book, I see, when you have no master
+over you to bid you read,' said his father, when he came in
+and saw Brian reading his book very attentively.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you for having me taught to read, father,' said
+Brian. 'Here I've made a great discovery: I've found out in
+this book, little as it looks, father, a most curious way of
+making a fortune; and I hope it will make your fortune, father,
+and if you'll sit down, I'll tell it to you.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. O'Neill, in hopes of pleasing his son rather than in the
+expectation of having his fortune made, immediately sat down
+to listen; and his son explained to him that he had found in
+his book an account of pigeons who carried notes and letters:
+'and, father,' continued Brian, 'I find my pigeon is of this
+sort; and I intend to make my pigeon carry messages. Why
+should not he? If other pigeons have done so before him, I
+think he is as good, and, I daresay, will be as easy to teach as
+any pigeon in the world. I shall begin to teach him to-morrow
+morning; and then, father, you know people often pay a great
+deal for sending messengers: and no boy can run, no horse
+can gallop, so fast as a bird can fly; therefore the bird must
+be the best messenger, and I should be paid the best price.
+Hey, father?'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure, to be sure, my boy,' said his father, laughing;
+'I wish you may make the best messenger in Ireland of your
+pigeon; but all I beg, my dear boy, is that you won't neglect<span class="pagenum">[148]</span>
+our shop for your pigeon; for I've a notion we have a better
+chance of making a fortune by the shop than by the white
+pigeon.'</p>
+
+<p>Brian never neglected the shop: but in his leisure hours he
+amused himself with training his pigeon; and after much
+patience he at last succeeded so well, that one day he went to
+his father and offered to send him word by his pigeon what
+beef was a pound in the market of Ballynagrish, where he was
+going. 'The pigeon will be home long before me, father;
+and he will come in at the kitchen window and light upon the
+dresser; then you must untie the little note which I shall have
+tied under his left wing, and you'll know the price of beef
+directly.'</p>
+
+<p>The pigeon carried his message well; and Brian was much
+delighted with his success. He soon was employed by the
+neighbours, who were aroused by Brian's fondness of his swift
+messenger; and soon the fame of the white pigeon was spread
+amongst all who frequented the markets and fairs of Somerville.</p>
+
+<p>At one of these fairs a set of men of desperate fortunes met
+to drink, and to concert plans of robberies. Their place of
+meeting was at the alehouse of Mr. Cox, the man who, as our
+readers may remember, was offended by Mr. Somerville's hinting
+that he was fond of drinking and of quarrelling, and who threatened
+vengeance for having been refused the new inn.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst these men were talking over their schemes, one of
+them observed that one of their companions was not arrived.
+Another said, 'No.' 'He's six miles off,' said another; and
+a third wished that he could make him hear at that distance.
+This turned the discourse upon the difficulties of sending messages
+secretly and quickly. Cox's son, a lad of about nineteen,
+who was one of this gang, mentioned the white carrier pigeon,
+and he was desired to try all means to get it into his possession.
+Accordingly, the next day young Cox went to Brian O'Neill,
+and tried, at first by persuasion and afterwards by threats, to
+prevail upon him to give up the pigeon. Brian was resolute
+in his refusal, more especially when the petitioner began to
+bully him.</p>
+
+<p>'If we can't have it by fair means, we will by foul,' said
+Cox; and a few days afterwards the pigeon was gone. Brian
+searched for it in vain&mdash;inquired from all the neighbours if<span class="pagenum">[149]</span>
+they had seen it, and applied, but to no purpose, to Cox. He
+swore that he knew nothing about the matter. But this was
+false, for it was he who during the night-time had stolen the
+white pigeon. He conveyed it to his employers, and they
+rejoiced that they had gotten it into their possession, as they
+thought it would serve them for a useful messenger.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more short-sighted than cunning. The
+very means which these people took to secure secrecy were the
+means of bringing their plots to light. They endeavoured to
+teach the pigeon, which they had stolen, to carry messages for
+them in a part of the country at some distance from Somerville;
+and when they fancied that it had forgotten its former
+habits and its old master, they thought that they might venture
+to employ him nearer home. The pigeon, however, had a
+better memory than they imagined. They loosed him from a
+bag near the town of Ballynagrish, in hopes that he would
+stop at the house of Cox's cousin, which was on its road between
+Ballynagrish and Somerville. But the pigeon, though
+he had been purposely fed at this house for a week before this
+trial, did not stop there, but flew on to his old master's house
+in Somerville, and pecked at the kitchen window, as he had
+formerly been taught to do. His father, fortunately, was within
+hearing, and poor Brian ran with the greatest joy to open the
+window and to let him in.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, father, here's my white pigeon come back of his own
+accord,' exclaimed Brian; 'I must run and show him to my
+mother.' At this instant the pigeon spread his wings, and
+Brian discovered under one of its wings a small and very dirty-looking
+billet. He opened it in his father's presence. The
+scrawl was scarcely legible; but these words were at length
+deciphered:&mdash;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'Thare are eight of uz sworn: I send yo at botom thare
+names. We meat at tin this nite at my faders, and have
+harms and all in radiness to brak into the grate 'ouse. Mr.
+Summervill is to lye out to nite&mdash;kip the pigeon untill to-morrow.
+For ever yours,
+<span class="smcap" style=" float : right">Murtagh Cox, Jun.'</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>Scarcely had they finished reading this note, than both
+father and son exclaimed, 'Let us go and show it to Mr.
+Somerville.' Before they set out, they had, however, the<span class="pagenum">[150]</span>
+prudence to secure the pigeon, so that he should not be seen
+by any one but themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Somerville, in consequence of this fortunate discovery,
+took proper measures for the apprehension of the eight men
+who had sworn to rob his house. When they were all safely
+lodged in the county gaol, he sent for Brian O'Neill and his
+father; and after thanking them for the service they had done
+him, he counted out ten bright guineas upon a table, and
+pushed them towards Brian, saying, 'I suppose you know
+that a reward of ten guineas was offered some weeks ago for
+the discovery of John MacDermod, one of the eight men
+whom we have just taken up?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir,' said Brian; 'I did not know it, and I did not
+bring that note to you to get ten guineas, but because I
+thought it was right. I don't want to be paid for doing it.'
+'That's my own boy,' said his father. 'We thank you, sir;
+but we'll not take the money; <i>I don't like to take the price of
+blood.</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'I know the difference, my good friends,' said Mr. Somerville,
+'between vile informers and courageous, honest men.'
+'Why, as to that, please your honour, though we are poor, I
+hope we are honest.' 'And, what is more,' said Mr. Somerville,
+'I have a notion that you would continue to be honest,
+even if you were rich.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you, my good lad,' continued Mr. Somerville, after a
+moment's pause&mdash;'will you trust me with your pigeon a few
+days?' 'Oh, and welcome, sir,' said the boy, with a smile; and
+he brought the pigeon to Mr. Somerville when it was dark, and
+nobody saw him.</p>
+
+<p>A few days afterwards, Mr. Somerville called at O'Neill's
+house, and bid him and his son follow him. They followed
+till he stopped opposite to the bow-window of the new inn.
+The carpenter had just put up a sign, which was covered over
+with a bit of carpeting.</p>
+
+<p>'Go up the ladder, will you?' said Mr. Somerville to Brian,
+'and pull that sign straight, for it hangs quite crooked. There,
+now it is straight. Now pull off the carpet, and let us see the
+new sign.'</p>
+
+<p>The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon
+painted upon the sign, and the name of O'Neill in large letters
+underneath.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i013f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i013t.jpg" alt="i013t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon painted upon the sign.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[152]</span>'Take care you do not tumble down and break your neck
+upon this joyful occasion,' said Mr. Somerville, who saw that
+Brian's surprise was too great for his situation. 'Come down
+from the ladder, and wish your father joy of being master of
+the new inn called the "White Pigeon." And I wish him
+joy of having such a son as you are. Those who bring up
+their children well, will certainly be rewarded for it, be they
+poor or rich.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[153]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_BIRTHDAY_PRESENT" id="THE_BIRTHDAY_PRESENT"></a>THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT</h2>
+
+<p class="noin">'<span class="smcap">Mamma</span>,' said Rosamond, after a long silence, 'do you
+know what I have been thinking of all this time?' 'No, my
+dear&mdash;What?' 'Why, mamma, about my cousin Bell's birthday;
+do you know what day it is?' 'No, I don't remember.'
+'Dear mother! don't you remember it's the 22nd of December;
+and her birthday is the day after to-morrow? Don't you recollect
+now? But you never remember about birthdays, mamma.
+That was just what I was thinking of, that you never remember
+my sister Laura's birthday, or&mdash;or&mdash;or <i>mine</i>, mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean, my dear? I remember your birthday
+perfectly well.' 'Indeed! but you never <i>keep</i> it, though.'
+'What do you mean by keeping your birthday?' 'Oh,
+mamma, you know very well&mdash;as Bell's birthday is kept. In
+the first place, there is a great dinner.' 'And can Bell eat
+more upon her birthday than upon any other day?' 'No;
+nor I should not mind about the dinner, except the mince-pies.
+But Bell has a great many nice things&mdash;I don't mean nice
+eatable things, but nice new playthings, given to her always
+on her birthday; and everybody drinks her health, and she's
+so happy.'</p>
+
+<p>'But stay, Rosamond, how you jumble things together! Is
+it everybody's drinking her health that makes her so happy?
+or the new playthings, or the nice mince-pies? I can easily
+believe that she is happy whilst she is eating a mince-pie, or
+whilst she is playing; but how does everybody's drinking her
+health at dinner make her happy?'</p>
+
+<p>Rosamond paused, and then said she did not know. 'But,'
+added she, 'the <i>nice new</i> playthings, mother!' 'But why the
+nice new playthings? Do you like them only because they
+are <i>new</i>?' 'Not <i>only</i>&mdash;<i>I</i> do not like playthings <i>only</i> because<span class="pagenum">[154]</span>
+they are new: but Bell <i>does</i>, I believe&mdash;for that puts me in
+mind&mdash;Do you know, mother, she had a great drawer full of
+<i>old</i> playthings that she never used, and she said that they
+were good for nothing, because they were <i>old</i>; but I thought
+many of them were good for a great deal more than the new
+ones. Now you shall be judge, mamma; I'll tell you all that
+was in the drawer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, Rosamond, thank you, not just now; I have not time
+to listen to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well then, mamma, the day after to-morrow I can show
+you the drawer. I want you to judge very much, because I
+am sure I was in the right. And, mother,' added Rosamond,
+stopping her as she was going out of the room, 'will you&mdash;not
+now, but when you've time&mdash;will you tell me why you never
+keep my birthday&mdash;why you never make any difference between
+that day and any other day?' 'And will you, Rosamond&mdash;not
+now, but when you have time to think about it&mdash;tell
+me why I should make any difference between your birthday
+and any other day?'</p>
+
+<p>Rosamond thought, but she could not find out any reason;
+besides, she suddenly recollected that she had not time to think
+any longer; for there was a certain work-basket to be finished,
+which she was making for her cousin Bell, as a present upon
+her birthday. The work was at a stand for want of some
+filigree-paper, and, as her mother was going out, she asked her
+to take her with her, that she might buy some. Her sister
+Laura went with them.</p>
+
+<p>'Sister,' said Rosamond, as they were walking along, 'what
+have you done with your half-guinea?' 'I have it in my
+pocket.' 'Dear! you will keep it for ever in your pocket.
+You know, my godmother when she gave it to you said you
+would keep it longer than I should keep mine; and I know
+what she thought by her look at the time. I heard her say
+something to my mother.' 'Yes,' said Laura, smiling; 'she
+whispered so loud that I could not help hearing her too. She
+said I was a little miser.' 'But did not you hear her say
+that I was very <i>generous</i>? and she'll see that she was not mistaken.
+I hope she'll be by when I give my basket to Bell&mdash;won't
+it be beautiful? There is to be a wreath of myrtle, you
+know, round the handle, and a frost ground, and then the
+medallions&mdash;&mdash;'<span class="pagenum">[155]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Stay,' interrupted her sister, for Rosamond, anticipating
+the glories of her work-basket, talked and walked so fast that
+she had passed, without perceiving it, the shop where the filigree-paper
+was to be bought. They turned back. Now it
+happened that the shop was the corner house of a street, and
+one of the windows looked out into a narrow lane. A coach
+full of ladies stopped at the door, just before they went in, so
+that no one had time immediately to think of Rosamond and
+her filigree-paper, and she went to the window where she saw
+her sister Laura looking earnestly at something that was passing
+in the lane.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite to the window, at the door of a poor-looking
+house, there was sitting a little girl weaving lace. Her
+bobbins moved as quick as lightning, and she never once
+looked up from her work. 'Is not she very industrious?' said
+Laura; 'and very honest, too?' added she in a minute afterwards;
+for just then a baker with a basket of rolls on his head
+passed, and by accident one of the rolls fell close to the little
+girl. She took it up eagerly, looked at it as if she was very
+hungry, then put aside her work, and ran after the baker to
+return it to him. Whilst she was gone, a footman in a livery
+laced with silver, who belonged to the coach that stood at the
+shop door, as he was lounging with one of his companions,
+chanced to spy the weaving pillow, which she had left upon a
+stone before the door. To divert himself (for idle people do
+mischief often to divert themselves) he took up the pillow, and
+entangled all the bobbins. The little girl came back out of
+breath to her work; but what was her surprise and sorrow to
+find it spoiled. She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced,
+the bobbins, while the footman stood laughing at her
+distress. She got up gently, and was retiring into the house,
+when the silver-laced footman stopped her, saying, insolently,
+'Sit still, child.' 'I must go to my mother, sir,' said the
+child; 'besides, you have spoiled all my lace. I can't stay.'
+'Can't you?' said the brutal footman, snatching her weaving-pillow
+again, 'I'll teach you to complain of me.' And he broke
+off, one after another, all the bobbins, put them into his pocket,
+rolled her weaving-pillow down the dirty lane, then jumped up
+behind his mistress's coach, and was out of sight in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor girl!' exclaimed Rosamond, no longer able to restrain
+her indignation at this injustice; 'poor little girl!'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i014f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i014t.jpg" alt="i014t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced, the bobbins, while the footman
+stood laughing at her distress.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[157]</span>At this instant her mother said to Rosamond&mdash;'Come,
+now, my dear, if you want this filigree-paper, buy it.' 'Yes,
+madam,' said Rosamond; and the idea of what her godmother
+and her cousin Bell would think of her generosity rushed again
+upon her imagination. All her feelings of pity were immediately
+suppressed. Satisfied with bestowing another exclamation
+upon the '<i>poor little girl</i>!' she went to spend her half-guinea
+upon her filigree basket. In the meantime, she that was
+called the '<i>little miser</i>' beckoned to the poor girl, and,
+opening the window, said, pointing to the cushion, 'Is it quite
+spoiled?' 'Quite! quite spoiled! and I can't, nor mother
+neither, buy another; and I can't do anything else for my
+bread.' A few, but very few, tears fell as she said this.</p>
+
+<p>'How much would another cost?' said Laura. 'Oh, a
+great&mdash;<i>great</i> deal.' 'More than that?' said Laura, holding
+up her half-guinea. 'Oh no.' 'Then you can buy another
+with that,' said Laura, dropping the half-guinea into her hand;
+and she shut the window before the child could find words to
+thank her, but not before she saw a look of joy and gratitude,
+which gave Laura more pleasure probably than all the praise
+which could have been bestowed upon her generosity.</p>
+
+<p>Late on the morning of her cousin's birthday, Rosamond
+finished her work-basket. The carriage was at the door&mdash;Laura
+came running to call her; her father's voice was heard
+at the same instant; so she was obliged to go down with her
+basket but half wrapped up in silver paper&mdash;a circumstance at
+which she was a good deal disconcerted; for the pleasure of
+surprising Bell would be utterly lost if one bit of the filigree
+should peep out before the proper time. As the carriage went
+on, Rosamond pulled the paper to one side and to the other,
+and by each of the four corners.</p>
+
+<p>'It will never do, my dear,' said her father, who had been
+watching her operations. 'I am afraid you will never make
+a sheet of paper cover a box which is twice as large as itself.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not a box, father,' said Rosamond, a little peevishly;
+'it's a basket.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let us look at this basket,' said he, taking it out of her
+unwilling hands, for she knew of what frail materials it was
+made, and she dreaded its coming to pieces under her father's
+examination. He took hold of the handle rather roughly;
+when, starting off the coach seat, she cried, 'Oh, sir! father!<span class="pagenum">[158]</span>
+sir! you will spoil it indeed!' said she, with increased
+vehemence, when, after drawing aside the veil of silver paper,
+she saw him grasp the myrtle-wreathed handle. 'Indeed, sir,
+you will spoil the poor handle.'</p>
+
+<p>'But what is the use of <i>the poor handle</i>,' said her father, 'if
+we are not to take hold of it? And pray,' continued he,
+turning the basket round with his finger and thumb, rather in
+a disrespectful manner, 'pray, is this the thing you have been
+about all this week? I have seen you all this week dabbling
+with paste and rags; I could not conceive what you were
+about. Is this the thing?' 'Yes, sir. You think, then, that
+I have wasted my time, because the basket is of no use; but
+then it is for a present for my cousin Bell.' 'Your cousin
+Bell will be very much obliged to you for a present that
+is of no use. You had better have given her the purple jar.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, father! I thought you had forgotten that&mdash;it was two
+years ago; I'm not so silly now. But Bell will like the
+basket, I know, though it is of no use.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you think Bell is sillier <i>now</i> than you were two
+years ago,&mdash;well, perhaps that is true; but how comes it,
+Rosamond, now that you are so wise, that you are fond of
+such a silly person?' '<i>I</i>, father?' said Rosamond, hesitating;
+'I don't think I am <i>very</i> fond of her.' 'I did not say <i>very</i>
+fond.' 'Well, but I don't think I am at all fond of her.'
+'But you have spent a whole week in making this thing for
+her.' 'Yes, and all my half-guinea besides.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yet you think her silly, and you are not fond of her at
+all; and you say you know this thing will be of no use to
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'But it is her birthday, sir; and I am sure she will <i>expect</i>
+something, and everybody else will give her something.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then your reason for giving is because she expects you to
+give her something. And will you, or can you, or should you,
+always give, merely because others <i>expect</i>, or because somebody
+else gives?' 'Always?&mdash;no, not always.' 'Oh, only
+on birthdays.'</p>
+
+<p>Rosamond, laughing: 'Now you are making a joke of me,
+papa, I see; but I thought you liked that people should be
+generous,&mdash;my godmother said that she did.' 'So do I, full
+as well as your godmother; but we have not yet quite settled
+what it is to be generous.' 'Why, is it not generous to make<span class="pagenum">[159]</span>
+presents?' said Rosamond. 'That is the question which it
+would take up a great deal of time to answer. But, for
+instance, to make a present of a thing that you know can be
+of no use to a person you neither love nor esteem, because it
+is her birthday, and because everybody gives her something,
+and because she expects something, and because your godmother
+says she likes that people should be generous, seems
+to me, my dear Rosamond, to be, since I must say it, rather
+more like folly than generosity.'</p>
+
+<p>Rosamond looked down upon the basket, and was silent.
+'Then I am a fool, am I?' said she, looking up at last.
+'Because you have made <i>one</i> mistake? No. If you have
+sense enough to see your own mistakes, and can afterwards
+avoid them, you will never be a fool.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the carriage stopped, and Rosamond recollected that
+the basket was uncovered.</p>
+
+<p>Now we must observe that Rosamond's father had not
+been too severe upon Bell when he called her a silly girl.
+From her infancy she had been humoured; and at eight years
+old she had the misfortune to be a spoiled child. She was
+idle, fretful, and selfish; so that nothing could make her
+happy. On her birthday she expected, however, to be
+perfectly happy. Everybody in the house tried to please her,
+and they succeeded so well that between breakfast and dinner
+she had only six fits of crying. The cause of five of these
+fits no one could discover: but the last, and most lamentable,
+was occasioned by a disappointment about a worked muslin
+frock; and accordingly, at dressing time, her maid brought it
+to her, exclaiming, 'See here, miss, what your mamma has
+sent you on your birthday. Here's a frock fit for a queen&mdash;if
+it had but lace round the cuffs.' 'And why has not it lace
+around the cuffs? mamma said it should.' 'Yes, but mistress
+was disappointed about the lace; it is not come home.' 'Not
+come home, indeed! and didn't they know it was my birthday?
+But then I say I won't wear it without the lace&mdash;I can't wear
+it without the lace, and I won't.'</p>
+
+<p>The lace, however, could not be had; and Bell at length
+submitted to let the frock be put on. 'Come, Miss Bell, dry
+your eyes,' said the maid who <i>educated</i> her; 'dry your eyes,
+and I'll tell you something that will please you.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, then?' said the child, pouting and sobbing. 'Why&mdash;&mdash;but<span class="pagenum">[160]</span>
+you must not tell that I told you.' 'No,&mdash;but if I
+am asked?' 'Why, if you are asked, you must tell the truth,
+to be sure. So I'll hold my tongue, miss.' 'Nay, tell me,
+though, and I'll never tell&mdash;if I <i>am</i> asked.' 'Well, then,'
+said the maid, 'your cousin Rosamond is come, and has
+brought you the most <i>beautifullest</i> thing you ever saw in your
+life; but you are not to know anything about it till after
+dinner, because she wants to surprise you; and mistress has
+put it into her wardrobe till after dinner.' 'Till after dinner!'
+repeated Bell impatiently; 'I can't wait till then; I must see
+it this minute.' The maid refused her several times, till Bell
+burst into another fit of crying, and the maid, fearing that her
+mistress would be angry with <i>her</i>, if Bell's eyes were red at
+dinner time, consented to show her the basket.</p>
+
+<p>'How pretty!&mdash;but let me have it in my own hands,' said
+Bell, as the maid held the basket up out of her reach. 'Oh,
+no, you must not touch it; for if you should spoil it, what
+would become of me?' 'Become of you, indeed!' exclaimed
+the spoiled child, who never considered anything but her
+own immediate gratification&mdash;'Become of <i>you</i>, indeed! what
+signifies that?&mdash;I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own
+hands. If you don't hold it down for me directly, I'll tell that
+you showed it to me.' 'Then you won't snatch it?' 'No,
+no, I won't indeed,' said Bell; but she had learned from her
+maid a total disregard of truth. She snatched the basket the
+moment it was within her reach. A struggle ensued, in
+which the handle and lid were torn off, and one of the
+medallions crushed inwards, before the little fury returned to
+her senses.</p>
+
+<p>Calmed at this sight, the next question was, how she should
+conceal the mischief which she had done. After many attempts,
+the handle and lid were replaced; the basket was put exactly
+in the same spot in which it had stood before, and the maid
+charged the child '<i>to look as if nothing was the matter</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>We hope that both children and parents will here pause for
+a moment to reflect. The habits of tyranny, meanness, and
+falsehood, which children acquire from living with bad servants,
+are scarcely ever conquered in the whole course of their future
+lives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i015f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i015t.jpg" alt="i015t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own hands.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After shutting up the basket they left the room, and in the
+adjoining passage they found a poor girl waiting with a small
+<span class="pagenum">[162]</span>parcel in her hand. 'What's your business?' said the maid.
+'I have brought home the lace, madam, that was bespoke for
+the young lady.' 'Oh, you have, have you, at last?' said
+Bell; 'and pray why didn't you bring it sooner?' The girl
+was going to answer, but the maid interrupted her, saying,
+'Come, come, none of your excuses; you are a little idle, good-for-nothing
+thing, to disappoint Miss Bell upon her birthday.
+But now you have brought it, let us look at it!'</p>
+
+<p>The little girl gave the lace without reply, and the maid
+desired her to go about her business, and not to expect to be
+paid; for that her mistress could not see anybody, <i>because</i> she
+was in a room full of company.</p>
+
+<p>'May I call again, madam, this afternoon?' said the child,
+timidly.</p>
+
+<p>'Lord bless my stars!' replied the maid, 'what makes
+people so poor, I <i>wonders</i>! I wish mistress would buy her lace
+at the warehouse, as I told her, and not of these folks. Call
+again! yes, to be sure. I believe you'd call, call, call twenty
+times for twopence.'</p>
+
+<p>However ungraciously the permission to call again was
+granted, it was received with gratitude. The little girl departed
+with a cheerful countenance, and Bell teased her maid
+till she got her to sew the long-wished-for lace upon her cuffs.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunate Bell!&mdash;All dinner time passed, and people were
+so hungry, so busy, or so stupid, that not an eye observed her
+favourite piece of finery. Till at length she was no longer able
+to conceal her impatience, and turning to Laura, who sat next
+to her, she said, 'You have no lace upon your cuffs. Look how
+beautiful mine is!&mdash;is not it? Don't you wish your mamma
+could afford to give some like it? But you can't get any if she
+would, for this was made on purpose for me on my birthday,
+and nobody can get a bit more anywhere, if they would give
+the world for it.' 'But cannot the person who made it,' said
+Laura, 'make any more like it?' 'No, no, no!' cried Bell;
+for she had already learned, either from her maid or her mother,
+the mean pride which values things not for being really pretty
+or useful, but for being such as nobody else can procure. 'Nobody
+can get any like it, I say,' repeated Bell; 'nobody in all
+London can make it but one person, and that person will never
+make a bit for anybody but me, I am sure. Mamma won't let
+her, if I ask her not.' 'Very well,' said Laura coolly, 'I do<span class="pagenum">[163]</span>
+not want any of it; you need not be so violent: I assure you
+that I don't want any of it.' 'Yes, but you do, though,' said
+Bell, more angrily. 'No, indeed,' said Laura, smiling. 'You
+do, in the bottom of your heart; but you say you don't to
+plague me, I know,' cried Bell, swelling with disappointed
+vanity. 'It is pretty for all that, and it cost a great deal of
+money too, and nobody shall have any like it, if they cried
+their eyes out.'</p>
+
+<p>Laura received this declaration in silence&mdash;Rosamond smiled;
+and at her smile the ill-suppressed rage of the spoiled child burst
+forth into the seventh and loudest fit of crying which had yet
+been heard on her birthday.</p>
+
+<p>'What's the matter, my pet?' cried her mother; 'come to
+me and tell me what's the matter.' Bell ran roaring to her
+mother; but no otherwise explained the cause of her sorrow
+than by tearing the fine lace with frantic gestures from her
+cuffs, and throwing the fragments into her mother's lap.
+'Oh! the lace, child!&mdash;are you mad?' said her mother,
+catching hold of both her hands. 'Your beautiful lace, my
+dear love&mdash;do you know how much it cost?' 'I don't care
+how much it cost&mdash;it is not beautiful, and I'll have none of it,'
+replied Bell, sobbing; 'for it is not beautiful.' 'But it is
+beautiful,' retorted her mother; 'I chose the pattern myself.
+Who has put it into your head, child, to dislike it? Was it
+Nancy?' 'No, not Nancy, but <i>them</i>, mamma,' said Bell,
+pointing to Laura and Rosamond. 'Oh, fie! don't <i>point</i>,'
+said her mother, putting down her stubborn finger; 'nor say
+<i>them</i>, like Nancy; I am sure you misunderstood. Miss
+Laura, I am sure, did not mean any such thing.' 'No,
+madam; and I did not say any such thing, that I recollect,'
+said Laura, gently. 'Oh no, indeed!' cried Rosamond,
+warmly, rising in her sister's defence.</p>
+
+<p>No defence or explanation, however, was to be heard, for
+everybody had now gathered round Bell, to dry her tears, and
+to comfort her for the mischief she had done to her own cuffs.
+They succeeded so well, that in about a quarter of an hour the
+young lady's eyes and the reddened arches over her eyebrows
+came to their natural colour; and the business being thus
+happily hushed up, the mother, as a reward to her daughter for
+her good humour, begged that Rosamond would now be so good
+as to produce her 'charming present.'<span class="pagenum">[164]</span></p>
+
+<p>Rosamond, followed by all the company, amongst whom, to
+her great joy, was her godmother, proceeded to the dressing-room.
+'Now I am sure,' thought she, 'Bell will be surprised,
+and my godmother will see she was right about my generosity.'</p>
+
+<p>The doors of the wardrobe were opened with due ceremony,
+and the filigree basket appeared in all its glory. 'Well, this is
+a charming present, indeed!' said the godmother, who was one
+of the company; '<i>my</i> Rosamond knows how to make presents.'
+And as she spoke, she took hold of the basket, to lift it down
+to the admiring audience. Scarcely had she touched it, when,
+lo! the basket fell to the ground, and only the handle remained
+in her hand. All eyes were fixed upon the wreck. Exclamations
+of sorrow were heard in various tones; and 'Who can
+have done this?' was all that Rosamond could say. Bell
+stood in sullen silence, which she obstinately preserved in the
+midst of the inquiries that were made about the disaster.</p>
+
+<p>At length the servants were summoned, and amongst them
+Nancy, Miss Bell's maid and governess. She affected much
+surprise when she saw what had befallen the basket, and
+declared that she knew nothing of the matter, but that she had
+seen her mistress in the morning put it quite safe into the
+wardrobe; and that, for her part, she had never touched it, or
+thought of touching it, in her born days. 'Nor Miss Bell,
+neither, ma'am,&mdash;I can answer for her; for she never knew of
+its being there, because I never so much as mentioned it to
+her, that there was such a thing in the house, because I knew
+Miss Rosamond wanted to surprise her with the secret; so I
+never mentioned a sentence of it&mdash;did I, Miss Bell?'</p>
+
+<p>Bell, putting on the deceitful look which her maid had
+taught her, answered boldly, '<i>No</i>'; but she had hold of
+Rosamond's hand, and at the instant she uttered this falsehood
+she squeezed it terribly. 'Why do you squeeze my hand so?'
+said Rosamond, in a low voice; 'what are you afraid of?'
+'Afraid of!' cried Bell, turning angrily; 'I'm not afraid of
+anything&mdash;I've nothing to be afraid about.' 'Nay, I did not
+say you had,' whispered Rosamond; 'but only if you did by
+accident&mdash;you know what I mean&mdash;I should not be angry if
+you did&mdash;only say so.' 'I say I did not!' cried Bell furiously.
+'Mamma, mamma! Nancy! my cousin Rosamond won't
+believe me! That's very hard. It's very rude, and I won't
+bear it&mdash;I won't.' 'Don't be angry, love. Don't,' said the<span class="pagenum">[165]</span>
+maid. 'Nobody suspects you, darling,' said her mother; 'but
+she has too much sensibility. Don't cry, love; nobody
+suspected you.' 'But you know,' continued she, turning to
+the maid, 'somebody must have done this, and I must know
+how it was done. Miss Rosamond's charming present must
+not be spoiled in this way, in my house, without my taking
+proper notice of it. I assure you I am very angry about it,
+Rosamond.'</p>
+
+<p>Rosamond did not rejoice in her anger, and had nearly
+made a sad mistake by speaking aloud her thoughts&mdash;'<i>I was
+very foolish</i>&mdash;&mdash;' she began and stopped.</p>
+
+<p>'Ma'am,' cried the maid, suddenly, 'I'll venture to say I
+know who did it.' 'Who?' said every one, eagerly. 'Who?'
+said Bell, trembling. 'Why, miss, don't you recollect that
+little girl with the lace, that we saw peeping about in the
+passage? I'm sure she must have done it; for here she was
+by herself half an hour or more, and not another creature has
+been in mistress's dressing-room, to my certain knowledge,
+since morning. Those sort of people have so much curiosity.
+I'm sure she must have been meddling with it,' added the
+maid.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, that's the thing,' said the mistress, decidedly.
+'Well, Miss Rosamond, for your comfort she shall never come
+into my house again.' 'Oh, that would not comfort me at
+all,' said Rosamond; 'besides, we are not sure that she did it,
+and if&mdash;&mdash;' A single knock at the door was heard at this
+instant. It was the little girl, who came to be paid for her
+lace. 'Call her in,' said the lady of the house; 'let us see her
+directly.'</p>
+
+<p>The maid, who was afraid that the girl's innocence would
+appear if she were produced, hesitated; but upon her mistress
+repeating her commands, she was forced to obey. The girl
+came in with a look of simplicity; but when she saw a room
+full of company she was a little abashed. Rosamond and
+Laura looked at her and one another with surprise, for it was
+the same little girl whom they had seen weaving lace. 'Is
+not it she?' whispered Rosamond to her sister. 'Yes, it is;
+but hush,' said Laura, 'she does not know us. Don't say a
+word, let us hear what she will say.'</p>
+
+<p>Laura got behind the rest of the company as she spoke, so
+that the little girl could not see her.<span class="pagenum">[166]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Vastly well!' said Bell's mother; 'I am waiting to see
+how long you will have the assurance to stand there with that
+innocent look. Did you ever see that basket before?' 'Yes,
+ma'am,' said the girl. '<i>Yes, ma'am!</i>' cried the maid; 'and
+what else do you know about it? You had better confess it at
+once, and mistress, perhaps, will say no more about it.' 'Yes,
+do confess it,' added Bell, earnestly. 'Confess what, madam?'
+said the little girl; 'I never touched the basket, madam.'
+'You never <i>touched</i> it; but you confess,' interrupted Bell's
+mother, 'that you <i>did see</i> it before. And, pray, how came you
+to see it? You must have opened my wardrobe.' 'No, indeed,
+ma'am,' said the little girl; 'but I was waiting in the passage,
+ma'am, and this door was partly open; and looking at the
+maid, you know, I could not help seeing it.' 'Why, how
+could you see through the doors of my wardrobe?' rejoined
+the lady.</p>
+
+<p>The maid, frightened, pulled the little girl by the sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>'Answer me,' said the lady, 'where did you see this
+basket?' Another stronger pull. 'I saw it, madam, in her
+hands,' looking at the maid; 'and&mdash;&mdash;' 'Well, and what became
+of it afterwards?' 'Ma'am'&mdash;hesitating&mdash;'miss pulled,
+and by accident&mdash;I believe, I saw, ma'am&mdash;miss, you know what
+I saw.' 'I do not know&mdash;I do not know; and if I did, you had
+no business there; and mamma won't believe you, I am sure.'
+Everybody else, however, did believe; and their eyes were
+fixed upon Bell in a manner which made her feel rather ashamed.
+'What do you all look at me so for? Why do you all look
+so? And am I to be put to shame on my birthday?' cried
+she, bursting into a roar of passion; 'and all for this nasty
+thing!' added she, pushing away the remains of the basket,
+and looking angrily at Rosamond. 'Bell! Bell! oh, fie! fie!&mdash;Now
+I <i>am</i> ashamed of you; that's quite rude to your cousin,'
+said her mother, who was more shocked at her daughter's want
+of politeness than at her falsehood. 'Take her away, Nancy,
+till she has done crying,' added she to the maid, who accordingly
+carried off her pupil.</p>
+
+<p>Rosamond, during this scene, especially at the moment when
+her present was pushed away with such disdain, had been
+making reflections upon the nature of true generosity. A smile
+from her father, who stood by, a silent spectator of the catastrophe
+of the filigree basket, gave rise to these reflections; nor<span class="pagenum">[167]</span>
+were they entirely dissipated by the condolence of the rest of
+the company, nor even by the praises of her godmother, who,
+for the purpose of condoling with her, said, 'Well, my dear
+Rosamond, I admire your generous spirit. You know I
+prophesied that your half-guinea would be gone the soonest.
+Did I not, Laura?' said she, appealing, in a sarcastic tone, to
+where she thought Laura was. 'Where is Laura? I don't
+see her.' Laura came forward. 'You are too <i>prudent</i> to
+throw away your money like your sister. Your half-guinea, I'll
+answer for it, is snug in your pocket&mdash;is it not?' 'No,
+madam,' answered she, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>But low as the voice of Laura was, the poor little lace-girl
+heard it; and now, for the first time, fixing her eyes upon
+Laura, recollected her benefactress. 'Oh, that's the young
+lady!' she exclaimed, in a tone of joyful gratitude, 'the good,
+good young lady who gave me the half-guinea, and would not
+stay to be thanked for it; but I <i>will</i> thank her now.'</p>
+
+<p>'The half-guinea, Laura!' said her godmother. 'What is
+all this?' 'I'll tell you, madam, if you please,' said the little
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>It was not in expectation of being praised for it that Laura
+had been generous, and therefore everybody was really touched
+with the history of the weaving-pillow; and whilst they praised,
+felt a certain degree of respect, which is not always felt by those
+who pour forth eulogiums. <i>Respect</i> is not an improper word,
+even applied to a child of Laura's age; for let the age or situation
+of the person be what it may, they command respect who
+deserve it.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, madam!' said Rosamond to her godmother, 'now
+you see&mdash;you see she is <i>not</i> a little miser. I'm sure that's
+better than wasting half a guinea upon a filigree basket;
+is it not, ma'am?' said she, with an eagerness which showed
+that she had forgotten all her own misfortunes in sympathy
+with her sister. 'This is being <i>really generous</i>, father, is
+it not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Rosamond,' said her father, and he kissed her; 'this
+<i>is</i> being really generous. It is not only by giving away money
+that we can show generosity; it is by giving up to others anything
+that we like ourselves; and therefore,' added he, smiling,
+'it is really generous of you to give your sister the thing you
+like best of all others.'<span class="pagenum">[168]</span></p>
+
+<p>'The thing I like the best of all others, father,' said Rosamond,
+half pleased, half vexed. 'What is that, I wonder?
+You don't mean <i>praise</i>, do you, sir?' 'Nay, you must decide
+that yourself, Rosamond.' 'Why, sir,' said she, ingenuously,
+'perhaps it <i>was</i> <span class="smcap">once</span> the thing I liked best; but the pleasure
+I have just felt makes me like something else much better.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[169]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="ETON_MONTEM" id="ETON_MONTEM"></a>ETON MONTEM</h2>
+
+<h4>[<i>Extracted from the 'Courier' of May 1799.</i>]</h4>
+
+<p class="noin">'<span class="smcap">Yesterday</span> this triennial ceremony took place, with which the public
+are too well acquainted to require a particular description. A collection,
+called <i>Salt</i>, is taken from the public, which forms a purse, to
+support the Captain of the School in his studies at Cambridge. This
+collection is made by the Scholars, dressed in fancy dresses, all round
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>'At eleven o'clock, the youths being assembled in their habiliments
+at the College, the Royal Family set off from the Castle to see them,
+and, after walking round the Courtyard, they proceeded to Salt Hill
+in the following order:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'His Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the
+Earl of Uxbridge.</p>
+
+<p>'Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent and Cumberland, Earl
+Morton, and General Gwynne, all on horseback, dressed in the
+Windsor uniform, except the Prince of Wales, who wore a suit of dark
+blue, and a brown surtout over.</p>
+
+<p>'Then followed the Scholars, preceded by the Marechal Serjeant,
+the Musicians of the Staffordshire Band, and Mr. Ford, Captain of
+the Seminary, the Serjeant-Major, Serjeants, Colonels, Corporals,
+Musicians, Ensign, Lieutenant, Steward, Salt-Bearers, Polemen, and
+Runners.</p>
+
+<p>'The cavalcade was brought up by Her Majesty and her amiable
+daughters in two carriages, and a numerous company of equestrians
+and pedestrians, all eager to behold their Sovereign and his family.
+Among the former, Lady Lade was foremost in the throng; only two
+others dared venture their persons on horseback in such a multitude.</p>
+
+<p>'The King and Royal Family were stopped on Eton Bridge by
+Messrs. Young and Mansfield, the Salt-Bearers, to whom their
+Majesties delivered their customary donation of fifty guineas each.</p>
+
+<p>'At Salt Hill, His Majesty, with his usual affability, took upon himself
+to arrange the procession round the Royal carriages; and even
+when the horses were taken off, with the assistance of the Duke of<span class="pagenum">[170]</span>
+Kent, fastened the traces round the pole of the coaches, to prevent any
+inconvenience.</p>
+
+<p>'An exceeding heavy shower of rain coming on, the Prince took
+leave, and went to the "Windmill Inn" till it subsided. The King
+and his attendants weathered it out in their greatcoats.</p>
+
+<p>'After the young gentlemen walked round the carriage, Ensign
+Vince and the Salt-Bearers proceeded to the summit of the hill; but
+the wind being boisterous, he could not exhibit his dexterity in displaying
+his flag, and the space being too small before the carriages, from
+the concourse of spectators, the King kindly acquiesced in not having
+it displayed under such inconvenience.</p>
+
+<p>'Their Majesties and the Princesses then returned home, the King
+occasionally stopping to converse with the Dean of Windsor, the Earl
+of Harrington, and other noblemen.</p>
+
+<p>'The Scholars partook of an elegant dinner at the "Windmill Inn,"
+and in the evening walked on Windsor Terrace.</p>
+
+<p>'Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cumberland,
+after taking leave of their Majesties, set off for town, and
+honoured the Opera House with their presence in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>'The profit arising from the Salt collected, according to account,
+amounted to &pound;800.</p>
+
+<p>'The Stadtholder, the Duke of Gordon, Lord and Lady Melbourne,
+Viscount Brome, and a numerous train of fashionable nobility were
+present.</p>
+
+<p>'The following is an account of their dresses, made as usual, very
+handsomely, by Mrs. Snow, milliner, of Windsor:&mdash;</p>
+<br />
+<p class="center">'Mr. Ford, Captain, with eight Gentlemen to attend him as servitors.
+<br />
+'Mr. Sarjeant, Marechal.
+<br />
+'Mr. Bradith, Colonel.
+<br />
+'Mr. Plumtree, Lieutenant.
+<br />
+'Mr. Vince, Ensign.
+<br />
+'Mr. Young, College Salt-Bearer; white and gold dress, rich satin bag,
+covered with gold netting.
+<br />
+'Mr. Mansfield, Oppidin, white, purple, and orange dress, trimmed with
+silver; rich satin bag, purple and silver: each carrying elegant poles, with gold and silver cord.
+<br />
+'Mr. Keity, yellow and black velvet; helmet trimmed with silver.
+<br />
+'Mr. Bartelot, plain mantle and sandals, Scotch bonnet, a very Douglas.
+<br />
+'Mr. Knapp, flesh-colour and blue; Spanish hat and feathers.
+<br />
+'Mr. Ripley, rose-colour; helmet.
+<br />
+'Mr. Islip (being in mourning), a scarf; helmet, black velvet; and white satin.
+<br />
+'Mr. Tomkins, violet and silver; helmet.
+<br />
+'Mr. Thackery, lilac and silver; Roman cap.
+<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[171]</span>
+'Mr. Drury, mazarin blue; fancy cap.
+<br />
+'Mr. Davis, slate-colour and straw.
+<br />
+'Mr. Routh, pink and silver; Spanish hat.
+<br />
+'Mr. Curtis, purple; fancy cap.
+<br />
+'Mr. Lloyd, blue; ditto.
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'At the conclusion of the ceremony the Royal Family returned to
+Windsor, and the boys were all sumptuously entertained at the tavern
+at Salt Hill. About six in the evening all the boys returned in the
+order of procession, and, marching round the great square of Eton,
+were dismissed. The Captain then paid his respects to the Royal
+Family, at the Queen's Lodge, Windsor, previously to his departure
+for King's College, Cambridge, to defray which expense the produce
+of the Montem was presented to him.</p>
+
+<p>'The day concluded by a brilliant promenade of beauty, rank, and
+fashion on Windsor Terrace, enlivened by the performance of several
+bands of music.</p>
+
+<p>'The origin of the procession is from the custom by which the
+Manor was held.</p>
+
+<p>'The custom of hunting the Ram belonged to Eton College, as well
+as the custom of Salt; but it was discontinued by Dr. Cook, late Dean
+of Ely. Now this custom we know to have been entered on the
+register of the Royal Abbey of Bee, in Normandy, as one belonging
+to the Manor of East or Great Wrotham, in Norfolk, given by Ralph
+de Toni to the Abbey of Bee, and was as follows:&mdash;When the harvest
+was finished, the tenants were to have half an acre of barley, and a
+ram let loose; and if they caught him he was their own to make merry
+with, but if he escaped from them he was the Lord's. The Etonians,
+in order to secure the ram, houghed him in the Irish fashion, and then
+attacked him with great clubs. The cruelty of this proceeding brought
+it into disuse, and now it exists no longer.&mdash;<i>See Register of the Royal
+Abbey of Bee</i>, folio 58.</p>
+
+<p>'After the dissolution of the alien priories, in 1414, by the
+Parliament of Leicester, they remained in the Crown till Henry VI.,
+who gave Wrotham Manor to Eton College; and if the Eton Fellows
+would search, they would perhaps find the Manor in their possession,
+that was held by the custom of Salt.'</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Men</span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">Alderman Bursal, Father of young Bursal.</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Men in the Play">
+<tr><td align='left'>Lord John,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;} </td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Talbot,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;} </td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wheeler,</td><td align='left' >&nbsp;} Young Gentlemen of Eton, from 17 to 19 years of age.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Bursal,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;} </td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Rory O'Ryan</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;} </td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin">Mr. Newington, Landlord of the Inn at Salt Hill.<br />
+Farmer Hearty.<br />
+A Waiter and crowd of Eton Lads.<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Women</span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+The Marchioness of Piercefield, Mother of Lord John.<br />
+Lady Violetta&mdash;her Daughter, a Child of six or seven years old.<br />
+Mrs. Talbot.<br />
+Louisa Talbot, her Daughter.<br />
+Miss Bursal, Daughter to the Alderman.<br />
+Mrs. Newington, Landlady of the Inn at Salt Hill.<br />
+Sally, a Chambermaid.<br />
+Patty, a Country Girl.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">Pipe and Tabor, and Dance of Peasants.</p>
+
+<h3>ACT THE FIRST</h3>
+
+<h4>SCENE I</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The Bar of the 'Windmill Inn' at Salt Hill</i></p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mr.</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Newington</span>, <i>the Landlord and Landlady</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> 'Tis an unpossibility, Mr. Newington; and that's
+enough. Say no more about it; 'tis an unpossibility in the
+<i>natur</i> of things. (<i>She ranges jellies, etc., in the Bar.</i>) And
+pray, do you take your great old-fashioned tankard, Mr. Newington,
+from among my jellies and confectioneries.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord</i> (<i>takes his tankard and drinks</i>). Anything for a
+quiet life. If it is an unpossibility, I've no more to say; only,
+for the soul of me, I can't see the great unpossibility, wife.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Wife, indeed!&mdash;wife!&mdash;wife! wife every minute.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Heyday! Why, what a plague would you have
+me call you? The other day you quarrelled with me for
+calling you Mrs. Landlady.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> To be sure I did, and very proper in me I
+should. I've turned off three waiters and five chambermaids
+already, for screaming after me <i>Mrs. Landlady!</i> <i>Mrs. Landlady!</i>
+But 'tis all your ill manners.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Ill manners! Why, if I may be so bold, if you
+are not Mrs. Landlady, in the name of wonder what are you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Mrs. Newington, Mr. Newington.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord</i> (<i>drinks</i>). Mrs. Newington, Mr. Newington drinks
+your health; for I suppose I must not be landlord any more
+in my own house (<i>shrugs</i>).<span class="pagenum">[173]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Oh, as to that, I have no objections nor impediments
+to your being called <i>Landlord</i>. You look it, and
+become it very proper.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Why, yes, indeed, thank my tankard, I do look
+it, and become it, and am nowise ashamed of it; but every
+one to their mind, as you, wife, don't fancy the being called
+Mrs. Landlady.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> To be sure I don't. Why, when folks hear the
+old-fashioned cry of Mrs. Landlady! Mrs. Landlady! who do
+they expect, think you, to see, but an overgrown, fat, featherbed
+of a woman coming waddling along with her thumbs
+sticking on each side of her apron, o' this fashion? Now, to
+see me coming, nobody would take me to be a landlady.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Very true, indeed, wife&mdash;Mrs. Newington, I
+mean&mdash;I ask pardon; but now to go on with what we were
+saying about the unpossibility of letting that old lady and the
+civil-spoken young lady there above have them there rooms
+for another day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Now, Mr. Newington, let me hear no more
+about that old gentlewoman and that civil-spoken young lady.
+Fair words cost nothing; and I've a notion that's the cause
+they are so plenty with the young lady. Neither o' them, I
+take it, by what they've ordered since their coming into the
+house, are such grand folk that one need be so <i>petticular</i>
+about them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Why, they came only in a chaise and pair, to be
+sure; I can't deny that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> But, bless my stars! what signifies talking?
+Don't you know, as well as I do, Mr. Newington, that to-morrow
+is Eton Montem, and that if we had twenty times as
+many rooms and as many more to the back of them, it would
+not be one too many for all the company we've a right to
+expect, and those the highest quality of the land? Nay, what
+do I talk of to-morrow? isn't my Lady Piercefield and suite
+expected? and, moreover, Mr. and Miss Bursal's to be here,
+and will call for as much in an hour as your civil-spoken young
+lady in a twelvemonth, I reckon. So, Mr. Newington, if you
+don't think proper to go up and inform the ladies above that
+the Dolphin rooms are not for them, I must <i>speak</i> myself,
+though 'tis a thing I never do when I can help it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord</i> (<i>aside</i>). She not like to speak! (<i>Aloud.</i>) My
+<span class="pagenum">[174]</span>
+dear, you can speak a power better than I can; so take it all
+upon yourself, if you please; for, old-fashioned as I and my
+tankard here be, I can't make a speech that borders on the
+uncivil order, to a lady like, for the life and lungs of me. So,
+in the name of goodness, do you go up, Mrs. Newington.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> And so I will, Mr. Newington. Help ye!
+Civilities and rarities are out o' season for them that can't pay
+for them in this world; and very proper.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Landlady.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> And very proper! Ha! who comes yonder?
+The Eton chap who wheedled me into lending him my best
+hunter last year, and was the ruination of him; but that must
+be paid for, wheedle or no wheedle; and, for the matter of
+wheedling, I'd stake this here Mr. Wheeler, that is making up
+to me, do you see, against e'er a boy, or hobbledehoy, in all
+Eton, London, or Christendom, let the other be who he will.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Wheeler.</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Wheeler.</i> A fine day, Mr. Newington.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> A fine day, Mr. Wheeler.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> And I hope, for <i>your</i> sake, we may have as fine a
+day for the Montem to-morrow. It will be a pretty penny in
+your pocket! Why, all the world will be here; and (<i>looking
+round at the jellies</i>, <i>etc.</i>) so much the better for them; for here
+are good things enough, and enough for them. And here's
+the best thing of all, the good old tankard still; not empty, I
+hope.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Not empty, I hope. Here's to you, Mr.
+Wheeler.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> <i>Mr.</i> Wheeler!&mdash;<i>Captain</i> Wheeler, if you please.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> <i>You</i>, Captain Wheeler!&mdash;Why, I thought in
+former times it was always the oldest scholar at Eton that was
+Captain at the Montems; and didn't Mr. Talbot come afore
+you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Not at all; we came on the same day. Some say
+I came first; some say Talbot. So the choice of which of us
+is to be captain is to be put to the vote amongst the lads&mdash;most
+votes carry it; and I have most votes, I fancy; so I
+shall be captain, to-morrow, and a pretty deal of <i>salt</i><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> I reckon
+I shall pocket. Why, the collection at the last Montem, they
+<span class="pagenum">[175]</span>say, came to a plump thousand! No bad thing for a young
+fellow to set out with for Oxford or Cambridge&mdash;hey?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> And no bad thing, before he sets out for Cambridge
+or Oxford, 'twould be for a young gentleman to pay his
+debts.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Debts! Oh, time enough for that. I've a little
+account with you in horses, I know; but that's between you
+and me, you know&mdash;mum.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Mum me no mums, Mr. Wheeler. Between you
+and me, my best hunter has been ruinationed; and I can't
+afford to be mum. So you'll take no offence if I speak; and
+as you'll set off to-morrow, as soon as the Montem's over,
+you'll be pleased to settle with me some way or other to-day,
+as we've no other time.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> No time so proper, certainly. Where's the little
+account?&mdash;I have money sent me for my Montem dress, and
+I can squeeze that much out of it. I came home from Eton
+on purpose to settle with you. But as to the hunter, you
+must call upon Talbot&mdash;do you understand? to pay for him;
+for though Talbot and I had him the same day, 'twas Talbot
+did for him, and Talbot must pay. I spoke to him about it,
+and charged him to remember you; for I never forget to speak
+a good word for my friends.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> So I perceive.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> I'll make bold just to give you my opinion of these
+jellies whilst you are getting my account, Mr. Newington.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>He swallows down a jelly or two&mdash;Landlord is going.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Talbot.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Talbot.</i> Hallo, Landlord! where are you making off so fast?
+Here, your jellies are all going as fast as yourself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>aside</i>). Talbot!&mdash;I wish I was a hundred miles off.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> You are heartily welcome, Mr. Talbot. A good
+morning to you, sir; I'm glad to see you&mdash;very glad to see
+you, Mr. Talbot.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Then shake hands, my honest landlord.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Talbot, in shaking hands with him, puts a purse into
+the Landlord's hands.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> What's here? Guineas?</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> The hunter, you know; since Wheeler won't pay, I
+must&mdash;that's all. Good morning.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>aside.</i>) What a fool!</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Landlord, as Talbot is going catches hold of his coat.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i016f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i016t.jpg" alt="i016t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Then shake hands, my honest landlord.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[177]</span><i>Landlord.</i> Hold, Mr. Talbot, this won't do!</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Won't it? Well, then, my watch must go.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Nay, nay! but you are in such a hurry to pay&mdash;you
+won't hear a man. Half this is enough for your share o'
+the mischief, in all conscience. Mr. Wheeler, there, had the
+horse on the same day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> But Bursal's my witness&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Oh, say no more about witnesses; a man's conscience
+is always his best witness, or his worst. Landlord, take your
+money, and no more words.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> This is very genteel of you, Talbot. I always
+thought you would do the genteel thing, as I knew you to be so
+generous and considerate.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Don't waste your fine speeches, Wheeler, I advise
+you, this election time. Keep them for Bursal or Lord John,
+or some of those who like them. They won't go down with
+<i>me</i>. Good morning to you. I give you notice, I'm going
+back to Eton as fast as I can gallop; and who knows what
+plain speaking may do with the Eton lads? I may be captain
+yet, Wheeler. Have a care! Is my horse ready there?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Mr. Talbot's horse, there! Mr. Talbot's horse,
+I say.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Talbot sings.</i></p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">He carries weight&mdash;he rides a race&mdash;<br />
+'Tis for a thousand pound!
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Talbot.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> And, dear me! I shall be left behind. A horse for
+me, pray; a horse for Mr. Wheeler!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Wheeler.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord</i> (<i>calls very loud</i>). Mr. Talbot's horse! Hang the
+hostler! I'll saddle him myself.<span class="pagenum">[178]</span></p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Landlord.</i>)</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE II</h4>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>A Dining-room in the Inn at Salt Hill</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Talbot</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Louisa</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Louisa</i> (<i>laughing</i>). With what an air Mrs. Landlady made
+her exit!</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talbot.</i> When I was young, they say, I was proud;
+but I am humble enough now: these petty mortifications do
+not vex me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> It is well my brother was gone before Mrs. Landlady
+made her <i>entr&eacute;e</i>; for if he had heard her rude speech, he would
+at least have given her the retort courteous.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> Now tell me honestly, my Louisa&mdash;&mdash;You were,
+a few days ago, at Bursal House. Since you have left it and
+have felt something of the difference that is made in this world
+between splendour and no splendour, you have never regretted
+that you did not stay there, and that you did not bear more
+patiently with Miss Bursal's little airs?</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Never for a moment. At first Miss Bursal paid
+me a vast deal of attention; but, for what reason I know not,
+she suddenly changed her manner, grew first strangely cold,
+then condescendingly familiar, and at last downright rude. I
+could not guess the cause of these variations.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> (<i>aside</i>). I guess the cause too well.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> But as I perceived the lady was out of tune, I was
+in haste to leave her. I should make a very bad, and, I am
+sure, a miserable toad eater. I had much rather, if I were
+obliged to choose, earn my own bread, than live as toad eater
+with anybody.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> Fine talking, dear Louisa!</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Don't you believe me to be in earnest, mother?
+To be sure, you cannot know what I would do, unless I were
+put to the trial.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> Nor you either, my dear.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>She sighs, and is silent.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa</i> (<i>takes her mother's hand</i>). What is the matter, dear
+mother? You used to say that seeing my brother always<span class="pagenum">[179]</span>
+made you feel ten years younger; yet even while he was here,
+you had, in spite of all your efforts to conceal them, those
+sudden fits of sadness.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> The Montem&mdash;is not it to-morrow? Ay, but
+my boy is not sure of being captain.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> No; there is one Wheeler, who, as he says, is most
+likely to be chosen captain. He has taken prodigious pains
+to flatter and win over many to his interest. My brother does
+not so much care about it; he is not avaricious.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> I love your generous spirit and his! but, alas!
+my dear, people may live to want, and wish for money, without
+being avaricious. I would not say a word to Talbot; full of
+spirits as he was this morning, I would not say a word to him,
+till after the Montem, of what has happened.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> And what has happened, dear mother? Sit down,&mdash;you
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> (<i>sits down and puts a letter into Louisa's hand</i>).
+Read that, love. A messenger brought me that from town a
+few hours ago.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa</i> (<i>reads</i>). 'By an express from Portsmouth, we hear
+the <i>Bombay Castle</i> East Indiaman is lost, with all your fortune
+on board.' <i>All!</i> I hope there is something left for you to
+live upon.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> About &pound;150 a year for us all.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> That is enough, is it not, for you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> For me, love? I am an old woman, and want
+but little in this world, and shall be soon out of it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa</i> (<i>kneels down beside her</i>). Do not speak so, dearest
+mother.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> Enough for me, love! Yes, enough, and too
+much for me. I am not thinking of myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Then, as to my brother, he has such abilities, and
+such industry, he will make a fortune at the bar for himself,
+most certainly.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> But his education is not completed. How shall
+we provide him with money at Cambridge?</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> This Montem. The last time the captain had eight
+hundred, the time before a thousand, pounds. Oh, I hope&mdash;I
+fear! Now, indeed, I know that, without being avaricious, we
+may want, and wish for money.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Landlady's voice heard behind the scenes.</i>)<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[180]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Waiter!&mdash;Miss Bursal's curricle, and Mr.
+Bursal's <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i>. Run! see that the Dolphin's empty. I
+say run!&mdash;run!</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> I will rest for a few moments upon the sofa, in
+this bedchamber, before we set off.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa</i> (<i>goes to open the door</i>). They have bolted or locked
+it. How unlucky!</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>She turns the key, and tries to unlock the door.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Waiter.</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Waiter.</i> Ladies, I'm sorry&mdash;Miss Bursal and Mr. Bursal
+are come&mdash;just coming upstairs.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> Then, will you be so good, sir, as to unlock
+this door?</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Waiter tries to unlock the door.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Waiter.</i> It must be bolted on the inside. Chambermaid!
+Sally! Are you within there? Unbolt this door.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Bursal's voice behind the scenes.</i> Let me have a basin
+of good soup directly.</p>
+
+<p><i>Waiter.</i> I'll go round and have the door unbolted immediately,
+ladies.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Waiter.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Miss Bursal,</span> <i>in a riding dress, and with a long whip.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Miss Bursal.</i> Those creatures, the ponies, have a'most
+pulled my '<i>and</i> off. Who <i>'ave</i> we <i>'ere</i>? Ha! Mrs. Talbot!
+Louisa, <i>'ow</i> are ye? I'm so vastly glad to see you; but I'm
+so shocked to <i>'ear</i> of the loss of the <i>Bombay Castle</i>. Mrs.
+Talbot, you look but poorly; but this Montem will put everybody
+in spirits. I <i>'ear</i> everybody's to be <i>'ere</i>; and my brother
+tells me, 'twill be the finest ever seen at <i>H</i>Eton. Louisa, my
+dear, I'm sorry I've not a seat for you in my curricle for to-morrow;
+but I've promised Lady Betty; so, you know, 'tis
+impossible for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Certainly; and it would be impossible for me to
+leave my mother at present.</p>
+
+<p><i>Chambermaid</i> (<i>opens the bedchamber door</i>). The room's ready
+now, ladies.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> Miss Bursal, we intrude upon you no longer.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss Burs.</i> Nay, why do you decamp, Mrs. Talbot? I <i>'ad</i>
+a thousand things to say to you, Louisa; but am so tired and
+so annoyed&mdash;&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Seats herself. Exeunt Mrs. Talbot, Louisa, and Chambermaid.</i>)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i017f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i017t.jpg" alt="i017t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Enter Miss Bursal, in a riding dress.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[182]</span></p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Bursal,</span> <i>with a basin of soup in his hand.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Burs.</i> Well, thank my stars the <i>Airly Castle</i> is safe
+in the Downs.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss Burs.</i> Mr. Bursal, can you inform me why Joe, my
+groom, does not make his appearance?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Burs.</i> (<i>eating and speaking</i>). Yes, that I can, child;
+because he is with his <i>'orses</i>, where he ought to be. 'Tis fit
+they should be looked after well; for they cost me a pretty
+penny&mdash;more than their heads are worth, and yours into the
+bargain; but I was resolved, as we were to come to this
+Montem, to come in style.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss Burs.</i> In style, to be sure; for all the world's to be
+here&mdash;the King, the Prince of W<i>h</i>ales, and Duke o' York, and
+all the first people; and we shall cut a dash! Dash! dash!
+will be the word to-morrow!&mdash;(<i>playing with her whip</i>).</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Burs.</i> (<i>aside</i>). Dash! dash! ay, just like her brother.
+He'll pay away finely, I warrant, by the time he's her age.
+Well, well, he can afford it; and I do love to see my children
+make a figure for their money. As Jack Bursal says, what's
+money for, if it e'nt to make a figure? (<i>Aloud.</i>) There's your
+brother Jack, now. The extravagant dog! he'll have such a
+dress as never was seen, I suppose, at this here Montem.
+Why, now, Jack Bursal spends more money at Eton, and has
+more to spend, than my Lord John, though my Lord John's
+the son of a marchioness.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss Burs.</i> Oh, that makes no difference nowadays. I
+wonder whether her ladyship is to be at this Montem. The
+only good I ever got out of these stupid Talbots was an introduction
+to their friend Lady Piercefield. What she could find
+to like in the Talbots, heaven knows. I've a notion she'll drop
+them, when she hears of the loss of the <i>Bombay Castle</i>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter a</i> <span class="smcap">Waiter,</span> <i>with a note.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Waiter.</i> A note from my Lady Piercefield, sir.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> Charming woman! Is she here, pray, sir?</p>
+
+<p><i>Waiter.</i> Just come. Yes, ma'am.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Waiter.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> Well, Mr. Bursal, what is it?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. B.</i> (<i>reads</i>). 'Business of importance to communicate&mdash;&mdash;'
+Hum! what can it be?&mdash;(<i>going</i>).</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> (<i>aside</i>). Perhaps some match to propose for me!<span class="pagenum">[183]</span>
+(<i>Aloud.</i>) Mr. Bursal, pray before you go to her ladyship, do
+send my <i>ooman</i> to me to make me <i>presentable</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Exit Miss Bursal at one door.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. B.</i> (<i>at the opposite door</i>). 'Business of importance!'
+Hum! I'm glad I'm prepared with a good basin of soup.
+There's no doing business well upon an empty stomach.
+Perhaps the business is to lend cash; and I've no great stomach
+for that. But it will be an honour, to be sure.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit.</i>)</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE III</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Landlady's Parlour</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Landlady</i>&mdash;Mr. <span class="smcap">Finsbury,</span> <i>a man-milliner, with bandboxes&mdash;a
+fancy cap, or helmet, with feathers, in the Landlady's
+hand&mdash;a satin bag, covered with gold netting, in the man-milliner's
+hand&mdash;a mantle hanging over his arm. A
+rough-looking Farmer is sitting with his back towards
+them, eating bread and cheese, and reading a newspaper.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Well, this, to be sure, will be the best-dressed
+Montem that ever was seen at Eton; and you Lon'on gentlemen
+have the most fashionablest notions; and this is the most
+elegantest fancy cap&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsbury.</i> Why, as you observe, ma'm, that is the most
+elegant fancy cap of them all. That is Mr. Hector Hogmorton's
+fancy cap, ma'm; and here, ma'm, is Mr. Saul's rich
+satin bag, covered with gold net. He is college salt-bearer, I
+understand, and has a prodigious superb white and gold dress.
+But, in my humble opinion, ma'm, the marshal's white and
+purple and orange fancy-dress, trimmed with silver, will bear
+the bell; though, indeed, I shouldn't say that,&mdash;for the colonel's
+and lieutenant's, and ensign's, are beautiful in the extreme.
+And, to be sure, nothing could be better imagined than Mr.
+Marlborough's lilac and silver, with a Roman cap. And it
+must be allowed that nothing in nature can have a better effect
+than Mr. Drake's flesh-colour and blue, with this Spanish hat,
+ma'm, you see.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>The Farmer looks over his shoulder from time to time
+during this speech, with contempt.</i>)<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[184]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Farmer</i> (<i>reads the newspaper</i>). French fleet at sea&mdash;Hum!</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> O gemini: Mr. Drake's Spanish hat is the
+sweetest, tastiest thing! Mr. Finsbury, I protest&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> Why, <i>ma'm</i>, I knew a lady of your taste couldn't but
+approve of it. My own invention entirely, ma'm. But it's
+nothing to the captain's cap, ma'm. Indeed, ma'm, Mr.
+Wheeler, the captain that is to be, has the prettiest taste in
+dress. To be sure, his sandals were my suggestion; but the
+mantle he has the entire credit of, to do him justice; and when
+you see it, ma'm, you will be really surprised; for (for contrast
+and elegance, and richness, and lightness, and propriety, and
+effect, and costume) you've never yet seen anything at all to be
+compared to Captain Wheeler's mantle, ma'm.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farmer</i> (<i>to the Landlady</i>). Why, now, pray, Mrs. Landlady,
+how long may it have been the fashion for milliners to go about
+in men's clothes?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady</i> (<i>aside to Farmer</i>). Lord, Mr. Hearty, hush!
+This is Mr. Finsbury, the great man-milliner.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> The great man-milliner! This is a sight I never
+thought to see in Old England.</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> (<i>packing up bandboxes</i>). Well, ma'm, I'm glad I
+have your approbation. It has ever been my study to please
+the ladies.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> (<i>throws a fancy mantle over his frieze coat</i>). And
+is this the way to please the ladies, Mrs. Landlady, nowadays?</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> (<i>taking off the mantle</i>). Sir, with your leave&mdash;I ask
+pardon&mdash;but the least thing detriments these tender colours;
+and as you have just been eating cheese with your hands&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> 'Tis my way to eat cheese with my mouth, man.</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> <i>Man!</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> I ask pardon&mdash;man-milliner, I mean.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Landlord.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Why, wife!</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Wife!</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> I ask pardon&mdash;Mrs. Newington I mean. Do you
+know who them ladies are that you have been and turned out of
+the Dolphin?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady</i> (<i>alarmed</i>). Not I, indeed. Who are they, pray?
+Why, if they are quality it's no fault of mine. It is their own
+fault for coming, like scrubs, without four horses. Why, if<span class="pagenum">[185]</span>
+quality will travel the road this way, incognito, how can they
+expect to be known and treated as quality? 'Tis no fault of
+mine. Why didn't you find out sooner who they were, Mr.
+Newington? What else in the 'versal world have you to do,
+but to go basking about in the yards and places with your
+tankard in your hand, from morning till night? What have you
+else to ruminate, all day long, but to find out who's who, I
+say?</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Clapper! clapper! clapper! like my mill in a high
+wind, landlord. Clapper! clapper! clapper!&mdash;enough to stun
+a body.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> That is not used to it; but use is all, they say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Will you answer me, Mr. Newington? Who are
+the grandees that were in the Dolphin?&mdash;and what's become <i>on</i>
+them?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Grandees was your own word, wife. They be not
+to call grandees; but I reckon you'd be sorry not to treat 'em
+civil, when I tell you their name is Talbot, mother and sister
+to our young Talbot of Eton; he that paid me so handsome
+for the hunter this very morning.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Mercy! is that all? What a combustion for
+nothing in life!</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> For nothing in life, as you say, ma'm; that is, nothing
+in high life, I'm sure, ma'm; nay, I dare a'most venture to
+swear. Would you believe it, Mr. Talbot is one of the few
+young gentlemen of Eton that has not bespoke from me a fancy-dress
+for this grand Montem?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> There, Mr. Newington; there's your Talbot for
+you! and there's your grandees! Oh, trust me, I know your
+scrubs at first sight.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Scrubs, I don't, nor can't, nor won't call them that
+pay their debts honestly. Scrubs, I don't, nor won't, nor can't
+call them that behave as handsome as young Mr. Talbot did
+here to me this morning about the hunter. A scrub he is not,
+wife. Fancy-dress or no fancy-dress, Mr. Finsbury, this young
+gentleman is no scrub.</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> Dear me! 'Twas not I said <i>scrub</i>. Did I say
+scrub?</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> No matter if you did.</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> No matter, certainly; and yet it is a matter; for I'm
+confident I wouldn't for the world leave it in any one's power<span class="pagenum">[186]</span>
+to say that I said&mdash;that I called&mdash;any young gentleman of Eton
+a <i>scrub</i>! Why, you know, sir, it might breed a riot!</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> And a pretty figure you'd make in a riot!</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Pray let me hear nothing about riots in my
+house.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Nor about scrubs.</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsb.</i> But I beg leave to explain, gentlemen. All I
+ventured to remark or suggest was, that as there was some talk
+of Mr. Talbot's being captain to-morrow, I didn't conceive how
+he could well appear without any dress. That was all, upon my
+word and honour. A good morning to you, gentlemen; it is
+time for me to be off. Mrs. Newington, you were so obliging
+as to promise to accommodate me with a return chaise as far as
+Eton.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Finsbury bows and exit.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> A good day to you and your bandboxes. There's a
+fellow for you now! Ha! ha! ha!&mdash;A man-milliner, forsooth!</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> Mrs. Talbot's coming&mdash;stand back.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> Lord! why does Bob show them through this
+way?</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Talbot,</span> <i>leaning on</i> <span class="smcap">Louisa;</span> <i>Waiter showing the way.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> You are going on, I suppose, ma'am?</p>
+
+<p><i>Waiter</i> (<i>aside to Landlord</i>). Not if she could help it; but
+there's no beds, since Mr. Bursal and Miss Bursal's come.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> I say nothing, for it is vain to say more. But isn't
+it a pity she can't stay for the Montem, poor old lady! Her son&mdash;as
+good and fine a lad as ever you saw&mdash;they say, has a chance,
+too, of being captain. She may never live to see another such
+a sight.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>As Mrs. Talbot walks slowly on, the Farmer puts
+himself across her way, so as to stop her short.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> No offence, madam, I hope; but I have a good snug
+farmhouse, not far off hand; and if so be you'd be so good to
+take a night's lodging, you and the young lady with you, you'd
+have a hearty welcome. That's all I can say; and you'd make
+my wife very happy; for she's a good woman, to say nothing
+of myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord.</i> If I may be so bold to put in my word, madam,
+you'd have as good beds, and be as well lodged, with Farmer
+Hearty, as in e'er a house at Salt Hill.<span class="pagenum">[187]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Talb.</i> I am very much obliged&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Oh, say nothing o' that, madam. I am sure I shall
+be as much obliged if you do come. Do, miss, speak for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Pray, dear mother&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> She will. (<i>Calls behind the scenes.</i>) Here, waiter!
+hostler! driver! what's your name? drive the chaise up here
+to the door, smart, close. Lean on my arm, madam, and we'll
+have you in and home in a whiff.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Exeunt Mrs. Talbot, Louisa, Farmer, Landlord, and Waiter.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady</i> (<i>sola</i>). What a noise and a rout this farmer
+man makes! and my husband, with his great broad face,
+bowing, as great a nincompoop as t'other. The folks are all
+bewitched with the old woman, I verily believe. (<i>Aloud.</i>)
+A good morning to you, ladies.</p>
+
+<h3>ACT THE SECOND</h3>
+
+<h4>SCENE I</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A field near Eton College;&mdash;several boys crossing backwards
+and forwards in the background. In front,</i> <span class="smcap">Talbot,
+Wheeler, Lord John</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Bursal.</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Talbot.</i> Fair play, Wheeler! Have at 'em, my boy!
+There they stand, fair game! There's Bursal there, with his
+<i>dead</i> forty-five votes at command; and Lord John with his&mdash;how
+many live friends?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord John</i> (<i>coolly</i>). Sir, I have fifty-six friends, I believe.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Fifty-six friends, his lordship believes&mdash;Wheeler
+inclusive no doubt.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> That's as hereafter may be.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheeler.</i> Hereafter! Oh, fie, my <i>lud</i>! You know your
+own Wheeler has, from the first minute he ever saw you, been
+your fast friend.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Your fast friend from the first minute he ever saw
+you, my lord! That's well hit, Wheeler; stick to that; stick
+fast. Fifty-six friends, Wheeler <i>in</i>clusive, hey, my lord! hey,
+my <i>lud</i>!<span class="pagenum">[188]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Talbot <i>ex</i>clusive, I find, contrary to my expectations.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Ay, contrary to your expectations, you find that
+Talbot is not a dog that will lick the dust: but then there's
+enough of the true spaniel breed to be had for whistling for;
+hey, Wheeler?</p>
+
+<p><i>Bursal</i> (<i>aside to Wheeler</i>). A pretty electioneerer. So
+much the better for you, Wheeler. Why, unless he bought a
+vote, he'd never win one, if he talked from this to the day of
+judgment.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheeler</i> (<i>aside to Bursal</i>). And as he has no money to
+buy votes&mdash;he! he! he!&mdash;we are safe enough.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> That's well done, Wheeler; fight the by-battle there
+with Bursal, now you are sure of the main with Lord John.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Sure! I never made Mr. Wheeler any promise
+yet.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Oh, I ask no promise from his lordship; we are
+upon honour: I trust entirely to his lordship's good nature and
+generosity, and to his regard for his own family; I having the
+honour, though distantly, to be related.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Related! How, Wheeler?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Connected, I mean, which is next door, as I may
+say, to being related. Related slipped out by mistake; I beg
+pardon, my Lord John.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Related!&mdash;a strange mistake, Wheeler.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Overshot yourself, Wheeler; overshot yourself, by all
+that's awkward. And yet, till now, I always took you for '<i>a
+dead-shot at a yellow-hammer</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>taking Bursal by the arm</i>). Bursal, a word with
+you. (<i>Aside to Bursal.</i>) What a lump of family pride that
+Lord John is.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Keep out of my hearing, Wheeler, lest I should spoil
+sport. But never fear: you'll please Bursal sooner than I
+shall. I can't, for the soul of me, bring myself to say that
+Bursal's not purse-proud, and you can. Give you joy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> A choice electioneerer!&mdash;ha! ha! ha!</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>faintly</i>). He! he! he!&mdash;a choice electioneerer, as
+you say.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Exeunt Wheeler and Bursal; manent Lord J. and Talbot.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[189]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> There was a time, Talbot&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> There was a time, my lord&mdash;to save trouble and a
+long explanation&mdash;there was a time when you liked Talbots
+better than spaniels; you understand me?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I have found it very difficult to understand you of
+late, Mr. Talbot.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Yes, because you have used other people's understandings
+instead of your own. Be yourself, my lord. See
+with your own eyes, and hear with your own ears, and then
+you'll find me still, what I've been these seven years; not your
+under-strapper, your hanger-on, your flatterer, but your friend!
+If you choose to have me for a friend, here's my hand. I am
+your friend, and you'll not find a better.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>giving his hand</i>). You are a strange fellow, Talbot;
+I thought I never could have forgiven you for what you said
+last night.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> What? for I don't keep a register of my sayings.
+Oh, it was something about gaming&mdash;Wheeler was flattering
+your taste for it, and he put me into a passion&mdash;I forget what
+I said. But, whatever it was, I'm sure it was well meant, and
+I believe it was well said.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> But you laugh at me sometimes to my face.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Would you rather I should laugh at you behind your
+back?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> But of all things in the world I hate to be laughed
+at. Listen to me, and don't fumble in your pockets while I'm
+talking to you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> I'm fumbling for&mdash;oh, here it is. Now, Lord John, I
+once did laugh at you behind your back, and what's droll enough,
+it was <i>at</i> your back I laughed. Here's a caricature I drew of
+you&mdash;I really am sorry I did it; but 'tis best to show it to you
+myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>aside</i>). It is all I can do to forgive this. (<i>After a
+pause, he tears the paper.</i>) I have heard of this caricature
+before; but I did not expect, Talbot, that you would come and
+show it to me yourself, Talbot, so handsomely, especially at
+such a time as this. Wheeler might well say you are a bad
+electioneerer.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Oh, hang it! I forgot my election, and your fifty-six
+friends.<span class="pagenum">[190]</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Rory O'Ryan.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>claps Talbot on the back</i>). Fifty-six friends, have you,
+Talbot? Say seven&mdash;fifty-seven, I mean; for I'll lay you a
+wager, you've forgot me; and that's a shame for you, too; for
+out of the whole posse-comitatus entirely now, you have not a
+stauncher friend than poor little Rory O'Ryan. And a good
+right he has to befriend you; for you stood by him when many
+who ought to have known better were hunting him down for a
+wild Irishman. Now that same wild Irishman has as much
+gratitude in him as any tame Englishman of them all. But
+don't let's be talking s<i>i</i>ntim<i>i</i>nt; for, for my share I'd not give
+a bogberry a bushel for s<i>i</i>ntim<i>i</i>nt, when I could get anything
+better.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> And pray, sir, what may a bogberry be?</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Phoo! don't be playing the innocent, now. Where
+have you lived all your life (I ask pardon, my l<i>a</i>rd) not to know
+a bogberry when you see or hear of it? (<i>Turns to Talbot.</i>)
+But what are ye standing idling here for? Sure, there's
+Wheeler, and Bursal along with him, canvassing out yonder
+at a terrible fine rate. And haven't I been huzzaing for you
+there till I'm hoarse? So I am, and just stepped away to
+suck an orange for my voice&mdash;(<i>sucks an orange</i>). I am a
+<i>thoroughgoing</i> friend, at any rate.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Now, Rory, you are the best fellow in the world, and
+a <i>thoroughgoing</i> friend; but have a care, or you'll get yourself
+and me into some scrape, before you have done with this
+violent <i>thoroughgoing</i> work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Never fear! never fear, man!&mdash;a warm <i>frind</i> and a
+bitter enemy, that's my maxim.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Yes, but too warm a friend is as bad as a bitter
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Oh, never fear me! I'm as cool as a cucumber all
+the time; and whilst they <i>tink</i> I'm <i>tinking</i> of nothing in life
+but making a noise, I make my own snug little remarks in
+prose and verse, as&mdash;now my voice is after coming back to
+me, you shall hear, if you <i>plase</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> I do please.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> I call it Rory's song. Now, mind, I have a verse for
+everybody&mdash;o' the leading lads, I mean; and I shall put 'em
+in or <i>lave</i> 'em out, according to their inclinations and deserts,<span class="pagenum">[191]</span>
+<i>wise-a-wee</i> to you, my little <i>frind</i>. So you comprehend it will
+be Rory's song, with variations.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talbot and Lord John.</i> Let's have it; let's have it without
+further preface.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Rory sings.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+I'm true game to the last, and no <i>Wheeler</i> for me.<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> There's a stroke, in the first place, for Wheeler,&mdash;you
+take it?</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Oh yes, yes, we take it; go on.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Rory sings.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+I'm true game to the last, and no Wheeler for me.<br />
+Of all birds, beasts, or fishes, that swim in the sea,<br />
+Webb'd or finn'd, black or white, man or child, Whig or Tory,<br />
+None but Talbot, O Talbot's the dog for Rory.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> 'Talbot the dog' is much obliged to you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> But if I have any ear, one of your lines is a foot
+too long, Mr. O'Ryan.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Phoo, put the best foot foremost for a <i>frind</i>. Slur it
+in the singing, and don't be quarrelling, anyhow, for a foot
+more or less. The more feet the better it will stand, you
+know. Only let me go on, and you'll come to something that
+will <i>plase</i> you.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Rory sings.</i>
+</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm.<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> That's Bursal, mind now, whom I mean to allude to
+in this verse.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> If the allusion's good, we shall probably find out
+your meaning.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> On with you, Rory, and don't read us notes on a
+song.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Go on, and let us hear what you say of Bursal.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Rory sings.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm;<br />
+His father's a tanner,&mdash;but then where's the harm?<br />
+Heir to houses, and hunters, and horseponds in fee,<br />
+Won't his skins sure soon buy him a pedigree?
+<span class="pagenum">[192]</span>
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Encore! encore! Why, Rory, I did not think
+you could make so good a song.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Sure 'twas none of I made it&mdash;'twas Talbot here.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> I!</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>aside</i>). Not a word: I'll make you a present of it:
+sure, then, it's your own.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> I never wrote a word of it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>to Lord J.</i>) Phoo, phoo! he's only denying it out
+of false modesty.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Well, no matter who wrote it,&mdash;sing it again.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Be easy; so I will, and as many more verses as you
+will to the back of it. (<i>Winking at Talbot aside.</i>) You shall
+have the credit of all. (<i>Aloud.</i>) Put me in when I'm out,
+Talbot, and you (<i>to Lord John</i>) join&mdash;join.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Rory sings, and Lord John sings with him.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm;<br />
+His father's a tanner,&mdash;but then where's the harm?<br />
+Heir to houses, and hunters, and horseponds in fee,<br />
+Won't his skins sure soon buy him a pedigree?<br />
+There's my lord with the back that never was bent&mdash;&mdash;
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Lord John stops singing; Talbot makes signs to Rory to stop; but Rory does not see him, and sings on.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+There's my lord with the back that never was bent;<br />
+Let him live with his ancestors, I am content.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Rory pushes Lord J. and Talbot with his elbows.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Join, join, both of ye&mdash;why don't you join? (<i>Sings.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Who'll buy my Lord John? the arch fishwoman cried,<br />
+A nice oyster shut up in a choice shell of pride.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> But join or ye spoil all.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> You have spoiled all, indeed.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>making a formal low bow</i>). Mr. Talbot, Lord
+John thanks you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Lord John! blood and thunder! I forgot you were
+by&mdash;quite and clean.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>puts him aside and continues speaking to Talbot</i>).
+Lord John thanks you, Mr. Talbot: this is the second part of
+the caricature. Lord John thanks you for these proofs of
+friendship&mdash;Lord John has reason to thank you, Mr. Talbot.<span class="pagenum">[193]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> No reason in life now. Don't be thanking so much
+for nothing in life; or if you must be thanking of somebody,
+it's me you ought to thank.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I ought and do, sir, for unmasking one who&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> (<i>warmly</i>). Unmasking, my lord&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>holding them asunder</i>). Phoo! phoo! phoo! be
+easy, can't ye?&mdash;there's no unmasking at all in the case. My
+Lord John, Talbot's writing the song was all a mistake.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> As much a mistake as your singing it, sir, I presume&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Just as much. 'Twas all a mistake. So now don't
+you go and make a mistake into a misunderstanding. It was
+I made every word of the song <i>out o' the face</i><a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a>&mdash;that about
+the back that never was bent, and the ancestors of the oyster,
+and all. He did not waste a word of it; upon my conscience,
+I wrote it all&mdash;though I'll engage you didn't think I could
+write such a good thing. (<i>Lord John turns away.</i>) I'm telling
+you the truth, and not a word of a lie, and yet you won't
+believe me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> You will excuse me, sir, if I cannot believe two
+contradictory assertions within two minutes. Mr. Talbot, I
+thank you (<i>going</i>).</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Rory tries to stop Lord John from going, but cannot.&mdash;Exit Lord John.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Well, if he <i>will</i> go, let him go then, and much good
+may it do him. Nay, but don't you go too.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> O Rory, what have you done?&mdash;(<i>Talbot runs after
+Lord J.</i>) Hear me, my lord.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Talbot.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Hear him! hear him! hear him!&mdash;Well, I'm point
+blank mad with myself for making this blunder; but how
+could I help it? As sure as ever I am meaning to do the
+best thing on earth, it turns out the worst.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter a party of lads, huzzaing.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>joins</i>). Huzza! huzza!&mdash;Who, pray, are ye huzzaing for?</p>
+
+<p><i>1st Boy.</i> Wheeler! Wheeler for ever! huzza!</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Talbot! Talbot for ever! huzza! Captain Talbot for
+ever! huzza!</p>
+
+<p><i>2nd Boy.</i> <i>Captain</i> he'll never be,&mdash;at least not to-morrow;
+for Lord John has just declared for Wheeler.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[194]</span></p>
+<p><i>1st Boy.</i> And that turns the scale.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Oh, the scale may turn back again.</p>
+
+<p><i>3rd Boy.</i> Impossible! Lord John has just given his <i>promise</i>
+to Wheeler. I heard him with my own ears.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>Several speak at once.</i>) And I heard him; and I! and
+I! and I!&mdash;Huzza! Wheeler for ever!</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Oh, murder! murder! murder! (<i>Aside.</i>) This goes
+to my heart! it's all my doing. O, my poor Talbot! murder!
+murder! murder! But I won't let them see me cast down,
+and it is good to be huzzaing at all events. Huzza for Talbot!
+Talbot for ever! huzza!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Wheeler</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Bursal.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Who was that huzzaing for Talbot?</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Rory behind the scenes</i>, 'Huzza for Talbot! Talbot for
+ever! huzza!')</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Pooh, it is only Rory O'Ryan, or the roaring lion, as
+I call him. Ha! ha! ha! Rory O'Ryan, <i>alias</i> O'Ryan, the
+roaring lion; that's a good one; put it about&mdash;Rory O'Ryan,
+the roaring lion, ha! ha! ha! but you don't take it&mdash;you
+don't laugh, Wheeler.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheeler.</i> Ha! ha! ha! Oh, upon my honour I do laugh;
+ha! ha! ha! (<i>It is the hardest work to laugh at his wit&mdash;aside.</i>)
+(<i>Aloud.</i>) Rory O'Ryan, the roaring lion&mdash;ha! ha!
+ha! You know I always laugh, Bursal, at your jokes&mdash;he!
+he! he!&mdash;ready to kill myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>sullenly</i>). You are easily killed, then, if that much
+laughing will do the business.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>coughing</i>). Just then&mdash;something stuck in my
+throat; I beg your pardon.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>still sullen</i>). Oh, you need not beg my pardon
+about the matter; I don't care whether you laugh or no&mdash;not
+I. Now you have got Lord John to declare for you, you are
+above laughing at my jokes, I suppose.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> No, upon my word and honour, <i>I did</i> laugh.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>aside</i>). A fig for your word and honour. (<i>Aloud.</i>)
+I know I'm of no consequence now; but you'll remember that,
+if his lordship has the honour of making you captain, he must
+have the honour to pay for your captain's accoutrements; for
+I shan't pay the piper, I promise you, since I'm of no consequence.<span class="pagenum">[195]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Of no consequence! But, my dear Bursal, what
+could put that into your head? that's the strangest, oddest
+fancy. Of no consequence! Bursal, of no consequence!
+Why, everybody that knows anything&mdash;everybody that has
+seen Bursal House&mdash;knows that you are of the greatest consequence,
+my dear Bursal.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>taking out his watch, and opening it, looks at it</i>).
+No, I'm of no consequence. I wonder that rascal Finsbury is
+not come yet with the dresses (<i>still looking at his watch</i>).</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>aside</i>). If Bursal takes it into his head not to lend
+me the money to pay for my captain's dress, what will become
+of me? for I have not a shilling&mdash;and Lord John won't pay for
+me&mdash;and Finsbury has orders not to leave the house till he is
+paid by everybody. What will become of me?&mdash;(<i>bites his
+nails</i>).</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>aside</i>). How I love to make him bite his nails!
+(<i>Aloud.</i>) I know I'm of no consequence. (<i>Strikes his
+repeater.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> What a fine repeater that is of yours, Bursal! It
+is the best I ever heard.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> So it well may be; for it cost a mint of money.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> No matter to you what anything costs. Happy
+dog as you are! You roll in money; and yet you talk of
+being of no consequence.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> But I am not of half so much consequence as Lord
+John&mdash;am I?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Are you? Why, aren't you twice as rich as he!</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Very true, but I'm not purse-proud.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> You purse-proud! I should never have thought of
+such a thing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Nor I, if Talbot had not used the word.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> But Talbot thinks everybody purse-proud that has a
+purse.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>aside</i>). Well, this Wheeler does put one into a good
+humour with one's self in spite of one's teeth. (<i>Aloud.</i>) Talbot
+says blunt things; but I don't think he's what you can call
+clever&mdash;hey, Wheeler?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Clever! Oh, not he.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> I think I could walk round him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> To be sure you could. Why, do you know, I've
+<i>quizzed</i> him famously myself within this quarter of an hour?<span class="pagenum">[196]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Indeed! I wish I had been by.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> So do I, 'faith! It was the best thing. I wanted,
+you see, to get him out of my way, that I might have the field
+clear for electioneering to-day. So I bowls up to him with a
+long face&mdash;such a face as this. 'Mr. Talbot, do you know&mdash;I'm
+sorry to tell you, here's Jack Smith has just brought the news
+from Salt Hill. Your mother, in getting into the carriage,
+slipped, and has <i>broke</i> her leg, and there she's lying at a farmhouse,
+two miles off. Is not it true, Jack?' said I. 'I saw the
+farmer helping her in with my own eyes,' cries Jack. Off goes
+Talbot like an arrow. '<i>Quizzed</i> him, <i>quizzed</i> him!' said I.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Ha! ha! ha! quizzed him indeed, with all his cleverness;
+that was famously done.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Ha! ha! ha! With all his cleverness he will be all
+the evening hunting for the farmhouse and the mother that has
+<i>broke</i> her leg; so he is out of our way.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> But what need have you to want him out of your
+way, now Lord John has come over to your side? You have
+the thing at a dead beat.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Not so dead either; for there's a great independent
+party, you know; and if <i>you</i> don't help me, Bursal, to canvass
+them, I shall be no captain. It is you I depend upon after all.
+Will you come and canvass them with me? Dear Bursal, pray&mdash;all
+depends upon you.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Pulls him by the arm&mdash;Bursal follows.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Well, if all depends upon me, I'll see what I can do
+for you. (<i>Aside.</i>) Then I am of some consequence! Money
+makes a man of some consequence, I see; at least with some
+folks.</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE II</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>In the back scene a flock of sheep are seen penned. In front, a
+party of country lads and lasses, gaily dressed, as in sheep-shearing
+time, with ribands and garlands of flowers, etc.,
+are dancing and singing.</i></p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Patty,</span> <i>dressed as the Queen of the Festival, with a lamb
+in her arms. The dancers break off when she comes in,
+and direct their attention towards her.</i><span class="pagenum">[197]</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>1st Peasant.</i> Oh, here comes Patty! Here comes the Queen
+o' the day. What has kept you from us so long, Patty?</p>
+
+<p><i>2nd Peasant.</i> '<i>Please your Majesty</i>,' you should say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Patty.</i> This poor little lamb of mine was what kept me so
+long. It strayed away from the rest; and I should have lost
+him, so I should, for ever, if it had not been for a good young
+gentleman. Yonder he is, talking to Farmer Hearty. That's
+the young gentleman who pulled my lamb out of the ditch for
+me, into which he had fallen&mdash;pretty creature!</p>
+
+<p><i>1st Peasant.</i> Pretty creature&mdash;or, your Majesty, whichever
+you choose to be called&mdash;come and dance with them, and I'll
+carry your lamb.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exeunt, singing and dancing.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Farmer Hearty</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Talbot.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Farmer.</i> Why, young gentleman, I'm glad I happened to
+light upon you here, and so to hinder you from going farther
+astray, and set your heart at ease like.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Thanks, good farmer, you have set my heart at ease,
+indeed. But the truth is, they did frighten me confoundedly&mdash;more
+fool I.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> No fool at all, to my notion. I should, at your age,
+ay, or at my age, just the self-same way have been frightened
+myself, if so be that mention had been made to me, that way,
+of my own mother's having broke her leg or so. And greater,
+by a great deal, the shame for them that frighted you, than for
+you to be frighted. How young gentlemen, now, can bring
+themselves for to tell such lies, is to me, now, a matter of
+amazement, like, that I can't noways get over.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Oh, farmer, such lies are very witty, though you and
+I don't just now like the wit of them. This is fun, this is
+<i>quizzing</i>; but you don't know what we young gentlemen
+mean by <i>quizzing</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Ay, but I do though, to my cost, ever since last
+year. Look you, now, at yon fine field of wheat. Well, it
+was just as fine, and finer, last year, till a young Eton
+jackanapes&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Take care what you say, farmer; for I am a young
+Eton jackanapes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> No; but you be not the young Eton jackanapes
+that I'm a-thinking on. I tell you it was this time last year,<span class="pagenum">[198]</span>
+man; he was a-horseback, I tell ye, mounted upon a fine bay
+hunter, out o' hunting, like.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> I tell you it was this time last year, man, that I was
+mounted upon a fine bay hunter, out a-hunting.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Zooks! would you argufy a man out of his wits?
+You won't go for to tell me that you are that impertinent little
+jackanapes!</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> No! no! I'll not tell you that I am an impertinent
+little jackanapes!</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> (<i>wiping his forehead</i>). Well, don't then, for I can't
+believe it; and you put me out. Where was I?</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Mounted upon a fine bay hunter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Ay, so he was. 'Here, <i>you</i>,' says he, meaning me&mdash;'open
+this gate for me.' Now, if he had but a-spoke me
+fair, I would not have gainsaid him; but he falls to swearing,
+so I bid him open the gate for himself. 'There's a bull
+behind you, farmer,' says he. I turns. '<i>Quizzed</i> him!' cries
+my jackanapes, and off he gallops him, through the very thick
+of my corn; but he got a fall, leaping the ditch out yonder,
+which pacified me, like, at the minute. So I goes up to see
+whether he was killed; but he was not a whit the worse for
+his tumble. So I should ha' fell into a passion with him then,
+to be sure, about my corn; but his horse had got such a
+terrible sprain, I couldn't say anything to him; for I was
+a-pitying the poor animal. As fine a hunter as ever you saw!
+I am s<i>a</i>rtain sure he could never come to good after.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> (<i>aside</i>). I do think, from the description, that this
+was Wheeler; and I have paid for the horse which he spoiled!
+(<i>Aloud.</i>) Should you know either the man or the horse again,
+if you were to see them?</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Ay, that I should, to my dying day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Will you come with me, then, and you'll do me some
+guineas' worth of service?</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Ay, that I will, with a deal of pleasure; for you be
+a civil-spoken young gentleman; and, besides, I don't think
+the worse <i>on</i> you for being <i>frighted</i> a little about your mother;
+being what I might ha' been, at your age, myself; for I had a
+mother myself once. So lead on, master.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)<span class="pagenum">[199]</span></p>
+
+<h3>ACT THE THIRD</h3>
+
+<h4>SCENE I</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The Garden of the 'Windmill Inn' at Salt Hill</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Miss Bursal, Mrs. Newington, Sally</span> <i>the Chambermaid</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">(<i>Miss Bursal, in a fainting state, is sitting on a garden stool,
+and leaning her head against the Landlady. Sally is holding
+a glass of water and a smelling bottle.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Miss Bursal.</i> Where am I? Where am I?</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> At the 'Windmill,' at Salt Hill, young lady;
+and ill or well, you can't be better.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sally.</i> Do you find yourself better since coming into the air,
+miss?</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> Better! Oh, I shall never be better!</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Leans her head on hand, and rocks herself backwards and forwards.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady.</i> My dear young lady, don't take on so. (<i>Aside.</i>)
+Now would I give something to know what it was my Lady
+Piercefield said to the father, and what the father said to this
+one, and what's the matter at the bottom of affairs. Sally, did
+you hear anything at the doors?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sally</i> (<i>aside</i>). No, indeed, ma'am; I never <i>be's</i> at the doors.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady</i> (<i>aside</i>). Simpleton! (<i>Aloud.</i>) But, my dear
+Miss Bursal, if I may be so bold&mdash;if you'd only disembosom
+your mind of what's on it&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> Disembosom my mind! Nonsense! I've nothing
+on my mind. Pray leave me, madam.</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlady</i> (<i>aside</i>). Madam, indeed! madam, forsooth! Oh,
+I'll make her pay for that! That <i>madam</i> shall go down in the
+bill as sure as my name's Newington. (<i>In a higher tone.</i>)
+Well, I wish you better, ma'am. I suppose I'd best send
+your own servant?</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> (<i>sullenly</i>). Yes, I suppose so. (<i>To Sally.</i>) You
+need not wait, child, nor look so curious.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sally.</i> <i>Cur'ous!</i> Indeed, miss, if I look a little <i>cur'ous</i>, or
+so (<i>looking at her dress</i>), 'tis only because I was <i>frighted</i> to see<span class="pagenum">[200]</span>
+you take on, which made me forget my clean apron when I
+came out; and this apron&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> Hush! hush! child. Don't tell me about clean
+aprons, nor run on with your vulgar talk. Is there ever a
+seat one can set on in that <i>h</i>arbour yonder?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sally.</i> O dear <i>'art</i>, yes, miss; 'tis the pleasantest <i>h</i>arbour
+on <i>h</i>earth. Be pleased to lean on my <i>h</i>arm, and you'll soon
+be there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss B.</i> (<i>going</i>). Then tell my woman she need not come
+to me, and let nobody <i>interude</i> on me&mdash;do you <i>'ear</i>? (<i>Aside.</i>)
+Oh, what will become of me? and the Talbots will soon
+know it! And the ponies, and the curricle, and the <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i>&mdash;what
+will become of them? and how shall I make my
+appearance at the Montem, or any <i>ware</i> else?</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE II</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Lord John&mdash;Wheeler&mdash;Bursal</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Wheeler.</i> Well, but, my lord&mdash;Well, but, Bursal&mdash;though
+my Lady Piercefield&mdash;though Miss Bursal is come to Salt
+Hill, you won't leave us all at sixes and sevens. What can
+we do without you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> You can do very well without <i>me</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bursal.</i> You can do very well without <i>me</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>to Burs.</i>). Impossible!&mdash;impossible! You know
+Mr. Finsbury will be here just now, with the dresses; and we
+have to try them on.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> And to pay for them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> And to settle about the procession. And then, my
+lord, the election is to come on this evening. You won't go
+till that's over, as your lordship has <i>promised</i> me your lordship's
+vote and interest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> My vote I promised you, Mr. Wheeler; but I said
+not a syllable about my <i>interest</i>. My friends, perhaps, have
+not been offended, though I have, by Mr. Talbot. I shall
+leave them to their own inclinations.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>whistling</i>). Wheugh! wheugh! wheugh! Wheeler,
+the principal's nothing without the interest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Oh, the interest will go along with the principal, of
+course; for I'm persuaded, if my lord leaves his friends to<span class="pagenum">[201]</span>
+their inclinations, it will be the inclination of my lord's
+friends to vote as he does, if he says nothing to them to the
+contrary.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I told you, Mr. Wheeler, that I should leave them
+to themselves.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>still whistling</i>). Well, I'll do my best to make that
+father of mine send me off to Oxford. I'm sure I'm fit to go&mdash;along
+with Wheeler. Why, you'd best be my tutor,
+Wheeler!&mdash;a devilish good thought.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> An excellent thought.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> And a cursed fine dust we should kick up at Oxford,
+with your Montem money and all!&mdash;Money's <i>the go</i> after all.
+I wish it was come to my making you my last bow, 'ye
+distant spires, ye <i>antic</i> towers!'</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>aside to Lord J.</i>). Ye <i>antic</i> towers!&mdash;fit for Oxford,
+my lord!</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> <i>Antique</i> towers, I suppose Mr. Bursal means.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Antique, to be sure!&mdash;I said antique, did not I,
+Wheeler?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Oh yes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>aside</i>). What a mean animal is this!</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Rory O'Ryan.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Why, now, what's become of Talbot, I want to know?
+There he is not to be found anywhere in the wide world; and
+there's a hullabaloo amongst his friends for him.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Wheeler and Bursal wink at one another.</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> We know nothing of him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I have not the honour, sir, to be one of Mr.
+Talbot's friends. It is his own fault, and I am sorry for it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> 'Faith, so am I, especially as it is mine&mdash;fault I
+mean; and especially as the election is just going to come on.</p>
+
+<p><i>Enter a party of boys, who cry</i>, Finsbury's come!&mdash;Finsbury's
+come with the dresses!</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Finsbury's come? Oh, let us see the dresses, and
+let us try 'em on to-night.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>pushing the crowd</i>). On with ye&mdash;on with ye,
+there!&mdash;Let's try 'em on!&mdash;Try 'em on&mdash;I'm to be colonel.</p>
+
+<p><i>1st Boy.</i> And I lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p><i>2nd Boy.</i> And I ensign.</p>
+
+<p><i>3rd Boy.</i> And I college salt-bearer.<span class="pagenum">[202]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>4th Boy.</i> And I oppidan.</p>
+
+<p><i>5th Boy.</i> Oh, what a pity I'm in mourning.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>Several speak at once.</i>) And we are servitors. We are to
+be the eight servitors.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> And I am to be your Captain, I hope. Come on,
+my Colonel (<i>to Bursal</i>). My lord, you are coming?</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> By-and-by&mdash;I've a word in his ear, by your <i>lave</i> and
+his.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Why, what the devil stops the way, there?&mdash;Push on&mdash;on
+with them.</p>
+
+<p><i>6th Boy.</i> I'm marshal.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> On with you&mdash;on with you&mdash;who cares what you are?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>to Bursal, aside</i>). You'll pay Finsbury for me,
+you rich Jew? (<i>To Lord John.</i>) Your lordship will remember
+your lordship's promise?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I do not usually forget my promises, sir; and
+therefore need not to be reminded of them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> I beg pardon&mdash;I beg ten thousand pardons, my
+lord.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>taking him by the arm</i>). Come on, man, and don't
+stand begging pardon there, or I'll leave you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>to Burs.</i>). I beg pardon, Bursal&mdash;I beg pardon,
+ten thousand times.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Manent Lord John</span> and <span class="smcap">Rory O'Ryan</span>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Wheugh!&mdash;Now put the case. If I was going to be
+hanged, for the life of me I couldn't be after begging so many
+pardons for nothing at all. But many men, many minds&mdash;(<i>Hums.</i>)
+True game to the last! No Wheeler for me. Oh,
+murder! I forgot, I was nigh letting the cat out o' the bag
+again.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> You had something to say to me, sir? I wait till
+your recollection returns.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> 'Faith, and that's very kind of you; and if you had
+always done so, you would never have been offended with me,
+my lord.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> You are mistaken, Mr. O'Ryan, if you think that
+you did or could offend me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Mistaken was I, then, sure enough; but we are all
+liable to mistakes, and should forget and forgive one another;
+that's the way to go through.<span class="pagenum">[203]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> You will go through the world your own way, Mr.
+O'Ryan, and allow me to go through it my way.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Very fair&mdash;fair enough&mdash;then we shan't cross. But
+now, to come to the point. I don't like to be making disagreeable
+retrospects, if I could any way avoid it; nor to be
+going about the bush, especially at this time o' day; when, as
+Mr. Finsbury's come, we've not so much time to lose as we
+had. Is there any truth, then, my lord, in the report that is
+going about this hour past, that you have gone in a huff and
+given your promise there to that sneaking Wheeler to vote for
+him now?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> In answer to your question, sir, I am to inform you
+that I <i>have</i> promised Mr. Wheeler to vote for him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> In a huff?&mdash;Ay, now, there it is!&mdash;Well, when a
+man's <i>mad</i>, to be sure, he's mad&mdash;and that's all that can be
+said about it. And I know, if I had been <i>mad</i> myself, I
+might have done a foolish thing as well as another. But now,
+my lord, that you are not mad&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I protest, sir, I cannot understand you. In one
+word, sir, I'm neither mad nor a fool!&mdash;Your most obedient
+(<i>going, angrily</i>).</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>holding him</i>). Take care, now; you are going mad
+with me again. But phoo! I like you the better for being
+mad. I'm very often mad myself, and I would not give a
+potato for one that had never been mad in his life.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>aside</i>). He'll not be quiet till he makes me knock
+him down.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Agh! agh! agh!&mdash;I begin to guess whereabouts I
+am at last. <i>Mad</i>, in your country, I take it, means fit for
+Bedlam; but with us in Ireland, now, 'tis no such thing; it
+means nothing in life but the being in a passion. Well, one
+comfort is, my lord, as you're a bit of a scholar, we have the
+Latin proverb in our favour&mdash;'<i>Ira furor brevis est</i>' (Anger is
+short madness). The shorter the better, I think. So, my
+lord, to put an end to whatever of the kind you may have felt
+against poor Talbot, I'll assure you he's as innocent o' that
+unfortunate song as the babe unborn.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> It is rather late for Mr. Talbot to make apologies
+to me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> He make apologies! Not he, 'faith; he'd send me
+to Coventry, or maybe to a worse place, did he but know I was<span class="pagenum">[204]</span>
+condescending to make this bit of explanation, unknown to
+him. But, upon my conscience, I've a regard for you both,
+and don't like to see you go together by the ears. Now, look
+you, my lord. By this book, and all the books that were ever
+shut and opened, he never saw or heard of that unlucky song
+of mine till I came out with it this morning.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> But you told me this morning that it was he who
+wrote it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> For that I take shame to myself, as it turned out;
+but it was only a <i>white</i> lie to s<i>a</i>rve a friend, and make him
+cut a dash with a new song at election time. But I've done
+for ever with white lies.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>walking about as if agitated</i>). I wish you had
+never begun with them, Mr. O'Ryan. This may be a good
+joke to you, but it is none to me or Talbot. So Talbot never
+wrote a word of the song?</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Not a word or syllable, good or bad.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> And I have given my promise to vote against him.
+He'll lose his election.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Not if you'll give me leave to speak to your friends
+in your name.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I have promised to leave them to themselves; and
+Wheeler, I am sure, has engaged them by this time.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Bless my body! I'll not stay prating here then.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Rory.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>follows</i>). But what can have become of Talbot?
+I have been too hasty for once in my life. Well, I shall suffer
+for it more than anybody else; for I love Talbot, since he did
+not make the song, of which I hate to think.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit.</i>)</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE III</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A large hall in Eton College&mdash;A staircase at the end&mdash;Eton
+lads, dressed in their Montem Dresses, in the Scene&mdash;In
+front,</i> <span class="smcap">Wheeler</span> (<i>dressed as Captain</i>), <span class="smcap">Bursal,</span> <i>and</i>
+<span class="smcap">Finsbury.</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Fins.</i> I give you infinite credit, Mr. Wheeler, for this
+dress.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> <i>Infinite credit!</i> Why, he'll have no objection to<span class="pagenum">[205]</span>
+that&mdash;hey, Wheeler? But I thought Finsbury knew you too
+well to give you credit for anything.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fins.</i> You are pleased to be pleasant, sir. Mr. Wheeler
+knows, in that sense of the word, it is out of my power to give
+him credit, and I'm sure he would not ask it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>aside</i>). O, Bursal, pay him, and I'll pay you to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Now, if you weren't to be captain after all, Wheeler,
+what a pretty figure you'd cut. Ha! ha! ha!&mdash;Hey?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> Oh, I am as sure of being captain as of being alive.
+(<i>Aside.</i>) Do pay for me, now, there's a good, dear fellow,
+before <i>they</i> (<i>looking back</i>) come up.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> (<i>aside</i>). I love to make him lick the dust. (<i>Aloud.</i>)
+Hollo! here's Finsbury waiting to be paid, lads. (<i>To the lads
+who are in the back scene.</i>) Who has paid, and who has not
+paid? I say.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>The lads come forward, and several exclaim at once</i>,) I've
+paid! I've paid!</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Lord John</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Rory O'Ryan.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Oh, King of Fashion, how fine we are! Why, now,
+to look at ye all one might fancy one's self at the playhouse at
+once, or at a fancy ball in dear little Dublin. Come, strike up
+a dance.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Pshaw! Wherever you come, Rory O'Ryan, no one
+else can be heard. Who has paid, and who has not paid? I
+say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Several boys exclaim</i>, We've all paid.</p>
+
+<p><i>1st Boy.</i> I've not paid, but here's my money.</p>
+
+<p><i>Several Boys.</i> We have not paid, but here's our money.</p>
+
+<p><i>6th Boy.</i> Order there, I am marshal. All that have paid
+march off to the staircase, and take your seats there, one by
+one. March!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>As they march by, one by one, so as to display
+their dresses, Mr. Finsbury bows, and says,</i>)</p>
+
+<p>A thousand thanks, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen.
+Thanks, gentlemen. The finest sight ever I saw out of
+Lon'on.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory, as each lad passes, catches his arm,</i> Are you a
+Talbot<i>ite</i>, or a Wheeler<i>ite</i>? <i>To each who answers</i> 'A
+Wheelerite,' <i>Rory replies</i>, 'Phoo! dance off, then. Go to<span class="pagenum">[206]</span>
+the devil and shake yourself.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> <i>Each who answers</i> 'A
+Talbotite,' <i>Rory shakes by the hand violently, singing,</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">Talbot, oh, Talbot's the dog for Rory.<br /></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>When they have almost all passed, Lord John says,</i> But
+where can Mr. Talbot be all this time?</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Who knows? Who cares?</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> A pretty electioneerer! (<i>Aside to Bursal.</i>) Finsbury's
+waiting to be paid.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> You don't wait for me, Mr. Finsbury. You know,
+I have settled with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fins.</i> Yes, my lord&mdash;yes. Many thanks; and I have left
+your lordship's dress here, and everybody's dress, I believe, as
+bespoke.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Here, Finsbury, is the money for Wheeler, who,
+between you and me, is as poor as a rat.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheeler</i> (<i>affecting to laugh</i>). Well, I hope I shall be as rich
+as a Jew to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Bursal counts money, in an ostentatious
+manner, into Finsbury's hand.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Fins.</i> A thousand thanks for all favours.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> You will be kind enough to <i>lave</i> Mr. Talbot's dress
+with me, Mr. Finsbury, for I'm a friend.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fins.</i> Indubitably, sir; but the misfortune is&mdash;he! he!
+he!&mdash;Mr. Talbot, sir, has bespoke no dress. Your servant,
+gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Finsbury.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> So your friend Mr. Talbot could not afford to
+bespeak a dress&mdash;(<i>Bursal and Wheeler laugh insolently</i>). How
+comes that, I wonder?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> If I'm not mistaken, here comes Talbot to answer
+for himself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> But who, in the name of St. Patrick, has he along
+with him?</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Talbot</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Landlord.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Come in along with us, Farmer Hearty&mdash;come in.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Whilst the Farmer comes in, the boys who were sitting on the stairs rise and exclaim,</i>)<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Whom have we here? What now? Come down, lads;
+here's more fun.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> What's here, Talbot?</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[207]</span></p>
+<p><i>Talb.</i> An honest farmer and a good-natured landlord, who
+<i>would</i> come here along with me to speak&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> (<i>interrupting</i>). To speak the truth&mdash;(<i>strikes his
+stick on the ground</i>).</p>
+
+<p><i>Landlord</i> (<i>unbuttoning his waistcoat</i>). But I am so hot&mdash;so
+short-winded, that (<i>panting and puffing</i>)&mdash;that for the soul
+and body of me, I cannot say what I have got for to say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> 'Faith, now, the more short-winded a story, the
+better, to my fancy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Wheeler, what's the matter, man? you look as if
+your under jaw was broke.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> The matter is, young gentlemen, that there was
+once upon a time a fine bay hunter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> (<i>squeezing up to Talbot, aside</i>). Don't expose me,
+don't let him tell. (<i>To the Farmer.</i>) I'll pay for the corn I
+spoiled. (<i>To the Landlord.</i>) I'll pay for the horse.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> I does not want to be paid for my corn. The short
+of it is, young gentlemen, this 'un here, in the fine thing-em-bobs
+(<i>pointing to Wheeler</i>), is a shabby fellow; he went and
+spoiled Master Newington's best hunter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>panting</i>). Ruinationed him! ruinationed him!</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> But was that all the shabbiness? Now I might, or
+any of us might, have had such an accident as that. I suppose
+he paid the gentleman for the horse, or will do so, in good
+time.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>holding his sides</i>). Oh, that I had but a little breath
+in this body o' mine to speak all&mdash;speak on, Farmer.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> (<i>striking his stick on the floor</i>). Oons, sir, when a
+man's put out, he can't go on with his story.</p>
+
+<p><i>Omnes.</i> Be quiet, Rory&mdash;hush!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Rory puts his finger on his lips.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Why, sir, I was a-going to tell you the shabbiness&mdash;why,
+sir, he did not pay the landlord, here, for the horse; but
+he goes and says to the landlord, here&mdash;'Mr. Talbot had your
+horse on the self-same day; 'twas he did the damage; 'tis from
+he you must get your money.' So Mr. Talbot, here, who is
+another sort of a gentleman (though he has not so fine a coat),
+would not see a man at a loss, that could not afford it; and
+not knowing which of 'em it was that spoiled the horse, goes,
+when he finds the other would not pay a farthing, and pays all.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory</i> (<i>rubbing his hands</i>). There's Talbot for ye. And<span class="pagenum">[208]</span>
+now, gentlemen (<i>to Wheeler and Bursal</i>), you guess the <i>rason</i>,
+as I do, I suppose, why he bespoke no dress; he had not
+money enough to be fine&mdash;and honest, too. You are very fine,
+Mr. Wheeler, to do you justice.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Pray, Mr. O'Ryan, let the farmer go on; he has
+more to say. How did you find out, pray, my good friend,
+that it was not Talbot who spoiled the horse? Speak loud
+enough to be heard by everybody.</p>
+
+<p><i>Farm.</i> Ay, that I will&mdash;I say (<i>very loudly</i>) I say I saw <i>him</i>
+there (<i>pointing to Wheeler</i>) take the jump which strained the
+horse; and I'm ready to swear to it. Yet he let another pay;
+there's the shabbiness.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>A general groan from all the lads.</i> 'Oh, shabby
+Wheeler, shabby! I'll not vote for shabby Wheeler!')</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>aside</i>). Alas! I must vote for him.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Rory sings.</i></p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+True game to the last; no Wheeler for me;<br />
+Talbot, oh, Talbot's the dog for me.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Several voices join the chorus.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Burs.</i> Wheeler, if you are not chosen Captain, you must see
+and pay me for the dress.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wheel.</i> I am as poor as a rat.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Oh yes! oh yes! hear ye! hear ye, all manner of
+men&mdash;the election is now going to begin forthwith in the big
+field, and Rory O'Ryan holds the poll for Talbot. Talbot for
+ever!&mdash;huzza!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Rory followed by the Boys, who exclaim,</i> Talbot
+for ever!&mdash;huzza! <i>The Landlord and Farmer
+join them.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Talbot, I am glad you <i>are</i> what I always thought
+you&mdash;I'm glad you did not write that odious song. I would
+not lose such a friend for all the songs in the world. Forgive
+me for my hastiness this morning. I've punished myself&mdash;I've
+promised to vote for Wheeler.</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Oh, no matter whom you vote for, my lord, if you are
+still my friend, and if you know me to be yours.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>They shake hands.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> I must not say, '<i>Huzza for Talbot!</i>'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i018f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i018t.jpg" alt="i018t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>I say I saw</i> him <i>there take the jump which strained the horse.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[210]</span></p>
+
+<h4>SCENE IV</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Windsor Terrace</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Lady Piercefield, Mrs. Talbot, Louisa,</span> <i>and a little girl of
+six years old</i>, <span class="smcap">Lady Violetta</span>, <i>daughter to</i> <span class="smcap">Lady Piercefield</span>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Violetta</i> (<i>looking at a paper which Louisa holds</i>). I like it
+<i>very</i> much.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> What is it you like <i>very</i> much, Violetta?</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> You are not to know <i>yet</i>, mamma; it is&mdash;I may tell
+her that&mdash;it is a little drawing that Louisa is doing for me.
+Louisa, I wish you would let me show it to mamma.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> And welcome, my dear; it is only a sketch of 'The
+Little Merchants,' a story which Violetta was reading, and she
+asked me to try to draw the pictures of the little merchants
+for her.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Whilst Lady P. looks at the drawing, Violetta
+says to Louisa</i>)</p>
+
+<p>But are you in earnest, Louisa, about what you were saying
+to me just now,&mdash;quite in earnest?</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Yes, in earnest,&mdash;quite in earnest, my dear.</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> And may I ask mamma <i>now</i>?</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> If you please, my dear.</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> (<i>runs to her mother</i>). Stoop down to me, mamma;
+I've something to whisper to you.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Lady Piercefield stoops down; Violetta throws
+her arms round her mother's neck.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> (<i>aside to her mother</i>). Mamma, do you know&mdash;you
+know you want a governess for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> Yes, if I could find a good one.</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> (<i>aloud</i>). Stoop again, mamma, I've more to whisper.
+(<i>Aside to her mother.</i>) <i>She</i> says she will be my governess, if
+you please.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> <i>She!</i>&mdash;who is <i>she</i>?</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> Louisa.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> (<i>patting Violetta's cheek</i>). You are a little fool.
+Miss Talbot is only playing with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> No, indeed, mamma; she is in earnest; are not you,
+Louisa?&mdash;Oh, say yes!</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Yes.<span class="pagenum">[211]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> (<i>claps her hands</i>). <i>Yes</i>, mamma; do you hear
+<i>yes</i>?</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> If Lady Piercefield will trust you to my care, I am
+persuaded that I should be much happier as your governess,
+my good little Violetta, than as an humble dependent of Miss
+Bursal's. (<i>Aside to her mother.</i>) You see that, now I am
+put to the trial, I keep to my resolution, dear mother.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. T.</i> Your ladyship would not be surprised at this offer of
+my Louisa, if you had heard, as we have done within these few
+hours, of the loss of the East India ship in which almost our
+whole property was embarked.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> The <i>Bombay Castle</i> is wrecked.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> The <i>Bombay Castle</i>! I have the pleasure to tell
+you that you are misinformed&mdash;it was the <i>Airly Castle</i> that was
+wrecked.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa and Mrs. T.</i> Indeed!</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> Yes; you may depend upon it&mdash;it was the <i>Airly
+Castle</i> that was lost. You know I am just come from Portsmouth,
+where I went to meet my brother, Governor Morton,
+who came home with the last India fleet, and from whom I had
+the intelligence.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Here Violetta interrupts, to ask her mother for her
+nosegay&mdash;Lady P. gives it to her,&mdash;then goes
+on speaking.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> They were in such haste, foolish people! to
+carry their news to London, that they mistook one castle
+for another. But do you know that Mr. Bursal loses fifty
+thousand pounds, it is said, by the <i>Airly Castle</i>? When I
+told him she was lost, I thought he would have dropped down.
+However, I found he comforted himself afterwards with a
+bottle of Burgundy; but poor Miss Bursal has been in hysterics
+ever since.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. T.</i> Poor girl! My Louisa, <i>you</i> did not fall into
+hysterics, when I told you of the loss of our whole fortune.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Violetta, during this dialogue, has been seated on the
+ground making up a nosegay.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Violet.</i> (<i>aside</i>). Fall into hysterics! What are hysterics, I
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> Miss Bursal is much to be pitied; for the loss of
+wealth will be the loss of happiness to her.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> It is to be hoped that the loss may at least check
+the foolish pride and extravagance of young Bursal, who, as my
+son tells me&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>A cry of</i> 'Huzza! huzza!' <i>behind the scenes.</i>)</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i019f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i019t.jpg" alt="i019t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[213]</span></p>
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Lord John</span>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> (<i>hastily</i>). How d'ye do, mother? Miss Talbot, I
+give you joy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady P.</i> Take breath&mdash;take breath.</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> It is my brother.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. T.</i> Here he is!&mdash;Hark! hark!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>A cry behind the scenes of</i> 'Talbot and truth for ever!
+Huzza!')</p>
+
+<p><i>Louisa.</i> They are chairing him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lord J.</i> Yes, they are chairing him; and he has been
+chosen for his honourable conduct, not for his electioneering
+skill; for, to do him justice, Coriolanus himself was not a
+worse electioneerer.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Rory O'Ryan</span> <i>and another Eton lad, carrying</i> <span class="smcap">Talbot</span>
+<i>in a chair, followed by a crowd of Eton lads.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> By your <i>lave</i>, my lord&mdash;by your <i>lave</i>, ladies.</p>
+
+<p><i>Omnes.</i> Huzza! Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza!</p>
+
+<p><i>Talb.</i> Set me down! There's my mother! There's my
+sister!</p>
+
+<p><i>Rory.</i> Easy, easy. Set him down! No such <i>ting</i>! give
+him t'other huzza! There's nothing like a good loud huzza in
+this world. Yes, there is! for, as my Lord John said just now,
+out of some book or out of his own head&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width:32em">
+<p class="noin">
+One self-approving hour whole years outweighs<br />
+Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<h4>CURTAIN FALLS</h4>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[215]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="FORGIVE_AND_FORGET" id="FORGIVE_AND_FORGET"></a>FORGIVE AND FORGET</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">In</span> the neighbourhood of a seaport town in the west of England
+there lived a gardener, who had one son, called Maurice,
+to whom he was very partial. One day his father sent him to
+the neighbouring town to purchase some garden seeds for him.
+When Maurice got to the seed-shop, it was full of people, who
+were all impatient to be served: first a great tall man, and
+next a great fat woman pushed before him; and he stood
+quietly beside the counter, waiting till somebody should be at
+leisure to attend to him. At length, when all the other people
+who were in the shop had got what they wanted, the shopman
+turned to Maurice&mdash;'And what do you want, my patient little
+fellow?' said he.</p>
+
+<p>'I want all these seeds for my father,' said Maurice, putting
+a list of seeds into the shopman's hand; 'and I have brought
+money to pay for them all.'</p>
+
+<p>The seedsman looked out all the seeds that Maurice wanted,
+and packed them up in paper: he was folding up some
+painted lady-peas, when, from a door at the back of the shop,
+there came in a square, rough-faced man, who exclaimed, the
+moment he came in, 'Are the seeds I ordered ready?&mdash;The
+wind's fair&mdash;they ought to have been aboard yesterday. And
+my china jar, is it packed up and directed? where is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is up there on the shelf over your head, sir,' answered
+the seedsman. 'It is very safe, you see; but we have not
+had time to pack it yet. It shall be done to-day; and we will
+get the seeds ready for you, sir, immediately.'</p>
+
+<p>'Immediately! then stir about it. The seeds will not pack
+themselves up. Make haste, pray.' 'Immediately, sir, as
+soon as I have done up the parcel for this little boy.' 'What<span class="pagenum">[216]</span>
+signifies the parcel for this little boy? He can wait, and I
+cannot&mdash;wind and tide wait for no man. Here, my good lad,
+take your parcel and sheer off,' said the impatient man; and,
+as he spoke, he took up the parcel of seeds from the counter,
+as the shopman stooped to look for a sheet of thick brown
+paper and packthread to tie it up.</p>
+
+<p>The parcel was but loosely folded up, and as the impatient
+man lifted it, the weight of the peas which were withinside of
+it burst the paper, and all the seeds fell out upon the floor,
+whilst Maurice in vain held his hands to catch them. The
+peas rolled to all parts of the shop; the impatient man swore
+at them, but Maurice, without being out of humour, set about
+collecting them as fast as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst the boy was busied in this manner, the man got
+what seeds he wanted; and as he was talking about them, a
+sailor came into the shop, and said, 'Captain, the wind has
+changed within these five minutes, and it looks as if we should
+have ugly weather.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm glad of it,' replied the rough-faced man, who
+was the captain of a ship. 'I am glad to have a day longer
+to stay ashore, and I've business enough on my hands.' The
+captain pushed forward towards the shop door. Maurice,
+who was kneeling on the floor, picking up his seeds, saw that
+the captain's foot was entangled in some packthread which
+hung down from the shelf on which the china jar stood.
+Maurice saw that, if the captain took one more step forward,
+he must pull the string, so that it would throw down the jar,
+round the bottom of which the packthread was entangled.
+He immediately caught hold of the captain's leg, and stopped
+him, 'Stay! Stand still, sir!' said he, 'or you will break
+your china jar.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i020f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i020t.jpg" alt="i020t"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Stay! Stand still, sir! or you will break your china jar.</i>'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The man stood still, looked, and saw how the packthread
+had caught in his shoe buckle, and how it was near dragging
+down his beautiful china jar. 'I am really very much obliged
+to you, my little fellow,' said he. 'You have saved my jar,
+which I would not have broken for ten guineas, for it is for
+my wife, and I've brought it safe from abroad many a league.
+It would have been a pity if I had broken it just when it was
+safe landed. I am really much obliged to you, my little
+fellow, this was returning good for evil. I am sorry I threw
+down your seeds, as you are such a good-natured, forgiving<span class="pagenum">[218]</span>
+boy. Be so kind,' continued he, turning to the shopman, 'as
+to reach down that china jar for me.'</p>
+
+<p>The shopman lifted down the jar very carefully, and the
+captain took off the cover, and pulled out some tulip-roots.
+'You seem, by the quantity of seeds you have got, to belong to
+a gardener. Are you fond of gardening?' said he to Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir,' replied Maurice, 'very fond of it; for my father
+is a gardener, and he lets me help him at his work, and he
+has given me a little garden of my own.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then here are a couple of tulip-roots for you; and if you
+take care of them, I'll promise you that you will have the
+finest tulips in England in your little garden. These tulips
+were given to me by a Dutch merchant, who told me that they
+were some of the rarest and finest in Holland. They will
+prosper with you, I'm sure, wind and weather permitting.'</p>
+
+<p>Maurice thanked the gentleman, and returned home, eager
+to show his precious tulip-roots to his father, and to a companion
+of his, the son of a nurseryman, who lived near him.
+Arthur was the name of the nurseryman's son.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing Maurice did, after showing his tulip-roots to
+his father, was to run to Arthur's garden in search of him.
+Their gardens were separated only by a low wall of loose
+stones:&mdash;'Arthur! Arthur! where are you? Are you in your
+garden? I want you.' But Arthur made no answer, and did
+not, as usual, come running to meet his friend. 'I know
+where you are,' continued Maurice, 'and I'm coming to you as
+fast as the raspberry-bushes will let me. I have good news
+for you&mdash;something you'll be delighted to see, Arthur!&mdash;Ha!&mdash;but
+here is something that I am not delighted to see, I am
+sure,' said poor Maurice, who, when he had got through the
+raspberry-bushes, and had come in sight of his own garden,
+beheld his bell-glass&mdash;his beloved bell-glass, under which his
+cucumbers were grown so finely&mdash;his only bell-glass, broken
+to pieces!</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry for it,' said Arthur, who stood leaning upon
+his spade in his own garden; 'I am afraid you will be very
+angry with me.' 'Why, was it you, Arthur, broke my bell-glass?
+Oh, how could you do so?' 'I was throwing weeds
+and rubbish over the wall, and by accident a great lump of
+couch-grass, with stones hanging to the roots, fell upon your
+bell-glass, and broke it, as you see.'<span class="pagenum">[219]</span></p>
+
+<p>Maurice lifted up the lump of couch-grass, which had fallen
+through the broken glass upon his cucumbers, and he looked
+at his cucumbers for a moment in silence&mdash;'Oh, my poor
+cucumbers! you must all die now. I shall see all your yellow
+flowers withered to-morrow; but it is done, and it cannot be
+helped; so, Arthur, let us say no more about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are very good; I thought you would have been angry.
+I am sure I should have been exceedingly angry if you had
+broken the glass, if it had been mine.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, forgive and forget, as my father always says; that's
+the best way. Look what I have got for you.' Then he told
+Arthur the story of the captain of the ship, and the china jar;
+the seeds having been thrown down, and of the fine tulip-roots
+which had been given to him; and Maurice concluded by
+offering one of the precious roots to Arthur, who thanked him
+with great joy, and repeatedly said, 'How good you were not
+to be angry with me for breaking your bell-glass! I am much
+more sorry for it than if you had been in a passion with me!'</p>
+
+<p>Arthur now went to plant his tulip-root; and Maurice
+looked at the beds which his companion had been digging,
+and at all the things which were coming up in his garden.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know how it is,' said Arthur, 'but you always
+seem as glad to see the things in my garden coming up, and
+doing well, as if they were all your own. I am much happier
+since my father came to live here, and since you and I have
+been allowed to work and to play together, than I ever was
+before; for you must know, before we came to live here, I had
+a cousin in the house with me, who used to plague me. He
+was not nearly so good-natured as you are. He never took
+pleasure in looking at my garden, or at anything that I did
+that was well done; and he never gave me a share of anything
+that he had; and so I did not like him; how could I?
+But, I believe that hating people makes us unhappy; for I
+know I never was happy when I was quarrelling with him;
+and I am always happy with you, Maurice. You know we
+never quarrel.'</p>
+
+<p>It would be well for all the world if they could be convinced,
+like Arthur, that to live in friendship is better than to quarrel.
+It would be well for all the world if they followed Maurice's
+maxim of 'Forgive and Forget,' when they receive, or when
+they imagine that they receive, an injury.<span class="pagenum">[220]</span></p>
+
+<p>Arthur's father, Mr. Oakly, the nurseryman, was apt to
+take offence at trifles; and when he thought that any of his
+neighbours disobliged him, he was too proud to ask them to
+explain their conduct; therefore he was often mistaken in his
+judgment of them. He thought that it showed <i>spirit</i>, to remember
+and to resent an injury; and, therefore, though he
+was not an ill-natured man, he was sometimes led, by this
+mistaken idea of <i>spirit</i>, to do ill-natured things: 'A warm
+friend and a bitter enemy,' was one of his maxims, and he had
+many more enemies than friends. He was not very rich, but
+he was proud; and his favourite proverb was, 'Better live in
+spite than in pity.'</p>
+
+<p>When first he settled near Mr. Grant, the gardener, he felt
+inclined to dislike him, because he was told that Mr. Grant
+was a Scotchman, and he had a prejudice against Scotchmen;
+all of whom he believed to be cunning and avaricious, because
+he had once been overreached by a Scotch peddler. Grant's
+friendly manners in some degree conquered this prepossession;
+but still he secretly suspected that <i>this civility</i>, as he said,
+'<i>was all show</i>, and <i>that he was not, nor could not, being a
+Scotchman, be such a hearty friend as a true-born Englishman</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>Grant had some remarkably fine raspberries. The fruit
+was so large as to be quite a curiosity. When it was in
+season, many strangers came from the neighbouring town,
+which was a sea-bathing place, to look at these raspberries,
+which obtained the name of <i>Brobdingnag</i> raspberries.</p>
+
+<p>'How came you, pray, neighbour Grant, if a man may ask,
+by these wonderful fine raspberries?' said Mr. Oakly, one
+evening, to the gardener. 'That's a secret,' replied Grant, with
+an arch smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, in case it's a secret, I've no more to say; for I never
+meddle with any man's secrets that he does not choose to trust
+me with. But I wish, neighbour Grant, you would put down
+that book. You are always poring over some book or another
+when a man comes to see you, which is not, according to my
+notions (being a plain, <i>unlarned</i> Englishman bred and born),
+so civil and neighbourly as might be.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grant hastily shut his book, but remarked, with a
+shrewd glance at his son, that it was in that book he found his
+Brobdingnag raspberries.</p>
+
+<p>'You are pleased to be pleasant upon them that have not<span class="pagenum">[221]</span>
+the luck to be as book-<i>larned</i> as yourself, Mr. Grant; but I
+take it, being only a plain-spoken Englishman, as I observed
+afore, that one is to the full as like to find a raspberry in one's
+garden as in one's book, Mr. Grant.'</p>
+
+<p>Grant, observing that his neighbour spoke rather in a surly
+tone, did not contradict him; being well versed in the Bible,
+he knew that 'A soft word turneth away wrath,' and he
+answered, in a good-humoured voice, 'I hear, neighbour
+Oakly, you are likely to make a great deal of money of your
+nursery this year. Here's to the health of you and yours,
+not forgetting the seedling larches, which I see are coming on
+finely.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank ye, neighbour, kindly; the larches are coming on
+tolerably well, that's certain; and here's to your good health,
+Mr. Grant&mdash;you and yours, not forgetting your, what d'ye call
+'em raspberries'&mdash;(<i>drinks</i>)&mdash;and, after a pause, resumes, 'I'm
+not apt to be a beggar, neighbour, but if you could give me&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Here Mr. Oakly was interrupted by the entrance of some
+strangers, and he did not finish making his request&mdash;Mr. Oakly
+was not, as he said of himself, apt to ask favours, and nothing
+but Grant's cordiality could have conquered his prejudices so
+far as to tempt him to ask a favour from a Scotchman. He
+was going to have asked for some of the Brobdingnag raspberry-plants.
+The next day the thought of the raspberry-plants
+recurred to his memory, but, being a bashful man, he did not
+like to go himself on purpose to make his request, and he
+desired his wife, who was just setting out to market, to call at
+Grant's gate, and, if he was at work in his garden, to ask him
+for a few plants of his raspberries.</p>
+
+<p>The answer which Oakly's wife brought to him was that
+Mr. Grant had not a raspberry-plant in the world to give him,
+and that if he had ever so many, he would not give one away,
+except to his own son.</p>
+
+<p>Oakly flew into a passion when he received such a message,
+declared it was just such a mean, shabby trick as might have been
+expected from a Scotchman&mdash;called himself a booby, a dupe,
+and a blockhead, for ever having trusted to the civil speeches
+of a Scotchman&mdash;swore that he would die in the parish workhouse
+before he would ever ask another favour, be it ever so
+small, from a Scotchman; related to his wife, for the hundredth
+time, the way in which he had been taken in by the Scotch<span class="pagenum">[222]</span>
+peddler ten years ago, and concluded by forswearing all further
+intercourse with Mr. Grant, and all belonging to him.</p>
+
+<p>'Son Arthur,' said he, addressing himself to the boy, who
+just then came in from work&mdash;'Son Arthur, do you hear me?
+let me never again see you with Grant's son.' 'With Maurice,
+father?' 'With Maurice Grant, I say; I forbid you from
+this day and hour forward to have anything to do with him.'
+'Oh, why, dear father?' 'Ask me no questions, but do as
+I bid you.'</p>
+
+<p>Arthur burst out a-crying, and only said, 'Yes, father, I'll
+do as you bid me, to be sure.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why now, what does the boy cry for? Is there no other
+boy, simpleton, think you, to play with, but this Scotchman's
+son? I'll find out another playfellow for ye, child, if that be
+all.' 'That's not all, father,' said Arthur, trying to stop
+himself from sobbing; 'but the thing is, I shall never have
+such another playfellow,&mdash;I shall never have such another
+friend as Maurice Grant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Like father like son&mdash;you may think yourself well off to
+have done with him.' 'Done with him! Oh, father, and
+shall I never go again to work in his garden, and may not he
+come to mine?' 'No,' replied Oakly sturdily; 'his father
+has used me uncivil, and no man shall use me uncivil twice.
+I say no. Wife, sweep up this hearth. Boy, don't take on
+like a fool; but eat thy bacon and greens, and let's hear no
+more of Maurice Grant.'</p>
+
+<p>Arthur promised to obey his father. He only begged that
+he might once more speak to Maurice, and tell him that it was
+by his father's orders he acted. This request was granted;
+but when Arthur further begged to know what reason he
+might give for this separation, his father refused to tell his
+reasons. The two friends took leave of one another very
+sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grant, when he heard of all this, endeavoured to
+discover what could have offended his neighbour; but all
+explanation was prevented by the obstinate silence of Oakly.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the message which Grant really sent about the Brobdingnag
+raspberries was somewhat different from that which
+Mr. Oakly received. The message was, that the raspberries
+were not Mr. Grant's; that therefore he had no right to give
+them away; that they belonged to his son Maurice, and that<span class="pagenum">[223]</span>
+this was not the right time of year for planting them. This
+message had been unluckily misunderstood. Grant gave his
+answer to his wife; she to a Welsh servant-girl, who did not
+perfectly comprehend her mistress's broad Scotch; and she in
+her turn could not make herself intelligible to Mrs. Oakly,
+who hated the Welsh accent, and whose attention, when the
+servant-girl delivered the message, was principally engrossed
+by the management of her own horse. The horse on which
+Mrs. Oakly rode this day, being ill-broken, would not stand
+still quietly at the gate, and she was extremely impatient to
+receive her answer, and to ride on to market.</p>
+
+<p>Oakly, when he had once resolved to dislike his neighbour
+Grant, could not long remain without finding out fresh causes
+of complaint. There was in Grant's garden a plum-tree,
+which was planted close to the loose stone wall that divided
+the garden from the nursery. The soil in which the plum-tree
+was planted happened not to be quite so good as that which
+was on the opposite side of the wall, and the plum-tree had
+forced its way through the wall, and gradually had taken
+possession of the ground which it liked best.</p>
+
+<p>Oakly thought the plum-tree, as it belonged to Mr. Grant,
+had no right to make its appearance on his ground: an
+attorney told him that he might oblige Grant to cut it down;
+but Mr. Grant refused to cut down his plum-tree at the
+attorney's desire, and the attorney persuaded Oakly to go to
+law about the business, and the lawsuit went on for some
+months.</p>
+
+<p>The attorney, at the end of this time, came to Oakly with
+a demand for money to carry on his suit, assuring him that, in
+a short time, it would be determined in his favour. Oakly
+paid his attorney ten golden guineas, remarked that it was a
+great sum for him to pay, and that nothing but the love of
+justice could make him persevere in this lawsuit about a bit of
+ground, 'which, after all,' said he, 'is not worth twopence.
+The plum-tree does me little or no damage, but I don't like to
+be imposed upon by a Scotchman.'</p>
+
+<p>The attorney saw and took advantage of Oakly's prejudice
+against the natives of Scotland; and he persuaded him, that
+to show the <i>spirit</i> of a true-born Englishman it was necessary,
+whatever it might cost him, to persist in this lawsuit.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon after this conversation with the attorney that<span class="pagenum">[224]</span>
+Mr. Oakly walked with resolute steps towards the plum-tree,
+saying to himself, 'If it cost me a hundred pounds I will not
+let this cunning Scotchman get the better of me.'</p>
+
+<p>Arthur interrupted his father's reverie by pointing to a book
+and some young plants which lay upon the wall. 'I fancy,
+father,' said he, 'those things are for you, for there is a little
+note directed to you in Maurice's handwriting. Shall I bring
+it to you?' 'Yes, let me read it, child, since I must.' It
+contained these words:</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Oakly</span>&mdash;I don't know why you have quarrelled
+with us; I am very sorry for it. But though you are angry
+with me, I am not angry with you. I hope you will not
+refuse some of my Brobdingnag raspberry-plants, which you
+asked for a great while ago, when we were all good friends.
+It was not the right time of the year to plant them, which was
+the reason they were not sent to you; but it is just the right
+time to plant them now; and I send you the book, in which
+you will find the reason why we always put seaweed ashes
+about their roots; and I have got some seaweed ashes for you.
+You will find the ashes in the flower-pot upon the wall. I
+have never spoken to Arthur, nor he to me, since you bid us
+not. So, wishing your Brobdingnag raspberries may turn out
+as well as ours, and longing to be all friends again, I am, with
+love to dear Arthur and self, your affectionate neighbour's
+son,<span class="smcap" style="float:right">Maurice Grant.</span></p>
+
+<p>'P.S.&mdash;It is now about four months since the quarrel
+began, and that is a very long while.'</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>A great part of the effect of this letter was lost upon Oakly,
+because he was not very expert in reading writing, and it cost
+him much trouble to spell it and put it together. However,
+he seemed affected by it, and said, 'I believe this Maurice
+loves you well enough, Arthur, and he seems a good sort of
+boy; but as to the raspberries, I believe all that he says about
+them is but an excuse; and, at any rate, as I could not get 'em
+when I asked for them, I'll not have 'em now. Do you hear
+me, I say, Arthur? What are you reading there?'</p>
+
+<p>Arthur was reading the page that was doubled down in the
+book which Maurice had left along with the raspberry-plants
+upon the wall. Arthur read aloud as follows:<span class="pagenum">[225]</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">(<i>Monthly Magazine</i>, Dec. '98, p. 421.)<br /></p>
+
+<p>'There is a sort of strawberry cultivated at Jersey which
+is almost covered with seaweed in the winter, in like manner
+as many plants in England are with litter from the stable.
+These strawberries are usually of the largeness of a middle-sized
+apricot, and the flavour is particularly grateful. In
+Jersey and Guernsey, situate scarcely one degree farther south
+than Cornwall, all kinds of fruit, pulse, and vegetables are
+produced in their seasons a fortnight or three weeks sooner
+than in England, even on the southern shores; and snow will
+scarcely remain twenty-four hours on the earth. Although this
+may be attributed to these islands being surrounded with a
+salt, and consequently a moist atmosphere, yet the ashes
+(seaweed ashes) made use of as manure may also have their
+portion of influence.'<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a></p>
+
+<p>'And here,' continued Arthur, 'is something written with a
+pencil, on a slip of paper, and it is Maurice's writing. I will
+read it to you.</p>
+
+<p>'When I read in this book what is said about the strawberries
+growing as large as apricots, after they had been
+covered over with seaweed, I thought that perhaps seaweed
+ashes might be good for my father's raspberries; and I asked
+him if he would give me leave to try them. He gave me leave,
+and I went directly and gathered together some seaweed that
+had been cast on shore; and I dried it, and burned it, and
+then I manured the raspberries with it, and the year afterwards
+the raspberries grew to the size that you have seen. Now, the
+reason I tell you this is, first, that you may know how to
+manage your raspberries, and next, because I remember you
+looked very grave, as if you were not pleased with my father,
+Mr. Grant, when he told you that the way by which he came
+by his Brobdingnag raspberries was a secret. Perhaps this
+was the thing that has made you so angry with us all; for you
+never have come to see father since that evening. Now I have
+told you all I know; and so I hope you will not be angry with
+us any longer.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Oakly was much pleased by this openness, and said,
+'Why now, Arthur, this is something like, this is telling one
+<span class="pagenum">[226]</span>the thing one wants to know, without fine speeches. This is
+like an Englishman more than a Scotchman. Pray, Arthur, do
+you know whether your friend Maurice was born in England
+or in Scotland?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed, sir, I don't know&mdash;I never asked&mdash;I did not
+think it signified. All I know is that, wherever he was born,
+he is <i>very</i> good. Look, papa, my tulip is blowing.' 'Upon
+my word,' said his father, 'this will be a beautiful tulip!'
+'It was given to me by Maurice.' 'And did you give him
+nothing for it?' was the father's inquiry. 'Nothing in the
+world; and he gave it to me just at the time when he had
+good cause to be angry with me, just when I had broken his
+bell-glass.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have a great mind to let you play together again,' said
+Arthur's father. 'Oh, if you would,' cried Arthur, clapping
+his hands, 'how happy we should be! Do you know, father,
+I have often sat for an hour at a time up in that crab-tree,
+looking at Maurice at work in his garden, and wishing that I
+was at work with him.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Arthur was interrupted by the attorney, who came to
+ask Mr. Oakly some question about the lawsuit concerning the
+plum-tree. Oakly showed him Maurice's letter; and to Arthur's
+extreme astonishment, the attorney had no sooner read it than
+he exclaimed, 'What an artful little gentleman this is! I never,
+in the course of all my practice, met with anything better.
+Why, this is the most cunning letter I ever read.' 'Where's
+the cunning?' said Oakly, and he put on his spectacles. 'My
+good sir, don't you see that all this stuff about Brobdingnag
+raspberries is to ward off your suit about the plum-tree? They
+know&mdash;that is, Mr. Grant, who is sharp enough, knows&mdash;that
+he will be worsted in that suit; that he must, in short, pay
+you a good round sum for damages, if it goes on&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Damages!' said Oakly, staring round him at the plum-tree;
+'but I don't know what you mean. I mean nothing but
+what's honest. I don't mean to ask for any good round sum;
+for the plum-tree has done me no great harm by coming into
+my garden; but only I don't choose it should come there without
+my leave.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well,' said the attorney, 'I understand all that; but
+what I want to make you, Mr. Oakly, understand is, that this
+Grant and his son only want to make up matters with you, and<span class="pagenum">[227]</span>
+prevent the thing's coming to a fair trial, by sending you, in
+this underhand sort of way, a bribe of a few raspberries.'</p>
+
+<p>'A bribe!' exclaimed Oakly, 'I never took a bribe, and I
+never will'; and, with sudden indignation, he pulled the
+raspberry plants from the ground in which Arthur was planting
+them; and he threw them over the wall into Grant's garden.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had put his tulip, which was beginning to blow, in
+a flower-pot, on the top of the wall, in hopes that his friend
+Arthur would see it from day to day. Alas! he knew not in
+what a dangerous situation he had placed it. One of his own
+Brobdingnag raspberry-plants, swung by the angry arm of
+Oakly, struck off the head of his precious tulip! Arthur, who
+was full of the thought of convincing his father that the attorney
+was mistaken in his judgment of poor Maurice, did not observe
+the fall of the tulip.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, when Maurice saw his raspberry-plants
+scattered upon the ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he
+was in much astonishment, and, for some moments, angry;
+but anger, with him, never lasted long. He was convinced
+that all this must be owing to some accident or mistake. He
+could not believe that any one could be so malicious as to injure
+him on purpose&mdash;'And even if they did all this on purpose to
+vex me,' said he to himself, 'the best thing I can do is not to
+let it vex me. Forgive and forget.' This temper of mind
+Maurice was more happy in enjoying than he could have been
+made, without it, by the possession of all the tulips in Holland.</p>
+
+<p>Tulips were, at this time, things of great consequence in the
+estimation of the country several miles round where Maurice
+and Arthur lived. There was a florist's feast to be held at the
+neighbouring town, at which a prize of a handsome set of
+gardening tools was to be given to the person who could produce
+the finest flower of its kind. A tulip was the flower which
+was thought the finest the preceding year, and consequently
+numbers of people afterwards endeavoured to procure tulip-roots,
+in hopes of obtaining the prize this year. Arthur's tulip
+was beautiful. As he examined it from day to day, and every
+day thought it improving, he longed to thank his friend Maurice
+for it; and he often mounted into his crab-tree, to look into
+Maurice's garden, in hopes of seeing his tulip also in full bloom
+and beauty. He never could see it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i021f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i021t.jpg" alt="i021"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>When Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the ground, and his
+favourite tulip broken, he was in much astonishment.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The day of the florist's feast arrived, and Oakly went with<span class="pagenum">[229]</span>
+his son and the fine tulip to the place of meeting. It was on
+a spacious bowling-green. All the flowers of various sorts
+were ranged upon a terrace at the upper end of the bowling-green;
+and, amongst all this gay variety, the tulip which
+Maurice had given to Arthur appeared conspicuously beautiful.
+To the owner of this tulip the prize was adjudged; and, as the
+handsome garden-tools were delivered to Arthur, he heard a
+well-known voice wish him joy. He turned, looked about
+him, and saw his friend Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>'But, Maurice, where is your own tulip?' said Mr. Oakly;
+'I thought, Arthur, you told me that he kept one for himself.'
+'So I did,' said Maurice; 'but somebody (I suppose by accident)
+broke it.' 'Somebody! who?' cried Arthur and Mr.
+Oakly at once. 'Somebody who threw the raspberry-plants
+back again over the wall,' replied Maurice. 'That was me&mdash;that
+somebody was me,' said Oakly. 'I scorn to deny it; but
+I did not intend to break your tulip, Maurice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Maurice,' said Arthur&mdash;'you know I may call him
+dear Maurice&mdash;now you are by, papa; here are all the garden-tools;
+take them, and welcome.' 'Not one of them,' said
+Maurice, drawing back. 'Offer them to the father&mdash;offer
+them to Mr. Grant,' whispered Oakly; 'he'll take them, I'll
+answer for it.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Oakly was mistaken: the father would not accept of
+the tools. Mr. Oakly stood surprised&mdash;'Certainly,' said he to
+himself, 'this cannot be such a miser as I took him for'; and
+he walked immediately up to Grant, and bluntly said to him,
+'Mr. Grant, your son has behaved very handsomely to my son,
+and you seem to be glad of it.' 'To be sure I am,' said Grant.
+'Which,' continued Oakly, 'gives me a better opinion of you
+than ever I had before&mdash;I mean, than ever I had since the day
+you sent me the shabby answer about those foolish, what d'ye
+call 'em, cursed raspberries.'</p>
+
+<p>'What shabby answer?' said Grant, with surprise; and
+Oakly repeated exactly the message which he received; and
+Grant declared that he never sent any such message. He
+repeated exactly the answer which he really sent, and Oakly
+immediately stretched out his hand to him, saying, 'I believe
+you; no more need be said. I'm only sorry I did not ask you
+about this four months ago; and so I should have done if you
+had not been a Scotchman. Till now, I never rightly liked a<span class="pagenum">[230]</span>
+Scotchman. We may thank this good little fellow,' continued
+he, turning to Maurice, 'for our coming at last to a right
+understanding. There was no holding out against his good
+nature. I'm sure, from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry I
+broke his tulip. Shake hands, boys; I'm glad to see you,
+Arthur, look so happy again, and hope Mr. Grant will forgive&mdash;&mdash;'
+'Oh, forgive and forget,' said Grant and his son
+at the same moment. And from this time forward the two
+families lived in friendship with each other.</p>
+
+<p>Oakly laughed at his own folly, in having been persuaded
+to go to law about the plum-tree; and he, in process of time,
+so completely conquered his early prejudice against Scotchmen,
+that he and Grant became partners in business. Mr. Grant's
+book-<i>larning</i> and knowledge of arithmetic he found highly
+useful to him; and he, on his side, possessed a great many
+active, good qualities, which became serviceable to his partner.</p>
+
+<p>The two boys rejoiced in this family union; and Arthur
+often declared that they owed all their happiness to Maurice's
+favourite maxim, 'Forgive and Forget.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[231]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="WASTE_NOT_WANT_NOT" id="WASTE_NOT_WANT_NOT"></a>WASTE NOT, WANT NOT;<br />
+OR,<br />
+TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Mr. Gresham</span>, a Bristol merchant, who had, by honourable
+industry and economy, accumulated a considerable fortune,
+retired from business to a new house which he had built
+upon the Downs, near Clifton. Mr. Gresham, however, did not
+imagine that a new house alone could make him happy. He
+did not propose to live in idleness and extravagance; for such
+a life would have been equally incompatible with his habits and
+his principles. He was fond of children; and as he had no
+sons, he determined to adopt one of his relations. He had
+two nephews, and he invited both of them to his house, that
+he might have an opportunity of judging of their dispositions,
+and of the habits which they had acquired.</p>
+
+<p>Hal and Benjamin, Mr. Gresham's nephews, were about ten
+years old. They had been educated very differently. Hal
+was the son of the elder branch of the family. His father was
+a gentleman, who spent rather more than he could afford;
+and Hal, from the example of the servants in his father's
+family, with whom he had passed the first years of his childhood,
+learned to waste more of everything than he used. He
+had been told that 'gentlemen should be above being careful
+and saving'; and he had unfortunately imbibed a notion that
+extravagance was the sign of a generous disposition, and
+economy of an avaricious one.</p>
+
+<p>Benjamin, on the contrary, had been taught habits of care
+and foresight. His father had but a very small fortune, and<span class="pagenum">[232]</span>
+was anxious that his son should early learn that economy
+ensures independence, and sometimes puts it in the power of
+those who are not very rich to be very generous.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after these two boys arrived at their uncle's
+they were eager to see all the rooms in the house. Mr.
+Gresham accompanied them, and attended to their remarks
+and exclamations.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! what an excellent motto!' exclaimed Ben, when he
+read the following words, which were written in large characters
+over the chimneypiece in his uncle's spacious kitchen&mdash;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">'WASTE NOT, WANT NOT.'</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'"Waste not, want not!"' repeated his cousin Hal, in
+rather a contemptuous tone; 'I think it looks stingy to servants;
+and no gentleman's servants, cooks especially, would like to
+have such a mean motto always staring them in the face.'
+Ben, who was not so conversant as his cousin in the ways of
+cooks and gentlemen's servants, made no reply to these
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gresham was called away whilst his nephews were
+looking at the other rooms in the house. Some time afterwards,
+he heard their voices in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>'Boys,' said he, 'what are you doing there?' 'Nothing,
+sir,' said Hal; 'you were called away from us and we did not
+know which way to go.' 'And have you nothing to do?' said
+Mr. Gresham. 'No, sir, nothing,' answered Hal, in a careless
+tone, like one who was well content with the state of habitual
+idleness. 'No, sir, nothing!' replied Ben, in a voice of
+lamentation. 'Come,' said Mr. Gresham, 'if you have nothing
+to do, lads, will you unpack those two parcels for me?'</p>
+
+<p>The two parcels were exactly alike, both of them well tied
+up with good whipcord. Ben took his parcel to a table, and,
+after breaking off the sealing-wax, began carefully to examine
+the knot, and then to untie it. Hal stood still, exactly in the
+spot where the parcel was put into his hands, and tried, first at
+one corner and then at another, to pull the string off by force.
+'I wish these people wouldn't tie up their parcels so tight, as if
+they were never to be undone,' cried he, as he tugged at the
+cord; and he pulled the knot closer instead of loosening it.</p>
+
+<p>'Ben! why, how did you get yours undone, man? what's in<span class="pagenum">[233]</span>
+your parcel?&mdash;I wonder what is in mine! I wish I could get
+this string off&mdash;I must cut it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' said Ben, who now had undone the last knot of his
+parcel, and who drew out the length of string with exultation,
+'don't cut it, Hal,&mdash;look what a nice cord this is, and yours is
+the same; it's a pity to cut it; "<i>Waste not, want not!</i>" you
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pooh!' said Hal, 'what signifies a bit of packthread?'
+'It is whipcord,' said Ben. 'Well, whipcord! what signifies
+a bit of whipcord! you can get a bit of whipcord twice as
+long as that for twopence; and who cares for twopence? Not
+I, for one! so here it goes,' cried Hal, drawing out his knife;
+and he cut the cord, precipitately, in sundry places.</p>
+
+<p>'Lads, have you undone the parcels for me?' said Mr.
+Gresham, opening the parlour door as he spoke. 'Yes, sir,'
+cried Hal; and he dragged off his half-cut, half-entangled
+string&mdash;'here's the parcel.' 'And here's my parcel, uncle;
+and here's the string,' said Ben. 'You may keep the string
+for your pains,' said Mr. Gresham. 'Thank you, sir,' said
+Ben; 'what an excellent whipcord it is!' 'And you, Hal,'
+continued Mr. Gresham, 'you may keep your string too, if it
+will be of any use to you.' 'It will be of no use to me, thank
+you, sir,' said Hal. 'No, I am afraid not, if this be it,' said
+his uncle, taking up the jagged knotted remains of Hal's
+cord.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this, Mr. Gresham gave to each of his
+nephews a new top.</p>
+
+<p>'But how's this?' said Hal; 'these tops have no strings;
+what shall we do for strings?' 'I have a string that will do
+very well for mine,' said Ben; and he pulled out of his pocket
+the fine, long, smooth string which had tied up the parcel.
+With this he soon set up his top, which spun admirably well.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how I wish I had but a string,' said Hal. 'What
+shall I do for a string? I'll tell you what, I can use the string
+that goes round my hat!' 'But then,' said Ben, 'what will
+you do for a hat-band?' 'I'll manage to do without one,'
+said Hal, and he took the string off his hat for his top. It
+soon was worn through; and he split his top by driving the
+peg too tightly into it. His cousin Ben let him set up his the
+next day; but Hal was not more fortunate or more careful
+when he meddled with other people's things than when he<span class="pagenum">[234]</span>
+managed his own. He had scarcely played half an hour
+before he split it, by driving the peg too violently.</p>
+
+<p>Ben bore this misfortune with good humour. 'Come,' said
+he, 'it can't be helped; but give me the string, because <i>that</i>
+may still be of use for something else.'</p>
+
+<p>It happened some time afterwards that a lady, who had
+been intimately acquainted with Hal's mother at Bath&mdash;that is
+to say, who had frequently met her at the card-table during the
+winter&mdash;now arrived at Clifton. She was informed by his
+mother that Hal was at Mr. Gresham's, and her sons, who were
+<i>friends</i> of his, came to see him, and invited him to spend the
+next day with them.</p>
+
+<p>Hal joyfully accepted the invitation. He was always glad
+to go out to dine, because it gave him something to do, something
+to think of, or at least something to say. Besides this,
+he had been educated to think it was a fine thing to visit fine
+people; and Lady Diana Sweepstakes (for that was the name
+of his mother's acquaintance) was a very fine lady, and her two
+sons intended to be very <i>great</i> gentlemen. He was in a
+prodigious hurry when these young gentlemen knocked at his
+uncle's door the next day; but just as he got to the hall door,
+little Patty called to him from the top of the stairs, and told
+him that he had dropped his pocket-handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>'Pick it up, then, and bring it to me, quick, can't you,
+child?' cried Hal, 'for Lady Di's sons are waiting for me.'</p>
+
+<p>Little Patty did not know anything about Lady Di's sons;
+but as she was very good-natured, and saw that her cousin
+Hal was, for some reason or other, in a desperate hurry, she
+ran downstairs as fast as she possibly could towards the landing-place,
+where the handkerchief lay; but, alas! before she
+reached the handkerchief, she fell, rolling down a whole flight
+of stairs, and when her fall was at last stopped by the landing-place,
+she did not cry out, she writhed, as if she was in great
+pain.</p>
+
+<p>'Where are you hurt, my love?' said Mr. Gresham, who
+came instantly, on hearing the noise of some one falling downstairs.
+'Where are you hurt, my dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Here, papa,' said the little girl, touching her ankle, which
+she had decently covered with her gown. 'I believe I am
+hurt here, but not much,' added she, trying to rise; 'only it
+hurts me when I move.' 'I'll carry you; don't move then,'
+<span class="pagenum">[235]</span>
+said her father, and he took her up in his arms. 'My shoe!
+I've lost one of my shoes,' said she.</p>
+
+<p>Ben looked for it upon the stairs, and he found it sticking in
+a loop of whipcord, which was entangled round one of the
+banisters. When this cord was drawn forth, it appeared that
+it was the very same jagged, entangled piece which Hal had
+pulled off his parcel. He had diverted himself with running
+up and down stairs, whipping the banisters with it, as he
+thought he could convert it to no better use; and, with his
+usual carelessness, he at last left it hanging just where he
+happened to throw it when the dinner bell rang. Poor little
+Patty's ankle was terribly strained, and Hal reproached himself
+for his folly, and would have reproached himself longer,
+perhaps, if Lady Di Sweepstakes' sons had not hurried him
+away.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening, Patty could not run about as she used to
+do; but she sat upon the sofa, and she said that she did not
+feel the pain of her ankle <i>so much</i> whilst Ben was so good as
+to play at <i>jack straws</i> with her.</p>
+
+<p>'That's right, Ben; never be ashamed of being good-natured
+to those who are younger and weaker than yourself,'
+said his uncle, smiling at seeing him produce his whipcord, to
+indulge his little cousin with a game at her favourite cat's
+cradle. 'I shall not think you one bit less manly, because I
+see you playing at cat's cradle with a little child of six years
+old.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal, however, was not precisely of his uncle's opinion; for
+when he returned in the evening, and saw Ben playing with
+his little cousin, he could not help smiling contemptuously, and
+asked if he had been playing at cat's cradle all night. In a
+heedless manner he made some inquiries after Patty's sprained
+ankle, and then he ran on to tell all the news he had heard at
+Lady Diana Sweepstakes'&mdash;news which he thought would make
+him appear a person of vast importance.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know, uncle&mdash;do you know, Ben,' said he, 'there's
+to be the most <i>famous</i> doings that ever were heard of upon the
+Downs here, the first day of next month, which will be in a
+fortnight, thank my stars! I wish the fortnight was over; I
+shall think of nothing else, I know, till that happy day comes!'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gresham inquired why the first of September was to be
+so much happier than any other day in the year. 'Why,' replied Hal, 'Lady Diana Sweepstakes, you know, is a <i>famous</i>
+rider, and archer, and <i>all that</i>&mdash;&mdash;' 'Very likely,' said Mr.
+Gresham, soberly; 'but what then?'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i022f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i022t.jpg" alt="i022"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Playing at cat's cradle.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Dear uncle!' cried Hal, 'but you shall hear. There's to
+be a race upon the Downs on the first of September, and after
+the race, there's to be an archery meeting for the ladies, and
+Lady Diana Sweepstakes is to be one of <i>them</i>. And after the
+ladies have done shooting&mdash;now, Ben, comes the best part of
+it!&mdash;we boys are to have our turn, and Lady Di is to give a
+prize to the best marksman amongst us, of a very handsome
+bow and arrow. Do you know, I've been practising already,
+and I'll show you, to-morrow, as soon as it comes home, the<span class="pagenum">[237]</span>
+<i>famous</i> bow and arrow that Lady Diana has given me; but,
+perhaps,' added he, with a scornful laugh, 'you like a cat's
+cradle better than a bow and arrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Ben made no reply to this taunt at the moment; but the
+next day, when Hal's new bow and arrow came home, he convinced
+him that he knew how to use it very well.</p>
+
+<p>'Ben,' said his uncle, 'you seem to be a good marksman,
+though you have not boasted of yourself. I'll give you a bow
+and arrow, and, perhaps, if you practise, you may make yourself
+an archer before the first of September; and, in the meantime,
+you will not wish the fortnight to be over, for you will
+have something to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, sir,' interrupted Hal, 'but if you mean that Ben should
+put in for the prize, he must have a uniform.' 'Why <i>must</i>
+he?' said Mr. Gresham. 'Why, sir, because everybody has&mdash;I
+mean everybody that's anybody; and Lady Diana was talking
+about the uniform all dinner time, and it's settled, all about it,
+except the buttons: the young Sweepstakes are to get theirs
+made first for patterns&mdash;they are to be white, faced with green,
+and they'll look very handsome, I'm sure; and I shall write to
+mamma to-night, as Lady Diana bid me, about mine; and I
+shall tell her to be sure to answer my letter, without fail, by
+return of post; and then, if mamma makes no objection, which
+I know she won't, because she never thinks much about expense,
+and <i>all that</i>&mdash;then I shall bespeak my uniform, and get it made
+by the same tailor that makes for Lady Diana and the young
+Sweepstakes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mercy upon us!' said Mr. Gresham, who was almost
+stunned by the rapid vociferation with which this long speech
+about a uniform was pronounced. 'I don't pretend to understand
+these things,' added he, with an air of simplicity; 'but
+we will inquire, Ben, into the necessity of the case; and if it
+is necessary&mdash;or, if you think it necessary, that you shall have
+a uniform&mdash;why, I'll give you one.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>You</i>, uncle? Will you, <i>indeed</i>?' exclaimed Hal, with
+amazement painted in his countenance. 'Well that's the last
+thing in the world I should have expected! You are not at all
+the sort of person I should have thought would care about a
+uniform; and now I should have supposed you'd have thought
+it extravagant to have a coat on purpose only for one day;
+and I'm sure Lady Diana Sweepstakes thought as I do;<span class="pagenum">[238]</span>
+for when I told her of that motto over your kitchen chimney,
+'<small>WASTE NOT, WANT NOT</small>,' she laughed, and said that I had
+better not talk to you about uniforms, and that my mother was
+the proper person to write to about my uniform; but I'll tell
+Lady Diana, uncle, how good you are, and how much she was
+mistaken.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take care how you do that,' said Mr. Gresham; 'for
+perhaps the lady was not mistaken.' 'Nay, did not you say,
+just now, you would give poor Ben a uniform?' 'I said I
+would, if he thought it necessary to have one.' 'Oh, I'll answer
+for it, he'll think it necessary,' said Hal, laughing, 'because it
+is necessary.' 'Allow him, at least, to judge for himself,' said
+Mr. Gresham. 'My dear uncle, but I assure you,' said Hal,
+earnestly, 'there's no judging about the matter, because really,
+upon my word, Lady Diana said distinctly that her sons were
+to have uniforms, white faced with green, and a green and
+white cockade in their hats.' 'May be so,' said Mr. Gresham,
+still with the same look of calm simplicity; 'put on your hats,
+boys, and come with me. I know a gentleman whose sons are
+to be at this archery meeting, and we will inquire into all the
+particulars from him. Then, after we have seen him (it is
+not eleven o'clock yet), we shall have time enough to walk on
+to Bristol, and choose the cloth for Ben's uniform, if it is
+necessary.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot tell what to make of all he says,' whispered Hal,
+as he reached down his hat; 'do you think, Ben, he means to
+give you this uniform, or not?' 'I think,' said Ben, 'that
+he means to give me one, if it is necessary; or, as he said, if
+I think it is necessary.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that to be sure you will; won't you? or else you'll be
+a great fool, I know, after all I've told you. How can any one
+in the world know so much about the matter as I, who have
+dined with Lady Diana Sweepstakes but yesterday, and heard
+all about it from beginning to end? And as for this gentleman
+that we are going to, I'm sure, if he knows anything about the
+matter, he'll say exactly the same as I do.' 'We shall hear,'
+said Ben, with a degree of composure which Hal could by no
+means comprehend when a uniform was in question.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman upon whom Mr. Gresham called had three
+sons, who were all to be at this archery meeting; and they unanimously
+assured him, in the presence of Hal and Ben, that<span class="pagenum">[239]</span>
+they had never thought of buying uniforms for this grand
+occasion, and that, amongst the number of their acquaintance,
+they knew of but three boys whose friends intended to be at
+such an <i>unnecessary</i> expense. Hal stood amazed.</p>
+
+<p>'Such are the varieties of opinion upon all the grand affairs
+of life,' said Mr. Gresham, looking at his nephews. 'What
+amongst one set of people you hear asserted to be absolutely
+necessary, you will hear from another set of people is quite
+unnecessary. All that can be done, my dear boys, in these
+difficult cases, is to judge for yourselves which opinions and
+which people are the most reasonable.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal, who had been more accustomed to think of what was
+fashionable than of what was reasonable, without at all considering
+the good sense of what his uncle said to him, replied,
+with childish petulance, 'Indeed, sir, I don't know what other
+people think; but I only know what Lady Diana Sweepstakes
+said.' The name of Lady Diana Sweepstakes, Hal thought,
+must impress all present with respect; he was highly astonished
+when, as he looked round, he saw a smile of contempt upon
+every one's countenance; and he was yet further bewildered
+when he heard her spoken of as a very silly, extravagant,
+ridiculous woman, whose opinion no prudent person would ask
+upon any subject, and whose example was to be shunned
+instead of being imitated.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, my dear Hal,' said his uncle, smiling at his look of
+amazement, 'these are some of the things that young people
+must learn from experience. All the world do not agree in
+opinion about characters: you will hear the same person admired
+in one company and blamed in another; so that we
+must still come round to the same point, <i>Judge for yourself</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal's thoughts were, however, at present too full of the
+uniform to allow his judgment to act with perfect impartiality.
+As soon as their visit was over, and all the time they walked
+down the hill from Prince's Buildings towards Bristol, he continued
+to repeat nearly the same arguments which he had
+formerly used respecting necessity, the uniform, and Lady
+Diana Sweepstakes. To all this Mr. Gresham made no reply,
+and longer had the young gentleman expatiated upon the subject,
+which had so strongly seized upon his imagination, had not his
+senses been forcibly assailed at this instant by the delicious
+odours and tempting sight of certain cakes and jellies in a<span class="pagenum">[240]</span>
+pastrycook's shop. 'Oh, uncle,' said he, as his uncle was
+going to turn the corner to pursue the road to Bristol, 'look at
+those jellies!' pointing to a confectioner's shop. 'I must buy
+some of those good things, for I have got some halfpence in
+my pocket.' 'Your having halfpence in your pocket is an
+excellent reason for eating,' said Mr. Gresham, smiling. 'But
+I really am hungry,' said Hal; 'you know, uncle, it is a good
+while since breakfast.'</p>
+
+<p>His uncle, who was desirous to see his nephews act without
+restraint, that he might judge their characters, bid them do as
+they pleased.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, then, Ben, if you've any halfpence in your pocket.'
+'I'm not hungry,' said Ben. 'I suppose <i>that</i> means that you've
+no halfpence,' said Hal, laughing, with the look of superiority
+which he had been taught to think <i>the rich</i> might assume
+towards those who were convicted either of poverty or economy.
+'Waste not, want not,' said Ben to himself. Contrary to his
+cousin's surmise, he happened to have two pennyworth of halfpence
+actually in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment Hal stepped into the pastrycook's shop,
+a poor, industrious man, with a wooden leg, who usually sweeps
+the dirty corner of the walk which turns at this spot to the
+Wells, held his hat to Ben, who, after glancing his eye at the
+petitioner's well-worn broom, instantly produced his twopence.
+'I wish I had more halfpence for you, my good man,' said he;
+'but I've only twopence.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal came out of Mr. Millar's, the confectioner's shop, with
+a hatful of cakes in his hand. Mr. Millar's dog was sitting on
+the flags before the door, and he looked up with a wistful,
+begging eye at Hal, who was eating a queen-cake. Hal, who
+was wasteful even in his good-nature, threw a whole queen-cake
+to the dog, who swallowed it for a single mouthful.</p>
+
+<p>'There goes twopence in the form of a queen-cake,' said
+Mr. Gresham.</p>
+
+<p>Hal next offered some of his cakes to his uncle and cousin;
+but they thanked him, and refused to eat any, because, they
+said, they were not hungry; so he ate and ate as he walked
+along, till at last he stopped and said, 'This bun tastes so bad
+after the queen-cakes, I can't bear it!' and he was going to
+fling it from him into the river. 'Oh, it is a pity to waste that
+good bun; we may be glad of it yet,' said Ben; 'give it me<span class="pagenum">[241]</span>
+rather than throw it away.' 'Why, I thought you said you
+were not hungry,' said Hal. 'True, I am not hungry now;
+but that is no reason why I should never be hungry again.'
+'Well, there is the cake for you. Take it; for it has made me
+sick, and I don't care what becomes of it.'</p>
+
+<p>Ben folded the refuse bit of his cousin's bun in a piece of
+paper, and put it into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm beginning to be exceeding tired or sick or something,'
+said Hal; 'and as there is a stand of coaches somewhere hereabouts,
+had we not better take a coach, instead of walking all
+the way to Bristol?'</p>
+
+<p>'For a stout archer,' said Mr. Gresham, 'you are more
+easily tired than one might have expected. However, with all
+my heart, let us take a coach, for Ben asked me to show him
+the cathedral yesterday; and I believe I should find it rather
+too much for me to walk so far, though I am not sick with eating
+good things.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>The cathedral!</i>' said Hal, after he had been seated in the
+coach about a quarter of an hour, and had somewhat recovered
+from his sickness&mdash;'the cathedral! Why, are we only going
+to Bristol to see the cathedral? I thought we came out to see
+about a uniform.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a dulness and melancholy kind of stupidity in
+Hal's countenance as he pronounced these words, like one
+wakening from a dream, which made both his uncle and his
+cousin burst out a-laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'Why,' said Hal, who was now piqued, 'I'm sure you <i>did</i>
+say, uncle, you would go to Mr. Hall's to choose the cloth for
+the uniform.' 'Very true, and so I will,' said Mr. Gresham;
+'but we need not make a whole morning's work, need we, of
+looking at a piece of cloth? Cannot we see a uniform and a
+cathedral both in one morning?'</p>
+
+<p>They went first to the cathedral. Hal's head was too full
+of the uniform to take any notice of the painted window, which
+immediately caught Ben's embarrassed attention. He looked
+at the large stained figures on the Gothic window, and he
+observed their coloured shadows on the floor and walls.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gresham, who perceived that he was eager on all
+subjects to gain information, took this opportunity of telling him
+several things about the lost art of painting on glass, Gothic
+arches, etc., which Hal thought extremely tiresome.<span class="pagenum">[242]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Come! come! we shall be late indeed,' said Hal; 'surely
+you've looked long enough, Ben, at this blue and red window.'
+'I'm only thinking about these coloured shadows,' said Ben.
+'I can show you when we go home, Ben,' said his uncle, 'an
+entertaining paper upon such shadows.'<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> 'Hark!' cried Ben,
+'did you hear that noise?' They all listened; and they heard
+a bird singing in the cathedral. 'It's our old robin, sir,' said
+the lad who had opened the cathedral door for them.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Mr. Gresham, 'there he is, boys&mdash;look&mdash;perched
+upon the organ; he often sits there, and sings, whilst the
+organ is playing.' 'And,' continued the lad who showed the
+cathedral, 'he has lived here these many, many winters. They
+say he is fifteen years old; and he is so tame, poor fellow! that
+if I had a bit of bread he'd come down and feed in my hand.'
+'I've a bit of bun here,' cried Ben joyfully, producing the
+remains of the bun which Hal but an hour before would have
+thrown away. 'Pray, let us see the poor robin eat out of your
+hand.'</p>
+
+<p>The lad crumbled the bun, and called to the robin, who fluttered
+and chirped, and seemed rejoiced at the sight of the bread;
+but yet he did not come down from his pinnacle on the organ.</p>
+
+<p>'He is afraid of <i>us</i>,' said Ben; 'he is not used to eat before
+strangers, I suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, no, sir,' said the young man, with a deep sigh, 'that is
+not the thing. He is used enough to eat afore company. Time
+was he'd have come down for me before ever so many fine folks,
+and have eat his crumbs out of my hand, at my first call; but,
+poor fellow! it's not his fault now. He does not know me now,
+sir, since my accident, because of this great black patch.' The
+young man put his hand to his right eye, which was covered
+with a huge black patch. Ben asked what <i>accident</i> he meant;
+and the lad told him that, but a few weeks ago, he had lost the
+sight of his eye by the stroke of a stone, which reached him as
+he was passing under the rocks at Clifton, unluckily when the
+workmen were blasting. 'I don't mind so much for myself,
+sir,' said the lad; 'but I can't work so well now, as I used to do
+before my accident, for my old mother, who has had a <i>stroke</i>
+of the palsy; and I've a many little brothers and sisters not
+well able yet to get their own livelihood, though they be as
+willing as willing can be.'</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[243]</span></p>
+<p>'Where does your mother live?' said Mr. Gresham.
+'Hard by, sir, just close to the church here: it was <i>her</i> that
+always had the showing of it to strangers, till she lost the use
+of her poor limbs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall we, may we, uncle, go that way? This is the house;
+is not it?' said Ben, when they went out of the cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>They went into the house; it was rather a hovel than a
+house; but, poor as it was, it was as neat as misery could make
+it. The old woman was sitting up in her wretched bed, winding
+worsted; four meagre, ill-clothed, pale children, were all
+busy, some of them sticking pins in paper for the pin-maker,
+and others sorting rags for the paper-maker.</p>
+
+<p>'What a horrid place it is!' said Hal, sighing; 'I did not
+know there were such shocking places in the world. I've often
+seen terrible-looking, tumble-down places, as we drove through
+the town in mamma's carriage; but then I did not know who
+lived in them; and I never saw the inside of any of them. It
+is very dreadful, indeed, to think that people are forced to live
+in this way. I wish mamma would send me some more pocket-money,
+that I might do something for them. I had half a
+crown; but,' continued he, feeling in his pockets, 'I'm afraid
+I spent the last shilling of it this morning upon those cakes
+that made me sick. I wish I had my shilling now, I'd give
+it to <i>these poor people</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>Ben, though he was all this time silent, was as sorry as his
+talkative cousin for all these poor people. But there was some
+difference between the sorrow of these two boys.</p>
+
+<p>Hal, after he was again seated in the hackney-coach, and
+had rattled through the busy streets of Bristol for a few
+minutes, quite forgot the spectacle of misery which he had
+seen; and the gay shops in Wine Street and the idea of his
+green and white uniform wholly occupied his imagination.</p>
+
+<p>'Now for our uniforms!' cried he, as he jumped eagerly
+out of the coach, when his uncle stopped at the woollen-draper's
+door.</p>
+
+<p>'Uncle,' said Ben, stopping Mr. Gresham before he got out
+of the carriage, 'I don't think a uniform is at all necessary for
+me. I'm very much obliged to you; but I would rather not
+have one. I have a very good coat, and I think it would be
+waste.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, let me get out of the carriage, and we will see about<span class="pagenum">[244]</span>
+it,' said Mr. Gresham; 'perhaps the sight of the beautiful
+green and white cloth, and the epaulette (have you ever considered
+the epaulettes?) may tempt you to change your mind.'
+'Oh no,' said Ben, laughing; 'I shall not change my
+mind.'</p>
+
+<p>The green cloth, and the white cloth, and the epaulettes
+were produced, to Hal's infinite satisfaction. His uncle took
+up a pen, and calculated for a few minutes; then, showing the
+back of the letter, upon which he was writing, to his nephews,
+'Cast up these sums, boys,' said he, 'and tell me whether I
+am right.' 'Ben, do you do it,' said Hal, a little embarrassed;
+'I am not quick at figures.' Ben <i>was</i>, and he went over his
+uncle's calculation very expeditiously.</p>
+
+<p>'It is right, is it?' said Mr. Gresham. 'Yes, sir, quite
+right.' 'Then, by this calculation, I find I could, for less than
+half the money your uniforms would cost, purchase for each of
+you boys a warm greatcoat, which you will want, I have a
+notion, this winter upon the Downs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, sir,' said Hal, with an alarmed look; 'but it is not
+winter <i>yet</i>; it is not cold weather <i>yet</i>. We shan't want greatcoats
+<i>yet</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you remember how cold we were, Hal, the day
+before yesterday, in that sharp wind, when we were flying our
+kite upon the Downs? and winter will come, though it is not
+come yet&mdash;I am sure, I should like to have a good warm greatcoat
+very much.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gresham took six guineas out of his purse; and he
+placed three of them before Hal, and three before Ben.
+'Young gentlemen,' said he, 'I believe your uniforms would
+come to about three guineas apiece. Now I will lay out this
+money for you just as you please. Hal, what say you?'
+'Why, sir,' said Hal, 'a greatcoat is a good thing, to be sure;
+and then, after the greatcoat, as you said it would only cost
+half as much as the uniform, there would be some money to
+spare, would not there?' 'Yes, my dear, about five-and-twenty
+shillings.' 'Five-and-twenty shillings?&mdash;I could buy
+and do a great many things, to be sure, with five-and-twenty
+shillings; but then, <i>the thing is</i>, I must go without the uniform,
+if I have the greatcoat.' 'Certainly,' said his uncle. 'Ah!'
+said Hal, sighing, as he looked at the epaulette, 'uncle, if you
+would not be displeased, if I choose the uniform&mdash;&mdash;' 'I<span class="pagenum">[245]</span>
+shall not be displeased at your choosing whatever you like best,'
+said Mr. Gresham.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then, thank you, sir,' said Hal; 'I think I had better
+have the uniform, because, if I have not the uniform, now,
+directly, it will be of no use to me, as the archery meeting is
+the week after next, you know; and, as to the greatcoat,
+perhaps between this time and the <i>very</i> cold weather, which,
+perhaps, won't be till Christmas, papa will buy a greatcoat for
+me; and I'll ask mamma to give me some pocket-money to
+give away, and she will, perhaps.' To all this conclusive,
+conditional reasoning, which depended upon the word <i>perhaps</i>,
+three times repeated, Mr. Gresham made no reply; but he
+immediately bought the uniform for Hal, and desired that it
+should be sent to Lady Diana Sweepstakes' son's tailor, to be
+made up. The measure of Hal's happiness was now complete.</p>
+
+<p>'And how am I to lay out the three guineas for you, Ben?'
+said Mr. Gresham; 'speak, what do you wish for first?' 'A
+greatcoat, uncle, if you please.' Mr. Gresham bought the
+coat; and, after it was paid for, five-and-twenty shillings of
+Ben's three guineas remained. 'What next, my boy?' said
+his uncle. 'Arrows, uncle, if you please; three arrows.'
+'My dear, I promised you a bow and arrows.' 'No, uncle,
+you only said a bow.' 'Well, I meant a bow and arrows.
+I'm glad you are so exact, however. It is better to claim less
+than more than what is promised. The three arrows you shall
+have. But go on; how shall I dispose of these five-and-twenty
+shillings for you?' 'In clothes, if you will be so good, uncle,
+for that poor boy who has the great black patch on his eye.'</p>
+
+<p>'I always believed,' said Mr. Gresham, shaking hands with
+Ben, 'that economy and generosity were the best friends,
+instead of being enemies, as some silly, extravagant people
+would have us think them. Choose the poor, blind boy's coat,
+my dear nephew, and pay for it. There's no occasion for my
+praising you about the matter. Your best reward is in your
+own mind, child; and you want no other, or I'm mistaken.
+Now, jump into the coach, boys, and let's be off. We shall
+be late, I'm afraid,' continued he, as the coach drove on; 'but
+I must let you stop, Ben, with your goods, at the poor boy's
+door.'</p>
+
+<p>When they came to the house, Mr. Gresham opened the
+coach door, and Ben jumped out with his parcel under his arm.<span class="pagenum">[246]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Stay, stay! you must take me with you,' said his pleased
+uncle; 'I like to see people made happy as well as you do.'
+'And so do I, too,' said Hal; 'let me come with you. I
+almost wish my uniform was not gone to the tailor's, so I do.'
+And when he saw the look of delight and gratitude with which
+the poor boy received the clothes which Ben gave him, and
+when he heard the mother and children thank him, Hal sighed,
+and said, 'Well, I hope mamma will give me some more pocket-money
+soon.'</p>
+
+<p>Upon his return home, however, the sight of the <i>famous</i> bow
+and arrow, which Lady Diana Sweepstakes had sent him,
+recalled to his imagination all the joys of his green and white
+uniform; and he no longer wished that it had not been sent to
+the tailor's. 'But I don't understand, Cousin Hal,' said little
+Patty, 'why you call this bow a <i>famous</i> bow. You say <i>famous</i>
+very often; and I don't know exactly what it means; a <i>famous</i>
+uniform&mdash;<i>famous</i> doings. I remember you said there are to
+be <i>famous</i> doings, the first of September, upon the Downs.
+What does <i>famous</i> mean?' 'Oh, why, <i>famous</i> means&mdash;now,
+don't you know what <i>famous</i> means? It means&mdash;it is a word
+that people say&mdash;it is the fashion to say it&mdash;it means&mdash;it means
+<i>famous</i>.' Patty laughed, and said, '<i>This</i> does not explain it
+to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Hal, 'nor can it be explained: if you don't
+understand it, that's not my fault. Everybody but little
+children, I suppose, understands it; but there's no explaining
+<i>those sort</i> of words, if you don't <i>take them</i> at once. There's to
+be <i>famous</i> doings upon the Downs, the first of September; that
+is grand, fine. In short, what does it signify talking any longer,
+Patty, about the matter? Give me my bow, for I must go out
+upon the Downs and practise.'</p>
+
+<p>Ben accompanied him with the bow and the three arrows
+which his uncle had now given to him; and, every day, these
+two boys went out upon the Downs and practised shooting with
+indefatigable perseverance. Where equal pains are taken,
+success is usually found to be pretty nearly equal. Our two
+archers, by constant practice, became expert marksmen; and
+before the day of trial, they were so exactly matched in point
+of dexterity, that it was scarcely possible to decide which was
+superior.</p>
+
+<p>The long-expected 1st of September at length arrived.<span class="pagenum">[247]</span>
+'What sort of a day is it?' was the first question that was
+asked by Hal and Ben the moment that they wakened. The
+sun shone bright, but there was a sharp and high wind. 'Ha!'
+said Ben, 'I shall be glad of my good greatcoat to-day; for
+I've a notion it will be rather cold upon the Downs, especially
+when we are standing still, as we must, whilst all the people
+are shooting.' 'Oh, never mind! I don't think I shall feel
+it cold at all,' said Hal, as he dressed himself in his new
+green and white uniform; and he viewed himself with much
+complacency.</p>
+
+<p>'Good morning to you, uncle; how do you do?' said he, in
+a voice of exultation, when he entered the breakfast-room.
+How do you do? seemed rather to mean 'How do you like
+me in my uniform?' And his uncle's cool 'Very well, I thank
+you, Hal,' disappointed him, as it seemed only to say, 'Your
+uniform makes no difference in my opinion of you.'</p>
+
+<p>Even little Patty went on eating her breakfast much as
+usual, and talked of the pleasure of walking with her father to
+the Downs, and of all the little things which interested her;
+so that Hal's epaulettes were not the principal object in any
+one's imagination but his own.</p>
+
+<p>'Papa,' said Patty, 'as we go up the hill where there is so
+much red mud, I must take care to pick my way nicely; and
+I must hold up my frock, as you desired me, and, perhaps, you
+will be so good, if I am not troublesome, to lift me over the
+very bad place where are no stepping-stones. My ankle is
+entirely well, and I'm glad of that, or else I should not be able
+to walk so far as the Downs. How good you were to me,
+Ben, when I was in pain the day I sprained my ankle! You
+played at jack straws and at cat's cradle with me. Oh, that
+puts me in mind&mdash;here are your gloves which I asked you
+that night to let me mend. I've been a great while about
+them; but are not they very neatly mended, papa? Look
+at the sewing.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not a very good judge of sewing, my dear little girl,'
+said Mr. Gresham, examining the work with a close and
+scrupulous eye; 'but, in my opinion, here is one stitch that is
+rather too long. The white teeth are not quite even.' 'Oh,
+papa, I'll take out that long tooth in a minute,' said Patty,
+laughing; 'I did not think that you would observe it so soon.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would not have you trust to my blindness,' said her<span class="pagenum">[248]</span>
+father, stroking her head fondly; 'I observe everything. I
+observe, for instance, that you are a grateful little girl, and
+that you are glad to be of use to those who have been kind to
+you; and for this I forgive you the long stitch.' 'But it's out,
+it's out, papa,' said Patty; 'and the next time your gloves
+want mending, Ben, I'll mend them better.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are very nice, I think,' said Ben, drawing them on;
+'and I am much obliged to you. I was just wishing I had a
+pair of gloves to keep my fingers warm to-day, for I never can
+shoot well when my hands are benumbed. Look, Hal; you
+know how ragged these gloves were; you said they were good
+for nothing but to throw away; now look, there's not a hole in
+them,' said he, spreading his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, is it not very extraordinary,' said Hal to himself,
+'that they should go on so long talking about an old pair of
+gloves, without saying scarcely a word about my new uniform?
+Well, the young Sweepstakes and Lady Diana will talk enough
+about it; that's one comfort. Is not it time to think of setting
+out, sir?' said Hal to his uncle. 'The company, you know,
+are to meet at the Ostrich at twelve, and the race to begin at
+one, and Lady Diana's horses, I know, were ordered to be at
+the door at ten.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stephen, the butler, here interrupted the hurrying
+young gentleman in his calculations. 'There's a poor lad, sir,
+below, with a great black patch on his right eye, who is come
+from Bristol, and wants to speak a word with the young
+gentlemen, if you please. I told him they were just going out
+with you; but he says he won't detain them more than half
+a minute.'</p>
+
+<p>'Show him up, show him up,' said Mr. Gresham.</p>
+
+<p>'But, I suppose,' said Hal, with a sigh, 'that Stephen mistook,
+when he said the young <i>gentlemen</i>; he only wants to see
+Ben, I daresay; I'm sure he has no reason to want to see me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here he comes&mdash;O Ben, he is dressed in the new coat
+you gave him,' whispered Hal, who was really a good-natured
+boy, though extravagant. 'How much better he looks than
+he did in the ragged coat! Ah! he looked at you first, Ben&mdash;and
+well he may!'</p>
+
+<p>The boy bowed, without any cringing civility, but with an
+open, decent freedom in his manner, which expressed that he
+had been obliged, but that he knew his young benefactor was<span class="pagenum">[249]</span>
+not thinking of the obligation. He made as little distinction
+as possible between his bows to the two cousins.</p>
+
+<p>'As I was sent with a message, by the clerk of our parish,
+to Redland chapel out on the Downs, to-day, sir,' said he to
+Mr. Gresham, 'knowing your house lay in my way, my mother,
+sir, bid me call, and make bold to offer the young gentlemen
+two little worsted balls that she has worked for them,' continued
+the lad, pulling out of his pocket two worsted balls
+worked in green and orange-coloured stripes. 'They are but
+poor things, sir, she bid me say, to look at; but, considering
+she has but one hand to work with, and <i>that</i> her left hand,
+you'll not despise 'em, we hopes.' He held the balls to Ben
+and Hal. 'They are both alike, gentlemen,' said he. 'If
+you'll be pleased to take 'em, they're better than they look, for
+they bound higher than your head. I cut the cork round for
+the inside myself, which was all I could do.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are nice balls, indeed: we are much obliged to you,'
+said the boys as they received them, and they proved them
+immediately. The balls struck the floor with a delightful sound,
+and rebounded higher than Mr. Gresham's head. Little Patty
+clapped her hands joyfully. But now a thundering double rap
+at the door was heard.</p>
+
+<p>'The Master Sweepstakes, sir,' said Stephen, 'are come for
+Master Hal. They say that all the young gentlemen who have
+archery uniforms are to walk together, in a body, I think they
+say, sir; and they are to parade along the Well Walk, they
+desired me to say, sir, with a drum and fife, and so up the hill
+by Prince's Place, and all to go upon the Downs together, to
+the place of meeting. I am not sure I'm right, sir; for both
+the young gentlemen spoke at once, and the wind is very high
+at the street door; so that I could not well make out all they
+said; but I believe this is the sense of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes,' said Hal eagerly, 'it's all right. I know that
+is just what was settled the day I dined at Lady Diana's; and
+Lady Diana and a great party of gentlemen are to ride&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, that is nothing to the purpose,' interrupted Mr.
+Gresham. 'Don't keep these Master Sweepstakes waiting.
+Decide&mdash;do you choose to go with them or with us?' 'Sir&mdash;uncle&mdash;sir,
+you know, since all the <i>uniforms</i> agreed to go
+together&mdash;&mdash;' 'Off with you, then, Mr. Uniform, if you mean
+to go,' said Mr. Gresham.<span class="pagenum">[250]</span></p>
+
+<p>Hal ran downstairs in such a hurry that he forgot his bow
+and arrows. Ben discovered this when he went to fetch his
+own; and the lad from Bristol, who had been ordered by Mr.
+Gresham to eat his breakfast before he proceeded to Redland
+Chapel, heard Ben talking about his cousin's bow and arrows.
+'I know,' said Ben, 'he will be sorry not to have his bow with
+him, because here are the green knots tied to it, to match his
+cockade; and he said that the boys were all to carry their bows,
+as part of the show.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you'll give me leave, sir,' said the poor Bristol lad, 'I
+shall have plenty of time; and I'll run down to the Well
+Walk after the young gentleman, and take him his bow and
+arrows.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you? I shall be much obliged to you,' said Ben;
+and away went the boy with the bow that was ornamented
+with green ribands.</p>
+
+<p>The public walk leading to the Wells was full of company.
+The windows of all the houses in St. Vincent's Parade were
+crowded with well-dressed ladies, who were looking out in expectation
+of the archery procession. Parties of gentlemen and
+ladies, and a motley crowd of spectators, were seen moving
+backwards and forwards, under the rocks, on the opposite side
+of the water. A barge, with coloured streamers flying, was
+waiting to take up a party who were going upon the water.
+The bargemen rested upon their oars, and gazed with broad
+face of curiosity upon the busy scene that appeared upon the
+public walk.</p>
+
+<p>The archers and archeresses were now drawn up on the
+flags under the semicircular piazza just before Mrs. Yearsley's
+library. A little band of children, who had been mustered by
+Lady Diana Sweepstakes' <i>spirited exertions</i>, closed the procession.
+They were now all in readiness. The drummer only
+waited for her ladyship's signal; and the archers' corps only
+waited for her ladyship's word of command to march.</p>
+
+<p>'Where are your bow and arrows, my little man?' said her
+ladyship to Hal, as she reviewed her Lilliputian regiment.
+'You can't march, man, without your arms?'</p>
+
+<p>Hal had despatched a messenger for his forgotten bow, but
+the messenger returned not. He looked from side to side in
+great distress&mdash;'Oh, there's my bow coming, I declare!' cried
+he; 'look, I see the bow and the ribands. Look now, between<span class="pagenum">[251]</span>
+the trees, Charles Sweepstakes, on the Hotwell Walk; it is
+coming!' 'But you've kept us all waiting a confounded time,'
+said his impatient friend. 'It is that good-natured poor fellow
+from Bristol, I protest, that has brought it me; I'm sure I
+don't deserve it from him,' said Hal to himself, when he saw
+the lad with the black patch on his eye running, quite out of
+breath, towards him, with his bow and arrows.</p>
+
+<p>'Fall back, my good friend&mdash;fall back,' said the military
+lady, as soon as he had delivered the bow to Hal; 'I mean,
+stand out of the way, for your great patch cuts no figure
+amongst us. Don't follow so close, now, as if you belonged
+to us, pray.'</p>
+
+<p>The poor boy had no ambition to partake the triumph; he
+<i>fell back</i> as soon as he understood the meaning of the lady's
+words. The drum beat, the fife played, the archers marched,
+the spectators admired. Hal stepped proudly, and felt as if
+the eyes of the whole universe were upon his epaulettes, or
+upon the facings of his uniform; whilst all the time he was
+considered only as part of a show.</p>
+
+<p>The walk appeared much shorter than usual, and he was
+extremely sorry that Lady Diana, when they were half-way up
+the hill leading to Prince's Place, mounted her horse, because
+the road was dirty, and all the gentlemen and ladies who accompanied
+her followed her example.</p>
+
+<p>'We can leave the children to walk, you know,' said she to
+the gentleman who helped her to mount her horse. 'I must
+call to some of them, though, and leave orders where they are
+to <i>join</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>She beckoned: and Hal, who was foremost, and proud to
+show his alacrity, ran on to receive her ladyship's orders.
+Now, as we have before observed, it was a sharp and windy
+day; and though Lady Diana Sweepstakes was actually speaking
+to him, and looking at him, he could not prevent his nose
+from wanting to be blowed: he pulled out his handkerchief
+and out rolled the new ball which had been given to him just
+before he left home, and which, according to his usual careless
+habits, he had stuffed into his pocket in his hurry. 'Oh, my
+new ball!' cried he, as he ran after it. As he stopped to pick
+it up, he let go his hat, which he had hitherto held on with
+anxious care; for the hat, though it had a fine green and white
+cockade, had no band or string round it. The string, as we<span class="pagenum">[252]</span>
+may recollect, our wasteful hero had used in spinning his top.
+The hat was too large for his head without this band; a sudden
+gust of wind blew it off. Lady Diana's horse started and
+reared. She was a <i>famous</i> horsewoman, and sat him to the
+admiration of all beholders; but there was a puddle of red
+clay and water in this spot, and her ladyship's uniform habit
+was a sufferer by the accident. 'Careless brat!' said she, 'why
+can't he keep his hat upon his head?' In the meantime, the
+wind blew the hat down the hill, and Hal ran after it amidst
+the laughter of his kind friends, the young Sweepstakes, and
+the rest of the little regiment. The hat was lodged, at length,
+upon a bank. Hal pursued it: he thought this bank was hard,
+but, alas! the moment he set his foot upon it the foot sank.
+He tried to draw it back; his other foot slipped, and he fell
+prostrate, in his green and white uniform, into the treacherous
+bed of red mud. His companions, who had halted upon the
+top of the hill, stood laughing spectators of his misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that the poor boy with the black patch upon
+his eye, who had been ordered by Lady Diana to '<i>fall back</i>,'
+and to '<i>keep at a distance</i>' was now coming up the hill; and
+the moment he saw our fallen hero, he hastened to his assistance.
+He dragged poor Hal, who was a deplorable spectacle,
+out of the red mud. The obliging mistress of a lodging-house,
+as soon as she understood that the young gentleman was
+nephew to Mr. Gresham, to whom she had formerly let her
+house, received Hal, covered as he was with dirt.</p>
+
+<p>The poor Bristol lad hastened to Mr. Gresham's for clean
+stockings and shoes for Hal. He was willing to give up his
+uniform: it was rubbed and rubbed, and a spot here and there
+was washed out; and he kept continually repeating,&mdash;'When
+it's dry it will all brush off&mdash;when it's dry it will all brush off,
+won't it?' But soon the fear of being too late at the archery
+meeting began to balance the dread of appearing in his stained
+habiliments; and he now as anxiously repeated, whilst the
+woman held the wet coat to the fire, 'Oh, I shall be too late;
+indeed, I shall be too late; make haste; it will never dry;
+hold it nearer&mdash;nearer to the fire. I shall lose my turn to
+shoot; oh, give me the coat; I don't mind how it is, if I can
+but get it on.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i023f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i023t.jpg" alt="i023"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>He dragged poor Hal out of the red mud.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Holding it nearer and nearer to the fire dried it quickly, to
+be sure; but it shrank it also, so that it was no easy matter to<span class="pagenum">[254]</span>
+get the coat on again. However, Hal, who did not see the red
+splashes, which, in spite of all these operations, were too visible
+upon his shoulders, and upon the skirts of his white coat behind,
+was pretty well satisfied to observe that there was not one spot
+upon the facings. 'Nobody,' said he, 'will take notice of my
+coat behind, I daresay. I think it looks as smart almost as
+ever!'&mdash;and under this persuasion our young archer resumed
+his bow&mdash;his bow with green ribands, now no more!&mdash;and he
+pursued his way to the Downs.</p>
+
+<p>All his companions were far out of sight. 'I suppose,' said
+he to his friend with the black patch&mdash;'I suppose my uncle and
+Ben had left home before you went for the shoes and stockings
+for me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, sir; the butler said they had been gone to the
+Downs the matter of a good half-hour or more.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal trudged on as fast as he possibly could. When he got
+upon the Downs, he saw numbers of carriages, and crowds of
+people, all going towards the place of meeting at the Ostrich.
+He pressed forwards. He was at first so much afraid of being
+late, that he did not take notice of the mirth his motley appearance
+excited in all beholders. At length he reached the
+appointed spot. There was a great crowd of people. In the
+midst he heard Lady Diana's loud voice betting upon some one
+who was just going to shoot at the mark.</p>
+
+<p>'So then the shooting is begun, is it?' said Hal. 'Oh, let
+me in! pray let me into the circle! I'm one of the archers&mdash;I
+am, indeed; don't you see my green and white uniform?'</p>
+
+<p>'Your red and white uniform, you mean,' said the man to
+whom he addressed himself; and the people, as they opened
+a passage for him, could not refrain laughing at the mixture of
+dirt and finery which it exhibited. In vain, when he got into
+the midst of the formidable circle, he looked to his friends, the
+young Sweepstakes, for their countenance and support. They
+were amongst the most unmerciful of the laughers. Lady Diana
+also seemed more to enjoy than to pity his confusion.</p>
+
+<p>'Why could you not keep your hat upon your head, man?'
+said she, in her masculine tone. 'You have been almost the
+ruin of my poor uniform habit; but I've escaped rather better
+than you have. Don't stand there, in the middle of the circle,
+or you'll have an arrow in your eyes just now, I've a notion.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal looked round in search of better friends. 'Oh, where's<span class="pagenum">[255]</span>
+my uncle?&mdash;where's Ben?' said he. He was in such confusion,
+that, amongst the number of faces, he could scarcely distinguish
+one from another; but he felt somebody at this moment
+pull his elbow, and, to his great relief, he heard the friendly
+voice and saw the good-natured face of his cousin Ben.</p>
+
+<p>'Come back&mdash;come behind these people,' said Ben, 'and
+put on my greatcoat; here it is for you.'</p>
+
+<p>Right glad was Hal to cover his disgraced uniform with the
+rough greatcoat which he had formerly despised. He pulled
+the stained, drooping cockade out of his unfortunate hat; and
+he was now sufficiently recovered from his vexation to give an
+intelligible account of his accident to his uncle and Patty, who
+anxiously inquired what had detained him so long, and what
+had been the matter. In the midst of the history of his
+disaster, he was just proving to Patty that his taking the
+hatband to spin his top had nothing to do with his misfortune,
+and he was at the same time endeavouring to refute his uncle's
+opinion that the waste of the whipcord that tied the parcel was
+the original cause of all his evils, when he was summoned to
+try his skill with his <i>famous</i> bow.</p>
+
+<p>'My hands are benumbed; I can scarcely feel,' said he,
+rubbing them, and blowing upon the ends of his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, come,' cried young Sweepstakes, 'I'm within one
+inch of the mark; who'll go nearer? I shall like to see.
+Shoot away, Hal; but first understand our laws; we settled
+them before you came upon the green. You are to have three
+shots, with your own bow and your own arrows; and nobody's
+to borrow or lend under pretence of other's bows being better
+or worse, or under any pretence. Do you hear, Hal?'</p>
+
+<p>This young gentleman had good reasons for being so strict
+in these laws, as he had observed that none of his companions
+had such an excellent bow as he had provided for himself.
+Some of the boys had forgotten to bring more than one arrow
+with them, and by his cunning regulation that each person
+should shoot with his own arrows, many had lost one or two
+of their shots.</p>
+
+<p>'You are a lucky fellow; you have your three arrows,' said
+young Sweepstakes. 'Come, we can't wait whilst you rub your
+fingers, man&mdash;shoot away.'</p>
+
+<p>Hal was rather surprised at the asperity with which his
+friend spoke. He little knew how easily acquaintance who<span class="pagenum">[256]</span>
+call themselves friends can change when their interest comes
+in the slightest degree in competition with their friendship.
+Hurried by his impatient rival, and with his hands so much
+benumbed that he could scarcely feel how to fix the arrow in
+the string, he drew the bow. The arrow was within a quarter
+of an inch of Master Sweepstakes' mark, which was the nearest
+that had yet been hit. Hal seized his second arrow. 'If I
+have any luck&mdash;&mdash;' said he. But just as he pronounced the
+word <i>luck</i>, and as he bent his bow, the string broke in two,
+and the bow fell from his hands.</p>
+
+<p>'There, it's all over with you!' cried Master Sweepstakes,
+with a triumphant laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'Here's my bow for him, and welcome,' said Ben. 'No,
+no, sir,' said Master Sweepstakes, 'that is not fair; that's
+against the regulation. You may shoot with your own bow,
+if you choose it, or you may not, just as you think proper; but
+you must not lend it, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>It was now Ben's turn to make his trial. His first arrow
+was not successful. His second was exactly as near as Hal's
+first. 'You have but one more,' said Master Sweepstakes;
+'now for it!' Ben, before he ventured his last arrow, prudently
+examined the string of his bow; and, as he pulled it to try its
+strength, it cracked. Master Sweepstakes clapped his hands,
+with loud exultations and insulting laughter. But his laughter
+ceased when our provident hero calmly drew from his pocket
+an excellent piece of whipcord.</p>
+
+<p>'The everlasting whipcord, I declare!' exclaimed Hal, when
+he saw that it was the very same that had tied up the parcel.
+'Yes,' said Ben, as he fastened it to his bow, 'I put it into
+my pocket to-day on purpose, because I thought I might happen
+to want it.' He drew his bow the third and last time.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, papa!' cried little Patty, as his arrow hit the mark,
+'it's the nearest; is it not the nearest?'</p>
+
+<p>Master Sweepstakes, with anxiety, examined the hit. There
+could be no doubt. Ben was victorious! The bow, the prize
+bow, was now delivered to him; and Hal, as he looked at the
+whipcord, exclaimed, 'How <i>lucky</i> this whipcord has been to
+you, Ben!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is <i>lucky</i>, perhaps, you mean, that he took care of it,' said
+Mr. Gresham.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' said Hal, 'very true; he might well say, "Waste not,
+want not." It is a good thing to have two strings to one's bow.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[257]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="OLD_POZ" id="OLD_POZ"></a>OLD POZ</h2>
+
+<div class="inset">
+<p class="noin">
+<span class="smcap">Lucy</span>, <i>daughter to the Justice.</i><br />
+<span class="smcap">Mrs. Bustle</span>, <i>landlady of the 'Saracen's Head.'</i><br />
+<span class="smcap">Justice Headstrong.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Old Man.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">William</span>, <i>a Servant.</i>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<h4>SCENE I</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The House of Justice Headstrong&mdash;A hall&mdash;Lucy watering some
+myrtles&mdash;A servant behind the scenes is heard to say&mdash;</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">I tell</span> you my master is not up. You can't see him, so go
+about your business, I say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> To whom are you speaking, William? Who's that?</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> Only an old man, miss, with a complaint for my
+master.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Oh, then, don't send him away&mdash;don't send him
+away.</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> But master has not had his chocolate, ma'am. He
+won't ever see anybody before he drinks his chocolate, you
+know, ma'am.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> But let the old man, then, come in here. Perhaps
+he can wait a little while. Call him.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit servant.</i>)</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Lucy sings, and goes on watering her myrtles; the servant
+shows in the Old Man.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> You can't see my master this hour; but miss will
+let you stay here.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy</i> (<i>aside</i>). Poor old man! how he trembles as he walks.
+(<i>Aloud.</i>) Sit down, sit down. My father will see you soon;
+pray sit down.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>He hesitates; she pushes a chair towards him.</i>)<span class="pagenum">[258]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Pray sit down.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>He sits down.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Old Man.</i> You are very good, miss; very good.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Lucy goes to her myrtles again.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Ah! I'm afraid this poor myrtle is quite dead&mdash;quite
+dead.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>The Old Man sighs, and she turns round.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy</i> (<i>aside</i>). I wonder what can make him sigh so!
+(<i>Aloud.</i>) My father won't make you wait long.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Oh, ma'am, as long as he pleases. I'm in no
+haste&mdash;no haste. It's only a small matter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> But does a small matter make you sigh so?</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Ah, miss; because though it is a small matter in
+itself, it is not a small matter to me (<i>sighing again</i>); it was my
+all, and I've lost it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> What do you mean? What have you lost?</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Why, miss&mdash;but I won't trouble you about it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> But it won't trouble me at all&mdash;I mean, I wish to
+hear it; so tell it me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Why, miss, I slept last night at the inn here, in
+town&mdash;the 'Saracen's Head'&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy</i> (<i>interrupts him</i>). Hark! there is my father coming
+downstairs; follow me. You may tell me your story as we go
+along.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> I slept at the 'Saracen's Head,' miss, and&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit talking.</i>)</p>
+
+
+<h4>SCENE II</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Justice Headstrong's Study</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">(<i>He appears in his nightgown and cap, with his gouty foot upon
+a stool&mdash;a table and chocolate beside him&mdash;Lucy is leaning on
+the arm of his chair.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Well, well, my darling, presently; I'll see him
+presently.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Whilst you are drinking your chocolate, papa?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> No, no, no&mdash;I never see anybody till I have done my
+chocolate, darling. (<i>He tastes his chocolate.</i>) There's no sugar
+in this, child.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Yes, indeed, papa.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> No, child&mdash;there's <i>no</i> sugar, I tell you; that's poz!<span class="pagenum">[259]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Oh, but, papa, I assure you I put in two lumps
+myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> There's <i>no</i> sugar, I say; why will you contradict me,
+child, for ever? There's no sugar, I say.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Lucy leans over him playfully, and with his teaspoon
+pulls out two lumps of sugar.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> What's this, papa?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw!&mdash;it is not melted, child&mdash;it
+is the same as no sugar.&mdash;Oh, my foot, girl, my foot!&mdash;you
+kill me. Go, go, I'm busy. I've business to do. Go and
+send William to me; do you hear, love?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> And the old man, papa?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> What old man? I tell you what, I've been plagued
+ever since I was awake, and before I was awake, about that
+old man. If he can't wait, let him go about his business.
+Don't you know, child, I never see anybody till I've drunk my
+chocolate; and I never will, if it were a duke&mdash;that's poz!
+Why, it has but just struck twelve; if he can't wait, he can go
+about his business, can't he?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Oh, sir, he <i>can</i> wait. It was not he who was
+impatient. (<i>She comes back playfully.</i>) It was only I, papa;
+don't be angry.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Well, well, well (<i>finishing his cup of chocolate, and
+pushing his dish away</i>); and at any rate there was not sugar
+enough. Send William, send William, child; and I'll finish
+my own business, and then&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Lucy, dancing, 'And then!&mdash;and then!'</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Justice,</span> <i>alone.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Oh, this foot of mine!&mdash;(<i>twinges</i>)&mdash;Oh, this foot!
+Ay, if Dr. Sparerib could cure one of the gout, then, indeed, I
+should think something of him; but as to my leaving off my
+bottle of port, it's nonsense; it's all nonsense; I can't do it; I
+can't, and I won't for all the Dr. Spareribs in Christendom;
+that's poz!</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">William</span>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> William&mdash;oh! ay! hey! what answer, pray, did you
+bring from the 'Saracen's Head'? Did you see Mrs. Bustle
+herself, as I bid you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> Yes, sir, I saw the landlady herself; she said she
+would come up immediately, sir.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Ah, that's well&mdash;immediately?</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> Yes, sir, and I hear her voice below now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Oh, show her up; show Mrs. Bustle in.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i024f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i024t.jpg" alt="i024"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">Lucy. <i>What's this, papa?</i> Just. <i>Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw!&mdash;it is not melted, child&mdash;it
+is the same as no sugar.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[261]</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Bustle,</span> <i>the landlady of the 'Saracen's Head.'</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Good-morrow to your worship! I'm glad to see
+your worship look so purely. I came up with all speed (<i>taking
+breath</i>). Our pie is in the oven; that was what you sent for
+me about, I take it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> True, true; sit down, good Mrs. Bustle, pray&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Oh, your worship's always very good (<i>settling her
+apron</i>). I came up just as I was&mdash;only threw my shawl over
+me. I thought your worship would excuse&mdash;I'm quite, as it
+were, rejoiced to see your worship look so purely, and to find
+you up so hearty&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Oh, I'm very hearty (<i>coughing</i>), always hearty, and
+thankful for it. I hope to see many Christmas doings yet,
+Mrs. Bustle. And so our pie is in the oven, I think you say?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> In the oven it is. I put it in with my own hands;
+and if we have but good luck in the baking, it will be as pretty
+a goose-pie&mdash;though I say it that should not say it&mdash;as pretty
+a goose-pie as ever your worship set your eyes upon.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Will you take a glass of anything this morning, Mrs.
+Bustle?&mdash;I have some nice usquebaugh.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Oh, no, your worship!&mdash;I thank your worship, though,
+as much as if I took it; but I just took my luncheon before I
+came up; or more proper, <i>my sandwich</i>, I should say, for the
+fashion's sake, to be sure. A <i>luncheon</i> won't go down with
+nobody nowadays (<i>laughs</i>). I expect hostler and boots will
+be calling for their sandwiches just now (<i>laughs again</i>). I'm
+sure I beg your worship's pardon for mentioning a <i>luncheon</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Oh, Mrs. Bustle, the word's a good word, for it means
+a good thing&mdash;ha! ha! ha! (<i>pulls out his watch</i>); but pray,
+is it luncheon time? Why, it's past one, I declare; and I
+thought I was up in remarkably good time, too.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Well, and to be sure so it was, remarkably good time
+for <i>your worship</i>; but folks in our way must be up betimes,
+you know. I've been up and about these seven hours.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>stretching</i>). Seven hours!</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Ay, indeed&mdash;eight, I might say, for I am an early<span class="pagenum">[262]</span>
+little body; though I say it that should not say it&mdash;I <i>am</i> an
+early little body.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> An early little body, as you say, Mrs. Bustle&mdash;so I
+shall have my goose-pie for dinner, hey?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> For dinner, as sure as the clock strikes four&mdash;but I
+mustn't stay prating, for it may be spoiling if I'm away; so I
+must wish your worship a good morning.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>She curtsies.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> No ceremony&mdash;no ceremony; good Mrs. Bustle, your
+servant.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">William</span>, <i>to take away the chocolate. The Landlady is
+putting on her shawl.</i>
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> You may let that man know, William, that I have dispatched
+my <i>own</i> business, and am at leisure for his now (<i>taking
+a pinch of snuff</i>). Hum! pray, William (<i>Justice leans back
+gravely</i>), what sort of a looking fellow is he, pray?</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> Most like a sort of travelling man, in my opinion, sir&mdash;or
+something that way, I take it.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>At these words the Landlady turns round inquisitively,
+and delays, that she may listen, while she is putting
+on and pinning her shawl.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Hum! a sort of a travelling man. Hum! lay my books
+out open at the title Vagrant; and, William, tell the cook that
+Mrs. Bustle promises me the goose-pie for dinner. Four o'clock,
+do you hear? And show the old man in now.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>The Landlady looks eagerly towards the door, as it opens,
+and exclaims,</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> My old gentleman, as I hope to breathe!</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter the</i> <span class="smcap">Old Man</span>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">(<i>Lucy follows the Old Man on tiptoe&mdash;The Justice leans back
+and looks consequential&mdash;The Landlady sets her arms
+akimbo&mdash;The Old Man starts as he sees her.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> What stops you, friend? Come forward, if you please.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>advancing</i>). So, sir, is it you, sir? Ay, you little
+thought, I warrant ye, to meet me here with his worship; but
+there you reckoned without your host&mdash;Out of the frying-pan
+into the fire.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> What is all this? What is this?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>running on</i>). None of your flummery stuff will go
+down with his worship no more than with me, I give you<span class="pagenum">[263]</span>
+warning; so you may go further and far worse, and spare your
+breath to cool your porridge.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>waves his hand with dignity</i>). Mrs. Bustle, good Mrs.
+Bustle, remember where you are. Silence! silence! Come
+forward, sir, and let me hear what you have to say.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>The Old Man comes forward.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Who and what may you be, friend, and what is your
+business with me?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Sir, if your worship will give me leave&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Justice makes a sign to her to be silent.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Please your worship, I am an old soldier.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>interrupting</i>). An old hypocrite, say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Mrs. Bustle, pray, I desire, let the man speak.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> For these two years past&mdash;ever since, please your
+worship&mdash;I wasn't able to work any longer; for in my youth I
+did work as well as the best of them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>eager to interrupt</i>). You work&mdash;you&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Let him finish his story, I say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Ay, do, do, papa, speak for him. Pray, Mrs.
+Bustle&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>turning suddenly round to Lucy</i>). Miss, a good
+morrow to you, ma'am. I humbly beg your apologies for not
+seeing you sooner, Miss Lucy.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Justice nods to the Old Man, who goes on.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Old Man.</i> But, please your worship, it pleased God to take
+away the use of my left arm; and since that I have never been
+able to work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Flummery! flummery!</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>angrily</i>). Mrs. Bustle, I have desired silence,
+and I will have it, that's poz! You shall have your turn
+presently.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> For these two years past (for why should I be
+ashamed to tell the truth?) I have lived upon charity, and I
+scraped together a guinea and a half and upwards, and I was
+travelling with it to my grandson, in the north, with him to
+end my days&mdash;<i>but</i> (<i>sighing</i>)&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> <i>But</i> what? Proceed, pray, to the point.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> But last night I slept here in town, please your
+worship, at the 'Saracen's Head.'</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>in a rage</i>). At the 'Saracen's Head!' Yes, forsooth!
+none such ever slept at the 'Saracen's Head' afore, or
+ever shall afterwards, as long as my name's Bustle and the
+'Saracen's Head' is the 'Saracen's Head.'</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Again! again! Mrs. Landlady, this is downright&mdash;I
+have said you should speak presently. He <i>shall</i> speak first,
+since I've said it&mdash;that's poz! Speak on, friend. You slept
+last night at the 'Saracen's Head.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i025f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i025t.jpg" alt="i025"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Five times have I commanded silence, and I won't command anything five times
+in vain</i>&mdash;that's poz!'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Yes, please your worship, and I accuse nobody;
+but at night I had my little money safe, and in the morning it
+was gone.<span class="pagenum">[265]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Gone!&mdash;gone, indeed, in my house! and this is the
+way I'm to be treated! Is it so? I couldn't but speak, your
+worship, to such an inhuman like, out o' the way, scandalous
+charge, if King George and all the Royal Family were sitting
+in your worship's chair, beside you, to silence me (<i>turning to
+the Old Man</i>). And this is your gratitude, forsooth! Didn't
+you tell me that any hole in my house was good enough for
+you, wheedling hypocrite? And the thanks I receive is to
+call me and mine a pack of thieves.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Oh, no, no, no, <i>No</i>&mdash;a pack of thieves, by no
+means.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Ay, I thought when <i>I</i> came to speak we should have
+you upon your marrow-bones in&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>imperiously</i>). Silence! Five times have I commanded
+silence, and five times in vain; and I won't command anything
+five times in vain&mdash;<i>that's poz</i>!</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> (<i>in a pet, aside</i>). Old Poz! (<i>Aloud.</i>) Then, your
+worship, I don't see any business I have to be waiting here;
+the folks want me at home (<i>returning and whispering</i>). Shall
+I send the goose-pie up, your worship, if it's ready?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>with magnanimity</i>). I care not for the goose-pie,
+Mrs. Bustle. Do not talk to me of goose-pies; this is no
+place to talk of pies.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Oh, for that matter, your worship knows best, to
+be sure.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit Landlady, angry.</i>)</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE III</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Justice Headstrong</span>, <span class="smcap">Old Man</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lucy</span></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Ah, now, I'm glad he can speak; now tell papa;
+and you need not be afraid to speak to him, for he is very
+good-natured. Don't contradict him, though, because he told
+<i>me</i> not.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Oh, darling, <i>you</i> shall contradict me as often as you
+please&mdash;only not before I've drunk my chocolate, child&mdash;hey?
+Go on, my good friend; you see what it is to live in Old
+England, where, thank Heaven, the poorest of His Majesty's
+subjects may have justice, and speak his mind before the first
+in the land. Now speak on; and you hear she tells you that
+you need not be afraid of me. Speak on.<span class="pagenum">[266]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> I thank your worship, I'm sure.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Thank me! for what, sir? I won't be thanked for
+doing justice, sir; so&mdash;but explain this matter. You lost your
+money, hey, at the 'Saracen's Head'? You had it safe last
+night, hey?&mdash;and you missed it this morning? Are you sure
+you had it safe at night?</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Oh, please your worship, quite sure; for I took it
+out and looked at it just before I said my prayers.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> You did&mdash;did ye so?&mdash;hum! Pray, my good friend,
+where might you put your money when you went to bed?</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Please, your worship, where I always put it&mdash;always&mdash;in
+my tobacco-box.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Your tobacco-box! I never heard of such a thing&mdash;to
+make a <i>strong box</i> of a tobacco-box. Ha! ha! ha!
+hum!&mdash;and you say the box and all were gone in the morning?</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> No, please your worship, no; not the box&mdash;the
+box was never stirred from the place where I put it. They
+left me the box.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Tut, tut, tut, man!&mdash;took the money and left the
+box? I'll never believe <i>that</i>! I'll never believe that any one
+could be such a fool. Tut, tut! the thing's impossible! It's
+well you are not upon oath.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> If I were, please your worship, I should say the
+same; for it is the truth.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Don't tell me, don't tell me; I say the thing is
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Please your worship, here's the box.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>goes on without looking at it</i>). Nonsense! nonsense!
+it's no such thing; it's no such thing, I say&mdash;no man would
+take the money and leave the tobacco-box. I won't believe it.
+Nothing shall make me believe it ever&mdash;that's poz.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy</i> (<i>takes the box and holds it up before her father's eyes</i>).
+You did not see the box, did you, papa?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Yes, yes, yes, child&mdash;nonsense! it's all a lie from
+beginning to end. A man who tells one lie will tell a hundred.
+All a lie!&mdash;all a lie!</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> If your worship would give me leave&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Sir, it does not signify&mdash;it does not signify! I've
+said it, I've said it, and that's enough to convince me, and I'll
+tell you more; if my Lord Chief Justice of England told it to
+me, I would not believe it&mdash;that's poz!<span class="pagenum">[267]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy</i> (<i>still playing with the box</i>). But how comes the box
+here, I wonder?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw! darling. Go to your dolls,
+darling, and don't be positive&mdash;go to your dolls, and don't talk
+of what you don't understand. What can you understand, I
+want to know, of the law?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> No, papa, I didn't mean about the law, but about
+the box; because, if the man had taken it, how could it be
+here, you know, papa?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Hey, hey, what? Why, what I say is this, that I
+don't dispute that that box, that you hold in your hands, is a
+box; nay, for aught I know, it may be a tobacco-box&mdash;but it's
+clear to me that if they left the box they did not take the
+money; and how do you dare, sir, to come before Justice
+Headstrong with a lie in your mouth? recollect yourself, I'll
+give you time to recollect yourself.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">(<i>A pause.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Well, sir; and what do you say now about the box?</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Please your worship, with submission, I <i>can</i> say
+nothing but what I said before.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> What, contradict me again, after I gave you time to
+recollect yourself! I've done with you; I have done. Contradict
+me as often as you please, but you cannot impose upon
+me; I defy you to impose upon me!</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Impose!</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> I know the law!&mdash;I know the law!&mdash;and I'll make
+you know it, too. One hour I'll give you to recollect yourself,
+and if you don't give up this idle story, I'll&mdash;I'll commit you
+as a vagrant&mdash;that's poz! Go, go, for the present. William,
+take him into the servants' hall, do you hear?&mdash;What, take
+the money, and leave the box? I'll never do it&mdash;that's poz!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Lucy speaks to the Old Man as he is going off.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Don't be frightened! don't be frightened!&mdash;I mean,
+if you tell the truth, never be frightened.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> <i>If</i> I tell the truth&mdash;(<i>turning up his eyes</i>).</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Old Man is still held back by the young lady.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> One moment&mdash;answer me one question&mdash;because
+of something that just came into my head. Was the box shut
+fast when you left it?<span class="pagenum">[268]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> No, miss, no!&mdash;open&mdash;it was open; for I could
+not find the lid in the dark&mdash;my candle went out. <i>If</i> I tell
+the truth&mdash;oh!</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Exit.</i>)</p>
+
+<h4>SCENE IV</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Justice's Study&mdash;the Justice is writing</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Well!&mdash;I shall have but few days' more misery
+in this world!</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>looks up</i>). Why! why&mdash;why then, why will you be
+so positive to persist in a lie? Take the money and leave the
+box! Obstinate blockhead! Here, William (<i>showing the
+committal</i>), take this old gentleman to Holdfast, the constable,
+and give him this warrant.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Lucy,</span> <i>running, out of breath.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> I've found it! I've found it! Here, old man;
+here's your money&mdash;here it is all&mdash;a guinea and a half, and a
+shilling and a sixpence, just as he said, papa.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Landlady</span>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Oh la! your worship, did you ever hear the like?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> I've heard nothing yet that I can understand. First,
+have you secured the thief, I say?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy</i> (<i>makes signs to the landlady to be silent</i>). Yes, yes,
+yes! we have him safe&mdash;we have him prisoner. Shall he
+come in, papa?</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Yes, child, by all means; and now I shall hear what
+possessed him to leave the box. I don't understand&mdash;there's
+something deep in all this; I don't understand it. Now I do
+desire, Mrs. Landlady, nobody may speak a single word whilst
+I am cross-examining the thief.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Landlady puts her finger upon her lips&mdash;Everybody
+looks eagerly towards the door.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Re-enter</i> <span class="smcap">Lucy,</span> <i>with a huge wicker cage in her hand, containing
+a magpie&mdash;The Justice drops the committal out of his
+hand.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Hey!&mdash;what, Mrs. Landlady&mdash;the old magpie? hey?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Ay, your worship, my old magpie. Who'd have<span class="pagenum">[269]</span>
+thought it? Miss was very clever&mdash;it was she caught the
+thief. Miss was very clever.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Very good! very good!</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Ay, darling, her father's own child! How was it,
+child? Caught the thief, <i>with the mainour</i>, hey? Tell us
+all; I will hear all&mdash;that's poz.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Oh! then first I must tell you how I came to suspect
+Mr. Magpie. Do you remember, papa, that day last summer
+when I went with you to the bowling-green at the 'Saracen's
+Head'?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Oh, of all days in the year! but I ask pardon, miss.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Well, that day I heard my uncle and another gentleman
+telling stories of magpies hiding money; and they laid a
+wager about this old magpie and they tried him&mdash;they put a
+shilling upon the table, and he ran away with it and hid it;
+so I thought that he might do so again, you know, this time.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Right, right. It's a pity, child, you are not upon the
+Bench&mdash;ha! ha! ha!</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> And when I went to his old hiding-place, there it
+was; but you see, papa, he did not take the box.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> No, no, no! because the thief was a magpie. No
+<i>man</i> would have taken the money and left the box. You see
+I was right; no <i>man</i> would have left the box, hey?</p>
+
+<p><i>Lucy.</i> Certainly not, I suppose; but I'm so very glad, old
+man, that you have obtained your money.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Well then, child, here&mdash;take my purse, and add that
+to it. We were a little too hasty with the committal&mdash;hey?</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Ay, and I fear I was, too; but when one is touched
+about the credit of one's house, one's apt to speak warmly.</p>
+
+<p><i>Old M.</i> Oh, I'm the happiest old man alive! You are all
+convinced that I told you no lies. Say no more&mdash;say no more.
+I am the happiest man! Miss, you have made me the happiest
+man alive! Bless you for it!</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> Well, now, I'll tell you what. I know what I think&mdash;you
+must keep that there magpie, and make a show of him,
+and I warrant he'll bring you many an honest penny; for it's
+a <i>true story</i>, and folks would like to hear it, I hopes&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> (<i>eagerly</i>). And, friend, do you hear? You'll dine here
+to-day, you'll dine here. We have some excellent ale. I will
+have you drink my health&mdash;that's poz!&mdash;hey? You'll drink
+my health, won't you&mdash;hey?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i026f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i026t.jpg" alt="i026"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the doctor, sir, are come,
+and dinner is upon the table.'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[271]</span><i>Old M.</i> (<i>bows</i>). Oh! and the young lady's, if you please.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Ay, ay, drink her health&mdash;she deserves it. Ay, drink
+my darling's health.</p>
+
+<p><i>Land.</i> And please your worship, it's the right time, I believe,
+to speak of the goose-pie now; and a charming pie it is, and
+it's on the table.</p>
+
+<p><i>Will.</i> And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and
+the doctor, sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table.</p>
+
+<p><i>Just.</i> Then let us say no more, but do justice immediately
+to the goose-pie; and, darling, put me in mind to tell this story
+after dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>After they go out, the Justice stops.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>'Tell this story'&mdash;I don't know whether it tells well for
+me; but I'll never be positive any more&mdash;<i>that's poz</i>!</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[273]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_MIMIC" id="THE_MIMIC"></a>THE MIMIC</h2>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Mr.</span> and <span class="smcap">Mrs. Montague</span> spent the summer of the year
+1795 at Clifton with their son Frederick, and their two
+daughters Sophia and Marianne. They had taken much care
+of the education of their children; nor were they ever tempted,
+by any motive of personal convenience or temporary amusement,
+to hazard the permanent happiness of their pupils.</p>
+
+<p>Sensible of the extreme importance of early impressions,
+and of the powerful influence of external circumstances in
+forming the characters and the manners, they were now
+anxious that the variety of new ideas and new objects which
+would strike the minds of their children should appear in a just
+point of view.</p>
+
+<p>'Let children see and judge for themselves,' is often inconsiderately
+said. Where children see only a part they cannot
+judge of the whole; and from the superficial view which they
+can have in short visits and desultory conversation, they can
+form only a false estimate of the objects of human happiness,
+a false notion of the nature of society, and false opinions of
+characters.</p>
+
+<p>For the above reasons, Mr. and Mrs. Montague were
+particularly cautious in the choice of their acquaintances, as
+they were well aware that whatever passed in conversation
+before their children became part of their education.</p>
+
+<p>When they came to Clifton, they wished to have a house
+entirely to themselves; but, as they came late in the season,
+almost all the lodging-houses were full, and for a few weeks
+they were obliged to remain in a house where some of the
+apartments were already occupied.<span class="pagenum">[274]</span></p>
+
+<p>During the first fortnight they scarcely saw or heard anything
+of one of the families who lodged on the same floor with
+them. An elderly Quaker and his sister Bertha were their
+silent neighbours. The blooming complexion of the lady had
+indeed attracted the attention of the children, as they caught
+a glimpse of her face when she was getting into her carriage
+to go out upon the Downs. They could scarcely believe that
+she came to the Wells on account of her health.</p>
+
+<p>Besides her blooming complexion, the delicate white of her
+garments had struck them with admiration; and they observed
+that her brother carefully guarded her dress from the wheel of
+the carriage, as he handed her in. From this circumstance,
+and from the benevolent countenance of the old gentleman,
+they concluded that he was very fond of his sister, and that
+they were certainly very happy, except that they never spoke,
+and could be seen only for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Not so the maiden lady who occupied the ground-floor.
+On the stairs, in the passages, at her window, she was continually
+visible; and she appeared to possess the art of being
+present in all these places at once. Her voice was eternally
+to be heard, and it was not particularly melodious. The very
+first day she met Mrs. Montague's children on the stairs, she
+stopped to tell Marianne that she was a charming dear, and
+a charming little dear; to kiss her, to inquire her name, and
+to inform her that her own name was 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle,'
+a circumstance of which there was little danger of their long
+remaining in ignorance; for, in the course of one morning, at
+least twenty single and as many double raps at the door
+were succeeded by vociferations of 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle's
+servant!' 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle at home?' 'Mrs. Theresa
+Tattle not at home!'</p>
+
+<p>No person at the Wells was oftener at home and abroad
+than Mrs. Tattle. She had, as she deemed it, the happiness
+to have a most extensive acquaintance residing at Clifton. She
+had for years kept a register of arrivals. She regularly consulted
+the subscriptions to the circulating libraries, and the
+lists at the Ball and the Pump rooms; so that, with a memory
+unencumbered with literature and free from all domestic cares,
+she contrived to retain a most astonishing and correct list of
+births, deaths, and marriages, together with all the anecdotes,
+amusing, instructive, or scandalous, which are necessary to the<span class="pagenum">[275]</span>
+conversation of a water-drinking place, and essential to the
+character of a 'very pleasant woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'A very pleasant woman' Mrs. Tattle was usually called;
+and, conscious of her accomplishments, she was eager to introduce
+herself to the acquaintance of her new neighbours; having,
+with her ordinary expedition, collected from their servants, by
+means of her own, all that could be known, or rather all that
+could be told about them. The name of Montague, at all
+events, she knew was a good name, and justified in courting
+the acquaintance. She courted it first by nods and becks and
+smiles at Marianne whenever she met her; and Marianne, who
+was a very little girl, began presently to nod and smile in
+return, persuaded that a lady who smiled so much could not
+be ill-natured. Besides, Mrs. Theresa's parlour door was sometimes
+left more than half open, to afford a view of a green
+parrot. Marianne sometimes passed very slowly by this door.
+One morning it was left quite wide open, when she stopped to
+say 'Pretty Poll'; and immediately Mrs. Tattle begged she
+would do her the honour to walk in and see 'Pretty Poll,' at
+the same time taking the liberty to offer her a piece of iced
+plum-cake.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i027f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i027t.jpg" alt="i027"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour to wait upon Mrs. Montague.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour
+to wait upon Mrs. Montague, 'to apologise for the liberty she
+had taken in inviting Mrs. Montague's charming Miss Marianne
+into her apartment to see Pretty Poll, and for the still
+greater liberty she had taken in offering her a piece of plum-cake&mdash;inconsiderate
+creature that she was!&mdash;which might
+possibly have disagreed with her, and which certainly were
+liberties she never should have been induced to take, if she
+had not been unaccountably bewitched by Miss Marianne's
+striking though highly flattering resemblance to a young
+gentleman (an officer) with whom she had danced, now nearly
+twelve years ago, of the name of Montague, a most respectable
+young man, and of a most respectable family, with which, in a
+remote degree, she might presume to say, she herself was
+someway connected, having the honour to be nearly related to
+the Joneses of Merionethshire, who were cousins to the Mainwarings
+of Bedfordshire, who married into the family of the
+Griffiths, the eldest branch of which, she understood, had the
+honour to be cousin-german to Mr. Montague; on which
+account she had been impatient to pay a visit, so likely to be<span class="pagenum">[277]</span>
+productive of most agreeable consequences, by the acquisition
+of an acquaintance whose society must do her infinite honour.'</p>
+
+<p>Having thus happily accomplished her first visit, there
+seemed little probability of escaping Mrs. Tattle's further
+acquaintance. In the course of the first week she only hinted
+to Mr. Montague that 'some people thought his system of
+education rather odd; that she should be obliged to him if he
+would, some time or other, when he had nothing else to do,
+just sit down and make her understand his notions, that she
+might have something to say to her acquaintance, as she
+always wished to have when she heard any friend attacked, or
+any friend's opinions.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Montague declining to sit down and make this lady
+understand a system of education only to give her something
+to say, and showing unaccountable indifference about the
+attacks with which he was threatened, Mrs. Tattle next
+addressed herself to Mrs. Montague, prophesying, in a most
+serious whisper, 'that the charming Miss Marianne would
+shortly and inevitably grow quite crooked, if she were not
+immediately provided with a back-board, a French dancing-master,
+and a pair of stocks.'</p>
+
+<p>This alarming whisper could not, however, have a permanent
+effect upon Mrs. Montague's understanding, because three days
+afterwards Mrs. Theresa, upon the most anxious inspection,
+entirely mistook the just and natural proportions of the hip
+and shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>This danger vanishing, Mrs. Tattle presently, with a rueful
+length of face, and formal preface, 'hesitated to assure Mrs.
+Montague that she was greatly distressed about her daughter
+Sophy; that she was convinced her lungs were affected; and
+that she certainly ought to drink the waters morning and
+evening; and, above all things, must keep one of the patirosa
+lozenges constantly in her mouth, and directly consult Dr.
+Cardamum, the best physician in the world, and the person
+she would send for herself upon her death-bed; because, to
+her certain knowledge, he had recovered a young lady, a relation
+of her own, after she had lost one whole <i>globe</i><a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> of her
+lungs.'</p>
+
+<p>The medical opinion of a lady of so much anatomical
+precision could not have much weight. Neither was this
+<span class="pagenum">[278]</span>universal adviser more successful in an attempt to introduce a
+tutor to Frederick, who, she apprehended, must want some
+one to perfect him in the Latin and Greek, and dead
+languages, of which, she observed, it would be impertinent for
+a woman to talk; only she might venture to repeat what she
+had heard said by good authority, that a competency of the
+dead tongues could be had nowhere but at a public school, or
+else from a private tutor who had been abroad (after the
+advantage of a classical education, finished in one of the
+universities) with a good family; without which introduction
+it was idle to think of reaping solid advantages from any
+continental tour; all which requisites, from personal knowledge,
+she could aver to be concentrated in the gentleman she
+had the honour to recommend, as having been tutor to a young
+nobleman, who had no further occasion for him, having, unfortunately
+for himself and his family, been killed in an
+untimely duel.</p>
+
+<p>All Mrs. Theresa Tattle's suggestions being lost upon these
+stoical parents, her powers were next tried upon the children,
+and her success soon became apparent. On Sophy, indeed,
+she could not make any impression, though she had expended
+on her some of her finest strokes of flattery. Sophy, though
+very desirous of the approbation of her friends, was not very
+desirous of winning the favour of strangers. She was about
+thirteen&mdash;that dangerous age at which ill-educated girls, in
+their anxiety to display their accomplishments, are apt to
+become dependent for applause upon the praise of every idle
+visitor; when the habits not being formed, and the attention
+being suddenly turned to dress and manners, girls are apt to
+affect and imitate, indiscriminately, everything that they conceive
+to be agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>Sophy, whose taste had been cultivated at the same time
+with her powers of reasoning, was not liable to fall into these
+errors. She found that she could please those whom she
+wished to please, without affecting to be anything but what
+she really was; and her friends listened to what she said,
+though she never repeated the sentiments, or adopted the
+phrases, which she might easily have copied from the conversation
+of those who were older or more fashionable than herself.</p>
+
+<p>This word <i>fashionable</i>, Mrs. Theresa Tattle knew, had
+usually a great effect, even at thirteen; but she had not<span class="pagenum">[279]</span>
+observed that it had much power upon Sophy; nor were her
+remarks concerning grace and manners much attended to.
+Her mother had taught Sophy that it was best to let herself
+alone, and not to distort either her person or her mind in
+acquiring grimace, which nothing but the fashion of the
+moment can support, and which is always detected and
+despised by people of real good sense and politeness.</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me!' said Mrs. Tattle, to herself, 'if I had such a
+tall daughter, and so unformed, before my eyes from morning
+to night, it would certainly break my poor heart. Thank
+heaven, I am not a mother! if I were, Miss Marianne for me!'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Marianne had heard so often from Mrs. Tattle that
+she was very charming, that she could not help believing it;
+and from being a very pleasing, unaffected little girl, she in a
+short time grew so conceited, that she could neither speak,
+look, move, nor be silent, without imagining that everybody
+was, or ought to be, looking at her; and when Mrs. Theresa
+saw that Mrs. Montague looked very grave upon these occasions,
+she, to repair the ill she had done, would say, after praising
+Marianne's hair or her eyes, 'Oh, but little ladies should never
+think about their beauty, you know. Nobody loves anybody
+for being handsome, but for being good.' People must think
+children are very silly, or else they can never have reflected
+upon the nature of belief in their own minds, if they imagine
+that children will believe the words that are said to them, by way
+of moral, when the countenance, manner, and every concomitant
+circumstance tell them a different tale. Children are excellent
+physiognomists&mdash;they quickly learn the universal language of
+looks; and what is said <i>of</i> them always makes a greater
+impression than what is said <i>to</i> them, a truth of which those
+prudent people surely cannot be aware who comfort themselves,
+and apologise to parents, by saying, 'Oh, but I would not say
+so and so to the child.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Theresa had seldom said to Frederick Montague
+'that he had a vast deal of drollery, and was a most incomparable
+mimic'; but she had said so of him in whispers, which
+magnified the sound to his imagination, if not to his ear. He
+was a boy of much vivacity, and had considerable abilities;
+but his appetite for vulgar praise had not yet been surfeited.
+Even Mrs. Theresa Tattle's flattery pleased him, and he
+exerted himself for her entertainment so much that he became<span class="pagenum">[280]</span>
+quite a buffoon. Instead of observing characters and manners,
+that he might judge of them, and form his own, he now watched
+every person he saw, that he might detect some foible, or catch
+some singularity in their gesture or pronunciation, which he
+might successfully mimic.</p>
+
+<p>Alarmed by the rapid progress of these evils, Mr. and Mrs.
+Montague, who, from the first day that they had been honoured
+with Mrs. Tattle's visit, had begun to look out for new lodgings,
+were now extremely impatient to decamp. They were not
+people who, from the weak fear of offending a silly acquaintance,
+would hazard the happiness of their family. They had
+heard of a house in the country which was likely to suit them,
+and they determined to go directly to look at it. As they
+were to be absent all day, they foresaw that their officious
+neighbour would probably interfere with their children. They
+did not choose to exact any promise from them which they
+might be tempted to break, and therefore they only said at
+parting, 'If Mrs. Theresa Tattle should ask you to come to
+her, do as you think proper.'</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had Mrs. Montague's carriage got out of hearing
+when a note was brought, directed to 'Frederick Montague,
+Junior, Esq.,' which he immediately opened, and read as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'Mrs. Theresa Tattle presents her very best compliments
+to the entertaining Mr. Frederick Montague; she hopes he
+will have the charity to drink tea with her this evening, and
+bring his charming sister, Miss Marianne, with him, as Mrs.
+Theresa will be quite alone with a shocking headache, and is
+sensible her nerves are affected; and Dr. Cardamum says that
+(especially in Mrs. T. T.'s case) it is downright death to
+nervous patients to be alone an instant. She therefore trusts
+Mr. Frederick will not refuse to come and make her laugh.
+Mrs. Theresa has taken care to provide a few macaroons for
+her little favourite, who said she was particularly fond of them
+the other day. Mrs. Theresa hopes they will all come at six,
+or before, not forgetting Miss Sophy, if she will condescend to
+be of the party.'</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>At the first reading of this note, 'the entertaining' Mr.
+Frederick and the 'charming' Miss Marianne laughed<span class="pagenum">[281]</span>
+heartily, and looked at Sophy, as if they were afraid that she
+should think it possible they could like such gross flattery;
+but upon a second perusal, Marianne observed that it certainly
+was very good-natured of Mrs. Theresa to remember the
+macaroons; and Frederick allowed that it was wrong to laugh
+at the poor woman because she had the headache. Then
+twisting the note in his fingers, he appealed to Sophy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Sophy, leave off drawing for an instant,' said
+Frederick, 'and tell us what answer can we send?'</p>
+
+<p>'Can!&mdash;we can send what answer we please.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know that,' said Frederick; 'I would refuse if I
+could; but we ought not to do anything rude, should we? So
+I think we might as well go, because we could not refuse, if we
+would, I say.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have made such confusion,' replied Sophy, 'between
+"couldn't" and "wouldn't" and "shouldn't," that I can't
+understand you: surely they are all different things.'</p>
+
+<p>'Different! no,' cried Frederick&mdash;'<i>could</i>, <i>would</i>, <i>should</i>,
+<i>might</i>, and <i>ought</i> are all the same thing in the Latin grammar;
+all of 'em signs of the potential mood, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>Sophy, whose powers of reasoning were not to be confounded,
+even by quotations from the Latin grammar, looked
+up soberly from her drawing, and answered 'that very likely
+those words might be signs of the same thing in the Latin
+grammar, but she believed that they meant perfectly different
+things in real life.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's just as people please,' said her sophistical brother.
+'You know words mean nothing in themselves. If I choose
+to call my hat my cadwallader, you would understand me just
+as well, after I had once explained it to you, that by cadwallader
+I meant this black thing that I put upon my head;
+cadwallader and hat would then be just the same thing to
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why have two words for the same thing?' said
+Sophy; 'and what has this to do with <i>could</i> and <i>should</i>?
+You wanted to prove&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted to prove,' interrupted Frederick, 'that it's not
+worth while to dispute for two hours about two words. Do
+keep to the point, Sophy, and don't dispute with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was not disputing, I was reasoning.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, reasoning or disputing. Women have no business<span class="pagenum">[282]</span>
+to do either; for, how should they know how to chop logic
+like men?'</p>
+
+<p>At this contemptuous sarcasm upon her sex, Sophy's colour
+rose.</p>
+
+<p>'There!' cried Frederick, exulting, 'now we shall see a
+philosopheress in a passion; I'd give sixpence, half-price, for
+a harlequin entertainment, to see Sophy in a passion. Now,
+Marianne, look at her brush dabbing so fast in the water!'</p>
+
+<p>Sophy, who could not easily bear to be laughed at, with
+some little indignation, said, 'Brother, I wish&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'There! there!' cried Frederick, pointing to the colour
+which rose in her cheeks almost to her temples&mdash;'rising!
+rising! rising! look at the thermometer! blood heat! blood!
+fever heat! boiling water heat! Marianne.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said Sophy, smiling, 'you should stand a little
+farther off, both of you. Leave the thermometer to itself a
+little while. Give it time to cool. It will come down to
+"temperate" by the time you look again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, brother!' cried Marianne, 'she's so good-humoured,
+don't tease her any more, and don't draw heads upon her
+paper, and don't stretch her india-rubber, and don't let us
+dirty any more of her brushes. See! the sides of her tumbler
+are all manner of colours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I only mixed red, blue, green, and yellow to show
+you, Marianne, that all colours mixed together make white.
+But she is temperate now, and I won't plague her; she shall
+chop logic, if she likes it, though she is a woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'But that's not fair, brother,' said Marianne, 'to say
+"woman" in that way. I'm sure Sophy found out how to tie
+that difficult knot, which papa showed us yesterday, long
+before you did, though you are a man.' 'Not long,' said
+Frederick. 'Besides, that was only a conjuring trick.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was very ingenious, though,' said Marianne; 'and papa
+said so. Besides, she understood the "Rule of Three," which
+was no conjuring trick, better than you did, though she is a
+woman; and she can reason, too, mamma says.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, let her reason away,' said the provoking wit.
+'All I have to say is, that she'll never be able to make a
+pudding.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not, pray, brother?' inquired Sophy, looking up
+again, very gravely.<span class="pagenum">[283]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Why, you know papa himself, the other day at dinner,
+said that that woman who talks Greek and Latin as well as I
+do, is a fool after all; and that she had better have learned
+something useful; and Mrs. Tattle said, she'd answer for it
+she did not know how to make a pudding.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well! but I am not talking Greek and Latin, am I?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, but you are drawing, and that's the same thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'The same thing! Oh, Frederick!' said little Marianne,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'You may laugh; but I say it is the same sort of thing.
+Women who are always drawing and reasoning never know
+how to make puddings. Mrs. Theresa Tattle said so, when
+I showed her Sophy's beautiful drawing yesterday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Theresa Tattle might say so,' replied Sophy, calmly;
+'but I do not perceive the reason, brother, why drawing should
+prevent me from learning how to make a pudding.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I say you'll never learn how to make a good
+pudding.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have learned,' continued Sophy, who was mixing her
+colours, 'to mix such and such colours together to make the
+colour that I want; and why should I not be able to learn to
+mix flour and butter, and sugar and egg, together, to produce
+the taste that I want?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but mixing will never do, unless you know the
+quantities, like a cook; and you would never learn the right
+quantities.'</p>
+
+<p>'How did the cook learn them? Cannot I learn them as
+she did?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but you'd never do it exactly, and mind the spoonfuls
+right, by the recipe, like a cook.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! indeed! but she would,' cried Marianne, eagerly;
+'and a great deal more exactly, for mamma has taught her to
+weigh and measure things very carefully; and when I was ill
+she always weighed the bark in nicely, and dropped my drops
+so carefully: better than the cook. When mamma took me
+down to see the cook make a cake once, I saw her spoonfuls,
+and her ounces, and her handfuls: she dashed and splashed
+without minding exactness, or the recipe, or anything. I'm
+sure Sophy would make a much better pudding, if exactness
+only were wanting.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i028f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i028t.jpg" alt="i028"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'She dashed and splashed without minding exactness, or the recipe, or anything.'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Well, granting that she could make the best pudding in<span class="pagenum">[285]</span>
+the whole world, what does that signify? I say she never
+would, so it comes to the same thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never would! how can you tell that, brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, now look at her, with her books, and her drawings,
+and all this apparatus. Do you think she would ever jump
+up, with all her nicety, too, and put by all these things, to go
+down into the greasy kitchen, and plump up to the elbows in
+suet, like a cook, for a plum-pudding?'</p>
+
+<p>'I need not plump up to the elbows, brother,' said Sophy,
+smiling, 'nor is it necessary that I should be a cook; but, if
+it were necessary, I hope I should be able to make a pudding.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes,' cried Marianne, warmly; 'and she would jump
+up, and put by all her things in a minute if it were necessary,
+and run downstairs and up again like lightning, or do anything
+that was ever so disagreeable to her, even about the
+suet, with all her nicety, brother, I assure you, as she used to
+do anything, everything for me, when I was ill last winter.
+Oh, brother, she can do anything; and she could make the
+best plum-pudding in the whole world, I'm sure, in a minute,
+if it were necessary.'</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">A knock</span> at the door, from Mrs. Theresa Tattle's servant,
+recalled Marianne to the business of the day.</p>
+
+<p>'There,' said Frederick, 'we have sent no answer all this
+time. It's necessary to think of that in a minute.'</p>
+
+<p>The servant came with his mistress's compliments, to let the
+young ladies and Mr. Frederick know that she was waiting tea
+for them.</p>
+
+<p>'Waiting! then we must go,' said Frederick.</p>
+
+<p>The servant opened the door wider, to let him pass, and
+Marianne thought she must follow her brother; so they went
+downstairs together, while Sophy gave her own message to the
+servant, and quietly stayed at her usual occupations.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tattle was seated at her tea-table, with a large plate
+of macaroons beside her, when Frederick and Marianne entered.
+She was 'delighted' they were come, and 'grieved' not to see<span class="pagenum">[286]</span>
+Miss Sophy along with them. Marianne coloured a little; for
+though she had precipitately followed her brother, and though
+he had quieted her conscience for a moment by saying, 'You
+know, papa and mamma told us to do what we thought best,'
+yet she did not feel quite pleased with herself; and it was not
+till after Mrs. Theresa had exhausted all her compliments and
+half her macaroons, that she could restore her spirits to their
+usual height.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Mr. Frederick,' said she after tea, 'you promised
+to make me laugh; and nobody can make me laugh so well
+as yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, brother,' said Marianne, 'show Mrs. Theresa Dr.
+Carbuncle eating his dinner; and I'll be Mrs. Carbuncle.'</p>
+
+<p><i>Marianne.</i> Now, my dear, what shall I help you to?</p>
+
+<p><i>Frederick.</i> 'My dear!' she never calls him my dear, you
+know, but always Doctor.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Well then, doctor, what will you eat to-day?</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Eat, madam! eat! nothing! nothing! I don't see
+anything here I can eat, ma'am.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Here's eels, sir; let me help you to some eel&mdash;stewed
+eel;&mdash;you used to be fond of stewed eel.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Used, ma'am, used! But I'm sick of stewed eels.
+You would tire one of anything. Am I to see nothing but eels?
+And what's this at the bottom?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Mutton, doctor, roast mutton; if you'll be so good as
+to cut it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Cut it, ma'am! I can't cut it, I say; it's as hard as a
+deal board. You might as well tell me to cut the table, ma'am.
+Mutton, indeed! not a bit of fat. Roast mutton, indeed! not
+a drop of gravy. Mutton, truly! quite a cinder. I'll have none
+of it. Here, take it away; take it downstairs to the cook. It's
+a very hard case, Mrs. Carbuncle, that I can never have a bit
+of anything that I can eat at my own table, Mrs. Carbuncle,
+since I was married, ma'am, I that am the easiest man in the
+whole world to please about my dinner. It's really very extraordinary,
+Mrs. Carbuncle! What have you at that corner there,
+under the cover?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Patties, sir; oyster patties.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Patties, ma'am! kickshaws! I hate kickshaws. Not
+worth putting under a cover, ma'am. And why not have glass
+covers, that one may see one's dinner before one, before it grows<span class="pagenum">[287]</span>
+cold with asking questions, Mrs. Carbuncle, and lifting up
+covers? But nobody has any sense; and I see no water plates
+anywhere, lately.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Do, pray, doctor, let me help you to a bit of chicken
+before it gets cold, my dear.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> (<i>aside</i>). 'My dear,' again, Marianne!</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Yes, brother, because she is frightened, you know,
+and Mrs. Carbuncle always says 'my dear' to him when she's
+frightened, and looks so pale from side to side; and sometimes
+she cries before dinner's done, and then all the company are
+quite silent, and don't know what to do.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, such a little creature; to have so much sense, too!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Theresa, with rapture. 'Mr. Frederick, you'll
+make me die with laughing! Pray go on, Dr. Carbuncle.'</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Well, ma'am, then if I must eat something, send me
+a bit of fowl; a leg and wing, the liver wing, and a bit of the
+breast, oyster sauce, and a slice of that ham, if you please,
+ma'am.</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>Dr. Carbuncle eats voraciously, with his head down to
+his plate, and, dropping the sauce, he buttons up his
+coat tight across the breast.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Here; a plate, knife and fork, bit o' bread, a glass
+of Dorchester ale!</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, admirable!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle, clapping her hands.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, brother, suppose that it is after dinner,' said
+Marianne; 'and show us how the doctor goes to sleep.'</p>
+
+<p>Frederick threw himself back in an arm-chair, leaning his
+head back, with his mouth open, snoring; nodded from time
+to time, crossed and uncrossed his legs, tried to awake himself
+by twitching his wig, settling his collar, blowing his nose, and
+rapping on the lid of his snuff-box.</p>
+
+<p>All which infinitely diverted Mrs. Tattle, who, when she
+could stop herself from laughing, declared 'it made her sigh,
+too, to think of the life poor Mrs. Carbuncle led with that man,
+and all for nothing, too; for her jointure was nothing, next to
+nothing, though a great thing, to be sure, her friends thought,
+for her, when she was only Sally Ridgeway before she was
+married. Such a wife as she makes,' continued Mrs. Theresa,
+lifting up her hands and eyes to heaven, 'and so much as she
+has gone through, the brute ought to be ashamed of himself if
+he does not leave her something extraordinary in his will; for<span class="pagenum">[288]</span>
+turn it which way she will, she can never keep a carriage, or
+live like anybody else, on her jointure, after all, she tells me,
+poor soul! A sad prospect, after her husband's death, to look
+forward to, instead of being comfortable, as her friends expected;
+and she, poor young thing! knowing no better when they
+married her! People should look into these things beforehand,
+or never marry at all, I say, Miss Marianne.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Marianne, who did not clearly comprehend this affair
+of the jointure, or the reason why Mrs. Carbuncle would be so
+unhappy after her husband's death, turned to Frederick, who
+was at that instant studying Mrs. Theresa as a future character
+to mimic. 'Brother,' said Marianne, 'now sing an Italian
+song for us like Miss Croker. Pray, Miss Croker, favour us
+with a song. Mrs. Theresa Tattle has never had the pleasure
+of hearing you sing; she's quite impatient to hear you sing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed, I am,' said Mrs. Theresa.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick put his hands before him affectedly. 'Oh, indeed,
+ma'am! indeed, ladies! I really am so hoarse, it distresses me
+so to be pressed to sing; besides, upon my word, I have quite
+left off singing. I've never sung once, except for very particular
+people, this winter.'</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> But Mrs. Theresa Tattle is a very particular person.
+I'm sure you'll sing for her.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fred.</i> Certainly, ma'am, I allow that you use a powerful
+argument; but I assure you now, I would do my best to oblige
+you, but I absolutely have forgotten all my English songs.
+Nobody hears anything but Italian now, and I have been so
+giddy as to leave my Italian music behind me. Besides, I
+make it a rule never to hazard myself without an accompaniment.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Oh, try, Miss Croker, for once.</p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>Frederick sings, after much preluding.</i>)</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Violante in the pantry,<br />
+Gnawing of a mutton-bone;<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; How she gnawed it,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; How she claw'd it,<br />
+When she found herself alone!
+</p></div>
+
+
+<p>'Charming!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle; 'so like Miss Croker,
+I'm sure I shall think of you, Mr. Frederick, when I hear her
+asked to sing again. Her voice, however, introduces her to very<span class="pagenum">[289]</span>
+pleasant parties, and she's a girl that's very much taken notice
+of, and I don't doubt will go off vastly well. She's a particular
+favourite of mine, you must know; and I mean to do her a
+piece of service the first opportunity, by saying something or
+other, that shall go round to her relations in Northumberland,
+and make them do something for her; as well they may, for
+they are all rolling in gold, and won't give her a penny.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mar.</i> Now, brother, read the newspaper like Counsellor
+Puff.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, pray do, Mr. Frederick, for I declare I admire you of
+all things! You are quite yourself to-night. Here's a newspaper,
+sir, pray let us have Counsellor Puff. It's not late.'</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="center">(<i>Frederick reads in a pompous voice.</i>)</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>'As a delicate white hand has ever been deemed a distinguishing
+ornament in either sex, Messrs. Valiant and Wise
+conceive it to be their duty to take the earliest opportunity to
+advertise the nobility and gentry of Great Britain in general,
+and their friends in particular, that they have now ready for
+sale, as usual, at the Hippocrates' Head, a fresh assortment of
+new-invented, much-admired primrose soap. To prevent impositions
+and counterfeits, the public are requested to take
+notice, that the only genuine primrose soap is stamped on the
+outside, "Valiant and Wise."'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you most incomparable mimic! 'tis absolutely the
+counsellor himself. I absolutely must show you, some day, to
+my friend Lady Battersby; you'd absolutely make her die with
+laughing; and she'd quite adore you,' said Mrs. Theresa, who
+was well aware that every pause must be filled with flattery.
+'Pray go on, pray go on. I shall never be tired, if I sit looking
+at you these hundred years.'</p>
+
+<p>Stimulated by these plaudits, Frederick proceeded to show
+how Colonel Epaulette blew his nose, flourished his cambric
+handkerchief, bowed to Lady Diana Periwinkle, and admired
+her work, saying, 'Done by no hands, as you may guess, but
+those of Fairly Fair.' Whilst Lady Diana, he observed, simpered
+so prettily, and took herself so quietly for Fairly Fair,
+not perceiving that the colonel was admiring his own nails all
+the while.</p>
+
+<p>Next to Colonel Epaulette, Frederick, at Marianne's particular
+desire, came into the room like Sir Charles Slang.<span class="pagenum">[290]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Very well, brother,' cried she, 'your hand down to the very
+bottom of your pocket, and your other shoulder up to your ear;
+but you are not quite wooden enough, and you should walk as
+if your hip were out of joint. There now, Mrs. Tattle, are not
+those good eyes? They stare so like his, without seeming to
+see anything all the while.'</p>
+
+<p>'Excellent! admirable! Mr. Frederick. I must say that
+you are the best mimic of your age I ever saw, and I'm sure
+Lady Battersby will think so too. That is Sir Charles to the
+very life. But with all that, you must know he's a mighty
+pleasant, fashionable young man when you come to know him,
+and has a great deal of sense under all that, and is of a very
+good family&mdash;the Slangs, you know. Sir Charles will come
+into a fine fortune himself next year, if he can keep clear of
+gambling, which I hear is his foible, poor young man! Pray
+go on. I interrupt you, Mr. Frederick.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, brother,' said Marianne.</p>
+
+<p>'No, Marianne, I can do no more. I'm quite tired, and I
+will do no more,' said Frederick, stretching himself at full
+length upon a sofa.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the midst of laughter, and whilst the voice of flattery
+yet sounded in his ear, Frederick felt sad, displeased with himself,
+and disgusted with Mrs. Theresa.</p>
+
+<p>'What a deep sigh was there!' said Mrs. Theresa; 'what
+can make you sigh so bitterly? You, who make everybody
+else laugh. Oh, such another sigh again!'</p>
+
+<p>'Marianne,' cried Frederick, 'do you remember the man in
+the mask?'</p>
+
+<p>'What man in the mask, brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'The man&mdash;the actor&mdash;the buffoon, that my father told us
+of, who used to cry behind the mask that made everybody else
+laugh.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cry! bless me,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'mighty odd! very
+extraordinary! but one can't be surprised at meeting with
+extraordinary characters amongst that race of people, actors
+by profession, you know; for they are brought up from the egg
+to make their fortune, or at least their bread, by their oddities.
+But, my dear Mr. Frederick, you are quite pale, quite exhausted;
+no wonder&mdash;what will you have? a glass of cowslip-wine?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, thank you, ma'am,' said Frederick.<span class="pagenum">[291]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; indeed you must not leave me without taking
+something; and Miss Marianne must have another macaroon.
+I insist upon it,' said Mrs. Theresa, ringing the bell. 'It is
+not late, and my man Christopher will bring up the cowslip-wine
+in a minute.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Sophy! and papa and mamma, you know, will come
+home presently,' said Marianne.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Miss Sophy has her books and drawings. You know
+she's never afraid of being alone. Besides, to-night it was her
+own choice. And as to your papa and mamma, they won't be
+home to-night, I'm pretty sure; for a gentleman, who had it
+from their own authority, told me where they were going,
+which is further off than they think; but they did not consult
+me; and I fancy they'll be obliged to sleep out; so you need
+not be in a hurry about them. We'll have candles.'</p>
+
+<p>The door opened just as Mrs. Tattle was going to ring the
+bell again for candles and the cowslip-wine. 'Christopher!
+Christopher!' said Mrs. Theresa, who was standing at the fire,
+with her back to the door, when it opened, 'Christopher! pray
+bring&mdash;&mdash;Do you hear?' but no Christopher answered; and,
+upon turning round, Mrs. Tattle, instead of Christopher, beheld
+two little black figures, which stood perfectly still and silent.
+It was so dark, that their forms could scarcely be discerned.</p>
+
+<p>'In the name of heaven, who and what may you be?
+Speak, I conjure you! what are ye?'</p>
+
+<p>'The chimney-sweepers, ma'am, an' please your ladyship.'</p>
+
+<p>'Chimney-sweepers!' repeated Frederick and Marianne,
+bursting out a-laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'Chimney-sweepers!' repeated Mrs. Theresa, provoked at
+the recollection of her late solemn address to them. 'Chimney-sweepers!
+and could not you say so a little sooner? Pray,
+what brings you here, gentlemen, at this time of night?'</p>
+
+<p>'The bell rang, ma'am,' answered a squeaking voice.</p>
+
+<p>'The bell rang! yes, for Christopher. The boy's mad, or
+drunk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ma'am,' said the taller of the chimney-sweepers, who had
+not yet spoken, and who now began in a very blunt manner;
+'ma'am, your brother desired us to come up when the bell
+rang; so we did.'</p>
+
+<p>'My brother? I have no brother, dunce,' said Mrs. Theresa.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Eden, madam.'<span class="pagenum">[292]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Ho, ho!' said Mrs. Tattle, in a more complacent tone,
+'the boy takes me for Miss Bertha Eden, I perceive'; and,
+flattered to be taken in the dark by a chimney-sweeper for a
+young and handsome lady, Mrs. Theresa laughed, and informed
+him 'that they had mistaken the room; and they must go up
+another pair of stairs, and turn to the left.'</p>
+
+<p>The chimney-sweeper with the squeaking voice bowed,
+thanked her ladyship for this information, said, 'Good-night to
+ye, quality'; and they both moved towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>'Stay,' said Mrs. Tattle, whose curiosity was excited; 'what
+can the Edens want with chimney-sweepers at this time o' night,
+I wonder? Christopher, did you hear anything about it?'
+said the lady to her footman, who was now lighting the
+candles.</p>
+
+<p>'Upon my word, ma'am,' said the servant, 'I can't say;
+but I'll step down below and inquire. I heard them talking
+about it in the kitchen; but I only got a word here and there,
+for I was hunting for the snuff-dish, as I knew it must be for
+candles when I heard the bell ring, ma'am; so I thought to find
+the snuff-dish before I answered the bell, for I knew it must be
+for candles you rang. But, if you please, I'll step down now,
+ma'am, and see about the chimney-sweepers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, step down, do; and, Christopher, bring up the cowslip-wine,
+and some more macaroons for my little Marianne.'</p>
+
+<p>Marianne withdrew rather coldly from a kiss which Mrs.
+Tattle was going to give her; for she was somewhat surprised
+at the familiarity with which this lady talked to her footman.
+She had not been accustomed to these familiarities in
+her father and mother, and she did not like them.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Mrs. Tattle to Christopher, who was now
+returned, 'what is the news?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ma'am, the little fellow with the squeaking voice has been
+telling me the whole story. The other morning, ma'am, early,
+he and the other were down the hill sweeping in Paradise Row.
+Those chimneys, they say, are difficult; and the square fellow,
+ma'am, the biggest of the two boys, got wedged in the chimney.
+The other little fellow was up at the top at the time, and he
+heard the cry; but in his fright, and all, he did not know what
+to do, ma'am; for he looked about from the top of the chimney,
+and not a soul could he see stirring, but a few that he could
+not make attend to his screech; the boy within almost stifling<span class="pagenum">[293]</span>
+too. So he screeched, and screeched, all he could; and by the
+greatest chance in life, ma'am, old Mr. Eden was just going
+down the hill to fetch his morning walk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' interrupted Mrs. Theresa, 'friend Ephraim is one of
+your early risers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?' said Marianne, impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>'So, ma'am, hearing the screech, he turns and sees the
+sweep; and at once he understands the matter&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure he must have taken some time to understand it,'
+interposed Mrs. Tattle, 'for he's the slowest creature breathing,
+and the deafest in company. Go on, Christopher. So the
+sweep did make him hear.'</p>
+
+<p>'So he says, ma'am; and so the old gentleman went in and
+pulled the boy out of the chimney, with much ado, ma'am.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me!' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa; 'but did old Eden
+go up the chimney himself after the boy, wig and all?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, ma'am,' said Christopher, with a look of great delight,
+'that was all as one, as the very 'dentical words I put to the
+boy myself, when he telled me his story. But, ma'am, that was
+what I couldn't get out of him, neither, rightly, for he is a churl&mdash;the
+big boy that was stuck in the chimney, I mean; for
+when I put the question to him about the wig, laughing like, he
+wouldn't take it laughing like at all; but would only make
+answer to us like a bear, 'He saved my life, that's all I know';
+and this over again, ma'am, to all the kitchen round, that cross-questioned
+him. But I finds him stupid and ill-mannered like,
+for I offered him a shilling, ma'am, myself, to tell about the
+wig; but he put it back in a way that did not become such as
+he, to no lady's butler, ma'am; whereupon I turns to the slim
+fellow (and he's smarterer, and more mannerly, ma'am, with a
+tongue in his head for his betters), but he could not resolve
+me my question either; for he was up at the top of the
+chimney the best part o' the time; and when he came down
+Mr. Eden had his wig on, but had his arm all bare and bloody,
+ma'am.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Mr. Eden!' exclaimed Marianne.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, miss,' continued the servant, 'and the chimney-sweep
+himself was so bruised, and must have been killed.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well! but he's alive now; go on with your story,
+Christopher,' said Mrs. T. 'Chimney-sweepers get wedged in
+chimneys every day; it's part of their trade, and it's a happy<span class="pagenum">[294]</span>
+thing when they come off with a few bruises.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> To be sure,'
+added she, observing that both Frederick and Marianne looked
+displeased at this speech, 'to be sure, if one may believe this
+story, there was some real danger.'</p>
+
+<p>'Real danger! yes, indeed,' said Marianne; 'and I'm sure
+I think Mr. Eden was very good.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly it was a most commendable action, and quite
+providential. So I shall take an opportunity of saying, when I
+tell the story in all companies; and the boy may thank his kind
+stars, I'm sure, to the end of his days, for such an escape&mdash;&mdash;But
+pray, Christopher,' said she, persisting in her conversation
+with Christopher, who was now laying the cloth for supper,
+'pray, which house was it in Paradise Row? where the Eagles
+or the Miss Ropers lodge? or which?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was at my Lady Battersby's, ma'am.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ha! ha!' cried Mrs. Theresa, 'I thought we should get
+to the bottom of the affair at last. This is excellent! This
+will make an admirable story for my Lady Battersby the next
+time I see her. These Quakers are so sly! Old Eden, I know,
+has long wanted to obtain an introduction into that house; and
+a charming charitable expedient hit upon! My Lady Battersby
+will enjoy this, of all things.'</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<p class="noin">'<span class="smcap">Now</span>,' continued Mrs. Theresa, turning to Frederick, as soon
+as the servant had left the room, 'now, Mr. Frederick Montague,
+I have a favour&mdash;such a favour&mdash;to ask of you; it's a favour
+which only you can grant; you have such talents, and would
+do the thing so admirably; and my Lady Battersby would
+quite adore you for it. She will do me the honour to be here
+to spend an evening to-morrow. I'm convinced Mr. and Mrs.
+Montague will find themselves obliged to stay out another day,
+and I so long to show you off to her ladyship; and your Doctor
+Carbuncle, and your Counsellor Puff, and your Miss Croker,
+and all your charming characters. You must let me introduce
+you to her ladyship to-morrow evening. Promise me.'</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[295]</span></p>
+<p>'Oh, ma'am,' said Frederick, 'I cannot promise you any
+such thing, indeed. I am much obliged to you; but indeed I
+cannot come.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not, my dear sir? why not? You don't think I mean
+you should promise, if you are certain your papa and mamma
+will be home.'</p>
+
+<p>'If they do come home, I will ask them about it,' said
+Frederick, hesitating; for though he by no means wished to
+accept the invitation, he had not yet acquired the necessary
+power of decidedly saying No.</p>
+
+<p>'Ask them!' repeated Mrs. Theresa. 'My dear sir, at
+your age, must you ask your papa and mamma about such
+things?'</p>
+
+<p>'Must! no, ma'am,' said Frederick; 'but I said I would.
+I know I need not, because my father and mother always let
+me judge for myself almost about everything.'</p>
+
+<p>'And about this, I am sure,' cried Marianne. 'Papa and
+mamma, you know, just as they were going away, said, "If
+Mrs. Theresa asks you to come, do as you think best."'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'you know it rests with
+yourselves, if you may do as you please.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure I may, madam,' said Frederick, colouring from
+that species of emotion which is justly called false shame, and
+which often conquers real shame; 'to be sure, ma'am, I may
+do as I please.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I may make sure of you,' said Mrs. Theresa; 'for
+now it would be downright rudeness to tell a lady you won't
+do as she pleases. Mr. Frederick Montague, I'm sure, is too
+well-bred a young gentleman to do so unpolite, so ungallant a
+thing!'</p>
+
+<p>The jargon of politeness and gallantry is frequently brought
+by the silly acquaintance of young people to confuse their simple
+morality and clear good sense. A new and unintelligible
+system is presented to them in a language foreign to their
+understanding, and contradictory to their feelings. They
+hesitate between new motives and old principles. From the
+fear of being thought ignorant, they become affected; and from
+the dread of being thought to be children act like fools. But
+all this they feel only when they are in the company of such
+people as Mrs. Theresa Tattle.</p>
+
+<p>'Ma'am,' Frederick began, 'I don't mean to be rude; but I<span class="pagenum">[296]</span>
+hope you'll excuse me from coming to drink tea with you to-morrow,
+because my father and mother are not acquainted with
+Lady Battersby, and maybe they might not like&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Take care, take care,' said Mrs. Theresa, laughing at his
+perplexity; 'you want to get off from obliging me, and you
+don't know how. You had very nearly made a most shocking
+blunder in putting it all upon poor Lady Battersby. Now you
+know it's impossible that Mr. and Mrs. Montague could have in
+nature the slightest objection to introducing you to my Lady
+Battersby at my own house; for, don't you know, that, besides
+her ladyship's many unquestionable qualities, which one need
+not talk of, she is cousin, but once removed, to the Trotters of
+Lancashire&mdash;your mother's great favourites? And there is not
+a person at the Wells, I'll venture to say, could be of more
+advantage to your sister Sophy, in the way of partners, when
+she comes to go to balls, which it's to be supposed she will,
+some time or other; and as you are so good a brother, that's a
+thing to be looked to, you know. Besides, as to yourself, there's
+nothing her ladyship delights in so much as in a good mimic;
+and she'll quite adore you!'</p>
+
+<p>'But I don't want her to adore me, ma'am,' said Frederick,
+bluntly; then, correcting himself, added, 'I mean for being a
+mimic.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not, my love? Between friends, can there be any
+harm in showing one's talents? You that have such talents to
+show. She'll keep your secret, I'll answer for her; and,' added
+she, 'you needn't be afraid of her criticism; for, between you
+and me, she's no great critic: so you'll come. Well, thank
+you, that's settled. How you have made me beg and pray!
+but you know your own value, I see; as you entertaining
+people always do. One must ask a wit, like a fine singer, so
+often. Well, but now for the favour I was going to ask you.'</p>
+
+<p>Frederick looked surprised; for he thought that the favour
+of his company was what she meant; but she explained herself
+farther.</p>
+
+<p>'As to the old Quaker who lodges above, old Ephraim Eden&mdash;my
+Lady Battersby and I have so much diversion about him.
+He is the best character, the oddest creature! If you were but
+to see him come into the rooms with those stiff skirts, or walking
+with his eternal sister Bertha, and his everlasting broad-brimmed
+hat! One knows him a mile off! But then his voice<span class="pagenum">[297]</span>
+and way, and altogether, if one could get them to the life,
+they'd be better than anything on the stage; better even than
+anything I've seen to-night; and I think you'd make a capital
+Quaker for my Lady Battersby; but then the thing is, one can
+never get to hear the old quiz talk. Now you, who have so
+much invention and cleverness&mdash;I have no invention myself&mdash;but
+could you not hit upon some way of seeing him, so that you
+might get him by heart? I'm sure you, who are so quick,
+would only want to see him, and hear him, for half a minute,
+to be able to take him off, so as to kill one with laughing. But
+I have no invention.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, as to the invention,' said Frederick, 'I know an
+admirable way of doing the thing, if that is all; but then
+remember, I don't say I will do the thing, for I will not. But
+I know a way of getting up into his room, and seeing him,
+without his knowing me to be there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, tell it me, you charming, clever creature!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, remember, I do not say I will do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, let us hear it; and you shall do as you please
+afterwards. Merciful goodness!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle, 'do
+my ears deceive me? I declare I looked round, and thought I
+heard the squeaking chimney-sweeper was in the room!'</p>
+
+<p>'So did I, Frederick, I declare,' cried Marianne, laughing,
+'I never heard anything so like his voice in my life.'</p>
+
+<p>Frederick imitated the squeaking voice of this chimney-sweeper
+to great perfection.</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' continued he, 'this fellow is just my height. The
+old Quaker, if my face were blackened, and if I were to change
+clothes with the chimney-sweeper, I'll answer for it, would
+never know me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it's an admirable invention! I give you infinite credit
+for it!' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa. 'It shall, it must be done.
+I'll ring, and have the fellow up this minute.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no; do not ring,' said Frederick, stopping her hand,
+'I don't mean to do it. You know you promised that I should
+do as I pleased. I only told you my invention.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well; but only let me ring, and ask whether the
+chimney-sweepers are below. You shall do as you please
+afterwards.'</p>
+
+<p>'Christopher, shut the door. Christopher,' said she to the
+servant who came up when she rang, 'pray are the sweeps gone<span class="pagenum">[298]</span>
+yet?' 'No, ma'am.' 'But have they been up to old Eden
+yet?' 'Oh no, ma'am; nor be not to go till the bell rings;
+for Miss Bertha, ma'am, was asleep a-lying down, and her
+brother wouldn't have her wakened on no account whatsomever.
+He came down hisself to the kitchen to the sweeps, though;
+but wouldn't have, as I heard him say, his sister waked for no
+account. But Miss Bertha's bell will ring when she wakens for
+the sweeps, ma'am. 'Twas she wanted to see the boy as her
+brother saved, and I suppose sent for 'em to give him something
+charitable, ma'am.' 'Well, never mind your suppositions,'
+said Mrs. Theresa; 'run down this very minute to the little
+squeaking chimney-sweep, and send him up to me. Quick, but
+don't let the other bear come up with him.'</p>
+
+<p>Christopher, who had curiosity as well as his mistress, when
+he returned with the chimney-sweeper, prolonged his own stay
+in the room by sweeping the hearth, throwing down the tongs
+and shovel, and picking them up again.</p>
+
+<p>'That will do, Christopher! Christopher, that will do, I say,'
+Mrs. Theresa repeated in vain. She was obliged to say,
+'Christopher, you may go,' before he would depart.</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said she to Frederick, 'step in here to the next
+room with this candle, and you'll be equipped in an instant.
+Only just change clothes with the boy; only just let me see
+what a charming chimney-sweeper you'd make. You shall do
+as you please afterwards.' 'Well, I'll only change clothes with
+him, just to show you for one minute.'</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said Marianne to Mrs. Theresa whilst Frederick was
+changing his clothes, 'I think Frederick is right about&mdash;&mdash;' 'About
+what, love?' 'I think he is in the right not to go up,
+though he can do it so easily, to see that gentleman; I mean
+on purpose to mimic and laugh at him afterwards. I don't
+think that would be quite right.' 'Why, pray, Miss Marianne?'
+'Why, because he is so good-natured to his sister. He would
+not let her be wakened.' 'Dear, it's easy to be good in such
+little things; and he won't have long to be good to her neither;
+for I don't think she will trouble him long in this world, anyhow.'
+'What do you mean?' said Marianne. 'That she'll
+die, child.' 'Die! die with that beautiful colour in her cheeks!
+How sorry her poor, poor brother will be! But she will not
+die, I'm sure, for she walks about, and runs upstairs so lightly!
+Oh, you must be quite mistaken, I hope.' 'If I'm mistaken,<span class="pagenum">[299]</span>
+Dr. Panado Cardamum's mistaken too, then, that's my comfort.
+He says, unless the waters work a miracle, she stands a bad
+chance; and she won't follow my advice, and consult the doctor
+for her health.' 'He would frighten her to death, perhaps,'
+said Marianne. 'I hope Frederick won't go up to disturb her.'
+'Lud, child, you are turned simpleton all of a sudden; how
+can your brother disturb her more than the real chimney-sweeper?'
+'But I don't think it's right,' persisted Marianne,
+'and I shall tell him so.' 'Nay, Miss Marianne, I don't commend
+you now. Young ladies should not be so forward to give
+opinions and advice to their elder brothers unasked; and I
+presume that Mr. Frederick and I must know what's right as
+well as Miss Marianne. Hush! here he is. Oh, the capital
+figure!' cried Mrs. Theresa. 'Bravo, bravo!' cried she, as
+Frederick entered in the chimney-sweeper's dress; and as he
+spoke, saying, 'I'm afraid, please your ladyship, to dirt your
+ladyship's carpet,' she broke out into immoderate raptures,
+calling him 'her charming chimney-sweeper!' and repeating
+that she knew beforehand the character would do for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Theresa instantly rang the bell, in spite of all expostulation&mdash;ordered
+Christopher to send up the other chimney-sweeper&mdash;triumphed
+in observing that Christopher did not
+know Frederick when he came into the room; and offered to
+lay any wager that the other chimney-sweeper would mistake
+him for his companion. And so he did; and when Frederick
+spoke, the voice was so very like, that it was scarcely possible
+that he should have perceived the difference.</p>
+
+<p>Marianne was diverted by this scene; but she started
+when, in the midst of it, they heard a bell ring. 'That's the
+lady's bell, and we must go,' said the blunt chimney-sweeper.
+'Go, then, about your business,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'and
+here's a shilling for you, to drink, my honest fellow. I did not
+know you were so much bruised when I first saw you. I won't
+detain you. Go,' said she, pushing Frederick towards the
+door. Marianne sprang forward to speak to him; but Mrs.
+Theresa kept her off; and, though Frederick resisted, the lady
+shut the door upon him by superior force, and, having locked
+it, there was no retreat. Mrs. Tattle and Marianne waited
+impatiently for Frederick's return. 'I hear them,' cried
+Marianne, 'I hear them coming downstairs.' They listened<span class="pagenum">[300]</span>
+again, and all was silent. At length they suddenly heard a
+great noise of many steps in the hall. 'Merciful!' exclaimed
+Mrs. Theresa, 'it must be your father and mother come back.'
+Marianne ran to unlock the room door, and Mrs. Theresa
+followed her into the hall. The hall was rather dark, but
+under the lamp a crowd of people; all the servants in the
+house having gathered together.</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Theresa approached, the crowd opened in silence,
+and in the midst she beheld Frederick, with blood streaming
+from his face. His head was held by Christopher; and the
+chimney-sweeper was holding a basin for him. 'Merciful!
+what will become of me?' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa. 'Bleeding!
+he'll bleed to death! Can nobody think of anything that
+will stop blood in a minute? A key, a large key down his
+back&mdash;a key&mdash;has nobody a key? Mr. and Mrs. Montague
+will be here before he has done bleeding. A key! cobwebs!
+a puff ball! for mercy's sake! Can nobody think of anything
+that will stop blood in a minute? Gracious me! he'll bleed to
+death, I believe.'</p>
+
+<p>'He'll bleed to death! Oh, my brother!' cried Marianne,
+catching hold of the words; and terrified, she ran upstairs, crying,
+'Sophy, oh, Sophy! come down this minute, or he'll be
+dead! My brother's bleeding to death! Sophy! Sophy!
+come down, or he'll be dead!'</p>
+
+<p>'Let go the basin, you,' said Christopher, pulling the basin
+out of the chimney-sweeper's hand, who had all this time stood
+in silence; 'you are not fit to hold the basin for a gentleman.'
+'Let him hold it,' said Frederick; 'he did not mean to hurt
+me.' 'That's more than he deserves. I'm certain sure he
+might have known well enough it was Mr. Frederick all the
+time, and he'd no business to go to fight&mdash;such a one as he&mdash;with
+a gentleman.' 'I did not know he was a gentleman,'
+said the chimney-sweeper! 'how could I?' 'How could he,
+indeed?' said Frederick; 'he shall hold the basin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gracious me! I'm glad to hear him speak like himself
+again, at any rate,' cried Mrs. Theresa. 'And here comes Miss
+Sophy, too.' 'Sophy!' cried Frederick. 'Oh, Sophy, don't
+you come&mdash;don't look at me; you'll despise me.' 'My
+brother!&mdash;where? where?' said Sophy, looking, as she
+thought, at the two chimney-sweepers.</p>
+
+<p>'It's Frederick,' said Marianne; 'that's my brother.'<span class="pagenum">[301]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Miss Sophy, don't be alarmed,' Mrs. Theresa began; 'but
+gracious goodness! I wish Miss Bertha&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>At this instant a female figure in white appeared upon the
+stairs; she passed swiftly on, whilst every one gave way before
+her. 'Oh, Miss Bertha!' cried Mrs. Theresa, catching hold
+of her gown to stop her, as she came near Frederick. 'Oh,
+Miss Eden, your beautiful India muslin! take care of the
+chimney-sweeper, for heaven's sake.' But she pressed forward.</p>
+
+<p>'It's my brother, will he die?' cried Marianne, throwing
+her arms round her, and looking up as if to a being of a
+superior order. 'Will he bleed to death?' 'No, my love!'
+answered a sweet voice; 'do not frighten thyself.'</p>
+
+<p>'I've done bleeding,' said Frederick. 'Dear me, Miss
+Marianne, if you would not make such a rout,' cried Mrs.
+Tattle. 'Miss Bertha, it's nothing but a frolic. You see Mr.
+Frederick Montague only in a masquerade dress. Nothing in
+the world but a frolic, ma'am. You see he's stopped bleeding.
+I was frightened out of my wits at first. I thought it was his
+eye, but I see it's only his nose. All's well that ends well.
+Mr. Frederick, we'll keep your counsel. Pray, ma'am, let us
+ask no questions; it's only a boyish frolic. Come, Mr.
+Frederick, this way, into my room, and I'll give you a towel
+and some clean water, and you can get rid of this masquerade
+dress. Make haste, for fear your father and mother should
+drop in upon us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not be afraid of thy father and mother. They are
+surely thy best friends,' said a voice. It was the voice of an
+elderly gentleman, who now stood behind Frederick. 'Oh,
+sir, oh, Mr. Eden,' said Frederick, turning to him. 'Don't
+betray me! for goodness' sake!' whispered Mrs. Tattle, 'say
+nothing about me.' 'I'm not thinking about you. Let me
+speak,' cried he, pushing away her hand, which stopped his
+mouth. 'I shall say nothing about you, I promise you,' said
+Frederick, with a look of contempt. 'No, but for your own
+sake, my dear sir, your papa and mamma. Bless me! is not
+that Mrs. Montague's carriage?'</p>
+
+<p>'My brother, ma'am,' said Sophy, 'is not afraid of my
+father and mother's coming back. Let him speak; he was
+going to speak the truth.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure, Miss Sophia, I wouldn't hinder him from
+speaking the truth; but it's not proper, I presume, ma'am, to<span class="pagenum">[302]</span>
+speak truth at all times, and in all places, and before everybody,
+servants and all. I only wanted, ma'am, to hinder your
+brother from exposing himself. A hall, I apprehend, is not a
+proper place for explanation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here,' said Mr. Eden, opening the door of his room, which
+was on the opposite side of the hall to Mrs. Tattle's. 'Here
+is a place,' said he to Frederick, 'where thou mayst speak the
+truth at all times, and before everybody.' 'Nay, my room's
+at Mr. Frederick Montague's service, and my door's open too.
+This way, pray,' said she, pulling his arm. But Frederick
+broke from her, and followed Mr. Eden. 'Oh, sir, will you
+forgive me?' cried he. 'Forgive thee!&mdash;and what have I to
+forgive?' 'Forgive, brother, without asking what,' said
+Bertha, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'He shall know all!' cried Frederick; 'all that concerns
+myself, I mean. Sir, I disguised myself in this dress; I came
+up to your room to-night on purpose to see you, without your
+knowing it, that I might mimic you. The chimney-sweeper,
+where is he?' said Frederick, looking round; and he ran into
+the hall to seek for him. 'May he come in? he may&mdash;he is a
+brave, an honest, good, grateful boy. He never guessed who I
+was. After we left you we went down to the kitchen together,
+and there, fool as I was, for the pleasure of making Mr.
+Christopher and the servants laugh, began to mimic you.
+This boy said he would not stand by and hear you laughed at;
+that you had saved his life; that I ought to be ashamed of
+myself; that you had just given me half a crown; and so you
+had; but I went on, and told him I'd knock him down if he
+said another word. He did; I gave the first blow; we
+fought; I came to the ground; the servants pulled me up
+again. They found out, I don't know how, that I was not a
+chimney-sweeper. The rest you saw. And now can you
+forgive me, sir?' said Frederick to Mr. Eden, seizing hold of
+his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'The other hand, friend,' said the Quaker, gently withdrawing
+his right hand, which everybody now observed was much
+swelled, and putting it into his bosom again. 'This, and
+welcome,' offering his other hand to Frederick, and shaking his
+with a smile. 'Oh, that other hand!' said Frederick, 'that
+was hurt, I remember. How ill I have behaved&mdash;extremely
+ill! But this is a lesson that I shall never forget as long as I<span class="pagenum">[303]</span>
+live. I hope for the future I shall behave like a gentleman.'
+'And like a man&mdash;and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,'
+said the good Quaker, shaking Frederick's hand affectionately;
+'or I am much mistaken, friend, in that black countenance.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are not mistaken,' cried Marianne. 'Frederick will
+never be persuaded again by anybody to do what he does not
+think right; and now, brother you may wash your black
+countenance.'</p>
+
+<p>Just when Frederick had got rid of half his black countenance,
+a double knock was heard at the door. It was Mr. and
+Mrs. Montague. 'What will you do now?' whispered Mrs.
+Theresa to Frederick, as his father and mother came into the
+room. 'A chimney-sweeper covered with blood!' exclaimed
+Mr. and Mrs. Montague. 'Father, I am Frederick,' said he,
+stepping forward towards them, as they stood in astonishment.
+'Frederick! my son!' 'Yes, mother, I'm not hurt half so
+much as I deserve; I'll tell you&mdash;&mdash;' 'Nay,' interrupted
+Bertha, 'let my brother tell the story this time. Thou hast
+told it once, and told it well; no one but my brother could tell
+it better.'</p>
+
+<p>'A story never tells so well the second time, to be sure,'
+said Mrs. Theresa; 'but Mr. Eden will certainly make the
+best of it.'</p>
+
+<p>Without taking any notice of Mrs. Tattle, or her apprehensive
+looks, Mr. Eden explained all he knew of the affair in a
+few words. 'Your son,' concluded he, 'will quickly put off his
+dirty dress. The dress hath not stained the mind; that is fair
+and honourable. When he found himself in the wrong, he said
+so; nor was he in haste to conceal his adventure from his
+father; this made me think well of both father and son. I
+speak plainly, friend, for that is best. But what is become
+of the other chimney-sweeper? He will want to go home,'
+said Mr. Eden, turning to Mrs. Theresa. Without making
+any reply, she hurried out of the room as fast as possible,
+and returned in a few moments, with a look of extreme
+consternation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i029f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i029t.jpg" alt="i029"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'And like a man&mdash;and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,' said the good Quaker
+shaking Frederick's hand affectionately</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Here is a catastrophe indeed! Now, indeed, Mr. Frederick,
+your papa and mamma have reason to be angry. A new suit
+of clothes!&mdash;the barefaced villain! gone! no sign of them in
+my closet, or anywhere. The door was locked; he must have
+gone up the chimney, out upon the leads, and so escaped; but<span class="pagenum">[305]</span>
+Christopher is after him. I protest, Mrs. Montague, you take
+it too quietly. The wretch!&mdash;a new suit of clothes, blue coat
+and buff waistcoat. I never heard of such a thing! I declare,
+Mr. Montague, you are vastly good, not to be in a passion,'
+added Mrs. Theresa.</p>
+
+<p>'Madam,' replied Mr. Montague, with a look of much civil
+contempt, 'I think the loss of a suit of clothes, and even the
+disgrace that my son has been brought to this evening, fortunate
+circumstances in his education. He will, I am persuaded, judge
+and act for himself more wisely in future. Not will he be
+tempted to offend against humanity, for the sake of being
+called "The best mimic in the world."'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[307]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_BARRING_OUT" id="THE_BARRING_OUT"></a>THE BARRING OUT<br />OR,<br />PARTY SPIRIT</h2>
+
+<p class="noin">'<span class="smcap">The</span> mother of mischief,' says an old proverb, 'is no bigger
+than a midge's wing.'</p>
+
+<p>At Doctor Middleton's school there was a great tall dunce
+of the name of Fisher, who never could be taught how to look
+out a word in the dictionary. He used to torment everybody
+with&mdash;'Do pray help me! I can't make out this one word.'
+The person who usually helped him in his distress was a very
+clever, good-natured boy, of the name of De Grey, who had
+been many years under Dr. Middleton's care, and who, by his
+abilities and good conduct, did him great credit. The doctor
+certainly was both proud and fond of him; but he was so well
+beloved, or so much esteemed, by his companions, that nobody
+had ever called him by the odious name of favourite, until the
+arrival of a new scholar of the name of Archer.</p>
+
+<p>Till Archer came, the ideas of <i>favourites</i> and <i>parties</i> were
+almost unknown at Dr. Middleton's; but he brought all these
+ideas fresh from a great public school, at which he had been
+educated&mdash;at which he had acquired a sufficient quantity of
+Greek and Latin, and a superabundant quantity of party spirit.
+His aim, the moment he came to a new school, was to get to
+the head of it, or at least to form the strongest party. His
+influence, for he was a boy of considerable abilities, was quickly
+felt, though he had a powerful rival, as he thought proper to
+call him, in De Grey; and, with <i>him</i>, a rival was always an
+enemy. De Grey, so far from giving him any cause of hatred,<span class="pagenum">[308]</span>
+treated him with a degree of cordiality which would probably
+have had an effect upon Archer's mind, if it had not been for
+the artifices of Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>It may seem surprising that a <i>great dunce</i> should be able
+to work upon a boy like Archer, who was called a great
+genius; but when genius is joined to a violent temper, instead
+of being united to good sense, it is at the mercy even of
+dunces.</p>
+
+<p>Fisher was mortally offended one morning by De Grey's
+refusing to translate his whole lesson for him. He went over
+to Archer, who, considering him as a partisan deserting from
+the enemy, received him with open arms, and translated his
+whole lesson, without expressing <i>much</i> contempt for his
+stupidity. From this moment Fisher forgot all De Grey's
+former kindness, and considered only how he could in his
+turn mortify the person whom he felt to be so much his
+superior.</p>
+
+<p>De Grey and Archer were now reading for a premium,
+which was to be given in their class. Fisher betted on Archer's
+head, who had not sense enough to despise the bet of a blockhead.
+On the contrary, he suffered him to excite the spirit of
+rivalship in its utmost fury by collecting the bets of all the
+school. So that this premium now became a matter of the
+greatest consequence, and Archer, instead of taking the means
+to secure a judgment in his favour, was listening to the opinions
+of all his companions. It was a prize which was to be won
+by his own exertions; but he suffered himself to consider it
+as an affair of chance. The consequence was, that he trusted
+to chance&mdash;his partisans lost their wagers, and he the premium&mdash;and
+his temper.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Archer,' said Dr. Middleton, after the grand affair was
+decided, 'you have done all that genius alone could do; but
+you, De Grey, have done all that genius and industry united
+could do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well!' cried Archer, with affected gaiety, as soon as the
+doctor had left the room&mdash;'well, I'm content with <i>my</i> sentence.
+Genius alone for me&mdash;industry for those who <i>want</i> it,' added
+he, with a significant look at De Grey.</p>
+
+<p>Fisher applauded this as a very spirited speech; and, by
+insinuations that Dr. Middleton 'always gave the premium to
+De Grey,' and 'that those who had lost their bets might thank<span class="pagenum">[309]</span>
+themselves for it, for being such simpletons as to bet against
+the favourite,' he raised a murmur highly flattering to Archer
+amongst some of the most credulous boys; whilst others loudly
+proclaimed their belief in Dr. Middleton's impartiality. These
+warmly congratulated De Grey. At this Archer grew more
+and more angry, and when Fisher was proceeding to speak
+nonsense <i>for</i> him, pushed forward into the circle to De Grey,
+crying, 'I wish, Mr. Fisher, you would let me fight my own
+battles!'</p>
+
+<p>'And <i>I</i> wish,' said young Townsend, who was fonder of
+diversions than of premiums, or battles, or of anything else&mdash;'<i>I</i>
+wish that we were not to have any battles; after having
+worked like horses, don't set about to fight like dogs. Come,'
+said he, tapping De Grey's shoulder, 'let us see your new
+playhouse, do&mdash;it's a holiday, and let us make the most of it.
+Let us have the "School for Scandal," do; and I'll play Charles
+for you, and you, De Grey, shall be <i>my little Premium</i>. Come,
+do open this new playhouse of yours to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come then!' said De Grey, and he ran across the playground
+to a waste building at the farthest end of it, in which,
+at the earnest request of the whole community, and with the
+permission of Dr. Middleton, he had with much pain and
+ingenuity erected a theatre.</p>
+
+<p>'The new theatre is going to be opened! Follow the
+manager! Follow the manager!' echoed a multitude of
+voices.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Follow the manager!</i>' echoed very disagreeably in Archer's
+ear; but as he could not be <i>left alone</i>, he was also obliged to
+follow the manager. The moment that the door was unlocked,
+the crowd rushed in; the delight and wonder expressed at the
+sight were great, and the applause and thanks which were bestowed
+upon the manager were long and loud.</p>
+
+<p>Archer at least thought them long, for he was impatient till
+his voice could be heard. When at length the acclamations
+had spent themselves, he walked across the stage with a
+knowing air, and looking round contemptuously&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'And is <i>this</i> your famous playhouse?' cried he. 'I wish
+you had, any of you, seen the playhouse <i>I</i> have been used to?'</p>
+
+<p>These words made a great and visible change in the feelings
+and opinions of the public. 'Who would be a servant of the
+public? or who would toil for popular applause?' A few words<span class="pagenum">[310]</span>
+spoken in a decisive tone by a new voice operated as a charm,
+and the playhouse was in an instant metamorphosed in the eyes
+of the spectators. All gratitude for the past was forgotten, and
+the expectation of something better justified to the capricious
+multitude their disdain of what they had so lately pronounced
+to be excellent.</p>
+
+<p>Every one now began to criticise. One observed 'that the
+green curtain was full of holes, and would not draw up.'
+Another attacked the scenes. 'Scenes! they were not like
+real scenes&mdash;Archer must know best, because he was used to
+these things.' So everybody crowded to hear something of the
+<i>other</i> playhouse. They gathered round Archer to hear the
+description of his playhouse, and at every sentence insulting
+comparisons were made. When he had done, his auditors
+looked round, sighed, and wished that Archer had been their
+manager. They turned from De Grey as from a person who
+had done them an injury. Some of his friends&mdash;for he had
+friends who were not swayed by the popular opinion&mdash;felt
+indignation at this ingratitude, and were going to express
+their feelings; but De Grey stopped them, and begged that
+he might speak for himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Gentlemen,' said he, coming forward, as soon as he felt
+that he had sufficient command of himself. 'My friends, I see
+you are discontented with me and my playhouse. I have done
+my best to please you; but if anybody else can please you
+better, I shall be glad of it. I did not work so hard for the
+glory of being your manager. You have my free leave to tear
+down&mdash;&mdash;' Here his voice faltered, but he hurried on&mdash;'You
+have my free leave to tear down all my work as fast as you
+please. Archer, shake hands first, however, to show that
+there's no malice in the case.'</p>
+
+<p>Archer, who was touched by what his rival said, and
+stopping the hand of his new partisan, Fisher, cried, 'No,
+Fisher! no!&mdash;no pulling down. We can alter it. There is a
+great deal of ingenuity in it, considering.'</p>
+
+<p>In vain Archer would now have recalled the public to reason,&mdash;the
+time for reason was past: enthusiasm had taken hold
+of their minds. 'Down with it! Down with it! Archer for
+ever!' cried Fisher, and tore down the curtain. The riot once
+begun, nothing could stop the little mob, till the whole theatre
+was demolished. The love of power prevailed in the mind of<span class="pagenum">[311]</span>
+Archer; he was secretly flattered by the zeal of his <i>party</i>, and
+he mistook their love of mischief for attachment to himself.
+De Grey looked on superior. 'I said I could bear to see all
+this, and I can,' said he; 'now it is all over.' And now it
+was all over, there was silence. The rioters stood still to take
+breath, and to look at what they had done. There was a
+blank space before them.</p>
+
+<p>In this moment of silence there was heard something like
+a female voice. 'Hush! What strange voice is that?' said
+Archer. Fisher caught fast hold of his arm. Everybody
+looked round to see where the voice came from. It was dusk.
+Two window-shutters at the farthest end of the building were
+seen to move slowly inwards. De Grey, and in the same
+instant Archer, went forward; and, as the shutters opened,
+there appeared through the hole the dark face and shrivelled
+hands of a very old gipsy. She did not speak; but she looked
+first at one and then at another. At length she fixed her eyes
+on De Grey. 'Well, my good woman,' said he, 'what do you
+want with me?' 'Want!&mdash;nothing&mdash;with <i>you</i>,' said the old
+woman; 'do you want nothing with <i>me</i>?' 'Nothing,' said
+De Grey. Her eye immediately turned upon Archer,&mdash;'<i>You</i>
+want something with me,' said she, with emphasis. 'I&mdash;what
+do I want?' replied Archer. 'No,' said she, changing her
+tone, 'you want nothing&mdash;nothing will you ever want, or I am
+much mistaken in that <i>face</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>In that <i>watch-chain</i>, she should have said, for her quick eye
+had espied Archer's watch-chain. He was the only person in
+the company who had a watch, and she therefore judged him
+to be the richest.</p>
+
+<p>'Had you ever your fortune told, sir, in your life?' 'Not
+I,' said he, looking at De Grey, as if he was afraid of his
+ridicule, if he listened to the gipsy. 'Not you! No! for you
+will make your own fortune, and the fortune of all that belong
+to you!'</p>
+
+<p>'There's good news for my friends,' cried Archer. 'And
+I'm one of them, remember that,' cried Fisher. 'And I,'
+'And I,' joined a number of voices. 'Good luck to them!'
+cried the gipsy, 'good luck to them all!'</p>
+
+<p>Then, as soon as they had acquired sufficient confidence in
+her good will, they pressed up to the window. 'There,' cried
+Townsend, as he chanced to stumble over the carpenter's mitre<span class="pagenum">[312]</span>
+box, which stood in the way, 'there's a good omen for me.
+I've stumbled on the mitre box; I shall certainly be a bishop.'</p>
+
+<p>Happy he who had sixpence, for he bid fair to be a judge
+upon the bench. And happier he who had a shilling, for he
+was in the high road to be one day upon the woolsack, Lord
+High Chancellor of England. No one had half-a-crown, or
+no one would surely have kept it in his pocket upon such an
+occasion, for he might have been an archbishop, a king, or
+what he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>Fisher, who like all weak people was extremely credulous,
+had kept his post immovable in the front row all the time, his
+mouth open, and his stupid eyes fixed upon the gipsy, in whom
+he felt implicit faith.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have least confidence in their own powers, and
+who have least expectation from the success of their own exertions,
+are always most disposed to trust in fortune-tellers and
+fortune. They hope to <i>win</i>, when they cannot <i>earn</i>; and as
+they can never be convinced by those who speak sense, it is
+no wonder they are always persuaded by those who talk
+nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>'I have a question to put,' said Fisher, in a solemn tone.
+'Put it, then,' said Archer, 'what hinders you?' 'But they
+will hear me,' said he, looking suspiciously at De Grey. '<i>I</i>
+shall not hear you,' said De Grey, 'I am going.' Everybody
+else drew back, and left him to whisper his question in the
+gipsy's ear. 'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your <i>sister</i>
+Livy, do you mean?' said the gipsy. 'No, my <i>Latin</i> Livy.'</p>
+
+<p>The gipsy paused for information. 'It had a leaf torn out
+in the beginning, and <i>I hate Dr. Middleton</i>&mdash;&mdash;' 'Written in
+it,' interrupted the gipsy. 'Right&mdash;the very book!' cried
+Fisher with joy. 'But how <i>could</i> you know it was Dr. Middleton's
+name? I thought I had scratched it, so that nobody
+could make it out.' 'Nobody <i>could</i> make it out but <i>me</i>,' replied
+the gipsy. 'But never think to deceive me,' said she, shaking
+her head at him in a manner that made him tremble. 'I don't
+deceive you indeed, I tell you the whole truth. I lost it a week
+ago.' 'True.' 'And when shall I find it?' 'Meet me here
+at this hour to-morrow evening, and I will answer you. No
+more! I must be gone. Not a word more to-night.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i030f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i030t.jpg" alt="i030"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your sister Livy, do you mean?'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>She pulled the shutters towards her, and left the youth in
+darkness. All his companions were gone. He had been so<span class="pagenum">[314]</span>
+deeply engaged in this conference, that he had not perceived
+their departure. He found all the world at supper, but no
+entreaties could prevail upon him to disclose his secret. Townsend
+rallied in vain. As for Archer, he was not disposed to
+destroy by ridicule the effect which he saw that the old
+woman's predictions in his favour had had upon the imagination
+of many of his little partisans. He had privately slipped
+two good shillings into the gipsy's hand to secure her; for he
+was willing to pay any price for <i>any</i> means of acquiring
+power.</p>
+
+<p>The watch-chain had not deceived the gipsy, for Archer
+was the richest person in the community. His friends had imprudently
+supplied him with more money than is usually trusted
+to boys of his age. Dr. Middleton had refused to give him a
+larger monthly allowance than the rest of his companions; but
+he brought to school with him secretly the sum of five guineas.
+This appeared to his friends and to himself an inexhaustible
+treasure.</p>
+
+<p>Riches and talents would, he flattered himself, secure to him
+that ascendency of which he was so ambitious. 'Am I your
+manager or not?' was now his question. 'I scorn to take
+advantage of a hasty moment; but since last night you have
+had time to consider. If you desire me to be your manager,
+you shall see what a theatre I will make for you. In this
+purse,' said he, showing through the network a glimpse of the
+shining treasure&mdash;'in this purse is Aladdin's wonderful lamp.
+Am I your manager? Put it to the vote.'</p>
+
+<p>It was put to the vote. About ten of the most reasonable
+of the assembly declared their gratitude and high approbation
+of their old friend, De Grey; but the numbers were in favour
+of the new friend. And as no metaphysical distinctions relative
+to the idea of a majority had ever entered their thoughts, the
+most numerous party considered themselves as now beyond
+dispute in the right. They drew off on one side in triumph,
+and their leader, who knew the consequence of a name in party
+matters, immediately distinguished his partisans by the gallant
+name of <i>Archers</i>, stigmatising the friends of De Grey by the
+odious epithet of Greybeards.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the Archers was a class not very remarkable for
+their mental qualifications; but who, by their bodily activity,
+and by the peculiar advantages annexed to their way of life,<span class="pagenum">[315]</span>
+rendered themselves of the highest consequence, especially to
+the rich and enterprising.</p>
+
+<p>The judicious reader will apprehend that I allude to the
+persons called day scholars. Amongst these, Fisher was
+distinguished by his knowledge of all the streets and shops in
+the adjacent town; and, though a dull scholar, he had such
+reputation as a man of business that whoever had commissions
+to execute at the confectioner's was sure to apply to him.
+Some of the youngest of his employers had, it is true, at times
+complained that he made mistakes of halfpence and pence in
+their accounts; but as these affairs could never be brought to
+a public trial, Fisher's character and consequence were undiminished,
+till the fatal day when his Aunt Barbara forbade
+his visits to the confectioner's; or rather, till she requested the
+confectioner, who had his private reasons for obeying her, not
+<i>to receive</i> her nephew's visits, as he had made himself sick at
+his house, and Mrs. Barbara's fears for his health were incessant.</p>
+
+<p>Though his visits to the confectioner's were thus at an end,
+there were many other shops open to him; and with officious
+zeal he offered his services to the new manager, to purchase
+whatever might be wanting for the theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Since his father's death Fisher had become a boarder at
+Dr. Middleton's, but his frequent visits to his Aunt Barbara
+afforded him opportunities of going into the town. The carpenter,
+De Grey's friend, was discarded by Archer, for having
+said '<i>lack-a-daisy!</i>' when he saw that the old theatre was
+pulled down. A new carpenter and paper-hanger, recommended
+by Fisher, were appointed to attend, with their tools,
+for orders, at two o'clock. Archer, impatient to show his
+ingenuity and his generosity, gave his plan and his orders in a
+few minutes, in a most decided manner. 'These things,' he
+observed, 'should be done with some spirit.'</p>
+
+<p>To which the carpenter readily assented, and added that
+'gentlemen of spirit never looked to the <i>expense</i>, but always to
+the <i>effect</i>.' Upon this principle Mr. Chip set to work with all
+possible alacrity. In a few hours' time he promised to produce
+a grand effect. High expectations were formed. Nothing was
+talked of but the new playhouse; and so intent upon it was
+every head, that no lessons could be got. Archer was obliged,
+in the midst of his various occupations, to perform the part of
+grammar and dictionary for twenty different people.<span class="pagenum">[316]</span></p>
+
+<p>'O ye Athenians!' he exclaimed, 'how hard do I work to
+obtain your praise!'</p>
+
+<p>Impatient to return to the theatre, the moment the hours
+destined for instruction, or, as they are termed by schoolboys,
+school-hours, were over each prisoner started up with a shout
+of joy.</p>
+
+<p>'Stop one moment, gentlemen, if you please,' said Dr.
+Middleton, in an awful voice. 'Mr. Archer, return to your
+place. Are you all here?' The names of all the boys were
+called over, and when each had answered to his name, Dr.
+Middleton said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Gentlemen, I am sorry to interrupt your amusements; but,
+till you have contrary orders from me, no one, on pain of my
+serious displeasure, must go into <i>that</i> building' (pointing to
+the place where the theatre was erecting). 'Mr. Archer, your
+carpenter is at the door. You will be so good as to dismiss
+him. I do not think proper to give my reasons for these
+orders; but you who <i>know</i> me,' said the doctor, and his eye
+turned towards De Grey, 'will not suspect me of caprice. I
+depend, gentlemen, upon your obedience.'</p>
+
+<p>To the dead silence with which these orders were received,
+succeeded in a few minutes a universal groan. 'So!' said
+Townsend, 'all our diversion is over.' 'So,' whispered Fisher
+in the manager's ear, 'this is some trick of the Greybeards'.
+Did you not observe how he looked at De Grey?'</p>
+
+<p>Fired by this thought, which had never entered his mind
+before, Archer started from his reverie, and striking his hand
+upon the table, swore that he 'would not be outwitted by any
+Greybeard in Europe&mdash;no, nor by all of them put together.
+The Archers were surely a match for them. He would stand
+by them, if they would stand by him,' he declared, with a loud
+voice, 'against the whole world, and Dr. Middleton himself,
+with "<i>Little Premium</i>" at his right hand.'</p>
+
+<p>Everybody admired Archer's spirit, but was a little appalled
+at the sound of standing against Dr. Middleton.</p>
+
+<p>'Why not?' resumed the indignant manager. 'Neither
+Dr. Middleton nor any doctor upon earth shall treat me with
+injustice. This, you see, is a stroke at me and my party, and
+I won't bear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you are mistaken!' said De Grey, who was the only
+one who dared to oppose reason to the angry orator. 'It cannot<span class="pagenum">[317]</span>
+be a stroke aimed at "you and your party," for he does
+not know that you <i>have</i> a party.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll make him know it, and I'll make <i>you</i> know it, too,' said
+Archer. 'Before I came here you reigned alone; now your
+reign is over, Mr. De Grey. Remember my majority this
+morning, and your theatre last night.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has remembered it,' said Fisher. 'You see, the
+moment he was not to be our manager, we were to have no
+theatre, no playhouse, no plays. We must all sit down with
+our hands before us&mdash;all for "<i>good reasons</i>" of Dr. Middleton's,
+which he does not vouchsafe to tell us.'</p>
+
+<p>'I won't be governed by any man's reasons that he won't
+tell me,' cried Archer. 'He cannot have good reasons, or why
+not tell them?' 'Nonsense!' said De Grey. '<i>We shall not
+suspect him of caprice!</i>' 'Why not?' 'Because we who know
+him have never known him capricious.' 'Perhaps not. <i>I</i>
+know nothing about him,' said Archer. 'No,' said De Grey;
+'for that very reason <i>I</i> speak who do know him. Don't be in
+a passion, Archer.' 'I will be in a passion. I won't submit
+to tyranny. I won't be made a fool of by a few soft words.
+You don't know me, De Grey. I'll go through with what I've
+begun. I am manager, and I will be manager; and you shall
+see my theatre finished in spite of you, and <i>my</i> party
+triumphant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Party,' repeated De Grey. 'I cannot imagine what is in
+the word "party" that seems to drive you mad. We never
+heard of parties till you came amongst us.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; before I came, I say, nobody dared oppose you; but
+<i>I</i> dare; and I tell you to your face, take care of me&mdash;a warm
+friend and a bitter enemy is my motto.' 'I am not your
+enemy! I believe you are out of your senses, Archer!' said
+he, laughing. 'Out of my senses! No; you are my enemy!
+Are you not my rival? Did you not win the premium? Did
+not you want to be manager? Answer me, are not you, in one
+word, a Greybeard?' 'You called me a Greybeard, but my
+name is De Grey,' said he, still laughing. 'Laugh on!' cried
+the other, furiously. 'Come, <i>Archers</i>, follow me. <i>We</i> shall
+laugh by-and-by, I promise you.' At the door Archer was
+stopped by Mr. Chip. 'Oh, Mr. Chip, I am ordered to discharge
+you.' 'Yes, sir; and here's a little bill&mdash;&mdash;' 'Bill,
+Mr. Chip! why, you have not been at work for two hours!'
+<span class="pagenum">[318]</span>
+'Not much over, sir; but if you'll please to look into it, you'll
+see 'tis for a few things you ordered. The stuff is all laid out and
+delivered. The paper and the festoon-bordering for the drawing-room
+scene is cut out, and left y<i>a</i>nder within.' 'Y<i>a</i>nder
+within! I wish you had not been in such a confounded hurry&mdash;six-and-twenty
+shillings!' cried he; 'but I can't stay to talk
+about it now. I'll tell you, Mr. Chip,' said Archer, lowering
+his voice, 'what you must do for me, my good fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>Then, drawing Mr. Chip aside, he begged him to pull down
+some of the woodwork which had been put up, and to cut it
+into a certain number of wooden bars, of which he gave him
+the dimensions, with orders to place them all, when ready,
+under a haystack, which he pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Chip scrupled and hesitated, and began to talk of '<i>the
+doctor</i>.' Archer immediately began to talk of the bill, and
+throwing down a guinea and a half, the conscientious carpenter
+pocketed the money directly, and made his bow.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Master Archer,' said he, 'there's no refusing you
+nothing. You have such a way of talking one out of it. You
+manage me just like a child.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, ay!' said Archer, knowing that he had been cheated,
+and yet proud of managing a carpenter, 'ay, ay! I know the
+way to manage everybody. Let the things be ready in an
+hour's time; and hark'e! leave your tools by mistake behind
+you, and a thousand of twenty-penny nails. Ask no questions,
+and keep your own counsel like a wise man. Off with you,
+and take care of "<i>the doctor</i>."'</p>
+
+<p>'Archers, Archers, to the Archers' tree! Follow your
+leader,' cried he, sounding his well-known whistle as a signal.
+His followers gathered round him, and he, raising himself
+upon the mount at the foot of the tree, counted his numbers,
+and then, in a voice lower than usual, addressed them thus:&mdash;
+'My friends, is there a Greybeard amongst us? If there is, let
+him walk off at once, he has my free leave.' No one stirred.
+'Then we are all Archers, and we will stand by one another.
+Join hands, my friends.' They all joined hands. 'Promise
+me not to betray me, and I will go on. I ask no security but
+your honour.' They all gave their honour to be secret and
+<i>faithful</i>, as he called it, and he went on. 'Did you ever hear
+of such a thing as a "<i>Barring Out</i>," my friends?' They
+had heard of such a thing, but they had only heard of it.<span class="pagenum">[319]</span></p>
+
+<p>Archer gave the history of a 'Barring Out' in which he
+had been concerned at his school, in which the boys stood out
+against the master, and gained their point at last, which was a
+week's more holidays at Easter.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> 'But if <i>we</i> should not
+succeed,' said they, 'Dr. Middleton is so steady; he never
+goes back from what he has said.' 'Did you ever try to push
+him back? Let us be steady and he'll tremble. Tyrants
+always tremble when&mdash;&mdash;' 'Oh,' interrupted a number of voices,
+'but he is not a tyrant&mdash;is he?' 'All schoolmasters are
+tyrants&mdash;are not they?' replied Archer; 'and is not he a
+schoolmaster?' To this logic there was no answer; but, still
+reluctant, they asked, 'What they should <i>get</i> by a Barring
+Out?' 'Get!&mdash;everything!&mdash;what we want!&mdash;which is everything
+to lads of spirit&mdash;victory and liberty! Bar him out till
+he repeals his tyrannical law; till he lets us into our own
+theatre again, or till he tells us his "<i>good reasons</i>" against it.'
+'But perhaps he has reasons for not telling us.' 'Impossible!'
+cried Archer; 'that's the way we are always to be governed
+by a man in a wig, who says he has good reasons, and can't
+tell them. Are you fools? Go! go back to De Grey! I see
+you are all Greybeards. Go! Who goes first?' Nobody
+would go <i>first</i>. 'I will have nothing to do with ye, if ye are
+resolved to be slaves!' 'We won't be slaves!' they all exclaimed
+at once. 'Then,' said Archer, 'stand out in the right
+and be free.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>The right.</i>' It would have taken up too much time to
+examine what 'the right' was. Archer was always sure that
+<span class="pagenum">[320]</span>'<i>the right</i>' was what his party chose to do; that is, what he
+chose to do himself; and such is the influence of numbers
+upon each other, in conquering the feelings of shame and in
+confusing the powers of reasoning, that in a few minutes 'the
+right' was forgotten, and each said to himself, 'To be sure,
+Archer is a very clever boy, and he can't be mistaken'; or,
+'To be sure, Townsend thinks so, and he would not do anything
+to get us into a scrape'; or, 'To be sure, everybody will agree
+to this but myself, and I can't stand out alone, to be pointed
+at as a Greybeard and a slave. Everybody thinks it is right,
+and everybody can't be wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>By some of these arguments, which passed rapidly through
+the mind without his being conscious of them, each boy decided,
+and deceived himself&mdash;what none would have done alone, none
+scrupled to do as a party. It was determined, then, that there
+should be a Barring Out. The arrangement of the affair was
+left to their new manager, to whom they all pledged implicit
+obedience. Obedience, it seems, is necessary, even from
+rebels to their ringleaders; not reasonable, but implicit
+obedience.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the assembly adjourned to the Ball-alley, when
+Fisher, with an important length of face, came up to the
+manager, and desired to speak one word to him. 'My advice
+to you, Archer, is, to do nothing in this till we have consulted
+<i>you know who</i>, about whether it's right or wrong.' '"<i>You
+know who</i>"! Whom do you mean? Make haste, and don't
+make so many faces, for I'm in a hurry. Who is "<i>You know
+who</i>"?' 'The old woman,' said Fisher, gravely; 'the gipsy.'
+'You may consult the old woman,' said Archer, bursting out
+a-laughing, 'about what's right and wrong, if you please, but
+no old woman shall decide for me.' 'No; but you don't <i>take</i>
+me,' said Fisher; 'you don't <i>take</i> me. By right and wrong,
+I mean lucky and unlucky.' 'Whatever <i>I</i> do will be lucky,'
+replied Archer. 'My gipsy told you that already.' 'I know,
+I know,' said Fisher, 'and what she said about your friends
+being lucky&mdash;that went a great way with many,' added he, with
+a sagacious nod of his head, 'I can tell you <i>that</i>&mdash;more than
+you think. Do you know,' said he, laying hold of Archer's
+button, 'I'm in the secret? There are nine of us have crooked
+our little fingers upon it, not to stir a step till we get her
+advice; and she has appointed me to meet her about particular<span class="pagenum">[321]</span>
+business of my own at eight. So I'm to consult her and to
+bring her answer.'</p>
+
+<p>Archer knew too well how to govern fools to attempt to
+reason with them; and, instead of laughing any longer at
+Fisher's ridiculous superstition, he was determined to take
+advantage of it. He affected to be persuaded of the wisdom of
+the measure; looked at his watch; urged him to be exact to a
+moment; conjured him to remember exactly the words of the
+oracle; and, above all things, to demand the lucky hour and
+minute when the Barring Out should begin. With these
+instructions Archer put his watch into the solemn dupe's hand,
+and left him to count the seconds till the moment of his appointment,
+whilst he ran off himself to prepare the oracle.</p>
+
+<p>At a little gate which looked into a lane, through which he
+guessed that the gipsy must pass, he stationed himself, saw
+her, gave her half-a-crown and her instructions, made his escape,
+and got back unsuspected to Fisher, whom he found in the
+attitude in which he had left him, watching the motion of the
+minute hand.</p>
+
+<p>Proud of his secret commission, Fisher slouched his hat, he
+knew not why, over his face, and proceeded towards the appointed
+spot. To keep, as he had been charged by Archer,
+within the letter of the law, he stood <i>behind</i> the forbidden
+building, and waited some minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Through a gap in the hedge the old woman at length made
+her appearance, muffled up, and looking cautiously about her.
+'There's nobody near us!' said Fisher, and he began to be a
+little afraid. 'What answer,' said he, recollecting himself,
+'about my Livy?' 'Lost! lost! lost!' said the gipsy, lifting
+up her hands; 'never, never, never to be found! But no
+matter for that now: that is not your errand to-night; no
+tricks with me; speak to me of what is next your heart.'</p>
+
+<p>Fisher, astonished, put his hand upon his heart, told her all
+that she knew before, and received the answers that Archer
+had dictated: 'That the Archers should be lucky as long as
+they stuck to their manager and to one another; that the
+Barring Out should end in woe, if not begun precisely as the
+clock should strike nine on Wednesday night; but if begun in
+that <i>lucky</i> moment, and all obedient to their <i>lucky</i> leader, all
+should end well.'</p>
+
+<p>A thought, a provident thought, now struck Fisher; for<span class="pagenum">[322]</span>
+even he had some foresight where his favourite passion was
+concerned. 'Pray, in our Barring Out shall we be starved?'
+'No,' said the gipsy, 'not if you trust to me for food, and if
+you give me money enough. Silver won't do for so many;
+gold is what must cross my hand.' 'I have no gold,' said
+Fisher, 'and I don't know what you mean by "so many."
+I'm only talking of number one, you know. I must take care
+of that first.'</p>
+
+<p>So, as Fisher thought it was possible that Archer, clever as
+he was, might be disappointed in his supplies, he determined
+to take secret measures for himself. His Aunt Barbara's interdiction
+had shut him out of the confectioner's shop; but he
+flattered himself that he could outwit his aunt; he therefore
+begged the gipsy to procure him twelve buns by Thursday
+morning, and bring them secretly to one of the windows of the
+schoolroom.</p>
+
+<p>As Fisher did not produce any money when he made this
+proposal, it was at first absolutely rejected; but a bribe at
+length conquered his difficulties: and the bribe which Fisher
+found himself obliged to give&mdash;for he had no pocket money
+left of his own, he being as much <i>restricted</i> in that article as
+Archer was <i>indulged</i>&mdash;the bribe that he found himself obliged
+to give to quiet the gipsy was half-a-crown, which Archer had
+entrusted to him to buy candles for the theatre. 'Oh,' thought
+he to himself, 'Archer's so careless about money, he will
+never think of asking me for the half-crown again; and now
+he'll want no candles for the <i>theatre</i>; or, at any rate, it will be
+some time first; and maybe Aunt Barbara may be got to
+give me that much at Christmas; then, if the worst comes to
+the worst, one can pay Archer. My mouth waters for the
+buns, and have 'em I must now.'</p>
+
+<p>So, for the hope of twelve buns, he sacrificed the money
+which had been entrusted to him. Thus the meanest motives,
+in mean minds, often prompt to the commission of those great
+faults to which one should think nothing but some violent
+passion could have tempted.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassador having thus, in his opinion, concluded his
+own and the public business, returned well satisfied with the
+result, after receiving the gipsy's reiterated promise to tap <i>three
+times</i> at the window on Thursday morning.</p>
+
+<p>The day appointed for the Barring Out at length arrived;<span class="pagenum">[323]</span>
+and Archer, assembling the confederates, informed them that
+all was prepared for carrying their design into execution; that
+he now depended for success upon their punctuality and
+courage. He had, within the last two hours, got all their bars
+ready to fasten the doors and window shutters of the schoolroom;
+he had, with the assistance of two of the day scholars
+who were of the party, sent into the town for provisions, at his
+own expense, which would make a handsome supper for that
+night; he had also negotiated with some cousins of his, who
+lived in the town, for a constant supply in future. 'Bless me,'
+exclaimed Archer, suddenly stopping in this narration of his
+services, 'there's one thing, after all, I've forgot, we shall be
+undone without it. Fisher, pray did you ever buy the candles
+for the playhouse?' 'No, to be sure,' replied Fisher, extremely
+frightened; 'you know you don't want candles for the
+playhouse now.' 'Not for the playhouse, but for the Barring
+Out. We shall be in the dark, man. You must run this
+minute, run.' 'For candles?' said Fisher, confused; 'how
+many?&mdash;what sort?' 'Stupidity!' exclaimed Archer, 'you
+are a pretty fellow at a dead lift! Lend me a pencil and a
+bit of paper, do; I'll write down what I want myself! Well,
+what are you fumbling for?' 'For money!' said Fisher,
+colouring. 'Money, man! Didn't I give you half-a-crown the
+other day?' 'Yes,' replied Fisher, stammering; 'but I wasn't
+sure that that might be enough.' 'Enough! yes, to be sure it
+will. I don't know what you are <i>at</i>.' 'Nothing, nothing,'
+said Fisher; 'here, write upon this, then,' said Fisher, putting a
+piece of paper into Archer's hand, upon which Archer wrote
+his orders. 'Away, away!' cried he.</p>
+
+<p>Away went Fisher. He returned; but not until a considerable
+time afterwards. They were at supper when he
+returned. 'Fisher always comes in at supper-time,' observed
+one of the Greybeards, carelessly. 'Well, and would you
+have him come in <i>after</i> supper-time?' said Townsend, who
+always supplied his party with ready <i>wit</i>. 'I've got the
+candles,' whispered Fisher as he passed by Archer to his place.
+'And the tinder-box?' said Archer. 'Yes; I got back from
+my Aunt Barbara under pretence that I must study for repetition
+day an hour later to-night. So I got leave. Was not
+that clever?'</p>
+
+<p>A dunce always thinks it clever to cheat even by <i>sober lies</i>.<span class="pagenum">[324]</span>
+How Mr. Fisher procured the candles and the tinder-box
+without money and without credit we shall discover
+further on.</p>
+
+<p>Archer and his associates had agreed to stay the last in the
+schoolroom; and as soon as the Greybeards were gone out to
+bed, he, as the signal, was to shut and lock one door, Townsend
+the other. A third conspirator was to strike a light, in
+case they should not be able to secure a candle. A fourth
+was to take charge of the candle as soon as lighted; and all
+the rest were to run to their bars, which were secreted in a
+room; then to fix them to the common fastening bars of the
+window, in the manner in which they had been previously
+instructed by the manager. Thus each had his part assigned,
+and each was warned that the success of the whole depended
+upon their order and punctuality.</p>
+
+<p>Order and punctuality, it appears, are necessary even in a
+Barring Out; and even rebellion must have its laws.</p>
+
+<p>The long-expected moment at length arrived. De Grey
+and his friends, unconscious of what was going forward, walked
+out of the schoolroom as usual at bedtime. The clock began
+to strike nine. There was one Greybeard left in the room,
+who was packing up some of his books, which had been left
+about by accident. It is impossible to describe the impatience
+with which he was watched, especially by Fisher and the nine
+who depended upon the gipsy oracle.</p>
+
+<p>When he had got all his books together under his arm, he
+let one of them fall; and whilst he stooped to pick it up,
+Archer gave the signal. The doors were shut, locked, and
+double-locked in an instant. A light was struck and each ran
+to his post. The bars were all in the same moment put up to
+the windows, and Archer, when he had tried them all, and
+seen that they were secure, gave a loud 'Huzza!'&mdash;in which
+he was joined by all the party most manfully&mdash;by all but the
+poor Greybeard, who, the picture of astonishment, stood
+stock still in the midst of them with his books under his arm;
+at which spectacle Townsend, who enjoyed the <i>frolic</i> of the
+fray more than anything else, burst into an immoderate fit of
+laughter. 'So, my little Greybeard,' said he, holding a candle
+full in his eyes, 'what think you of all this?&mdash;How came you
+amongst the wicked ones?' 'I don't know, indeed,' said the
+little boy, very gravely; 'you shut me up amongst you.<span class="pagenum">[325]</span>
+Won't you let me out?' 'Let you out! No, no, my little
+Greybeard,' said Archer, catching hold of him and dragging
+him to the window bars. 'Look ye here&mdash;touch these&mdash;put
+your hand to them&mdash;pull, push, kick&mdash;put a little spirit into it,
+man&mdash;kick like an Archer, if you can; away with ye. It's a
+pity that the king of the Greybeards is not here to admire me.
+I should like to show him our fortifications. But come, my
+merry men all, now to the feast. Out with the table into the
+middle of the room. Good cheer, my jolly Archers! I'm your
+manager!'</p>
+
+<p>Townsend, delighted with the bustle, rubbed his hands
+and capered about the room, whilst the preparations for the
+feast were hurried forward. 'Four candles!&mdash;Four candles
+on the table. Let's have things in style when we are about it,
+Mr. Manager,' cried Townsend. 'Places!&mdash;Places! There's
+nothing like a fair scramble, my boys. Let every one take
+care of himself. Hallo, Greybeard! I've knocked Greybeard
+down here in the scuffle. Get up again, my lad, and see a
+little life.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' cried Fisher, 'he shan't <i>sup</i> with us.' 'No, no,'
+cried the manager, 'he shan't <i>live</i> with us; a Greybeard is
+not fit company for Archers.' 'No, no,' cried Townsend,
+'evil communication corrupts good manners.'</p>
+
+<p>So with one unanimous hiss they hunted the poor little
+gentle boy into a corner; and having pent him up with
+benches, Fisher opened his books for him, which he thought
+the greatest mortification, and set up a candle beside him.
+'There, now he looks like a Greybeard as he is!' cried they.
+'Tell me what's the Latin for cold roast beef?' said Fisher,
+exultingly, and they returned to their feast.</p>
+
+<p>Long and loud they revelled. They had a few bottles of
+cider. 'Give me the corkscrew, the cider shan't be kept till
+it's sour,' cried Townsend, in answer to the manager, who, when
+he beheld the provisions vanishing with surprising rapidity,
+began to fear for the morrow. 'Hang to-morrow!' cried
+Townsend, 'let Greybeards think of to-morrow; Mr. Manager,
+here's your good health.'</p>
+
+<p>The Archers all stood up as their cups were filled, to drink
+the health of their chief with a universal cheer. But at the
+moment that the cups were at their lips, and as Archer bowed
+to thank the company, a sudden shower from above astonished<span class="pagenum">[326]</span>
+the whole assembly. They looked up, and beheld the rose of
+a watering-engine, whose long neck appeared through a trap-door
+in the ceiling. 'Your good health, Mr. Manager!' said
+a voice, which was known to be the gardener's; and in the
+midst of their surprise and dismay the candles were suddenly
+extinguished; the trap-door shut down; and they were left in
+utter darkness.</p>
+
+<p>'The <i>Devil</i>!' said Archer. 'Don't swear, Mr. Manager,'
+said the same voice from the ceiling, 'I hear every word you
+say.' 'Mercy upon us!' exclaimed Fisher. 'The clock,'
+added he, whispering, 'must have been wrong, for it had
+not done striking when we began. Only, you remember,
+Archer, it had just done before you had done locking your
+door.' 'Hold your tongue, blockhead!' said Archer. 'Well,
+boys! were ye never in the dark before? You are not afraid
+of a shower of rain, I hope. Is anybody drowned?' 'No,'
+said they, with a faint laugh, 'but what shall we do here in the
+dark all night long, and all day to-morrow? We can't unbar
+the shutters.' 'It's a wonder <i>nobody</i> ever thought of the trap-door!'
+said Townsend.</p>
+
+<p>The trap-door had indeed escaped the manager's observation.
+As the house was new to him, and the ceiling being
+newly whitewashed, the opening was scarcely perceptible.
+Vexed to be out-generalled, and still more vexed to have it
+remarked, Archer poured forth a volley of incoherent exclamations
+and reproaches against those who were thus so soon discouraged
+by a trifle; and groping for the tinder-box, he asked
+if anything could be easier than to strike a light again.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> The
+light appeared. But at the moment that it made the tinder-box
+visible, another shower from above, aimed, and aimed
+exactly, at the tinder-box, drenched it with water, and rendered
+it totally unfit for further service. Archer in a fury dashed it
+to the ground. And now for the first time he felt what it was
+to be the unsuccessful head of a party. He heard in his turn
+the murmurs of a discontented, changeable populace; and
+recollecting all his bars and bolts, and ingenious contrivances,
+he was more provoked at their blaming him for this one only
+oversight than he was grieved at the disaster itself.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my hair is all wet!' cried one, dolefully. 'Wring it
+then,' said Archer. 'My hand's cut with your broken glass,'
+<span class="pagenum">[327]</span>
+cried another. 'Glass!' cried a third; 'mercy! is there broken
+glass? and it's all about, I suppose, amongst the supper; and
+I had but one bit of bread all the time.' 'Bread!' cried Archer;
+'eat if you want it. Here's a piece here, and no glass near it.'
+'It's all wet, and I don't like dry bread by itself; that's no feast.'</p>
+
+<p>'Heigh-day! What, nothing but moaning and grumbling!
+If these are the joys of <i>a Barring Out</i>,' cried Townsend, 'I'd
+rather be snug in my bed. I expected that we should have sat
+up till twelve o'clock, talking, and laughing, and singing.' 'So
+you may still; what hinders you?' said Archer. 'Sing, and
+we'll join you, and I should be glad those fellows overhead
+heard us singing. Begin, Townsend&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Come, now, all ye social Powers,<br />
+Spread your influence o'er us&mdash;
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Or else&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!<br />
+Britons never will be slaves.'
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more melancholy than forced merriment.
+In vain they roared in chorus. In vain they tried to appear
+gay. It would not do. The voices died away, and dropped
+off one by one. They had each provided himself with a greatcoat
+to sleep upon; but now, in the dark, there was a peevish
+scrambling contest for the coats, and half the company, in very
+bad humour, stretched themselves upon the benches for the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>There is great pleasure in bearing anything that has the
+appearance of hardship, as long as there is any glory to be
+acquired by it; but when people feel themselves foiled, there
+is no further pleasure in endurance; and if, in their misfortune,
+there is any mixture of the ridiculous, the motives for heroism
+are immediately destroyed. Dr. Middleton had probably
+considered this in the choice he made of his first attack.</p>
+
+<p>Archer, who had spent the night as a man who had the
+cares of government upon his shoulders, rose early in the
+morning, whilst everybody else was fast asleep. In the night
+he had resolved the affair of the trap-door, and a new danger
+had alarmed him. It was possible that the enemy might
+descend upon them through the trap-door. The room had
+been built high to admit a free circulation of air. It was<span class="pagenum">[328]</span>
+twenty feet, so that it was in vain to think of reaching to the
+trap-door.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the daylight appeared, Archer rose softly, that
+he might <i>reconnoitre</i>, and devise some method of guarding
+against this new danger. Luckily there were round holes in
+the top of the window-shutters, which admitted sufficient light
+for him to work by. The remains of the soaked feast, wet
+candles, and broken glass spread over the table in the middle
+of the room, looked rather dismal this morning.</p>
+
+<p>'A pretty set of fellows I have to manage!' said Archer,
+contemplating the group of sleepers before him. 'It is well
+they have somebody to think for them. Now if I wanted&mdash;which,
+thank goodness, I don't&mdash;but if I did want to call a
+cabinet council to my assistance, whom could I pitch upon?&mdash;not
+this stupid snorer, who is dreaming of gipsies, if he is
+dreaming of anything,' continued Archer, as he looked into
+Fisher's open mouth. 'This next chap is quick enough; but,
+then, he is so fond of having everything his own way. And
+this curl-pated monkey, who is grinning in his sleep, is all
+tongue and no brains. Here are brains, though nobody would
+think it, in this lump,' said he, looking at a fat, rolled up,
+heavy-breathing sleeper; 'but what signify brains to such a lazy
+dog? I might kick him for my football this half-hour before
+I should get him awake. This lank-jawed harlequin beside him
+is a handy fellow, to be sure; but then, if he has hands, he has
+no head&mdash;and he'd be afraid of his own shadow too, by this
+light, he is such a coward! And Townsend, why he has puns
+in plenty; but, when there's any work to be done, he's the
+worst fellow to be near one in the world&mdash;he can do nothing
+but laugh at his own puns. This poor little fellow that we
+hunted into the corner has more sense than all of them put
+together; but then he is a Greybeard.'</p>
+
+<p>Thus speculated the chief of a party upon his sleeping
+friends. And how did it happen that he should be so ambitious
+to please and govern this set, when for each individual of
+which it was composed he felt such supreme contempt? He
+had formed them into a <i>party</i>, had given them a name, and
+he was at their head. If these be not good reasons, none
+better can be assigned for Archer's conduct.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish ye could all sleep on,' said he; 'but I must waken
+ye, though you will be only in my way. The sound of my<span class="pagenum">[329]</span>
+hammering must waken them; so I may as well do the thing
+handsomely, and flatter some of them by pretending to ask
+their advice.'</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, he pulled two or three to waken them.
+'Come, Townsend, waken, my boy! Here's some diversion
+for you&mdash;up! up!'</p>
+
+<p>'Diversion!' cried Townsend; 'I'm your man! I'm up&mdash;<i>up
+to anything</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>So, under the name of <i>diversion</i>, Archer set Townsend to
+work at four o'clock in the morning. They had nails, a few
+tools, and several spars, still left from the wreck of the playhouse.
+These, by Archer's directions, they sharpened at one
+end, and nailed them to the ends of several forms.</p>
+
+<p>All hands were now called to clear away the supper things,
+and to erect these forms perpendicularly under the trap-door;
+and with the assistance of a few braces, a <i>chevaux-de-frise</i> was
+formed, upon which nobody could venture to descend. At the
+farthest end of the room they likewise formed a penthouse of
+the tables, under which they proposed to breakfast, secure
+from the pelting storm, if it should again assail them through
+the trap-door. They crowded under the penthouse as soon as
+it was ready, and their admiration of its ingenuity paid the
+workmen for the job.</p>
+
+<p>'Lord! I shall like to see the gardener's phiz through the
+trap-door, when he beholds the spikes under him!' cried
+Townsend. 'Now for breakfast!' 'Ay, now for breakfast,'
+said Archer, looking at his watch; 'past eight o'clock, and my
+town boys not come! I don't understand this!'</p>
+
+<p>Archer had expected a constant supply of provisions from
+two boys who lived in the town, who were cousins of his, and
+who had promised to come every day, and put food in at a
+certain hole in the wall, in which a ventilator usually turned.
+This ventilator Archer had taken down, and had contrived it so
+that it could be easily removed and replaced at pleasure; but,
+upon examination, it was now perceived that the hole had been
+newly stopped up by an iron back, which it was impossible to
+penetrate or remove.</p>
+
+<p>'It never came into my head that anybody would ever
+have thought of the ventilator but myself!' exclaimed Archer,
+in great perplexity. He listened and waited for his cousins;
+but no cousins came, and at a late hour the company were<span class="pagenum">[330]</span>
+obliged to breakfast upon the scattered fragments of the
+last night's feast. That feast had been spread with such
+imprudent profusion, that little now remained to satisfy the
+hungry guests.</p>
+
+<p>Archer, who well knew the effect which the apprehension
+of a scarcity would have upon his associates, did everything
+that could be done by a bold countenance and reiterated
+assertions to persuade them that his cousins would certainly
+come at last, and that the supplies were only delayed. The
+delay, however, was alarming.</p>
+
+<p>Fisher alone heard the manager's calculations and saw the
+public fears unmoved. Secretly rejoicing in his own wisdom,
+he walked from window to window, slily listening for the gipsy's
+signal. 'There it is!' cried he, with more joy sparkling in his
+eyes than had ever enlightened them before. 'Come this way,
+Archer; but don't tell anybody. Hark! do ye hear those three
+taps at the window? This is the old woman with twelve buns
+for me. I'll give you one whole one for yourself, if you will
+unbar the window for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Unbar the window!' interrupted Archer; 'no, that I
+won't, for you or the gipsy either; but I have heard enough to
+get your buns without that. But stay; there is something of
+more consequence than your twelve buns. I must think for ye
+all, I see, regularly.'</p>
+
+<p>So he summoned a council, and proposed that every one
+should subscribe, and trust the subscription to the gipsy, to
+purchase a fresh supply of provisions. Archer laid down a
+guinea of his own money for his subscription; at which sight
+all the company clapped their hands, and his popularity rose to
+a high pitch with their renewed hopes of plenty. Now, having
+made a list of their wants, they folded the money in the paper,
+put it into a bag, which Archer tied to a long string, and, having
+broken the pane of glass behind the round hole in the window-shutter,
+he let down the bag to the gipsy. She promised to
+be punctual, and having filled the bag with Fishers twelve
+buns, they were drawn up in triumph, and everybody anticipated
+the pleasure with which they should see the same bag drawn
+up at dinner-time. The buns were a little squeezed in being
+drawn through the hole in the window-shutter, but Archer
+immediately sawed out a piece of the shutter, and broke the
+corresponding panes in each of the other windows, to prevent<span class="pagenum">[331]</span>
+suspicion, and to make it appear that they had all been broken
+to admit air.</p>
+
+<p>What a pity that so much ingenuity should have been
+employed to no purpose!</p>
+
+<p>It may have surprised the intelligent reader that the gipsy
+was so punctual to her promise to Fisher, but we must
+recollect that her apparent integrity was only cunning; she
+was punctual that she might be employed again, that she
+might be entrusted with the contribution which, she foresaw,
+must be raised amongst the famishing garrison. No sooner
+had she received the money than her end was gained.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner-time came; it struck three, four, five, six. They
+listened with hungry ears, but no signal was heard. The
+morning had been very long, and Archer had in vain tried to
+dissuade them from devouring the remainder of the provisions
+before they were sure of a fresh supply. And now those who
+had been the most confident were the most impatient of their
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Archer, in the division of the food, had attempted, by the
+most scrupulous exactness, to content the public, and he was
+both astonished and provoked to perceive that his impartiality
+was impeached. So differently do people judge in different
+situations! He was the first person to accuse his master of
+injustice, and the least capable of bearing such an imputation
+upon himself from others. He now experienced some of the
+joys of power, and the delight of managing unreasonable
+numbers.</p>
+
+<p>'Have not I done everything I could to please you? Have
+not I spent my money to buy you food? Have not I divided
+the last morsel with you? I have not tasted one mouthful to-day!
+Did not I set to work for you at sunrise? Did not I
+lie awake all night for you? Have not I had all the labour
+and all the anxiety? Look round and see <i>my</i> contrivances, <i>my</i>
+work, <i>my</i> generosity! And, after all, you think me a tyrant,
+because I want you to have common sense. Is not this bun
+which I hold in my hand my own? Did not I earn it by my
+own ingenuity from that selfish dunce (pointing to Fisher), who
+could never have gotten one of his twelve buns, if I had not
+shown him how? Eleven of them he has eaten since morning
+for his own share, without offering any one a morsel; but I
+scorn to eat even what is justly my own, when I see so many<span class="pagenum">[332]</span>
+hungry creatures longing for it. I was not going to touch this
+last morsel myself. I only begged you to keep it till supper-time,
+when perhaps you'll want it more, and Townsend, who
+can't bear the slightest thing that crosses his own whims, and
+who thinks there's nothing in this world to be minded but his
+own diversion, calls me a <i>tyrant</i>. You all of you promised to
+obey me. The first thing I ask you to do for your own good,
+and when, if you had common sense, you must know I can
+want nothing but your good, you rebel against me. Traitors!
+fools! ungrateful fools!'</p>
+
+<p>Archer walked up and down, unable to command his
+emotion, whilst, for the moment, the discontented multitude
+was silenced.</p>
+
+<p>'Here,' said he, striking his hand upon the little boy's
+shoulder, 'here's the only one amongst you who has not uttered
+one word of reproach or complaint, and he has had but one bit
+of bread&mdash;a bit that I gave him myself this day. Here!' said
+he, snatching the bun, which nobody had dared to touch, 'take
+it&mdash;it's mine&mdash;I give it to you, though you are a Greybeard;
+you deserve it. Eat it, and be an Archer. You shall be my
+captain; will you?' said he, lifting him up in his arm above
+the rest.</p>
+
+<p>'I like you now,' said the little boy, courageously; 'but I
+love De Grey better; he has always been my friend, and he
+advised me never to call myself any of those names, Archer or
+Greybeard; so I won't. Though I am shut in here, I have
+nothing to do with it. I love Dr. Middleton; he was never
+unjust to <i>me</i>, and I daresay that he has very good reasons, as
+De Grey said, for forbidding us to go into that house. Besides,
+it's his own.'</p>
+
+<p>Instead of admiring the good sense and steadiness of this
+little lad, Archer suffered Townsend to snatch the untasted bun
+out of his hands. He flung it at a hole in the window, but it
+fell back. The Archers scrambled for it, and Fisher ate it.</p>
+
+<p>Archer saw this, and was sensible that he had not done handsomely
+in suffering it. A few moments ago he had admired
+his own generosity, and though he had felt the injustice of
+others, he had not accused himself of any. He turned away
+from the little boy, and sitting down at one end of the table,
+hid his face in his hands. He continued immovable in this
+posture for some time.<span class="pagenum">[333]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Lord!' said Townsend; 'it was an excellent joke!'
+'Pooh!' said Fisher; 'what a fool, to think so much about a
+bun!' 'Never mind, Mr. Archer, if you are thinking about me,'
+said the little boy, trying gently to pull his hands from his face.</p>
+
+<p>Archer stooped down and lifted him up upon the table,
+at which sight the partisans set up a general hiss. 'He has
+forsaken us! He deserts his party! He wants to be a
+Greybeard! After he has got us all into this scrape, he will
+leave us!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not going to leave you,' cried Archer. 'No one
+shall ever accuse me of deserting my party. I'll stick by the
+Archers, right or wrong, I tell you, to the last moment. But
+this little fellow&mdash;take it as you please, mutiny if you will, and
+throw me out of the window. Call me traitor! coward! Greybeard!&mdash;this
+little fellow is worth you all put together, and I'll
+stand by him against any one who dares to lay a finger upon
+him; and the next morsel of food that I see shall be his.
+Touch him who dares!'</p>
+
+<p>The commanding air with which Archer spoke and looked,
+and the belief that the little boy deserved his protection,
+silenced the crowd. But the storm was only hushed.</p>
+
+<p>No sound of merriment was now to be heard&mdash;no battledore
+and shuttlecock&mdash;no ball, no marbles. Some sat in a corner,
+whispering their wishes that Archer would unbar the doors
+and give up. Others, stretching their arms, and gaping as
+they sauntered up and down the room, wished for air, or food,
+or water. Fisher and his nine, who had such firm dependence
+upon the gipsy, now gave themselves up to utter despair. It
+was eight o'clock, growing darker and darker every minute,
+and no candles, no light, could they have. The prospect of
+another long dark night made them still more discontented.</p>
+
+<p>Townsend, at the head of the yawners, and Fisher, at the
+head of the hungry malcontents, gathered round Archer and
+the few yet unconquered spirits, demanding 'How long he
+meant to keep them in this dark dungeon? and whether he
+expected that they should starve themselves for his sake?'</p>
+
+<p>The idea of <i>giving up</i> was more intolerable to Archer than
+all the rest. He saw that the majority, his own convincing
+argument, was against him. He was therefore obliged to
+condescend to the arts of persuasion. He flattered some with
+hopes of food from the town boys. Some he reminded of<span class="pagenum">[334]</span>
+their promises; others he praised for former prowess; and
+others he shamed by the repetition of their high vaunts in the
+beginning of the business.</p>
+
+<p>It was at length resolved that at all events they <i>would hold
+out</i>. With this determination they stretched themselves again
+to sleep, for the second night, in weak and weary obstinacy.</p>
+
+<p>Archer slept longer and more soundly than usual the next
+morning, and when he awoke, he found his hands tied behind
+him! Three or four boys had just got hold of his feet, which
+they pressed down, whilst the trembling hands of Fisher were
+fastening the cord round them.</p>
+
+<p>With all the force which rage could inspire, Archer struggled
+and roared to '<i>his Archers</i>!'&mdash;his friends, his party&mdash;for help
+against the traitors. But all kept aloof. Townsend, in particular,
+stood laughing and looking on. 'I beg your pardon,
+Archer, but really you look so droll. All alive and kicking!
+Don't be angry. I'm so weak, I cannot help laughing to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>The packthread cracked. 'His hands are free! He's
+loose!' cried the least of the boys, and ran away, whilst
+Archer leaped up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a powerful
+grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ask my party,' said Fisher, terrified; 'they set me on;
+ask my party.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your party!' cried Archer, with a look of ineffable contempt;
+'you reptile!&mdash;<i>your</i> party? Can such a thing as <i>you</i>
+have a party?'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure!' said Fisher, settling his collar, which Archer
+in his surprise had let go; 'to be sure! Why not? Any
+man who chooses it may have a party as well as yourself, I
+suppose. I have nine Fishermen.'</p>
+
+<p>At these words, spoken with much sullen importance,
+Archer, in spite of his vexation, could not help laughing.
+'Fishermen!' cried he, '<i>Fishermen!</i>' 'And why not Fishermen
+as well as Archers?' cried they. 'One party is just as
+good as another; it is only a question which can get the upper
+hand; and we had your hands tied just now.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's right, Townsend,' said Archer, 'laugh on, my boy!
+Friend or foe, it's all the same to you. I know how to value
+your friendship now. You are a mighty good fellow when the
+sun shines; but let a storm come, and how you slink
+away!'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i031f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i031t.jpg" alt="i031"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Archer leaped-up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a powerful grasp, sternly
+demanded 'What he meant by this?'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At this instant, Archer felt the difference between <i>a good companion</i><span class="pagenum">[336]</span>
+and a good friend, a difference which some people
+do not discover till late in life.</p>
+
+<p>'Have I no friend?&mdash;no real friend amongst you all? And
+could ye stand by and see my hands tied behind me like a
+thief's? What signifies such a party&mdash;all mute?'</p>
+
+<p>'We want something to eat,' answered the Fishermen.
+'What signifies <i>such</i> a party, indeed? and <i>such</i> a manager,
+who can do nothing for one?'</p>
+
+<p>'And have <i>I</i> done nothing?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't let's hear any more prosing,' said Fisher; 'we are
+too many for you. I've advised my party, if they've a mind
+not to be starved, to give you up for the ringleader, as you
+were; and Dr. Middleton will not let us all off, I daresay.'
+So, depending upon the sullen silence of the assembly, he
+again approached Archer with a cord. A cry of 'No, no, no!
+Don't tie him,' was feebly raised.</p>
+
+<p>Archer stood still, but the moment Fisher touched him, he
+knocked him down to the ground, and turning to the rest,
+with eyes sparkling with indignation, 'Archers!' cried he. A
+voice at this instant was heard at the door. It was De Grey's
+voice. 'I have got a large basket of provisions for your
+breakfast.' A general shout of joy was sent forth by the
+voracious public. 'Breakfast! Provisions! A large basket!
+De Grey for ever! Huzza!'</p>
+
+<p>De Grey promised, upon his honour, that if he would unbar
+the door nobody should come in with him, and no advantage
+should be taken of them. This promise was enough even for
+Archer. 'I will let him in,' said he, 'myself; for I'm sure
+he'll never break his word.' He pulled away the bar; the
+door opened; and having bargained for the liberty of Melsom,
+the little boy who had been shut in by mistake, De Grey
+entered with his basket of provisions, when he locked and
+barred the door instantly.</p>
+
+<p>Joy and gratitude sparkled in every face when he unpacked
+his basket and spread the table with a plentiful breakfast. A
+hundred questions were asked him at once. 'Eat first,' said
+he, 'and we will talk afterwards.' This business was quickly
+despatched by those who had not tasted food for a long while.
+Their curiosity increased as their hunger diminished. 'Who
+sent us breakfast? Does Dr. Middleton know?' were questions
+reiterated from every mouth.<span class="pagenum">[337]</span></p>
+
+<p>'He does know,' answered De Grey; 'and the first thing I
+have to tell you is, that I am your fellow-prisoner. I am to
+stay here till you give up. This was the only condition on
+which Dr. Middleton would allow me to bring you food, and
+he will allow no more.'</p>
+
+<p>Every one looked at the empty basket. But Archer, in
+whom half-vanquished party spirit revived with the strength
+he had got from his breakfast, broke into exclamations in
+praise of De Grey's magnanimity, as he now imagined that
+De Grey had become one of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>'And you will join us, will you? That's a noble fellow!'
+'No,' answered De Grey, calmly; 'but I hope to persuade, or
+rather to convince you, that you ought to join me.' 'You
+would have found it no hard task to have persuaded or convinced
+us, whichever you pleased,' said Townsend, 'if you had
+appealed to Archers fasting; but Archers feasting are quite
+other animals. Even C&aelig;sar himself, after breakfast, is quite
+another thing!' added he, pointing to Archer. 'You may
+speak for yourself, Mr. Townsend,' replied the insulted hero,
+'but not for me, or for Archers in general, if you please. We
+unbarred the door upon the faith of De Grey's promise&mdash;<i>that</i>
+was not giving up. And it would have been just as difficult, I
+promise you, to persuade or convince me either that I should
+give up against my honour before breakfast as after.'</p>
+
+<p>This spirited speech was applauded by many, who had now
+forgotten the feelings of famine. Not so Fisher, whose
+memory was upon this occasion very distinct.</p>
+
+<p>'What nonsense,' and the orator paused for a synonymous
+expression, but none was at hand. 'What nonsense and&mdash;nonsense
+is here! Why, don't you remember that dinner-time,
+and supper-time, and breakfast-time will come again?
+So what signifies mouthing about persuading and convincing?
+We will not go through again what we did yesterday! Honour
+me no honour. I don't understand it. I'd rather be flogged
+at once, as I have been many's the good time for a less thing.
+I say, we'd better all be flogged at once, which must be the
+end of it sooner or later, than wait here to be without dinner,
+breakfast, and supper, all only because Mr. Archer won't give
+up because of his honour and nonsense!'</p>
+
+<p>Many prudent faces amongst the Fishermen seemed to
+deliberate at the close of this oration, in which the arguments<span class="pagenum">[338]</span>
+were brought so 'home to each man's business and
+bosom.'</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said De Grey, 'when we yield, I hope it will not be
+merely to get our dinner, gentlemen. When we yield,
+Archer&mdash;&mdash;' 'Don't address yourself to me,' interrupted Archer,
+struggling with his pride; 'you have no further occasion to try
+to win me. I have no power, no party, you see! And now I
+find that I have no friends, I don't care what becomes of myself.
+I suppose I'm to be given up as a ringleader. Here's
+this Fisher, and a party of his Fishermen, were going to tie
+me hand and foot, if I had not knocked him down, just as you
+came to the door, De Grey; and now perhaps you will join
+Fisher's party against me.'</p>
+
+<p>De Grey was going to assure him that he had no intention
+of joining any party, when a sudden change appeared on
+Archer's countenance. 'Silence!' cried Archer, in an imperious
+tone, and there was silence. Some one was heard to
+whistle the beginning of a tune, that was perfectly new to
+everybody present except to Archer, who immediately whistled
+the conclusion. 'There!' cried he, looking at De Grey with
+triumph; 'that's a method of holding secret correspondence,
+whilst a prisoner, which I learned from "Richard C&oelig;ur de Lion."
+I know how to make use of everything. Hallo! friend! are
+you there at last?' cried he, going to the ventilator. 'Yes,
+but we are barred out here.' 'Round to the window then,
+and fill our bag. We'll let it down, my lad, in a trice; bar
+me out who can!'</p>
+
+<p>Archer let down the bag with all the expedition of joy, and
+it was filled with all the expedition of fear. 'Pull away! make
+haste, for Heaven's sake!' said the voice from without; 'the
+gardener will come from dinner, else, and we shall be caught.
+He mounted guard all yesterday at the ventilator; and though
+I watched and watched till it was darker than pitch, I could
+not get near you. I don't know what has taken him out of
+the way now. Make haste, pull away!' The heavy bag was
+soon pulled up. 'Have you any more?' said Archer. 'Yes,
+plenty. Let down quick! I've got the tailor's bag full, which
+is three times as large as yours, and I've changed clothes with
+the tailor's boy; so nobody took notice of me as I came down
+the street.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's my own cousin!' exclaimed Archer, 'there's a<span class="pagenum">[339]</span>
+noble fellow! there's my own cousin, I acknowledge. Fill the
+bag, then.' Several times the bag descended and ascended;
+and at every unlading of the crane, fresh acclamations were
+heard. 'I have no more!' at length the boy with the tailor's
+bag cried. 'Off with you, then; we've enough, and thank
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>A delightful review was now made of their treasure. Busy
+hands arranged and sorted the heterogeneous mass. Archer,
+in the height of his glory, looked on, the acknowledged master
+of the whole. Townsend, who, in his prosperity as in adversity,
+saw and enjoyed the comic foibles of his friends,
+pushed De Grey, who was looking on with a more good-natured
+and more thoughtful air. 'Friend,' said he, 'you
+look like a great philosopher, and Archer a great hero.' 'And
+you, Townsend,' said Archer, 'may look like a wit, if you will;
+but you will never be a hero.' 'No, no,' replied Townsend;
+'wits were never heroes, because they are wits. You are out
+of your wits, and therefore may set up for a hero.' 'Laugh,
+and welcome. I'm not a tyrant. I don't want to restrain
+anybody's wit; but I cannot say I admire puns.' 'Nor I,
+either,' said the time-serving Fisher, sidling up to the manager,
+and picking the ice off a piece of plum-cake, 'nor I either; I
+hate puns. I can never understand Townsend's <i>puns</i>. Besides,
+anybody can make puns; and one doesn't want wit,
+either, at all times; for instance, when one is going to settle
+about dinner, or business of consequence. Bless us all,
+Archer!' continued he, with sudden familiarity, '<i>what a sight
+of good things are here</i>! I'm sure we are much obliged to
+you and your cousin. I never thought he'd have come. Why,
+now we can hold out as long as you please. Let us see,' said
+he, dividing the provisions upon the table; 'we can hold out
+to-day, and all to-morrow, and part of next day, maybe. Why,
+now we may defy the doctor and the Greybeards. The doctor
+will surely give up to us; for, you see, he knows nothing of
+all this, and he'll think we are starving all this while; and he'd
+be afraid, you see, to let us starve quite, in reality, for three
+whole days, because of what would be said in the town. My
+Aunt Barbara, for one, would be <i>at him</i> long before that time
+was out; and besides, you know, in that case, he'd be hanged
+for murder, which is quite another thing, in law, from a <i>Barring
+Out</i>, you know.'<span class="pagenum">[340]</span></p>
+
+<p>Archer had not given to this harangue all the attention
+which it deserved, for his eye was fixed upon De Grey. 'What
+is De Grey thinking of?' he asked, impatiently. 'I am
+thinking,' said De Grey, 'that Dr. Middleton must believe
+that I have betrayed his confidence in me. The gardener
+was ordered away from his watch-post for one half-hour when
+I was admitted. This half-hour the gardener has made nearly
+an hour. I never would have come near you if I had foreseen
+all this. Dr. Middleton trusted me, and now he will repent
+of his confidence in me.' 'De Grey!' cried Archer, with
+energy, 'he shall not repent of his confidence in you&mdash;nor
+shall you repent of coming amongst us. You shall find that
+we have some honour as well as yourself, and I will take care
+of your honour as if it were my <i>own</i>!' 'Hey-day!' interrupted
+Townsend; 'are heroes allowed to change sides, pray? And
+does the chief of the Archers stand talking sentiment to the
+chief of the Greybeards? In the middle of his own party
+too!' 'Party!' repeated Archer, disdainfully; 'I have done
+with parties! I see what parties are made of! I have felt
+the want of a friend, and I am determined to make one if I can.'
+'That you may do,' said De Grey, stretching out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Unbar the doors! unbar the windows!' exclaimed Archer.
+'Away with all these things! I give up for De Grey's sake.
+He shall not lose his credit on my account.' 'No,' said De
+Grey, 'you shall not give up for my sake.' 'Well, then, I'll
+give up to do what is <i>honourable</i>,' said Archer. 'Why not to
+do what is <i>reasonable</i>?' said De Grey. '<i>Reasonable!</i> Oh,
+the first thing that a man of spirit should think of is, what is
+<i>honourable</i>.' 'But how will he find out <i>what is</i> honourable,
+unless he can reason?' replied De Grey. 'Oh,' said Archer,
+'his own feelings always tell him what is honourable.' 'Have
+not <i>your feelings</i>,' asked De Grey, 'changed within these few
+hours?' 'Yes, with circumstances,' replied Archer; 'but, right
+or wrong, as long as I think it honourable to do so and so,
+I'm satisfied.' 'But you cannot think anything honourable,
+or the contrary,' observed De Grey, 'without reasoning; and as
+to what you call feeling, it's only a quick sort of reasoning.'
+'The quicker the better,' said Archer. 'Perhaps not,' said De
+Grey. 'We are apt to reason best when we are not in quite
+so great a hurry.' 'But,' said Archer, 'we have not always
+time enough to reason <i>at first</i>.' 'You must, however, acknowledge,'<span class="pagenum">[341]</span>
+replied De Grey, smiling, 'that no man but a fool
+thinks it honourable to be in the wrong <i>at last</i>. Is it not,
+therefore, best to begin by reasoning to find out the right <i>at
+first</i>?' 'To be sure,' said Archer. 'And did you reason
+with yourself at first? And did you find out that it was right
+to bar Dr. Middleton out of his own schoolroom, because he
+desired you not to go into one of his own houses?' 'No,'
+replied Archer; 'but I should never have thought of heading
+a Barring Out, if he had not shown partiality; and if you had
+flown into a passion with me openly at once for pulling down
+your scenery, which would have been quite natural, and not
+have gone slily and forbid us the house out of revenge, there
+would have been none of this work.' 'Why,' said De Grey,
+'should you suspect me of such a mean action, when you have
+never seen or known me do anything mean, and when in this
+instance you have no proofs?' 'Will you give me your word
+and honour now, De Grey, before everybody here, that you
+did not do what I suspected?' 'I do assure you, upon my
+honour, I never, indirectly, spoke to Dr. Middleton about the
+playhouse.' 'Then,' said Archer, 'I'm as glad as if I had found
+a thousand pounds! Now you are my friend indeed.' 'And
+Dr. Middleton&mdash;why should you suspect him without reason
+any more than me?' 'As to that,' said Archer, 'he is your
+friend, and you are right to defend him; and I won't say
+another word against him. Will that satisfy you?' 'Not
+quite.' 'Not quite! Then, indeed, you are unreasonable!'
+'No,' replied De Grey; 'for I don't wish you to yield out of
+friendship to me, any more than to honour. If you yield to
+reason, you will be governed by reason another time.' 'Well,
+but then don't triumph over me, because you have the best
+side of the argument.' 'Not I! How can I?' said De Grey;
+'for now you are on <i>the best side</i> as well as myself, are not
+you? So we may triumph together.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are a good friend!' said Archer; and with great
+eagerness he pulled down the fortifications, whilst every hand
+assisted. The room was restored to order in a few minutes&mdash;the
+shutters were thrown open, the cheerful light let in. The
+windows were thrown up, and the first feeling of the fresh air
+was delightful. The green playground opened before them,
+and the hopes of exercise and liberty brightened the countenances
+of these voluntary prisoners.<span class="pagenum">[342]</span></p>
+
+<p>But, alas! they were not yet at liberty. The idea of Dr.
+Middleton, and the dread of his vengeance, smote their hearts.
+When the rebels had sent an ambassador with their surrender,
+they stood in pale and silent suspense, waiting for their doom.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' said Fisher, looking up at the broken panes in the
+windows, 'the doctor will think the most of <i>that</i>&mdash;he'll never
+forgive us for that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush! here he comes!' His steady step was heard
+approaching nearer and nearer. Archer threw open the door,
+and Dr. Middleton entered. Fisher instantly fell on his knees.
+'It is no delight to me to see people on their knees. Stand
+up, Mr. Fisher. I hope you are all conscious that you have
+done wrong?' 'Sir,' said Archer, 'they are conscious that
+they have done wrong, and so am I. I am the ringleader.
+Punish me as you think proper. I submit. Your punishments&mdash;your
+vengeance ought to fall on me alone!'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said Dr. Middleton, calmly, 'I perceive that whatever
+else you may have learned in the course of your education,
+you have not been taught the meaning of the word punishment.
+Punishment and vengeance do not with us mean the same
+thing. <i>Punishment</i> is pain given, with the reasonable hope of
+preventing those on whom it is inflicted from doing, <i>in future</i>,
+what will hurt themselves or others. <i>Vengeance</i> never looks
+to the <i>future</i>, but is the expression of anger for an injury that
+is past. I feel no anger; you have done me no injury.'</p>
+
+<p>Here many of the little boys looked timidly up to the
+windows. 'Yes, I see that you have broken my windows;
+that is a small evil.' 'Oh, sir! How good! How merciful!'
+exclaimed those who had been most panic-struck. 'He
+forgives us!'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay,' resumed Dr. Middleton; 'I cannot forgive you. I
+shall never revenge, but it is my duty to punish. You have
+rebelled against the just authority which is necessary to conduct
+and govern you whilst you have not sufficient reason to
+govern and conduct yourselves. Without obedience to the
+laws,' added he, turning to Archer, 'as men, you cannot be
+suffered in society. You, sir, think yourself a man, I observe;
+and you think it the part of a man not to submit to the will of
+another. I have no pleasure in making others, whether men
+or children, submit to my <i>will</i>; but my reason and experience
+are superior to yours. Your parents at least think so, or they<span class="pagenum">[343]</span>
+would not have entrusted me with the care of your education.
+As long as they do entrust you to my care, and as long as I
+have any hopes of making you wiser and better by punishment,
+I shall steadily inflict it, whenever I judge it to be necessary,
+and I judge it to be necessary <i>now</i>. This is a long sermon,
+Mr. Archer, not preached to show my own eloquence, but to
+convince your understanding. Now, as to your punishment!'</p>
+
+<p>'Name it, sir,' said Archer; 'whatever it is, I will cheerfully
+submit to it.' 'Name it yourself,' said Dr. Middleton,
+'and show me that you now understand the nature of punishment.'</p>
+
+<p>Archer, proud to be treated like a reasonable creature, and
+sorry that he had behaved like a foolish schoolboy, was silent
+for some time, but at length replied, 'That he would rather
+not name his own punishment.' He repeated, however, that
+he trusted he should bear it well, whatever it might be.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall then,' said Dr. Middleton, 'deprive you, for two
+months, of pocket-money, as you have had too much, and have
+made a bad use of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said Archer, 'I brought five guineas with me to
+school. This guinea is all that I have left.'</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Middleton received the guinea which Archer offered
+him with a look of approbation, and told him that it should be
+applied to the repairs of the schoolroom. The rest of the boys
+waited in silence for the doctor's sentence against them, but
+not with those looks of abject fear with which boys usually
+expect the sentence of a schoolmaster.</p>
+
+<p>'You shall return from the playground, all of you,' said Dr.
+Middleton, 'one quarter of an hour sooner, for two months to
+come, than the rest of your companions. A bell shall ring at
+the appointed time. I give you an opportunity of recovering
+my confidence by your punctuality.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, sir! we will come the instant, the very instant the
+bell rings; you shall have confidence in us,' cried they,
+eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'I deserve your confidence, I hope,' said Dr. Middleton;
+'for it is my first wish to make you all happy. You do not
+know the pain that it has cost me to deprive you of food for so
+many hours.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the boys, with one accord, ran to the place where they
+had deposited their last supplies. Archer delivered them up<span class="pagenum">[344]</span>
+to the doctor, proud to show that they were not reduced to
+obedience merely by necessity.</p>
+
+<p>'The reason,' resumed Dr. Middleton, having now returned
+to the usual benignity of his manner&mdash;'the reason why I
+desired that none of you should go to that building,' pointing
+out of the window, 'was this:&mdash;I had been informed that a
+gang of gipsies had slept there the night before I spoke to you,
+one of whom was dangerously ill of a putrid fever. I did not
+choose to mention my reason to you or your friends. I have
+had the place cleaned, and you may return to it when you
+please. The gipsies were yesterday removed from the town.'</p>
+
+<p>'De Grey, you were in the right,' whispered Archer, 'and
+it was I that was <i>unjust</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'The old woman,' continued the doctor, 'whom you
+employed to buy food has escaped the fever, but she has not
+escaped a gaol, whither she was sent yesterday, for having
+defrauded you of your money.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Fisher,' said Dr. Middleton, 'as to you, I shall not
+punish you: I have no hope of making you either wiser or
+better. Do you know this paper?'&mdash;the paper appeared to be
+a bill for candles and a tinder-box. 'I desired him to buy
+those things, sir,' said Archer, colouring. 'And did you desire
+him not to pay for them?' 'No,' said Archer, 'he had half-a-crown
+on purpose to pay for them.' 'I know he had, but
+he chose to apply it to his private use, and gave it to the gipsy
+to buy twelve buns for his own eating. To obtain credit for
+the tinder-box and candles, he made use of <i>this</i> name,' said he,
+turning to the other side of the bill, and pointing to De Grey's
+name, which was written at the end of a copy of one of De
+Grey's exercises.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i032f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i032t.jpg" alt="i032"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>He sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'I assure you, sir&mdash;&mdash;' cried Archer. 'You need not
+assure me, sir,' said Dr. Middleton; 'I cannot suspect a boy
+of your temper of having any part in so base an action. When
+the people in the shop refused to let Mr. Fisher have the things
+without paying for them, he made use of De Grey's name, who
+was known there. Suspecting some mischief, however, from
+the purchase of the tinder-box, the shopkeeper informed me of
+the circumstance. Nothing in this whole business gave me
+half so much pain as I felt, for a moment, when I suspected
+that De Grey was concerned in it.' A loud cry, in which
+Archer's voice was heard most distinctly, declared De Grey's<span class="pagenum">[346]</span>
+innocence. Dr. Middleton looked round at their eager, honest
+faces with benevolent approbation. 'Archer,' said he, taking
+him by the hand, 'I am heartily glad to see that you have got
+the better of your party spirit. I wish you may keep such a
+friend as you have now beside you; one such friend is worth
+two such parties. As for you, Mr. Fisher, depart; you must
+never return hither again.' In vain he solicited Archer and
+De Grey to intercede for him. Everybody turned away with
+contempt; and he sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice,
+'What shall I say to my Aunt Barbara?'</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[347]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_BRACELETS" id="THE_BRACELETS"></a>THE BRACELETS</h2>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">In</span> a beautiful and retired part of England lived Mrs. Villars,
+a lady whose accurate understanding, benevolent heart, and
+steady temper peculiarly fitted her for the most difficult, as well
+as most important, of all occupations&mdash;the education of youth.
+This task she had undertaken; and twenty young persons were
+put under her care, with the perfect confidence of their parents.
+No young people could be happier; they were good and gay,
+emulous, but not envious of each other; for Mrs. Villars was
+impartially just; her praise they felt to be the reward of merit,
+and her blame they knew to be the necessary consequence of
+ill-conduct. To the one, therefore, they patiently submitted,
+and in the other consciously rejoiced. They rose with fresh
+cheerfulness in the morning, eager to pursue their various
+occupations. They returned in the evening with renewed
+ardour to their amusements, and retired to rest satisfied with
+themselves and pleased with each other.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing so much contributed to preserve a spirit of
+emulation in this little society as a small honorary distinction,
+given annually, as a prize of successful application. The
+prize this year was peculiarly dear to each individual, as it was
+the picture of a friend whom they dearly loved. It was the
+picture of Mrs. Villars in a small bracelet. It wanted neither
+gold, pearls, nor precious stones to give it value.</p>
+
+<p>The two foremost candidates for this prize were Cecilia and
+Leonora. Cecilia was the most intimate friend of Leonora;
+but Leonora was only the favourite companion of Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia was of an active, ambitious, enterprising disposition,
+more eager in the pursuit than happy in the enjoyment of her
+wishes. Leonora was of a contented, unaspiring, temperate
+character; not easily roused to action, but indefatigable when<span class="pagenum">[348]</span>
+once excited. Leonora was proud; Cecilia was vain. Her
+vanity made her more dependent upon the approbation of
+others, and therefore more anxious to please, than Leonora;
+but that very vanity made her, at the same time, more apt to
+offend. In short, Leonora was the most anxious to avoid what
+was wrong; Cecilia the most ambitious to do what was right.
+Few of her companions loved, but many were led by, Cecilia,
+for she was often successful. Many loved Leonora, but none
+were ever governed by her, for she was too indolent to govern.</p>
+
+<p>On the first day of May, about six o'clock in the evening, a
+great bell rang, to summon this little society into a hall, where
+the prize was to be decided. A number of small tables were
+placed in a circle in the middle of the hall. Seats for the
+young competitors were raised one above another, in a semicircle,
+some yards distant from the table, and the judges' chairs,
+under canopies of lilacs and laburnums, forming another semicircle,
+closed the amphitheatre.</p>
+
+<p>Every one put their writings, their drawings, their works of
+various kinds, upon the tables appropriated for each. How
+unsteady were the last steps to these tables! How each little
+hand trembled as it laid down its claims! Till this moment
+every one thought herself secure of success; and the heart
+which exulted with hope now palpitated with fear.</p>
+
+<p>The works were examined, the preference adjudged, and the
+prize was declared to be the happy Cecilia's. Mrs. Villars
+came forward, smiling, with the bracelet in her hand. Cecilia
+was behind her companions, on the highest row. All the others
+gave way, and she was on the floor in an instant. Mrs.
+Villars clasped the bracelet on her arm; the clasp was heard
+through the whole hall, and a universal smile of congratulation
+followed. Mrs. Villars kissed Cecilia's little hand. 'And
+now,' said she, 'go and rejoice with your companions; the
+remainder of the day is yours.'</p>
+
+<p>Oh! you whose hearts are elated with success, whose
+bosoms beat high with joy in the moment of triumph, command
+yourselves. Let that triumph be moderate, that it may be
+lasting. Consider, that though you are good, you may be
+better; and, though wise, you may be weak.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Mrs. Villars had given her the bracelet, all
+Cecilia's little companions crowded round her, and they all left
+the hall in an instant. She was full of spirits and vanity. She<span class="pagenum">[349]</span>
+ran on. Running down the flight of steps which led to the
+garden, in her violent haste Cecilia threw down the little
+Louisa, who had a china mandarin in her hand, which her
+mother had sent her that very morning, and which was all
+broken to pieces by her fall.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my mandarin!' cried Louisa, bursting into tears.
+The crowd behind Cecilia suddenly stopped. Louisa sat on
+the lowest step, fixing her eyes upon the broken pieces. Then,
+turning round, she hid her face in her hands upon the step
+above her. In turning, Louisa threw down the remains of the
+mandarin. The head, which she placed in the socket, fell from
+the shoulders, and rolled, bounding along the gravel walk.
+Cecilia pointed to the head and to the socket, and burst into
+laughter. The crowd behind laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>At any other time they would have been more inclined to
+cry with Louisa; but Cecilia had just been successful, and
+sympathy with the victorious often makes us forget justice.</p>
+
+<p>Leonora, however, preserved her usual consistency. 'Poor
+Louisa!' said she, looking first at her, and then reproachfully
+at Cecilia. Cecilia turned sharply round, colouring, half with
+shame and half with vexation. 'I could not help it, Leonora,'
+said she. 'But you could have helped laughing, Cecilia.' 'I
+didn't laugh at Louisa; and I surely may laugh, for it does
+nobody any harm.' 'I am sure, however,' replied Leonora, 'I
+should not have laughed if I had&mdash;&mdash;' 'No, to be sure, you
+wouldn't, because Louisa is your favourite. I can buy her
+another mandarin when the old peddler comes to the door, if
+that's all. I <i>can</i> do no more, <i>can</i> I?' said she, again turning
+round to her companions. 'No, to be sure,' said they; 'that's
+all fair.'</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia looked triumphantly at Leonora. Leonora let go
+her hand; she ran on, and the crowd followed. When she
+got to the end of the garden, she turned round to see if
+Leonora had followed her too; but was vexed to see her still
+sitting on the steps with Louisa. 'I'm sure I can do no more
+than buy her another, <i>can</i> I?' said she, again appealing to her
+companions. 'No, to be sure,' said they, eager to begin their
+play.</p>
+
+<p>How many games did these juvenile playmates begin and
+leave off, before Cecilia could be satisfied with any! Her
+thoughts were discomposed, and her mind was running upon<span class="pagenum">[350]</span>
+something else. No wonder, then, that she did not play with
+her usual address. She grew still more impatient. She threw
+down the ninepins. 'Come, let us play at something else&mdash;at
+threading the needle,' said she, holding out her hand.
+They all yielded to the hand which wore the bracelet. But
+Cecilia, dissatisfied with herself, was discontented with everybody
+else. Her tone grew more and more peremptory. One was
+too rude, another too stiff; one too slow, another too quick;
+in short, everything went wrong, and everybody was tired of
+her humours.</p>
+
+<p>The triumph of <i>success</i> is absolute, but short. Cecilia's
+companions at length recollected that, though she had
+embroidered a tulip and painted a peach better than they,
+yet that they could play as well, and keep their tempers
+better; for she was discomposed.</p>
+
+<p>Walking towards the house in a peevish mood, Cecilia met
+Leonora, but passed on. 'Cecilia!' cried Leonora. 'Well,
+what do you want with me?' 'Are we friends?' 'You know
+best,' said Cecilia. 'We are, if you will let me tell Louisa
+that you are sorry&mdash;&mdash;' Cecilia, interrupting her, 'Oh, pray
+let me hear no more about Louisa!' 'What! not confess
+that you were in the wrong? O Cecilia! I had a better
+opinion of you.' 'Your opinion is of no consequence to me
+now, for you don't love me.' 'No; not when you are unjust,
+Cecilia.' 'Unjust! I am not unjust; and if I were, you are not
+my governess.' 'No, but am not I your friend?' 'I don't
+desire to have such a friend, who would quarrel with me for
+happening to throw down little Louisa. How could I tell that
+she had a mandarin in her hand? and when it was broken,
+could I do more than promise her another; was that unjust?'
+'But you know, Cecilia&mdash;&mdash;' 'I <i>know</i>,' ironically. 'I know,
+Leonora, that you love Louisa better than you love me; that's
+the injustice!' 'If I did,' replied Leonora, gravely, 'it would
+be no injustice, if she deserved it better.' 'How can you
+compare Louisa to me!' exclaimed Cecilia, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>Leonora made no answer; for she was really hurt at her
+friend's conduct. She walked on to join the rest of her
+companions. They were dancing in a round upon the grass.
+Leonora declined dancing; but they prevailed upon her to sing
+for them. Her voice was not so sprightly, but it was sweeter
+than usual. Who sang so sweetly as Leonora? or who danced<span class="pagenum">[351]</span>
+so nimbly as Louisa? Away she was flying, all spirits and
+gaiety, when Leonora's eyes, full of tears, caught hers. Louisa
+silently let go her companion's hand, and quitting the dance,
+ran up to Leonora to inquire what was the matter with her.
+'Nothing,' replied she, 'that need interrupt you. Go, my
+dear; go and dance again.'</p>
+
+<p>Louisa immediately ran away to her garden, and pulling off
+her little straw hat, she lined it with the freshest strawberry-leaves,
+and was upon her knees before the strawberry-bed when
+Cecilia came by. Cecilia was not disposed to be pleased with
+Louisa at that instant, for two reasons; because she was jealous
+of her, and because she had injured her. The injury, however,
+Louisa had already forgotten. Perhaps, to tell things just as
+they were, she was not quite so much inclined to kiss Cecilia
+as she would have been before the fall of her mandarin; but this
+was the utmost extent of her malice, if it can be called malice.</p>
+
+<p>'What are you doing there, little one?' said Cecilia, in a
+sharp tone. 'Are you eating your early strawberries here all
+alone?' 'No,' said Louisa, mysteriously, 'I am not eating
+them.' 'What are you doing with them? can't you answer,
+then? I'm not playing with you, child!' 'Oh, as to that,
+Cecilia, you know I need not answer you unless I choose it;
+not but what I would if you would only ask me civilly, and if
+you would not call me <i>child</i>.' 'Why should not I call you
+child?' 'Because&mdash;because&mdash;I don't know; but I wish you
+would stand out of my light, Cecilia, for you are trampling upon
+all my strawberries.' 'I have not touched one, you covetous
+little creature!' 'Indeed&mdash;indeed, Cecilia, I am not covetous.
+I have not eaten one of them; they are all for your friend
+Leonora. See how unjust you are!'</p>
+
+<p>'Unjust! that's a cant word which you learnt of my
+friend Leonora, as you call her; but she is not my friend now.'
+'Not your friend now!' exclaimed Louisa; 'then I am sure
+you must have done something <i>very</i> naughty.' 'How?' cried
+Cecilia, catching hold of her. 'Let me go, let me go!' cried
+Louisa, struggling. 'I won't give you one of my strawberries,
+for I don't like you at all!' 'You don't, don't you?' cried
+Cecilia, provoked, and, catching the hat from Louisa, she flung
+the strawberries over the hedge.</p>
+
+<p>'Will nobody help me?' exclaimed Louisa, snatching her
+hat again, and running away with all her force.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i033f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i033t.jpg" alt="i033"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[353]</span>'What have I done?' said Cecilia, recollecting herself;
+'Louisa! Louisa!' she called very loud, but Louisa would not
+turn back: she was running to her companions, who were
+still dancing, hand in hand, upon the grass, whilst Leonora,
+sitting in the middle, was singing to them.</p>
+
+<p>'Stop! stop! and hear me!' cried Louisa, breaking through
+them; and, rushing up to Leonora, she threw her hat at her
+feet, and panting for breath&mdash;'It was full&mdash;almost full of my
+own strawberries,' said she, 'the first I ever got out of my own
+garden. They should all have been for you, Leonora; but
+now I have not one left. They are all gone!' said she; and
+she hid her face in Leonora's lap.</p>
+
+<p>'Gone! gone where?' said every one, at once running up to
+her. 'Cecilia! Cecilia!' said she, sobbing. 'Cecilia,' repeated
+Leonora, 'what of Cecilia?' 'Yes, it was&mdash;it was.' 'Come
+along with me,' said Leonora, unwilling to have her friend
+exposed. 'Come, and I will get you some more strawberries.'
+'Oh, I don't mind the strawberries, indeed; but I wanted to
+have had the pleasure of giving them to you.'</p>
+
+<p>Leonora took her up in her arms to carry her away, but it
+was too late.</p>
+
+<p>'What, Cecilia! Cecilia, who won the prize! It could not
+surely be Cecilia,' whispered every busy tongue.</p>
+
+<p>At this instant the bell summoned them in. 'There she is!
+There she is!' cried they, pointing to an arbour, where Cecilia
+was standing ashamed and alone; and, as they passed her,
+some lifted up their hands and eyes with astonishment, others
+whispered and huddled mysteriously together, as if to avoid her.
+Leonora walked on, her head a little higher than usual.
+'Leonora!' said Cecilia, timorously, as she passed. 'Oh,
+Cecilia! who would have thought that you had a bad heart?'
+Cecilia turned her head aside and burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, indeed, she has not a bad heart!' cried Louisa,
+running up to her and throwing her arms around her neck.
+'She's very sorry; are not you, Cecilia? But don't cry any
+more, for I forgive you, with all my heart&mdash;and I love you now,
+though I said I did not when I was in a passion.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you sweet-tempered girl! how I love you!' said
+Cecilia, kissing her. 'Well, then, if you do, come along with
+me, and dry your eyes, for they are so red!' 'Go, my dear,
+and I'll come presently.' 'Then I will keep a place for you,<span class="pagenum">[354]</span>
+next to me; but you must make haste, or you will have to come
+in when we have all sat down to supper, and then you will be
+so stared at! So don't stay now.'</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia followed Louisa with her eyes till she was out of
+sight. 'And is Louisa,' said she to herself, 'the only one who
+would stop to pity me? Mrs. Villars told me that this day
+should be mine. She little thought how it would end!'</p>
+
+<p>Saying these words, Cecilia threw herself down upon the
+ground; her arm leaned upon a heap of turf which she had
+raised in the morning, and which, in the pride and gaiety of her
+heart, she had called her throne.</p>
+
+<p>At this instant, Mrs. Villars came out to enjoy the serenity
+of the evening, and, passing by the arbour where Cecilia lay,
+she started. Cecilia rose hastily.</p>
+
+<p>'Who is there?' said Mrs. Villars. 'It is I, madam.'
+'And who is <i>I</i>?' 'Cecilia.' 'Why, what keeps you here,
+my dear? Where are your companions? This is, perhaps,
+one of the happiest days of your life.' 'Oh no, madam,' said
+Cecilia, hardly able to repress her tears. 'Why, my dear,
+what is the matter?' Cecilia hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>'Speak, my dear. You know that when I ask you to tell me
+anything as your friend, I never punish you as your governess;
+therefore you need not be afraid to tell me what is the matter.'
+'No, madam, I am not afraid, but ashamed. You asked me
+why I was not with my companions. Why, madam, because
+they have all left me, and&mdash;&mdash;' 'And what, my dear?' 'And
+I see that they all dislike me; and yet I don't know why
+they should, for I take as much pains to please as any of them.
+All my masters seem satisfied with me; and you yourself,
+madam, were pleased this very morning to give me this
+bracelet; and I am sure you would not have given it to any
+one who did not deserve it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not,' said Mrs. Villars. 'You well deserve it for
+your application&mdash;for your successful application. The prize
+was for the most assiduous, not for the most amiable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then, if it had been for the most amiable, it would not
+have been for me?'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Villars, smiling&mdash;'Why, what do you think yourself,
+Cecilia? You are better able to judge than I am. I can
+determine whether or no you apply to what I give you to
+learn; whether you attend to what I desire you to do, and
+<span class="pagenum">[355]</span>
+avoid what I desire you not to do. I know that I like you as
+a pupil, but I cannot know that I should like you as a companion,
+unless I were your companion. Therefore I must
+judge of what I should do, by seeing what others do in the
+same circumstances.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, pray don't, madam! for then you would not love me
+either. And yet I think you would love me; for I hope that
+I am as ready to oblige, and as good-natured as&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Cecilia, I don't doubt but that you would be very
+good-natured to me; but I'm afraid that I should not like you
+unless you were good-tempered too.' 'But, madam, by good-natured
+I mean good-tempered&mdash;it's all the same thing.' 'No,
+indeed, I understand by them two very different things. You
+are good-natured, Cecilia; for you are desirous to oblige and
+serve your companions&mdash;to gain them praise, and save them
+from blame&mdash;to give them pleasure, and relieve them from
+pain; but Leonora is good-tempered, for she can bear with
+their foibles, and acknowledge her own. Without disputing
+about the right, she sometimes yields to those who are in the
+wrong. In short, her temper is perfectly good; for it can
+bear and forbear.' 'I wish that mine could!' said Cecilia,
+sighing. 'It may,' replied Mrs. Villars; 'but it is not wishes
+alone which can improve us in anything. Turn the same
+exertion and perseverance which have won you the prize to-day
+to this object, and you will meet with the same success;
+perhaps not on the first, the second, or the third attempt; but
+depend upon it that you will at last. Every new effort will
+weaken your bad habits and strengthen your good ones. But
+you must not expect to succeed all at once. I repeat it to you,
+for habit must be counteracted by habit. It would be as
+extravagant in us to expect that all our faults could be
+destroyed by one punishment, were it ever so severe, as it
+was in the Roman emperor we were reading of a few days
+ago to wish that all the heads of his enemies were upon one
+neck, that he might cut them off at one blow.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Mrs. Villars took Cecilia by the hand, and they began
+to walk home. Such was the nature of Cecilia's mind, that
+when any object was forcibly impressed on her imagination, it
+caused a temporary suspension of her reasoning faculties.
+Hope was too strong a stimulus for her spirits; and when
+fear did take possession of her mind, it was attended with<span class="pagenum">[356]</span>
+total debility. Her vanity was now as much mortified as in
+the morning it had been elated. She walked on with Mrs.
+Villars in silence, until they came under the shade of the elm-tree
+walk, and there, fixing her eyes upon Mrs. Villars, she
+stopped short.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think, madam,' said she, with hesitation&mdash;'do you
+think, madam, that I have a bad heart?' 'A bad heart, my
+dear! why, what put that into your head?' 'Leonora said
+that I had, madam, and I felt ashamed when she said so.'
+'But, my dear, how can Leonora tell whether your heart be
+good or bad? However, in the first place, tell me what you
+mean by a bad heart.' 'Indeed, I do not know what is meant
+by it, madam; but it is something which everybody hates.'
+'And why do they hate it?' 'Because they think that it will
+hurt them, ma'am, I believe; and that those who have bad
+hearts take delight in doing mischief; and that they never do
+anybody any good but for their own ends.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the best definition,' said Mrs. Villars, 'which you
+can give me of a bad heart is, that it is some constant propensity
+to hurt others, and to do wrong for the sake of doing
+wrong.' 'Yes, madam; but that is not all either. There is
+still something else meant; something which I cannot express&mdash;which,
+indeed, I never distinctly understood; but of which,
+therefore, I was the more afraid.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then, to begin with what you do understand, tell me,
+Cecilia, do you really think it possible to be wicked merely for
+the love of wickedness? No human being becomes wicked
+all at once. A man begins by doing wrong because it is, or
+because he thinks it, for his interest. If he continue to do
+so, he must conquer his sense of shame and lose his love of
+virtue. But how can you, Cecilia, who feel such a strong
+sense of shame, and such an eager desire to improve, imagine
+that you have a bad heart?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, madam, I never did, until everybody told me so,
+and then I began to be frightened about it. This very evening,
+madam, when I was in a passion, I threw little Louisa's
+strawberries away, which, I am sure, I was very sorry for
+afterwards; and Leonora and everybody cried out that I had
+a bad heart&mdash;but I am sure I was only in a passion.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very likely. And when you are in a passion, as you call
+it, Cecilia, you see that you are tempted to do harm to others.<span class="pagenum">[357]</span>
+If they do not feel angry themselves, they do not sympathise
+with you. They do not perceive the motive which actuates
+you; and then they say that you have a bad heart. I daresay,
+however, when your passion is over, and when you recollect
+yourself, you are very sorry for what you have done and said;
+are not you?' 'Yes, indeed, madam&mdash;very sorry.' 'Then
+make that sorry of use to you, Cecilia, and fix it steadily in
+your thoughts, as you hope to be good and happy, that if you
+suffer yourself to yield to your passion upon every trifling
+occasion, anger and its consequences will become familiar to
+your mind; and, in the same proportion, your sense of shame
+will be weakened, till what you began with doing from sudden
+impulse you will end with doing from habit and choice; and
+then you would, indeed, according to our definition, have a
+bad heart.' 'Oh, madam! I hope&mdash;I am sure I never shall.'
+'No, indeed, Cecilia; I do, indeed, believe that you never will;
+on the contrary, I think that you have a very good disposition,
+and what is of infinitely more consequence to you, an active
+desire of improvement. Show me that you have as much
+perseverance as you have candour, and I shall not despair of
+your becoming everything that I could wish.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Cecilia's countenance brightened, and she ran up the
+steps in almost as high spirits as she ran down them in the
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>'Good-night to you, Cecilia,' said Mrs. Villars, as she was
+crossing the hall. 'Good-night to you, madam,' said Cecilia;
+and she ran upstairs to bed. She could not go to sleep; but
+she lay awake, reflecting upon the events of the preceding day,
+and forming resolutions for the future, at the same time considering
+that she had resolved, and resolved without effect,
+she wished to give her mind some more powerful motive.
+Ambition she knew to be its most powerful incentive. 'Have
+I not,' said she to herself, 'already won the prize of application,
+and cannot the same application procure me a much higher
+prize? Mrs. Villars said that if the prize had been promised
+to the most amiable, it would not have been given to me.
+Perhaps it would not yesterday, perhaps it might not to-morrow;
+but that is no reason that I should despair of ever
+deserving it.'</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of this reasoning, Cecilia formed a design
+of proposing to her companions that they should give a prize,<span class="pagenum">[358]</span>
+the first of the ensuing month (the 1st of June), to the most
+amiable. Mrs. Villars applauded the scheme, and her companions
+adopted it with the greatest alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>'Let the prize,' said they, 'be a bracelet of our own hair';
+and instantly their shining scissors were produced, and each
+contributed a lock of her hair. They formed the most
+beautiful gradation of colours, from the palest auburn to the
+brightest black. Who was to have the honour of plaiting
+them? was now the question. Caroline begged that she
+might, as she could plait very neatly, she said. Cecilia,
+however, was equally sure that she could do it much better;
+and a dispute would have inevitably ensued, if Cecilia, recollecting
+herself just as her colour rose to scarlet, had not
+yielded&mdash;yielded, with no very good grace indeed, but as well
+as could be expected for the first time. For it is habit which
+confers ease; and without ease, even in moral actions, there
+can be no grace.</p>
+
+<p>The bracelet was plaited in the neatest manner by Caroline,
+finished round the edge with silver twist, and on it was worked,
+in the smallest silver letters, this motto, '<span class="smcap">To the Most
+Amiable</span>.' The moment it was completed, everybody begged
+to try it on. It fastened with little silver clasps, and as it was
+made large enough for the eldest girls, it was too large for the
+youngest. Of this they bitterly complained, and unanimously
+entreated that it might be cut to fit them.</p>
+
+<p>'How foolish!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'don't you perceive that
+if any of you win it, you have nothing to do but to put the
+clasps a little further from the edge, but, if we get it, we can't
+make it larger?' 'Very true,' said they; 'but you need not
+to have called us foolish, Cecilia.'</p>
+
+<p>It was by such hasty and unguarded expressions as these
+that Cecilia offended. A slight difference in the manner
+makes a very material one in the effect. Cecilia lost more
+love by general petulance than she could gain by the greatest
+particular exertions.</p>
+
+<p>How far she succeeded in curing herself of this defect&mdash;how
+far she became deserving of the bracelet, and to whom
+the bracelet was given&mdash;shall be told in the History of the
+First of June.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The First of June was now arrived, and all the young competitors<span class="pagenum">[359]</span>
+were in a state of the most anxious suspense. Leonora
+and Cecilia continued to be the foremost candidates. Their
+quarrel had never been finally adjusted, and their different
+pretensions now retarded all thoughts of a reconciliation.
+Cecilia, though she was capable of acknowledging any of her
+faults in public before all her companions, could not humble
+herself in private to Leonora. Leonora was her equal; they
+were her inferiors, and submission is much easier to a vain
+mind, where it appears to be voluntary, than when it is the
+necessary tribute to justice or candour. So strongly did
+Cecilia feel this truth, that she even delayed making any apology,
+or coming to any explanation with Leonora, until success should
+once more give her the palm.</p>
+
+<p>'If I win the bracelet to-day,' said she to herself, 'I will
+solicit the return of Leonora's friendship; it will be more
+valuable to me than even the bracelet, and at such a time, and
+asked in such a manner, she surely cannot refuse it to me.'
+Animated with this hope of a double triumph, Cecilia canvassed
+with the most zealous activity. By constant attention and
+exertion she had considerably abated the violence of her temper,
+and changed the course of her habits. Her powers of pleasing
+were now excited, instead of her abilities to excel; and, if her
+talents appeared less brilliant, her character was acknowledged
+to be more amiable. So great an influence upon our manners
+and conduct have the objects of our ambition.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia was now, if possible, more than ever desirous of
+doing what was right, but she had not yet acquired sufficient
+fear of doing wrong. This was the fundamental error of her
+mind; it arose in a great measure from her early education.
+Her mother died when she was very young; and though her
+father had supplied her place in the best and kindest manner,
+he had insensibly infused into his daughter's mind a portion of
+that enterprising, independent spirit which he justly deemed
+essential to the character of her brother. This brother was
+some years older than Cecilia, but he had always been the
+favourite companion of her youth. What her father's precepts
+inculcated, his example enforced; and even Cecilia's virtues
+consequently became such as were more estimable in a man
+than desirable in a female. All small objects and small errors
+she had been taught to disregard as trifles; and her impatient
+disposition was perpetually leading her into more material faults;<span class="pagenum">[360]</span>
+yet her candour in confessing these, she had been suffered to
+believe, was sufficient reparation and atonement.</p>
+
+<p>Leonora, on the contrary, who had been educated by her
+mother in a manner more suited to her sex, had a character
+and virtues more peculiar to a female. Her judgment had
+been early cultivated, and her good sense employed in the
+regulation of her conduct. She had been habituated to that
+restraint which, as a woman, she was to expect in life, and
+early accustomed to yield. Compliance in her seemed natural
+and graceful; yet, notwithstanding the gentleness of her temper,
+she was in reality more independent than Cecilia. She had
+more reliance upon her own judgment, and more satisfaction
+in her own approbation. The uniform kindness of her manner,
+the consistency and equality of her character, had fixed the
+esteem and passive love of her companions.</p>
+
+<p>By passive love we mean that species of affection which
+makes us unwilling to offend rather than anxious to oblige,
+which is more a habit than an emotion of the mind. For
+Cecilia her companions felt active love, for she was active in
+showing her love to them.</p>
+
+<p>Active love arises spontaneously in the mind, after feeling
+particular instances of kindness, without reflection on the past
+conduct or general character. It exceeds the merits of its
+object, and is connected with a feeling of generosity, rather
+than with a sense of justice.</p>
+
+<p>Without determining which species of love is the most
+flattering to others, we can easily decide which is the most
+agreeable feeling to our minds. We give our hearts more
+credit for being generous than for being just; and we feel
+more self-complacency when we give our love voluntarily, than
+when we yield it as a tribute which we cannot withhold.
+Though Cecilia's companions might not know all this in
+theory, they proved it in practice; for they loved her in
+a much higher proportion to her merits than they loved
+Leonora.</p>
+
+<p>Each of the young judges was to signify her choice by
+putting a red or a white shell into a vase prepared for the
+purpose. Cecilia's colour was red, Leonora's white.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning nothing was to be seen but these shells;
+nothing talked of but the long-expected event of the evening.
+Cecilia, following Leonora's example, had made it a point of<span class="pagenum">[361]</span>
+honour not to inquire of any individual her vote, previously to
+their final determination.</p>
+
+<p>They were both sitting together in Louisa's room. Louisa
+was recovering from the measles. Every one during her illness
+had been desirous of attending her; but Leonora and Cecilia
+were the only two that were permitted to see her, as they alone
+had had the distemper. They were both assiduous in their
+care of Louisa, but Leonora's want of exertion to overcome
+any disagreeable feelings of sensibility often deprived her of
+presence of mind, and prevented her from being so constantly
+useful as Cecilia. Cecilia, on the contrary, often made too
+much noise and bustle with her officious assistance, and was
+too anxious to invent amusements and procure comforts for
+Louisa, without perceiving that illness takes away the power of
+enjoying them.</p>
+
+<p>As she was sitting at the window in the morning, exerting
+herself to entertain Louisa, she heard the voice of an old peddler
+who often used to come to the house. Downstairs, they ran
+immediately, to ask Mrs. Villars's permission to bring him into
+the hall. Mrs. Villars consented, and away Cecilia ran to
+proclaim the news to her companions. Then, first returning
+into the hall, she found the peddler just unbuckling his box,
+and taking it off his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>'What would you be pleased to want, miss?' said the
+peddler; 'I've all kinds of tweezer-cases, rings, and lockets of
+all sorts,' continued he, opening all the glittering drawers
+successively.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' said Cecilia, shutting the drawer of lockets which
+tempted her most, 'these are not the things which I want.
+Have you any china figures? any mandarins?'</p>
+
+<p>'Alack-a-day, miss, I had a great stock of that same chinaware;
+but now I'm quite out of them kind of things; but I
+believe,' said he, rummaging one of the deepest drawers, 'I
+believe I have one left, and here it is.' 'Oh, that is the very
+thing! what's its price?' 'Only three shillings, ma'am.'
+Cecilia paid the money, and was just going to carry off the
+mandarin, when the peddler took out of his greatcoat pocket
+a neat mahogany case. It was about a foot long, and fastened
+at each end by two little clasps. It had, besides, a small lock
+in the middle.</p>
+
+<p>'What is that?' said Cecilia, eagerly. 'It's only a china<span class="pagenum">[362]</span>
+figure, miss, which I am going to carry to an elderly lady, who
+lives nigh hand, and who is mighty fond of such things.' 'Could
+you let me look at it?' 'And welcome, miss,' said he, and
+opened the case. 'Oh, goodness! how beautiful!' exclaimed
+Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>It was a figure of Flora, crowned with roses, and carrying
+a basket of flowers in her hand. Cecilia contemplated it with
+delight. 'How I should like to give this to Louisa!' said she
+to herself; and, at last, breaking silence, 'Did you promise it
+to the old lady?' 'Oh no, miss, I didn't promise it&mdash;she
+never saw it; and if so be that you'd like to take it, I'd make
+no more words about it.' 'And how much does it cost?'
+'Why, miss, as to that, I'll let you have it for half-a-guinea.'</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia immediately produced the box in which she kept her
+treasure, and, emptying it upon the table, she began to count
+the shillings. Alas! there were but six shillings. 'How
+provoking!' said she; 'then I can't have it. Where's the
+mandarin? Oh, I have it,' said she, taking it up, and looking
+at it with the utmost disgust. 'Is this the same that I had
+before?' 'Yes, miss, the very same,' replied the peddler, who,
+during this time, had been examining the little box out of which
+Cecilia had taken her money&mdash;it was of silver. 'Why, ma'am,'
+said he, 'since you've taken such a fancy to the piece, if
+you've a mind to make up the remainder of the money, I will
+take this here little box, if you care to part with it.'</p>
+
+<p>Now this box was a keepsake from Leonora to Cecilia.
+'No,' said Cecilia hastily, blushing a little, and stretching out
+her hand to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, miss!' said he, returning it carelessly, 'I hope there's
+no offence. I meant but to serve you, that's all. Such a rare
+piece of china-work has no cause to go a-begging,' added he.
+Then, putting the Flora deliberately into the case, and turning
+the key with a jerk, he let it drop into his pocket; when,
+lifting up his box by the leather straps, he was preparing to
+depart.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i034f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i034t.jpg" alt="i034"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption">'<i>Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia, in whose mind there
+had passed a very warm conflict during the peddler's harangue.
+'Louisa would so like this Flora,' said she, arguing with herself.
+'Besides, it would be so generous in me to give it to
+her instead of that ugly mandarin; that would be doing only
+common justice, for I promised it to her, and she expects it.<span class="pagenum">[364]</span>
+Though, when I come to look at this mandarin, it is not even
+so good as hers was. The gilding is all rubbed off, so that I
+absolutely must buy this for her. Oh yes! I will, and she
+will be so delighted! and then everybody will say it is the
+prettiest thing they ever saw, and the broken mandarin will be
+forgotten for ever.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Cecilia's hand moved, and she was just going to
+decide: 'Oh, but stop,' said she to herself, 'consider&mdash;Leonora
+gave me this box, and it is a keepsake. However, we have
+now quarrelled, and I daresay that she would not mind my
+parting with it. I'm sure that I should not care if she was to
+give away my keepsake, the smelling-bottle, or the ring which
+I gave her. Then what does it signify? Besides, is it
+not my own? and have I not a right to do what I please
+with it?'</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, so critical for Cecilia, a party of her companions
+opened the door. She knew that they came as
+purchasers, and she dreaded her Flora's becoming the prize of
+some higher bidder. 'Here,' said she, hastily putting the box
+into the peddler's hand, without looking at it, 'take it, and give
+me the Flora.' Her hand trembled, though she snatched it
+impatiently. She ran by, without seeming to mind any of her
+companions.</p>
+
+<p>Let those who are tempted to do wrong by the hopes of future
+gratification, or the prospect of certain concealment and
+impunity, remember that, unless they are totally depraved,
+they bear in their own hearts a monitor, who will prevent their
+enjoying what they ill obtained.</p>
+
+<p>In vain Cecilia ran to the rest of her companions, to display
+her present, in hopes that the applause of others would restore
+her own self-complacency; in vain she saw the Flora pass in
+due pomp from hand to hand, each vying with the other in
+extolling the beauty of the gift and the generosity of the giver.
+Cecilia was still displeased with herself, with them, and even
+with their praise. From Louisa's gratitude, however, she yet
+expected much pleasure, and immediately she ran upstairs to
+her room.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Leonora had gone into the hall to buy a
+bodkin; she had just broken hers. In giving her change, the
+peddler took out of his pocket, with some halfpence, the very
+box which Cecilia had sold to him. Leonora did not in the<span class="pagenum">[365]</span>
+least suspect the truth, for her mind was above suspicion; and
+besides, she had the utmost confidence in Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to have that box,' said she, 'for it is like one
+of which I was very fond.'</p>
+
+<p>The peddler named the price, and Leonora took the box.
+She intended to give it to little Louisa. On going to her room
+she found her asleep, and she sat softly down by her bedside.
+Louisa opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope I didn't disturb you,' said Leonora. 'Oh no; I
+didn't hear you come in; but what have you got there?' 'It
+is only a little box; would you like to have it? I bought it
+on purpose for you, as I thought perhaps it would please you,
+because it's like that which I gave Cecilia.' 'Oh yes! that
+out of which she used to give me Barbary drops. I am very
+much obliged to you; I always thought <i>that</i> exceedingly pretty,
+and this, indeed, is as like it as possible. I can't unscrew it;
+will you try?'</p>
+
+<p>Leonora unscrewed it. 'Goodness!' exclaimed Louisa,
+'this must be Cecilia's box. Look, don't you see a great L at
+the bottom of it?'</p>
+
+<p>Leonora's colour changed. 'Yes,' she replied calmly, 'I see
+that; but it is no proof that it is Cecilia's. You know that I
+bought this box just now of the peddler.' 'That may be,' said
+Louisa; 'but I remember scratching that L with my own
+needle, and Cecilia scolded me for it, too. Do go and ask her
+if she has lost her box&mdash;do,' repeated Louisa, pulling her by
+the ruffle, as she did not seem to listen.</p>
+
+<p>Leonora, indeed, did not hear, for she was lost in thought.
+She was comparing circumstances which had before escaped
+her attention. She recollected that Cecilia had passed her as
+she came into the hall, without seeming to see her, but had
+blushed as she passed. She remembered that the peddler appeared
+unwilling to part with the box, and was going to put it
+again in his pocket with the halfpence. 'And why should he
+keep it in his pocket, and not show it with his other things?' Combining
+all these circumstances, Leonora had no longer any doubt
+of the truth, for though she had an honourable confidence in her
+friends, she had too much penetration to be implicitly credulous.</p>
+
+<p>'Louisa,' she began, but at this instant she heard a step,
+which, by its quickness, she knew to be Cecilia's, coming along
+the passage.<span class="pagenum">[366]</span></p>
+
+<p>'If you love me, Louisa,' said Leonora, 'say nothing about
+the box.' 'Nay, but why not? I daresay she had lost it.'
+'No, my dear, I'm afraid she has not.' Louisa looked surprised.
+'But I have reasons for desiring you not to say anything
+about it.' 'Well, then, I won't, indeed.'</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia opened the door, came forward smiling, as if secure
+of a good reception, and taking the Flora out of the case, she
+placed it on the mantelpiece, opposite to Louisa's bed.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear, how beautiful!' cried Louisa, starting up. 'Yes,'
+said Cecilia, 'and guess who it's for.' 'For me, perhaps!'
+said the ingenuous Louisa. 'Yes, take it, and keep it for my
+sake. You know that I broke your mandarin.' 'Oh, but this
+is a great deal prettier and larger than that.' 'Yes, I know it
+is; and I meant that it should be so. I should only have done
+what I was bound to do if I had only given you a mandarin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' replied Louisa, 'and that would have been enough,
+surely; but what a beautiful crown of roses! and then that
+basket of flowers! they almost look as if I could smell them.
+Dear Cecilia, I'm very much obliged to you; but I won't take
+it by way of payment for the mandarin you broke; for I'm sure
+you could not help that, and, besides, I should have broken it
+myself by this time. You shall give it to me entirely; and, as
+your keepsake, I'll keep it as long as I live.'</p>
+
+<p>Louisa stopped short and coloured; the word keepsake recalled
+the box to her mind, and all the train of ideas which the
+Flora had banished. 'But,' said she, looking up wistfully in
+Cecilia's face, and holding the Flora doubtfully, 'did you&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Leonora, who was just quitting the room, turned her head
+back, and gave Louisa a look, which silenced her.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia was so infatuated with her vanity, that she neither
+perceived Leonora's sign nor Louisa's confusion, but continued
+showing off her present, by placing it in various situations, till
+at length she put it into the case, and laying it down with an
+affected carelessness upon the bed, 'I must go now, Louisa.
+Good-bye,' said she, running up and kissing her; 'but I'll
+come again presently'; then, clapping the door after her, she
+went. But as soon as the fermentation of her spirits subsided,
+the sense of shame, which had been scarcely felt when mixed
+with so many other sensations, rose uppermost in her mind.
+'What!' said she to herself, 'is it possible that I have sold
+what I promised to keep for ever? and what Leonora gave me?<span class="pagenum">[367]</span>
+and I have concealed it too, and have been making a parade of
+my generosity. Oh! what would Leonora, what would Louisa&mdash;what
+would everybody think of me if the truth were
+known?'</p>
+
+<p>Humiliated and grieved by these reflections, Cecilia began to
+search in her own mind for some consoling idea. She began to
+compare her conduct with that of others of her own age; and
+at length, fixing her comparison upon her brother George, as the
+companion of whom, from her infancy, she had been habitually
+the most emulous, she recollected that an almost similar circumstance
+had once happened to him, and that he had not only
+escaped disgrace, but had acquired glory, by an intrepid confession
+of his fault. Her father's word to her brother, on the
+occasion, she also perfectly recollected.</p>
+
+<p>'Come to me, George,' he said, holding out his hand, 'you
+are a generous, brave boy: they who dare to confess their faults
+will make great and good men.'</p>
+
+<p>These were his words; but Cecilia, in repeating them to herself,
+forgot to lay that emphasis on the word <i>men</i> which would
+have placed it in contradistinction to the word women. She
+willingly believed that the observation extended equally to both
+sexes, and flattered herself that she should exceed her brother
+in merit if she owned a fault which she thought that it would
+be so much more difficult to confess. 'Yes, but,' said she,
+stopping herself, 'how can I confess it? This very evening, in
+a few hours, the prize will be decided. Leonora or I shall win
+it. I have now as good a chance as Leonora, perhaps a better;
+and must I give up all my hopes&mdash;all that I have been labouring
+for this month past? Oh, I never can! If it were but to-morrow,
+or yesterday, or any day but this, I would not hesitate;
+but now I am almost certain of the prize, and if I win it&mdash;well,
+why then I will&mdash;I think I will tell all&mdash;yes I will; I am
+determined,' said Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>Here a bell summoned them to dinner. Leonora sat
+opposite to her, and she was not a little surprised to see Cecilia
+look so gay and unconstrained. 'Surely,' said she to herself,
+'if Cecilia had done that which I suspect, she would not, she
+could not, look as she does.' But Leonora little knew the
+cause of her gaiety. Cecilia was never in higher spirits, or
+better pleased with herself, than when she had resolved upon
+a sacrifice or a confession.<span class="pagenum">[368]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Must not this evening be given to the most amiable?
+Whose, then, will it be?' All eyes glanced first at Cecilia,
+and then at Leonora. Cecilia smiled; Leonora blushed. 'I
+see that it is not yet decided,' said Mrs. Villars; and immediately
+they ran upstairs, amidst confused whisperings.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia's voice could be distinguished far above the rest.
+'How can she be so happy!' said Leonora to herself. 'O
+Cecilia, there was a time when you could not have neglected
+me so! when we were always together the best of friends and
+companions; our wishes, tastes, and pleasures the same!
+Surely she did once love me,' said Leonora; 'but now she is
+quite changed. She has even sold my keepsake; and she
+would rather win a bracelet of hair from girls whom she did
+not always think so much superior to Leonora than have my
+esteem, my confidence, and my friendship for her whole life&mdash;yes,
+for her whole life, for I am sure she will be an amiable
+woman. Oh that this bracelet had never been thought of, or
+that I were certain of her winning it; for I am sure that I do
+not wish to win it from her. I would rather&mdash;a thousand
+times rather&mdash;that we were as we used to be than have all the
+glory in the world. And how pleasing Cecilia can be when
+she wishes to please!&mdash;how candid she is!&mdash;how much she can
+improve herself! Let me be just, though she has offended
+me; she is wonderfully improved within this last month. For
+one fault, and <i>that</i> against myself, shall I forget all her merits?'</p>
+
+<p>As Leonora said these last words, she could but just hear
+the voices of her companions. They had left her alone in the
+gallery. She knocked softly at Louisa's door. 'Come in,'
+said Louisa; 'I'm not asleep. Oh,' said she, starting up with
+the Flora in her hand, the instant that the door was opened,
+'I'm so glad you are come, Leonora, for I did so long to hear
+what you all were making such a noise about. Have you
+forgot that the bracelet&mdash;&mdash;' 'Oh yes! is this the evening?'
+inquired Leonora. 'Well, here's my white shell for you,' said
+Louisa. 'I've kept it in my pocket this fortnight; and though
+Cecilia did give me this Flora, I still love you a great deal
+better.' 'I thank you, Louisa,' said Leonora, gratefully. 'I
+will take your shell, and I shall value it as long as I live; but
+here is a red one, and if you wish to show me that you love
+me, you will give this to Cecilia. I know that she is particularly
+anxious for your preference, and I am sure that she deserves<span class="pagenum">[369]</span>
+it.' 'Yes, if I could I would choose both of you,' said Louisa,
+'but you know I can only choose which I like the best.' 'If
+you mean, my dear Louisa,' said Leonora, 'that you like me
+the best, I am very much obliged to you, for, indeed, I wish
+you to love me; but it is enough for me to know it in private.
+I should not feel the least more pleasure at hearing it in
+public, or in having it made known to all my companions,
+especially at a time when it would give poor Cecilia a great
+deal of pain.' 'But why should it give her pain?' asked
+Louisa; 'I don't like her for being jealous of you.' 'Nay,
+Louisa, surely you don't think Cecilia jealous? She only tries
+to excel, and to please; she is more anxious to succeed than I
+am, it is true, because she has a great deal more activity, and
+perhaps more ambition. And it would really mortify her to
+lose this prize&mdash;you know that she proposed it herself. It has
+been her object for this month past, and I am sure she has
+taken great pains to obtain it.' 'But, dear Leonora, why
+should you lose it?' 'Indeed, my dear, it would be no loss
+to me; and, if it were, I would willingly suffer it for Cecilia;
+for, though we seem not to be such good friends as we used to
+be, I love her very much, and she will love me again&mdash;I'm
+sure she will; when she no longer fears me as a rival, she will
+again love me as a friend.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Leonora heard a number of her companions running
+along the gallery. They all knocked hastily at the door,
+calling 'Leonora! Leonora! will you never come? Cecilia
+has been with us this half-hour.' Leonora smiled. 'Well,
+Louisa,' said she, smiling, 'will you promise me?' 'Oh, I
+am sure, by the way they speak to you, that they won't give
+you the prize!' said the little Louisa, and the tears started into
+her eyes. 'They love me, though, for all that,' said Leonora;
+'and as for the prize, you know whom I wish to have it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Leonora! Leonora!' called her impatient companions;
+'don't you hear us? What are you about?' 'Oh, she never
+will take any trouble about anything,' said one of the party;
+'let's go away.' 'Oh, go, go! make haste!' cried Louisa;
+'don't stay; they are so angry.' 'Remember, then, that you
+have promised me,' said Leonora, and she left the room.</p>
+
+<p>During all this time, Cecilia had been in the garden with
+her companions. The ambition which she had felt to win the
+first prize&mdash;the prize of superior talents and superior application&mdash;was<span class="pagenum">[370]</span>
+not to be compared to the absolute anxiety which she
+now expressed to win this simple testimony of the love and
+approbation of her equals and rivals.</p>
+
+<p>To employ her exuberant activity, Cecilia had been dragging
+branches of lilacs and laburnums, roses and sweet brier, to
+ornament the bower in which her fate was to be decided. It
+was excessively hot, but her mind was engaged, and she was
+indefatigable. She stood still at last to admire her works.
+Her companions all joined in loud applause. They were not
+a little prejudiced in her favour by the great eagerness which
+she expressed to win their prize, and by the great importance
+which she seemed to affix to the preference of each individual.
+At last, 'Where is Leonora?' cried one of them; and immediately,
+as we have seen, they ran to call her.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia was left alone. Overcome with heat and too violent
+exertion, she had hardly strength to support herself; each
+moment appeared to her intolerably long. She was in a state
+of the utmost suspense, and all her courage failed her. Even
+hope forsook her; and hope is a cordial which leaves the
+mind depressed and enfeebled.</p>
+
+<p>'The time is now come,' said Cecilia; 'in a few moments
+all will be decided. In a few moments&mdash;goodness! How
+much do I hazard? If I should not win the prize, how shall I
+confess what I have done? How shall I beg Leonora to
+forgive me? I, who hoped to restore my friendship to her as
+an honour! They are gone to seek for her. The moment
+she appears I shall be forgotten. What&mdash;what shall I do?'
+said Cecilia, covering her face with her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Such was Cecilia's situation when Leonora, accompanied by
+her companions, opened the hall door. They most of them
+ran forwards to Cecilia. As Leonora came into the bower, she
+held out her hand to Cecilia. 'We are not rivals, but friends,
+I hope,' said she. Cecilia clasped her hand; but she was in
+too great agitation to speak.</p>
+
+<p>The table was now set in the arbour&mdash;the vase was now
+placed in the middle. 'Well,' said Cecilia, eagerly, 'who
+begins?' Caroline, one of her friends, came forward first,
+and then all the others successively. Cecilia's emotion was
+hardly conceivable. 'Now they are all in! Count them,
+Caroline!'</p>
+
+<p>'One, two, three, four; the numbers are both equal.'
+<span class="pagenum">[371]</span>
+There was a dead silence. 'No, they are not,' exclaimed
+Cecilia, pressing forward, and putting a shell into a vase. 'I
+have not given mine, and I give it to Leonora.' Then, snatching
+the bracelet, 'It is yours, Leonora,' said she; 'take it, and
+give me back your friendship.' The whole assembly gave one
+universal clap and a general shout of applause.</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot be surprised at this from you, Cecilia,' said
+Leonora; 'and do you then still love me as you used to do?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Leonora, stop! don't praise me; I don't deserve this,'
+said she, turning to her loudly-applauding companions. 'You
+will soon despise me. O Leonora, you will never forgive me!
+I have deceived you; I have sold&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>At this instant Mrs. Villars appeared. The crowd divided.
+She had heard all that passed, from her window. 'I applaud
+your generosity, Cecilia,' said she, 'but I am to tell you that
+in this instance it is unsuccessful. You have it not in your
+power to give the prize to Leonora. It is yours. I have
+another vote to give to you. You have forgotten Louisa.'</p>
+
+<p>'Louisa!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'but surely, ma'am, Louisa
+loves Leonora better than she does me.' 'She commissioned
+me, however,' said Mrs. Villars, 'to give you a red shell; and
+you will find it in this box.'</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia started, and turned as pale as death; it was the
+fatal box!</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Villars produced another box. She opened it; it
+contained the Flora. 'And Louisa also desired me,' said she,
+'to return you this Flora.' She put it into Cecilia's hand.
+Cecilia trembled so that she could not hold it. Leonora
+caught it.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, madam! Oh, Leonora!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'now I
+have no hope left. I intended&mdash;I was just going to tell&mdash;&mdash;'
+'Dear Cecilia,' said Leonora, 'you need not tell it me; I
+know it already; and I forgive you with all my heart.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I can prove to you,' said Mrs. Villars, 'that Leonora
+has forgiven you. It is she who has given you the prize; it
+was she who persuaded Louisa to give you her vote. I went
+to see her a little while ago; and perceiving, by her countenance,
+that something was the matter, I pressed her to tell me
+what it was.</p>
+
+<p>'"Why, madam," said she, "Leonora has made me promise
+to give my shell to Cecilia. Now I don't love Cecilia half so<span class="pagenum">[372]</span>
+well as I do Leonora. Besides, I would not have Cecilia
+think I vote for her because she gave me a Flora." Whilst
+Louisa was speaking,' continued Mrs. Villars, 'I saw this silver
+box lying on the bed. I took it up, and asked if it was not
+yours, and how she came by it. "Indeed, madam," said
+Louisa, "I could have been almost certain that it was Cecilia's;
+but Leonora gave it me, and she said that she bought it of the
+peddler this morning. If anybody else had told me so, I
+could not have believed them, because I remember the box so
+well; but I can't help believing Leonora." "But did not you
+ask Cecilia about it?" said I. "No, madam," replied Louisa;
+"for Leonora forbade me." I guessed her reason. "Well,"
+said I, "give me the box, and I will carry your shell in it to
+Cecilia." "Then, madam," said she, "if I must give it her,
+pray do take the Flora, and return it to her first, that she may
+not think it is for that I do it."'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, generous Leonora!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'but, indeed,
+Louisa, I cannot take your shell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then, dear Cecilia, accept of mine instead of it! you
+cannot refuse it; I only follow your example. As for the
+bracelet,' added Leonora, taking Cecilia's hand, 'I assure you
+I don't wish for it, and you do, and you deserve it.' 'No,'
+said Cecilia, 'indeed I do not deserve it. Next to you, surely
+Louisa deserves it best.'</p>
+
+<p>'Louisa! oh yes, Louisa,' exclaimed everybody with one
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Mrs. Villars, 'and let Cecilia carry the bracelet
+to her; she deserves that reward. For one fault I cannot
+forget all your merits, Cecilia, nor, I am sure, will your companions.'
+'Then, surely, not your best friend,' said Leonora,
+kissing her.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody present was moved. They looked up to Leonora
+with respectful and affectionate admiration.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Leonora, how I love you! and how I wish to be like
+you!' exclaimed Cecilia&mdash;'to be as good, as generous!'</p>
+
+<p>'Rather wish, Cecilia,' interrupted Mrs. Villars, 'to be as
+just; to be as strictly honourable, and as invariably consistent.
+Remember, that many of our sex are capable of great efforts&mdash;of
+making what they call great sacrifices to virtue or to
+friendship; but few treat their friends with habitual gentleness,
+or uniformly conduct themselves with prudence and good sense.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[373]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_LITTLE_MERCHANTS" id="THE_LITTLE_MERCHANTS"></a>THE LITTLE MERCHANTS</h2>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin"><i>
+Chi di gallina nasce, convien che rozole.</i><br />
+As the old cock crows, so crows the young.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Those</span> who have visited Italy give us an agreeable picture of
+the cheerful industry of the children of all ages in the celebrated
+city of Naples. Their manner of living and their numerous
+employments are exactly described in the following 'Extract
+from a Traveller's Journal.'<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a></p>
+
+<p>'The children are busied in various ways. A great
+number of them bring fish for sale to town from Santa Lucia;
+others are very often seen about the arsenals, or wherever
+carpenters are at work, employed in gathering up the chips
+and pieces of wood; or by the seaside, picking up sticks, and
+whatever else has drifted ashore, which, when their basket is
+full, they carry away.</p>
+
+<p>'Children of two or three years old, who can scarcely
+crawl along upon the ground, in company with boys of five or
+six, are employed in this petty trade. Hence they proceed
+with their baskets into the heart of the city, where in several
+places they form a sort of little market, sitting round with
+their stock of wood before them. Labourers, and the lower
+order of citizens, buy it of them to burn in the tripods for
+warming themselves, or to use in their scanty kitchens.</p>
+
+<p>'Other children carry about for sale the water of the
+sulphurous wells, which, particularly in the spring season, is
+drunk in great abundance. Others again endeavour to turn a
+few pence by buying a small matter of fruit, of pressed honey,
+<span class="pagenum">[374]</span>cakes, and comfits, and then, like little peddlers, offer and sell
+them to other children, always for no more profit than that
+they may have their share of them free of expense.</p>
+
+<p>'It is really curious to see how an urchin, whose whole
+stock and property consist in a board and a knife, will carry
+about a water-melon, or a half-roasted gourd, collect a troup
+of children round him, set down his board, and proceed to
+divide the fruit into small pieces among them.</p>
+
+<p>'The buyers keep a sharp look-out to see that they have
+enough for their little piece of copper; and the Lilliputian
+tradesmen act with no less caution as the exigencies of the
+case may require, to prevent his being cheated out of a morsel.'</p>
+
+<p>The advantages of truth and honesty, and the value of a
+character for integrity, are very early felt amongst these little
+merchants in their daily intercourse with each other. The
+fair dealer is always sooner or later seen to prosper. The
+most cunning cheat is at last detected and disgraced.</p>
+
+<p>Numerous instances of the truth of this common observation
+were remarked by many Neapolitan children, especially by
+those who were acquainted with the characters and history of
+Piedro and Francisco, two boys originally equal in birth,
+fortune, and capacity, but different in their education, and
+consequently in their habits and conduct. Francisco was the
+son of an honest gardener, who, from the time he could speak,
+taught him to love to speak the truth, showed him that liars
+are never believed&mdash;that cheats and thieves cannot be trusted,
+and that the shortest way to obtain a good character is to
+deserve it.</p>
+
+<p>Youth and white paper, as the proverb says, take all
+impressions. The boy profited much by his father's precepts,
+and more by his example; he always heard his father speak
+the truth, and saw that he dealt fairly with everybody. In all
+his childish traffic, Francisco, imitating his parents, was
+scrupulously honest, and therefore all his companions trusted
+him&mdash;'As honest as Francisco,' became a sort of proverb
+amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>'As honest as Francisco,' repeated Piedro's father, when he
+one day heard this saying. 'Let them say so; I say, "As
+sharp as Piedro"; and let us see which will go through the
+world best.' With the idea of making his son <i>sharp</i> he
+made him cunning. He taught him, that to make a <i>good bargain</i><span class="pagenum">[375]</span>
+was to deceive as to the value and price of whatever
+he wanted to dispose of; to get as much money as possible
+from customers by taking advantage of their ignorance or of
+their confidence. He often repeated his favourite proverb&mdash;'The
+buyer has need of a hundred eyes; the seller has need
+but of one.'<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> And he took frequent opportunities of explaining
+the meaning of this maxim to his son. He was a fisherman;
+and as his gains depended more upon fortune than upon
+prudence, he trusted habitually to his good luck. After being
+idle for a whole day, he would cast his line or his nets, and if
+he was lucky enough to catch a fine fish, he would go and
+show it in triumph to his neighbour the gardener.</p>
+
+<p>'You are obliged to work all day long for your daily bread,'
+he would say. 'Look here; I work but five minutes, and I
+have not only daily bread, but daily fish.'</p>
+
+<p>Upon these occasions, our fisherman always forgot, or
+neglected to count, the hours and days which were wasted in
+waiting for a fair wind to put to sea, or angling in vain on the
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>Little Piedro, who used to bask in the sun upon the sea-shore
+beside his father, and to lounge or sleep away his time
+in a fishing-boat, acquired habits of idleness, which seemed to
+his father of little consequence whilst he was <i>but a child</i>.</p>
+
+<p>'What will you do with Piedro as he grows up, neighbour?'
+said the gardener. 'He is smart and quick enough, but he is
+always in mischief. Scarcely a day has passed for this fortnight
+but I have caught him amongst my grapes. I track his
+footsteps all over my vineyard.' '<i>He is but a child</i> yet, and
+knows no better,' replied the fisherman. 'But if you don't
+teach him better now he is a child, how will he know when he
+is a man?' said the gardener. 'A mighty noise about a bunch
+of grapes, truly!' cried the fisherman; 'a few grapes more
+or less in your vineyard, what does it signify?' 'I speak for
+your son's sake, and not for the sake of my grapes,' said the
+gardener; 'and I tell you again, the boy will not do well in
+the world, neighbour, if you don't look after him in time.'
+'He'll do well enough in the world, you will find,' answered
+the fisherman, carelessly. 'Whenever he casts my nets, they
+never come up empty. "It is better to be lucky than wise."'<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[376]</span>This was a proverb which Piedro had frequently heard
+from his father, and to which he most willingly trusted,
+because it gave him less trouble to fancy himself fortunate
+than to make himself wise.</p>
+
+<p>'Come here, child,' said his father to him, when he returned
+home after the preceding conversation with the gardener;
+'how old are you, my boy?&mdash;twelve years old, is not it?'
+'As old as Francisco, and older by six months,' said Piedro.
+'And smarter and more knowing by six years,' said his father.
+'Here, take these fish to Naples, and let us see how you'll sell
+them for me. Venture a small fish, as the proverb says, to
+catch a great one.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> I was too late with them at the market
+yesterday, but nobody will know but what they are just fresh
+out of the water, unless you go and tell them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not I; trust me for that; I'm not such a fool,' replied
+Piedro, laughing; 'I leave that to Francisco. Do you know,
+I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his father by
+turning the bruised side to the customer, who was just laying
+down the money for it, and who was a raw servant-boy,
+moreover&mdash;one who would never have guessed there were
+two sides to a melon, if he had not, as you say, father, been
+told of it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Off with you to market. You are a droll chap,' said his
+father, 'and will sell my fish cleverly, I'll be bound. As to
+the rest, let every man take care of his own grapes. You
+understand me, Piedro?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perfectly,' said the boy, who perceived that his father was
+indifferent as to his honesty, provided he sold fish at the
+highest price possible. He proceeded to the market, and he
+offered his fish with assiduity to every person whom he thought
+likely to buy it, especially to those upon whom he thought he
+could impose. He positively asserted to all who looked at his
+fish that they were just fresh out of the water. Good judges
+of men and fish knew that he said what was false, and passed
+him by with neglect; but it was at last what he called <i>good
+luck</i> to meet with the very same young raw servant-boy who
+would have bought the bruised melon from Francisco. He
+made up to him directly, crying, 'Fish! Fine fresh fish! fresh
+fish!'</p>
+
+<p>'Was it caught to-day?' said the boy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i035f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i035t.jpg" alt="i035"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his father by turning the
+bruised side to the customer.'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[378]</span>'Yes, this morning; not an hour ago,' said Piedro, with
+the greatest effrontery.</p>
+
+<p>The servant-boy was imposed upon; and being a foreigner,
+speaking the Italian language but imperfectly, and not being
+expert at reckoning the Italian money, he was no match for
+the cunning Piedro, who cheated him not only as to the
+freshness but as to the price of the commodity. Piedro
+received nearly half as much again for his fish as he ought to
+have done.</p>
+
+<p>On his road homewards from Naples to the little village of
+Resina, where his father lived, he overtook Francisco, who
+was leading his father's ass. The ass was laden with large
+panniers, which were filled with the stalks and leaves of
+cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli, lettuces, etc.&mdash;all the refuse of
+the Neapolitan kitchens, which are usually collected by the
+gardeners' boys, and carried to the gardens round Naples, to
+be mixed with other manure.</p>
+
+<p>'Well-filled panniers, truly,' said Piedro, as he overtook
+Francisco and the ass. The panniers were indeed not only
+filled to the top, but piled up with much skill and care, so that
+the load met over the animal's back.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not a very heavy load for the ass, though it looks so
+large,' said Francisco. 'The poor fellow, however, shall have
+a little of this water,' added he, leading the ass to a pool by
+the roadside.</p>
+
+<p>'I was not thinking of the ass, boy; I was not thinking of
+any ass, but of you, when I said, "Well-filled panniers, truly!"
+This is your morning's work, I presume, and you'll make
+another journey to Naples to-day, on the same errand, I
+warrant, before your father thinks you have done enough?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not before <i>my father</i> thinks I have done enough, but
+before I think so myself,' replied Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'I do enough to satisfy myself and my father too,' said
+Piedro, 'without slaving myself after your fashion. Look here,'
+producing the money he had received for the fish; 'all this
+was had for asking. It is no bad thing, you'll allow, to know
+how to ask for money properly.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should be ashamed to beg, or borrow either,' said Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'Neither did I get what you see by begging, or borrowing
+either,' said Piedro, 'but by using my wits; not as you did<span class="pagenum">[379]</span>
+yesterday, when, like a novice, you showed the bruised side of
+your melon, and so spoiled your market by your wisdom.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wisdom I think it still,' said Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'And your father?' asked Piedro.</p>
+
+<p>'And my father,' said Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'Mine is of a different way of thinking,' said Piedro. 'He
+always tells me that the buyer has need of a hundred eyes,
+and if one can blind the whole hundred, so much the better.
+You must know, I got off the fish to-day that my father could
+not sell yesterday in the market&mdash;got it off for fresh just out
+of the river&mdash;got twice as much as the market price for it;
+and from whom, think you? Why, from the very booby that
+would have bought the bruised melon for a sound one if you
+would have let him. You'll allow I'm no fool, Francisco, and
+that I'm in a fair way to grow rich, if I go on as I have
+begun.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay,' said Francisco; 'you forgot that the booby you
+took in to-day will not be so easily taken in to-morrow. He
+will buy no more fish from you, because he will be afraid of
+your cheating him; but he will be ready enough to buy fruit
+from me, because he will know I shall not cheat him&mdash;so
+you'll have lost a customer, and I gained one.'</p>
+
+<p>'With all my heart,' said Piedro. 'One customer does not
+make a market; if he buys no more from me, what care I?
+there are people enough to buy fish in Naples.'</p>
+
+<p>'And do you mean to serve them all in the same manner?'
+asked Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'If they will be only so good as to give me leave,' said
+Piedro, laughing, and repeating his father's proverb, '"Venture
+a small fish to catch a large one."'<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> He had learned to think
+that to cheat in making bargains was witty and clever.</p>
+
+<p>'And you have never considered, then,' said Francisco,
+'that all these people will, one after another, find you out in
+time?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, in time; but it will be some time first. There are a
+great many of them, enough to last me all the summer, if I
+lose a customer a day,' said Piedro.</p>
+
+<p>'And next summer,' observed Francisco, 'what will you
+do?'</p>
+
+<p>'Next summer is not come yet; there is time enough to
+<span class="pagenum">[380]</span>think what I shall do before next summer comes. Why, now,
+suppose the blockheads, after they had been taken in and found
+it out, all joined against me, and would buy none of our fish&mdash;what
+then? Are there no trades but that of a fisherman? In
+Naples, are there not a hundred ways of making money for a
+smart lad like me? as my father says. What do you think of
+turning merchant, and selling sugar-plums and cakes to the
+children in their market? Would they be hard to deal with,
+think you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think not,' said Francisco; 'but I think the children
+would find out in time if they were cheated, and would like it
+as little as the men.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't doubt them. Then <i>in time</i> I could, you know,
+change my trade&mdash;sell chips and sticks in the wood-market&mdash;hand
+about the lemonade to the fine folks, or twenty other
+things. There are trades enough, boy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, for the honest dealer,' said Francisco, 'but for no
+other; for in all of them you'll find, as <i>my</i> father says, that a good
+character is the best fortune to set up with. Change your trade
+ever so often, you'll be found out for what you are at last.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what am I, pray?' said Piedro, angrily. 'The whole
+truth of the matter is, Francisco, that you envy my good luck,
+and can't bear to hear this money jingle in my hand. Ay,
+stroke the long ears of your ass, and look as wise as you
+please. It's better to be lucky than wise, as <i>my</i> father says.
+Good morning to you. When I am found out for what I am,
+or when the worst comes to the worst, I can drive a stupid
+ass, with his panniers filled with rubbish, as well as you do
+now, <i>honest Francisco</i>?</p>
+
+<p>'Not quite so well. Unless you were <i>honest Francisco</i>, you
+would not fill his panniers quite so readily.'</p>
+
+<p>This was certain, that Francisco was so well known for his
+honesty amongst all the people at Naples with whom his father
+was acquainted, that every one was glad to deal with him; and
+as he never wronged any one, all were willing to serve him&mdash;at
+least, as much as they could without loss to themselves; so
+that after the market was over, his panniers were regularly
+filled by the gardeners and others with whatever he wanted.
+His industry was constant, his gains small but certain, and he
+every day had more and more reason to trust to his father's
+maxim&mdash;That honesty is the best policy.<span class="pagenum">[381]</span></p>
+
+<p>The foreign servant lad, to whom Francisco had so honestly,
+or, as Piedro said, so sillily, shown the bruised side of the
+melon, was an Englishman. He left his native country, of
+which he was extremely fond, to attend upon his master, to
+whom he was still more attached. His master was in a declining
+state of health, and this young lad waited on him a little
+more to his mind than his other servants. We must, in consideration
+of his zeal, fidelity, and inexperience, pardon him for
+not being a good judge of fish. Though he had simplicity
+enough to be easily cheated once, he had too much sense to
+be twice made a dupe. The next time he met Piedro in the
+market, he happened to be in company with several English
+gentlemen's servants, and he pointed Piedro out to them all
+as an arrant knave. They heard his cry of 'Fresh fish! fresh
+fish! fine fresh fish!' with incredulous smiles, and let him pass,
+but not without some expressions of contempt, though uttered
+in English, he tolerably well understood; for the tone of contempt
+is sufficiently expressive in all languages. He lost more
+by not selling his fish to these people than he had gained the
+day before by cheating the <i>English booby</i>. The market was
+well supplied, and he could not get rid of his cargo.</p>
+
+<p>'Is not this truly provoking?' said Piedro, as he passed by
+Francisco, who was selling fruit for his father. 'Look, my
+basket is as heavy as when I left home; and look at 'em yourself,
+they really are fine fresh fish to-day; and yet, because
+that revengeful booby told how I took him in yesterday, not
+one of yonder crowd would buy them; and all the time they
+really are fresh to-day!'</p>
+
+<p>'So they are,' said Francisco; 'but you said so yesterday,
+when they were not; and he that was duped then is not ready
+to believe you to-day. How does he know that you deserve it
+better?'</p>
+
+<p>'He might have looked at the fish,' repeated Piedro; 'they
+are fresh to-day. I am sure he need not have been afraid.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' said Francisco; 'but as my father said to you once&mdash;the
+scalded dog fears cold water.'<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a></p>
+
+<p>Here their conversation was interrupted by the same English
+lad, who smiled as he came up to Francisco, and taking up a
+fine pine-apple, he said, in a mixture of bad Italian and English&mdash;'I
+need not look at the other side of this; you will tell me<span class="pagenum">[382]</span>
+if it is not as good as it looks. Name your price; I know you
+have but one, and that an honest one; and as to the rest, I am
+able and willing to pay for what I buy; that is to say, my
+master is, which comes to the same thing. I wish your fruit
+could make him well, and it would be worth its weight in gold&mdash;to
+me, at least. We must have some of your grapes for
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he not well?' inquired Francisco. 'We must, then,
+pick out the best for him,' at the same time singling out a
+tempting bunch. 'I hope he will like these; but if you could
+some day come as far as Resina (it is a village but a few miles
+out of town, where we have our vineyard), you could there
+choose for yourself, and pluck them fresh from the vines for
+your poor master.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless you, my good boy; I should take you for an Englishman,
+by your way of dealing. I'll come to your village. Only
+write me down the name; for your Italian names slip through
+my head. I'll come to the vineyard if it was ten miles off; and
+all the time we stay in Naples (may it not be so long as I fear
+it will!), with my master's leave, which he never refuses me to
+anything that's proper, I'll deal with you for all our fruit, as
+sure as my name's Arthur, and with none else, with my good
+will. I wish all your countrymen would take after you in
+honesty, indeed I do,' concluded the Englishman, looking full
+at Piedro, who took up his unsold basket of fish, looking somewhat
+silly, and gloomily walked off.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur, the English servant, was as good as his word. He
+dealt constantly with Francisco, and proved an excellent
+customer, buying from him during the whole season as much
+fruit as his master wanted. His master, who was an Englishman
+of distinction, was invited to take up his residence, during
+his stay in Italy, at the Count de F.'s villa, which was in the
+environs of Naples&mdash;an easy walk from Resina. Francisco
+had the pleasure of seeing his father's vineyard often full of
+generous visitors, and Arthur, who had circulated the anecdote
+of the bruised melon, was, he said, 'proud to think that some
+of this was his doing, and that an Englishman never forgot a
+good turn, be it from a countryman or foreigner.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear boy,' said Francisco's father to him, whilst Arthur
+was in the vineyard helping to tend the vines, 'I am to thank
+you and your honesty, it seems, for our having our hands so<span class="pagenum">[383]</span>
+full of business this season. It is fair you should have a share
+of our profits.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I have, father, enough and enough, when I see you and
+mother going on so well. What can I want more?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my brave boy, we know you are a grateful, good son;
+but I have been your age myself; you have companions, you
+have little expenses of your own. Here; this vine, this fig-tree,
+and a melon a week next summer shall be yours. With these
+make a fine figure amongst the little Neapolitan merchants;
+and all I wish is that you may prosper as well, and by the same
+honest means, in managing for yourself, as you have done
+managing for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, father; and if I prosper at all, it shall be by
+those means, and no other, or I should not be worthy to be
+called your son.'</p>
+
+<p>Piedro the cunning did not make quite so successful a
+summer's work as did Francisco the honest. No extraordinary
+events happened, no singular instance of bad or good luck
+occurred; but he felt, as persons usually do, the natural consequences
+of his own actions. He pursued his scheme of imposing,
+as far as he could, upon every person he dealt with; and
+the consequence was, that at last nobody would deal with him.</p>
+
+<p>'It is easy to outwit one person, but impossible to outwit all
+the world,' said a man<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> who knew the world at least as well
+as either Piedro or his father.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro's father, amongst others, had reason to complain.
+He saw his own customers fall off from him, and was told,
+whenever he went into the market, that his son was such a
+cheat there was no dealing with him. One day, when he was
+returning from the market in a very bad humour, in consequence
+of these reproaches, and of his not having found
+customers for his goods, he espied his <i>smart</i> son Piedro at a
+little merchant's fruit-board, devouring a fine gourd with prodigious
+greediness. 'Where, glutton, do you find money to
+pay for these dainties?' exclaimed his father, coming close up
+to him, with angry gestures. Piedro's mouth was much too
+full to make an immediate reply, nor did his father wait for
+any, but darting his hand into the youth's pocket, pulled forth
+a handful of silver.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[384]</span></p>
+<p>'The money, father,' said Piedro, 'that I got for the fish
+yesterday, and that I meant to give you to-day, before you
+went out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I'll make you remember it against another time,
+sirrah!' said his father. 'I'll teach you to fill your stomach
+with my money. Am I to lose my customers by your tricks,
+and then find you here eating my all? You are a rogue, and
+everybody has found you out to be a rogue; and the worst of
+rogues I find you, who scruples not to cheat his own father.'</p>
+
+<p>Saying these words, with great vehemence he seized hold of
+Piedro, and in the very midst of the little fruit-market gave him
+a severe beating. This beating did the boy no good; it was
+vengeance not punishment. Piedro saw that his father was in
+a passion, and knew that he was beaten because he was found
+out to be a rogue, rather than for being one. He recollected
+perfectly that his father once said to him: 'Let every one
+take care of his own grapes.'</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, it was scarcely reasonable to expect that a boy who
+had been educated to think that he might cheat every customer
+he could in the way of trade, should be afterwards scrupulously
+honest in his conduct towards the father whose proverbs encouraged
+his childhood in cunning.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro writhed with bodily pain as he left the market after
+his drubbing, but his mind was not in the least amended. On
+the contrary, he was hardened to the sense of shame by the loss
+of reputation. All the little merchants were spectators of this
+scene, and heard his father's words: 'You <i>are</i> a rogue, and the
+worst of rogues, who scruples not to cheat his own father.'</p>
+
+<p>These words were long remembered, and long did Piedro feel
+their effects. He once flattered himself that, when his trade of
+selling fish failed him, he could readily engage in some other;
+but he now found, to his mortification, that what Francisco's
+father said proved true: 'In all trades the best fortune to set
+up with is a good character.'</p>
+
+<p>Not one of the little Neapolitan merchants would either
+enter into partnership with him, give him credit, or even trade
+with him for ready money.&mdash;'If you would cheat your own
+father, to be sure you will cheat us,' was continually said to him
+by these prudent little people.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro was taunted and treated with contempt at home and
+abroad. His father, when he found that his son's <i>smartness</i><span class="pagenum">[385]</span>
+was no longer useful in making bargains, shoved him out of
+his way whenever he met him. All the food or clothes that he
+had at home seemed to be given to him grudgingly, and with
+such expressions as these: 'Take that; but it is too good for
+you. You must eat this, now, instead of gourds and figs&mdash;and
+be thankful you have even this.'</p>
+
+<p>Piedro spent a whole winter very unhappily. He expected
+that all his old tricks, and especially what his father had said
+of him in the market-place, would be soon forgotten; but
+month passed after month, and still these things were fresh in
+the memory of all who had known them.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to get rid of a bad character. A very great
+rogue<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> was once heard to say, that he would, with all his
+heart, give ten thousand pounds for a good character, because he
+knew that he could make twenty thousand by it.</p>
+
+<p>Something like this was the sentiment of our cunning hero
+when he experienced the evils of a bad reputation, and when
+he saw the numerous advantages which Francisco's good
+character procured. Such had been Piedro's wretched education,
+that even the hard lessons of experience could not alter
+its pernicious effects. He was sorry his knavery had been
+detected, but he still thought it clever to cheat, and was secretly
+persuaded that, if he had cheated successfully, he should have
+been happy. 'But I know I am not happy now,' said he to
+himself one morning, as he sat alone disconsolate by the sea-shore,
+dressed in tattered garments, weak and hungry, with an
+empty basket beside him. His fishing-rod, which he held
+between his knees, bent over the dry sands instead of into
+the water, for he was not thinking of what he was about; his
+arms were folded, his head hung down, and his ragged hat
+was slouched over his face. He was a melancholy spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>Francisco, as he was coming from his father's vineyard with
+a large dish of purple and white grapes upon his head, and a
+basket of melons and figs hanging upon his arm, chanced to see
+Piedro seated in this melancholy posture. Touched with compassion,
+Francisco approached him softly; his footsteps were
+not heard upon the sands, and Piedro did not perceive that
+any one was near him till he felt something cold touch his
+hand; he then started, and, looking up, saw a bunch of ripe
+grapes, which Francisco was holding over his head.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[386]</span></p>
+<p>'Eat them; you'll find them very good, I hope,' said
+Francisco, with a benevolent smile.</p>
+
+<p>'They are excellent&mdash;most excellent, and I am much
+obliged to you, Francisco,' said Piedro. 'I was very hungry,
+and that's what I am now, without anybody's caring anything
+about it. I am not the favourite I was with my father, but I
+know it is all my own fault.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, but cheer up,' said Francisco; 'my father always
+says, "One who knows he has been in fault, and acknowledges
+it, will scarcely be in fault again." Yes, take as many figs as
+you will,' continued he; and held his basket closer to Piedro,
+who, as he saw, cast a hungry eye upon one of the ripe figs.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said Piedro, after he had taken several, 'shall not I
+get you into a scrape by taking so many? Won't your father
+be apt to miss them?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think I would give them to you if they were not
+my own?' said Francisco, with a sudden glance of indignation.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, don't be angry that I asked the question; it was
+only from fear of getting you into disgrace that I asked it.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would not be easy for anybody to do that, I hope,' said
+Francisco, rather proudly.</p>
+
+<p>'And to me less than anybody,' replied Piedro, in an
+insinuating tone, '<i>I</i>, that am so much obliged to you!'</p>
+
+<p>'A bunch of grapes and a few figs are no mighty obligation,'
+said Francisco, smiling; 'I wish I could do more for you.
+You seem, indeed, to have been very unhappy of late. We
+never see you in the markets as we used to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; ever since my father beat me, and called me rogue
+before all the children there, I have never been able to show
+my face without being gibed at by one or t'other. If you
+would but take me along with you amongst them, and only
+just <i>seem</i> my friend for a day or two, or so, it would quite set
+me up again; for they all like you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would rather <i>be</i> than seem your friend, if I could,' said
+Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, to be sure; that would be still better,' said Piedro,
+observing that Francisco, as he uttered his last sentence, was
+separating the grapes and other fruits into two equal divisions.
+'To be sure I would rather you would <i>be</i> than <i>seem</i> a friend to
+me; but I thought that was too much to ask at first, though I<span class="pagenum">[387]</span>
+have a notion, notwithstanding I have been so <i>unlucky</i> lately&mdash;I
+have a notion you would have no reason to repent of it. You
+would find me no bad hand, if you were to try, and take me
+into partnership.'</p>
+
+<p>'Partnership!' interrupted Francisco, drawing back alarmed;
+'I had no thoughts of that.'</p>
+
+<p>'But won't you? can't you?' said Piedro, in a supplicating
+tone; '<i>can't</i> you have thoughts of it? You'd find me a very
+active partner.'</p>
+
+<p>Francisco still drew back, and kept his eyes fixed upon the
+ground. He was embarrassed; for he pitied Piedro, and he
+scarcely knew how to point out to him that something more is
+necessary in a partner in trade besides activity, and that is
+honesty.</p>
+
+<p>'Can't you?' repeated Piedro, thinking that he hesitated
+from merely mercenary motives. 'You shall have what share
+of the profits you please.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was not thinking of the profits,' said Francisco; 'but
+without meaning to be ill-natured to you, Piedro, I must say
+that I cannot enter into any partnership with you at present;
+but I will do what, perhaps, you will like as well,' said he,
+taking half the fruit out of his basket; 'you are heartily
+welcome to this; try and sell it in the children's fruit-market.'
+'I'll go on before you, and speak to those I am acquainted
+with, and tell them you are going to set up a new character,
+and that you hope to make it a good one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hey, shall I! Thank you for ever, dear Francisco,' cried
+Piedro, seizing his plentiful gift of fruit. 'Say what you please
+for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'But don't make me say anything that is not true,' said
+Francisco, pausing.</p>
+
+<p>'No, to be sure not,' said Piedro; 'I <i>do</i> mean to give no
+room for scandal. If I could get them to trust me as they do
+you, I should be happy indeed.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is what you may do, if you please,' said Francisco.
+'Adieu, I wish you well with all my heart; but I must leave
+you now, or I shall be too late for the market.'<span class="pagenum">[388]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+<i>Chi va piano va sano, e anch&eacute; lontano.</i><br />
+Fair and softly goes far in a day.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Piedro</span> had now an opportunity of establishing a good character.
+When he went into the market with his grapes and figs,
+he found that he was not shunned or taunted as usual. All
+seemed disposed to believe in his intended reformation, and to
+give him a fair trial.</p>
+
+<p>These favourable dispositions towards him were the consequence
+of Francisco's benevolent representations. He told
+them that he thought Piedro had suffered enough to cure
+him of his tricks, and that it would be cruelty in them, because
+he might once have been in fault, to banish him by their
+reproaches from amongst them, and thus to prevent him from
+the means of gaining his livelihood honestly.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro made a good beginning, and gave what several of
+the younger customers thought excellent bargains. His grapes
+and figs were quickly sold, and with the money that he got
+for them he the next day purchased from a fruit-dealer a fresh
+supply; and thus he went on for some time, conducting himself
+with scrupulous honesty, so that he acquired some credit
+among his companions. They no longer watched him with
+suspicious eyes. They trusted to his measures and weights,
+and they counted less carefully the change which they received
+from him.</p>
+
+<p>The satisfaction he felt from this alteration in their manners
+was at first delightful, to Piedro; but in proportion to his credit,
+his opportunities of defrauding increased; and these became
+temptations which he had not the firmness to resist. His old
+manner of thinking recurred.</p>
+
+<p>'I make but a few shillings a day, and this is but slow
+work,' said he to himself. 'What signifies my good character,
+if I make so little by it?'</p>
+
+<p>Light gains, and frequent, make a heavy purse,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> was one
+<span class="pagenum">[389]</span>of Francisco's proverbs. But Piedro was in too great haste to
+get rich to take time into his account. He set his invention
+to work, and he did not want for ingenuity, to devise means of
+cheating without running the risk of detection. He observed
+that the younger part of the community were extremely fond of
+certain coloured sugar-plums, and of burnt almonds.</p>
+
+<p>With the money he had earned by two months' trading in
+fruit he laid in a large stock of what appeared to these little
+merchants a stock of almonds and sugar-plums, and he painted
+in capital gold coloured letters upon his board, 'Sweetest,
+largest, most admirable sugar-plums of all colours ever sold in
+Naples, to be had here; and in gratitude to his numerous
+customers, Piedro adds to these "Burnt almonds gratis."'</p>
+
+<p>This advertisement attracted the attention of all who could
+read; and many who could not read heard it repeated with
+delight. Crowds of children surrounded Piedro's board of
+promise, and they all went away the first day amply satisfied.
+Each had a full measure of coloured sugar-plums at the usual
+price, and along with these a burnt almond gratis. The burnt
+almond had such an effect upon the public judgment, that it
+was universally allowed that the sugar-plums were, as the
+advertisement set forth, the largest, sweetest, most admirable
+ever sold in Naples; though all the time they were, in no
+respect, better than any other sugar-plums.</p>
+
+<p>It was generally reported that Piedro gave full measure&mdash;fuller
+than any other board in the city. He measured the
+sugar-plums in a little cubical tin box; and this, it was affirmed,
+he heaped up to the top and pressed down before he poured
+out the contents into the open hands of his approving customers.
+This belief, and Piedro's popularity, continued longer even
+than he had expected; and, as he thought his sugar-plums had
+secured their reputation with the <i>generous public</i>, he gradually
+neglected to add burnt almonds gratis.</p>
+
+<p>One day a boy of about ten years old passed carelessly by,
+whistling as he went along, and swinging a carpenter's rule in
+his hand. 'Ha! what have we here?' cried he, stopping to
+read what was written on Piedro's board. 'This promises
+rarely. Old as I am, and tall of my age, which makes the
+matter worse, I am still as fond of sugar-plums as my little
+sister, who is five years younger than I. Come, Signor, fill me
+quick, for I'm in haste to taste them, two measures of the<span class="pagenum">[390]</span>
+sweetest, largest, most admirable sugar-plums in Naples&mdash;one
+measure for myself, and one for my little Rosetta.'</p>
+
+<p>'You'll pay for yourself and your sister, then,' said Piedro,
+'for no credit is given here.'</p>
+
+<p>'No credit do I ask,' replied the lively boy; 'when I told
+you I loved sugar-plums, did I tell you I loved them, or even
+my sister, so well as to run in debt for them? Here's for
+myself, and here's for my sister's share,' said he, laying down
+his money; 'and now for the burnt almonds gratis, my good
+fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are all out; I have been out of burnt almonds this
+great while,' said Piedro.</p>
+
+<p>'Then why are they in your advertisement here?' said
+Carlo.</p>
+
+<p>'I have not had time to scratch them out of the board.'</p>
+
+<p>'What! not when you have, by your own account, been out
+of them a great while? I did not know it required so much
+time to blot out a few words&mdash;let us try'; and as he spoke,
+Carlo, for that was the name of Piedro's new customer, pulled
+a bit of white chalk out of his pocket, and drew a broad score
+across the line on the board which promised burnt almonds
+gratis.</p>
+
+<p>'You are most impatient,' said Piedro; 'I shall have a
+fresh stock of almonds to-morrow.' 'Why must the board tell
+a lie to-day?' 'It would ruin me to alter it,' said Piedro.
+'A lie may ruin you, but I could scarcely think the truth
+could.' 'You have no right to meddle with me or my board,'
+said Piedro, put off his guard, and out of his usual soft voice
+of civility, by this last observation. 'My character, and that
+of my board, are too firmly established now for any chance
+customer like you to injure.' 'I never dreamed of injuring
+you or any one else,' said Carlo&mdash;'I wish, moreover, you may
+not injure yourself. Do as you please with your board, but
+give me my sugar-plums, for I have some right to meddle with
+those, having paid for them.' 'Hold out your hand, then.'
+'No, put them in here, if you please; put my sister's, at least,
+in here; she likes to have them in this box: I bought some
+for her in it yesterday, and she'll think they'll taste the better
+out of the same box. But how is this? your measure does not
+fill my box nearly; you give us very few sugar-plums for our
+money.' 'I give you full measure, as I give to everybody.'
+<span class="pagenum">[391]</span>
+'The measure should be an inch cube, I know,' said Carlo;
+'that's what all the little merchants have agreed to, you know.'
+'True,' said Piedro, 'so it is.' 'And so it is, I must allow,'
+said Carlo, measuring the outside of it with the carpenter's
+rule which he held in his hand. 'An inch every way; and yet
+by my eye&mdash;and I have no bad one, being used to measuring
+carpenter's work for my father&mdash;by my eye, I should think
+this would have held more sugar-plums.' 'The eye often
+deceives us,' said Piedro. 'There's nothing like measuring,
+you find.' 'There's nothing like measuring, I find, indeed,'
+replied Carlo, as he looked closely at the end of his rule,
+which, since he spoke last, he had put into the tin cube to
+take its depth in the inside. 'This is not as deep by a quarter
+of an inch, Signor Piedro, measured within as it is measured
+without.'</p>
+
+<p>Piedro changed colour terribly, and seizing hold of the tin
+box, endeavoured to wrest it from the youth who measured so
+accurately. Carlo held his prize fast, and lifting it above his
+head, he ran into the midst of the square where the little
+market was held, exclaiming, 'A discovery! a discovery! that
+concerns all who love sugar-plums. A discovery! a discovery!
+that concerns all who have ever bought the sweetest, largest,
+and most admirable sugar-plums ever sold in Naples.'</p>
+
+<p>The crowd gathered from all parts of the square as he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>'We have bought,' and 'We have bought of those sugar-plums,'
+cried several little voices at once, 'if you mean
+Piedro's.'</p>
+
+<p>'The same,' continued Carlo&mdash;'he who, out of gratitude to
+his numerous customers, gives, or promises to give, burnt
+almonds gratis.'</p>
+
+<p>'Excellent they were!' cried several voices. 'We all know
+Piedro well; but what's your discovery?'</p>
+
+<p>'My discovery is,' said Carlo, 'that you, none of you, know
+Piedro. Look you here; look at this box&mdash;this is his measure;
+it has a false bottom&mdash;it holds only three-quarters as much as
+it ought to do; and his numerous customers have all been
+cheated of one-quarter of every measure of the admirable sugar-plums
+they have bought from him. "Think twice of a good
+bargain," says the proverb.'</p>
+
+<p>'So we have been finely duped, indeed,' cried some of the<span class="pagenum">[392]</span>
+bystanders, looking at one another with a mortified air. Full
+of courtesy, full of craft!<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> 'So this is the meaning of his
+burnt almonds gratis,' cried others; all joined in an uproar of
+indignation, except one, who, as he stood behind the rest,
+expressed in his countenance silent surprise and sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>'Is this Piedro a relation of yours?' said Carlo, going up
+to this silent person. 'I am sorry, if he be, that I have
+published his disgrace, for I would not hurt <i>you</i>. You don't
+sell sugar-plums as he does, I'm sure; for my little sister
+Rosetta has often bought from you. Can this Piedro be a
+friend of yours?'</p>
+
+<p>'I wished to have been his friend, but I see I can't,' said
+Francisco. 'He is a neighbour of ours, and I pitied him; but
+since he is at his old tricks again, there's an end of the matter.
+I have reason to be obliged to you, for I was nearly taken in.
+He has behaved so well for some time past, that I intended
+this very evening to have gone to him, and to have told him
+that I was willing to do for him what he has long begged of
+me to do&mdash;to enter into partnership with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Francisco! Francisco! your measure, lend us your measure!'
+exclaimed a number of little merchants crowding round him.
+'You have a measure for sugar-plums; and we have all agreed
+to refer to that, and to see how much we have been cheated
+before we go to break Piedro's bench and declare him bankrupt,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a>&mdash;the
+punishment for all knaves.'</p>
+
+<p>They pressed on to Francisco's board, obtained his measure,
+found that it held something more than a quarter above the
+quantity that could be contained in Piedro's. The cries of the
+enraged populace were now most clamorous. They hung the
+just and the unjust measures upon high poles; and, forming
+themselves into a formidable phalanx, they proceeded towards
+Piedro's well-known yellow-lettered beard, exclaiming, as they
+went along, 'Common cause! common cause! The little
+Neapolitan merchants will have no knaves amongst them! Break
+his bench! break his bench! He is a bankrupt in honesty.'</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[393]</span></p>
+<p>Piedro saw the mob, heard the indignant clamour, and
+terrified at the approach of numbers, he fled with the utmost
+precipitation, having scarcely time to pack up half his sugar-plums.
+There was a prodigious number, more than would
+have filled many honest measures, scattered upon the ground
+and trampled under foot by the crowd. Piedro's bench was
+broken, and the public vengeance wreaked itself also upon his
+treacherous painted board. It was, after being much disfigured
+by various inscriptions expressive of the universal contempt
+for Piedro, hung up in a conspicuous part of the market-place;
+and the false measure was fastened like a cap upon one of
+its corners. Piedro could never more show his face in this
+market, and all hopes of friendship&mdash;all hopes of partnership
+with Francisco&mdash;were for ever at an end.</p>
+
+<p>If rogues would calculate, they would cease to be rogues;
+for they would certainly discover that it is most for their
+interest to be honest&mdash;setting aside the pleasure of being
+esteemed and beloved, of having a safe conscience, with perfect
+freedom from all the various embarrassments and terror to which
+knaves are subject. Is it not clear that our crafty hero would
+have gained rather more by a partnership with Francisco, and
+by a fair character, than he could possibly obtain by fraudulent
+dealing in comfits?</p>
+
+<p>When the mob had dispersed, after satisfying themselves
+with executing summary justice upon Piedro's bench and board,
+Francisco found a carpenter's rule lying upon the ground near
+Piedro's broken bench, which he recollected to have seen in
+the hands of Carlo. He examined it carefully, and he found
+Carlo's name written upon it, and the name of the street where
+he lived; and though it was considerably out of his way, he
+set out immediately to restore the rule, which was a very handsome
+one, to its rightful owner. After a hot walk through
+several streets, he overtook Carlo, who had just reached the
+door of his own house. Carlo was particularly obliged to him,
+he said, for restoring this rule to him, as it was a present from
+the master of a vessel, who employed his father to do carpenter's
+work for him. 'One should not praise one's self, they say,'
+continued Carlo; 'but I long so much to gain your good opinion,
+that I must tell you the whole history of the rule you have
+restored. It was given to me for having measured the work
+and made up the bill of a whole pleasure-boat myself. You<span class="pagenum">[394]</span>
+may guess I should have been sorry enough to have lost it.
+Thank you for its being once more in my careless hands, and
+tell me, I beg, whenever I can do you any service. By-the-bye,
+I can make up for you a fruit stall. I'll do it to-morrow, and
+it shall be the admiration of the market. Is there anything
+else you could think of for me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, yes,' said Francisco; 'since you are so good-natured,
+perhaps you'd be kind enough to tell me the meaning of some
+of those lines and figures that I see upon your rule. I have a
+great curiosity to know their use.'</p>
+
+<p>'That I'll explain to you with pleasure, as far as I know
+them myself; but when I'm at fault, my father, who is
+cleverer than I am, and understands trigonometry, can help
+us out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Trigonometry!' repeated Francisco, not a little alarmed
+at the high-sounding word; 'that's what I certainly shall never
+understand.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never fear,' replied Carlo, laughing. 'I looked just
+as you do now&mdash;I felt just as you do now&mdash;all in a fright and
+a puzzle, when I first heard of angles and sines, and co-sines,
+and arcs and centres, and complements and tangents.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mercy! mercy!' interrupted Francisco, whilst Carlo
+laughed, with a benevolent sense of superiority.</p>
+
+<p>'Why,' said Carlo, 'you'll find all these things are nothing
+when you are used to them. But I cannot explain my rule to
+you here broiling in the sun. Besides, it will not be the work
+of a day, I promise you; but come and see us at your leisure
+hours, and we'll study it together. I have a great notion we
+shall become friends; and, to begin, step in with me now,'
+said Carlo, 'and eat a little macaroni with us. I know it is
+ready by this time. Besides, you'll see my father, and he'll
+show you plenty of rules and compasses, as you like such
+things; and then I'll go home with you in the cool of the
+evening, and you shall show me your melons and vines, and
+teach me, in time, something of gardening. Oh, I see we
+must be good friends, just made for each other; so come in&mdash;no
+ceremony.'</p>
+
+<p>Carlo was not mistaken in his predictions; he and Francisco
+became very good friends, spent all their leisure hours together,
+either in Carlo's workshop or in Francisco's vineyard, and
+they mutually improved each other. Francisco, before he saw<span class="pagenum">[395]</span>
+his friend's rule, knew but just enough of arithmetic to calculate
+in his head the price of the fruit which he sold in the market;
+but with Carlo's assistance, and the ambition to understand
+the tables and figures upon the wonderful rule, he set to work
+in earnest, and in due time satisfied both himself and his
+master.</p>
+
+<p>'Who knows but these things that I am learning now may
+be of some use to me before I die?' said Francisco, as he was
+sitting one morning with his tutor, the carpenter.</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure it will,' said the carpenter, putting down his
+compasses, with which he was drawing a circle. 'Arithmetic
+is a most useful, and I was going to say necessary thing to be
+known by men in all stations; and a little trigonometry does
+no harm. In short, my maxim is, that no knowledge comes
+amiss; for a man's head is of as much use to him as his hands;
+and even more so.</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p>'A word to the wise will always suffice.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'Besides, to say nothing of making a fortune, is not there
+a great pleasure in being something of a scholar, and being
+able to pass one's time with one's book, and one's compasses
+and pencil? Safe companions these for young and old. No
+one gets into mischief that has pleasant things to think of and
+to do when alone; and I know, for my part, that trigonometry
+is&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Here the carpenter, just as he was going to pronounce a
+fresh panegyric upon his favourite trigonometry, was interrupted
+by the sudden entrance of his little daughter Rosetta, all in
+tears: a very unusual spectacle, for, taking the year round,
+she shed fewer tears than any child of her age in Naples.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, my dear good-humoured little Rosetta, what has
+happened? Why these large tears?' said her brother Carlo,
+and he went up to her, and wiped them from her cheeks.
+'And these that are going over the bridge of the nose so fast?
+I must stop these tears too,' said Carlo.</p>
+
+<p>Rosetta, at this speech, burst out laughing, and said that
+she did not know till then that she had any bridge on her
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>'And were these shells the cause of the tears?' said her
+brother, looking at a heap of shells which she held before her
+in her frock.<span class="pagenum">[396]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, partly,' said Rosetta. 'It was partly my own fault,
+but not all. You know I went out to the carpenters' yard,
+near the arsenal, where all the children are picking up chips
+and sticks so busily; and I was as busy as any of them,
+because I wanted to fill my basket soon; and then I thought
+I should sell my basketful directly in the little wood-market.
+As soon as I had filled my basket, and made up my faggot
+(which was not done, brother, till I was almost baked by the
+sun, for I was forced to wait by the carpenters for the bits of
+wood to make up my faggot)&mdash;I say, when it was all ready,
+and my basket full, I left it all together in the yard.' 'That was
+not wise to leave it,' said Carlo. 'But I only left it for a few
+minutes, brother, and I could not think anybody would be so
+dishonest as to take it whilst I was away. I only just ran to
+tell a boy, who had picked up all these beautiful shells upon
+the sea-shore, and who wanted to sell them, that I should be
+glad to buy them from him, if he would only be so good as to
+keep them for me, for an hour or so, till I had carried my wood
+to market, and till I had sold it, and so had money to pay him
+for the shells.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your heart was set mightily on these shells, Rosetta.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; for I thought you and Francisco, brother, would like
+to have them for your nice grotto that you are making at
+Resina. That was the reason I was in such a hurry to get
+them. The boy who had them to sell was very good-natured;
+he poured them into my lap, and said I had such an honest
+face he would trust me, and that as he was in a great hurry,
+he could not wait an hour whilst I sold my wood; but that he
+was sure I would pay him in the evening, and he told me that
+he would call here this evening for the money. But now what
+shall I do, Carlo? I shall have no money to give him: I must
+give him back his shells, and that's a great pity.'</p>
+
+<p>'But how happened it that you did not sell your wood?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I forgot; did not I tell you that? When I went
+back for my basket, do you know it was empty, quite empty,
+not a chip left? Some dishonest person had carried it all off.
+Had not I reason to cry now, Carlo?'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll go this minute into the wood-market, and see if I can
+find your faggot. Won't that be better than crying?' said
+her brother. 'Should you know any one of your pieces of
+wood again if you were to see them?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[397]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, one of them, I am sure, I should know again,' said
+Rosetta. 'It had a notch at one end of it, where one of the
+carpenters cut it off from another piece of wood for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'And is this piece of wood from which the carpenter cut it
+still to be seen?' said Francisco. 'Yes, it is in the yard;
+but I cannot bring it to you, for it is very heavy.'</p>
+
+<p>'We can go to it,' said Francisco, 'and I hope we shall
+recover your basketful.'</p>
+
+<p>Carlo and his friend went with Rosetta immediately to the
+yard, near the arsenal, saw the notched piece of wood, and
+then proceeded to the little wood-market, and searched every
+heap that lay before the little factors; but no notched bit was
+to be found, and Rosetta declared that she did not see one
+stick that looked at all like any of hers.</p>
+
+<p>On their part, her companions eagerly untied their faggots
+to show them to her, and exclaimed, 'that they were incapable
+of taking what did not belong to them; that of all persons they
+should never have thought of taking anything from the good-natured
+little Rosetta, who was always ready to give to others,
+and to help them in making up their loads.'</p>
+
+<p>Despairing of discovering the thief, Francisco and Carlo
+left the market. As they were returning home, they were met
+by the English servant Arthur, who asked Francisco where he
+had been, and where he was going.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he heard of Rosetta's lost faggot, and of the
+bit of wood, notched at one end, of which Rosetta drew the
+shape with a piece of chalk which her brother had lent her,
+Arthur exclaimed, 'I have seen such a bit of wood as this
+within this quarter of an hour; but I cannot recollect where.
+Stay! this was at the baker's, I think, where I went for some
+rolls for my master. It was lying beside his oven.'</p>
+
+<p>To the baker's they all went as fast as possible, and they
+got there but just in time. The baker had in his hand the
+bit of wood with which he was that instant going to feed his
+oven.</p>
+
+<p>'Stop, good Mr. Baker!' cried Rosetta, who ran into the
+baker's shop first; and as he heard 'Stop! stop!' re-echoed
+by many voices, the baker stopped; and turning to Francisco,
+Carlo, and Arthur, begged, with a countenance of some
+surprise, to know why they had desired him to stop.</p>
+
+<p>The case was easily explained, and the baker told them<span class="pagenum">[398]</span>
+that he did not buy any wood in the little market that morning;
+that this faggot he had purchased between the hours of
+twelve and one from a lad about Francisco's height, whom he
+met near the yard of the arsenal.</p>
+
+<p>'This is my bit of wood, I am sure; I know it by this
+notch,' said Rosetta.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said the baker, 'if you will stay here a few minutes,
+you will probably see the lad who sold it to me. He desired
+to be paid in bread, and my bread was not quite baked when
+he was here. I bid him call again in an hour, and I fancy he
+will be pretty punctual, for he looked desperately hungry.'</p>
+
+<p>The baker had scarcely finished speaking when Francisco,
+who was standing watching at the door, exclaimed, 'Here
+comes Piedro! I hope he is not the boy who sold you the
+wood, Mr. Baker?' 'He is the boy, though,' replied the
+baker, and Piedro, who now entered the shop, started at the
+sight of Carlo and Francisco, whom he had never seen since
+the day of disgrace in the fruit-market.</p>
+
+<p>'Your servant, Signor Piedro,' said Carlo; 'I have the
+honour to tell you that this piece of wood, and all that you
+took out of the basket, which you found in the yard of the
+arsenal, belongs to my sister.' 'Yes, indeed,' cried Rosetta.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro being very certain that nobody saw him when he
+emptied Rosetta's basket, and imagining that he was suspected
+only upon the bare assertion of a child like Rosetta,
+who might be baffled and frightened out of her story, boldly
+denied the charge, and defied any one to prove him guilty.</p>
+
+<p>'He has a right to be heard in his own defence,' said
+Arthur, with the cool justice of an Englishman; and he
+stopped the angry Carlo's arm, who was going up to the
+culprit with all the Italian vehemence of oratory and gesture.
+Arthur went on to say something in bad Italian about the
+excellence of an English trial by jury, which Carlo was too
+much enraged to hear, but to which Francisco paid attention,
+and turning to Piedro, he asked him if he was willing to be
+judged by twelve of his equals. 'With all my heart,' said
+Piedro, still maintaining an unmoved countenance, and they
+returned immediately to the little wood-market. On their way,
+they had passed through the fruit-market, and crowds of those
+who were well acquainted with Piedro's former transactions
+followed, to hear the event of the present trial.<span class="pagenum">[399]</span></p>
+
+<p>Arthur could not, especially as he spoke wretched Italian,
+make the eager little merchants understand the nature and
+advantages of an English trial by jury. They preferred their
+own summary mode of proceeding. Francisco, in whose integrity
+all had perfect confidence, was chosen with unanimous
+shouts for the judge; but he declined the office, and another
+was appointed. He was raised upon a bench, and the guilty
+but insolent-looking Piedro, and the ingenuous, modest Rosetta
+stood before him. She made her complaint in a very artless
+manner; and Piedro, with ingenuity, which in a better cause
+would have deserved admiration, spoke volubly and craftily in
+his own defence. But all that he could say could not alter
+facts. The judge compared the notched bit of wood found at
+the baker's with a piece from which it was cut, which he went
+to see in the yard of the arsenal. It was found to fit exactly.
+The judge then found it impossible to restrain the loud indignation
+of all the spectators. The prisoner was sentenced
+never more to sell wood in the market; and the moment
+sentence was pronounced, Piedro was hissed and hooted out
+of the market-place. Thus a third time he deprived himself of
+the means of earning his bread.</p>
+
+<p>We shall not dwell upon all his petty methods of cheating
+in the trades he next attempted. He handed lemonade about
+in a part of Naples where he was not known, but he lost his
+customers by putting too much water and too little lemon into
+this beverage. He then took to the waters from the sulphurous
+springs, and served them about to foreigners; but one day, as
+he was trying to jostle a competitor from the coach door, he
+slipped his foot and broke his glasses. They had been
+borrowed from an old woman who hired out glasses to the
+boys who sold lemonade. Piedro knew that it was the custom
+to pay, of course, for all that was broken; but this he was not
+inclined to do. He had a few shillings in his pocket, and
+thought that it would be very clever to defraud this poor
+woman of her right, and to spend his shillings upon what
+he valued much more than he did his good name&mdash;macaroni.
+The shillings were soon gone.</p>
+
+<p>We shall now for the present leave Piedro to his follies and
+his fate; or, to speak more properly, to his follies and their
+inevitable consequences.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i036f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i036t.jpg" alt="i036"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Piedro was hissed and hooted out of the market-place.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Francisco was all this time acquiring knowledge from his<span class="pagenum">[401]</span>
+new friends, without neglecting his own or his father's business.
+He contrived, during the course of autumn and winter, to make
+himself a tolerable arithmetician. Carlo's father could draw
+plans in architecture neatly; and, pleased with the eagerness
+Francisco showed to receive instruction, he willingly put a
+pencil and compasses into his hand, and taught him all he
+knew himself. Francisco had great perseverance, and, by
+repeated trials, he at length succeeded in copying exactly all
+the plans which his master lent him. His copies, in time,
+surpassed the originals, and Carlo exclaimed, with astonishment:
+'Why, Francisco, what an astonishing <i>genius</i> you
+have for drawing!&mdash;Absolutely you draw plans better than
+my father!'</p>
+
+<p>'As to genius,' said Francisco, honestly, 'I have none.
+All that I have done has been done by hard labour. I don't
+know how other people do things; but I am sure that I never
+have been able to get anything done well but by patience.
+Don't you remember, Carlo, how you and even Rosetta
+laughed at me the first time your father put a pencil into my
+awkward, clumsy hands?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because,' said Carlo, laughing again at the recollection,
+'you held your pencil so drolly; and when you were to cut it,
+you cut it just as if you were using a pruning-knife to your
+vines; but now it is your turn to laugh, for you surpass us all.
+And the times are changed since I set about to explain this
+rule of mine to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, that rule,' said Francisco&mdash;'how much I owe to it!
+Some great people, when they lose any of their fine things,
+cause the crier to promise a reward of so much money to anyone
+who shall find and restore their trinket. How richly have
+you and your father rewarded me for returning this rule!'</p>
+
+<p>Francisco's modesty and gratitude, as they were perfectly
+sincere, attached his friends to him most powerfully; but there
+was one person who regretted our hero's frequent absences
+from his vineyard at Resina. Not Francisco's father, for he
+was well satisfied his son never neglected his business; and as
+to the hours spent in Naples, he had so much confidence in
+Francisco, that he felt no apprehensions of his getting into bad
+company. When his son had once said to him, 'I spend my
+time at such a place, and in such and such a manner,' he was
+as well convinced of its being so as if he had watched and seen<span class="pagenum">[402]</span>
+him every moment of the day. But it was Arthur who complained
+of Francisco's absence.</p>
+
+<p>'I see, because I am an Englishman,' said he, 'you don't
+value my friendship, and yet that is the very reason you ought
+to value it; no friends so good as the English, be it spoken
+without offence to your Italian friend, for whom you now continually
+leave me to dodge up and down here in Resina, without
+a soul that I like to speak to, for you are the only Italian
+I ever liked.'</p>
+
+<p>'You <i>shall</i> like another, I promise you,' said Francisco.
+'You must come with me to Carlo's, and see how I spend my
+evenings; then complain of me, if you can.'</p>
+
+<p>It was the utmost stretch of Arthur's complaisance to pay
+this visit; but, in spite of his national prejudices and habitual
+reserve of temper, he was pleased with the reception he met
+with from the generous Carlo and the playful Rosetta. They
+showed him Francisco's drawings with enthusiastic eagerness;
+and Arthur, though no great judge of drawing, was in astonishment,
+and frequently repeated, 'I know a gentleman who visits
+my master who would like these things. I wish I might have
+them to show him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take them, then,' said Carlo; 'I wish all Naples could
+see them, provided they might be liked half as well as I like
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>Arthur carried off the drawings, and one day, when his
+master was better than usual, and when he was at leisure,
+eating a dessert of Francisco's grapes, he entered respectfully,
+with his little portfolio under his arm, and begged permission
+to show his master a few drawings done by the gardener's son,
+whose grapes he was eating.</p>
+
+<p>Though not quite so partial a judge as the enthusiastic
+Carlo, this gentleman was both pleased and surprised at the
+sight of these drawings, considering how short a time Francisco
+had applied himself to this art, and what slight instructions
+he had received. Arthur was desired to summon the young
+artist. Francisco's honest, open manner, joined to the proofs
+he had given of his abilities, and the character Arthur gave
+him for strict honesty, and constant kindness to his parents,
+interested Mr. Lee, the name of this English gentleman, much
+in his favour. Mr. Lee was at this time in treaty with an
+Italian painter, whom he wished to engage to copy for him<span class="pagenum">[403]</span>
+exactly some of the cornices, mouldings, tablets, and antique
+ornaments which are to be seen amongst the ruins of the
+ancient city of Herculaneum.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29">29</a> We
+must give those of our young English readers who may not be
+acquainted with the ancient city of Herculaneum some idea of it. None
+can be ignorant that near Naples is the celebrated volcanic mountain of
+Vesuvius;&mdash;that, from time to time, there happen violent eruptions from
+this mountain; that is to say, flames and immense clouds of smoke issue
+from different openings, mouths, or <i>craters</i>, as they are called, but more
+especially from the summit of the mountain, which is distinguished by the
+name of <i>the</i> crater. A rumbling, and afterwards a roaring noise is heard
+within, and prodigious quantities of stones and minerals burnt into masses
+(scori&aelig;) are thrown out of the crater, sometimes to a great distance.
+The hot ashes from Mount Vesuvius have often been seen upon the roofs
+of the houses of Naples, from which it is six miles distant. Streams of
+lava run down the sides of the mountain during the time of an eruption,
+destroying everything in their way, and overwhelm the houses and vineyards
+which are in the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">About 1700 years ago, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Titus,
+there happened a terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius; and a large city
+called Herculaneum, which was situated at about four miles' distance from
+the volcano, was overwhelmed by the streams of lava which poured into
+it, filled up the streets, and quickly covered over the tops of the houses, so
+that the whole was no more visible. It remained for many years buried.
+The lava which covered it became in time fit for vegetation, plants grew
+there, a new soil was formed, and a new town called Portici was built over
+the place where Herculaneum formerly stood. The little village of Resina
+is also situated near the spot. About fifty years ago, in a poor man's
+garden at Resina, a hole in a well about thirty feet below the surface of
+the earth was observed. Some persons had the curiosity to enter into this
+hole, and, after creeping underground for some time, they came to the
+foundations of houses. The peasants, inhabitants of the village, who had
+probably never heard of Herculaneum, were somewhat surprised at their
+discovery.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a>
+About the same time, in a pit in the town of Portici, a similar
+passage under ground was discovered, and, by orders of the King of
+Naples, workmen were employed to dig away the earth, and clear the
+passages. They found, at length, the entrance into the town, which,
+during the reign of Titus, was buried under lava. It was about eighty-eight
+Neapolitan palms (a palm contains near nine inches) below the top
+of the pit. The workmen, as they cleared the passages, marked their way
+with chalk when they came to any turning, lest they should lose themselves.
+The streets branched out in many directions, and, lying across them, the
+workmen often found large pieces of timber, beams, and rafters; some
+broken in the fall, others entire. These beams and rafters are burned
+quite black, and look like charcoal, except those that were found in moist
+places, which have more the colour of rotten wood, and which are like a
+soft paste, into which you might run your hand. The walls of the houses
+slant, some one way, some another, and some are upright. Several
+magnificent buildings of brick, faced with marble of different colours, are
+partly seen, where the workmen have cleared away the earth and lava with
+which they were encrusted. Columns of red and white marble, and flights
+of marble steps, are seen in different places; and out of the ruins of the
+palaces some very fine statues and pictures have been dug. Foreigners
+who visit Naples are very curious to see this subterraneous city, and are
+desirous to carry with them into their own country some proofs of their
+having examined this wonderful place.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[404]</span></p>
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+<i>Tutte le gran faciende si fanno di foca cosa.</i><br />
+What great events from trivial causes spring.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Signor Camillo</span>, the artist employed by Mr. Lee to copy
+some of the antique ornaments in Herculaneum, was a liberal-minded
+man, perfectly free from that mean jealousy which
+would repress the efforts of rising genius.</p>
+
+<p>'Here is a lad scarcely fifteen, a poor gardener's son, who,
+with merely the instructions he could obtain from a common
+carpenter, has learned to draw these plans and elevations, which
+you see are tolerably neat. What an advantage your instruction
+would be to him,' said Mr. Lee, as he introduced Francisco
+to Signor Camillo. 'I am interested in this lad from what I
+have learned of his good conduct. I hear he is strictly honest,
+and one of the best of sons. Let us do something for him.
+If you will give him some knowledge of your art, I will, as far
+as money can recompense you for your loss of time, pay whatever
+you may think reasonable for his instruction.'</p>
+
+<p>Signor Camillo made no difficulties; he was pleased with
+his pupil's appearance, and every day he liked him better and
+better. In the room where they worked together there were
+some large books of drawings and plates, which Francisco saw
+now and then opened by his master, and which he had a great
+desire to look over; but when he was left in the room by himself
+he never touched them, because he had not permission.
+Signor Camillo, the first day he came into his room with his
+pupil, said to him, 'Here are many valuable books and drawings,
+young man. I trust, from the character I have heard of
+you, that they will be perfectly safe here.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[405]</span></p>
+
+<p>Some weeks after Francisco had been with the painter, they
+had occasion to look for the front of a temple in one of these
+large books. 'What! don't you know in which book to look
+for it, Francisco?' cried his master, with some impatience.
+'Is it possible that you have been here so long with these books,
+and that you cannot find the print I mean? Had you half the
+taste I gave you credit for, you would have singled it out from
+all the rest, and have it fixed in your memory.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, signor, I never saw it,' said Francisco, respectfully,
+'or perhaps I should have preferred it.'</p>
+
+<p>'That you never saw it, young man, is the very thing of
+which I complain. Is a taste for the arts to be learned, think
+you, by looking at the cover of a book like this? Is it possible
+that you never thought of opening it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Often and often,' cried Francisco, 'have I longed to open
+it; but I thought it was forbidden me, and however great my
+curiosity in your absence, I have never touched them. I hoped,
+indeed, that the time would come when you would have the
+goodness to show them to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'And so the time is come, excellent young man,' cried
+Camillo; 'much as I love taste, I love integrity more. I am
+now sure of your having the one, and let me see whether you
+have, as I believe you have, the other. Sit you down here
+beside me; and we will look over these books together.'</p>
+
+<p>The attention with which his young pupil examined everything,
+and the pleasure he unaffectedly expressed in seeing these
+excellent prints, sufficiently convinced his judicious master that
+it was not from the want of curiosity or taste that he had never
+opened these tempting volumes. His confidence in Francisco
+was much increased by this circumstance, slight as it may
+appear.</p>
+
+<p>One day Signor Camillo came behind Francisco, as he was
+drawing with much intentness, and tapping him upon the
+shoulder, he said to him: 'Put up your pencils and follow me.
+I can depend upon your integrity; I have pledged myself for
+it. Bring your note-book with you, and follow me; I will this
+day show you something that will entertain you at least as
+much as my large book of prints. Follow me.'</p>
+
+<p>Francisco followed, till they came to the pit near the entrance
+of Herculaneum. 'I have obtained leave for you to accompany
+me,' said his master, 'and you know, I suppose, that this is<span class="pagenum">[406]</span>
+not a permission granted to every one?' Paintings of great
+value, besides ornaments of gold and silver, antique bracelets,
+rings, etc., are from time to time found amongst these ruins,
+and therefore it is necessary that no person should be admitted
+whose honesty cannot be depended upon. Thus, even
+Francisco's talents could not have advanced him in the world,
+unless they had been united to integrity. He was much
+delighted and astonished by the new scene that was now opened
+to his view; and as, day after day, he accompanied his master
+to this subterraneous city, he had leisure for observation. He
+was employed, as soon as he had gratified his curiosity, in
+drawing. There are niches in the walls in several places,
+from which pictures have been dug, and these niches are often
+adorned with elegant masks, figures and animals, which have
+been left by the ignorant or careless workmen, and which are
+going fast to destruction. Signor Camillo, who was copying
+these for his English employer, had a mind to try his pupil's
+skill, and, pointing to a niche bordered with grotesque figures,
+he desired him to try if he could make any hand of it.
+Francisco made several trials, and at last finished such an
+excellent copy, that his enthusiastic and generous master, with
+warm encomiums, carried it immediately to his patron, and he
+had the pleasure to receive from Mr. Lee a purse containing
+five guineas, as a reward and encouragement for his pupil.</p>
+
+<p>Francisco had no sooner received this money than he hurried
+home to his father and mother's cottage. His mother, some
+months before this time, had taken a small dairy farm; and
+her son had once heard her express a wish that she was but
+rich enough to purchase a remarkably fine brindled cow, which
+belonged to a farmer in the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>'Here, my dear mother,' cried Francisco, pouring the
+guineas into her lap; 'and here,' continued he, emptying a
+bag, which contained about as much more, in small Italian
+coins, the profits of trade-money he had fairly earned during
+the two years he sold fruit amongst the little Neapolitan
+merchants; 'this is all yours, dearest mother, and I hope it
+will be enough to pay for the brindled cow. Nay, you must
+not refuse me&mdash;I have set my heart upon the cow being milked
+by you this very evening; and I'll produce my best bunches
+of grapes, and my father, perhaps, will give us a melon, for
+I've had no time for melons this season; and I'll step to Naples<span class="pagenum">[407]</span>
+and invite&mdash;may I, mother?&mdash;my good friends, dear Carlo and
+your favourite little Rosetta, and my old drawing master, and
+my friend Arthur, and we'll sup with you at your dairy.'</p>
+
+<p>The happy mother thanked her son, and the father assured
+him that neither melon nor pine-apple should be spared, to
+make a supper worthy of his friends.</p>
+
+<p>The brindled cow was bought, and Arthur and Carlo and
+Rosetta most joyfully accepted the invitation.</p>
+
+<p>The carpenter had unluckily appointed to settle a long account
+that day with one of his employers, and he could not accompany
+his children. It was a delicious evening; they left Naples just
+as the sea-breeze, after the heats of the day, was most refreshingly
+felt. The walk to Resina, the vineyard, the dairy,
+and most of all, the brindled cow, were praised by Carlo and
+Rosetta with all the Italian superlatives which signify, 'Most
+beautiful! most delightful! most charming!' Whilst the
+English Arthur, with as warm a heart, was more temperate in
+his praise, declaring that this was 'the most like an English
+summer's evening of any he had ever felt since he came to
+Italy; and that, moreover, the cream was almost as good as
+what he had been used to drink in Cheshire.' The company,
+who were all pleased with each other, and with the gardener's
+good fruit, which he produced in great abundance, did not
+think of separating till late.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bright moonlight night, and Carlo asked his friend
+if he would walk with them part of the way to Naples. 'Yes,
+all the way most willingly,' cried Francisco, 'that I may have
+the pleasure of giving to your father, with my own hands, this
+fine bunch of grapes, that I have reserved for him out of my
+own share.' 'Add this fine pine-apple for my share, then,'
+said his father, 'and a pleasant walk to you, my young friends.'</p>
+
+<p>They proceeded gaily along, and when they reached Naples,
+as they passed through the square where the little merchants
+held their market, Francisco pointed to the spot where he found
+Carlo's rule. He never missed an opportunity of showing his
+friends that he did not forget their former kindness to him.
+'That rule,' said he, 'has been the cause of all my present
+happiness, and I thank you for&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind thanking him now,' interrupted Rosetta,
+'but look yonder, and tell me what all those people are
+about.' She pointed to a group of men, women, and children,<span class="pagenum">[408]</span>
+who were assembled under a piazza, listening in various attitudes
+of attention to a man, who was standing upon a flight of
+steps, speaking in a loud voice, and with much action, to the
+people who surrounded him. Francisco, Carlo, and Rosetta
+joined his audience. The moon shone full upon his countenance,
+which was very expressive, and which varied frequently
+according to the characters of the persons whose history he
+was telling, and according to all the changes of their fortune.
+This man was one of those who are called Improvisatori&mdash;persons
+who, in Italian towns, go about reciting verses or
+telling stories, which they are supposed to invent as they go
+on speaking. Some of these people speak with great fluency,
+and collect crowds round them in the public streets. When
+an Improvisatore sees the attention of his audience fixed, and
+when he comes to some very interesting part of his narrative,
+he dexterously drops his hat upon the ground, and pauses till
+his auditors have paid tribute to his eloquence. When he
+thinks the hat sufficiently full, he takes it up again, and proceeds
+with his story. The hat was dropped just as Francisco
+and his two friends came under the piazza. The orator had
+finished one story, and was going to commence another. He
+fixed his eyes upon Francisco, then glanced at Carlo and
+Rosetta, and after a moment's consideration he began a story
+which bore some resemblance to one that our young English
+readers may, perhaps, know by the name of 'Cornaro, or the
+Grateful Turk.'</p>
+
+<p>Francisco was deeply interested in this narrative, and when
+the hat was dropped, he eagerly threw in his contribution.
+At the end of the story, when the speaker's voice stopped,
+there was a momentary silence, which was broken by the
+orator himself, who exclaimed, as he took up the hat which
+lay at his feet, 'My friends, here is some mistake! this is not
+my hat; it has been changed whilst I was taken up with my
+story. Pray, gentlemen, find my hat amongst you; it was a
+remarkably good one, a present from a nobleman for an
+epigram I made. I would not lose my hat for twice its value.
+It has my name written withinside of it, Dominicho, Improvisatore.
+Pray, gentlemen, examine your hats.'</p>
+
+<p>Everybody present examined their hats, and showed them
+to Dominicho, but his was not amongst them. No one had
+left the company; the piazza was cleared, and searched in<span class="pagenum">[409]</span>
+vain. 'The hat has vanished by magic.' said Dominicho.
+'Yes, and by the same magic a statue moves,' cried Carlo,
+pointing to a figure standing in a niche, which had hitherto
+escaped observation. The face was so much in the shade,
+that Carlo did not at first perceive that the statue was
+Piedro. Piedro, when he saw himself discovered, burst into a
+loud laugh, and throwing down Dominicho's hat, which he
+held in his hand behind him, cried, 'A pretty set of novices!
+Most excellent players at hide-and-seek you would make.'</p>
+
+<p>Whether Piedro really meant to have carried off the poor
+man's hat, or whether he was, as he said, merely in jest, we
+leave it to those who know his general character to decide.</p>
+
+<p>Carlo shook his head. 'Still at your old tricks, Piedro,'
+said he. 'Remember the old proverb: No fox so cunning
+but he comes to the furrier's at last.'<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a></p>
+
+<p>'I defy the furrier and you too,' replied Piedro, taking up
+his own ragged hat. 'I have no need to steal hats; I can
+afford to buy better than you'll have upon your head. Francisco,
+a word with you, if you have done crying at the pitiful
+story you have been listening to so attentively.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what would you say to me?' said Francisco, following
+him a few steps. 'Do not detain me long, because my
+friends will wait for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'If they are friends, they can wait,' said Piedro. 'You
+need not be ashamed of being seen in my company now, I
+can tell you; for I am, as I always told you I should be, the
+richest man of the two.'</p>
+
+<p>'Rich! you rich?' cried Francisco. 'Well, then, it was
+impossible you could mean to trick that poor man out of his
+good hat.'</p>
+
+<p>'Impossible!' said Piedro. Francisco did not consider
+that those who have habits of pilfering continue to practise
+them often, when the poverty which first tempted them to
+dishonesty ceases. 'Impossible! You stare when I tell you
+I am rich; but the thing is so. Moreover, I am well with my
+father at home. I have friends in Naples, and I call myself
+Piedro the Lucky. Look you here,' said he, producing an old
+gold coin. 'This does not smell of fish, does it? My father
+is no longer a fisherman, nor I either. Neither do I sell
+sugar-plums to children; nor do I slave myself in a vineyard,
+<span class="pagenum">[410]</span>like some folks; but fortune, when I least expected it, has
+stood my friend. I have many pieces of gold like this.
+Digging in my father's garden, it was my luck to come to an
+old Roman vessel full of gold. I have this day agreed for a
+house in Naples for my father. We shall live, whilst we can
+afford it, like great folks, you will see; and I shall enjoy the
+envy that will be felt by some of my old friends, the little
+Neapolitan merchants, who will change their note when they
+see my change of fortune. What say you to all this, Francisco
+the Honest?'</p>
+
+<p>'That I wish you joy of your prosperity, and hope you may
+enjoy it long and well.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, no doubt of that. Every one who has it enjoys it
+<i>well</i>. He always dances well to whom fortune pipes.'<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, no longer pipe, no longer dance,' replied Francisco;
+and here they parted; for Piedro walked away abruptly, much
+mortified to perceive that his prosperity did not excite much
+envy, or command any additional respect from Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>'I would rather,' said Francisco, when he returned to Carlo
+and Rosetta, who waited for him under the portico, when he
+left them&mdash;'I would rather have such good friends as you,
+Carlo and Arthur, and some more I could name, and, besides
+that, have a clear conscience, and work honestly for my bread,
+than be as lucky as Piedro. Do you know he has found a
+treasure, he says, in his father's garden&mdash;a vase full of gold?
+He showed me one of the gold pieces.'</p>
+
+<p>'Much good may they do him. I hope he came honestly
+by them,' said Carlo; 'but ever since the affair of the double
+measure, I suspect double-dealing always from him. It is
+not our affair, however. Let him make himself happy his way,
+and we ours.</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em"><p class="noin">
+'He that would live in peace and rest,<br />
+Must hear, and see, and say the best.'<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>All Piedro's neighbours did not follow this peaceable maxim;
+for when he and his father began to circulate the story of the
+treasure found in the garden, the village of Resina did not give
+them implicit faith. People nodded and whispered, and
+shrugged their shoulders; then crossed themselves and
+<span class="pagenum">[411]</span>declared that they would not, for all the riches of Naples,
+change places with either Piedro or his father. Regardless,
+or pretending to be regardless, of these suspicions, Piedro and
+his father persisted in their assertions. The fishing-nets were
+sold, and everything in their cottage was disposed of; they
+left Resina, went to live at Naples, and, after a few weeks, the
+matter began to be almost forgotten in the village.</p>
+
+<p>The old gardener, Francisco's father, was one of those who
+endeavoured to <i>think the best</i>; and all that he said upon the
+subject was, that he would not exchange Francisco the Honest
+for Piedro the Lucky; that one can't judge of the day till one
+sees the evening as well as the morning.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a></p>
+
+<p>Not to leave our readers longer in suspense, we must
+inform them that the peasants of Resina were right in their
+suspicions. Piedro had never found any treasure in his father's
+garden, but he came by his gold in the following manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>After he was banished from the little wood-market for
+stealing Rosetta's basketful of wood, after he had cheated the
+poor woman, who let glasses out to hire, out of the value of
+the glasses which he broke, and, in short, after he had entirely
+lost his credit with all who knew him, he roamed about the
+streets of Naples, reckless of what became of him.</p>
+
+<p>He found the truth of the proverb, 'that credit lost is like a
+Venice glass broken&mdash;it can't be mended again.' The few
+shillings which he had in his pocket supplied him with food for
+a few days. At last he was glad to be employed by one of the
+peasants who came to Naples to load their asses with manure
+out of the streets. They often follow very early in the morning,
+or during the night-time, the trace of carriages that are gone,
+or that are returning from the opera; and Piedro was one
+night at this work, when the horses of a nobleman's carriage
+took fright at the sudden blaze of some fireworks. The
+carriage was overturned near him; a lady was taken out of it,
+and was hurried by her attendants into a shop, where she
+stayed till her carriage was set to rights. She was too much
+alarmed for the first ten minutes after her accident to think of
+anything; but after some time, she perceived that she had lost
+a valuable diamond cross, which she had worn that night at
+the opera. She was uncertain where she had dropped it;
+<span class="pagenum">[412]</span>the shop, the carriage, the street were searched for it in
+vain.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro saw it fall as the lady was lifted out of the carriage,
+seized upon it, and carried it off. Ignorant as he was of the
+full value of what he had stolen, he knew not how to satisfy
+himself as to this point, without trusting some one with the
+secret.</p>
+
+<p>After some hesitation, he determined to apply to a Jew,
+who, as it was whispered, was ready to buy everything that
+was offered to him for sale, without making any <i>troublesome</i>
+inquiries. It was late; he waited till the streets were cleared,
+and then knocked softly at the back door of the Jew's house.
+The person who opened the door for Piedro was his own
+father. Piedro started back; but his father had fast hold of him.</p>
+
+<p>'What brings you here?' said the father, in a low voice, a
+voice which expressed fear and rage mixed.</p>
+
+<p>'Only to ask my way&mdash;my shortest way,' stammered
+Piedro.</p>
+
+<p>'No equivocations! Tell me what brings you here at this
+time of the night? I <i>will</i> know.'</p>
+
+<p>Piedro, who felt himself in his father's grasp, and who
+knew that his father would certainly search him, to find out
+what he had brought to sell, thought it most prudent to
+produce the diamond cross. His father could but just see its
+lustre by the light of a dim lamp which hung over their heads
+in the gloomy passage in which they stood.</p>
+
+<p>'You would have been duped, if you had gone to sell this
+to the Jew. It is well it has fallen into my hands. How
+came you by it?' Piedro answered that he had found it in
+the street. 'Go your ways home, then,' said the father; 'it
+is safe with me. Concern yourself no more about it.'</p>
+
+<p>Piedro was not inclined thus to relinquish his booty, and
+he now thought proper to vary in his account of the manner
+in which he found the cross. He now confessed that it had
+dropped from the dress of a lady, whose carriage was overturned
+as she was coming home from the opera, and he
+concluded by saying that, if his father took his prize from him
+without giving him his share of the profits, he would go
+directly to the shop where the lady stopped whilst her servants
+were raising the carriage, and that he would give notice of his
+having found the cross.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro's father saw that his <i>smart</i> son, though scarcely
+sixteen years of age, was a match for him in villainy. He
+promised him that he should have half of whatever the Jew
+would give for the diamonds, and Piedro insisted upon being
+present at the transaction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i037f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i037t.jpg" alt="i037"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>The Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of villainy, contrived to cheat both
+his associates.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We do not wish to lay open to our young readers scenes of
+iniquity. It is sufficient to say that the Jew, who was a man<span class="pagenum">[414]</span>
+old in all the arts of villainy, contrived to cheat both his
+associates, and obtained the diamond cross for less than half
+its value. The matter was managed so that the transaction
+remained undiscovered. The lady who lost the cross, after
+making fruitless inquiries, gave up the search, and Piedro and
+his father rejoiced in the success of their man&oelig;uvres.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that 'Ill-gotten wealth is quickly spent';<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> and
+so it proved in this instance. Both father and son lived a
+riotous life as long as their money lasted, and it did not last
+many months. What his bad education began, bad company
+finished, and Piedro's mind was completely ruined by the
+associates with whom he became connected during what he
+called his <i>prosperity</i>. When his money was at an end, these
+unprincipled friends began to look cold upon him, and at last
+plainly told him&mdash;'If you mean to <i>live with us</i>, you must <i>live
+as we do</i>.' They lived by robbery.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro, though familiarised to the idea of fraud, was
+shocked at the thought of becoming a robber by profession.
+How difficult it is to stop in the career of vice! Whether
+Piedro had power to stop, or whether he was hurried on by
+his associates, we shall, for the present, leave in doubt.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">We</span> turn with pleasure from Piedro the Cunning to Francisco
+the Honest. Francisco continued the happy and useful course
+of his life. By his unremitting perseverance he improved
+himself rapidly under the instructions of his master and friend,
+Signor Camillo; his friend, we say, for the fair and open
+character of Francisco won, or rather earned, the friendship of
+this benevolent artist. The English gentleman seemed to take
+a pride in our hero's success and good conduct. He was not
+one of those patrons who think that they have done enough
+when they have given five guineas. His servant Arthur
+always considered every generous action of his master's as his
+own, and was particularly pleased whenever this generosity
+was directed towards Francisco.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[415]</span></p>
+<p>As for Carlo and the little Rosetta, they were the companions
+of all the pleasant walks which Francisco used to take
+in the cool of the evening, after he had been shut up all day at
+his work. And the old carpenter, delighted with the gratitude
+of his pupil, frequently repeated&mdash;'That he was proud to have
+given the first instructions to such a <i>genius</i>; and that he had
+always prophesied Francisco would be a <i>great</i> man.' 'And a
+good man, papa,' said Rosetta; 'for though he has grown so
+great, and though he goes into palaces now, to say nothing
+of that place underground, where he has leave to go, yet,
+notwithstanding all this, he never forgets my brother Carlo
+and you.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's the way to have good friends,' said the carpenter.
+'And I like his way; he does more than he says. Facts are
+masculine, and words are feminine.'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a></p>
+
+<p>These good friends seemed to make Francisco happier than
+Piedro could be made by his stolen diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, Francisco was sent to finish a sketch of the
+front of an ancient temple, amongst the ruins of Herculaneum.
+He had just reached the pit, and the men were about to let
+him down with cords, in the usual manner, when his attention
+was caught by the shrill sound of a scolding woman's voice.
+He looked, and saw at some paces distant this female fury,
+who stood guarding the windlass of a well, to which, with
+threatening gestures and most voluble menaces, she forbade
+all access. The peasants&mdash;men, women, and children, who
+had come with their pitchers to draw water at this well&mdash;were
+held at bay by the enraged female. Not one dared to be the
+first to advance; whilst she grasped with one hand the handle
+of the windlass, and, with the other tanned muscular arm
+extended, governed the populace, bidding them remember
+that she was padrona, or mistress of the well. They retired,
+in hopes of finding a more gentle padrona at some other well
+in the neighbourhood; and the fury, when they were out of
+sight, divided the long black hair which hung over her face,
+and, turning to one of the spectators, appealed to them in a
+sober voice, and asked if she was not right in what she had
+done. 'I, that am padrona of the well,' said she, addressing
+herself to Francisco, who, with great attention, was contemplating
+her with the eye of a painter&mdash;'I, that am padrona
+<span class="pagenum">[416]</span>of the well, must in times of scarcity do strict justice, and
+preserve for ourselves alone the water of our well. There is
+scarcely enough even for ourselves. I have been obliged to
+make my husband lengthen the ropes every day for this week
+past. If things go on at this rate, there will soon be not one
+drop of water left in my well.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor in any of the wells of the neighbourhood,' added one
+of the workmen, who was standing by; and he mentioned
+several in which the water had lately suddenly decreased;
+and a miller affirmed that his mill had stopped for want of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Francisco was struck by these remarks. They brought to
+his recollection similar facts, which he had often heard his
+father mention in his childhood, as having been observed
+previous to the last eruption of Mount Vesuvius.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> He had
+also heard from his father, in his childhood, that it is better to
+trust to prudence than to fortune; and therefore, though the
+peasants and workmen, to whom he mentioned his fears,
+laughed, and said, 'That as the burning mountain had been
+favourable to them for so many years, they would trust to it
+and St. Januarius one day longer,' yet Francisco immediately
+gave up all thoughts of spending this day amidst the ruins of
+Herculaneum. After having inquired sufficiently, after having
+seen several wells, in which the water had evidently decreased,
+and after having seen the mill-wheels that were standing still
+for want of their usual supply, he hastened home to his father
+and mother, reported what he had heard and seen, and begged
+of them to remove, and to take what things of value they
+could to some distance from the dangerous spot where they
+now resided.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the inhabitants of Resina, whom he questioned,
+declared that they had heard strange rumbling noises underground;
+and a peasant and his son, who had been at work
+the preceding day in a vineyard, a little above the village,
+related that they had seen a sudden puff of smoke come out of
+the earth, close to them; and that they had, at the same time,
+heard a noise like the going off of a pistol.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a></p>
+
+<p>The villagers listened with large eyes and open ears to
+<span class="pagenum">[417]</span>these relations; yet such was their habitual attachment to the
+spot they lived upon, or such the security in their own good
+fortune, that few of them would believe that there could be
+any necessity for removing. 'We'll see what will happen
+to-morrow; we shall be safe here one day longer,' said
+they.</p>
+
+<p>Francisco's father and mother, more prudent than the
+generality of their neighbours, went to the house of a relation,
+at some miles' distance from Vesuvius, and carried with them
+all their effects.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Francisco went to the villa where his
+English friends resided. The villa was in a most dangerous
+situation, near Torre del Greco&mdash;a town that stands at the
+foot of Mount Vesuvius. He related all the facts that he had
+heard to Arthur, who, not having been, like the inhabitants of
+Resina, familiarised to the idea of living in the vicinity of a
+burning mountain and habituated to trust in St. Januarius,
+was sufficiently alarmed by Francisco's representations. He
+ran to his master's apartment, and communicated all that he
+had just heard. The Count de Flora and his lady, who were
+at this time in the house, ridiculed the fears of Arthur, and
+could not be prevailed upon to remove even as far as Naples.
+The lady was intent upon preparations for her birthday,
+which was to be celebrated in a few days with great magnificence
+at their villa; and she observed that it would be a pity to
+return to town before that day, and they had everything
+arranged for the festival. The prudent Englishman had not
+the gallantry to appear to be convinced by these arguments,
+and he left the place of danger. He left it not too soon, for
+the next morning exhibited a scene&mdash;a scene which we shall
+not attempt to describe.</p>
+
+<p>We refer our young readers to the account of this dreadful
+eruption of Mount Vesuvius, published by Sir W. Hamilton in
+the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i>. It is sufficient here to say
+that, in the space of about five hours, the wretched inhabitants
+of Torre del Greco saw their town utterly destroyed by the
+streams of burning lava which poured from the mountain.
+The villa of Count de Flora, with some others, which were at
+a little distance from the town, escaped; but they were
+absolutely surrounded by the lava. The count and countess
+were obliged to fly from their house with the utmost precipitation<span class="pagenum">[418]</span>
+in the night-time; and they had not time to remove
+any of their furniture, their plate, clothes, or jewels.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the eruption, the surface of the lava
+became so cool that people could walk upon it, though several
+feet beneath the surface it was still exceedingly hot. Numbers
+of those who had been forced from their houses now returned
+to the ruins to try to save whatever they could. But these
+unfortunate persons frequently found their houses had been
+pillaged by robbers, who, in these moments of general confusion,
+enrich themselves with the spoils of their fellow-creatures.</p>
+
+<p>'Has the count abandoned his villa? and is there no one to
+take care of his plate and furniture? The house will certainly
+be ransacked before morning,' said the old carpenter to
+Francisco, who was at his house giving him an account of
+their flight. Francisco immediately went to the count's house
+in Naples, to warn him of his danger. The first person he
+saw was Arthur, who, with a face of terror, said to him, 'Do
+you know what has happened? It is all over with Resina!'
+'All over with Resina! What, has there been a fresh
+eruption? Has the lava reached Resina?' 'No; but it will
+inevitably be blown up. There,' said Arthur, pointing to a
+thin figure of an Italian, who stood pale and trembling, and
+looking up to heaven as he crossed himself repeatedly&mdash;'There,'
+said Arthur, 'is a man who has left a parcel of his
+cursed rockets and fireworks, with I don't know how much
+gunpowder, in the count's house, from which we have just
+fled. The wind blows that way. One spark of fire, and the
+whole is blown up.'</p>
+
+<p>Francisco waited not to hear more; but instantly, without
+explaining his intentions to any one, set out for the count's
+villa, and, with a bucket of water in his hand, crossed the
+beds of lava with which the house was encompassed; when,
+reaching the hall where the rockets and gunpowder were left,
+he plunged them into the water, and returned with them in
+safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet.</p>
+
+<p>What was the surprise and joy of the poor firework-maker
+when he saw Francisco return from this dangerous expedition!
+He could scarcely believe his eyes, when he saw the rockets
+and the gunpowder all safe.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i038f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i038t.jpg" alt="i038"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>Returned in safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The count, who had given up the hopes of saving his<span class="pagenum">[420]</span>
+palace, was in admiration when he heard of this instance of
+intrepidity, which probably saved not only his villa, but the
+whole village of Resina, from destruction. These fireworks
+had been prepared for the celebration of the countess's birthday,
+and were forgotten in the hurry of the night on which the
+inhabitants fled from Torre del Greco.</p>
+
+<p>'Brave young man!' said the count to Francisco, 'I thank
+you, and shall not limit my gratitude to thanks. You tell me
+that there is danger of my villa being pillaged by robbers. It
+is from this moment your interest as well as mine to prevent
+their depredations; for (trust to my liberality) a portion of all
+that is saved of mine shall be yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bravo! bravissimo!' exclaimed one who started from a
+recessed window in the hall where all this passed. 'Bravo!
+bravissimo!' Francisco thought he knew the voice and the
+countenance of this man, who exclaimed with so much enthusiasm.
+He remembered to have seen him before, but
+when, or where, he could not recollect. As soon as the count
+left the hall, the stranger came up to Francisco. 'Is it
+possible,' said he, 'that you don't know me? It is scarcely a
+twelvemonth since I drew tears from your eyes.' 'Tears from
+my eyes?' repeated Francisco, smiling; 'I have shed but few
+tears. I have had but few misfortunes in my life.' The
+stranger answered him by two extempore Italian lines, which
+conveyed nearly the same idea that has been so well expressed
+by an English poet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em"><p class="noin">
+To each their sufferings&mdash;all are men<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Condemn'd alike to groan;</span><br />
+The feeling for another's woes,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Th' unfeeling for his own.</span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>'I know you now perfectly well,' cried Francisco; 'you are
+the Improvisatore who, one fine moonlight night last summer,
+told us the story of Cornaro the Turk.'</p>
+
+<p>'The same,' said the Improvisatore; 'the same, though in
+a better dress, which I should not have thought would have
+made so much difference in your eyes, though it makes all the
+difference between man and man in the eyes of the stupid
+vulgar. My genius has broken through the clouds of misfortune
+of late. A few happy impromptu verses I made on
+the Count de Flora's fall from his horse attracted attention.<span class="pagenum">[421]</span>
+The count patronises me. I am here now to learn the fate of
+an ode I have just composed for his lady's birthday. My ode
+was to have been set to music, and to have been performed at
+his villa near Torre del Greco, if these troubles had not
+intervened. Now that the mountain is quiet again, people
+will return to their senses. I expect to be munificently
+rewarded. But perhaps I detain you. Go; I shall not
+forget to celebrate the heroic action you have performed this
+day. I still amuse myself amongst the populace in my tattered
+garb late in the evenings, and I shall sound your praises
+through Naples in a poem I mean to recite on the late eruption
+of Mount Vesuvius. Adieu.'</p>
+
+<p>The Improvisatore was as good as his word. That evening,
+with more than his usual enthusiasm, he recited his verses to
+a great crowd of people in one of the public squares. Amongst
+the crowd were several to whom the name of Francisco was
+well known, and by whom he was well beloved. These were
+his young companions, who remembered him as a fruit-seller
+amongst the little merchants. They rejoiced to hear his
+praises, and repeated the lines with shouts of applause.</p>
+
+<p>'Let us pass. What is all this disturbance in the streets?'
+said a man, pushing his way through the crowd. A lad who held
+by his arm stopped suddenly on hearing the name of Francisco,
+which the people were repeating with so much enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>'Ha! I have found at last a story that interests you more
+than that of Cornaro the Turk,' cried the Improvisatore,
+looking in the face of the youth who had stopped so suddenly.
+'You are the young man who, last summer, had liked to have
+tricked me out of my new hat. Promise me you won't touch
+it now,' said he, throwing down the hat at his feet, 'or you
+hear not one word I have to say. Not one word of the heroic
+action performed at the villa of the Count de Flora, near
+Torre del Greco, this morning, by Signor Francisco.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Signor</i> Francisco!' repeated the lad with disdain. 'Well,
+let us hear what you have to tell of him,' added he. 'Your
+hat is very safe, I promise you; I shall not touch it. What
+of <i>Signor</i> Francisco?'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Signor</i> Francisco I may, without impropriety, call him,'
+said the Improvisatore, 'for he is likely to become rich enough
+to command the title from those who might not otherwise
+respect his merit.'<span class="pagenum">[422]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Likely to become rich! how?' said the lad, whom our
+readers have probably before this time discovered to be
+Piedro. 'How, pray, is he likely to become rich enough to
+be a signor?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Count de Flora has promised him a liberal portion of
+all the fine furniture, plate, and jewels that can be saved from
+his villa at Torre del Greco. Francisco is gone down hither
+now with some of the count's domestics to protect the valuable
+goods against those villainous plunderers, who robbed their
+fellow-creatures of what even the flames of Vesuvius would
+spare.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, we have had enough of this stuff,' cried the man
+whose arm Piedro held. 'Come away,' and he hurried
+forwards.</p>
+
+<p>This man was one of the villains against whom the honest
+orator expressed such indignation. He was one of those with
+whom Piedro got acquainted during the time that he was living
+extravagantly upon the money he gained by the sale of the
+stolen diamond cross. That robbery was not discovered; and
+his <i>success</i>, as he called it, hardened him in guilt. He was
+both unwilling and unable to withdraw himself from the bad
+company with whom his ill-gotten wealth connected him. He
+did not consider that bad company leads to the gallows.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a></p>
+
+<p>The universal confusion which followed the eruption of
+Mount Vesuvius was to these villains a time of rejoicing. No
+sooner did Piedro's companion hear of the rich furniture, plate,
+etc., which the imprudent orator had described as belonging to
+the Count de Flora's villa, than he longed to make himself
+master of the whole.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a pity,' said Piedro, 'that the count has sent Francisco
+with his servants down to guard it.' 'And who is this Francisco
+of whom you seem to stand in so much awe?' 'A boy,
+a young lad only, of about my own age; but I know him to be
+sturdily honest. The servants we might corrupt; but even the
+old proverb of "Angle with a silver hook,"<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> won't hold good with
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'And if he cannot be won by fair means, he must be
+conquered by foul,' said the desperate villain; 'but if we offer
+him rather more than the count has already promised for his
+<span class="pagenum">[423]</span>share of the booty, of course he will consult at once his safety
+and his interest.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Piedro; 'that is not his nature. I know him
+from a child, and we'd better think of some other house for
+to-night's business.'</p>
+
+<p>'None other; none but this,' cried his companion, with an
+oath. 'My mind is determined upon this, and you must obey
+your leader: recollect the fate of him who failed me yesterday.'</p>
+
+<p>The person to whom he alluded was one of the gang of
+robbers who had been assassinated by his companions for hesitating
+to commit some crime suggested by their leader. No
+tyranny is so dreadful as that which is exercised by villains over
+their young accomplices, who become their slaves. Piedro,
+who was of a cowardly nature, trembled at the threatening
+countenance of his captain, and promised submission.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the morning, inquiries were made secretly
+amongst the count's servants; and the two men who were
+engaged to sit up at the villa that night along with Francisco
+were bribed to second the views of this gang of thieves. It
+was agreed that about midnight the robbers should be let into
+the house; that Francisco should be tied hand and foot, whilst
+they carried off their booty. 'He is a stubborn chap, though
+so young, I understand,' said the captain of the robbers to his
+men; 'but we carry poniards, and know how to use them.
+Piedro, you look pale. You don't require to be reminded of
+what I said to you when we were alone just now?'</p>
+
+<p>Piedro's voice failed, and some of his comrades observed
+that he was young and new to the business. The captain,
+who, from being his pretended friend during his wealthy days,
+had of late become his tyrant, cast a stern look at Piedro, and
+bid him be sure to be at the old Jew's, which was the place of
+meeting, in the dusk of the evening. After saying this he
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro, when he was alone, tried to collect his thoughts&mdash;all
+his thoughts were full of horror. 'Where am I?' said he
+to himself; 'what am I about? Did I understand rightly
+what he said about poniards? Francisco; oh, Francisco!
+Excellent, kind, generous Francisco! Yes, I recollect your
+look when you held the bunch of grapes to my lips, as I sat
+by the sea-shore deserted by all the world; and now, what
+friends have I? Robbers and&mdash;&mdash;' The word <i>murderers</i> he<span class="pagenum">[424]</span>
+could not utter. He again recollected what had been said
+about poniards, and the longer his mind fixed upon the words,
+and the look that accompanied them, the more he was shocked.
+He could not doubt that it was the serious intention of his
+accomplices to murder Francisco, if he should make any
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro had at this moment no friend in the world to whom
+he could apply for advice or assistance. His wretched father
+died some weeks before this time, in a fit of intoxication.
+Piedro walked up and down the street, scarcely capable of
+thinking, much less of coming to any rational resolution.</p>
+
+<p>The hours passed away, the shadows of the houses lengthened
+under his footsteps, the evening came on, and when it grew
+dusk, after hesitating in great agony of mind for some time,
+his fear of the robbers' vengeance prevailed over every other
+feeling, and he went at the appointed hour to the place of
+meeting.</p>
+
+<p>The place of meeting was at the house of that Jew to whom
+he, several months before, sold the diamond cross. That cross
+which he thought himself so lucky to have stolen, and to have
+disposed of undetected, was, in fact, the cause of his being in
+his present dreadful situation. It was at the Jew's that he
+connected himself with this gang of robbers, to whom he was
+now become an absolute slave.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh that I dared to disobey!' said he to himself, with a
+deep sigh, as he knocked softly at the back door of the Jew's
+house. The back door opened into a narrow, unfrequented
+street, and some small rooms at this side of the house were
+set apart for the reception of guests who desired to have their
+business kept secret. These rooms were separated by a dark
+passage from the rest of the house, and numbers of people
+came to the shop in the front of the house, which looked into
+a creditable street, without knowing anything more, from the
+ostensible appearance of the shop, than that it was a kind of
+pawnbroker's, where old clothes, old iron, and all sorts of
+refuse goods might be disposed of conveniently.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment Piedro knocked at the back door, the front
+shop was full of customers; and the Jew's boy, whose office it
+was to attend to these signals, let Piedro in, told him that
+none of his comrades were yet come, and left him in a room
+by himself.<span class="pagenum">[425]</span></p>
+
+<p>He was pale and trembling, and felt a cold dew spread over
+him. He had a leaden image of Saint Januarius tied round his
+neck, which, in the midst of his wickedness, he superstitiously
+preserved as a sort of charm, and on this he kept his eyes
+stupidly fixed, as he sat alone in this gloomy place.</p>
+
+<p>He listened from time to time, but he heard no noise at the
+side of the house where he was. His accomplices did not
+arrive, and, in a sort of impatient terror, the attendant upon
+an evil conscience, he flung open the door of his cell, and
+groped his way through the passage which he knew led to the
+public shop. He longed to hear some noise, and to mix with
+the living. The Jew, when Piedro entered the shop, was
+bargaining with a poor, thin-looking man about some gunpowder.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't deny that it has been wet,' said the man, 'but
+since it was in the bucket of water, it has been carefully dried.
+I tell you the simple truth, that so soon after the grand eruption
+of Mount Vesuvius, the people of Naples will not relish
+fireworks. My poor little rockets, and even my Catherine-wheels,
+will have no effect. I am glad to part with all I have
+in this line of business. A few days ago I had fine things in
+readiness for the Countess de Flora's birthday, which was to
+have been celebrated at the count's villa.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you fix your eyes on me, friend? What is your
+discourse to me?' said Piedro, who imagined that the man
+fixed his eyes upon him as he mentioned the name of the
+count's villa.</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know that I fixed my eyes upon you; I was
+thinking of my fireworks,' said the poor man, simply. 'But
+now that I do look at you and hear your voice, I recollect
+having had the pleasure of seeing you before.'</p>
+
+<p>'When? where?' said Piedro.</p>
+
+<p>'A great while ago; no wonder you have forgotten me,'
+said the man; 'but I can recall the night to your recollection.
+You were in the street with me the night I let off that unlucky
+rocket which frightened the horses, and was the cause of overturning
+a lady's coach. Don't you remember the circumstance?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have a confused recollection of some such thing,' said
+Piedro, in great embarrassment; and he looked suspiciously
+at this man, in doubt whether he was cunning, and wanted to
+sound him, or whether he was so simple as he appeared.<span class="pagenum">[426]</span></p>
+
+<p>'You did not, perhaps, hear, then,' continued the man
+'that there was a great search made, after the overturn, for a
+fine diamond cross belonging to the lady in the carriage?
+That lady, though I did not know it till lately, was the Countess
+de Flora.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know nothing of the matter,' interrupted Piedro, in great
+agitation. His confusion was so marked that the firework-maker
+could not avoid taking notice of it; and a silence of
+some moments ensued. The Jew, more practised in dissimulation
+than Piedro, endeavoured to turn the man's attention
+back to his rockets and his gunpowder&mdash;agreed to take the
+gunpowder&mdash;paid for it in haste, and was, though apparently
+unconcerned, eager to get rid of him. But this was not so
+easily done. The man's curiosity was excited, and his suspicions
+of Piedro were increased every moment by all the dark
+changes of his countenance. Piedro, overpowered with the
+sense of guilt, surprised at the unexpected mention of the
+diamond cross, and of the Count de Flora's villa, stood like
+one convicted, and seemed fixed to the spot, without power of
+motion.</p>
+
+<p>'I want to look at the old cambric that you said you had&mdash;that
+would do for making&mdash;that you could let me have cheap
+for artificial flowers,' said the firework-maker to the Jew; and
+as he spoke, his eye from time to time looked towards Piedro.</p>
+
+<p>Piedro felt for the leaden image of the saint, which he wore
+round his neck. The string which held it cracked, and broke
+with the pull he gave it. This slight circumstance affected his
+terrified and superstitious mind more than all the rest. He
+imagined that at this moment his fate was decided; that Saint
+Januarius deserted him, and that he was undone. He precipitately
+followed the firework-man the instant he left the shop,
+and seizing hold of his arm, whispered, 'I must speak to you.'
+'Speak, then,' said the man, astonished. 'Not here; this
+way,' said he, drawing him towards the dark passage; 'what
+I have to say must not be overheard. You are going to the
+Count de Flora's, are not you?' 'I am,' said the man. He
+was going there to speak to the countess about some artificial
+flowers; but Piedro thought he was going to speak to her
+about the diamond cross. 'You are going to give information
+against me? Nay, hear me, I confess that I purloined that
+diamond cross; but I can do the count a great service, upon<span class="pagenum">[427]</span>
+condition that he pardons me. His villa is to be attacked this
+night by four well-armed men. They will set out five hours
+hence. I am compelled, under the threat of assassination, to
+accompany them; but I shall do no more. I throw myself
+upon the count's mercy. Hasten to him&mdash;we have no time to
+lose.'</p>
+
+<p>The poor man, who heard this confession, escaped from
+Piedro the moment he loosed his arm. With all possible
+expedition he ran to the count's palace in Naples, and related
+to him all that had been said by Piedro. Some of the count's
+servants, on whom he could most depend, were at a distant
+part of the city attending their mistress, but the English
+gentleman offered the services of his man Arthur. Arthur no
+sooner heard the business, and understood that Francisco was
+in danger, than he armed himself without saying one word,
+saddled his English horse, and was ready to depart before any
+one else had finished his exclamations and conjectures.</p>
+
+<p>'But we are not to set out yet,' said the servant; 'it is but
+four miles to Torre del Greco; the sbirri (officers of justice)
+are summoned&mdash;they are to go with us&mdash;we must wait for
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>They waited, much against Arthur's inclination, a considerable
+time for these sbirri. At length they set out, and just
+as they reached the villa, the flash of a pistol was seen from
+one of the apartments in the house. The robbers were there.
+This pistol was snapped by their captain at poor Francisco,
+who had bravely asserted that he would, as long as he had
+life, defend the property committed to his care. The pistol
+missed fire, for it was charged with some of the damaged
+powder which the Jew had bought that evening from the firework-maker,
+and which he had sold as excellent immediately
+afterwards to his favourite customers&mdash;the robbers who met at
+his house.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur, as soon as he perceived the flash of the piece,
+pressed forward through all the apartments, followed by the
+count's servants and the officers of justice. At the sudden
+appearance of so many armed men, the robbers stood dismayed.
+Arthur eagerly shook Francisco's hand, congratulating him
+upon his safety, and did not perceive, till he had given him
+several rough friendly shakes, that his arm was wounded, and
+that he was pale with the loss of blood.<span class="pagenum">[428]</span></p>
+
+<p>'It is not much&mdash;only a slight wound,' said Francisco;
+'one that I should have escaped if I had been upon my guard;
+but the sight of a face that I little expected to see in such
+company took from me all presence of mind; and one of the
+ruffians stabbed me here in the arm, whilst I stood in stupid
+astonishment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! take me to prison! take me to prison&mdash;I am weary
+of life&mdash;I am a wretch not fit to live!' cried Piedro, holding
+his hands to be tied by the sbirri.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Piedro was conveyed to prison; and as
+he passed through the streets of Naples he was met by several
+of those who had known him when he was a child. 'Ay,'
+said they, as he went by, 'his father encouraged him in cheating
+when he was <i>but a child</i>; and see what he is come to, now he
+is a man!' He was ordered to remain twelve months in
+solitary confinement. His captain and his accomplices were
+sent to the galleys, and the Jew was banished from Naples.</p>
+
+<p>And now, having got these villains out of the way, let us
+return to honest Francisco. His wound was soon healed.
+Arthur was no bad surgeon, for he let his patient get well as
+fast as he pleased; and Carlo and Rosetta nursed him with
+so much kindness, that he was almost sorry to find himself
+perfectly recovered.</p>
+
+<p>'Now that you are able to go out,' said Francisco's father
+to him, 'you must come and look at my new house, my dear
+son.' 'Your new house, father?' 'Yes, son, and a charming
+one it is, and a handsome piece of land near it&mdash;all at a safe
+distance, too, from Mount Vesuvius; and can you guess how I
+came by it?&mdash;it was given to me for having a good son.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' cried Carlo; 'the inhabitants of Resina, and several
+who had property near Torre del Greco, and whose houses and
+lives were saved by your intrepidity in carrying the materials
+for the fireworks and the gunpowder out of this dangerous
+place, went in a body to the duke, and requested that he would
+mention your name and these facts to the king, who, amongst
+the grants he has made to the sufferers by the late eruption of
+Mount Vesuvius, has been pleased to say that he gives this
+house and garden to your father, because you have saved the
+property and lives of many of his subjects.'</p>
+
+<p>The value of a handsome portion of furniture, plate, etc., in
+the Count de Flora's villa, was, according to the count's promise,<span class="pagenum">[429]</span>
+given to him; and this money he divided between his own
+family and that of the good carpenter who first put a pencil
+into his hands. Arthur would not accept of any present from
+him. To Mr. Lee, the English gentleman, he offered one of
+his own drawings&mdash;a fruit-piece. 'I like this very well,' said
+Arthur, as he examined the drawing, 'but I should like this
+melon better if it was a little bruised. It is now three years
+ago since I was going to buy that bruised melon from you;
+you showed me your honest nature then, though you were but
+a boy; and I have found you the same ever since. A good
+beginning makes a good ending&mdash;an honest boy will make an
+honest man; and honesty is the best policy, as you have proved
+to all who wanted the proof, I hope.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' added Francisco's father, 'I think it is pretty plain
+that Piedro the Cunning has not managed quite so well as
+Francisco the Honest.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[431]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="TARLTON" id="TARLTON"></a>TARLTON</h2>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,&mdash;<br />
+To teach the young idea how to shoot,&mdash;<br />
+To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,&mdash;<br />
+To breathe th' enlivening spirit,&mdash;and to fix<br />
+The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
+</p>
+<p class="right smcap">
+Thomson.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Young Hardy</span> was educated by Mr. Trueman, a very excellent
+master, at one of our rural Sunday schools. He was honest,
+obedient, active, and good-natured, hence he was esteemed by
+his master; and being beloved by all his companions who were
+good, he did not desire to be loved by the bad; nor was he at
+all vexed or ashamed when idle, mischievous, or dishonest boys
+attempted to plague or ridicule him. His friend Loveit, on
+the contrary, wished to be universally liked, and his highest
+ambition was to be thought the best-natured boy in the school&mdash;and
+so he was. He usually went by the name of <i>Poor
+Loveit</i>, and everybody pitied him when he got into disgrace,
+which he frequently did, for, though he had a good disposition,
+he was often led to do things which he knew to be wrong
+merely because he could never have the courage to say '<i>No</i>,'
+because he was afraid to offend the ill-natured, and could not
+bear to be laughed at by fools.</p>
+
+<p>One fine autumn evening, all the boys were permitted to
+go out to play in a pleasant green meadow near the school.
+Loveit and another boy, called Tarlton, began to play a game
+at battledore and shuttlecock, and a large party stood by to
+look on, for they were the best players at battledore and shuttlecock
+in the school, and this was a trial of skill between them.
+When they had got it up to three hundred and twenty, the
+game became very interesting. The arms of the combatants<span class="pagenum">[432]</span>
+grew so tired that they could scarcely wield the battledores.
+The shuttlecock began to waver in the air; now it almost
+touched the ground, and now, to the astonishment of the
+spectators, mounted again high over their heads; yet the
+strokes became feebler and feebler; and 'Now, Loveit!'
+'Now, Tarlton!' resounded on all sides. For another minute
+the victory was doubtful; but at length the setting sun, shining
+full in Loveit's face, so dazzled his eyes that he could no longer
+see the shuttlecock, and it fell at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>After the first shout for Tarlton's triumph was over, everybody
+exclaimed, 'Poor Loveit! he's the best-natured fellow in
+the world! What a pity that he did not stand with his back
+to the sun!'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, I dare you all to play another game with me,' cried
+Tarlton, vauntingly; and as he spoke, he tossed the shuttlecock
+up with all his force&mdash;with so much force that it went over the
+hedge and dropped into a lane which went close beside the
+field. 'Heyday!' said Tarlton, 'what shall we do now?'</p>
+
+<p>The boys were strictly forbidden to go into the lane; and it
+was upon their promise not to break this command, that they
+were allowed to play in the adjoining field.</p>
+
+<p>No other shuttlecock was to be had, and their play was
+stopped. They stood on the top of the bank, peeping over
+the hedge. 'I see it yonder,' said Tarlton; 'I wish somebody
+would get it. One could get over the gate at the bottom of
+the field, and be back again in half a minute,' added he, looking
+at Loveit. 'But you know we must not go into the lane,' said
+Loveit, hesitatingly. 'Pugh!' said Tarlton, 'why, now, what
+harm could it do?' 'I don't know,' said Loveit, drumming
+upon his battledore; 'but&mdash;&mdash;' 'You don't know, man! why,
+then, what are you afraid of, I ask you?' Loveit coloured,
+went on drumming, and again, in a lower voice, said '<i>he didn't
+know</i>.' But upon Tarlton's repeating, in a more insolent tone,
+'I ask you, man, what you're afraid of?' he suddenly left off
+drumming, and looking round, said, 'he was not afraid of
+anything that he knew of.' 'Yes, but you are,' said Hardy,
+coming forward. 'Am I?' said Loveit; 'of what, pray, am I
+afraid?' 'Of doing wrong!' 'Afraid <i>of doing wrong</i>!'
+repeated Tarlton, mimicking him, so that he made everybody
+laugh. 'Now, hadn't you better say afraid of being flogged?'
+'No,' said Hardy, coolly, after the laugh had somewhat subsided,<span class="pagenum">[433]</span>
+'I am as little afraid of being flogged as you are, Tarlton;
+but I meant&mdash;&mdash;' 'No matter what you meant; why should
+you interfere with your wisdom and your meanings; nobody
+thought of asking <i>you</i> to stir a step for us; but we asked
+Loveit, because he's the best fellow in the world.' 'And for
+that very reason you should not ask him, because you know
+he can't refuse you anything.' 'Indeed, though,' cried Loveit,
+piqued, '<i>there</i> you're mistaken, for I could refuse if I chose it.'</p>
+
+<p>Hardy smiled; and Loveit, half afraid of his contempt, and
+half afraid of Tarlton's ridicule, stood doubtful, and again had
+recourse to his battledore, which he balanced most curiously
+upon his forefinger. 'Look at him!&mdash;now do look at him!'
+cried Tarlton; 'did you ever in your life see anybody look so
+silly!&mdash;Hardy has him quite under his thumb; he's so mortally
+afraid of Parson Prig, that he dare not, for the soul of him,
+turn either of his eyes from the tip of his nose; look how he
+squints!' 'I don't squint,' said Loveit, looking up, 'and
+nobody has me under his thumb! and what Hardy said was
+only for fear I should get in disgrace; he's the best friend I
+have.'</p>
+
+<p>Loveit spoke this with more than usual spirit, for both his
+heart and his pride were touched. 'Come along, then,' said
+Hardy, taking him by the arm in an affectionate manner; and
+he was just going, when Tarlton called after him, 'Ay, go along
+with its best friend, and take care it does not get into a scrape;&mdash;good-bye,
+Little Panado!' 'Whom do they call Little
+Panado?' said Loveit, turning his head hastily back. 'Never
+mind,' said Hardy, 'what does it signify?' 'No,' said Loveit,
+'to be sure it does not signify; but one does not like to be
+called Little Panado; besides,' added he, after going a few
+steps farther, 'they'll all think it so ill-natured. I had better go
+back, and just tell them that I'm very sorry I can't get their
+shuttlecock;&mdash;do come back with me.' 'No,' said Hardy, 'I
+can't go back; and you'd better not.' 'But, I assure you, I
+won't stay a minute; wait for me,' added Loveit; and he slunk
+back again to prove that he was not Little Panado.</p>
+
+<p>Once returned, the rest followed, of course; for to support
+his character of good nature he was obliged to yield to the
+entreaties of his companions, and, to show his spirit, leapt over
+the gate, amidst the acclamations of the little mob:&mdash;he was
+quickly out of sight.<span class="pagenum">[434]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Here,' cried he, returning in about five minutes, quite out
+of breath, 'I've got the shuttlecock; and I'll tell you what I've
+seen,' cried he, panting for breath. 'What?' cried everybody,
+eagerly. 'Why, just at the turn of the corner, at the end of
+the lane'&mdash;panting. 'Well,' said Tarlton, impatiently, 'do go
+on.' 'Let me just take breath first.' 'Pugh&mdash;never mind
+your breath.' 'Well, then, just at the turn of the corner, at
+the end of the lane, as I was looking about for the shuttlecock,
+I heard a great rustling somewhere near me, and so I looked
+where it could come from; and I saw, in a nice little garden,
+on the opposite side of the way, a boy, about as big as Tarlton,
+sitting in a great tree, shaking the branches; so I called to the
+boy, to beg one; but he said he could not give me one, for that
+they were his grandfather's; and just at that minute, from
+behind a gooseberry bush, up popped the uncle; the grandfather
+poked his head out of the window; so I ran off as fast
+as my legs would carry me, though I heard him bawling after
+me all the way.'</p>
+
+<p>'And let him bawl,' cried Tarlton; 'he shan't bawl for
+nothing; I'm determined we'll have some of his fine large rosy
+apples before I sleep to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>At this speech a general silence ensued; everybody kept
+his eyes fixed upon Tarlton, except Loveit, who looked down,
+apprehensive that he should be drawn on much farther than he
+intended. 'Oh, indeed!' said he to himself, 'as Hardy told
+me, I had better not have come back!'</p>
+
+<p>Regardless of this confusion, Tarlton continued, 'But before
+I say any more, I hope we have no spies amongst us. If there
+is any one of you afraid to be flogged, let him march off this
+instant!'</p>
+
+<p>Loveit coloured, bit his lips, wished to go, but had not the
+courage to move first. He waited to see what everybody else
+would do: nobody stirred; so Loveit stood still.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then,' cried Tarlton, giving his hand to the boy next
+him, then to the next, 'your word and honour that you won't
+betray me; but stand by me, and I'll stand by you.' Each
+boy gave his hand and his promise, repeating, 'Stand by me,
+and I'll stand by you.'</p>
+
+<p>Loveit hung back till the last; and had almost twisted off the
+button of the boy's coat who screened him, when Tarlton came
+up, holding out his hand, 'Come, Loveit, lad, you're in for<span class="pagenum">[435]</span>
+it: stand by me, and I'll stand by you.' 'Indeed, Tarlton,'
+expostulated he, without looking him in the face, 'I do wish
+you'd give up this scheme; I daresay all the apples are gone
+by this time; I wish you would. Do, pray, give up this
+scheme.' 'What scheme, man? you haven't heard it yet; you
+may as well know your text before you begin preaching.'</p>
+
+<p>The corners of Loveit's mouth could not refuse to smile,
+though in his heart he felt not the slightest inclination to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, I don't know you, I declare I don't know you to-day,'
+said Tarlton; 'you used to be the best-natured, most agreeable
+lad in the world, and would do anything one asked you; but
+you're quite altered of late, as we were saying just now, when
+you skulked away with Hardy; come,&mdash;do, man, pluck up a
+little spirit, and be one of us, or you'll make us all <i>hate you</i>.'
+'<i>Hate</i> me!' repeated Loveit, with terror; 'no, surely, you
+won't all <i>hate</i> me!' and he mechanically stretched out his hand,
+which Tarlton shook violently, saying, '<i>Ay, now, that's right.</i>'
+'<i>Ay, now, that's wrong!</i>' whispered Loveit's conscience; but
+his conscience was of no use to him, for it was always overpowered
+by the voice of numbers; and though he had the wish,
+he never had the power, to do right. 'Poor Loveit! I knew
+he would not refuse us,' cried his companions; and even
+Tarlton, the moment he shook hands with him, despised him.
+It is certain that weakness of mind is despised both by the good
+and the bad.</p>
+
+<p>The league being thus formed, Tarlton assumed all the airs
+of commander, explained his schemes, and laid the plan of
+attack upon the poor old man's apple-tree. It was the only
+one he had in the world. We shall not dwell upon their consultation;
+for the amusement of contriving such expeditions is
+often the chief thing which induces idle boys to engage in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>There was a small window at the end of the back staircase,
+through which, between nine and ten o'clock at night, Tarlton,
+accompanied by Loveit and another boy, crept out. It was a
+moonlight night, and after crossing the field, and climbing the
+gate, directed by Loveit, who now resolved to go through the
+affair with spirit, they proceeded down the lane with rash yet
+fearful steps.</p>
+
+<p>At a distance Loveit saw the whitewashed cottage, and<span class="pagenum">[436]</span>
+the apple-tree beside it. They quickened their pace, and with
+some difficulty scrambled through the hedge which fenced the
+garden, though not without being scratched and torn by the
+briers. Everything was silent. Yet now and then, at every
+rustling of the leaves, they started, and their hearts beat
+violently. Once, as Loveit was climbing the apple-tree, he
+thought he heard a door in the cottage open, and earnestly
+begged his companions to desist and return home. This,
+however, he could by no means persuade them to do, until
+they had filled their pockets with apples; then, to his great
+joy, they returned, crept in at the staircase window, and each
+retired, as softly as possible, to his own apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Loveit slept in the room with Hardy, whom he had left fast
+asleep, and whom he now was extremely afraid of awakening.
+All the apples were emptied out of Loveit's pockets, and
+lodged with Tarlton till the morning, for fear the smell should
+betray the secret to Hardy. The room door was apt to creak,
+but it was opened with such precaution that no noise could be
+heard, and Loveit found his friend as fast asleep as when he
+left him.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah,' said he to himself, 'how quietly he sleeps! I wish
+I had been sleeping too.' The reproaches of Loveit's
+conscience, however, served no other purpose but to torment
+him; he had not sufficient strength of mind to be good. The
+very next night, in spite of all his fears, and all his penitence,
+and all his resolutions, by a little fresh ridicule and persuasion
+he was induced to accompany the same party on a similar expedition.
+We must observe that the necessity for continuing
+their depredations became stronger the third day; for, though
+at first only a small party had been in the secret, by degrees
+it was divulged to the whole school; and it was necessary to
+secure secrecy by sharing the booty.</p>
+
+<p>Every one was astonished that Hardy, with all his quickness
+and penetration, had not yet discovered their proceedings;
+but Loveit could not help suspecting that he was not quite so
+ignorant as he appeared to be. Loveit had strictly kept his
+promise of secrecy; but he was by no means an artful boy;
+and in talking to his friend, conscious that he had something
+to conceal, he was perpetually on the point of betraying himself;
+then, recollecting his engagement, he blushed, stammered,
+bungled; and upon Hardy's asking what he meant, would<span class="pagenum">[437]</span>
+answer with a silly, guilty countenance that he did not know;
+or abruptly break off, saying, 'Oh, nothing! nothing at all!'</p>
+
+<p>It was in vain that he urged Tarlton to permit him to
+consult his friend. A gloom overspread Tarlton's brow when
+he began to speak on the subject, and he always returned a
+peremptory refusal, accompanied with some such taunting expression
+as this&mdash;'I wish we had nothing to do with such a
+sneaking fellow; he'll betray us all, I see, before we have
+done with him.' 'Well,' said Loveit to himself, 'so I am
+abused after all, and called a sneaking fellow for my pains;
+that's rather hard, to be sure, when I've got so little by the
+job.'</p>
+
+<p>In truth he had not got much; for in the division of the
+booty only one apple, and half of another which was only half
+ripe, happened to fall to his share; though, to be sure, when
+they had all eaten their apples, he had the satisfaction to hear
+everybody declare they were very sorry they had forgotten to
+offer some of theirs to '<i>poor Loveit</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the visits to the apple-tree had been now
+too frequently repeated to remain concealed from the old man
+who lived in the cottage. He used to examine his only tree
+very frequently, and missing numbers of rosy apples, which he
+had watched ripening, he, though not prone to suspicion,
+began to think that there was something going wrong;
+especially as a gap was made in his hedge, and there were
+several small footsteps in his flower-beds.</p>
+
+<p>The good old man was not at all inclined to give pain to
+any living creature, much less to children, of whom he was
+particularly fond. Nor was he in the least avaricious, for
+though he was not rich, he had enough to live upon, because
+he had been very industrious in his youth; and he was always
+very ready to part with the little he had. Nor was he a cross
+old man. If anything would have made him angry, it would
+have been the seeing his favourite tree robbed, as he had
+promised himself the pleasure of giving his red apples to his
+grandchildren on his birthday. However, he looked up at the
+tree in sorrow rather than in anger, and leaning upon his staff,
+he began to consider what he had best do.</p>
+
+<p>'If I complain to their master,' said he to himself, 'they
+will certainly be flogged, and that I should be sorry for; yet
+they must not be let to go on stealing; that would be worse<span class="pagenum">[438]</span>
+still, for it would surely bring them to the gallows in the end.
+Let me see&mdash;oh, ay, that will do; I will borrow farmer Kent's
+dog Barker, he'll keep them off, I'll answer for it.'</p>
+
+<p>Farmer Kent lent his dog Barker, cautioning his neighbour,
+at the same time, to be sure to chain him well, for he was the
+fiercest mastiff in England. The old man, with farmer Kent's
+assistance, chained him fast to the trunk of the apple-tree.</p>
+
+<p>Night came; and Tarlton, Loveit, and his companions
+returned at the usual hour. Grown bolder now by frequent
+success, they came on talking and laughing. But the moment
+they had set their foot in the garden, the dog started up; and,
+shaking his chain as he sprang forward, barked with unremitting
+fury. They stood still as if fixed to the spot. There
+was just moonlight enough to see the dog. 'Let us try the
+other side of the tree,' said Tarlton. But to whichever side
+they turned, the dog flew round in an instant, barking with
+increased fury.</p>
+
+<p>'He'll break his chain and tear us to pieces,' cried Tarlton;
+and, struck with terror, he immediately threw down the basket
+he had brought with him, and betook himself to flight, with
+the greatest precipitation. 'Help me! oh, pray, help me! I
+can't get through the hedge,' cried Loveit, in a lamentable
+tone, whilst the dog growled hideously, and sprang forward to
+the extremity of his chain. 'I can't get out! Oh, for God's
+sake, stay for me one minute, dear Tarlton!' He called in
+vain; he was left to struggle through his difficulties by himself;
+and of all his dear friends not one turned back to help
+him. At last, torn and terrified, he got through the hedge
+and ran home, despising his companions for their selfishness.
+Nor could he help observing that Tarlton, with all his vaunted
+prowess, was the first to run away from the appearance of
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Loveit could not help reproaching the
+party with their conduct. 'Why could not you, any of you,
+stay one minute to help me?' said he. 'We did not hear you
+call,' answered one. 'I was so frightened,' said another, 'I
+would not have turned back for the whole world.' 'And you,
+Tarlton?' 'I,' said Tarlton; 'had not I enough to do to
+take care of myself, you blockhead? Every one for himself in
+this world!' 'So I see,' said Loveit, gravely. 'Well, man!
+is there anything strange in that?' 'Strange! why, yes; I<span class="pagenum">[439]</span>
+thought you all loved me!' 'Lord love you, lad! so we do;
+but we love ourselves better.' 'Hardy would not have served
+me so, however,' said Loveit, turning away in disgust. Tarlton
+was alarmed. 'Pugh!' said he; 'what nonsense have you
+taken into your brain? Think no more about it. We are all
+very sorry, and beg your pardon; come, shake hands,&mdash;forgive
+and forget.'</p>
+
+<p>Loveit gave his hand, but gave it rather coldly. 'I forgive
+it with all my heart,' said he; 'but I cannot forget it so soon!'
+'Why, then, you are not such a good-humoured fellow as we
+thought you were. Surely you cannot bear malice, Loveit.'
+Loveit smiled, and allowed that he certainly could not bear
+malice. 'Well, then, come; you know at the bottom we all
+love you, and would do anything in the world for you.' Poor
+Loveit, flattered in his foible, began to believe that they did
+love him at the bottom, as they said, and even with his eyes
+open consented again to be duped.</p>
+
+<p>'How strange it is,' thought he, 'that I should set such
+value upon the love of those I despise! When I'm once
+out of this scrape, I'll have no more to do with them, I'm
+determined.'</p>
+
+<p>Compared with his friend Hardy, his new associates did
+indeed appear contemptible; for all this time Hardy had
+treated him with uniform kindness, avoided to pry into his
+secrets, yet seemed ready to receive his confidence, if it had
+been offered.</p>
+
+<p>After school in the evening, as he was standing silently
+beside Hardy, who was ruling a sheet of paper for him, Tarlton,
+in his brutal manner, came up, and seizing him by the arm,
+cried, 'Come along with me, Loveit, I've something to say to
+you.' 'I can't come now,' said Loveit, drawing away his arm.
+'Ah, do come now,' said Tarlton, in a voice of persuasion.
+'Well, I'll come presently.' 'Nay, but do, pray; there's a
+good fellow, come now, because I've something to say to you.'
+'What is it you've got to say to me? I wish you'd let me
+alone,' said Loveit; yet at the same time he suffered himself
+to be led away.</p>
+
+<p>Tarlton took particular pains to humour him and bring him
+into temper again; and even, though he was not very apt to
+part with his playthings, went so far as to say, 'Loveit, the
+other day you wanted a top; I'll give you mine if you desire<span class="pagenum">[440]</span>
+it.' Loveit thanked him, and was overjoyed at the thoughts of
+possessing this top. 'But what did you want to say to me just
+now?' 'Ay, we'll talk of that presently; not yet&mdash;when we
+get out of hearing.' 'Nobody is near us,' said Loveit. 'Come
+a little farther, however,' said Tarlton, looking round suspiciously.
+'Well now, well?' 'You know the dog that
+frightened us so last night?' 'Yes.' 'It will never frighten
+us again.' 'Won't it? how so?' 'Look here,' said Tarlton,
+drawing something from his pocket wrapped in a blue handkerchief.
+'What's that?' Tarlton opened it. 'Raw meat!'
+exclaimed Loveit. 'How came you by it?' 'Tom, the
+servant boy, Tom got it for me, and I'm to give him sixpence.'
+'And is it for the dog?' 'Yes, I vowed I'd be revenged on
+him, and after this he'll never bark again.' 'Never bark
+again! What do you mean? Is it poison?' exclaimed
+Loveit, starting back with horror. 'Only poison for <i>a dog</i>;'
+said Tarlton, confused; 'you could not look more shocked if
+it was poison for a Christian.'</p>
+
+<p>Loveit stood for nearly a minute in profound silence.
+'Tarlton,' said he at last, in a changed tone and altered
+manner, 'I did not know you; I will have no more to do with
+you.' 'Nay, but stay,' said Tarlton, catching hold of his arm,
+'stay; I was only joking.' 'Let go my arm&mdash;you were in
+earnest.' 'But then that was before I knew there was any
+harm. If you think there's any harm?' '<i>If</i>,' said Loveit.
+'Why, you know, I might not know; for Tom told me it's a
+thing that's often done. Ask Tom.' 'I'll ask nobody! Surely
+we know better what's right and wrong than Tom does.' 'But
+only just ask him, to hear what he'll say.' 'I don't want to
+hear what he'll say,' cried Loveit, vehemently; 'the dog will
+die in agonies&mdash;in agonies! There was a dog poisoned at my
+father's&mdash;I saw him in the yard. Poor creature! He lay
+and howled and writhed himself!' 'Poor creature! Well,
+there's no harm done now,' cried Tarlton, in a hypocritical
+tone. But though he thought fit to dissemble with Loveit, he
+was thoroughly determined in his purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Loveit, in haste to get away, returned to his friend
+Hardy; but his mind was in such agitation, that he neither
+talked nor moved like himself; and two or three times his
+heart was so full that he was ready to burst into
+tears.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i039f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i039t.jpg" alt="i039"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting back with horror.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'How good-natured you are to me,' said he to Hardy, as he<span class="pagenum">[442]</span>
+was trying vainly to entertain him; 'but if you knew&mdash;&mdash;'
+Here he stopped short, for the bell for evening prayer rang,
+and they all took their places and knelt down. After prayers,
+as they were going to bed, Loveit stopped Tarlton,&mdash;'<i>Well?</i>'
+asked he, in an inquiring manner, fixing his eyes upon him.
+'<i>Well?</i>' replied Tarlton, in an audacious tone, as if he meant
+to set his inquiring eye at defiance. 'What do you mean to
+do to-night?' 'To go to sleep, as you do, I suppose,' replied
+Tarlton, turning away abruptly, and whistling as he walked off.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, he has certainly changed his mind!' said Loveit to
+himself, 'else he could not whistle.'</p>
+
+<p>About ten minutes after this, as he and Hardy were undressing,
+Hardy suddenly recollected that he had left his new kite out
+upon the grass. 'Oh,' said he, 'it will be quite spoiled before
+morning!' 'Call Tom,' said Loveit, 'and bid him bring it in
+for you in a minute.' They both went to the top of the stairs to
+call Tom; no one answered. They called again louder, 'Is
+Tom below?' 'I'm here,' answered he at last, coming out of
+Tarlton's room with a look of mixed embarrassment and effrontery.
+And as he was receiving Hardy's commission, Loveit saw
+the corner of the blue handkerchief hanging out of his pocket.
+This excited fresh suspicions in Loveit's mind; but, without
+saying one word, he immediately stationed himself at the
+window in his room, which looked out towards the lane; and,
+as the moon was risen, he could see if any one passed that
+way. 'What are you doing there?' said Hardy, after he had
+been watching some time; 'why don't you come to bed?'
+Loveit returned no answer, but continued standing at the
+window. Nor did he watch long in vain. Presently he saw
+Tom gliding slowly along a bypath, and get over the gate into
+the lane.</p>
+
+<p>'He's gone to do it!' exclaimed Loveit aloud, with an emotion
+which he could not command. 'Who's gone? to do what?'
+cried Hardy, starting up. 'How cruel! how wicked!' continued
+Loveit. 'What's cruel&mdash;what's wicked? speak out at
+once!' returned Hardy, in that commanding tone which, in
+moments of danger, strong minds feel themselves entitled to
+assume towards weak ones. Loveit instantly, though in an incoherent
+manner, explained the affair to him. Scarcely had the
+words passed his lips, when Hardy sprang up and began dressing
+himself without saying one syllable. 'For God's sake,<span class="pagenum">[443]</span>
+what are you going to do?' said Loveit in great anxiety.
+'They'll never forgive me! don't betray me! they'll never forgive!
+pray, speak to me! only say you won't betray us.' 'I
+will not betray you, trust to me,' said Hardy; and he left the
+room, and Loveit stood in amazement; whilst, in the meantime,
+Hardy, in hopes of overtaking Tom before the fate of the poor
+dog was decided, ran with all possible speed across the meadow,
+and then down the lane. He came up with Tom just as he
+was climbing the bank into the old man's garden. Hardy,
+too much out of breath to speak, seized hold of him, dragged
+him down, detaining him with a firm grasp, whilst he panted
+for utterance. 'What, Master Hardy, is it you? what's the
+matter? what do you want?' 'I want the poisoned meat that
+you have in your pocket.' 'Who told you that I had any such
+thing?' said Tom, clapping his hand upon his guilty pocket.
+'Give it me quietly, and I'll let you off.' 'Sir, upon my word,
+I haven't! I didn't! I don't know what you mean,' said Tom,
+trembling, though he was by far the stronger of the two.
+'Indeed, I don't know what you mean.' 'You do,' said Hardy,
+with great indignation, and a violent struggle immediately
+commenced.</p>
+
+<p>The dog, now alarmed by the voices, began to bark outrageously.
+Tom was terrified lest the old man should come out to
+see what was the matter; his strength forsook him, and flinging
+the handkerchief and meat over the hedge, he ran away
+with all his speed. The handkerchief fell within reach of the
+dog, who instantly snapped at it; luckily it did not come
+untied. Hardy saw a pitchfork on a dunghill close beside
+him, and, seizing upon it, stuck it into the handkerchief. The
+dog pulled, tore, growled, grappled, yelled; it was impossible
+to get the handkerchief from between his teeth; but the knot
+was loosed, the meat, unperceived by the dog, dropped out,
+and while he dragged off the handkerchief in triumph, Hardy,
+with inexpressible joy, plunged the pitchfork into the poisoned
+meat and bore it away.</p>
+
+<p>Never did hero retire with more satisfaction from a field of
+battle. Full of the pleasure of successful benevolence, Hardy
+tripped joyfully home, and vaulted over the window-sill, when
+the first object he beheld was Mr. Power, the usher, standing
+at the head of the stairs, with his candle in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Come up, whoever you are,' said Mr. William Power, in a<span class="pagenum">[444]</span>
+stern voice; 'I thought I should find you out at last. Come
+up, whoever you are!' Hardy obeyed without reply.&mdash;'Hardy!'
+exclaimed Mr. Power, starting back with astonishment;
+'is it you, Mr. Hardy?' repeated he, holding the light
+to his face. 'Why, sir,' said he, in a sneering tone, 'I'm sure
+if Mr. Trueman was here he wouldn't believe his own eyes;
+but for my part I saw through you long since; I never liked
+saints, for my share. Will you please do me the favour, sir,
+if it is not too much trouble, to empty your pockets?' Hardy
+obeyed in silence. 'Heyday! meat! raw meat! what next?'
+'That's all,' said Hardy, emptying his pockets inside out.
+'This is <i>all</i>,' said Mr. Power, taking up the meat. 'Pray, sir,'
+said Hardy, eagerly, 'let that meat be burned; it is poisoned.'
+'Poisoned!' cried Mr. William Power, letting it drop out of
+his fingers; 'you wretch!' looking at him with a menacing
+air, 'what is all this? Speak.' Hardy was silent. 'Why
+don't you speak?' cried he, shaking him by the shoulder
+impatiently. Still Hardy was silent. 'Down upon your knees
+this minute and confess all; tell me where you've been, what
+you've been doing, and who are your accomplices, for I know
+there is a gang of you; so,' added he, pressing heavily upon
+Hardy's shoulder, 'down upon your knees this minute, and
+confess the whole, that's your only way now to get off yourself.
+If you hope for <i>my</i> pardon, I can tell you it's not to be had
+without asking for.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said Hardy, in a firm but respectful voice, 'I have no
+pardon to ask, I have nothing to confess; I am innocent; but
+if I were not, I would never try to get off myself by betraying
+my companions.' 'Very well, sir! very well! very fine! stick
+to it, stick to it, I advise you, and we shall see. And how will
+you look to-morrow, Mr. Innocent, when my uncle, the doctor,
+comes home?' 'As I do now, sir,' said Hardy, unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>His composure threw Mr. Power into a rage too great for
+utterance. 'Sir,' continued Hardy, 'ever since I have been
+at school, I never told a lie, and therefore, sir, I hope you will
+believe me now. Upon my word and honour, sir, I have done
+nothing wrong.' 'Nothing wrong? Better and better! what,
+when I caught you going out at night?' '<i>That</i>, to be sure,
+was wrong,' said Hardy, recollecting himself; 'but except
+that&mdash;&mdash;' 'Except that, sir! I will except nothing. Come
+along with me, young gentleman, your time for pardon is past.'<span class="pagenum">[445]</span></p>
+
+<p>Saying these words, he pulled Hardy along a narrow
+passage to a small closet, set apart for desperate offenders, and
+usually known by the name of the <i>Black Hole</i>. 'There, sir,
+take up your lodging there for to-night,' said he, pushing him
+in; 'to-morrow I'll know more, or I'll know why,' added he,
+double-locking the door, with a tremendous noise, upon his
+prisoner, and locking also the door at the end of the passage,
+so that no one could have access to him. 'So now I think I
+have you safe!' said Mr. William Power to himself, stalking
+off with steps which made the whole gallery resound, and
+which made many a guilty heart tremble.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation which had passed between Hardy and Mr.
+Power at the head of the stairs had been anxiously listened to;
+but only a word or two here and there had been distinctly
+overheard.</p>
+
+<p>The locking of the Black Hole door was a terrible sound&mdash;some
+knew not what it portended, and others knew <i>too well</i>.
+All assembled in the morning with faces of anxiety. Tarlton's
+and Loveit's were the most agitated: Tarlton for himself,
+Loveit for his friend, for himself, for everybody. Every one of
+the party, and Tarlton at their head, surrounded him with
+reproaches; and considered him as the author of the evils
+which hung over them. 'How could you do so? and why did
+you say anything to Hardy about it? when you had promised,
+too! Oh! what shall we all do? what a scrape you have
+brought us into! Loveit, it's all your fault!' '<i>All my fault!</i>'
+repeated poor Loveit, with a sigh; 'well, that is hard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Goodness! there's the bell,' exclaimed a number of voices
+at once. 'Now for it!' They all stood in a half-circle for
+morning prayers. They listened&mdash;'Here he is coming! No&mdash;Yes&mdash;Here
+he is!' And Mr. William Power, with a gloomy
+brow, appeared and walked up to his place at the head of the
+room. They knelt down to prayers, and the moment they
+rose, Mr. William Power, laying his hand upon the table,
+cried, 'Stand still, gentlemen, if you please.' Everybody
+stood stock still; he walked out of the circle; they guessed
+that he was gone for Hardy, and the whole room was in
+commotion. Each with eagerness asked each what none could
+answer, '<i>Has he told?</i>' '<i>What</i> has he told?' 'Who has
+he told of?' 'I hope he has not told of me,' cried they. 'I'll
+answer for it he has told of all of us,' said Tarlton. 'And I'll<span class="pagenum">[446]</span>
+answer for it he has told of none of us,' answered Loveit, with
+a sigh. 'You don't think he's such a fool, when he can get
+himself off,' said Tarlton.</p>
+
+<p>At this instant the prisoner was led in, and as he passed
+through the circle, every eye was fixed upon him. His eye
+fell upon no one, not even upon Loveit, who pulled him by the
+coat as he passed&mdash;every one felt almost afraid to breathe.
+'Well, sir,' said Mr. Power, sitting down in Mr. Trueman's
+elbow-chair, and placing the prisoner opposite to him; 'well,
+sir, what have you to say to me this morning?' 'Nothing,
+sir,' answered Hardy, in a decided, yet modest manner;
+'nothing but what I said last night.' 'Nothing more?'
+'Nothing more, sir.' 'But I have something more to say to
+you, sir, then; and a great deal more, I promise you, before
+I have done with you;' and then, seizing him in a fury, he
+was just going to give him a severe flogging, when the schoolroom
+door opened, and Mr. Trueman appeared, followed by
+an old man whom Loveit immediately knew. He leaned upon
+his stick as he walked, and in his other hand carried a basket
+of apples. When they came within the circle, Mr. Trueman
+stopped short 'Hardy!' exclaimed he, with a voice of unfeigned
+surprise, whilst Mr. William Power stood with his
+hand suspended. 'Ay, Hardy, sir,' repeated he. 'I told him
+you'd not believe your own eyes.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trueman advanced with a slow step. 'Now, sir, give
+me leave,' said the usher, eagerly drawing him aside and
+whispering.</p>
+
+<p>'So, sir,' said Mr. T. when the whisper was done, addressing
+himself to Hardy, with a voice and manner which, had he
+been guilty, must have pierced him to the heart, 'I find I have
+been deceived in you; it is but three hours ago that I told
+your uncle I never had a boy in my school in whom I placed
+so much confidence; but, after all this show of honour and
+integrity, the moment my back is turned, you are the first to
+set an example of disobedience of my orders. Why do I talk
+of disobeying my commands,&mdash;you are a thief!' 'I, sir?'
+exclaimed Hardy, no longer able to repress his feelings. 'You,
+sir,&mdash;you and some others,' said Mr. Trueman, looking round
+the room with a penetrating glance&mdash;'you and some others,'
+'Ay, sir,' interrupted Mr. William Power, 'get that out of him
+if you can&mdash;ask him.' 'I will ask him nothing; I shall neither<span class="pagenum">[447]</span>
+put his truth nor his honour to the trial; truth and honour are
+not to be expected amongst thieves.' 'I am not a thief! I
+have never had anything to do with thieves,' cried Hardy,
+indignantly. 'Have you not robbed this old man? Don't you
+know the taste of these apples?' said Mr. Trueman, taking
+one out of the basket. 'No, sir; I do not. I never touched
+one of that old man's apples.' 'Never touched one of them!
+I suppose this is some vile equivocation; you have done worse,
+you have had the barbarity, the baseness, to attempt to poison
+his dog; the poisoned meat was found in your pocket last
+night.' 'The poisoned meat was found in my pocket, sir;
+but I never intended to poison the dog&mdash;I saved his life.'
+'Lord bless him!' said the old man. 'Nonsense&mdash;cunning!'
+said Mr. Power. 'I hope you won't let him impose upon
+you, sir.' 'No, he cannot impose upon me; I have a proof
+he is little prepared for,' said Mr. Trueman, producing the blue
+handkerchief in which the meat had been wrapped.</p>
+
+<p>Tarlton turned pale; Hardy's countenance never changed.
+'Don't you know this handkerchief, sir?' 'I do, sir.' 'Is it
+not yours?' 'No, sir.' 'Don't you know whose it is?' cried
+Mr. Power. Hardy was silent.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, gentlemen,' said Mr. Trueman, 'I am not fond of
+punishing you; but when I do it, you know, it is always in
+earnest. I will begin with the eldest of you; I will begin
+with Hardy, and flog you with my own hands till this handkerchief
+is owned.' 'I'm sure it's not mine,' and 'I'm sure it's
+none of mine,' burst from every mouth, whilst they looked at
+each other in dismay; for none but Hardy, Loveit, and Tarlton
+knew the secret. 'My cane,' said Mr. Trueman, and Mr.
+Power handed him the cane. Loveit groaned from the bottom
+of his heart. Tarlton leaned back against the wall with a
+black countenance. Hardy looked with a steady eye at the cane.</p>
+
+<p>'But first,' said Mr. Trueman, laying down the cane, 'let us
+see. Perhaps we may find out the owner of this handkerchief
+another way,' examining the corners. It was torn almost to
+pieces; but luckily the corner that was marked
+remained.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i040f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i040t.jpg" alt="i040"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'May God bless you!'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'J. T.!' cried Mr. Trueman. Every eye turned upon the
+guilty Tarlton, who, now as pale as ashes and trembling in
+every limb, sank down upon his knees, and in a whining voice
+begged for mercy. 'Upon my word and honour, sir, I'll tell
+you all; I should never have thought of stealing the apples if
+Loveit had not first told me of them; and it was Tom who
+first put the poisoning the dog into my head. It was he that
+carried the meat; <i>wasn't it</i>?' said he, appealing to Hardy,
+whose word he knew must be believed. 'Oh, dear sir!' continued
+he as Mr. Trueman began to move towards him, 'do let
+me off; do pray let me off this time! I'm not the only one,
+indeed, sir! I hope you won't make me an example for the
+rest. It's very hard I'm to be flogged more than they!' 'I'm
+not going to flog you.' 'Thank you, sir,' said Tarlton, getting<span class="pagenum">[449]</span>
+up and wiping his eyes. 'You need not thank me,' said Mr.
+Trueman. 'Take your handkerchief&mdash;go out of this room&mdash;out
+of this house; let me never see you more.'</p>
+
+<p>'If I had any hopes of him,' said Mr. Trueman, as he shut
+the door after him&mdash;'if I had any hopes of him, I would have
+punished him; but I have none. Punishment is meant only
+to make people better; and those who have any hopes of
+themselves will know how to submit to it.'</p>
+
+<p>At these words Loveit first, and immediately all the rest of
+the guilty party, stepped out of the ranks, confessed their fault
+and declared themselves ready to bear any punishment their
+master thought proper.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, they have been punished enough,' said the old man;
+'forgive them, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>Hardy looked as if he wished to speak. 'Not because you
+ask it,' said Mr. Trueman to the guilty penitents, 'though I
+should be glad to oblige you&mdash;it wouldn't be just; but there,'
+pointing to Hardy, 'there is one who has merited a reward;
+the highest I can give him is that of pardoning his companions.'</p>
+
+<p>Hardy bowed and his face glowed with pleasure, whilst
+everybody present sympathised in his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure,' thought Loveit, 'this is a lesson I shall never
+forget.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gentlemen,' said the old man, with a faltering voice, 'it
+wasn't for the sake of my apples that I spoke; and you, sir,'
+said he to Hardy, 'I thank you for saving my dog. If you
+please, I'll plant on that mount, opposite the window, a young
+apple-tree, from my old one. I will water it, and take care of
+it with my own hands for your sake, as long as I am able.
+And may God bless you!' laying his trembling hand on
+Hardy's head; 'may God bless you&mdash;I'm sure God <i>will</i> bless
+all such boys as you are.'</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[451]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_BASKET-WOMAN" id="THE_BASKET-WOMAN"></a>THE BASKET-WOMAN.</h2>
+
+<div class="inset" style="width: 32em">
+<p class="noin">
+Toute leur &eacute;tude &eacute;tait de se complaire et de s'entr'aider.
+<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a>
+</p>
+<p class="right smcap">
+Paul et Virginie.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">At</span> the foot of a steep, slippery, white hill, near Dunstable, in
+Bedfordshire, called Chalk Hill, there is a hut, or rather a
+hovel, which travellers could scarcely suppose could be inhabited,
+if they did not see the smoke rising from its peaked
+roof. An old woman lives in this hovel,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> and with her a little
+boy and girl, the children of a beggar who died and left these
+orphans perishing with hunger. They thought themselves very
+happy when the good old woman first took them into her hut
+and bid them warm themselves at her small fire, and gave them
+a crust of mouldy bread to eat. She had not much to give,
+but what she had she gave with good-will. She was very kind
+to these poor children, and worked hard at her spinning-wheel
+and at her knitting, to support herself and them. She earned
+money also in another way. She used to follow all the
+carriages as they went up Chalk Hill, and when the horses
+stopped to take breath or to rest themselves, she put stones
+behind the carriage wheels to prevent them from rolling backwards
+down the steep, slippery hill.</p>
+
+<p>The little boy and girl loved to stand beside the good-natured
+old woman's spinning-wheel when she was spinning,
+and to talk to her. At these times she taught them something
+which, she said, she hoped they would remember all their lives.
+She explained to them what is meant by telling the truth, and
+what it is to be honest. She taught them to dislike idleness,
+and to wish that they could be useful.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, as they were standing beside her, the little
+<span class="pagenum">[452]</span>boy said to her, 'Grandmother,' for that was the name by
+which she liked that these children should call her&mdash;'grandmother,
+how often you are forced to get up from your spinning-wheel,
+and to follow the chaises and coaches up that steep hill,
+to put stones underneath the wheels, to hinder them from
+rolling back! The people who are in the carriages give you a
+halfpenny or a penny for doing this, don't they?' 'Yes, child.'
+'But it is very hard work for you to go up and down that hill.
+You often say that you are tired, and then you know that you
+cannot spin all that time. Now if we might go up the hill, and
+put the stones behind the wheels, you could sit still at your
+work, and would not the people give us the halfpence? and
+could not we bring them all to you? Do, pray, dear grandmother,
+try us for one day&mdash;to-morrow, will you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said the old woman; 'I will try what you can do;
+but I must go up the hill along with you for the first two or
+three times, for fear you should get yourselves hurt.'</p>
+
+<p>So, the next day, the little boy and girl went with their
+grandmother, as they used to call her, up the steep hill; and
+she showed the boy how to prevent the wheels from rolling
+back, by putting stones behind them; and she said, 'This is
+called scotching the wheels'; and she took off the boy's hat and
+gave it to the little girl, to hold up to the carriage-windows,
+ready for the halfpence.</p>
+
+<p>When she thought that the children knew how to manage
+by themselves, she left them, and returned to her spinning-wheel.
+A great many carriages happened to go by this day,
+and the little girl received a great many halfpence. She carried
+them all in her brother's hat to her grandmother in the evening;
+and the old woman smiled, and thanked the children. She
+said that they had been useful to her, and that her spinning
+had gone on finely, because she had been able to sit still at her
+wheel all day. 'But, Paul, my boy,' said she, 'what is the
+matter with your hand?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only a pinch&mdash;only one pinch that I got, as I was putting a
+stone behind a wheel of a chaise. It does not hurt me much,
+grandmother; and I've thought of a good thing for to-morrow.
+I shall never be hurt again, if you will only be so good as to
+give me the old handle of the broken crutch, grandmother, and
+the block of wood that lies in the chimney-corner, and that is
+of no use. I'll make it of some use, if I may have it.'<span class="pagenum">[453]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Take it then, dear,' said the old woman; 'and you'll find
+the handle of the broken crutch under my bed.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul went to work immediately, and fastened one end of the
+pole into the block of wood, so as to make something like a
+dry-rubbing brush. 'Look, grandmamma, look at my <i>scotcher</i>.
+I call this thing my <i>scotcher</i>,' said Paul, 'because I shall always
+scotch the wheels with it. I shall never pinch my fingers
+again; my hands, you see, will be safe at the end of this long
+stick; and, sister Anne, you need not be at the trouble of
+carrying any more stones after me up the hill; we shall never
+want stones any more. My scotcher will do without anything
+else, I hope. I wish it was morning, and that a carriage would
+come, that I might run up the hill and try my scotcher.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I wish that as many chaises may go by to-morrow as
+there did to-day, and that we may bring you as many halfpence,
+too, grandmother,' said the little girl.</p>
+
+<p>'So do I, my dear Anne,' said the old woman; 'for I mean
+that you and your brother shall have all the money that you
+get to-morrow. You may buy some gingerbread for yourselves,
+or some of those ripe plums that you saw at the fruit-stall, the
+other day, which is just going into Dunstable. I told you then
+that I could not afford to buy such things for you; but now
+that you can earn halfpence for yourselves, children, it is fair
+you should taste a ripe plum and bit of gingerbread for once
+and a way in your lives.'</p>
+
+<p>'We'll bring some of the gingerbread home to her, shan't
+we, brother?' whispered little Anne. The morning came; but
+no carriages were heard, though Paul and his sister had risen
+at five o'clock, that they might be sure to be ready for early
+travellers. Paul kept his scotcher poised upon his shoulder,
+and watched eagerly at his station at the bottom of the hill.
+He did not wait long before a carriage came. He followed it
+up the hill; and the instant the postillion called to him, and
+bid him stop the wheels, he put his scotcher behind them, and
+found that it answered the purpose perfectly well.</p>
+
+<p>Many carriages went by this day, and Paul and Anne
+received a great many halfpence from the travellers.</p>
+
+<p>When it grew dusk in the evening, Anne said to her brother&mdash;'I
+don't think any more carriages will come by to-day. Let
+us count the halfpence, and carry them home now to grandmother.'<span class="pagenum">[454]</span></p>
+
+<p>'No, not yet,' answered Paul, 'let them alone&mdash;let them
+lie still in the hole where I have put them. I daresay more
+carriages will come by before it is quite dark, and then we shall
+have more halfpence.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul had taken the halfpence out of his hat, and he had put
+them into a hole in the high bank by the roadside; and Anne
+said she would not meddle with them, and that she would wait
+till her brother liked to count them; and Paul said&mdash;'If you
+will stay and watch here, I will go and gather some blackberries
+for you in the hedge in yonder field. Stand you hereabouts,
+half-way up the hill, and the moment you see any carriage
+coming along the road, run as fast as you can and call me.'</p>
+
+<p>Anne waited a long time, or what she thought a long time;
+and she saw no carriage, and she trailed her brother's scotcher
+up and down till she was tired. Then she stood still, and
+looked again, and she saw no carriage; so she went sorrowfully
+into the field, and to the hedge where her brother was gathering
+blackberries, and she said, 'Paul, I'm sadly tired, <i>sadly
+tired</i>!' said she, 'and my eyes are quite strained with looking
+for chaises; no more chaises will come to-night; and your
+scotcher is lying there, of no use, upon the ground. Have not
+I waited long enough for to-day, Paul?' 'Oh no,' said Paul;
+'here are some blackberries for you; you had better wait a
+little bit longer. Perhaps a carriage might go by whilst you
+are standing here talking to me.'</p>
+
+<p>Anne, who was of a very obliging temper, and who liked to
+do what she was asked to do, went back to the place where the
+scotcher lay; and scarcely had she reached the spot, when she
+heard the noise of a carriage. She ran to call her brother, and,
+to their great joy, they now saw four chaises coming towards
+them. Paul, as soon as they went up the hill, followed with
+his scotcher; first he scotched the wheels of one carriage, then
+of another; and Anne was so much delighted with observing
+how well the scotcher stopped the wheels, and how much better
+it was than stones, that she forgot to go and hold her brother's
+hat to the travellers for halfpence, till she was roused by the
+voice of a little rosy girl, who was looking out of the window
+of one of the chaises. 'Come close to the chaise-door,' said
+the little girl; 'here are some halfpence for you.'</p>
+
+<p>Anne held the hat; and she afterwards went on to the other
+carriages. Money was thrown to her from each of them; and<span class="pagenum">[455]</span>
+when they had all gotten safely to the top of the hill, she and
+her brother sat down upon a large stone by the roadside, to
+count their treasure. First they began by counting what was
+in the hat&mdash;'One, two, three, four halfpence.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, oh, brother, look at this!' exclaimed Anne; 'this is
+not the same as the other halfpence.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed, it is not,' cried Paul, 'it is no halfpenny; it is
+a guinea, a bright golden guinea!' 'Is it?' said Anne, who
+had never seen a guinea in her life before, and who did not
+know its value; 'and will it do as well as a halfpenny to buy
+gingerbread? I'll run to the fruit-stall and ask the woman;
+shall I?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' said Paul, 'you need not ask any woman, or anybody
+but me; I can tell you all about it, as well as anybody in
+the whole world.'</p>
+
+<p>'The whole world! Oh, Paul, you forgot. Not so well as
+my grandmother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, not so well as my grandmother, perhaps; but, Anne,
+I can tell you that you must not talk yourself, Anne, but you
+must listen to me quietly, or else you won't understand what I
+am going to tell you, for I can assure you that I don't think I
+quite understood it myself, Anne, the first time my grandmother
+told it to me, though I stood stock still listening my
+best.'</p>
+
+<p>Prepared by this speech to hear something very difficult to
+be understood, Anne looked very grave, and her brother
+explained to her that, with a guinea, she might buy two
+hundred and fifty-two times as many plums as she could get
+for a penny.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, Paul, you know the fruit-woman said she would give
+us a dozen plums for a penny. Now, for this little guinea,
+would she give us two hundred and fifty-two dozen?'</p>
+
+<p>'If she has so many, and if we like to have so many, to be
+sure she will,' said Paul, 'but I think we should not like to
+have two hundred and fifty-two dozen of plums; we could not
+eat such a number.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i041f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i041t.jpg" alt="i041"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>'But, oh, brother, look at this! this is not the same as the other halfpence.'</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'But we could give some of them to my grandmother,' said
+Anne. 'But still there would be too many for her, and for us
+too,' said Paul, 'and when we had eaten the plums, there would
+be an end to all the pleasure. But now I'll tell you what I am
+thinking of, Anne, that we might buy something for my grandmother<span class="pagenum">[457]</span>
+that would be very useful to her indeed, with the
+guinea&mdash;something that would last a great while.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, brother? What sort of thing?' 'Something that
+she said she wanted very much last winter, when she was so ill
+with the rheumatism&mdash;something that she said yesterday, when
+you were making her bed, she wished she might be able to buy
+before next winter.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know, I know what you mean!' said Anne&mdash;'a blanket.
+Oh, yes, Paul, that will be much better than plums; do let us
+buy a blanket for her; how glad she will be to see it! I will
+make her bed with the new blanket, and then bring her to look
+at it. But, Paul, how shall we buy a blanket? Where are
+blankets to be got?'</p>
+
+<p>'Leave that to me, I'll manage that. I know where blankets
+can be got; I saw one hanging out of a shop the day I went
+last to Dunstable.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have seen a great many things at Dunstable, brother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, a great many; but I never saw anything there or anywhere
+else that I wished for half so much as I did for the
+blanket for my grandmother. Do you remember how she used
+to shiver with the cold last winter? I'll buy the blanket to-morrow.
+I'm going to Dunstable with her spinning.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you'll bring the blanket to me, and I shall make the
+bed very neatly, that will be all right&mdash;all happy!' said Anne,
+clapping her hands.</p>
+
+<p>'But stay! Hush! don't clap your hands so, Anne; it will
+not be all happy, I'm afraid,' said Paul, and his countenance
+changed, and he looked very grave. 'It will not be all right,
+I'm afraid, for there is one thing we have neither of us thought
+of, but that we ought to think about. We cannot buy the
+blanket, I'm afraid.' 'Why, Paul, why?' 'Because I don't
+think this guinea is honestly ours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, brother, but I'm sure it is honestly ours. It was
+given to us, and grandmother said all that was given to us to-day
+was to be our own.' 'But who gave it to you, Anne?'
+'Some of the people in those chaises, Paul. I don't know
+which of them, but I daresay it was the little rosy girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Paul, 'for when she called you to the chaise
+door, she said, "Here's some halfpence for you." Now, if she
+gave you the guinea, she must have given it to you by
+mistake.'<span class="pagenum">[458]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Well, but perhaps some of the people in the other chaises
+gave it to me, and did not give it to me by mistake, Paul.
+There was a gentleman reading in one of the chaises and a lady,
+who looked very good-naturedly at me, and then the gentleman
+put down his book and put his head out of the window, and
+looked at your scotcher, brother, and he asked me if that was
+your own making; and when I said yes, and that I was your
+sister, he smiled at me, and put his hand into his waistcoat
+pocket, and threw a handful of halfpence into the hat, and I
+daresay he gave us the guinea along with them because he
+liked your scotcher so much.' 'Why,' said Paul, 'that might
+be, to be sure, but I wish I was quite certain of it.' 'Then, as
+we are not quite certain, had not we best go and ask my
+grandmother what she thinks about it?'</p>
+
+<p>Paul thought this was excellent advice; and he was not a
+silly boy, who did not like to follow good advice. He went
+with his sister directly to his grandmother, showed her the
+guinea, and told her how they came by it.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, honest children,' said she, 'I am very glad you
+told me all this. I am very glad that you did not buy either
+the plums or the blanket with this guinea. I'm sure it is not
+honestly ours. Those who threw it you gave it you by mistake,
+I warrant; and what I would have you do is, to go to
+Dunstable, and try if you can at either of the inns find out the
+person who gave it to you. It is now so late in the evening
+that perhaps the travellers will sleep at Dunstable, instead of
+going on the next stage; and it is likely that whosoever gave
+you a guinea instead of a halfpenny has found out their mistake
+by this time. All you can do is to go and inquire for the
+gentleman who was reading in the chaise.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' interrupted Paul, 'I know a good way of finding him
+out. I remember it was a dark green chaise with red wheels:
+and I remember I read the innkeeper's name upon the chaise,
+"<i>John Nelson</i>." (I am much obliged to you for teaching me
+to read, grandmother.) You told me yesterday, grandmother,
+that the names written upon chaises are the innkeepers to
+whom they belong. I read the name of the innkeeper upon
+that chaise. It was John Nelson. So Anne and I will go to
+both the inns in Dunstable, and try to find out this chaise&mdash;John
+Nelson's. Come, Anne, let us set out before it gets quite
+dark.'<span class="pagenum">[459]</span></p>
+
+<p>Anne and her brother passed with great courage the tempting
+stall that was covered with gingerbread and ripe plums,
+and pursued their way steadily through the streets of Dunstable;
+but Paul, when he came to the shop where he had seen the
+blanket, stopped for a moment and said, 'It is a great pity,
+Anne, that the guinea is not ours. However, we are doing
+what is honest, and that is a comfort. Here, we must go
+through this gateway, into the inn-yard; we are come to the
+"Dun Cow."' 'Cow!' said Anne, 'I see no cow.' 'Look up,
+and you'll see the cow over your head,' said Paul&mdash;'the sign&mdash;the
+picture. Come, never mind looking at it now; I want to
+find out the green chaise that has John Nelson's name upon it.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul pushed forward, through a crowded passage, till he
+got into the inn-yard. There was a great noise and bustle.
+The hostlers were carrying in luggage. The postillions were
+rubbing down the horses, or rolling the chaises into the coachhouse.</p>
+
+<p>'What now? What business have you here, pray?' said
+a waiter, who almost ran over Paul, as he was crossing the
+yard in a great hurry to get some empty bottles from the bottle-rack.
+'You've no business here, crowding up the yard. Walk
+off, young gentleman, if you please.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pray give me leave, sir,' said Paul, 'to stay a few minutes,
+to look amongst these chaises for one dark green chaise with
+red wheels, that has Mr. John Nelson's name written upon it.'</p>
+
+<p>'What's that he says about a dark green chaise?' said one
+of the postillions.</p>
+
+<p>'What should such a one as he is know about chaises?'
+interrupted the hasty waiter, and he was going to turn Paul
+out of the yard; but the hostler caught hold of his arm and
+said, 'Maybe the child <i>has</i> some business here; let's know
+what he has to say for himself.'</p>
+
+<p>The waiter was at this instant luckily obliged to leave them
+to attend the bell; and Paul told his business to the hostler,
+who, as soon as he saw the guinea and heard the story, shook
+Paul by the hand, and said, 'Stand steady, my honest lad;
+I'll find the chaise for you, if it is to be found here; but John
+Nelson's chaises almost always drive to the "Black Bull."'</p>
+
+<p>After some difficulty, the green chaise, with John Nelson's
+name upon it, and the postillion who drove that chaise, were
+found; and the postillion told Paul that he was just going into<span class="pagenum">[460]</span>
+the parlour to the gentleman he had driven, to be paid, and
+that he would carry the guinea with him.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Paul, 'we should like to give it back ourselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said the hostler; 'that they have a right to do.'</p>
+
+<p>The postillion made no reply, but looked vexed, and went
+on towards the house, desiring the children would wait in the
+passage till his return. In the passage there was standing a
+decent, clean, good-natured-looking woman, with two huge
+straw baskets on each side of her. One of the baskets stood
+a little in the way of the entrance. A man who was pushing
+his way in, and carried in his hand a string of dead larks hung
+to a pole, impatient at being stopped, kicked down the straw
+basket, and all its contents were thrown out. Bright straw hats,
+and boxes, and slippers were all thrown in disorder upon the
+dirty ground.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, they will be trampled upon! They will be all spoiled!'
+exclaimed the woman to whom they belonged.</p>
+
+<p>'We'll help you to pick them up, if you will let us,' cried
+Paul and Anne, and they immediately ran to her assistance.</p>
+
+<p>When the things were all safe in the basket again, the
+children expressed a desire to know how such beautiful things
+could be made of straw; but the woman had not time to answer
+before the postillion came out of the parlour, and with him a
+gentleman's servant, who came to Paul, and clapping him upon
+the back, said, 'So, my little chap, I gave you a guinea for a
+halfpenny, I hear; and I understand you've brought it back
+again; that's right, give me hold of it.' 'No, brother,' said
+Anne, 'this is not the gentleman that was reading.' 'Pooh,
+child, I came in Mr. Nelson's green chaise. Here's the
+postillion can tell you so. I and my master came in that
+chaise. I and my master that was reading, as you say, and it
+was he that threw the money out to you. He is going to bed;
+he is tired and can't see you himself. He desires that you'll
+give me the guinea.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul was too honest himself to suspect that this man was
+telling him a falsehood; and he now readily produced his
+bright guinea, and delivered it into the servant's hands.
+'Here's sixpence apiece for you, children,' said he, 'and goodnight
+to you.' He pushed them towards the door; but the
+basket-woman whispered to them as they went out, 'Wait in
+the street till I come to you.'<span class="pagenum">[461]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Pray, Mrs. Landlady,' cried this gentleman's servant,
+addressing himself to the landlady, who just then came out of
+a room where some company were at supper&mdash;'Pray, Mrs.
+Landlady, please to let me have roasted larks for my supper.
+You are famous for larks at Dunstable; and I make it a rule
+to taste the best of everything wherever I go; and, waiter, let
+me have a bottle of claret. Do you hear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Larks and claret for his supper,' said the basket-woman to
+herself, as she looked at him from head to foot. The postillion
+was still waiting, as if to speak to him; and she observed
+them afterwards whispering and laughing together. '<i>No bad
+hit,</i>' was a sentence which the servant pronounced several times.</p>
+
+<p>Now it occurred to the basket-woman that this man had
+cheated the children out of the guinea to pay for the larks and
+claret; and she thought that perhaps she could discover the
+truth. She waited quietly in the passage.</p>
+
+<p>'Waiter! Joe! Joe!' cried the landlady, 'why don't you
+carry in the sweetmeat-puffs and the tarts here to the company
+in the best parlour?'</p>
+
+<p>'Coming, ma'am,' answered the waiter; and with a large
+dish of tarts and puffs, the waiter came from the bar; the
+landlady threw open the door of the best parlour, to let him
+in; and the basket-woman had now a full view of a large
+cheerful company, and amongst them several children, sitting
+round a supper-table.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' whispered the landlady, as the door closed after the
+waiter and the tarts, 'there are customers enough, I warrant,
+for you in that room, if you had but the luck to be called in.
+Pray, what would you have the conscience, I wonder now, to
+charge me for these here half-dozen little mats to put under
+my dishes?'</p>
+
+<p>'A trifle, ma'am,' said the basket-woman. She let the
+landlady have the mats cheap, and the landlady then declared
+she would step in and see if the company in the best parlour
+had done supper. 'When they come to their wine,' added
+she, 'I'll speak a good word for you, and get you called in
+afore the children are sent to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>The landlady, after the usual speech of, '<i>I hope the supper
+and everything is to your liking, ladies and gentlemen,</i>' began
+with, 'If any of the young gentlemen or ladies would have a
+<i>cur'osity</i> to see any of our famous Dunstable straw-work, there's<span class="pagenum">[462]</span>
+a decent body without would, I daresay, be proud to show
+them her pincushion-boxes, and her baskets and slippers, and
+her other <i>cur'osities</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the children all turned towards their mother;
+their mother smiled, and immediately their father called in the
+basket-woman, and desired her to produce her <i>curiosities</i>.
+The children gathered round her large pannier as it opened,
+but they did not touch any of her things.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, papa!' cried a little rosy girl, 'here are a pair of
+straw slippers that would just fit you, I think; but would not
+straw shoes wear out very soon? and would not they let in
+the wet?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my dear,' said her father, 'but these slippers are
+meant&mdash;&mdash;' 'For powdering-slippers, miss,' interrupted the
+basket-woman. 'To wear when people are powdering their
+hair,' continued the gentleman, 'that they may not spoil their
+other shoes.' 'And will you buy them, papa?' 'No, I cannot
+indulge myself,' said her father, 'in buying them now. I
+must make amends,' said he, laughing, 'for my carelessness;
+and as I threw away a guinea to-day, I must endeavour to
+save sixpence at least?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, the guinea that you threw by mistake into the little
+girl's hat as we were coming up Chalk Hill. Mamma, I
+wonder that the little girl did not take notice of its being a
+guinea, and that she did not run after the chaise to give it back
+again. I should think, if she had been an honest girl, she
+would have returned it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss!&mdash;ma'am!&mdash;sir!' said the basket-woman, 'if it
+would not be impertinent, may I speak a word? A little boy
+and girl have just been here inquiring for a gentleman who
+gave them a guinea instead of a halfpenny by mistake; and
+not five minutes ago I saw the boy give the guinea to a gentleman's
+servant, who is there without, and who said his master
+desired it should be returned to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'There must be some mistake, or some trick in this,' said
+the gentleman. 'Are the children gone? I must see them&mdash;send
+after them.' 'I'll go for them myself,' said the good-natured
+basket-woman; 'I bid them wait in the street yonder,
+for my mind misgave me that the man who spoke so short to
+them was a cheat, with his larks and his claret.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul and Anne were speedily summoned, and brought back<span class="pagenum">[463]</span>
+by their friend the basket-woman; and Anne, the moment she
+saw the gentleman, knew that he was the very person who
+smiled upon her, who admired her brother's scotcher, and who
+threw a handful of halfpence into the hat; but she could not
+be certain, she said, that she received the guinea from him;
+she only thought it most likely that she did.</p>
+
+<p>'But I can be certain whether the guinea you returned be
+mine or no,' said the gentleman. 'I marked the guinea; it
+was a light one; the only guinea I had, which I put into my
+waistcoat pocket this morning.' He rang the bell, and desired
+the waiter to let the gentleman who was in the room opposite
+to him know that he wished to see him. 'The gentleman in
+the white parlour, sir, do you mean?' 'I mean the master of
+the servant who received a guinea from this child.' 'He is a
+Mr. Pembroke, sir,' said the waiter.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pembroke came; and as soon as he heard what had
+happened, he desired the waiter to show him to the room
+where his servant was at supper. The dishonest servant, who
+was supping upon larks and claret, knew nothing of what was
+going on; but his knife and fork dropped from his hand, and
+he overturned a bumper of claret as he started up from the
+table, in great surprise and terror, when his master came in
+with a face of indignation, and demanded '<i>The guinea</i>&mdash;the
+<i>guinea, sir</i>! that you got from this child; that guinea which
+you said I ordered you to ask for from this child.'</p>
+
+<p>The servant, confounded and half-intoxicated, could only
+stammer out that he had more guineas than one about him,
+and that he really did not know which it was. He pulled his
+money out, and spread it upon the table with trembling hands.
+The marked guinea appeared. His master instantly turned
+him out of his service with strong expressions of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>'And now, my little honest girl,' said the gentleman who
+had admired her brother's scotcher, turning to Anne, 'and now
+tell me who you are, and what you and your brother want or
+wish for most in the world.'</p>
+
+<p>In the same moment Anne and Paul exclaimed, 'The thing
+we wish for the most in the world is a blanket for our grandmother.'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <a href="images/i042f.jpg">
+  <img border="0" src="images/i042t.jpg" alt="i042"></img>
+ </a>
+<p class="caption"><i>His master came in with a face of indignation, and demanded</i> 'The guinea&mdash;<i>the</i>
+guinea, sir!'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'She is not our grandmother in reality, I believe, sir,' said
+Paul; 'but she is just as good to us, and taught me to read,
+and taught Anne to knit, and taught us both that we should<span class="pagenum">[465]</span>
+be honest&mdash;so she has; and I wish she had a new blanket
+before next winter, to keep her from the cold and the
+rheumatism. She had the rheumatism sadly last winter, sir;
+and there is a blanket in this street that would be just the
+thing for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'She shall have it, then; and,' continued the gentleman, 'I
+will do something more for you. Do you like to be employed
+or to be idle best?'</p>
+
+<p>'We like to have something to do always, if we could, sir,'
+said Paul; 'but we are forced to be idle sometimes, because
+grandmother has not always things for us to do that we <i>can</i>
+do well.'</p>
+
+<p>'Should you like to learn how to make such baskets as
+these?' said the gentleman, pointing to one of the Dunstable
+straw-baskets. 'Oh, very much!' said Paul. 'Very much!'
+said Anne. 'Then I should like to teach you how to make
+them,' said the basket-woman; 'for I'm sure of one thing,
+that you'd behave honestly to me.'</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman put a guinea into the good-natured basket-woman's
+hand, and told her that he knew she could not afford
+to teach them her trade for nothing. 'I shall come through
+Dunstable again in a few months,' added he; 'and I hope to
+see that you and your scholars are going on well. If I find
+that they are, I will do something more for you.' 'But,' said
+Anne, 'we must tell all this to grandmother, and ask her about
+it; and I'm afraid&mdash;though I'm very happy&mdash;that it is getting
+very late, and that we should not stay here any longer.' 'It
+is a fine moonlight night,' said the basket-woman; 'and is not
+far. I'll walk with you, and see you safe home myself.'</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman detained them a few minutes longer, till a
+messenger whom he had dispatched to purchase the much-wished-for
+blanket returned.</p>
+
+<p>'Your grandmother will sleep well upon this good blanket,
+I hope,' said the gentleman, as he gave it into Paul's opened
+arms. 'It has been obtained for her by the honesty of her
+adopted children.'</p>
+
+<p class="h3">THE END</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h4"><i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">R. &amp; R. Clark, Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</p>
+
+
+<div class="trnote">
+
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a>A hard-hearted man.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> 'The proper species of rush,' says White, in his <i>Natural History of
+Selborne</i>, 'seems to be the <i>Juncus effusus</i>, or common soft rush, which is
+to be found in moist pastures, by the sides of streams, and under hedges.
+These rushes are in best condition in the height of summer, but may be
+gathered so as to serve the purpose well quite on to autumn. The largest
+and longest are the best. Decayed labourers, women, and children make
+it their business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut,
+they must be flung into water, and kept there; for otherwise they will dry
+and shrink, and the peel will not run. When these <i>junci</i> are thus far
+prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and take the dew
+for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun. Some address is
+required in dipping these rushes in the scalding fat or grease; but this
+knack is also to be attained by practice. A pound of common grease may
+be procured for fourpence, and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound
+of rushes, and one pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling; so
+that a pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will cost three
+shillings.'</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> The author has seen a pair of shoes, such as here described, made in
+a few hours.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> <i>Goody</i> is not a word used in Ireland. <i>Collyogh</i> is the Irish appellation
+of an old woman; but as <i>Collyogh</i> might sound strangely to English
+ears, we have translated it by the word Goody.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> What are in Ireland called moats, are, in England, called Danish
+mounds, or barrows.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> Near Kells, in Ireland, there is a round tower, which was in imminent
+danger of being pulled down by an old woman's rooting at its
+foundation, in hopes of finding treasure.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> This is a true anecdote.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> <i>Salt</i>, the <i>cant</i> name given by the Eton lads to the money collected at
+Montem.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> Young noblemen at Oxford wear yellow tufts at the tops of their caps.
+Hence their flatterers are said to be dead-shots at yellow-hammers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> From beginning to end.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> This is the name of a country dance.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> It is necessary to observe that this experiment has never been actually
+tried upon raspberry-plants.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> Vide Priestley's <i>History of Vision</i>, chapter on coloured shadows.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> Lobe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> This atrocious practice is now happily superseded by the use of
+sweeping machines.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> This custom of '<span class="smcap">Barring Out</span>' was very general (especially in the
+northern parts of England) during the 17th and 18th centuries, and it has
+been fully described by Brand and other antiquarian writers.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Dr. Johnson mentions that Addison, while under the tuition of Mr.
+Shaw, master of the Lichfield Grammar School, led, and successfully conducted,
+'a plan for <i>barring out</i> his master. A disorderly privilege,' says
+the doctor, 'which, in his time, prevailed in the principal seminaries of
+education.'</p>
+
+<p class="noin">In the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> of 1828, Dr. P. A. Nuttall, under the
+signature of P. A. N., has given a spirited sketch of a '<span class="smcap">Barring Out</span>' at
+the Ormskirk Grammar School, which has since been republished at length
+(though without acknowledgment) by Sir Henry Ellis, in Bonn's recent
+edition of Brand's <i>Popular Antiquities</i>. This operation took place early
+in the present century, and is interesting from its being, perhaps, the last
+attempt on record, and also from the circumstance of the writer himself
+having been one of the juvenile leaders in the daring adventure, 'quorum
+pars magna fuit.'&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> Lucifer matches were then unknown.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> <i>Varieties of Literature</i>, vol. i. p. 299.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> Chi compra ha bisogna di cent' occhi; chi vende n' ha assai di uno.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> E meglio esser fortunato che savio.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> Butta una sardella per pigliar un luccio.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a> See <i>antea</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">23</span></a> Il cane scottato dell' acqua calda ha paura poi della fredda.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">24</span></a> The Duc de Rochefoucault.&mdash;'On peut &ecirc;tre plus fin qu'un autre,
+mais pas plus fin que tous les autres.'</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">25</span></a> Chartres.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">26</span></a> Poco e spesso empie il l' orsetto.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">27</span></a> Chi te fa piu carezza che non vuole,
+O ingannato t' ha, o ingannar te vuole.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">28</span></a> This word comes from two Italian words, <i>banco rotto</i>&mdash;broken bench.
+Bankers and merchants used formerly to count their money and write their
+bills of exchange upon benches in the streets; and when a merchant or
+banker lost his credit, and was unable to pay his debts, his bench was
+broken.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">30</span></a> <i>Philosophical Transactions</i>, vol. ix. p. 440.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">31</span></a> Tutte le volpi si trovano in pellicera.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">32</span></a> Assai ben balla a chi fortuna suona.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">33</span></a> Odi, vedi, taci, se vuoi viver in pace.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">34</span></a> La vita il fine,&mdash;e di loda la sera.<br />
+Compute the morn and evening of their day.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Pope.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">35</span></a> Vien presto consumato l' ingiustamente acquistato.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">36</span></a> I fatti sono maschii, le parole femmine.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">37</span></a> <i>Phil. Trans.</i> vol. ix.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">38</span></a> These facts are mentioned in Sir William Hamilton's account of an
+eruption of Mount Vesuvius.&mdash;See <i>Phil. Trans.</i> 1795, first part.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">39</span></a> La mala compagnia &egrave; quella che mena uomini a la forca.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">40</span></a> Pescar col hamo d' argento.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">41</span></a>Their whole study was how to please and to help one another.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">42</span></a> This was about the close of the last century.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p class="h2">Macmillan's</p>
+<p class="h3">Illustrated Pocket Classics.</p>
+
+<p class="h3">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</p>
+
+<p class="h3"><span class="smcap">HUGH THOMSON, LINLEY SAMBOURNE, CHARLES E.
+BROCK, CHRIS HAMMOND, and others.</span></p>
+
+<p class="h3"><i>Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net each. Leather Limp, 3s. net each.</i></p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>CRANFORD.</b> By Mrs. <span class="smcap">Gaskell</span>. With Preface by
+<span class="smcap">Anne Thackeray Ritchie</span>, and 100 Illustrations
+by <span class="smcap">Hugh Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>OUR VILLAGE.</b> By <span class="smcap">Mary Russell Mitford</span>.
+With Preface by <span class="smcap">Anne Thackeray Ritchie</span>,
+and 100 Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Hugh Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.</b> With Preface by
+<span class="smcap">Austin Dobson</span>, and 182 Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Hugh Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL-DAYS.</b> By <span class="smcap">Thomas
+Hughes</span>. With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">E. J. Sullivan</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>THE WATER BABIES: A Fairy Tale for a Land
+Baby.</b> By <span class="smcap">Charles Kingsley</span>. With 100
+Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Linley Sambourne</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS.</b> By
+<span class="smcap">W. Outram Tristram</span>. With Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Hugh Thomson</span> and <span class="smcap">Herbert Railton</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>THE HUMOROUS POEMS OF THOMAS HOOD.</b> With
+Preface by Canon <span class="smcap">Ainger</span>, and 130 Illustrations
+by <span class="smcap">Charles E. Brock</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>OLD CHRISTMAS.</b> By <span class="smcap">Washington Irving</span>. With
+Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Randolph Caldecott</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>BRACEBRIDGE HALL.</b> By <span class="smcap">Washington Irving</span>.
+With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Randolph Caldecott</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="h4">MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>, LONDON.<span class="pagenum">[468]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<p class="h2">Macmillan's</p>
+<p class="h3">Illustrated Pocket Classics.</p>
+
+<p class="h3"><i>Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net. Leather Limp, 3s. net.</i></p>
+
+<p class="spacer"></p>
+
+<p class="h2">THE WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN</p>
+<p class="h3">WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY AUSTIN DOBSON.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.</b> With Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Charles E. Brock</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.</b> With Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Hugh Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>EMMA.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Hugh Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>MANSFIELD PARK.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Hugh
+Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>NORTHANGER ABBEY.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Hugh
+Thomson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="spacer"></p>
+
+<p class="h2">THE WORKS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH</p>
+
+<p class="h3">WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>CASTLE RACKRENT AND THE ABSENTEE.</b> With
+Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Chris Hammond</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>ORMOND.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">C. Schloesser</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>POPULAR TALES.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Chris
+Hammond</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>HELEN.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Chris Hammond</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>BELINDA.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Chris Hammond</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="advertisement"><b>THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT.</b> With Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Chris Hammond</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="h4">MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>, LONDON.</p>
+
+<div class="trnote">
+<p class="cen">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</p>
+<p class="noin">Minor punctuation errors corrected without notice.</p>
+<p class="noin">Words spelled multiple ways are left as in the original.</p>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Parent's Assistant
+       Stories for Children
+
+Author: Maria Edgeworth
+
+Illustrator: Chris Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2011 [EBook #36132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT
+
+
+  [Illustration: _'I thought I saw----' poor Franklin began._--P. 61.]
+
+
+  THE
+  PARENT'S ASSISTANT
+  or, Stories for Children
+
+  BY
+  MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+
+  WITH AN INTRODUCTION
+  BY
+  ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+  BY
+  CHRIS HAMMOND
+
+
+  LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+  NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+  1903
+
+
+
+  _First printed with Illustrations by Chris Hammond 1897._
+  _Illustrated Pocket Classics 1903._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Once when the present writer was a very little girl she suffered for a
+short time from some inflammation of the eyes, which prevented her from
+reading, or amusing herself in any way. Her father, who had just then
+returned from the East, in order to help her to pass the weary hours
+began telling her the story of the 'Forty Thieves,' and when he had
+finished, and had boiled down the wicked thieves in oil, and when she
+asked him to tell it all over again, he said that he would try and find
+something else to amuse her, and looking about the room he took up a
+volume of the _Parent's Assistant_ which was lying on the table, and
+began to read aloud the story of the 'Little Merchants.' The story
+lasted two mornings, and an odd, confused impression still remains in
+the listener's mind to this day of Naples, Vesuvius, pink and white
+sugar plums--of a darkened room, of a lonely country house in Belgium,
+of a sloping garden full of flowers outside the shutters, of the back of
+a big sofa covered with yellow velvet, and of her father's voice reading
+on and on. When she visited Naples in after days she found herself
+looking about unconsciously for her early playfellows.
+
+Not only Francisco and Piedro, but all those various members of the
+Edgeworth family who play their parts in fancy names and dresses in
+Miss Edgeworth's stories, became her daily familiar companions from that
+day forth.
+
+Many of the stories in the _Parent's Assistant_ were written in a time
+when wars and rumours of wars were in the air; these quiet scenes of
+village life were devised to the sound of clarions. Rebels were marching
+and countermarching; volunteers were assembling; husbandmen, throwing
+away their spades, were arming and turning into soldiers; the French
+were landing in Ireland. 'I cannot be a Captain of Dragoons,' writes
+Miss Edgeworth, 'and it would not make any of us one degree safer if I
+were sitting with my hands before me.' So she quietly goes on with her
+stories. One or two of them were written at Clifton, and very early in
+her career an illustrated edition had been suggested by the publishers.
+A young Irish neighbour, with a taste for the fine arts, was asked to
+make the drawings to these stories, and it was this lady, Miss Beaufort,
+the daughter of the Rector of Colon, who afterwards became the fourth
+Mrs. Edgeworth. Not long after his third wife's death in 1797, Mr.
+Edgeworth wrote a letter to Dr. Darwin at Lichfield, in which he gives
+him various items of family news. He writes of portraits (Dr. Darwin,
+Mr. Thomas Day, and Mr. Edgeworth, had all sat for their portraits); he
+writes of Upas trees, of frozen frogs, of farming and rack-rents; of
+pipes for hot-houses to be heated by stable dung, of speaking machines,
+and finally in a postscript he announces the fact of his being engaged
+to be married for the fourth time, 'to a young lady of small fortune and
+large accomplishments, much youth, some beauty, more sense, uncommon
+talents, more uncommon temper, liked by my family, loved by me.'
+
+These were stormy times for Ireland: a few days after the letter was
+written, a conspiracy was discovered in Dublin, and the city was under
+arms. Mr. Edgeworth set out immediately to join the Beauforts, who were
+there. The true-hearted daughter now admires her father for urging on
+the marriage. 'Instead of delaying, as some would have advised, my
+father urged for an immediate day. He brought his bride home through a
+part of the country in actual insurrection.'
+
+There is a grim story of the new-married pair on their way to
+Edgeworthstown passing the suspended corpse of a man hanging between the
+shafts of a cart. Miss Edgeworth in her Memoirs of her father gives a
+striking account of the family assembled to receive the new wife. It is
+a grandson of this last Mrs. Edgeworth who is the present owner of
+Edgeworthstown.
+
+_The Parent's Assistant_ had just been written; but one or two of the
+stories in the present collection were not added till much later, such
+as 'The Bracelets,' which were written in Switzerland to make up a
+proper allowance of copy for a new edition. It is hard to make a choice
+among these charming and familiar histories. They open like fairy tales,
+recounting in simple diction the histories of widows living in flowery
+cottages, with assiduous devoted little sons, who work in the garden and
+earn money to make up the rent. There are also village children busily
+employed, and good little orphans whose parents generally die in the
+opening pages. Fairies were not much in Miss Edgeworth's line, but
+philanthropic manufacturers, liberal noblemen, and benevolent ladies in
+travelling carriages, do as well and appear in the nick of time to
+distribute rewards or to point a moral. Rosamond of the Purple Jar
+reappears in the _Birthday Present_, which gives one an odd picture of
+the customs of those days. We read of the little lace girl who leaves
+her pillow upon a stone before the door, and of the footman laced with
+silver, who having entangled the bobbins and kicked the pillow into the
+lane, jumps up behind his mistress's coach and is out of sight in a
+minute. Wise Laura, who had not, like Rosamond, spent her half-guinea
+upon filigree paper, consoles the little weeping lace-maker, and presses
+her golden coin into her hand.
+
+Lazy Lawrence is one of the prettiest stories in the collection. Who
+could read the story of Dutiful Jim and his love for old Lightfoot
+unmoved? Lightfoot deserves to take his humble place among the immortal
+winged steeds of mythology along with Pegasus, or with Black Bess, or
+Balaam's Ass, or any other celebrated steeds.
+
+Most children like the history of the Orphans; that quiet history in
+which the sister of twelve years old acts a mother's part by the little
+children. I believe the story is founded on some real and modest heroine
+of those bygone days. Then, again, who has not sympathised with 'Waste
+not, Want not,' and with thoughtful Ben and his careful assiduity? It
+would be curious to calculate how much good time has been sacrificed to
+saving worthless pieces of string in imitation of this thrifty but
+fascinating hero. But after all nothing is to compare to Simple Susan:
+how pretty the scene is where Susan, working in her arbour, hears the
+sound of her friend Philip's pipe and tabor; the children come across
+the green with their garlands, leading up Susan's lamb tied up with
+ribbons, the wicked agent skulks away; innocence and beauty triumph over
+wrong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Friendship plays a no less important part in Miss Edgeworth's stories
+than it did in her own actual experience. Many of the scenes of Miss
+Edgeworth's stories are laid in manufacturing districts, and I have
+already quoted from the correspondence with Mr. Strutt, on whose
+sympathy and help she so greatly relied. Young Edward Strutt,
+afterwards Lord Belper, used to write to the young men at Edgeworthstown
+when he was a child of only nine years old. 'I shall not be satisfied
+with any letter from you that does not mention every member of your
+uncle's family and your own,' says one of the young Edgeworths, writing
+back in answer to the boy. Mr. Edgeworth sends his sons in succession to
+visit his friend Mr. Strutt, and quotes from Pliny, saying: 'The claim I
+now make to your favour is your having already done me favours. I
+introduce my fourth son to your notice simply upon the foundation of
+your having been very kind to his brothers.'
+
+In 1823 Miss Edgeworth, who has been writing to Mr. Strutt for years,
+addresses him as 'my dear sir--my dear friend, I think I may venture to
+say!' She consults him upon details in her stories, and asks his advice
+on some matter connected with spinning-jennies. There also are many
+family events, charmingly chronicled in the orderly flowing characters
+of the lady, or the bolder writing of her correspondent; one letter
+concerns the election to Parliament of Mr. Edward Strutt in 1830.
+
+  The Strutts are all clever,
+  Here's Edward for ever,
+
+she writes, and defends her doggerel by the 'natural Irish spirits where
+the interests of a friend are concerned.' As time goes on Lord Belper's
+own letters appear, keeping up the family tradition of kindness and
+hospitality. The author's conscientious painstaking strikes one, as one
+realises the care she bestowed upon her work. _La Triste Realite_, of
+which Mme. de Stael complained, has certainly its charm for the infant
+mind, and also for some maturer readers.
+
+Archbishop Whately in one of his reviews upon Miss Edgeworth points out
+the change which has gradually come over story-telling. 'Instead of the
+splendid scenes of an imaginary world, striking representations of that
+which is daily taking place around us are set forth,' he says. 'We now
+turn to _Flemish painting_'--so he calls the descriptions; and he adds
+that a novel which makes good its pretensions of giving a perfectly
+correct picture of common life, becomes a far more instructive work than
+one of superior merit belonging to the imaginative class; for, as he
+tells us, 'It guides the judgment and supplies a kind of artificial
+experience of life.' It is also Whately who complains--not exactly as
+one would expect an archbishop to complain--that Miss Edgeworth's
+stories are too improving, too didactic. 'She would, we think, instruct
+more successfully, and we are sure please more frequently, if she kept
+the design of teaching more out of sight,' he writes. If Whately were
+alive to review the novels of our own day, he might after all prefer
+'the splendid scenes of an imaginary world' to the favourite experiments
+in garbage of our present Laura Matildas. It is true the books sell by
+thousands. They certainly prove that the successful discovery of the age
+is _not_ to point out what is right but what is wrong. Books used to be
+coarse and jocular; our books are earnest and indecent on principle. One
+hears of the _revolting_ daughters who are so much to the front, the
+same word in a different sense may perhaps apply to a favourite school
+of authors now in vogue.
+
+There is, however, a compensating balance in every adjustment of the
+scales of life: along with the minor virtues which are so much out of
+fashion, such as modesty, decency, good breeding, etc., follows the
+expulsion of a great many minor vices, such as affectation,
+disingenuousness, exclusiveness, and worldly wisdom. The latter
+qualities still exist of course, but in a rather shame-stricken,
+apologetic sort of way. Besides the gibes of literature, they have to
+contend with all sorts of opposing influences,--with omnibuses,
+depreciated investments, penny papers, county councils, all of which
+certainly place altruism and public spirit in the place of the more
+personal egotisms of our grandfathers.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                   PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                                             1
+
+  THE ORPHANS                                                         5
+
+  LAZY LAWRENCE                                                      27
+
+  THE FALSE KEY                                                      55
+
+  SIMPLE SUSAN                                                       79
+
+  THE WHITE PIGEON                                                  141
+
+  THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT                                              153
+
+  ETON MONTEM                                                       169
+
+  FORGIVE AND FORGET                                                215
+
+  WASTE NOT, WANT NOT; OR, TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW                  231
+
+  OLD POZ                                                           257
+
+  THE MIMIC                                                         273
+
+  THE BARRING OUT; OR, PARTY SPIRIT                                 307
+
+  THE BRACELETS                                                     347
+
+  THE LITTLE MERCHANTS                                              373
+
+  TARLTON                                                           431
+
+  THE BASKET-WOMAN                                                  451
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                   PAGE
+
+  'I thought I saw----' poor Franklin began              _Frontispiece_
+
+  Inquired what it was she most wanted                               10
+
+  'Well, and what have you done with the treasure you had the
+  luck to find?'                                                     20
+
+  'See what you've done for me--look!--look, look, I say!'           38
+
+  'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God bless the boy!'
+  said his mother                                                    48
+
+  'You know this key? I shall trust it in your care'                 72
+
+  'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning her back                      85
+
+  Tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts                        100
+
+  Let it eat out of her hand for the last time                      116
+
+  'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off'                          144
+
+  The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon painted
+  upon the sign                                                     151
+
+  She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced, the bobbins,
+  while the footman stood laughing at her distress                  156
+
+  'I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own hands'           161
+
+  'Then shake hands, my honest landlord'                            176
+
+  Enter Miss Bursal, in a riding dress                              181
+
+  'I say I saw _him_ there take the jump which strained
+  the horse.'                                                       209
+
+  'Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza'                                212
+
+  'Stay! Stand still, sir! or you will break your china jar'        217
+
+  When Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the
+  ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much
+  astonishment                                                      228
+
+  Playing at cat's cradle                                           236
+
+  He dragged poor Hal out of the red mud                            253
+
+  _Lucy._ What's this, papa? _Just._ Pshaw! pshaw!
+  pshaw!--it is not melted, child--it is the same as no sugar       260
+
+  'Five times have I commanded silence, and I won't command
+  anything five times in vain--_that's poz!_'                       264
+
+  'And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the doctor,
+  sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table'                      270
+
+  The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour to
+  wait upon Mrs. Montague                                           276
+
+  'She dashed and splashed without minding exactness, or the
+  recipe, or anything'                                              284
+
+  'And like a man--and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,' said
+  the good Quaker, shaking Frederick's hand affectionately          304
+
+  'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your _sister_ Livy, do you
+  mean?'                                                            313
+
+  Archer leaped up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a powerful
+  grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by this?'                  335
+
+  He sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice                     345
+
+  'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her                        352
+
+  'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia                               363
+
+  'I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his father by
+  turning the bruised side to the customer'                         377
+
+  Piedro was hissed and hooted out of the market-place              400
+
+  The Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of villainy, contrived
+  to cheat both his associates                                      413
+
+  Returned in safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet         419
+
+  'Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting back with horror       441
+
+  'May God bless you!'                                              448
+
+  'But, oh, brother, look at this! this is not the same as the
+  other halfpence'                                                  456
+
+  His master came in with a face of indignation, and demanded
+  '_The guinea_--the _guinea_, _sir_!'                              464
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+ADDRESSED TO PARENTS
+
+
+Our great lexicographer, in his celebrated eulogium on Dr. Watts, thus
+speaks in commendation of those productions which he so successfully
+penned for the pleasure and instruction of the juvenile portion of the
+community.
+
+'For children,' says Dr. Johnson, 'he condescended to lay aside the
+philosopher, the scholar, and the wit, to write little poems of
+devotion, and systems of instruction adapted to their wants and
+capacities, from the dawn of reason to its gradation of advance in the
+morning of life. Every man acquainted with the common principles of
+human action will look with veneration on the writer who is at one time
+combating Locke and at another time making a catechism for _children in
+their fourth year_. A voluntary descent from the dignity of science is
+perhaps the hardest lesson which humility can teach.'
+
+It seems, however, no very easy task to write for children. Those only
+who have been interested in the education of a family, who have
+patiently followed children through the first processes of reasoning,
+who have daily watched over their thoughts and feelings--those only who
+know with what ease and rapidity the early associations of ideas are
+formed, on which the future taste, character, and happiness depend, can
+feel the dangers and difficulties of such an undertaking.
+
+Indeed, in all sciences the grand difficulty has been to ascertain
+facts--a difficulty which, in the science of education, peculiar
+circumstances conspire to increase. Here the objects of every experiment
+are so interesting that we cannot hold our minds indifferent to the
+result. Nor is it to be expected that many registers of experiments,
+successful and unsuccessful, should be kept, much less should be
+published, when we consider that the combined powers of affection and
+vanity, of partiality to his child and to his theory, will act upon the
+mind of a parent, in opposition to the abstract love of justice, and the
+general desire to increase the wisdom and happiness of mankind.
+Notwithstanding these difficulties, an attempt to keep such a register
+has actually been made. The design has from time to time been pursued.
+Though much has not been collected, every circumstance and conversation
+that have been preserved are faithfully and accurately related, and
+these notes have been of great advantage to the writer of the following
+stories.
+
+The question, whether society could exist without the distinction of
+ranks, is a question involving a variety of complicated discussions,
+which we leave to the politician and the legislator. At present it is
+necessary that the education of different ranks should, in some
+respects, be different. They have few ideas, few habits, in common;
+their peculiar vices and virtues do not arise from the same causes, and
+their ambition is to be directed to different objects. But justice,
+truth, and humanity are confined to no particular rank, and should be
+enforced with equal care and energy upon the minds of young people of
+every station; and it is hoped that these principles have never been
+forgotten in the following pages.
+
+As the ideas of children multiply, the language of their books should
+become less simple; else their taste will quickly be disgusted, or will
+remain stationary. Children that live with people who converse with
+elegance will not be contented with a style inferior to what they hear
+from everybody near them.
+
+All poetical allusions, however, have been avoided in this book; such
+situations only are described as children can easily imagine, and which
+may consequently interest their feelings. Such examples of virtue are
+painted as are not above their conception of excellence, or their powers
+of sympathy and emulation.
+
+It is not easy to give _rewards_ to children which shall not indirectly
+do them harm by fostering some hurtful taste or passion. In the story of
+'Lazy Lawrence,' where the object was to excite a spirit of industry,
+care has been taken to proportion the reward to the exertion, and to
+demonstrate that people feel cheerful and happy whilst they are
+employed. The reward of our industrious boy, though it be money, is only
+money considered as the means of gratifying a benevolent wish. In a
+commercial nation it is especially necessary to separate, as much as
+possible, the spirit of industry and avarice; and to beware lest we
+introduce Vice under the form of Virtue.
+
+In the story of 'Tarlton and Loveit' are represented the danger and the
+folly of that weakness of mind, and that easiness to be led, which too
+often pass for good nature; and in the tale of the 'False Key' are
+pointed out some of the evils to which a well-educated boy, on first
+going to service, is exposed from the profligacy of his fellow-servants.
+
+In the 'Birthday Present,' and in the character of Mrs. Theresa Tattle,
+the _Parent's Assistant_ has pointed out the dangers which may arise in
+education from a bad servant or a common acquaintance.
+
+In the 'Barring Out' the errors to which a high spirit and the love of
+party are apt to lead have been made the subject of correction, and it
+is hoped that the common fault of making the most mischievous characters
+appear the most _active_ and the most ingenious has been as much as
+possible avoided. _Unsuccessful_ cunning will not be admired, and cannot
+induce imitation.
+
+It has been attempted, in these stories, to provide antidotes against
+ill-humour, the epidemic rage for dissipation, and the fatal propensity
+to admire and imitate whatever the fashion of the moment may
+distinguish. Were young people, either in public schools or in private
+families, absolutely free from bad examples, it would not be advisable
+to introduce despicable and vicious characters in books intended for
+their improvement. But in real life they _must_ see vice, and it is best
+that they should be early shocked with the representation of what they
+are to avoid. There is a great deal of difference between innocence and
+ignorance.
+
+To prevent the precepts of morality from tiring the ear and the mind, it
+was necessary to make the stories in which they are introduced in some
+measure dramatic; to keep alive hope and fear and curiosity, by some
+degree of intricacy. At the same time, care has been taken to avoid
+inflaming the imagination, or exciting a restless spirit of adventure,
+by exhibiting false views of life, and creating hopes which, in the
+ordinary course of things, cannot be realised.
+
+
+
+
+THE ORPHANS
+
+
+Near the ruins of the castle of Rossmore, in Ireland, is a small cabin,
+in which there once lived a widow and her four children. As long as she
+was able to work, she was very industrious, and was accounted the best
+spinner in the parish; but she overworked herself at last, and fell ill,
+so that she could not sit to her wheel as she used to do, and was
+obliged to give it up to her eldest daughter, Mary.
+
+Mary was at this time about twelve years old. One evening she was
+sitting at the foot of her mother's bed spinning, and her little
+brothers and sisters were gathered round the fire eating their potatoes
+and milk for supper. 'Bless them, the poor young creatures!' said the
+widow, who, as she lay on her bed, which she knew must be her deathbed,
+was thinking of what would become of her children after she was gone.
+Mary stopped her wheel, for she was afraid that the noise of it had
+wakened her mother, and would hinder her from going to sleep again.
+
+'No need to stop the wheel, Mary, dear, for me,' said her mother, 'I was
+not asleep; nor is it _that_ which keeps me from sleep. But don't
+overwork yourself, Mary.' 'Oh, no fear of that,' replied Mary; 'I'm
+strong and hearty.' 'So was I once,' said her mother. 'And so you will
+be again, I hope,' said Mary, 'when the fine weather comes again.'
+
+'The fine weather will never come again to me,' said her mother. ''Tis a
+folly, Mary, to hope for that; but what I hope is, that you'll find some
+friend--some help--orphans as you'll soon all of you be. And one thing
+comforts my heart, even as I _am_ lying here, that not a soul in the
+wide world I am leaving has to complain of me. Though poor I have lived
+honest, and I have brought you up to be the same, Mary; and I am sure
+the little ones will take after you; for you'll be good to them--as good
+to them as you can.'
+
+Here the children, who had finished eating their suppers, came round the
+bed, to listen to what their mother was saying. She was tired of
+speaking, for she was very weak; but she took their little hands as they
+laid them on the bed, and joining them all together, she said, 'Bless
+you, dears--bless you; love and help one another all you can. Good
+night!--good-bye!'
+
+Mary took the children away to their bed, for she saw that their mother
+was too ill to say more; but Mary did not herself know how ill she was.
+Her mother never spoke rightly afterwards, but talked in a confused way
+about some debts, and one in particular, which she owed to a
+schoolmistress for Mary's schooling; and then she charged Mary to go and
+pay it, because she was not able to _go in_ with it. At the end of the
+week she was dead and buried, and the orphans were left alone in their
+cabin.
+
+The two youngest girls, Peggy and Nancy, were six and seven years old.
+Edmund was not yet nine, but he was a stout-grown, healthy boy, and well
+disposed to work. He had been used to bring home turf from the bog on
+his back, to lead carthorses, and often to go on errands for gentlemen's
+families, who paid him a sixpence or a shilling, according to the
+distance which he went, so that Edmund, by some or other of these little
+employments, was, as he said, likely enough to earn his bread; and he
+told Mary to have a good heart, for that he should every year grow able
+to do more and more, and that he should never forget his mother's words
+when she last gave him her blessing and joined their hands all together.
+
+As for Peggy and Nancy, it was little that they could do; but they were
+good children, and Mary, when she considered that so much depended upon
+her, was resolved to exert herself to the utmost. Her first care was to
+pay those debts which her mother had mentioned to her, for which she
+left money done up carefully in separate papers. When all these were
+paid away, there was not enough left to pay both the rent of the cabin
+and a year's schooling for herself and sisters which was due to the
+schoolmistress in a neighbouring village.
+
+Mary was in hopes that the rent would not be called for immediately,
+but in this she was disappointed. Mr. Harvey, the gentleman on whose
+estate she lived, was in England, and in his absence all was managed by
+a Mr. Hopkins, an agent, who was a _hard man_.[1] The driver came to
+Mary about a week after her mother's death and told her that the rent
+must be brought in the next day, and that she must leave the cabin, for
+a new tenant was coming into it; that she was too young to have a house
+to herself, and that the only thing she had to do was to get some
+neighbour to take her and her brother and her sisters in for charity's
+sake.
+
+  [1] A hard-hearted man.
+
+The driver finished by hinting that she would not be so hardly used if
+she had not brought upon herself the ill-will of Miss Alice, the agent's
+daughter. Mary, it is true, had refused to give Miss Alice a goat upon
+which she had set her fancy; but this was the only offence of which she
+had been guilty, and at the time she refused it her mother wanted the
+goat's milk, which was the only thing she then liked to drink.
+
+Mary went immediately to Mr. Hopkins, the agent, to pay her rent; and
+she begged of him to let her stay another year in her cabin; but this he
+refused. It was now September 25th, and he said that the new tenant must
+come in on the 29th, so that she must quit it directly. Mary could not
+bear the thoughts of begging any of the neighbours to take her and her
+brother and sisters in _for charity's sake_; for the neighbours were
+all poor enough themselves. So she bethought herself that she might find
+shelter in the ruins of the old castle of Rossmore, where she and her
+brother, in better times, had often played at hide and seek. The kitchen
+and two other rooms near it were yet covered in tolerably well; and a
+little thatch, she thought, would make them comfortable through the
+winter. The agent consented to let her and her brother and sisters go in
+there, upon her paying him half a guinea in hand, and promising to pay
+the same yearly.
+
+Into these lodgings the orphans now removed, taking with them two
+bedsteads, a stool, chair, and a table, a sort of press, which contained
+what little clothes they had, and a chest in which they had two hundred
+of meal. The chest was carried for them by some of the charitable
+neighbours, who likewise added to their scanty stock of potatoes and
+turf what would make it last through the winter.
+
+These children were well thought of and pitied, because their mother was
+known to have been all her life honest and industrious. 'Sure,' says one
+of the neighbours, 'we can do no less than give a helping hand to the
+poor orphans, that are so ready to help themselves.' So one helped to
+thatch the room in which they were to sleep, and another took their cow
+to graze upon his bit of land on condition of having half the milk; and
+one and all said they should be welcome to take share of their potatoes
+and buttermilk if they should find their own ever fall short.
+
+The half-guinea which Mr. Hopkins, the agent, required for letting Mary
+into the castle was part of what she had to pay to the schoolmistress,
+to whom above a guinea was due. Mary went to her, and took her goat
+along with her, and offered it in part of payment of the debt, but the
+schoolmistress would not receive the goat. She said that she could
+afford to wait for her money till Mary was able to pay it; that she knew
+her to be an honest, industrious little girl, and she would trust her
+with more than a guinea. Mary thanked her; and she was glad to take the
+goat home again, as she was very fond of it.
+
+Being now settled in their house, they went every day regularly to work;
+Mary spun nine cuts a day, besides doing all that was to be done in the
+house; Edmund got fourpence a day by his work; and Peggie and Annie
+earned twopence apiece at the paper-mills near Navan, where they were
+employed to sort rags and to cut them into small pieces.
+
+When they had done work one day, Annie went to the master of the
+paper-mill and asked him if she might have two sheets of large white
+paper which were lying on the press. She offered a penny for the paper;
+but the master would not take anything from her, but gave her the paper
+when he found that she wanted it to make a garland for her mother's
+grave. Annie and Peggy cut out the garland, and Mary, when it was
+finished, went along with them and Edmund to put it up. It was just a
+month after their mother's death.
+
+It happened, at the time the orphans were putting up this garland, that
+two young ladies, who were returning home after their evening walk,
+stopped at the gate of the churchyard to look at the red light which the
+setting sun cast upon the window of the church. As the ladies were
+standing at the gate, they heard a voice near them crying, 'O mother!
+mother! are you gone for ever?' They could not see any one; so they
+walked softly round to the other side of the church, and there they saw
+Mary kneeling beside a grave, on which her brother and sisters were
+hanging their white garlands.
+
+The children all stood still when they saw the two ladies passing near
+them; but Mary did not know anybody was passing, for her face was hid in
+her hands.
+
+Isabella and Caroline (so these ladies were called) would not disturb
+the poor children; but they stopped in the village to inquire about
+them. It was at the house of the schoolmistress that they stopped, and
+she gave them a good account of these orphans. She particularly
+commended Mary's honesty, in having immediately paid all her mother's
+debts to the utmost farthing, as far as her money would go. She told the
+ladies how Mary had been turned out of her house, and how she had
+offered her goat, of which she was very fond, to discharge a debt due
+for her schooling; and, in short, the schoolmistress, who had known Mary
+for several years, spoke so well of her that these ladies resolved that
+they would go to the old castle of Rossmore to see her the next day.
+
+When they went there, they found the room in which the children lived as
+clean and neat as such a ruined place could be made. Edmund was out
+working with a farmer, Mary was spinning, and her little sisters were
+measuring out some bogberries, of which they had gathered a basketful,
+for sale. Isabella, after telling Mary what an excellent character she
+had heard of her, inquired what it was she most wanted; and Mary said
+that she had just worked up all her flax, and she was most in want of
+more flax for her wheel.
+
+Isabella promised that she would send her a fresh supply of flax, and
+Caroline bought the bogberries from the little girls, and gave them
+money enough to buy a pound of coarse cotton for knitting, as Mary said
+that she could teach them how to knit.
+
+The supply of flax, which Isabella sent the next day, was of great
+service to Mary, as it kept her in employment for above a month; and
+when she sold the yarn which she had spun with it, she had money enough
+to buy some warm flannel for winter wear. Besides spinning well, she had
+learned at school to do plain work tolerably neatly, and Isabella and
+Caroline employed her to work for them; by which she earned a great
+deal more than she could by spinning. At her leisure hours she taught
+her sisters to read and write; and Edmund, with part of the money which
+he earned by his work out of doors, paid a schoolmaster for teaching him
+a little arithmetic. When the winter nights came on, he used to light
+his rush candles for Mary to work by. He had gathered and stripped a
+good provision of rushes in the month of August, and a neighbour gave
+him grease to dip them in.
+
+[Illustration: _Inquired what it was she most wanted._]
+
+One evening, just as he had lighted his candle, a footman came in, who
+was sent by Isabella with some plain work to Mary. This servant was an
+Englishman, and he was but newly come over to Ireland. The rush candles
+caught his attention; for he had never seen any of them before, as he
+came from a part of England where they were not used. Edmund, who was
+ready to oblige, and proud that his candles were noticed, showed the
+Englishman how they were made, and gave him a bundle of rushes.[2]
+
+  [2] 'The proper species of rush,' says White, in his _Natural History
+      of Selborne_, 'seems to be the _Juncus effusus_, or common soft
+      rush, which is to be found in moist pastures, by the sides of
+      streams, and under hedges. These rushes are in best condition
+      in the height of summer, but may be gathered so as to serve the
+      purpose well quite on to autumn. The largest and longest are
+      the best. Decayed labourers, women, and children make it their
+      business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut,
+      they must be flung into water, and kept there; for otherwise they
+      will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. When these _junci_
+      are thus far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be
+      bleached, and take the dew for some nights, and afterwards be
+      dried in the sun. Some address is required in dipping these rushes
+      in the scalding fat or grease; but this knack is also to be
+      attained by practice. A pound of common grease may be procured for
+      fourpence, and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of
+      rushes, and one pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling;
+      so that a pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will
+      cost three shillings.'
+
+The servant was pleased with his good nature in this trifling instance,
+and remembered it long after it was forgotten by Edmund. Whenever his
+master wanted to send a messenger anywhere, Gilbert (for that was the
+servant's name) always employed his little friend Edmund, whom, upon
+further acquaintance, he liked better and better. He found that Edmund
+was both quick and exact in executing commissions.
+
+One day, after he had waited a great while at a gentleman's house for an
+answer to a letter, he was so impatient to get home that he ran off
+without it. When he was questioned by Gilbert why he did not bring an
+answer, he did not attempt to make any excuse; he did not say, '_There
+was no answer, please your honour_' or, '_They bid me not wait_' etc.;
+but he told exactly the truth; and though Gilbert scolded him for being
+so impatient as not to wait, yet his telling the truth was more to the
+boy's advantage than any excuse he could have made. After this he was
+always believed when he said, '_There was no answer_' or, '_They bid me
+not wait_'; for Gilbert knew that he would not tell a lie to save
+himself from being scolded.
+
+The orphans continued to assist one another in their work according to
+their strength and abilities; and they went on in this manner for three
+years. With what Mary got by her spinning and plain work, and Edmund by
+leading of carthorses, going on errands, etc., and with little Peggy and
+Anne's earnings, the family contrived to live comfortably. Isabella and
+Caroline often visited them, and sometimes gave them clothes, and
+sometimes flax or cotton for their spinning and knitting; and these
+children did not _expect_ that, because the ladies did something for
+them, they should do everything. They did not grow idle or wasteful.
+
+When Edmund was about twelve years old, his friend Gilbert sent for him
+one day, and told him that his master had given him leave to have a boy
+in the house to assist him, and that his master told him he might choose
+one in the neighbourhood. Several were anxious to get into such a good
+place; but Gilbert said that he preferred Edmund before them all,
+because he knew him to be an industrious, honest, good-natured lad, who
+always told the truth. So Edmund went into service at _the vicarage_;
+and his master was the father of Isabella and Caroline. He found his new
+way of life very pleasant; for he was well fed, well clothed, and well
+treated; and he every day learned more of his business, in which at
+first he was rather awkward. He was mindful to do all that Mr. Gilbert
+required of him; and he was so obliging to all his fellow-servants that
+they could not help liking him. But there was one thing which was at
+first rather disagreeable to him: he was obliged to wear shoes and
+stockings, and they hurt his feet. Besides this, when he waited at
+dinner he made such a noise in walking that his fellow-servants laughed
+at him. He told his sister Mary of his distress, and she made for him,
+after many trials, a pair of cloth shoes, with soles of platted
+hemp.[3] In these he could walk without making the least noise; and as
+these shoes could not be worn out of doors, he was always sure to change
+them before he went out; and consequently he had always clean shoes to
+wear in the house.
+
+  [3] The author has seen a pair of shoes, such as here described, made
+      in a few hours.
+
+It was soon remarked by the men-servants that he had left off clumping
+so heavily, and it was observed by the maids that he never dirtied the
+stairs or passages with his shoes. When he was praised for these things,
+he said it was his sister Mary who should be thanked, and not he; and he
+showed the shoes which she had made for him.
+
+Isabella's maid bespoke a pair immediately, and sent Mary a piece of
+pretty calico for the outside. The last-maker made a last for her, and
+over this Mary sewed the calico vamps tight. Her brother advised her to
+try platted packthread instead of hemp for the soles; and she found that
+this looked more neat than the hemp soles, and was likely to last
+longer. She platted the packthread together in strands of about half an
+inch thick, and these were sewed firmly together at the bottom of the
+shoe. When they were finished they fitted well, and the maid showed them
+to her mistress.
+
+Isabella and Caroline were so well pleased with Mary's ingenuity and
+kindness to her brother, that they bespoke from her two dozen of these
+shoes, and gave her three yards of coloured fustian to make them of, and
+galloon for the binding. When the shoes were completed, Isabella and
+Caroline disposed of them for her amongst their acquaintance, and got
+three shillings a pair for them. The young ladies, as soon as they had
+collected the money, walked to the old castle, where they found
+everything neat and clean as usual. They had great pleasure in giving to
+this industrious girl the reward of her ingenuity, which she received
+with some surprise and more gratitude. They advised her to continue the
+shoemaking trade, as they found the shoes were liked, and they knew that
+they could have a sale for them at the _Repository_ in Dublin.
+
+Mary, encouraged by these kind friends, went on with her little
+manufacture with increased activity. Peggy and Anne platted the
+packthread, and basted the vamps and linings together ready for her.
+Edmund was allowed to come home for an hour every morning, provided he
+was back again before eight o'clock. It was summer time, and he got up
+early, because he liked to go home to see his sisters, and he took his
+share in the manufactory. It was his business to hammer the soles flat;
+and as soon as he came home every morning he performed his task with so
+much cheerfulness, and sang so merrily at his work, that the hour of his
+arrival was always an hour of joy to the family.
+
+Mary had presently employment enough upon her hands. Orders came to her
+for shoes from many families in the neighbourhood, and she could not get
+them finished fast enough. She, however, in the midst of her hurry,
+found time to make a very pretty pair, with neat roses, as a present for
+her schoolmistress, who, now that she saw her pupil in a good way of
+business, consented to receive the amount of her old debt. Several of
+the children who went to her school were delighted with the sight of
+Mary's present, and went to the little manufactory at Rossmore Castle,
+to find out how these shoes were made. Some went from curiosity, others
+from idleness; but when they saw how happy the little shoemakers seemed
+whilst busy at work, they longed to take some share in what was going
+forward. One begged Mary to let her plat some packthread for the soles;
+another helped Peggy and Anne to baste in the linings; and all who could
+get employment were pleased, for the idle ones were shoved out of the
+way. It became a custom with the children of the village to resort to
+the old castle at their play hours; and it was surprising to see how
+much was done by ten or twelve of them, each doing but a little at a
+time.
+
+One morning Edmund and the little manufacturers were assembled very
+early, and they were busy at their work, all sitting round the meal
+chest, which served them for a table.
+
+'My hands must be washed,' said George, a little boy who came running
+in; 'I ran so fast that I might be in time, to go to work along with you
+all, that I tumbled down, and look how I have dirtied my hands. Most
+haste worst speed. My hands must be washed before I can do anything.'
+
+Whilst George was washing his hands, two other little children, who had
+just finished their morning's work, came to him to beg that he would
+blow some soap bubbles for them, and they were all three eagerly blowing
+bubbles, and watching them mount into the air, when suddenly they were
+startled by a noise as loud as thunder. They were in a sort of outer
+court of the castle, next to the room in which all their companions were
+at work, and they ran precipitately into the room, exclaiming, 'Did you
+hear that noise?'
+
+'I thought I heard a clap of thunder,' said Mary, 'but why do you look
+so frightened?'
+
+As she finished speaking, another and a louder noise, and the walls
+round about them shook. The children turned pale and stood motionless;
+but Edmund threw down his hammer and ran out to see what was the matter.
+Mary followed him, and they saw that a great chimney of the old ruins at
+the farthest side of the castle had fallen down, and this was the cause
+of the prodigious noise.
+
+The part of the castle in which they lived seemed, as Edmund said, to be
+perfectly safe; but the children of the village were terrified, and
+thinking that the whole would come tumbling down directly, they ran to
+their homes as fast as they could. Edmund, who was a courageous lad, and
+proud of showing his courage, laughed at their cowardice; but Mary, who
+was very prudent, persuaded her brother to ask an experienced mason, who
+was building at his master's, to come and give his opinion whether their
+part of the castle was safe to live in or not. The mason came, and gave
+it as his opinion that the rooms they inhabited might last through the
+winter, but that no part of the ruins could stand another year. Mary was
+sorry to leave a place of which she had grown fond, poor as it was,
+having lived in it in peace and contentment ever since her mother's
+death, which was now nearly four years; but she determined to look out
+for some other place to live in; and she had now money enough to pay the
+rent of a comfortable cabin. Without losing any time, she went to the
+village that was at the end of the avenue leading to _the vicarage_, for
+she wished to get a lodging in this village because it was so near to
+her brother, and to the ladies who had been so kind to her. She found
+that there was one newly built house in this village unoccupied; it
+belonged to Mr. Harvey, her landlord, who was still in England; it was
+slated, and neatly fitted up inside; but the rent of it was six guineas
+a year, and this was far above what Mary could afford to pay. Three
+guineas a year she thought was the highest rent for which she could
+venture to engage. Besides, she heard that several proposals had been
+made to Mr. Harvey for this house, and she knew that Mr. Hopkins, the
+agent, was not her friend; therefore she despaired of getting it. There
+was no other to be had in this village. Her brother was still more vexed
+than she was, that she could not find a place near him. He offered to
+give a guinea yearly towards the rent out of his wages; and Mr. Gilbert
+spoke about it for him to the steward, and inquired whether, amongst any
+of those who had given in proposals, there might not be one who would be
+content with a part of the house, and who would join with Mary in paying
+the rent. None could be found but a woman who was a great scold, and a
+man who was famous for going to law about every trifle with his
+neighbours. Mary did not choose to have anything to do with these
+people. She did not like to speak either to Miss Isabella or Caroline
+about it, because she was not of an encroaching temper; and when they
+had done so much for her, she would have been ashamed to beg for more.
+She returned home to the old castle, mortified that she had no good news
+to tell Anne and Peggy, who she knew expected to hear that she had found
+a nice house for them in the village near their brother.
+
+'Bad news for you, Peggy,' cried she, as soon as she got home. 'And bad
+news for you, Mary,' replied her sisters, who looked very sorrowful.
+'What's the matter?' 'Your poor goat is dead,' replied Peggy. 'There she
+is, yonder, lying under the great corner stone; you can just see her
+leg. We cannot lift the stone from off her, it is so heavy. Betsy (_one
+of the neighbour's girls_) says she remembers, when she came to us to
+work early this morning, she saw the goat rubbing itself and butting
+with its horns against that old tottering chimney.'
+
+'Many's the time,' said Mary, 'that I have driven the poor thing away
+from that place; I was always afraid she would shake that great ugly
+stone down upon her at last.'
+
+The goat, who had long been the favourite of Mary and her sisters, was
+lamented by them all. When Edmund came, he helped them to move the great
+stone from off the poor animal, who was crushed so as to be a terrible
+sight. As they were moving away this stone in order to bury the goat,
+Anne found an odd-looking piece of money, which seemed neither like a
+halfpenny, nor a shilling, nor a guinea.
+
+'Here are more, a great many more of them,' cried Peggy; and upon
+searching amongst the rubbish, they discovered a small iron pot, which
+seemed as if it had been filled with these coins, as a vast number of
+them were found about the spot where it fell. On examining these coins,
+Edmund thought that several of them looked like gold, and the girls
+exclaimed with great joy--'O Mary! Mary! this is come to us just in
+right time--now you can pay for the slated house. Never was anything so
+lucky!'
+
+But Mary, though nothing could have pleased her better than to have been
+able to pay for the house, observed that they could not honestly touch
+any of this treasure, as it belonged to the owner of the castle. Edmund
+agreed with her that they ought to carry it all immediately to Mr.
+Hopkins, the agent. Peggy and Anne were convinced by what Mary said, and
+they begged to go along with her and her brother, to take the coins to
+Mr. Hopkins. On their way they stopped at the vicarage, to show the
+treasure to Mr. Gilbert, who took it to the young ladies, Isabella and
+Caroline, and told them how it had been found.
+
+It is not only by their superior riches, but it is yet more by their
+superior knowledge, that persons in the higher rank of life may assist
+those in a lower condition.
+
+Isabella, who had some knowledge of chemistry, discovered, by touching
+the coins with nitric acid, that several of them were of gold, and
+consequently of great value. Caroline also found out that many of the
+coins were very valuable as curiosities. She recollected her father's
+having shown to her the prints of the coins at the end of each king's
+reign in Rapin's _History of England_; and upon comparing these
+impressions with the coins found by the orphans, she perceived that many
+of them were of the reign of Henry the Seventh, which, from their
+scarcity, were highly appreciated by numismatic collectors.
+
+Isabella and Caroline, knowing something of the character of Mr.
+Hopkins, the agent, had the precaution to count the coins, and to mark
+each of them with a cross, so small that it was scarcely visible to the
+naked eye, though it was easily to be seen through a magnifying glass.
+They also begged that their father, who was well acquainted with Mr.
+Harvey, the gentleman to whom Rossmore Castle belonged, would write to
+him, and tell him how well these orphans had behaved about the treasure
+which they had found. The value of the coins was estimated at about
+thirty or forty guineas.
+
+A few days after the fall of the chimney at Rossmore Castle, as Mary and
+her sisters were sitting at their work, there came hobbling in an old
+woman, leaning on a crab stick that seemed to have been newly cut. She
+had a broken tobacco-pipe in her mouth; her head was wrapped up in two
+large red and blue handkerchiefs, with their crooked corners hanging far
+down over the back of her neck, no shoes on her broad feet, nor
+stockings on her many-coloured legs. Her petticoat was jagged at the
+bottom, and the skirt of her gown turned up over her shoulders to serve
+instead of a cloak, which she had sold for whisky. This old woman was
+well known amongst the country people by the name of _Goody Grope_;[4]
+because she had for many years been in the habit of groping in old
+castles and in moats,[5] and at the bottom of a round tower[6] in the
+neighbourhood, in search of treasure. In her youth she had heard some
+one talking in a whisper of an old prophecy, found in a bog, which said
+that before many
+
+    St. Patrick's days should come about,
+    There would be found
+    A treasure under ground,
+    By one within twenty miles around.
+
+This prophecy made a deep impression upon her. She also dreamed of it
+three times: and as the dream, she thought, was a sure token that the
+prophecy was to come true, she, from that time forwards, gave up her
+spinning-wheel and her knitting, and could think of nothing but hunting
+for the treasure that was to be found by one '_within twenty miles
+round_'.
+
+  [4] _Goody_ is not a word used in Ireland. _Collyogh_ is the Irish
+      appellation of an old woman; but as _Collyogh_ might sound
+      strangely to English ears, we have translated it by the word
+      Goody.
+
+  [5] What are in Ireland called moats, are, in England, called Danish
+      mounds, or barrows.
+
+  [6] Near Kells, in Ireland, there is a round tower, which was in
+      imminent danger of being pulled down by an old woman's rooting
+      at its foundation, in hopes of finding treasure.
+
+Year after year St. Patrick's day came about without her ever finding a
+farthing by all her groping; and, as she was always idle, she grew
+poorer and poorer; besides, to comfort herself for her disappointments,
+and to give her spirits for fresh searches, she took to drinking. She
+sold all she had by degrees; but still she fancied that the lucky day
+would come, sooner or later, _that would pay for all_.
+
+Goody Grope, however, reached her sixtieth year without ever seeing this
+lucky day; and now, in her old age, she was a beggar, without a house to
+shelter her, a bed to lie on, or food to put into her mouth, but what
+she begged from the charity of those who had trusted more than she had
+to industry and less to _luck_.
+
+'Ah, Mary, honey! give me a potato and a sup of something, for the love
+o' mercy; for not a bit have I had all day, except half a glass of
+whisky and a halfpenny-worth of tobacco!'
+
+Mary immediately set before her some milk, and picked a good potato out
+of the bowl for her. She was sorry to see such an old woman in such a
+wretched condition. Goody Grope said she would rather have spirits of
+some kind or other than milk; but Mary had no spirits to give her; so
+she sat herself down close to the fire, and after she had sighed and
+groaned and smoked for some time, she said to Mary, 'Well, and what have
+you done with the treasure you had the luck to find?' Mary told her that
+she had carried it to Mr. Hopkins, the agent.
+
+'That's not what I would have done in your place,' replied the old
+woman. 'When good luck came to you, what a shame to turn your back upon
+it! But it is idle talking of what's done--that's past; but I'll try my
+luck in this here castle before next St. Patrick's day comes about. I
+was told it was more than twenty miles from our bog, or I would have
+been here long ago; but better late than never.'
+
+Mary was much alarmed, and not without reason, at this speech; for she
+knew that if Goody Grope once set to work at the foundation of the old
+castle of Rossmore, she would soon bring it all down. It was in vain to
+talk to Goody Grope of the danger of burying herself under the ruins, or
+of the improbability of her meeting with another pot of gold coins. She
+set her elbow upon her knees, and stopping her ears with her hands, bid
+Mary and her sisters not to waste their breath advising their elders;
+for that, let them say what they would, she would fall to work the next
+morning, '_barring_ you'll make it worth my while to let it alone.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Well, and what have you done with the treasure you had
+the luck to find?'_]
+
+'And what will make it worth your while to let it alone?' said Mary; for
+she saw that she must either get into a quarrel or give up her
+habitation, or comply with the conditions of this provoking old woman.
+
+Half a crown, Goody Grope said, was the least she could be content to
+take. Mary paid the half-crown, and was in hopes that she had got rid
+for ever of her tormentor, but she was mistaken, for scarcely was the
+week at an end before the old woman appeared before her again, and
+repeated her threats of falling to work the next morning, unless she had
+something given to her to buy tobacco.
+
+The next day and the next, and the next, Goody Grope came on the same
+errand, and poor Mary, who could ill afford to supply her constantly
+with halfpence, at last exclaimed, 'I am sure the finding of this
+treasure has not been any good luck to us, but quite the contrary; and I
+wish we never had found it.'
+
+Mary did not yet know how much she was to suffer on account of this
+unfortunate pot of gold coins. Mr. Hopkins, the agent, imagined that no
+one knew of the discovery of this treasure but himself and these poor
+children; so, not being as honest as they were, he resolved to keep it
+for his own use. He was surprised some weeks afterwards to receive a
+letter from his employer, Mr. Harvey, demanding from him the coins which
+had been discovered at Rossmore Castle. Hopkins had sold the gold coins,
+and some of the others; and he flattered himself that the children, and
+the young ladies, to whom he now found they had been shown, could not
+tell whether what they had seen were gold or not, and he was not in the
+least apprehensive that those of Henry the Seventh's reign should be
+reclaimed from him as he thought they had escaped attention. So he sent
+over the silver coins and others of little value, and apologised for his
+not having mentioned them before, by saying that he considered them as
+mere rubbish.
+
+Mr. Harvey, in reply, observed that he could not consider as rubbish the
+gold coins which were amongst them when they were discovered; and he
+inquired why these gold coins, and those of the reign of Henry the
+Seventh, were not now sent to him.
+
+Mr. Hopkins denied that he had ever received any such; but he was
+thunderstruck when Mr. Harvey, in reply to this falsehood, sent him a
+list of the coins which the orphans had deposited with him, and exact
+drawings of those that were missing. He informed him that this list and
+these drawings came from two ladies who had seen the coins in question.
+
+Mr. Hopkins thought that he had no means of escape but by boldly
+persisting in falsehood. He replied, that it was very likely such coins
+had been found at Rossmore Castle, and that the ladies alluded to had
+probably seen them; but he positively declared that they never came to
+his hands; that he had restored all that were deposited with him; and
+that, as to the others, he supposed they must have been taken out of the
+pot by the children, or by Edmund or Mary on their way from the ladies'
+house to his.
+
+The orphans were shocked and astonished when they heard, from Isabella
+and Caroline, the charge that was made against them. They looked at one
+another in silence for some moments. Then Peggy exclaimed--'_Sure!_ Mr.
+Hopkins has forgotten himself strangely. Does not he remember Edmund's
+counting the things to him upon the great table in his hall, and we all
+standing by? I remember it as well as if it was this instant.'
+
+'And so do I,' cried Anne. 'And don't you recollect, Mary, your picking
+out the gold ones, and telling Mr. Hopkins that they were gold; and he
+said you knew nothing of the matter; and I was going to tell him that
+Miss Isabella had tried them, and knew that they were gold? but just
+then there came in some tenants to pay their rent, and he pushed us out,
+and twitched from my hand the piece of gold which I had taken up to show
+him the bright spot which Miss Isabella had cleaned by the stuff that
+she had poured on it? I believe he was afraid I should steal it; he
+twitched it from my hand in such a hurry. Do, Edmund; do, Mary--let us
+go to him, and put him in mind of all this.' 'I'll go to him no more,'
+said Edmund sturdily. 'He is a bad man--I'll never go to him again.
+Mary, don't be cast down--we have no need to be cast down--we are
+honest.' 'True,' said Mary; 'but is not it a hard case that we, who have
+lived, as my mother did all her life before us, in peace and honesty
+with all the world, should now have our good name taken from us,
+when----' Mary's voice faltered and stopped. 'It can't be taken from
+us,' cried Edmund, 'poor orphans though we are, and he a rich gentleman,
+as he calls himself. Let him say and do what he will, he can't hurt our
+good name.'
+
+Edmund was mistaken, alas! and Mary had but too much reason for her
+fears. The affair was a great deal talked of; and the agent spared no
+pains to have the story told his own way. The orphans, conscious of
+their own innocence, took no pains about the matter; and the consequence
+was, that all who knew them well had no doubt of their honesty; but
+many, who knew nothing of them, concluded that the agent must be in the
+right and the children in the wrong. The buzz of scandal went on for
+some time without reaching their ears, because they lived very
+retiredly. But one day, when Mary went to sell some stockings of Peggy's
+knitting at the neighbouring fair, the man to whom she sold them bid her
+write her name on the back of a note, and exclaimed, on seeing it--'Ho!
+ho! mistress; I'd not have had any dealings with you, had I known your
+name sooner. Where's the gold that you found at Rossmore Castle?'
+
+It was in vain that Mary related the fact. She saw that she gained no
+belief, as her character was not known to this man, or to any of those
+who were present. She left the fair as soon as she could; and though she
+struggled against it, she felt very melancholy. Still she exerted
+herself every day at her little manufacture; and she endeavoured to
+console herself by reflecting that she had two friends left who would
+not give up her character, and who continued steadily to protect her and
+her sisters.
+
+Isabella and Caroline everywhere asserted their belief in the integrity
+of the orphans, but to prove it was in this instance out of their power.
+Mr. Hopkins, the agent, and his friends, constantly repeated that the
+gold coins were taken away in coming from their house to his; and these
+ladies were blamed by many people for continuing to countenance those
+that were, with great reason, suspected to be thieves. The orphans were
+in a worse condition than ever when the winter came on, and their
+benefactresses left the country to spend some months in Dublin. The old
+castle, it was true, was likely to last through the winter, as the mason
+said; but though the want of a comfortable house to live in was, a
+little while ago, the uppermost thing in Mary's thoughts, now it was not
+so.
+
+One night, as Mary was going to bed, she heard some one knocking hard at
+the door. 'Mary, are you up? let us in,' cried a voice, which she knew
+to be the voice of Betsy Green, the postmaster's daughter, who lived in
+the village near them.
+
+She let Betsy in, and asked what she could want at such a time of night.
+
+'Give me sixpence, and I'll tell you,' said Betsy; 'but waken Anne and
+Peggy. Here's a letter just come by post for you, and I stepped over to
+you with it; because I guessed you'd be glad to have it, seeing it is
+your brother's handwriting.'
+
+Peggy and Anne were soon roused, when they heard that there was a letter
+from Edmund. It was by one of his rush candles that Mary read it; and
+the letter was as follows:--
+
+  'DEAR MARY, NANCY, AND LITTLE PEG--Joy! joy!--I always said the
+  truth would come out at last; and that he could not take our good
+  name from us. But I will not tell you how it all came about till we
+  meet, which will be next week, as we are (I mean, master and
+  mistress, and the young ladies--bless them!--and Mr. Gilbert
+  and I) coming down to the vicarage to keep Christmas; and a happy
+  Christmas 'tis likely to be for honest folks. As for they that are
+  not honest, it is not for them to expect to be happy, at Christmas,
+  or any other time. You shall know all when we meet. So, till then,
+  fare ye well, dear Mary, Nancy, and little Peg.--Your joyful and
+  affectionate brother,                                     EDMUND.'
+
+To comprehend why Edmund is joyful, our readers must be informed of
+certain things which happened after Isabella and Caroline went to
+Dublin. One morning they went with their father and mother to see the
+magnificent library of a nobleman, who took generous and polite pleasure
+in thus sharing the advantages of his wealth and station with all who
+had any pretensions to science or literature. Knowing that the gentleman
+who was now come to see his library was skilled in antiquities, the
+nobleman opened a drawer of medals, to ask his opinion concerning the
+age of some coins, which he had lately purchased at a high price. They
+were the very same which the orphans had found at Rossmore Castle.
+Isabella and Caroline knew them again instantly; and as the cross which
+Isabella had made on each of them was still visible through a
+magnifying glass, there could be no possibility of doubt.
+
+The nobleman, who was much interested both by the story of these
+orphans, and the manner in which it was told to him, sent immediately
+for the person from whom he had purchased the coins. He was a Jew
+broker. At first he refused to tell them from whom he got them, because
+he had bought them, he said, under a promise of secrecy. Being further
+pressed, he acknowledged that it was made a condition in his bargain
+that he should not sell them to any one in Ireland, but that he had been
+tempted by the high price the present noble possessor had offered.
+
+At last, when the Jew was informed that the coins were stolen, and that
+he would be proceeded against as a receiver of stolen goods if he did
+not confess the whole truth, he declared that he had purchased them from
+a gentleman, whom he had never seen before or since; but he added that
+he could swear to his person, if he saw him again.
+
+Now, Mr. Hopkins, the agent, was at this time in Dublin, and Caroline's
+father posted the Jew, the next day, in the back-parlour of a banker's
+house, with whom Mr. Hopkins had, on this day, appointed to settle some
+accounts. Mr. Hopkins came--the Jew knew him--swore that he was the man
+who had sold the coins to him; and thus the guilt of the agent and the
+innocence of the orphans were completely proved.
+
+A full account of all that happened was sent to England to Mr. Harvey,
+their landlord, and a few posts afterwards there came a letter from him,
+containing a dismissal of the dishonest agent, and a reward for the
+honest and industrious orphans. Mr. Harvey desired that Mary and her
+sisters might have the slated house, rent-free, from this time forward,
+under the care of ladies Isabella and Caroline, as long as Mary or her
+sisters should carry on in it any useful business. This was the joyful
+news which Edmund had to tell his sisters.
+
+All the neighbours shared in their joy, and the day of their removal
+from the ruins of Rossmore Castle to their new house was the happiest of
+the Christmas holidays. They were not envied for their prosperity;
+because everybody saw that it was the reward of their good conduct;
+everybody except Goody Grope. She exclaimed, as she wrung her hands with
+violent expressions of sorrow--'Bad luck to me! bad luck to me!--Why
+didn't I go sooner to that there Castle? It is all luck, all luck in
+this world; but I never had no luck. Think of the luck of these
+_childer_, that have found a pot of gold, and such great, grand friends,
+and a slated house, and all: and here am I, with scarce a rag to cover
+me, and not a potato to put into my mouth!--I, that have been looking
+under ground all my days for treasure, not to have a halfpenny at the
+last, to buy me tobacco!'
+
+'That is the very reason that you have not a halfpenny,' said Betsy.
+'Here Mary has been working hard, and so have her two little sisters and
+her brother, for these five years past; and they have made money for
+themselves by their own industry--and friends too--not by luck, but
+by----'
+
+'Phoo! phoo!' interrupted Goody Grope; 'don't be prating; don't I know
+as well as you do that they found a pot of gold, _by good luck_? and is
+not that the cause why they are going to live in a slated house now?'
+
+'No,' replied the postmaster's daughter; 'this house is given to them
+_as a reward_--that was the word in the letter; for I saw it. Edmund
+showed it to me, and will show it to any one that wants to see. This
+house was given to them "_as a reward for their honesty_."'
+
+
+
+
+LAZY LAWRENCE
+
+
+In the pleasant valley of Ashton there lived an elderly woman of the
+name of Preston. She had a small neat cottage, and there was not a weed
+to be seen in her garden. It was upon her garden that she chiefly
+depended for support; it consisted of strawberry beds, and one small
+border for flowers. The pinks and roses she tied up in nice nosegays,
+and sent either to Clifton or Bristol to be sold. As to her
+strawberries, she did not send them to market, because it was the custom
+for numbers of people to come from Clifton, in the summer time, to eat
+strawberries and cream at the gardens in Ashton.
+
+Now, the widow Preston was so obliging, active, and good-humoured, that
+every one who came to see her was pleased. She lived happily in this
+manner for several years; but, alas! one autumn she fell sick, and,
+during her illness, everything went wrong; her garden was neglected, her
+cow died, and all the money which she had saved was spent in paying for
+medicines. The winter passed away, while she was so weak that she could
+earn but little by her work; and when the summer came, her rent was
+called for, and the rent was not ready in her little purse as usual. She
+begged a few months' delay, and they were granted to her; but at the end
+of that time there was no resource but to sell her horse Lightfoot. Now
+Lightfoot, though perhaps he had seen his best days, was a very great
+favourite. In his youth he had always carried the dame to the market
+behind her husband; and it was now her little son Jem's turn to ride
+him. It was Jem's business to feed Lightfoot, and to take care of him--a
+charge which he never neglected, for, besides being a very good-natured,
+he was a very industrious boy.
+
+'It will go near to break my Jem's heart,' said Dame Preston to herself,
+as she sat one evening beside the fire stirring the embers, and
+considering how she had best open the matter to her son, who stood
+opposite to her, eating a dry crust of bread very heartily for supper.
+
+'Jem,' said the old woman, 'what, art hungry?' 'That I am, brave and
+hungry!'
+
+'Ay! no wonder, you've been brave hard at work--Eh?' 'Brave hard! I wish
+it was not so dark, mother, that you might just step out and see the
+great bed I've dug; I know you'd say it was no bad day's work--and oh,
+mother! I've good news: Farmer Truck will give us the giant
+strawberries, and I'm to go for 'em to-morrow morning, and I'll be back
+afore breakfast.'
+
+'God bless the boy! how he talks!--Four mile there, and four mile back
+again, afore breakfast.' 'Ay, upon Lightfoot, you know, mother, very
+easily; mayn't I?' 'Ay, child!' 'Why do you sigh, mother?' 'Finish thy
+supper, child.' 'I've done!' cried Jem, swallowing the last mouthful
+hastily, as if he thought he had been too long at supper--'and now for
+the great needle; I must see and mend Lightfoot's bridle afore I go to
+bed.'
+
+To work he set, by the light of the fire, and the dame having once more
+stirred it, began again with 'Jem, dear, does he go lame at all now?'
+'What, Lightfoot! Oh la, no, not he!--never was so well of his lameness
+in all his life. He's grown quite young again, I think, and then he's so
+fat he can hardly wag.' 'God bless him--that's right. We must see, Jem,
+and keep him fat.' 'For what, mother!' 'For Monday fortnight at the
+fair. He's to be--sold!' 'Lightfoot!' cried Jem, and let the bridle fall
+from his hand; 'and _will_ mother sell Lightfoot?' '_Will_? no: but I
+_must_, Jem.' 'Must! who says you _must_? why _must_ you, mother?' 'I
+must, I say, child. Why, must not I pay my debts honestly; and must not
+I pay my rent, and was not it called for long and long ago; and have not
+I had time; and did not I promise to pay it for certain Monday
+fortnight, and am not I two guineas short; and where am I to get two
+guineas? So what signifies talking, child?' said the widow, leaning her
+head upon her arm. 'Lightfoot _must_ go.'
+
+Jem was silent for a few minutes--'Two guineas, that's a great, great
+deal. If I worked, and worked, and worked ever so hard, I could no ways
+earn two guineas _afore_ Monday fortnight--could I, mother?' 'Lord help
+thee, no; not an' work thyself to death.' 'But I could earn something,
+though, I say,' cried Jem proudly; 'and I _will_ earn _something_--if it
+be ever so little, it will be _something_--and I shall do my very best;
+so I will.' 'That I'm sure of, my child,' said his mother, drawing him
+towards her and kissing him; 'you were always a good, industrious lad,
+_that_ I will say afore your face or behind your back;--but it won't do
+now--Lightfoot _must_ go.'
+
+Jem turned away struggling to hide his tears, and went to bed without
+saying a word more. But he knew that crying would do no good; so he
+presently wiped his eyes, and lay awake, considering what he could
+possibly do to save the horse. 'If I get ever so little,' he still said
+to himself, 'it will be _something_, and who knows but landlord might
+then wait a bit longer? and we might make it all up in time; for a penny
+a day might come to two guineas in time.'
+
+But how to get the first penny was the question. Then he recollected
+that one day, when he had been sent to Clifton to sell some flowers, he
+had seen an old woman with a board beside her covered with various
+sparkling stones, which people stopped to look at as they passed, and he
+remembered that some people bought the stones; one paid twopence,
+another threepence, and another sixpence for them; and Jem heard her say
+that she got them amongst the neighbouring rocks: so he thought that if
+he tried he might find some too, and sell them as she had done.
+
+Early in the morning he wakened full of this scheme, jumped up, dressed
+himself, and, having given one look at poor Lightfoot in his stable, set
+off to Clifton in search of the old woman, to inquire where she found
+her sparkling stones. But it was too early in the morning, the old woman
+was not at her seat; so he turned back again, disappointed. He did not
+waste his time waiting for her, but saddled and bridled Lightfoot, and
+went to Farmer Truck's for the giant strawberries.
+
+A great part of the morning was spent in putting them into the ground;
+and, as soon as that was finished, he set out again in quest of the old
+woman, whom, to his great joy, he spied sitting at her corner of the
+street with her board before her. But this old woman was deaf and
+cross; and when at last Jem made her hear his questions, he could get no
+answer from her, but that she found the fossils where he would never
+find any more. 'But can't I look where you looked?' 'Look away, nobody
+hinders you,' replied the old woman; and these were the only words she
+would say.
+
+Jem was not, however, a boy to be easily discouraged; he went to the
+rocks, and walked slowly along, looking at all the stones as he passed.
+Presently he came to a place where a number of men were at work
+loosening some large rocks, and one amongst the workmen was stooping
+down looking for something very eagerly; Jem ran up and asked if he
+could help him. 'Yes,' said the man, 'you can; I've just dropped,
+amongst this heap of rubbish, a fine piece of crystal that I got
+to-day.' 'What kind of a looking thing is it?' said Jem. 'White, and
+like glass,' said the man, and went on working whilst Jem looked very
+carefully over the heap of rubbish for a great while.
+
+'Come,' said the man, 'it's gone for ever; don't trouble yourself any
+more, my boy.' 'It's no trouble; I'll look a little longer; we'll not
+give it up so soon,' said Jem; and after he had looked a little longer,
+he found the piece of crystal. 'Thank'e,' said the man, 'you are a fine
+little industrious fellow.' Jem, encouraged by the tone of voice in
+which the man spoke this, ventured to ask him the same questions which
+he had asked the old woman.
+
+'One good turn deserves another,' said the man; 'we are going to dinner
+just now, and shall leave off work--wait for me here, and I'll make it
+worth your while.'
+
+Jem waited; and, as he was very attentively observing how the workmen
+went on with their work, he heard somebody near him give a great yawn,
+and, turning round, he saw stretched upon the grass, beside the river, a
+boy about his own age, who, in the village of Ashton, as he knew, went
+by the name of Lazy Lawrence--a name which he most justly deserved, for
+he never did anything from morning to night. He neither worked nor
+played, but sauntered or lounged about restless and yawning. His father
+was an ale-house keeper, and being generally drunk, could take no care
+of his son; so that Lazy Lawrence grew every day worse and worse.
+However, some of the neighbours said that he was a good-natured poor
+fellow enough, and would never do any one harm but himself; whilst
+others, who were wiser, often shook their heads, and told him that
+idleness was the root of all evil.
+
+'What, Lawrence!' cried Jem to him, when he saw him lying upon the
+grass; 'what, are you asleep?' 'Not quite.' 'Are you awake?' 'Not
+quite.' 'What are you doing there?' 'Nothing.' 'What are you thinking
+of?' 'Nothing.' 'What makes you lie there?' 'I don't know--because I
+can't find anybody to play with me to-day. Will you come and play?' 'No,
+I can't; I'm busy.' 'Busy,' cried Lawrence, stretching himself, 'you are
+always busy. I would not be you for the world to have so much to do
+always.' 'And I,' said Jem, laughing, 'would not be you for the world,
+to have nothing to do.'
+
+They then parted, for the workman just then called Jem to follow him. He
+took him home to his own house, and showed him a parcel of fossils,
+which he had gathered, he said, on purpose to sell, but had never had
+time enough to sell them. Now, however, he set about the task; and
+having picked out those which he judged to be the best, he put them in a
+small basket, and gave them to Jem to sell, upon condition that he
+should bring him half of what he got. Jem, pleased to be employed, was
+ready to agree to what the man proposed, provided his mother had no
+objection. When he went home to dinner, he told his mother his scheme,
+and she smiled, and said he might do as he pleased; for she was not
+afraid of his being from home. 'You are not an idle boy,' said she; 'so
+there is little danger of your getting into any mischief.'
+
+Accordingly Jem that evening took his stand, with his little basket,
+upon the bank of the river, just at the place where people land from a
+ferry-boat, and the walk turns to the wells, and numbers of people
+perpetually pass to drink the waters. He chose his place well, and
+waited nearly all the evening, offering his fossils with great assiduity
+to every passenger; but not one person bought any.
+
+'Hallo!' cried some sailors, who had just rowed a boat to land, 'bear a
+hand here, will you, my little fellow, and carry these parcels for us
+into yonder house?'
+
+Jem ran down immediately for the parcels, and did what he was asked to
+do so quickly, and with so much good-will, that the master of the boat
+took notice of him, and, when he was going away, stopped to ask him
+what he had got in his little basket; and when he saw that they were
+fossils, he immediately told Jem to follow him, for that he was going to
+carry some shells he had brought from abroad to a lady in the
+neighbourhood who was making a grotto. 'She will very likely buy your
+stones into the bargain. Come along, my lad; we can but try.'
+
+The lady lived but a very little way off, so that they were soon at her
+house. She was alone in her parlour, and was sorting a bundle of
+feathers of different colours; they lay on a sheet of pasteboard upon a
+window seat, and it happened that as the sailor was bustling round the
+table to show off his shells, he knocked down the sheet of pasteboard,
+and scattered all the feathers. The lady looked very sorry, which Jem
+observing, he took the opportunity, whilst she was busy looking over the
+sailor's bag of shells, to gather together all the feathers, and sort
+them according to their different colours, as he had seen them sorted
+when he first came into the room.
+
+'Where is the little boy you brought with you? I thought I saw him here
+just now.' 'And here I am, ma'am,' cried Jem, creeping from under the
+table with some few remaining feathers which he had picked from the
+carpet; 'I thought,' added he, pointing to the others, 'I had better be
+doing something than standing idle, ma'am.' She smiled, and, pleased
+with his activity and simplicity, began to ask him several questions;
+such as who he was, where he lived, what employment he had, and how much
+a day he earned by gathering fossils.
+
+'This is the first day I ever tried,' said Jem; 'I never sold any yet,
+and if you don't buy 'em now, ma'am, I'm afraid nobody else will; for
+I've asked everybody else.'
+
+'Come, then,' said the lady, laughing, 'if that is the case, I think I
+had better buy them all.' So, emptying all the fossils out of his
+basket, she put half a crown into it.
+
+Jem's eyes sparkled with joy. 'Oh, thank you, ma'am,' said he, 'I will
+be sure and bring you as many more, to-morrow.' 'Yes, but I don't
+promise you,' said she, 'to give you half a crown, to-morrow.' 'But,
+perhaps, though you don't promise it, you will.' 'No,' said the lady,
+'do not deceive yourself; I assure you that I will not. _That_, instead
+of encouraging you to be industrious, would teach you to be idle.'
+
+Jem did not quite understand what she meant by this, but answered, 'I'm
+sure I don't wish to be idle; what I want is to earn something every
+day, if I knew how; I'm sure I don't wish to be idle. If you knew all,
+you'd know I did not.' 'How do you mean, _if I knew all_?' 'Why, I mean,
+if you knew about Lightfoot.' 'Who's Lightfoot?' 'Why, mammy's horse,'
+added Jem, looking out of the window; 'I must make haste home, and feed
+him afore it gets dark; he'll wonder what's gone with me.' 'Let him
+wonder a few minutes longer,' said the lady, 'and tell me the rest of
+your story.' 'I've no story, ma'am, to tell, but as how mammy says he
+must go to the fair Monday fortnight, to be sold, if she can't get the
+two guineas for her rent; and I should be main sorry to part with him,
+for I love him, and he loves me; so I'll work for him, I will, all I
+can. To be sure, as mammy says, I have no chance, such a little fellow
+as I am, of earning two guineas afore Monday fortnight.' 'But are you
+willing earnestly to work?' said the lady; 'you know there is a great
+deal of difference between picking up a few stones and working steadily
+every day, and all day long.' 'But,' said Jem, 'I would work every day,
+and all day long.' 'Then,' said the lady, 'I will give you work. Come
+here to-morrow morning, and my gardener will set you to weed the
+shrubberies, and I will pay you sixpence a day. Remember, you must be at
+the gates by six o'clock.' Jem bowed, thanked her, and went away.
+
+It was late in the evening, and Jem was impatient to get home to feed
+Lightfoot; yet he recollected that he had promised the man who had
+trusted him to sell the fossils, that he would bring him half of what he
+got for them; so he thought that he had better go to him directly; and
+away he went, running along by the water-side about a quarter of a mile,
+till he came to the man's house. He was just come home from work, and
+was surprised when Jem showed him the half-crown, saying, 'Look what I
+got for the stones; you are to have half, you know.' 'No,' said the man,
+when he had heard his story, I shall not take half of that; it was given
+to you. I expected but a shilling at the most, and the half of that is
+but sixpence, and that I'll take. 'Wife, give the lad two shillings, and
+take this half-crown.' So the wife opened an old glove, and took out two
+shillings; and the man, as she opened the glove, put in his fingers and
+took out a little silver penny. 'There, he shall have that into the
+bargain for his honesty--honesty is the best policy--there's a lucky
+penny for you, that I've kept ever since I can remember.' 'Don't you
+ever go to part with it, do ye hear!' cried the woman. 'Let him do what
+he will with it, wife,' said the man. 'But,' argued the wife, 'another
+penny would do just as well to buy gingerbread; and that's what it will
+go for.' 'No, that it shall not, I promise you,' said Jem; and so he ran
+away home, fed Lightfoot, stroked him, went to bed, jumped up at five
+o'clock in the morning, and went singing to work as gay as a lark.
+
+Four days he worked 'every day and all day long'; and every evening the
+lady, when she came out to walk in her gardens, looked at his work. At
+last she said to her gardener, 'This little boy works very hard.' 'Never
+had so good a little boy about the grounds,' said the gardener; 'he's
+always at his work, let me come by when I will, and he has got twice as
+much done as another would do; yes, twice as much, ma'am; for look
+here--he began at this 'ere rose-bush, and now he's got to where you
+stand, ma'am; and here is the day's work that t'other boy, and he's
+three years older too, did to-day--I say, measure Jem's fairly, and it's
+twice as much, I'm sure.' 'Well,' said the lady to her gardener, 'show
+me how much is a fair good day's work for a boy of his age.' 'Come at
+six o'clock and go at six? why, about this much, ma'am,' said the
+gardener, marking off a piece of the border with his spade.
+
+'Then, little boy,' said the lady, 'so much shall be your task every
+day. The gardener will mark it off for you; and when you've done, the
+rest of the day you may do what you please.'
+
+Jem was extremely glad of this; and the next day he had finished his
+task by four o'clock; so that he had all the rest of the evening to
+himself. He was as fond of play as any little boy could be; and when he
+was at it he played with all the eagerness and gaiety imaginable; so as
+soon as he had finished his task, fed Lightfoot, and put by the sixpence
+he had earned that day, he ran to the playground in the village, where
+he found a party of boys playing, and amongst them Lazy Lawrence, who
+indeed was not playing, but lounging upon a gate, with his thumb in his
+mouth. The rest were playing at cricket. Jem joined them, and was the
+merriest and most active amongst them; till, at last, when quite out of
+breath with running, he was obliged to give up to rest himself, and sat
+down upon the stile, close to the gate on which Lazy Lawrence was
+swinging.
+
+'And why don't you play, Lawrence?' said he. 'I'm tired,' said Lawrence.
+'Tired of what?' 'I don't know well what tires me; grandmother says I'm
+ill, and I must take something--I don't know what ails me.' 'Oh, pugh!
+take a good race--one, two, three, and away--and you'll find yourself as
+well as ever. Come, run--one, two, three, and away.' 'Ah, no, I can't
+run, indeed,' said he hanging back heavily; 'you know I can play all day
+long if I like it, so I don't mind play as you do, who have only one
+hour for it.' 'So much the worse for you. Come now, I'm quite fresh
+again, will you have one game at ball? do.' 'No, I tell you I can't; I'm
+as tired as if I had been working all day long as hard as a horse.' 'Ten
+times more,' said Jem, 'for I have been working all day long as hard as
+a horse, and yet you see I'm not a bit tired, only a little out of
+breath just now.' 'That's very odd,' said Lawrence, and yawned, for want
+of some better answer; then taking out a handful of halfpence,--'See
+what I got from father to-day, because I asked him just at the right
+time, when he had drunk a glass or two; then I can get anything I want
+out of him--see! a penny, twopence, threepence, fourpence--there's
+eightpence in all; would not you be happy if you had _eightpence_?'
+'Why, I don't know,' said Jem, laughing, 'for you don't seem happy, and
+you _have eightpence_.' 'That does not signify, though. I'm sure you
+only say that because you envy me. You don't know what it is to have
+eightpence. You never had more than twopence or threepence at a time in
+all your life.'
+
+Jem smiled. 'Oh, as to that,' said he, 'you are mistaken, for I have at
+this very time more than twopence, threepence, or eightpence either. I
+have--let me--see--stones, two shillings; then five days' work that's
+five sixpences, that's two shillings and sixpence; in all, makes four
+shillings and sixpence; and my silver penny, is four and
+sevenpence--four and sevenpence!' 'You have not!' said Lawrence, roused
+so as absolutely to stand upright, 'four and sevenpence, have you? Show
+it me and then I'll believe you.' 'Follow me, then,' cried Jem, 'and
+I'll soon make you believe me; come.' 'Is it far?' said Lawrence,
+following half-running, half-hobbling, till he came to the stable, where
+Jem showed him his treasure. 'And how did you come by it--honestly?'
+'Honestly! to be sure I did; I earned it all.' 'Lord bless me, earned
+it! well, I've a great mind to work; but then it's such hot weather,
+besides, grandmother says I'm not strong enough yet for hard work; and
+besides, I know how to coax daddy out of money when I want it, so I need
+not work. But four and sevenpence; let's see, what will you do with it
+all?' 'That's a secret,' said Jem, looking great. 'I can guess; I know
+what I'd do with it if it was mine. First, I'd buy pocketfuls of
+gingerbread; then I'd buy ever so many apples and nuts. Don't you love
+nuts? I'd buy nuts enough to last me from this time to Christmas, and
+I'd make little Newton crack 'em for me, for that's the worst of nuts,
+there's the trouble of cracking 'em.' 'Well, you never deserve to have a
+nut.' 'But you'll give me some of yours,' said Lawrence, in a fawning
+tone; for he thought it easier to coax than to work--'you'll give me
+some of your good things, won't you?' 'I shall not have any of those
+good things,' said Jem. 'Then, what will you do with all your money?'
+'Oh, I know very well what to do with it; but, as I told you, that's a
+secret, and I shan't tell it anybody. Come now, let's go back and
+play--their game's up, I daresay.'
+
+Lawrence went back with him, full of curiosity, and out of humour with
+himself and his eightpence. 'If I had four and sevenpence,' said he to
+himself, 'I certainly should be happy!'
+
+The next day, as usual, Jem jumped up before six o'clock and went to his
+work, whilst Lazy Lawrence sauntered about without knowing what to do
+with himself. In the course of two days he laid out sixpence of his
+money in apples and gingerbread; and as long as these lasted, he found
+himself well received by his companions; but at length the third day he
+spent his last halfpenny, and when it was gone, unfortunately some nuts
+tempted him very much, but he had no money to pay for them; so he ran
+home to coax his father, as he called it.
+
+When he got home he heard his father talking very loud, and at first he
+thought he was drunk; but when he opened the kitchen door, he saw that
+he was not drunk, but angry.
+
+'You lazy dog!' cried he, turning suddenly upon Lawrence, and gave him
+such a violent box on the ear as made the light flash from his eyes;
+'you lazy dog! See what you've done for me--look!--look, look, I say!'
+
+Lawrence looked as soon as he came to the use of his senses, and with
+fear, amazement, and remorse beheld at least a dozen bottles burst, and
+the fine Worcestershire cider streaming over the floor.
+
+'Now, did not I order you three days ago to carry these bottles to the
+cellar, and did not I charge you to wire the corks? answer me, you lazy
+rascal; did not I?' 'Yes,' said Lawrence, scratching his head. 'And why
+was not it done, I ask you?' cried his father, with renewed anger, as
+another bottle burst at the moment. 'What do you stand there for, you
+lazy brat? why don't you move, I say? No, no,' catching hold of him, 'I
+believe you can't move; but I'll make you.' And he shook him till
+Lawrence was so giddy he could not stand. 'What had you to think of?
+What had you to do all day long, that you could not carry my cider, my
+Worcestershire cider, to the cellar when I bid you? But go, you'll never
+be good for anything; you are such a lazy rascal--get out of my sight!'
+So saying, he pushed him, out of the house door, and Lawrence sneaked
+off, seeing that this was no time to make his petition for halfpence.
+
+The next day he saw the nuts again, and wishing for them more than ever,
+he went home, in hopes that his father, as he said to himself, would be
+in a better humour. But the cider was still fresh in his recollection;
+and the moment Lawrence began to whisper the word 'halfpenny' in his
+ear, his father swore with a loud oath, 'I will not give you a
+halfpenny, no, not a farthing, for a month to come. If you want money,
+go work for it; I've had enough of your laziness--go work!'
+
+At these terrible words Lawrence burst into tears, and, going to the
+side of a ditch, sat down and cried for an hour; and when he had cried
+till he could cry no more, he exerted himself so far as to empty his
+pockets, to see whether there might not happen to be one halfpenny left;
+and, to his great joy, in the farthest corner of his pocket one
+halfpenny was found. With this he proceeded to the fruit-woman's stall.
+She was busy weighing out some plums, so he was obliged to wait; and
+whilst he was waiting he heard some people near him talking and laughing
+very loud.
+
+[Illustration: _'See what you've done for me--look!--look, look, I
+say!'_]
+
+The fruit-woman's stall was at the gate of an inn yard; and peeping
+through the gate in this yard, Lawrence saw a postilion and a
+stable-boy, about his own size, playing at pitch farthing. He stood by
+watching them for a few minutes. 'I began but with one halfpenny,' cried
+the stable-boy, with an oath, 'and now I've got twopence!' added he,
+jingling the halfpence in his waistcoat pocket. Lawrence was moved at
+the sound, and said to himself, 'If _I_ begin with one halfpenny I may
+end, like him, with having twopence; and it is easier to play at pitch
+farthing than to work.'
+
+So he stepped forward, presenting his halfpenny, offering to toss up
+with the stable-boy, who, after looking him full in the face, accepted
+the proposal, and threw his halfpenny into the air. 'Head or tail?'
+cried he. 'Head,' replied Lawrence, and it came up head. He seized the
+penny, surprised at his own success, and would have gone instantly to
+have laid it out in nuts; but the stable-boy stopped him, and tempted
+him to throw it again. This time Lawrence lost; he threw again and won;
+and so he went on, sometimes losing, but most frequently winning, till
+half the morning was lost. At last, however, finding himself the master
+of three halfpence, he said he would play no more.
+
+The stable-boy, grumbling, swore he would have his revenge another time,
+and Lawrence went and bought his nuts. 'It is a good thing,' said he to
+himself, 'to play at pitch farthing; the next time I want a halfpenny
+I'll not ask my father for it, nor go to work neither.' Satisfied with
+this resolution, he sat down to crack his nuts at his leisure, upon the
+horse-block in the inn yard. Here, whilst he ate, he overheard the
+conversation of the stable-boys and postilions. At first their shocking
+oaths and loud wrangling frightened and shocked him; for Lawrence,
+though _lazy_, had not yet learned to be a _wicked_ boy. But, by
+degrees, he was accustomed to the swearing and quarrelling, and took a
+delight and interest in their disputes and battles. As this was an
+amusement which he could enjoy without any sort of exertion, he soon
+grew so fond of it, that every day he returned to the stable yard, and
+the horse-block became his constant seat. Here he found some relief from
+the insupportable fatigue of doing nothing, and here, hour after hour,
+with his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands, he sat, the
+spectator of wickedness. Gaming, cheating, and lying soon became
+familiar to him; and, to complete his ruin, he formed a sudden and close
+intimacy with the stable-boy (a very bad boy) with whom he had first
+begun to game.
+
+The consequences of this intimacy we shall presently see. But it is now
+time to inquire what little Jem had been doing all this while.
+
+One day, after Jem had finished his task, the gardener asked him to stay
+a little while, to help him to carry some geranium pots into the hall.
+Jem, always active and obliging, readily stayed from play, and was
+carrying in a heavy flower pot, when his mistress crossed the hall.
+'What a terrible litter!' said she, 'you are making here--why don't you
+wipe your shoes upon the mat?' Jem turned to look for the mat, but he
+saw none. 'Oh,' said the lady, recollecting herself, 'I can't blame you,
+for there is no mat.' 'No, ma'am,' said the gardener, 'nor I don't know
+when, if ever, the man will bring home those mats you bespoke, ma'am.'
+'I am very sorry to hear that,' said the lady; 'I wish we could find
+somebody who would do them, if he can't. I should not care what sort of
+mats they were, so that one could wipe one's feet on them.'
+
+Jem, as he was sweeping away the litter, when he heard these last words,
+said to himself, 'Perhaps I could make a mat.' And all the way home, as
+he trudged along whistling, he was thinking over a scheme for making
+mats, which, however bold it may appear, he did not despair of
+executing, with patience and industry. Many were the difficulties which
+his '_prophetic eye_' foresaw; but he felt within himself that spirit
+which spurs men on to great enterprises, and makes them 'trample on
+impossibilities.' In the first place, he recollected that he had seen
+Lazy Lawrence, whilst he lounged upon the gate, twist a bit of heath
+into different shapes; and he thought that, if he could find some way of
+plaiting heath firmly together, it would make a very pretty green, soft
+mat, which would do very well for one to wipe one's shoes on. About a
+mile from his mother's house, on the common which Jem rode over when he
+went to Farmer Truck's for the giant strawberries, he remembered to have
+seen a great quantity of this heath; and, as it was now only six o'clock
+in the evening, he knew that he should have time to feed Lightfoot,
+stroke him, go to the common, return, and make one trial of his skill
+before he went to bed.
+
+Lightfoot carried him swiftly to the common, and there Jem gathered as
+much of the heath as he thought he should want. But what toil! what
+time! what pains did it cost him, before he could make anything like a
+mat! Twenty times he was ready to throw aside the heath, and give up his
+project, from impatience of repeated disappointments. But still he
+persevered. Nothing _truly great_ can be accomplished without toil and
+time. Two hours he worked before he went to bed. All his play hours the
+next day he spent at his mat; which, in all, made five hours of
+fruitless attempts. The sixth, however, repaid him for the labours of
+the other five. He conquered his grand difficulty of fastening the heath
+substantially together, and at length completely finished a mat, which
+far surpassed his most sanguine expectations. He was extremely
+happy--sang, danced round it--whistled--looked at it again and again,
+and could hardly leave off looking at it when it was time to go to bed.
+He laid it by his bedside, that he might see it the moment he awoke in
+the morning.
+
+And now came the grand pleasure of carrying it to his mistress. She
+looked fully as much surprised as he expected, when she saw it, and when
+she heard who made it. After having duly admired it, she asked how much
+he expected for his mat. 'Expect!--Nothing, ma'am,' said Jem; 'I meant
+to give it you, if you'd have it; I did not mean to sell it. I made it
+in my play hours, I was very happy in making it; and I'm very glad, too,
+that you like it; and if you please to keep it, ma'am, that's all.' 'But
+that's not all,' said the lady. 'Spend your time no more in weeding in
+my garden, you can employ yourself much better; you shall have the
+reward of your ingenuity as well as of your industry. Make as many more
+such mats as you can, and I will take care and dispose of them for you.'
+
+'Thank'e, ma'am,' said Jem, making his best bow, for he thought by the
+lady's looks that she meant to do him a favour, though he repeated to
+himself, 'Dispose of them, what does that mean?'
+
+The next day he went to work to make more mats, and he soon learned to
+make them so well and quickly, that he was surprised at his own success.
+In every one he made he found less difficulty, so that, instead of
+making two, he could soon make four, in a day. In a fortnight he made
+eighteen.
+
+It was Saturday night when he finished, and he carried, at three
+journeys, his eighteen mats to his mistress's house; piled them all up
+in the hall, and stood with his hat off, with a look of proud humility,
+beside the pile, waiting for his mistress's appearance. Presently a
+folding-door, at one end of the hall, opened, and he saw his mistress,
+with a great many gentlemen and ladies, rising from several tables.
+
+'Oh! there is my little boy and his mats,' cried the lady; and, followed
+by all the rest of the company, she came into the hall. Jem modestly
+retired whilst they looked at his mats; but in a minute or two his
+mistress beckoned to him, and when he came into the middle of the
+circle, he saw that his pile of mats had disappeared.
+
+'Well,' said the lady, smiling, 'what do you see that makes you look so
+surprised?' 'That all my mats are gone,' said Jem; 'but you are very
+welcome.' 'Are we?' said the lady, 'well, take up your hat and go home
+then, for you see that it is getting late, and you know Lightfoot will
+wonder what's become of you.' Jem turned round to take up his hat, which
+he had left on the floor.
+
+But how his countenance changed! the hat was heavy with shillings. Every
+one who had taken a mat had put in two shillings; so that for the
+eighteen mats he had got thirty-six shillings. 'Thirty-six shillings,'
+said the lady; 'five and sevenpence I think you told me you had earned
+already--how much does that make? I must add, I believe, one other
+sixpence to make out your two guineas.'
+
+'Two guineas!' exclaimed Jem, now quite conquering his bashfulness, for
+at the moment he forgot where he was, and saw nobody that was by. 'Two
+guineas!' cried he, clapping his hands together,--'O Lightfoot! O
+mother!' Then, recollecting himself, he saw his mistress, whom he now
+looked up to quite as a friend. 'Will _you_ thank them all?' said he,
+scarcely daring to glance his eyes round upon the company; 'will _you_
+thank 'em, for you knew I don't know how to thank 'em _rightly_.'
+Everybody thought, however, that they had been thanked _rightly_. 'Now
+we won't keep you any longer, only,' said his mistress, 'I have one
+thing to ask you, that I may be by when you show your treasure to your
+mother.'
+
+'Come, then,' said Jem, 'come with me now.' 'Not now,' said the lady,
+laughing; 'but I will come to Ashton to-morrow evening; perhaps your
+mother can find me a few strawberries.'
+
+'That she will,' said Jem; 'I'll search the garden myself.'
+
+He now went home, but felt it a great restraint to wait till to-morrow
+evening before he told his mother. To console himself he flew to the
+stable:--'Lightfoot, you're not to be sold on Monday, poor fellow!' said
+he, patting him, and then could not refrain from counting out his money.
+Whilst he was intent upon this, Jem was startled by a noise at the door:
+somebody was trying to pull up the latch. It opened, and there came in
+Lazy Lawrence, with a boy in a red jacket, who had a cock under his arm.
+They started when they got into the middle of the stable, and when they
+saw Jem, who had been at first hidden by the horse.
+
+'We--we--we came,' stammered Lazy Lawrence--'I mean, I came
+to--to--to----' 'To ask you,' continued the stable-boy, in a bold tone,
+'whether you will go with us to the cock-fight on Monday? See, I've a
+fine cock here, and Lawrence told me you were a great friend of his; so
+I came.'
+
+Lawrence now attempted to say something in praise of the pleasures of
+cock-fighting and in recommendation of his new companion. But Jem looked
+at the stable-boy with dislike, and a sort of dread. Then turning his
+eyes upon the cock with a look of compassion, said, in a low voice, to
+Lawrence, 'Shall you like to stand by and see its eyes pecked out?' 'I
+don't know,' said Lawrence, 'as to that; but they say a cockfight's a
+fine sight, and it's no more cruel in me to go than another; and a great
+many go, and I've nothing else to do, so I shall go.' 'But I have
+something else to do,' said Jem, laughing, 'so I shall not go.' 'But,'
+continued Lawrence, 'you know Monday is a great Bristol fair, and one
+must be merry then, of all the days in the year.' 'One day in the year,
+sure, there's no harm in being merry,' said the stable-boy. 'I hope
+not,' said Jem; 'for I know, for my part, I am merry every day in the
+year.' 'That's very odd,' said Lawrence; 'but I know, for my part, I
+would not for all the world miss going to the fair, for at least it will
+be something to talk of for half a year after. Come, you'll go, won't
+you?' 'No,' said Jem, still looking as if he did not like to talk before
+the ill-looking stranger. 'Then what will you do with all your money?'
+'I'll tell you about that another time,' whispered Jem; 'and don't you
+go to see that cock's eyes pecked out; it won't make you merry, I'm
+sure.' 'If I had anything else to divert me,' said Lawrence, hesitating
+and yawning. 'Come,' cried the stable-boy, seizing his stretching arm,
+'come along,' cried he; and, pulling him away from Jem, upon whom he
+cast a look of extreme contempt; 'leave him alone, he's not the sort.'
+
+'What a fool you are,' said he to Lawrence, the moment he got him out of
+the stable; 'you might have known he would not go, else we should soon
+have trimmed him out of his four and sevenpence. But how came you to
+talk of four and sevenpence? I saw in the manger a hat full of silver.'
+'Indeed!' exclaimed Lawrence. 'Yes, indeed; but why did you stammer so
+when we first got in? You had like to have blown us all up.' 'I was so
+ashamed,' said Lawrence, hanging down his head. 'Ashamed! but you must
+not talk of shame now you are in for it, and I shan't let you off; you
+owe us half a crown, recollect, and I must be paid to-night, so see and
+get the money somehow or other.' After a considerable pause he added, 'I
+answer for it he'd never miss half a crown out of all that silver.' 'But
+to steal,' said Lawrence, drawing back with horror; 'I never thought I
+should come to that--and from poor Jem, too--the money that he has
+worked so hard for, too.' 'But it is not stealing; we don't mean to
+steal; only to borrow it; and if we win, which we certainly shall, at
+the cock-fight, pay it back again, and he'll never know anything about
+the matter, and what harm will it do him? Besides, what signifies
+talking? you can't go to the cock-fight, or the fair either, if you
+don't; and I tell ye we don't mean to steal it; we'll pay it by Monday
+night.'
+
+Lawrence made no reply, and they parted without his coming to any
+determination.
+
+Here let us pause in our story. We are almost afraid to go on. The rest
+is very shocking. Our little readers will shudder as they read. But it
+is better that they should know the truth and see what the idle boy came
+to at last.
+
+In the dead of the night, Lawrence heard somebody tap at his window. He
+knew well who it was, for this was the signal agreed upon between him
+and his wicked companion. He trembled at the thoughts of what he was
+about to do, and lay quite still, with his head under the bedclothes,
+till he heard the second tap. Then he got up, dressed himself, and
+opened his window. It was almost even with the ground. His companion
+said to him, in a hollow voice, 'Are you ready?' He made no answer, but
+got out of the window and followed.
+
+When he got to the stable a black cloud was just passing over the moon,
+and it was quite dark. 'Where are you?' whispered Lawrence, groping
+about, 'where are you? Speak to me.' 'I am here; give me your hand.'
+Lawrence stretched out his hand. 'Is that your hand?' said the wicked
+boy, as Lawrence laid hold of him; 'how cold it feels.' 'Let us go
+back,' said Lawrence; 'it is time yet.' 'It is no time to go back,'
+replied the other, opening the door: 'you've gone too far now to go
+back,' and he pushed Lawrence into the stable. 'Have you found it? Take
+care of the horse. Have you done? What are you about? Make haste, I hear
+a noise,' said the stable-boy, who watched at the door. 'I am feeling
+for the half-crown, but I can't find it.' 'Bring all together.' He
+brought Jem's broken flower-pot, with all the money in it, to the door.
+
+The black cloud had now passed over the moon, and the light shone full
+upon them. 'What do we stand here for?' said the stable-boy, snatching
+the flower-pot out of Lawrence's trembling hands, and pulled him away
+from the door.
+
+'Good God!' cried Lawrence, 'you won't take all. You said you'd only
+take half a crown, and pay it back on Monday. You said you'd only take
+half a crown!' 'Hold your tongue,' replied the other, walking on, deaf
+to all remonstrances--'if ever I am to be hanged, it shan't be for half
+a crown.'
+
+Lawrence's blood ran cold in his veins, and he felt as if all his hair
+stood on end. Not another word passed. His accomplice carried off the
+money, and Lawrence crept, with all the horrors of guilt upon him, to
+his restless bed. All night he was starting from frightful dreams; or
+else, broad awake, he lay listening to every small noise, unable to
+stir, and scarcely daring to breathe--tormented by that most dreadful of
+all kinds of fear, that fear which is the constant companion of an evil
+conscience.
+
+He thought the morning would never come; but when it was day, when he
+heard the birds sing, and saw everything look cheerful as usual, he felt
+still more miserable. It was Sunday morning, and the bell rang for
+church. All the children of the village, dressed in their Sunday
+clothes, innocent and gay, and little Jem, the best and gayest amongst
+them, went flocking by his door to church.
+
+'Well, Lawrence,' said Jem, pulling his coat as he passed, and saw
+Lawrence leaning against his father's door, 'what makes you look so
+black?' 'I?' said Lawrence, starting; 'why do you say that I look
+black?' 'Nay, then,' said Jem, 'you look white enough now, if that will
+please you, for you're turned as pale as death.' 'Pale!' replied
+Lawrence, not knowing what he said, and turned abruptly away, for he
+dared not stand another look of Jem's; conscious that guilt was written
+in his face, he shunned every eye. He would now have given the world to
+have thrown off the load of guilt which lay upon his mind. He longed to
+follow Jem, to fall upon his knees and confess all.
+
+Dreading the moment when Jem should discover his loss, Lawrence dared
+not stay at home, and not knowing what to do, or where to go, he
+mechanically went to his old haunt at the stable yard, and lurked
+thereabouts all day, with his accomplice, who tried in vain to quiet his
+fears and raise his spirits by talking of the next day's cock-fight. It
+was agreed that, as soon as the dusk of the evening came on, they should
+go together into a certain lonely field, and there divide their booty.
+
+In the meantime, Jem, when he returned from church, was very full of
+business, preparing for the reception of his mistress, of whose intended
+visit he had informed his mother; and whilst she was arranging the
+kitchen and their little parlour, he ran to search the strawberry beds.
+
+'Why, my Jem, how merry you are to-day!' said his mother, when he came
+in with the strawberries, and was jumping about the room playfully.
+'Now, keep those spirits of yours, Jem, till you want 'em, and don't let
+it come upon you all at once. Have it in mind that to-morrow's fair day,
+and Lightfoot must go. I bid Farmer Truck call for him to-night. He said
+he'd take him along with his own, and he'll be here just now--and then I
+know how it will be with you, Jem!' 'So do I!' cried Jem, swallowing his
+secret with great difficulty, and then tumbling head over heels four
+times running.
+
+A carriage passed the window, and stopped at the door. Jem ran out; it
+was his mistress. She came in smiling, and soon made the old woman
+smile, too, by praising the neatness of everything in the house.
+
+We shall pass over, however important as they were deemed at the time,
+the praises of the strawberries, and of 'my grandmother's china plate.'
+
+Another knock was heard at the door. 'Run, Jem,' said his mother. 'I
+hope it's our milk-woman with cream for the lady.' No; it was Farmer
+Truck come for Lightfoot. The old woman's countenance fell. 'Fetch him
+out, dear,' said she, turning to her son; but Jem was gone; he flew out
+to the stable the moment he saw the flap of Farmer Truck's greatcoat.
+
+'Sit ye down, farmer,' said the old woman, after they had waited about
+five minutes in expectation of Jem's return. 'You'd best sit down, if
+the lady will give you leave; for he'll not hurry himself back again. My
+boy's a fool, madam, about that there horse.' Trying to laugh, she
+added, 'I knew how Lightfoot and he would be loth enough to part. He
+won't bring him out to the last minute; so do sit ye down, neighbour.'
+
+The farmer had scarcely sat down when Jem, with a pale, wild
+countenance, came back. 'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God
+bless the boy!' said his mother, looking at him quite frightened, whilst
+he tried to speak but could not.
+
+She went up to him, and then leaning his head against her, he cried,
+'It's gone!--it's all gone!' and, bursting into tears, he sobbed as if
+his little heart would break. 'What's gone, love?' said his mother. 'My
+two guineas--Lightfoot's two guineas. I went to fetch 'em to give you,
+mammy; but the broken flower-pot that I put them in and all's
+gone!--quite gone!' repeated he, checking his sobs. 'I saw them safe
+last night, and was showing 'em to Lightfoot; and I was so glad to think
+I had earned them all myself; and I thought how surprised you'd look,
+and how glad you'd be, and how you'd kiss me, and all!'
+
+His mother listened to him with the greatest surprise, whilst his
+mistress stood in silence, looking first at the old woman and then at
+Jem with a penetrating eye, as if she suspected the truth of his story,
+and was afraid of becoming the dupe of her own compassion.
+
+[Illustration: _'What's the matter?' said his mistress. 'God bless the
+boy!' said his mother._]
+
+'This is a very strange thing!' said she gravely. 'How came you to leave
+all your money in a broken flower-pot in the stable? How came you not to
+give it to your mother to take care of?' 'Why, don't you remember?' said
+Jem, looking up in the midst of his tears--'why, don't you remember you,
+your own self, bid me not tell her about it till you were by?' 'And did
+you not tell her?' 'Nay, ask mammy,' said Jem, a little offended; and
+when afterwards the lady went on questioning him in a severe manner, as
+if she did not believe him, he at last made no answer. 'O Jem! Jem! why
+don't you speak to the lady?' said his mother. 'I have spoke, and spoke
+the truth,' said Jem proudly; 'and she did not believe me.'
+
+Still the lady, who had lived too long in the world to be without
+suspicion, maintained a cold manner, and determined to wait the event
+without interfering, saying only that she hoped the money would be
+found, and advised Jem to have done crying.
+
+'I have done,' said Jem; 'I shall cry no more.' And as he had the
+greatest command over himself, he actually did not shed another tear,
+not even when the farmer got up to go, saying he could wait no longer.
+
+Jem silently went to bring out Lightfoot. The lady now took her seat,
+where she could see all that passed at the open parlour-window. The old
+woman stood at the door, and several idle people of the village, who had
+gathered round the lady's carriage examining it, turned about to listen.
+In a minute or two Jem appeared, with a steady countenance, leading
+Lightfoot, and, when he came up, without saying a word, put the bridle
+into Farmer Truck's hand. 'He _has been_ a good horse,' said the farmer.
+'He _is_ a good horse!' cried Jem, and threw his arm over Lightfoot's
+neck, hiding his own face as he leaned upon him.
+
+At this instant a party of milk-women went by; and one of them, having
+set down her pail, came behind Jem and gave him a pretty smart blow upon
+the back. He looked up. 'And don't you know me?' said she. 'I forget,'
+said Jem; 'I think I have seen your face before, but I forget.' 'Do you
+so? and you'll tell me just now,' said she, half opening her hand, 'that
+you forget who gave you this, and who charged you not to part with it,
+too.' Here she quite opened her large hand, and on the palm of it
+appeared Jem's silver penny.
+
+'Where?' exclaimed Jem, seizing it, 'oh, where did you find it? and have
+you--oh, tell me, have you got the rest of my money?' 'I know nothing of
+your money--I don't know what you would be at,' said the milk-woman.
+'But where--pray tell me where--did you find this?' 'With them that you
+gave it to, I suppose,' said the milk-woman, turning away suddenly to
+take up her milk-pail. But now Jem's mistress called to her through the
+window, begging her to stop, and joining in his entreaties to know how
+she came by the silver penny.
+
+'Why, madam,' said she, taking up the corner of her apron, 'I came by it
+in an odd way, too. You must know my Betty is sick, so I came with the
+milk myself, though it's not what I'm used to; for my Betty--you know my
+Betty?' said she, turning round to the old woman, 'my Betty serves you,
+and she's a tight and stirring lassy, ma'am, I can assure----' 'Yes, I
+don't doubt it,' said the lady impatiently; 'but about the silver
+penny?' 'Why, that's true; as I was coming along all alone, for the rest
+came round, and I came a short cut across yon field--no, you can't see
+it, madam, where you stand--but if you were here----' 'I see it--I know
+it,' said Jem, out of breath with anxiety. 'Well--well--I rested my pail
+upon the stile, and sets me down awhile, and there comes out of the
+hedge--I don't know well how, for they startled me so I'd like to have
+thrown down my milk--two boys, one about the size of he,' said she,
+pointing to Jem, 'and one a matter taller, but ill-looking like; so I
+did not think to stir to make way for them, and they were like in a
+desperate hurry: so, without waiting for the stile, one of 'em pulled at
+the gate, and when it would not open (for it was tied with a pretty
+stout cord) one of 'em whips out with his knife and cuts it----Now, have
+you a knife about you, sir?' continued the milk-woman to the farmer. He
+gave her his knife. 'Here, now, ma'am, just sticking, as it were here,
+between the blade and the haft, was the silver penny. The lad took no
+notice; but when he opened it, out it falls. Still he takes no heed, but
+cuts the cord, as I said before, and through the gate they went, and out
+of sight in half a minute. I picks up the penny, for my heart misgave me
+that it was the very one my husband had had a long time, and had given
+against my voice to he,' pointing to Jem; 'and I charged him not to part
+with it; and, ma'am, when I looked I knew it by the mark, so I thought
+I would show it to _he_,' again pointing to Jem, 'and let him give it
+back to those it belongs to.' 'It belongs to me,' said Jem, 'I never
+gave it to anybody--but----' 'But,' cried the farmer, 'those boys have
+robbed him; it is they who have all his money.' 'Oh, which way did they
+go?' cried Jem, 'I'll run after them.'
+
+'No, no,' said the lady, calling to her servant; and she desired him to
+take his horse and ride after them. 'Ay,' added Farmer Truck, 'do you
+take the road, and I'll take the field way, and I'll be bound we'll have
+'em presently.'
+
+Whilst they were gone in pursuit of the thieves, the lady, who was now
+thoroughly convinced of Jem's truth, desired her coachman would produce
+what she had ordered him to bring with him that evening. Out of the boot
+of the carriage the coachman immediately produced a new saddle and
+bridle.
+
+How Jem's eyes sparkled when the saddle was thrown upon Lightfoot's
+back! 'Put it on your horse yourself, Jem,' said the lady; 'it is
+yours.'
+
+Confused reports of Lightfoot's splendid accoutrements, of the pursuit
+of thieves, and of the fine and generous lady who was standing at dame
+Preston's window, quickly spread through the village, and drew everybody
+from their houses. They crowded round Jem to hear the story. The
+children especially, who were fond of him, expressed the strongest
+indignation against the thieves. Every eye was on the stretch; and now
+some, who had run down the lane, came back shouting, 'Here they are!
+they've got the thieves!'
+
+The footman on horseback carried one boy before him; and the farmer,
+striding along, dragged another. The latter had on a red jacket, which
+little Jem immediately recollected, and scarcely dared lift his eyes to
+look at the boy on horseback. 'Good God!' said he to himself, 'it must
+be--yet surely it can't be Lawrence!' The footman rode on as fast as the
+people would let him. The boy's hat was slouched, and his head hung
+down, so that nobody could see his face.
+
+At this instant there was a disturbance in the crowd. A man who was
+half-drunk pushed his way forwards, swearing that nobody should stop
+him; that he had a right to see--and he _would_ see. And so he did; for,
+forcing through all resistance, he staggered up to the footman just as
+he was lifting down the boy he had carried before him. 'I _will_--I
+tell you I _will_ see the thief!' cried the drunken man, pushing up the
+boy's hat. It was his own son. 'Lawrence!' exclaimed the wretched
+father. The shock sobered him at once, and he hid his face in his hands.
+
+There was an awful silence. Lawrence fell on his knees, and in a voice
+that could scarcely be heard made a full confession of all the
+circumstances of his guilt.
+
+'Such a young creature so wicked!' the bystanders exclaimed; 'what could
+put such wickedness in your head?' 'Bad company,' said Lawrence. 'And
+how came you--what brought you into bad company?' 'I don't know, except
+it was idleness.'
+
+While this was saying, the farmer was emptying Lazy Lawrence's pockets;
+and when the money appeared, all his former companions in the village
+looked at each other with astonishment and terror. Their parents grasped
+their little hands closer, and cried, 'Thank God! he is not my son. How
+often when he was little we used, as he lounged about, to tell him that
+idleness was the root of all evil.'
+
+As for the hardened wretch, his accomplice, every one was impatient to
+have him sent to gaol. He put on a bold, insolent countenance, till he
+heard Lawrence's confession; till the money was found upon him; and he
+heard the milk-woman declare that she would swear to the silver penny
+which he had dropped. Then he turned pale, and betrayed the strongest
+signs of fear.
+
+'We must take him before the justice,' said the farmer, 'and he'll be
+lodged in Bristol gaol.'
+
+'Oh!' said Jem, springing forwards when Lawrence's hands were going to
+be tied, 'let him go--won't you?--can't you let him go?' 'Yes, madam,
+for mercy's sake,' said Jem's mother to the lady; 'think what a disgrace
+to his family to be sent to gaol.'
+
+His father stood by wringing his hands in an agony of despair. 'It's all
+my fault,' cried he; 'brought him up in _idleness_.' 'But he'll never be
+idle any more,' said Jem; 'won't you speak for him, ma'am?' 'Don't ask
+the lady to speak for him,' said the farmer; 'it's better he should go
+to Bridewell now, than to the gallows by and by.'
+
+Nothing more was said; for everybody felt the truth of the farmer's
+speech.
+
+Lawrence was eventually sent to Bridewell for a month, and the
+stable-boy was sent for trial, convicted, and transported to Botany Bay.
+
+During Lawrence's confinement, Jem often visited him, and carried him
+such little presents as he could afford to give; and Jem could afford to
+be _generous_, because he was _industrious_. Lawrence's heart was
+touched by his kindness, and his example struck him so forcibly that,
+when his confinement was ended, he resolved to set immediately to work;
+and, to the astonishment of all who knew him, soon became remarkable for
+industry. He was found early and late at his work, established a new
+character, and for ever lost the name of '_Lazy Lawrence_.'
+
+
+
+
+THE FALSE KEY
+
+
+Mr. Spencer, a very benevolent and sensible man, undertook the education
+of several poor children. Among the best was a boy of the name of
+Franklin, whom he had bred up from the time he was five years old.
+Franklin had the misfortune to be the son of a man of infamous
+character; and for many years this was a disgrace and reproach to his
+child. When any of the neighbours' children quarrelled with him, they
+used to tell him that he would turn out like his father. But Mr. Spencer
+always assured him that he might make himself whatever he pleased; that
+by behaving well he would certainly, sooner or later, secure the esteem
+and love of all who knew him, even of those who had the strongest
+prejudice against him on his father's account.
+
+This hope was very delightful to Franklin, and he showed the strongest
+desire to learn and to do everything that was right; so that Mr. Spencer
+soon grew fond of him, and took great pains to instruct him, and to give
+him all the good habits and principles which might make him a useful,
+respectable, and happy man.
+
+When he was about thirteen years of age, Mr. Spencer one day sent for
+him into his closet; and as he was folding up a letter which he had been
+writing, said to him, with a very kind look, but in a graver tone than
+usual, 'Franklin, you are going to leave me.' 'Sir!' said Franklin. 'You
+are now going to leave me, and to begin the world for yourself. You will
+carry this letter to my sister, Mrs. Churchill, in Queen's Square. You
+know Queen's Square?' Franklin bowed. 'You must expect,' continued Mr.
+Spencer, 'to meet with several disagreeable things, and a great deal of
+rough work, at your first setting out; but be faithful and obedient to
+your mistress, and obliging to your fellow-servants, and all will go
+well. Mrs. Churchill will make you a very good mistress, if you behave
+properly; and I have no doubt but you will.' 'Thank you, sir.' 'And you
+will always--I mean, as long as you deserve it--find a friend in me.'
+'Thank you, sir--I am sure you are----' There Franklin stopped short,
+for the recollection of all Mr. Spencer's goodness rushed upon him at
+once, and he could not say another word. 'Bring me a candle to seal this
+letter,' said his master; and he was very glad to get out of the room.
+He came back with the candle, and, with a stout heart, stood by whilst
+the letter was sealing; and, when his master put it into his hand, said,
+in a cheerful voice, 'I hope you will let me see you again, sir,
+sometimes.' 'Certainly; whenever your mistress can spare you, I shall be
+very glad to see you; and remember, if ever you get into any difficulty,
+don't be afraid to come to me. I have sometimes spoken harshly to you;
+but you will not meet with a more indulgent friend.' Franklin at this
+turned away with a full heart; and, after making two or three attempts
+to express his gratitude, left the room without being able to speak.
+
+He got to Queen's Square about three o'clock. The door was opened by a
+large, red-faced man, in a blue coat and scarlet waistcoat, to whom he
+felt afraid to give his message, lest he should not be a servant. 'Well,
+what's your business, sir?' said the butler. 'I have a letter for Mrs.
+Churchill, _sir_,' said Franklin, endeavouring to pronounce his _sir_ in
+a tone as respectful as the butler's was insolent.
+
+The man, having examined the direction, seal, and edges of the letter,
+carried it upstairs, and in a few minutes returned, and ordered Franklin
+to rub his shoes well and follow him. He was then shown into a handsome
+room, where he found his mistress--an elderly lady. She asked him a few
+questions, examining him attentively as she spoke; and her severe eye at
+first and her gracious smile afterwards, made him feel that she was a
+person to be both loved and feared. 'I shall give you in charge,' said
+she, ringing a bell, 'to my housekeeper, and I hope she will have no
+reason to be displeased with you.'
+
+The housekeeper, when she first came in, appeared with a smiling
+countenance; but the moment she cast her eyes on Franklin, it changed to
+a look of surprise and suspicion. Her mistress recommended him to her
+protection, saying, 'Pomfret, I hope you will keep this boy under your
+own eye.' And she received him with a cold 'Very well, ma'am,' which
+plainly showed that she was not disposed to like him. In fact, Mrs.
+Pomfret was a woman so fond of power, and so jealous of favour, that she
+would have quarrelled with an angel who had got so near her mistress
+without her introduction. She smothered her displeasure, however, till
+night; when, as she attended her mistress's toilette, she could not
+refrain from expressing her sentiments. She began cautiously: 'Ma'am, is
+not this the boy Mr. Spencer was talking of one day--that has been
+brought up by the _Villaintropic Society_, I think they call
+it?'--'Philanthropic Society; yes,' said her mistress; 'and my brother
+gives him a high character: I hope he will do very well.' 'I'm sure I
+hope so too,' observed Mrs. Pomfret; 'but I can't say; for my part, I've
+no great notion of those low people. They say all those children are
+taken from the very lowest _drugs_ and _refuges_ of the town, and surely
+they are like enough, ma'am, to take after their own fathers and
+mothers.' 'But they are not suffered to be with their parents,' rejoined
+the lady; 'and therefore cannot be hurt by their example. This little
+boy, to be sure, was unfortunate in his father, but he has had an
+excellent education.' 'Oh, _edication_! to be sure, ma'am, I know. I
+don't say but what _edication_ is a great thing. But then, ma'am,
+_edication_ can't change the _natur_ that's in one, they say; and one
+that's born naturally bad and low, they say, all the _edication_ in the
+world won't do no good; and, for my part, ma'am, I know you knows best;
+but I should be afraid to let any of those _Villaintropic_ folks get
+into my house; for nobody can tell the _natur_ of them aforehand. I
+declare it frights me.' 'Pomfret, I thought you had better sense: how
+would this poor boy earn his bread? he would be forced to starve or
+steal, if everybody had such prejudices.'
+
+Pomfret, who really was a good woman, was softened at this idea, and
+said, 'God forbid he should starve or steal, and God forbid I should say
+anything _prejudiciary_ of the boy; for there may be no harm in him.'
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Churchill, changing her tone, 'but, Pomfret, if we
+don't like the boy at the end of the month, we have done with him; for I
+have only promised Mr. Spencer to keep him a month upon trial: there is
+no harm done.' 'Dear, no, ma'am, to be sure; and cook must put up with
+her disappointment, that's all.' 'What disappointment?' 'About her
+nephew, ma'am; the boy she and I was speaking to you for.' 'When?' 'The
+day you called her up about the almond pudding, ma'am. If you remember,
+you said you should have no objections to try the boy; and upon that
+cook bought him new shirts; but they are to the good, as I tell her.'
+'But I did not promise to take her nephew.' 'Oh no, ma'am, not at all;
+she does not think to _say that_, else I should be very angry; but the
+poor woman never let fall a word, any more than frets that the boy
+should miss such a good place.' 'Well, but since I did say that I should
+have no objection to try him, I shall keep my word; let him come
+to-morrow. Let them both have a fair trial, and at the end of the month
+I can decide which I like best, and which we had better keep.'
+
+Dismissed with these orders, Mrs. Pomfret hastened to report all that
+had passed to the cook, like a favourite minister, proud to display the
+extent of her secret influence. In the morning Felix, the cook's nephew,
+arrived; and, the moment he came into the kitchen, every eye, even the
+scullion's, was fixed upon him with approbation, and afterwards glanced
+upon Franklin with contempt--contempt which Franklin could not endure
+without some confusion, though quite unconscious of having deserved it;
+nor, upon the most impartial and cool self-examination, could he
+comprehend the justice of his judges. He perceived indeed--for the
+comparisons were minutely made in audible and scornful whispers--that
+Felix was a much handsomer, or as the kitchen maid expressed it, a much
+more genteeler gentlemanly looking like sort of person than he was; and
+he was made to understand that he wanted a frill to his shirt, a cravat,
+a pair of thin shoes, and, above all, shoe-strings, besides other
+nameless advantages, which justly made his rival the admiration of the
+kitchen. However, upon calling to mind all that his friend Mr. Spencer
+had ever said to him, he could not recollect his having warned him that
+shoe-strings were indispensable requisites to the character of a good
+servant; so that he could only comfort himself with resolving, if
+possible, to make amends for these deficiencies, and to dissipate the
+prejudices which he saw were formed against him, by the strictest
+adherence to all that his tutor had taught him to be his duty. He hoped
+to secure the approbation of his mistress by scrupulous obedience to all
+her commands, and faithful care of all that belonged to her. At the same
+time he flattered himself he should win the goodwill of his
+fellow-servants by showing a constant desire to oblige them. He pursued
+this plan of conduct steadily for nearly three weeks, and found that he
+succeeded beyond his expectations in pleasing his mistress; but
+unfortunately he found it more difficult to please his fellow-servants,
+and he sometimes offended when he least expected it. He had made great
+progress in the affections of Corkscrew, the butler, by working indeed
+very hard for him, and doing every day at least half his business. But
+one unfortunate night the butler was gone out; the bell rang: he went
+upstairs; and his mistress asking where Corkscrew was, he answered that
+he was gone out. 'Where to?' said his mistress. 'I don't know,' answered
+Franklin. And, as he had told exactly the truth, and meant to do no
+harm, he was surprised, at the butler's return, when he repeated to him
+what had passed, at receiving a sudden box on the ear, and the
+appellation of a mischievous, impertinent, mean-spirited brat.
+
+'Mischievous, impertinent, mean!' repeated Franklin to himself; but,
+looking in the butler's face, which was a deeper scarlet than usual, he
+judged that he was far from sober, and did not doubt but that the next
+morning, when he came to the use of his reason, he would be sensible of
+his injustice, and apologise for his box of the ear. But no apology
+coming all day, Franklin at last ventured to request an explanation, or
+rather, to ask what he had best do on the next occasion. 'Why,' said
+Corkscrew, 'when mistress asked for me, how came you to say I was gone
+out?' 'Because, you know, I saw you go out.' 'And when she asked you
+where I was gone, how came you to say that you did not know?' 'Because,
+indeed, I did not.' 'You are a stupid blockhead! could you not say I was
+gone to the washerwoman's?' 'But _were_ you?' said Franklin. 'Was I?'
+cried Corkscrew, and looked as if he would have struck him again: 'how
+dare you give me the lie, Mr. Hypocrite? You would be ready enough, I'll
+be bound, to make excuses for yourself. Why are not mistress's clogs
+cleaned? Go along and blacken 'em, this minute, and send Felix to me.'
+
+From this time forward Felix alone was privileged to enter the butler's
+pantry. Felix became the favourite of Corkscrew; and, though Franklin by
+no means sought to pry into the mysteries of their private conferences,
+nor ever entered without knocking at the door, yet it was his fate once
+to be sent of a message at an unlucky time; and, as the door was
+half-open, he could not avoid seeing Felix drinking a bumper of red
+liquor, which he could not help suspecting to be wine; and, as the
+decanter, which usually went upstairs after dinner, was at this time in
+the butler's grasp, without any stopper in it, he was involuntarily
+forced to suspect they were drinking his mistress's wine.
+
+Nor were the bumpers of port the only unlawful rewards which Felix
+received: his aunt, the cook, had occasion for his assistance, and she
+had many delicious _douceurs_ in her gift. Many a handful of currants,
+many a half-custard, many a triangular remnant of pie, besides the
+choice of his own meal at breakfast, dinner, and supper, fell to the
+share of the favourite Felix; whilst Franklin was neglected, though he
+took the utmost pains to please the cook in all honourable service, and,
+when she was hot, angry, or hurried, he was always at hand to help her;
+and in the hour of adversity, when the clock struck five, and no dinner
+was dished, and no kitchen-maid with twenty pair of hands was to be had,
+Franklin would answer to her call, with flowers to garnish her dishes,
+and presence of mind to know, in the midst of the commotion, where
+everything that was wanting was to be found; so that, quick as
+lightning, all difficulties vanished before him. Yet when the danger was
+over, and the hour of adversity had passed, the ungrateful cook would
+forget her benefactor, and, when it came to his supper time, would throw
+him, with a carelessness that touched him sensibly, anything which the
+other servants were too nice to eat. All this Franklin bore with
+fortitude; nor did he envy Felix the dainties which he ate, sometimes
+close beside him: 'For,' said he to himself, 'I have a clear conscience,
+and that is more than Felix can have. I know how he wins cook's favour
+too well, and I fancy I know how I have offended her; for since the day
+I saw the basket, she has done nothing but huff me.'
+
+The history of the basket was this. Mrs. Pomfret, the housekeeper, had
+several times, directly and indirectly, given the world below to
+understand that she and her mistress thought there was a prodigious
+quantity of meat eaten of late. Now, when she spoke, it was usually at
+dinner time; she always looked, or Franklin imagined that she looked,
+suspiciously at him. Other people looked more maliciously; but, as he
+felt himself perfectly innocent, he went on eating his dinner in
+silence.
+
+But at length it was time to explain. One Sunday there appeared a
+handsome sirloin of beef, which before noon on Monday had shrunk almost
+to the bare bone, and presented such a deplorable spectacle to the
+opening eyes of Mrs. Pomfret that her long-smothered indignation burst
+forth, and she boldly declared she was now certain there had been foul
+play, and she would have the beef found, or she would know why. She
+spoke, but no beef appeared, till Franklin, with a look of sudden
+recollection, cried, 'Did not I see something like a piece of beef in a
+basket in the dairy?--I think----'
+
+The cook, as if somebody had smote her a deadly blow, grew pale; but,
+suddenly recovering the use of her speech, turned upon Franklin, and,
+with a voice of thunder, gave him the lie direct; and forthwith, taking
+Mrs. Pomfret by the ruffle, led the way to the dairy, declaring she
+could defy the world--'that so she could, and would.' 'There, ma'am,'
+said she kicking an empty basket which lay on the floor--'there's malice
+for you. Ask him why he don't show you the beef in the basket.' 'I
+thought I saw----' poor Franklin began. 'You thought you saw!' cried the
+cook, coming close up to him with kimboed arms, and looking like a
+dragon; 'and pray, sir, what business has such a one as you to think you
+see? And pray, ma'am, will you be pleased to speak--perhaps, ma'am,
+he'll condescend to obey you--ma'am, will you be pleased to forbid him
+my dairy? for here he comes prying and spying about; and how, ma'am, am
+I to answer for my butter and cream, or anything at all? I'm sure it's
+what I can't pretend to, unless you do me the justice to forbid him my
+places.'
+
+Mrs. Pomfret, whose eyes were blinded by her prejudices against the
+folks of the _Villaintropic Society_, and also by her secret jealousy of
+a boy whom she deemed to be a growing favourite of her mistress's, took
+part with the cook, and ended, as she began, with a firm persuasion
+that Franklin was the guilty person. 'Let him alone, let him alone!'
+said she, 'he has as many turns and windings as a hare; but we shall
+catch him yet, I'll be bound, in some of his doublings. I knew the
+nature of him well enough, from the first time I ever set my eyes upon
+him; but mistress shall have her own way, and see the end of it.'
+
+These words, and the bitter sense of injustice, drew tears at length
+fast down the proud cheek of Franklin, which might possibly have touched
+Mrs. Pomfret, if Felix, with a sneer, had not called them _crocodile
+tears_. 'Felix, too!' thought he; 'this is too much.' In fact, Felix had
+till now professed himself his firm ally, and had on his part received
+from Franklin unequivocal proofs of friendship; for it must be told that
+every other morning, when it was Felix's turn to get breakfast, Felix
+never was up in decent time, and must inevitably have come to public
+disgrace if Franklin had not got all the breakfast things ready for him,
+the bread and butter spread, and the toast toasted; and had not,
+moreover, regularly, when the clock struck eight, and Mrs. Pomfret's
+foot was heard overhead, run to call the sleeping Felix, and helped him
+constantly through the hurry of getting dressed one instant before the
+housekeeper came downstairs. All this could not but be present to his
+memory; but, scorning to reproach him, Franklin wiped away his crocodile
+tears, and preserved a magnanimous silence.
+
+The hour of retribution was; however, not so far off as Felix imagined.
+Cunning people may go on cleverly in their devices for some time; but
+although they may escape once, twice, perhaps ninety-nine times, what
+does that signify?--for the hundredth time they come to shame, and lose
+all their character. Grown bold by frequent success, Felix became more
+careless in his operations; and it happened that one day he met his
+mistress full in the passage, as he was going on one of the cook's
+secret errands. 'Where are you going, Felix?' said his mistress. 'To the
+washerwoman's, ma'am,' answered he, with his usual effrontery. 'Very
+well,' said she. 'Call at the bookseller's in--stay, I must write down
+the direction. Pomfret,' said she, opening the housekeeper's room door.
+'have you a bit of paper?' Pomfret came with the writing-paper, and
+looked very angry to see that Felix was going out without her
+knowledge; so, while Mrs. Churchill was writing the direction, she stood
+talking to him about it; whilst he, in the greatest terror imaginable,
+looked up in her face as she spoke; but was all the time intent on
+parrying on the other side the attacks of a little French dog of his
+mistress's, which, unluckily for him, had followed her into the passage.
+Manchon was extremely fond of Felix, who, by way of pleasing his
+mistress, had paid most assiduous court to her dog; yet now his caresses
+were rather troublesome. Manchon leaped up, and was not to be rebuffed.
+'Poor fellow--poor fellow--down! down! poor fellow!' cried Felix, and
+put him away. But Manchon leaped up again, and began smelling near the
+fatal pocket in a most alarming manner. 'You will see by this direction
+where you are to go,' said his mistress. 'Manchon, come here--and you
+will be so good as to bring me--down! down! Manchon, be quiet!' But
+Manchon knew better--he had now got his head into Felix's pocket, and
+would not be quiet till he had drawn from thence, rustling out of its
+brown paper, half a cold turkey, which had been missing since morning.
+'My cold turkey, as I'm alive!' exclaimed the housekeeper, darting upon
+it with horror and amazement. 'What is all this?' said Mrs. Churchill,
+in a composed voice. 'I don't know, ma'am,' answered Felix, so confused
+that he knew not what to say; 'but----' 'But what?' cried Mrs. Pomfret,
+indignation flashing from her eyes. 'But what?' repeated his mistress,
+waiting for his reply with a calm air of attention, which still more
+disconcerted Felix; for, though with an angry person he might have some
+chance of escape, he knew that he could not invent any excuse in such
+circumstances, which could stand the examination of a person in her
+sober senses. He was struck dumb. 'Speak,' said Mrs. Churchill, in a
+still lower tone; 'I am ready to hear all you have to say. In my house
+everybody shall have justice; speak--but what?' '_But_,' stammered
+Felix; and, after in vain attempting to equivocate, confessed that he
+was going to take the turkey to his cousin's; but he threw all the blame
+upon his aunt, the cook, who, he said, had ordered him upon this
+expedition.
+
+The cook was now summoned; but she totally denied all knowledge of the
+affair, with the same violence with which she had lately confounded
+Franklin about the beef in the basket; not entirely, however, with the
+same success; for Felix, perceiving by his mistress's eye that she was
+on the point of desiring him to leave the house immediately; and not
+being very willing to leave a place in which he had lived so well with
+the butler, did not hesitate to confront his aunt with assurance equal
+to her own. He knew how to bring his charge home to her. He produced a
+note in her own handwriting, the purport of which was to request her
+cousin's acceptance of 'some _delicate cold turkey_,' and to beg she
+would send her, by the return of the bearer, a little of her
+cherry-brandy.
+
+Mrs. Churchill coolly wrote upon the back of the note her cook's
+discharge, and informed Felix she had no further occasion for his
+services, but, upon his pleading with many tears, which Franklin did not
+call _crocodile tears_, that he was so young, that he was under the
+dominion of his aunt, he touched Mrs. Pomfret's compassion, and she
+obtained for him permission to stay till the end of the month, to give
+him yet a chance of redeeming his character.
+
+Mrs. Pomfret, now seeing how far she had been imposed upon, resolved,
+for the future, to be more upon her guard with Felix, and felt that she
+had treated Franklin with great injustice, when she accused him of
+malpractices about the sirloin of beef.
+
+Good people, when they are made sensible that they have treated any one
+with injustice, are impatient to have an opportunity to rectify their
+mistake; and Mrs. Pomfret was now prepared to see everything which
+Franklin did in the most favourable point of view; especially as the
+next day she discovered that it was he who every morning boiled the
+water for her tea, and buttered her toast--services for which she had
+always thought she was indebted to Felix. Besides, she had rated Felix's
+abilities very highly, because he made up her weekly accounts for her;
+but unluckily once, when Franklin was out of the way, and she brought a
+bill in a hurry to her favourite to cast up, she discovered that he did
+not know how to cast up pounds, shillings, and pence, and he was obliged
+to confess that she must wait till Franklin came home.
+
+But, passing over a number of small incidents which gradually unfolded
+the character of the two boys, we must proceed to a more serious affair.
+
+Corkscrew frequently, after he had finished taking away supper, and
+after the housekeeper was gone to bed, sallied forth to a neighbouring
+alehouse to drink with his friends. The alehouse was kept by that cousin
+of Felix's who was so fond of '_delicate_ cold turkey,' and who had such
+choice cherry-brandy. Corkscrew kept the key of the house door, so that
+he could return home whenever he thought proper; and, if he should by
+accident be called for by his mistress after supper, Felix knew where to
+find him, and did not scruple to make any of those excuses which poor
+Franklin had too much integrity to use.
+
+All these precautions taken, the butler was at liberty to indulge his
+favourite passion, which so increased with indulgence that his wages
+were by no means sufficient to support him in this way of life. Every
+day he felt less resolution to break through his bad habits; for every
+day drinking became more necessary to him. His health was ruined. With a
+red, pimpled, bloated face, emaciated legs, and a swelled, diseased
+body, he appeared the victim of intoxication. In the morning, when he
+got up, his hands trembled, his spirits flagged, he could do nothing
+until he had taken a dram--an operation which he was obliged to repeat
+several times in the course of the day, as all those wretched people
+_must_ who once acquire this habit.
+
+He had run up a long bill at the alehouse which he frequented; and the
+landlord, who grew urgent for his money, refused to give further credit.
+
+One night, when Corkscrew had drunk enough only to make him fretful, he
+leaned with his elbow surlily upon the table, began to quarrel with the
+landlord, and swore that he had not of late treated him like a
+gentleman. To which the landlord coolly replied, 'That as long as he had
+paid like a gentleman, he had been treated like one, and _that_ was as
+much as any one could expect, or, at any rate, as much as any one would
+meet with in this world.' For the truth of this assertion he appealed,
+laughing, to a party of men who were drinking in the room. The men,
+however, took part with Corkscrew, and, drawing him over to their table,
+made him sit down with them. They were in high good-humour, and the
+butler soon grew so intimate with them that, in the openness of his
+heart, he soon communicated to them not only all his own affairs, but
+all that he knew, and more than all that he knew, of his mistress's.
+
+His new friends were by no means uninterested by his conversation, and
+encouraged him as much as possible to talk; for they had secret views,
+which the butler was by no means sufficiently sober to discover.
+
+Mrs. Churchill had some fine old family plate; and these men belonged to
+a gang of housebreakers. Before they parted with Corkscrew, they engaged
+him to meet them again the next night; their intimacy was still more
+closely cemented. One of the men actually offered to lend Corkscrew
+three guineas towards the payment of his debt, and hinted that, if he
+thought proper, he could easily get the whole cleared off. Upon this
+hint, Corkscrew became all attention, till, after some hesitation on
+their part, and repeated promises of secrecy on his, they at length
+disclosed their plans to him. They gave him to understand that, if he
+would assist in letting them into his mistress's house, they would let
+him have an ample share in the booty. The butler, who had the reputation
+of being an honest man, and indeed whose integrity had hitherto been
+proof against everything but his mistress's port, turned pale and
+trembled at this proposal, drank two or three bumpers to drown thought,
+and promised to give an answer the next day.
+
+He went home more than half-intoxicated. His mind was so full of what
+had passed, that he could not help bragging to Felix, whom he found
+awake at his return, that he could have his bill paid off at the
+alehouse whenever he pleased; dropping, besides, some hints which were
+not lost upon Felix.
+
+In the morning Felix reminded him of the things which he had said; and
+Corkscrew, alarmed, endeavoured to evade his questions by saying that he
+was not in his senses when he talked in that manner. Nothing, however,
+that he could urge made any impression upon Felix, whose recollection on
+the subject was perfectly distinct, and who had too much cunning
+himself, and too little confidence in his companion, to be the dupe of
+his dissimulation. The butler knew not what to do when he saw that Felix
+was absolutely determined either to betray their scheme or to become a
+sharer in the booty.
+
+The next night came, and he was now to make a final decision; either to
+determine on breaking off entirely with his new acquaintances, or taking
+Felix with him to join in the plot.
+
+His debt, his love of drinking, the impossibility of indulging it
+without a fresh supply of money, all came into his mind at once and
+conquered his remaining scruples. It is said by those whose fatal
+experience gives them a right to be believed, that a drunkard will
+sacrifice anything, everything, sooner than the pleasure of habitual
+intoxication.
+
+How much easier is it never to begin a bad custom than to break through
+it when once formed!
+
+The hour of rendezvous came, and Corkscrew went to the alehouse, where
+he found the housebreakers waiting for him, and a glass of brandy ready
+poured out. He sighed--drank--hesitated--drank again--heard the landlord
+talk of his bill, saw the money produced which would pay it in a
+moment--drank again--cursed himself, and, giving his hand to the villain
+who was whispering in his ear, swore that he could not help it, and must
+do as they would have him. They required of him to give up the key of
+the house door, that they might get another made by it. He had left it
+with Felix, and was now obliged to explain the new difficulty which had
+arisen. Felix knew enough to ruin them, and must therefore be won over.
+This was no very difficult task; he had a strong desire to have some
+worked cravats, and the butler knew enough of him to believe that this
+would be a sufficient bribe. The cravats were bought and shown to Felix.
+He thought them the only things wanting to make him a complete fine
+gentleman; and to go without them, especially when he had once seen
+himself in the glass with one tied on in a splendid bow, appeared
+impossible. Even this paltry temptation, working upon his vanity, at
+length prevailed with a boy whose integrity had long been corrupted by
+the habits of petty pilfering and daily falsehood. It was agreed that,
+the first time his mistress sent him out on a message, he should carry
+the key of the house door to his cousin's, and deliver it into the hands
+of one of the gang, who were there in waiting for it. Such was the
+scheme.
+
+Felix, the night after all this had been planned, went to bed and fell
+fast asleep; but the butler, who had not yet stifled the voice of
+conscience, felt, in the silence of the night, so insupportably
+miserable that, instead of going to rest, he stole softly into the
+pantry for a bottle of his mistress's wine, and there drinking glass
+after glass, he stayed till he became so far intoxicated that, though he
+contrived to find his way back to bed, he could by no means undress
+himself. Without any power of recollection, he flung himself upon the
+bed, leaving his candle half hanging out of the candlestick beside him.
+Franklin slept in the next room to him, and presently awaking, thought
+he perceived a strong smell of something burning. He jumped up, and
+seeing a light under the butler's door, gently opened it, and, to his
+astonishment, beheld one of the bed curtains in flames. He immediately
+ran to the butler, and pulled him with all his force to rouse him from
+his lethargy. He came to his senses at length, but was so terrified and
+so helpless that, if it had not been for Franklin, the whole house would
+soon inevitably have been on fire. Felix, trembling and cowardly, knew
+not what to do; and it was curious to see him obeying Franklin, whose
+turn it now was to command. Franklin ran upstairs to awaken Mrs.
+Pomfret, whose terror of fire was so great that she came from her room
+almost out of her senses, whilst he, with the greatest presence of mind,
+recollected where he had seen two large tubs of water, which the maids
+had prepared the night before for their washing, and seizing the wet
+linen which had been left to soak, he threw them upon the flames. He
+exerted himself with so much good sense, that the fire was presently
+extinguished.
+
+Everything was now once more safe and quiet. Mrs. Pomfret, recovering
+from her fright, postponed all inquiries till the morning, and rejoiced
+that her mistress had not been awakened, whilst Corkscrew flattered
+himself that he should be able to conceal the true cause of the
+accident.
+
+'Don't you tell Mrs. Pomfret where you found the candle when you came
+into the room,' said he to Franklin. 'If she asks me, you know I must
+tell the truth,' replied he. 'Must!' repeated Felix, sneeringly; 'what,
+you _must_ be a tell-tale!' 'No, I never told any tales of anybody, and
+I should be very sorry to get any one into a scrape; but for all that I
+shall not tell a lie, either for myself or anybody else, let you call me
+what names you will.' 'But if I were to give you something that you
+would like,' said Corkscrew--'something that I know you would like?'
+repeated Felix. 'Nothing you can give me will do,' answered Franklin,
+steadily; 'so it is useless to say any more about it--I hope I shall not
+be questioned.' In this hope he was mistaken; for the first thing Mrs.
+Pomfret did in the morning was to come into the room to examine and
+deplore the burnt curtains, whilst Corkscrew stood by, endeavouring to
+exculpate himself by all the excuses he could invent.
+
+Mrs. Pomfret, however, though sometimes blinded by her prejudices, was
+no fool; and it was absolutely impossible to make her believe that a
+candle which had been left on the hearth, where Corkscrew protested he
+had left it, could have set curtains on fire which were at least six
+feet distant. Turning short round to Franklin, she desired that he would
+show her where he found the candle when he came into the room. He took
+up the candlestick; but the moment the housekeeper cast her eye upon it,
+she snatched it from his hands. 'How did this candlestick come here?
+This was not the candlestick you found here last night,' cried she.
+'Yes, indeed it was,' answered Franklin. 'That is impossible,' retorted
+she, vehemently, 'for I left this candlestick with my own hands, last
+night, in the hall, the last thing I did, after you,' said she, turning
+to the butler, 'was gone to bed--I'm sure of it. Nay, don't you
+recollect my taking this _japanned candlestick_ out of your hand, and
+making you to go up to bed with the brass one, and I bolted the door at
+the stair-head after you?'
+
+This was all very true; but Corkscrew had afterwards gone down from his
+room by a back staircase, unbolted that door, and, upon his return from
+the alehouse, had taken the japanned candlestick by mistake upstairs,
+and had left the brass one in its stead upon the hall table.
+
+'Oh, ma'am,' said Felix, 'indeed you forget; for Mr. Corkscrew came into
+my room to desire me to call him betimes in the morning, and I happened
+to take particular notice, and he had the japanned candlestick in his
+hand, and that was just as I heard you bolting the door. Indeed, ma'am,
+you forget.' 'Indeed, sir,' retorted Mrs. Pomfret, rising in anger, 'I
+do not forget; I'm not come to be _superannuated_ yet, I hope. How do
+you dare to tell me I forget?' 'Oh, ma'am,' cried Felix, 'I beg your
+pardon, I did not--I did not mean to say you forgot, but only I thought,
+perhaps, you might not particularly remember; for if you please to
+recollect----' 'I won't please to recollect just whatever you please,
+sir! Hold your tongue; why should you poke yourself into this scrape;
+what have you to do with it, I should be glad to know?' 'Nothing in the
+world, oh nothing in the world; I'm sure I beg your pardon, ma'am,'
+answered Felix, in a soft tone; and, sneaking off, left his friend
+Corkscrew to fight his own battle, secretly resolving to desert in good
+time, if he saw any danger of the alehouse transactions coming to light.
+
+Corkscrew could make but very blundering excuses for himself; and,
+conscious of guilt, he turned pale, and appeared so much more terrified
+than butlers usually appear when detected in a lie, that Mrs. Pomfret
+resolved, as she said, to sift the matter to the bottom. Impatiently did
+she wait till the clock struck nine, and her mistress's bell rang, the
+signal for her attendance at her levee. 'How do you find yourself this
+morning, ma'am?' said she, undrawing the curtains. 'Very sleepy,
+indeed,' answered her mistress in a drowsy voice; 'I think I must sleep
+half an hour longer--shut the curtains.' 'As you please, ma'am; but I
+suppose I had better open a little of the window shutter, for it's past
+nine.' 'But just struck.' 'Oh dear, ma'am, it struck before I came
+upstairs, and you know we are twenty minutes slow--Lord bless us!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Pomfret, as she let fall the bar of the window, which
+roused her mistress. 'I'm sure I beg your pardon a thousand times--it's
+only the bar--because I had this great key in my hand.' 'Put down the
+key, then, or you'll knock something else down; and you may open the
+shutters now, for I'm quite awake.' 'Dear me! I'm so sorry to think of
+disturbing you,' cried Mrs. Pomfret, at the same time throwing the
+shutters wide open; 'but, to be sure, ma'am, I have something to tell
+you which won't let you sleep again in a hurry. I brought up this here
+key of the house door for reasons of my own, which I'm sure you'll
+approve of; but I'm not come to that part of my story yet. I hope you
+were not disturbed by the noise in the house last night, ma'am.' 'I
+heard no noise.' 'I am surprised at that, though,' continued Mrs.
+Pomfret, and proceeded to give a most ample account of the fire, of her
+fears and her suspicions. 'To be sure, ma'am, what I say _is_, that
+without the spirit of prophecy one can nowadays account for what has
+passed. I'm quite clear in my own judgment that Mr. Corkscrew must have
+been out last night after I went to bed; for, besides the japanned
+candlestick, which of itself I'm sure is strong enough to hang a man,
+there's another circumstance, ma'am, that certifies it to me--though I
+have not mentioned it, ma'am, to no one yet,' lowering her
+voice--'Franklin, when I questioned him, told me that he left the
+lantern in the outside porch in the court last night, and this morning
+it was on the kitchen table. Now, ma'am, that lantern could not come
+without hands; and I could not forget about that, you know; for Franklin
+says he's sure he left the lantern out.' 'And do you believe _him_?'
+inquired her mistress. 'To be sure, ma'am--how can I help believing him?
+I never found him out in the least symptom of a lie since ever he came
+into the house; so one can't help believing in him, like him or not.'
+'Without meaning to tell a falsehood, however,' said the lady, 'he might
+make a mistake.' 'No, ma'am, he never makes mistakes; it is not his way
+to go gossiping and tattling; he never tells anything till he's asked,
+and then it's fit he should. About the sirloin of beef, and all, he was
+right in the end, I found, to do him justice; and I'm sure he's right
+now about the lantern--he's _always right_.'
+
+Mrs. Churchill could not help smiling.
+
+'If you had seen him, ma'am, last night in the midst of the fire--I'm
+sure we may thank him that we were not burned alive in our beds--and I
+shall never forget his coming to call me. Poor fellow! he that I was
+always scolding and scolding, enough to make him hate me. But he's too
+good to hate anybody; and I'll be bound I'll make it up to him now.'
+'Take care that you don't go from one extreme into another, Pomfret;
+don't spoil the boy.' 'No, ma'am, there's no danger of that; but I'm
+sure if you had seen him last night yourself, you would think he
+deserved to be rewarded.' 'And so he shall be rewarded,' said Mrs.
+Churchill; 'but I will try him more fully yet.' 'There's no occasion, I
+think, for trying him any more, ma'am,' said Mrs. Pomfret, who was as
+violent in her likings as in her dislikes. 'Pray desire,' continued her
+mistress, 'that he will bring up breakfast this morning; and leave the
+key of the house door, Pomfret, with me.'
+
+When Franklin brought the urn into the breakfast-parlour, his mistress
+was standing by the fire with the key in her hand. She spoke to him of
+his last night's exertions in terms of much approbation. 'How long have
+you lived with me?' said she, pausing; 'three weeks, I think?' 'Three
+weeks and four days, madam.' 'That is but a short time; yet you have
+conducted yourself so as to make me think I may depend upon you. You
+know this key?' 'I believe, madam, it is the key of the house door.' 'It
+is; I shall trust it in your care. It is a great trust for so young a
+person as you are.' Franklin stood silent, with a firm but modest
+look. 'If you take the charge of this key,' continued his mistress,
+'remember it is upon condition that you never give it out of your own
+hands. In the daytime it must not be left in the door. You must not tell
+anybody where you keep it at night; and the house door must not be
+unlocked after eleven o'clock at night, unless by my orders. Will you
+take charge of the key upon these conditions?' 'I will, madam, do
+anything you order me,' said Franklin, and received the key from her
+hands.
+
+[Illustration: _'You know this key? I shall trust it in your care.'_]
+
+When Mrs. Churchill's orders were made known, they caused many secret
+marvellings and murmurings. Corkscrew and Felix were disconcerted, and
+dared not openly avow their discontent; and they treated Franklin with
+the greatest seeming kindness and cordiality.
+
+Everything went on smoothly for three days. The butler never attempted
+his usual midnight visits to the alehouse, but went to bed in proper
+time, and paid particular court to Mrs. Pomfret, in order to dispel her
+suspicions. She had never had any idea of the real fact, that he and
+Felix were joined in a plot with housebreakers to rob the house, but
+thought he only went out at irregular hours to indulge himself in his
+passion for drinking.
+
+Thus stood affairs the night before Mrs. Churchill's birthday.
+Corkscrew, by the housekeeper's means, ventured to present a petition
+that he might go to the play the next day, and his request was granted.
+Franklin came into the kitchen just when all the servants had gathered
+round the butler, who, with great importance, was reading aloud the
+play-bill. Everybody present soon began to speak at once, and with great
+enthusiasm talked of the playhouse, the actors and actresses; and then
+Felix, in the first pause, turned to Franklin and said, 'Lord, you know
+nothing of all this! _you_ never went to a play, did you?' 'Never,' said
+Franklin, and felt, he did not know why, a little ashamed; and he longed
+extremely to go to one. 'How should you like to go to the play with me
+to-morrow?' said Corkscrew. 'Oh,' exclaimed Franklin, 'I should like it
+exceedingly.' 'And do you think mistress would let you if I asked?' 'I
+think--maybe she would, if Mrs. Pomfret asked her.' 'But then you have
+no money, have you?' 'No,' said Franklin, sighing. 'But stay,' said
+Corkscrew, 'what I'm thinking of is, that if mistress will let you go,
+I'll treat you myself, rather than that you should be disappointed.'
+
+Delight, surprise, and gratitude appeared in Franklin's face at these
+words. Corkscrew rejoiced to see that now, at least, he had found a most
+powerful temptation. 'Well, then, I'll go just now and ask her. In the
+meantime, lend me the key of the house door for a minute or two.' 'The
+key!' answered Franklin, starting; 'I'm sorry, but I can't do that, for
+I've promised my mistress never to let it out of my own hands.' 'But how
+will she know anything of the matter? Run, run, and get it for us.' 'No,
+I _cannot_,' replied Franklin, resisting the push which the butler gave
+his shoulder. 'You can't?' cried Corkscrew, changing his tone; 'then,
+sir, I can't take you to the play.' 'Very well, sir,' said Franklin,
+sorrowfully, but with steadiness. 'Very well, sir,' said Felix,
+mimicking him, 'you need not look so important, nor fancy yourself such
+a great man, because you're master of a key.'
+
+'Say no more to him,' interrupted Corkscrew; 'let him alone to take his
+own way. Felix, you would have no objection, I suppose, to going to the
+play with me?' 'Oh, I should like it of all things, if I did not come
+between anybody else. But come, come!' added the hypocrite, assuming a
+tone of friendly persuasion, 'you won't be such a blockhead, Franklin,
+as to lose going to the play for nothing; it's only just obstinacy. What
+harm can it do to lend Mr. Corkscrew the key for five minutes? he'll
+give it you back again safe and sound.' 'I don't doubt _that_,' answered
+Franklin. 'Then it must be all because you don't wish to oblige Mr.
+Corkscrew.' 'No, but I can't oblige him in this; for, as I told you
+before, my mistress trusted me. I promised never to let the key out of
+my own hands, and you would not have me break my trust. Mr. Spencer told
+me _that_ was worse than _robbing_.'
+
+At the word _robbing_ both Corkscrew and Felix involuntarily cast down
+their eyes, and turned the conversation immediately, saying that he did
+very right, that they did not really want the key, and had only asked
+for it just to try if he would keep his word. 'Shake hands,' said
+Corkscrew, 'I am glad to find you out to be an honest fellow!' 'I am
+sorry you did not think me an honest fellow before, Mr. Corkscrew,' said
+Franklin giving his hand rather proudly, and he walked away.
+
+'We shall make no hand of this prig,' said Corkscrew. 'But we'll have
+the key from him in spite of all his obstinacy,' said Felix; 'and let
+him make his story good as he can afterwards. He shall repent of these
+airs. To-night I'll watch him, and find out where he hides the key; and
+when he's asleep we'll get it without thanking him.'
+
+This plan Felix put into execution. They discovered the place where
+Franklin kept the key at night, stole it whilst he slept, took off the
+impression in wax, and carefully replaced it in Franklin's trunk,
+exactly where they found it.
+
+Probably our young readers cannot guess what use they could mean to make
+of this impression of the key in wax. Knowing how to do mischief is very
+different from wishing to do it, and the most innocent persons are
+generally the least ignorant. By means of the impression which they had
+thus obtained, Corkscrew and Felix proposed to get a false key made by
+Picklock, a smith who belonged to their gang of housebreakers; and with
+this false key knew they could open the door whenever they pleased.
+
+Little suspecting what had happened, Franklin, the next morning, went to
+unlock the house door as usual; but finding the key entangled in the
+lock, he took it out to examine it, and perceived a lump of wax sticking
+in one of the wards. Struck with this circumstance, it brought to his
+mind all that had passed the preceding evening, and, being sure that he
+had no wax near the key, he began to suspect what had happened; and he
+could not help recollecting what he had once heard Felix say, that 'give
+him but a halfpenny worth of wax, and he could open the strongest lock
+that ever was made by hands.'
+
+All these things considered, Franklin resolved to take the key just as
+it was, with the wax sticking to it, to his mistress.
+
+'I was not mistaken when I thought I might trust _you_ with this key,'
+said Mrs. Churchill, after she had heard his story. 'My brother will be
+here to-day, and I shall consult him. In the meantime, say nothing of
+what has passed.'
+
+Evening came, and after tea Mr. Spencer sent for Franklin upstairs. 'So,
+Mr. Franklin,' said he, 'I'm glad to find you are in such high _trust_
+in this family.' Franklin bowed. 'But you have lost, I understand, the
+pleasure of going to the play to-night.' 'I don't think anything--much,
+I mean, of that, sir,' answered Franklin, smiling. 'Are Corkscrew and
+Felix _gone_ to the play?' 'Yes; half an hour ago, sir.' 'Then I shall
+look into his room and examine the pantry and the plate that is under
+his care.'
+
+When Mr. Spencer came to examine the pantry, he found the large salvers
+and cups in a basket behind the door, and the other things placed so as
+to be easily carried off. Nothing at first appeared in Corkscrew's
+bedchamber to strengthen their suspicions, till, just as they were going
+to leave the room, Mrs. Pomfret exclaimed, 'Why, if there is not Mr.
+Corkscrew's dress coat hanging up there! and if here isn't Felix's fine
+cravat that he wanted in such a hurry to go to the play! Why, sir, they
+can't be gone to the play. Look at the cravat. Ah! upon my word I am
+afraid they are not at the play. No, sir, you may be sure that they are
+plotting with their barbarous gang at the alehouse; and they'll
+certainly break into the house to-night. We shall all be murdered in our
+beds, as sure as I'm a living woman, sir; but if you'll only take my
+advice----' 'Pray, good Mrs. Pomfret,' Mr. Spencer observed, 'don't be
+alarmed.' 'Nay, sir, but I won't pretend to sleep in the house, if
+Franklin isn't to have a blunderbuss, and I a _baggonet_.' 'You shall
+have both, indeed, Mrs. Pomfret; but don't make such a noise, for
+everybody will hear you.'
+
+The love of mystery was the only thing which could have conquered Mrs.
+Pomfret's love of talking. She was silent; and contented herself the
+rest of the evening with making signs, looking _ominous_, and stalking
+about the house like one possessed with a secret.
+
+Escaped from Mrs. Pomfret's fears and advice, Mr. Spencer went to a shop
+within a few doors of the alehouse which he heard Corkscrew frequented,
+and sent to beg to speak to the landlord. He came; and, when Mr. Spencer
+questioned him, confessed that Corkscrew and Felix were actually
+drinking in his house, with two men of suspicious appearance; that, as
+he passed through the passage, he heard them disputing about a key; and
+that one of them said, 'Since we've got the key, we'll go about it
+to-night.' This was sufficient information. Mr. Spencer, lest the
+landlord should give them information of what was going forwards, took
+him along with him to Bow Street.
+
+A constable and proper assistance was sent to Mrs. Churchill's. They
+stationed themselves in a back parlour which opened on a passage leading
+to the butler's pantry, where the plate was kept. A little after
+midnight they heard the hall door open. Corkscrew and his accomplices
+went directly to the pantry; and there Mr. Spencer and the constable
+immediately secured them, as they were carrying off their booty.
+
+Mrs. Churchill and Pomfret had spent the night at the house of an
+acquaintance in the same street. 'Well, ma'am,' said Mrs. Pomfret, who
+had heard all the news in the morning, 'the villains are all safe, thank
+God. I was afraid to go to the window this morning; but it was my luck
+to see them all go by to gaol. They looked so shocking! I am sure I
+never shall forget Felix's look to my dying day! But poor Franklin!
+ma'am; that boy has the best heart in the world. I could not get him to
+give a second look at them as they passed. Poor fellow! I thought he
+would have dropped; and he was so modest, ma'am, when Mr. Spencer spoke
+to him, and told him he had done his duty.' 'And did my brother tell him
+what reward I intend for him?' 'No, ma'am, and I'm sure Franklin thinks
+no more of _reward_ than I do.' 'I intend,' continued Mrs. Churchill,
+'to sell some of my old useless plate, and to lay it out in an annuity
+for Franklin's life.' 'La, ma'am!' exclaimed Mrs. Pomfret, with
+unfeigned joy, 'I'm sure you are very good; and I'm very glad of it.'
+'And,' continued Mrs. Churchill, 'here are some tickets for the play,
+which I shall beg you, Pomfret, to give him, and to take him with you.'
+
+'I am very much obliged to you, indeed, ma'am; and I'll go with him with
+all my heart, and choose such plays as won't do no prejudice to his
+morality. And, ma'am,' continued Mrs. Pomfret, 'the night after the fire
+I left him my great Bible and my watch, in my will; for I never was more
+mistaken at the first in any boy in my born days; but he has won me by
+his own _deserts_, and I shall from this time forth love all the
+_Villaintropic_ folks for his sake.'
+
+
+
+
+SIMPLE SUSAN
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+  Waked, as her custom was, before the day,
+  To do the observance due to sprightly May.
+                                      DRYDEN.
+
+In a retired hamlet on the borders of Wales, between Oswestry and
+Shrewsbury, it is still the custom to celebrate the 1st of May.
+
+The children of the village, who look forward to this rural festival
+with joyful eagerness, usually meet on the last day of April to make up
+their nosegays for the morning and to choose their queen. Their
+customary place of meeting is at a hawthorn which stands in a little
+green nook, open on one side to a shady lane, and separated on the other
+side by a thick sweet-brier and hawthorn hedge from the garden of an
+attorney.
+
+This attorney began the world with nothing, but he contrived to scrape
+together a good deal of money, everybody knew how. He built a new house
+at the entrance of the village, and had a large well-fenced garden, yet,
+notwithstanding his fences, he never felt himself secure. Such were his
+litigious habits and his suspicious temper that he was constantly at
+variance with his simple and peaceable neighbours. Some pig, or dog, or
+goat, or goose was for ever trespassing. His complaints and his
+extortions wearied and alarmed the whole hamlet. The paths in his fields
+were at length unfrequented, his stiles were blocked up with stones, or
+stuffed with brambles and briers, so that not a gosling could creep
+under, or a giant get over them. Indeed, so careful were even the
+village children of giving offence to this irritable man of the law,
+that they would not venture to fly a kite near his fields lest it should
+entangle in his trees or fall upon his meadow.
+
+Mr. Case, for this was the name of our attorney, had a son and a
+daughter, to whose education he had not time to attend, as his whole
+soul was intent upon accumulating for them a fortune. For several years
+he suffered his children to run wild in the village; but suddenly, on
+his being appointed to a considerable agency, he began to think of
+making his children a little genteel. He sent his son to learn Latin; he
+hired a maid to wait upon his daughter Barbara, and he strictly forbade
+her _thenceforward_ to keep company with any of the poor children who
+had hitherto been her playfellows. They were not sorry for this
+prohibition, because she had been their tyrant rather than their
+companion. She was vexed to observe that her absence was not regretted,
+and she was mortified to perceive that she could not humble them by any
+display of airs and finery.
+
+There was one poor girl, amongst her former associates, to whom she had
+a peculiar dislike,--Susan Price, a sweet-tempered, modest, sprightly,
+industrious lass, who was the pride and delight of the village. Her
+father rented a small farm, and, unfortunately for him, he lived near
+Attorney Case.
+
+Barbara used often to sit at her window, watching Susan at work.
+Sometimes she saw her in the neat garden raking the beds or weeding the
+borders; sometimes she was kneeling at her beehive with fresh flowers
+for her bees; sometimes she was in the poultry yard, scattering corn
+from her sieve amongst the eager chickens; and in the evening she was
+often seated in a little honeysuckle arbour, with a clean, light,
+three-legged deal table before her, upon which she put her plain work.
+
+Susan had been taught to work neatly by her good mother, who was very
+fond of her, and to whom she was most gratefully attached.
+
+Mrs. Price was an intelligent, active, domestic woman; but her health
+was not robust. She earned money, however, by taking in plain work; and
+she was famous for baking excellent bread and breakfast cakes. She was
+respected in the village, for her conduct as a wife and as a mother, and
+all were eager to show her attention. At her door the first branch of
+hawthorn was always placed on May morning, and her Susan was usually
+Queen of the May.
+
+It was now time to choose the Queen. The setting sun shone full upon the
+pink blossoms of the hawthorn, when the merry group assembled upon their
+little green. Barbara was now walking in sullen state in her father's
+garden. She heard the busy voices in the lane, and she concealed herself
+behind the high hedge, that she might listen to their conversation.
+
+'Where's Susan?' were the first unwelcome words which she overheard.
+'Ay, where's Susan?' repeated Philip, stopping short in the middle of a
+new tune that he was playing on his pipe. 'I wish Susan would come! I
+want her to sing me this same tune over again; I have not it yet.'
+
+'And I wish Susan would come, I'm sure,' cried a little girl, whose lap
+was full of primroses. 'Susan will give me some thread to tie up my
+nosegays, and she'll show me where the fresh violets grow; and she has
+promised to give me a great bunch of her double cowslips to wear
+to-morrow. I wish she would come.'
+
+'Nothing can be done without Susan! She always shows us where the nicest
+flowers are to be found in the lanes and meadows,' said they. 'She must
+make up the garlands; and she shall be Queen of the May!' exclaimed a
+multitude of little voices.
+
+'But she does not come!' said Philip.
+
+Rose, who was her particular friend, now came forward to assure the
+impatient assembly 'that she would answer for it Susan would come as
+soon as she possibly could, and that she probably was detained by
+business at home.'
+
+The little electors thought that all business should give way to theirs,
+and Rose was despatched to summon her friend immediately.
+
+'Tell her to make haste,' cried Philip. 'Attorney Case dined at the
+Abbey to-day--luckily for us. If he comes home and finds us here, maybe
+he'll drive us away; for he says this bit of ground belongs to his
+garden: though that is not true, I'm sure; for Farmer Price knows, and
+says, it was always open to the road. The Attorney wants to get our
+playground, so he does. I wish he and his daughter Bab, or Miss
+Barbara, as she must now be called, were a hundred miles off, out of
+our way, I know. No later than yesterday she threw down my ninepins in
+one of her ill-humours, as she was walking by with her gown all trailing
+in the dust.'
+
+'Yes,' cried Mary, the little primrose-girl, 'her gown is always
+trailing. She does not hold it up nicely, like Susan; and with all her
+fine clothes she never looks half so neat. Mamma says she wishes I may
+be like Susan, when I grow up to be a great girl, and so do I. I should
+not like to look conceited as Barbara does, if I was ever so rich.'
+
+'Rich or poor,' said Philip, 'it does not become a girl to look
+conceited, much less _bold_, as Barbara did the other day, when she was
+at her father's door without a hat upon her head, staring at the strange
+gentleman who stopped hereabout to let his horse drink. I know what he
+thought of Bab by his looks, and of Susan too; for Susan was in her
+garden, bending down a branch of the laburnum tree, looking at its
+yellow flowers, which were just come out; and when the gentleman asked
+her how many miles it was from Shrewsbury, she answered him so
+modest!--not bashful, like as if she had never seen nobody before--but
+just right: and then she pulled on her straw hat, which was fallen back
+with her looking up at the laburnum, and she went her ways home; and the
+gentleman says to me, after she was gone, "Pray, who is that neat modest
+girl----?" But I wish Susan would come,' cried Philip, interrupting
+himself.
+
+Susan was all this time, as her friend Rose rightly guessed, busy at
+home. She was detained by her father's returning later than usual. His
+supper was ready for him nearly an hour before he came home; and Susan
+swept up the ashes twice, and twice put on wood to make a cheerful blaze
+for him; but at last, when he did come in, he took no notice of the
+blaze or of Susan; and when his wife asked him how he did, he made no
+answer, but stood with his back to the fire, looking very gloomy. Susan
+put his supper upon the table, and set his own chair for him; but he
+pushed away the chair and turned from the table, saying--'I shall eat
+nothing, child! Why have you such a fire to roast me at this time of the
+year?'
+
+'You said yesterday, father, I thought, that you liked a little cheerful
+wood fire in the evening; and there was a great shower of hail; your
+coat is quite wet, we must dry it.'
+
+'Take it, then, child,' said he, pulling it off--'I shall soon have no
+coat to dry--and take my hat too,' said he, throwing it upon the ground.
+
+Susan hung up his hat, put his coat over the back of a chair to dry, and
+then stood anxiously looking at her mother, who was not well; she had
+this day fatigued herself with baking; and now, alarmed by her husband's
+moody behaviour, she sat down pale and trembling. He threw himself into
+a chair, folded his arms, and fixed his eyes upon the fire.
+
+Susan was the first who ventured to break silence. Happy the father who
+has such a daughter as Susan!--her unaltered sweetness of temper, and
+her playful, affectionate caresses, at last somewhat dissipated her
+father's melancholy.
+
+He could not be prevailed upon to eat any of the supper which had been
+prepared for him; however, with a faint smile, he told Susan that he
+thought he could eat one of her guinea-hen's eggs. She thanked him, and
+with that nimble alacrity which marks the desire to please, she ran to
+her neat chicken-yard; but, alas! her guinea-hen was not there--it had
+strayed into the attorney's garden. She saw it through the paling, and
+timidly opening the little gate, she asked Miss Barbara, who was walking
+slowly by, to let her come in and take her guinea-hen. Barbara, who was
+at this instant reflecting, with no agreeable feelings, upon the
+conversation of the village children, to which she had recently
+listened, started when she heard Susan's voice, and with a proud,
+ill-humoured look and voice, refused her request.
+
+'Shut the gate,' said Barbara, 'you have no business in _our_ garden;
+and as for your hen, I shall keep it; it is always flying in here and
+plaguing us, and my father says it is a trespasser; and he told me I
+might catch it and keep it the next time it got in, and it is in now.'
+Then Barbara called to her maid, Betty, and bid her catch the
+mischievous hen.
+
+'Oh, my guinea-hen! my pretty guinea-hen!' cried Susan, as they hunted
+the frightened, screaming creature from corner to corner.
+
+'Here we have got it!' said Betty, holding it fast by the legs.
+
+'Now pay damages, Queen Susan, or good-bye to your pretty guinea-hen,'
+said Barbara, in an insulting tone.
+
+'Damages! what damages?' said Susan; 'tell me what I must pay.' 'A
+shilling,' said Barbara. 'Oh, if sixpence would do!' said Susan; 'I have
+but sixpence of my own in the world, and here it is.' 'It won't do,'
+said Barbara, turning her back. 'Nay, but hear me,' cried Susan; 'let me
+at least come in to look for its eggs. I only want _one_ for my father's
+supper; you shall have all the rest.' 'What's your father, or his supper
+to us? is he so nice that he can eat none but guinea-hen's eggs?' said
+Barbara. 'If you want your hen and your eggs, pay for them, and you'll
+have them.' 'I have but sixpence, and you say that won't do,' said
+Susan, with a sigh, as she looked at her favourite, which was in the
+maid's grasping hands, struggling and screaming in vain.
+
+Susan retired disconsolate. At the door of her father's cottage she saw
+her friend Rose, who was just come to summon her to the hawthorn bush.
+
+'They are all at the hawthorn, and I am come for you. We can do nothing
+without _you_, dear Susan,' cried Rose, running to meet her, at the
+moment she saw her. 'You are chosen Queen of the May--come, make haste.
+But what is the matter? why do you look so sad?'
+
+'Ah!' said Susan, 'don't wait for me; I can't come to you, but,' added
+she, pointing to the tuft of double cowslips in the garden, 'gather
+those for poor little Mary; I promised them to her, and tell her the
+violets are under a hedge just opposite the turnstile, on the right as
+we go to church. Good-bye! never mind me; I can't come--I can't stay,
+for my father wants me.'
+
+'But don't turn away your face; I won't keep you a moment; only tell me
+what's the matter,' said her friend, following her into the cottage.
+
+'Oh, nothing, not much,' said Susan; 'only that I wanted the egg in a
+great hurry for father, it would not have vexed me--to be sure I should
+have clipped my guinea-hen's wings, and then she could not have flown
+over the hedge; but let us think no more about it, now,' added she,
+twinkling away a tear.
+
+When Rose, however, learnt that her friend's guinea-hen was detained
+prisoner by the attorney's daughter, she exclaimed, with all the honest
+warmth of indignation, and instantly ran back to tell the story to her
+companions.
+
+[Illustration: _'It won't do,' said Barbara, turning her back._]
+
+'Barbara! ay; like father, like daughter,' cried Farmer Price, starting
+from the thoughtful attitude in which he had been fixed, and drawing his
+chair closer to his wife.
+
+'You see something is amiss with me, wife--I'll tell you what it is.' As
+he lowered his voice, Susan, who was not sure that he wished she should
+hear what he was going to say, retired from behind his chair. 'Susan,
+don't go; sit you down here, my sweet Susan,' said he, making room for
+her upon his chair; 'I believe I was a little cross when I came in first
+to-night; but I had something to vex me, as you shall hear.
+
+'About a fortnight ago, you know, wife,' continued he, 'there was a
+balloting in our town for the militia; now at that time I wanted but ten
+days of forty years of age; and the attorney told me I was a fool for
+not calling myself plump forty. But the truth is the truth, and it is
+what I think fittest to be spoken at all times come what will of it. So
+I was drawn for a militiaman; but when I thought how loth you and I
+would be to part, I was main glad to hear that I could get off by paying
+eight or nine guineas for a substitute--only I had not the nine
+guineas--for, you know, we had bad luck with our sheep this year, and
+they died away one after another--but that was no excuse, so I went to
+Attorney Case, and, with a power of difficulty, I got him to lend me the
+money; for which, to be sure, I gave him something, and left my lease of
+our farm with him, as he insisted upon it, by way of security for the
+loan. Attorney Case is too many for me. He has found what he calls a
+_flaw_ in my lease; and the lease, he tells me, is not worth a farthing,
+and that he can turn us all out of our farm to-morrow if he pleases; and
+sure enough he will please; for I have thwarted him this day, and he
+swears he'll be revenged of me. Indeed, he has begun with me badly
+enough already. I'm not come to the worst part of my story yet----'
+
+Here Farmer Price made a dead stop; and his wife and Susan looked up in
+his face, breathless with anxiety.
+
+'It must come out,' said he, with a short sigh; 'I must leave you in
+three days, wife.'
+
+'Must you?' said his wife, in a faint, resigned voice. 'Susan, love,
+open the window.' Susan ran to open the window, and then returned to
+support her mother's head. When she came a little to herself she sat up,
+begged that her husband would go on, and that nothing might be concealed
+from her. Her husband had no wish indeed to conceal anything from a
+wife he loved so well; but, firm as he was, and steady to his maxim,
+that the truth was the thing the fittest to be spoken at all times, his
+voice faltered, and it was with great difficulty that he brought himself
+to speak the whole truth at this moment.
+
+The fact was this. Case met Farmer Price as he was coming home,
+whistling, from a new-ploughed field. The attorney had just dined at
+_The Abbey_. The Abbey was the family seat of an opulent baronet in the
+neighbourhood, to whom Mr. Case had been agent. The baronet died
+suddenly, and his estate and title devolved to a younger brother, who
+was now just arrived in the country, and to whom Mr. Case was eager to
+pay his court, in hopes of obtaining his favour. Of the agency he
+flattered himself that he was pretty secure; and he thought that he
+might assume a tone of command towards the tenants, especially towards
+one who was some guineas in debt, and in whose lease there was a flaw.
+
+Accosting the farmer in a haughty manner, the attorney began with, 'So,
+Farmer Price, a word with you, if you please. Walk on here, man, beside
+my horse, and you'll hear me. You have changed your opinion, I hope,
+about that bit of land--that corner at the end of my garden?' 'As how,
+Mr. Case?' said the farmer. 'As how, man! Why, you said something about
+it's not belonging to me, when you heard me talk of enclosing it the
+other day.' 'So I did,' said Price, 'and so I do.'
+
+Provoked and astonished at the firm tone in which these words were
+pronounced, the attorney was upon the point of swearing that he would
+have his revenge; but, as his passions were habitually attentive to the
+_letter_ of the law, he refrained from any hasty expression, which
+might, he was aware, in a court of justice, be hereafter brought against
+him.
+
+'My good friend, Mr. Price,' said he, in a soft voice, and pale with
+suppressed rage. He forced a smile. 'I'm under the necessity of calling
+in the money I lent you some time ago, and you will please to take
+notice that it must be paid to-morrow morning. I wish you a good
+evening. You have the money ready for me, I daresay.'
+
+'No,' said the farmer, 'not a guinea of it; but John Simpson, who was my
+substitute, has not left our village yet. I'll get the money back from
+him, and go myself, if so be it must be so, into the militia--so I
+will.'
+
+The attorney did not expect such a determination, and he represented, in
+a friendly, hypocritical tone to Price, that he had no wish to drive him
+to such an extremity; that it would be the height of folly in him _to
+run his head against a wall for no purpose_. 'You don't mean to take the
+corner into your own garden, do you, Price?' said he. 'I,' said the
+farmer, 'God forbid! it's none of mine; I never take what does not
+belong to me.' 'True, right, very proper, of course,' said Mr. Case;
+'but then you have no interest in life in the land in question?' 'None.'
+'Then why so stiff about it, Price? All I want of you to say----' 'To
+say that black is white, which I won't do, Mr. Case. The ground is a
+thing not worth talking of; but it's neither yours nor mine. In my
+memory, since the _new_ lane was made, it has always been open to the
+parish; and no man shall enclose it with my good-will. Truth is truth,
+and must be spoken; justice is justice, and should be done, Mr.
+Attorney.'
+
+'And law is law, Mr. Farmer, and shall have its course, to your cost,'
+cried the attorney, exasperated by the dauntless spirit of this village
+Hampden.
+
+Here they parted. The glow of enthusiasm, the pride of virtue, which
+made our hero brave, could not render him insensible. As he drew nearer
+home, many melancholy thoughts pressed upon his heart. He passed the
+door of his own cottage with resolute steps, however, and went through
+the village in search of the man who had engaged to be his substitute.
+He found him, told him how the matter stood; and luckily the man, who
+had not yet spent the money, was willing to return it; as there were
+many others drawn for the militia, who, he observed, would be glad to
+give him the same price, or more, for his services.
+
+The moment Price got the money, he hastened to Mr. Case's house, walked
+straight forward into his room, and laying the money down upon his desk,
+'There, Mr. Attorney, are your nine guineas; count them; now I have done
+with you.'
+
+'Not yet,' said the attorney, jingling the money triumphantly in his
+hand. 'We'll give you a taste of the law, my good sir, or I'm mistaken.
+You forgot the flaw in your lease, which I have safe in this desk.'
+
+'Ah, my lease,' said the farmer, who had almost forgot to ask for it
+till he was thus put in mind of it by the attorney's imprudent threat.
+
+'Give me my lease, Mr. Case. I've paid my money; you have no right to
+keep the lease any longer, whether it is a bad one or a good one.'
+
+'Pardon me,' said the attorney, locking his desk and putting the key
+into his pocket, 'possession, my honest friend,' cried he, striking his
+hand upon the desk, 'is nine points of the law. Good-night to you. I
+cannot in conscience return a lease to a tenant in which I know there is
+a capital flaw. It is my duty to show it to my employer; or, in other
+words, to your new landlord, whose agent I have good reasons to expect I
+shall be. You will live to repent your obstinacy, Mr. Price. Your
+servant, sir.'
+
+Price retired with melancholy feelings, but not intimidated. Many a man
+returns home with a gloomy countenance, who has not quite so much cause
+for vexation.
+
+When Susan heard her father's story, she quite forgot her guinea-hen,
+and her whole soul was intent upon her poor mother, who, notwithstanding
+her utmost exertion, could not support herself under this sudden stroke
+of misfortune.
+
+In the middle of the night Susan was called up; her mother's fever ran
+high for some hours; but towards morning it abated, and she fell into a
+soft sleep with Susan's hand locked fast in hers.
+
+Susan sat motionless, and breathed softly, lest she should disturb her.
+The rushlight, which stood beside the bed, was now burnt low; the long
+shadow of the tall wicker chair flitted, faded, appeared, and vanished,
+as the flame rose and sank in the socket. Susan was afraid that the
+disagreeable smell might waken her mother; and, gently disengaging her
+hand, she went on tiptoe to extinguish the candle. All was silent: the
+gray light of the morning was now spreading over every object; the sun
+rose slowly, and Susan stood at the lattice window, looking through the
+small leaded, crossbarred panes at the splendid spectacle. A few birds
+began to chirp; but, as Susan was listening to them, her mother started
+in her sleep, and spoke unintelligibly. Susan hung up a white apron
+before the window to keep out the light, and just then she heard the
+sound of music at a distance in the village. As it approached nearer,
+she knew that it was Philip playing upon his pipe and tabor. She
+distinguished the merry voices of her companions 'carolling in honour of
+the May,' and soon she saw them coming towards her father's cottage,
+with branches and garlands in their hands. She opened quick, but gently,
+the latch of the door, and ran out to meet them.
+
+'Here she is!--here's Susan!' they exclaimed joyfully. 'Here's the Queen
+of the May.' 'And here's her crown!' cried Rose, pressing forward; but
+Susan put her finger upon her lips, and pointed to her mother's window.
+Philip's pipe stopped instantly.
+
+'Thank you,' said Susan, 'my mother is ill; I can't leave her, you
+know.' Then gently putting aside the crown, her companions bid her say
+who should wear it for her.
+
+'Will you, dear Rose?' said she, placing the garland upon her friend's
+head. 'It's a charming May morning,' added she, with a smile; 'good-bye.
+We shan't hear your voices or the pipe when you have turned the corner
+into the village; so you need only stop till then, Philip.'
+
+'I shall stop for all day,' said Philip; 'I've no mind to play any
+more.'
+
+'Good-bye, poor Susan. It is a pity you can't come with us,' said all
+the children; and little Mary ran after Susan to the cottage door.
+
+'I forgot to thank you,' said she, 'for the double cowslips; look how
+pretty they are, and smell how sweet the violets are in my bosom, and
+kiss me quick, for I shall be left behind.' Susan kissed the little
+breathless girl, and returned softly to the side of her mother's bed.
+
+'How grateful that child is to me for a cowslip only! How can I be
+grateful enough to such a mother as this?' said Susan to herself, as she
+bent over her sleeping mother's pale countenance.
+
+Her mother's unfinished knitting lay upon a table near the bed, and
+Susan sat down in her wicker arm-chair, and went on with the row, in the
+middle of which her hand stopped the preceding evening. 'She taught me
+to knit, she taught me everything that I know,' thought Susan, 'and the
+best of all, she taught me to love her, to wish to be like her.'
+
+Her mother, when she awakened, felt much refreshed by her tranquil
+sleep, and observing that it was a delightful morning, said 'that she
+had been dreaming she heard music; but that the drum frightened her,
+because she thought it was the signal for her husband to be carried away
+by a whole regiment of soldiers, who had pointed their bayonets at him.
+But that was but a dream, Susan; I awoke, and knew it was a dream, and I
+then fell asleep, and have slept soundly ever since.'
+
+How painful it is to awake to the remembrance of misfortune. Gradually
+as this poor woman collected her scattered thoughts, she recalled the
+circumstances of the preceding evening. She was too certain that she had
+heard from her husband's own lips the words, '_I must leave you in three
+days_'; and she wished that she could sleep again, and think it all a
+dream.
+
+'But he'll want, he'll want a hundred things,' said she, starting up. 'I
+must get his linen ready for him. I'm afraid it's very late. Susan, why
+did you let me lie so long?'
+
+'Everything shall be ready, dear mother; only don't hurry yourself,'
+said Susan. And indeed her mother was ill able to bear any hurry, or to
+do any work this day. Susan's affectionate, dexterous, sensible activity
+was never more wanted, or more effectual. She understood so readily, she
+obeyed so exactly; and when she was left to her own discretion, judged
+so prudently, that her mother had little trouble and no anxiety in
+directing her. She said that Susan never did too little, or too much.
+
+Susan was mending her father's linen, when Rose tapped softly at the
+window, and beckoned to her to come out. She went out. 'How does your
+mother do, in the first place?' said Rose. 'Better, thank you.' 'That's
+well, and I have a little bit of good news for you besides--here,' said
+she, pulling out a glove, in which there was money, 'we'll get the
+guinea-hen back again--we have all agreed about it. This is the money
+that has been given to us in the village this May morning. At every door
+they gave silver. See how generous they have been--twelve shillings, I
+assure you. Now we are a match for Miss Barbara. You won't like to leave
+home; I'll go to Barbara, and you shall see your guinea-hen in ten
+minutes.'
+
+Rose hurried away, pleased with her commission, and eager to accomplish
+her business. Miss Barbara's maid, Betty, was the first person that was
+visible at the attorney's house. Rose insisted upon seeing Miss Barbara
+herself, and she was shown into a parlour to the young lady, who was
+reading a dirty novel, which she put under a heap of law papers as they
+entered.
+
+'Dear, how you _startled_ me! Is it only you?' said she to her maid; but
+as soon as she saw Rose behind the maid, she put on a scornful air.
+'Could not ye say I was not at home, Betty? Well, my good girl, what
+brings you here? Something to borrow or beg, I suppose.'
+
+May every ambassador--every ambassador in as good a cause--answer with
+as much dignity and moderation as Rose replied to Barbara upon the
+present occasion. She assured her that the person from whom she came did
+not send her either to beg or borrow; that she was able to pay the full
+value of that for which she came to ask; and, producing her well-filled
+purse, 'I believe that this is a very good shilling,' said she. 'If you
+don't like it, I will change it, and now you will be so good as to give
+me Susan's guinea-hen. It is in her name I ask for it.'
+
+'No matter in whose name you ask for it,' replied Barbara, 'you will not
+have it. Take up your shilling, if you please. I would have taken a
+shilling yesterday, if it had been paid at the time properly; but I told
+Susan, that if it was not paid then, I should keep the hen, and so I
+shall, I promise her. You may go back, and tell her so.'
+
+The attorney's daughter had, whilst Rose opened her negotiation,
+measured the depth of her purse with a keen eye; and her penetration
+discovered that it contained at least ten shillings. With proper
+management she had some hopes that the guinea-hen might be made to bring
+in at least half the money.
+
+Rose, who was of a warm temper, not quite so fit a match as she had
+thought herself for the wily Barbara, incautiously exclaimed, 'Whatever
+it costs us, we are determined to have Susan's favourite hen; so, if one
+shilling won't do, take two; and if two won't do, why, take three.'
+
+The shillings sounded provoking upon the table, as she threw them down
+one after another, and Barbara coolly replied, 'Three won't do.' 'Have
+you no conscience, Miss Barbara? Then take four.' Barbara shook her
+head. A fifth shilling was instantly proffered; but Bab, who now saw
+plainly that she had the game in her own hands, preserved a cold, cruel
+silence. Rose went on rapidly, bidding shilling after shilling, till she
+had completely emptied her purse. The twelve shillings were spread upon
+the table. Barbara's avarice was moved; she consented for this ransom to
+liberate her prisoner.
+
+Rose pushed the money towards her; but just then, recollecting that she
+was acting for others more than for herself, and doubting whether she
+had full powers to conclude such an extravagant bargain, she gathered up
+the public treasure, and with newly-recovered prudence observed that she
+must go back to consult her friends. Her generous little friends were
+amazed at Barbara's meanness, but with one accord declared that they
+were most willing, for their parts, to give up every farthing of the
+money. They all went to Susan in a body, and told her so. 'There's our
+purse,' said they; 'do what you please with it.' They would not wait for
+one word of thanks, but ran away, leaving only Rose with her to settle
+the treaty for the guinea-hen.
+
+There is a certain manner of accepting a favour, which shows true
+generosity of mind. Many know how to give, but few know how to accept a
+gift properly. Susan was touched, but not astonished, by the kindness of
+her young friends, and she received the purse with as much simplicity as
+she would have given it.
+
+'Well,' said Rose, 'shall I go back for the guinea-hen?' 'The
+guinea-hen!' said Susan, starting from a reverie into which she had
+fallen, as she contemplated the purse. 'Certainly I _do_ long to see my
+pretty guinea-hen once more; but I was not thinking of her just then--I
+was thinking of my father.'
+
+Now Susan had heard her mother often, in the course of this day, wish
+that she had but money enough in the world to pay John Simpson for going
+to serve in the militia instead of her husband. 'This, to be sure, will
+go but a little way,' thought Susan; 'but still it may be of some use to
+my father.' She told her mind to Rose, and concluded by saying,
+decidedly, that 'if the money was given to her to dispose of as she
+pleased, she would give it to her father.'
+
+'It is all yours, my dear good Susan,' cried Rose, with a look of warm
+approbation. 'This is so like you!--but I'm sorry that Miss Bab must
+keep your guinea-hen. I would not be her for all the guinea-hens, or
+guineas either, in the whole world. Why, I'll answer for it, the
+guinea-hen won't make her happy, and you'll be happy _even_ without;
+because you are good. Let me come and help you to-morrow,' continued
+she, looking at Susan's work, 'if you have any more mending work to
+do--I never liked work till I worked with you. I won't forget my thimble
+or my scissors,' added she, laughing--'though I used to forget them when
+I was a giddy girl. I assure you I am a great hand at my needle,
+now--try me.'
+
+Susan assured her friend that she did not doubt the powers of her
+needle, and that she would most willingly accept of her services, but
+that _unluckily_ she had finished all her needlework that was
+immediately wanted.
+
+'But do you know,' said she, 'I shall have a great deal of business
+to-morrow; but I won't tell you what it is that I have to do, for I am
+afraid I shall not succeed; but if I do succeed, I'll come and tell you
+directly, because you will be so glad of it.'
+
+Susan, who had always been attentive to what her mother taught her, and
+who had often assisted her when she was baking bread and cakes for the
+family at the Abbey, had now formed the courageous, but not
+presumptuous, idea that she could herself undertake to bake a batch of
+bread. One of the servants from the Abbey had been sent all round the
+village in the morning in search of bread, and had not been able to
+procure any that was tolerable. Mrs. Price's last baking failed for want
+of good barm. She was not now strong enough to attempt another herself;
+and when the brewer's boy came with eagerness to tell her that he had
+some fine fresh yeast, she thanked him, but sighed, and said it would be
+of no use to her. Accordingly she went to work with much prudent care,
+and when her bread the next morning came out of the oven, it was
+excellent; at least her mother said so, and she was a good judge. It was
+sent to the Abbey; and as the family there had not tasted any good bread
+since their arrival in the country, they also were earnest and warm in
+its praise. Inquiries were made from the housekeeper, and they heard,
+with some surprise, that this excellent bread was made by a young girl
+only twelve years old.
+
+The housekeeper, who had known Susan from a child, was pleased to have
+an opportunity in speaking in her favour. 'She is the most industrious
+little creature, ma'am, in the world,' said she to her mistress. 'Little
+I can't so well call her now, since she's grown tall and slender to look
+at; and glad I am she is grown up likely to look at; for handsome is
+that handsome does; she thinks no more of her being handsome than I do
+myself; yet she has as proper a respect for herself, ma'am, as you have;
+and I always see her neat, and with her mother, ma'am, or fit people, as
+a girl should be. As for her mother, she dotes upon her, as well she
+may; for I should myself if I had half such a daughter; and then she has
+two little brothers; and she's as good to them, and, my boy Philip says,
+taught 'em to read more than the schoolmistress, all with tenderness and
+good nature; but I beg your pardon, ma'am, I cannot stop myself when I
+once begin to talk of Susan.'
+
+'You have really said enough to excite my curiosity,' said her mistress;
+'pray send for her immediately; we can see her before we go out to
+walk.'
+
+The benevolent housekeeper despatched her boy Philip for Susan, who
+never happened to be in such an _untidy_ state as to be unable to obey a
+summons without a long preparation. She had, it is true, been very busy;
+but orderly people can be busy and neat at the same time. She put on her
+usual straw hat, and accompanied Rose's mother, who was going with a
+basket of cleared muslin to the Abbey.
+
+The modest simplicity of Susan's appearance, and the artless good sense
+and propriety of the answers she gave to all the questions that were
+asked her, pleased the ladies at the Abbey, who were good judges of
+character and manners.
+
+Sir Arthur Somers had two sisters, sensible, benevolent women. They were
+not of that race of fine ladies who are miserable the moment they come
+to _the country_; nor yet were they of that bustling sort, who quack and
+direct all their poor neighbours, for the mere love of managing, or the
+want of something to do. They were judiciously generous; and whilst they
+wished to diffuse happiness, they were not peremptory in requiring that
+people should be happy precisely their own way. With these dispositions,
+and with a well-informed brother, who, though he never wished to
+direct, was always willing to assist in their efforts to do good, there
+were reasonable hopes that these ladies would be a blessing to the poor
+villagers amongst whom they were now settled.
+
+As soon as Miss Somers had spoken to Susan, she inquired for her
+brother; but Sir Arthur was in his study, and a gentleman was with him
+on business.
+
+Susan was desirous of returning to her mother, and the ladies therefore
+would not detain her. Miss Somers told her, with a smile, when she took
+leave, that she would call upon her in the evening at six o'clock.
+
+It was impossible that such a grand event as Susan's visit to the Abbey
+could long remain unknown to Barbara Case and her gossiping maid. They
+watched eagerly for the moment of her return, that they might satisfy
+their curiosity. 'There she is, I declare, just come into her garden,'
+cried Bab; 'I'll run in and get it all out of her in a minute.'
+
+Bab could descend, without shame, whenever it suited her purposes, from
+the height of insolent pride to the lowest meanness of fawning
+familiarity.
+
+Susan was gathering some marigolds and some parsley for her mother's
+broth.
+
+'So, Susan,' said Bab, who came close up to her before she perceived it,
+'how goes the world with you to-day?' 'My mother is rather better
+to-day, she says, ma'am--thank you,' replies Susan, coldly but civilly.
+'_Ma'am!_ dear, how polite we are grown of a sudden!' cried Bab, winking
+at her maid. 'One may see you've been in good company this morning--hey,
+Susan? Come, let's hear about it.' 'Did you see the ladies themselves,
+or was it only the housekeeper sent for you?' said the maid. 'What room
+did you go into?' continued Bab. 'Did you see Miss Somers, or Sir
+Arthur?' 'Miss Somers.' 'La! she saw Miss Somers! Betty, I must hear
+about it. Can't you stop gathering those things for a minute and chat a
+bit with us, Susan?' 'I can't stay, indeed, Miss Barbara; for my
+mother's broth is just wanted, and I'm in a hurry.' Susan ran home.
+
+'Lord, her head is full of broth now,' said Bab to her maid; 'and she
+has not a word for herself, though she has been abroad. My papa may well
+call her _Simple Susan_; for simple she is, and simple she will be, all
+the world over. For my part, I think she's little better than a
+downright simpleton. But, however, simple or not, I'll get what I want
+out of her. She'll be able to speak, maybe, when she has settled the
+grand matter of the broth. I'll step in and ask to see her mother, that
+will put her in a good humour in a trice.'
+
+Barbara followed Susan into the cottage, and found her occupied with the
+grand affair of the broth. 'Is it ready?' said Bab, peeping into the pot
+that was over the fire. 'Dear, how savoury it smells! I'll wait till you
+go in with it to your mother; for I must ask her how she does myself.'
+'Will you please to sit down then, miss?' said Simple Susan, with a
+smile; for at this instant she forgot the guinea-hen; 'I have but just
+put the parsley into the broth; but it soon will be ready.'
+
+During this interval Bab employed herself, much to her own satisfaction,
+in cross-questioning Susan. She was rather provoked indeed that she
+could not learn exactly how each of the ladies was dressed, and what
+there was to be for dinner at the Abbey; and she was curious beyond
+measure to find out what Miss Somers meant by saying that she would call
+at Mr. Price's cottage at six o'clock in the evening. 'What do you think
+she could mean?' 'I thought she meant what she said,' replied Susan,
+'that she would come here at six o'clock.' 'Ay, that's as plain as a
+pike-staff,' said Barbara; 'but what else did she mean, think you?
+People, you know, don't always mean exactly, downright, neither more nor
+less than what they say.' 'Not always,' said Susan, with an arch smile,
+which convinced Barbara that she was not quite a simpleton. '_Not
+always_,' repeated Barbara colouring,--'oh, then I suppose you have some
+guess at what Miss Somers meant.' 'No,' said Susan, 'I was not thinking
+about Miss Somers, when I said not always.' 'How nice that broth does
+look,' resumed Barbara, after a pause.
+
+Susan had now poured the broth into a basin, and as she strewed over it
+the bright orange marigolds, it looked very tempting. She tasted it, and
+added now a little salt, and now a little more, till she thought it was
+just to her mother's taste. 'Oh, _I_ must taste it,' said Bab, taking
+the basin up greedily. 'Won't you take a spoon?' said Susan, trembling
+at the large mouthfuls which Barbara sucked up with a terrible noise.
+'Take a spoonful, indeed!' exclaimed Barbara, setting down the basin in
+high anger. 'The next time I taste your broth you shall affront me, if
+you dare! The next time I set my foot in this house, you shall be as
+saucy to me as you please.' And she flounced out of the house, repeating
+'_Take a spoon, pig_, was what you meant to say.'
+
+Susan stood in amazement at the beginning of this speech; but the
+concluding words explained to her the mystery.
+
+Some years before this time, when Susan was a very little girl, and
+could scarcely speak plain, as she was eating a basin of bread and milk
+for her supper at the cottage door, a great pig came up and put his nose
+into the basin. Susan was willing that the pig should have some share of
+the bread and milk; but as she ate with a spoon and he with his large
+mouth, she presently discovered that he was likely to have more than his
+share; and in a simple tone of expostulation she said to him, 'Take a
+_poon_, pig.'[7] The saying became proverbial in the village. Susan's
+little companions repeated it, and applied it upon many occasions,
+whenever any one claimed more than his share of anything good. Barbara,
+who was then not Miss Barbara, but plain Bab, and who had played with
+all the poor children in the neighbourhood, was often reproved in her
+unjust methods of division by Susan's proverb. Susan, as she grew up,
+forgot the childish saying; but the remembrance of it rankled in
+Barbara's mind, and it was to this that she suspected Susan had alluded,
+when she recommended a spoon to her, whilst she was swallowing the basin
+of broth.
+
+  [7] This is a true anecdote.
+
+'La, miss,' said Barbara's maid, when she found her mistress in a
+passion upon her return from Susan's, 'I only wondered you did her the
+honour to set your foot within her doors. What need have you to trouble
+her for news about the Abbey folks, when your own papa has been there
+all the morning, and is just come in, and can tell you everything?'
+
+Barbara did not know that her father meant to go to the Abbey that
+morning, for Attorney Case was mysterious even to his own family about
+his morning rides. He never chose to be asked where he was going, or
+where he had been; and this made his servants more than commonly
+inquisitive to trace him.
+
+Barbara, against whose apparent childishness and real cunning he was not
+sufficiently on his guard, had often the art of drawing him into
+conversation about his visits. She ran into her father's parlour; but
+she knew, the moment she saw his face, that it was no time to ask
+questions; his pen was across his mouth, and his brown wig pushed
+oblique upon his contracted forehead. The wig was always pushed crooked
+whenever he was in a brown, or rather a black, study. Barbara, who did
+not, like Susan, bear with her father's testy humour from affection and
+gentleness of disposition, but who always humoured him from artifice,
+tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts, and when she found that _it_
+would not do, she went to tell her maid so, and to complain that her
+father was so cross there was no bearing him.
+
+It is true that Attorney Case was not in the happiest mood possible; for
+he was by no means satisfied with his morning's work at the Abbey. Sir
+Arthur Somers, the _new man_, did not suit him, and he began to be
+rather apprehensive that he should not suit Sir Arthur. He had sound
+reasons for his doubts.
+
+Sir Arthur Somers was an excellent lawyer, and a perfectly honest man.
+This seemed to our attorney a contradiction in terms; in the course of
+his practice the case had not occurred; and he had no precedents ready
+to direct his proceedings. Sir Arthur was also a man of wit and
+eloquence, yet of plain dealing and humanity. The attorney could not
+persuade himself to believe that his benevolence was anything but
+enlightened cunning, and his plain dealing he one minute dreaded as the
+masterpiece of art, and the next despised as the characteristic of
+folly. In short, he had not yet decided whether he was an honest man or
+a knave. He had settled accounts with him for his late agency, and had
+talked about sundry matters of business. He constantly perceived,
+however, that he could not impose upon Sir Arthur; but the idea that he
+could know all the mazes of the law, and yet prefer the straight road,
+was incomprehensible.
+
+Mr. Case having paid Sir Arthur some compliments on his great legal
+abilities, and his high reputation at the bar, he coolly replied, 'I
+have left the bar.' The attorney looked in unfeigned astonishment that a
+man who was actually making L3000 per annum at the bar should leave it.
+
+'I am come,' said Sir Arthur, 'to enjoy that kind of domestic life in
+the country which I prefer to all others, and amongst people whose
+happiness I hope to increase.' At this speech the attorney changed his
+ground, flattering himself that he should find his man averse to
+business, and ignorant of country affairs. He talked of the value of
+land, and of new leases.
+
+[Illustration: _Tried all her skill to fathom his thoughts._]
+
+Sir Arthur wished to enlarge his domain, and to make a ride round it. A
+map of it was lying upon the table, and Farmer Price's garden came
+exactly across the new road for the ride. Sir Arthur looked
+disappointed; and the keen attorney seized the moment to inform him that
+'Price's whole land was at his disposal.'
+
+'At my disposal! how so?' cried Sir Arthur, eagerly; 'it will not be out
+of lease, I believe, these ten years. I'll look into the rent-roll
+again; perhaps I am mistaken.'
+
+'You are mistaken, my good sir, and you are not mistaken,' said Mr.
+Case, with a shrewd smile. 'In one sense, the land will not be out of
+lease these ten years, and in another it is out of lease at this present
+time. To come to the point at once, the lease is, _ab origine_, null and
+void. I have detected a capital flaw in the body of it. I pledge my
+credit upon it, sir, it can't stand a single term in law or equity.'
+
+The attorney observed that at these words Sir Arthur's eye was fixed
+with a look of earnest attention. 'Now I have him,' said the cunning
+tempter to himself.
+
+'Neither in law nor equity,' repeated Sir Arthur, with apparent
+incredulity. 'Are you sure of that, Mr. Case?' 'Sure! As I told you
+before, sir, I'd pledge my whole credit upon the thing--I'd stake my
+existence.' '_That's something_,' said Sir Arthur, as if he was
+pondering upon the matter.
+
+The attorney went on with all the eagerness of a keen man, who sees a
+chance at one stroke of winning a rich friend and of ruining a poor
+enemy. He explained, with legal volubility and technical amplification,
+the nature of the mistake in Mr. Price's lease. 'It was, sir,' said he,
+'a lease for the life of Peter Price, Susanna his wife, and to the
+survivor or survivors of them, or for the full time and term of twenty
+years, to be computed from the first day of May then next ensuing. Now,
+sir, this, you see, is a lease in reversion, which the late Sir Benjamin
+Somers had not, by his settlement, a right to make. This is a curious
+mistake, you see, Sir Arthur; and in filling up those printed leases
+there's always a good chance of some flaw. I find it perpetually; but I
+never found a better than this in the whole course of my practice.'
+
+Sir Arthur stood in silence.
+
+'My dear sir,' said the attorney, taking him by the button, 'you have no
+scruple of stirring in this business?'
+
+'A little,' said Sir Arthur.
+
+'Why, then, that can be done away in a moment. Your name shall not
+appear in it at all. You have nothing to do but to make over the lease
+to me. I make all safe to you with my bond. Now, being in possession, I
+come forward in my own proper person. _Shall I proceed?_'
+
+'No--you have said enough,' replied Sir Arthur.
+
+'The case, indeed, lies in a nutshell,' said the attorney, who had by
+this time worked himself up to such a pitch of professional enthusiasm
+that, intent upon his vision of a lawsuit, he totally forgot to observe
+the impression his words made upon Sir Arthur.
+
+'There's only one thing we have forgotten all this time,' said Sir
+Arthur. 'What can that be, sir?' 'That we shall ruin this poor man.'
+
+Case was thunderstruck at these words, or rather, by the look which
+accompanied them. He recollected that he had laid himself open before he
+was sure of Sir Arthur's _real_ character. He softened, and said he
+should have had certainly more _consideration_ in the case of any but a
+litigious, pig-headed fellow, as he knew Price to be.
+
+'If he be litigious,' said Sir Arthur, 'I shall certainly be glad to get
+him fairly out of the parish as soon as possible. When you go home, you
+will be so good, sir, as to send me his lease, that I may satisfy myself
+before we stir in this business.'
+
+The attorney, brightening up, prepared to take leave; but he could not
+persuade himself to take his departure without making one push at Sir
+Arthur about the agency.
+
+'I will not trouble _you_, Sir Arthur, with this lease of Price's,'
+said Case; 'I'll leave it with your agent. Whom shall I apply to?'
+'_To myself_, sir, if you please,' replied Sir Arthur.
+
+The courtiers of Louis the Fourteenth could not have looked more
+astounded than our attorney, when they received from their monarch a
+similar answer. It was this unexpected reply of Sir Arthur's which had
+deranged the temper of Mr. Case, and caused his wig to stand so crooked
+upon his forehead, and which had rendered him impenetrably silent to his
+inquisitive daughter Barbara.
+
+After having walked up and down his room, conversing with himself, for
+some time, the attorney concluded that the agency must be given to
+somebody when Sir Arthur should have to attend his duty in Parliament;
+that the agency, even for the winter season, was not a thing to be
+neglected; and that, if he managed well, he might yet secure it for
+himself. He had often found that small timely presents worked
+wonderfully upon his own mind, and he judged of others by himself. The
+tenants had been in the reluctant but constant practice of making him
+continual petty offerings; and he resolved to try the same course with
+Sir Arthur, whose resolution to be his own agent, he thought, argued a
+close, saving, avaricious disposition. He had heard the housekeeper at
+the Abbey inquiring, as he passed through the servants, whether there
+was any lamb to be gotten. She said that Sir Arthur was remarkably fond
+of lamb, and that she wished she could get a quarter for him.
+Immediately he sallied into his kitchen, as soon as the idea struck him,
+and asked a shepherd, who was waiting there, whether he knew of a nice
+fat lamb to be had anywhere in the neighbourhood.
+
+'I know of one,' cried Barbara. 'Susan Price has a pet lamb that's as
+fat as fat could be.' The attorney easily caught at these words, and
+speedily devised a scheme for obtaining Susan's lamb for nothing.
+
+It would be something strange if an attorney of his talents and standing
+was not an over-match for Simple Susan. He prowled forth in search of
+his prey. He found Susan packing up her father's little wardrobe; and
+when she looked up as she knelt, he saw that she had been in tears.
+
+'How is your mother to-day, Susan?' inquired the attorney. 'Worse, sir.
+My father goes to-morrow.' 'That's a pity.' 'It can't be helped,' said
+Susan, with a sigh. 'It can't be helped--how do you know that?' said
+Case. 'Sir, _dear_ sir!' cried she, looking up at him, and a sudden ray
+of hope beamed in her ingenuous countenance. 'And if _you_ could help
+it, Susan?' said he. Susan clasped her hands in silence, more
+expressive than words. 'You _can_ help it, Susan.' She started up in an
+ecstasy. 'What would you give now to have your father at home for a
+whole week longer?' 'Anything!--but I have nothing.' 'Yes, but you have,
+a lamb,' said the hard-hearted attorney. 'My poor little lamb!' said
+Susan; 'but what can that do?' 'What good can any lamb do? Is not lamb
+good to eat? Why do you look so pale, girl? Are not sheep killed every
+day, and don't you eat mutton? Is your lamb better than anybody else's,
+think you?' 'I don't know,' said Susan, 'but I love it better.' 'More
+fool you,' said he. 'It feeds out of hand, it follows me about; I have
+always taken care of it; my mother gave it to me.' 'Well, say no more
+about it, then,' he cynically observed; 'if you love your lamb better
+than both your father and your mother, keep it, and good morning to
+you.'
+
+'Stay, oh stay!' cried Susan, catching the skirt of his coat with an
+eager, trembling hand;--'a whole week, did you say? My mother may get
+better in that time. No, I do not love my lamb half so well.' The
+struggle of her mind ceased, and with a placid countenance and calm
+voice, 'Take the lamb,' said she. 'Where is it?' said the attorney.
+'Grazing in the meadow, by the river-side.' 'It must be brought up
+before nightfall for the butcher, remember.' 'I shall not forget it,'
+said Susan, steadily.
+
+As soon, however, as her persecutor turned his back and quitted the
+house, Susan sat down and hid her face in her hands. She was soon
+aroused by the sound of her mother's feeble voice, who was calling
+_Susan_ from the inner room where she lay. Susan went in, but did not
+undraw the curtain as she stood beside the bed.
+
+'Are you there, love? Undraw the curtain, that I may see you, and tell
+me;--I thought I heard some strange voice just now talking to my child.
+Something's amiss, Susan,' said her mother, raising herself as well as
+she was able in the bed, to examine her daughter's countenance.
+
+'Would you think it amiss, then, my dear mother,' said Susan, stooping
+to kiss her--'would you think it amiss, if my father was to stay with us
+a week longer?' 'Susan! you don't say so?' 'He is, indeed, a whole
+week;--but how burning hot your hand is still.' 'Are you sure he will
+stay?' inquired her mother. 'How do you know? Who told you so? Tell me
+all quick.' 'Attorney Case told me so; he can get him a week's longer
+leave of absence, and he has promised he will.' 'God bless him for it,
+for ever and ever!' said the poor woman, joining her hands. 'May the
+blessing of heaven be with him!'
+
+Susan closed the curtains, and was silent. She _could not say Amen_. She
+was called out of the room at this moment, for a messenger was come from
+the Abbey for the bread-bills. It was she who always made out the bills,
+for though she had not a great number of lessons from the
+writing-master, she had taken so much pains to learn that she could
+write a very neat, legible hand, and she found this very useful. She was
+not, to be sure, particularly inclined to draw out a long bill at this
+instant, but business must be done. She set to work, ruled her lines for
+the pounds, shillings, and pence, made out the bill for the Abbey, and
+despatched the impatient messenger. She then resolved to make out all
+the bills for the neighbours, who had many of them taken a few loaves
+and rolls of her baking. 'I had better get all my business finished,'
+said she to herself, 'before I go down to the meadow to take leave of my
+poor lamb.'
+
+This was sooner said than done, for she found that she had a great
+number of bills to write, and the slate on which she had entered the
+account was not immediately to be found, and when it was found the
+figures were almost rubbed out. Barbara had sat down upon it. Susan
+pored over the number of loaves, and the names of the persons who took
+them; and she wrote and cast up sums, and corrected and re-corrected
+them, till her head grew quite puzzled.
+
+The table was covered with little square bits of paper, on which she had
+been writing bills over and over again, when her father came in with a
+bill in his hand. 'How's this, Susan?' said he. 'How can ye be so
+careless, child? What is your head running upon? Here, look at the bill
+you were sending up to the Abbey? I met the messenger, and luckily asked
+to see how much it was. Look at it.'
+
+Susan looked and blushed; it was written, 'Sir Arthur Somers, to John
+Price, debtor, six dozen _lambs_, so much.' She altered it, and returned
+it to her father; but he had taken up some of the papers which lay upon
+the table. 'What are all these, child?' 'Some of them are wrong, and
+I've written them out again,' said Susan. 'Some of them! All of them, I
+think, seem to be wrong, if I can read,' said her father, rather
+angrily, and he pointed out to her sundry strange mistakes. Her head,
+indeed, had been running upon her poor lamb. She corrected all the
+mistakes with so much patience, and bore to be blamed with so much good
+humour, that her father at last said that it was impossible ever to
+scold Susan, without being in the wrong at the last.
+
+As soon as all was set right, Price took the bills, and said he would go
+round to the neighbours and collect the money himself; for that he
+should be very proud to have it to say to them that it was all earned by
+his own little daughter.
+
+Susan resolved to keep the pleasure of telling him of his week's
+reprieve till he should come home to sup, as he had promised to do, in
+her mother's room. She was not sorry to hear him sigh as he passed the
+knapsack, which she had been packing up for his journey. 'How delighted
+he will be when he hears the good news!' said she to herself; 'but I
+know he will be a little sorry too for my poor lamb.'
+
+As Susan had now settled all her business, she thought she could have
+time to go down to the meadow by the river-side to see her favourite;
+but just as she had tied on her straw hat the village clock struck four,
+and this was the hour at which she always went to fetch her little
+brothers home from a dame-school near the village. She knew that they
+would be disappointed if she was later than usual, and she did not like
+to keep them waiting, because they were very patient, good boys; so she
+put off the visit to her lamb, and went immediately for her brothers.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+    Evn in the spring and playtime of the year,
+    That calls th' unwonted villager abroad,
+    With all her little ones, a sportive train,
+    To gather kingcups in the yellow mead,
+    And prink their heads with daisies.
+                                        COWPER.
+
+The dame-school, which was about a mile from the hamlet, was not a showy
+edifice: but it was reverenced as much by the young race of village
+scholars as if it had been the most stately mansion in the land; it was
+a low-roofed, long, thatched tenement, sheltered by a few reverend oaks,
+under which many generations of hopeful children had gambolled in their
+turn.
+
+The close-shaven green, which sloped down from the hatch-door of the
+schoolroom, was paled round with a rude paling, which, though decayed in
+some parts by time, was not in any place broken by violence.
+
+The place bespoke order and peace. The dame who governed was well
+obeyed, because she was just and well beloved, and because she was ever
+glad to give well-earned praise and pleasure to her little subjects.
+
+Susan had once been under her gentle dominion, and had been deservedly
+her favourite scholar. The dame often cited her as the best example to
+the succeeding tribe of emulous youngsters. She had scarcely opened the
+wicket which separated the green before the schoolroom door from the
+lane, when she heard the merry voices of the children, and saw the
+little troup issuing from the hatchway and spreading over the green.
+
+'Oh, there's Susan!' cried her two little brothers, running, leaping,
+and bounding up to her; and many of the other rosy girls and boys
+crowded round her, to talk of their plays; for Susan was easily
+interested in all that made others happy; but she could not make them
+comprehend that, if they all spoke at once, it was not possible that she
+could hear what was said.
+
+The voices were still raised one above another, all eager to establish
+some important observation about ninepins, or marbles, or tops, or bows
+and arrows, when suddenly music was heard and the crowd was silenced.
+The music seemed to be near the spot where the children were standing,
+and they looked round to see whence it could come. Susan pointed to the
+great oak tree, and they beheld, seated under its shade, an old man
+playing upon his harp. The children all approached--at first timidly,
+for the sounds were solemn; but as the harper heard their little
+footsteps coming towards him, he changed his hand and played one of his
+most lively tunes. The circle closed, and pressed nearer and nearer to
+him; some who were in the foremost row whispered to each other, 'He is
+blind!' 'What a pity!' and 'He looks very poor,--what a ragged coat he
+wears!' said others. 'He must be very old, for all his hair is white:
+and he must have travelled a great way, for his shoes are quite worn
+out,' observed another.
+
+All these remarks were made whilst he was tuning his harp, for when he
+once more began to play, not a word was uttered. He seemed pleased by
+their simple exclamations of wonder and delight, and, eager to amuse his
+young audience, he played now a gay and now a pathetic air, to suit
+their several humours.
+
+Susan's voice, which was soft and sweet, expressive of gentleness and
+good nature, caught his ear the moment she spoke. He turned his face
+eagerly to the place where she stood; and it was observed that, whenever
+she said that she liked any tune particularly, he played it over again.
+
+'I am blind,' said the old man, 'and cannot see your faces; but I know
+you all asunder by your voices, and I can guess pretty well at all your
+humours and characters by your voices.'
+
+'Can you so, indeed?' cried Susan's little brother William, who had
+stationed himself between the old man's knees. 'Then you heard _my_
+sister Susan speak just now. Can you tell us what sort of person she
+is?' 'That I can, I think, without being a conjurer,' said the old man,
+lifting the boy up on his knee; '_your_ sister Susan is good-natured.'
+The boy clapped his hands. 'And good-tempered.' '_Right_,' said little
+William, with a louder clap of applause. 'And very fond of the little
+boy who sits upon my knee.' 'O right! right! quite right!' exclaimed the
+child, and 'quite right' echoed on all sides.
+
+'But how came you to know so much, when you are blind?' said William,
+examining the old man attentively.
+
+'Hush,' said John, who was a year older than his brother, and very sage,
+'you should not put him in mind of his being blind.'
+
+'Though I am blind,' said the harper, 'I can hear, you know, and I heard
+from your sister herself all that I told you of her, that she was
+good-tempered and good-natured and fond of you.' 'Oh, that's wrong--you
+did not hear all that from herself, I'm sure,' said John, 'for nobody
+ever hears her praising herself.' 'Did not I hear her tell you,' said
+the harper, 'when you first came round me, that she was in a great hurry
+to go home, but that she would stay a little while, since you wished it
+so much? Was not that good-natured? And when you said you did not like
+the tune she liked best, she was not angry with you, but said, "Then
+play William's first, if you please,"--was not that good-tempered?'
+'Oh,' interrupted William, 'it's all true; but how did you find out that
+she was fond of me?' 'That is such a difficult question,' said the
+harper, 'that I must take time to consider.' The harper tuned his
+instrument, as he pondered, or seemed to ponder; and at this instant two
+boys who had been searching for birds' nests in the hedges, and who had
+heard the sound of the harp, came blustering up, and pushing their way
+through the circle, one of them exclaimed, 'What's going on here? Who
+are you, my old fellow? A blind harper! Well, play us a tune, if you can
+play ever a good one--play me--let's see, what shall he play, Bob?'
+added he, turning to his companion. 'Bumper Squire Jones.'
+
+The old man, though he did not seem quite pleased with the peremptory
+manner of the request, played, as he was desired, 'Bumper Squire Jones';
+and several other tunes were afterwards bespoke by the same rough and
+tyrannical voice.
+
+The little children shrank back in timid silence, and eyed the brutal
+boy with dislike. This boy was the son of Attorney Case; and as his
+father had neglected to correct his temper when he was a child, as he
+grew up it became insufferable. All who were younger and weaker than
+himself dreaded his approach, and detested him as a tyrant.
+
+When the old harper was so tired that he could play no more, a lad, who
+usually carried his harp for him, and who was within call, came up, and
+held his master's hat to the company, saying, 'Will you be pleased to
+remember us?' The children readily produced their halfpence, and
+thought their wealth well bestowed upon this poor, good-natured man, who
+had taken so much pains to entertain them, better even than upon the
+gingerbread woman, whose stall they loved to frequent. The hat was held
+some time to the attorney's son before he chose to see it. At last he
+put his hand surlily into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a
+shilling. There were sixpennyworth of halfpence in the hat. 'I'll take
+these halfpence,' said he, 'and here's a shilling for you.'
+
+'God bless you, sir,' said the lad; but as he took the shilling, which
+the young gentleman had slily put _into the blind man's hand_, he saw
+that it was not worth one farthing. 'I am afraid it is not good, sir,'
+said the lad, whose business it was to examine the money for his master.
+'I am afraid, then, you'll get no other,' said young Case, with an
+insulting laugh. 'It never will do, sir,' persisted the lad; 'look at it
+yourself; the edges are all yellow! you can see the copper through it
+quite plain. Sir, nobody will take it from us.' 'That's your affair,'
+said the brutal boy, pushing away his hand. 'You may pass it, you know,
+as well as I do, if you look sharp. You have taken it from me, and I
+shan't take it back again, I promise you.'
+
+A whisper of 'that's very unjust,' was heard. The little assembly,
+though under evident constraint, could no longer suppress their
+indignation.
+
+'Who says it's unjust?' cried the tyrant sternly, looking down upon his
+judges.
+
+Susan's little brothers had held her gown fast, to prevent her from
+moving at the beginning of this contest, and she was now so much
+interested to see the end of it, that she stood still, without making
+any resistance.
+
+'Is any one here amongst yourselves a judge of silver?' said the old
+man. 'Yes, here's the butcher's boy,' said the attorney's son; 'show it
+to him.' He was a sickly-looking boy, and of a remarkably peaceful
+disposition. Young Case fancied that he would be afraid to give judgment
+against him. However, after some moments' hesitation, and after turning
+the shilling round several times, he pronounced, 'that, as far as his
+judgment went, but he did not pretend to be a downright _certain sure_
+of it, the shilling was not over and above good.' Then turning to Susan,
+to screen himself from manifest danger, for the attorney's son looked
+upon him with a vengeful mien, 'But here's Susan here, who understands
+silver a great deal better than I do; she takes a power of it for bread,
+you know.'
+
+'I'll leave it to her,' said the old harper; 'if she says the shilling
+is good, keep it, Jack.' The shilling was handed to Susan, who, though
+she had with becoming modesty forborne all interference, did not
+hesitate, when she was called upon, to speak the truth: 'I think that
+this shilling is a bad one,' said she; and the gentle but firm tone in
+which she pronounced the words for a moment awed and silenced the angry
+and brutal boy. 'There's another, then,' cried he; 'I have sixpences and
+shillings too in plenty, thank my stars.'
+
+Susan now walked away with her two little brothers, and all the other
+children separated to go to their several homes. The old harper called
+to Susan, and begged that, if she was going towards the village, she
+would be so kind as to show him the way. His lad took up his harp, and
+little William took the old man by the hand. 'I'll lead him, I can lead
+him,' said he; and John ran on before them, to gather kingcups in the
+meadow.
+
+There was a small rivulet which they had to cross, and as a plank which
+served for a bridge over it was rather narrow, Susan was afraid to trust
+the old blind man to his little conductor; she therefore went on the
+tottering plank first herself, and then led the old harper carefully
+over. They were now come to a gate, which opened upon the highroad to
+the village. 'There is the highroad straight before you,' said Susan to
+the lad, who was carrying his master's harp; 'you can't miss it. Now I
+must bid you a good evening; for I'm in a great hurry to get home, and
+must go the short way across the fields here, which would not be so
+pleasant for you, because of the stiles. Good-bye.' The old harper
+thanked her, and went along the highroad, whilst she and her brothers
+tripped on as fast as they could by the short way across the fields.
+
+'Miss Somers, I am afraid, will be waiting for us,' said Susan. 'You
+know she said she would call at six; and by the length of our shadows
+I'm sure it is late.'
+
+When they came to their own cottage door, they heard many voices, and
+they saw, when they entered, several ladies standing in the kitchen.
+'Come in, Susan; we thought you had quite forsaken us,' said Miss
+Somers to Susan, who advanced timidly. 'I fancy you forgot that we
+promised to pay you a visit this evening; but you need not blush so much
+about the matter; there is no great harm done; we have only been here
+about five minutes; and we have been well employed in admiring your neat
+garden and your orderly shelves. Is it you, Susan, who keep these things
+in such nice order?' continued Miss Somers, looking round the kitchen.
+
+Before Susan could reply, little William pushed forward and answered,
+'Yes, ma'am, it is _my_ sister Susan that keeps everything neat; and she
+always comes to school for us, too, which was what caused her to be so
+late.' 'Because as how,' continued John, 'she was loth to refuse us the
+hearing a blind man play on the harp. It was we kept her, and we hopes,
+ma'am, as you _are_--as you _seem_ so good, you won't take it amiss.'
+
+Miss Somers and her sister smiled at the affectionate simplicity with
+which Susan's little brothers undertook her defence, and they were, from
+this slight circumstance, disposed to think yet more favourably of a
+family which seemed so well united. They took Susan along with them
+through the village. Many neighbours came to their doors, and far from
+envying, they all secretly wished Susan well as she passed.
+
+'I fancy we shall find what we want here,' said Miss Somers, stopping
+before a shop, where unfolded sheets of pins and glass buttons glistened
+in the window, and where rolls of many coloured ribbons appeared ranged
+in tempting order. She went in, and was rejoiced to see the shelves at
+the back of the counter well furnished with glossy tiers of stuffs, and
+gay, neat printed linens and calicoes.
+
+'Now, Susan, choose yourself a gown,' said Miss Somers; 'you set an
+example of industry and good conduct, of which we wish to take public
+notice, for the benefit of others.'
+
+The shopkeeper, who was father to Susan's friend Rose, looked much
+satisfied by this speech, and as if a compliment had been paid to
+himself, bowed low to Miss Somers, and then with alertness, which a
+London linendraper might have admired, produced piece after piece of his
+best goods to his young customer--unrolled, unfolded, held the bright
+stuffs and calendered calicoes in various lights. Now stretched his arm
+to the highest shelves, and brought down in a trice what seemed to be
+beyond the reach of any but a giant's arm; now dived into some hidden
+recess beneath the counter, and brought to light fresh beauties and
+fresh temptations.
+
+Susan looked on with more indifference than most of the spectators. She
+was thinking much of her lamb, and more of her father.
+
+Miss Somers had put a bright guinea into her hand, and had bid her pay
+for her own gown; but Susan, as she looked at the guinea, thought it was
+a great deal of money to lay out upon herself, and she wished, but did
+not know how to ask, that she might keep it for a better purpose.
+
+Some people are wholly inattentive to the lesser feelings, and incapable
+of reading the countenances of those on whom they bestow their bounty.
+Miss Somers and her sister were not of this roughly charitable class.
+
+'She does not like any of these things,' whispered Miss Somers to her
+sister. Her sister observed that Susan looked as if her thoughts were
+far distant from gowns.
+
+'If you don't fancy any of these things,' said the civil shopkeeper to
+Susan, 'we shall have a new assortment of calicoes for the spring season
+soon from town.' 'Oh,' interrupted Susan, with a smile and a blush,
+'these are all pretty, and too good for me, but----' '_But_ what,
+Susan?' said Miss Somers. 'Tell us what is passing in your little mind.'
+Susan hesitated. 'Well then, we will not press you, you are scarcely
+acquainted with us yet; when you are, you will not be afraid, I hope, to
+speak your mind. Put this shining yellow counter,' continued she,
+pointing to the guinea, 'in your pocket, and make what use of it you
+please. From what we know, and from what we have heard of you, we are
+persuaded that you will make a good use of it.'
+
+'I think, madam,' said the master of the shop, with a shrewd,
+good-natured look, 'I could give a pretty good guess myself what will
+become of that guinea; but I say nothing.'
+
+'No, that is right,' said Miss Somers; 'we leave Susan entirely at
+liberty; and now we will not detain her any longer. Good night, Susan,
+we shall soon come again to your neat cottage.' Susan curtsied, with an
+expressive look of gratitude, and with a modest frankness in her
+countenance which seemed to say, 'I would tell you, and welcome, what I
+want to do with the guinea; but I am not used to speak before so many
+people. When you come to our cottage again you shall know all.'
+
+When Susan had departed, Miss Somers turned to the obliging shopkeeper,
+who was folding up all the things he had opened. 'You have had a great
+deal of trouble with us, sir,' said she; 'and since Susan will not
+choose a gown for herself, I must.' She selected the prettiest; and
+whilst the man was rolling it in paper, she asked him several questions
+about Susan and her family, which he was delighted to answer, because he
+had now an opportunity of saying as much as he wished in her praise.
+
+'No later back, ma'am, than last May morning,' said he, 'as my daughter
+Rose was telling us, Susan did a turn, in her quiet way, by her mother,
+that would not displease you if you were to hear it. She was to have
+been Queen of the May, which in our little village, amongst the younger
+tribe, is a thing that is thought of a good deal; but Susan's mother was
+ill, and Susan, after sitting up with her all night, would not leave her
+in the morning, even when they brought the crown to her. She put the
+crown upon my daughter Rose's head with her own hands; and, to be sure,
+Rose loves her as well as if she was her own sister. But I don't speak
+from partiality; for I am no relation whatever to the Prices--only a
+well-wisher, as every one, I believe, who knows them is. I'll send the
+parcel up to the Abbey, shall I, ma'am?'
+
+'If you please,' said Miss Somers, 'and, as soon as you receive your new
+things from town, let us know. You will, I hope, find us good customers
+and well-wishers,' added she, with a smile; 'for those who wish well to
+their neighbours surely deserve to have well-wishers themselves.'
+
+A few words may encourage the benevolent passions, and may dispose
+people to live in peace and happiness; a few words may set them at
+variance, and may lead to misery and lawsuits. Attorney Case and Miss
+Somers were both equally convinced of this, and their practice was
+uniformly consistent with their principles.
+
+But now to return to Susan. She put the bright guinea carefully into the
+glove with the twelve shillings which she had received from her
+companions on May day. Besides this treasure, she calculated that the
+amount of the bills for bread could not be less than eight or nine and
+thirty shillings; and as her father was now sure of a week's reprieve,
+she had great hopes that, by some means or other, it would be possible
+to make up the whole sum necessary to pay for a substitute. 'If that
+could but be done,' said she to herself, 'how happy would my mother be.
+She would be quite stout again, for she certainly is a great deal better
+since I told her that father would stay a week longer. Ah! but she would
+not have blessed Attorney Case, though, if she had known about my poor
+Daisy.'
+
+Susan took the path that led to the meadow by the water-side, resolved
+to go by herself and take leave of her innocent favourite. But she did
+not pass by unperceived. Her little brothers were watching for her
+return, and as soon as they saw her they ran after her, and overtook her
+as she reached the meadow.
+
+'What did that good lady want with you?' cried William; but looking up
+in his sister's face he saw tears in her eyes, and he was silent, and
+walked on quietly. Susan saw her lamb by the water-side. 'Who are those
+two men?' said William. 'What are they going to do with _Daisy_?' The
+two men were Attorney Case and the butcher. The butcher was feeling
+whether the lamb was fat.
+
+Susan sat down upon the bank in silent sorrow; her little brothers ran
+up to the butcher, and demanded whether he was going to _do any harm_ to
+the lamb. The butcher did not answer, but the attorney replied, 'It is
+not your sister's lamb any longer; it's mine--mine to all intents and
+purposes.' 'Yours!' cried the children, with terror; 'and will you kill
+it?' 'That's the butcher's business.'
+
+The little boys now burst into piercing lamentations. They pushed away
+the butcher's hand; they threw their arms round the neck of the lamb;
+they kissed its forehead--it bleated. 'It will not bleat to-morrow!'
+said William, and he wept bitterly. The butcher looked aside, and
+hastily rubbed his eyes with the corner of his blue apron. The attorney
+stood unmoved; he pulled up the head of the lamb, which had just stooped
+to crop a mouthful of clover. 'I have no time to waste,' said he;
+'butcher, you'll account with me. If it's fat--the sooner the better.
+I've no more to say.' And he walked off, deaf to the prayers of the poor
+children.
+
+As soon as the attorney was out of sight, Susan rose from the bank where
+she was seated, came up to her lamb, and stooped to gather some of the
+fresh dewy trefoil, to let it eat out of her hand for the last time.
+Poor Daisy licked her well-known hand.
+
+[Illustration: _Let it eat out of her hand for the last time._]
+
+'Now, let us go,' said Susan. 'I'll wait as long as you please,' said
+the butcher. Susan thanked him, but walked away quickly, without looking
+again at her lamb. Her little brothers begged the man to stay a few
+minutes, for they had gathered a handful of blue speedwell and yellow
+crowsfoot, and they were decking the poor animal. As it followed the
+boys through the village, the children collected as they passed, and the
+butcher's own son was amongst the number. Susan's steadiness about the
+bad shilling was full in this boy's memory; it had saved him a beating.
+He went directly to his father to beg the life of Susan's lamb.
+
+'I was thinking about it, boy, myself,' said the butcher; 'it's a sin to
+kill a _pet lamb_, I'm thinking--any way, it's what I'm not used to, and
+don't fancy doing, and I'll go and say as much to Attorney Case; but
+he's a hard man; there's but one way to deal with him, and that's the
+way I must take, though so be I shall be the loser thereby; but we'll
+say nothing to the boys, for fear it might be the thing would not take;
+and then it would be worse again to poor Susan, who is a good girl, and
+always was, as well she may, being of a good breed, and well reared from
+the first.'
+
+'Come, lads, don't keep a crowd and a scandal about my door,' continued
+he, aloud, to the children; 'turn the lamb in here, John, in the
+paddock, for to-night, and go your ways home.'
+
+The crowd dispersed, but murmured, and the butcher went to the attorney.
+'Seeing that all you want is a good, fat, tender lamb, for a present for
+Sir Arthur, as you told me,' said the butcher, 'I could let you have
+what's as good or better for your purpose.' 'Better--if it's better, I'm
+ready to hear reason.' The butcher had choice, tender lamb, he said, fit
+to eat the next day; and as Mr. Case was impatient to make his offering
+to Sir Arthur, he accepted the butcher's proposal, though with such
+seeming reluctance, that he actually squeezed out of him, before he
+would complete the bargain, a bribe of a fine sweetbread.
+
+In the meantime Susan's brothers ran home to tell her that her lamb was
+put into the paddock for the night; this was all they knew, and even
+this was some comfort to her. Rose, her good friend, was with her, and
+she had before her the pleasure of telling her father of his week's
+reprieve. Her mother was better, and even said she was determined to sit
+up to supper in her wicker armchair.
+
+Susan was getting things ready for supper, when little William, who was
+standing at the house door, watching in the dusk for his father's
+return, suddenly exclaimed, 'Susan! if here is not our old man!'
+
+'Yes,' said the old harper, 'I have found my way to you. The neighbours
+were kind enough to show me whereabouts you lived; for, though I didn't
+know your name, they guessed who I meant by what I said of you all.'
+Susan came to the door, and the old man was delighted to hear her speak
+again. 'If it would not be too bold,' said he, 'I'm a stranger in this
+part of the country, and come from afar off. My boy has got a bed for
+himself here in the village, but I have no place. Could you be so
+charitable as to give an old blind man a night's lodging?' Susan said
+she would step in and ask her mother; and she soon returned with an
+answer that he was heartily welcome, if he could sleep upon the
+children's bed, which was but small.
+
+The old man thankfully entered the hospitable cottage. He struck his
+head against the low roof, as he stepped over the door-sill. 'Many roofs
+that are twice as high are not half so good,' said he. Of this he had
+just had experience at the house of the Attorney Case, while he had
+asked, but had been roughly refused all assistance by Miss Barbara, who
+was, according to her usual custom, standing staring at the hall door.
+
+The old man's harp was set down in Farmer Price's kitchen, and he
+promised to play a tune for the boys before they went to bed; their
+mother giving them leave to sit up to supper with their father. He came
+home with a sorrowful countenance; but how soon did it brighten when
+Susan, with a smile, said to him, 'Father, we've good news for you! good
+news for us all!--You have a whole week longer to stay with us; and
+perhaps,' continued she, putting her little purse into his hands,
+'perhaps with what's here and the bread bills, and what may somehow be
+got together before a week's at an end, we may make up the nine guineas
+for the substitute, as they call him. Who knows, dearest mother, but we
+may keep him with us for ever!' As she spoke, she threw her arms round
+her father, who pressed her to his bosom without speaking, for his heart
+was full. He was some little time before he could perfectly believe that
+what he heard was true; but the revived smiles of his wife, the noisy
+joy of his little boys, and the satisfaction that shone in Susan's
+countenance, convinced him that he was not in a dream.
+
+As they sat down to supper, the old harper was made welcome to his share
+of the cheerful though frugal meal.
+
+Susan's father, as soon as supper was finished, even before he would let
+the harper play a tune for his boys, opened the little purse which Susan
+had given him. He was surprised at the sight of the twelve shillings,
+and still more, when he came to the bottom of the purse, to see the
+bright golden guinea.
+
+'How did you come by all this money, Susan?' said he. 'Honestly and
+handsomely, that I'm sure of beforehand,' said her proud mother; 'but
+how I can't make out, except by the baking. Hey, Susan, is this your
+first baking?' 'Oh no, no,' said her father, 'I have her first baking
+snug here, besides, in my pocket. I kept it for a surprise, to do your
+mother's heart good, Susan. Here's twenty-nine shillings, and the Abbey
+bill, which is not paid yet, comes to ten more. What think you of this,
+wife? Have we not a right to be proud of our Susan? Why,' continued he,
+turning to the harper, 'I ask your pardon for speaking out so free
+before strangers in praise of my own, which I know is not mannerly; but
+the truth is the fittest thing to be spoken, as I think, at all times;
+therefore, here's your good health, Susan; why, by-and-by she'll be
+worth her weight in gold--in silver at least. But tell us, child, how
+came you by all this riches? and how comes it that I don't go to-morrow?
+All this happy news makes me so gay in myself, I'm afraid I shall hardly
+understand it rightly. But speak on, child--first bringing us a bottle
+of the good mead you made last year from your own honey.'
+
+Susan did not much like to tell the history of her guinea-hen--of the
+gown and of her poor lamb. Part of this would seem as if she was
+vaunting of her own generosity, and part of it she did not like to
+recollect. But her mother pressed to know the whole, and she related it
+as simply as she could. When she came to the story of her lamb, her
+voice faltered, and everybody present was touched. The old harper sighed
+once, and cleared his throat several times. He then asked for his harp,
+and, after tuning it for a considerable time, he recollected--for he had
+often fits of absence--that he had sent for it to play the tune he had
+promised to the boys.
+
+This harper came from a great distance, from the mountains of Wales, to
+contend with several other competitors for a prize, which had been
+advertised by a musical society about a year before this time. There was
+to be a splendid ball given upon the occasion at Shrewsbury, which was
+about five miles from our village. The prize was ten guineas for the
+best performer on the harp, and the prize was now to be decided in a few
+days.
+
+All this intelligence Barbara had long since gained from her maid, who
+often paid visits to the town of Shrewsbury, and she had long had her
+imagination inflamed with the idea of this splendid music-meeting and
+ball. Often had she sighed to be there, and often had she revolved in
+her mind schemes for introducing herself to some _genteel_ neighbours,
+who might take her to the ball _in their carriage_. How rejoiced, how
+triumphant was she when this very evening, just about the time when the
+butcher was bargaining with her father about Susan's lamb, a _livery_
+servant from the Abbey rapped at the door, and left a card for Mr. and
+Miss Barbara Case.
+
+'There,' cried Bab, '_I_ and _papa_ are to dine and drink tea at the
+Abbey to-morrow. Who knows? I daresay, when they see that I'm not a
+vulgar-looking person, and all that, and if I go cunningly to work with
+Miss Somers, as I shall, to be sure--I daresay she'll take me to the
+ball with her.'
+
+'To be sure,' said the maid; 'it's the least one may expect from a lady
+who _demeans_ herself to visit Susan Price, and goes about a-shopping
+for her. The least she can do for you is to take you in her carriage,
+_which_ costs nothing, but is just a common civility, to a ball.'
+
+'Then pray, Betty,' continued Miss Barbara, 'don't forget to-morrow, the
+first thing you do, to send off to Shrewsbury for my new bonnet. I must
+have it _to dine in_, at the Abbey, or the ladies will think nothing of
+me; and, Betty, remember the mantua-maker too. I must see and coax papa
+to buy me a new gown against the ball. I can see, you know, something of
+the fashions to-morrow at the Abbey. I shall _look the ladies well
+over_, I promise you. And, Betty, I have thought of the most charming
+present for Miss Somers, as papa says it's good never to go empty-handed
+to a great house, I'll make Miss Somers, who is fond, as her maid told
+you, of such things--I'll make Miss Somers a present of that guinea-hen
+of Susan's; it's of no use to me, so do you carry it up early in the
+morning to the Abbey, with my compliments. That's the thing.'
+
+In full confidence that her present and her bonnet would operate
+effectually in her favour, Miss Barbara paid her first visit at the
+Abbey. She expected to see wonders. She was dressed in all the finery
+which she had heard from her maid, who had heard from the 'prentice of a
+Shrewsbury milliner, was _the thing_ in London; and she was much
+surprised and disappointed, when she was shown into the room where the
+Miss Somerses and the ladies of the Abbey were sitting, to see that they
+did not, in any one part of their dress, agree with the picture her
+imagination had formed of fashionable ladies. She was embarrassed when
+she saw books and work and drawings upon the table, and she began to
+think that some affront was meant to her, because _the company_ did not
+sit with their hands before them.
+
+When Miss Somers endeavoured to find out conversation that would
+interest her, and spoke of walks and flowers and gardening, of which she
+was herself fond, Miss Barbara still thought herself undervalued, and
+soon contrived to expose her ignorance most completely, by talking of
+things which she did not understand.
+
+Those who never attempt to appear what they are not--those who do not in
+their manners pretend to anything unsuited to their habits and situation
+in life, never are in danger of being laughed at by sensible, well-bred
+people of any rank; but affectation is the constant and just object of
+ridicule.
+
+Miss Barbara Case, with her mistaken airs of gentility, aiming to be
+thought a woman and a fine lady, whilst she was, in reality, a child and
+a vulgar attorney's daughter, rendered herself so thoroughly ridiculous,
+that the good-natured, yet discerning spectators were painfully divided
+between their sense of comic absurdity and a feeling of shame for one
+who could feel nothing for herself.
+
+One by one the ladies dropped off. Miss Somers went out of the room for
+a few minutes to alter her dress, as it was the custom of the family,
+before dinner. She left a portfolio of pretty drawings and good prints
+for Miss Barbara's amusement; but Miss Barbara's thoughts were so intent
+upon the harpers' ball, that she could not be entertained with such
+_trifles_. How unhappy are those who spend their time in expectation!
+They can never enjoy the present moment. Whilst Barbara was contriving
+means of interesting Miss Somers in her favour, she recollected, with
+surprise, that not one word had yet been said of her present of the
+guinea-hen. Mrs. Betty, in the hurry of her dressing her young lady in
+the morning, had forgotten it; but it came just whilst Miss Somers was
+dressing; and the housekeeper came into her mistress's room to announce
+its arrival.
+
+'Ma'am,' said she, 'here's a beautiful guinea-hen just come, _with_ Miss
+Barbara Case's compliments to you.'
+
+Miss Somers knew, by the tone in which the housekeeper delivered this
+message, that there was something in the business which did not
+perfectly please her. She made no answer, in expectation that the
+housekeeper, who was a woman of a very open temper, would explain her
+cause of dissatisfaction. In this she was not mistaken. The housekeeper
+came close up to the dressing-table, and continued, 'I never like to
+speak till I'm sure, ma'am, and I'm not quite sure, to say certain, in
+this case, ma'am, but still I think it right to tell you, which can't
+wrong anybody, what came across my mind about this same guinea-hen,
+ma'am; and you can inquire into it, and do as you please afterwards,
+ma'am. Some time ago we had fine guinea-fowls of our own, and I made
+bold, not thinking, to be sure, that all our own would die away from us,
+as they have done, to give a fine couple last Christmas to Susan Price,
+and very fond and pleased she was at the time, and I'm sure would never
+have parted with the hen with her good-will; but if my eyes don't
+strangely mistake, this hen, that comes from Miss Barbara, is the
+self-same identical guinea-hen that I gave to Susan. And how Miss Bab
+came by it is the thing that puzzles me. If my boy Philip was at home,
+maybe, as he's often at Mrs. Price's (which I don't disapprove), he
+might know the history of the guinea-hen. I expect him home this night,
+and if you have no objection, I will sift the affair.'
+
+'The shortest way, I think,' said Henrietta, 'would be to ask Miss Case
+herself about it, which I will do this evening.' 'If you please, ma'am,'
+said the housekeeper, coldly; for she knew that Miss Barbara was not
+famous in the village for speaking truth.
+
+Dinner was now served. Attorney Case expected to smell mint sauce, and,
+as the covers were taken from off the dishes, looked around for lamb;
+but no lamb appeared. He had a dexterous knack of twisting the
+conversation to his point. Sir Arthur was speaking, when they sat down
+to dinner, of a new carving knife, which he lately had had made for his
+sister. The Attorney immediately went from carving-knives to poultry;
+thence to butchers meat. Some joints, he observed, were much more
+difficult to carve than others. He never saw a man carve better than the
+gentleman opposite him, who was the curate of the parish. 'But, sir,'
+said the vulgar attorney, 'I must make bold to differ with you in one
+point, and I'll appeal to Sir Arthur. Sir Arthur, pray may I ask, when
+you carve a forequarter of lamb, do you, when you raise the shoulder,
+throw in salt, or not?' This well-prepared question was not lost upon
+Sir Arthur. The attorney was thanked for his intended present; but
+mortified and surprised to hear Sir Arthur say that it was a constant
+rule of his never to accept of any presents from his neighbours. 'If we
+were to accept a lamb from a rich neighbour on my estate,' said he, 'I
+am afraid we should mortify many of our poor tenants, who can have
+little to offer, though, perhaps, they may bear us thorough good-will
+notwithstanding.'
+
+After the ladies left the dining-room, as they were walking up and down
+the large hall, Miss Barbara had a fair opportunity of imitating her
+keen father's method of conversing. One of the ladies observed that this
+hall would be a charming place for music. Bab brought in harps and
+harpers, and the harpers' ball, in a breath. 'I know so much about
+it,--about the ball I mean,' said she, 'because a lady in Shrewsbury, a
+friend of papa's, offered to take me with her; but papa did not like to
+give her the trouble of sending so far for me, though she has a coach of
+her own.' Barbara fixed her eyes upon Miss Somers as she spoke; but she
+could not read her countenance as distinctly as she wished, because Miss
+Somers was at this moment letting down the veil of her hat.
+
+'Shall we walk out before tea?' said Miss Somers to her companions;
+'I have a pretty guinea-hen to show you.' Barbara, secretly drawing
+propitious omens from the guinea-hen, followed with a confidential
+step. The pheasantry was well filled with pheasants, peacocks, etc.;
+and Susan's pretty little guinea-hen appeared well, even in this high
+company. It was much admired. Barbara was in glory; but her glory was of
+short duration.
+
+Just as Miss Somers was going to inquire into the guinea-hen's history,
+Philip came up, to ask permission to have a bit of sycamore, to turn a
+nutmeg box for his mother. He was an ingenious lad, and a good turner
+for his age. Sir Arthur had put by a bit of sycamore on purpose for him;
+and Miss Somers told him where it was to be found. He thanked her; but
+in the midst of his bow of thanks his eye was struck by the sight of the
+guinea-hen, and he involuntarily exclaimed, 'Susan's guinea-hen, I
+declare!' 'No, it's not Susan's guinea-hen,' said Miss Barbara,
+colouring furiously; 'it is mine, and I have made a present of it to
+Miss Somers.'
+
+At the sound of Bab's voice, Philip turned--saw her--and indignation,
+unrestrained by the presence of all the amazed spectators, flashed in
+his countenance.
+
+'What is the matter, Philip?' said Miss Somers, in a pacifying tone; but
+Philip was not inclined to be pacified. 'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'may I
+speak out?' and, without waiting for permission, he spoke out, and gave
+a full, true, and warm account of Rose's embassy, and of Miss Barbara's
+cruel and avaricious proceedings.
+
+Barbara denied, prevaricated, stammered, and at last was overcome with
+confusion; for which even the most indulgent spectators could scarcely
+pity her.
+
+Miss Somers, however, mindful of what was due to her guest, was anxious
+to despatch Philip for his piece of sycamore. Bab recovered herself as
+soon as he was out of sight; but she further exposed herself by
+exclaiming, 'I'm sure I wish this pitiful guinea-hen had never come into
+my possession. I wish Susan had kept it at home, as she should have
+done!'
+
+'Perhaps she will be more careful now that she has received so strong a
+lesson,' said Miss Somers. 'Shall we try her?' continued she. 'Philip
+will, I daresay, take the guinea-hen back to Susan, if we desire it.'
+'If you please, ma'am,' said Barbara, sullenly; 'I have nothing more to
+do with it.'
+
+So the guinea-hen was delivered to Philip, who set off joyfully with
+his prize, and was soon in sight of Farmer Price's cottage. He stopped
+when he came to the door. He recollected Rose and her generous
+friendship for Susan. He was determined that she should have the
+pleasure of restoring the guinea-hen. He ran into the village. All the
+children who had given up their little purse on May-day were assembled
+on the play-green. They were delighted to see the guinea-hen once more.
+Philip took his pipe and tabor, and they marched in innocent triumph
+towards the white washed cottage.
+
+'Let me come with you--let me come with you,' said the butcher's boy to
+Philip. 'Stop one minute! my father has something to say to you.' He
+darted into his father's house. The little procession stopped, and in a
+few minutes the bleating of a lamb was heard. Through a back passage,
+which led into the paddock behind the house, they saw the butcher
+leading a lamb.
+
+'It is Daisy!' exclaimed Rose. 'It's Daisy!' repeated all her
+companions. 'Susan's lamb! Susan's lamb!' and there was a universal
+shout of joy.
+
+'Well, for my part,' said the good butcher, as soon as he could be
+heard,--'for my part, I would not be so cruel as Attorney Case for the
+whole world. These poor brute beasts don't know aforehand what's going
+to happen to them; and as for dying, it's what we must all do some time
+or another; but to keep wringing the hearts of the living, that have as
+much sense as one's self, is what I call cruel; and is not this what
+Attorney Case has been doing by poor Susan and her whole family, ever
+since he took a spite against them? But, at any rate, here's Susan's
+lamb safe and sound. I'd have taken it back sooner, but I was off before
+day to the fair, and am but just come back. Daisy, however, has been as
+well off in my paddock as he would have been in the field by the
+water-side.'
+
+The obliging shopkeeper, who showed the pretty calicoes to Susan, was
+now at his door, and when he saw the lamb, and heard that it was
+Susan's, and learned its history, he said that he would add his mite;
+and he gave the children some ends of narrow riband, with which Rose
+decorated her friend's lamb.
+
+The pipe and tabor now once more began to play, and the procession
+moved on in joyful order, after giving the humane butcher three cheers;
+three cheers which were better deserved than 'loud huzzas' usually are.
+
+Susan was working in her arbour, with her little deal table before her.
+When she heard the sound of the music, she put down her work and
+listened. She saw the crowd of children coming nearer and nearer. They
+had closed round Daisy, so that she did not see it; but as they came up
+to the garden gate she saw that Rose beckoned to her. Philip played as
+loud as he could, that she might not hear, till the proper moment, the
+bleating of the lamb. Susan opened the garden-wicket, and at this signal
+the crowd divided, and the first thing that Susan saw, in the midst of
+her taller friends, was little smiling Mary, with the guinea-hen in her
+arms.
+
+'Come on! Come on!' cried Mary, as Susan started with joyful surprise;
+'you have more to see.'
+
+At this instant the music paused, Susan heard the bleating of a lamb,
+and scarcely daring to believe her senses, she pressed eagerly forward,
+and beheld poor Daisy!--she burst into tears. 'I did not shed one tear
+when I parted with you, my dear little Daisy!' said she. 'It was for my
+father and mother. I would not have parted with you for anything else in
+the whole world. Thank you, thank you all,' added she, to her
+companions, who sympathised in her joy, even more than they had
+sympathised in her sorrow. 'Now, if my father was not to go away from us
+next week, and if my mother was quite stout, I should be the happiest
+person in the world!'
+
+As Susan pronounced these words, a voice behind the little listening
+crowd cried, in a brutal tone, 'Let us pass, if you please; you have no
+right to stop up the public road!' This was the voice of Attorney Case,
+who was returning with his daughter Barbara from his visit to the Abbey.
+He saw the lamb, and tried to whistle as he went on. Barbara also saw
+the guinea-hen, and turned her head another way, that she might avoid
+the contemptuous, reproachful looks of those whom she only affected to
+despise. Even her new bonnet, in which she had expected to be so much
+admired, was now only serviceable to hide her face and conceal her
+mortification.
+
+'I am glad she saw the guinea-hen,' cried Rose, who now held it in her
+hands. 'Yes,' said Philip, 'she'll not forget May-day in a hurry.' 'Nor
+I neither, I hope,' said Susan, looking round upon her companions with
+a most affectionate smile: 'I hope, whilst I live, I shall never forget
+your goodness to me last May-day. Now I've my pretty guinea-hen safe
+once more, I should think of returning your money.' 'No! no! no!' was
+the general cry. 'We don't want the money--keep it, keep it--you want it
+for your father.' 'Well,' said Susan, 'I am not too proud to be obliged.
+I _will_ keep your money for my father. Perhaps some time or other I may
+be able to earn----' 'Oh,' interrupted Philip, 'don't let us talk of
+earning; don't let us talk to her of money now; she has not had time
+hardly to look at poor Daisy and her guinea-hen. Come, we had best go
+about our business, and let her have them all to herself.'
+
+The crowd moved away in consequence of Philip's considerate advice; but
+it was observed that he was the very last to stir from the garden-wicket
+himself. He stayed, first, to inform Susan that it was Rose who tied the
+ribands on Daisy's head. Then he stayed a little longer to let her into
+the history of the guinea-hen, and to tell her who it was that brought
+the hen home from the Abbey.
+
+Rose held the sieve, and Susan was feeding her long-lost favourite,
+whilst Philip leaned over the wicket, prolonging his narration. 'Now, my
+pretty guinea-hen,' said Susan--'my naughty guinea-hen, that flew away
+from me, you shall never serve me so again. I must cut your nice wings;
+but I won't hurt you.' 'Take care,' cried Philip; 'you'd better, indeed
+you'd better let me hold her whilst you cut her wings.'
+
+When this operation was successfully performed, which it certainly could
+never have been if Philip had not held the hen for Susan, he recollected
+that his mother had sent him with a message to Mrs. Price. This message
+led to another quarter of an hour's delay; for he had the whole history
+of the guinea-hen to tell over again to Mrs. Price, and the farmer
+himself luckily came in whilst it was going on, so it was but civil to
+begin it afresh; and then the farmer was so rejoiced to see his Susan so
+happy again with her two little favourites, that he declared he must see
+Daisy fed himself; and Philip found that he was wanted to hold the
+jugful of milk, out of which Farmer Price filled the pan for Daisy.
+Happy Daisy! who lapped at his ease whilst Susan caressed him, and
+thanked her fond father and her pleased mother.
+
+'But, Philip,' said Mrs. Price, 'I'll hold the jug--you'll be late with
+your message to your mother; we'll not detain you any longer.'
+
+Philip departed, and as he went out of the garden-wicket he looked up,
+and saw Bab and her maid Betty staring out of the window, as usual. On
+this, he immediately turned back to try whether he had shut the gate
+fast, lest the guinea-hen might stray, out and fall again into the hands
+of the enemy.
+
+Miss Barbara, in the course of this day, felt considerable
+mortification, but no contrition. She was vexed that her meanness was
+discovered, but she felt no desire to cure herself of any of her faults.
+The ball was still uppermost in her vain, selfish soul. 'Well,' said she
+to her _confidante_, Betty, 'you hear how things have turned out; but if
+Miss Somers won't think of asking me to go out with her, I've a notion I
+know who will. As papa says, it's a good thing to have two strings to
+one's bow.'
+
+Now some officers, who were quartered at Shrewsbury, had become
+acquainted with Mr. Case. They had gotten into some quarrel with a
+tradesman of the town, and Attorney Case had promised to bring them
+through the affair, as the man threatened to take the law of them. Upon
+the faith of this promise, and with the vain hope that, by civility,
+they might dispose him to bring in a _reasonable_ bill of costs, these
+officers sometimes invited Mr. Case to the mess; and one of them, who
+had lately been married, prevailed upon his bride _sometimes_ to take a
+little notice of Miss Barbara. It was with this lady that Miss Barbara
+now hoped to go to the harpers' ball.
+
+'The officers and Mrs. Strathspey, or, more properly, Mrs. Strathspey
+and the officers, are to breakfast here, to-morrow, do you know?' said
+Bab to Betty. 'One of them dined at the Abbey to-day, and told papa
+they'd all come. They are going out on a party, somewhere into the
+country, and breakfast here on their way. Pray, Betty, don't forget that
+Mrs. Strathspey can't breakfast without honey. I heard her say so
+myself.' 'Then, indeed,' said Betty, 'I'm afraid Mrs. Strathspey will be
+likely to go without her breakfast here; for not a spoonful of honey
+have we, let her long for it ever so much.' 'But, surely,' said Bab, 'we
+can contrive to get some honey in the neighbourhood.' 'There's none to
+be bought, as I know of,' said Betty. 'But is there none to be begged
+or borrowed?' said Bab, laughing. 'Do you forget Susan's beehive? Step
+over to her in the morning with _my compliments_, and see what you can
+do. Tell her it's for Mrs. Strathspey.'
+
+In the morning Betty went with Miss Barbara's compliments to Susan, to
+beg some honey for Mrs. Strathspey who could not breakfast without it.
+Susan did not like to part with her honey, because her mother loved it,
+and she therefore gave Betty but a small quantity. When Barbara saw how
+little Susan sent, she called her a _miser_, and she said she _must_
+have some more for Mrs. Strathspey. 'I'll go myself and speak to her.
+Come with me, Betty,' said the young lady, who found it at present
+convenient to forget her having declared, the day that she sucked up the
+broth, that she never would honour Susan with another visit. 'Susan,'
+said she, accosting the poor girl, whom she had done everything in her
+power to injure, 'I must beg a little more honey from you for Mrs.
+Strathspey's breakfast. You know, on a particular occasion such as this,
+neighbours must help one another.' 'To be sure they should,' added
+Betty.
+
+Susan, though she was generous, was not weak; she was willing to give to
+those she loved, but not disposed to let anything be taken from her, or
+coaxed out of her, by those she had reason to despise. She civilly
+answered that she was sorry she had no more honey to spare.
+
+Barbara grew angry, and lost all command of herself, when she saw that
+Susan, without regarding her reproaches, went on looking through the
+glass pane in the beehive. 'I'll tell you what, Susan Price,' said she,
+in a high tone, 'the honey I _will_ have, so you may as well give it to
+me by fair means. Yes or no? Speak! Will you give it me or not? Will you
+give me that piece of the honeycomb that lies there?' 'That bit of
+honeycomb is for my mother's breakfast,' said Susan; 'I cannot give it
+you.' 'Can't you?' said Bab, 'then see if I don't take it!' She
+stretched across Susan for the honeycomb, which was lying by some
+rosemary leaves that Susan had freshly gathered for her mother's tea.
+Bab grasped, but at her first effort she only reached the rosemary. She
+made a second dart at the honeycomb, and, in her struggle to obtain it,
+she overset the beehive. The bees swarmed about her. Her maid Betty
+screamed and ran away. Susan, who was sheltered by a laburnum tree,
+called to Barbara, upon whom the black clusters of bees were now
+settling, and begged her to stand still, and not to beat them away. 'If
+you stand quietly you won't be stung, perhaps.' But instead of standing
+quietly, Bab buffeted and stamped and roared, and the bees stung her
+terribly. Her arms and her face swelled in a frightful manner. She was
+helped home by poor Susan and treacherous Mrs. Betty, who, now the
+mischief was done, thought only of exculpating herself to her master.
+
+'Indeed, Miss Barbara,' said she, 'this was quite wrong of you to go and
+get yourself into such a scrape. I shall be turned away for it, you'll
+see.'
+
+'I don't care whether you are turned away or not,' said Barbara; 'I
+never felt such pain in my life. Can't you do something for me? I don't
+mind the pain either so much as being such a fright. Pray, how am I to
+be fit to be seen at breakfast by Mrs. Strathspey; and I suppose I can't
+go to the ball either to-morrow, after all!'
+
+'No, that you can't expect to do, indeed,' said Betty, the comforter.
+'You need not think of balls; for those lumps and swellings won't go off
+your face this week. That's not what pains me; but I'm thinking of what
+your papa will say to me when he sees you, miss.'
+
+Whilst this amiable mistress and maid were in their adversity reviling
+one another, Susan, when she saw that she could be of no further use,
+was preparing to depart, but at the house-door she was met by Mr. Case.
+Mr. Case had revolved things in his mind; for his second visit at the
+Abbey pleased him as little as his first, owing to a few words which Sir
+Arthur and Miss Somers dropped in speaking of Susan and Farmer Price.
+Mr. Case began to fear that he had mistaken his game in quarrelling with
+this family. The refusal of his present dwelt upon the attorney's mind;
+and he was aware that, if the history of Susan's lamb ever reached the
+Abbey, he was undone. He now thought that the most prudent course he
+could possibly follow would be to _hush up_ matters with the _Prices_
+with all convenient speed. Consequently, when he met Susan at his door,
+he forced a gracious smile. 'How is your mother, Susan?' said he. 'Is
+there anything in our house can be of service to her?' On hearing his
+daughter he cried out, 'Barbara, Barbara--Bab! come downstairs, child,
+and speak to Susan Price.' But as no Barbara answered, her father
+stalked upstairs directly, opened the door, and stood amazed at the
+spectacle of her swelled visage.
+
+Betty instantly began to tell the story of Barbara's mishap her own way.
+Bab contradicted her as fast as she spoke. The attorney turned the maid
+away on the spot; and partly with real anger, and partly with feigned
+affectation of anger, he demanded from his daughter how she dared to
+treat Susan Price so ill, 'when,' as he said, 'she was so neighbourly
+and obliging as to give you some of her honey? Couldn't you be content,
+without seizing upon the honeycomb by force? This is scandalous
+behaviour, and what, I assure you, I can't countenance.'
+
+Susan now interceded for Barbara; and the attorney, softening his voice,
+said that 'Susan was a great deal too good to her; as you are, indeed,'
+added he, 'to everybody. I forgive her for your sake.' Susan curtsied,
+in great surprise; but her lamb could not be forgotten, and she left the
+attorney's house as soon as she could, to make her mother's rosemary tea
+breakfast.
+
+Mr. Case saw that Susan was not so simple as to be taken in by a few
+fair words. His next attempt was to conciliate Farmer Price. The farmer
+was a blunt, honest man, and his countenance remained inflexibly
+contemptuous, when the attorney addressed him in his softest tone.
+
+So stood matters the day of the long-expected harpers' ball. Miss
+Barbara Case, stung by Susan's bees, could not, after all her
+manoeuvres, go with Mrs. Strathspey to the ball. The ballroom was
+filled early in the evening. There was a numerous assembly. The harpers,
+who contended for the prize, were placed under the music-gallery at the
+lower end of the room. Amongst them was our old blind friend, who, as he
+was not so well clad as his competitors, seemed to be disdained by many
+of the spectators. Six ladies and six gentlemen were now appointed to be
+judges of the performance. They were seated in a semicircle, opposite to
+the harpers. The Miss Somerses, who were fond of music, were amongst the
+ladies in the semicircle; and the prize was lodged in the hands of Sir
+Arthur. There was now silence. The first harp sounded, and as each
+musician tried his skill, the audience seemed to think that each
+deserved the prize. The old blind man was the last. He tuned his
+instrument; and such a simple pathetic strain was heard as touched every
+heart. All were fixed in delighted attention; and when the music ceased,
+the silence for some moments continued.
+
+The silence was followed by a universal buzz of applause. The judges
+were unanimous in their opinions, and it was declared that the old blind
+harper, who played the last, deserved the prize.
+
+The simple pathetic air which won the suffrages of the whole assembly,
+was his own composition. He was pressed to give the words belonging to
+the music; and at last he modestly offered to repeat them, as he could
+not see to write. Miss Somers' ready pencil was instantly produced; and
+the old harper dictated the words of his ballad, which he
+called--_Susan's Lamentation for her Lamb_.
+
+Miss Somers looked at her brother from time to time, as she wrote; and
+Sir Arthur, as soon as the old man had finished, took him aside, and
+asked him some questions, which brought the whole history of Susan's
+lamb and of Attorney Case's cruelty to light.
+
+The attorney himself was present when the harper began to dictate his
+ballad. His colour, as Sir Arthur steadily looked at him, varied
+continually; till at length, when he heard the words 'Susan's
+Lamentation for her Lamb,' he suddenly shrank back, skulked through the
+crowd, and disappeared. We shall not follow him; we had rather follow
+our old friend, the victorious harper.
+
+No sooner had he received the ten guineas, his well-merited prize, than
+he retired to a small room belonging to the people of the house, asked
+for pen, ink, and paper, and dictated, in a low voice, to his boy, who
+was a tolerably good scribe, a letter, which he ordered him to put
+directly into the Shrewsbury post-office. The boy ran with the letter to
+the post-office. He was but just in time, for the postman's horn was
+sounding.
+
+The next morning, when Farmer Price, his wife, and Susan, were sitting
+together, reflecting that his week's leave of absence was nearly at an
+end, and that the money was not yet made up for John Simpson, the
+substitute, a knock was heard at the door, and the person who usually
+delivered the letters in the village put a letter into Susan's hand,
+saying, 'A penny, if you please--here's a letter for your father.'
+
+'For me!' said Farmer Price; 'here's the penny then; but who can it be
+from, I wonder? Who can think of writing to me, in this world?' He tore
+open the letter; but the hard name at the bottom of the page puzzled
+him--'_your obliged friend_, Llewellyn.'
+
+'And what's this?' said he, opening a paper that was enclosed in the
+letter. 'It's a song, seemingly; it must be somebody that has a mind to
+make an April fool of me.' 'But it is not April, it is May, father,'
+said Susan. 'Well, let us read the letter, and we shall come to the
+truth all in good time.'
+
+Farmer Price sat down in his own chair, for he could not read entirely
+to his satisfaction in any other, and read as follows:--
+
+  'MY WORTHY FRIEND--I am sure you will be glad to hear that I have had
+  good success this night. I have won the ten guinea prize, and for that
+  I am in a great measure indebted to your sweet daughter Susan; as you
+  will see by a little ballad I enclose for her. Your hospitality to me
+  has afforded to me an opportunity of learning some of your family
+  history. You do not, I hope, forget that I was present when you were
+  counting the treasure in Susan's little purse, and that I heard for
+  what purpose it was all destined. You have not, I know, yet made up
+  the full sum for your substitute, John Simpson; therefore do me the
+  favour to use the five guinea banknote which you will find within the
+  ballad. You shall not find me as hard a creditor as Attorney Case.
+  Pay me the money at your own convenience. If it is never convenient
+  to you to pay it, I shall never ask it. I shall go my rounds again
+  through this country, I believe, about this time next year, and will
+  call to see how you do, and to play the new tune for Susan and the
+  dear little boys.
+
+  'I should just add, to set you hearts at rest about the money, that it
+  does not distress me at all to lend it to you. I am not quite so poor
+  as I appear to be. But it is my humour to go about as I do. I see more
+  of the world under my tattered garb than, perhaps, I should ever see
+  in a better dress. There are many of my profession who are of the same
+  mind as myself in this respect; and we are glad, when it lies in our
+  way, to do any kindness to such a worthy family as yours. So, fare ye
+  well.--Your obliged Friend, LLEWELLYN.'
+
+Susan now, by her father's desire, opened the ballad. He picked up the
+five-guinea banknote, whilst she read, with surprise, 'Susan's
+Lamentation for her Lamb.' Her mother leaned over her shoulder to read
+the words; but they were interrupted, before they had finished the first
+stanza, by another knock at the door. It was not the postman with
+another letter. It was Sir Arthur and his sisters.
+
+They came with an intention, which they were much disappointed to find
+that the old harper had rendered vain--they came to lend the farmer and
+his good family the money to pay for his substitute.
+
+'But, since we are here,' said Sir Arthur, 'let me do my own business,
+which I had like to have forgotten. Mr. Price, will you come out with
+me, and let me show you a piece of your land, through which I want to
+make a road? Look there,' said Sir Arthur, pointing to the spot; 'I am
+laying out a ride round my estate, and that bit of land of yours stops
+me.'
+
+'Why, sir,' said Price, 'the land's mine, to be sure, for that matter;
+but I hope you don't look upon me to be that sort of person that would
+be stiff about a trifle or so.'
+
+'The fact is,' said Sir Arthur, 'I had heard you were a litigious,
+pig-headed fellow; but you do not seem to deserve this character.'
+
+'Hope not, sir,' said the farmer; 'but about the matter of the land, I
+don't want to take any advantage of your wishing for it. You are welcome
+to it; and I leave it to you to find me out another bit of land
+convenient to me that will be worth neither more nor less; or else to
+make up the value to me some way or other. I need say no more about it.'
+
+'I hear something,' continued Sir Arthur, after a short silence--'I hear
+something, Mr. Price, of a _flaw_ in your lease. I would not speak to
+you about it whilst we were bargaining about your land, lest I should
+overawe you; but, tell me, what is this _flaw_?'
+
+'In truth, and the truth is the fittest thing to be spoken at all
+times,' said the farmer, 'I didn't know myself what a _flaw_, as they
+call it, meant, till I heard of the word from Attorney Case; and, I take
+it, a _flaw_ is neither more nor less than a mistake, as one should say.
+Now, by reason a man does not make a mistake on purpose, it seems to me
+to be the fair thing that if a man finds out his mistake, he might set
+it right; but Attorney Case says this is not law; and I've no more to
+say. The man who drew up my lease made a mistake; and if I must suffer
+for it, I must,' said the farmer. 'However, I can show you, Sir Arthur,
+just for my own satisfaction and yours, a few lines of a memorandum on a
+slip of paper, which was given me by your relation, the gentleman who
+lived here before, and let me my farm. You'll see, by that bit of paper,
+what was meant; but the attorney says the paper's not worth a button in
+a court of justice, and I don't understand these things. All I
+understand is the common honesty of the matter. I've no more to say.'
+
+'This attorney, whom you speak of so often,' said Sir Arthur, 'you seem
+to have some quarrel with. Now, would you tell me frankly what is the
+matter between----?'
+
+'The matter between us, then,' said Price, 'is a little bit of ground,
+not worth much, that is there open to the lane at the end of Mr. Case's
+garden, and he wanted to take it in. Now I told him my mind, that it
+belonged to the parish, and that I never would willingly give my consent
+to his cribbing it in that way. Sir, I was the more loth to see it shut
+into his garden, which, moreover, is large enough of all conscience
+without it, because you must know, Sir Arthur, the children in our
+village are fond of making a little play-green of it; and they have a
+custom of meeting on May-day at a hawthorn that stands in the middle of
+it, and altogether I was very loth to see 'em turned out of it by those
+who have no right.'
+
+'Let us go and see this nook,' said Sir Arthur. 'It is not far off, is
+it?'
+
+'Oh no, sir, just hard by here.'
+
+When they got to the ground, Mr. Case, who saw them walking together,
+was in a hurry to join them, that he might put a stop to any
+explanations. Explanations were things of which he had a great dread;
+but, fortunately, he was upon this occasion a little too late.
+
+'Is this the nook in dispute?' said Sir Arthur. 'Yes; this is the whole
+thing,' said Price. 'Why, Sir Arthur,' interposed the politic attorney,
+with an assumed air of generosity, 'don't let us talk any more about it.
+Let it belong to whom it will, I give it up to you.'
+
+'So great a lawyer, Mr. Case, as you are,' replied Sir Arthur, 'must
+know that a man cannot give up that to which he has no legal title; and
+in this case it is impossible that, with the best intentions to oblige
+me in the world, you can give up this bit of land to me, because it is
+mine already, as I can convince you effectually by a map of the
+adjoining land, which I have fortunately safe amongst my papers. This
+piece of ground belonged to the farm on the opposite side of the road,
+and it was cut off when the lane was made.'
+
+'Very possibly. I daresay you are quite correct; you must know best,'
+said the attorney, trembling for the agency.
+
+'Then,' said Sir Arthur, 'Mr. Price, you will observe that I now promise
+this little green to the children for a playground; and I hope they may
+gather hawthorn many a May-day at this their favourite bush.' Mr. Price
+bowed low, which he seldom did, even when he received a favour himself.
+'And now, Mr. Case,' said Sir Arthur, turning to the attorney, who did
+not know which way to look, 'you sent me a lease to look over.'
+
+'Ye--ye--yes,' stammered Mr. Case. 'I thought it my duty to do so; not
+out of any malice or ill-will to this good man.'
+
+'You have done him no injury,' said Sir Arthur coolly. 'I am ready to
+make him a new lease, whenever he pleases, of his farm, and I shall be
+guided by a memorandum of the original bargain, which he has in his
+possession. I hope I never shall take an unfair advantage of any one.'
+
+'Heaven forbid, sir,' said the attorney, sanctifying his face, 'that I
+should suggest the taking an _unfair_ advantage of any man, rich or
+poor; but to break a bad lease is not taking an unfair advantage.'
+
+'You really think so?' said Sir Arthur. 'Certainly I do, and I hope I
+have not hazarded your good opinion by speaking my mind concerning the
+flaw so plainly. I always understood that there could be nothing
+ungentlemanlike, in the way of business, in taking advantage of the flaw
+in a lease.'
+
+'Now,' said Sir Arthur, 'you have pronounced judgment _undesignedly_ in
+your own case. You intended to send me this poor man's lease; but your
+son, by some mistake, brought me your own, and I have discovered a fatal
+error in it.' 'A fatal error!' said the alarmed attorney. 'Yes, sir,'
+said Sir Arthur, pulling the lease out of his pocket. 'Here it is. You
+will observe that it is neither signed nor sealed by the grantor.' 'But
+you won't take advantage of me, surely, Sir Arthur?' said Mr. Case,
+forgetting his own principles. 'I shall not take advantage of you, as
+you would have taken of this honest man. In both cases I shall be guided
+by memoranda which I have in my possession. I shall not, Mr. Case,
+defraud you of one shilling of your property. I am ready, at a fair
+valuation, to pay the exact value of your house and land; but upon this
+condition--that you quit the parish within one month!'
+
+Attorney Case was thus compelled to submit to the hard necessity of the
+case, for he knew that he could not legally resist. Indeed he was glad
+to be let off so easily; and he bowed and sneaked away, secretly
+comforting himself with the hope that when they came to the valuation of
+the house and land he should be the gainer, perhaps, of a few guineas.
+His reputation he justly held very cheap.
+
+'You are a scholar; you write a good hand; you can keep accounts, cannot
+you?' said Sir Arthur to Mr. Price, as they walked home towards the
+cottage. 'I think I saw a bill of your little daughter's drawing out the
+other day, which was very neatly written. Did you teach her to write?'
+
+'No, sir,' said Price, 'I can't say I did _that_; for she mostly taught
+it herself; but I taught her a little arithmetic, as far as I knew, on
+our winter nights, when I had nothing better to do.'
+
+'Your daughter shows that she has been well taught,' said Sir Arthur;
+'and her good conduct and good character speak strongly in favour of her
+parents.'
+
+'You are very good, very good indeed, sir, to speak in this sort of
+way,' said the delighted father.
+
+'But I mean to do more than _pay you with words_,' said Sir Arthur. 'You
+are attached to your own family, perhaps you may become attached to me,
+when you come to know me, and we shall have frequent opportunities of
+judging of one another. I want no agent to squeeze my tenants, or do my
+dirty work. I only want a steady, intelligent, honest man, like you, to
+collect my rents, and I hope, Mr. Price, you will have no objection to
+the employment.' 'I hope, sir,' said Price, with joy and gratitude
+glowing in his honest countenance, 'that you'll never have cause to
+repent your goodness.'
+
+'And what are my sisters about here?' said Sir Arthur, entering the
+cottage, and going behind his sisters, who were busily engaged in
+measuring an extremely pretty coloured calico.
+
+'It is for Susan, my dear brother,' said they. 'I knew she did not keep
+that guinea for herself,' said Miss Somers. 'I have just prevailed upon
+her mother to tell me what became of it. Susan gave it to her father;
+but she must not refuse a gown of our choosing this time; and I am sure
+she will not, because her mother, I see, likes it. And, Susan, I hear
+that instead of becoming Queen of the May this year, you were sitting in
+your sick mother's room. Your mother has a little colour in her cheeks
+now.'
+
+'Oh, ma'am,' interrupted Mrs. Price, 'I'm quite well. Joy, I think, has
+made me quite well.'
+
+'Then,' said Miss Somers, 'I hope you will be able to come out on your
+daughter's birthday, which, I hear, is the 25th of this month. Make
+haste and get quite well before that day; for my brother intends that
+all the lads and lassies of the village shall have a dance on Susan's
+birthday.'
+
+'Yes,' said Sir Arthur, 'and I hope on that day, Susan, you will be very
+happy with your little friends upon their play-green. I shall tell them
+that it is your good conduct which has obtained it for them; and if you
+have anything to ask, any little favour for any of your companions,
+which we can grant, now ask, Susan. These ladies look as if they would
+not refuse you anything that is reasonable; and, I think, you look as if
+you would not ask anything unreasonable.'
+
+'Sir,' said Susan, after consulting her mother's eyes, 'there is, to be
+sure, a favour I should like to ask; it is for Rose.'
+
+'Well, I don't know who Rose is,' said Sir Arthur, smiling; 'but go on.'
+
+'Ma'am, you have seen her, I believe; she is a very good girl, indeed,'
+said Mrs. Price. 'And works very neatly, indeed,' continued Susan,
+eagerly, to Miss Somers; 'and she and her mother heard you were looking
+out for some one to wait upon you.'
+
+'Say no more,' said Miss Somers; 'your wish is granted. Tell Rose to
+come to the Abbey to-morrow morning, or, rather, come with her yourself;
+for our housekeeper, I know, wants to talk to you about a certain cake.
+She wishes, Susan, that you should be the maker of the cake for the
+dance; and she has good things ready looked out for it already, I know.
+It must be large enough for everybody to have a slice, and the
+housekeeper will ice it for you. I only hope your cake will be as good
+as your bread. Fare ye well.'
+
+How happy are those who bid farewell to a whole family, silent with
+gratitude, who will bless them aloud when they are far out of hearing!
+
+'How do I wish, now,' said Farmer Price, 'and it's almost a sin for one
+who has had such a power of favours done him to wish for anything more;
+but how I _do_ wish, wife, that our good friend, the harper, was only
+here at this time. It would do his old warm heart good. Well, the best
+of it is, we shall be able next year, when he comes his rounds, to pay
+him his money with thanks, being all the time, and for ever, as much
+obliged to him as if we kept it. I long, so I do, to see him in this
+house again, drinking, as he did, just in this spot, a glass of Susan's
+mead, to her very good health.'
+
+'Yes,' said Susan, 'and the next time he comes, I can give him one of my
+guinea-hen's eggs, and I shall show my lamb, Daisy.'
+
+'True, love,' said her mother, 'and he will play that tune and sing that
+pretty ballad. Where is it? for I have not finished it.'
+
+'Rose ran away with it, mother, but I'll step after her, and bring it
+back to you this minute,' said Susan.
+
+Susan found her friend Rose at the hawthorn, in the midst of a crowded
+circle of her companions, to whom she was reading 'Susan's Lamentation
+for her Lamb.'
+
+'The words are something, but the tune--the tune--I must have the tune,'
+cried Philip. 'I'll ask my mother to ask Sir Arthur to try and find out
+which way that good old man went after the ball; and if he's above
+ground, we'll have him back by Susan's birthday, and he shall sit
+here--just exactly here--by this, our bush, and he shall play--I mean,
+if he pleases--that same tune for us, and I shall learn it--I mean, if I
+can--in a minute.'
+
+The good news that Farmer Price was to be employed to collect the rents,
+and that Attorney Case was to leave the parish in a month, soon spread
+over the village. Many came out of their houses to have the pleasure of
+hearing the joyful tidings confirmed by Susan herself. The crowd on the
+play-green increased every minute.
+
+'Yes,' cried the triumphant Philip, 'I tell you it's all true, every
+word of it. Susan's too modest to say it herself; but I tell ye all, Sir
+Arthur gave us this play-green for ever, on account of her being so
+good.'
+
+You see, at last Attorney Case, with all his cunning, has not proved a
+match for 'Simple Susan.'
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE PIGEON
+
+
+The little town of Somerville, in Ireland, has, within these few years,
+assumed the neat and cheerful appearance of an English village. Mr.
+Somerville, to whom this town belongs, wished to inspire his tenantry
+with a taste for order and domestic happiness, and took every means in
+his power to encourage industrious, well-behaved people to settle in his
+neighbourhood. When he had finished building a row of good slated houses
+in his town, he declared that he would let them to the best tenants he
+could find, and proposals were publicly sent to him from all parts of
+the country.
+
+By the best tenants, Mr. Somerville did not, however, mean the best
+bidders; and many, who had offered an extravagant price for the houses,
+were surprised to find their proposals rejected. Amongst these was Mr.
+Cox, an alehouse-keeper, who did not bear a very good character.
+
+'Please your honour, sir,' said he to Mr. Somerville, 'I _expected_,
+since I bid as fair and fairer for it than any other, that you would
+have let me the house next the apothecary's. Was not it fifteen guineas
+I mentioned in my proposal? and did not your honour give it against me
+for thirteen?' 'My honour did just so,' replied Mr. Somerville calmly.
+'And please your honour, but I don't know what it is I or mine have done
+to offend you. I'm sure there is not a gentleman in all Ireland I'd go
+further to sarve. Would not I go to Cork to-morrow for the least word
+from your honour?' 'I am much obliged to you, Mr. Cox, but I have no
+business at Cork at present,' answered Mr. Somerville drily. 'It is all
+I wish,' exclaimed Mr. Cox, 'that I could find out and light upon the
+man that has belied me to your honour.' 'No man has belied you, Mr.
+Cox, but your nose belies you much, if you do not love drinking a
+little, and your black eye and cut chin belie you much if you do not
+love quarrelling a little.'
+
+'Quarrel! I quarrel, please your honour! I defy any man, or set of men,
+ten mile round, to prove such a thing, and I am ready to fight him that
+dares to say the like of me. I'd fight him here in your honour's
+presence, if he'd only come out this minute and meet me like a man.'
+
+Here Mr. Cox put himself into a boxing attitude, but observing that Mr.
+Somerville looked at his threatening gesture with a smile, and that
+several people, who had gathered round him as he stood in the street,
+laughed at the proof he gave of his peaceable disposition, he changed
+his attitude, and went on to vindicate himself against the charge of
+drinking.
+
+'And as to drink, please your honour, there's no truth in it. Not a drop
+of whisky, good or bad, have I touched these six months, except what I
+took with Jemmy M'Doole the night I had the misfortune to meet your
+honour coming home from the fair of Ballynagrish.'
+
+To this speech Mr. Somerville made no answer, but turned away to look at
+the bow-window of a handsome new inn, which the glazier was at this
+instant glazing. 'Please your honour, that new inn is not let, I hear,
+as yet,' resumed Mr. Cox; 'if your honour recollects, you promised to
+make me a compliment of it last Seraphtide was twelvemonth.'
+
+'Impossible!' cried Mr. Somerville, 'for I had no thoughts of building
+an inn at that time.' 'Oh, I beg your honour's pardon, but if you'd be
+just pleased to recollect, it was coming through the gap in the bog
+meadows, _forenent_ Thady O'Connor, you made me the promise--I'll leave
+it to him, so I will.' 'But I will not leave it to him, I assure you,'
+cried Mr. Somerville; 'I never made any such promise. I never thought of
+letting this inn to you.' 'Then your honour won't let me have it?' 'No;
+you have told me a dozen falsehoods. I do not wish to have you for a
+tenant.'
+
+'Well, God bless your honour; I've no more to say, but God bless your
+honour,' said Mr. Cox; and he walked away, muttering to himself, as he
+slouched his hat over his face, 'I hope I'll live to be revenged on
+him!'
+
+Mr. Somerville the next morning went with his family to look at the new
+inn, which he expected to see perfectly finished; but he was met by the
+carpenter, who, with a rueful face, informed him that six panes of glass
+in the large bow-window had been broken during the night.
+
+'Ha! perhaps Mr. Cox has broken my windows, in revenge for my refusing
+to let him my house,' said Mr. Somerville; and many of the neighbours,
+who knew the malicious character of this Mr. Cox, observed that this was
+like one of his tricks. A boy of about twelve years old, however,
+stepped forward and said, 'I don't like Mr. Cox, I'm sure; for once he
+beat me when he was drunk; but, for all that, no one should be accused
+wrongfully. He _could_ not be the person that broke these windows last
+night, for he was six miles off. He slept at his cousin's last night,
+and he has not returned home yet. So I think he knows nothing of the
+matter.'
+
+Mr. Somerville was pleased with the honest simplicity of this boy, and
+observing that he looked in eagerly at the staircase, when the house
+door was opened, he asked him whether he would like to go in and see the
+new house. 'Yes, sir,' said the boy, 'I should like to go up those
+stairs, and to see what I should come to.' 'Up with you, then!' said Mr.
+Somerville; and the boy ran up the stairs. He went from room to room
+with great expressions of admiration and delight. At length, as he was
+examining one of the garrets, he was startled by a fluttering noise over
+his head; and looking up he saw a white pigeon, who, frightened at his
+appearance, began to fly round and round the room, till it found its way
+out of the door, and flew into the staircase.
+
+The carpenter was speaking to Mr. Somerville upon the landing-place of
+the stairs; but, the moment he spied the white pigeon, he broke off in
+the midst of a speech about _the nose_ of the stairs, and exclaimed,
+'There he is, please your honour! There's he that has done all the
+damage to our bow-window--that's the very same wicked white pigeon that
+broke the church windows last Sunday was se'nnight; but he's down for it
+now; we have him safe, and I'll chop his head off, as he deserves, this
+minute.'
+
+'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off: he does not deserve it,' cried
+the boy, who came running out of the garret with the greatest
+eagerness--'_I_ broke your window, sir,' said he to Mr. Somerville. 'I
+broke your window with this ball; but I did not know that I had done it,
+till this moment, I assure you, or I should have told you before.
+Don't chop his head off,' added the boy to the carpenter, who had now
+the white pigeon in his hands. 'No,' said Mr. Somerville, 'the pigeon's
+head shall not be chopped off, nor yours either, my good boy, for
+breaking a window. I am persuaded by your open, honest countenance, that
+you are speaking the truth; but pray explain this matter to us; for you
+have not made it quite clear. How happened it that you could break my
+windows without knowing it? and how came you to find it out at last?'
+'Sir,' said the boy, 'if you'll come up here, I'll show you all I know,
+and how I came to know it.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Stay! oh stay! don't chop his head off.'_]
+
+Mr. Somerville followed the boy into the garret, who pointed to a pane
+of glass that was broken in a small window that looked out upon a piece
+of waste ground behind the house. Upon this piece of waste ground the
+children of the village often used to play. 'We were playing there at
+ball yesterday evening,' continued the boy, addressing himself to Mr.
+Somerville, 'and one of the lads challenged me to hit a mark in the
+wall, which I did; but he said I did not hit it, and bade me give him up
+my ball as the forfeit. This I would not do; and when he began to
+wrestle with me for it, I threw the ball, as I thought, over the house.
+He ran to look for it in the street, but could not find it, which I was
+very glad of; but I was very sorry just now to find it myself lying upon
+this heap of shavings, sir, under this broken window; for, as soon as I
+saw it lying there, I knew I must have been the person that broke the
+window; and through this window came the white pigeon. Here's one of his
+white feathers sticking in the gap.'
+
+'Yes,' said the carpenter, 'and in the bow-window room below there's
+plenty of his feathers to be seen; for I've just been down to look. It
+was the pigeon broke _them_ windows, sure enough.' 'But he could not
+have got in had I not broke this little window,' said the boy eagerly;
+'and I am able to earn sixpence a day, and I'll pay for all the
+mischief, and welcome. The white pigeon belongs to a poor neighbour, a
+friend of ours, who is very fond of him, and I would not have him killed
+for twice as much money.'
+
+'Take the pigeon, my honest, generous lad,' said Mr. Somerville, 'and
+carry him back to your neighbour. I forgive him all the mischief he has
+done me, tell your friend, for your sake. As to the rest, we can have
+the windows mended; and do you keep all the sixpences you earn for
+yourself.'
+
+'That's what he never did yet,' said the carpenter. 'Many's the sixpence
+he earns, but not a halfpenny goes into his own pocket: it goes every
+farthing to his poor father and mother. Happy for them to have such a
+son!'
+
+'More happy for him to have such a father and mother,' exclaimed the
+boy. 'Their good days they took all the best care of me that was to be
+had for love or money, and would, if I would let them, go on paying for
+my schooling now, falling as they be in the world; but I must learn to
+mind the shop now. Good morning to you, sir; and thank you kindly,' said
+he to Mr. Somerville.
+
+'And where does this boy live, and who are his father and mother? They
+cannot live in town,' said Mr. Somerville, 'or I should have heard of
+them.'
+
+'They are but just come into the town, please your honour,' said the
+carpenter. 'They lived formerly upon Counsellor O'Donnel's estate; but
+they were ruined, please your honour, by taking a joint lease with a man
+who fell afterwards into bad company, ran out all he had, so could not
+pay the landlord; and these poor people were forced to pay his share and
+their own too, which almost ruined them. They were obliged to give up
+the land; and now they have furnished a little shop in this town with
+what goods they could afford to buy with the money they got by the sale
+of their cattle and stock. They have the goodwill of all who know them;
+and I am sure I hope they will do well. The boy is very ready in the
+shop, though he said only that he could earn sixpence a day. He writes a
+good hand, and is quick at casting up accounts, for his age. Besides, he
+is likely to do well in the world, because he is never in idle company,
+and I've known him since he was two foot high, and never heard of his
+telling a lie.'
+
+'This is an excellent character of the boy, indeed,' said Mr.
+Somerville, 'and from his behaviour this morning I am inclined to think
+that he deserves all your praises.'
+
+Mr. Somerville resolved to inquire more fully concerning this poor
+family, and to attend to their conduct himself, fully determined to
+assist them if he should find them such as they had been represented.
+
+In the meantime, this boy, whose name was Brian O'Neill, went to return
+the white pigeon to its owner. 'You have saved its life,' said the woman
+to whom it belonged, 'and I'll make you a present of it.' Brian thanked
+her; and he from that day began to grow fond of the pigeon. He always
+took care to scatter some oats for it in his father's yard; and the
+pigeon grew so tame at last that it would hop about the kitchen, and eat
+off the same trencher with the dog.
+
+Brian, after the shop was shut up at night, used to amuse himself with
+reading some little books which the schoolmaster who formerly taught him
+arithmetic was so good as to lend him. Amongst these he one evening met
+with a little book full of the history of birds and beasts; he looked
+immediately to see whether the pigeon was mentioned amongst the birds,
+and, to his great joy, he found a full description and history of his
+favourite bird.
+
+'So, Brian, I see your schooling has not been thrown away upon you; you
+like your book, I see, when you have no master over you to bid you
+read,' said his father, when he came in and saw Brian reading his book
+very attentively.
+
+'Thank you for having me taught to read, father,' said Brian. 'Here I've
+made a great discovery: I've found out in this book, little as it looks,
+father, a most curious way of making a fortune; and I hope it will make
+your fortune, father, and if you'll sit down, I'll tell it to you.'
+
+Mr. O'Neill, in hopes of pleasing his son rather than in the expectation
+of having his fortune made, immediately sat down to listen; and his son
+explained to him that he had found in his book an account of pigeons who
+carried notes and letters: 'and, father,' continued Brian, 'I find my
+pigeon is of this sort; and I intend to make my pigeon carry messages.
+Why should not he? If other pigeons have done so before him, I think he
+is as good, and, I daresay, will be as easy to teach as any pigeon in
+the world. I shall begin to teach him to-morrow morning; and then,
+father, you know people often pay a great deal for sending messengers:
+and no boy can run, no horse can gallop, so fast as a bird can fly;
+therefore the bird must be the best messenger, and I should be paid the
+best price. Hey, father?'
+
+'To be sure, to be sure, my boy,' said his father, laughing; 'I wish you
+may make the best messenger in Ireland of your pigeon; but all I beg, my
+dear boy, is that you won't neglect our shop for your pigeon; for I've
+a notion we have a better chance of making a fortune by the shop than by
+the white pigeon.'
+
+Brian never neglected the shop: but in his leisure hours he amused
+himself with training his pigeon; and after much patience he at last
+succeeded so well, that one day he went to his father and offered to
+send him word by his pigeon what beef was a pound in the market of
+Ballynagrish, where he was going. 'The pigeon will be home long before
+me, father; and he will come in at the kitchen window and light upon the
+dresser; then you must untie the little note which I shall have tied
+under his left wing, and you'll know the price of beef directly.'
+
+The pigeon carried his message well; and Brian was much delighted with
+his success. He soon was employed by the neighbours, who were aroused by
+Brian's fondness of his swift messenger; and soon the fame of the white
+pigeon was spread amongst all who frequented the markets and fairs of
+Somerville.
+
+At one of these fairs a set of men of desperate fortunes met to drink,
+and to concert plans of robberies. Their place of meeting was at the
+alehouse of Mr. Cox, the man who, as our readers may remember, was
+offended by Mr. Somerville's hinting that he was fond of drinking and of
+quarrelling, and who threatened vengeance for having been refused the
+new inn.
+
+Whilst these men were talking over their schemes, one of them observed
+that one of their companions was not arrived. Another said, 'No.' 'He's
+six miles off,' said another; and a third wished that he could make him
+hear at that distance. This turned the discourse upon the difficulties
+of sending messages secretly and quickly. Cox's son, a lad of about
+nineteen, who was one of this gang, mentioned the white carrier pigeon,
+and he was desired to try all means to get it into his possession.
+Accordingly, the next day young Cox went to Brian O'Neill, and tried, at
+first by persuasion and afterwards by threats, to prevail upon him to
+give up the pigeon. Brian was resolute in his refusal, more especially
+when the petitioner began to bully him.
+
+'If we can't have it by fair means, we will by foul,' said Cox; and a
+few days afterwards the pigeon was gone. Brian searched for it in
+vain--inquired from all the neighbours if they had seen it, and
+applied, but to no purpose, to Cox. He swore that he knew nothing about
+the matter. But this was false, for it was he who during the night-time
+had stolen the white pigeon. He conveyed it to his employers, and they
+rejoiced that they had gotten it into their possession, as they thought
+it would serve them for a useful messenger.
+
+Nothing can be more short-sighted than cunning. The very means which
+these people took to secure secrecy were the means of bringing their
+plots to light. They endeavoured to teach the pigeon, which they had
+stolen, to carry messages for them in a part of the country at some
+distance from Somerville; and when they fancied that it had forgotten
+its former habits and its old master, they thought that they might
+venture to employ him nearer home. The pigeon, however, had a better
+memory than they imagined. They loosed him from a bag near the town of
+Ballynagrish, in hopes that he would stop at the house of Cox's cousin,
+which was on its road between Ballynagrish and Somerville. But the
+pigeon, though he had been purposely fed at this house for a week before
+this trial, did not stop there, but flew on to his old master's house in
+Somerville, and pecked at the kitchen window, as he had formerly been
+taught to do. His father, fortunately, was within hearing, and poor
+Brian ran with the greatest joy to open the window and to let him in.
+
+'Oh, father, here's my white pigeon come back of his own accord,'
+exclaimed Brian; 'I must run and show him to my mother.' At this instant
+the pigeon spread his wings, and Brian discovered under one of its wings
+a small and very dirty-looking billet. He opened it in his father's
+presence. The scrawl was scarcely legible; but these words were at
+length deciphered:--
+
+  'Thare are eight of uz sworn: I send yo at botom thare names. We meat
+  at tin this nite at my faders, and have harms and all in radiness to
+  brak into the grate 'ouse. Mr. Summervill is to lye out to nite--kip
+  the pigeon untill to-morrow. For ever yours,      MURTAGH COX, JUN.'
+
+Scarcely had they finished reading this note, than both father and son
+exclaimed, 'Let us go and show it to Mr. Somerville.' Before they set
+out, they had, however, the prudence to secure the pigeon, so that he
+should not be seen by any one but themselves.
+
+Mr. Somerville, in consequence of this fortunate discovery, took proper
+measures for the apprehension of the eight men who had sworn to rob his
+house. When they were all safely lodged in the county gaol, he sent for
+Brian O'Neill and his father; and after thanking them for the service
+they had done him, he counted out ten bright guineas upon a table, and
+pushed them towards Brian, saying, 'I suppose you know that a reward of
+ten guineas was offered some weeks ago for the discovery of John
+MacDermod, one of the eight men whom we have just taken up?'
+
+'No, sir,' said Brian; 'I did not know it, and I did not bring that note
+to you to get ten guineas, but because I thought it was right. I don't
+want to be paid for doing it.' 'That's my own boy,' said his father. 'We
+thank you, sir; but we'll not take the money; _I don't like to take the
+price of blood._'
+
+'I know the difference, my good friends,' said Mr. Somerville, 'between
+vile informers and courageous, honest men.' 'Why, as to that, please
+your honour, though we are poor, I hope we are honest.' 'And, what is
+more,' said Mr. Somerville, 'I have a notion that you would continue to
+be honest, even if you were rich.
+
+'Will you, my good lad,' continued Mr. Somerville, after a moment's
+pause--'will you trust me with your pigeon a few days?' 'Oh, and
+welcome, sir,' said the boy, with a smile; and he brought the pigeon to
+Mr. Somerville when it was dark, and nobody saw him.
+
+A few days afterwards, Mr. Somerville called at O'Neill's house, and bid
+him and his son follow him. They followed till he stopped opposite to
+the bow-window of the new inn. The carpenter had just put up a sign,
+which was covered over with a bit of carpeting.
+
+'Go up the ladder, will you?' said Mr. Somerville to Brian, 'and pull
+that sign straight, for it hangs quite crooked. There, now it is
+straight. Now pull off the carpet, and let us see the new sign.'
+
+The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon painted upon the
+sign, and the name of O'Neill in large letters underneath.
+
+[Illustration: _The boy pulled off the cover, and saw a white pigeon
+painted upon the sign._]
+
+'Take care you do not tumble down and break your neck upon this joyful
+occasion,' said Mr. Somerville, who saw that Brian's surprise was too
+great for his situation. 'Come down from the ladder, and wish your
+father joy of being master of the new inn called the "White Pigeon." And
+I wish him joy of having such a son as you are. Those who bring up their
+children well, will certainly be rewarded for it, be they poor or
+rich.'
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT
+
+
+'Mamma,' said Rosamond, after a long silence, 'do you know what I have
+been thinking of all this time?' 'No, my dear--What?' 'Why, mamma, about
+my cousin Bell's birthday; do you know what day it is?' 'No, I don't
+remember.' 'Dear mother! don't you remember it's the 22nd of December;
+and her birthday is the day after to-morrow? Don't you recollect now?
+But you never remember about birthdays, mamma. That was just what I was
+thinking of, that you never remember my sister Laura's birthday,
+or--or--or _mine_, mamma.'
+
+'What do you mean, my dear? I remember your birthday perfectly well.'
+'Indeed! but you never _keep_ it, though.' 'What do you mean by keeping
+your birthday?' 'Oh, mamma, you know very well--as Bell's birthday is
+kept. In the first place, there is a great dinner.' 'And can Bell eat
+more upon her birthday than upon any other day?' 'No; nor I should not
+mind about the dinner, except the mince-pies. But Bell has a great many
+nice things--I don't mean nice eatable things, but nice new playthings,
+given to her always on her birthday; and everybody drinks her health,
+and she's so happy.'
+
+'But stay, Rosamond, how you jumble things together! Is it everybody's
+drinking her health that makes her so happy? or the new playthings, or
+the nice mince-pies? I can easily believe that she is happy whilst she
+is eating a mince-pie, or whilst she is playing; but how does
+everybody's drinking her health at dinner make her happy?'
+
+Rosamond paused, and then said she did not know. 'But,' added she, 'the
+_nice new_ playthings, mother!' 'But why the nice new playthings? Do you
+like them only because they are _new_?' 'Not _only_--_I_ do not like
+playthings _only_ because they are new: but Bell _does_, I believe--for
+that puts me in mind--Do you know, mother, she had a great drawer full
+of _old_ playthings that she never used, and she said that they were
+good for nothing, because they were _old_; but I thought many of them
+were good for a great deal more than the new ones. Now you shall be
+judge, mamma; I'll tell you all that was in the drawer.'
+
+'Nay, Rosamond, thank you, not just now; I have not time to listen to
+you.'
+
+'Well then, mamma, the day after to-morrow I can show you the drawer. I
+want you to judge very much, because I am sure I was in the right. And,
+mother,' added Rosamond, stopping her as she was going out of the room,
+'will you--not now, but when you've time--will you tell me why you never
+keep my birthday--why you never make any difference between that day and
+any other day?' 'And will you, Rosamond--not now, but when you have time
+to think about it--tell me why I should make any difference between your
+birthday and any other day?'
+
+Rosamond thought, but she could not find out any reason; besides, she
+suddenly recollected that she had not time to think any longer; for
+there was a certain work-basket to be finished, which she was making for
+her cousin Bell, as a present upon her birthday. The work was at a stand
+for want of some filigree-paper, and, as her mother was going out, she
+asked her to take her with her, that she might buy some. Her sister
+Laura went with them.
+
+'Sister,' said Rosamond, as they were walking along, 'what have you done
+with your half-guinea?' 'I have it in my pocket.' 'Dear! you will keep
+it for ever in your pocket. You know, my godmother when she gave it to
+you said you would keep it longer than I should keep mine; and I know
+what she thought by her look at the time. I heard her say something to
+my mother.' 'Yes,' said Laura, smiling; 'she whispered so loud that I
+could not help hearing her too. She said I was a little miser.' 'But did
+not you hear her say that I was very _generous_? and she'll see that she
+was not mistaken. I hope she'll be by when I give my basket to
+Bell--won't it be beautiful? There is to be a wreath of myrtle, you
+know, round the handle, and a frost ground, and then the
+medallions----'
+
+'Stay,' interrupted her sister, for Rosamond, anticipating the glories
+of her work-basket, talked and walked so fast that she had passed,
+without perceiving it, the shop where the filigree-paper was to be
+bought. They turned back. Now it happened that the shop was the corner
+house of a street, and one of the windows looked out into a narrow lane.
+A coach full of ladies stopped at the door, just before they went in, so
+that no one had time immediately to think of Rosamond and her
+filigree-paper, and she went to the window where she saw her sister
+Laura looking earnestly at something that was passing in the lane.
+
+Opposite to the window, at the door of a poor-looking house, there was
+sitting a little girl weaving lace. Her bobbins moved as quick as
+lightning, and she never once looked up from her work. 'Is not she very
+industrious?' said Laura; 'and very honest, too?' added she in a minute
+afterwards; for just then a baker with a basket of rolls on his head
+passed, and by accident one of the rolls fell close to the little girl.
+She took it up eagerly, looked at it as if she was very hungry, then put
+aside her work, and ran after the baker to return it to him. Whilst she
+was gone, a footman in a livery laced with silver, who belonged to the
+coach that stood at the shop door, as he was lounging with one of his
+companions, chanced to spy the weaving pillow, which she had left upon a
+stone before the door. To divert himself (for idle people do mischief
+often to divert themselves) he took up the pillow, and entangled all the
+bobbins. The little girl came back out of breath to her work; but what
+was her surprise and sorrow to find it spoiled. She twisted and
+untwisted, placed and replaced, the bobbins, while the footman stood
+laughing at her distress. She got up gently, and was retiring into the
+house, when the silver-laced footman stopped her, saying, insolently,
+'Sit still, child.' 'I must go to my mother, sir,' said the child;
+'besides, you have spoiled all my lace. I can't stay.' 'Can't you?' said
+the brutal footman, snatching her weaving-pillow again, 'I'll teach you
+to complain of me.' And he broke off, one after another, all the
+bobbins, put them into his pocket, rolled her weaving-pillow down the
+dirty lane, then jumped up behind his mistress's coach, and was out of
+sight in an instant.
+
+'Poor girl!' exclaimed Rosamond, no longer able to restrain her
+indignation at this injustice; 'poor little girl!'
+
+[Illustration: _She twisted and untwisted, placed and replaced, the
+bobbins, while the footman stood laughing at her distress._]
+
+At this instant her mother said to Rosamond--'Come, now, my dear, if you
+want this filigree-paper, buy it.' 'Yes, madam,' said Rosamond; and the
+idea of what her godmother and her cousin Bell would think of her
+generosity rushed again upon her imagination. All her feelings of pity
+were immediately suppressed. Satisfied with bestowing another
+exclamation upon the '_poor little girl_!' she went to spend her
+half-guinea upon her filigree basket. In the meantime, she that was
+called the '_little miser_' beckoned to the poor girl, and, opening the
+window, said, pointing to the cushion, 'Is it quite spoiled?' 'Quite!
+quite spoiled! and I can't, nor mother neither, buy another; and I can't
+do anything else for my bread.' A few, but very few, tears fell as she
+said this.
+
+'How much would another cost?' said Laura. 'Oh, a great--_great_ deal.'
+'More than that?' said Laura, holding up her half-guinea. 'Oh no.' 'Then
+you can buy another with that,' said Laura, dropping the half-guinea
+into her hand; and she shut the window before the child could find words
+to thank her, but not before she saw a look of joy and gratitude, which
+gave Laura more pleasure probably than all the praise which could have
+been bestowed upon her generosity.
+
+Late on the morning of her cousin's birthday, Rosamond finished her
+work-basket. The carriage was at the door--Laura came running to call
+her; her father's voice was heard at the same instant; so she was
+obliged to go down with her basket but half wrapped up in silver
+paper--a circumstance at which she was a good deal disconcerted; for the
+pleasure of surprising Bell would be utterly lost if one bit of the
+filigree should peep out before the proper time. As the carriage went
+on, Rosamond pulled the paper to one side and to the other, and by each
+of the four corners.
+
+'It will never do, my dear,' said her father, who had been watching her
+operations. 'I am afraid you will never make a sheet of paper cover a
+box which is twice as large as itself.'
+
+'It is not a box, father,' said Rosamond, a little peevishly; 'it's a
+basket.'
+
+'Let us look at this basket,' said he, taking it out of her unwilling
+hands, for she knew of what frail materials it was made, and she dreaded
+its coming to pieces under her father's examination. He took hold of the
+handle rather roughly; when, starting off the coach seat, she cried,
+'Oh, sir! father! sir! you will spoil it indeed!' said she, with
+increased vehemence, when, after drawing aside the veil of silver paper,
+she saw him grasp the myrtle-wreathed handle. 'Indeed, sir, you will
+spoil the poor handle.'
+
+'But what is the use of _the poor handle_,' said her father, 'if we are
+not to take hold of it? And pray,' continued he, turning the basket
+round with his finger and thumb, rather in a disrespectful manner,
+'pray, is this the thing you have been about all this week? I have seen
+you all this week dabbling with paste and rags; I could not conceive
+what you were about. Is this the thing?' 'Yes, sir. You think, then,
+that I have wasted my time, because the basket is of no use; but then it
+is for a present for my cousin Bell.' 'Your cousin Bell will be very
+much obliged to you for a present that is of no use. You had better have
+given her the purple jar.'
+
+'Oh, father! I thought you had forgotten that--it was two years ago; I'm
+not so silly now. But Bell will like the basket, I know, though it is of
+no use.'
+
+'Then you think Bell is sillier _now_ than you were two years
+ago,--well, perhaps that is true; but how comes it, Rosamond, now that
+you are so wise, that you are fond of such a silly person?' '_I_,
+father?' said Rosamond, hesitating; 'I don't think I am _very_ fond of
+her.' 'I did not say _very_ fond.' 'Well, but I don't think I am at all
+fond of her.' 'But you have spent a whole week in making this thing for
+her.' 'Yes, and all my half-guinea besides.'
+
+'Yet you think her silly, and you are not fond of her at all; and you
+say you know this thing will be of no use to her.'
+
+'But it is her birthday, sir; and I am sure she will _expect_ something,
+and everybody else will give her something.'
+
+'Then your reason for giving is because she expects you to give her
+something. And will you, or can you, or should you, always give, merely
+because others _expect_, or because somebody else gives?' 'Always?--no,
+not always.' 'Oh, only on birthdays.'
+
+Rosamond, laughing: 'Now you are making a joke of me, papa, I see; but I
+thought you liked that people should be generous,--my godmother said
+that she did.' 'So do I, full as well as your godmother; but we have not
+yet quite settled what it is to be generous.' 'Why, is it not generous
+to make presents?' said Rosamond. 'That is the question which it would
+take up a great deal of time to answer. But, for instance, to make a
+present of a thing that you know can be of no use to a person you
+neither love nor esteem, because it is her birthday, and because
+everybody gives her something, and because she expects something, and
+because your godmother says she likes that people should be generous,
+seems to me, my dear Rosamond, to be, since I must say it, rather more
+like folly than generosity.'
+
+Rosamond looked down upon the basket, and was silent. 'Then I am a fool,
+am I?' said she, looking up at last. 'Because you have made _one_
+mistake? No. If you have sense enough to see your own mistakes, and can
+afterwards avoid them, you will never be a fool.'
+
+Here the carriage stopped, and Rosamond recollected that the basket was
+uncovered.
+
+Now we must observe that Rosamond's father had not been too severe upon
+Bell when he called her a silly girl. From her infancy she had been
+humoured; and at eight years old she had the misfortune to be a spoiled
+child. She was idle, fretful, and selfish; so that nothing could make
+her happy. On her birthday she expected, however, to be perfectly happy.
+Everybody in the house tried to please her, and they succeeded so well
+that between breakfast and dinner she had only six fits of crying. The
+cause of five of these fits no one could discover: but the last, and
+most lamentable, was occasioned by a disappointment about a worked
+muslin frock; and accordingly, at dressing time, her maid brought it to
+her, exclaiming, 'See here, miss, what your mamma has sent you on your
+birthday. Here's a frock fit for a queen--if it had but lace round the
+cuffs.' 'And why has not it lace around the cuffs? mamma said it
+should.' 'Yes, but mistress was disappointed about the lace; it is not
+come home.' 'Not come home, indeed! and didn't they know it was my
+birthday? But then I say I won't wear it without the lace--I can't wear
+it without the lace, and I won't.'
+
+The lace, however, could not be had; and Bell at length submitted to let
+the frock be put on. 'Come, Miss Bell, dry your eyes,' said the maid who
+_educated_ her; 'dry your eyes, and I'll tell you something that will
+please you.'
+
+'What, then?' said the child, pouting and sobbing. 'Why----but you must
+not tell that I told you.' 'No,--but if I am asked?' 'Why, if you are
+asked, you must tell the truth, to be sure. So I'll hold my tongue,
+miss.' 'Nay, tell me, though, and I'll never tell--if I _am_ asked.'
+'Well, then,' said the maid, 'your cousin Rosamond is come, and has
+brought you the most _beautifullest_ thing you ever saw in your life;
+but you are not to know anything about it till after dinner, because she
+wants to surprise you; and mistress has put it into her wardrobe till
+after dinner.' 'Till after dinner!' repeated Bell impatiently; 'I can't
+wait till then; I must see it this minute.' The maid refused her several
+times, till Bell burst into another fit of crying, and the maid, fearing
+that her mistress would be angry with _her_, if Bell's eyes were red at
+dinner time, consented to show her the basket.
+
+'How pretty!--but let me have it in my own hands,' said Bell, as the
+maid held the basket up out of her reach. 'Oh, no, you must not touch
+it; for if you should spoil it, what would become of me?' 'Become of
+you, indeed!' exclaimed the spoiled child, who never considered anything
+but her own immediate gratification--'Become of _you_, indeed! what
+signifies that?--I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own hands.
+If you don't hold it down for me directly, I'll tell that you showed it
+to me.' 'Then you won't snatch it?' 'No, no, I won't indeed,' said Bell;
+but she had learned from her maid a total disregard of truth. She
+snatched the basket the moment it was within her reach. A struggle
+ensued, in which the handle and lid were torn off, and one of the
+medallions crushed inwards, before the little fury returned to her
+senses.
+
+Calmed at this sight, the next question was, how she should conceal the
+mischief which she had done. After many attempts, the handle and lid
+were replaced; the basket was put exactly in the same spot in which it
+had stood before, and the maid charged the child '_to look as if nothing
+was the matter_.'
+
+We hope that both children and parents will here pause for a moment to
+reflect. The habits of tyranny, meanness, and falsehood, which children
+acquire from living with bad servants, are scarcely ever conquered in
+the whole course of their future lives.
+
+After shutting up the basket they left the room, and in the adjoining
+passage they found a poor girl waiting with a small parcel in her
+hand. 'What's your business?' said the maid. 'I have brought home the
+lace, madam, that was bespoke for the young lady.' 'Oh, you have, have
+you, at last?' said Bell; 'and pray why didn't you bring it sooner?' The
+girl was going to answer, but the maid interrupted her, saying, 'Come,
+come, none of your excuses; you are a little idle, good-for-nothing
+thing, to disappoint Miss Bell upon her birthday. But now you have
+brought it, let us look at it!'
+
+[Illustration: _'I shan't spoil it; and I will have it in my own
+hands.'_]
+
+The little girl gave the lace without reply, and the maid desired her to
+go about her business, and not to expect to be paid; for that her
+mistress could not see anybody, _because_ she was in a room full of
+company.
+
+'May I call again, madam, this afternoon?' said the child, timidly.
+
+'Lord bless my stars!' replied the maid, 'what makes people so poor, I
+_wonders_! I wish mistress would buy her lace at the warehouse, as I
+told her, and not of these folks. Call again! yes, to be sure. I believe
+you'd call, call, call twenty times for twopence.'
+
+However ungraciously the permission to call again was granted, it was
+received with gratitude. The little girl departed with a cheerful
+countenance, and Bell teased her maid till she got her to sew the
+long-wished-for lace upon her cuffs.
+
+Unfortunate Bell!--All dinner time passed, and people were so hungry, so
+busy, or so stupid, that not an eye observed her favourite piece of
+finery. Till at length she was no longer able to conceal her impatience,
+and turning to Laura, who sat next to her, she said, 'You have no lace
+upon your cuffs. Look how beautiful mine is!--is not it? Don't you wish
+your mamma could afford to give some like it? But you can't get any if
+she would, for this was made on purpose for me on my birthday, and
+nobody can get a bit more anywhere, if they would give the world for
+it.' 'But cannot the person who made it,' said Laura, 'make any more
+like it?' 'No, no, no!' cried Bell; for she had already learned, either
+from her maid or her mother, the mean pride which values things not for
+being really pretty or useful, but for being such as nobody else can
+procure. 'Nobody can get any like it, I say,' repeated Bell; 'nobody in
+all London can make it but one person, and that person will never make a
+bit for anybody but me, I am sure. Mamma won't let her, if I ask her
+not.' 'Very well,' said Laura coolly, 'I do not want any of it; you
+need not be so violent: I assure you that I don't want any of it.' 'Yes,
+but you do, though,' said Bell, more angrily. 'No, indeed,' said Laura,
+smiling. 'You do, in the bottom of your heart; but you say you don't to
+plague me, I know,' cried Bell, swelling with disappointed vanity. 'It
+is pretty for all that, and it cost a great deal of money too, and
+nobody shall have any like it, if they cried their eyes out.'
+
+Laura received this declaration in silence--Rosamond smiled; and at her
+smile the ill-suppressed rage of the spoiled child burst forth into the
+seventh and loudest fit of crying which had yet been heard on her
+birthday.
+
+'What's the matter, my pet?' cried her mother; 'come to me and tell me
+what's the matter.' Bell ran roaring to her mother; but no otherwise
+explained the cause of her sorrow than by tearing the fine lace with
+frantic gestures from her cuffs, and throwing the fragments into her
+mother's lap. 'Oh! the lace, child!--are you mad?' said her mother,
+catching hold of both her hands. 'Your beautiful lace, my dear love--do
+you know how much it cost?' 'I don't care how much it cost--it is not
+beautiful, and I'll have none of it,' replied Bell, sobbing; 'for it is
+not beautiful.' 'But it is beautiful,' retorted her mother; 'I chose the
+pattern myself. Who has put it into your head, child, to dislike it? Was
+it Nancy?' 'No, not Nancy, but _them_, mamma,' said Bell, pointing to
+Laura and Rosamond. 'Oh, fie! don't _point_,' said her mother, putting
+down her stubborn finger; 'nor say _them_, like Nancy; I am sure you
+misunderstood. Miss Laura, I am sure, did not mean any such thing.' 'No,
+madam; and I did not say any such thing, that I recollect,' said Laura,
+gently. 'Oh no, indeed!' cried Rosamond, warmly, rising in her sister's
+defence.
+
+No defence or explanation, however, was to be heard, for everybody had
+now gathered round Bell, to dry her tears, and to comfort her for the
+mischief she had done to her own cuffs. They succeeded so well, that in
+about a quarter of an hour the young lady's eyes and the reddened arches
+over her eyebrows came to their natural colour; and the business being
+thus happily hushed up, the mother, as a reward to her daughter for her
+good humour, begged that Rosamond would now be so good as to produce her
+'charming present.'
+
+Rosamond, followed by all the company, amongst whom, to her great joy,
+was her godmother, proceeded to the dressing-room. 'Now I am sure,'
+thought she, 'Bell will be surprised, and my godmother will see she was
+right about my generosity.'
+
+The doors of the wardrobe were opened with due ceremony, and the
+filigree basket appeared in all its glory. 'Well, this is a charming
+present, indeed!' said the godmother, who was one of the company; '_my_
+Rosamond knows how to make presents.' And as she spoke, she took hold of
+the basket, to lift it down to the admiring audience. Scarcely had she
+touched it, when, lo! the basket fell to the ground, and only the handle
+remained in her hand. All eyes were fixed upon the wreck. Exclamations
+of sorrow were heard in various tones; and 'Who can have done this?' was
+all that Rosamond could say. Bell stood in sullen silence, which she
+obstinately preserved in the midst of the inquiries that were made about
+the disaster.
+
+At length the servants were summoned, and amongst them Nancy, Miss
+Bell's maid and governess. She affected much surprise when she saw what
+had befallen the basket, and declared that she knew nothing of the
+matter, but that she had seen her mistress in the morning put it quite
+safe into the wardrobe; and that, for her part, she had never touched
+it, or thought of touching it, in her born days. 'Nor Miss Bell,
+neither, ma'am,--I can answer for her; for she never knew of its being
+there, because I never so much as mentioned it to her, that there was
+such a thing in the house, because I knew Miss Rosamond wanted to
+surprise her with the secret; so I never mentioned a sentence of it--did
+I, Miss Bell?'
+
+Bell, putting on the deceitful look which her maid had taught her,
+answered boldly, '_No_'; but she had hold of Rosamond's hand, and at the
+instant she uttered this falsehood she squeezed it terribly. 'Why do you
+squeeze my hand so?' said Rosamond, in a low voice; 'what are you afraid
+of?' 'Afraid of!' cried Bell, turning angrily; 'I'm not afraid of
+anything--I've nothing to be afraid about.' 'Nay, I did not say you
+had,' whispered Rosamond; 'but only if you did by accident--you know
+what I mean--I should not be angry if you did--only say so.' 'I say I
+did not!' cried Bell furiously. 'Mamma, mamma! Nancy! my cousin Rosamond
+won't believe me! That's very hard. It's very rude, and I won't bear
+it--I won't.' 'Don't be angry, love. Don't,' said the maid. 'Nobody
+suspects you, darling,' said her mother; 'but she has too much
+sensibility. Don't cry, love; nobody suspected you.' 'But you know,'
+continued she, turning to the maid, 'somebody must have done this, and I
+must know how it was done. Miss Rosamond's charming present must not be
+spoiled in this way, in my house, without my taking proper notice of it.
+I assure you I am very angry about it, Rosamond.'
+
+Rosamond did not rejoice in her anger, and had nearly made a sad mistake
+by speaking aloud her thoughts--'_I was very foolish_----' she began and
+stopped.
+
+'Ma'am,' cried the maid, suddenly, 'I'll venture to say I know who did
+it.' 'Who?' said every one, eagerly. 'Who?' said Bell, trembling. 'Why,
+miss, don't you recollect that little girl with the lace, that we saw
+peeping about in the passage? I'm sure she must have done it; for here
+she was by herself half an hour or more, and not another creature has
+been in mistress's dressing-room, to my certain knowledge, since
+morning. Those sort of people have so much curiosity. I'm sure she must
+have been meddling with it,' added the maid.
+
+'Oh yes, that's the thing,' said the mistress, decidedly. 'Well, Miss
+Rosamond, for your comfort she shall never come into my house again.'
+'Oh, that would not comfort me at all,' said Rosamond; 'besides, we are
+not sure that she did it, and if----' A single knock at the door was
+heard at this instant. It was the little girl, who came to be paid for
+her lace. 'Call her in,' said the lady of the house; 'let us see her
+directly.'
+
+The maid, who was afraid that the girl's innocence would appear if she
+were produced, hesitated; but upon her mistress repeating her commands,
+she was forced to obey. The girl came in with a look of simplicity; but
+when she saw a room full of company she was a little abashed. Rosamond
+and Laura looked at her and one another with surprise, for it was the
+same little girl whom they had seen weaving lace. 'Is not it she?'
+whispered Rosamond to her sister. 'Yes, it is; but hush,' said Laura,
+'she does not know us. Don't say a word, let us hear what she will say.'
+
+Laura got behind the rest of the company as she spoke, so that the
+little girl could not see her.
+
+'Vastly well!' said Bell's mother; 'I am waiting to see how long you
+will have the assurance to stand there with that innocent look. Did you
+ever see that basket before?' 'Yes, ma'am,' said the girl. '_Yes,
+ma'am!_' cried the maid; 'and what else do you know about it? You had
+better confess it at once, and mistress, perhaps, will say no more about
+it.' 'Yes, do confess it,' added Bell, earnestly. 'Confess what, madam?'
+said the little girl; 'I never touched the basket, madam.' 'You never
+_touched_ it; but you confess,' interrupted Bell's mother, 'that you
+_did see_ it before. And, pray, how came you to see it? You must have
+opened my wardrobe.' 'No, indeed, ma'am,' said the little girl; 'but I
+was waiting in the passage, ma'am, and this door was partly open; and
+looking at the maid, you know, I could not help seeing it.' 'Why, how
+could you see through the doors of my wardrobe?' rejoined the lady.
+
+The maid, frightened, pulled the little girl by the sleeve.
+
+'Answer me,' said the lady, 'where did you see this basket?' Another
+stronger pull. 'I saw it, madam, in her hands,' looking at
+the maid; 'and----' 'Well, and what became of it afterwards?'
+'Ma'am'--hesitating--'miss pulled, and by accident--I believe, I saw,
+ma'am--miss, you know what I saw.' 'I do not know--I do not know; and if
+I did, you had no business there; and mamma won't believe you, I am
+sure.' Everybody else, however, did believe; and their eyes were fixed
+upon Bell in a manner which made her feel rather ashamed. 'What do you
+all look at me so for? Why do you all look so? And am I to be put to
+shame on my birthday?' cried she, bursting into a roar of passion; 'and
+all for this nasty thing!' added she, pushing away the remains of the
+basket, and looking angrily at Rosamond. 'Bell! Bell! oh, fie! fie!--Now
+I _am_ ashamed of you; that's quite rude to your cousin,' said her
+mother, who was more shocked at her daughter's want of politeness than
+at her falsehood. 'Take her away, Nancy, till she has done crying,'
+added she to the maid, who accordingly carried off her pupil.
+
+Rosamond, during this scene, especially at the moment when her present
+was pushed away with such disdain, had been making reflections upon the
+nature of true generosity. A smile from her father, who stood by, a
+silent spectator of the catastrophe of the filigree basket, gave rise to
+these reflections; nor were they entirely dissipated by the condolence
+of the rest of the company, nor even by the praises of her godmother,
+who, for the purpose of condoling with her, said, 'Well, my dear
+Rosamond, I admire your generous spirit. You know I prophesied that your
+half-guinea would be gone the soonest. Did I not, Laura?' said she,
+appealing, in a sarcastic tone, to where she thought Laura was. 'Where
+is Laura? I don't see her.' Laura came forward. 'You are too _prudent_
+to throw away your money like your sister. Your half-guinea, I'll answer
+for it, is snug in your pocket--is it not?' 'No, madam,' answered she,
+in a low voice.
+
+But low as the voice of Laura was, the poor little lace-girl heard it;
+and now, for the first time, fixing her eyes upon Laura, recollected her
+benefactress. 'Oh, that's the young lady!' she exclaimed, in a tone of
+joyful gratitude, 'the good, good young lady who gave me the
+half-guinea, and would not stay to be thanked for it; but I _will_ thank
+her now.'
+
+'The half-guinea, Laura!' said her godmother. 'What is all this?' 'I'll
+tell you, madam, if you please,' said the little girl.
+
+It was not in expectation of being praised for it that Laura had been
+generous, and therefore everybody was really touched with the history of
+the weaving-pillow; and whilst they praised, felt a certain degree of
+respect, which is not always felt by those who pour forth eulogiums.
+_Respect_ is not an improper word, even applied to a child of Laura's
+age; for let the age or situation of the person be what it may, they
+command respect who deserve it.
+
+'Ah, madam!' said Rosamond to her godmother, 'now you see--you see she
+is _not_ a little miser. I'm sure that's better than wasting half a
+guinea upon a filigree basket; is it not, ma'am?' said she, with an
+eagerness which showed that she had forgotten all her own misfortunes in
+sympathy with her sister. 'This is being _really generous_, father, is
+it not?'
+
+'Yes, Rosamond,' said her father, and he kissed her; 'this _is_ being
+really generous. It is not only by giving away money that we can show
+generosity; it is by giving up to others anything that we like
+ourselves; and therefore,' added he, smiling, 'it is really generous of
+you to give your sister the thing you like best of all others.'
+
+'The thing I like the best of all others, father,' said Rosamond, half
+pleased, half vexed. 'What is that, I wonder? You don't mean _praise_,
+do you, sir?' 'Nay, you must decide that yourself, Rosamond.' 'Why,
+sir,' said she, ingenuously, 'perhaps it _was_ ONCE the thing I liked
+best; but the pleasure I have just felt makes me like something else
+much better.'
+
+
+
+
+ETON MONTEM
+
+[_Extracted from the 'Courier' of May 1799._]
+
+
+'Yesterday this triennial ceremony took place, with which the public are
+too well acquainted to require a particular description. A collection,
+called _Salt_, is taken from the public, which forms a purse, to support
+the Captain of the School in his studies at Cambridge. This collection
+is made by the Scholars, dressed in fancy dresses, all round the
+country.
+
+'At eleven o'clock, the youths being assembled in their habiliments at
+the College, the Royal Family set off from the Castle to see them, and,
+after walking round the Courtyard, they proceeded to Salt Hill in the
+following order:--
+
+'His Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Earl of
+Uxbridge.
+
+'Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent and Cumberland, Earl Morton,
+and General Gwynne, all on horseback, dressed in the Windsor uniform,
+except the Prince of Wales, who wore a suit of dark blue, and a brown
+surtout over.
+
+'Then followed the Scholars, preceded by the Marechal Serjeant, the
+Musicians of the Staffordshire Band, and Mr. Ford, Captain of the
+Seminary, the Serjeant-Major, Serjeants, Colonels, Corporals, Musicians,
+Ensign, Lieutenant, Steward, Salt-Bearers, Polemen, and Runners.
+
+'The cavalcade was brought up by Her Majesty and her amiable daughters
+in two carriages, and a numerous company of equestrians and pedestrians,
+all eager to behold their Sovereign and his family. Among the former,
+Lady Lade was foremost in the throng; only two others dared venture
+their persons on horseback in such a multitude.
+
+'The King and Royal Family were stopped on Eton Bridge by Messrs. Young
+and Mansfield, the Salt-Bearers, to whom their Majesties delivered their
+customary donation of fifty guineas each.
+
+'At Salt Hill, His Majesty, with his usual affability, took upon himself
+to arrange the procession round the Royal carriages; and even when the
+horses were taken off, with the assistance of the Duke of Kent,
+fastened the traces round the pole of the coaches, to prevent any
+inconvenience.
+
+'An exceeding heavy shower of rain coming on, the Prince took leave, and
+went to the "Windmill Inn" till it subsided. The King and his attendants
+weathered it out in their greatcoats.
+
+'After the young gentlemen walked round the carriage, Ensign Vince and
+the Salt-Bearers proceeded to the summit of the hill; but the wind being
+boisterous, he could not exhibit his dexterity in displaying his flag,
+and the space being too small before the carriages, from the concourse
+of spectators, the King kindly acquiesced in not having it displayed
+under such inconvenience.
+
+'Their Majesties and the Princesses then returned home, the King
+occasionally stopping to converse with the Dean of Windsor, the Earl of
+Harrington, and other noblemen.
+
+'The Scholars partook of an elegant dinner at the "Windmill Inn," and in
+the evening walked on Windsor Terrace.
+
+'Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cumberland,
+after taking leave of their Majesties, set off for town, and honoured
+the Opera House with their presence in the evening.
+
+'The profit arising from the Salt collected, according to account,
+amounted to L800.
+
+'The Stadtholder, the Duke of Gordon, Lord and Lady Melbourne, Viscount
+Brome, and a numerous train of fashionable nobility were present.
+
+'The following is an account of their dresses, made as usual, very
+handsomely, by Mrs. Snow, milliner, of Windsor:--
+
+    'Mr. Ford, Captain, with eight Gentlemen to attend him as servitors.
+
+                          'Mr. Sarjeant, Marechal.
+
+                           'Mr. Bradith, Colonel.
+
+                         'Mr. Plumtree, Lieutenant.
+
+                            'Mr. Vince, Ensign.
+
+   'Mr. Young, College Salt-Bearer; white and gold dress, rich satin
+                       bag, covered with gold netting.
+
+   'Mr. Mansfield, Oppidin, white, purple, and orange dress, trimmed
+     with silver; rich satin bag, purple and silver: each carrying
+                elegant poles, with gold and silver cord.
+
+     'Mr. Keity, yellow and black velvet; helmet trimmed with silver.
+
+     'Mr. Bartelot, plain mantle and sandals, Scotch bonnet, a very
+                                 Douglas.
+
+      'Mr. Knapp, flesh-colour and blue; Spanish hat and feathers.
+
+                      'Mr. Ripley, rose-colour; helmet.
+
+  'Mr. Islip (being in mourning), a scarf; helmet, black velvet; and
+                                white satin.
+
+                  'Mr. Tomkins, violet and silver; helmet.
+
+                 'Mr. Thackery, lilac and silver; Roman cap.
+
+                    'Mr. Drury, mazarin blue; fancy cap.
+
+                    'Mr. Davis, slate-colour and straw.
+
+                 'Mr. Routh, pink and silver; Spanish hat.
+
+                      'Mr. Curtis, purple; fancy cap.
+
+                          'Mr. Lloyd, blue; ditto.
+
+'At the conclusion of the ceremony the Royal Family returned to Windsor,
+and the boys were all sumptuously entertained at the tavern at Salt
+Hill. About six in the evening all the boys returned in the order of
+procession, and, marching round the great square of Eton, were
+dismissed. The Captain then paid his respects to the Royal Family, at
+the Queen's Lodge, Windsor, previously to his departure for King's
+College, Cambridge, to defray which expense the produce of the Montem
+was presented to him.
+
+'The day concluded by a brilliant promenade of beauty, rank, and fashion
+on Windsor Terrace, enlivened by the performance of several bands of
+music.
+
+'The origin of the procession is from the custom by which the Manor was
+held.
+
+'The custom of hunting the Ram belonged to Eton College, as well as the
+custom of Salt; but it was discontinued by Dr. Cook, late Dean of Ely.
+Now this custom we know to have been entered on the register of the
+Royal Abbey of Bee, in Normandy, as one belonging to the Manor of East
+or Great Wrotham, in Norfolk, given by Ralph de Toni to the Abbey of
+Bee, and was as follows:--When the harvest was finished, the tenants
+were to have half an acre of barley, and a ram let loose; and if they
+caught him he was their own to make merry with, but if he escaped from
+them he was the Lord's. The Etonians, in order to secure the ram,
+houghed him in the Irish fashion, and then attacked him with great
+clubs. The cruelty of this proceeding brought it into disuse, and now it
+exists no longer.--_See Register of the Royal Abbey of Bee_, folio 58.
+
+'After the dissolution of the alien priories, in 1414, by the Parliament
+of Leicester, they remained in the Crown till Henry VI., who gave
+Wrotham Manor to Eton College; and if the Eton Fellows would search,
+they would perhaps find the Manor in their possession, that was held by
+the custom of Salt.'
+
+MEN
+
+  Alderman Bursal, Father of young Bursal.
+  Lord John,  }
+  Talbot,     }
+  Wheeler,    } Young Gentlemen of Eton, from 17 to 19 years of age.
+  Bursal,     }
+  Rory O'Ryan }
+  Mr. Newington, Landlord of the Inn at Salt Hill.
+  Farmer Hearty.
+  A Waiter and crowd of Eton Lads.
+
+WOMEN
+
+  The Marchioness of Piercefield, Mother of Lord John.
+  Lady Violetta--her Daughter, a Child of six or seven years old.
+  Mrs. Talbot.
+  Louisa Talbot, her Daughter.
+  Miss Bursal, Daughter to the Alderman.
+  Mrs. Newington, Landlady of the Inn at Salt Hill.
+  Sally, a Chambermaid.
+  Patty, a Country Girl.
+
+Pipe and Tabor, and Dance of Peasants.
+
+
+ACT THE FIRST
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _The Bar of the 'Windmill Inn' at Salt Hill_
+
+    MR. _and_ MRS. NEWINGTON, _the Landlord and Landlady_
+
+_Landlady._ 'Tis an unpossibility, Mr. Newington; and that's enough. Say
+no more about it; 'tis an unpossibility in the _natur_ of things. (_She
+ranges jellies, etc., in the Bar._) And pray, do you take your great
+old-fashioned tankard, Mr. Newington, from among my jellies and
+confectioneries.
+
+_Landlord_ (_takes his tankard and drinks_). Anything for a quiet life.
+If it is an unpossibility, I've no more to say; only, for the soul of
+me, I can't see the great unpossibility, wife.
+
+_Landlady._ Wife, indeed!--wife!--wife! wife every minute.
+
+_Landlord._ Heyday! Why, what a plague would you have me call you? The
+other day you quarrelled with me for calling you Mrs. Landlady.
+
+_Landlady._ To be sure I did, and very proper in me I should. I've
+turned off three waiters and five chambermaids already, for screaming
+after me _Mrs. Landlady!_ _Mrs. Landlady!_ But 'tis all your ill
+manners.
+
+_Landlord._ Ill manners! Why, if I may be so bold, if you are not Mrs.
+Landlady, in the name of wonder what are you?
+
+_Landlady._ Mrs. Newington, Mr. Newington.
+
+_Landlord_ (_drinks_). Mrs. Newington, Mr. Newington drinks your health;
+for I suppose I must not be landlord any more in my own house
+(_shrugs_).
+
+_Landlady._ Oh, as to that, I have no objections nor impediments to your
+being called _Landlord_. You look it, and become it very proper.
+
+_Landlord._ Why, yes, indeed, thank my tankard, I do look it, and become
+it, and am nowise ashamed of it; but every one to their mind, as you,
+wife, don't fancy the being called Mrs. Landlady.
+
+_Landlady._ To be sure I don't. Why, when folks hear the old-fashioned
+cry of Mrs. Landlady! Mrs. Landlady! who do they expect, think you, to
+see, but an overgrown, fat, featherbed of a woman coming waddling along
+with her thumbs sticking on each side of her apron, o' this fashion?
+Now, to see me coming, nobody would take me to be a landlady.
+
+_Landlord._ Very true, indeed, wife--Mrs. Newington, I mean--I ask
+pardon; but now to go on with what we were saying about the
+unpossibility of letting that old lady and the civil-spoken young lady
+there above have them there rooms for another day.
+
+_Landlady._ Now, Mr. Newington, let me hear no more about that old
+gentlewoman and that civil-spoken young lady. Fair words cost nothing;
+and I've a notion that's the cause they are so plenty with the young
+lady. Neither o' them, I take it, by what they've ordered since their
+coming into the house, are such grand folk that one need be so
+_petticular_ about them.
+
+_Landlord._ Why, they came only in a chaise and pair, to be sure; I
+can't deny that.
+
+_Landlady._ But, bless my stars! what signifies talking? Don't you know,
+as well as I do, Mr. Newington, that to-morrow is Eton Montem, and that
+if we had twenty times as many rooms and as many more to the back of
+them, it would not be one too many for all the company we've a right to
+expect, and those the highest quality of the land? Nay, what do I talk
+of to-morrow? isn't my Lady Piercefield and suite expected? and,
+moreover, Mr. and Miss Bursal's to be here, and will call for as much in
+an hour as your civil-spoken young lady in a twelvemonth, I reckon. So,
+Mr. Newington, if you don't think proper to go up and inform the ladies
+above that the Dolphin rooms are not for them, I must _speak_ myself,
+though 'tis a thing I never do when I can help it.
+
+_Landlord_ (_aside_). She not like to speak! (_Aloud._) My dear, you
+can speak a power better than I can; so take it all upon yourself, if
+you please; for, old-fashioned as I and my tankard here be, I can't make
+a speech that borders on the uncivil order, to a lady like, for the life
+and lungs of me. So, in the name of goodness, do you go up, Mrs.
+Newington.
+
+_Landlady._ And so I will, Mr. Newington. Help ye! Civilities and
+rarities are out o' season for them that can't pay for them in this
+world; and very proper.
+
+        (_Exit Landlady._)
+
+_Landlord._ And very proper! Ha! who comes yonder? The Eton chap who
+wheedled me into lending him my best hunter last year, and was the
+ruination of him; but that must be paid for, wheedle or no wheedle; and,
+for the matter of wheedling, I'd stake this here Mr. Wheeler, that is
+making up to me, do you see, against e'er a boy, or hobbledehoy, in all
+Eton, London, or Christendom, let the other be who he will.
+
+    _Enter_ WHEELER.
+
+_Wheeler._ A fine day, Mr. Newington.
+
+_Landlord._ A fine day, Mr. Wheeler.
+
+_Wheel._ And I hope, for _your_ sake, we may have as fine a day for the
+Montem to-morrow. It will be a pretty penny in your pocket! Why, all the
+world will be here; and (_looking round at the jellies_, _etc._) so much
+the better for them; for here are good things enough, and enough for
+them. And here's the best thing of all, the good old tankard still; not
+empty, I hope.
+
+_Landlord._ Not empty, I hope. Here's to you, Mr. Wheeler.
+
+_Wheel._ _Mr._ Wheeler!--_Captain_ Wheeler, if you please.
+
+_Landlord._ _You_, Captain Wheeler!--Why, I thought in former times it
+was always the oldest scholar at Eton that was Captain at the Montems;
+and didn't Mr. Talbot come afore you?
+
+_Wheel._ Not at all; we came on the same day. Some say I came first;
+some say Talbot. So the choice of which of us is to be captain is to be
+put to the vote amongst the lads--most votes carry it; and I have most
+votes, I fancy; so I shall be captain, to-morrow, and a pretty deal of
+_salt_[8] I reckon I shall pocket. Why, the collection at the last
+Montem, they say, came to a plump thousand! No bad thing for a young
+fellow to set out with for Oxford or Cambridge--hey?
+
+  [8] _Salt_, the _cant_ name given by the Eton lads to the money
+      collected at Montem.
+
+_Landlord._ And no bad thing, before he sets out for Cambridge or
+Oxford, 'twould be for a young gentleman to pay his debts.
+
+_Wheel._ Debts! Oh, time enough for that. I've a little account with you
+in horses, I know; but that's between you and me, you know--mum.
+
+_Landlord._ Mum me no mums, Mr. Wheeler. Between you and me, my best
+hunter has been ruinationed; and I can't afford to be mum. So you'll
+take no offence if I speak; and as you'll set off to-morrow, as soon as
+the Montem's over, you'll be pleased to settle with me some way or other
+to-day, as we've no other time.
+
+_Wheel._ No time so proper, certainly. Where's the little account?--I
+have money sent me for my Montem dress, and I can squeeze that much out
+of it. I came home from Eton on purpose to settle with you. But as to
+the hunter, you must call upon Talbot--do you understand? to pay for
+him; for though Talbot and I had him the same day, 'twas Talbot did for
+him, and Talbot must pay. I spoke to him about it, and charged him to
+remember you; for I never forget to speak a good word for my friends.
+
+_Landlord._ So I perceive.
+
+_Wheel._ I'll make bold just to give you my opinion of these jellies
+whilst you are getting my account, Mr. Newington.
+
+        (_He swallows down a jelly or two--Landlord is going._)
+
+    _Enter_ TALBOT.
+
+_Talbot._ Hallo, Landlord! where are you making off so fast? Here, your
+jellies are all going as fast as yourself.
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside_). Talbot!--I wish I was a hundred miles off.
+
+_Landlord._ You are heartily welcome, Mr. Talbot. A good morning to you,
+sir; I'm glad to see you--very glad to see you, Mr. Talbot.
+
+_Talb._ Then shake hands, my honest landlord.
+
+        (_Talbot, in shaking hands with him, puts a purse into the
+        Landlord's hands._)
+
+[Illustration: _'Then shake hands, my honest landlord.'_]
+
+_Landlord._ What's here? Guineas?
+
+_Talb._ The hunter, you know; since Wheeler won't pay, I must--that's
+all. Good morning.
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside._) What a fool!
+
+        (_Landlord, as Talbot is going catches hold of his coat._)
+
+_Landlord._ Hold, Mr. Talbot, this won't do!
+
+_Talb._ Won't it? Well, then, my watch must go.
+
+_Landlord._ Nay, nay! but you are in such a hurry to pay--you won't hear
+a man. Half this is enough for your share o' the mischief, in all
+conscience. Mr. Wheeler, there, had the horse on the same day.
+
+_Wheel._ But Bursal's my witness----
+
+_Talb._ Oh, say no more about witnesses; a man's conscience is always
+his best witness, or his worst. Landlord, take your money, and no more
+words.
+
+_Wheel._ This is very genteel of you, Talbot. I always thought you would
+do the genteel thing, as I knew you to be so generous and considerate.
+
+_Talb._ Don't waste your fine speeches, Wheeler, I advise you, this
+election time. Keep them for Bursal or Lord John, or some of those who
+like them. They won't go down with _me_. Good morning to you. I give you
+notice, I'm going back to Eton as fast as I can gallop; and who knows
+what plain speaking may do with the Eton lads? I may be captain yet,
+Wheeler. Have a care! Is my horse ready there?
+
+_Landlord._ Mr. Talbot's horse, there! Mr. Talbot's horse, I say.
+
+    _Talbot sings._
+
+      He carries weight--he rides a race--
+      'Tis for a thousand pound!
+
+        (_Exit Talbot._)
+
+_Wheel._ And, dear me! I shall be left behind. A horse for me, pray; a
+horse for Mr. Wheeler!
+
+        (_Exit Wheeler._)
+
+_Landlord_ (_calls very loud_). Mr. Talbot's horse! Hang the hostler!
+I'll saddle him myself.
+
+        (_Exit Landlord._)
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    _A Dining-room in the Inn at Salt Hill_
+
+    MRS. TALBOT _and_ LOUISA
+
+_Louisa_ (_laughing_). With what an air Mrs. Landlady made her exit!
+
+_Mrs. Talbot._ When I was young, they say, I was proud; but I am humble
+enough now: these petty mortifications do not vex me.
+
+_Louisa._ It is well my brother was gone before Mrs. Landlady made her
+_entree_; for if he had heard her rude speech, he would at least have
+given her the retort courteous.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Now tell me honestly, my Louisa----You were, a few days
+ago, at Bursal House. Since you have left it and have felt something of
+the difference that is made in this world between splendour and no
+splendour, you have never regretted that you did not stay there, and
+that you did not bear more patiently with Miss Bursal's little airs?
+
+_Louisa._ Never for a moment. At first Miss Bursal paid me a vast deal
+of attention; but, for what reason I know not, she suddenly changed her
+manner, grew first strangely cold, then condescendingly familiar, and at
+last downright rude. I could not guess the cause of these variations.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ (_aside_). I guess the cause too well.
+
+_Louisa._ But as I perceived the lady was out of tune, I was in haste to
+leave her. I should make a very bad, and, I am sure, a miserable toad
+eater. I had much rather, if I were obliged to choose, earn my own
+bread, than live as toad eater with anybody.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Fine talking, dear Louisa!
+
+_Louisa._ Don't you believe me to be in earnest, mother? To be sure, you
+cannot know what I would do, unless I were put to the trial.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Nor you either, my dear.
+
+        (_She sighs, and is silent._)
+
+_Louisa_ (_takes her mother's hand_). What is the matter, dear mother?
+You used to say that seeing my brother always made you feel ten years
+younger; yet even while he was here, you had, in spite of all your
+efforts to conceal them, those sudden fits of sadness.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ The Montem--is not it to-morrow? Ay, but my boy is not sure
+of being captain.
+
+_Louisa._ No; there is one Wheeler, who, as he says, is most likely to
+be chosen captain. He has taken prodigious pains to flatter and win over
+many to his interest. My brother does not so much care about it; he is
+not avaricious.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ I love your generous spirit and his! but, alas! my dear,
+people may live to want, and wish for money, without being avaricious. I
+would not say a word to Talbot; full of spirits as he was this morning,
+I would not say a word to him, till after the Montem, of what has
+happened.
+
+_Louisa._ And what has happened, dear mother? Sit down,--you tremble.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ (_sits down and puts a letter into Louisa's hand_). Read
+that, love. A messenger brought me that from town a few hours ago.
+
+_Louisa_ (_reads_). 'By an express from Portsmouth, we hear the _Bombay
+Castle_ East Indiaman is lost, with all your fortune on board.' _All!_ I
+hope there is something left for you to live upon.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ About L150 a year for us all.
+
+_Louisa._ That is enough, is it not, for you?
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ For me, love? I am an old woman, and want but little in
+this world, and shall be soon out of it.
+
+_Louisa_ (_kneels down beside her_). Do not speak so, dearest mother.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Enough for me, love! Yes, enough, and too much for me. I am
+not thinking of myself.
+
+_Louisa._ Then, as to my brother, he has such abilities, and such
+industry, he will make a fortune at the bar for himself, most certainly.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ But his education is not completed. How shall we provide
+him with money at Cambridge?
+
+_Louisa._ This Montem. The last time the captain had eight hundred, the
+time before a thousand, pounds. Oh, I hope--I fear! Now, indeed, I know
+that, without being avaricious, we may want, and wish for money.
+
+        (_Landlady's voice heard behind the scenes._)
+
+_Landlady._ Waiter!--Miss Bursal's curricle, and Mr. Bursal's
+_vis-a-vis_. Run! see that the Dolphin's empty. I say run!--run!
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ I will rest for a few moments upon the sofa, in this
+bedchamber, before we set off.
+
+_Louisa_ (_goes to open the door_). They have bolted or locked it. How
+unlucky!
+
+        (_She turns the key, and tries to unlock the door._)
+
+    _Enter_ WAITER.
+
+_Waiter._ Ladies, I'm sorry--Miss Bursal and Mr. Bursal are come--just
+coming upstairs.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Then, will you be so good, sir, as to unlock this door?
+
+        (_Waiter tries to unlock the door._)
+
+_Waiter._ It must be bolted on the inside. Chambermaid! Sally! Are you
+within there? Unbolt this door.
+
+_Mr. Bursal's voice behind the scenes._ Let me have a basin of good soup
+directly.
+
+_Waiter._ I'll go round and have the door unbolted immediately, ladies.
+
+        (_Exit Waiter._)
+
+    _Enter_ MISS BURSAL, _in a riding dress, and with a long whip._
+
+_Miss Bursal._ Those creatures, the ponies, have a'most pulled my _'and_
+off. Who _'ave_ we _'ere_? Ha! Mrs. Talbot! Louisa, _'ow_ are ye? I'm so
+vastly glad to see you; but I'm so shocked to _'ear_ of the loss of the
+_Bombay Castle_. Mrs. Talbot, you look but poorly; but this Montem will
+put everybody in spirits. I _'ear_ everybody's to be _'ere_; and my
+brother tells me, 'twill be the finest ever seen at _H_Eton. Louisa, my
+dear, I'm sorry I've not a seat for you in my curricle for to-morrow;
+but I've promised Lady Betty; so, you know, 'tis impossible for me.
+
+[Illustration: _Enter Miss Bursal, in a riding dress._]
+
+_Louisa._ Certainly; and it would be impossible for me to leave my
+mother at present.
+
+_Chambermaid_ (_opens the bedchamber door_). The room's ready now,
+ladies.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ Miss Bursal, we intrude upon you no longer.
+
+_Miss Burs._ Nay, why do you decamp, Mrs. Talbot? I _'ad_ a thousand
+things to say to you, Louisa; but am so tired and so annoyed----
+
+        (_Seats herself. Exeunt Mrs. Talbot, Louisa, and Chambermaid._)
+
+    _Enter_ MR. BURSAL, _with a basin of soup in his hand._
+
+_Mr. Burs._ Well, thank my stars the _Airly Castle_ is safe in the
+Downs.
+
+_Miss Burs._ Mr. Bursal, can you inform me why Joe, my groom, does not
+make his appearance?
+
+_Mr. Burs._ (_eating and speaking_). Yes, that I can, child; because he
+is with his _'orses_, where he ought to be. 'Tis fit they should be
+looked after well; for they cost me a pretty penny--more than their
+heads are worth, and yours into the bargain; but I was resolved, as we
+were to come to this Montem, to come in style.
+
+_Miss Burs._ In style, to be sure; for all the world's to be here--the
+King, the Prince of W_h_ales, and Duke o' York, and all the first
+people; and we shall cut a dash! Dash! dash! will be the word
+to-morrow!--(_playing with her whip_).
+
+_Mr. Burs._ (_aside_). Dash! dash! ay, just like her brother. He'll pay
+away finely, I warrant, by the time he's her age. Well, well, he can
+afford it; and I do love to see my children make a figure for their
+money. As Jack Bursal says, what's money for, if it e'nt to make a
+figure? (_Aloud._) There's your brother Jack, now. The extravagant dog!
+he'll have such a dress as never was seen, I suppose, at this here
+Montem. Why, now, Jack Bursal spends more money at Eton, and has more to
+spend, than my Lord John, though my Lord John's the son of a
+marchioness.
+
+_Miss Burs._ Oh, that makes no difference nowadays. I wonder whether her
+ladyship is to be at this Montem. The only good I ever got out of these
+stupid Talbots was an introduction to their friend Lady Piercefield.
+What she could find to like in the Talbots, heaven knows. I've a notion
+she'll drop them, when she hears of the loss of the _Bombay Castle_.
+
+    _Enter a_ WAITER, _with a note._
+
+_Waiter._ A note from my Lady Piercefield, sir.
+
+_Miss B._ Charming woman! Is she here, pray, sir?
+
+_Waiter._ Just come. Yes, ma'am.
+
+        (_Exit Waiter._)
+
+_Miss B._ Well, Mr. Bursal, what is it?
+
+_Mr. B._ (_reads_). 'Business of importance to communicate----' Hum!
+what can it be?--(_going_).
+
+_Miss B._ (_aside_). Perhaps some match to propose for me! (_Aloud._)
+Mr. Bursal, pray before you go to her ladyship, do send my _ooman_ to me
+to make me _presentable_.
+
+        (_Exit Miss Bursal at one door._)
+
+_Mr. B._ (_at the opposite door_). 'Business of importance!' Hum! I'm
+glad I'm prepared with a good basin of soup. There's no doing business
+well upon an empty stomach. Perhaps the business is to lend cash; and
+I've no great stomach for that. But it will be an honour, to be sure.
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+
+    SCENE III
+
+    _Landlady's Parlour_
+
+    _Landlady_--MR. FINSBURY, _a man-milliner, with bandboxes--a fancy
+    cap, or helmet, with feathers, in the Landlady's hand--a satin bag,
+    covered with gold netting, in the man-milliner's hand--a mantle
+    hanging over his arm. A rough-looking Farmer is sitting with his
+    back towards them, eating bread and cheese, and reading a
+    newspaper._
+
+_Landlady._ Well, this, to be sure, will be the best-dressed Montem that
+ever was seen at Eton; and you Lon'on gentlemen have the most
+fashionablest notions; and this is the most elegantest fancy cap----
+
+_Finsbury._ Why, as you observe, ma'm, that is the most elegant fancy
+cap of them all. That is Mr. Hector Hogmorton's fancy cap, ma'm; and
+here, ma'm, is Mr. Saul's rich satin bag, covered with gold net. He is
+college salt-bearer, I understand, and has a prodigious superb white and
+gold dress. But, in my humble opinion, ma'm, the marshal's white and
+purple and orange fancy-dress, trimmed with silver, will bear the bell;
+though, indeed, I shouldn't say that,--for the colonel's and
+lieutenant's, and ensign's, are beautiful in the extreme. And, to be
+sure, nothing could be better imagined than Mr. Marlborough's lilac and
+silver, with a Roman cap. And it must be allowed that nothing in nature
+can have a better effect than Mr. Drake's flesh-colour and blue, with
+this Spanish hat, ma'm, you see.
+
+        (_The Farmer looks over his shoulder from time to time during
+        this speech, with contempt._)
+
+_Farmer_ (_reads the newspaper_). French fleet at sea--Hum!
+
+_Landlady._ O gemini: Mr. Drake's Spanish hat is the sweetest, tastiest
+thing! Mr. Finsbury, I protest----
+
+_Finsb._ Why, _ma'm_, I knew a lady of your taste couldn't but approve
+of it. My own invention entirely, ma'm. But it's nothing to the
+captain's cap, ma'm. Indeed, ma'm, Mr. Wheeler, the captain that is to
+be, has the prettiest taste in dress. To be sure, his sandals were my
+suggestion; but the mantle he has the entire credit of, to do him
+justice; and when you see it, ma'm, you will be really surprised; for
+(for contrast and elegance, and richness, and lightness, and propriety,
+and effect, and costume) you've never yet seen anything at all to be
+compared to Captain Wheeler's mantle, ma'm.
+
+_Farmer_ (_to the Landlady_). Why, now, pray, Mrs. Landlady, how long
+may it have been the fashion for milliners to go about in men's clothes?
+
+_Landlady_ (_aside to Farmer_). Lord, Mr. Hearty, hush! This is Mr.
+Finsbury, the great man-milliner.
+
+_Farm._ The great man-milliner! This is a sight I never thought to see
+in Old England.
+
+_Finsb._ (_packing up bandboxes_). Well, ma'm, I'm glad I have your
+approbation. It has ever been my study to please the ladies.
+
+_Farm._ (_throws a fancy mantle over his frieze coat_). And is this the
+way to please the ladies, Mrs. Landlady, nowadays?
+
+_Finsb._ (_taking off the mantle_). Sir, with your leave--I ask
+pardon--but the least thing detriments these tender colours; and as you
+have just been eating cheese with your hands----
+
+_Farm._ 'Tis my way to eat cheese with my mouth, man.
+
+_Finsb._ _Man!_
+
+_Farm._ I ask pardon--man-milliner, I mean.
+
+    _Enter_ LANDLORD.
+
+_Landlord._ Why, wife!
+
+_Landlady._ Wife!
+
+_Landlord._ I ask pardon--Mrs. Newington I mean. Do you know who them
+ladies are that you have been and turned out of the Dolphin?
+
+_Landlady_ (_alarmed_). Not I, indeed. Who are they, pray? Why, if they
+are quality it's no fault of mine. It is their own fault for coming,
+like scrubs, without four horses. Why, if quality will travel the road
+this way, incognito, how can they expect to be known and treated as
+quality? 'Tis no fault of mine. Why didn't you find out sooner who they
+were, Mr. Newington? What else in the 'versal world have you to do, but
+to go basking about in the yards and places with your tankard in your
+hand, from morning till night? What have you else to ruminate, all day
+long, but to find out who's who, I say?
+
+_Farm._ Clapper! clapper! clapper! like my mill in a high wind,
+landlord. Clapper! clapper! clapper!--enough to stun a body.
+
+_Landlord._ That is not used to it; but use is all, they say.
+
+_Landlady._ Will you answer me, Mr. Newington? Who are the grandees that
+were in the Dolphin?--and what's become _on_ them?
+
+_Landlord._ Grandees was your own word, wife. They be not to call
+grandees; but I reckon you'd be sorry not to treat 'em civil, when I
+tell you their name is Talbot, mother and sister to our young Talbot of
+Eton; he that paid me so handsome for the hunter this very morning.
+
+_Landlady._ Mercy! is that all? What a combustion for nothing in life!
+
+_Finsb._ For nothing in life, as you say, ma'm; that is, nothing in high
+life, I'm sure, ma'm; nay, I dare a'most venture to swear. Would you
+believe it, Mr. Talbot is one of the few young gentlemen of Eton that
+has not bespoke from me a fancy-dress for this grand Montem?
+
+_Landlady._ There, Mr. Newington; there's your Talbot for you! and
+there's your grandees! Oh, trust me, I know your scrubs at first sight.
+
+_Landlord._ Scrubs, I don't, nor can't, nor won't call them that pay
+their debts honestly. Scrubs, I don't, nor won't, nor can't call them
+that behave as handsome as young Mr. Talbot did here to me this morning
+about the hunter. A scrub he is not, wife. Fancy-dress or no
+fancy-dress, Mr. Finsbury, this young gentleman is no scrub.
+
+_Finsb._ Dear me! 'Twas not I said _scrub_. Did I say scrub?
+
+_Farm._ No matter if you did.
+
+_Finsb._ No matter, certainly; and yet it is a matter; for I'm confident
+I wouldn't for the world leave it in any one's power to say that I
+said--that I called--any young gentleman of Eton a _scrub_! Why, you
+know, sir, it might breed a riot!
+
+_Farm._ And a pretty figure you'd make in a riot!
+
+_Landlady._ Pray let me hear nothing about riots in my house.
+
+_Farm._ Nor about scrubs.
+
+_Finsb._ But I beg leave to explain, gentlemen. All I ventured to remark
+or suggest was, that as there was some talk of Mr. Talbot's being
+captain to-morrow, I didn't conceive how he could well appear without
+any dress. That was all, upon my word and honour. A good morning to you,
+gentlemen; it is time for me to be off. Mrs. Newington, you were so
+obliging as to promise to accommodate me with a return chaise as far as
+Eton.
+
+        (_Finsbury bows and exit._)
+
+_Farm._ A good day to you and your bandboxes. There's a fellow for you
+now! Ha! ha! ha!--A man-milliner, forsooth!
+
+_Landlord._ Mrs. Talbot's coming--stand back.
+
+_Landlady._ Lord! why does Bob show them through this way?
+
+    _Enter_ MRS. TALBOT, _leaning on_ LOUISA; _Waiter showing the way._
+
+_Landlady._ You are going on, I suppose, ma'am?
+
+_Waiter_ (_aside to Landlord_). Not if she could help it; but there's no
+beds, since Mr. Bursal and Miss Bursal's come.
+
+_Landlord._ I say nothing, for it is vain to say more. But isn't it a
+pity she can't stay for the Montem, poor old lady! Her son--as good and
+fine a lad as ever you saw--they say, has a chance, too, of being
+captain. She may never live to see another such a sight.
+
+        (_As Mrs. Talbot walks slowly on, the Farmer puts himself across
+        her way, so as to stop her short._)
+
+_Farm._ No offence, madam, I hope; but I have a good snug farmhouse, not
+far off hand; and if so be you'd be so good to take a night's lodging,
+you and the young lady with you, you'd have a hearty welcome. That's all
+I can say; and you'd make my wife very happy; for she's a good woman, to
+say nothing of myself.
+
+_Landlord._ If I may be so bold to put in my word, madam, you'd have as
+good beds, and be as well lodged, with Farmer Hearty, as in e'er a house
+at Salt Hill.
+
+_Mrs. Talb._ I am very much obliged----
+
+_Farm._ Oh, say nothing o' that, madam. I am sure I shall be as much
+obliged if you do come. Do, miss, speak for me.
+
+_Louisa._ Pray, dear mother----
+
+_Farm._ She will. (_Calls behind the scenes._) Here, waiter! hostler!
+driver! what's your name? drive the chaise up here to the door, smart,
+close. Lean on my arm, madam, and we'll have you in and home in a whiff.
+
+        (_Exeunt Mrs. Talbot, Louisa, Farmer, Landlord, and Waiter._)
+
+_Landlady_ (_sola_). What a noise and a rout this farmer man makes! and
+my husband, with his great broad face, bowing, as great a nincompoop as
+t'other. The folks are all bewitched with the old woman, I verily
+believe. (_Aloud._) A good morning to you, ladies.
+
+
+ACT THE SECOND
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _A field near Eton College;--several boys crossing backwards and
+    forwards in the background. In front,_ TALBOT, WHEELER, LORD JOHN
+    _and_ BURSAL.
+
+_Talbot._ Fair play, Wheeler! Have at 'em, my boy! There they stand,
+fair game! There's Bursal there, with his _dead_ forty-five votes at
+command; and Lord John with his--how many live friends?
+
+_Lord John_ (_coolly_). Sir, I have fifty-six friends, I believe.
+
+_Talb._ Fifty-six friends, his lordship believes--Wheeler inclusive no
+doubt.
+
+_Lord J._ That's as hereafter may be.
+
+_Wheeler._ Hereafter! Oh, fie, my _lud_! You know your own Wheeler has,
+from the first minute he ever saw you, been your fast friend.
+
+_Talb._ Your fast friend from the first minute he ever saw you, my lord!
+That's well hit, Wheeler; stick to that; stick fast. Fifty-six friends,
+Wheeler _in_clusive, hey, my lord! hey, my _lud_!
+
+_Lord J._ Talbot _ex_clusive, I find, contrary to my expectations.
+
+_Talb._ Ay, contrary to your expectations, you find that Talbot is not a
+dog that will lick the dust: but then there's enough of the true spaniel
+breed to be had for whistling for; hey, Wheeler?
+
+_Bursal_ (_aside to Wheeler_). A pretty electioneerer. So much the
+better for you, Wheeler. Why, unless he bought a vote, he'd never win
+one, if he talked from this to the day of judgment.
+
+_Wheeler_ (_aside to Bursal_). And as he has no money to buy votes--he!
+he! he!--we are safe enough.
+
+_Talb._ That's well done, Wheeler; fight the by-battle there with
+Bursal, now you are sure of the main with Lord John.
+
+_Lord J._ Sure! I never made Mr. Wheeler any promise yet.
+
+_Wheel._ Oh, I ask no promise from his lordship; we are upon honour: I
+trust entirely to his lordship's good nature and generosity, and to his
+regard for his own family; I having the honour, though distantly, to be
+related.
+
+_Lord J._ Related! How, Wheeler?
+
+_Wheel._ Connected, I mean, which is next door, as I may say, to being
+related. Related slipped out by mistake; I beg pardon, my Lord John.
+
+_Lord J._ Related!--a strange mistake, Wheeler.
+
+_Talb._ Overshot yourself, Wheeler; overshot yourself, by all that's
+awkward. And yet, till now, I always took you for '_a dead-shot at a
+yellow-hammer_.'[9]
+
+  [9] Young noblemen at Oxford wear yellow tufts at the tops of
+      their caps. Hence their flatterers are said to be dead-shots
+      at yellow-hammers.
+
+_Wheel._ (_taking Bursal by the arm_). Bursal, a word with you. (_Aside
+to Bursal._) What a lump of family pride that Lord John is.
+
+_Talb._ Keep out of my hearing, Wheeler, lest I should spoil sport. But
+never fear: you'll please Bursal sooner than I shall. I can't, for the
+soul of me, bring myself to say that Bursal's not purse-proud, and you
+can. Give you joy.
+
+_Burs._ A choice electioneerer!--ha! ha! ha!
+
+_Wheel._ (_faintly_). He! he! he!--a choice electioneerer, as you say.
+
+        (_Exeunt Wheeler and Bursal; manent Lord J. and Talbot._)
+
+_Lord J._ There was a time, Talbot----
+
+_Talb._ There was a time, my lord--to save trouble and a long
+explanation--there was a time when you liked Talbots better than
+spaniels; you understand me?
+
+_Lord J._ I have found it very difficult to understand you of late, Mr.
+Talbot.
+
+_Talb._ Yes, because you have used other people's understandings instead
+of your own. Be yourself, my lord. See with your own eyes, and hear with
+your own ears, and then you'll find me still, what I've been these seven
+years; not your under-strapper, your hanger-on, your flatterer, but your
+friend! If you choose to have me for a friend, here's my hand. I am your
+friend, and you'll not find a better.
+
+_Lord J._ (_giving his hand_). You are a strange fellow, Talbot; I
+thought I never could have forgiven you for what you said last night.
+
+_Talb._ What? for I don't keep a register of my sayings. Oh, it was
+something about gaming--Wheeler was flattering your taste for it, and he
+put me into a passion--I forget what I said. But, whatever it was, I'm
+sure it was well meant, and I believe it was well said.
+
+_Lord J._ But you laugh at me sometimes to my face.
+
+_Talb._ Would you rather I should laugh at you behind your back?
+
+_Lord J._ But of all things in the world I hate to be laughed at. Listen
+to me, and don't fumble in your pockets while I'm talking to you.
+
+_Talb._ I'm fumbling for--oh, here it is. Now, Lord John, I once did
+laugh at you behind your back, and what's droll enough, it was _at_ your
+back I laughed. Here's a caricature I drew of you--I really am sorry I
+did it; but 'tis best to show it to you myself.
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). It is all I can do to forgive this. (_After a
+pause, he tears the paper._) I have heard of this caricature before; but
+I did not expect, Talbot, that you would come and show it to me
+yourself, Talbot, so handsomely, especially at such a time as this.
+Wheeler might well say you are a bad electioneerer.
+
+_Talb._ Oh, hang it! I forgot my election, and your fifty-six friends.
+
+    _Enter_ RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory_ (_claps Talbot on the back_). Fifty-six friends, have you,
+Talbot? Say seven--fifty-seven, I mean; for I'll lay you a wager, you've
+forgot me; and that's a shame for you, too; for out of the whole
+posse-comitatus entirely now, you have not a stauncher friend than poor
+little Rory O'Ryan. And a good right he has to befriend you; for you
+stood by him when many who ought to have known better were hunting him
+down for a wild Irishman. Now that same wild Irishman has as much
+gratitude in him as any tame Englishman of them all. But don't let's be
+talking s_i_ntim_i_nt; for, for my share I'd not give a bogberry a
+bushel for s_i_ntim_i_nt, when I could get anything better.
+
+_Lord J._ And pray, sir, what may a bogberry be?
+
+_Rory._ Phoo! don't be playing the innocent, now. Where have you lived
+all your life (I ask pardon, my l_a_rd) not to know a bogberry when you
+see or hear of it? (_Turns to Talbot._) But what are ye standing idling
+here for? Sure, there's Wheeler, and Bursal along with him, canvassing
+out yonder at a terrible fine rate. And haven't I been huzzaing for you
+there till I'm hoarse? So I am, and just stepped away to suck an orange
+for my voice--(_sucks an orange_). I am a _thoroughgoing_ friend, at any
+rate.
+
+_Talb._ Now, Rory, you are the best fellow in the world, and a
+_thoroughgoing_ friend; but have a care, or you'll get yourself and me
+into some scrape, before you have done with this violent _thoroughgoing_
+work.
+
+_Rory._ Never fear! never fear, man!--a warm _frind_ and a bitter enemy,
+that's my maxim.
+
+_Talb._ Yes, but too warm a friend is as bad as a bitter enemy.
+
+_Rory._ Oh, never fear me! I'm as cool as a cucumber all the time; and
+whilst they _tink_ I'm _tinking_ of nothing in life but making a noise,
+I make my own snug little remarks in prose and verse, as--now my voice
+is after coming back to me, you shall hear, if you _plase_.
+
+_Talb._ I do please.
+
+_Rory._ I call it Rory's song. Now, mind, I have a verse for
+everybody--o' the leading lads, I mean; and I shall put 'em in or _lave_
+'em out, according to their inclinations and deserts, _wise-a-wee_ to
+you, my little _frind_. So you comprehend it will be Rory's song, with
+variations.
+
+_Talbot and Lord John._ Let's have it; let's have it without further
+preface.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      I'm true game to the last, and no _Wheeler_ for me.
+
+_Rory._ There's a stroke, in the first place, for Wheeler,--you take it?
+
+_Talb._ Oh yes, yes, we take it; go on.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      I'm true game to the last, and no Wheeler for me.
+      Of all birds, beasts, or fishes, that swim in the sea,
+      Webb'd or finn'd, black or white, man or child, Whig or Tory,
+      None but Talbot, O Talbot's the dog for Rory.
+
+_Talb._ 'Talbot the dog' is much obliged to you.
+
+_Lord J._ But if I have any ear, one of your lines is a foot too long,
+Mr. O'Ryan.
+
+_Rory._ Phoo, put the best foot foremost for a _frind_. Slur it in the
+singing, and don't be quarrelling, anyhow, for a foot more or less. The
+more feet the better it will stand, you know. Only let me go on, and
+you'll come to something that will _plase_ you.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm.
+
+_Rory._ That's Bursal, mind now, whom I mean to allude to in this verse.
+
+_Lord J._ If the allusion's good, we shall probably find out your
+meaning.
+
+_Talb._ On with you, Rory, and don't read us notes on a song.
+
+_Lord J._ Go on, and let us hear what you say of Bursal.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm;
+      His father's a tanner,--but then where's the harm?
+      Heir to houses, and hunters, and horseponds in fee,
+      Won't his skins sure soon buy him a pedigree?
+
+_Lord J._ Encore! encore! Why, Rory, I did not think you could make so
+good a song.
+
+_Rory._ Sure 'twas none of I made it--'twas Talbot here.
+
+_Talb._ I!
+
+_Rory_ (_aside_). Not a word: I'll make you a present of it: sure, then,
+it's your own.
+
+_Talb._ I never wrote a word of it.
+
+_Rory_ (_to Lord J._) Phoo, phoo! he's only denying it out of false
+modesty.
+
+_Lord J._ Well, no matter who wrote it,--sing it again.
+
+_Rory._ Be easy; so I will, and as many more verses as you will to the
+back of it. (_Winking at Talbot aside._) You shall have the credit of
+all. (_Aloud._) Put me in when I'm out, Talbot, and you (_to Lord John_)
+join--join.
+
+    _Rory sings, and Lord John sings with him._
+
+      Then there's he with the purse that's as long as my arm;
+      His father's a tanner,--but then where's the harm?
+      Heir to houses, and hunters, and horseponds in fee,
+      Won't his skins sure soon buy him a pedigree?
+      There's my lord with the back that never was bent----
+
+        (_Lord John stops singing; Talbot makes signs to Rory to stop;
+        but Rory does not see him, and sings on._)
+
+      There's my lord with the back that never was bent;
+      Let him live with his ancestors, I am content.
+
+        (_Rory pushes Lord J. and Talbot with his elbows._)
+
+_Rory._ Join, join, both of ye--why don't you join? (_Sings._)
+
+      Who'll buy my Lord John? the arch fishwoman cried,
+      A nice oyster shut up in a choice shell of pride.
+
+_Rory._ But join or ye spoil all.
+
+_Talb._ You have spoiled all, indeed.
+
+_Lord J._ (_making a formal low bow_). Mr. Talbot, Lord John thanks you.
+
+_Rory._ Lord John! blood and thunder! I forgot you were by--quite and
+clean.
+
+_Lord J._ (_puts him aside and continues speaking to Talbot_). Lord John
+thanks you, Mr. Talbot: this is the second part of the caricature. Lord
+John thanks you for these proofs of friendship--Lord John has reason to
+thank you, Mr. Talbot.
+
+_Rory._ No reason in life now. Don't be thanking so much for nothing in
+life; or if you must be thanking of somebody, it's me you ought to
+thank.
+
+_Lord J._ I ought and do, sir, for unmasking one who----
+
+_Talb._ (_warmly_). Unmasking, my lord----
+
+_Rory_ (_holding them asunder_). Phoo! phoo! phoo! be easy, can't
+ye?--there's no unmasking at all in the case. My Lord John, Talbot's
+writing the song was all a mistake.
+
+_Lord J._ As much a mistake as your singing it, sir, I presume----
+
+_Rory._ Just as much. 'Twas all a mistake. So now don't you go and make
+a mistake into a misunderstanding. It was I made every word of the song
+_out o' the face_[10]--that about the back that never was bent, and the
+ancestors of the oyster, and all. He did not waste a word of it; upon my
+conscience, I wrote it all--though I'll engage you didn't think I could
+write such a good thing. (_Lord John turns away._) I'm telling you the
+truth, and not a word of a lie, and yet you won't believe me.
+
+  [10] From beginning to end.
+
+_Lord J._ You will excuse me, sir, if I cannot believe two contradictory
+assertions within two minutes. Mr. Talbot, I thank you (_going_).
+
+        (_Rory tries to stop Lord John from going, but cannot.--Exit
+        Lord John._)
+
+_Rory._ Well, if he _will_ go, let him go then, and much good may it do
+him. Nay, but don't you go too.
+
+_Talb._ O Rory, what have you done?--(_Talbot runs after Lord J._) Hear
+me, my lord.
+
+        (_Exit Talbot._)
+
+_Rory._ Hear him! hear him! hear him!--Well, I'm point blank mad with
+myself for making this blunder; but how could I help it? As sure as ever
+I am meaning to do the best thing on earth, it turns out the worst.
+
+    _Enter a party of lads, huzzaing._
+
+_Rory_ (_joins_). Huzza! huzza!--Who, pray, are ye huzzaing for?
+
+_1st Boy._ Wheeler! Wheeler for ever! huzza!
+
+_Rory._ Talbot! Talbot for ever! huzza! Captain Talbot for ever! huzza!
+
+_2nd Boy._ _Captain_ he'll never be,--at least not to-morrow; for Lord
+John has just declared for Wheeler.
+
+_1st Boy._ And that turns the scale.
+
+_Rory._ Oh, the scale may turn back again.
+
+_3rd Boy._ Impossible! Lord John has just given his _promise_ to
+Wheeler. I heard him with my own ears.
+
+(_Several speak at once._) And I heard him; and I! and I! and I!--Huzza!
+Wheeler for ever!
+
+_Rory._ Oh, murder! murder! murder! (_Aside._) This goes to my heart!
+it's all my doing. O, my poor Talbot! murder! murder! murder! But I
+won't let them see me cast down, and it is good to be huzzaing at all
+events. Huzza for Talbot! Talbot for ever! huzza!
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+    _Enter_ WHEELER _and_ BURSAL.
+
+_Wheel._ Who was that huzzaing for Talbot?
+
+        (_Rory behind the scenes_, 'Huzza for Talbot! Talbot for ever!
+        huzza!')
+
+_Burs._ Pooh, it is only Rory O'Ryan, or the roaring lion, as I call
+him. Ha! ha! ha! Rory O'Ryan, _alias_ O'Ryan, the roaring lion; that's a
+good one; put it about--Rory O'Ryan, the roaring lion, ha! ha! ha! but
+you don't take it--you don't laugh, Wheeler.
+
+_Wheeler._ Ha! ha! ha! Oh, upon my honour I do laugh; ha! ha! ha! (_It
+is the hardest work to laugh at his wit--aside._) (_Aloud._) Rory
+O'Ryan, the roaring lion--ha! ha! ha! You know I always laugh, Bursal,
+at your jokes--he! he! he!--ready to kill myself.
+
+_Burs._ (_sullenly_). You are easily killed, then, if that much laughing
+will do the business.
+
+_Wheel._ (_coughing_). Just then--something stuck in my throat; I beg
+your pardon.
+
+_Burs._ (_still sullen_). Oh, you need not beg my pardon about the
+matter; I don't care whether you laugh or no--not I. Now you have got
+Lord John to declare for you, you are above laughing at my jokes, I
+suppose.
+
+_Wheel._ No, upon my word and honour, _I did_ laugh.
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). A fig for your word and honour. (_Aloud._) I know I'm
+of no consequence now; but you'll remember that, if his lordship has the
+honour of making you captain, he must have the honour to pay for your
+captain's accoutrements; for I shan't pay the piper, I promise you,
+since I'm of no consequence.
+
+_Wheel._ Of no consequence! But, my dear Bursal, what could put that
+into your head? that's the strangest, oddest fancy. Of no consequence!
+Bursal, of no consequence! Why, everybody that knows anything--everybody
+that has seen Bursal House--knows that you are of the greatest
+consequence, my dear Bursal.
+
+_Burs._ (_taking out his watch, and opening it, looks at it_). No, I'm
+of no consequence. I wonder that rascal Finsbury is not come yet with
+the dresses (_still looking at his watch_).
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside_). If Bursal takes it into his head not to lend me the
+money to pay for my captain's dress, what will become of me? for I have
+not a shilling--and Lord John won't pay for me--and Finsbury has orders
+not to leave the house till he is paid by everybody. What will become of
+me?--(_bites his nails_).
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). How I love to make him bite his nails! (_Aloud._) I
+know I'm of no consequence. (_Strikes his repeater._)
+
+_Wheel._ What a fine repeater that is of yours, Bursal! It is the best I
+ever heard.
+
+_Burs._ So it well may be; for it cost a mint of money.
+
+_Wheel._ No matter to you what anything costs. Happy dog as you are! You
+roll in money; and yet you talk of being of no consequence.
+
+_Burs._ But I am not of half so much consequence as Lord John--am I?
+
+_Wheel._ Are you? Why, aren't you twice as rich as he!
+
+_Burs._ Very true, but I'm not purse-proud.
+
+_Wheel._ You purse-proud! I should never have thought of such a thing.
+
+_Burs._ Nor I, if Talbot had not used the word.
+
+_Wheel._ But Talbot thinks everybody purse-proud that has a purse.
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). Well, this Wheeler does put one into a good humour
+with one's self in spite of one's teeth. (_Aloud._) Talbot says blunt
+things; but I don't think he's what you can call clever--hey, Wheeler?
+
+_Wheel._ Clever! Oh, not he.
+
+_Burs._ I think I could walk round him.
+
+_Wheel._ To be sure you could. Why, do you know, I've _quizzed_ him
+famously myself within this quarter of an hour?
+
+_Burs._ Indeed! I wish I had been by.
+
+_Wheel._ So do I, 'faith! It was the best thing. I wanted, you see, to
+get him out of my way, that I might have the field clear for
+electioneering to-day. So I bowls up to him with a long face--such a
+face as this. 'Mr. Talbot, do you know--I'm sorry to tell you, here's
+Jack Smith has just brought the news from Salt Hill. Your mother, in
+getting into the carriage, slipped, and has _broke_ her leg, and there
+she's lying at a farmhouse, two miles off. Is not it true, Jack?' said
+I. 'I saw the farmer helping her in with my own eyes,' cries Jack. Off
+goes Talbot like an arrow. '_Quizzed_ him, _quizzed_ him!' said I.
+
+_Burs._ Ha! ha! ha! quizzed him indeed, with all his cleverness; that
+was famously done.
+
+_Wheel._ Ha! ha! ha! With all his cleverness he will be all the evening
+hunting for the farmhouse and the mother that has _broke_ her leg; so he
+is out of our way.
+
+_Burs._ But what need have you to want him out of your way, now Lord
+John has come over to your side? You have the thing at a dead beat.
+
+_Wheel._ Not so dead either; for there's a great independent party, you
+know; and if _you_ don't help me, Bursal, to canvass them, I shall be no
+captain. It is you I depend upon after all. Will you come and canvass
+them with me? Dear Bursal, pray--all depends upon you.
+
+        (_Pulls him by the arm--Bursal follows._)
+
+_Burs._ Well, if all depends upon me, I'll see what I can do for you.
+(_Aside._) Then I am of some consequence! Money makes a man of some
+consequence, I see; at least with some folks.
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    _In the back scene a flock of sheep are seen penned. In front, a
+    party of country lads and lasses, gaily dressed, as in
+    sheep-shearing time, with ribands and garlands of flowers, etc., are
+    dancing and singing._
+
+    _Enter_ PATTY, _dressed as the Queen of the Festival, with a lamb in
+    her arms. The dancers break off when she comes in, and direct their
+    attention towards her._
+
+_1st Peasant._ Oh, here comes Patty! Here comes the Queen o' the day.
+What has kept you from us so long, Patty?
+
+_2nd Peasant._ '_Please your Majesty_,' you should say.
+
+_Patty._ This poor little lamb of mine was what kept me so long. It
+strayed away from the rest; and I should have lost him, so I should, for
+ever, if it had not been for a good young gentleman. Yonder he is,
+talking to Farmer Hearty. That's the young gentleman who pulled my lamb
+out of the ditch for me, into which he had fallen--pretty creature!
+
+_1st Peasant._ Pretty creature--or, your Majesty, whichever you choose
+to be called--come and dance with them, and I'll carry your lamb.
+
+        (_Exeunt, singing and dancing._)
+
+    _Enter_ FARMER HEARTY _and_ TALBOT.
+
+_Farmer._ Why, young gentleman, I'm glad I happened to light upon you
+here, and so to hinder you from going farther astray, and set your heart
+at ease like.
+
+_Talb._ Thanks, good farmer, you have set my heart at ease, indeed. But
+the truth is, they did frighten me confoundedly--more fool I.
+
+_Farm._ No fool at all, to my notion. I should, at your age, ay, or at
+my age, just the self-same way have been frightened myself, if so be
+that mention had been made to me, that way, of my own mother's having
+broke her leg or so. And greater, by a great deal, the shame for them
+that frighted you, than for you to be frighted. How young gentlemen,
+now, can bring themselves for to tell such lies, is to me, now, a matter
+of amazement, like, that I can't noways get over.
+
+_Talb._ Oh, farmer, such lies are very witty, though you and I don't
+just now like the wit of them. This is fun, this is _quizzing_; but you
+don't know what we young gentlemen mean by _quizzing_.
+
+_Farm._ Ay, but I do though, to my cost, ever since last year. Look you,
+now, at yon fine field of wheat. Well, it was just as fine, and finer,
+last year, till a young Eton jackanapes----
+
+_Talb._ Take care what you say, farmer; for I am a young Eton
+jackanapes.
+
+_Farm._ No; but you be not the young Eton jackanapes that I'm a-thinking
+on. I tell you it was this time last year, man; he was a-horseback, I
+tell ye, mounted upon a fine bay hunter, out o' hunting, like.
+
+_Talb._ I tell you it was this time last year, man, that I was mounted
+upon a fine bay hunter, out a-hunting.
+
+_Farm._ Zooks! would you argufy a man out of his wits? You won't go for
+to tell me that you are that impertinent little jackanapes!
+
+_Talb._ No! no! I'll not tell you that I am an impertinent little
+jackanapes!
+
+_Farm._ (_wiping his forehead_). Well, don't then, for I can't believe
+it; and you put me out. Where was I?
+
+_Talb._ Mounted upon a fine bay hunter.
+
+_Farm._ Ay, so he was. 'Here, _you_,' says he, meaning me--'open this
+gate for me.' Now, if he had but a-spoke me fair, I would not have
+gainsaid him; but he falls to swearing, so I bid him open the gate for
+himself. 'There's a bull behind you, farmer,' says he. I turns.
+'_Quizzed_ him!' cries my jackanapes, and off he gallops him, through
+the very thick of my corn; but he got a fall, leaping the ditch out
+yonder, which pacified me, like, at the minute. So I goes up to see
+whether he was killed; but he was not a whit the worse for his tumble.
+So I should ha' fell into a passion with him then, to be sure, about my
+corn; but his horse had got such a terrible sprain, I couldn't say
+anything to him; for I was a-pitying the poor animal. As fine a hunter
+as ever you saw! I am s_a_rtain sure he could never come to good after.
+
+_Talb._ (_aside_). I do think, from the description, that this was
+Wheeler; and I have paid for the horse which he spoiled! (_Aloud._)
+Should you know either the man or the horse again, if you were to see
+them?
+
+_Farm._ Ay, that I should, to my dying day.
+
+_Talb._ Will you come with me, then, and you'll do me some guineas'
+worth of service?
+
+_Farm._ Ay, that I will, with a deal of pleasure; for you be a
+civil-spoken young gentleman; and, besides, I don't think the worse _on_
+you for being _frighted_ a little about your mother; being what I might
+ha' been, at your age, myself; for I had a mother myself once. So lead
+on, master.
+
+        (_Exeunt._)
+
+
+ACT THE THIRD
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _The Garden of the 'Windmill Inn' at Salt Hill_
+
+    MISS BURSAL, MRS. NEWINGTON, SALLY _the Chambermaid_
+
+    (_Miss Bursal, in a fainting state, is sitting on a garden stool,
+    and leaning her head against the Landlady. Sally is holding a glass
+    of water and a smelling bottle._)
+
+_Miss Bursal._ Where am I? Where am I?
+
+_Landlady._ At the 'Windmill,' at Salt Hill, young lady; and ill or
+well, you can't be better.
+
+_Sally._ Do you find yourself better since coming into the air, miss?
+
+_Miss B._ Better! Oh, I shall never be better!
+
+        (_Leans her head on hand, and rocks herself backwards and
+        forwards._)
+
+_Landlady._ My dear young lady, don't take on so. (_Aside._) Now would I
+give something to know what it was my Lady Piercefield said to the
+father, and what the father said to this one, and what's the matter at
+the bottom of affairs. Sally, did you hear anything at the doors?
+
+_Sally_ (_aside_). No, indeed, ma'am; I never _be's_ at the doors.
+
+_Landlady_ (_aside_). Simpleton! (_Aloud._) But, my dear Miss Bursal, if
+I may be so bold--if you'd only disembosom your mind of what's on it----
+
+_Miss B._ Disembosom my mind! Nonsense! I've nothing on my mind. Pray
+leave me, madam.
+
+_Landlady_ (_aside_). Madam, indeed! madam, forsooth! Oh, I'll make her
+pay for that! That _madam_ shall go down in the bill as sure as my
+name's Newington. (_In a higher tone._) Well, I wish you better, ma'am.
+I suppose I'd best send your own servant?
+
+_Miss B._ (_sullenly_). Yes, I suppose so. (_To Sally._) You need not
+wait, child, nor look so curious.
+
+_Sally._ _Cur'ous!_ Indeed, miss, if I look a little _cur'ous_, or so
+(_looking at her dress_), 'tis only because I was _frighted_ to see you
+take on, which made me forget my clean apron when I came out; and this
+apron----
+
+_Miss B._ Hush! hush! child. Don't tell me about clean aprons, nor run
+on with your vulgar talk. Is there ever a seat one can set on in that
+_h_arbour yonder?
+
+_Sally._ O dear _'art_, yes, miss; 'tis the pleasantest _h_arbour on
+_h_earth. Be pleased to lean on my _h_arm, and you'll soon be there.
+
+_Miss B._ (_going_). Then tell my woman she need not come to me, and let
+nobody _interude_ on me--do you _'ear_? (_Aside._) Oh, what will become
+of me? and the Talbots will soon know it! And the ponies, and the
+curricle, and the _vis-a-vis_--what will become of them? and how shall I
+make my appearance at the Montem, or any _ware_ else?
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    LORD JOHN--WHEELER--BURSAL
+
+_Wheeler._ Well, but, my lord--Well, but, Bursal--though my Lady
+Piercefield--though Miss Bursal is come to Salt Hill, you won't leave us
+all at sixes and sevens. What can we do without you?
+
+_Lord J._ You can do very well without _me_.
+
+_Bursal._ You can do very well without _me_.
+
+_Wheel._ (_to Burs._). Impossible!--impossible! You know Mr. Finsbury
+will be here just now, with the dresses; and we have to try them on.
+
+_Burs._ And to pay for them.
+
+_Wheel._ And to settle about the procession. And then, my lord, the
+election is to come on this evening. You won't go till that's over, as
+your lordship has _promised_ me your lordship's vote and interest.
+
+_Lord J._ My vote I promised you, Mr. Wheeler; but I said not a syllable
+about my _interest_. My friends, perhaps, have not been offended, though
+I have, by Mr. Talbot. I shall leave them to their own inclinations.
+
+_Burs._ (_whistling_). Wheugh! wheugh! wheugh! Wheeler, the principal's
+nothing without the interest.
+
+_Wheel._ Oh, the interest will go along with the principal, of course;
+for I'm persuaded, if my lord leaves his friends to their inclinations,
+it will be the inclination of my lord's friends to vote as he does, if
+he says nothing to them to the contrary.
+
+_Lord J._ I told you, Mr. Wheeler, that I should leave them to
+themselves.
+
+_Burs._ (_still whistling_). Well, I'll do my best to make that father
+of mine send me off to Oxford. I'm sure I'm fit to go--along with
+Wheeler. Why, you'd best be my tutor, Wheeler!--a devilish good thought.
+
+_Wheel._ An excellent thought.
+
+_Burs._ And a cursed fine dust we should kick up at Oxford, with your
+Montem money and all!--Money's _the go_ after all. I wish it was come to
+my making you my last bow, 'ye distant spires, ye _antic_ towers!'
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside to Lord J._). Ye _antic_ towers!--fit for Oxford, my
+lord!
+
+_Lord J._ _Antique_ towers, I suppose Mr. Bursal means.
+
+_Burs._ Antique, to be sure!--I said antique, did not I, Wheeler?
+
+_Wheel._ Oh yes.
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). What a mean animal is this!
+
+    _Enter_ RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory._ Why, now, what's become of Talbot, I want to know? There he is
+not to be found anywhere in the wide world; and there's a hullabaloo
+amongst his friends for him.
+
+        (_Wheeler and Bursal wink at one another._)
+
+_Wheel._ We know nothing of him.
+
+_Lord J._ I have not the honour, sir, to be one of Mr. Talbot's friends.
+It is his own fault, and I am sorry for it.
+
+_Rory._ 'Faith, so am I, especially as it is mine--fault I mean; and
+especially as the election is just going to come on.
+
+_Enter a party of boys, who cry_, Finsbury's come!--Finsbury's come with
+the dresses!
+
+_Wheel._ Finsbury's come? Oh, let us see the dresses, and let us try 'em
+on to-night.
+
+_Burs._ (_pushing the crowd_). On with ye--on with ye, there!--Let's try
+'em on!--Try 'em on--I'm to be colonel.
+
+_1st Boy._ And I lieutenant.
+
+_2nd Boy._ And I ensign.
+
+_3rd Boy._ And I college salt-bearer.
+
+_4th Boy._ And I oppidan.
+
+_5th Boy._ Oh, what a pity I'm in mourning.
+
+(_Several speak at once._) And we are servitors. We are to be the eight
+servitors.
+
+_Wheel._ And I am to be your Captain, I hope. Come on, my Colonel (_to
+Bursal_). My lord, you are coming?
+
+_Rory._ By-and-by--I've a word in his ear, by your _lave_ and his.
+
+_Burs._ Why, what the devil stops the way, there?--Push on--on with
+them.
+
+_6th Boy._ I'm marshal.
+
+_Burs._ On with you--on with you--who cares what you are?
+
+_Wheel._ (_to Bursal, aside_). You'll pay Finsbury for me, you rich Jew?
+(_To Lord John._) Your lordship will remember your lordship's promise?
+
+_Lord J._ I do not usually forget my promises, sir; and therefore need
+not to be reminded of them.
+
+_Wheel._ I beg pardon--I beg ten thousand pardons, my lord.
+
+_Burs._ (_taking him by the arm_). Come on, man, and don't stand begging
+pardon there, or I'll leave you.
+
+_Wheel._ (_to Burs._). I beg pardon, Bursal--I beg pardon, ten thousand
+times.
+
+        (_Exeunt._)
+
+    MANENT LORD JOHN and RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory._ Wheugh!--Now put the case. If I was going to be hanged, for the
+life of me I couldn't be after begging so many pardons for nothing at
+all. But many men, many minds--(_Hums._) True game to the last! No
+Wheeler for me. Oh, murder! I forgot, I was nigh letting the cat out o'
+the bag again.
+
+_Lord J._ You had something to say to me, sir? I wait till your
+recollection returns.
+
+_Rory._ 'Faith, and that's very kind of you; and if you had always done
+so, you would never have been offended with me, my lord.
+
+_Lord J._ You are mistaken, Mr. O'Ryan, if you think that you did or
+could offend me.
+
+_Rory._ Mistaken was I, then, sure enough; but we are all liable to
+mistakes, and should forget and forgive one another; that's the way to
+go through.
+
+_Lord J._ You will go through the world your own way, Mr. O'Ryan, and
+allow me to go through it my way.
+
+_Rory._ Very fair--fair enough--then we shan't cross. But now, to come
+to the point. I don't like to be making disagreeable retrospects, if I
+could any way avoid it; nor to be going about the bush, especially at
+this time o' day; when, as Mr. Finsbury's come, we've not so much time
+to lose as we had. Is there any truth, then, my lord, in the report that
+is going about this hour past, that you have gone in a huff and given
+your promise there to that sneaking Wheeler to vote for him now?
+
+_Lord J._ In answer to your question, sir, I am to inform you that I
+_have_ promised Mr. Wheeler to vote for him.
+
+_Rory._ In a huff?--Ay, now, there it is!--Well, when a man's _mad_, to
+be sure, he's mad--and that's all that can be said about it. And I know,
+if I had been _mad_ myself, I might have done a foolish thing as well as
+another. But now, my lord, that you are not mad----
+
+_Lord J._ I protest, sir, I cannot understand you. In one word, sir, I'm
+neither mad nor a fool!--Your most obedient (_going, angrily_).
+
+_Rory_ (_holding him_). Take care, now; you are going mad with me again.
+But phoo! I like you the better for being mad. I'm very often mad
+myself, and I would not give a potato for one that had never been mad in
+his life.
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). He'll not be quiet till he makes me knock him down.
+
+_Rory._ Agh! agh! agh!--I begin to guess whereabouts I am at last.
+_Mad_, in your country, I take it, means fit for Bedlam; but with us in
+Ireland, now, 'tis no such thing; it means nothing in life but the being
+in a passion. Well, one comfort is, my lord, as you're a bit of a
+scholar, we have the Latin proverb in our favour--'_Ira furor brevis
+est_' (Anger is short madness). The shorter the better, I think. So, my
+lord, to put an end to whatever of the kind you may have felt against
+poor Talbot, I'll assure you he's as innocent o' that unfortunate song
+as the babe unborn.
+
+_Lord J._ It is rather late for Mr. Talbot to make apologies to me.
+
+_Rory._ He make apologies! Not he, 'faith; he'd send me to Coventry, or
+maybe to a worse place, did he but know I was condescending to make
+this bit of explanation, unknown to him. But, upon my conscience, I've a
+regard for you both, and don't like to see you go together by the ears.
+Now, look you, my lord. By this book, and all the books that were ever
+shut and opened, he never saw or heard of that unlucky song of mine till
+I came out with it this morning.
+
+_Lord J._ But you told me this morning that it was he who wrote it.
+
+_Rory._ For that I take shame to myself, as it turned out; but it was
+only a _white_ lie to s_a_rve a friend, and make him cut a dash with a
+new song at election time. But I've done for ever with white lies.
+
+_Lord J._ (_walking about as if agitated_). I wish you had never begun
+with them, Mr. O'Ryan. This may be a good joke to you, but it is none to
+me or Talbot. So Talbot never wrote a word of the song?
+
+_Rory._ Not a word or syllable, good or bad.
+
+_Lord J._ And I have given my promise to vote against him. He'll lose
+his election.
+
+_Rory._ Not if you'll give me leave to speak to your friends in your
+name.
+
+_Lord J._ I have promised to leave them to themselves; and Wheeler, I am
+sure, has engaged them by this time.
+
+_Rory._ Bless my body! I'll not stay prating here then.
+
+        (_Exit Rory._)
+
+_Lord J._ (_follows_). But what can have become of Talbot? I have been
+too hasty for once in my life. Well, I shall suffer for it more than
+anybody else; for I love Talbot, since he did not make the song, of
+which I hate to think.
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+
+    SCENE III
+
+    _A large hall in Eton College--A staircase at the end--Eton lads,
+    dressed in their Montem Dresses, in the Scene--In front,_ WHEELER
+    (_dressed as Captain_), BURSAL, _and_ FINSBURY.
+
+_Fins._ I give you infinite credit, Mr. Wheeler, for this dress.
+
+_Burs._ _Infinite credit!_ Why, he'll have no objection to that--hey,
+Wheeler? But I thought Finsbury knew you too well to give you credit for
+anything.
+
+_Fins._ You are pleased to be pleasant, sir. Mr. Wheeler knows, in that
+sense of the word, it is out of my power to give him credit, and I'm
+sure he would not ask it.
+
+_Wheel._ (_aside_). O, Bursal, pay him, and I'll pay you to-morrow.
+
+_Burs._ Now, if you weren't to be captain after all, Wheeler, what a
+pretty figure you'd cut. Ha! ha! ha!--Hey?
+
+_Wheel._ Oh, I am as sure of being captain as of being alive. (_Aside._)
+Do pay for me, now, there's a good, dear fellow, before _they_ (_looking
+back_) come up.
+
+_Burs._ (_aside_). I love to make him lick the dust. (_Aloud._) Hollo!
+here's Finsbury waiting to be paid, lads. (_To the lads who are in the
+back scene._) Who has paid, and who has not paid? I say.
+
+(_The lads come forward, and several exclaim at once_,) I've paid! I've
+paid!
+
+    _Enter_ LORD JOHN _and_ RORY O'RYAN.
+
+_Rory._ Oh, King of Fashion, how fine we are! Why, now, to look at ye
+all one might fancy one's self at the playhouse at once, or at a fancy
+ball in dear little Dublin. Come, strike up a dance.
+
+_Burs._ Pshaw! Wherever you come, Rory O'Ryan, no one else can be heard.
+Who has paid, and who has not paid? I say.
+
+_Several boys exclaim_, We've all paid.
+
+_1st Boy._ I've not paid, but here's my money.
+
+_Several Boys._ We have not paid, but here's our money.
+
+_6th Boy._ Order there, I am marshal. All that have paid march off to
+the staircase, and take your seats there, one by one. March!
+
+        (_As they march by, one by one, so as to display their dresses,
+        Mr. Finsbury bows, and says,_)
+
+A thousand thanks, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen. Thanks, gentlemen.
+The finest sight ever I saw out of Lon'on.
+
+_Rory, as each lad passes, catches his arm,_ Are you a Talbot_ite_, or a
+Wheeler_ite_? _To each who answers_ 'A Wheelerite,' _Rory replies_,
+'Phoo! dance off, then. Go to the devil and shake yourself.'[11] _Each
+who answers_ 'A Talbotite,' _Rory shakes by the hand violently,
+singing,_
+
+      Talbot, oh, Talbot's the dog for Rory.
+
+_When they have almost all passed, Lord John says,_ But where can Mr.
+Talbot be all this time?
+
+  [11] This is the name of a country dance.
+
+_Burs._ Who knows? Who cares?
+
+_Wheel._ A pretty electioneerer! (_Aside to Bursal._) Finsbury's waiting
+to be paid.
+
+_Lord J._ You don't wait for me, Mr. Finsbury. You know, I have settled
+with you.
+
+_Fins._ Yes, my lord--yes. Many thanks; and I have left your lordship's
+dress here, and everybody's dress, I believe, as bespoke.
+
+_Burs._ Here, Finsbury, is the money for Wheeler, who, between you and
+me, is as poor as a rat.
+
+_Wheeler_ (_affecting to laugh_). Well, I hope I shall be as rich as a
+Jew to-morrow.
+
+        (_Bursal counts money, in an ostentatious manner, into
+        Finsbury's hand._)
+
+_Fins._ A thousand thanks for all favours.
+
+_Rory._ You will be kind enough to _lave_ Mr. Talbot's dress with me,
+Mr. Finsbury, for I'm a friend.
+
+_Fins._ Indubitably, sir; but the misfortune is--he! he! he!--Mr.
+Talbot, sir, has bespoke no dress. Your servant, gentlemen.
+
+        (_Exit Finsbury._)
+
+_Burs._ So your friend Mr. Talbot could not afford to bespeak a
+dress--(_Bursal and Wheeler laugh insolently_). How comes that, I
+wonder?
+
+_Lord J._ If I'm not mistaken, here comes Talbot to answer for himself.
+
+_Rory._ But who, in the name of St. Patrick, has he along with him?
+
+    _Enter_ TALBOT _and_ LANDLORD.
+
+_Talb._ Come in along with us, Farmer Hearty--come in.
+
+        (_Whilst the Farmer comes in, the boys who were sitting on the
+        stairs rise and exclaim,_)
+
+Whom have we here? What now? Come down, lads; here's more fun.
+
+_Rory._ What's here, Talbot?
+
+_Talb._ An honest farmer and a good-natured landlord, who _would_ come
+here along with me to speak----
+
+_Farm._ (_interrupting_). To speak the truth--(_strikes his stick on the
+ground_).
+
+_Landlord_ (_unbuttoning his waistcoat_). But I am so hot--so
+short-winded, that (_panting and puffing_)--that for the soul and body
+of me, I cannot say what I have got for to say.
+
+_Rory._ 'Faith, now, the more short-winded a story, the better, to my
+fancy.
+
+_Burs._ Wheeler, what's the matter, man? you look as if your under jaw
+was broke.
+
+_Farm._ The matter is, young gentlemen, that there was once upon a time
+a fine bay hunter.
+
+_Wheel._ (_squeezing up to Talbot, aside_). Don't expose me, don't let
+him tell. (_To the Farmer._) I'll pay for the corn I spoiled. (_To the
+Landlord._) I'll pay for the horse.
+
+_Farm._ I does not want to be paid for my corn. The short of it is,
+young gentlemen, this 'un here, in the fine thing-em-bobs (_pointing to
+Wheeler_), is a shabby fellow; he went and spoiled Master Newington's
+best hunter.
+
+_Land._ (_panting_). Ruinationed him! ruinationed him!
+
+_Rory._ But was that all the shabbiness? Now I might, or any of us
+might, have had such an accident as that. I suppose he paid the
+gentleman for the horse, or will do so, in good time.
+
+_Land._ (_holding his sides_). Oh, that I had but a little breath in
+this body o' mine to speak all--speak on, Farmer.
+
+_Farm._ (_striking his stick on the floor_). Oons, sir, when a man's put
+out, he can't go on with his story.
+
+_Omnes._ Be quiet, Rory--hush!
+
+        (_Rory puts his finger on his lips._)
+
+_Farm._ Why, sir, I was a-going to tell you the shabbiness--why, sir, he
+did not pay the landlord, here, for the horse; but he goes and says to
+the landlord, here--'Mr. Talbot had your horse on the self-same day;
+'twas he did the damage; 'tis from he you must get your money.' So Mr.
+Talbot, here, who is another sort of a gentleman (though he has not so
+fine a coat), would not see a man at a loss, that could not afford it;
+and not knowing which of 'em it was that spoiled the horse, goes, when
+he finds the other would not pay a farthing, and pays all.
+
+_Rory_ (_rubbing his hands_). There's Talbot for ye. And now, gentlemen
+(_to Wheeler and Bursal_), you guess the _rason_, as I do, I suppose,
+why he bespoke no dress; he had not money enough to be fine--and honest,
+too. You are very fine, Mr. Wheeler, to do you justice.
+
+_Lord J._ Pray, Mr. O'Ryan, let the farmer go on; he has more to say.
+How did you find out, pray, my good friend, that it was not Talbot who
+spoiled the horse? Speak loud enough to be heard by everybody.
+
+_Farm._ Ay, that I will--I say (_very loudly_) I say I saw _him_ there
+(_pointing to Wheeler_) take the jump which strained the horse; and I'm
+ready to swear to it. Yet he let another pay; there's the shabbiness.
+
+        (_A general groan from all the lads._ 'Oh, shabby Wheeler,
+        shabby! I'll not vote for shabby Wheeler!')
+
+_Lord J._ (_aside_). Alas! I must vote for him.
+
+    _Rory sings._
+
+      True game to the last; no Wheeler for me;
+      Talbot, oh, Talbot's the dog for me.
+
+        (_Several voices join the chorus._)
+
+_Burs._ Wheeler, if you are not chosen Captain, you must see and pay me
+for the dress.
+
+_Wheel._ I am as poor as a rat.
+
+_Rory._ Oh yes! oh yes! hear ye! hear ye, all manner of men--the
+election is now going to begin forthwith in the big field, and Rory
+O'Ryan holds the poll for Talbot. Talbot for ever!--huzza!
+
+        (_Exit Rory followed by the Boys, who exclaim,_ Talbot for
+        ever!--huzza! _The Landlord and Farmer join them._)
+
+_Lord J._ Talbot, I am glad you _are_ what I always thought you--I'm
+glad you did not write that odious song. I would not lose such a friend
+for all the songs in the world. Forgive me for my hastiness this
+morning. I've punished myself--I've promised to vote for Wheeler.
+
+_Talb._ Oh, no matter whom you vote for, my lord, if you are still my
+friend, and if you know me to be yours.
+
+        (_They shake hands._)
+
+_Lord J._ I must not say, '_Huzza for Talbot!_'
+
+        (_Exeunt._)
+
+[Illustration: _'I say I saw_ him _there take the jump which strained
+the horse.'_]
+
+
+    SCENE IV
+
+    WINDSOR TERRACE
+
+    LADY PIERCEFIELD, MRS. TALBOT, LOUISA, _and a little girl of six
+    years old_, LADY VIOLETTA, _daughter to_ LADY PIERCEFIELD.
+
+_Violetta_ (_looking at a paper which Louisa holds_). I like it _very_
+much.
+
+_Lady P._ What is it you like _very_ much, Violetta?
+
+_Violet._ You are not to know _yet_, mamma; it is--I may tell her
+that--it is a little drawing that Louisa is doing for me. Louisa, I wish
+you would let me show it to mamma.
+
+_Louisa._ And welcome, my dear; it is only a sketch of 'The Little
+Merchants,' a story which Violetta was reading, and she asked me to try
+to draw the pictures of the little merchants for her.
+
+        (_Whilst Lady P. looks at the drawing, Violetta says to Louisa_)
+
+But are you in earnest, Louisa, about what you were saying to me just
+now,--quite in earnest?
+
+_Louisa._ Yes, in earnest,--quite in earnest, my dear.
+
+_Violet._ And may I ask mamma _now_?
+
+_Louisa._ If you please, my dear.
+
+_Violet._ (_runs to her mother_). Stoop down to me, mamma; I've
+something to whisper to you.
+
+        (_Lady Piercefield stoops down; Violetta throws her arms round
+        her mother's neck._)
+
+_Violet._ (_aside to her mother_). Mamma, do you know--you know you want
+a governess for me.
+
+_Lady P._ Yes, if I could find a good one.
+
+_Violet._ (_aloud_). Stoop again, mamma, I've more to whisper. (_Aside
+to her mother._) _She_ says she will be my governess, if you please.
+
+_Lady P._ _She!_--who is _she_?
+
+_Violet._ Louisa.
+
+_Lady P._ (_patting Violetta's cheek_). You are a little fool. Miss
+Talbot is only playing with you.
+
+_Violet._ No, indeed, mamma; she is in earnest; are not you,
+Louisa?--Oh, say yes!
+
+_Louisa._ Yes.
+
+_Violet._ (_claps her hands_). _Yes_, mamma; do you hear _yes_?
+
+_Louisa._ If Lady Piercefield will trust you to my care, I am persuaded
+that I should be much happier as your governess, my good little
+Violetta, than as an humble dependent of Miss Bursal's. (_Aside to her
+mother._) You see that, now I am put to the trial, I keep to my
+resolution, dear mother.
+
+_Mrs. T._ Your ladyship would not be surprised at this offer of my
+Louisa, if you had heard, as we have done within these few hours, of the
+loss of the East India ship in which almost our whole property was
+embarked.
+
+_Louisa._ The _Bombay Castle_ is wrecked.
+
+_Lady P._ The _Bombay Castle_! I have the pleasure to tell you that you
+are misinformed--it was the _Airly Castle_ that was wrecked.
+
+_Louisa and Mrs. T._ Indeed!
+
+_Lady P._ Yes; you may depend upon it--it was the _Airly Castle_ that
+was lost. You know I am just come from Portsmouth, where I went to meet
+my brother, Governor Morton, who came home with the last India fleet,
+and from whom I had the intelligence.
+
+        (_Here Violetta interrupts, to ask her mother for her
+        nosegay--Lady P. gives it to her,--then goes on speaking._)
+
+_Lady P._ They were in such haste, foolish people! to carry their news
+to London, that they mistook one castle for another. But do you know
+that Mr. Bursal loses fifty thousand pounds, it is said, by the _Airly
+Castle_? When I told him she was lost, I thought he would have dropped
+down. However, I found he comforted himself afterwards with a bottle of
+Burgundy; but poor Miss Bursal has been in hysterics ever since.
+
+_Mrs. T._ Poor girl! My Louisa, _you_ did not fall into hysterics, when
+I told you of the loss of our whole fortune.
+
+        (_Violetta, during this dialogue, has been seated on the ground
+        making up a nosegay._)
+
+_Violet._ (_aside_). Fall into hysterics! What are hysterics, I wonder.
+
+[Illustration: _'Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza.'_]
+
+_Louisa._ Miss Bursal is much to be pitied; for the loss of wealth will
+be the loss of happiness to her.
+
+_Lady P._ It is to be hoped that the loss may at least check the
+foolish pride and extravagance of young Bursal, who, as my son tells
+me----
+
+        (_A cry of_ 'Huzza! huzza!' _behind the scenes._)
+
+    _Enter_ LORD JOHN.
+
+_Lord J._ (_hastily_). How d'ye do, mother? Miss Talbot, I give you joy.
+
+_Lady P._ Take breath--take breath.
+
+_Louisa._ It is my brother.
+
+_Mrs. T._ Here he is!--Hark! hark!
+
+        (_A cry behind the scenes of_ 'Talbot and truth for ever!
+        Huzza!')
+
+_Louisa._ They are chairing him.
+
+_Lord J._ Yes, they are chairing him; and he has been chosen for his
+honourable conduct, not for his electioneering skill; for, to do him
+justice, Coriolanus himself was not a worse electioneerer.
+
+    _Enter_ RORY O'RYAN _and another Eton lad, carrying_ TALBOT _in a
+    chair, followed by a crowd of Eton lads._
+
+_Rory._ By your _lave_, my lord--by your _lave_, ladies.
+
+_Omnes._ Huzza! Talbot and truth for ever! Huzza!
+
+_Talb._ Set me down! There's my mother! There's my sister!
+
+_Rory._ Easy, easy. Set him down! No such _ting_! give him t'other
+huzza! There's nothing like a good loud huzza in this world. Yes, there
+is! for, as my Lord John said just now, out of some book or out of his
+own head--
+
+      One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
+      Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.
+
+
+CURTAIN FALLS
+
+
+
+
+FORGIVE AND FORGET
+
+
+In the neighbourhood of a seaport town in the west of England there
+lived a gardener, who had one son, called Maurice, to whom he was very
+partial. One day his father sent him to the neighbouring town to
+purchase some garden seeds for him. When Maurice got to the seed-shop,
+it was full of people, who were all impatient to be served: first a
+great tall man, and next a great fat woman pushed before him; and he
+stood quietly beside the counter, waiting till somebody should be at
+leisure to attend to him. At length, when all the other people who were
+in the shop had got what they wanted, the shopman turned to
+Maurice--'And what do you want, my patient little fellow?' said he.
+
+'I want all these seeds for my father,' said Maurice, putting a list of
+seeds into the shopman's hand; 'and I have brought money to pay for them
+all.'
+
+The seedsman looked out all the seeds that Maurice wanted, and packed
+them up in paper: he was folding up some painted lady-peas, when, from a
+door at the back of the shop, there came in a square, rough-faced man,
+who exclaimed, the moment he came in, 'Are the seeds I ordered
+ready?--The wind's fair--they ought to have been aboard yesterday. And
+my china jar, is it packed up and directed? where is it?'
+
+'It is up there on the shelf over your head, sir,' answered the
+seedsman. 'It is very safe, you see; but we have not had time to pack it
+yet. It shall be done to-day; and we will get the seeds ready for you,
+sir, immediately.'
+
+'Immediately! then stir about it. The seeds will not pack themselves up.
+Make haste, pray.' 'Immediately, sir, as soon as I have done up the
+parcel for this little boy.' 'What signifies the parcel for this little
+boy? He can wait, and I cannot--wind and tide wait for no man. Here, my
+good lad, take your parcel and sheer off,' said the impatient man; and,
+as he spoke, he took up the parcel of seeds from the counter, as the
+shopman stooped to look for a sheet of thick brown paper and packthread
+to tie it up.
+
+The parcel was but loosely folded up, and as the impatient man lifted
+it, the weight of the peas which were withinside of it burst the paper,
+and all the seeds fell out upon the floor, whilst Maurice in vain held
+his hands to catch them. The peas rolled to all parts of the shop; the
+impatient man swore at them, but Maurice, without being out of humour,
+set about collecting them as fast as possible.
+
+Whilst the boy was busied in this manner, the man got what seeds he
+wanted; and as he was talking about them, a sailor came into the shop,
+and said, 'Captain, the wind has changed within these five minutes, and
+it looks as if we should have ugly weather.'
+
+'Well, I'm glad of it,' replied the rough-faced man, who was the captain
+of a ship. 'I am glad to have a day longer to stay ashore, and I've
+business enough on my hands.' The captain pushed forward towards the
+shop door. Maurice, who was kneeling on the floor, picking up his seeds,
+saw that the captain's foot was entangled in some packthread which hung
+down from the shelf on which the china jar stood. Maurice saw that, if
+the captain took one more step forward, he must pull the string, so that
+it would throw down the jar, round the bottom of which the packthread
+was entangled. He immediately caught hold of the captain's leg, and
+stopped him, 'Stay! Stand still, sir!' said he, 'or you will break your
+china jar.'
+
+The man stood still, looked, and saw how the packthread had caught in
+his shoe buckle, and how it was near dragging down his beautiful china
+jar. 'I am really very much obliged to you, my little fellow,' said he.
+'You have saved my jar, which I would not have broken for ten guineas,
+for it is for my wife, and I've brought it safe from abroad many a
+league. It would have been a pity if I had broken it just when it was
+safe landed. I am really much obliged to you, my little fellow, this was
+returning good for evil. I am sorry I threw down your seeds, as you are
+such a good-natured, forgiving boy. Be so kind,' continued he, turning
+to the shopman, 'as to reach down that china jar for me.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Stay! Stand still, sir! or you will break your china
+jar.'_]
+
+The shopman lifted down the jar very carefully, and the captain took off
+the cover, and pulled out some tulip-roots. 'You seem, by the quantity
+of seeds you have got, to belong to a gardener. Are you fond of
+gardening?' said he to Maurice.
+
+'Yes, sir,' replied Maurice, 'very fond of it; for my father is a
+gardener, and he lets me help him at his work, and he has given me a
+little garden of my own.'
+
+'Then here are a couple of tulip-roots for you; and if you take care of
+them, I'll promise you that you will have the finest tulips in England
+in your little garden. These tulips were given to me by a Dutch
+merchant, who told me that they were some of the rarest and finest in
+Holland. They will prosper with you, I'm sure, wind and weather
+permitting.'
+
+Maurice thanked the gentleman, and returned home, eager to show his
+precious tulip-roots to his father, and to a companion of his, the son
+of a nurseryman, who lived near him. Arthur was the name of the
+nurseryman's son.
+
+The first thing Maurice did, after showing his tulip-roots to his
+father, was to run to Arthur's garden in search of him. Their gardens
+were separated only by a low wall of loose stones:--'Arthur! Arthur!
+where are you? Are you in your garden? I want you.' But Arthur made no
+answer, and did not, as usual, come running to meet his friend. 'I know
+where you are,' continued Maurice, 'and I'm coming to you as fast as the
+raspberry-bushes will let me. I have good news for you--something you'll
+be delighted to see, Arthur!--Ha!--but here is something that I am not
+delighted to see, I am sure,' said poor Maurice, who, when he had got
+through the raspberry-bushes, and had come in sight of his own garden,
+beheld his bell-glass--his beloved bell-glass, under which his cucumbers
+were grown so finely--his only bell-glass, broken to pieces!
+
+'I am sorry for it,' said Arthur, who stood leaning upon his spade in
+his own garden; 'I am afraid you will be very angry with me.' 'Why, was
+it you, Arthur, broke my bell-glass? Oh, how could you do so?' 'I was
+throwing weeds and rubbish over the wall, and by accident a great lump
+of couch-grass, with stones hanging to the roots, fell upon your
+bell-glass, and broke it, as you see.'
+
+Maurice lifted up the lump of couch-grass, which had fallen through the
+broken glass upon his cucumbers, and he looked at his cucumbers for a
+moment in silence--'Oh, my poor cucumbers! you must all die now. I shall
+see all your yellow flowers withered to-morrow; but it is done, and it
+cannot be helped; so, Arthur, let us say no more about it.'
+
+'You are very good; I thought you would have been angry. I am sure I
+should have been exceedingly angry if you had broken the glass, if it
+had been mine.'
+
+'Oh, forgive and forget, as my father always says; that's the best way.
+Look what I have got for you.' Then he told Arthur the story of the
+captain of the ship, and the china jar; the seeds having been thrown
+down, and of the fine tulip-roots which had been given to him; and
+Maurice concluded by offering one of the precious roots to Arthur, who
+thanked him with great joy, and repeatedly said, 'How good you were not
+to be angry with me for breaking your bell-glass! I am much more sorry
+for it than if you had been in a passion with me!'
+
+Arthur now went to plant his tulip-root; and Maurice looked at the beds
+which his companion had been digging, and at all the things which were
+coming up in his garden.
+
+'I don't know how it is,' said Arthur, 'but you always seem as glad to
+see the things in my garden coming up, and doing well, as if they were
+all your own. I am much happier since my father came to live here, and
+since you and I have been allowed to work and to play together, than I
+ever was before; for you must know, before we came to live here, I had a
+cousin in the house with me, who used to plague me. He was not nearly so
+good-natured as you are. He never took pleasure in looking at my garden,
+or at anything that I did that was well done; and he never gave me a
+share of anything that he had; and so I did not like him; how could I?
+But, I believe that hating people makes us unhappy; for I know I never
+was happy when I was quarrelling with him; and I am always happy with
+you, Maurice. You know we never quarrel.'
+
+It would be well for all the world if they could be convinced, like
+Arthur, that to live in friendship is better than to quarrel. It would
+be well for all the world if they followed Maurice's maxim of 'Forgive
+and Forget,' when they receive, or when they imagine that they receive,
+an injury.
+
+Arthur's father, Mr. Oakly, the nurseryman, was apt to take offence at
+trifles; and when he thought that any of his neighbours disobliged him,
+he was too proud to ask them to explain their conduct; therefore he was
+often mistaken in his judgment of them. He thought that it showed
+_spirit_, to remember and to resent an injury; and, therefore, though he
+was not an ill-natured man, he was sometimes led, by this mistaken idea
+of _spirit_, to do ill-natured things: 'A warm friend and a bitter
+enemy,' was one of his maxims, and he had many more enemies than
+friends. He was not very rich, but he was proud; and his favourite
+proverb was, 'Better live in spite than in pity.'
+
+When first he settled near Mr. Grant, the gardener, he felt inclined to
+dislike him, because he was told that Mr. Grant was a Scotchman, and he
+had a prejudice against Scotchmen; all of whom he believed to be cunning
+and avaricious, because he had once been overreached by a Scotch
+peddler. Grant's friendly manners in some degree conquered this
+prepossession; but still he secretly suspected that _this civility_, as
+he said, '_was all show_, and _that he was not, nor could not, being a
+Scotchman, be such a hearty friend as a true-born Englishman_.'
+
+Grant had some remarkably fine raspberries. The fruit was so large as to
+be quite a curiosity. When it was in season, many strangers came from
+the neighbouring town, which was a sea-bathing place, to look at these
+raspberries, which obtained the name of _Brobdingnag_ raspberries.
+
+'How came you, pray, neighbour Grant, if a man may ask, by these
+wonderful fine raspberries?' said Mr. Oakly, one evening, to the
+gardener. 'That's a secret,' replied Grant, with an arch smile.
+
+'Oh, in case it's a secret, I've no more to say; for I never meddle with
+any man's secrets that he does not choose to trust me with. But I wish,
+neighbour Grant, you would put down that book. You are always poring
+over some book or another when a man comes to see you, which is not,
+according to my notions (being a plain, _unlarned_ Englishman bred and
+born), so civil and neighbourly as might be.'
+
+Mr. Grant hastily shut his book, but remarked, with a shrewd glance at
+his son, that it was in that book he found his Brobdingnag raspberries.
+
+'You are pleased to be pleasant upon them that have not the luck to be
+as book-_larned_ as yourself, Mr. Grant; but I take it, being only a
+plain-spoken Englishman, as I observed afore, that one is to the full as
+like to find a raspberry in one's garden as in one's book, Mr. Grant.'
+
+Grant, observing that his neighbour spoke rather in a surly tone, did
+not contradict him; being well versed in the Bible, he knew that 'A soft
+word turneth away wrath,' and he answered, in a good-humoured voice, 'I
+hear, neighbour Oakly, you are likely to make a great deal of money of
+your nursery this year. Here's to the health of you and yours, not
+forgetting the seedling larches, which I see are coming on finely.'
+
+'Thank ye, neighbour, kindly; the larches are coming on
+tolerably well, that's certain; and here's to your good health,
+Mr. Grant--you and yours, not forgetting your, what d'ye call 'em
+raspberries'--(_drinks_)--and, after a pause, resumes, 'I'm not apt to
+be a beggar, neighbour, but if you could give me----'
+
+Here Mr. Oakly was interrupted by the entrance of some strangers, and he
+did not finish making his request--Mr. Oakly was not, as he said of
+himself, apt to ask favours, and nothing but Grant's cordiality could
+have conquered his prejudices so far as to tempt him to ask a favour
+from a Scotchman. He was going to have asked for some of the Brobdingnag
+raspberry-plants. The next day the thought of the raspberry-plants
+recurred to his memory, but, being a bashful man, he did not like to go
+himself on purpose to make his request, and he desired his wife, who was
+just setting out to market, to call at Grant's gate, and, if he was at
+work in his garden, to ask him for a few plants of his raspberries.
+
+The answer which Oakly's wife brought to him was that Mr. Grant had not
+a raspberry-plant in the world to give him, and that if he had ever so
+many, he would not give one away, except to his own son.
+
+Oakly flew into a passion when he received such a message, declared it
+was just such a mean, shabby trick as might have been expected from a
+Scotchman--called himself a booby, a dupe, and a blockhead, for ever
+having trusted to the civil speeches of a Scotchman--swore that he would
+die in the parish workhouse before he would ever ask another favour, be
+it ever so small, from a Scotchman; related to his wife, for the
+hundredth time, the way in which he had been taken in by the Scotch
+peddler ten years ago, and concluded by forswearing all further
+intercourse with Mr. Grant, and all belonging to him.
+
+'Son Arthur,' said he, addressing himself to the boy, who just then came
+in from work--'Son Arthur, do you hear me? let me never again see you
+with Grant's son.' 'With Maurice, father?' 'With Maurice Grant, I say; I
+forbid you from this day and hour forward to have anything to do with
+him.' 'Oh, why, dear father?' 'Ask me no questions, but do as I bid
+you.'
+
+Arthur burst out a-crying, and only said, 'Yes, father, I'll do as you
+bid me, to be sure.'
+
+'Why now, what does the boy cry for? Is there no other boy, simpleton,
+think you, to play with, but this Scotchman's son? I'll find out another
+playfellow for ye, child, if that be all.' 'That's not all, father,'
+said Arthur, trying to stop himself from sobbing; 'but the thing is, I
+shall never have such another playfellow,--I shall never have such
+another friend as Maurice Grant.'
+
+'Like father like son--you may think yourself well off to have done with
+him.' 'Done with him! Oh, father, and shall I never go again to work in
+his garden, and may not he come to mine?' 'No,' replied Oakly sturdily;
+'his father has used me uncivil, and no man shall use me uncivil twice.
+I say no. Wife, sweep up this hearth. Boy, don't take on like a fool;
+but eat thy bacon and greens, and let's hear no more of Maurice Grant.'
+
+Arthur promised to obey his father. He only begged that he might once
+more speak to Maurice, and tell him that it was by his father's orders
+he acted. This request was granted; but when Arthur further begged to
+know what reason he might give for this separation, his father refused
+to tell his reasons. The two friends took leave of one another very
+sorrowfully.
+
+Mr. Grant, when he heard of all this, endeavoured to discover what could
+have offended his neighbour; but all explanation was prevented by the
+obstinate silence of Oakly.
+
+Now, the message which Grant really sent about the Brobdingnag
+raspberries was somewhat different from that which Mr. Oakly received.
+The message was, that the raspberries were not Mr. Grant's; that
+therefore he had no right to give them away; that they belonged to his
+son Maurice, and that this was not the right time of year for planting
+them. This message had been unluckily misunderstood. Grant gave his
+answer to his wife; she to a Welsh servant-girl, who did not perfectly
+comprehend her mistress's broad Scotch; and she in her turn could not
+make herself intelligible to Mrs. Oakly, who hated the Welsh accent, and
+whose attention, when the servant-girl delivered the message, was
+principally engrossed by the management of her own horse. The horse on
+which Mrs. Oakly rode this day, being ill-broken, would not stand still
+quietly at the gate, and she was extremely impatient to receive her
+answer, and to ride on to market.
+
+Oakly, when he had once resolved to dislike his neighbour Grant, could
+not long remain without finding out fresh causes of complaint. There was
+in Grant's garden a plum-tree, which was planted close to the loose
+stone wall that divided the garden from the nursery. The soil in which
+the plum-tree was planted happened not to be quite so good as that which
+was on the opposite side of the wall, and the plum-tree had forced its
+way through the wall, and gradually had taken possession of the ground
+which it liked best.
+
+Oakly thought the plum-tree, as it belonged to Mr. Grant, had no right
+to make its appearance on his ground: an attorney told him that he might
+oblige Grant to cut it down; but Mr. Grant refused to cut down his
+plum-tree at the attorney's desire, and the attorney persuaded Oakly to
+go to law about the business, and the lawsuit went on for some months.
+
+The attorney, at the end of this time, came to Oakly with a demand for
+money to carry on his suit, assuring him that, in a short time, it would
+be determined in his favour. Oakly paid his attorney ten golden guineas,
+remarked that it was a great sum for him to pay, and that nothing but
+the love of justice could make him persevere in this lawsuit about a bit
+of ground, 'which, after all,' said he, 'is not worth twopence. The
+plum-tree does me little or no damage, but I don't like to be imposed
+upon by a Scotchman.'
+
+The attorney saw and took advantage of Oakly's prejudice against the
+natives of Scotland; and he persuaded him, that to show the _spirit_ of
+a true-born Englishman it was necessary, whatever it might cost him, to
+persist in this lawsuit.
+
+It was soon after this conversation with the attorney that Mr. Oakly
+walked with resolute steps towards the plum-tree, saying to himself, 'If
+it cost me a hundred pounds I will not let this cunning Scotchman get
+the better of me.'
+
+Arthur interrupted his father's reverie by pointing to a book and some
+young plants which lay upon the wall. 'I fancy, father,' said he, 'those
+things are for you, for there is a little note directed to you in
+Maurice's handwriting. Shall I bring it to you?' 'Yes, let me read it,
+child, since I must.' It contained these words:
+
+  'DEAR MR. OAKLY--I don't know why you have quarrelled with us; I am
+  very sorry for it. But though you are angry with me, I am not angry
+  with you. I hope you will not refuse some of my Brobdingnag
+  raspberry-plants, which you asked for a great while ago, when we were
+  all good friends. It was not the right time of the year to plant them,
+  which was the reason they were not sent to you; but it is just the
+  right time to plant them now; and I send you the book, in which you
+  will find the reason why we always put seaweed ashes about their
+  roots; and I have got some seaweed ashes for you. You will find the
+  ashes in the flower-pot upon the wall. I have never spoken to Arthur,
+  nor he to me, since you bid us not. So, wishing your Brobdingnag
+  raspberries may turn out as well as ours, and longing to be all
+  friends again, I am, with love to dear Arthur and self, your
+  affectionate neighbour's son,                       MAURICE GRANT.
+
+  'P.S.--It is now about four months since the quarrel began, and that
+  is a very long while.'
+
+A great part of the effect of this letter was lost upon Oakly, because
+he was not very expert in reading writing, and it cost him much trouble
+to spell it and put it together. However, he seemed affected by it, and
+said, 'I believe this Maurice loves you well enough, Arthur, and he
+seems a good sort of boy; but as to the raspberries, I believe all that
+he says about them is but an excuse; and, at any rate, as I could not
+get 'em when I asked for them, I'll not have 'em now. Do you hear me, I
+say, Arthur? What are you reading there?'
+
+Arthur was reading the page that was doubled down in the book which
+Maurice had left along with the raspberry-plants upon the wall. Arthur
+read aloud as follows:--
+
+
+(_Monthly Magazine_, Dec. '98, p. 421.)
+
+'There is a sort of strawberry cultivated at Jersey which is almost
+covered with seaweed in the winter, in like manner as many plants in
+England are with litter from the stable. These strawberries are usually
+of the largeness of a middle-sized apricot, and the flavour is
+particularly grateful. In Jersey and Guernsey, situate scarcely one
+degree farther south than Cornwall, all kinds of fruit, pulse, and
+vegetables are produced in their seasons a fortnight or three weeks
+sooner than in England, even on the southern shores; and snow will
+scarcely remain twenty-four hours on the earth. Although this may be
+attributed to these islands being surrounded with a salt, and
+consequently a moist atmosphere, yet the ashes (seaweed ashes) made use
+of as manure may also have their portion of influence.'[12]
+
+  [12] It is necessary to observe that this experiment has never been
+       actually tried upon raspberry-plants.
+
+'And here,' continued Arthur, 'is something written with a pencil, on a
+slip of paper, and it is Maurice's writing. I will read it to you.
+
+'When I read in this book what is said about the strawberries growing as
+large as apricots, after they had been covered over with seaweed, I
+thought that perhaps seaweed ashes might be good for my father's
+raspberries; and I asked him if he would give me leave to try them. He
+gave me leave, and I went directly and gathered together some seaweed
+that had been cast on shore; and I dried it, and burned it, and then I
+manured the raspberries with it, and the year afterwards the raspberries
+grew to the size that you have seen. Now, the reason I tell you this is,
+first, that you may know how to manage your raspberries, and next,
+because I remember you looked very grave, as if you were not pleased
+with my father, Mr. Grant, when he told you that the way by which he
+came by his Brobdingnag raspberries was a secret. Perhaps this was the
+thing that has made you so angry with us all; for you never have come to
+see father since that evening. Now I have told you all I know; and so I
+hope you will not be angry with us any longer.'
+
+Mr. Oakly was much pleased by this openness, and said, 'Why now, Arthur,
+this is something like, this is telling one the thing one wants to
+know, without fine speeches. This is like an Englishman more than a
+Scotchman. Pray, Arthur, do you know whether your friend Maurice was
+born in England or in Scotland?'
+
+'No, indeed, sir, I don't know--I never asked--I did not think it
+signified. All I know is that, wherever he was born, he is _very_ good.
+Look, papa, my tulip is blowing.' 'Upon my word,' said his father, 'this
+will be a beautiful tulip!' 'It was given to me by Maurice.' 'And did
+you give him nothing for it?' was the father's inquiry. 'Nothing in the
+world; and he gave it to me just at the time when he had good cause to
+be angry with me, just when I had broken his bell-glass.'
+
+'I have a great mind to let you play together again,' said Arthur's
+father. 'Oh, if you would,' cried Arthur, clapping his hands, 'how happy
+we should be! Do you know, father, I have often sat for an hour at a
+time up in that crab-tree, looking at Maurice at work in his garden, and
+wishing that I was at work with him.'
+
+Here Arthur was interrupted by the attorney, who came to ask Mr. Oakly
+some question about the lawsuit concerning the plum-tree. Oakly showed
+him Maurice's letter; and to Arthur's extreme astonishment, the attorney
+had no sooner read it than he exclaimed, 'What an artful little
+gentleman this is! I never, in the course of all my practice, met with
+anything better. Why, this is the most cunning letter I ever read.'
+'Where's the cunning?' said Oakly, and he put on his spectacles. 'My
+good sir, don't you see that all this stuff about Brobdingnag
+raspberries is to ward off your suit about the plum-tree? They
+know--that is, Mr. Grant, who is sharp enough, knows--that he will be
+worsted in that suit; that he must, in short, pay you a good round sum
+for damages, if it goes on----'
+
+'Damages!' said Oakly, staring round him at the plum-tree; 'but I don't
+know what you mean. I mean nothing but what's honest. I don't mean to
+ask for any good round sum; for the plum-tree has done me no great harm
+by coming into my garden; but only I don't choose it should come there
+without my leave.'
+
+'Well, well,' said the attorney, 'I understand all that; but what I want
+to make you, Mr. Oakly, understand is, that this Grant and his son only
+want to make up matters with you, and prevent the thing's coming to a
+fair trial, by sending you, in this underhand sort of way, a bribe of a
+few raspberries.'
+
+'A bribe!' exclaimed Oakly, 'I never took a bribe, and I never will';
+and, with sudden indignation, he pulled the raspberry plants from the
+ground in which Arthur was planting them; and he threw them over the
+wall into Grant's garden.
+
+Maurice had put his tulip, which was beginning to blow, in a flower-pot,
+on the top of the wall, in hopes that his friend Arthur would see it
+from day to day. Alas! he knew not in what a dangerous situation he had
+placed it. One of his own Brobdingnag raspberry-plants, swung by the
+angry arm of Oakly, struck off the head of his precious tulip! Arthur,
+who was full of the thought of convincing his father that the attorney
+was mistaken in his judgment of poor Maurice, did not observe the fall
+of the tulip.
+
+The next day, when Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the
+ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much astonishment,
+and, for some moments, angry; but anger, with him, never lasted long. He
+was convinced that all this must be owing to some accident or mistake.
+He could not believe that any one could be so malicious as to injure him
+on purpose--'And even if they did all this on purpose to vex me,' said
+he to himself, 'the best thing I can do is not to let it vex me. Forgive
+and forget.' This temper of mind Maurice was more happy in enjoying than
+he could have been made, without it, by the possession of all the tulips
+in Holland.
+
+Tulips were, at this time, things of great consequence in the estimation
+of the country several miles round where Maurice and Arthur lived. There
+was a florist's feast to be held at the neighbouring town, at which a
+prize of a handsome set of gardening tools was to be given to the person
+who could produce the finest flower of its kind. A tulip was the flower
+which was thought the finest the preceding year, and consequently
+numbers of people afterwards endeavoured to procure tulip-roots, in
+hopes of obtaining the prize this year. Arthur's tulip was beautiful. As
+he examined it from day to day, and every day thought it improving, he
+longed to thank his friend Maurice for it; and he often mounted into his
+crab-tree, to look into Maurice's garden, in hopes of seeing his tulip
+also in full bloom and beauty. He never could see it.
+
+The day of the florist's feast arrived, and Oakly went with his son
+and the fine tulip to the place of meeting. It was on a spacious
+bowling-green. All the flowers of various sorts were ranged upon a
+terrace at the upper end of the bowling-green; and, amongst all this gay
+variety, the tulip which Maurice had given to Arthur appeared
+conspicuously beautiful. To the owner of this tulip the prize was
+adjudged; and, as the handsome garden-tools were delivered to Arthur, he
+heard a well-known voice wish him joy. He turned, looked about him, and
+saw his friend Maurice.
+
+[Illustration: _When Maurice saw his raspberry-plants scattered upon the
+ground, and his favourite tulip broken, he was in much astonishment._]
+
+'But, Maurice, where is your own tulip?' said Mr. Oakly; 'I thought,
+Arthur, you told me that he kept one for himself.' 'So I did,' said
+Maurice; 'but somebody (I suppose by accident) broke it.' 'Somebody!
+who?' cried Arthur and Mr. Oakly at once. 'Somebody who threw the
+raspberry-plants back again over the wall,' replied Maurice. 'That was
+me--that somebody was me,' said Oakly. 'I scorn to deny it; but I did
+not intend to break your tulip, Maurice.'
+
+'Dear Maurice,' said Arthur--'you know I may call him dear Maurice--now
+you are by, papa; here are all the garden-tools; take them, and
+welcome.' 'Not one of them,' said Maurice, drawing back. 'Offer them to
+the father--offer them to Mr. Grant,' whispered Oakly; 'he'll take them,
+I'll answer for it.'
+
+Mr. Oakly was mistaken: the father would not accept of the tools. Mr.
+Oakly stood surprised--'Certainly,' said he to himself, 'this cannot be
+such a miser as I took him for'; and he walked immediately up to Grant,
+and bluntly said to him, 'Mr. Grant, your son has behaved very
+handsomely to my son, and you seem to be glad of it.' 'To be sure I am,'
+said Grant. 'Which,' continued Oakly, 'gives me a better opinion of you
+than ever I had before--I mean, than ever I had since the day you sent
+me the shabby answer about those foolish, what d'ye call 'em, cursed
+raspberries.'
+
+'What shabby answer?' said Grant, with surprise; and Oakly repeated
+exactly the message which he received; and Grant declared that he never
+sent any such message. He repeated exactly the answer which he really
+sent, and Oakly immediately stretched out his hand to him, saying, 'I
+believe you; no more need be said. I'm only sorry I did not ask you
+about this four months ago; and so I should have done if you had not
+been a Scotchman. Till now, I never rightly liked a Scotchman. We may
+thank this good little fellow,' continued he, turning to Maurice, 'for
+our coming at last to a right understanding. There was no holding out
+against his good nature. I'm sure, from the bottom of my heart, I'm
+sorry I broke his tulip. Shake hands, boys; I'm glad to see you, Arthur,
+look so happy again, and hope Mr. Grant will forgive----' 'Oh, forgive
+and forget,' said Grant and his son at the same moment. And from this
+time forward the two families lived in friendship with each other.
+
+Oakly laughed at his own folly, in having been persuaded to go to law
+about the plum-tree; and he, in process of time, so completely conquered
+his early prejudice against Scotchmen, that he and Grant became partners
+in business. Mr. Grant's book-_larning_ and knowledge of arithmetic he
+found highly useful to him; and he, on his side, possessed a great many
+active, good qualities, which became serviceable to his partner.
+
+The two boys rejoiced in this family union; and Arthur often declared
+that they owed all their happiness to Maurice's favourite maxim,
+'Forgive and Forget.'
+
+
+
+
+WASTE NOT, WANT NOT;
+
+OR,
+
+TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW
+
+
+Mr. Gresham, a Bristol merchant, who had, by honourable industry and
+economy, accumulated a considerable fortune, retired from business to a
+new house which he had built upon the Downs, near Clifton. Mr. Gresham,
+however, did not imagine that a new house alone could make him happy. He
+did not propose to live in idleness and extravagance; for such a life
+would have been equally incompatible with his habits and his principles.
+He was fond of children; and as he had no sons, he determined to adopt
+one of his relations. He had two nephews, and he invited both of them to
+his house, that he might have an opportunity of judging of their
+dispositions, and of the habits which they had acquired.
+
+Hal and Benjamin, Mr. Gresham's nephews, were about ten years old. They
+had been educated very differently. Hal was the son of the elder branch
+of the family. His father was a gentleman, who spent rather more than he
+could afford; and Hal, from the example of the servants in his father's
+family, with whom he had passed the first years of his childhood,
+learned to waste more of everything than he used. He had been told that
+'gentlemen should be above being careful and saving'; and he had
+unfortunately imbibed a notion that extravagance was the sign of a
+generous disposition, and economy of an avaricious one.
+
+Benjamin, on the contrary, had been taught habits of care and foresight.
+His father had but a very small fortune, and was anxious that his son
+should early learn that economy ensures independence, and sometimes puts
+it in the power of those who are not very rich to be very generous.
+
+The morning after these two boys arrived at their uncle's they were
+eager to see all the rooms in the house. Mr. Gresham accompanied them,
+and attended to their remarks and exclamations.
+
+'Oh! what an excellent motto!' exclaimed Ben, when he read the following
+words, which were written in large characters over the chimneypiece in
+his uncle's spacious kitchen--
+
+  'WASTE NOT, WANT NOT.'
+
+'"Waste not, want not!"' repeated his cousin Hal, in rather a
+contemptuous tone; 'I think it looks stingy to servants; and no
+gentleman's servants, cooks especially, would like to have such a mean
+motto always staring them in the face.' Ben, who was not so conversant
+as his cousin in the ways of cooks and gentlemen's servants, made no
+reply to these observations.
+
+Mr. Gresham was called away whilst his nephews were looking at the other
+rooms in the house. Some time afterwards, he heard their voices in the
+hall.
+
+'Boys,' said he, 'what are you doing there?' 'Nothing, sir,' said Hal;
+'you were called away from us and we did not know which way to go.' 'And
+have you nothing to do?' said Mr. Gresham. 'No, sir, nothing,' answered
+Hal, in a careless tone, like one who was well content with the state of
+habitual idleness. 'No, sir, nothing!' replied Ben, in a voice of
+lamentation. 'Come,' said Mr. Gresham, 'if you have nothing to do, lads,
+will you unpack those two parcels for me?'
+
+The two parcels were exactly alike, both of them well tied up with good
+whipcord. Ben took his parcel to a table, and, after breaking off the
+sealing-wax, began carefully to examine the knot, and then to untie it.
+Hal stood still, exactly in the spot where the parcel was put into his
+hands, and tried, first at one corner and then at another, to pull the
+string off by force. 'I wish these people wouldn't tie up their parcels
+so tight, as if they were never to be undone,' cried he, as he tugged at
+the cord; and he pulled the knot closer instead of loosening it.
+
+'Ben! why, how did you get yours undone, man? what's in your parcel?--I
+wonder what is in mine! I wish I could get this string off--I must cut
+it.'
+
+'Oh no,' said Ben, who now had undone the last knot of his parcel, and
+who drew out the length of string with exultation, 'don't cut it,
+Hal,--look what a nice cord this is, and yours is the same; it's a pity
+to cut it; "_Waste not, want not!_" you know.'
+
+'Pooh!' said Hal, 'what signifies a bit of packthread?' 'It is
+whipcord,' said Ben. 'Well, whipcord! what signifies a bit of whipcord!
+you can get a bit of whipcord twice as long as that for twopence; and
+who cares for twopence? Not I, for one! so here it goes,' cried Hal,
+drawing out his knife; and he cut the cord, precipitately, in sundry
+places.
+
+'Lads, have you undone the parcels for me?' said Mr. Gresham, opening
+the parlour door as he spoke. 'Yes, sir,' cried Hal; and he dragged off
+his half-cut, half-entangled string--'here's the parcel.' 'And here's my
+parcel, uncle; and here's the string,' said Ben. 'You may keep the
+string for your pains,' said Mr. Gresham. 'Thank you, sir,' said Ben;
+'what an excellent whipcord it is!' 'And you, Hal,' continued Mr.
+Gresham, 'you may keep your string too, if it will be of any use to
+you.' 'It will be of no use to me, thank you, sir,' said Hal. 'No, I am
+afraid not, if this be it,' said his uncle, taking up the jagged knotted
+remains of Hal's cord.
+
+A few days after this, Mr. Gresham gave to each of his nephews a new
+top.
+
+'But how's this?' said Hal; 'these tops have no strings; what shall we
+do for strings?' 'I have a string that will do very well for mine,' said
+Ben; and he pulled out of his pocket the fine, long, smooth string which
+had tied up the parcel. With this he soon set up his top, which spun
+admirably well.
+
+'Oh, how I wish I had but a string,' said Hal. 'What shall I do for a
+string? I'll tell you what, I can use the string that goes round my
+hat!' 'But then,' said Ben, 'what will you do for a hat-band?' 'I'll
+manage to do without one,' said Hal, and he took the string off his hat
+for his top. It soon was worn through; and he split his top by driving
+the peg too tightly into it. His cousin Ben let him set up his the next
+day; but Hal was not more fortunate or more careful when he meddled with
+other people's things than when he managed his own. He had scarcely
+played half an hour before he split it, by driving the peg too
+violently.
+
+Ben bore this misfortune with good humour. 'Come,' said he, 'it can't be
+helped; but give me the string, because _that_ may still be of use for
+something else.'
+
+It happened some time afterwards that a lady, who had been intimately
+acquainted with Hal's mother at Bath--that is to say, who had frequently
+met her at the card-table during the winter--now arrived at Clifton. She
+was informed by his mother that Hal was at Mr. Gresham's, and her sons,
+who were _friends_ of his, came to see him, and invited him to spend the
+next day with them.
+
+Hal joyfully accepted the invitation. He was always glad to go out to
+dine, because it gave him something to do, something to think of, or at
+least something to say. Besides this, he had been educated to think it
+was a fine thing to visit fine people; and Lady Diana Sweepstakes (for
+that was the name of his mother's acquaintance) was a very fine lady,
+and her two sons intended to be very _great_ gentlemen. He was in a
+prodigious hurry when these young gentlemen knocked at his uncle's door
+the next day; but just as he got to the hall door, little Patty called
+to him from the top of the stairs, and told him that he had dropped his
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+'Pick it up, then, and bring it to me, quick, can't you, child?' cried
+Hal, 'for Lady Di's sons are waiting for me.'
+
+Little Patty did not know anything about Lady Di's sons; but as she was
+very good-natured, and saw that her cousin Hal was, for some reason or
+other, in a desperate hurry, she ran downstairs as fast as she possibly
+could towards the landing-place, where the handkerchief lay; but, alas!
+before she reached the handkerchief, she fell, rolling down a whole
+flight of stairs, and when her fall was at last stopped by the
+landing-place, she did not cry out, she writhed, as if she was in great
+pain.
+
+'Where are you hurt, my love?' said Mr. Gresham, who came instantly, on
+hearing the noise of some one falling downstairs. 'Where are you hurt,
+my dear?'
+
+'Here, papa,' said the little girl, touching her ankle, which she had
+decently covered with her gown. 'I believe I am hurt here, but not
+much,' added she, trying to rise; 'only it hurts me when I move.' 'I'll
+carry you; don't move then,' said her father, and he took her up in his
+arms. 'My shoe! I've lost one of my shoes,' said she.
+
+Ben looked for it upon the stairs, and he found it sticking in a loop of
+whipcord, which was entangled round one of the banisters. When this cord
+was drawn forth, it appeared that it was the very same jagged, entangled
+piece which Hal had pulled off his parcel. He had diverted himself with
+running up and down stairs, whipping the banisters with it, as he
+thought he could convert it to no better use; and, with his usual
+carelessness, he at last left it hanging just where he happened to throw
+it when the dinner bell rang. Poor little Patty's ankle was terribly
+strained, and Hal reproached himself for his folly, and would have
+reproached himself longer, perhaps, if Lady Di Sweepstakes' sons had not
+hurried him away.
+
+In the evening, Patty could not run about as she used to do; but she sat
+upon the sofa, and she said that she did not feel the pain of her ankle
+_so much_ whilst Ben was so good as to play at _jack straws_ with her.
+
+'That's right, Ben; never be ashamed of being good-natured to those who
+are younger and weaker than yourself,' said his uncle, smiling at seeing
+him produce his whipcord, to indulge his little cousin with a game at
+her favourite cat's cradle. 'I shall not think you one bit less manly,
+because I see you playing at cat's cradle with a little child of six
+years old.'
+
+Hal, however, was not precisely of his uncle's opinion; for when he
+returned in the evening, and saw Ben playing with his little cousin, he
+could not help smiling contemptuously, and asked if he had been playing
+at cat's cradle all night. In a heedless manner he made some inquiries
+after Patty's sprained ankle, and then he ran on to tell all the news he
+had heard at Lady Diana Sweepstakes'--news which he thought would make
+him appear a person of vast importance.
+
+'Do you know, uncle--do you know, Ben,' said he, 'there's to be the most
+_famous_ doings that ever were heard of upon the Downs here, the first
+day of next month, which will be in a fortnight, thank my stars! I wish
+the fortnight was over; I shall think of nothing else, I know, till that
+happy day comes!'
+
+Mr. Gresham inquired why the first of September was to be so much
+happier than any other day in the year. 'Why,' replied Hal, 'Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes, you know, is a _famous_ rider, and archer, and _all
+that_----' 'Very likely,' said Mr. Gresham, soberly; 'but what then?'
+
+'Dear uncle!' cried Hal, 'but you shall hear. There's to be a race upon
+the Downs on the first of September, and after the race, there's to be
+an archery meeting for the ladies, and Lady Diana Sweepstakes is to be
+one of _them_. And after the ladies have done shooting--now, Ben, comes
+the best part of it!--we boys are to have our turn, and Lady Di is to
+give a prize to the best marksman amongst us, of a very handsome bow and
+arrow. Do you know, I've been practising already, and I'll show you,
+to-morrow, as soon as it comes home, the _famous_ bow and arrow that
+Lady Diana has given me; but, perhaps,' added he, with a scornful laugh,
+'you like a cat's cradle better than a bow and arrow.'
+
+[Illustration: _Playing at cat's cradle._]
+
+Ben made no reply to this taunt at the moment; but the next day, when
+Hal's new bow and arrow came home, he convinced him that he knew how to
+use it very well.
+
+'Ben,' said his uncle, 'you seem to be a good marksman, though you have
+not boasted of yourself. I'll give you a bow and arrow, and, perhaps, if
+you practise, you may make yourself an archer before the first of
+September; and, in the meantime, you will not wish the fortnight to be
+over, for you will have something to do.'
+
+'Oh, sir,' interrupted Hal, 'but if you mean that Ben should put in for
+the prize, he must have a uniform.' 'Why _must_ he?' said Mr. Gresham.
+'Why, sir, because everybody has--I mean everybody that's anybody; and
+Lady Diana was talking about the uniform all dinner time, and it's
+settled, all about it, except the buttons: the young Sweepstakes are to
+get theirs made first for patterns--they are to be white, faced with
+green, and they'll look very handsome, I'm sure; and I shall write to
+mamma to-night, as Lady Diana bid me, about mine; and I shall tell her
+to be sure to answer my letter, without fail, by return of post; and
+then, if mamma makes no objection, which I know she won't, because she
+never thinks much about expense, and _all that_--then I shall bespeak my
+uniform, and get it made by the same tailor that makes for Lady Diana
+and the young Sweepstakes.'
+
+'Mercy upon us!' said Mr. Gresham, who was almost stunned by the rapid
+vociferation with which this long speech about a uniform was pronounced.
+'I don't pretend to understand these things,' added he, with an air of
+simplicity; 'but we will inquire, Ben, into the necessity of the case;
+and if it is necessary--or, if you think it necessary, that you shall
+have a uniform--why, I'll give you one.'
+
+'_You_, uncle? Will you, _indeed_?' exclaimed Hal, with amazement
+painted in his countenance. 'Well that's the last thing in the world I
+should have expected! You are not at all the sort of person I should
+have thought would care about a uniform; and now I should have supposed
+you'd have thought it extravagant to have a coat on purpose only for one
+day; and I'm sure Lady Diana Sweepstakes thought as I do; for when I
+told her of that motto over your kitchen chimney, 'WASTE NOT, WANT NOT,'
+she laughed, and said that I had better not talk to you about uniforms,
+and that my mother was the proper person to write to about my uniform;
+but I'll tell Lady Diana, uncle, how good you are, and how much she was
+mistaken.'
+
+'Take care how you do that,' said Mr. Gresham; 'for perhaps the lady was
+not mistaken.' 'Nay, did not you say, just now, you would give poor Ben
+a uniform?' 'I said I would, if he thought it necessary to have one.'
+'Oh, I'll answer for it, he'll think it necessary,' said Hal, laughing,
+'because it is necessary.' 'Allow him, at least, to judge for himself,'
+said Mr. Gresham. 'My dear uncle, but I assure you,' said Hal,
+earnestly, 'there's no judging about the matter, because really, upon my
+word, Lady Diana said distinctly that her sons were to have uniforms,
+white faced with green, and a green and white cockade in their hats.'
+'May be so,' said Mr. Gresham, still with the same look of calm
+simplicity; 'put on your hats, boys, and come with me. I know a
+gentleman whose sons are to be at this archery meeting, and we will
+inquire into all the particulars from him. Then, after we have seen him
+(it is not eleven o'clock yet), we shall have time enough to walk on to
+Bristol, and choose the cloth for Ben's uniform, if it is necessary.'
+
+'I cannot tell what to make of all he says,' whispered Hal, as he
+reached down his hat; 'do you think, Ben, he means to give you this
+uniform, or not?' 'I think,' said Ben, 'that he means to give me one, if
+it is necessary; or, as he said, if I think it is necessary.'
+
+'And that to be sure you will; won't you? or else you'll be a great
+fool, I know, after all I've told you. How can any one in the world know
+so much about the matter as I, who have dined with Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes but yesterday, and heard all about it from beginning to end?
+And as for this gentleman that we are going to, I'm sure, if he knows
+anything about the matter, he'll say exactly the same as I do.' 'We
+shall hear,' said Ben, with a degree of composure which Hal could by no
+means comprehend when a uniform was in question.
+
+The gentleman upon whom Mr. Gresham called had three sons, who were all
+to be at this archery meeting; and they unanimously assured him, in the
+presence of Hal and Ben, that they had never thought of buying uniforms
+for this grand occasion, and that, amongst the number of their
+acquaintance, they knew of but three boys whose friends intended to be
+at such an _unnecessary_ expense. Hal stood amazed.
+
+'Such are the varieties of opinion upon all the grand affairs of life,'
+said Mr. Gresham, looking at his nephews. 'What amongst one set of
+people you hear asserted to be absolutely necessary, you will hear from
+another set of people is quite unnecessary. All that can be done, my
+dear boys, in these difficult cases, is to judge for yourselves which
+opinions and which people are the most reasonable.'
+
+Hal, who had been more accustomed to think of what was fashionable than
+of what was reasonable, without at all considering the good sense of
+what his uncle said to him, replied, with childish petulance, 'Indeed,
+sir, I don't know what other people think; but I only know what Lady
+Diana Sweepstakes said.' The name of Lady Diana Sweepstakes, Hal
+thought, must impress all present with respect; he was highly astonished
+when, as he looked round, he saw a smile of contempt upon every one's
+countenance; and he was yet further bewildered when he heard her spoken
+of as a very silly, extravagant, ridiculous woman, whose opinion no
+prudent person would ask upon any subject, and whose example was to be
+shunned instead of being imitated.
+
+'Ay, my dear Hal,' said his uncle, smiling at his look of amazement,
+'these are some of the things that young people must learn from
+experience. All the world do not agree in opinion about characters: you
+will hear the same person admired in one company and blamed in another;
+so that we must still come round to the same point, _Judge for
+yourself_.'
+
+Hal's thoughts were, however, at present too full of the uniform to
+allow his judgment to act with perfect impartiality. As soon as their
+visit was over, and all the time they walked down the hill from Prince's
+Buildings towards Bristol, he continued to repeat nearly the same
+arguments which he had formerly used respecting necessity, the uniform,
+and Lady Diana Sweepstakes. To all this Mr. Gresham made no reply, and
+longer had the young gentleman expatiated upon the subject, which had so
+strongly seized upon his imagination, had not his senses been forcibly
+assailed at this instant by the delicious odours and tempting sight of
+certain cakes and jellies in a pastrycook's shop. 'Oh, uncle,' said he,
+as his uncle was going to turn the corner to pursue the road to Bristol,
+'look at those jellies!' pointing to a confectioner's shop. 'I must buy
+some of those good things, for I have got some halfpence in my pocket.'
+'Your having halfpence in your pocket is an excellent reason for
+eating,' said Mr. Gresham, smiling. 'But I really am hungry,' said Hal;
+'you know, uncle, it is a good while since breakfast.'
+
+His uncle, who was desirous to see his nephews act without restraint,
+that he might judge their characters, bid them do as they pleased.
+
+'Come, then, Ben, if you've any halfpence in your pocket.' 'I'm not
+hungry,' said Ben. 'I suppose _that_ means that you've no halfpence,'
+said Hal, laughing, with the look of superiority which he had been
+taught to think _the rich_ might assume towards those who were convicted
+either of poverty or economy. 'Waste not, want not,' said Ben to
+himself. Contrary to his cousin's surmise, he happened to have two
+pennyworth of halfpence actually in his pocket.
+
+At the very moment Hal stepped into the pastrycook's shop, a poor,
+industrious man, with a wooden leg, who usually sweeps the dirty corner
+of the walk which turns at this spot to the Wells, held his hat to Ben,
+who, after glancing his eye at the petitioner's well-worn broom,
+instantly produced his twopence. 'I wish I had more halfpence for you,
+my good man,' said he; 'but I've only twopence.'
+
+Hal came out of Mr. Millar's, the confectioner's shop, with a hatful of
+cakes in his hand. Mr. Millar's dog was sitting on the flags before the
+door, and he looked up with a wistful, begging eye at Hal, who was
+eating a queen-cake. Hal, who was wasteful even in his good-nature,
+threw a whole queen-cake to the dog, who swallowed it for a single
+mouthful.
+
+'There goes twopence in the form of a queen-cake,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+Hal next offered some of his cakes to his uncle and cousin; but they
+thanked him, and refused to eat any, because, they said, they were not
+hungry; so he ate and ate as he walked along, till at last he stopped
+and said, 'This bun tastes so bad after the queen-cakes, I can't bear
+it!' and he was going to fling it from him into the river. 'Oh, it is a
+pity to waste that good bun; we may be glad of it yet,' said Ben; 'give
+it me rather than throw it away.' 'Why, I thought you said you were not
+hungry,' said Hal. 'True, I am not hungry now; but that is no reason why
+I should never be hungry again.' 'Well, there is the cake for you. Take
+it; for it has made me sick, and I don't care what becomes of it.'
+
+Ben folded the refuse bit of his cousin's bun in a piece of paper, and
+put it into his pocket.
+
+'I'm beginning to be exceeding tired or sick or something,' said Hal;
+'and as there is a stand of coaches somewhere hereabouts, had we not
+better take a coach, instead of walking all the way to Bristol?'
+
+'For a stout archer,' said Mr. Gresham, 'you are more easily tired than
+one might have expected. However, with all my heart, let us take a
+coach, for Ben asked me to show him the cathedral yesterday; and I
+believe I should find it rather too much for me to walk so far, though I
+am not sick with eating good things.'
+
+'_The cathedral!_' said Hal, after he had been seated in the coach about
+a quarter of an hour, and had somewhat recovered from his sickness--'the
+cathedral! Why, are we only going to Bristol to see the cathedral? I
+thought we came out to see about a uniform.'
+
+There was a dulness and melancholy kind of stupidity in Hal's
+countenance as he pronounced these words, like one wakening from a
+dream, which made both his uncle and his cousin burst out a-laughing.
+
+'Why,' said Hal, who was now piqued, 'I'm sure you _did_ say, uncle, you
+would go to Mr. Hall's to choose the cloth for the uniform.' 'Very true,
+and so I will,' said Mr. Gresham; 'but we need not make a whole
+morning's work, need we, of looking at a piece of cloth? Cannot we see a
+uniform and a cathedral both in one morning?'
+
+They went first to the cathedral. Hal's head was too full of the uniform
+to take any notice of the painted window, which immediately caught Ben's
+embarrassed attention. He looked at the large stained figures on the
+Gothic window, and he observed their coloured shadows on the floor and
+walls.
+
+Mr. Gresham, who perceived that he was eager on all subjects to gain
+information, took this opportunity of telling him several things about
+the lost art of painting on glass, Gothic arches, etc., which Hal
+thought extremely tiresome.
+
+'Come! come! we shall be late indeed,' said Hal; 'surely you've looked
+long enough, Ben, at this blue and red window.' 'I'm only thinking about
+these coloured shadows,' said Ben. 'I can show you when we go home,
+Ben,' said his uncle, 'an entertaining paper upon such shadows.'[13]
+'Hark!' cried Ben, 'did you hear that noise?' They all listened; and
+they heard a bird singing in the cathedral. 'It's our old robin, sir,'
+said the lad who had opened the cathedral door for them.
+
+  [13] Vide Priestley's _History of Vision_, chapter on coloured
+       shadows.
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Gresham, 'there he is, boys--look--perched upon the
+organ; he often sits there, and sings, whilst the organ is playing.'
+'And,' continued the lad who showed the cathedral, 'he has lived here
+these many, many winters. They say he is fifteen years old; and he is so
+tame, poor fellow! that if I had a bit of bread he'd come down and feed
+in my hand.' 'I've a bit of bun here,' cried Ben joyfully, producing the
+remains of the bun which Hal but an hour before would have thrown away.
+'Pray, let us see the poor robin eat out of your hand.'
+
+The lad crumbled the bun, and called to the robin, who fluttered and
+chirped, and seemed rejoiced at the sight of the bread; but yet he did
+not come down from his pinnacle on the organ.
+
+'He is afraid of _us_,' said Ben; 'he is not used to eat before
+strangers, I suppose.'
+
+'Ah, no, sir,' said the young man, with a deep sigh, 'that is not the
+thing. He is used enough to eat afore company. Time was he'd have come
+down for me before ever so many fine folks, and have eat his crumbs out
+of my hand, at my first call; but, poor fellow! it's not his fault now.
+He does not know me now, sir, since my accident, because of this great
+black patch.' The young man put his hand to his right eye, which was
+covered with a huge black patch. Ben asked what _accident_ he meant; and
+the lad told him that, but a few weeks ago, he had lost the sight of his
+eye by the stroke of a stone, which reached him as he was passing under
+the rocks at Clifton, unluckily when the workmen were blasting. 'I don't
+mind so much for myself, sir,' said the lad; 'but I can't work so well
+now, as I used to do before my accident, for my old mother, who has had
+a _stroke_ of the palsy; and I've a many little brothers and sisters not
+well able yet to get their own livelihood, though they be as willing as
+willing can be.'
+
+'Where does your mother live?' said Mr. Gresham. 'Hard by, sir, just
+close to the church here: it was _her_ that always had the showing of it
+to strangers, till she lost the use of her poor limbs.'
+
+'Shall we, may we, uncle, go that way? This is the house; is not it?'
+said Ben, when they went out of the cathedral.
+
+They went into the house; it was rather a hovel than a house; but, poor
+as it was, it was as neat as misery could make it. The old woman was
+sitting up in her wretched bed, winding worsted; four meagre,
+ill-clothed, pale children, were all busy, some of them sticking pins in
+paper for the pin-maker, and others sorting rags for the paper-maker.
+
+'What a horrid place it is!' said Hal, sighing; 'I did not know there
+were such shocking places in the world. I've often seen
+terrible-looking, tumble-down places, as we drove through the town in
+mamma's carriage; but then I did not know who lived in them; and I never
+saw the inside of any of them. It is very dreadful, indeed, to think
+that people are forced to live in this way. I wish mamma would send me
+some more pocket-money, that I might do something for them. I had half a
+crown; but,' continued he, feeling in his pockets, 'I'm afraid I spent
+the last shilling of it this morning upon those cakes that made me sick.
+I wish I had my shilling now, I'd give it to _these poor people_.'
+
+Ben, though he was all this time silent, was as sorry as his talkative
+cousin for all these poor people. But there was some difference between
+the sorrow of these two boys.
+
+Hal, after he was again seated in the hackney-coach, and had rattled
+through the busy streets of Bristol for a few minutes, quite forgot the
+spectacle of misery which he had seen; and the gay shops in Wine Street
+and the idea of his green and white uniform wholly occupied his
+imagination.
+
+'Now for our uniforms!' cried he, as he jumped eagerly out of the coach,
+when his uncle stopped at the woollen-draper's door.
+
+'Uncle,' said Ben, stopping Mr. Gresham before he got out of the
+carriage, 'I don't think a uniform is at all necessary for me. I'm very
+much obliged to you; but I would rather not have one. I have a very good
+coat, and I think it would be waste.'
+
+'Well, let me get out of the carriage, and we will see about it,' said
+Mr. Gresham; 'perhaps the sight of the beautiful green and white cloth,
+and the epaulette (have you ever considered the epaulettes?) may tempt
+you to change your mind.' 'Oh no,' said Ben, laughing; 'I shall not
+change my mind.'
+
+The green cloth, and the white cloth, and the epaulettes were produced,
+to Hal's infinite satisfaction. His uncle took up a pen, and calculated
+for a few minutes; then, showing the back of the letter, upon which he
+was writing, to his nephews, 'Cast up these sums, boys,' said he, 'and
+tell me whether I am right.' 'Ben, do you do it,' said Hal, a little
+embarrassed; 'I am not quick at figures.' Ben _was_, and he went over
+his uncle's calculation very expeditiously.
+
+'It is right, is it?' said Mr. Gresham. 'Yes, sir, quite right.' 'Then,
+by this calculation, I find I could, for less than half the money your
+uniforms would cost, purchase for each of you boys a warm greatcoat,
+which you will want, I have a notion, this winter upon the Downs.'
+
+'Oh, sir,' said Hal, with an alarmed look; 'but it is not winter _yet_;
+it is not cold weather _yet_. We shan't want greatcoats _yet_.'
+
+'Don't you remember how cold we were, Hal, the day before yesterday, in
+that sharp wind, when we were flying our kite upon the Downs? and winter
+will come, though it is not come yet--I am sure, I should like to have a
+good warm greatcoat very much.'
+
+Mr. Gresham took six guineas out of his purse; and he placed three of
+them before Hal, and three before Ben. 'Young gentlemen,' said he, 'I
+believe your uniforms would come to about three guineas apiece. Now I
+will lay out this money for you just as you please. Hal, what say you?'
+'Why, sir,' said Hal, 'a greatcoat is a good thing, to be sure; and
+then, after the greatcoat, as you said it would only cost half as much
+as the uniform, there would be some money to spare, would not there?'
+'Yes, my dear, about five-and-twenty shillings.' 'Five-and-twenty
+shillings?--I could buy and do a great many things, to be sure, with
+five-and-twenty shillings; but then, _the thing is_, I must go without
+the uniform, if I have the greatcoat.' 'Certainly,' said his uncle.
+'Ah!' said Hal, sighing, as he looked at the epaulette, 'uncle, if you
+would not be displeased, if I choose the uniform----' 'I shall not be
+displeased at your choosing whatever you like best,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+'Well, then, thank you, sir,' said Hal; 'I think I had better have the
+uniform, because, if I have not the uniform, now, directly, it will be
+of no use to me, as the archery meeting is the week after next, you
+know; and, as to the greatcoat, perhaps between this time and the _very_
+cold weather, which, perhaps, won't be till Christmas, papa will buy a
+greatcoat for me; and I'll ask mamma to give me some pocket-money to
+give away, and she will, perhaps.' To all this conclusive, conditional
+reasoning, which depended upon the word _perhaps_, three times repeated,
+Mr. Gresham made no reply; but he immediately bought the uniform for
+Hal, and desired that it should be sent to Lady Diana Sweepstakes' son's
+tailor, to be made up. The measure of Hal's happiness was now complete.
+
+'And how am I to lay out the three guineas for you, Ben?' said Mr.
+Gresham; 'speak, what do you wish for first?' 'A greatcoat, uncle, if
+you please.' Mr. Gresham bought the coat; and, after it was paid for,
+five-and-twenty shillings of Ben's three guineas remained. 'What next,
+my boy?' said his uncle. 'Arrows, uncle, if you please; three arrows.'
+'My dear, I promised you a bow and arrows.' 'No, uncle, you only said a
+bow.' 'Well, I meant a bow and arrows. I'm glad you are so exact,
+however. It is better to claim less than more than what is promised. The
+three arrows you shall have. But go on; how shall I dispose of these
+five-and-twenty shillings for you?' 'In clothes, if you will be so good,
+uncle, for that poor boy who has the great black patch on his eye.'
+
+'I always believed,' said Mr. Gresham, shaking hands with Ben, 'that
+economy and generosity were the best friends, instead of being enemies,
+as some silly, extravagant people would have us think them. Choose the
+poor, blind boy's coat, my dear nephew, and pay for it. There's no
+occasion for my praising you about the matter. Your best reward is in
+your own mind, child; and you want no other, or I'm mistaken. Now, jump
+into the coach, boys, and let's be off. We shall be late, I'm afraid,'
+continued he, as the coach drove on; 'but I must let you stop, Ben, with
+your goods, at the poor boy's door.'
+
+When they came to the house, Mr. Gresham opened the coach door, and Ben
+jumped out with his parcel under his arm.
+
+'Stay, stay! you must take me with you,' said his pleased uncle; 'I like
+to see people made happy as well as you do.' 'And so do I, too,' said
+Hal; 'let me come with you. I almost wish my uniform was not gone to the
+tailor's, so I do.' And when he saw the look of delight and gratitude
+with which the poor boy received the clothes which Ben gave him, and
+when he heard the mother and children thank him, Hal sighed, and said,
+'Well, I hope mamma will give me some more pocket-money soon.'
+
+Upon his return home, however, the sight of the _famous_ bow and arrow,
+which Lady Diana Sweepstakes had sent him, recalled to his imagination
+all the joys of his green and white uniform; and he no longer wished
+that it had not been sent to the tailor's. 'But I don't understand,
+Cousin Hal,' said little Patty, 'why you call this bow a _famous_ bow.
+You say _famous_ very often; and I don't know exactly what it means; a
+_famous_ uniform--_famous_ doings. I remember you said there are to be
+_famous_ doings, the first of September, upon the Downs. What does
+_famous_ mean?' 'Oh, why, _famous_ means--now, don't you know what
+_famous_ means? It means--it is a word that people say--it is the
+fashion to say it--it means--it means _famous_.' Patty laughed, and
+said, '_This_ does not explain it to me.'
+
+'No,' said Hal, 'nor can it be explained: if you don't understand it,
+that's not my fault. Everybody but little children, I suppose,
+understands it; but there's no explaining _those sort_ of words, if you
+don't _take them_ at once. There's to be _famous_ doings upon the Downs,
+the first of September; that is grand, fine. In short, what does it
+signify talking any longer, Patty, about the matter? Give me my bow, for
+I must go out upon the Downs and practise.'
+
+Ben accompanied him with the bow and the three arrows which his uncle
+had now given to him; and, every day, these two boys went out upon the
+Downs and practised shooting with indefatigable perseverance. Where
+equal pains are taken, success is usually found to be pretty nearly
+equal. Our two archers, by constant practice, became expert marksmen;
+and before the day of trial, they were so exactly matched in point of
+dexterity, that it was scarcely possible to decide which was superior.
+
+The long-expected 1st of September at length arrived. 'What sort of a
+day is it?' was the first question that was asked by Hal and Ben the
+moment that they wakened. The sun shone bright, but there was a sharp
+and high wind. 'Ha!' said Ben, 'I shall be glad of my good greatcoat
+to-day; for I've a notion it will be rather cold upon the Downs,
+especially when we are standing still, as we must, whilst all the people
+are shooting.' 'Oh, never mind! I don't think I shall feel it cold at
+all,' said Hal, as he dressed himself in his new green and white
+uniform; and he viewed himself with much complacency.
+
+'Good morning to you, uncle; how do you do?' said he, in a voice of
+exultation, when he entered the breakfast-room. How do you do? seemed
+rather to mean 'How do you like me in my uniform?' And his uncle's cool
+'Very well, I thank you, Hal,' disappointed him, as it seemed only to
+say, 'Your uniform makes no difference in my opinion of you.'
+
+Even little Patty went on eating her breakfast much as usual, and talked
+of the pleasure of walking with her father to the Downs, and of all the
+little things which interested her; so that Hal's epaulettes were not
+the principal object in any one's imagination but his own.
+
+'Papa,' said Patty, 'as we go up the hill where there is so much red
+mud, I must take care to pick my way nicely; and I must hold up my
+frock, as you desired me, and, perhaps, you will be so good, if I am not
+troublesome, to lift me over the very bad place where are no
+stepping-stones. My ankle is entirely well, and I'm glad of that, or
+else I should not be able to walk so far as the Downs. How good you were
+to me, Ben, when I was in pain the day I sprained my ankle! You played
+at jack straws and at cat's cradle with me. Oh, that puts me in
+mind--here are your gloves which I asked you that night to let me mend.
+I've been a great while about them; but are not they very neatly mended,
+papa? Look at the sewing.'
+
+'I am not a very good judge of sewing, my dear little girl,' said Mr.
+Gresham, examining the work with a close and scrupulous eye; 'but, in my
+opinion, here is one stitch that is rather too long. The white teeth are
+not quite even.' 'Oh, papa, I'll take out that long tooth in a minute,'
+said Patty, laughing; 'I did not think that you would observe it so
+soon.'
+
+'I would not have you trust to my blindness,' said her father, stroking
+her head fondly; 'I observe everything. I observe, for instance, that
+you are a grateful little girl, and that you are glad to be of use to
+those who have been kind to you; and for this I forgive you the long
+stitch.' 'But it's out, it's out, papa,' said Patty; 'and the next time
+your gloves want mending, Ben, I'll mend them better.'
+
+'They are very nice, I think,' said Ben, drawing them on; 'and I am much
+obliged to you. I was just wishing I had a pair of gloves to keep my
+fingers warm to-day, for I never can shoot well when my hands are
+benumbed. Look, Hal; you know how ragged these gloves were; you said
+they were good for nothing but to throw away; now look, there's not a
+hole in them,' said he, spreading his fingers.
+
+'Now, is it not very extraordinary,' said Hal to himself, 'that they
+should go on so long talking about an old pair of gloves, without saying
+scarcely a word about my new uniform? Well, the young Sweepstakes and
+Lady Diana will talk enough about it; that's one comfort. Is not it time
+to think of setting out, sir?' said Hal to his uncle. 'The company, you
+know, are to meet at the Ostrich at twelve, and the race to begin at
+one, and Lady Diana's horses, I know, were ordered to be at the door at
+ten.'
+
+Mr. Stephen, the butler, here interrupted the hurrying young gentleman
+in his calculations. 'There's a poor lad, sir, below, with a great black
+patch on his right eye, who is come from Bristol, and wants to speak a
+word with the young gentlemen, if you please. I told him they were just
+going out with you; but he says he won't detain them more than half a
+minute.'
+
+'Show him up, show him up,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+'But, I suppose,' said Hal, with a sigh, 'that Stephen mistook, when he
+said the young _gentlemen_; he only wants to see Ben, I daresay; I'm
+sure he has no reason to want to see me.'
+
+'Here he comes--O Ben, he is dressed in the new coat you gave him,'
+whispered Hal, who was really a good-natured boy, though extravagant.
+'How much better he looks than he did in the ragged coat! Ah! he looked
+at you first, Ben--and well he may!'
+
+The boy bowed, without any cringing civility, but with an open, decent
+freedom in his manner, which expressed that he had been obliged, but
+that he knew his young benefactor was not thinking of the obligation.
+He made as little distinction as possible between his bows to the two
+cousins.
+
+'As I was sent with a message, by the clerk of our parish, to Redland
+chapel out on the Downs, to-day, sir,' said he to Mr. Gresham, 'knowing
+your house lay in my way, my mother, sir, bid me call, and make bold to
+offer the young gentlemen two little worsted balls that she has worked
+for them,' continued the lad, pulling out of his pocket two worsted
+balls worked in green and orange-coloured stripes. 'They are but poor
+things, sir, she bid me say, to look at; but, considering she has but
+one hand to work with, and _that_ her left hand, you'll not despise 'em,
+we hopes.' He held the balls to Ben and Hal. 'They are both alike,
+gentlemen,' said he. 'If you'll be pleased to take 'em, they're better
+than they look, for they bound higher than your head. I cut the cork
+round for the inside myself, which was all I could do.'
+
+'They are nice balls, indeed: we are much obliged to you,' said the boys
+as they received them, and they proved them immediately. The balls
+struck the floor with a delightful sound, and rebounded higher than Mr.
+Gresham's head. Little Patty clapped her hands joyfully. But now a
+thundering double rap at the door was heard.
+
+'The Master Sweepstakes, sir,' said Stephen, 'are come for Master Hal.
+They say that all the young gentlemen who have archery uniforms are to
+walk together, in a body, I think they say, sir; and they are to parade
+along the Well Walk, they desired me to say, sir, with a drum and fife,
+and so up the hill by Prince's Place, and all to go upon the Downs
+together, to the place of meeting. I am not sure I'm right, sir; for
+both the young gentlemen spoke at once, and the wind is very high at the
+street door; so that I could not well make out all they said; but I
+believe this is the sense of it.'
+
+'Yes, yes,' said Hal eagerly, 'it's all right. I know that is just what
+was settled the day I dined at Lady Diana's; and Lady Diana and a great
+party of gentlemen are to ride----'
+
+'Well, that is nothing to the purpose,' interrupted Mr. Gresham. 'Don't
+keep these Master Sweepstakes waiting. Decide--do you choose to go with
+them or with us?' 'Sir--uncle--sir, you know, since all the _uniforms_
+agreed to go together----' 'Off with you, then, Mr. Uniform, if you mean
+to go,' said Mr. Gresham.
+
+Hal ran downstairs in such a hurry that he forgot his bow and arrows.
+Ben discovered this when he went to fetch his own; and the lad from
+Bristol, who had been ordered by Mr. Gresham to eat his breakfast before
+he proceeded to Redland Chapel, heard Ben talking about his cousin's bow
+and arrows. 'I know,' said Ben, 'he will be sorry not to have his bow
+with him, because here are the green knots tied to it, to match his
+cockade; and he said that the boys were all to carry their bows, as part
+of the show.'
+
+'If you'll give me leave, sir,' said the poor Bristol lad, 'I shall have
+plenty of time; and I'll run down to the Well Walk after the young
+gentleman, and take him his bow and arrows.'
+
+'Will you? I shall be much obliged to you,' said Ben; and away went the
+boy with the bow that was ornamented with green ribands.
+
+The public walk leading to the Wells was full of company. The windows of
+all the houses in St. Vincent's Parade were crowded with well-dressed
+ladies, who were looking out in expectation of the archery procession.
+Parties of gentlemen and ladies, and a motley crowd of spectators, were
+seen moving backwards and forwards, under the rocks, on the opposite
+side of the water. A barge, with coloured streamers flying, was waiting
+to take up a party who were going upon the water. The bargemen rested
+upon their oars, and gazed with broad face of curiosity upon the busy
+scene that appeared upon the public walk.
+
+The archers and archeresses were now drawn up on the flags under the
+semicircular piazza just before Mrs. Yearsley's library. A little band
+of children, who had been mustered by Lady Diana Sweepstakes' _spirited
+exertions_, closed the procession. They were now all in readiness. The
+drummer only waited for her ladyship's signal; and the archers' corps
+only waited for her ladyship's word of command to march.
+
+'Where are your bow and arrows, my little man?' said her ladyship to
+Hal, as she reviewed her Lilliputian regiment. 'You can't march, man,
+without your arms?'
+
+Hal had despatched a messenger for his forgotten bow, but the messenger
+returned not. He looked from side to side in great distress--'Oh,
+there's my bow coming, I declare!' cried he; 'look, I see the bow and
+the ribands. Look now, between the trees, Charles Sweepstakes, on the
+Hotwell Walk; it is coming!' 'But you've kept us all waiting a
+confounded time,' said his impatient friend. 'It is that good-natured
+poor fellow from Bristol, I protest, that has brought it me; I'm sure I
+don't deserve it from him,' said Hal to himself, when he saw the lad
+with the black patch on his eye running, quite out of breath, towards
+him, with his bow and arrows.
+
+'Fall back, my good friend--fall back,' said the military lady, as soon
+as he had delivered the bow to Hal; 'I mean, stand out of the way, for
+your great patch cuts no figure amongst us. Don't follow so close, now,
+as if you belonged to us, pray.'
+
+The poor boy had no ambition to partake the triumph; he _fell back_ as
+soon as he understood the meaning of the lady's words. The drum beat,
+the fife played, the archers marched, the spectators admired. Hal
+stepped proudly, and felt as if the eyes of the whole universe were upon
+his epaulettes, or upon the facings of his uniform; whilst all the time
+he was considered only as part of a show.
+
+The walk appeared much shorter than usual, and he was extremely sorry
+that Lady Diana, when they were half-way up the hill leading to Prince's
+Place, mounted her horse, because the road was dirty, and all the
+gentlemen and ladies who accompanied her followed her example.
+
+'We can leave the children to walk, you know,' said she to the gentleman
+who helped her to mount her horse. 'I must call to some of them, though,
+and leave orders where they are to _join_.'
+
+She beckoned: and Hal, who was foremost, and proud to show his alacrity,
+ran on to receive her ladyship's orders. Now, as we have before
+observed, it was a sharp and windy day; and though Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes was actually speaking to him, and looking at him, he could
+not prevent his nose from wanting to be blowed: he pulled out his
+handkerchief and out rolled the new ball which had been given to him
+just before he left home, and which, according to his usual careless
+habits, he had stuffed into his pocket in his hurry. 'Oh, my new ball!'
+cried he, as he ran after it. As he stopped to pick it up, he let go his
+hat, which he had hitherto held on with anxious care; for the hat,
+though it had a fine green and white cockade, had no band or string
+round it. The string, as we may recollect, our wasteful hero had used
+in spinning his top. The hat was too large for his head without this
+band; a sudden gust of wind blew it off. Lady Diana's horse started and
+reared. She was a _famous_ horsewoman, and sat him to the admiration of
+all beholders; but there was a puddle of red clay and water in this
+spot, and her ladyship's uniform habit was a sufferer by the accident.
+'Careless brat!' said she, 'why can't he keep his hat upon his head?' In
+the meantime, the wind blew the hat down the hill, and Hal ran after it
+amidst the laughter of his kind friends, the young Sweepstakes, and the
+rest of the little regiment. The hat was lodged, at length, upon a bank.
+Hal pursued it: he thought this bank was hard, but, alas! the moment he
+set his foot upon it the foot sank. He tried to draw it back; his other
+foot slipped, and he fell prostrate, in his green and white uniform,
+into the treacherous bed of red mud. His companions, who had halted upon
+the top of the hill, stood laughing spectators of his misfortune.
+
+It happened that the poor boy with the black patch upon his eye, who had
+been ordered by Lady Diana to '_fall back_,' and to '_keep at a
+distance_' was now coming up the hill; and the moment he saw our fallen
+hero, he hastened to his assistance. He dragged poor Hal, who was a
+deplorable spectacle, out of the red mud. The obliging mistress of a
+lodging-house, as soon as she understood that the young gentleman was
+nephew to Mr. Gresham, to whom she had formerly let her house, received
+Hal, covered as he was with dirt.
+
+The poor Bristol lad hastened to Mr. Gresham's for clean stockings and
+shoes for Hal. He was willing to give up his uniform: it was rubbed and
+rubbed, and a spot here and there was washed out; and he kept
+continually repeating,--'When it's dry it will all brush off--when it's
+dry it will all brush off, won't it?' But soon the fear of being too
+late at the archery meeting began to balance the dread of appearing in
+his stained habiliments; and he now as anxiously repeated, whilst the
+woman held the wet coat to the fire, 'Oh, I shall be too late; indeed, I
+shall be too late; make haste; it will never dry; hold it nearer--nearer
+to the fire. I shall lose my turn to shoot; oh, give me the coat; I
+don't mind how it is, if I can but get it on.'
+
+Holding it nearer and nearer to the fire dried it quickly, to be sure;
+but it shrank it also, so that it was no easy matter to get the coat
+on again. However, Hal, who did not see the red splashes, which, in
+spite of all these operations, were too visible upon his shoulders, and
+upon the skirts of his white coat behind, was pretty well satisfied to
+observe that there was not one spot upon the facings. 'Nobody,' said he,
+'will take notice of my coat behind, I daresay. I think it looks as
+smart almost as ever!'--and under this persuasion our young archer
+resumed his bow--his bow with green ribands, now no more!--and he
+pursued his way to the Downs.
+
+[Illustration: _He dragged poor Hal out of the red mud._]
+
+All his companions were far out of sight. 'I suppose,' said he to his
+friend with the black patch--'I suppose my uncle and Ben had left home
+before you went for the shoes and stockings for me?'
+
+'Oh yes, sir; the butler said they had been gone to the Downs the matter
+of a good half-hour or more.'
+
+Hal trudged on as fast as he possibly could. When he got upon the Downs,
+he saw numbers of carriages, and crowds of people, all going towards the
+place of meeting at the Ostrich. He pressed forwards. He was at first so
+much afraid of being late, that he did not take notice of the mirth his
+motley appearance excited in all beholders. At length he reached the
+appointed spot. There was a great crowd of people. In the midst he heard
+Lady Diana's loud voice betting upon some one who was just going to
+shoot at the mark.
+
+'So then the shooting is begun, is it?' said Hal. 'Oh, let me in! pray
+let me into the circle! I'm one of the archers--I am, indeed; don't you
+see my green and white uniform?'
+
+'Your red and white uniform, you mean,' said the man to whom he
+addressed himself; and the people, as they opened a passage for him,
+could not refrain laughing at the mixture of dirt and finery which it
+exhibited. In vain, when he got into the midst of the formidable circle,
+he looked to his friends, the young Sweepstakes, for their countenance
+and support. They were amongst the most unmerciful of the laughers. Lady
+Diana also seemed more to enjoy than to pity his confusion.
+
+'Why could you not keep your hat upon your head, man?' said she, in her
+masculine tone. 'You have been almost the ruin of my poor uniform habit;
+but I've escaped rather better than you have. Don't stand there, in the
+middle of the circle, or you'll have an arrow in your eyes just now,
+I've a notion.'
+
+Hal looked round in search of better friends. 'Oh, where's my
+uncle?--where's Ben?' said he. He was in such confusion, that, amongst
+the number of faces, he could scarcely distinguish one from another; but
+he felt somebody at this moment pull his elbow, and, to his great
+relief, he heard the friendly voice and saw the good-natured face of his
+cousin Ben.
+
+'Come back--come behind these people,' said Ben, 'and put on my
+greatcoat; here it is for you.'
+
+Right glad was Hal to cover his disgraced uniform with the rough
+greatcoat which he had formerly despised. He pulled the stained,
+drooping cockade out of his unfortunate hat; and he was now sufficiently
+recovered from his vexation to give an intelligible account of his
+accident to his uncle and Patty, who anxiously inquired what had
+detained him so long, and what had been the matter. In the midst of the
+history of his disaster, he was just proving to Patty that his taking
+the hatband to spin his top had nothing to do with his misfortune, and
+he was at the same time endeavouring to refute his uncle's opinion that
+the waste of the whipcord that tied the parcel was the original cause of
+all his evils, when he was summoned to try his skill with his _famous_
+bow.
+
+'My hands are benumbed; I can scarcely feel,' said he, rubbing them, and
+blowing upon the ends of his fingers.
+
+'Come, come,' cried young Sweepstakes, 'I'm within one inch of the mark;
+who'll go nearer? I shall like to see. Shoot away, Hal; but first
+understand our laws; we settled them before you came upon the green. You
+are to have three shots, with your own bow and your own arrows; and
+nobody's to borrow or lend under pretence of other's bows being better
+or worse, or under any pretence. Do you hear, Hal?'
+
+This young gentleman had good reasons for being so strict in these laws,
+as he had observed that none of his companions had such an excellent bow
+as he had provided for himself. Some of the boys had forgotten to bring
+more than one arrow with them, and by his cunning regulation that each
+person should shoot with his own arrows, many had lost one or two of
+their shots.
+
+'You are a lucky fellow; you have your three arrows,' said young
+Sweepstakes. 'Come, we can't wait whilst you rub your fingers,
+man--shoot away.'
+
+Hal was rather surprised at the asperity with which his friend spoke. He
+little knew how easily acquaintance who call themselves friends can
+change when their interest comes in the slightest degree in competition
+with their friendship. Hurried by his impatient rival, and with his
+hands so much benumbed that he could scarcely feel how to fix the arrow
+in the string, he drew the bow. The arrow was within a quarter of an
+inch of Master Sweepstakes' mark, which was the nearest that had yet
+been hit. Hal seized his second arrow. 'If I have any luck----' said he.
+But just as he pronounced the word _luck_, and as he bent his bow, the
+string broke in two, and the bow fell from his hands.
+
+'There, it's all over with you!' cried Master Sweepstakes, with a
+triumphant laugh.
+
+'Here's my bow for him, and welcome,' said Ben. 'No, no, sir,' said
+Master Sweepstakes, 'that is not fair; that's against the regulation.
+You may shoot with your own bow, if you choose it, or you may not, just
+as you think proper; but you must not lend it, sir.'
+
+It was now Ben's turn to make his trial. His first arrow was not
+successful. His second was exactly as near as Hal's first. 'You have but
+one more,' said Master Sweepstakes; 'now for it!' Ben, before he
+ventured his last arrow, prudently examined the string of his bow; and,
+as he pulled it to try its strength, it cracked. Master Sweepstakes
+clapped his hands, with loud exultations and insulting laughter. But his
+laughter ceased when our provident hero calmly drew from his pocket an
+excellent piece of whipcord.
+
+'The everlasting whipcord, I declare!' exclaimed Hal, when he saw that
+it was the very same that had tied up the parcel. 'Yes,' said Ben, as he
+fastened it to his bow, 'I put it into my pocket to-day on purpose,
+because I thought I might happen to want it.' He drew his bow the third
+and last time.
+
+'Oh, papa!' cried little Patty, as his arrow hit the mark, 'it's the
+nearest; is it not the nearest?'
+
+Master Sweepstakes, with anxiety, examined the hit. There could be no
+doubt. Ben was victorious! The bow, the prize bow, was now delivered to
+him; and Hal, as he looked at the whipcord, exclaimed, 'How _lucky_ this
+whipcord has been to you, Ben!'
+
+'It is _lucky_, perhaps, you mean, that he took care of it,' said Mr.
+Gresham.
+
+'Ay,' said Hal, 'very true; he might well say, "Waste not, want not." It
+is a good thing to have two strings to one's bow.'
+
+
+
+
+OLD POZ
+
+
+    LUCY, _daughter to the Justice._
+    MRS. BUSTLE, _landlady of the 'Saracen's Head.'_
+    JUSTICE HEADSTRONG.
+    OLD MAN.
+    WILLIAM, _a Servant._
+
+
+    SCENE I
+
+    _The House of Justice Headstrong--A hall--Lucy watering some
+    myrtles--A servant behind the scenes is heard to say--_
+
+I tell you my master is not up. You can't see him, so go about your
+business, I say.
+
+_Lucy._ To whom are you speaking, William? Who's that?
+
+_Will._ Only an old man, miss, with a complaint for my master.
+
+_Lucy._ Oh, then, don't send him away--don't send him away.
+
+_Will._ But master has not had his chocolate, ma'am. He won't ever see
+anybody before he drinks his chocolate, you know, ma'am.
+
+_Lucy._ But let the old man, then, come in here. Perhaps he can wait a
+little while. Call him.
+
+        (_Exit servant._)
+
+        (_Lucy sings, and goes on watering her myrtles; the servant
+        shows in the Old Man._)
+
+_Will._ You can't see my master this hour; but miss will let you stay
+here.
+
+_Lucy_ (_aside_). Poor old man! how he trembles as he walks. (_Aloud._)
+Sit down, sit down. My father will see you soon; pray sit down.
+
+        (_He hesitates; she pushes a chair towards him._)
+
+_Lucy._ Pray sit down.
+
+        (_He sits down._)
+
+_Old Man._ You are very good, miss; very good.
+
+        (_Lucy goes to her myrtles again._)
+
+_Lucy._ Ah! I'm afraid this poor myrtle is quite dead--quite dead.
+
+        (_The Old Man sighs, and she turns round._)
+
+_Lucy_ (_aside_). I wonder what can make him sigh so! (_Aloud._) My
+father won't make you wait long.
+
+_Old M._ Oh, ma'am, as long as he pleases. I'm in no haste--no haste.
+It's only a small matter.
+
+_Lucy._ But does a small matter make you sigh so?
+
+_Old M._ Ah, miss; because though it is a small matter in itself, it is
+not a small matter to me (_sighing again_); it was my all, and I've lost
+it.
+
+_Lucy._ What do you mean? What have you lost?
+
+_Old M._ Why, miss--but I won't trouble you about it.
+
+_Lucy._ But it won't trouble me at all--I mean, I wish to hear it; so
+tell it me.
+
+_Old M._ Why, miss, I slept last night at the inn here, in town--the
+'Saracen's Head'----
+
+_Lucy_ (_interrupts him_). Hark! there is my father coming downstairs;
+follow me. You may tell me your story as we go along.
+
+_Old M._ I slept at the 'Saracen's Head,' miss, and----
+
+        (_Exit talking._)
+
+
+    SCENE II
+
+    _Justice Headstrong's Study_
+
+    (_He appears in his nightgown and cap, with his gouty foot upon a
+    stool--a table and chocolate beside him--Lucy is leaning on the arm
+    of his chair._)
+
+_Just._ Well, well, my darling, presently; I'll see him presently.
+
+_Lucy._ Whilst you are drinking your chocolate, papa?
+
+_Just._ No, no, no--I never see anybody till I have done my chocolate,
+darling. (_He tastes his chocolate._) There's no sugar in this, child.
+
+_Lucy._ Yes, indeed, papa.
+
+_Just._ No, child--there's _no_ sugar, I tell you; that's poz!
+
+_Lucy._ Oh, but, papa, I assure you I put in two lumps myself.
+
+_Just._ There's _no_ sugar, I say; why will you contradict me, child,
+for ever? There's no sugar, I say.
+
+        (_Lucy leans over him playfully, and with his teaspoon pulls out
+        two lumps of sugar._)
+
+_Lucy._ What's this, papa?
+
+_Just._ Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw!--it is not melted, child--it is the same as
+no sugar.--Oh, my foot, girl, my foot!--you kill me. Go, go, I'm busy.
+I've business to do. Go and send William to me; do you hear, love?
+
+_Lucy._ And the old man, papa?
+
+_Just._ What old man? I tell you what, I've been plagued ever since I
+was awake, and before I was awake, about that old man. If he can't wait,
+let him go about his business. Don't you know, child, I never see
+anybody till I've drunk my chocolate; and I never will, if it were a
+duke--that's poz! Why, it has but just struck twelve; if he can't wait,
+he can go about his business, can't he?
+
+_Lucy._ Oh, sir, he _can_ wait. It was not he who was impatient. (_She
+comes back playfully._) It was only I, papa; don't be angry.
+
+_Just._ Well, well, well (_finishing his cup of chocolate, and pushing
+his dish away_); and at any rate there was not sugar enough. Send
+William, send William, child; and I'll finish my own business, and
+then----
+
+        (_Exit Lucy, dancing, 'And then!--and then!'_)
+
+    JUSTICE, _alone._
+
+_Just._ Oh, this foot of mine!--(_twinges_)--Oh, this foot! Ay, if Dr.
+Sparerib could cure one of the gout, then, indeed, I should think
+something of him; but as to my leaving off my bottle of port, it's
+nonsense; it's all nonsense; I can't do it; I can't, and I won't for all
+the Dr. Spareribs in Christendom; that's poz!
+
+    _Enter_ WILLIAM.
+
+_Just._ William--oh! ay! hey! what answer, pray, did you bring from the
+'Saracen's Head'? Did you see Mrs. Bustle herself, as I bid you?
+
+_Will._ Yes, sir, I saw the landlady herself; she said she would come up
+immediately, sir.
+
+[Illustration: Lucy. _What's this, papa?_ Just. _Pshaw! pshaw!
+pshaw!--it is not melted, child--it is the same as no sugar._]
+
+_Just._ Ah, that's well--immediately?
+
+_Will._ Yes, sir, and I hear her voice below now.
+
+_Just._ Oh, show her up; show Mrs. Bustle in.
+
+    _Enter_ MRS. BUSTLE, _the landlady of the 'Saracen's Head.'_
+
+_Land._ Good-morrow to your worship! I'm glad to see your worship look
+so purely. I came up with all speed (_taking breath_). Our pie is in the
+oven; that was what you sent for me about, I take it.
+
+_Just._ True, true; sit down, good Mrs. Bustle, pray----
+
+_Land._ Oh, your worship's always very good (_settling her apron_). I
+came up just as I was--only threw my shawl over me. I thought your
+worship would excuse--I'm quite, as it were, rejoiced to see your
+worship look so purely, and to find you up so hearty----
+
+_Just._ Oh, I'm very hearty (_coughing_), always hearty, and thankful
+for it. I hope to see many Christmas doings yet, Mrs. Bustle. And so our
+pie is in the oven, I think you say?
+
+_Land._ In the oven it is. I put it in with my own hands; and if we have
+but good luck in the baking, it will be as pretty a goose-pie--though I
+say it that should not say it--as pretty a goose-pie as ever your
+worship set your eyes upon.
+
+_Just._ Will you take a glass of anything this morning, Mrs. Bustle?--I
+have some nice usquebaugh.
+
+_Land._ Oh, no, your worship!--I thank your worship, though, as much as
+if I took it; but I just took my luncheon before I came up; or more
+proper, _my sandwich_, I should say, for the fashion's sake, to be sure.
+A _luncheon_ won't go down with nobody nowadays (_laughs_). I expect
+hostler and boots will be calling for their sandwiches just now (_laughs
+again_). I'm sure I beg your worship's pardon for mentioning a
+_luncheon_.
+
+_Just._ Oh, Mrs. Bustle, the word's a good word, for it means a good
+thing--ha! ha! ha! (_pulls out his watch_); but pray, is it luncheon
+time? Why, it's past one, I declare; and I thought I was up in
+remarkably good time, too.
+
+_Land._ Well, and to be sure so it was, remarkably good time for _your
+worship_; but folks in our way must be up betimes, you know. I've been
+up and about these seven hours.
+
+_Just._ (_stretching_). Seven hours!
+
+_Land._ Ay, indeed--eight, I might say, for I am an early little body;
+though I say it that should not say it--I _am_ an early little body.
+
+_Just._ An early little body, as you say, Mrs. Bustle--so I shall have
+my goose-pie for dinner, hey?
+
+_Land._ For dinner, as sure as the clock strikes four--but I mustn't
+stay prating, for it may be spoiling if I'm away; so I must wish your
+worship a good morning.
+
+        (_She curtsies._)
+
+_Just._ No ceremony--no ceremony; good Mrs. Bustle, your servant.
+
+    _Enter_ WILLIAM, _to take away the chocolate. The Landlady is
+    putting on her shawl._
+
+_Just._ You may let that man know, William, that I have dispatched my
+_own_ business, and am at leisure for his now (_taking a pinch of
+snuff_). Hum! pray, William (_Justice leans back gravely_), what sort of
+a looking fellow is he, pray?
+
+_Will._ Most like a sort of travelling man, in my opinion, sir--or
+something that way, I take it.
+
+        (_At these words the Landlady turns round inquisitively, and
+        delays, that she may listen, while she is putting on and pinning
+        her shawl._)
+
+_Just._ Hum! a sort of a travelling man. Hum! lay my books out open at
+the title Vagrant; and, William, tell the cook that Mrs. Bustle promises
+me the goose-pie for dinner. Four o'clock, do you hear? And show the old
+man in now.
+
+        (_The Landlady looks eagerly towards the door, as it opens, and
+        exclaims,_)
+
+_Land._ My old gentleman, as I hope to breathe!
+
+    _Enter the_ OLD MAN.
+
+    (_Lucy follows the Old Man on tiptoe--The Justice leans back and
+    looks consequential--The Landlady sets her arms akimbo--The Old Man
+    starts as he sees her._)
+
+_Just._ What stops you, friend? Come forward, if you please.
+
+_Land._ (_advancing_). So, sir, is it you, sir? Ay, you little thought,
+I warrant ye, to meet me here with his worship; but there you reckoned
+without your host--Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
+
+_Just._ What is all this? What is this?
+
+_Land._ (_running on_). None of your flummery stuff will go down with
+his worship no more than with me, I give you warning; so you may go
+further and far worse, and spare your breath to cool your porridge.
+
+_Just._ (_waves his hand with dignity_). Mrs. Bustle, good Mrs. Bustle,
+remember where you are. Silence! silence! Come forward, sir, and let me
+hear what you have to say.
+
+        (_The Old Man comes forward._)
+
+_Just._ Who and what may you be, friend, and what is your business with
+me?
+
+_Land._ Sir, if your worship will give me leave----
+
+        (_Justice makes a sign to her to be silent._)
+
+_Old M._ Please your worship, I am an old soldier.
+
+_Land._ (_interrupting_). An old hypocrite, say.
+
+_Just._ Mrs. Bustle, pray, I desire, let the man speak.
+
+_Old M._ For these two years past--ever since, please your worship--I
+wasn't able to work any longer; for in my youth I did work as well as
+the best of them.
+
+_Land._ (_eager to interrupt_). You work--you----
+
+_Just._ Let him finish his story, I say.
+
+_Lucy._ Ay, do, do, papa, speak for him. Pray, Mrs. Bustle----
+
+_Land._ (_turning suddenly round to Lucy_). Miss, a good morrow to you,
+ma'am. I humbly beg your apologies for not seeing you sooner, Miss Lucy.
+
+        (_Justice nods to the Old Man, who goes on._)
+
+_Old Man._ But, please your worship, it pleased God to take away the use
+of my left arm; and since that I have never been able to work.
+
+_Land._ Flummery! flummery!
+
+_Just._ (_angrily_). Mrs. Bustle, I have desired silence, and I will
+have it, that's poz! You shall have your turn presently.
+
+_Old M._ For these two years past (for why should I be ashamed to tell
+the truth?) I have lived upon charity, and I scraped together a guinea
+and a half and upwards, and I was travelling with it to my grandson, in
+the north, with him to end my days--_but_ (_sighing_)----
+
+_Just._ _But_ what? Proceed, pray, to the point.
+
+_Old M._ But last night I slept here in town, please your worship, at
+the 'Saracen's Head.'
+
+_Land._ (_in a rage_). At the 'Saracen's Head!' Yes, forsooth! none such
+ever slept at the 'Saracen's Head' afore, or ever shall afterwards, as
+long as my name's Bustle and the 'Saracen's Head' is the 'Saracen's
+Head.'
+
+_Just._ Again! again! Mrs. Landlady, this is downright--I have said you
+should speak presently. He _shall_ speak first, since I've said
+it--that's poz! Speak on, friend. You slept last night at the 'Saracen's
+Head.'
+
+[Illustration: '_Five times have I commanded silence, and I won't
+command anything five times in vain_--that's poz!']
+
+_Old M._ Yes, please your worship, and I accuse nobody; but at night I
+had my little money safe, and in the morning it was gone.
+
+_Land._ Gone!--gone, indeed, in my house! and this is the way I'm to be
+treated! Is it so? I couldn't but speak, your worship, to such an
+inhuman like, out o' the way, scandalous charge, if King George and all
+the Royal Family were sitting in your worship's chair, beside you, to
+silence me (_turning to the Old Man_). And this is your gratitude,
+forsooth! Didn't you tell me that any hole in my house was good enough
+for you, wheedling hypocrite? And the thanks I receive is to call me and
+mine a pack of thieves.
+
+_Old M._ Oh, no, no, no, _No_--a pack of thieves, by no means.
+
+_Land._ Ay, I thought when _I_ came to speak we should have you upon
+your marrow-bones in----
+
+_Just._ (_imperiously_). Silence! Five times have I commanded silence,
+and five times in vain; and I won't command anything five times in
+vain--_that's poz_!
+
+_Land._ (_in a pet, aside_). Old Poz! (_Aloud._) Then, your worship, I
+don't see any business I have to be waiting here; the folks want me at
+home (_returning and whispering_). Shall I send the goose-pie up, your
+worship, if it's ready?
+
+_Just._ (_with magnanimity_). I care not for the goose-pie, Mrs. Bustle.
+Do not talk to me of goose-pies; this is no place to talk of pies.
+
+_Land._ Oh, for that matter, your worship knows best, to be sure.
+
+        (_Exit Landlady, angry._)
+
+
+    SCENE III
+
+    JUSTICE HEADSTRONG, OLD MAN, _and_ LUCY
+
+_Lucy._ Ah, now, I'm glad he can speak; now tell papa; and you need not
+be afraid to speak to him, for he is very good-natured. Don't contradict
+him, though, because he told _me_ not.
+
+_Just._ Oh, darling, _you_ shall contradict me as often as you
+please--only not before I've drunk my chocolate, child--hey? Go on, my
+good friend; you see what it is to live in Old England, where, thank
+Heaven, the poorest of His Majesty's subjects may have justice, and
+speak his mind before the first in the land. Now speak on; and you hear
+she tells you that you need not be afraid of me. Speak on.
+
+_Old M._ I thank your worship, I'm sure.
+
+_Just._ Thank me! for what, sir? I won't be thanked for doing justice,
+sir; so--but explain this matter. You lost your money, hey, at the
+'Saracen's Head'? You had it safe last night, hey?--and you missed it
+this morning? Are you sure you had it safe at night?
+
+_Old M._ Oh, please your worship, quite sure; for I took it out and
+looked at it just before I said my prayers.
+
+_Just._ You did--did ye so?--hum! Pray, my good friend, where might you
+put your money when you went to bed?
+
+_Old M._ Please, your worship, where I always put it--always--in my
+tobacco-box.
+
+_Just._ Your tobacco-box! I never heard of such a thing--to make a
+_strong box_ of a tobacco-box. Ha! ha! ha! hum!--and you say the box and
+all were gone in the morning?
+
+_Old M._ No, please your worship, no; not the box--the box was never
+stirred from the place where I put it. They left me the box.
+
+_Just._ Tut, tut, tut, man!--took the money and left the box? I'll never
+believe _that_! I'll never believe that any one could be such a fool.
+Tut, tut! the thing's impossible! It's well you are not upon oath.
+
+_Old M._ If I were, please your worship, I should say the same; for it
+is the truth.
+
+_Just._ Don't tell me, don't tell me; I say the thing is impossible.
+
+_Old M._ Please your worship, here's the box.
+
+_Just._ (_goes on without looking at it_). Nonsense! nonsense! it's no
+such thing; it's no such thing, I say--no man would take the money and
+leave the tobacco-box. I won't believe it. Nothing shall make me believe
+it ever--that's poz.
+
+_Lucy_ (_takes the box and holds it up before her father's eyes_). You
+did not see the box, did you, papa?
+
+_Just._ Yes, yes, yes, child--nonsense! it's all a lie from beginning to
+end. A man who tells one lie will tell a hundred. All a lie!--all a lie!
+
+_Old M._ If your worship would give me leave----
+
+_Just._ Sir, it does not signify--it does not signify! I've said it,
+I've said it, and that's enough to convince me, and I'll tell you more;
+if my Lord Chief Justice of England told it to me, I would not believe
+it--that's poz!
+
+_Lucy_ (_still playing with the box_). But how comes the box here, I
+wonder?
+
+_Just._ Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw! darling. Go to your dolls, darling, and
+don't be positive--go to your dolls, and don't talk of what you don't
+understand. What can you understand, I want to know, of the law?
+
+_Lucy._ No, papa, I didn't mean about the law, but about the box;
+because, if the man had taken it, how could it be here, you know, papa?
+
+_Just._ Hey, hey, what? Why, what I say is this, that I don't dispute
+that that box, that you hold in your hands, is a box; nay, for aught I
+know, it may be a tobacco-box--but it's clear to me that if they left
+the box they did not take the money; and how do you dare, sir, to come
+before Justice Headstrong with a lie in your mouth? recollect yourself,
+I'll give you time to recollect yourself.
+
+    (_A pause._)
+
+_Just._ Well, sir; and what do you say now about the box?
+
+_Old M._ Please your worship, with submission, I _can_ say nothing but
+what I said before.
+
+_Just._ What, contradict me again, after I gave you time to recollect
+yourself! I've done with you; I have done. Contradict me as often as you
+please, but you cannot impose upon me; I defy you to impose upon me!
+
+_Old M._ Impose!
+
+_Just._ I know the law!--I know the law!--and I'll make you know it,
+too. One hour I'll give you to recollect yourself, and if you don't give
+up this idle story, I'll--I'll commit you as a vagrant--that's poz! Go,
+go, for the present. William, take him into the servants' hall, do you
+hear?--What, take the money, and leave the box? I'll never do it--that's
+poz!
+
+        (_Lucy speaks to the Old Man as he is going off._)
+
+_Lucy._ Don't be frightened! don't be frightened!--I mean, if you tell
+the truth, never be frightened.
+
+_Old M._ _If_ I tell the truth--(_turning up his eyes_).
+
+        (_Old Man is still held back by the young lady._)
+
+_Lucy._ One moment--answer me one question--because of something that
+just came into my head. Was the box shut fast when you left it?
+
+_Old M._ No, miss, no!--open--it was open; for I could not find the lid
+in the dark--my candle went out. _If_ I tell the truth--oh!
+
+        (_Exit._)
+
+
+    SCENE IV
+
+    _Justice's Study--the Justice is writing_
+
+_Old M._ Well!--I shall have but few days' more misery in this world!
+
+_Just._ (_looks up_). Why! why--why then, why will you be so positive to
+persist in a lie? Take the money and leave the box! Obstinate blockhead!
+Here, William (_showing the committal_), take this old gentleman to
+Holdfast, the constable, and give him this warrant.
+
+    _Enter_ LUCY, _running, out of breath._
+
+_Lucy._ I've found it! I've found it! Here, old man; here's your
+money--here it is all--a guinea and a half, and a shilling and a
+sixpence, just as he said, papa.
+
+    _Enter_ LANDLADY.
+
+_Land._ Oh la! your worship, did you ever hear the like?
+
+_Just._ I've heard nothing yet that I can understand. First, have you
+secured the thief, I say?
+
+_Lucy_ (_makes signs to the landlady to be silent_). Yes, yes, yes! we
+have him safe--we have him prisoner. Shall he come in, papa?
+
+_Just._ Yes, child, by all means; and now I shall hear what possessed
+him to leave the box. I don't understand--there's something deep in all
+this; I don't understand it. Now I do desire, Mrs. Landlady, nobody may
+speak a single word whilst I am cross-examining the thief.
+
+        (_Landlady puts her finger upon her lips--Everybody looks
+        eagerly towards the door._)
+
+    _Re-enter_ LUCY, _with a huge wicker cage in her hand, containing a
+    magpie--The Justice drops the committal out of his hand._
+
+_Just._ Hey!--what, Mrs. Landlady--the old magpie? hey?
+
+_Land._ Ay, your worship, my old magpie. Who'd have thought it? Miss
+was very clever--it was she caught the thief. Miss was very clever.
+
+_Old M._ Very good! very good!
+
+_Just._ Ay, darling, her father's own child! How was it, child? Caught
+the thief, _with the mainour_, hey? Tell us all; I will hear all--that's
+poz.
+
+_Lucy._ Oh! then first I must tell you how I came to suspect Mr. Magpie.
+Do you remember, papa, that day last summer when I went with you to the
+bowling-green at the 'Saracen's Head'?
+
+_Land._ Oh, of all days in the year! but I ask pardon, miss.
+
+_Lucy._ Well, that day I heard my uncle and another gentleman telling
+stories of magpies hiding money; and they laid a wager about this old
+magpie and they tried him--they put a shilling upon the table, and he
+ran away with it and hid it; so I thought that he might do so again, you
+know, this time.
+
+_Just._ Right, right. It's a pity, child, you are not upon the
+Bench--ha! ha! ha!
+
+_Lucy._ And when I went to his old hiding-place, there it was; but you
+see, papa, he did not take the box.
+
+_Just._ No, no, no! because the thief was a magpie. No _man_ would have
+taken the money and left the box. You see I was right; no _man_ would
+have left the box, hey?
+
+_Lucy._ Certainly not, I suppose; but I'm so very glad, old man, that
+you have obtained your money.
+
+_Just._ Well then, child, here--take my purse, and add that to it. We
+were a little too hasty with the committal--hey?
+
+_Land._ Ay, and I fear I was, too; but when one is touched about the
+credit of one's house, one's apt to speak warmly.
+
+_Old M._ Oh, I'm the happiest old man alive! You are all convinced that
+I told you no lies. Say no more--say no more. I am the happiest man!
+Miss, you have made me the happiest man alive! Bless you for it!
+
+_Land._ Well, now, I'll tell you what. I know what I think--you must
+keep that there magpie, and make a show of him, and I warrant he'll
+bring you many an honest penny; for it's a _true story_, and folks would
+like to hear it, I hopes----
+
+_Just._ (_eagerly_). And, friend, do you hear? You'll dine here to-day,
+you'll dine here. We have some excellent ale. I will have you drink my
+health--that's poz!--hey? You'll drink my health, won't you--hey?
+
+[Illustration: _'And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the
+doctor, sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table.'_]
+
+_Old M._ (_bows_). Oh! and the young lady's, if you please.
+
+_Just._ Ay, ay, drink her health--she deserves it. Ay, drink my
+darling's health.
+
+_Land._ And please your worship, it's the right time, I believe, to
+speak of the goose-pie now; and a charming pie it is, and it's on the
+table.
+
+_Will._ And Mr. Smack, the curate, and Squire Solid, and the doctor,
+sir, are come, and dinner is upon the table.
+
+_Just._ Then let us say no more, but do justice immediately to the
+goose-pie; and, darling, put me in mind to tell this story after dinner.
+
+        (_After they go out, the Justice stops._)
+
+'Tell this story'--I don't know whether it tells well for me; but I'll
+never be positive any more--_that's poz_!
+
+
+
+
+THE MIMIC
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Montague spent the summer of the year 1795 at Clifton with
+their son Frederick, and their two daughters Sophia and Marianne. They
+had taken much care of the education of their children; nor were they
+ever tempted, by any motive of personal convenience or temporary
+amusement, to hazard the permanent happiness of their pupils.
+
+Sensible of the extreme importance of early impressions, and of the
+powerful influence of external circumstances in forming the characters
+and the manners, they were now anxious that the variety of new ideas and
+new objects which would strike the minds of their children should appear
+in a just point of view.
+
+'Let children see and judge for themselves,' is often inconsiderately
+said. Where children see only a part they cannot judge of the whole; and
+from the superficial view which they can have in short visits and
+desultory conversation, they can form only a false estimate of the
+objects of human happiness, a false notion of the nature of society, and
+false opinions of characters.
+
+For the above reasons, Mr. and Mrs. Montague were particularly cautious
+in the choice of their acquaintances, as they were well aware that
+whatever passed in conversation before their children became part of
+their education.
+
+When they came to Clifton, they wished to have a house entirely to
+themselves; but, as they came late in the season, almost all the
+lodging-houses were full, and for a few weeks they were obliged to
+remain in a house where some of the apartments were already occupied.
+
+During the first fortnight they scarcely saw or heard anything of one of
+the families who lodged on the same floor with them. An elderly Quaker
+and his sister Bertha were their silent neighbours. The blooming
+complexion of the lady had indeed attracted the attention of the
+children, as they caught a glimpse of her face when she was getting into
+her carriage to go out upon the Downs. They could scarcely believe that
+she came to the Wells on account of her health.
+
+Besides her blooming complexion, the delicate white of her garments had
+struck them with admiration; and they observed that her brother
+carefully guarded her dress from the wheel of the carriage, as he handed
+her in. From this circumstance, and from the benevolent countenance of
+the old gentleman, they concluded that he was very fond of his sister,
+and that they were certainly very happy, except that they never spoke,
+and could be seen only for a moment.
+
+Not so the maiden lady who occupied the ground-floor. On the stairs, in
+the passages, at her window, she was continually visible; and she
+appeared to possess the art of being present in all these places at
+once. Her voice was eternally to be heard, and it was not particularly
+melodious. The very first day she met Mrs. Montague's children on the
+stairs, she stopped to tell Marianne that she was a charming dear, and a
+charming little dear; to kiss her, to inquire her name, and to inform
+her that her own name was 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle,' a circumstance of which
+there was little danger of their long remaining in ignorance; for, in
+the course of one morning, at least twenty single and as many double
+raps at the door were succeeded by vociferations of 'Mrs. Theresa
+Tattle's servant!' 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle at home?' 'Mrs. Theresa Tattle
+not at home!'
+
+No person at the Wells was oftener at home and abroad than Mrs. Tattle.
+She had, as she deemed it, the happiness to have a most extensive
+acquaintance residing at Clifton. She had for years kept a register of
+arrivals. She regularly consulted the subscriptions to the circulating
+libraries, and the lists at the Ball and the Pump rooms; so that, with a
+memory unencumbered with literature and free from all domestic cares,
+she contrived to retain a most astonishing and correct list of births,
+deaths, and marriages, together with all the anecdotes, amusing,
+instructive, or scandalous, which are necessary to the conversation of
+a water-drinking place, and essential to the character of a 'very
+pleasant woman.'
+
+'A very pleasant woman' Mrs. Tattle was usually called; and, conscious
+of her accomplishments, she was eager to introduce herself to the
+acquaintance of her new neighbours; having, with her ordinary
+expedition, collected from their servants, by means of her own, all that
+could be known, or rather all that could be told about them. The name of
+Montague, at all events, she knew was a good name, and justified in
+courting the acquaintance. She courted it first by nods and becks and
+smiles at Marianne whenever she met her; and Marianne, who was a very
+little girl, began presently to nod and smile in return, persuaded that
+a lady who smiled so much could not be ill-natured. Besides, Mrs.
+Theresa's parlour door was sometimes left more than half open, to afford
+a view of a green parrot. Marianne sometimes passed very slowly by this
+door. One morning it was left quite wide open, when she stopped to say
+'Pretty Poll'; and immediately Mrs. Tattle begged she would do her the
+honour to walk in and see 'Pretty Poll,' at the same time taking the
+liberty to offer her a piece of iced plum-cake.
+
+The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour to wait upon
+Mrs. Montague, 'to apologise for the liberty she had taken in inviting
+Mrs. Montague's charming Miss Marianne into her apartment to see Pretty
+Poll, and for the still greater liberty she had taken in offering her a
+piece of plum-cake--inconsiderate creature that she was!--which might
+possibly have disagreed with her, and which certainly were liberties she
+never should have been induced to take, if she had not been
+unaccountably bewitched by Miss Marianne's striking though highly
+flattering resemblance to a young gentleman (an officer) with whom she
+had danced, now nearly twelve years ago, of the name of Montague, a most
+respectable young man, and of a most respectable family, with which, in
+a remote degree, she might presume to say, she herself was someway
+connected, having the honour to be nearly related to the Joneses of
+Merionethshire, who were cousins to the Mainwarings of Bedfordshire, who
+married into the family of the Griffiths, the eldest branch of which,
+she understood, had the honour to be cousin-german to Mr. Montague; on
+which account she had been impatient to pay a visit, so likely to be
+productive of most agreeable consequences, by the acquisition of an
+acquaintance whose society must do her infinite honour.'
+
+[Illustration: _The next day Mrs. Theresa Tattle did herself the honour
+to wait upon Mrs. Montague._]
+
+Having thus happily accomplished her first visit, there seemed little
+probability of escaping Mrs. Tattle's further acquaintance. In the
+course of the first week she only hinted to Mr. Montague that 'some
+people thought his system of education rather odd; that she should be
+obliged to him if he would, some time or other, when he had nothing else
+to do, just sit down and make her understand his notions, that she might
+have something to say to her acquaintance, as she always wished to have
+when she heard any friend attacked, or any friend's opinions.'
+
+Mr. Montague declining to sit down and make this lady understand a
+system of education only to give her something to say, and showing
+unaccountable indifference about the attacks with which he was
+threatened, Mrs. Tattle next addressed herself to Mrs. Montague,
+prophesying, in a most serious whisper, 'that the charming Miss Marianne
+would shortly and inevitably grow quite crooked, if she were not
+immediately provided with a back-board, a French dancing-master, and a
+pair of stocks.'
+
+This alarming whisper could not, however, have a permanent effect upon
+Mrs. Montague's understanding, because three days afterwards Mrs.
+Theresa, upon the most anxious inspection, entirely mistook the just and
+natural proportions of the hip and shoulder.
+
+This danger vanishing, Mrs. Tattle presently, with a rueful length of
+face, and formal preface, 'hesitated to assure Mrs. Montague that she
+was greatly distressed about her daughter Sophy; that she was convinced
+her lungs were affected; and that she certainly ought to drink the
+waters morning and evening; and, above all things, must keep one of the
+patirosa lozenges constantly in her mouth, and directly consult Dr.
+Cardamum, the best physician in the world, and the person she would send
+for herself upon her death-bed; because, to her certain knowledge, he
+had recovered a young lady, a relation of her own, after she had lost
+one whole _globe_[14] of her lungs.'
+
+  [14] Lobe.
+
+The medical opinion of a lady of so much anatomical precision could not
+have much weight. Neither was this universal adviser more successful in
+an attempt to introduce a tutor to Frederick, who, she apprehended, must
+want some one to perfect him in the Latin and Greek, and dead languages,
+of which, she observed, it would be impertinent for a woman to talk;
+only she might venture to repeat what she had heard said by good
+authority, that a competency of the dead tongues could be had nowhere
+but at a public school, or else from a private tutor who had been abroad
+(after the advantage of a classical education, finished in one of the
+universities) with a good family; without which introduction it was idle
+to think of reaping solid advantages from any continental tour; all
+which requisites, from personal knowledge, she could aver to be
+concentrated in the gentleman she had the honour to recommend, as having
+been tutor to a young nobleman, who had no further occasion for him,
+having, unfortunately for himself and his family, been killed in an
+untimely duel.
+
+All Mrs. Theresa Tattle's suggestions being lost upon these stoical
+parents, her powers were next tried upon the children, and her success
+soon became apparent. On Sophy, indeed, she could not make any
+impression, though she had expended on her some of her finest strokes of
+flattery. Sophy, though very desirous of the approbation of her friends,
+was not very desirous of winning the favour of strangers. She was about
+thirteen--that dangerous age at which ill-educated girls, in their
+anxiety to display their accomplishments, are apt to become dependent
+for applause upon the praise of every idle visitor; when the habits not
+being formed, and the attention being suddenly turned to dress and
+manners, girls are apt to affect and imitate, indiscriminately,
+everything that they conceive to be agreeable.
+
+Sophy, whose taste had been cultivated at the same time with her powers
+of reasoning, was not liable to fall into these errors. She found that
+she could please those whom she wished to please, without affecting to
+be anything but what she really was; and her friends listened to what
+she said, though she never repeated the sentiments, or adopted the
+phrases, which she might easily have copied from the conversation of
+those who were older or more fashionable than herself.
+
+This word _fashionable_, Mrs. Theresa Tattle knew, had usually a great
+effect, even at thirteen; but she had not observed that it had much
+power upon Sophy; nor were her remarks concerning grace and manners much
+attended to. Her mother had taught Sophy that it was best to let herself
+alone, and not to distort either her person or her mind in acquiring
+grimace, which nothing but the fashion of the moment can support, and
+which is always detected and despised by people of real good sense and
+politeness.
+
+'Bless me!' said Mrs. Tattle, to herself, 'if I had such a tall
+daughter, and so unformed, before my eyes from morning to night, it
+would certainly break my poor heart. Thank heaven, I am not a mother! if
+I were, Miss Marianne for me!'
+
+Miss Marianne had heard so often from Mrs. Tattle that she was very
+charming, that she could not help believing it; and from being a very
+pleasing, unaffected little girl, she in a short time grew so conceited,
+that she could neither speak, look, move, nor be silent, without
+imagining that everybody was, or ought to be, looking at her; and when
+Mrs. Theresa saw that Mrs. Montague looked very grave upon these
+occasions, she, to repair the ill she had done, would say, after
+praising Marianne's hair or her eyes, 'Oh, but little ladies should
+never think about their beauty, you know. Nobody loves anybody for being
+handsome, but for being good.' People must think children are very
+silly, or else they can never have reflected upon the nature of belief
+in their own minds, if they imagine that children will believe the words
+that are said to them, by way of moral, when the countenance, manner,
+and every concomitant circumstance tell them a different tale. Children
+are excellent physiognomists--they quickly learn the universal language
+of looks; and what is said _of_ them always makes a greater impression
+than what is said _to_ them, a truth of which those prudent people
+surely cannot be aware who comfort themselves, and apologise to parents,
+by saying, 'Oh, but I would not say so and so to the child.'
+
+Mrs. Theresa had seldom said to Frederick Montague 'that he had a vast
+deal of drollery, and was a most incomparable mimic'; but she had said
+so of him in whispers, which magnified the sound to his imagination, if
+not to his ear. He was a boy of much vivacity, and had considerable
+abilities; but his appetite for vulgar praise had not yet been
+surfeited. Even Mrs. Theresa Tattle's flattery pleased him, and he
+exerted himself for her entertainment so much that he became quite a
+buffoon. Instead of observing characters and manners, that he might
+judge of them, and form his own, he now watched every person he saw,
+that he might detect some foible, or catch some singularity in their
+gesture or pronunciation, which he might successfully mimic.
+
+Alarmed by the rapid progress of these evils, Mr. and Mrs. Montague,
+who, from the first day that they had been honoured with Mrs. Tattle's
+visit, had begun to look out for new lodgings, were now extremely
+impatient to decamp. They were not people who, from the weak fear of
+offending a silly acquaintance, would hazard the happiness of their
+family. They had heard of a house in the country which was likely to
+suit them, and they determined to go directly to look at it. As they
+were to be absent all day, they foresaw that their officious neighbour
+would probably interfere with their children. They did not choose to
+exact any promise from them which they might be tempted to break, and
+therefore they only said at parting, 'If Mrs. Theresa Tattle should ask
+you to come to her, do as you think proper.'
+
+Scarcely had Mrs. Montague's carriage got out of hearing when a note was
+brought, directed to 'Frederick Montague, Junior, Esq.,' which he
+immediately opened, and read as follows:--
+
+  'Mrs. Theresa Tattle presents her very best compliments to the
+  entertaining Mr. Frederick Montague; she hopes he will have the
+  charity to drink tea with her this evening, and bring his charming
+  sister, Miss Marianne, with him, as Mrs. Theresa will be quite alone
+  with a shocking headache, and is sensible her nerves are affected;
+  and Dr. Cardamum says that (especially in Mrs. T. T.'s case) it is
+  downright death to nervous patients to be alone an instant. She
+  therefore trusts Mr. Frederick will not refuse to come and make her
+  laugh. Mrs. Theresa has taken care to provide a few macaroons for
+  her little favourite, who said she was particularly fond of them the
+  other day. Mrs. Theresa hopes they will all come at six, or before,
+  not forgetting Miss Sophy, if she will condescend to be of the
+  party.'
+
+At the first reading of this note, 'the entertaining' Mr. Frederick and
+the 'charming' Miss Marianne laughed heartily, and looked at Sophy, as
+if they were afraid that she should think it possible they could like
+such gross flattery; but upon a second perusal, Marianne observed that
+it certainly was very good-natured of Mrs. Theresa to remember the
+macaroons; and Frederick allowed that it was wrong to laugh at the poor
+woman because she had the headache. Then twisting the note in his
+fingers, he appealed to Sophy:--
+
+'Well, Sophy, leave off drawing for an instant,' said Frederick, 'and
+tell us what answer can we send?'
+
+'Can!--we can send what answer we please.'
+
+'Yes, I know that,' said Frederick; 'I would refuse if I could; but we
+ought not to do anything rude, should we? So I think we might as well
+go, because we could not refuse, if we would, I say.'
+
+'You have made such confusion,' replied Sophy, 'between "couldn't" and
+"wouldn't" and "shouldn't," that I can't understand you: surely they are
+all different things.'
+
+'Different! no,' cried Frederick--'_could_, _would_, _should_, _might_,
+and _ought_ are all the same thing in the Latin grammar; all of 'em
+signs of the potential mood, you know.'
+
+Sophy, whose powers of reasoning were not to be confounded, even by
+quotations from the Latin grammar, looked up soberly from her drawing,
+and answered 'that very likely those words might be signs of the same
+thing in the Latin grammar, but she believed that they meant perfectly
+different things in real life.'
+
+'That's just as people please,' said her sophistical brother. 'You know
+words mean nothing in themselves. If I choose to call my hat my
+cadwallader, you would understand me just as well, after I had once
+explained it to you, that by cadwallader I meant this black thing that I
+put upon my head; cadwallader and hat would then be just the same thing
+to you.'
+
+'Then why have two words for the same thing?' said Sophy; 'and what has
+this to do with _could_ and _should_? You wanted to prove----'
+
+'I wanted to prove,' interrupted Frederick, 'that it's not worth while
+to dispute for two hours about two words. Do keep to the point, Sophy,
+and don't dispute with me.'
+
+'I was not disputing, I was reasoning.'
+
+'Well, reasoning or disputing. Women have no business to do either;
+for, how should they know how to chop logic like men?'
+
+At this contemptuous sarcasm upon her sex, Sophy's colour rose.
+
+'There!' cried Frederick, exulting, 'now we shall see a philosopheress
+in a passion; I'd give sixpence, half-price, for a harlequin
+entertainment, to see Sophy in a passion. Now, Marianne, look at her
+brush dabbing so fast in the water!'
+
+Sophy, who could not easily bear to be laughed at, with some little
+indignation, said, 'Brother, I wish----'
+
+'There! there!' cried Frederick, pointing to the colour which rose in
+her cheeks almost to her temples--'rising! rising! rising! look at the
+thermometer! blood heat! blood! fever heat! boiling water heat!
+Marianne.'
+
+'Then,' said Sophy, smiling, 'you should stand a little farther off,
+both of you. Leave the thermometer to itself a little while. Give it
+time to cool. It will come down to "temperate" by the time you look
+again.'
+
+'Oh, brother!' cried Marianne, 'she's so good-humoured, don't tease her
+any more, and don't draw heads upon her paper, and don't stretch her
+india-rubber, and don't let us dirty any more of her brushes. See! the
+sides of her tumbler are all manner of colours.'
+
+'Oh, I only mixed red, blue, green, and yellow to show you, Marianne,
+that all colours mixed together make white. But she is temperate now,
+and I won't plague her; she shall chop logic, if she likes it, though
+she is a woman.'
+
+'But that's not fair, brother,' said Marianne, 'to say "woman" in that
+way. I'm sure Sophy found out how to tie that difficult knot, which papa
+showed us yesterday, long before you did, though you are a man.' 'Not
+long,' said Frederick. 'Besides, that was only a conjuring trick.'
+
+'It was very ingenious, though,' said Marianne; 'and papa said so.
+Besides, she understood the "Rule of Three," which was no conjuring
+trick, better than you did, though she is a woman; and she can reason,
+too, mamma says.'
+
+'Very well, let her reason away,' said the provoking wit. 'All I have to
+say is, that she'll never be able to make a pudding.'
+
+'Why not, pray, brother?' inquired Sophy, looking up again, very
+gravely.
+
+'Why, you know papa himself, the other day at dinner, said that that
+woman who talks Greek and Latin as well as I do, is a fool after all;
+and that she had better have learned something useful; and Mrs. Tattle
+said, she'd answer for it she did not know how to make a pudding.'
+
+'Well! but I am not talking Greek and Latin, am I?'
+
+'No, but you are drawing, and that's the same thing.'
+
+'The same thing! Oh, Frederick!' said little Marianne, laughing.
+
+'You may laugh; but I say it is the same sort of thing. Women who are
+always drawing and reasoning never know how to make puddings. Mrs.
+Theresa Tattle said so, when I showed her Sophy's beautiful drawing
+yesterday.'
+
+'Mrs. Theresa Tattle might say so,' replied Sophy, calmly; 'but I do not
+perceive the reason, brother, why drawing should prevent me from
+learning how to make a pudding.'
+
+'Well, I say you'll never learn how to make a good pudding.'
+
+'I have learned,' continued Sophy, who was mixing her colours, 'to mix
+such and such colours together to make the colour that I want; and why
+should I not be able to learn to mix flour and butter, and sugar and
+egg, together, to produce the taste that I want?'
+
+'Oh, but mixing will never do, unless you know the quantities, like a
+cook; and you would never learn the right quantities.'
+
+'How did the cook learn them? Cannot I learn them as she did?'
+
+'Yes, but you'd never do it exactly, and mind the spoonfuls right, by
+the recipe, like a cook.'
+
+'Indeed! indeed! but she would,' cried Marianne, eagerly; 'and a great
+deal more exactly, for mamma has taught her to weigh and measure things
+very carefully; and when I was ill she always weighed the bark in
+nicely, and dropped my drops so carefully: better than the cook. When
+mamma took me down to see the cook make a cake once, I saw her
+spoonfuls, and her ounces, and her handfuls: she dashed and splashed
+without minding exactness, or the recipe, or anything. I'm sure Sophy
+would make a much better pudding, if exactness only were wanting.'
+
+'Well, granting that she could make the best pudding in the whole
+world, what does that signify? I say she never would, so it comes to the
+same thing.'
+
+[Illustration: _'She dashed and splashed without minding exactness, or
+the recipe, or anything.'_]
+
+'Never would! how can you tell that, brother?'
+
+'Why, now look at her, with her books, and her drawings, and all this
+apparatus. Do you think she would ever jump up, with all her nicety,
+too, and put by all these things, to go down into the greasy kitchen,
+and plump up to the elbows in suet, like a cook, for a plum-pudding?'
+
+'I need not plump up to the elbows, brother,' said Sophy, smiling, 'nor
+is it necessary that I should be a cook; but, if it were necessary, I
+hope I should be able to make a pudding.'
+
+'Yes, yes,' cried Marianne, warmly; 'and she would jump up, and put by
+all her things in a minute if it were necessary, and run downstairs and
+up again like lightning, or do anything that was ever so disagreeable to
+her, even about the suet, with all her nicety, brother, I assure you, as
+she used to do anything, everything for me, when I was ill last winter.
+Oh, brother, she can do anything; and she could make the best
+plum-pudding in the whole world, I'm sure, in a minute, if it were
+necessary.'
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A knock at the door, from Mrs. Theresa Tattle's servant, recalled
+Marianne to the business of the day.
+
+'There,' said Frederick, 'we have sent no answer all this time. It's
+necessary to think of that in a minute.'
+
+The servant came with his mistress's compliments, to let the young
+ladies and Mr. Frederick know that she was waiting tea for them.
+
+'Waiting! then we must go,' said Frederick.
+
+The servant opened the door wider, to let him pass, and Marianne thought
+she must follow her brother; so they went downstairs together, while
+Sophy gave her own message to the servant, and quietly stayed at her
+usual occupations.
+
+Mrs. Tattle was seated at her tea-table, with a large plate of macaroons
+beside her, when Frederick and Marianne entered. She was 'delighted'
+they were come, and 'grieved' not to see Miss Sophy along with them.
+Marianne coloured a little; for though she had precipitately followed
+her brother, and though he had quieted her conscience for a moment by
+saying, 'You know, papa and mamma told us to do what we thought best,'
+yet she did not feel quite pleased with herself; and it was not till
+after Mrs. Theresa had exhausted all her compliments and half her
+macaroons, that she could restore her spirits to their usual height.
+
+'Come, Mr. Frederick,' said she after tea, 'you promised to make me
+laugh; and nobody can make me laugh so well as yourself.'
+
+'Oh, brother,' said Marianne, 'show Mrs. Theresa Dr. Carbuncle eating
+his dinner; and I'll be Mrs. Carbuncle.'
+
+_Marianne._ Now, my dear, what shall I help you to?
+
+_Frederick._ 'My dear!' she never calls him my dear, you know, but
+always Doctor.
+
+_Mar._ Well then, doctor, what will you eat to-day?
+
+_Fred._ Eat, madam! eat! nothing! nothing! I don't see anything here I
+can eat, ma'am.
+
+_Mar._ Here's eels, sir; let me help you to some eel--stewed eel;--you
+used to be fond of stewed eel.
+
+_Fred._ Used, ma'am, used! But I'm sick of stewed eels. You would tire
+one of anything. Am I to see nothing but eels? And what's this at the
+bottom?
+
+_Mar._ Mutton, doctor, roast mutton; if you'll be so good as to cut it.
+
+_Fred._ Cut it, ma'am! I can't cut it, I say; it's as hard as a deal
+board. You might as well tell me to cut the table, ma'am. Mutton,
+indeed! not a bit of fat. Roast mutton, indeed! not a drop of gravy.
+Mutton, truly! quite a cinder. I'll have none of it. Here, take it away;
+take it downstairs to the cook. It's a very hard case, Mrs. Carbuncle,
+that I can never have a bit of anything that I can eat at my own table,
+Mrs. Carbuncle, since I was married, ma'am, I that am the easiest man in
+the whole world to please about my dinner. It's really very
+extraordinary, Mrs. Carbuncle! What have you at that corner there, under
+the cover?
+
+_Mar._ Patties, sir; oyster patties.
+
+_Fred._ Patties, ma'am! kickshaws! I hate kickshaws. Not worth putting
+under a cover, ma'am. And why not have glass covers, that one may see
+one's dinner before one, before it grows cold with asking questions,
+Mrs. Carbuncle, and lifting up covers? But nobody has any sense; and I
+see no water plates anywhere, lately.
+
+_Mar._ Do, pray, doctor, let me help you to a bit of chicken before it
+gets cold, my dear.
+
+_Fred._ (_aside_). 'My dear,' again, Marianne!
+
+_Mar._ Yes, brother, because she is frightened, you know, and Mrs.
+Carbuncle always says 'my dear' to him when she's frightened, and looks
+so pale from side to side; and sometimes she cries before dinner's done,
+and then all the company are quite silent, and don't know what to do.
+
+'Oh, such a little creature; to have so much sense, too!' exclaimed Mrs.
+Theresa, with rapture. 'Mr. Frederick, you'll make me die with laughing!
+Pray go on, Dr. Carbuncle.'
+
+_Fred._ Well, ma'am, then if I must eat something, send me a bit of
+fowl; a leg and wing, the liver wing, and a bit of the breast, oyster
+sauce, and a slice of that ham, if you please, ma'am.
+
+        (_Dr. Carbuncle eats voraciously, with his head down to his
+        plate, and, dropping the sauce, he buttons up his coat tight
+        across the breast._)
+
+_Fred._ Here; a plate, knife and fork, bit o' bread, a glass of
+Dorchester ale!
+
+'Oh, admirable!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle, clapping her hands.
+
+'Now, brother, suppose that it is after dinner,' said Marianne; 'and
+show us how the doctor goes to sleep.'
+
+Frederick threw himself back in an arm-chair, leaning his head back,
+with his mouth open, snoring; nodded from time to time, crossed and
+uncrossed his legs, tried to awake himself by twitching his wig,
+settling his collar, blowing his nose, and rapping on the lid of his
+snuff-box.
+
+All which infinitely diverted Mrs. Tattle, who, when she could stop
+herself from laughing, declared 'it made her sigh, too, to think of the
+life poor Mrs. Carbuncle led with that man, and all for nothing, too;
+for her jointure was nothing, next to nothing, though a great thing, to
+be sure, her friends thought, for her, when she was only Sally Ridgeway
+before she was married. Such a wife as she makes,' continued Mrs.
+Theresa, lifting up her hands and eyes to heaven, 'and so much as she
+has gone through, the brute ought to be ashamed of himself if he does
+not leave her something extraordinary in his will; for turn it which
+way she will, she can never keep a carriage, or live like anybody else,
+on her jointure, after all, she tells me, poor soul! A sad prospect,
+after her husband's death, to look forward to, instead of being
+comfortable, as her friends expected; and she, poor young thing! knowing
+no better when they married her! People should look into these things
+beforehand, or never marry at all, I say, Miss Marianne.'
+
+Miss Marianne, who did not clearly comprehend this affair of the
+jointure, or the reason why Mrs. Carbuncle would be so unhappy after her
+husband's death, turned to Frederick, who was at that instant studying
+Mrs. Theresa as a future character to mimic. 'Brother,' said Marianne,
+'now sing an Italian song for us like Miss Croker. Pray, Miss Croker,
+favour us with a song. Mrs. Theresa Tattle has never had the pleasure of
+hearing you sing; she's quite impatient to hear you sing.'
+
+'Yes, indeed, I am,' said Mrs. Theresa.
+
+Frederick put his hands before him affectedly. 'Oh, indeed, ma'am!
+indeed, ladies! I really am so hoarse, it distresses me so to be pressed
+to sing; besides, upon my word, I have quite left off singing. I've
+never sung once, except for very particular people, this winter.'
+
+_Mar._ But Mrs. Theresa Tattle is a very particular person. I'm sure
+you'll sing for her.
+
+_Fred._ Certainly, ma'am, I allow that you use a powerful argument; but
+I assure you now, I would do my best to oblige you, but I absolutely
+have forgotten all my English songs. Nobody hears anything but Italian
+now, and I have been so giddy as to leave my Italian music behind me.
+Besides, I make it a rule never to hazard myself without an
+accompaniment.
+
+_Mar._ Oh, try, Miss Croker, for once.
+
+    (_Frederick sings, after much preluding._)
+
+      Violante in the pantry,
+      Gnawing of a mutton-bone;
+        How she gnawed it,
+        How she claw'd it,
+      When she found herself alone!
+
+'Charming!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle; 'so like Miss Croker, I'm sure I
+shall think of you, Mr. Frederick, when I hear her asked to sing again.
+Her voice, however, introduces her to very pleasant parties, and she's
+a girl that's very much taken notice of, and I don't doubt will go off
+vastly well. She's a particular favourite of mine, you must know; and I
+mean to do her a piece of service the first opportunity, by saying
+something or other, that shall go round to her relations in
+Northumberland, and make them do something for her; as well they may,
+for they are all rolling in gold, and won't give her a penny.
+
+_Mar._ Now, brother, read the newspaper like Counsellor Puff.
+
+'Oh, pray do, Mr. Frederick, for I declare I admire you of all things!
+You are quite yourself to-night. Here's a newspaper, sir, pray let us
+have Counsellor Puff. It's not late.'
+
+    (_Frederick reads in a pompous voice._)
+
+'As a delicate white hand has ever been deemed a distinguishing ornament
+in either sex, Messrs. Valiant and Wise conceive it to be their duty to
+take the earliest opportunity to advertise the nobility and gentry of
+Great Britain in general, and their friends in particular, that they
+have now ready for sale, as usual, at the Hippocrates' Head, a fresh
+assortment of new-invented, much-admired primrose soap. To prevent
+impositions and counterfeits, the public are requested to take notice,
+that the only genuine primrose soap is stamped on the outside, "Valiant
+and Wise."'
+
+'Oh, you most incomparable mimic! 'tis absolutely the counsellor
+himself. I absolutely must show you, some day, to my friend Lady
+Battersby; you'd absolutely make her die with laughing; and she'd quite
+adore you,' said Mrs. Theresa, who was well aware that every pause must
+be filled with flattery. 'Pray go on, pray go on. I shall never be
+tired, if I sit looking at you these hundred years.'
+
+Stimulated by these plaudits, Frederick proceeded to show how Colonel
+Epaulette blew his nose, flourished his cambric handkerchief, bowed to
+Lady Diana Periwinkle, and admired her work, saying, 'Done by no hands,
+as you may guess, but those of Fairly Fair.' Whilst Lady Diana, he
+observed, simpered so prettily, and took herself so quietly for Fairly
+Fair, not perceiving that the colonel was admiring his own nails all the
+while.
+
+Next to Colonel Epaulette, Frederick, at Marianne's particular desire,
+came into the room like Sir Charles Slang.
+
+'Very well, brother,' cried she, 'your hand down to the very bottom of
+your pocket, and your other shoulder up to your ear; but you are not
+quite wooden enough, and you should walk as if your hip were out of
+joint. There now, Mrs. Tattle, are not those good eyes? They stare so
+like his, without seeming to see anything all the while.'
+
+'Excellent! admirable! Mr. Frederick. I must say that you are the best
+mimic of your age I ever saw, and I'm sure Lady Battersby will think so
+too. That is Sir Charles to the very life. But with all that, you must
+know he's a mighty pleasant, fashionable young man when you come to know
+him, and has a great deal of sense under all that, and is of a very good
+family--the Slangs, you know. Sir Charles will come into a fine fortune
+himself next year, if he can keep clear of gambling, which I hear is his
+foible, poor young man! Pray go on. I interrupt you, Mr. Frederick.'
+
+'Now, brother,' said Marianne.
+
+'No, Marianne, I can do no more. I'm quite tired, and I will do no
+more,' said Frederick, stretching himself at full length upon a sofa.
+
+Even in the midst of laughter, and whilst the voice of flattery yet
+sounded in his ear, Frederick felt sad, displeased with himself, and
+disgusted with Mrs. Theresa.
+
+'What a deep sigh was there!' said Mrs. Theresa; 'what can make you sigh
+so bitterly? You, who make everybody else laugh. Oh, such another sigh
+again!'
+
+'Marianne,' cried Frederick, 'do you remember the man in the mask?'
+
+'What man in the mask, brother?'
+
+'The man--the actor--the buffoon, that my father told us of, who used to
+cry behind the mask that made everybody else laugh.'
+
+'Cry! bless me,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'mighty odd! very extraordinary! but
+one can't be surprised at meeting with extraordinary characters amongst
+that race of people, actors by profession, you know; for they are
+brought up from the egg to make their fortune, or at least their bread,
+by their oddities. But, my dear Mr. Frederick, you are quite pale, quite
+exhausted; no wonder--what will you have? a glass of cowslip-wine?'
+
+'Oh no, thank you, ma'am,' said Frederick.
+
+'Oh yes; indeed you must not leave me without taking something; and Miss
+Marianne must have another macaroon. I insist upon it,' said Mrs.
+Theresa, ringing the bell. 'It is not late, and my man Christopher will
+bring up the cowslip-wine in a minute.'
+
+'But, Sophy! and papa and mamma, you know, will come home presently,'
+said Marianne.
+
+'Oh! Miss Sophy has her books and drawings. You know she's never afraid
+of being alone. Besides, to-night it was her own choice. And as to your
+papa and mamma, they won't be home to-night, I'm pretty sure; for a
+gentleman, who had it from their own authority, told me where they were
+going, which is further off than they think; but they did not consult
+me; and I fancy they'll be obliged to sleep out; so you need not be in a
+hurry about them. We'll have candles.'
+
+The door opened just as Mrs. Tattle was going to ring the bell again for
+candles and the cowslip-wine. 'Christopher! Christopher!' said Mrs.
+Theresa, who was standing at the fire, with her back to the door, when
+it opened, 'Christopher! pray bring----Do you hear?' but no Christopher
+answered; and, upon turning round, Mrs. Tattle, instead of Christopher,
+beheld two little black figures, which stood perfectly still and silent.
+It was so dark, that their forms could scarcely be discerned.
+
+'In the name of heaven, who and what may you be? Speak, I conjure you!
+what are ye?'
+
+'The chimney-sweepers, ma'am, an' please your ladyship.'
+
+'Chimney-sweepers!' repeated Frederick and Marianne, bursting out
+a-laughing.
+
+'Chimney-sweepers!' repeated Mrs. Theresa, provoked at the recollection
+of her late solemn address to them. 'Chimney-sweepers! and could not you
+say so a little sooner? Pray, what brings you here, gentlemen, at this
+time of night?'
+
+'The bell rang, ma'am,' answered a squeaking voice.
+
+'The bell rang! yes, for Christopher. The boy's mad, or drunk.'
+
+'Ma'am,' said the taller of the chimney-sweepers, who had not yet
+spoken, and who now began in a very blunt manner; 'ma'am, your brother
+desired us to come up when the bell rang; so we did.'
+
+'My brother? I have no brother, dunce,' said Mrs. Theresa.
+
+'Mr. Eden, madam.'
+
+'Ho, ho!' said Mrs. Tattle, in a more complacent tone, 'the boy takes me
+for Miss Bertha Eden, I perceive'; and, flattered to be taken in the
+dark by a chimney-sweeper for a young and handsome lady, Mrs. Theresa
+laughed, and informed him 'that they had mistaken the room; and they
+must go up another pair of stairs, and turn to the left.'
+
+The chimney-sweeper with the squeaking voice bowed, thanked her ladyship
+for this information, said, 'Good-night to ye, quality'; and they both
+moved towards the door.
+
+'Stay,' said Mrs. Tattle, whose curiosity was excited; 'what can the
+Edens want with chimney-sweepers at this time o' night, I wonder?
+Christopher, did you hear anything about it?' said the lady to her
+footman, who was now lighting the candles.
+
+'Upon my word, ma'am,' said the servant, 'I can't say; but I'll step
+down below and inquire. I heard them talking about it in the kitchen;
+but I only got a word here and there, for I was hunting for the
+snuff-dish, as I knew it must be for candles when I heard the bell ring,
+ma'am; so I thought to find the snuff-dish before I answered the bell,
+for I knew it must be for candles you rang. But, if you please, I'll
+step down now, ma'am, and see about the chimney-sweepers.'
+
+'Yes, step down, do; and, Christopher, bring up the cowslip-wine, and
+some more macaroons for my little Marianne.'
+
+Marianne withdrew rather coldly from a kiss which Mrs. Tattle was going
+to give her; for she was somewhat surprised at the familiarity with
+which this lady talked to her footman. She had not been accustomed to
+these familiarities in her father and mother, and she did not like them.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Tattle to Christopher, who was now returned, 'what is
+the news?'
+
+'Ma'am, the little fellow with the squeaking voice has been telling me
+the whole story. The other morning, ma'am, early, he and the other were
+down the hill sweeping in Paradise Row. Those chimneys, they say, are
+difficult; and the square fellow, ma'am, the biggest of the two boys,
+got wedged in the chimney. The other little fellow was up at the top at
+the time, and he heard the cry; but in his fright, and all, he did not
+know what to do, ma'am; for he looked about from the top of the chimney,
+and not a soul could he see stirring, but a few that he could not make
+attend to his screech; the boy within almost stifling too. So he
+screeched, and screeched, all he could; and by the greatest chance in
+life, ma'am, old Mr. Eden was just going down the hill to fetch his
+morning walk.'
+
+'Ay,' interrupted Mrs. Theresa, 'friend Ephraim is one of your early
+risers.'
+
+'Well?' said Marianne, impatiently.
+
+'So, ma'am, hearing the screech, he turns and sees the sweep; and at
+once he understands the matter----'
+
+'I'm sure he must have taken some time to understand it,' interposed
+Mrs. Tattle, 'for he's the slowest creature breathing, and the deafest
+in company. Go on, Christopher. So the sweep did make him hear.'
+
+'So he says, ma'am; and so the old gentleman went in and pulled the boy
+out of the chimney, with much ado, ma'am.'
+
+'Bless me!' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa; 'but did old Eden go up the chimney
+himself after the boy, wig and all?'
+
+'Why, ma'am,' said Christopher, with a look of great delight, 'that was
+all as one, as the very 'dentical words I put to the boy myself, when he
+telled me his story. But, ma'am, that was what I couldn't get out of
+him, neither, rightly, for he is a churl--the big boy that was stuck in
+the chimney, I mean; for when I put the question to him about the wig,
+laughing like, he wouldn't take it laughing like at all; but would only
+make answer to us like a bear, 'He saved my life, that's all I know';
+and this over again, ma'am, to all the kitchen round, that
+cross-questioned him. But I finds him stupid and ill-mannered like, for
+I offered him a shilling, ma'am, myself, to tell about the wig; but he
+put it back in a way that did not become such as he, to no lady's
+butler, ma'am; whereupon I turns to the slim fellow (and he's smarterer,
+and more mannerly, ma'am, with a tongue in his head for his betters),
+but he could not resolve me my question either; for he was up at the top
+of the chimney the best part o' the time; and when he came down Mr. Eden
+had his wig on, but had his arm all bare and bloody, ma'am.'
+
+'Poor Mr. Eden!' exclaimed Marianne.
+
+'Oh, miss,' continued the servant, 'and the chimney-sweep himself was so
+bruised, and must have been killed.'
+
+'Well, well! but he's alive now; go on with your story, Christopher,'
+said Mrs. T. 'Chimney-sweepers get wedged in chimneys every day; it's
+part of their trade, and it's a happy thing when they come off with a
+few bruises.[15] To be sure,' added she, observing that both Frederick
+and Marianne looked displeased at this speech, 'to be sure, if one may
+believe this story, there was some real danger.'
+
+  [15] This atrocious practice is now happily superseded by the use of
+       sweeping machines.
+
+'Real danger! yes, indeed,' said Marianne; 'and I'm sure I think Mr.
+Eden was very good.'
+
+'Certainly it was a most commendable action, and quite providential. So
+I shall take an opportunity of saying, when I tell the story in all
+companies; and the boy may thank his kind stars, I'm sure, to the end of
+his days, for such an escape----But pray, Christopher,' said she,
+persisting in her conversation with Christopher, who was now laying the
+cloth for supper, 'pray, which house was it in Paradise Row? where the
+Eagles or the Miss Ropers lodge? or which?'
+
+'It was at my Lady Battersby's, ma'am.'
+
+'Ha! ha!' cried Mrs. Theresa, 'I thought we should get to the bottom of
+the affair at last. This is excellent! This will make an admirable story
+for my Lady Battersby the next time I see her. These Quakers are so sly!
+Old Eden, I know, has long wanted to obtain an introduction into that
+house; and a charming charitable expedient hit upon! My Lady Battersby
+will enjoy this, of all things.'
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+'Now,' continued Mrs. Theresa, turning to Frederick, as soon as the
+servant had left the room, 'now, Mr. Frederick Montague, I have a
+favour--such a favour--to ask of you; it's a favour which only you can
+grant; you have such talents, and would do the thing so admirably; and
+my Lady Battersby would quite adore you for it. She will do me the
+honour to be here to spend an evening to-morrow. I'm convinced Mr. and
+Mrs. Montague will find themselves obliged to stay out another day, and
+I so long to show you off to her ladyship; and your Doctor Carbuncle,
+and your Counsellor Puff, and your Miss Croker, and all your charming
+characters. You must let me introduce you to her ladyship to-morrow
+evening. Promise me.'
+
+'Oh, ma'am,' said Frederick, 'I cannot promise you any such thing,
+indeed. I am much obliged to you; but indeed I cannot come.'
+
+'Why not, my dear sir? why not? You don't think I mean you should
+promise, if you are certain your papa and mamma will be home.'
+
+'If they do come home, I will ask them about it,' said Frederick,
+hesitating; for though he by no means wished to accept the invitation,
+he had not yet acquired the necessary power of decidedly saying No.
+
+'Ask them!' repeated Mrs. Theresa. 'My dear sir, at your age, must you
+ask your papa and mamma about such things?'
+
+'Must! no, ma'am,' said Frederick; 'but I said I would. I know I need
+not, because my father and mother always let me judge for myself almost
+about everything.'
+
+'And about this, I am sure,' cried Marianne. 'Papa and mamma, you know,
+just as they were going away, said, "If Mrs. Theresa asks you to come,
+do as you think best."'
+
+'Well, then,' said Mrs. Theresa, 'you know it rests with yourselves, if
+you may do as you please.'
+
+'To be sure I may, madam,' said Frederick, colouring from that species
+of emotion which is justly called false shame, and which often conquers
+real shame; 'to be sure, ma'am, I may do as I please.'
+
+'Then I may make sure of you,' said Mrs. Theresa; 'for now it would be
+downright rudeness to tell a lady you won't do as she pleases. Mr.
+Frederick Montague, I'm sure, is too well-bred a young gentleman to do
+so unpolite, so ungallant a thing!'
+
+The jargon of politeness and gallantry is frequently brought by the
+silly acquaintance of young people to confuse their simple morality and
+clear good sense. A new and unintelligible system is presented to them
+in a language foreign to their understanding, and contradictory to their
+feelings. They hesitate between new motives and old principles. From the
+fear of being thought ignorant, they become affected; and from the dread
+of being thought to be children act like fools. But all this they feel
+only when they are in the company of such people as Mrs. Theresa Tattle.
+
+'Ma'am,' Frederick began, 'I don't mean to be rude; but I hope you'll
+excuse me from coming to drink tea with you to-morrow, because my father
+and mother are not acquainted with Lady Battersby, and maybe they might
+not like----'
+
+'Take care, take care,' said Mrs. Theresa, laughing at his perplexity;
+'you want to get off from obliging me, and you don't know how. You had
+very nearly made a most shocking blunder in putting it all upon poor
+Lady Battersby. Now you know it's impossible that Mr. and Mrs. Montague
+could have in nature the slightest objection to introducing you to my
+Lady Battersby at my own house; for, don't you know, that, besides her
+ladyship's many unquestionable qualities, which one need not talk of,
+she is cousin, but once removed, to the Trotters of Lancashire--your
+mother's great favourites? And there is not a person at the Wells, I'll
+venture to say, could be of more advantage to your sister Sophy, in the
+way of partners, when she comes to go to balls, which it's to be
+supposed she will, some time or other; and as you are so good a brother,
+that's a thing to be looked to, you know. Besides, as to yourself,
+there's nothing her ladyship delights in so much as in a good mimic; and
+she'll quite adore you!'
+
+'But I don't want her to adore me, ma'am,' said Frederick, bluntly;
+then, correcting himself, added, 'I mean for being a mimic.'
+
+'Why not, my love? Between friends, can there be any harm in showing
+one's talents? You that have such talents to show. She'll keep your
+secret, I'll answer for her; and,' added she, 'you needn't be afraid of
+her criticism; for, between you and me, she's no great critic: so you'll
+come. Well, thank you, that's settled. How you have made me beg and
+pray! but you know your own value, I see; as you entertaining people
+always do. One must ask a wit, like a fine singer, so often. Well, but
+now for the favour I was going to ask you.'
+
+Frederick looked surprised; for he thought that the favour of his
+company was what she meant; but she explained herself farther.
+
+'As to the old Quaker who lodges above, old Ephraim Eden--my Lady
+Battersby and I have so much diversion about him. He is the best
+character, the oddest creature! If you were but to see him come into the
+rooms with those stiff skirts, or walking with his eternal sister
+Bertha, and his everlasting broad-brimmed hat! One knows him a mile off!
+But then his voice and way, and altogether, if one could get them to
+the life, they'd be better than anything on the stage; better even than
+anything I've seen to-night; and I think you'd make a capital Quaker for
+my Lady Battersby; but then the thing is, one can never get to hear the
+old quiz talk. Now you, who have so much invention and cleverness--I
+have no invention myself--but could you not hit upon some way of seeing
+him, so that you might get him by heart? I'm sure you, who are so quick,
+would only want to see him, and hear him, for half a minute, to be able
+to take him off, so as to kill one with laughing. But I have no
+invention.'
+
+'Oh, as to the invention,' said Frederick, 'I know an admirable way of
+doing the thing, if that is all; but then remember, I don't say I will
+do the thing, for I will not. But I know a way of getting up into his
+room, and seeing him, without his knowing me to be there.'
+
+'Oh, tell it me, you charming, clever creature!'
+
+'But, remember, I do not say I will do it.'
+
+'Well, well, let us hear it; and you shall do as you please afterwards.
+Merciful goodness!' exclaimed Mrs. Tattle, 'do my ears deceive me? I
+declare I looked round, and thought I heard the squeaking
+chimney-sweeper was in the room!'
+
+'So did I, Frederick, I declare,' cried Marianne, laughing, 'I never
+heard anything so like his voice in my life.'
+
+Frederick imitated the squeaking voice of this chimney-sweeper to great
+perfection.
+
+'Now,' continued he, 'this fellow is just my height. The old Quaker, if
+my face were blackened, and if I were to change clothes with the
+chimney-sweeper, I'll answer for it, would never know me.'
+
+'Oh, it's an admirable invention! I give you infinite credit for it!'
+exclaimed Mrs. Theresa. 'It shall, it must be done. I'll ring, and have
+the fellow up this minute.'
+
+'Oh, no; do not ring,' said Frederick, stopping her hand, 'I don't mean
+to do it. You know you promised that I should do as I pleased. I only
+told you my invention.'
+
+'Well, well; but only let me ring, and ask whether the chimney-sweepers
+are below. You shall do as you please afterwards.'
+
+'Christopher, shut the door. Christopher,' said she to the servant who
+came up when she rang, 'pray are the sweeps gone yet?' 'No, ma'am.'
+'But have they been up to old Eden yet?' 'Oh no, ma'am; nor be not to go
+till the bell rings; for Miss Bertha, ma'am, was asleep a-lying down,
+and her brother wouldn't have her wakened on no account whatsomever. He
+came down hisself to the kitchen to the sweeps, though; but wouldn't
+have, as I heard him say, his sister waked for no account. But Miss
+Bertha's bell will ring when she wakens for the sweeps, ma'am. 'Twas she
+wanted to see the boy as her brother saved, and I suppose sent for 'em
+to give him something charitable, ma'am.' 'Well, never mind your
+suppositions,' said Mrs. Theresa; 'run down this very minute to the
+little squeaking chimney-sweep, and send him up to me. Quick, but don't
+let the other bear come up with him.'
+
+Christopher, who had curiosity as well as his mistress, when he returned
+with the chimney-sweeper, prolonged his own stay in the room by sweeping
+the hearth, throwing down the tongs and shovel, and picking them up
+again.
+
+'That will do, Christopher! Christopher, that will do, I say,' Mrs.
+Theresa repeated in vain. She was obliged to say, 'Christopher, you may
+go,' before he would depart.
+
+'Now,' said she to Frederick, 'step in here to the next room with this
+candle, and you'll be equipped in an instant. Only just change clothes
+with the boy; only just let me see what a charming chimney-sweeper you'd
+make. You shall do as you please afterwards.' 'Well, I'll only change
+clothes with him, just to show you for one minute.'
+
+'But,' said Marianne to Mrs. Theresa whilst Frederick was changing his
+clothes, 'I think Frederick is right about----' 'About what, love?' 'I
+think he is in the right not to go up, though he can do it so easily, to
+see that gentleman; I mean on purpose to mimic and laugh at him
+afterwards. I don't think that would be quite right.' 'Why, pray, Miss
+Marianne?' 'Why, because he is so good-natured to his sister. He would
+not let her be wakened.' 'Dear, it's easy to be good in such little
+things; and he won't have long to be good to her neither; for I don't
+think she will trouble him long in this world, anyhow.' 'What do you
+mean?' said Marianne. 'That she'll die, child.' 'Die! die with that
+beautiful colour in her cheeks! How sorry her poor, poor brother will
+be! But she will not die, I'm sure, for she walks about, and runs
+upstairs so lightly! Oh, you must be quite mistaken, I hope.' 'If I'm
+mistaken, Dr. Panado Cardamum's mistaken too, then, that's my comfort.
+He says, unless the waters work a miracle, she stands a bad chance; and
+she won't follow my advice, and consult the doctor for her health.' 'He
+would frighten her to death, perhaps,' said Marianne. 'I hope Frederick
+won't go up to disturb her.' 'Lud, child, you are turned simpleton all
+of a sudden; how can your brother disturb her more than the real
+chimney-sweeper?' 'But I don't think it's right,' persisted Marianne,
+'and I shall tell him so.' 'Nay, Miss Marianne, I don't commend you now.
+Young ladies should not be so forward to give opinions and advice to
+their elder brothers unasked; and I presume that Mr. Frederick and I
+must know what's right as well as Miss Marianne. Hush! here he is. Oh,
+the capital figure!' cried Mrs. Theresa. 'Bravo, bravo!' cried she, as
+Frederick entered in the chimney-sweeper's dress; and as he spoke,
+saying, 'I'm afraid, please your ladyship, to dirt your ladyship's
+carpet,' she broke out into immoderate raptures, calling him 'her
+charming chimney-sweeper!' and repeating that she knew beforehand the
+character would do for him.
+
+Mrs. Theresa instantly rang the bell, in spite of all
+expostulation--ordered Christopher to send up the other
+chimney-sweeper--triumphed in observing that Christopher did not know
+Frederick when he came into the room; and offered to lay any wager that
+the other chimney-sweeper would mistake him for his companion. And so he
+did; and when Frederick spoke, the voice was so very like, that it was
+scarcely possible that he should have perceived the difference.
+
+Marianne was diverted by this scene; but she started when, in the midst
+of it, they heard a bell ring. 'That's the lady's bell, and we must go,'
+said the blunt chimney-sweeper. 'Go, then, about your business,' said
+Mrs. Theresa, 'and here's a shilling for you, to drink, my honest
+fellow. I did not know you were so much bruised when I first saw you. I
+won't detain you. Go,' said she, pushing Frederick towards the door.
+Marianne sprang forward to speak to him; but Mrs. Theresa kept her off;
+and, though Frederick resisted, the lady shut the door upon him by
+superior force, and, having locked it, there was no retreat. Mrs. Tattle
+and Marianne waited impatiently for Frederick's return. 'I hear them,'
+cried Marianne, 'I hear them coming downstairs.' They listened again,
+and all was silent. At length they suddenly heard a great noise of many
+steps in the hall. 'Merciful!' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa, 'it must be your
+father and mother come back.' Marianne ran to unlock the room door, and
+Mrs. Theresa followed her into the hall. The hall was rather dark, but
+under the lamp a crowd of people; all the servants in the house having
+gathered together.
+
+As Mrs. Theresa approached, the crowd opened in silence, and in the
+midst she beheld Frederick, with blood streaming from his face. His head
+was held by Christopher; and the chimney-sweeper was holding a basin for
+him. 'Merciful! what will become of me?' exclaimed Mrs. Theresa.
+'Bleeding! he'll bleed to death! Can nobody think of anything that will
+stop blood in a minute? A key, a large key down his back--a key--has
+nobody a key? Mr. and Mrs. Montague will be here before he has done
+bleeding. A key! cobwebs! a puff ball! for mercy's sake! Can nobody
+think of anything that will stop blood in a minute? Gracious me! he'll
+bleed to death, I believe.'
+
+'He'll bleed to death! Oh, my brother!' cried Marianne, catching hold of
+the words; and terrified, she ran upstairs, crying, 'Sophy, oh, Sophy!
+come down this minute, or he'll be dead! My brother's bleeding to death!
+Sophy! Sophy! come down, or he'll be dead!'
+
+'Let go the basin, you,' said Christopher, pulling the basin out of the
+chimney-sweeper's hand, who had all this time stood in silence; 'you are
+not fit to hold the basin for a gentleman.' 'Let him hold it,' said
+Frederick; 'he did not mean to hurt me.' 'That's more than he deserves.
+I'm certain sure he might have known well enough it was Mr. Frederick
+all the time, and he'd no business to go to fight--such a one as
+he--with a gentleman.' 'I did not know he was a gentleman,' said the
+chimney-sweeper! 'how could I?' 'How could he, indeed?' said Frederick;
+'he shall hold the basin.'
+
+'Gracious me! I'm glad to hear him speak like himself again, at any
+rate,' cried Mrs. Theresa. 'And here comes Miss Sophy, too.' 'Sophy!'
+cried Frederick. 'Oh, Sophy, don't you come--don't look at me; you'll
+despise me.' 'My brother!--where? where?' said Sophy, looking, as she
+thought, at the two chimney-sweepers.
+
+'It's Frederick,' said Marianne; 'that's my brother.'
+
+'Miss Sophy, don't be alarmed,' Mrs. Theresa began; 'but gracious
+goodness! I wish Miss Bertha----'
+
+At this instant a female figure in white appeared upon the stairs; she
+passed swiftly on, whilst every one gave way before her. 'Oh, Miss
+Bertha!' cried Mrs. Theresa, catching hold of her gown to stop her, as
+she came near Frederick. 'Oh, Miss Eden, your beautiful India muslin!
+take care of the chimney-sweeper, for heaven's sake.' But she pressed
+forward.
+
+'It's my brother, will he die?' cried Marianne, throwing her arms round
+her, and looking up as if to a being of a superior order. 'Will he bleed
+to death?' 'No, my love!' answered a sweet voice; 'do not frighten
+thyself.'
+
+'I've done bleeding,' said Frederick. 'Dear me, Miss Marianne, if you
+would not make such a rout,' cried Mrs. Tattle. 'Miss Bertha, it's
+nothing but a frolic. You see Mr. Frederick Montague only in a
+masquerade dress. Nothing in the world but a frolic, ma'am. You see he's
+stopped bleeding. I was frightened out of my wits at first. I thought it
+was his eye, but I see it's only his nose. All's well that ends well.
+Mr. Frederick, we'll keep your counsel. Pray, ma'am, let us ask no
+questions; it's only a boyish frolic. Come, Mr. Frederick, this way,
+into my room, and I'll give you a towel and some clean water, and you
+can get rid of this masquerade dress. Make haste, for fear your father
+and mother should drop in upon us.'
+
+'Do not be afraid of thy father and mother. They are surely thy best
+friends,' said a voice. It was the voice of an elderly gentleman, who
+now stood behind Frederick. 'Oh, sir, oh, Mr. Eden,' said Frederick,
+turning to him. 'Don't betray me! for goodness' sake!' whispered Mrs.
+Tattle, 'say nothing about me.' 'I'm not thinking about you. Let me
+speak,' cried he, pushing away her hand, which stopped his mouth. 'I
+shall say nothing about you, I promise you,' said Frederick, with a look
+of contempt. 'No, but for your own sake, my dear sir, your papa and
+mamma. Bless me! is not that Mrs. Montague's carriage?'
+
+'My brother, ma'am,' said Sophy, 'is not afraid of my father and
+mother's coming back. Let him speak; he was going to speak the truth.'
+
+'To be sure, Miss Sophia, I wouldn't hinder him from speaking the truth;
+but it's not proper, I presume, ma'am, to speak truth at all times, and
+in all places, and before everybody, servants and all. I only wanted,
+ma'am, to hinder your brother from exposing himself. A hall, I
+apprehend, is not a proper place for explanation.'
+
+'Here,' said Mr. Eden, opening the door of his room, which was on the
+opposite side of the hall to Mrs. Tattle's. 'Here is a place,' said he
+to Frederick, 'where thou mayst speak the truth at all times, and before
+everybody.' 'Nay, my room's at Mr. Frederick Montague's service, and my
+door's open too. This way, pray,' said she, pulling his arm. But
+Frederick broke from her, and followed Mr. Eden. 'Oh, sir, will you
+forgive me?' cried he. 'Forgive thee!--and what have I to forgive?'
+'Forgive, brother, without asking what,' said Bertha, smiling.
+
+'He shall know all!' cried Frederick; 'all that concerns myself, I mean.
+Sir, I disguised myself in this dress; I came up to your room to-night
+on purpose to see you, without your knowing it, that I might mimic you.
+The chimney-sweeper, where is he?' said Frederick, looking round; and he
+ran into the hall to seek for him. 'May he come in? he may--he is a
+brave, an honest, good, grateful boy. He never guessed who I was. After
+we left you we went down to the kitchen together, and there, fool as I
+was, for the pleasure of making Mr. Christopher and the servants laugh,
+began to mimic you. This boy said he would not stand by and hear you
+laughed at; that you had saved his life; that I ought to be ashamed of
+myself; that you had just given me half a crown; and so you had; but I
+went on, and told him I'd knock him down if he said another word. He
+did; I gave the first blow; we fought; I came to the ground; the
+servants pulled me up again. They found out, I don't know how, that I
+was not a chimney-sweeper. The rest you saw. And now can you forgive me,
+sir?' said Frederick to Mr. Eden, seizing hold of his hand.
+
+'The other hand, friend,' said the Quaker, gently withdrawing his right
+hand, which everybody now observed was much swelled, and putting it into
+his bosom again. 'This, and welcome,' offering his other hand to
+Frederick, and shaking his with a smile. 'Oh, that other hand!' said
+Frederick, 'that was hurt, I remember. How ill I have behaved--extremely
+ill! But this is a lesson that I shall never forget as long as I live.
+I hope for the future I shall behave like a gentleman.' 'And like a
+man--and like a good man, I am sure thou wilt,' said the good Quaker,
+shaking Frederick's hand affectionately; 'or I am much mistaken, friend,
+in that black countenance.'
+
+'You are not mistaken,' cried Marianne. 'Frederick will never be
+persuaded again by anybody to do what he does not think right; and now,
+brother you may wash your black countenance.'
+
+Just when Frederick had got rid of half his black countenance, a double
+knock was heard at the door. It was Mr. and Mrs. Montague. 'What will
+you do now?' whispered Mrs. Theresa to Frederick, as his father and
+mother came into the room. 'A chimney-sweeper covered with blood!'
+exclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Montague. 'Father, I am Frederick,' said he,
+stepping forward towards them, as they stood in astonishment.
+'Frederick! my son!' 'Yes, mother, I'm not hurt half so much as I
+deserve; I'll tell you----' 'Nay,' interrupted Bertha, 'let my brother
+tell the story this time. Thou hast told it once, and told it well; no
+one but my brother could tell it better.'
+
+'A story never tells so well the second time, to be sure,' said Mrs.
+Theresa; 'but Mr. Eden will certainly make the best of it.'
+
+Without taking any notice of Mrs. Tattle, or her apprehensive looks, Mr.
+Eden explained all he knew of the affair in a few words. 'Your son,'
+concluded he, 'will quickly put off his dirty dress. The dress hath not
+stained the mind; that is fair and honourable. When he found himself in
+the wrong, he said so; nor was he in haste to conceal his adventure from
+his father; this made me think well of both father and son. I speak
+plainly, friend, for that is best. But what is become of the other
+chimney-sweeper? He will want to go home,' said Mr. Eden, turning to
+Mrs. Theresa. Without making any reply, she hurried out of the room as
+fast as possible, and returned in a few moments, with a look of extreme
+consternation.
+
+'Here is a catastrophe indeed! Now, indeed, Mr. Frederick, your papa and
+mamma have reason to be angry. A new suit of clothes!--the barefaced
+villain! gone! no sign of them in my closet, or anywhere. The door was
+locked; he must have gone up the chimney, out upon the leads, and so
+escaped; but Christopher is after him. I protest, Mrs. Montague, you
+take it too quietly. The wretch!--a new suit of clothes, blue coat and
+buff waistcoat. I never heard of such a thing! I declare, Mr. Montague,
+you are vastly good, not to be in a passion,' added Mrs. Theresa.
+
+[Illustration: _'And like a man--and like a good man, I am sure thou
+wilt,' said the good Quaker shaking Frederick's hand affectionately_]
+
+'Madam,' replied Mr. Montague, with a look of much civil contempt, 'I
+think the loss of a suit of clothes, and even the disgrace that my son
+has been brought to this evening, fortunate circumstances in his
+education. He will, I am persuaded, judge and act for himself more
+wisely in future. Not will he be tempted to offend against humanity, for
+the sake of being called "The best mimic in the world."'
+
+
+
+
+THE BARRING OUT;
+
+OR,
+
+PARTY SPIRIT
+
+
+'The mother of mischief,' says an old proverb, 'is no bigger than a
+midge's wing.'
+
+At Doctor Middleton's school there was a great tall dunce of the name of
+Fisher, who never could be taught how to look out a word in the
+dictionary. He used to torment everybody with--'Do pray help me! I can't
+make out this one word.' The person who usually helped him in his
+distress was a very clever, good-natured boy, of the name of De Grey,
+who had been many years under Dr. Middleton's care, and who, by his
+abilities and good conduct, did him great credit. The doctor certainly
+was both proud and fond of him; but he was so well beloved, or so much
+esteemed, by his companions, that nobody had ever called him by the
+odious name of favourite, until the arrival of a new scholar of the name
+of Archer.
+
+Till Archer came, the ideas of _favourites_ and _parties_ were almost
+unknown at Dr. Middleton's; but he brought all these ideas fresh from a
+great public school, at which he had been educated--at which he had
+acquired a sufficient quantity of Greek and Latin, and a superabundant
+quantity of party spirit. His aim, the moment he came to a new school,
+was to get to the head of it, or at least to form the strongest party.
+His influence, for he was a boy of considerable abilities, was quickly
+felt, though he had a powerful rival, as he thought proper to call him,
+in De Grey; and, with _him_, a rival was always an enemy. De Grey, so
+far from giving him any cause of hatred, treated him with a degree of
+cordiality which would probably have had an effect upon Archer's mind,
+if it had not been for the artifices of Fisher.
+
+It may seem surprising that a _great dunce_ should be able to work upon
+a boy like Archer, who was called a great genius; but when genius is
+joined to a violent temper, instead of being united to good sense, it is
+at the mercy even of dunces.
+
+Fisher was mortally offended one morning by De Grey's refusing to
+translate his whole lesson for him. He went over to Archer, who,
+considering him as a partisan deserting from the enemy, received him
+with open arms, and translated his whole lesson, without expressing
+_much_ contempt for his stupidity. From this moment Fisher forgot all De
+Grey's former kindness, and considered only how he could in his turn
+mortify the person whom he felt to be so much his superior.
+
+De Grey and Archer were now reading for a premium, which was to be given
+in their class. Fisher betted on Archer's head, who had not sense enough
+to despise the bet of a blockhead. On the contrary, he suffered him to
+excite the spirit of rivalship in its utmost fury by collecting the bets
+of all the school. So that this premium now became a matter of the
+greatest consequence, and Archer, instead of taking the means to secure
+a judgment in his favour, was listening to the opinions of all his
+companions. It was a prize which was to be won by his own exertions; but
+he suffered himself to consider it as an affair of chance. The
+consequence was, that he trusted to chance--his partisans lost their
+wagers, and he the premium--and his temper.
+
+'Mr. Archer,' said Dr. Middleton, after the grand affair was decided,
+'you have done all that genius alone could do; but you, De Grey, have
+done all that genius and industry united could do.'
+
+'Well!' cried Archer, with affected gaiety, as soon as the doctor had
+left the room--'well, I'm content with _my_ sentence. Genius alone for
+me--industry for those who _want_ it,' added he, with a significant look
+at De Grey.
+
+Fisher applauded this as a very spirited speech; and, by insinuations
+that Dr. Middleton 'always gave the premium to De Grey,' and 'that those
+who had lost their bets might thank themselves for it, for being such
+simpletons as to bet against the favourite,' he raised a murmur highly
+flattering to Archer amongst some of the most credulous boys; whilst
+others loudly proclaimed their belief in Dr. Middleton's impartiality.
+These warmly congratulated De Grey. At this Archer grew more and more
+angry, and when Fisher was proceeding to speak nonsense _for_ him,
+pushed forward into the circle to De Grey, crying, 'I wish, Mr. Fisher,
+you would let me fight my own battles!'
+
+'And _I_ wish,' said young Townsend, who was fonder of diversions than
+of premiums, or battles, or of anything else--'_I_ wish that we were not
+to have any battles; after having worked like horses, don't set about to
+fight like dogs. Come,' said he, tapping De Grey's shoulder, 'let us see
+your new playhouse, do--it's a holiday, and let us make the most of it.
+Let us have the "School for Scandal," do; and I'll play Charles for you,
+and you, De Grey, shall be _my little Premium_. Come, do open this new
+playhouse of yours to-night.'
+
+'Come then!' said De Grey, and he ran across the playground to a waste
+building at the farthest end of it, in which, at the earnest request of
+the whole community, and with the permission of Dr. Middleton, he had
+with much pain and ingenuity erected a theatre.
+
+'The new theatre is going to be opened! Follow the manager! Follow the
+manager!' echoed a multitude of voices.
+
+'_Follow the manager!_' echoed very disagreeably in Archer's ear; but as
+he could not be _left alone_, he was also obliged to follow the manager.
+The moment that the door was unlocked, the crowd rushed in; the delight
+and wonder expressed at the sight were great, and the applause and
+thanks which were bestowed upon the manager were long and loud.
+
+Archer at least thought them long, for he was impatient till his voice
+could be heard. When at length the acclamations had spent themselves, he
+walked across the stage with a knowing air, and looking round
+contemptuously--
+
+'And is _this_ your famous playhouse?' cried he. 'I wish you had, any of
+you, seen the playhouse _I_ have been used to?'
+
+These words made a great and visible change in the feelings and opinions
+of the public. 'Who would be a servant of the public? or who would toil
+for popular applause?' A few words spoken in a decisive tone by a new
+voice operated as a charm, and the playhouse was in an instant
+metamorphosed in the eyes of the spectators. All gratitude for the past
+was forgotten, and the expectation of something better justified to the
+capricious multitude their disdain of what they had so lately pronounced
+to be excellent.
+
+Every one now began to criticise. One observed 'that the green curtain
+was full of holes, and would not draw up.' Another attacked the scenes.
+'Scenes! they were not like real scenes--Archer must know best, because
+he was used to these things.' So everybody crowded to hear something of
+the _other_ playhouse. They gathered round Archer to hear the
+description of his playhouse, and at every sentence insulting
+comparisons were made. When he had done, his auditors looked round,
+sighed, and wished that Archer had been their manager. They turned from
+De Grey as from a person who had done them an injury. Some of his
+friends--for he had friends who were not swayed by the popular
+opinion--felt indignation at this ingratitude, and were going to express
+their feelings; but De Grey stopped them, and begged that he might speak
+for himself.
+
+'Gentlemen,' said he, coming forward, as soon as he felt that he had
+sufficient command of himself. 'My friends, I see you are discontented
+with me and my playhouse. I have done my best to please you; but if
+anybody else can please you better, I shall be glad of it. I did not
+work so hard for the glory of being your manager. You have my free leave
+to tear down----' Here his voice faltered, but he hurried on--'You have
+my free leave to tear down all my work as fast as you please. Archer,
+shake hands first, however, to show that there's no malice in the case.'
+
+Archer, who was touched by what his rival said, and stopping the hand of
+his new partisan, Fisher, cried, 'No, Fisher! no!--no pulling down. We
+can alter it. There is a great deal of ingenuity in it, considering.'
+
+In vain Archer would now have recalled the public to reason,--the time
+for reason was past: enthusiasm had taken hold of their minds. 'Down
+with it! Down with it! Archer for ever!' cried Fisher, and tore down the
+curtain. The riot once begun, nothing could stop the little mob, till
+the whole theatre was demolished. The love of power prevailed in the
+mind of Archer; he was secretly flattered by the zeal of his _party_,
+and he mistook their love of mischief for attachment to himself. De Grey
+looked on superior. 'I said I could bear to see all this, and I can,'
+said he; 'now it is all over.' And now it was all over, there was
+silence. The rioters stood still to take breath, and to look at what
+they had done. There was a blank space before them.
+
+In this moment of silence there was heard something like a female voice.
+'Hush! What strange voice is that?' said Archer. Fisher caught fast hold
+of his arm. Everybody looked round to see where the voice came from. It
+was dusk. Two window-shutters at the farthest end of the building were
+seen to move slowly inwards. De Grey, and in the same instant Archer,
+went forward; and, as the shutters opened, there appeared through the
+hole the dark face and shrivelled hands of a very old gipsy. She did not
+speak; but she looked first at one and then at another. At length she
+fixed her eyes on De Grey. 'Well, my good woman,' said he, 'what do you
+want with me?' 'Want!--nothing--with _you_,' said the old woman; 'do you
+want nothing with _me_?' 'Nothing,' said De Grey. Her eye immediately
+turned upon Archer,--'_You_ want something with me,' said she, with
+emphasis. 'I--what do I want?' replied Archer. 'No,' said she, changing
+her tone, 'you want nothing--nothing will you ever want, or I am much
+mistaken in that _face_.'
+
+In that _watch-chain_, she should have said, for her quick eye had
+espied Archer's watch-chain. He was the only person in the company who
+had a watch, and she therefore judged him to be the richest.
+
+'Had you ever your fortune told, sir, in your life?' 'Not I,' said he,
+looking at De Grey, as if he was afraid of his ridicule, if he listened
+to the gipsy. 'Not you! No! for you will make your own fortune, and the
+fortune of all that belong to you!'
+
+'There's good news for my friends,' cried Archer. 'And I'm one of them,
+remember that,' cried Fisher. 'And I,' 'And I,' joined a number of
+voices. 'Good luck to them!' cried the gipsy, 'good luck to them all!'
+
+Then, as soon as they had acquired sufficient confidence in her good
+will, they pressed up to the window. 'There,' cried Townsend, as he
+chanced to stumble over the carpenter's mitre box, which stood in the
+way, 'there's a good omen for me. I've stumbled on the mitre box; I
+shall certainly be a bishop.'
+
+Happy he who had sixpence, for he bid fair to be a judge upon the bench.
+And happier he who had a shilling, for he was in the high road to be one
+day upon the woolsack, Lord High Chancellor of England. No one had
+half-a-crown, or no one would surely have kept it in his pocket upon
+such an occasion, for he might have been an archbishop, a king, or what
+he pleased.
+
+Fisher, who like all weak people was extremely credulous, had kept his
+post immovable in the front row all the time, his mouth open, and his
+stupid eyes fixed upon the gipsy, in whom he felt implicit faith.
+
+Those who have least confidence in their own powers, and who have least
+expectation from the success of their own exertions, are always most
+disposed to trust in fortune-tellers and fortune. They hope to _win_,
+when they cannot _earn_; and as they can never be convinced by those who
+speak sense, it is no wonder they are always persuaded by those who talk
+nonsense.
+
+'I have a question to put,' said Fisher, in a solemn tone. 'Put it,
+then,' said Archer, 'what hinders you?' 'But they will hear me,' said
+he, looking suspiciously at De Grey. '_I_ shall not hear you,' said De
+Grey, 'I am going.' Everybody else drew back, and left him to whisper
+his question in the gipsy's ear. 'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your
+_sister_ Livy, do you mean?' said the gipsy. 'No, my _Latin_ Livy.'
+
+The gipsy paused for information. 'It had a leaf torn out in the
+beginning, and _I hate Dr. Middleton_----' 'Written in it,' interrupted
+the gipsy. 'Right--the very book!' cried Fisher with joy. 'But how
+_could_ you know it was Dr. Middleton's name? I thought I had scratched
+it, so that nobody could make it out.' 'Nobody _could_ make it out but
+_me_,' replied the gipsy. 'But never think to deceive me,' said she,
+shaking her head at him in a manner that made him tremble. 'I don't
+deceive you indeed, I tell you the whole truth. I lost it a week ago.'
+'True.' 'And when shall I find it?' 'Meet me here at this hour to-morrow
+evening, and I will answer you. No more! I must be gone. Not a word more
+to-night.'
+
+She pulled the shutters towards her, and left the youth in darkness. All
+his companions were gone. He had been so deeply engaged in this
+conference, that he had not perceived their departure. He found all the
+world at supper, but no entreaties could prevail upon him to disclose
+his secret. Townsend rallied in vain. As for Archer, he was not disposed
+to destroy by ridicule the effect which he saw that the old woman's
+predictions in his favour had had upon the imagination of many of his
+little partisans. He had privately slipped two good shillings into the
+gipsy's hand to secure her; for he was willing to pay any price for
+_any_ means of acquiring power.
+
+[Illustration: _'What is become of my Livy?' 'Your sister Livy, do you
+mean?'_]
+
+The watch-chain had not deceived the gipsy, for Archer was the richest
+person in the community. His friends had imprudently supplied him with
+more money than is usually trusted to boys of his age. Dr. Middleton had
+refused to give him a larger monthly allowance than the rest of his
+companions; but he brought to school with him secretly the sum of five
+guineas. This appeared to his friends and to himself an inexhaustible
+treasure.
+
+Riches and talents would, he flattered himself, secure to him that
+ascendency of which he was so ambitious. 'Am I your manager or not?' was
+now his question. 'I scorn to take advantage of a hasty moment; but
+since last night you have had time to consider. If you desire me to be
+your manager, you shall see what a theatre I will make for you. In this
+purse,' said he, showing through the network a glimpse of the shining
+treasure--'in this purse is Aladdin's wonderful lamp. Am I your manager?
+Put it to the vote.'
+
+It was put to the vote. About ten of the most reasonable of the assembly
+declared their gratitude and high approbation of their old friend, De
+Grey; but the numbers were in favour of the new friend. And as no
+metaphysical distinctions relative to the idea of a majority had ever
+entered their thoughts, the most numerous party considered themselves as
+now beyond dispute in the right. They drew off on one side in triumph,
+and their leader, who knew the consequence of a name in party matters,
+immediately distinguished his partisans by the gallant name of
+_Archers_, stigmatising the friends of De Grey by the odious epithet of
+Greybeards.
+
+Amongst the Archers was a class not very remarkable for their mental
+qualifications; but who, by their bodily activity, and by the peculiar
+advantages annexed to their way of life, rendered themselves of the
+highest consequence, especially to the rich and enterprising.
+
+The judicious reader will apprehend that I allude to the persons called
+day scholars. Amongst these, Fisher was distinguished by his knowledge
+of all the streets and shops in the adjacent town; and, though a dull
+scholar, he had such reputation as a man of business that whoever had
+commissions to execute at the confectioner's was sure to apply to him.
+Some of the youngest of his employers had, it is true, at times
+complained that he made mistakes of halfpence and pence in their
+accounts; but as these affairs could never be brought to a public trial,
+Fisher's character and consequence were undiminished, till the fatal day
+when his Aunt Barbara forbade his visits to the confectioner's; or
+rather, till she requested the confectioner, who had his private reasons
+for obeying her, not _to receive_ her nephew's visits, as he had made
+himself sick at his house, and Mrs. Barbara's fears for his health were
+incessant.
+
+Though his visits to the confectioner's were thus at an end, there were
+many other shops open to him; and with officious zeal he offered his
+services to the new manager, to purchase whatever might be wanting for
+the theatre.
+
+Since his father's death Fisher had become a boarder at Dr. Middleton's,
+but his frequent visits to his Aunt Barbara afforded him opportunities
+of going into the town. The carpenter, De Grey's friend, was discarded
+by Archer, for having said '_lack-a-daisy!_' when he saw that the old
+theatre was pulled down. A new carpenter and paper-hanger, recommended
+by Fisher, were appointed to attend, with their tools, for orders, at
+two o'clock. Archer, impatient to show his ingenuity and his generosity,
+gave his plan and his orders in a few minutes, in a most decided manner.
+'These things,' he observed, 'should be done with some spirit.'
+
+To which the carpenter readily assented, and added that 'gentlemen of
+spirit never looked to the _expense_, but always to the _effect_.' Upon
+this principle Mr. Chip set to work with all possible alacrity. In a few
+hours' time he promised to produce a grand effect. High expectations
+were formed. Nothing was talked of but the new playhouse; and so intent
+upon it was every head, that no lessons could be got. Archer was
+obliged, in the midst of his various occupations, to perform the part of
+grammar and dictionary for twenty different people.
+
+'O ye Athenians!' he exclaimed, 'how hard do I work to obtain your
+praise!'
+
+Impatient to return to the theatre, the moment the hours destined for
+instruction, or, as they are termed by schoolboys, school-hours, were
+over each prisoner started up with a shout of joy.
+
+'Stop one moment, gentlemen, if you please,' said Dr. Middleton, in an
+awful voice. 'Mr. Archer, return to your place. Are you all here?' The
+names of all the boys were called over, and when each had answered to
+his name, Dr. Middleton said--
+
+'Gentlemen, I am sorry to interrupt your amusements; but, till you have
+contrary orders from me, no one, on pain of my serious displeasure, must
+go into _that_ building' (pointing to the place where the theatre was
+erecting). 'Mr. Archer, your carpenter is at the door. You will be so
+good as to dismiss him. I do not think proper to give my reasons for
+these orders; but you who _know_ me,' said the doctor, and his eye
+turned towards De Grey, 'will not suspect me of caprice. I depend,
+gentlemen, upon your obedience.'
+
+To the dead silence with which these orders were received, succeeded in
+a few minutes a universal groan. 'So!' said Townsend, 'all our diversion
+is over.' 'So,' whispered Fisher in the manager's ear, 'this is some
+trick of the Greybeards'. Did you not observe how he looked at De Grey?'
+
+Fired by this thought, which had never entered his mind before, Archer
+started from his reverie, and striking his hand upon the table, swore
+that he 'would not be outwitted by any Greybeard in Europe--no, nor by
+all of them put together. The Archers were surely a match for them. He
+would stand by them, if they would stand by him,' he declared, with a
+loud voice, 'against the whole world, and Dr. Middleton himself, with
+"_Little Premium_" at his right hand.'
+
+Everybody admired Archer's spirit, but was a little appalled at the
+sound of standing against Dr. Middleton.
+
+'Why not?' resumed the indignant manager. 'Neither Dr. Middleton nor any
+doctor upon earth shall treat me with injustice. This, you see, is a
+stroke at me and my party, and I won't bear it.'
+
+'Oh, you are mistaken!' said De Grey, who was the only one who dared to
+oppose reason to the angry orator. 'It cannot be a stroke aimed at "you
+and your party," for he does not know that you _have_ a party.'
+
+'I'll make him know it, and I'll make _you_ know it, too,' said Archer.
+'Before I came here you reigned alone; now your reign is over, Mr. De
+Grey. Remember my majority this morning, and your theatre last night.'
+
+'He has remembered it,' said Fisher. 'You see, the moment he was not to
+be our manager, we were to have no theatre, no playhouse, no plays. We
+must all sit down with our hands before us--all for "_good reasons_" of
+Dr. Middleton's, which he does not vouchsafe to tell us.'
+
+'I won't be governed by any man's reasons that he won't tell me,' cried
+Archer. 'He cannot have good reasons, or why not tell them?' 'Nonsense!'
+said De Grey. '_We shall not suspect him of caprice!_' 'Why not?'
+'Because we who know him have never known him capricious.' 'Perhaps not.
+_I_ know nothing about him,' said Archer. 'No,' said De Grey; 'for that
+very reason _I_ speak who do know him. Don't be in a passion, Archer.'
+'I will be in a passion. I won't submit to tyranny. I won't be made a
+fool of by a few soft words. You don't know me, De Grey. I'll go through
+with what I've begun. I am manager, and I will be manager; and you shall
+see my theatre finished in spite of you, and _my_ party triumphant.'
+
+'Party,' repeated De Grey. 'I cannot imagine what is in the word "party"
+that seems to drive you mad. We never heard of parties till you came
+amongst us.'
+
+'No; before I came, I say, nobody dared oppose you; but _I_ dare; and I
+tell you to your face, take care of me--a warm friend and a bitter enemy
+is my motto.' 'I am not your enemy! I believe you are out of your
+senses, Archer!' said he, laughing. 'Out of my senses! No; you are my
+enemy! Are you not my rival? Did you not win the premium? Did not you
+want to be manager? Answer me, are not you, in one word, a Greybeard?'
+'You called me a Greybeard, but my name is De Grey,' said he, still
+laughing. 'Laugh on!' cried the other, furiously. 'Come, _Archers_,
+follow me. _We_ shall laugh by-and-by, I promise you.' At the door
+Archer was stopped by Mr. Chip. 'Oh, Mr. Chip, I am ordered to discharge
+you.' 'Yes, sir; and here's a little bill----' 'Bill, Mr. Chip! why, you
+have not been at work for two hours!' 'Not much over, sir; but if
+you'll please to look into it, you'll see 'tis for a few things you
+ordered. The stuff is all laid out and delivered. The paper and the
+festoon-bordering for the drawing-room scene is cut out, and left
+y_a_nder within.' 'Y_a_nder within! I wish you had not been in such a
+confounded hurry--six-and-twenty shillings!' cried he; 'but I can't stay
+to talk about it now. I'll tell you, Mr. Chip,' said Archer, lowering
+his voice, 'what you must do for me, my good fellow.'
+
+Then, drawing Mr. Chip aside, he begged him to pull down some of the
+woodwork which had been put up, and to cut it into a certain number of
+wooden bars, of which he gave him the dimensions, with orders to place
+them all, when ready, under a haystack, which he pointed out.
+
+Mr. Chip scrupled and hesitated, and began to talk of '_the doctor_.'
+Archer immediately began to talk of the bill, and throwing down a guinea
+and a half, the conscientious carpenter pocketed the money directly, and
+made his bow.
+
+'Well, Master Archer,' said he, 'there's no refusing you nothing. You
+have such a way of talking one out of it. You manage me just like a
+child.'
+
+'Ay, ay!' said Archer, knowing that he had been cheated, and yet proud
+of managing a carpenter, 'ay, ay! I know the way to manage everybody.
+Let the things be ready in an hour's time; and hark'e! leave your tools
+by mistake behind you, and a thousand of twenty-penny nails. Ask no
+questions, and keep your own counsel like a wise man. Off with you, and
+take care of "_the doctor_."'
+
+'Archers, Archers, to the Archers' tree! Follow your leader,' cried he,
+sounding his well-known whistle as a signal. His followers gathered
+round him, and he, raising himself upon the mount at the foot of the
+tree, counted his numbers, and then, in a voice lower than usual,
+addressed them thus:--'My friends, is there a Greybeard amongst us? If
+there is, let him walk off at once, he has my free leave.' No one
+stirred. 'Then we are all Archers, and we will stand by one another.
+Join hands, my friends.' They all joined hands. 'Promise me not to
+betray me, and I will go on. I ask no security but your honour.' They
+all gave their honour to be secret and _faithful_, as he called it, and
+he went on. 'Did you ever hear of such a thing as a "_Barring Out_," my
+friends?' They had heard of such a thing, but they had only heard of
+it.
+
+Archer gave the history of a 'Barring Out' in which he had been
+concerned at his school, in which the boys stood out against the master,
+and gained their point at last, which was a week's more holidays at
+Easter.[16] 'But if _we_ should not succeed,' said they, 'Dr. Middleton
+is so steady; he never goes back from what he has said.' 'Did you ever
+try to push him back? Let us be steady and he'll tremble. Tyrants always
+tremble when----' 'Oh,' interrupted a number of voices, 'but he is not a
+tyrant--is he?' 'All schoolmasters are tyrants--are not they?' replied
+Archer; 'and is not he a schoolmaster?' To this logic there was no
+answer; but, still reluctant, they asked, 'What they should _get_ by a
+Barring Out?' 'Get!--everything!--what we want!--which is everything to
+lads of spirit--victory and liberty! Bar him out till he repeals his
+tyrannical law; till he lets us into our own theatre again, or till he
+tells us his "_good reasons_" against it.' 'But perhaps he has reasons
+for not telling us.' 'Impossible!' cried Archer; 'that's the way we are
+always to be governed by a man in a wig, who says he has good reasons,
+and can't tell them. Are you fools? Go! go back to De Grey! I see you
+are all Greybeards. Go! Who goes first?' Nobody would go _first_. 'I
+will have nothing to do with ye, if ye are resolved to be slaves!' 'We
+won't be slaves!' they all exclaimed at once. 'Then,' said Archer,
+'stand out in the right and be free.'
+
+  [16] This custom of 'BARRING OUT' was very general (especially in the
+       northern parts of England) during the 17th and 18th centuries,
+       and it has been fully described by Brand and other antiquarian
+       writers.
+
+Dr. Johnson mentions that Addison, while under the tuition of Mr. Shaw,
+master of the Lichfield Grammar School, led, and successfully conducted,
+'a plan for _barring out_ his master. A disorderly privilege,' says the
+doctor, 'which, in his time, prevailed in the principal seminaries of
+education.'
+
+In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1828, Dr. P. A. Nuttall, under the
+signature of P. A. N., has given a spirited sketch of a 'BARRING OUT' at
+the Ormskirk Grammar School, which has since been republished at length
+(though without acknowledgment) by Sir Henry Ellis, in Bonn's recent
+edition of Brand's _Popular Antiquities_. This operation took place
+early in the present century, and is interesting from its being,
+perhaps, the last attempt on record, and also from the circumstance of
+the writer himself having been one of the juvenile leaders in the daring
+adventure, 'quorum pars magna fuit.'--ED.
+
+'_The right._' It would have taken up too much time to examine what 'the
+right' was. Archer was always sure that '_the right_' was what his
+party chose to do; that is, what he chose to do himself; and such is the
+influence of numbers upon each other, in conquering the feelings of
+shame and in confusing the powers of reasoning, that in a few minutes
+'the right' was forgotten, and each said to himself, 'To be sure, Archer
+is a very clever boy, and he can't be mistaken'; or, 'To be sure,
+Townsend thinks so, and he would not do anything to get us into a
+scrape'; or, 'To be sure, everybody will agree to this but myself, and I
+can't stand out alone, to be pointed at as a Greybeard and a slave.
+Everybody thinks it is right, and everybody can't be wrong.'
+
+By some of these arguments, which passed rapidly through the mind
+without his being conscious of them, each boy decided, and deceived
+himself--what none would have done alone, none scrupled to do as a
+party. It was determined, then, that there should be a Barring Out. The
+arrangement of the affair was left to their new manager, to whom they
+all pledged implicit obedience. Obedience, it seems, is necessary, even
+from rebels to their ringleaders; not reasonable, but implicit
+obedience.
+
+Scarcely had the assembly adjourned to the Ball-alley, when Fisher, with
+an important length of face, came up to the manager, and desired to
+speak one word to him. 'My advice to you, Archer, is, to do nothing in
+this till we have consulted _you know who_, about whether it's right or
+wrong.' '"_You know who_"! Whom do you mean? Make haste, and don't make
+so many faces, for I'm in a hurry. Who is "_You know who_"?' 'The old
+woman,' said Fisher, gravely; 'the gipsy.' 'You may consult the old
+woman,' said Archer, bursting out a-laughing, 'about what's right and
+wrong, if you please, but no old woman shall decide for me.' 'No; but
+you don't _take_ me,' said Fisher; 'you don't _take_ me. By right and
+wrong, I mean lucky and unlucky.' 'Whatever _I_ do will be lucky,'
+replied Archer. 'My gipsy told you that already.' 'I know, I know,' said
+Fisher, 'and what she said about your friends being lucky--that went a
+great way with many,' added he, with a sagacious nod of his head, 'I can
+tell you _that_--more than you think. Do you know,' said he, laying hold
+of Archer's button, 'I'm in the secret? There are nine of us have
+crooked our little fingers upon it, not to stir a step till we get her
+advice; and she has appointed me to meet her about particular business
+of my own at eight. So I'm to consult her and to bring her answer.'
+
+Archer knew too well how to govern fools to attempt to reason with them;
+and, instead of laughing any longer at Fisher's ridiculous superstition,
+he was determined to take advantage of it. He affected to be persuaded
+of the wisdom of the measure; looked at his watch; urged him to be exact
+to a moment; conjured him to remember exactly the words of the oracle;
+and, above all things, to demand the lucky hour and minute when the
+Barring Out should begin. With these instructions Archer put his watch
+into the solemn dupe's hand, and left him to count the seconds till the
+moment of his appointment, whilst he ran off himself to prepare the
+oracle.
+
+At a little gate which looked into a lane, through which he guessed that
+the gipsy must pass, he stationed himself, saw her, gave her
+half-a-crown and her instructions, made his escape, and got back
+unsuspected to Fisher, whom he found in the attitude in which he had
+left him, watching the motion of the minute hand.
+
+Proud of his secret commission, Fisher slouched his hat, he knew not
+why, over his face, and proceeded towards the appointed spot. To keep,
+as he had been charged by Archer, within the letter of the law, he stood
+_behind_ the forbidden building, and waited some minutes.
+
+Through a gap in the hedge the old woman at length made her appearance,
+muffled up, and looking cautiously about her. 'There's nobody near us!'
+said Fisher, and he began to be a little afraid. 'What answer,' said he,
+recollecting himself, 'about my Livy?' 'Lost! lost! lost!' said the
+gipsy, lifting up her hands; 'never, never, never to be found! But no
+matter for that now: that is not your errand to-night; no tricks with
+me; speak to me of what is next your heart.'
+
+Fisher, astonished, put his hand upon his heart, told her all that she
+knew before, and received the answers that Archer had dictated: 'That
+the Archers should be lucky as long as they stuck to their manager and
+to one another; that the Barring Out should end in woe, if not begun
+precisely as the clock should strike nine on Wednesday night; but if
+begun in that _lucky_ moment, and all obedient to their _lucky_ leader,
+all should end well.'
+
+A thought, a provident thought, now struck Fisher; for even he had some
+foresight where his favourite passion was concerned. 'Pray, in our
+Barring Out shall we be starved?' 'No,' said the gipsy, 'not if you
+trust to me for food, and if you give me money enough. Silver won't do
+for so many; gold is what must cross my hand.' 'I have no gold,' said
+Fisher, 'and I don't know what you mean by "so many." I'm only talking
+of number one, you know. I must take care of that first.'
+
+So, as Fisher thought it was possible that Archer, clever as he was,
+might be disappointed in his supplies, he determined to take secret
+measures for himself. His Aunt Barbara's interdiction had shut him out
+of the confectioner's shop; but he flattered himself that he could
+outwit his aunt; he therefore begged the gipsy to procure him twelve
+buns by Thursday morning, and bring them secretly to one of the windows
+of the schoolroom.
+
+As Fisher did not produce any money when he made this proposal, it was
+at first absolutely rejected; but a bribe at length conquered his
+difficulties: and the bribe which Fisher found himself obliged to
+give--for he had no pocket money left of his own, he being as much
+_restricted_ in that article as Archer was _indulged_--the bribe that he
+found himself obliged to give to quiet the gipsy was half-a-crown, which
+Archer had entrusted to him to buy candles for the theatre. 'Oh,'
+thought he to himself, 'Archer's so careless about money, he will never
+think of asking me for the half-crown again; and now he'll want no
+candles for the _theatre_; or, at any rate, it will be some time first;
+and maybe Aunt Barbara may be got to give me that much at Christmas;
+then, if the worst comes to the worst, one can pay Archer. My mouth
+waters for the buns, and have 'em I must now.'
+
+So, for the hope of twelve buns, he sacrificed the money which had been
+entrusted to him. Thus the meanest motives, in mean minds, often prompt
+to the commission of those great faults to which one should think
+nothing but some violent passion could have tempted.
+
+The ambassador having thus, in his opinion, concluded his own and the
+public business, returned well satisfied with the result, after
+receiving the gipsy's reiterated promise to tap _three times_ at the
+window on Thursday morning.
+
+The day appointed for the Barring Out at length arrived; and Archer,
+assembling the confederates, informed them that all was prepared for
+carrying their design into execution; that he now depended for success
+upon their punctuality and courage. He had, within the last two hours,
+got all their bars ready to fasten the doors and window shutters of the
+schoolroom; he had, with the assistance of two of the day scholars who
+were of the party, sent into the town for provisions, at his own
+expense, which would make a handsome supper for that night; he had also
+negotiated with some cousins of his, who lived in the town, for a
+constant supply in future. 'Bless me,' exclaimed Archer, suddenly
+stopping in this narration of his services, 'there's one thing, after
+all, I've forgot, we shall be undone without it. Fisher, pray did you
+ever buy the candles for the playhouse?' 'No, to be sure,' replied
+Fisher, extremely frightened; 'you know you don't want candles for the
+playhouse now.' 'Not for the playhouse, but for the Barring Out. We
+shall be in the dark, man. You must run this minute, run.' 'For
+candles?' said Fisher, confused; 'how many?--what sort?' 'Stupidity!'
+exclaimed Archer, 'you are a pretty fellow at a dead lift! Lend me a
+pencil and a bit of paper, do; I'll write down what I want myself! Well,
+what are you fumbling for?' 'For money!' said Fisher, colouring. 'Money,
+man! Didn't I give you half-a-crown the other day?' 'Yes,' replied
+Fisher, stammering; 'but I wasn't sure that that might be enough.'
+'Enough! yes, to be sure it will. I don't know what you are _at_.'
+'Nothing, nothing,' said Fisher; 'here, write upon this, then,' said
+Fisher, putting a piece of paper into Archer's hand, upon which Archer
+wrote his orders. 'Away, away!' cried he.
+
+Away went Fisher. He returned; but not until a considerable time
+afterwards. They were at supper when he returned. 'Fisher always comes
+in at supper-time,' observed one of the Greybeards, carelessly. 'Well,
+and would you have him come in _after_ supper-time?' said Townsend, who
+always supplied his party with ready _wit_. 'I've got the candles,'
+whispered Fisher as he passed by Archer to his place. 'And the
+tinder-box?' said Archer. 'Yes; I got back from my Aunt Barbara under
+pretence that I must study for repetition day an hour later to-night. So
+I got leave. Was not that clever?'
+
+A dunce always thinks it clever to cheat even by _sober lies_. How Mr.
+Fisher procured the candles and the tinder-box without money and without
+credit we shall discover further on.
+
+Archer and his associates had agreed to stay the last in the schoolroom;
+and as soon as the Greybeards were gone out to bed, he, as the signal,
+was to shut and lock one door, Townsend the other. A third conspirator
+was to strike a light, in case they should not be able to secure a
+candle. A fourth was to take charge of the candle as soon as lighted;
+and all the rest were to run to their bars, which were secreted in a
+room; then to fix them to the common fastening bars of the window, in
+the manner in which they had been previously instructed by the manager.
+Thus each had his part assigned, and each was warned that the success of
+the whole depended upon their order and punctuality.
+
+Order and punctuality, it appears, are necessary even in a Barring Out;
+and even rebellion must have its laws.
+
+The long-expected moment at length arrived. De Grey and his friends,
+unconscious of what was going forward, walked out of the schoolroom as
+usual at bedtime. The clock began to strike nine. There was one
+Greybeard left in the room, who was packing up some of his books, which
+had been left about by accident. It is impossible to describe the
+impatience with which he was watched, especially by Fisher and the nine
+who depended upon the gipsy oracle.
+
+When he had got all his books together under his arm, he let one of them
+fall; and whilst he stooped to pick it up, Archer gave the signal. The
+doors were shut, locked, and double-locked in an instant. A light was
+struck and each ran to his post. The bars were all in the same moment
+put up to the windows, and Archer, when he had tried them all, and seen
+that they were secure, gave a loud 'Huzza!'--in which he was joined by
+all the party most manfully--by all but the poor Greybeard, who, the
+picture of astonishment, stood stock still in the midst of them with his
+books under his arm; at which spectacle Townsend, who enjoyed the
+_frolic_ of the fray more than anything else, burst into an immoderate
+fit of laughter. 'So, my little Greybeard,' said he, holding a candle
+full in his eyes, 'what think you of all this?--How came you amongst the
+wicked ones?' 'I don't know, indeed,' said the little boy, very gravely;
+'you shut me up amongst you. Won't you let me out?' 'Let you out! No,
+no, my little Greybeard,' said Archer, catching hold of him and dragging
+him to the window bars. 'Look ye here--touch these--put your hand to
+them--pull, push, kick--put a little spirit into it, man--kick like an
+Archer, if you can; away with ye. It's a pity that the king of the
+Greybeards is not here to admire me. I should like to show him our
+fortifications. But come, my merry men all, now to the feast. Out with
+the table into the middle of the room. Good cheer, my jolly Archers! I'm
+your manager!'
+
+Townsend, delighted with the bustle, rubbed his hands and capered about
+the room, whilst the preparations for the feast were hurried forward.
+'Four candles!--Four candles on the table. Let's have things in style
+when we are about it, Mr. Manager,' cried Townsend. 'Places!--Places!
+There's nothing like a fair scramble, my boys. Let every one take care
+of himself. Hallo, Greybeard! I've knocked Greybeard down here in the
+scuffle. Get up again, my lad, and see a little life.'
+
+'No, no,' cried Fisher, 'he shan't _sup_ with us.' 'No, no,' cried the
+manager, 'he shan't _live_ with us; a Greybeard is not fit company for
+Archers.' 'No, no,' cried Townsend, 'evil communication corrupts good
+manners.'
+
+So with one unanimous hiss they hunted the poor little gentle boy into a
+corner; and having pent him up with benches, Fisher opened his books for
+him, which he thought the greatest mortification, and set up a candle
+beside him. 'There, now he looks like a Greybeard as he is!' cried they.
+'Tell me what's the Latin for cold roast beef?' said Fisher, exultingly,
+and they returned to their feast.
+
+Long and loud they revelled. They had a few bottles of cider. 'Give me
+the corkscrew, the cider shan't be kept till it's sour,' cried Townsend,
+in answer to the manager, who, when he beheld the provisions vanishing
+with surprising rapidity, began to fear for the morrow. 'Hang
+to-morrow!' cried Townsend, 'let Greybeards think of to-morrow; Mr.
+Manager, here's your good health.'
+
+The Archers all stood up as their cups were filled, to drink the health
+of their chief with a universal cheer. But at the moment that the cups
+were at their lips, and as Archer bowed to thank the company, a sudden
+shower from above astonished the whole assembly. They looked up, and
+beheld the rose of a watering-engine, whose long neck appeared through a
+trap-door in the ceiling. 'Your good health, Mr. Manager!' said a voice,
+which was known to be the gardener's; and in the midst of their surprise
+and dismay the candles were suddenly extinguished; the trap-door shut
+down; and they were left in utter darkness.
+
+'The _Devil_!' said Archer. 'Don't swear, Mr. Manager,' said the same
+voice from the ceiling, 'I hear every word you say.' 'Mercy upon us!'
+exclaimed Fisher. 'The clock,' added he, whispering, 'must have been
+wrong, for it had not done striking when we began. Only, you remember,
+Archer, it had just done before you had done locking your door.' 'Hold
+your tongue, blockhead!' said Archer. 'Well, boys! were ye never in the
+dark before? You are not afraid of a shower of rain, I hope. Is anybody
+drowned?' 'No,' said they, with a faint laugh, 'but what shall we do
+here in the dark all night long, and all day to-morrow? We can't unbar
+the shutters.' 'It's a wonder _nobody_ ever thought of the trap-door!'
+said Townsend.
+
+The trap-door had indeed escaped the manager's observation. As the house
+was new to him, and the ceiling being newly whitewashed, the opening was
+scarcely perceptible. Vexed to be out-generalled, and still more vexed
+to have it remarked, Archer poured forth a volley of incoherent
+exclamations and reproaches against those who were thus so soon
+discouraged by a trifle; and groping for the tinder-box, he asked if
+anything could be easier than to strike a light again.[17] The light
+appeared. But at the moment that it made the tinder-box visible, another
+shower from above, aimed, and aimed exactly, at the tinder-box, drenched
+it with water, and rendered it totally unfit for further service. Archer
+in a fury dashed it to the ground. And now for the first time he felt
+what it was to be the unsuccessful head of a party. He heard in his turn
+the murmurs of a discontented, changeable populace; and recollecting all
+his bars and bolts, and ingenious contrivances, he was more provoked at
+their blaming him for this one only oversight than he was grieved at the
+disaster itself.
+
+  [17] Lucifer matches were then unknown.--ED.
+
+'Oh, my hair is all wet!' cried one, dolefully. 'Wring it then,' said
+Archer. 'My hand's cut with your broken glass,' cried another. 'Glass!'
+cried a third; 'mercy! is there broken glass? and it's all about, I
+suppose, amongst the supper; and I had but one bit of bread all the
+time.' 'Bread!' cried Archer; 'eat if you want it. Here's a piece here,
+and no glass near it.' 'It's all wet, and I don't like dry bread by
+itself; that's no feast.'
+
+'Heigh-day! What, nothing but moaning and grumbling! If these are the
+joys of _a Barring Out_,' cried Townsend, 'I'd rather be snug in my bed.
+I expected that we should have sat up till twelve o'clock, talking, and
+laughing, and singing.' 'So you may still; what hinders you?' said
+Archer. 'Sing, and we'll join you, and I should be glad those fellows
+overhead heard us singing. Begin, Townsend--
+
+  Come, now, all ye social Powers,
+  Spread your influence o'er us--
+
+Or else--
+
+  Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!
+  Britons never will be slaves.'
+
+Nothing can be more melancholy than forced merriment. In vain they
+roared in chorus. In vain they tried to appear gay. It would not do. The
+voices died away, and dropped off one by one. They had each provided
+himself with a greatcoat to sleep upon; but now, in the dark, there was
+a peevish scrambling contest for the coats, and half the company, in
+very bad humour, stretched themselves upon the benches for the night.
+
+There is great pleasure in bearing anything that has the appearance of
+hardship, as long as there is any glory to be acquired by it; but when
+people feel themselves foiled, there is no further pleasure in
+endurance; and if, in their misfortune, there is any mixture of the
+ridiculous, the motives for heroism are immediately destroyed. Dr.
+Middleton had probably considered this in the choice he made of his
+first attack.
+
+Archer, who had spent the night as a man who had the cares of government
+upon his shoulders, rose early in the morning, whilst everybody else was
+fast asleep. In the night he had resolved the affair of the trap-door,
+and a new danger had alarmed him. It was possible that the enemy might
+descend upon them through the trap-door. The room had been built high to
+admit a free circulation of air. It was twenty feet, so that it was in
+vain to think of reaching to the trap-door.
+
+As soon as the daylight appeared, Archer rose softly, that he might
+_reconnoitre_, and devise some method of guarding against this new
+danger. Luckily there were round holes in the top of the
+window-shutters, which admitted sufficient light for him to work by. The
+remains of the soaked feast, wet candles, and broken glass spread over
+the table in the middle of the room, looked rather dismal this morning.
+
+'A pretty set of fellows I have to manage!' said Archer, contemplating
+the group of sleepers before him. 'It is well they have somebody to
+think for them. Now if I wanted--which, thank goodness, I don't--but if
+I did want to call a cabinet council to my assistance, whom could I
+pitch upon?--not this stupid snorer, who is dreaming of gipsies, if he
+is dreaming of anything,' continued Archer, as he looked into Fisher's
+open mouth. 'This next chap is quick enough; but, then, he is so fond of
+having everything his own way. And this curl-pated monkey, who is
+grinning in his sleep, is all tongue and no brains. Here are brains,
+though nobody would think it, in this lump,' said he, looking at a fat,
+rolled up, heavy-breathing sleeper; 'but what signify brains to such a
+lazy dog? I might kick him for my football this half-hour before I
+should get him awake. This lank-jawed harlequin beside him is a handy
+fellow, to be sure; but then, if he has hands, he has no head--and he'd
+be afraid of his own shadow too, by this light, he is such a coward! And
+Townsend, why he has puns in plenty; but, when there's any work to be
+done, he's the worst fellow to be near one in the world--he can do
+nothing but laugh at his own puns. This poor little fellow that we
+hunted into the corner has more sense than all of them put together; but
+then he is a Greybeard.'
+
+Thus speculated the chief of a party upon his sleeping friends. And how
+did it happen that he should be so ambitious to please and govern this
+set, when for each individual of which it was composed he felt such
+supreme contempt? He had formed them into a _party_, had given them a
+name, and he was at their head. If these be not good reasons, none
+better can be assigned for Archer's conduct.
+
+'I wish ye could all sleep on,' said he; 'but I must waken ye, though
+you will be only in my way. The sound of my hammering must waken them;
+so I may as well do the thing handsomely, and flatter some of them by
+pretending to ask their advice.'
+
+Accordingly, he pulled two or three to waken them. 'Come, Townsend,
+waken, my boy! Here's some diversion for you--up! up!'
+
+'Diversion!' cried Townsend; 'I'm your man! I'm up--_up to anything_.'
+
+So, under the name of _diversion_, Archer set Townsend to work at four
+o'clock in the morning. They had nails, a few tools, and several spars,
+still left from the wreck of the playhouse. These, by Archer's
+directions, they sharpened at one end, and nailed them to the ends of
+several forms.
+
+All hands were now called to clear away the supper things, and to erect
+these forms perpendicularly under the trap-door; and with the assistance
+of a few braces, a _chevaux-de-frise_ was formed, upon which nobody
+could venture to descend. At the farthest end of the room they likewise
+formed a penthouse of the tables, under which they proposed to
+breakfast, secure from the pelting storm, if it should again assail them
+through the trap-door. They crowded under the penthouse as soon as it
+was ready, and their admiration of its ingenuity paid the workmen for
+the job.
+
+'Lord! I shall like to see the gardener's phiz through the trap-door,
+when he beholds the spikes under him!' cried Townsend. 'Now for
+breakfast!' 'Ay, now for breakfast,' said Archer, looking at his watch;
+'past eight o'clock, and my town boys not come! I don't understand
+this!'
+
+Archer had expected a constant supply of provisions from two boys who
+lived in the town, who were cousins of his, and who had promised to come
+every day, and put food in at a certain hole in the wall, in which a
+ventilator usually turned. This ventilator Archer had taken down, and
+had contrived it so that it could be easily removed and replaced at
+pleasure; but, upon examination, it was now perceived that the hole had
+been newly stopped up by an iron back, which it was impossible to
+penetrate or remove.
+
+'It never came into my head that anybody would ever have thought of the
+ventilator but myself!' exclaimed Archer, in great perplexity. He
+listened and waited for his cousins; but no cousins came, and at a late
+hour the company were obliged to breakfast upon the scattered fragments
+of the last night's feast. That feast had been spread with such
+imprudent profusion, that little now remained to satisfy the hungry
+guests.
+
+Archer, who well knew the effect which the apprehension of a scarcity
+would have upon his associates, did everything that could be done by a
+bold countenance and reiterated assertions to persuade them that his
+cousins would certainly come at last, and that the supplies were only
+delayed. The delay, however, was alarming.
+
+Fisher alone heard the manager's calculations and saw the public fears
+unmoved. Secretly rejoicing in his own wisdom, he walked from window to
+window, slily listening for the gipsy's signal. 'There it is!' cried he,
+with more joy sparkling in his eyes than had ever enlightened them
+before. 'Come this way, Archer; but don't tell anybody. Hark! do ye hear
+those three taps at the window? This is the old woman with twelve buns
+for me. I'll give you one whole one for yourself, if you will unbar the
+window for me.'
+
+'Unbar the window!' interrupted Archer; 'no, that I won't, for you or
+the gipsy either; but I have heard enough to get your buns without that.
+But stay; there is something of more consequence than your twelve buns.
+I must think for ye all, I see, regularly.'
+
+So he summoned a council, and proposed that every one should subscribe,
+and trust the subscription to the gipsy, to purchase a fresh supply of
+provisions. Archer laid down a guinea of his own money for his
+subscription; at which sight all the company clapped their hands, and
+his popularity rose to a high pitch with their renewed hopes of plenty.
+Now, having made a list of their wants, they folded the money in the
+paper, put it into a bag, which Archer tied to a long string, and,
+having broken the pane of glass behind the round hole in the
+window-shutter, he let down the bag to the gipsy. She promised to be
+punctual, and having filled the bag with Fishers twelve buns, they were
+drawn up in triumph, and everybody anticipated the pleasure with which
+they should see the same bag drawn up at dinner-time. The buns were a
+little squeezed in being drawn through the hole in the window-shutter,
+but Archer immediately sawed out a piece of the shutter, and broke the
+corresponding panes in each of the other windows, to prevent suspicion,
+and to make it appear that they had all been broken to admit air.
+
+What a pity that so much ingenuity should have been employed to no
+purpose!
+
+It may have surprised the intelligent reader that the gipsy was so
+punctual to her promise to Fisher, but we must recollect that her
+apparent integrity was only cunning; she was punctual that she might be
+employed again, that she might be entrusted with the contribution which,
+she foresaw, must be raised amongst the famishing garrison. No sooner
+had she received the money than her end was gained.
+
+Dinner-time came; it struck three, four, five, six. They listened with
+hungry ears, but no signal was heard. The morning had been very long,
+and Archer had in vain tried to dissuade them from devouring the
+remainder of the provisions before they were sure of a fresh supply. And
+now those who had been the most confident were the most impatient of
+their disappointment.
+
+Archer, in the division of the food, had attempted, by the most
+scrupulous exactness, to content the public, and he was both astonished
+and provoked to perceive that his impartiality was impeached. So
+differently do people judge in different situations! He was the first
+person to accuse his master of injustice, and the least capable of
+bearing such an imputation upon himself from others. He now experienced
+some of the joys of power, and the delight of managing unreasonable
+numbers.
+
+'Have not I done everything I could to please you? Have not I spent my
+money to buy you food? Have not I divided the last morsel with you? I
+have not tasted one mouthful to-day! Did not I set to work for you at
+sunrise? Did not I lie awake all night for you? Have not I had all the
+labour and all the anxiety? Look round and see _my_ contrivances, _my_
+work, _my_ generosity! And, after all, you think me a tyrant, because I
+want you to have common sense. Is not this bun which I hold in my hand
+my own? Did not I earn it by my own ingenuity from that selfish dunce
+(pointing to Fisher), who could never have gotten one of his twelve
+buns, if I had not shown him how? Eleven of them he has eaten since
+morning for his own share, without offering any one a morsel; but I
+scorn to eat even what is justly my own, when I see so many hungry
+creatures longing for it. I was not going to touch this last morsel
+myself. I only begged you to keep it till supper-time, when perhaps
+you'll want it more, and Townsend, who can't bear the slightest thing
+that crosses his own whims, and who thinks there's nothing in this world
+to be minded but his own diversion, calls me a _tyrant_. You all of you
+promised to obey me. The first thing I ask you to do for your own good,
+and when, if you had common sense, you must know I can want nothing but
+your good, you rebel against me. Traitors! fools! ungrateful fools!'
+
+Archer walked up and down, unable to command his emotion, whilst, for
+the moment, the discontented multitude was silenced.
+
+'Here,' said he, striking his hand upon the little boy's shoulder,
+'here's the only one amongst you who has not uttered one word of
+reproach or complaint, and he has had but one bit of bread--a bit that I
+gave him myself this day. Here!' said he, snatching the bun, which
+nobody had dared to touch, 'take it--it's mine--I give it to you, though
+you are a Greybeard; you deserve it. Eat it, and be an Archer. You shall
+be my captain; will you?' said he, lifting him up in his arm above the
+rest.
+
+'I like you now,' said the little boy, courageously; 'but I love De Grey
+better; he has always been my friend, and he advised me never to call
+myself any of those names, Archer or Greybeard; so I won't. Though I am
+shut in here, I have nothing to do with it. I love Dr. Middleton; he was
+never unjust to _me_, and I daresay that he has very good reasons, as De
+Grey said, for forbidding us to go into that house. Besides, it's his
+own.'
+
+Instead of admiring the good sense and steadiness of this little lad,
+Archer suffered Townsend to snatch the untasted bun out of his hands. He
+flung it at a hole in the window, but it fell back. The Archers
+scrambled for it, and Fisher ate it.
+
+Archer saw this, and was sensible that he had not done handsomely in
+suffering it. A few moments ago he had admired his own generosity, and
+though he had felt the injustice of others, he had not accused himself
+of any. He turned away from the little boy, and sitting down at one end
+of the table, hid his face in his hands. He continued immovable in this
+posture for some time.
+
+'Lord!' said Townsend; 'it was an excellent joke!' 'Pooh!' said Fisher;
+'what a fool, to think so much about a bun!' 'Never mind, Mr. Archer, if
+you are thinking about me,' said the little boy, trying gently to pull
+his hands from his face.
+
+Archer stooped down and lifted him up upon the table, at which sight the
+partisans set up a general hiss. 'He has forsaken us! He deserts his
+party! He wants to be a Greybeard! After he has got us all into this
+scrape, he will leave us!'
+
+'I am not going to leave you,' cried Archer. 'No one shall ever accuse
+me of deserting my party. I'll stick by the Archers, right or wrong, I
+tell you, to the last moment. But this little fellow--take it as you
+please, mutiny if you will, and throw me out of the window. Call me
+traitor! coward! Greybeard!--this little fellow is worth you all put
+together, and I'll stand by him against any one who dares to lay a
+finger upon him; and the next morsel of food that I see shall be his.
+Touch him who dares!'
+
+The commanding air with which Archer spoke and looked, and the belief
+that the little boy deserved his protection, silenced the crowd. But the
+storm was only hushed.
+
+No sound of merriment was now to be heard--no battledore and
+shuttlecock--no ball, no marbles. Some sat in a corner, whispering their
+wishes that Archer would unbar the doors and give up. Others, stretching
+their arms, and gaping as they sauntered up and down the room, wished
+for air, or food, or water. Fisher and his nine, who had such firm
+dependence upon the gipsy, now gave themselves up to utter despair. It
+was eight o'clock, growing darker and darker every minute, and no
+candles, no light, could they have. The prospect of another long dark
+night made them still more discontented.
+
+Townsend, at the head of the yawners, and Fisher, at the head of the
+hungry malcontents, gathered round Archer and the few yet unconquered
+spirits, demanding 'How long he meant to keep them in this dark dungeon?
+and whether he expected that they should starve themselves for his
+sake?'
+
+The idea of _giving up_ was more intolerable to Archer than all the
+rest. He saw that the majority, his own convincing argument, was against
+him. He was therefore obliged to condescend to the arts of persuasion.
+He flattered some with hopes of food from the town boys. Some he
+reminded of their promises; others he praised for former prowess; and
+others he shamed by the repetition of their high vaunts in the beginning
+of the business.
+
+It was at length resolved that at all events they _would hold out_. With
+this determination they stretched themselves again to sleep, for the
+second night, in weak and weary obstinacy.
+
+Archer slept longer and more soundly than usual the next morning, and
+when he awoke, he found his hands tied behind him! Three or four boys
+had just got hold of his feet, which they pressed down, whilst the
+trembling hands of Fisher were fastening the cord round them.
+
+With all the force which rage could inspire, Archer struggled and roared
+to '_his Archers_!'--his friends, his party--for help against the
+traitors. But all kept aloof. Townsend, in particular, stood laughing
+and looking on. 'I beg your pardon, Archer, but really you look so
+droll. All alive and kicking! Don't be angry. I'm so weak, I cannot help
+laughing to-day.'
+
+The packthread cracked. 'His hands are free! He's loose!' cried the
+least of the boys, and ran away, whilst Archer leaped up, and seizing
+hold of Fisher with a powerful grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by
+this?'
+
+'Ask my party,' said Fisher, terrified; 'they set me on; ask my party.'
+
+'Your party!' cried Archer, with a look of ineffable contempt; 'you
+reptile!--_your_ party? Can such a thing as _you_ have a party?'
+
+'To be sure!' said Fisher, settling his collar, which Archer in his
+surprise had let go; 'to be sure! Why not? Any man who chooses it may
+have a party as well as yourself, I suppose. I have nine Fishermen.'
+
+At these words, spoken with much sullen importance, Archer, in spite of
+his vexation, could not help laughing. 'Fishermen!' cried he,
+'_Fishermen!_' 'And why not Fishermen as well as Archers?' cried they.
+'One party is just as good as another; it is only a question which can
+get the upper hand; and we had your hands tied just now.'
+
+'That's right, Townsend,' said Archer, 'laugh on, my boy! Friend or foe,
+it's all the same to you. I know how to value your friendship now. You
+are a mighty good fellow when the sun shines; but let a storm come, and
+how you slink away!'
+
+At this instant, Archer felt the difference between _a good companion_
+and a good friend, a difference which some people do not discover till
+late in life.
+
+[Illustration: _Archer leaped-up, and seizing hold of Fisher with a
+powerful grasp, sternly demanded 'What he meant by this?'_]
+
+'Have I no friend?--no real friend amongst you all? And could ye stand
+by and see my hands tied behind me like a thief's? What signifies such a
+party--all mute?'
+
+'We want something to eat,' answered the Fishermen. 'What signifies
+_such_ a party, indeed? and _such_ a manager, who can do nothing for
+one?'
+
+'And have _I_ done nothing?'
+
+'Don't let's hear any more prosing,' said Fisher; 'we are too many for
+you. I've advised my party, if they've a mind not to be starved, to give
+you up for the ringleader, as you were; and Dr. Middleton will not let
+us all off, I daresay.' So, depending upon the sullen silence of the
+assembly, he again approached Archer with a cord. A cry of 'No, no, no!
+Don't tie him,' was feebly raised.
+
+Archer stood still, but the moment Fisher touched him, he knocked him
+down to the ground, and turning to the rest, with eyes sparkling with
+indignation, 'Archers!' cried he. A voice at this instant was heard at
+the door. It was De Grey's voice. 'I have got a large basket of
+provisions for your breakfast.' A general shout of joy was sent forth by
+the voracious public. 'Breakfast! Provisions! A large basket! De Grey
+for ever! Huzza!'
+
+De Grey promised, upon his honour, that if he would unbar the door
+nobody should come in with him, and no advantage should be taken of
+them. This promise was enough even for Archer. 'I will let him in,' said
+he, 'myself; for I'm sure he'll never break his word.' He pulled away
+the bar; the door opened; and having bargained for the liberty of
+Melsom, the little boy who had been shut in by mistake, De Grey entered
+with his basket of provisions, when he locked and barred the door
+instantly.
+
+Joy and gratitude sparkled in every face when he unpacked his basket and
+spread the table with a plentiful breakfast. A hundred questions were
+asked him at once. 'Eat first,' said he, 'and we will talk afterwards.'
+This business was quickly despatched by those who had not tasted food
+for a long while. Their curiosity increased as their hunger diminished.
+'Who sent us breakfast? Does Dr. Middleton know?' were questions
+reiterated from every mouth.
+
+'He does know,' answered De Grey; 'and the first thing I have to tell
+you is, that I am your fellow-prisoner. I am to stay here till you give
+up. This was the only condition on which Dr. Middleton would allow me to
+bring you food, and he will allow no more.'
+
+Every one looked at the empty basket. But Archer, in whom
+half-vanquished party spirit revived with the strength he had got from
+his breakfast, broke into exclamations in praise of De Grey's
+magnanimity, as he now imagined that De Grey had become one of
+themselves.
+
+'And you will join us, will you? That's a noble fellow!' 'No,' answered
+De Grey, calmly; 'but I hope to persuade, or rather to convince you,
+that you ought to join me.' 'You would have found it no hard task to
+have persuaded or convinced us, whichever you pleased,' said Townsend,
+'if you had appealed to Archers fasting; but Archers feasting are quite
+other animals. Even Caesar himself, after breakfast, is quite another
+thing!' added he, pointing to Archer. 'You may speak for yourself, Mr.
+Townsend,' replied the insulted hero, 'but not for me, or for Archers in
+general, if you please. We unbarred the door upon the faith of De Grey's
+promise--_that_ was not giving up. And it would have been just as
+difficult, I promise you, to persuade or convince me either that I
+should give up against my honour before breakfast as after.'
+
+This spirited speech was applauded by many, who had now forgotten the
+feelings of famine. Not so Fisher, whose memory was upon this occasion
+very distinct.
+
+'What nonsense,' and the orator paused for a synonymous expression, but
+none was at hand. 'What nonsense and--nonsense is here! Why, don't you
+remember that dinner-time, and supper-time, and breakfast-time will come
+again? So what signifies mouthing about persuading and convincing? We
+will not go through again what we did yesterday! Honour me no honour. I
+don't understand it. I'd rather be flogged at once, as I have been
+many's the good time for a less thing. I say, we'd better all be flogged
+at once, which must be the end of it sooner or later, than wait here to
+be without dinner, breakfast, and supper, all only because Mr. Archer
+won't give up because of his honour and nonsense!'
+
+Many prudent faces amongst the Fishermen seemed to deliberate at the
+close of this oration, in which the arguments were brought so 'home to
+each man's business and bosom.'
+
+'But,' said De Grey, 'when we yield, I hope it will not be merely to get
+our dinner, gentlemen. When we yield, Archer----' 'Don't address
+yourself to me,' interrupted Archer, struggling with his pride; 'you
+have no further occasion to try to win me. I have no power, no party,
+you see! And now I find that I have no friends, I don't care what
+becomes of myself. I suppose I'm to be given up as a ringleader. Here's
+this Fisher, and a party of his Fishermen, were going to tie me hand and
+foot, if I had not knocked him down, just as you came to the door, De
+Grey; and now perhaps you will join Fisher's party against me.'
+
+De Grey was going to assure him that he had no intention of joining any
+party, when a sudden change appeared on Archer's countenance. 'Silence!'
+cried Archer, in an imperious tone, and there was silence. Some one was
+heard to whistle the beginning of a tune, that was perfectly new to
+everybody present except to Archer, who immediately whistled the
+conclusion. 'There!' cried he, looking at De Grey with triumph; 'that's
+a method of holding secret correspondence, whilst a prisoner, which I
+learned from "Richard Coeur de Lion." I know how to make use of
+everything. Hallo! friend! are you there at last?' cried he, going to
+the ventilator. 'Yes, but we are barred out here.' 'Round to the window
+then, and fill our bag. We'll let it down, my lad, in a trice; bar me
+out who can!'
+
+Archer let down the bag with all the expedition of joy, and it was
+filled with all the expedition of fear. 'Pull away! make haste, for
+Heaven's sake!' said the voice from without; 'the gardener will come
+from dinner, else, and we shall be caught. He mounted guard all
+yesterday at the ventilator; and though I watched and watched till it
+was darker than pitch, I could not get near you. I don't know what has
+taken him out of the way now. Make haste, pull away!' The heavy bag was
+soon pulled up. 'Have you any more?' said Archer. 'Yes, plenty. Let down
+quick! I've got the tailor's bag full, which is three times as large as
+yours, and I've changed clothes with the tailor's boy; so nobody took
+notice of me as I came down the street.'
+
+'There's my own cousin!' exclaimed Archer, 'there's a noble fellow!
+there's my own cousin, I acknowledge. Fill the bag, then.' Several times
+the bag descended and ascended; and at every unlading of the crane,
+fresh acclamations were heard. 'I have no more!' at length the boy with
+the tailor's bag cried. 'Off with you, then; we've enough, and thank
+you.'
+
+A delightful review was now made of their treasure. Busy hands arranged
+and sorted the heterogeneous mass. Archer, in the height of his glory,
+looked on, the acknowledged master of the whole. Townsend, who, in his
+prosperity as in adversity, saw and enjoyed the comic foibles of his
+friends, pushed De Grey, who was looking on with a more good-natured and
+more thoughtful air. 'Friend,' said he, 'you look like a great
+philosopher, and Archer a great hero.' 'And you, Townsend,' said Archer,
+'may look like a wit, if you will; but you will never be a hero.' 'No,
+no,' replied Townsend; 'wits were never heroes, because they are wits.
+You are out of your wits, and therefore may set up for a hero.' 'Laugh,
+and welcome. I'm not a tyrant. I don't want to restrain anybody's wit;
+but I cannot say I admire puns.' 'Nor I, either,' said the time-serving
+Fisher, sidling up to the manager, and picking the ice off a piece of
+plum-cake, 'nor I either; I hate puns. I can never understand Townsend's
+_puns_. Besides, anybody can make puns; and one doesn't want wit,
+either, at all times; for instance, when one is going to settle about
+dinner, or business of consequence. Bless us all, Archer!' continued he,
+with sudden familiarity, '_what a sight of good things are here_! I'm
+sure we are much obliged to you and your cousin. I never thought he'd
+have come. Why, now we can hold out as long as you please. Let us see,'
+said he, dividing the provisions upon the table; 'we can hold out
+to-day, and all to-morrow, and part of next day, maybe. Why, now we may
+defy the doctor and the Greybeards. The doctor will surely give up to
+us; for, you see, he knows nothing of all this, and he'll think we are
+starving all this while; and he'd be afraid, you see, to let us starve
+quite, in reality, for three whole days, because of what would be said
+in the town. My Aunt Barbara, for one, would be _at him_ long before
+that time was out; and besides, you know, in that case, he'd be hanged
+for murder, which is quite another thing, in law, from a _Barring Out_,
+you know.'
+
+Archer had not given to this harangue all the attention which it
+deserved, for his eye was fixed upon De Grey. 'What is De Grey thinking
+of?' he asked, impatiently. 'I am thinking,' said De Grey, 'that Dr.
+Middleton must believe that I have betrayed his confidence in me. The
+gardener was ordered away from his watch-post for one half-hour when I
+was admitted. This half-hour the gardener has made nearly an hour. I
+never would have come near you if I had foreseen all this. Dr. Middleton
+trusted me, and now he will repent of his confidence in me.' 'De Grey!'
+cried Archer, with energy, 'he shall not repent of his confidence in
+you--nor shall you repent of coming amongst us. You shall find that we
+have some honour as well as yourself, and I will take care of your
+honour as if it were my _own_!' 'Hey-day!' interrupted Townsend; 'are
+heroes allowed to change sides, pray? And does the chief of the Archers
+stand talking sentiment to the chief of the Greybeards? In the middle of
+his own party too!' 'Party!' repeated Archer, disdainfully; 'I have done
+with parties! I see what parties are made of! I have felt the want of a
+friend, and I am determined to make one if I can.' 'That you may do,'
+said De Grey, stretching out his hand.
+
+'Unbar the doors! unbar the windows!' exclaimed Archer. 'Away with all
+these things! I give up for De Grey's sake. He shall not lose his credit
+on my account.' 'No,' said De Grey, 'you shall not give up for my sake.'
+'Well, then, I'll give up to do what is _honourable_,' said Archer. 'Why
+not to do what is _reasonable_?' said De Grey. '_Reasonable!_ Oh, the
+first thing that a man of spirit should think of is, what is
+_honourable_.' 'But how will he find out _what is_ honourable, unless he
+can reason?' replied De Grey. 'Oh,' said Archer, 'his own feelings
+always tell him what is honourable.' 'Have not _your feelings_,' asked
+De Grey, 'changed within these few hours?' 'Yes, with circumstances,'
+replied Archer; 'but, right or wrong, as long as I think it honourable
+to do so and so, I'm satisfied.' 'But you cannot think anything
+honourable, or the contrary,' observed De Grey, 'without reasoning; and
+as to what you call feeling, it's only a quick sort of reasoning.' 'The
+quicker the better,' said Archer. 'Perhaps not,' said De Grey. 'We are
+apt to reason best when we are not in quite so great a hurry.' 'But,'
+said Archer, 'we have not always time enough to reason _at first_.' 'You
+must, however, acknowledge,' replied De Grey, smiling, 'that no man but
+a fool thinks it honourable to be in the wrong _at last_. Is it not,
+therefore, best to begin by reasoning to find out the right _at first_?'
+'To be sure,' said Archer. 'And did you reason with yourself at first?
+And did you find out that it was right to bar Dr. Middleton out of his
+own schoolroom, because he desired you not to go into one of his own
+houses?' 'No,' replied Archer; 'but I should never have thought of
+heading a Barring Out, if he had not shown partiality; and if you had
+flown into a passion with me openly at once for pulling down your
+scenery, which would have been quite natural, and not have gone slily
+and forbid us the house out of revenge, there would have been none of
+this work.' 'Why,' said De Grey, 'should you suspect me of such a mean
+action, when you have never seen or known me do anything mean, and when
+in this instance you have no proofs?' 'Will you give me your word and
+honour now, De Grey, before everybody here, that you did not do what I
+suspected?' 'I do assure you, upon my honour, I never, indirectly, spoke
+to Dr. Middleton about the playhouse.' 'Then,' said Archer, 'I'm as glad
+as if I had found a thousand pounds! Now you are my friend indeed.' 'And
+Dr. Middleton--why should you suspect him without reason any more than
+me?' 'As to that,' said Archer, 'he is your friend, and you are right to
+defend him; and I won't say another word against him. Will that satisfy
+you?' 'Not quite.' 'Not quite! Then, indeed, you are unreasonable!'
+'No,' replied De Grey; 'for I don't wish you to yield out of friendship
+to me, any more than to honour. If you yield to reason, you will be
+governed by reason another time.' 'Well, but then don't triumph over me,
+because you have the best side of the argument.' 'Not I! How can I?'
+said De Grey; 'for now you are on _the best side_ as well as myself, are
+not you? So we may triumph together.'
+
+'You are a good friend!' said Archer; and with great eagerness he pulled
+down the fortifications, whilst every hand assisted. The room was
+restored to order in a few minutes--the shutters were thrown open, the
+cheerful light let in. The windows were thrown up, and the first feeling
+of the fresh air was delightful. The green playground opened before
+them, and the hopes of exercise and liberty brightened the countenances
+of these voluntary prisoners.
+
+But, alas! they were not yet at liberty. The idea of Dr. Middleton, and
+the dread of his vengeance, smote their hearts. When the rebels had sent
+an ambassador with their surrender, they stood in pale and silent
+suspense, waiting for their doom.
+
+'Ah!' said Fisher, looking up at the broken panes in the windows, 'the
+doctor will think the most of _that_--he'll never forgive us for that.'
+
+'Hush! here he comes!' His steady step was heard approaching nearer and
+nearer. Archer threw open the door, and Dr. Middleton entered. Fisher
+instantly fell on his knees. 'It is no delight to me to see people on
+their knees. Stand up, Mr. Fisher. I hope you are all conscious that you
+have done wrong?' 'Sir,' said Archer, 'they are conscious that they have
+done wrong, and so am I. I am the ringleader. Punish me as you think
+proper. I submit. Your punishments--your vengeance ought to fall on me
+alone!'
+
+'Sir,' said Dr. Middleton, calmly, 'I perceive that whatever else you
+may have learned in the course of your education, you have not been
+taught the meaning of the word punishment. Punishment and vengeance do
+not with us mean the same thing. _Punishment_ is pain given, with the
+reasonable hope of preventing those on whom it is inflicted from doing,
+_in future_, what will hurt themselves or others. _Vengeance_ never
+looks to the _future_, but is the expression of anger for an injury that
+is past. I feel no anger; you have done me no injury.'
+
+Here many of the little boys looked timidly up to the windows. 'Yes, I
+see that you have broken my windows; that is a small evil.' 'Oh, sir!
+How good! How merciful!' exclaimed those who had been most panic-struck.
+'He forgives us!'
+
+'Stay,' resumed Dr. Middleton; 'I cannot forgive you. I shall never
+revenge, but it is my duty to punish. You have rebelled against the just
+authority which is necessary to conduct and govern you whilst you have
+not sufficient reason to govern and conduct yourselves. Without
+obedience to the laws,' added he, turning to Archer, 'as men, you cannot
+be suffered in society. You, sir, think yourself a man, I observe; and
+you think it the part of a man not to submit to the will of another. I
+have no pleasure in making others, whether men or children, submit to my
+_will_; but my reason and experience are superior to yours. Your parents
+at least think so, or they would not have entrusted me with the care of
+your education. As long as they do entrust you to my care, and as long
+as I have any hopes of making you wiser and better by punishment, I
+shall steadily inflict it, whenever I judge it to be necessary, and I
+judge it to be necessary _now_. This is a long sermon, Mr. Archer, not
+preached to show my own eloquence, but to convince your understanding.
+Now, as to your punishment!'
+
+'Name it, sir,' said Archer; 'whatever it is, I will cheerfully submit
+to it.' 'Name it yourself,' said Dr. Middleton, 'and show me that you
+now understand the nature of punishment.'
+
+Archer, proud to be treated like a reasonable creature, and sorry that
+he had behaved like a foolish schoolboy, was silent for some time, but
+at length replied, 'That he would rather not name his own punishment.'
+He repeated, however, that he trusted he should bear it well, whatever
+it might be.
+
+'I shall then,' said Dr. Middleton, 'deprive you, for two months, of
+pocket-money, as you have had too much, and have made a bad use of it.'
+
+'Sir,' said Archer, 'I brought five guineas with me to school. This
+guinea is all that I have left.'
+
+Dr. Middleton received the guinea which Archer offered him with a look
+of approbation, and told him that it should be applied to the repairs of
+the schoolroom. The rest of the boys waited in silence for the doctor's
+sentence against them, but not with those looks of abject fear with
+which boys usually expect the sentence of a schoolmaster.
+
+'You shall return from the playground, all of you,' said Dr. Middleton,
+'one quarter of an hour sooner, for two months to come, than the rest of
+your companions. A bell shall ring at the appointed time. I give you an
+opportunity of recovering my confidence by your punctuality.'
+
+'Oh, sir! we will come the instant, the very instant the bell rings; you
+shall have confidence in us,' cried they, eagerly.
+
+'I deserve your confidence, I hope,' said Dr. Middleton; 'for it is my
+first wish to make you all happy. You do not know the pain that it has
+cost me to deprive you of food for so many hours.'
+
+Here the boys, with one accord, ran to the place where they had
+deposited their last supplies. Archer delivered them up to the doctor,
+proud to show that they were not reduced to obedience merely by
+necessity.
+
+'The reason,' resumed Dr. Middleton, having now returned to the usual
+benignity of his manner--'the reason why I desired that none of you
+should go to that building,' pointing out of the window, 'was this:--I
+had been informed that a gang of gipsies had slept there the night
+before I spoke to you, one of whom was dangerously ill of a putrid
+fever. I did not choose to mention my reason to you or your friends. I
+have had the place cleaned, and you may return to it when you please.
+The gipsies were yesterday removed from the town.'
+
+'De Grey, you were in the right,' whispered Archer, 'and it was I that
+was _unjust_.'
+
+'The old woman,' continued the doctor, 'whom you employed to buy food
+has escaped the fever, but she has not escaped a gaol, whither she was
+sent yesterday, for having defrauded you of your money.
+
+'Mr. Fisher,' said Dr. Middleton, 'as to you, I shall not punish you: I
+have no hope of making you either wiser or better. Do you know this
+paper?'--the paper appeared to be a bill for candles and a tinder-box.
+'I desired him to buy those things, sir,' said Archer, colouring. 'And
+did you desire him not to pay for them?' 'No,' said Archer, 'he had
+half-a-crown on purpose to pay for them.' 'I know he had, but he chose
+to apply it to his private use, and gave it to the gipsy to buy twelve
+buns for his own eating. To obtain credit for the tinder-box and
+candles, he made use of _this_ name,' said he, turning to the other side
+of the bill, and pointing to De Grey's name, which was written at the
+end of a copy of one of De Grey's exercises.
+
+[Illustration: _He sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice._]
+
+'I assure you, sir----' cried Archer. 'You need not assure me, sir,'
+said Dr. Middleton; 'I cannot suspect a boy of your temper of having any
+part in so base an action. When the people in the shop refused to let
+Mr. Fisher have the things without paying for them, he made use of De
+Grey's name, who was known there. Suspecting some mischief, however,
+from the purchase of the tinder-box, the shopkeeper informed me of the
+circumstance. Nothing in this whole business gave me half so much pain
+as I felt, for a moment, when I suspected that De Grey was concerned in
+it.' A loud cry, in which Archer's voice was heard most distinctly,
+declared De Grey's innocence. Dr. Middleton looked round at their
+eager, honest faces with benevolent approbation. 'Archer,' said he,
+taking him by the hand, 'I am heartily glad to see that you have got the
+better of your party spirit. I wish you may keep such a friend as you
+have now beside you; one such friend is worth two such parties. As for
+you, Mr. Fisher, depart; you must never return hither again.' In vain he
+solicited Archer and De Grey to intercede for him. Everybody turned away
+with contempt; and he sneaked out, whimpering in a doleful voice, 'What
+shall I say to my Aunt Barbara?'
+
+
+
+
+THE BRACELETS
+
+
+In a beautiful and retired part of England lived Mrs. Villars, a lady
+whose accurate understanding, benevolent heart, and steady temper
+peculiarly fitted her for the most difficult, as well as most important,
+of all occupations--the education of youth. This task she had
+undertaken; and twenty young persons were put under her care, with the
+perfect confidence of their parents. No young people could be happier;
+they were good and gay, emulous, but not envious of each other; for Mrs.
+Villars was impartially just; her praise they felt to be the reward of
+merit, and her blame they knew to be the necessary consequence of
+ill-conduct. To the one, therefore, they patiently submitted, and in the
+other consciously rejoiced. They rose with fresh cheerfulness in the
+morning, eager to pursue their various occupations. They returned in the
+evening with renewed ardour to their amusements, and retired to rest
+satisfied with themselves and pleased with each other.
+
+Nothing so much contributed to preserve a spirit of emulation in this
+little society as a small honorary distinction, given annually, as a
+prize of successful application. The prize this year was peculiarly dear
+to each individual, as it was the picture of a friend whom they dearly
+loved. It was the picture of Mrs. Villars in a small bracelet. It wanted
+neither gold, pearls, nor precious stones to give it value.
+
+The two foremost candidates for this prize were Cecilia and Leonora.
+Cecilia was the most intimate friend of Leonora; but Leonora was only
+the favourite companion of Cecilia.
+
+Cecilia was of an active, ambitious, enterprising disposition, more
+eager in the pursuit than happy in the enjoyment of her wishes. Leonora
+was of a contented, unaspiring, temperate character; not easily roused
+to action, but indefatigable when once excited. Leonora was proud;
+Cecilia was vain. Her vanity made her more dependent upon the
+approbation of others, and therefore more anxious to please, than
+Leonora; but that very vanity made her, at the same time, more apt to
+offend. In short, Leonora was the most anxious to avoid what was wrong;
+Cecilia the most ambitious to do what was right. Few of her companions
+loved, but many were led by, Cecilia, for she was often successful. Many
+loved Leonora, but none were ever governed by her, for she was too
+indolent to govern.
+
+On the first day of May, about six o'clock in the evening, a great bell
+rang, to summon this little society into a hall, where the prize was to
+be decided. A number of small tables were placed in a circle in the
+middle of the hall. Seats for the young competitors were raised one
+above another, in a semicircle, some yards distant from the table, and
+the judges' chairs, under canopies of lilacs and laburnums, forming
+another semicircle, closed the amphitheatre.
+
+Every one put their writings, their drawings, their works of various
+kinds, upon the tables appropriated for each. How unsteady were the last
+steps to these tables! How each little hand trembled as it laid down its
+claims! Till this moment every one thought herself secure of success;
+and the heart which exulted with hope now palpitated with fear.
+
+The works were examined, the preference adjudged, and the prize was
+declared to be the happy Cecilia's. Mrs. Villars came forward, smiling,
+with the bracelet in her hand. Cecilia was behind her companions, on the
+highest row. All the others gave way, and she was on the floor in an
+instant. Mrs. Villars clasped the bracelet on her arm; the clasp was
+heard through the whole hall, and a universal smile of congratulation
+followed. Mrs. Villars kissed Cecilia's little hand. 'And now,' said
+she, 'go and rejoice with your companions; the remainder of the day is
+yours.'
+
+Oh! you whose hearts are elated with success, whose bosoms beat high
+with joy in the moment of triumph, command yourselves. Let that triumph
+be moderate, that it may be lasting. Consider, that though you are good,
+you may be better; and, though wise, you may be weak.
+
+As soon as Mrs. Villars had given her the bracelet, all Cecilia's little
+companions crowded round her, and they all left the hall in an instant.
+She was full of spirits and vanity. She ran on. Running down the flight
+of steps which led to the garden, in her violent haste Cecilia threw
+down the little Louisa, who had a china mandarin in her hand, which her
+mother had sent her that very morning, and which was all broken to
+pieces by her fall.
+
+'Oh, my mandarin!' cried Louisa, bursting into tears. The crowd behind
+Cecilia suddenly stopped. Louisa sat on the lowest step, fixing her eyes
+upon the broken pieces. Then, turning round, she hid her face in her
+hands upon the step above her. In turning, Louisa threw down the remains
+of the mandarin. The head, which she placed in the socket, fell from the
+shoulders, and rolled, bounding along the gravel walk. Cecilia pointed
+to the head and to the socket, and burst into laughter. The crowd behind
+laughed too.
+
+At any other time they would have been more inclined to cry with Louisa;
+but Cecilia had just been successful, and sympathy with the victorious
+often makes us forget justice.
+
+Leonora, however, preserved her usual consistency. 'Poor Louisa!' said
+she, looking first at her, and then reproachfully at Cecilia. Cecilia
+turned sharply round, colouring, half with shame and half with vexation.
+'I could not help it, Leonora,' said she. 'But you could have helped
+laughing, Cecilia.' 'I didn't laugh at Louisa; and I surely may laugh,
+for it does nobody any harm.' 'I am sure, however,' replied Leonora, 'I
+should not have laughed if I had----' 'No, to be sure, you wouldn't,
+because Louisa is your favourite. I can buy her another mandarin when
+the old peddler comes to the door, if that's all. I _can_ do no more,
+_can_ I?' said she, again turning round to her companions. 'No, to be
+sure,' said they; 'that's all fair.'
+
+Cecilia looked triumphantly at Leonora. Leonora let go her hand; she ran
+on, and the crowd followed. When she got to the end of the garden, she
+turned round to see if Leonora had followed her too; but was vexed to
+see her still sitting on the steps with Louisa. 'I'm sure I can do no
+more than buy her another, _can_ I?' said she, again appealing to her
+companions. 'No, to be sure,' said they, eager to begin their play.
+
+How many games did these juvenile playmates begin and leave off, before
+Cecilia could be satisfied with any! Her thoughts were discomposed, and
+her mind was running upon something else. No wonder, then, that she did
+not play with her usual address. She grew still more impatient. She
+threw down the ninepins. 'Come, let us play at something else--at
+threading the needle,' said she, holding out her hand. They all yielded
+to the hand which wore the bracelet. But Cecilia, dissatisfied with
+herself, was discontented with everybody else. Her tone grew more and
+more peremptory. One was too rude, another too stiff; one too slow,
+another too quick; in short, everything went wrong, and everybody was
+tired of her humours.
+
+The triumph of _success_ is absolute, but short. Cecilia's companions at
+length recollected that, though she had embroidered a tulip and painted
+a peach better than they, yet that they could play as well, and keep
+their tempers better; for she was discomposed.
+
+Walking towards the house in a peevish mood, Cecilia met Leonora, but
+passed on. 'Cecilia!' cried Leonora. 'Well, what do you want with me?'
+'Are we friends?' 'You know best,' said Cecilia. 'We are, if you will
+let me tell Louisa that you are sorry----' Cecilia, interrupting her,
+'Oh, pray let me hear no more about Louisa!' 'What! not confess that you
+were in the wrong? O Cecilia! I had a better opinion of you.' 'Your
+opinion is of no consequence to me now, for you don't love me.' 'No; not
+when you are unjust, Cecilia.' 'Unjust! I am not unjust; and if I were,
+you are not my governess.' 'No, but am not I your friend?' 'I don't
+desire to have such a friend, who would quarrel with me for happening to
+throw down little Louisa. How could I tell that she had a mandarin in
+her hand? and when it was broken, could I do more than promise her
+another; was that unjust?' 'But you know, Cecilia----' 'I _know_,'
+ironically. 'I know, Leonora, that you love Louisa better than you love
+me; that's the injustice!' 'If I did,' replied Leonora, gravely, 'it
+would be no injustice, if she deserved it better.' 'How can you compare
+Louisa to me!' exclaimed Cecilia, indignantly.
+
+Leonora made no answer; for she was really hurt at her friend's conduct.
+She walked on to join the rest of her companions. They were dancing in a
+round upon the grass. Leonora declined dancing; but they prevailed upon
+her to sing for them. Her voice was not so sprightly, but it was sweeter
+than usual. Who sang so sweetly as Leonora? or who danced so nimbly as
+Louisa? Away she was flying, all spirits and gaiety, when Leonora's
+eyes, full of tears, caught hers. Louisa silently let go her companion's
+hand, and quitting the dance, ran up to Leonora to inquire what was the
+matter with her. 'Nothing,' replied she, 'that need interrupt you. Go,
+my dear; go and dance again.'
+
+Louisa immediately ran away to her garden, and pulling off her little
+straw hat, she lined it with the freshest strawberry-leaves, and was
+upon her knees before the strawberry-bed when Cecilia came by. Cecilia
+was not disposed to be pleased with Louisa at that instant, for two
+reasons; because she was jealous of her, and because she had injured
+her. The injury, however, Louisa had already forgotten. Perhaps, to tell
+things just as they were, she was not quite so much inclined to kiss
+Cecilia as she would have been before the fall of her mandarin; but this
+was the utmost extent of her malice, if it can be called malice.
+
+'What are you doing there, little one?' said Cecilia, in a sharp tone.
+'Are you eating your early strawberries here all alone?' 'No,' said
+Louisa, mysteriously, 'I am not eating them.' 'What are you doing with
+them? can't you answer, then? I'm not playing with you, child!' 'Oh, as
+to that, Cecilia, you know I need not answer you unless I choose it; not
+but what I would if you would only ask me civilly, and if you
+would not call me _child_.' 'Why should not I call you child?'
+'Because--because--I don't know; but I wish you would stand out of my
+light, Cecilia, for you are trampling upon all my strawberries.' 'I have
+not touched one, you covetous little creature!' 'Indeed--indeed,
+Cecilia, I am not covetous. I have not eaten one of them; they are all
+for your friend Leonora. See how unjust you are!'
+
+'Unjust! that's a cant word which you learnt of my friend Leonora, as
+you call her; but she is not my friend now.' 'Not your friend now!'
+exclaimed Louisa; 'then I am sure you must have done something _very_
+naughty.' 'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her. 'Let me go, let me
+go!' cried Louisa, struggling. 'I won't give you one of my strawberries,
+for I don't like you at all!' 'You don't, don't you?' cried Cecilia,
+provoked, and, catching the hat from Louisa, she flung the strawberries
+over the hedge.
+
+'Will nobody help me?' exclaimed Louisa, snatching her hat again, and
+running away with all her force.
+
+[Illustration: _'How?' cried Cecilia, catching hold of her._]
+
+'What have I done?' said Cecilia, recollecting herself; 'Louisa!
+Louisa!' she called very loud, but Louisa would not turn back: she was
+running to her companions, who were still dancing, hand in hand, upon
+the grass, whilst Leonora, sitting in the middle, was singing to them.
+
+'Stop! stop! and hear me!' cried Louisa, breaking through them; and,
+rushing up to Leonora, she threw her hat at her feet, and panting for
+breath--'It was full--almost full of my own strawberries,' said she,
+'the first I ever got out of my own garden. They should all have been
+for you, Leonora; but now I have not one left. They are all gone!' said
+she; and she hid her face in Leonora's lap.
+
+'Gone! gone where?' said every one, at once running up to her. 'Cecilia!
+Cecilia!' said she, sobbing. 'Cecilia,' repeated Leonora, 'what of
+Cecilia?' 'Yes, it was--it was.' 'Come along with me,' said Leonora,
+unwilling to have her friend exposed. 'Come, and I will get you some
+more strawberries.' 'Oh, I don't mind the strawberries, indeed; but I
+wanted to have had the pleasure of giving them to you.'
+
+Leonora took her up in her arms to carry her away, but it was too late.
+
+'What, Cecilia! Cecilia, who won the prize! It could not surely be
+Cecilia,' whispered every busy tongue.
+
+At this instant the bell summoned them in. 'There she is! There she is!'
+cried they, pointing to an arbour, where Cecilia was standing ashamed
+and alone; and, as they passed her, some lifted up their hands and eyes
+with astonishment, others whispered and huddled mysteriously together,
+as if to avoid her. Leonora walked on, her head a little higher than
+usual. 'Leonora!' said Cecilia, timorously, as she passed. 'Oh, Cecilia!
+who would have thought that you had a bad heart?' Cecilia turned her
+head aside and burst into tears.
+
+'Oh no, indeed, she has not a bad heart!' cried Louisa, running up to
+her and throwing her arms around her neck. 'She's very sorry; are not
+you, Cecilia? But don't cry any more, for I forgive you, with all my
+heart--and I love you now, though I said I did not when I was in a
+passion.'
+
+'Oh, you sweet-tempered girl! how I love you!' said Cecilia, kissing
+her. 'Well, then, if you do, come along with me, and dry your eyes, for
+they are so red!' 'Go, my dear, and I'll come presently.' 'Then I will
+keep a place for you, next to me; but you must make haste, or you will
+have to come in when we have all sat down to supper, and then you will
+be so stared at! So don't stay now.'
+
+Cecilia followed Louisa with her eyes till she was out of sight. 'And is
+Louisa,' said she to herself, 'the only one who would stop to pity me?
+Mrs. Villars told me that this day should be mine. She little thought
+how it would end!'
+
+Saying these words, Cecilia threw herself down upon the ground; her arm
+leaned upon a heap of turf which she had raised in the morning, and
+which, in the pride and gaiety of her heart, she had called her throne.
+
+At this instant, Mrs. Villars came out to enjoy the serenity of the
+evening, and, passing by the arbour where Cecilia lay, she started.
+Cecilia rose hastily.
+
+'Who is there?' said Mrs. Villars. 'It is I, madam.' 'And who is _I_?'
+'Cecilia.' 'Why, what keeps you here, my dear? Where are your
+companions? This is, perhaps, one of the happiest days of your life.'
+'Oh no, madam,' said Cecilia, hardly able to repress her tears. 'Why, my
+dear, what is the matter?' Cecilia hesitated.
+
+'Speak, my dear. You know that when I ask you to tell me anything as
+your friend, I never punish you as your governess; therefore you need
+not be afraid to tell me what is the matter.' 'No, madam, I am not
+afraid, but ashamed. You asked me why I was not with my companions. Why,
+madam, because they have all left me, and----' 'And what, my dear?' 'And
+I see that they all dislike me; and yet I don't know why they should,
+for I take as much pains to please as any of them. All my masters seem
+satisfied with me; and you yourself, madam, were pleased this very
+morning to give me this bracelet; and I am sure you would not have given
+it to any one who did not deserve it.'
+
+'Certainly not,' said Mrs. Villars. 'You well deserve it for your
+application--for your successful application. The prize was for the most
+assiduous, not for the most amiable.'
+
+'Then, if it had been for the most amiable, it would not have been for
+me?'
+
+Mrs. Villars, smiling--'Why, what do you think yourself, Cecilia? You
+are better able to judge than I am. I can determine whether or no you
+apply to what I give you to learn; whether you attend to what I desire
+you to do, and avoid what I desire you not to do. I know that I like
+you as a pupil, but I cannot know that I should like you as a companion,
+unless I were your companion. Therefore I must judge of what I should
+do, by seeing what others do in the same circumstances.'
+
+'Oh, pray don't, madam! for then you would not love me either. And yet I
+think you would love me; for I hope that I am as ready to oblige, and as
+good-natured as----'
+
+'Yes, Cecilia, I don't doubt but that you would be very good-natured to
+me; but I'm afraid that I should not like you unless you were
+good-tempered too.' 'But, madam, by good-natured I mean
+good-tempered--it's all the same thing.' 'No, indeed, I understand by
+them two very different things. You are good-natured, Cecilia; for you
+are desirous to oblige and serve your companions--to gain them praise,
+and save them from blame--to give them pleasure, and relieve them from
+pain; but Leonora is good-tempered, for she can bear with their foibles,
+and acknowledge her own. Without disputing about the right, she
+sometimes yields to those who are in the wrong. In short, her temper is
+perfectly good; for it can bear and forbear.' 'I wish that mine could!'
+said Cecilia, sighing. 'It may,' replied Mrs. Villars; 'but it is not
+wishes alone which can improve us in anything. Turn the same exertion
+and perseverance which have won you the prize to-day to this object, and
+you will meet with the same success; perhaps not on the first, the
+second, or the third attempt; but depend upon it that you will at last.
+Every new effort will weaken your bad habits and strengthen your good
+ones. But you must not expect to succeed all at once. I repeat it to
+you, for habit must be counteracted by habit. It would be as extravagant
+in us to expect that all our faults could be destroyed by one
+punishment, were it ever so severe, as it was in the Roman emperor we
+were reading of a few days ago to wish that all the heads of his enemies
+were upon one neck, that he might cut them off at one blow.'
+
+Here Mrs. Villars took Cecilia by the hand, and they began to walk home.
+Such was the nature of Cecilia's mind, that when any object was forcibly
+impressed on her imagination, it caused a temporary suspension of her
+reasoning faculties. Hope was too strong a stimulus for her spirits; and
+when fear did take possession of her mind, it was attended with total
+debility. Her vanity was now as much mortified as in the morning it had
+been elated. She walked on with Mrs. Villars in silence, until they came
+under the shade of the elm-tree walk, and there, fixing her eyes upon
+Mrs. Villars, she stopped short.
+
+'Do you think, madam,' said she, with hesitation--'do you think, madam,
+that I have a bad heart?' 'A bad heart, my dear! why, what put that into
+your head?' 'Leonora said that I had, madam, and I felt ashamed when she
+said so.' 'But, my dear, how can Leonora tell whether your heart be good
+or bad? However, in the first place, tell me what you mean by a bad
+heart.' 'Indeed, I do not know what is meant by it, madam; but it is
+something which everybody hates.' 'And why do they hate it?' 'Because
+they think that it will hurt them, ma'am, I believe; and that those who
+have bad hearts take delight in doing mischief; and that they never do
+anybody any good but for their own ends.'
+
+'Then the best definition,' said Mrs. Villars, 'which you can give me of
+a bad heart is, that it is some constant propensity to hurt others, and
+to do wrong for the sake of doing wrong.' 'Yes, madam; but that is not
+all either. There is still something else meant; something which I
+cannot express--which, indeed, I never distinctly understood; but of
+which, therefore, I was the more afraid.'
+
+'Well, then, to begin with what you do understand, tell me, Cecilia, do
+you really think it possible to be wicked merely for the love of
+wickedness? No human being becomes wicked all at once. A man begins by
+doing wrong because it is, or because he thinks it, for his interest. If
+he continue to do so, he must conquer his sense of shame and lose his
+love of virtue. But how can you, Cecilia, who feel such a strong sense
+of shame, and such an eager desire to improve, imagine that you have a
+bad heart?'
+
+'Indeed, madam, I never did, until everybody told me so, and then I
+began to be frightened about it. This very evening, madam, when I was in
+a passion, I threw little Louisa's strawberries away, which, I am sure,
+I was very sorry for afterwards; and Leonora and everybody cried out
+that I had a bad heart--but I am sure I was only in a passion.'
+
+'Very likely. And when you are in a passion, as you call it, Cecilia,
+you see that you are tempted to do harm to others. If they do not feel
+angry themselves, they do not sympathise with you. They do not perceive
+the motive which actuates you; and then they say that you have a bad
+heart. I daresay, however, when your passion is over, and when you
+recollect yourself, you are very sorry for what you have done and said;
+are not you?' 'Yes, indeed, madam--very sorry.' 'Then make that sorry of
+use to you, Cecilia, and fix it steadily in your thoughts, as you hope
+to be good and happy, that if you suffer yourself to yield to your
+passion upon every trifling occasion, anger and its consequences will
+become familiar to your mind; and, in the same proportion, your sense of
+shame will be weakened, till what you began with doing from sudden
+impulse you will end with doing from habit and choice; and then you
+would, indeed, according to our definition, have a bad heart.' 'Oh,
+madam! I hope--I am sure I never shall.' 'No, indeed, Cecilia; I do,
+indeed, believe that you never will; on the contrary, I think that you
+have a very good disposition, and what is of infinitely more consequence
+to you, an active desire of improvement. Show me that you have as much
+perseverance as you have candour, and I shall not despair of your
+becoming everything that I could wish.'
+
+Here Cecilia's countenance brightened, and she ran up the steps in
+almost as high spirits as she ran down them in the morning.
+
+'Good-night to you, Cecilia,' said Mrs. Villars, as she was crossing the
+hall. 'Good-night to you, madam,' said Cecilia; and she ran upstairs to
+bed. She could not go to sleep; but she lay awake, reflecting upon the
+events of the preceding day, and forming resolutions for the future, at
+the same time considering that she had resolved, and resolved without
+effect, she wished to give her mind some more powerful motive. Ambition
+she knew to be its most powerful incentive. 'Have I not,' said she to
+herself, 'already won the prize of application, and cannot the same
+application procure me a much higher prize? Mrs. Villars said that if
+the prize had been promised to the most amiable, it would not have been
+given to me. Perhaps it would not yesterday, perhaps it might not
+to-morrow; but that is no reason that I should despair of ever deserving
+it.'
+
+In consequence of this reasoning, Cecilia formed a design of proposing
+to her companions that they should give a prize, the first of the
+ensuing month (the 1st of June), to the most amiable. Mrs. Villars
+applauded the scheme, and her companions adopted it with the greatest
+alacrity.
+
+'Let the prize,' said they, 'be a bracelet of our own hair'; and
+instantly their shining scissors were produced, and each contributed a
+lock of her hair. They formed the most beautiful gradation of colours,
+from the palest auburn to the brightest black. Who was to have the
+honour of plaiting them? was now the question. Caroline begged that she
+might, as she could plait very neatly, she said. Cecilia, however, was
+equally sure that she could do it much better; and a dispute would have
+inevitably ensued, if Cecilia, recollecting herself just as her colour
+rose to scarlet, had not yielded--yielded, with no very good grace
+indeed, but as well as could be expected for the first time. For it is
+habit which confers ease; and without ease, even in moral actions, there
+can be no grace.
+
+The bracelet was plaited in the neatest manner by Caroline, finished
+round the edge with silver twist, and on it was worked, in the smallest
+silver letters, this motto, 'TO THE MOST AMIABLE.' The moment it was
+completed, everybody begged to try it on. It fastened with little silver
+clasps, and as it was made large enough for the eldest girls, it was too
+large for the youngest. Of this they bitterly complained, and
+unanimously entreated that it might be cut to fit them.
+
+'How foolish!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'don't you perceive that if any of you
+win it, you have nothing to do but to put the clasps a little further
+from the edge, but, if we get it, we can't make it larger?' 'Very true,'
+said they; 'but you need not to have called us foolish, Cecilia.'
+
+It was by such hasty and unguarded expressions as these that Cecilia
+offended. A slight difference in the manner makes a very material one in
+the effect. Cecilia lost more love by general petulance than she could
+gain by the greatest particular exertions.
+
+How far she succeeded in curing herself of this defect--how far she
+became deserving of the bracelet, and to whom the bracelet was
+given--shall be told in the History of the First of June.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The First of June was now arrived, and all the young competitors were
+in a state of the most anxious suspense. Leonora and Cecilia continued
+to be the foremost candidates. Their quarrel had never been finally
+adjusted, and their different pretensions now retarded all thoughts of a
+reconciliation. Cecilia, though she was capable of acknowledging any of
+her faults in public before all her companions, could not humble herself
+in private to Leonora. Leonora was her equal; they were her inferiors,
+and submission is much easier to a vain mind, where it appears to be
+voluntary, than when it is the necessary tribute to justice or candour.
+So strongly did Cecilia feel this truth, that she even delayed making
+any apology, or coming to any explanation with Leonora, until success
+should once more give her the palm.
+
+'If I win the bracelet to-day,' said she to herself, 'I will solicit the
+return of Leonora's friendship; it will be more valuable to me than even
+the bracelet, and at such a time, and asked in such a manner, she surely
+cannot refuse it to me.' Animated with this hope of a double triumph,
+Cecilia canvassed with the most zealous activity. By constant attention
+and exertion she had considerably abated the violence of her temper, and
+changed the course of her habits. Her powers of pleasing were now
+excited, instead of her abilities to excel; and, if her talents appeared
+less brilliant, her character was acknowledged to be more amiable. So
+great an influence upon our manners and conduct have the objects of our
+ambition.
+
+Cecilia was now, if possible, more than ever desirous of doing what was
+right, but she had not yet acquired sufficient fear of doing wrong. This
+was the fundamental error of her mind; it arose in a great measure from
+her early education. Her mother died when she was very young; and though
+her father had supplied her place in the best and kindest manner, he had
+insensibly infused into his daughter's mind a portion of that
+enterprising, independent spirit which he justly deemed essential to the
+character of her brother. This brother was some years older than
+Cecilia, but he had always been the favourite companion of her youth.
+What her father's precepts inculcated, his example enforced; and even
+Cecilia's virtues consequently became such as were more estimable in a
+man than desirable in a female. All small objects and small errors she
+had been taught to disregard as trifles; and her impatient disposition
+was perpetually leading her into more material faults; yet her candour
+in confessing these, she had been suffered to believe, was sufficient
+reparation and atonement.
+
+Leonora, on the contrary, who had been educated by her mother in a
+manner more suited to her sex, had a character and virtues more peculiar
+to a female. Her judgment had been early cultivated, and her good sense
+employed in the regulation of her conduct. She had been habituated to
+that restraint which, as a woman, she was to expect in life, and early
+accustomed to yield. Compliance in her seemed natural and graceful; yet,
+notwithstanding the gentleness of her temper, she was in reality more
+independent than Cecilia. She had more reliance upon her own judgment,
+and more satisfaction in her own approbation. The uniform kindness of
+her manner, the consistency and equality of her character, had fixed the
+esteem and passive love of her companions.
+
+By passive love we mean that species of affection which makes us
+unwilling to offend rather than anxious to oblige, which is more a habit
+than an emotion of the mind. For Cecilia her companions felt active
+love, for she was active in showing her love to them.
+
+Active love arises spontaneously in the mind, after feeling particular
+instances of kindness, without reflection on the past conduct or general
+character. It exceeds the merits of its object, and is connected with a
+feeling of generosity, rather than with a sense of justice.
+
+Without determining which species of love is the most flattering to
+others, we can easily decide which is the most agreeable feeling to our
+minds. We give our hearts more credit for being generous than for being
+just; and we feel more self-complacency when we give our love
+voluntarily, than when we yield it as a tribute which we cannot
+withhold. Though Cecilia's companions might not know all this in theory,
+they proved it in practice; for they loved her in a much higher
+proportion to her merits than they loved Leonora.
+
+Each of the young judges was to signify her choice by putting a red or a
+white shell into a vase prepared for the purpose. Cecilia's colour was
+red, Leonora's white.
+
+In the morning nothing was to be seen but these shells; nothing talked
+of but the long-expected event of the evening. Cecilia, following
+Leonora's example, had made it a point of honour not to inquire of any
+individual her vote, previously to their final determination.
+
+They were both sitting together in Louisa's room. Louisa was recovering
+from the measles. Every one during her illness had been desirous of
+attending her; but Leonora and Cecilia were the only two that were
+permitted to see her, as they alone had had the distemper. They were
+both assiduous in their care of Louisa, but Leonora's want of exertion
+to overcome any disagreeable feelings of sensibility often deprived her
+of presence of mind, and prevented her from being so constantly useful
+as Cecilia. Cecilia, on the contrary, often made too much noise and
+bustle with her officious assistance, and was too anxious to invent
+amusements and procure comforts for Louisa, without perceiving that
+illness takes away the power of enjoying them.
+
+As she was sitting at the window in the morning, exerting herself to
+entertain Louisa, she heard the voice of an old peddler who often used
+to come to the house. Downstairs, they ran immediately, to ask Mrs.
+Villars's permission to bring him into the hall. Mrs. Villars consented,
+and away Cecilia ran to proclaim the news to her companions. Then, first
+returning into the hall, she found the peddler just unbuckling his box,
+and taking it off his shoulders.
+
+'What would you be pleased to want, miss?' said the peddler; 'I've all
+kinds of tweezer-cases, rings, and lockets of all sorts,' continued he,
+opening all the glittering drawers successively.
+
+'Oh!' said Cecilia, shutting the drawer of lockets which tempted her
+most, 'these are not the things which I want. Have you any china
+figures? any mandarins?'
+
+'Alack-a-day, miss, I had a great stock of that same chinaware; but now
+I'm quite out of them kind of things; but I believe,' said he, rummaging
+one of the deepest drawers, 'I believe I have one left, and here it is.'
+'Oh, that is the very thing! what's its price?' 'Only three shillings,
+ma'am.' Cecilia paid the money, and was just going to carry off the
+mandarin, when the peddler took out of his greatcoat pocket a neat
+mahogany case. It was about a foot long, and fastened at each end by two
+little clasps. It had, besides, a small lock in the middle.
+
+'What is that?' said Cecilia, eagerly. 'It's only a china figure, miss,
+which I am going to carry to an elderly lady, who lives nigh hand, and
+who is mighty fond of such things.' 'Could you let me look at it?' 'And
+welcome, miss,' said he, and opened the case. 'Oh, goodness! how
+beautiful!' exclaimed Cecilia.
+
+It was a figure of Flora, crowned with roses, and carrying a basket of
+flowers in her hand. Cecilia contemplated it with delight. 'How I should
+like to give this to Louisa!' said she to herself; and, at last,
+breaking silence, 'Did you promise it to the old lady?' 'Oh no, miss, I
+didn't promise it--she never saw it; and if so be that you'd like to
+take it, I'd make no more words about it.' 'And how much does it cost?'
+'Why, miss, as to that, I'll let you have it for half-a-guinea.'
+
+Cecilia immediately produced the box in which she kept her treasure,
+and, emptying it upon the table, she began to count the shillings. Alas!
+there were but six shillings. 'How provoking!' said she; 'then I can't
+have it. Where's the mandarin? Oh, I have it,' said she, taking it up,
+and looking at it with the utmost disgust. 'Is this the same that I had
+before?' 'Yes, miss, the very same,' replied the peddler, who, during
+this time, had been examining the little box out of which Cecilia had
+taken her money--it was of silver. 'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'since you've
+taken such a fancy to the piece, if you've a mind to make up the
+remainder of the money, I will take this here little box, if you care to
+part with it.'
+
+Now this box was a keepsake from Leonora to Cecilia. 'No,' said Cecilia
+hastily, blushing a little, and stretching out her hand to receive it.
+
+'Oh, miss!' said he, returning it carelessly, 'I hope there's no
+offence. I meant but to serve you, that's all. Such a rare piece of
+china-work has no cause to go a-begging,' added he. Then, putting the
+Flora deliberately into the case, and turning the key with a jerk, he
+let it drop into his pocket; when, lifting up his box by the leather
+straps, he was preparing to depart.
+
+'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia, in whose mind there had passed a
+very warm conflict during the peddler's harangue. 'Louisa would so like
+this Flora,' said she, arguing with herself. 'Besides, it would be so
+generous in me to give it to her instead of that ugly mandarin; that
+would be doing only common justice, for I promised it to her, and she
+expects it. Though, when I come to look at this mandarin, it is not
+even so good as hers was. The gilding is all rubbed off, so that I
+absolutely must buy this for her. Oh yes! I will, and she will be so
+delighted! and then everybody will say it is the prettiest thing they
+ever saw, and the broken mandarin will be forgotten for ever.'
+
+[Illustration: _'Oh, stay one minute!' said Cecilia._]
+
+Here Cecilia's hand moved, and she was just going to decide: 'Oh, but
+stop,' said she to herself, 'consider--Leonora gave me this box, and it
+is a keepsake. However, we have now quarrelled, and I daresay that she
+would not mind my parting with it. I'm sure that I should not care if
+she was to give away my keepsake, the smelling-bottle, or the ring which
+I gave her. Then what does it signify? Besides, is it not my own? and
+have I not a right to do what I please with it?'
+
+At this moment, so critical for Cecilia, a party of her companions
+opened the door. She knew that they came as purchasers, and she dreaded
+her Flora's becoming the prize of some higher bidder. 'Here,' said she,
+hastily putting the box into the peddler's hand, without looking at it,
+'take it, and give me the Flora.' Her hand trembled, though she snatched
+it impatiently. She ran by, without seeming to mind any of her
+companions.
+
+Let those who are tempted to do wrong by the hopes of future
+gratification, or the prospect of certain concealment and impunity,
+remember that, unless they are totally depraved, they bear in their own
+hearts a monitor, who will prevent their enjoying what they ill
+obtained.
+
+In vain Cecilia ran to the rest of her companions, to display her
+present, in hopes that the applause of others would restore her own
+self-complacency; in vain she saw the Flora pass in due pomp from hand
+to hand, each vying with the other in extolling the beauty of the gift
+and the generosity of the giver. Cecilia was still displeased with
+herself, with them, and even with their praise. From Louisa's gratitude,
+however, she yet expected much pleasure, and immediately she ran
+upstairs to her room.
+
+In the meantime, Leonora had gone into the hall to buy a bodkin; she had
+just broken hers. In giving her change, the peddler took out of his
+pocket, with some halfpence, the very box which Cecilia had sold to him.
+Leonora did not in the least suspect the truth, for her mind was above
+suspicion; and besides, she had the utmost confidence in Cecilia.
+
+'I should like to have that box,' said she, 'for it is like one of which
+I was very fond.'
+
+The peddler named the price, and Leonora took the box. She intended to
+give it to little Louisa. On going to her room she found her asleep, and
+she sat softly down by her bedside. Louisa opened her eyes.
+
+'I hope I didn't disturb you,' said Leonora. 'Oh no; I didn't hear you
+come in; but what have you got there?' 'It is only a little box; would
+you like to have it? I bought it on purpose for you, as I thought
+perhaps it would please you, because it's like that which I gave
+Cecilia.' 'Oh yes! that out of which she used to give me Barbary drops.
+I am very much obliged to you; I always thought _that_ exceedingly
+pretty, and this, indeed, is as like it as possible. I can't unscrew it;
+will you try?'
+
+Leonora unscrewed it. 'Goodness!' exclaimed Louisa, 'this must be
+Cecilia's box. Look, don't you see a great L at the bottom of it?'
+
+Leonora's colour changed. 'Yes,' she replied calmly, 'I see that; but it
+is no proof that it is Cecilia's. You know that I bought this box just
+now of the peddler.' 'That may be,' said Louisa; 'but I remember
+scratching that L with my own needle, and Cecilia scolded me for it,
+too. Do go and ask her if she has lost her box--do,' repeated Louisa,
+pulling her by the ruffle, as she did not seem to listen.
+
+Leonora, indeed, did not hear, for she was lost in thought. She was
+comparing circumstances which had before escaped her attention. She
+recollected that Cecilia had passed her as she came into the hall,
+without seeming to see her, but had blushed as she passed. She
+remembered that the peddler appeared unwilling to part with the box, and
+was going to put it again in his pocket with the halfpence. 'And why
+should he keep it in his pocket, and not show it with his other things?'
+Combining all these circumstances, Leonora had no longer any doubt of
+the truth, for though she had an honourable confidence in her friends,
+she had too much penetration to be implicitly credulous.
+
+'Louisa,' she began, but at this instant she heard a step, which, by its
+quickness, she knew to be Cecilia's, coming along the passage.
+
+'If you love me, Louisa,' said Leonora, 'say nothing about the box.'
+'Nay, but why not? I daresay she had lost it.' 'No, my dear, I'm afraid
+she has not.' Louisa looked surprised. 'But I have reasons for desiring
+you not to say anything about it.' 'Well, then, I won't, indeed.'
+
+Cecilia opened the door, came forward smiling, as if secure of a good
+reception, and taking the Flora out of the case, she placed it on the
+mantelpiece, opposite to Louisa's bed.
+
+'Dear, how beautiful!' cried Louisa, starting up. 'Yes,' said Cecilia,
+'and guess who it's for.' 'For me, perhaps!' said the ingenuous Louisa.
+'Yes, take it, and keep it for my sake. You know that I broke your
+mandarin.' 'Oh, but this is a great deal prettier and larger than that.'
+'Yes, I know it is; and I meant that it should be so. I should only have
+done what I was bound to do if I had only given you a mandarin.'
+
+'Well,' replied Louisa, 'and that would have been enough, surely; but
+what a beautiful crown of roses! and then that basket of flowers! they
+almost look as if I could smell them. Dear Cecilia, I'm very much
+obliged to you; but I won't take it by way of payment for the mandarin
+you broke; for I'm sure you could not help that, and, besides, I should
+have broken it myself by this time. You shall give it to me entirely;
+and, as your keepsake, I'll keep it as long as I live.'
+
+Louisa stopped short and coloured; the word keepsake recalled the box to
+her mind, and all the train of ideas which the Flora had banished.
+'But,' said she, looking up wistfully in Cecilia's face, and holding the
+Flora doubtfully, 'did you----'
+
+Leonora, who was just quitting the room, turned her head back, and gave
+Louisa a look, which silenced her.
+
+Cecilia was so infatuated with her vanity, that she neither perceived
+Leonora's sign nor Louisa's confusion, but continued showing off her
+present, by placing it in various situations, till at length she put it
+into the case, and laying it down with an affected carelessness upon the
+bed, 'I must go now, Louisa. Good-bye,' said she, running up and kissing
+her; 'but I'll come again presently'; then, clapping the door after her,
+she went. But as soon as the fermentation of her spirits subsided, the
+sense of shame, which had been scarcely felt when mixed with so many
+other sensations, rose uppermost in her mind. 'What!' said she to
+herself, 'is it possible that I have sold what I promised to keep for
+ever? and what Leonora gave me? and I have concealed it too, and have
+been making a parade of my generosity. Oh! what would Leonora, what
+would Louisa--what would everybody think of me if the truth were known?'
+
+Humiliated and grieved by these reflections, Cecilia began to search in
+her own mind for some consoling idea. She began to compare her conduct
+with that of others of her own age; and at length, fixing her comparison
+upon her brother George, as the companion of whom, from her infancy, she
+had been habitually the most emulous, she recollected that an almost
+similar circumstance had once happened to him, and that he had not only
+escaped disgrace, but had acquired glory, by an intrepid confession of
+his fault. Her father's word to her brother, on the occasion, she also
+perfectly recollected.
+
+'Come to me, George,' he said, holding out his hand, 'you are a
+generous, brave boy: they who dare to confess their faults will make
+great and good men.'
+
+These were his words; but Cecilia, in repeating them to herself, forgot
+to lay that emphasis on the word _men_ which would have placed it in
+contradistinction to the word women. She willingly believed that the
+observation extended equally to both sexes, and flattered herself that
+she should exceed her brother in merit if she owned a fault which she
+thought that it would be so much more difficult to confess. 'Yes, but,'
+said she, stopping herself, 'how can I confess it? This very evening, in
+a few hours, the prize will be decided. Leonora or I shall win it. I
+have now as good a chance as Leonora, perhaps a better; and must I give
+up all my hopes--all that I have been labouring for this month past? Oh,
+I never can! If it were but to-morrow, or yesterday, or any day but
+this, I would not hesitate; but now I am almost certain of the prize,
+and if I win it--well, why then I will--I think I will tell all--yes I
+will; I am determined,' said Cecilia.
+
+Here a bell summoned them to dinner. Leonora sat opposite to her, and
+she was not a little surprised to see Cecilia look so gay and
+unconstrained. 'Surely,' said she to herself, 'if Cecilia had done that
+which I suspect, she would not, she could not, look as she does.' But
+Leonora little knew the cause of her gaiety. Cecilia was never in higher
+spirits, or better pleased with herself, than when she had resolved upon
+a sacrifice or a confession.
+
+'Must not this evening be given to the most amiable? Whose, then, will
+it be?' All eyes glanced first at Cecilia, and then at Leonora. Cecilia
+smiled; Leonora blushed. 'I see that it is not yet decided,' said Mrs.
+Villars; and immediately they ran upstairs, amidst confused whisperings.
+
+Cecilia's voice could be distinguished far above the rest. 'How can she
+be so happy!' said Leonora to herself. 'O Cecilia, there was a time when
+you could not have neglected me so! when we were always together the
+best of friends and companions; our wishes, tastes, and pleasures the
+same! Surely she did once love me,' said Leonora; 'but now she is quite
+changed. She has even sold my keepsake; and she would rather win a
+bracelet of hair from girls whom she did not always think so much
+superior to Leonora than have my esteem, my confidence, and my
+friendship for her whole life--yes, for her whole life, for I am sure
+she will be an amiable woman. Oh that this bracelet had never been
+thought of, or that I were certain of her winning it; for I am sure that
+I do not wish to win it from her. I would rather--a thousand times
+rather--that we were as we used to be than have all the glory in the
+world. And how pleasing Cecilia can be when she wishes to please!--how
+candid she is!--how much she can improve herself! Let me be just, though
+she has offended me; she is wonderfully improved within this last month.
+For one fault, and _that_ against myself, shall I forget all her
+merits?'
+
+As Leonora said these last words, she could but just hear the voices of
+her companions. They had left her alone in the gallery. She knocked
+softly at Louisa's door. 'Come in,' said Louisa; 'I'm not asleep. Oh,'
+said she, starting up with the Flora in her hand, the instant that the
+door was opened, 'I'm so glad you are come, Leonora, for I did so long
+to hear what you all were making such a noise about. Have you forgot
+that the bracelet----' 'Oh yes! is this the evening?' inquired Leonora.
+'Well, here's my white shell for you,' said Louisa. 'I've kept it in my
+pocket this fortnight; and though Cecilia did give me this Flora, I
+still love you a great deal better.' 'I thank you, Louisa,' said
+Leonora, gratefully. 'I will take your shell, and I shall value it as
+long as I live; but here is a red one, and if you wish to show me that
+you love me, you will give this to Cecilia. I know that she is
+particularly anxious for your preference, and I am sure that she
+deserves it.' 'Yes, if I could I would choose both of you,' said
+Louisa, 'but you know I can only choose which I like the best.' 'If you
+mean, my dear Louisa,' said Leonora, 'that you like me the best, I am
+very much obliged to you, for, indeed, I wish you to love me; but it is
+enough for me to know it in private. I should not feel the least more
+pleasure at hearing it in public, or in having it made known to all my
+companions, especially at a time when it would give poor Cecilia a great
+deal of pain.' 'But why should it give her pain?' asked Louisa; 'I don't
+like her for being jealous of you.' 'Nay, Louisa, surely you don't think
+Cecilia jealous? She only tries to excel, and to please; she is more
+anxious to succeed than I am, it is true, because she has a great deal
+more activity, and perhaps more ambition. And it would really mortify
+her to lose this prize--you know that she proposed it herself. It has
+been her object for this month past, and I am sure she has taken great
+pains to obtain it.' 'But, dear Leonora, why should you lose it?'
+'Indeed, my dear, it would be no loss to me; and, if it were, I would
+willingly suffer it for Cecilia; for, though we seem not to be such good
+friends as we used to be, I love her very much, and she will love me
+again--I'm sure she will; when she no longer fears me as a rival, she
+will again love me as a friend.'
+
+Here Leonora heard a number of her companions running along the gallery.
+They all knocked hastily at the door, calling 'Leonora! Leonora! will
+you never come? Cecilia has been with us this half-hour.' Leonora
+smiled. 'Well, Louisa,' said she, smiling, 'will you promise me?' 'Oh, I
+am sure, by the way they speak to you, that they won't give you the
+prize!' said the little Louisa, and the tears started into her eyes.
+'They love me, though, for all that,' said Leonora; 'and as for the
+prize, you know whom I wish to have it.'
+
+'Leonora! Leonora!' called her impatient companions; 'don't you hear us?
+What are you about?' 'Oh, she never will take any trouble about
+anything,' said one of the party; 'let's go away.' 'Oh, go, go! make
+haste!' cried Louisa; 'don't stay; they are so angry.' 'Remember, then,
+that you have promised me,' said Leonora, and she left the room.
+
+During all this time, Cecilia had been in the garden with her
+companions. The ambition which she had felt to win the first prize--the
+prize of superior talents and superior application--was not to be
+compared to the absolute anxiety which she now expressed to win this
+simple testimony of the love and approbation of her equals and rivals.
+
+To employ her exuberant activity, Cecilia had been dragging branches of
+lilacs and laburnums, roses and sweet brier, to ornament the bower in
+which her fate was to be decided. It was excessively hot, but her mind
+was engaged, and she was indefatigable. She stood still at last to
+admire her works. Her companions all joined in loud applause. They were
+not a little prejudiced in her favour by the great eagerness which she
+expressed to win their prize, and by the great importance which she
+seemed to affix to the preference of each individual. At last, 'Where is
+Leonora?' cried one of them; and immediately, as we have seen, they ran
+to call her.
+
+Cecilia was left alone. Overcome with heat and too violent exertion, she
+had hardly strength to support herself; each moment appeared to her
+intolerably long. She was in a state of the utmost suspense, and all her
+courage failed her. Even hope forsook her; and hope is a cordial which
+leaves the mind depressed and enfeebled.
+
+'The time is now come,' said Cecilia; 'in a few moments all will be
+decided. In a few moments--goodness! How much do I hazard? If I should
+not win the prize, how shall I confess what I have done? How shall I beg
+Leonora to forgive me? I, who hoped to restore my friendship to her as
+an honour! They are gone to seek for her. The moment she appears I shall
+be forgotten. What--what shall I do?' said Cecilia, covering her face
+with her hands.
+
+Such was Cecilia's situation when Leonora, accompanied by her
+companions, opened the hall door. They most of them ran forwards to
+Cecilia. As Leonora came into the bower, she held out her hand to
+Cecilia. 'We are not rivals, but friends, I hope,' said she. Cecilia
+clasped her hand; but she was in too great agitation to speak.
+
+The table was now set in the arbour--the vase was now placed in the
+middle. 'Well,' said Cecilia, eagerly, 'who begins?' Caroline, one of
+her friends, came forward first, and then all the others successively.
+Cecilia's emotion was hardly conceivable. 'Now they are all in! Count
+them, Caroline!'
+
+'One, two, three, four; the numbers are both equal.' There was a dead
+silence. 'No, they are not,' exclaimed Cecilia, pressing forward, and
+putting a shell into a vase. 'I have not given mine, and I give it to
+Leonora.' Then, snatching the bracelet, 'It is yours, Leonora,' said
+she; 'take it, and give me back your friendship.' The whole assembly
+gave one universal clap and a general shout of applause.
+
+'I cannot be surprised at this from you, Cecilia,' said Leonora; 'and do
+you then still love me as you used to do?'
+
+'O Leonora, stop! don't praise me; I don't deserve this,' said she,
+turning to her loudly-applauding companions. 'You will soon despise me.
+O Leonora, you will never forgive me! I have deceived you; I have
+sold----'
+
+At this instant Mrs. Villars appeared. The crowd divided. She had heard
+all that passed, from her window. 'I applaud your generosity, Cecilia,'
+said she, 'but I am to tell you that in this instance it is
+unsuccessful. You have it not in your power to give the prize to
+Leonora. It is yours. I have another vote to give to you. You have
+forgotten Louisa.'
+
+'Louisa!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'but surely, ma'am, Louisa loves Leonora
+better than she does me.' 'She commissioned me, however,' said Mrs.
+Villars, 'to give you a red shell; and you will find it in this box.'
+
+Cecilia started, and turned as pale as death; it was the fatal box!
+
+Mrs. Villars produced another box. She opened it; it contained the
+Flora. 'And Louisa also desired me,' said she, 'to return you this
+Flora.' She put it into Cecilia's hand. Cecilia trembled so that she
+could not hold it. Leonora caught it.
+
+'Oh, madam! Oh, Leonora!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'now I have no hope left. I
+intended--I was just going to tell----' 'Dear Cecilia,' said Leonora,
+'you need not tell it me; I know it already; and I forgive you with all
+my heart.'
+
+'Yes, I can prove to you,' said Mrs. Villars, 'that Leonora has forgiven
+you. It is she who has given you the prize; it was she who persuaded
+Louisa to give you her vote. I went to see her a little while ago; and
+perceiving, by her countenance, that something was the matter, I pressed
+her to tell me what it was.
+
+'"Why, madam," said she, "Leonora has made me promise to give my shell
+to Cecilia. Now I don't love Cecilia half so well as I do Leonora.
+Besides, I would not have Cecilia think I vote for her because she gave
+me a Flora." Whilst Louisa was speaking,' continued Mrs. Villars, 'I saw
+this silver box lying on the bed. I took it up, and asked if it was not
+yours, and how she came by it. "Indeed, madam," said Louisa, "I could
+have been almost certain that it was Cecilia's; but Leonora gave it me,
+and she said that she bought it of the peddler this morning. If anybody
+else had told me so, I could not have believed them, because I remember
+the box so well; but I can't help believing Leonora." "But did not you
+ask Cecilia about it?" said I. "No, madam," replied Louisa; "for Leonora
+forbade me." I guessed her reason. "Well," said I, "give me the box, and
+I will carry your shell in it to Cecilia." "Then, madam," said she, "if
+I must give it her, pray do take the Flora, and return it to her first,
+that she may not think it is for that I do it."'
+
+'Oh, generous Leonora!' exclaimed Cecilia; 'but, indeed, Louisa, I
+cannot take your shell.'
+
+'Then, dear Cecilia, accept of mine instead of it! you cannot refuse it;
+I only follow your example. As for the bracelet,' added Leonora, taking
+Cecilia's hand, 'I assure you I don't wish for it, and you do, and you
+deserve it.' 'No,' said Cecilia, 'indeed I do not deserve it. Next to
+you, surely Louisa deserves it best.'
+
+'Louisa! oh yes, Louisa,' exclaimed everybody with one voice.
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Villars, 'and let Cecilia carry the bracelet to her;
+she deserves that reward. For one fault I cannot forget all your merits,
+Cecilia, nor, I am sure, will your companions.' 'Then, surely, not your
+best friend,' said Leonora, kissing her.
+
+Everybody present was moved. They looked up to Leonora with respectful
+and affectionate admiration.
+
+'Oh, Leonora, how I love you! and how I wish to be like you!' exclaimed
+Cecilia--'to be as good, as generous!'
+
+'Rather wish, Cecilia,' interrupted Mrs. Villars, 'to be as just; to be
+as strictly honourable, and as invariably consistent. Remember, that
+many of our sex are capable of great efforts--of making what they call
+great sacrifices to virtue or to friendship; but few treat their friends
+with habitual gentleness, or uniformly conduct themselves with prudence
+and good sense.'
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE MERCHANTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+  _Chi di gallina nasce, convien che rozole._
+  As the old cock crows, so crows the young.
+
+Those who have visited Italy give us an agreeable picture of the
+cheerful industry of the children of all ages in the celebrated city of
+Naples. Their manner of living and their numerous employments are
+exactly described in the following 'Extract from a Traveller's
+Journal.'[18]
+
+  [18] _Varieties of Literature_, vol. i. p. 299.
+
+'The children are busied in various ways. A great number of them bring
+fish for sale to town from Santa Lucia; others are very often seen about
+the arsenals, or wherever carpenters are at work, employed in gathering
+up the chips and pieces of wood; or by the seaside, picking up sticks,
+and whatever else has drifted ashore, which, when their basket is full,
+they carry away.
+
+'Children of two or three years old, who can scarcely crawl along upon
+the ground, in company with boys of five or six, are employed in this
+petty trade. Hence they proceed with their baskets into the heart of the
+city, where in several places they form a sort of little market, sitting
+round with their stock of wood before them. Labourers, and the lower
+order of citizens, buy it of them to burn in the tripods for warming
+themselves, or to use in their scanty kitchens.
+
+'Other children carry about for sale the water of the sulphurous wells,
+which, particularly in the spring season, is drunk in great abundance.
+Others again endeavour to turn a few pence by buying a small matter of
+fruit, of pressed honey, cakes, and comfits, and then, like little
+peddlers, offer and sell them to other children, always for no more
+profit than that they may have their share of them free of expense.
+
+'It is really curious to see how an urchin, whose whole stock and
+property consist in a board and a knife, will carry about a water-melon,
+or a half-roasted gourd, collect a troup of children round him, set down
+his board, and proceed to divide the fruit into small pieces among them.
+
+'The buyers keep a sharp look-out to see that they have enough for their
+little piece of copper; and the Lilliputian tradesmen act with no less
+caution as the exigencies of the case may require, to prevent his being
+cheated out of a morsel.'
+
+The advantages of truth and honesty, and the value of a character for
+integrity, are very early felt amongst these little merchants in their
+daily intercourse with each other. The fair dealer is always sooner or
+later seen to prosper. The most cunning cheat is at last detected and
+disgraced.
+
+Numerous instances of the truth of this common observation were remarked
+by many Neapolitan children, especially by those who were acquainted
+with the characters and history of Piedro and Francisco, two boys
+originally equal in birth, fortune, and capacity, but different in their
+education, and consequently in their habits and conduct. Francisco was
+the son of an honest gardener, who, from the time he could speak, taught
+him to love to speak the truth, showed him that liars are never
+believed--that cheats and thieves cannot be trusted, and that the
+shortest way to obtain a good character is to deserve it.
+
+Youth and white paper, as the proverb says, take all impressions. The
+boy profited much by his father's precepts, and more by his example; he
+always heard his father speak the truth, and saw that he dealt fairly
+with everybody. In all his childish traffic, Francisco, imitating his
+parents, was scrupulously honest, and therefore all his companions
+trusted him--'As honest as Francisco,' became a sort of proverb amongst
+them.
+
+'As honest as Francisco,' repeated Piedro's father, when he one day
+heard this saying. 'Let them say so; I say, "As sharp as Piedro"; and
+let us see which will go through the world best.' With the idea of
+making his son _sharp_ he made him cunning. He taught him, that to make
+a _good bargain_ was to deceive as to the value and price of whatever
+he wanted to dispose of; to get as much money as possible from customers
+by taking advantage of their ignorance or of their confidence. He often
+repeated his favourite proverb--'The buyer has need of a hundred eyes;
+the seller has need but of one.'[19] And he took frequent opportunities
+of explaining the meaning of this maxim to his son. He was a fisherman;
+and as his gains depended more upon fortune than upon prudence, he
+trusted habitually to his good luck. After being idle for a whole day,
+he would cast his line or his nets, and if he was lucky enough to catch
+a fine fish, he would go and show it in triumph to his neighbour the
+gardener.
+
+  [19] Chi compra ha bisogna di cent' occhi; chi vende n' ha assai di
+       uno.
+
+'You are obliged to work all day long for your daily bread,' he would
+say. 'Look here; I work but five minutes, and I have not only daily
+bread, but daily fish.'
+
+Upon these occasions, our fisherman always forgot, or neglected to
+count, the hours and days which were wasted in waiting for a fair wind
+to put to sea, or angling in vain on the shore.
+
+Little Piedro, who used to bask in the sun upon the sea-shore beside his
+father, and to lounge or sleep away his time in a fishing-boat, acquired
+habits of idleness, which seemed to his father of little consequence
+whilst he was _but a child_.
+
+'What will you do with Piedro as he grows up, neighbour?' said the
+gardener. 'He is smart and quick enough, but he is always in mischief.
+Scarcely a day has passed for this fortnight but I have caught him
+amongst my grapes. I track his footsteps all over my vineyard.' '_He is
+but a child_ yet, and knows no better,' replied the fisherman. 'But if
+you don't teach him better now he is a child, how will he know when he
+is a man?' said the gardener. 'A mighty noise about a bunch of grapes,
+truly!' cried the fisherman; 'a few grapes more or less in your
+vineyard, what does it signify?' 'I speak for your son's sake, and not
+for the sake of my grapes,' said the gardener; 'and I tell you again,
+the boy will not do well in the world, neighbour, if you don't look
+after him in time.' 'He'll do well enough in the world, you will find,'
+answered the fisherman, carelessly. 'Whenever he casts my nets, they
+never come up empty. "It is better to be lucky than wise."'[20]
+
+  [20] E meglio esser fortunato che savio.
+
+This was a proverb which Piedro had frequently heard from his father,
+and to which he most willingly trusted, because it gave him less trouble
+to fancy himself fortunate than to make himself wise.
+
+'Come here, child,' said his father to him, when he returned home after
+the preceding conversation with the gardener; 'how old are you, my
+boy?--twelve years old, is not it?' 'As old as Francisco, and older by
+six months,' said Piedro. 'And smarter and more knowing by six years,'
+said his father. 'Here, take these fish to Naples, and let us see how
+you'll sell them for me. Venture a small fish, as the proverb says, to
+catch a great one.[21] I was too late with them at the market yesterday,
+but nobody will know but what they are just fresh out of the water,
+unless you go and tell them.'
+
+  [21] Butta una sardella per pigliar un luccio.
+
+'Not I; trust me for that; I'm not such a fool,' replied Piedro,
+laughing; 'I leave that to Francisco. Do you know, I saw him the other
+day miss selling a melon for his father by turning the bruised side to
+the customer, who was just laying down the money for it, and who was a
+raw servant-boy, moreover--one who would never have guessed there were
+two sides to a melon, if he had not, as you say, father, been told of
+it?'
+
+'Off with you to market. You are a droll chap,' said his father, 'and
+will sell my fish cleverly, I'll be bound. As to the rest, let every man
+take care of his own grapes. You understand me, Piedro?'
+
+'Perfectly,' said the boy, who perceived that his father was indifferent
+as to his honesty, provided he sold fish at the highest price possible.
+He proceeded to the market, and he offered his fish with assiduity to
+every person whom he thought likely to buy it, especially to those upon
+whom he thought he could impose. He positively asserted to all who
+looked at his fish that they were just fresh out of the water. Good
+judges of men and fish knew that he said what was false, and passed him
+by with neglect; but it was at last what he called _good luck_ to meet
+with the very same young raw servant-boy who would have bought the
+bruised melon from Francisco. He made up to him directly, crying, 'Fish!
+Fine fresh fish! fresh fish!'
+
+'Was it caught to-day?' said the boy.
+
+[Illustration: _'I saw him the other day miss selling a melon for his
+father by turning the bruised side to the customer.'_]
+
+'Yes, this morning; not an hour ago,' said Piedro, with the greatest
+effrontery.
+
+The servant-boy was imposed upon; and being a foreigner, speaking the
+Italian language but imperfectly, and not being expert at reckoning the
+Italian money, he was no match for the cunning Piedro, who cheated him
+not only as to the freshness but as to the price of the commodity.
+Piedro received nearly half as much again for his fish as he ought to
+have done.
+
+On his road homewards from Naples to the little village of Resina, where
+his father lived, he overtook Francisco, who was leading his father's
+ass. The ass was laden with large panniers, which were filled with the
+stalks and leaves of cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli, lettuces,
+etc.--all the refuse of the Neapolitan kitchens, which are usually
+collected by the gardeners' boys, and carried to the gardens round
+Naples, to be mixed with other manure.
+
+'Well-filled panniers, truly,' said Piedro, as he overtook Francisco and
+the ass. The panniers were indeed not only filled to the top, but piled
+up with much skill and care, so that the load met over the animal's
+back.
+
+'It is not a very heavy load for the ass, though it looks so large,'
+said Francisco. 'The poor fellow, however, shall have a little of this
+water,' added he, leading the ass to a pool by the roadside.
+
+'I was not thinking of the ass, boy; I was not thinking of any ass, but
+of you, when I said, "Well-filled panniers, truly!" This is your
+morning's work, I presume, and you'll make another journey to Naples
+to-day, on the same errand, I warrant, before your father thinks you
+have done enough?'
+
+'Not before _my father_ thinks I have done enough, but before I think so
+myself,' replied Francisco.
+
+'I do enough to satisfy myself and my father too,' said Piedro, 'without
+slaving myself after your fashion. Look here,' producing the money he
+had received for the fish; 'all this was had for asking. It is no bad
+thing, you'll allow, to know how to ask for money properly.'
+
+'I should be ashamed to beg, or borrow either,' said Francisco.
+
+'Neither did I get what you see by begging, or borrowing either,' said
+Piedro, 'but by using my wits; not as you did yesterday, when, like a
+novice, you showed the bruised side of your melon, and so spoiled your
+market by your wisdom.'
+
+'Wisdom I think it still,' said Francisco.
+
+'And your father?' asked Piedro.
+
+'And my father,' said Francisco.
+
+'Mine is of a different way of thinking,' said Piedro. 'He always tells
+me that the buyer has need of a hundred eyes, and if one can blind the
+whole hundred, so much the better. You must know, I got off the fish
+to-day that my father could not sell yesterday in the market--got it off
+for fresh just out of the river--got twice as much as the market price
+for it; and from whom, think you? Why, from the very booby that would
+have bought the bruised melon for a sound one if you would have let him.
+You'll allow I'm no fool, Francisco, and that I'm in a fair way to grow
+rich, if I go on as I have begun.'
+
+'Stay,' said Francisco; 'you forgot that the booby you took in to-day
+will not be so easily taken in to-morrow. He will buy no more fish from
+you, because he will be afraid of your cheating him; but he will be
+ready enough to buy fruit from me, because he will know I shall not
+cheat him--so you'll have lost a customer, and I gained one.'
+
+'With all my heart,' said Piedro. 'One customer does not make a market;
+if he buys no more from me, what care I? there are people enough to buy
+fish in Naples.'
+
+'And do you mean to serve them all in the same manner?' asked Francisco.
+
+'If they will be only so good as to give me leave,' said Piedro,
+laughing, and repeating his father's proverb, '"Venture a small fish to
+catch a large one."'[22] He had learned to think that to cheat in making
+bargains was witty and clever.
+
+  [22] See _antea_.
+
+'And you have never considered, then,' said Francisco, 'that all these
+people will, one after another, find you out in time?'
+
+'Ay, in time; but it will be some time first. There are a great many of
+them, enough to last me all the summer, if I lose a customer a day,'
+said Piedro.
+
+'And next summer,' observed Francisco, 'what will you do?'
+
+'Next summer is not come yet; there is time enough to think what I
+shall do before next summer comes. Why, now, suppose the blockheads,
+after they had been taken in and found it out, all joined against me,
+and would buy none of our fish--what then? Are there no trades but that
+of a fisherman? In Naples, are there not a hundred ways of making money
+for a smart lad like me? as my father says. What do you think of turning
+merchant, and selling sugar-plums and cakes to the children in their
+market? Would they be hard to deal with, think you?'
+
+'I think not,' said Francisco; 'but I think the children would find out
+in time if they were cheated, and would like it as little as the men.'
+
+'I don't doubt them. Then _in time_ I could, you know, change my
+trade--sell chips and sticks in the wood-market--hand about the lemonade
+to the fine folks, or twenty other things. There are trades enough,
+boy.'
+
+'Yes, for the honest dealer,' said Francisco, 'but for no other; for in
+all of them you'll find, as _my_ father says, that a good character is
+the best fortune to set up with. Change your trade ever so often, you'll
+be found out for what you are at last.'
+
+'And what am I, pray?' said Piedro, angrily. 'The whole truth of the
+matter is, Francisco, that you envy my good luck, and can't bear to hear
+this money jingle in my hand. Ay, stroke the long ears of your ass, and
+look as wise as you please. It's better to be lucky than wise, as _my_
+father says. Good morning to you. When I am found out for what I am, or
+when the worst comes to the worst, I can drive a stupid ass, with his
+panniers filled with rubbish, as well as you do now, _honest Francisco_?
+
+'Not quite so well. Unless you were _honest Francisco_, you would not
+fill his panniers quite so readily.'
+
+This was certain, that Francisco was so well known for his honesty
+amongst all the people at Naples with whom his father was acquainted,
+that every one was glad to deal with him; and as he never wronged any
+one, all were willing to serve him--at least, as much as they could
+without loss to themselves; so that after the market was over, his
+panniers were regularly filled by the gardeners and others with whatever
+he wanted. His industry was constant, his gains small but certain, and
+he every day had more and more reason to trust to his father's
+maxim--That honesty is the best policy.
+
+The foreign servant lad, to whom Francisco had so honestly, or, as
+Piedro said, so sillily, shown the bruised side of the melon, was an
+Englishman. He left his native country, of which he was extremely fond,
+to attend upon his master, to whom he was still more attached. His
+master was in a declining state of health, and this young lad waited on
+him a little more to his mind than his other servants. We must, in
+consideration of his zeal, fidelity, and inexperience, pardon him for
+not being a good judge of fish. Though he had simplicity enough to be
+easily cheated once, he had too much sense to be twice made a dupe. The
+next time he met Piedro in the market, he happened to be in company with
+several English gentlemen's servants, and he pointed Piedro out to them
+all as an arrant knave. They heard his cry of 'Fresh fish! fresh fish!
+fine fresh fish!' with incredulous smiles, and let him pass, but not
+without some expressions of contempt, though uttered in English, he
+tolerably well understood; for the tone of contempt is sufficiently
+expressive in all languages. He lost more by not selling his fish to
+these people than he had gained the day before by cheating the _English
+booby_. The market was well supplied, and he could not get rid of his
+cargo.
+
+'Is not this truly provoking?' said Piedro, as he passed by Francisco,
+who was selling fruit for his father. 'Look, my basket is as heavy as
+when I left home; and look at 'em yourself, they really are fine fresh
+fish to-day; and yet, because that revengeful booby told how I took him
+in yesterday, not one of yonder crowd would buy them; and all the time
+they really are fresh to-day!'
+
+'So they are,' said Francisco; 'but you said so yesterday, when they
+were not; and he that was duped then is not ready to believe you to-day.
+How does he know that you deserve it better?'
+
+'He might have looked at the fish,' repeated Piedro; 'they are fresh
+to-day. I am sure he need not have been afraid.'
+
+'Ay,' said Francisco; 'but as my father said to you once--the scalded
+dog fears cold water.'[23]
+
+  [23] Il cane scottato dell' acqua calda ha paura poi della fredda.
+
+Here their conversation was interrupted by the same English lad, who
+smiled as he came up to Francisco, and taking up a fine pine-apple, he
+said, in a mixture of bad Italian and English--'I need not look at the
+other side of this; you will tell me if it is not as good as it looks.
+Name your price; I know you have but one, and that an honest one; and as
+to the rest, I am able and willing to pay for what I buy; that is to
+say, my master is, which comes to the same thing. I wish your fruit
+could make him well, and it would be worth its weight in gold--to me, at
+least. We must have some of your grapes for him.'
+
+'Is he not well?' inquired Francisco. 'We must, then, pick out the best
+for him,' at the same time singling out a tempting bunch. 'I hope he
+will like these; but if you could some day come as far as Resina (it is
+a village but a few miles out of town, where we have our vineyard), you
+could there choose for yourself, and pluck them fresh from the vines for
+your poor master.'
+
+'Bless you, my good boy; I should take you for an Englishman, by your
+way of dealing. I'll come to your village. Only write me down the name;
+for your Italian names slip through my head. I'll come to the vineyard
+if it was ten miles off; and all the time we stay in Naples (may it not
+be so long as I fear it will!), with my master's leave, which he never
+refuses me to anything that's proper, I'll deal with you for all our
+fruit, as sure as my name's Arthur, and with none else, with my good
+will. I wish all your countrymen would take after you in honesty, indeed
+I do,' concluded the Englishman, looking full at Piedro, who took up his
+unsold basket of fish, looking somewhat silly, and gloomily walked off.
+
+Arthur, the English servant, was as good as his word. He dealt
+constantly with Francisco, and proved an excellent customer, buying from
+him during the whole season as much fruit as his master wanted. His
+master, who was an Englishman of distinction, was invited to take up his
+residence, during his stay in Italy, at the Count de F.'s villa, which
+was in the environs of Naples--an easy walk from Resina. Francisco had
+the pleasure of seeing his father's vineyard often full of generous
+visitors, and Arthur, who had circulated the anecdote of the bruised
+melon, was, he said, 'proud to think that some of this was his doing,
+and that an Englishman never forgot a good turn, be it from a countryman
+or foreigner.'
+
+'My dear boy,' said Francisco's father to him, whilst Arthur was in the
+vineyard helping to tend the vines, 'I am to thank you and your honesty,
+it seems, for our having our hands so full of business this season. It
+is fair you should have a share of our profits.'
+
+'So I have, father, enough and enough, when I see you and mother going
+on so well. What can I want more?'
+
+'Oh, my brave boy, we know you are a grateful, good son; but I have been
+your age myself; you have companions, you have little expenses of your
+own. Here; this vine, this fig-tree, and a melon a week next summer
+shall be yours. With these make a fine figure amongst the little
+Neapolitan merchants; and all I wish is that you may prosper as well,
+and by the same honest means, in managing for yourself, as you have done
+managing for me.'
+
+'Thank you, father; and if I prosper at all, it shall be by those means,
+and no other, or I should not be worthy to be called your son.'
+
+Piedro the cunning did not make quite so successful a summer's work as
+did Francisco the honest. No extraordinary events happened, no singular
+instance of bad or good luck occurred; but he felt, as persons usually
+do, the natural consequences of his own actions. He pursued his scheme
+of imposing, as far as he could, upon every person he dealt with; and
+the consequence was, that at last nobody would deal with him.
+
+'It is easy to outwit one person, but impossible to outwit all the
+world,' said a man[24] who knew the world at least as well as either
+Piedro or his father.
+
+  [24] The Duc de Rochefoucault.--'On peut etre plus fin qu'un autre,
+       mais pas plus fin que tous les autres.'
+
+Piedro's father, amongst others, had reason to complain. He saw his own
+customers fall off from him, and was told, whenever he went into the
+market, that his son was such a cheat there was no dealing with him. One
+day, when he was returning from the market in a very bad humour, in
+consequence of these reproaches, and of his not having found customers
+for his goods, he espied his _smart_ son Piedro at a little merchant's
+fruit-board, devouring a fine gourd with prodigious greediness. 'Where,
+glutton, do you find money to pay for these dainties?' exclaimed his
+father, coming close up to him, with angry gestures. Piedro's mouth was
+much too full to make an immediate reply, nor did his father wait for
+any, but darting his hand into the youth's pocket, pulled forth a
+handful of silver.
+
+'The money, father,' said Piedro, 'that I got for the fish yesterday,
+and that I meant to give you to-day, before you went out.'
+
+'Then I'll make you remember it against another time, sirrah!' said his
+father. 'I'll teach you to fill your stomach with my money. Am I to lose
+my customers by your tricks, and then find you here eating my all? You
+are a rogue, and everybody has found you out to be a rogue; and the
+worst of rogues I find you, who scruples not to cheat his own father.'
+
+Saying these words, with great vehemence he seized hold of Piedro, and
+in the very midst of the little fruit-market gave him a severe beating.
+This beating did the boy no good; it was vengeance not punishment.
+Piedro saw that his father was in a passion, and knew that he was beaten
+because he was found out to be a rogue, rather than for being one. He
+recollected perfectly that his father once said to him: 'Let every one
+take care of his own grapes.'
+
+Indeed, it was scarcely reasonable to expect that a boy who had been
+educated to think that he might cheat every customer he could in the way
+of trade, should be afterwards scrupulously honest in his conduct
+towards the father whose proverbs encouraged his childhood in cunning.
+
+Piedro writhed with bodily pain as he left the market after his
+drubbing, but his mind was not in the least amended. On the contrary, he
+was hardened to the sense of shame by the loss of reputation. All the
+little merchants were spectators of this scene, and heard his father's
+words: 'You _are_ a rogue, and the worst of rogues, who scruples not to
+cheat his own father.'
+
+These words were long remembered, and long did Piedro feel their
+effects. He once flattered himself that, when his trade of selling fish
+failed him, he could readily engage in some other; but he now found, to
+his mortification, that what Francisco's father said proved true: 'In
+all trades the best fortune to set up with is a good character.'
+
+Not one of the little Neapolitan merchants would either enter into
+partnership with him, give him credit, or even trade with him for ready
+money.--'If you would cheat your own father, to be sure you will cheat
+us,' was continually said to him by these prudent little people.
+
+Piedro was taunted and treated with contempt at home and abroad. His
+father, when he found that his son's _smartness_ was no longer useful
+in making bargains, shoved him out of his way whenever he met him. All
+the food or clothes that he had at home seemed to be given to him
+grudgingly, and with such expressions as these: 'Take that; but it is
+too good for you. You must eat this, now, instead of gourds and
+figs--and be thankful you have even this.'
+
+Piedro spent a whole winter very unhappily. He expected that all his old
+tricks, and especially what his father had said of him in the
+market-place, would be soon forgotten; but month passed after month, and
+still these things were fresh in the memory of all who had known them.
+
+It is not easy to get rid of a bad character. A very great rogue[25] was
+once heard to say, that he would, with all his heart, give ten thousand
+pounds for a good character, because he knew that he could make twenty
+thousand by it.
+
+  [25] Chartres.
+
+Something like this was the sentiment of our cunning hero when he
+experienced the evils of a bad reputation, and when he saw the numerous
+advantages which Francisco's good character procured. Such had been
+Piedro's wretched education, that even the hard lessons of experience
+could not alter its pernicious effects. He was sorry his knavery had
+been detected, but he still thought it clever to cheat, and was secretly
+persuaded that, if he had cheated successfully, he should have been
+happy. 'But I know I am not happy now,' said he to himself one morning,
+as he sat alone disconsolate by the sea-shore, dressed in tattered
+garments, weak and hungry, with an empty basket beside him. His
+fishing-rod, which he held between his knees, bent over the dry sands
+instead of into the water, for he was not thinking of what he was about;
+his arms were folded, his head hung down, and his ragged hat was
+slouched over his face. He was a melancholy spectacle.
+
+Francisco, as he was coming from his father's vineyard with a large dish
+of purple and white grapes upon his head, and a basket of melons and
+figs hanging upon his arm, chanced to see Piedro seated in this
+melancholy posture. Touched with compassion, Francisco approached him
+softly; his footsteps were not heard upon the sands, and Piedro did not
+perceive that any one was near him till he felt something cold touch his
+hand; he then started, and, looking up, saw a bunch of ripe grapes,
+which Francisco was holding over his head.
+
+'Eat them; you'll find them very good, I hope,' said Francisco, with a
+benevolent smile.
+
+'They are excellent--most excellent, and I am much obliged to you,
+Francisco,' said Piedro. 'I was very hungry, and that's what I am now,
+without anybody's caring anything about it. I am not the favourite I was
+with my father, but I know it is all my own fault.'
+
+'Well, but cheer up,' said Francisco; 'my father always says, "One who
+knows he has been in fault, and acknowledges it, will scarcely be in
+fault again." Yes, take as many figs as you will,' continued he; and
+held his basket closer to Piedro, who, as he saw, cast a hungry eye upon
+one of the ripe figs.
+
+'But,' said Piedro, after he had taken several, 'shall not I get you
+into a scrape by taking so many? Won't your father be apt to miss them?'
+
+'Do you think I would give them to you if they were not my own?' said
+Francisco, with a sudden glance of indignation.
+
+'Well, don't be angry that I asked the question; it was only from fear
+of getting you into disgrace that I asked it.'
+
+'It would not be easy for anybody to do that, I hope,' said Francisco,
+rather proudly.
+
+'And to me less than anybody,' replied Piedro, in an insinuating tone,
+'_I_, that am so much obliged to you!'
+
+'A bunch of grapes and a few figs are no mighty obligation,' said
+Francisco, smiling; 'I wish I could do more for you. You seem, indeed,
+to have been very unhappy of late. We never see you in the markets as we
+used to do.'
+
+'No; ever since my father beat me, and called me rogue before all the
+children there, I have never been able to show my face without being
+gibed at by one or t'other. If you would but take me along with you
+amongst them, and only just _seem_ my friend for a day or two, or so, it
+would quite set me up again; for they all like you.'
+
+'I would rather _be_ than seem your friend, if I could,' said Francisco.
+
+'Ay, to be sure; that would be still better,' said Piedro, observing
+that Francisco, as he uttered his last sentence, was separating the
+grapes and other fruits into two equal divisions. 'To be sure I would
+rather you would _be_ than _seem_ a friend to me; but I thought that was
+too much to ask at first, though I have a notion, notwithstanding I
+have been so _unlucky_ lately--I have a notion you would have no reason
+to repent of it. You would find me no bad hand, if you were to try, and
+take me into partnership.'
+
+'Partnership!' interrupted Francisco, drawing back alarmed; 'I had no
+thoughts of that.'
+
+'But won't you? can't you?' said Piedro, in a supplicating tone;
+'_can't_ you have thoughts of it? You'd find me a very active partner.'
+
+Francisco still drew back, and kept his eyes fixed upon the ground. He
+was embarrassed; for he pitied Piedro, and he scarcely knew how to point
+out to him that something more is necessary in a partner in trade
+besides activity, and that is honesty.
+
+'Can't you?' repeated Piedro, thinking that he hesitated from merely
+mercenary motives. 'You shall have what share of the profits you
+please.'
+
+'I was not thinking of the profits,' said Francisco; 'but without
+meaning to be ill-natured to you, Piedro, I must say that I cannot enter
+into any partnership with you at present; but I will do what, perhaps,
+you will like as well,' said he, taking half the fruit out of his
+basket; 'you are heartily welcome to this; try and sell it in the
+children's fruit-market.' 'I'll go on before you, and speak to those
+I am acquainted with, and tell them you are going to set up a new
+character, and that you hope to make it a good one.'
+
+'Hey, shall I! Thank you for ever, dear Francisco,' cried Piedro,
+seizing his plentiful gift of fruit. 'Say what you please for me.'
+
+'But don't make me say anything that is not true,' said Francisco,
+pausing.
+
+'No, to be sure not,' said Piedro; 'I _do_ mean to give no room for
+scandal. If I could get them to trust me as they do you, I should be
+happy indeed.'
+
+'That is what you may do, if you please,' said Francisco. 'Adieu, I wish
+you well with all my heart; but I must leave you now, or I shall be too
+late for the market.'
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+  _Chi va piano va sano, e anche lontano._
+  Fair and softly goes far in a day.
+
+Piedro had now an opportunity of establishing a good character. When he
+went into the market with his grapes and figs, he found that he was not
+shunned or taunted as usual. All seemed disposed to believe in his
+intended reformation, and to give him a fair trial.
+
+These favourable dispositions towards him were the consequence of
+Francisco's benevolent representations. He told them that he thought
+Piedro had suffered enough to cure him of his tricks, and that it would
+be cruelty in them, because he might once have been in fault, to banish
+him by their reproaches from amongst them, and thus to prevent him from
+the means of gaining his livelihood honestly.
+
+Piedro made a good beginning, and gave what several of the younger
+customers thought excellent bargains. His grapes and figs were quickly
+sold, and with the money that he got for them he the next day purchased
+from a fruit-dealer a fresh supply; and thus he went on for some time,
+conducting himself with scrupulous honesty, so that he acquired some
+credit among his companions. They no longer watched him with suspicious
+eyes. They trusted to his measures and weights, and they counted less
+carefully the change which they received from him.
+
+The satisfaction he felt from this alteration in their manners was at
+first delightful, to Piedro; but in proportion to his credit, his
+opportunities of defrauding increased; and these became temptations
+which he had not the firmness to resist. His old manner of thinking
+recurred.
+
+'I make but a few shillings a day, and this is but slow work,' said he
+to himself. 'What signifies my good character, if I make so little by
+it?'
+
+Light gains, and frequent, make a heavy purse,[26] was one of
+Francisco's proverbs. But Piedro was in too great haste to get rich to
+take time into his account. He set his invention to work, and he did not
+want for ingenuity, to devise means of cheating without running the risk
+of detection. He observed that the younger part of the community were
+extremely fond of certain coloured sugar-plums, and of burnt almonds.
+
+  [26] Poco e spesso empie il l' orsetto.
+
+With the money he had earned by two months' trading in fruit he laid in
+a large stock of what appeared to these little merchants a stock of
+almonds and sugar-plums, and he painted in capital gold coloured letters
+upon his board, 'Sweetest, largest, most admirable sugar-plums of all
+colours ever sold in Naples, to be had here; and in gratitude to his
+numerous customers, Piedro adds to these "Burnt almonds gratis."'
+
+This advertisement attracted the attention of all who could read; and
+many who could not read heard it repeated with delight. Crowds of
+children surrounded Piedro's board of promise, and they all went away
+the first day amply satisfied. Each had a full measure of coloured
+sugar-plums at the usual price, and along with these a burnt almond
+gratis. The burnt almond had such an effect upon the public judgment,
+that it was universally allowed that the sugar-plums were, as the
+advertisement set forth, the largest, sweetest, most admirable ever sold
+in Naples; though all the time they were, in no respect, better than any
+other sugar-plums.
+
+It was generally reported that Piedro gave full measure--fuller than any
+other board in the city. He measured the sugar-plums in a little cubical
+tin box; and this, it was affirmed, he heaped up to the top and pressed
+down before he poured out the contents into the open hands of his
+approving customers. This belief, and Piedro's popularity, continued
+longer even than he had expected; and, as he thought his sugar-plums had
+secured their reputation with the _generous public_, he gradually
+neglected to add burnt almonds gratis.
+
+One day a boy of about ten years old passed carelessly by, whistling as
+he went along, and swinging a carpenter's rule in his hand. 'Ha! what
+have we here?' cried he, stopping to read what was written on Piedro's
+board. 'This promises rarely. Old as I am, and tall of my age, which
+makes the matter worse, I am still as fond of sugar-plums as my little
+sister, who is five years younger than I. Come, Signor, fill me quick,
+for I'm in haste to taste them, two measures of the sweetest, largest,
+most admirable sugar-plums in Naples--one measure for myself, and one
+for my little Rosetta.'
+
+'You'll pay for yourself and your sister, then,' said Piedro, 'for no
+credit is given here.'
+
+'No credit do I ask,' replied the lively boy; 'when I told you I loved
+sugar-plums, did I tell you I loved them, or even my sister, so well as
+to run in debt for them? Here's for myself, and here's for my sister's
+share,' said he, laying down his money; 'and now for the burnt almonds
+gratis, my good fellow.'
+
+'They are all out; I have been out of burnt almonds this great while,'
+said Piedro.
+
+'Then why are they in your advertisement here?' said Carlo.
+
+'I have not had time to scratch them out of the board.'
+
+'What! not when you have, by your own account, been out of them a great
+while? I did not know it required so much time to blot out a few
+words--let us try'; and as he spoke, Carlo, for that was the name of
+Piedro's new customer, pulled a bit of white chalk out of his pocket,
+and drew a broad score across the line on the board which promised burnt
+almonds gratis.
+
+'You are most impatient,' said Piedro; 'I shall have a fresh stock of
+almonds to-morrow.' 'Why must the board tell a lie to-day?' 'It would
+ruin me to alter it,' said Piedro. 'A lie may ruin you, but I could
+scarcely think the truth could.' 'You have no right to meddle with me or
+my board,' said Piedro, put off his guard, and out of his usual soft
+voice of civility, by this last observation. 'My character, and that of
+my board, are too firmly established now for any chance customer like
+you to injure.' 'I never dreamed of injuring you or any one else,' said
+Carlo--'I wish, moreover, you may not injure yourself. Do as you please
+with your board, but give me my sugar-plums, for I have some right to
+meddle with those, having paid for them.' 'Hold out your hand, then.'
+'No, put them in here, if you please; put my sister's, at least, in
+here; she likes to have them in this box: I bought some for her in it
+yesterday, and she'll think they'll taste the better out of the same
+box. But how is this? your measure does not fill my box nearly; you give
+us very few sugar-plums for our money.' 'I give you full measure, as I
+give to everybody.' 'The measure should be an inch cube, I know,' said
+Carlo; 'that's what all the little merchants have agreed to, you know.'
+'True,' said Piedro, 'so it is.' 'And so it is, I must allow,' said
+Carlo, measuring the outside of it with the carpenter's rule which he
+held in his hand. 'An inch every way; and yet by my eye--and I have no
+bad one, being used to measuring carpenter's work for my father--by my
+eye, I should think this would have held more sugar-plums.' 'The eye
+often deceives us,' said Piedro. 'There's nothing like measuring, you
+find.' 'There's nothing like measuring, I find, indeed,' replied Carlo,
+as he looked closely at the end of his rule, which, since he spoke last,
+he had put into the tin cube to take its depth in the inside. 'This is
+not as deep by a quarter of an inch, Signor Piedro, measured within as
+it is measured without.'
+
+Piedro changed colour terribly, and seizing hold of the tin box,
+endeavoured to wrest it from the youth who measured so accurately. Carlo
+held his prize fast, and lifting it above his head, he ran into the
+midst of the square where the little market was held, exclaiming, 'A
+discovery! a discovery! that concerns all who love sugar-plums. A
+discovery! a discovery! that concerns all who have ever bought the
+sweetest, largest, and most admirable sugar-plums ever sold in Naples.'
+
+The crowd gathered from all parts of the square as he spoke.
+
+'We have bought,' and 'We have bought of those sugar-plums,' cried
+several little voices at once, 'if you mean Piedro's.'
+
+'The same,' continued Carlo--'he who, out of gratitude to his numerous
+customers, gives, or promises to give, burnt almonds gratis.'
+
+'Excellent they were!' cried several voices. 'We all know Piedro well;
+but what's your discovery?'
+
+'My discovery is,' said Carlo, 'that you, none of you, know Piedro. Look
+you here; look at this box--this is his measure; it has a false
+bottom--it holds only three-quarters as much as it ought to do; and his
+numerous customers have all been cheated of one-quarter of every measure
+of the admirable sugar-plums they have bought from him. "Think twice of
+a good bargain," says the proverb.'
+
+'So we have been finely duped, indeed,' cried some of the bystanders,
+looking at one another with a mortified air. Full of courtesy, full of
+craft![27] 'So this is the meaning of his burnt almonds gratis,' cried
+others; all joined in an uproar of indignation, except one, who, as he
+stood behind the rest, expressed in his countenance silent surprise and
+sorrow.
+
+  [27] Chi te fa piu carezza che non vuole, O ingannato t' ha, o
+       ingannar te vuole.
+
+'Is this Piedro a relation of yours?' said Carlo, going up to this
+silent person. 'I am sorry, if he be, that I have published his
+disgrace, for I would not hurt _you_. You don't sell sugar-plums as he
+does, I'm sure; for my little sister Rosetta has often bought from you.
+Can this Piedro be a friend of yours?'
+
+'I wished to have been his friend, but I see I can't,' said Francisco.
+'He is a neighbour of ours, and I pitied him; but since he is at his old
+tricks again, there's an end of the matter. I have reason to be obliged
+to you, for I was nearly taken in. He has behaved so well for some time
+past, that I intended this very evening to have gone to him, and to have
+told him that I was willing to do for him what he has long begged of me
+to do--to enter into partnership with him.'
+
+'Francisco! Francisco! your measure, lend us your measure!' exclaimed a
+number of little merchants crowding round him. 'You have a measure for
+sugar-plums; and we have all agreed to refer to that, and to see how
+much we have been cheated before we go to break Piedro's bench and
+declare him bankrupt,[28]--the punishment for all knaves.'
+
+  [28] This word comes from two Italian words, _banco rotto_--broken
+       bench. Bankers and merchants used formerly to count their money
+       and write their bills of exchange upon benches in the streets;
+       and when a merchant or banker lost his credit, and was unable
+       to pay his debts, his bench was broken.
+
+They pressed on to Francisco's board, obtained his measure, found that
+it held something more than a quarter above the quantity that could be
+contained in Piedro's. The cries of the enraged populace were now most
+clamorous. They hung the just and the unjust measures upon high poles;
+and, forming themselves into a formidable phalanx, they proceeded
+towards Piedro's well-known yellow-lettered beard, exclaiming, as they
+went along, 'Common cause! common cause! The little Neapolitan merchants
+will have no knaves amongst them! Break his bench! break his bench! He
+is a bankrupt in honesty.'
+
+Piedro saw the mob, heard the indignant clamour, and terrified at the
+approach of numbers, he fled with the utmost precipitation, having
+scarcely time to pack up half his sugar-plums. There was a prodigious
+number, more than would have filled many honest measures, scattered upon
+the ground and trampled under foot by the crowd. Piedro's bench was
+broken, and the public vengeance wreaked itself also upon his
+treacherous painted board. It was, after being much disfigured by
+various inscriptions expressive of the universal contempt for Piedro,
+hung up in a conspicuous part of the market-place; and the false measure
+was fastened like a cap upon one of its corners. Piedro could never more
+show his face in this market, and all hopes of friendship--all hopes of
+partnership with Francisco--were for ever at an end.
+
+If rogues would calculate, they would cease to be rogues; for they would
+certainly discover that it is most for their interest to be
+honest--setting aside the pleasure of being esteemed and beloved, of
+having a safe conscience, with perfect freedom from all the various
+embarrassments and terror to which knaves are subject. Is it not clear
+that our crafty hero would have gained rather more by a partnership with
+Francisco, and by a fair character, than he could possibly obtain by
+fraudulent dealing in comfits?
+
+When the mob had dispersed, after satisfying themselves with executing
+summary justice upon Piedro's bench and board, Francisco found a
+carpenter's rule lying upon the ground near Piedro's broken bench, which
+he recollected to have seen in the hands of Carlo. He examined it
+carefully, and he found Carlo's name written upon it, and the name of
+the street where he lived; and though it was considerably out of his
+way, he set out immediately to restore the rule, which was a very
+handsome one, to its rightful owner. After a hot walk through several
+streets, he overtook Carlo, who had just reached the door of his own
+house. Carlo was particularly obliged to him, he said, for restoring
+this rule to him, as it was a present from the master of a vessel, who
+employed his father to do carpenter's work for him. 'One should not
+praise one's self, they say,' continued Carlo; 'but I long so much to
+gain your good opinion, that I must tell you the whole history of the
+rule you have restored. It was given to me for having measured the work
+and made up the bill of a whole pleasure-boat myself. You may guess I
+should have been sorry enough to have lost it. Thank you for its being
+once more in my careless hands, and tell me, I beg, whenever I can do
+you any service. By-the-bye, I can make up for you a fruit stall. I'll
+do it to-morrow, and it shall be the admiration of the market. Is there
+anything else you could think of for me?'
+
+'Why, yes,' said Francisco; 'since you are so good-natured, perhaps
+you'd be kind enough to tell me the meaning of some of those lines and
+figures that I see upon your rule. I have a great curiosity to know
+their use.'
+
+'That I'll explain to you with pleasure, as far as I know them myself;
+but when I'm at fault, my father, who is cleverer than I am, and
+understands trigonometry, can help us out.'
+
+'Trigonometry!' repeated Francisco, not a little alarmed at the
+high-sounding word; 'that's what I certainly shall never understand.'
+
+'Oh, never fear,' replied Carlo, laughing. 'I looked just as you do
+now--I felt just as you do now--all in a fright and a puzzle, when I
+first heard of angles and sines, and co-sines, and arcs and centres, and
+complements and tangents.'
+
+'Oh, mercy! mercy!' interrupted Francisco, whilst Carlo laughed, with a
+benevolent sense of superiority.
+
+'Why,' said Carlo, 'you'll find all these things are nothing when you
+are used to them. But I cannot explain my rule to you here broiling in
+the sun. Besides, it will not be the work of a day, I promise you; but
+come and see us at your leisure hours, and we'll study it together. I
+have a great notion we shall become friends; and, to begin, step in with
+me now,' said Carlo, 'and eat a little macaroni with us. I know it is
+ready by this time. Besides, you'll see my father, and he'll show you
+plenty of rules and compasses, as you like such things; and then I'll go
+home with you in the cool of the evening, and you shall show me your
+melons and vines, and teach me, in time, something of gardening. Oh, I
+see we must be good friends, just made for each other; so come in--no
+ceremony.'
+
+Carlo was not mistaken in his predictions; he and Francisco became very
+good friends, spent all their leisure hours together, either in Carlo's
+workshop or in Francisco's vineyard, and they mutually improved each
+other. Francisco, before he saw his friend's rule, knew but just enough
+of arithmetic to calculate in his head the price of the fruit which he
+sold in the market; but with Carlo's assistance, and the ambition to
+understand the tables and figures upon the wonderful rule, he set to
+work in earnest, and in due time satisfied both himself and his master.
+
+'Who knows but these things that I am learning now may be of some use to
+me before I die?' said Francisco, as he was sitting one morning with his
+tutor, the carpenter.
+
+'To be sure it will,' said the carpenter, putting down his compasses,
+with which he was drawing a circle. 'Arithmetic is a most useful, and I
+was going to say necessary thing to be known by men in all stations; and
+a little trigonometry does no harm. In short, my maxim is, that no
+knowledge comes amiss; for a man's head is of as much use to him as his
+hands; and even more so.
+
+  'A word to the wise will always suffice.
+
+'Besides, to say nothing of making a fortune, is not there a great
+pleasure in being something of a scholar, and being able to pass one's
+time with one's book, and one's compasses and pencil? Safe companions
+these for young and old. No one gets into mischief that has pleasant
+things to think of and to do when alone; and I know, for my part, that
+trigonometry is----'
+
+Here the carpenter, just as he was going to pronounce a fresh panegyric
+upon his favourite trigonometry, was interrupted by the sudden entrance
+of his little daughter Rosetta, all in tears: a very unusual spectacle,
+for, taking the year round, she shed fewer tears than any child of her
+age in Naples.
+
+'Why, my dear good-humoured little Rosetta, what has happened? Why these
+large tears?' said her brother Carlo, and he went up to her, and wiped
+them from her cheeks. 'And these that are going over the bridge of the
+nose so fast? I must stop these tears too,' said Carlo.
+
+Rosetta, at this speech, burst out laughing, and said that she did not
+know till then that she had any bridge on her nose.
+
+'And were these shells the cause of the tears?' said her brother,
+looking at a heap of shells which she held before her in her frock.
+
+'Yes, partly,' said Rosetta. 'It was partly my own fault, but not all.
+You know I went out to the carpenters' yard, near the arsenal, where all
+the children are picking up chips and sticks so busily; and I was as
+busy as any of them, because I wanted to fill my basket soon; and then I
+thought I should sell my basketful directly in the little wood-market.
+As soon as I had filled my basket, and made up my faggot (which was not
+done, brother, till I was almost baked by the sun, for I was forced to
+wait by the carpenters for the bits of wood to make up my faggot)--I
+say, when it was all ready, and my basket full, I left it all together
+in the yard.' 'That was not wise to leave it,' said Carlo. 'But I only
+left it for a few minutes, brother, and I could not think anybody would
+be so dishonest as to take it whilst I was away. I only just ran to tell
+a boy, who had picked up all these beautiful shells upon the sea-shore,
+and who wanted to sell them, that I should be glad to buy them from him,
+if he would only be so good as to keep them for me, for an hour or so,
+till I had carried my wood to market, and till I had sold it, and so had
+money to pay him for the shells.'
+
+'Your heart was set mightily on these shells, Rosetta.'
+
+'Yes; for I thought you and Francisco, brother, would like to have them
+for your nice grotto that you are making at Resina. That was the reason
+I was in such a hurry to get them. The boy who had them to sell was very
+good-natured; he poured them into my lap, and said I had such an honest
+face he would trust me, and that as he was in a great hurry, he could
+not wait an hour whilst I sold my wood; but that he was sure I would pay
+him in the evening, and he told me that he would call here this evening
+for the money. But now what shall I do, Carlo? I shall have no money to
+give him: I must give him back his shells, and that's a great pity.'
+
+'But how happened it that you did not sell your wood?'
+
+'Oh, I forgot; did not I tell you that? When I went back for my basket,
+do you know it was empty, quite empty, not a chip left? Some dishonest
+person had carried it all off. Had not I reason to cry now, Carlo?'
+
+'I'll go this minute into the wood-market, and see if I can find your
+faggot. Won't that be better than crying?' said her brother. 'Should you
+know any one of your pieces of wood again if you were to see them?'
+
+'Yes, one of them, I am sure, I should know again,' said Rosetta. 'It
+had a notch at one end of it, where one of the carpenters cut it off
+from another piece of wood for me.'
+
+'And is this piece of wood from which the carpenter cut it still to be
+seen?' said Francisco. 'Yes, it is in the yard; but I cannot bring it to
+you, for it is very heavy.'
+
+'We can go to it,' said Francisco, 'and I hope we shall recover your
+basketful.'
+
+Carlo and his friend went with Rosetta immediately to the yard, near the
+arsenal, saw the notched piece of wood, and then proceeded to the little
+wood-market, and searched every heap that lay before the little factors;
+but no notched bit was to be found, and Rosetta declared that she did
+not see one stick that looked at all like any of hers.
+
+On their part, her companions eagerly untied their faggots to show them
+to her, and exclaimed, 'that they were incapable of taking what did not
+belong to them; that of all persons they should never have thought of
+taking anything from the good-natured little Rosetta, who was always
+ready to give to others, and to help them in making up their loads.'
+
+Despairing of discovering the thief, Francisco and Carlo left the
+market. As they were returning home, they were met by the English
+servant Arthur, who asked Francisco where he had been, and where he was
+going.
+
+As soon as he heard of Rosetta's lost faggot, and of the bit of wood,
+notched at one end, of which Rosetta drew the shape with a piece of
+chalk which her brother had lent her, Arthur exclaimed, 'I have seen
+such a bit of wood as this within this quarter of an hour; but I cannot
+recollect where. Stay! this was at the baker's, I think, where I went
+for some rolls for my master. It was lying beside his oven.'
+
+To the baker's they all went as fast as possible, and they got there but
+just in time. The baker had in his hand the bit of wood with which he
+was that instant going to feed his oven.
+
+'Stop, good Mr. Baker!' cried Rosetta, who ran into the baker's shop
+first; and as he heard 'Stop! stop!' re-echoed by many voices, the baker
+stopped; and turning to Francisco, Carlo, and Arthur, begged, with a
+countenance of some surprise, to know why they had desired him to stop.
+
+The case was easily explained, and the baker told them that he did not
+buy any wood in the little market that morning; that this faggot he had
+purchased between the hours of twelve and one from a lad about
+Francisco's height, whom he met near the yard of the arsenal.
+
+'This is my bit of wood, I am sure; I know it by this notch,' said
+Rosetta.
+
+'Well,' said the baker, 'if you will stay here a few minutes, you will
+probably see the lad who sold it to me. He desired to be paid in bread,
+and my bread was not quite baked when he was here. I bid him call again
+in an hour, and I fancy he will be pretty punctual, for he looked
+desperately hungry.'
+
+The baker had scarcely finished speaking when Francisco, who was
+standing watching at the door, exclaimed, 'Here comes Piedro! I hope he
+is not the boy who sold you the wood, Mr. Baker?' 'He is the boy,
+though,' replied the baker, and Piedro, who now entered the shop,
+started at the sight of Carlo and Francisco, whom he had never seen
+since the day of disgrace in the fruit-market.
+
+'Your servant, Signor Piedro,' said Carlo; 'I have the honour to tell
+you that this piece of wood, and all that you took out of the basket,
+which you found in the yard of the arsenal, belongs to my sister.' 'Yes,
+indeed,' cried Rosetta.
+
+Piedro being very certain that nobody saw him when he emptied Rosetta's
+basket, and imagining that he was suspected only upon the bare assertion
+of a child like Rosetta, who might be baffled and frightened out of her
+story, boldly denied the charge, and defied any one to prove him guilty.
+
+'He has a right to be heard in his own defence,' said Arthur, with the
+cool justice of an Englishman; and he stopped the angry Carlo's arm, who
+was going up to the culprit with all the Italian vehemence of oratory
+and gesture. Arthur went on to say something in bad Italian about the
+excellence of an English trial by jury, which Carlo was too much enraged
+to hear, but to which Francisco paid attention, and turning to Piedro,
+he asked him if he was willing to be judged by twelve of his equals.
+'With all my heart,' said Piedro, still maintaining an unmoved
+countenance, and they returned immediately to the little wood-market. On
+their way, they had passed through the fruit-market, and crowds of those
+who were well acquainted with Piedro's former transactions followed, to
+hear the event of the present trial.
+
+Arthur could not, especially as he spoke wretched Italian, make the
+eager little merchants understand the nature and advantages of an
+English trial by jury. They preferred their own summary mode of
+proceeding. Francisco, in whose integrity all had perfect confidence,
+was chosen with unanimous shouts for the judge; but he declined the
+office, and another was appointed. He was raised upon a bench, and the
+guilty but insolent-looking Piedro, and the ingenuous, modest Rosetta
+stood before him. She made her complaint in a very artless manner; and
+Piedro, with ingenuity, which in a better cause would have deserved
+admiration, spoke volubly and craftily in his own defence. But all that
+he could say could not alter facts. The judge compared the notched bit
+of wood found at the baker's with a piece from which it was cut, which
+he went to see in the yard of the arsenal. It was found to fit exactly.
+The judge then found it impossible to restrain the loud indignation of
+all the spectators. The prisoner was sentenced never more to sell wood
+in the market; and the moment sentence was pronounced, Piedro was hissed
+and hooted out of the market-place. Thus a third time he deprived
+himself of the means of earning his bread.
+
+We shall not dwell upon all his petty methods of cheating in the trades
+he next attempted. He handed lemonade about in a part of Naples where he
+was not known, but he lost his customers by putting too much water and
+too little lemon into this beverage. He then took to the waters from the
+sulphurous springs, and served them about to foreigners; but one day, as
+he was trying to jostle a competitor from the coach door, he slipped his
+foot and broke his glasses. They had been borrowed from an old woman who
+hired out glasses to the boys who sold lemonade. Piedro knew that it was
+the custom to pay, of course, for all that was broken; but this he was
+not inclined to do. He had a few shillings in his pocket, and thought
+that it would be very clever to defraud this poor woman of her right,
+and to spend his shillings upon what he valued much more than he did his
+good name--macaroni. The shillings were soon gone.
+
+We shall now for the present leave Piedro to his follies and his fate;
+or, to speak more properly, to his follies and their inevitable
+consequences.
+
+Francisco was all this time acquiring knowledge from his new friends,
+without neglecting his own or his father's business. He contrived,
+during the course of autumn and winter, to make himself a tolerable
+arithmetician. Carlo's father could draw plans in architecture neatly;
+and, pleased with the eagerness Francisco showed to receive instruction,
+he willingly put a pencil and compasses into his hand, and taught him
+all he knew himself. Francisco had great perseverance, and, by repeated
+trials, he at length succeeded in copying exactly all the plans which
+his master lent him. His copies, in time, surpassed the originals, and
+Carlo exclaimed, with astonishment: 'Why, Francisco, what an astonishing
+_genius_ you have for drawing!--Absolutely you draw plans better than my
+father!'
+
+[Illustration: _Piedro was hissed and hooted out of the market-place._]
+
+'As to genius,' said Francisco, honestly, 'I have none. All that I have
+done has been done by hard labour. I don't know how other people do
+things; but I am sure that I never have been able to get anything done
+well but by patience. Don't you remember, Carlo, how you and even
+Rosetta laughed at me the first time your father put a pencil into my
+awkward, clumsy hands?'
+
+'Because,' said Carlo, laughing again at the recollection, 'you held
+your pencil so drolly; and when you were to cut it, you cut it just as
+if you were using a pruning-knife to your vines; but now it is your turn
+to laugh, for you surpass us all. And the times are changed since I set
+about to explain this rule of mine to you.'
+
+'Ay, that rule,' said Francisco--'how much I owe to it! Some great
+people, when they lose any of their fine things, cause the crier to
+promise a reward of so much money to anyone who shall find and restore
+their trinket. How richly have you and your father rewarded me for
+returning this rule!'
+
+Francisco's modesty and gratitude, as they were perfectly sincere,
+attached his friends to him most powerfully; but there was one person
+who regretted our hero's frequent absences from his vineyard at Resina.
+Not Francisco's father, for he was well satisfied his son never
+neglected his business; and as to the hours spent in Naples, he had so
+much confidence in Francisco, that he felt no apprehensions of his
+getting into bad company. When his son had once said to him, 'I spend my
+time at such a place, and in such and such a manner,' he was as well
+convinced of its being so as if he had watched and seen him every
+moment of the day. But it was Arthur who complained of Francisco's
+absence.
+
+'I see, because I am an Englishman,' said he, 'you don't value my
+friendship, and yet that is the very reason you ought to value it; no
+friends so good as the English, be it spoken without offence to your
+Italian friend, for whom you now continually leave me to dodge up and
+down here in Resina, without a soul that I like to speak to, for you are
+the only Italian I ever liked.'
+
+'You _shall_ like another, I promise you,' said Francisco. 'You must
+come with me to Carlo's, and see how I spend my evenings; then complain
+of me, if you can.'
+
+It was the utmost stretch of Arthur's complaisance to pay this visit;
+but, in spite of his national prejudices and habitual reserve of temper,
+he was pleased with the reception he met with from the generous Carlo
+and the playful Rosetta. They showed him Francisco's drawings with
+enthusiastic eagerness; and Arthur, though no great judge of drawing,
+was in astonishment, and frequently repeated, 'I know a gentleman who
+visits my master who would like these things. I wish I might have them
+to show him.'
+
+'Take them, then,' said Carlo; 'I wish all Naples could see them,
+provided they might be liked half as well as I like them.'
+
+Arthur carried off the drawings, and one day, when his master was better
+than usual, and when he was at leisure, eating a dessert of Francisco's
+grapes, he entered respectfully, with his little portfolio under his
+arm, and begged permission to show his master a few drawings done by the
+gardener's son, whose grapes he was eating.
+
+Though not quite so partial a judge as the enthusiastic Carlo, this
+gentleman was both pleased and surprised at the sight of these drawings,
+considering how short a time Francisco had applied himself to this art,
+and what slight instructions he had received. Arthur was desired to
+summon the young artist. Francisco's honest, open manner, joined to the
+proofs he had given of his abilities, and the character Arthur gave him
+for strict honesty, and constant kindness to his parents, interested Mr.
+Lee, the name of this English gentleman, much in his favour. Mr. Lee was
+at this time in treaty with an Italian painter, whom he wished to engage
+to copy for him exactly some of the cornices, mouldings, tablets, and
+antique ornaments which are to be seen amongst the ruins of the ancient
+city of Herculaneum.
+
+    We must give those of our young English readers who may not be
+    acquainted with the ancient city of Herculaneum some idea of it.
+    None can be ignorant that near Naples is the celebrated volcanic
+    mountain of Vesuvius;--that, from time to time, there happen violent
+    eruptions from this mountain; that is to say, flames and immense
+    clouds of smoke issue from different openings, mouths, or _craters_,
+    as they are called, but more especially from the summit of the
+    mountain, which is distinguished by the name of _the_ crater. A
+    rumbling, and afterwards a roaring noise is heard within, and
+    prodigious quantities of stones and minerals burnt into masses
+    (scoriae) are thrown out of the crater, sometimes to a great
+    distance. The hot ashes from Mount Vesuvius have often been seen
+    upon the roofs of the houses of Naples, from which it is six miles
+    distant. Streams of lava run down the sides of the mountain during
+    the time of an eruption, destroying everything in their way, and
+    overwhelm the houses and vineyards which are in the neighbourhood.
+
+    About 1700 years ago, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Titus,
+    there happened a terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius; and a large
+    city called Herculaneum, which was situated at about four miles'
+    distance from the volcano, was overwhelmed by the streams of lava
+    which poured into it, filled up the streets, and quickly covered
+    over the tops of the houses, so that the whole was no more visible.
+    It remained for many years buried. The lava which covered it became
+    in time fit for vegetation, plants grew there, a new soil was
+    formed, and a new town called Portici was built over the place where
+    Herculaneum formerly stood. The little village of Resina is also
+    situated near the spot. About fifty years ago, in a poor man's
+    garden at Resina, a hole in a well about thirty feet below the
+    surface of the earth was observed. Some persons had the curiosity to
+    enter into this hole, and, after creeping underground for some time,
+    they came to the foundations of houses. The peasants, inhabitants of
+    the village, who had probably never heard of Herculaneum, were
+    somewhat surprised at their discovery.[29] About the same time, in
+    a pit in the town of Portici, a similar passage under ground was
+    discovered, and, by orders of the King of Naples, workmen were
+    employed to dig away the earth, and clear the passages. They found,
+    at length, the entrance into the town, which, during the reign of
+    Titus, was buried under lava. It was about eighty-eight Neapolitan
+    palms (a palm contains near nine inches) below the top of the pit.
+    The workmen, as they cleared the passages, marked their way with
+    chalk when they came to any turning, lest they should lose
+    themselves. The streets branched out in many directions, and, lying
+    across them, the workmen often found large pieces of timber, beams,
+    and rafters; some broken in the fall, others entire. These beams and
+    rafters are burned quite black, and look like charcoal, except those
+    that were found in moist places, which have more the colour of
+    rotten wood, and which are like a soft paste, into which you might
+    run your hand. The walls of the houses slant, some one way, some
+    another, and some are upright. Several magnificent buildings of
+    brick, faced with marble of different colours, are partly seen,
+    where the workmen have cleared away the earth and lava with which
+    they were encrusted. Columns of red and white marble, and flights of
+    marble steps, are seen in different places; and out of the ruins of
+    the palaces some very fine statues and pictures have been dug.
+    Foreigners who visit Naples are very curious to see this
+    subterraneous city, and are desirous to carry with them into their
+    own country some proofs of their having examined this wonderful
+    place.
+
+  [29] _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. ix. p. 440.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+  _Tutte le gran faciende si fanno di foca cosa._
+  What great events from trivial causes spring.
+
+Signor Camillo, the artist employed by Mr. Lee to copy some of the
+antique ornaments in Herculaneum, was a liberal-minded man, perfectly
+free from that mean jealousy which would repress the efforts of rising
+genius.
+
+'Here is a lad scarcely fifteen, a poor gardener's son, who, with merely
+the instructions he could obtain from a common carpenter, has learned to
+draw these plans and elevations, which you see are tolerably neat. What
+an advantage your instruction would be to him,' said Mr. Lee, as he
+introduced Francisco to Signor Camillo. 'I am interested in this lad
+from what I have learned of his good conduct. I hear he is strictly
+honest, and one of the best of sons. Let us do something for him. If you
+will give him some knowledge of your art, I will, as far as money can
+recompense you for your loss of time, pay whatever you may think
+reasonable for his instruction.'
+
+Signor Camillo made no difficulties; he was pleased with his pupil's
+appearance, and every day he liked him better and better. In the room
+where they worked together there were some large books of drawings and
+plates, which Francisco saw now and then opened by his master, and which
+he had a great desire to look over; but when he was left in the room by
+himself he never touched them, because he had not permission. Signor
+Camillo, the first day he came into his room with his pupil, said to
+him, 'Here are many valuable books and drawings, young man. I trust,
+from the character I have heard of you, that they will be perfectly safe
+here.'
+
+Some weeks after Francisco had been with the painter, they had occasion
+to look for the front of a temple in one of these large books. 'What!
+don't you know in which book to look for it, Francisco?' cried his
+master, with some impatience. 'Is it possible that you have been here so
+long with these books, and that you cannot find the print I mean? Had
+you half the taste I gave you credit for, you would have singled it out
+from all the rest, and have it fixed in your memory.'
+
+'But, signor, I never saw it,' said Francisco, respectfully, 'or perhaps
+I should have preferred it.'
+
+'That you never saw it, young man, is the very thing of which I
+complain. Is a taste for the arts to be learned, think you, by looking
+at the cover of a book like this? Is it possible that you never thought
+of opening it?'
+
+'Often and often,' cried Francisco, 'have I longed to open it; but I
+thought it was forbidden me, and however great my curiosity in your
+absence, I have never touched them. I hoped, indeed, that the time would
+come when you would have the goodness to show them to me.'
+
+'And so the time is come, excellent young man,' cried Camillo; 'much as
+I love taste, I love integrity more. I am now sure of your having the
+one, and let me see whether you have, as I believe you have, the other.
+Sit you down here beside me; and we will look over these books
+together.'
+
+The attention with which his young pupil examined everything, and the
+pleasure he unaffectedly expressed in seeing these excellent prints,
+sufficiently convinced his judicious master that it was not from the
+want of curiosity or taste that he had never opened these tempting
+volumes. His confidence in Francisco was much increased by this
+circumstance, slight as it may appear.
+
+One day Signor Camillo came behind Francisco, as he was drawing with
+much intentness, and tapping him upon the shoulder, he said to him: 'Put
+up your pencils and follow me. I can depend upon your integrity; I have
+pledged myself for it. Bring your note-book with you, and follow me; I
+will this day show you something that will entertain you at least as
+much as my large book of prints. Follow me.'
+
+Francisco followed, till they came to the pit near the entrance of
+Herculaneum. 'I have obtained leave for you to accompany me,' said his
+master, 'and you know, I suppose, that this is not a permission granted
+to every one?' Paintings of great value, besides ornaments of gold and
+silver, antique bracelets, rings, etc., are from time to time found
+amongst these ruins, and therefore it is necessary that no person should
+be admitted whose honesty cannot be depended upon. Thus, even
+Francisco's talents could not have advanced him in the world, unless
+they had been united to integrity. He was much delighted and astonished
+by the new scene that was now opened to his view; and as, day after day,
+he accompanied his master to this subterraneous city, he had leisure for
+observation. He was employed, as soon as he had gratified his curiosity,
+in drawing. There are niches in the walls in several places, from which
+pictures have been dug, and these niches are often adorned with elegant
+masks, figures and animals, which have been left by the ignorant or
+careless workmen, and which are going fast to destruction. Signor
+Camillo, who was copying these for his English employer, had a mind to
+try his pupil's skill, and, pointing to a niche bordered with grotesque
+figures, he desired him to try if he could make any hand of it.
+Francisco made several trials, and at last finished such an excellent
+copy, that his enthusiastic and generous master, with warm encomiums,
+carried it immediately to his patron, and he had the pleasure to receive
+from Mr. Lee a purse containing five guineas, as a reward and
+encouragement for his pupil.
+
+Francisco had no sooner received this money than he hurried home to his
+father and mother's cottage. His mother, some months before this time,
+had taken a small dairy farm; and her son had once heard her express a
+wish that she was but rich enough to purchase a remarkably fine brindled
+cow, which belonged to a farmer in the neighbourhood.
+
+'Here, my dear mother,' cried Francisco, pouring the guineas into her
+lap; 'and here,' continued he, emptying a bag, which contained about as
+much more, in small Italian coins, the profits of trade-money he had
+fairly earned during the two years he sold fruit amongst the little
+Neapolitan merchants; 'this is all yours, dearest mother, and I hope it
+will be enough to pay for the brindled cow. Nay, you must not refuse
+me--I have set my heart upon the cow being milked by you this very
+evening; and I'll produce my best bunches of grapes, and my father,
+perhaps, will give us a melon, for I've had no time for melons this
+season; and I'll step to Naples and invite--may I, mother?--my good
+friends, dear Carlo and your favourite little Rosetta, and my old
+drawing master, and my friend Arthur, and we'll sup with you at your
+dairy.'
+
+The happy mother thanked her son, and the father assured him that
+neither melon nor pine-apple should be spared, to make a supper worthy
+of his friends.
+
+The brindled cow was bought, and Arthur and Carlo and Rosetta most
+joyfully accepted the invitation.
+
+The carpenter had unluckily appointed to settle a long account that day
+with one of his employers, and he could not accompany his children. It
+was a delicious evening; they left Naples just as the sea-breeze, after
+the heats of the day, was most refreshingly felt. The walk to Resina,
+the vineyard, the dairy, and most of all, the brindled cow, were praised
+by Carlo and Rosetta with all the Italian superlatives which signify,
+'Most beautiful! most delightful! most charming!' Whilst the English
+Arthur, with as warm a heart, was more temperate in his praise,
+declaring that this was 'the most like an English summer's evening of
+any he had ever felt since he came to Italy; and that, moreover, the
+cream was almost as good as what he had been used to drink in Cheshire.'
+The company, who were all pleased with each other, and with the
+gardener's good fruit, which he produced in great abundance, did not
+think of separating till late.
+
+It was a bright moonlight night, and Carlo asked his friend if he would
+walk with them part of the way to Naples. 'Yes, all the way most
+willingly,' cried Francisco, 'that I may have the pleasure of giving to
+your father, with my own hands, this fine bunch of grapes, that I have
+reserved for him out of my own share.' 'Add this fine pine-apple for my
+share, then,' said his father, 'and a pleasant walk to you, my young
+friends.'
+
+They proceeded gaily along, and when they reached Naples, as they passed
+through the square where the little merchants held their market,
+Francisco pointed to the spot where he found Carlo's rule. He never
+missed an opportunity of showing his friends that he did not forget
+their former kindness to him. 'That rule,' said he, 'has been the cause
+of all my present happiness, and I thank you for----'
+
+'Oh, never mind thanking him now,' interrupted Rosetta, 'but look
+yonder, and tell me what all those people are about.' She pointed to a
+group of men, women, and children, who were assembled under a piazza,
+listening in various attitudes of attention to a man, who was standing
+upon a flight of steps, speaking in a loud voice, and with much action,
+to the people who surrounded him. Francisco, Carlo, and Rosetta joined
+his audience. The moon shone full upon his countenance, which was very
+expressive, and which varied frequently according to the characters of
+the persons whose history he was telling, and according to all the
+changes of their fortune. This man was one of those who are called
+Improvisatori--persons who, in Italian towns, go about reciting verses
+or telling stories, which they are supposed to invent as they go on
+speaking. Some of these people speak with great fluency, and collect
+crowds round them in the public streets. When an Improvisatore sees the
+attention of his audience fixed, and when he comes to some very
+interesting part of his narrative, he dexterously drops his hat upon the
+ground, and pauses till his auditors have paid tribute to his eloquence.
+When he thinks the hat sufficiently full, he takes it up again, and
+proceeds with his story. The hat was dropped just as Francisco and his
+two friends came under the piazza. The orator had finished one story,
+and was going to commence another. He fixed his eyes upon Francisco,
+then glanced at Carlo and Rosetta, and after a moment's consideration he
+began a story which bore some resemblance to one that our young English
+readers may, perhaps, know by the name of 'Cornaro, or the Grateful
+Turk.'
+
+Francisco was deeply interested in this narrative, and when the hat was
+dropped, he eagerly threw in his contribution. At the end of the story,
+when the speaker's voice stopped, there was a momentary silence, which
+was broken by the orator himself, who exclaimed, as he took up the hat
+which lay at his feet, 'My friends, here is some mistake! this is not my
+hat; it has been changed whilst I was taken up with my story. Pray,
+gentlemen, find my hat amongst you; it was a remarkably good one, a
+present from a nobleman for an epigram I made. I would not lose my hat
+for twice its value. It has my name written withinside of it, Dominicho,
+Improvisatore. Pray, gentlemen, examine your hats.'
+
+Everybody present examined their hats, and showed them to Dominicho, but
+his was not amongst them. No one had left the company; the piazza was
+cleared, and searched in vain. 'The hat has vanished by magic.' said
+Dominicho. 'Yes, and by the same magic a statue moves,' cried Carlo,
+pointing to a figure standing in a niche, which had hitherto escaped
+observation. The face was so much in the shade, that Carlo did not at
+first perceive that the statue was Piedro. Piedro, when he saw himself
+discovered, burst into a loud laugh, and throwing down Dominicho's hat,
+which he held in his hand behind him, cried, 'A pretty set of novices!
+Most excellent players at hide-and-seek you would make.'
+
+Whether Piedro really meant to have carried off the poor man's hat, or
+whether he was, as he said, merely in jest, we leave it to those who
+know his general character to decide.
+
+Carlo shook his head. 'Still at your old tricks, Piedro,' said he.
+'Remember the old proverb: No fox so cunning but he comes to the
+furrier's at last.'[30]
+
+  [30] Tutte le volpi si trovano in pellicera.
+
+'I defy the furrier and you too,' replied Piedro, taking up his own
+ragged hat. 'I have no need to steal hats; I can afford to buy better
+than you'll have upon your head. Francisco, a word with you, if you have
+done crying at the pitiful story you have been listening to so
+attentively.'
+
+'And what would you say to me?' said Francisco, following him a few
+steps. 'Do not detain me long, because my friends will wait for me.'
+
+'If they are friends, they can wait,' said Piedro. 'You need not be
+ashamed of being seen in my company now, I can tell you; for I am, as I
+always told you I should be, the richest man of the two.'
+
+'Rich! you rich?' cried Francisco. 'Well, then, it was impossible you
+could mean to trick that poor man out of his good hat.'
+
+'Impossible!' said Piedro. Francisco did not consider that those who
+have habits of pilfering continue to practise them often, when the
+poverty which first tempted them to dishonesty ceases. 'Impossible! You
+stare when I tell you I am rich; but the thing is so. Moreover, I am
+well with my father at home. I have friends in Naples, and I call myself
+Piedro the Lucky. Look you here,' said he, producing an old gold coin.
+'This does not smell of fish, does it? My father is no longer a
+fisherman, nor I either. Neither do I sell sugar-plums to children; nor
+do I slave myself in a vineyard, like some folks; but fortune, when I
+least expected it, has stood my friend. I have many pieces of gold like
+this. Digging in my father's garden, it was my luck to come to an old
+Roman vessel full of gold. I have this day agreed for a house in Naples
+for my father. We shall live, whilst we can afford it, like great folks,
+you will see; and I shall enjoy the envy that will be felt by some of my
+old friends, the little Neapolitan merchants, who will change their note
+when they see my change of fortune. What say you to all this, Francisco
+the Honest?'
+
+'That I wish you joy of your prosperity, and hope you may enjoy it long
+and well.'
+
+'Well, no doubt of that. Every one who has it enjoys it _well_. He
+always dances well to whom fortune pipes.'[31]
+
+  [31] Assai ben balla a chi fortuna suona.
+
+'Yes, no longer pipe, no longer dance,' replied Francisco; and here they
+parted; for Piedro walked away abruptly, much mortified to perceive that
+his prosperity did not excite much envy, or command any additional
+respect from Francisco.
+
+'I would rather,' said Francisco, when he returned to Carlo and Rosetta,
+who waited for him under the portico, when he left them--'I would rather
+have such good friends as you, Carlo and Arthur, and some more I could
+name, and, besides that, have a clear conscience, and work honestly for
+my bread, than be as lucky as Piedro. Do you know he has found a
+treasure, he says, in his father's garden--a vase full of gold? He
+showed me one of the gold pieces.'
+
+'Much good may they do him. I hope he came honestly by them,' said
+Carlo; 'but ever since the affair of the double measure, I suspect
+double-dealing always from him. It is not our affair, however. Let him
+make himself happy his way, and we ours.
+
+  'He that would live in peace and rest,
+  Must hear, and see, and say the best.'[32]
+
+All Piedro's neighbours did not follow this peaceable maxim; for when he
+and his father began to circulate the story of the treasure found in the
+garden, the village of Resina did not give them implicit faith. People
+nodded and whispered, and shrugged their shoulders; then crossed
+themselves and declared that they would not, for all the riches of
+Naples, change places with either Piedro or his father. Regardless, or
+pretending to be regardless, of these suspicions, Piedro and his father
+persisted in their assertions. The fishing-nets were sold, and
+everything in their cottage was disposed of; they left Resina, went to
+live at Naples, and, after a few weeks, the matter began to be almost
+forgotten in the village.
+
+  [32] Odi, vedi, taci, se vuoi viver in pace.
+
+The old gardener, Francisco's father, was one of those who endeavoured
+to _think the best_; and all that he said upon the subject was, that he
+would not exchange Francisco the Honest for Piedro the Lucky; that one
+can't judge of the day till one sees the evening as well as the
+morning.[33]
+
+  [33] La vita il fine,--e di loda la sera. Compute the morn and evening
+       of their day.--POPE.
+
+Not to leave our readers longer in suspense, we must inform them that
+the peasants of Resina were right in their suspicions. Piedro had never
+found any treasure in his father's garden, but he came by his gold in
+the following manner:--
+
+After he was banished from the little wood-market for stealing Rosetta's
+basketful of wood, after he had cheated the poor woman, who let glasses
+out to hire, out of the value of the glasses which he broke, and, in
+short, after he had entirely lost his credit with all who knew him, he
+roamed about the streets of Naples, reckless of what became of him.
+
+He found the truth of the proverb, 'that credit lost is like a Venice
+glass broken--it can't be mended again.' The few shillings which he had
+in his pocket supplied him with food for a few days. At last he was glad
+to be employed by one of the peasants who came to Naples to load their
+asses with manure out of the streets. They often follow very early in
+the morning, or during the night-time, the trace of carriages that are
+gone, or that are returning from the opera; and Piedro was one night at
+this work, when the horses of a nobleman's carriage took fright at the
+sudden blaze of some fireworks. The carriage was overturned near him; a
+lady was taken out of it, and was hurried by her attendants into a shop,
+where she stayed till her carriage was set to rights. She was too much
+alarmed for the first ten minutes after her accident to think of
+anything; but after some time, she perceived that she had lost a
+valuable diamond cross, which she had worn that night at the opera. She
+was uncertain where she had dropped it; the shop, the carriage, the
+street were searched for it in vain.
+
+Piedro saw it fall as the lady was lifted out of the carriage, seized
+upon it, and carried it off. Ignorant as he was of the full value of
+what he had stolen, he knew not how to satisfy himself as to this point,
+without trusting some one with the secret.
+
+After some hesitation, he determined to apply to a Jew, who, as it was
+whispered, was ready to buy everything that was offered to him for sale,
+without making any _troublesome_ inquiries. It was late; he waited till
+the streets were cleared, and then knocked softly at the back door of
+the Jew's house. The person who opened the door for Piedro was his own
+father. Piedro started back; but his father had fast hold of him.
+
+'What brings you here?' said the father, in a low voice, a voice which
+expressed fear and rage mixed.
+
+'Only to ask my way--my shortest way,' stammered Piedro.
+
+'No equivocations! Tell me what brings you here at this time of the
+night? I _will_ know.'
+
+Piedro, who felt himself in his father's grasp, and who knew that his
+father would certainly search him, to find out what he had brought to
+sell, thought it most prudent to produce the diamond cross. His father
+could but just see its lustre by the light of a dim lamp which hung over
+their heads in the gloomy passage in which they stood.
+
+'You would have been duped, if you had gone to sell this to the Jew. It
+is well it has fallen into my hands. How came you by it?' Piedro
+answered that he had found it in the street. 'Go your ways home, then,'
+said the father; 'it is safe with me. Concern yourself no more about
+it.'
+
+Piedro was not inclined thus to relinquish his booty, and he now thought
+proper to vary in his account of the manner in which he found the cross.
+He now confessed that it had dropped from the dress of a lady, whose
+carriage was overturned as she was coming home from the opera, and he
+concluded by saying that, if his father took his prize from him without
+giving him his share of the profits, he would go directly to the shop
+where the lady stopped whilst her servants were raising the carriage,
+and that he would give notice of his having found the cross.
+
+Piedro's father saw that his _smart_ son, though scarcely sixteen years
+of age, was a match for him in villainy. He promised him that he should
+have half of whatever the Jew would give for the diamonds, and Piedro
+insisted upon being present at the transaction.
+
+[Illustration: _The Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of villainy,
+contrived to cheat both his associates._]
+
+We do not wish to lay open to our young readers scenes of iniquity. It
+is sufficient to say that the Jew, who was a man old in all the arts of
+villainy, contrived to cheat both his associates, and obtained the
+diamond cross for less than half its value. The matter was managed so
+that the transaction remained undiscovered. The lady who lost the cross,
+after making fruitless inquiries, gave up the search, and Piedro and his
+father rejoiced in the success of their manoeuvres.
+
+It is said that 'Ill-gotten wealth is quickly spent';[34] and so it
+proved in this instance. Both father and son lived a riotous life as
+long as their money lasted, and it did not last many months. What his
+bad education began, bad company finished, and Piedro's mind was
+completely ruined by the associates with whom he became connected during
+what he called his _prosperity_. When his money was at an end, these
+unprincipled friends began to look cold upon him, and at last plainly
+told him--'If you mean to _live with us_, you must _live as we do_.'
+They lived by robbery.
+
+  [34] Vien presto consumato l' ingiustamente acquistato.
+
+Piedro, though familiarised to the idea of fraud, was shocked at the
+thought of becoming a robber by profession. How difficult it is to stop
+in the career of vice! Whether Piedro had power to stop, or whether he
+was hurried on by his associates, we shall, for the present, leave in
+doubt.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+We turn with pleasure from Piedro the Cunning to Francisco the Honest.
+Francisco continued the happy and useful course of his life. By his
+unremitting perseverance he improved himself rapidly under the
+instructions of his master and friend, Signor Camillo; his friend, we
+say, for the fair and open character of Francisco won, or rather earned,
+the friendship of this benevolent artist. The English gentleman seemed
+to take a pride in our hero's success and good conduct. He was not one
+of those patrons who think that they have done enough when they have
+given five guineas. His servant Arthur always considered every generous
+action of his master's as his own, and was particularly pleased whenever
+this generosity was directed towards Francisco.
+
+As for Carlo and the little Rosetta, they were the companions of all the
+pleasant walks which Francisco used to take in the cool of the evening,
+after he had been shut up all day at his work. And the old carpenter,
+delighted with the gratitude of his pupil, frequently repeated--'That he
+was proud to have given the first instructions to such a _genius_; and
+that he had always prophesied Francisco would be a _great_ man.' 'And a
+good man, papa,' said Rosetta; 'for though he has grown so great, and
+though he goes into palaces now, to say nothing of that place
+underground, where he has leave to go, yet, notwithstanding all this, he
+never forgets my brother Carlo and you.'
+
+'That's the way to have good friends,' said the carpenter. 'And I like
+his way; he does more than he says. Facts are masculine, and words are
+feminine.'[35]
+
+  [35] I fatti sono maschii, le parole femmine.
+
+These good friends seemed to make Francisco happier than Piedro could be
+made by his stolen diamonds.
+
+One morning, Francisco was sent to finish a sketch of the front of an
+ancient temple, amongst the ruins of Herculaneum. He had just reached
+the pit, and the men were about to let him down with cords, in the usual
+manner, when his attention was caught by the shrill sound of a scolding
+woman's voice. He looked, and saw at some paces distant this female
+fury, who stood guarding the windlass of a well, to which, with
+threatening gestures and most voluble menaces, she forbade all access.
+The peasants--men, women, and children, who had come with their pitchers
+to draw water at this well--were held at bay by the enraged female. Not
+one dared to be the first to advance; whilst she grasped with one hand
+the handle of the windlass, and, with the other tanned muscular arm
+extended, governed the populace, bidding them remember that she was
+padrona, or mistress of the well. They retired, in hopes of finding a
+more gentle padrona at some other well in the neighbourhood; and the
+fury, when they were out of sight, divided the long black hair which
+hung over her face, and, turning to one of the spectators, appealed to
+them in a sober voice, and asked if she was not right in what she had
+done. 'I, that am padrona of the well,' said she, addressing herself to
+Francisco, who, with great attention, was contemplating her with the eye
+of a painter--'I, that am padrona of the well, must in times of
+scarcity do strict justice, and preserve for ourselves alone the water
+of our well. There is scarcely enough even for ourselves. I have been
+obliged to make my husband lengthen the ropes every day for this week
+past. If things go on at this rate, there will soon be not one drop of
+water left in my well.'
+
+'Nor in any of the wells of the neighbourhood,' added one of the
+workmen, who was standing by; and he mentioned several in which the
+water had lately suddenly decreased; and a miller affirmed that his mill
+had stopped for want of water.
+
+Francisco was struck by these remarks. They brought to his recollection
+similar facts, which he had often heard his father mention in his
+childhood, as having been observed previous to the last eruption of
+Mount Vesuvius.[36] He had also heard from his father, in his childhood,
+that it is better to trust to prudence than to fortune; and therefore,
+though the peasants and workmen, to whom he mentioned his fears,
+laughed, and said, 'That as the burning mountain had been favourable to
+them for so many years, they would trust to it and St. Januarius one day
+longer,' yet Francisco immediately gave up all thoughts of spending this
+day amidst the ruins of Herculaneum. After having inquired sufficiently,
+after having seen several wells, in which the water had evidently
+decreased, and after having seen the mill-wheels that were standing
+still for want of their usual supply, he hastened home to his father and
+mother, reported what he had heard and seen, and begged of them to
+remove, and to take what things of value they could to some distance
+from the dangerous spot where they now resided.
+
+  [36] _Phil. Trans._ vol. ix.
+
+Some of the inhabitants of Resina, whom he questioned, declared that
+they had heard strange rumbling noises underground; and a peasant and
+his son, who had been at work the preceding day in a vineyard, a little
+above the village, related that they had seen a sudden puff of smoke
+come out of the earth, close to them; and that they had, at the same
+time, heard a noise like the going off of a pistol.[37]
+
+  [37] These facts are mentioned in Sir William Hamilton's account of an
+       eruption of Mount Vesuvius.--See _Phil. Trans._ 1795, first part.
+
+The villagers listened with large eyes and open ears to these
+relations; yet such was their habitual attachment to the spot they lived
+upon, or such the security in their own good fortune, that few of them
+would believe that there could be any necessity for removing. 'We'll see
+what will happen to-morrow; we shall be safe here one day longer,' said
+they.
+
+Francisco's father and mother, more prudent than the generality of their
+neighbours, went to the house of a relation, at some miles' distance
+from Vesuvius, and carried with them all their effects.
+
+In the meantime, Francisco went to the villa where his English friends
+resided. The villa was in a most dangerous situation, near Torre del
+Greco--a town that stands at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. He related all
+the facts that he had heard to Arthur, who, not having been, like the
+inhabitants of Resina, familiarised to the idea of living in the
+vicinity of a burning mountain and habituated to trust in St. Januarius,
+was sufficiently alarmed by Francisco's representations. He ran to his
+master's apartment, and communicated all that he had just heard. The
+Count de Flora and his lady, who were at this time in the house,
+ridiculed the fears of Arthur, and could not be prevailed upon to remove
+even as far as Naples. The lady was intent upon preparations for her
+birthday, which was to be celebrated in a few days with great
+magnificence at their villa; and she observed that it would be a pity to
+return to town before that day, and they had everything arranged for the
+festival. The prudent Englishman had not the gallantry to appear to be
+convinced by these arguments, and he left the place of danger. He left
+it not too soon, for the next morning exhibited a scene--a scene which
+we shall not attempt to describe.
+
+We refer our young readers to the account of this dreadful eruption of
+Mount Vesuvius, published by Sir W. Hamilton in the _Philosophical
+Transactions_. It is sufficient here to say that, in the space of about
+five hours, the wretched inhabitants of Torre del Greco saw their town
+utterly destroyed by the streams of burning lava which poured from the
+mountain. The villa of Count de Flora, with some others, which were at a
+little distance from the town, escaped; but they were absolutely
+surrounded by the lava. The count and countess were obliged to fly from
+their house with the utmost precipitation in the night-time; and they
+had not time to remove any of their furniture, their plate, clothes, or
+jewels.
+
+A few days after the eruption, the surface of the lava became so cool
+that people could walk upon it, though several feet beneath the surface
+it was still exceedingly hot. Numbers of those who had been forced from
+their houses now returned to the ruins to try to save whatever they
+could. But these unfortunate persons frequently found their houses had
+been pillaged by robbers, who, in these moments of general confusion,
+enrich themselves with the spoils of their fellow-creatures.
+
+'Has the count abandoned his villa? and is there no one to take care of
+his plate and furniture? The house will certainly be ransacked before
+morning,' said the old carpenter to Francisco, who was at his house
+giving him an account of their flight. Francisco immediately went to the
+count's house in Naples, to warn him of his danger. The first person he
+saw was Arthur, who, with a face of terror, said to him, 'Do you know
+what has happened? It is all over with Resina!' 'All over with Resina!
+What, has there been a fresh eruption? Has the lava reached Resina?'
+'No; but it will inevitably be blown up. There,' said Arthur, pointing
+to a thin figure of an Italian, who stood pale and trembling, and
+looking up to heaven as he crossed himself repeatedly--'There,' said
+Arthur, 'is a man who has left a parcel of his cursed rockets and
+fireworks, with I don't know how much gunpowder, in the count's house,
+from which we have just fled. The wind blows that way. One spark of
+fire, and the whole is blown up.'
+
+Francisco waited not to hear more; but instantly, without explaining his
+intentions to any one, set out for the count's villa, and, with a bucket
+of water in his hand, crossed the beds of lava with which the house was
+encompassed; when, reaching the hall where the rockets and gunpowder
+were left, he plunged them into the water, and returned with them in
+safety over the lava, yet warm under his feet.
+
+What was the surprise and joy of the poor firework-maker when he saw
+Francisco return from this dangerous expedition! He could scarcely
+believe his eyes, when he saw the rockets and the gunpowder all safe.
+
+The count, who had given up the hopes of saving his palace, was in
+admiration when he heard of this instance of intrepidity, which probably
+saved not only his villa, but the whole village of Resina, from
+destruction. These fireworks had been prepared for the celebration of
+the countess's birthday, and were forgotten in the hurry of the night on
+which the inhabitants fled from Torre del Greco.
+
+[Illustration: _Returned in safety over the lava, yet warm under his
+feet._]
+
+'Brave young man!' said the count to Francisco, 'I thank you, and shall
+not limit my gratitude to thanks. You tell me that there is danger of my
+villa being pillaged by robbers. It is from this moment your interest as
+well as mine to prevent their depredations; for (trust to my liberality)
+a portion of all that is saved of mine shall be yours.'
+
+'Bravo! bravissimo!' exclaimed one who started from a recessed window in
+the hall where all this passed. 'Bravo! bravissimo!' Francisco thought
+he knew the voice and the countenance of this man, who exclaimed with so
+much enthusiasm. He remembered to have seen him before, but when, or
+where, he could not recollect. As soon as the count left the hall, the
+stranger came up to Francisco. 'Is it possible,' said he, 'that you
+don't know me? It is scarcely a twelvemonth since I drew tears from your
+eyes.' 'Tears from my eyes?' repeated Francisco, smiling; 'I have shed
+but few tears. I have had but few misfortunes in my life.' The stranger
+answered him by two extempore Italian lines, which conveyed nearly the
+same idea that has been so well expressed by an English poet:--
+
+  To each their sufferings--all are men
+    Condemn'd alike to groan;
+  The feeling for another's woes,
+    Th' unfeeling for his own.
+
+'I know you now perfectly well,' cried Francisco; 'you are the
+Improvisatore who, one fine moonlight night last summer, told us the
+story of Cornaro the Turk.'
+
+'The same,' said the Improvisatore; 'the same, though in a better dress,
+which I should not have thought would have made so much difference in
+your eyes, though it makes all the difference between man and man in the
+eyes of the stupid vulgar. My genius has broken through the clouds of
+misfortune of late. A few happy impromptu verses I made on the Count de
+Flora's fall from his horse attracted attention. The count patronises
+me. I am here now to learn the fate of an ode I have just composed for
+his lady's birthday. My ode was to have been set to music, and to have
+been performed at his villa near Torre del Greco, if these troubles had
+not intervened. Now that the mountain is quiet again, people will return
+to their senses. I expect to be munificently rewarded. But perhaps I
+detain you. Go; I shall not forget to celebrate the heroic action you
+have performed this day. I still amuse myself amongst the populace in my
+tattered garb late in the evenings, and I shall sound your praises
+through Naples in a poem I mean to recite on the late eruption of Mount
+Vesuvius. Adieu.'
+
+The Improvisatore was as good as his word. That evening, with more than
+his usual enthusiasm, he recited his verses to a great crowd of people
+in one of the public squares. Amongst the crowd were several to whom the
+name of Francisco was well known, and by whom he was well beloved. These
+were his young companions, who remembered him as a fruit-seller amongst
+the little merchants. They rejoiced to hear his praises, and repeated
+the lines with shouts of applause.
+
+'Let us pass. What is all this disturbance in the streets?' said a man,
+pushing his way through the crowd. A lad who held by his arm stopped
+suddenly on hearing the name of Francisco, which the people were
+repeating with so much enthusiasm.
+
+'Ha! I have found at last a story that interests you more than that of
+Cornaro the Turk,' cried the Improvisatore, looking in the face of the
+youth who had stopped so suddenly. 'You are the young man who, last
+summer, had liked to have tricked me out of my new hat. Promise me you
+won't touch it now,' said he, throwing down the hat at his feet, 'or you
+hear not one word I have to say. Not one word of the heroic action
+performed at the villa of the Count de Flora, near Torre del Greco, this
+morning, by Signor Francisco.'
+
+'_Signor_ Francisco!' repeated the lad with disdain. 'Well, let us hear
+what you have to tell of him,' added he. 'Your hat is very safe, I
+promise you; I shall not touch it. What of _Signor_ Francisco?'
+
+'_Signor_ Francisco I may, without impropriety, call him,' said the
+Improvisatore, 'for he is likely to become rich enough to command the
+title from those who might not otherwise respect his merit.'
+
+'Likely to become rich! how?' said the lad, whom our readers have
+probably before this time discovered to be Piedro. 'How, pray, is he
+likely to become rich enough to be a signor?'
+
+'The Count de Flora has promised him a liberal portion of all the fine
+furniture, plate, and jewels that can be saved from his villa at Torre
+del Greco. Francisco is gone down hither now with some of the count's
+domestics to protect the valuable goods against those villainous
+plunderers, who robbed their fellow-creatures of what even the flames of
+Vesuvius would spare.'
+
+'Come, we have had enough of this stuff,' cried the man whose arm Piedro
+held. 'Come away,' and he hurried forwards.
+
+This man was one of the villains against whom the honest orator
+expressed such indignation. He was one of those with whom Piedro got
+acquainted during the time that he was living extravagantly upon the
+money he gained by the sale of the stolen diamond cross. That robbery
+was not discovered; and his _success_, as he called it, hardened him in
+guilt. He was both unwilling and unable to withdraw himself from the bad
+company with whom his ill-gotten wealth connected him. He did not
+consider that bad company leads to the gallows.[38]
+
+  [38] La mala compagnia e quella che mena uomini a la forca.
+
+The universal confusion which followed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
+was to these villains a time of rejoicing. No sooner did Piedro's
+companion hear of the rich furniture, plate, etc., which the imprudent
+orator had described as belonging to the Count de Flora's villa, than he
+longed to make himself master of the whole.
+
+'It is a pity,' said Piedro, 'that the count has sent Francisco with his
+servants down to guard it.' 'And who is this Francisco of whom you seem
+to stand in so much awe?' 'A boy, a young lad only, of about my own age;
+but I know him to be sturdily honest. The servants we might corrupt; but
+even the old proverb of "Angle with a silver hook,"[39] won't hold good
+with him.'
+
+  [39] Pescar col hamo d' argento.
+
+'And if he cannot be won by fair means, he must be conquered by foul,'
+said the desperate villain; 'but if we offer him rather more than the
+count has already promised for his share of the booty, of course he
+will consult at once his safety and his interest.'
+
+'No,' said Piedro; 'that is not his nature. I know him from a child, and
+we'd better think of some other house for to-night's business.'
+
+'None other; none but this,' cried his companion, with an oath. 'My mind
+is determined upon this, and you must obey your leader: recollect the
+fate of him who failed me yesterday.'
+
+The person to whom he alluded was one of the gang of robbers who had
+been assassinated by his companions for hesitating to commit some crime
+suggested by their leader. No tyranny is so dreadful as that which is
+exercised by villains over their young accomplices, who become their
+slaves. Piedro, who was of a cowardly nature, trembled at the
+threatening countenance of his captain, and promised submission.
+
+In the course of the morning, inquiries were made secretly amongst the
+count's servants; and the two men who were engaged to sit up at the
+villa that night along with Francisco were bribed to second the views of
+this gang of thieves. It was agreed that about midnight the robbers
+should be let into the house; that Francisco should be tied hand and
+foot, whilst they carried off their booty. 'He is a stubborn chap,
+though so young, I understand,' said the captain of the robbers to his
+men; 'but we carry poniards, and know how to use them. Piedro, you look
+pale. You don't require to be reminded of what I said to you when we
+were alone just now?'
+
+Piedro's voice failed, and some of his comrades observed that he was
+young and new to the business. The captain, who, from being his
+pretended friend during his wealthy days, had of late become his tyrant,
+cast a stern look at Piedro, and bid him be sure to be at the old Jew's,
+which was the place of meeting, in the dusk of the evening. After saying
+this he departed.
+
+Piedro, when he was alone, tried to collect his thoughts--all his
+thoughts were full of horror. 'Where am I?' said he to himself; 'what am
+I about? Did I understand rightly what he said about poniards?
+Francisco; oh, Francisco! Excellent, kind, generous Francisco! Yes, I
+recollect your look when you held the bunch of grapes to my lips, as I
+sat by the sea-shore deserted by all the world; and now, what friends
+have I? Robbers and----' The word _murderers_ he could not utter. He
+again recollected what had been said about poniards, and the longer his
+mind fixed upon the words, and the look that accompanied them, the more
+he was shocked. He could not doubt that it was the serious intention of
+his accomplices to murder Francisco, if he should make any resistance.
+
+Piedro had at this moment no friend in the world to whom he could apply
+for advice or assistance. His wretched father died some weeks before
+this time, in a fit of intoxication. Piedro walked up and down the
+street, scarcely capable of thinking, much less of coming to any
+rational resolution.
+
+The hours passed away, the shadows of the houses lengthened under his
+footsteps, the evening came on, and when it grew dusk, after hesitating
+in great agony of mind for some time, his fear of the robbers' vengeance
+prevailed over every other feeling, and he went at the appointed hour to
+the place of meeting.
+
+The place of meeting was at the house of that Jew to whom he, several
+months before, sold the diamond cross. That cross which he thought
+himself so lucky to have stolen, and to have disposed of undetected,
+was, in fact, the cause of his being in his present dreadful situation.
+It was at the Jew's that he connected himself with this gang of robbers,
+to whom he was now become an absolute slave.
+
+'Oh that I dared to disobey!' said he to himself, with a deep sigh, as
+he knocked softly at the back door of the Jew's house. The back door
+opened into a narrow, unfrequented street, and some small rooms at this
+side of the house were set apart for the reception of guests who desired
+to have their business kept secret. These rooms were separated by a dark
+passage from the rest of the house, and numbers of people came to the
+shop in the front of the house, which looked into a creditable street,
+without knowing anything more, from the ostensible appearance of the
+shop, than that it was a kind of pawnbroker's, where old clothes, old
+iron, and all sorts of refuse goods might be disposed of conveniently.
+
+At the moment Piedro knocked at the back door, the front shop was full
+of customers; and the Jew's boy, whose office it was to attend to these
+signals, let Piedro in, told him that none of his comrades were yet
+come, and left him in a room by himself.
+
+He was pale and trembling, and felt a cold dew spread over him. He had a
+leaden image of Saint Januarius tied round his neck, which, in the midst
+of his wickedness, he superstitiously preserved as a sort of charm, and
+on this he kept his eyes stupidly fixed, as he sat alone in this gloomy
+place.
+
+He listened from time to time, but he heard no noise at the side of the
+house where he was. His accomplices did not arrive, and, in a sort of
+impatient terror, the attendant upon an evil conscience, he flung open
+the door of his cell, and groped his way through the passage which he
+knew led to the public shop. He longed to hear some noise, and to mix
+with the living. The Jew, when Piedro entered the shop, was bargaining
+with a poor, thin-looking man about some gunpowder.
+
+'I don't deny that it has been wet,' said the man, 'but since it was in
+the bucket of water, it has been carefully dried. I tell you the simple
+truth, that so soon after the grand eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the
+people of Naples will not relish fireworks. My poor little rockets, and
+even my Catherine-wheels, will have no effect. I am glad to part with
+all I have in this line of business. A few days ago I had fine things in
+readiness for the Countess de Flora's birthday, which was to have been
+celebrated at the count's villa.'
+
+'Why do you fix your eyes on me, friend? What is your discourse to me?'
+said Piedro, who imagined that the man fixed his eyes upon him as he
+mentioned the name of the count's villa.
+
+'I did not know that I fixed my eyes upon you; I was thinking of my
+fireworks,' said the poor man, simply. 'But now that I do look at you
+and hear your voice, I recollect having had the pleasure of seeing you
+before.'
+
+'When? where?' said Piedro.
+
+'A great while ago; no wonder you have forgotten me,' said the man; 'but
+I can recall the night to your recollection. You were in the street with
+me the night I let off that unlucky rocket which frightened the horses,
+and was the cause of overturning a lady's coach. Don't you remember the
+circumstance?'
+
+'I have a confused recollection of some such thing,' said Piedro, in
+great embarrassment; and he looked suspiciously at this man, in doubt
+whether he was cunning, and wanted to sound him, or whether he was so
+simple as he appeared.
+
+'You did not, perhaps, hear, then,' continued the man 'that there was a
+great search made, after the overturn, for a fine diamond cross
+belonging to the lady in the carriage? That lady, though I did not know
+it till lately, was the Countess de Flora.'
+
+'I know nothing of the matter,' interrupted Piedro, in great agitation.
+His confusion was so marked that the firework-maker could not avoid
+taking notice of it; and a silence of some moments ensued. The Jew, more
+practised in dissimulation than Piedro, endeavoured to turn the man's
+attention back to his rockets and his gunpowder--agreed to take the
+gunpowder--paid for it in haste, and was, though apparently unconcerned,
+eager to get rid of him. But this was not so easily done. The man's
+curiosity was excited, and his suspicions of Piedro were increased every
+moment by all the dark changes of his countenance. Piedro, overpowered
+with the sense of guilt, surprised at the unexpected mention of the
+diamond cross, and of the Count de Flora's villa, stood like one
+convicted, and seemed fixed to the spot, without power of motion.
+
+'I want to look at the old cambric that you said you had--that would do
+for making--that you could let me have cheap for artificial flowers,'
+said the firework-maker to the Jew; and as he spoke, his eye from time
+to time looked towards Piedro.
+
+Piedro felt for the leaden image of the saint, which he wore round his
+neck. The string which held it cracked, and broke with the pull he gave
+it. This slight circumstance affected his terrified and superstitious
+mind more than all the rest. He imagined that at this moment his fate
+was decided; that Saint Januarius deserted him, and that he was undone.
+He precipitately followed the firework-man the instant he left the shop,
+and seizing hold of his arm, whispered, 'I must speak to you.' 'Speak,
+then,' said the man, astonished. 'Not here; this way,' said he, drawing
+him towards the dark passage; 'what I have to say must not be overheard.
+You are going to the Count de Flora's, are not you?' 'I am,' said the
+man. He was going there to speak to the countess about some artificial
+flowers; but Piedro thought he was going to speak to her about the
+diamond cross. 'You are going to give information against me? Nay, hear
+me, I confess that I purloined that diamond cross; but I can do the
+count a great service, upon condition that he pardons me. His villa is
+to be attacked this night by four well-armed men. They will set out five
+hours hence. I am compelled, under the threat of assassination, to
+accompany them; but I shall do no more. I throw myself upon the count's
+mercy. Hasten to him--we have no time to lose.'
+
+The poor man, who heard this confession, escaped from Piedro the moment
+he loosed his arm. With all possible expedition he ran to the count's
+palace in Naples, and related to him all that had been said by Piedro.
+Some of the count's servants, on whom he could most depend, were at a
+distant part of the city attending their mistress, but the English
+gentleman offered the services of his man Arthur. Arthur no sooner heard
+the business, and understood that Francisco was in danger, than he armed
+himself without saying one word, saddled his English horse, and was
+ready to depart before any one else had finished his exclamations and
+conjectures.
+
+'But we are not to set out yet,' said the servant; 'it is but four miles
+to Torre del Greco; the sbirri (officers of justice) are summoned--they
+are to go with us--we must wait for them.'
+
+They waited, much against Arthur's inclination, a considerable time for
+these sbirri. At length they set out, and just as they reached the
+villa, the flash of a pistol was seen from one of the apartments in the
+house. The robbers were there. This pistol was snapped by their captain
+at poor Francisco, who had bravely asserted that he would, as long as he
+had life, defend the property committed to his care. The pistol missed
+fire, for it was charged with some of the damaged powder which the Jew
+had bought that evening from the firework-maker, and which he had sold
+as excellent immediately afterwards to his favourite customers--the
+robbers who met at his house.
+
+Arthur, as soon as he perceived the flash of the piece, pressed forward
+through all the apartments, followed by the count's servants and the
+officers of justice. At the sudden appearance of so many armed men, the
+robbers stood dismayed. Arthur eagerly shook Francisco's hand,
+congratulating him upon his safety, and did not perceive, till he had
+given him several rough friendly shakes, that his arm was wounded, and
+that he was pale with the loss of blood.
+
+'It is not much--only a slight wound,' said Francisco; 'one that I
+should have escaped if I had been upon my guard; but the sight of a face
+that I little expected to see in such company took from me all presence
+of mind; and one of the ruffians stabbed me here in the arm, whilst I
+stood in stupid astonishment.'
+
+'Oh! take me to prison! take me to prison--I am weary of life--I am a
+wretch not fit to live!' cried Piedro, holding his hands to be tied by
+the sbirri.
+
+The next morning Piedro was conveyed to prison; and as he passed through
+the streets of Naples he was met by several of those who had known him
+when he was a child. 'Ay,' said they, as he went by, 'his father
+encouraged him in cheating when he was _but a child_; and see what he is
+come to, now he is a man!' He was ordered to remain twelve months in
+solitary confinement. His captain and his accomplices were sent to the
+galleys, and the Jew was banished from Naples.
+
+And now, having got these villains out of the way, let us return to
+honest Francisco. His wound was soon healed. Arthur was no bad surgeon,
+for he let his patient get well as fast as he pleased; and Carlo and
+Rosetta nursed him with so much kindness, that he was almost sorry to
+find himself perfectly recovered.
+
+'Now that you are able to go out,' said Francisco's father to him, 'you
+must come and look at my new house, my dear son.' 'Your new house,
+father?' 'Yes, son, and a charming one it is, and a handsome piece of
+land near it--all at a safe distance, too, from Mount Vesuvius; and can
+you guess how I came by it?--it was given to me for having a good son.'
+
+'Yes,' cried Carlo; 'the inhabitants of Resina, and several who had
+property near Torre del Greco, and whose houses and lives were saved by
+your intrepidity in carrying the materials for the fireworks and the
+gunpowder out of this dangerous place, went in a body to the duke, and
+requested that he would mention your name and these facts to the king,
+who, amongst the grants he has made to the sufferers by the late
+eruption of Mount Vesuvius, has been pleased to say that he gives this
+house and garden to your father, because you have saved the property and
+lives of many of his subjects.'
+
+The value of a handsome portion of furniture, plate, etc., in the Count
+de Flora's villa, was, according to the count's promise, given to him;
+and this money he divided between his own family and that of the good
+carpenter who first put a pencil into his hands. Arthur would not accept
+of any present from him. To Mr. Lee, the English gentleman, he offered
+one of his own drawings--a fruit-piece. 'I like this very well,' said
+Arthur, as he examined the drawing, 'but I should like this melon better
+if it was a little bruised. It is now three years ago since I was going
+to buy that bruised melon from you; you showed me your honest nature
+then, though you were but a boy; and I have found you the same ever
+since. A good beginning makes a good ending--an honest boy will make an
+honest man; and honesty is the best policy, as you have proved to all
+who wanted the proof, I hope.'
+
+'Yes,' added Francisco's father, 'I think it is pretty plain that Piedro
+the Cunning has not managed quite so well as Francisco the Honest.'
+
+
+
+
+TARLTON
+
+  Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,--
+  To teach the young idea how to shoot,--
+  To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,--
+  To breathe th' enlivening spirit,--and to fix
+  The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
+                                                THOMSON.
+
+
+Young Hardy was educated by Mr. Trueman, a very excellent master, at one
+of our rural Sunday schools. He was honest, obedient, active, and
+good-natured, hence he was esteemed by his master; and being beloved by
+all his companions who were good, he did not desire to be loved by the
+bad; nor was he at all vexed or ashamed when idle, mischievous, or
+dishonest boys attempted to plague or ridicule him. His friend Loveit,
+on the contrary, wished to be universally liked, and his highest
+ambition was to be thought the best-natured boy in the school--and so he
+was. He usually went by the name of _Poor Loveit_, and everybody pitied
+him when he got into disgrace, which he frequently did, for, though he
+had a good disposition, he was often led to do things which he knew to
+be wrong merely because he could never have the courage to say '_No_,'
+because he was afraid to offend the ill-natured, and could not bear to
+be laughed at by fools.
+
+One fine autumn evening, all the boys were permitted to go out to play
+in a pleasant green meadow near the school. Loveit and another boy,
+called Tarlton, began to play a game at battledore and shuttlecock, and
+a large party stood by to look on, for they were the best players at
+battledore and shuttlecock in the school, and this was a trial of skill
+between them. When they had got it up to three hundred and twenty, the
+game became very interesting. The arms of the combatants grew so tired
+that they could scarcely wield the battledores. The shuttlecock began to
+waver in the air; now it almost touched the ground, and now, to the
+astonishment of the spectators, mounted again high over their heads; yet
+the strokes became feebler and feebler; and 'Now, Loveit!' 'Now,
+Tarlton!' resounded on all sides. For another minute the victory was
+doubtful; but at length the setting sun, shining full in Loveit's face,
+so dazzled his eyes that he could no longer see the shuttlecock, and it
+fell at his feet.
+
+After the first shout for Tarlton's triumph was over, everybody
+exclaimed, 'Poor Loveit! he's the best-natured fellow in the world! What
+a pity that he did not stand with his back to the sun!'
+
+'Now, I dare you all to play another game with me,' cried Tarlton,
+vauntingly; and as he spoke, he tossed the shuttlecock up with all his
+force--with so much force that it went over the hedge and dropped into a
+lane which went close beside the field. 'Heyday!' said Tarlton, 'what
+shall we do now?'
+
+The boys were strictly forbidden to go into the lane; and it was upon
+their promise not to break this command, that they were allowed to play
+in the adjoining field.
+
+No other shuttlecock was to be had, and their play was stopped. They
+stood on the top of the bank, peeping over the hedge. 'I see it yonder,'
+said Tarlton; 'I wish somebody would get it. One could get over the gate
+at the bottom of the field, and be back again in half a minute,' added
+he, looking at Loveit. 'But you know we must not go into the lane,' said
+Loveit, hesitatingly. 'Pugh!' said Tarlton, 'why, now, what harm could
+it do?' 'I don't know,' said Loveit, drumming upon his battledore;
+'but----' 'You don't know, man! why, then, what are you afraid of, I ask
+you?' Loveit coloured, went on drumming, and again, in a lower voice,
+said '_he didn't know_.' But upon Tarlton's repeating, in a more
+insolent tone, 'I ask you, man, what you're afraid of?' he suddenly left
+off drumming, and looking round, said, 'he was not afraid of anything
+that he knew of.' 'Yes, but you are,' said Hardy, coming forward. 'Am
+I?' said Loveit; 'of what, pray, am I afraid?' 'Of doing wrong!' 'Afraid
+_of doing wrong_!' repeated Tarlton, mimicking him, so that he made
+everybody laugh. 'Now, hadn't you better say afraid of being flogged?'
+'No,' said Hardy, coolly, after the laugh had somewhat subsided, 'I am
+as little afraid of being flogged as you are, Tarlton; but I meant----'
+'No matter what you meant; why should you interfere with your wisdom and
+your meanings; nobody thought of asking _you_ to stir a step for us; but
+we asked Loveit, because he's the best fellow in the world.' 'And for
+that very reason you should not ask him, because you know he can't
+refuse you anything.' 'Indeed, though,' cried Loveit, piqued, '_there_
+you're mistaken, for I could refuse if I chose it.'
+
+Hardy smiled; and Loveit, half afraid of his contempt, and half afraid
+of Tarlton's ridicule, stood doubtful, and again had recourse to his
+battledore, which he balanced most curiously upon his forefinger. 'Look
+at him!--now do look at him!' cried Tarlton; 'did you ever in your life
+see anybody look so silly!--Hardy has him quite under his thumb; he's so
+mortally afraid of Parson Prig, that he dare not, for the soul of him,
+turn either of his eyes from the tip of his nose; look how he squints!'
+'I don't squint,' said Loveit, looking up, 'and nobody has me under his
+thumb! and what Hardy said was only for fear I should get in disgrace;
+he's the best friend I have.'
+
+Loveit spoke this with more than usual spirit, for both his heart and
+his pride were touched. 'Come along, then,' said Hardy, taking him by
+the arm in an affectionate manner; and he was just going, when Tarlton
+called after him, 'Ay, go along with its best friend, and take care it
+does not get into a scrape;--good-bye, Little Panado!' 'Whom do they
+call Little Panado?' said Loveit, turning his head hastily back. 'Never
+mind,' said Hardy, 'what does it signify?' 'No,' said Loveit, 'to be
+sure it does not signify; but one does not like to be called Little
+Panado; besides,' added he, after going a few steps farther, 'they'll
+all think it so ill-natured. I had better go back, and just tell them
+that I'm very sorry I can't get their shuttlecock;--do come back with
+me.' 'No,' said Hardy, 'I can't go back; and you'd better not.' 'But, I
+assure you, I won't stay a minute; wait for me,' added Loveit; and he
+slunk back again to prove that he was not Little Panado.
+
+Once returned, the rest followed, of course; for to support his
+character of good nature he was obliged to yield to the entreaties of
+his companions, and, to show his spirit, leapt over the gate, amidst the
+acclamations of the little mob:--he was quickly out of sight.
+
+'Here,' cried he, returning in about five minutes, quite out of breath,
+'I've got the shuttlecock; and I'll tell you what I've seen,' cried he,
+panting for breath. 'What?' cried everybody, eagerly. 'Why, just at the
+turn of the corner, at the end of the lane'--panting. 'Well,' said
+Tarlton, impatiently, 'do go on.' 'Let me just take breath first.'
+'Pugh--never mind your breath.' 'Well, then, just at the turn of the
+corner, at the end of the lane, as I was looking about for the
+shuttlecock, I heard a great rustling somewhere near me, and so I looked
+where it could come from; and I saw, in a nice little garden, on the
+opposite side of the way, a boy, about as big as Tarlton, sitting in a
+great tree, shaking the branches; so I called to the boy, to beg one;
+but he said he could not give me one, for that they were his
+grandfather's; and just at that minute, from behind a gooseberry bush,
+up popped the uncle; the grandfather poked his head out of the window;
+so I ran off as fast as my legs would carry me, though I heard him
+bawling after me all the way.'
+
+'And let him bawl,' cried Tarlton; 'he shan't bawl for nothing; I'm
+determined we'll have some of his fine large rosy apples before I sleep
+to-night.'
+
+At this speech a general silence ensued; everybody kept his eyes fixed
+upon Tarlton, except Loveit, who looked down, apprehensive that he
+should be drawn on much farther than he intended. 'Oh, indeed!' said he
+to himself, 'as Hardy told me, I had better not have come back!'
+
+Regardless of this confusion, Tarlton continued, 'But before I say any
+more, I hope we have no spies amongst us. If there is any one of you
+afraid to be flogged, let him march off this instant!'
+
+Loveit coloured, bit his lips, wished to go, but had not the courage to
+move first. He waited to see what everybody else would do: nobody
+stirred; so Loveit stood still.
+
+'Well, then,' cried Tarlton, giving his hand to the boy next him, then
+to the next, 'your word and honour that you won't betray me; but stand
+by me, and I'll stand by you.' Each boy gave his hand and his promise,
+repeating, 'Stand by me, and I'll stand by you.'
+
+Loveit hung back till the last; and had almost twisted off the button of
+the boy's coat who screened him, when Tarlton came up, holding out his
+hand, 'Come, Loveit, lad, you're in for it: stand by me, and I'll stand
+by you.' 'Indeed, Tarlton,' expostulated he, without looking him in the
+face, 'I do wish you'd give up this scheme; I daresay all the apples are
+gone by this time; I wish you would. Do, pray, give up this scheme.'
+'What scheme, man? you haven't heard it yet; you may as well know your
+text before you begin preaching.'
+
+The corners of Loveit's mouth could not refuse to smile, though in his
+heart he felt not the slightest inclination to laugh.
+
+'Why, I don't know you, I declare I don't know you to-day,' said
+Tarlton; 'you used to be the best-natured, most agreeable lad in the
+world, and would do anything one asked you; but you're quite altered of
+late, as we were saying just now, when you skulked away with Hardy;
+come,--do, man, pluck up a little spirit, and be one of us, or you'll
+make us all _hate you_.' '_Hate_ me!' repeated Loveit, with terror; 'no,
+surely, you won't all _hate_ me!' and he mechanically stretched out his
+hand, which Tarlton shook violently, saying, '_Ay, now, that's right._'
+'_Ay, now, that's wrong!_' whispered Loveit's conscience; but his
+conscience was of no use to him, for it was always overpowered by the
+voice of numbers; and though he had the wish, he never had the power, to
+do right. 'Poor Loveit! I knew he would not refuse us,' cried his
+companions; and even Tarlton, the moment he shook hands with him,
+despised him. It is certain that weakness of mind is despised both by
+the good and the bad.
+
+The league being thus formed, Tarlton assumed all the airs of commander,
+explained his schemes, and laid the plan of attack upon the poor old
+man's apple-tree. It was the only one he had in the world. We shall not
+dwell upon their consultation; for the amusement of contriving such
+expeditions is often the chief thing which induces idle boys to engage
+in them.
+
+There was a small window at the end of the back staircase, through
+which, between nine and ten o'clock at night, Tarlton, accompanied by
+Loveit and another boy, crept out. It was a moonlight night, and after
+crossing the field, and climbing the gate, directed by Loveit, who now
+resolved to go through the affair with spirit, they proceeded down the
+lane with rash yet fearful steps.
+
+At a distance Loveit saw the whitewashed cottage, and the apple-tree
+beside it. They quickened their pace, and with some difficulty scrambled
+through the hedge which fenced the garden, though not without being
+scratched and torn by the briers. Everything was silent. Yet now and
+then, at every rustling of the leaves, they started, and their hearts
+beat violently. Once, as Loveit was climbing the apple-tree, he thought
+he heard a door in the cottage open, and earnestly begged his companions
+to desist and return home. This, however, he could by no means persuade
+them to do, until they had filled their pockets with apples; then, to
+his great joy, they returned, crept in at the staircase window, and each
+retired, as softly as possible, to his own apartment.
+
+Loveit slept in the room with Hardy, whom he had left fast asleep, and
+whom he now was extremely afraid of awakening. All the apples were
+emptied out of Loveit's pockets, and lodged with Tarlton till the
+morning, for fear the smell should betray the secret to Hardy. The room
+door was apt to creak, but it was opened with such precaution that no
+noise could be heard, and Loveit found his friend as fast asleep as when
+he left him.
+
+'Ah,' said he to himself, 'how quietly he sleeps! I wish I had been
+sleeping too.' The reproaches of Loveit's conscience, however, served no
+other purpose but to torment him; he had not sufficient strength of mind
+to be good. The very next night, in spite of all his fears, and all his
+penitence, and all his resolutions, by a little fresh ridicule and
+persuasion he was induced to accompany the same party on a similar
+expedition. We must observe that the necessity for continuing their
+depredations became stronger the third day; for, though at first only a
+small party had been in the secret, by degrees it was divulged to the
+whole school; and it was necessary to secure secrecy by sharing the
+booty.
+
+Every one was astonished that Hardy, with all his quickness and
+penetration, had not yet discovered their proceedings; but Loveit could
+not help suspecting that he was not quite so ignorant as he appeared to
+be. Loveit had strictly kept his promise of secrecy; but he was by no
+means an artful boy; and in talking to his friend, conscious that he had
+something to conceal, he was perpetually on the point of betraying
+himself; then, recollecting his engagement, he blushed, stammered,
+bungled; and upon Hardy's asking what he meant, would answer with a
+silly, guilty countenance that he did not know; or abruptly break off,
+saying, 'Oh, nothing! nothing at all!'
+
+It was in vain that he urged Tarlton to permit him to consult his
+friend. A gloom overspread Tarlton's brow when he began to speak on the
+subject, and he always returned a peremptory refusal, accompanied with
+some such taunting expression as this--'I wish we had nothing to do with
+such a sneaking fellow; he'll betray us all, I see, before we have done
+with him.' 'Well,' said Loveit to himself, 'so I am abused after all,
+and called a sneaking fellow for my pains; that's rather hard, to be
+sure, when I've got so little by the job.'
+
+In truth he had not got much; for in the division of the booty only one
+apple, and half of another which was only half ripe, happened to fall to
+his share; though, to be sure, when they had all eaten their apples, he
+had the satisfaction to hear everybody declare they were very sorry they
+had forgotten to offer some of theirs to '_poor Loveit_.'
+
+In the meantime, the visits to the apple-tree had been now too
+frequently repeated to remain concealed from the old man who lived in
+the cottage. He used to examine his only tree very frequently, and
+missing numbers of rosy apples, which he had watched ripening, he,
+though not prone to suspicion, began to think that there was something
+going wrong; especially as a gap was made in his hedge, and there were
+several small footsteps in his flower-beds.
+
+The good old man was not at all inclined to give pain to any living
+creature, much less to children, of whom he was particularly fond. Nor
+was he in the least avaricious, for though he was not rich, he had
+enough to live upon, because he had been very industrious in his youth;
+and he was always very ready to part with the little he had. Nor was he
+a cross old man. If anything would have made him angry, it would have
+been the seeing his favourite tree robbed, as he had promised himself
+the pleasure of giving his red apples to his grandchildren on his
+birthday. However, he looked up at the tree in sorrow rather than in
+anger, and leaning upon his staff, he began to consider what he had best
+do.
+
+'If I complain to their master,' said he to himself, 'they will
+certainly be flogged, and that I should be sorry for; yet they must not
+be let to go on stealing; that would be worse still, for it would
+surely bring them to the gallows in the end. Let me see--oh, ay, that
+will do; I will borrow farmer Kent's dog Barker, he'll keep them off,
+I'll answer for it.'
+
+Farmer Kent lent his dog Barker, cautioning his neighbour, at the same
+time, to be sure to chain him well, for he was the fiercest mastiff in
+England. The old man, with farmer Kent's assistance, chained him fast to
+the trunk of the apple-tree.
+
+Night came; and Tarlton, Loveit, and his companions returned at the
+usual hour. Grown bolder now by frequent success, they came on talking
+and laughing. But the moment they had set their foot in the garden, the
+dog started up; and, shaking his chain as he sprang forward, barked with
+unremitting fury. They stood still as if fixed to the spot. There was
+just moonlight enough to see the dog. 'Let us try the other side of the
+tree,' said Tarlton. But to whichever side they turned, the dog flew
+round in an instant, barking with increased fury.
+
+'He'll break his chain and tear us to pieces,' cried Tarlton; and,
+struck with terror, he immediately threw down the basket he had brought
+with him, and betook himself to flight, with the greatest precipitation.
+'Help me! oh, pray, help me! I can't get through the hedge,' cried
+Loveit, in a lamentable tone, whilst the dog growled hideously, and
+sprang forward to the extremity of his chain. 'I can't get out! Oh, for
+God's sake, stay for me one minute, dear Tarlton!' He called in vain; he
+was left to struggle through his difficulties by himself; and of all his
+dear friends not one turned back to help him. At last, torn and
+terrified, he got through the hedge and ran home, despising his
+companions for their selfishness. Nor could he help observing that
+Tarlton, with all his vaunted prowess, was the first to run away from
+the appearance of danger.
+
+The next morning Loveit could not help reproaching the party with their
+conduct. 'Why could not you, any of you, stay one minute to help me?'
+said he. 'We did not hear you call,' answered one. 'I was so
+frightened,' said another, 'I would not have turned back for the whole
+world.' 'And you, Tarlton?' 'I,' said Tarlton; 'had not I enough to do
+to take care of myself, you blockhead? Every one for himself in this
+world!' 'So I see,' said Loveit, gravely. 'Well, man! is there anything
+strange in that?' 'Strange! why, yes; I thought you all loved me!'
+'Lord love you, lad! so we do; but we love ourselves better.' 'Hardy
+would not have served me so, however,' said Loveit, turning away in
+disgust. Tarlton was alarmed. 'Pugh!' said he; 'what nonsense have you
+taken into your brain? Think no more about it. We are all very sorry,
+and beg your pardon; come, shake hands,--forgive and forget.'
+
+Loveit gave his hand, but gave it rather coldly. 'I forgive it with all
+my heart,' said he; 'but I cannot forget it so soon!' 'Why, then, you
+are not such a good-humoured fellow as we thought you were. Surely you
+cannot bear malice, Loveit.' Loveit smiled, and allowed that he
+certainly could not bear malice. 'Well, then, come; you know at the
+bottom we all love you, and would do anything in the world for you.'
+Poor Loveit, flattered in his foible, began to believe that they did
+love him at the bottom, as they said, and even with his eyes open
+consented again to be duped.
+
+'How strange it is,' thought he, 'that I should set such value upon the
+love of those I despise! When I'm once out of this scrape, I'll have no
+more to do with them, I'm determined.'
+
+Compared with his friend Hardy, his new associates did indeed appear
+contemptible; for all this time Hardy had treated him with uniform
+kindness, avoided to pry into his secrets, yet seemed ready to receive
+his confidence, if it had been offered.
+
+After school in the evening, as he was standing silently beside Hardy,
+who was ruling a sheet of paper for him, Tarlton, in his brutal manner,
+came up, and seizing him by the arm, cried, 'Come along with me, Loveit,
+I've something to say to you.' 'I can't come now,' said Loveit, drawing
+away his arm. 'Ah, do come now,' said Tarlton, in a voice of persuasion.
+'Well, I'll come presently.' 'Nay, but do, pray; there's a good fellow,
+come now, because I've something to say to you.' 'What is it you've got
+to say to me? I wish you'd let me alone,' said Loveit; yet at the same
+time he suffered himself to be led away.
+
+Tarlton took particular pains to humour him and bring him into temper
+again; and even, though he was not very apt to part with his playthings,
+went so far as to say, 'Loveit, the other day you wanted a top; I'll
+give you mine if you desire it.' Loveit thanked him, and was overjoyed
+at the thoughts of possessing this top. 'But what did you want to say to
+me just now?' 'Ay, we'll talk of that presently; not yet--when we get
+out of hearing.' 'Nobody is near us,' said Loveit. 'Come a little
+farther, however,' said Tarlton, looking round suspiciously. 'Well now,
+well?' 'You know the dog that frightened us so last night?' 'Yes.' 'It
+will never frighten us again.' 'Won't it? how so?' 'Look here,' said
+Tarlton, drawing something from his pocket wrapped in a blue
+handkerchief. 'What's that?' Tarlton opened it. 'Raw meat!' exclaimed
+Loveit. 'How came you by it?' 'Tom, the servant boy, Tom got it for me,
+and I'm to give him sixpence.' 'And is it for the dog?' 'Yes, I vowed
+I'd be revenged on him, and after this he'll never bark again.' 'Never
+bark again! What do you mean? Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting
+back with horror. 'Only poison for _a dog_;' said Tarlton, confused;
+'you could not look more shocked if it was poison for a Christian.'
+
+Loveit stood for nearly a minute in profound silence. 'Tarlton,' said he
+at last, in a changed tone and altered manner, 'I did not know you; I
+will have no more to do with you.' 'Nay, but stay,' said Tarlton,
+catching hold of his arm, 'stay; I was only joking.' 'Let go my arm--you
+were in earnest.' 'But then that was before I knew there was any harm.
+If you think there's any harm?' '_If_,' said Loveit. 'Why, you know, I
+might not know; for Tom told me it's a thing that's often done. Ask
+Tom.' 'I'll ask nobody! Surely we know better what's right and wrong
+than Tom does.' 'But only just ask him, to hear what he'll say.' 'I
+don't want to hear what he'll say,' cried Loveit, vehemently; 'the dog
+will die in agonies--in agonies! There was a dog poisoned at my
+father's--I saw him in the yard. Poor creature! He lay and howled and
+writhed himself!' 'Poor creature! Well, there's no harm done now,' cried
+Tarlton, in a hypocritical tone. But though he thought fit to dissemble
+with Loveit, he was thoroughly determined in his purpose.
+
+Poor Loveit, in haste to get away, returned to his friend Hardy; but his
+mind was in such agitation, that he neither talked nor moved like
+himself; and two or three times his heart was so full that he was ready
+to burst into tears.
+
+'How good-natured you are to me,' said he to Hardy, as he was trying
+vainly to entertain him; 'but if you knew----' Here he stopped short,
+for the bell for evening prayer rang, and they all took their places and
+knelt down. After prayers, as they were going to bed, Loveit stopped
+Tarlton,--'_Well?_' asked he, in an inquiring manner, fixing his eyes
+upon him. '_Well?_' replied Tarlton, in an audacious tone, as if he
+meant to set his inquiring eye at defiance. 'What do you mean to do
+to-night?' 'To go to sleep, as you do, I suppose,' replied Tarlton,
+turning away abruptly, and whistling as he walked off.
+
+[Illustration: _'Is it poison?' exclaimed Loveit, starting back with
+horror._]
+
+'Oh, he has certainly changed his mind!' said Loveit to himself, 'else
+he could not whistle.'
+
+About ten minutes after this, as he and Hardy were undressing, Hardy
+suddenly recollected that he had left his new kite out upon the grass.
+'Oh,' said he, 'it will be quite spoiled before morning!' 'Call Tom,'
+said Loveit, 'and bid him bring it in for you in a minute.' They both
+went to the top of the stairs to call Tom; no one answered. They called
+again louder, 'Is Tom below?' 'I'm here,' answered he at last, coming
+out of Tarlton's room with a look of mixed embarrassment and effrontery.
+And as he was receiving Hardy's commission, Loveit saw the corner of the
+blue handkerchief hanging out of his pocket. This excited fresh
+suspicions in Loveit's mind; but, without saying one word, he
+immediately stationed himself at the window in his room, which looked
+out towards the lane; and, as the moon was risen, he could see if any
+one passed that way. 'What are you doing there?' said Hardy, after he
+had been watching some time; 'why don't you come to bed?' Loveit
+returned no answer, but continued standing at the window. Nor did he
+watch long in vain. Presently he saw Tom gliding slowly along a bypath,
+and get over the gate into the lane.
+
+'He's gone to do it!' exclaimed Loveit aloud, with an emotion which he
+could not command. 'Who's gone? to do what?' cried Hardy, starting up.
+'How cruel! how wicked!' continued Loveit. 'What's cruel--what's wicked?
+speak out at once!' returned Hardy, in that commanding tone which, in
+moments of danger, strong minds feel themselves entitled to assume
+towards weak ones. Loveit instantly, though in an incoherent manner,
+explained the affair to him. Scarcely had the words passed his lips,
+when Hardy sprang up and began dressing himself without saying one
+syllable. 'For God's sake, what are you going to do?' said Loveit in
+great anxiety. 'They'll never forgive me! don't betray me! they'll never
+forgive! pray, speak to me! only say you won't betray us.' 'I will not
+betray you, trust to me,' said Hardy; and he left the room, and Loveit
+stood in amazement; whilst, in the meantime, Hardy, in hopes of
+overtaking Tom before the fate of the poor dog was decided, ran with all
+possible speed across the meadow, and then down the lane. He came up
+with Tom just as he was climbing the bank into the old man's garden.
+Hardy, too much out of breath to speak, seized hold of him, dragged him
+down, detaining him with a firm grasp, whilst he panted for utterance.
+'What, Master Hardy, is it you? what's the matter? what do you want?' 'I
+want the poisoned meat that you have in your pocket.' 'Who told you that
+I had any such thing?' said Tom, clapping his hand upon his guilty
+pocket. 'Give it me quietly, and I'll let you off.' 'Sir, upon my word,
+I haven't! I didn't! I don't know what you mean,' said Tom, trembling,
+though he was by far the stronger of the two. 'Indeed, I don't know what
+you mean.' 'You do,' said Hardy, with great indignation, and a violent
+struggle immediately commenced.
+
+The dog, now alarmed by the voices, began to bark outrageously. Tom was
+terrified lest the old man should come out to see what was the matter;
+his strength forsook him, and flinging the handkerchief and meat over
+the hedge, he ran away with all his speed. The handkerchief fell within
+reach of the dog, who instantly snapped at it; luckily it did not come
+untied. Hardy saw a pitchfork on a dunghill close beside him, and,
+seizing upon it, stuck it into the handkerchief. The dog pulled, tore,
+growled, grappled, yelled; it was impossible to get the handkerchief
+from between his teeth; but the knot was loosed, the meat, unperceived
+by the dog, dropped out, and while he dragged off the handkerchief in
+triumph, Hardy, with inexpressible joy, plunged the pitchfork into the
+poisoned meat and bore it away.
+
+Never did hero retire with more satisfaction from a field of battle.
+Full of the pleasure of successful benevolence, Hardy tripped joyfully
+home, and vaulted over the window-sill, when the first object he beheld
+was Mr. Power, the usher, standing at the head of the stairs, with his
+candle in his hand.
+
+'Come up, whoever you are,' said Mr. William Power, in a stern voice;
+'I thought I should find you out at last. Come up, whoever you are!'
+Hardy obeyed without reply.--'Hardy!' exclaimed Mr. Power, starting back
+with astonishment; 'is it you, Mr. Hardy?' repeated he, holding the
+light to his face. 'Why, sir,' said he, in a sneering tone, 'I'm sure if
+Mr. Trueman was here he wouldn't believe his own eyes; but for my part I
+saw through you long since; I never liked saints, for my share. Will you
+please do me the favour, sir, if it is not too much trouble, to empty
+your pockets?' Hardy obeyed in silence. 'Heyday! meat! raw meat! what
+next?' 'That's all,' said Hardy, emptying his pockets inside out. 'This
+is _all_,' said Mr. Power, taking up the meat. 'Pray, sir,' said Hardy,
+eagerly, 'let that meat be burned; it is poisoned.' 'Poisoned!' cried
+Mr. William Power, letting it drop out of his fingers; 'you wretch!'
+looking at him with a menacing air, 'what is all this? Speak.' Hardy was
+silent. 'Why don't you speak?' cried he, shaking him by the shoulder
+impatiently. Still Hardy was silent. 'Down upon your knees this minute
+and confess all; tell me where you've been, what you've been doing, and
+who are your accomplices, for I know there is a gang of you; so,' added
+he, pressing heavily upon Hardy's shoulder, 'down upon your knees this
+minute, and confess the whole, that's your only way now to get off
+yourself. If you hope for _my_ pardon, I can tell you it's not to be had
+without asking for.'
+
+'Sir,' said Hardy, in a firm but respectful voice, 'I have no pardon to
+ask, I have nothing to confess; I am innocent; but if I were not, I
+would never try to get off myself by betraying my companions.' 'Very
+well, sir! very well! very fine! stick to it, stick to it, I advise you,
+and we shall see. And how will you look to-morrow, Mr. Innocent, when my
+uncle, the doctor, comes home?' 'As I do now, sir,' said Hardy, unmoved.
+
+His composure threw Mr. Power into a rage too great for utterance.
+'Sir,' continued Hardy, 'ever since I have been at school, I never told
+a lie, and therefore, sir, I hope you will believe me now. Upon my word
+and honour, sir, I have done nothing wrong.' 'Nothing wrong? Better and
+better! what, when I caught you going out at night?' '_That_, to be
+sure, was wrong,' said Hardy, recollecting himself; 'but except
+that----' 'Except that, sir! I will except nothing. Come along with me,
+young gentleman, your time for pardon is past.'
+
+Saying these words, he pulled Hardy along a narrow passage to a small
+closet, set apart for desperate offenders, and usually known by the name
+of the _Black Hole_. 'There, sir, take up your lodging there for
+to-night,' said he, pushing him in; 'to-morrow I'll know more, or I'll
+know why,' added he, double-locking the door, with a tremendous noise,
+upon his prisoner, and locking also the door at the end of the passage,
+so that no one could have access to him. 'So now I think I have you
+safe!' said Mr. William Power to himself, stalking off with steps which
+made the whole gallery resound, and which made many a guilty heart
+tremble.
+
+The conversation which had passed between Hardy and Mr. Power at the
+head of the stairs had been anxiously listened to; but only a word or
+two here and there had been distinctly overheard.
+
+The locking of the Black Hole door was a terrible sound--some knew not
+what it portended, and others knew _too well_. All assembled in the
+morning with faces of anxiety. Tarlton's and Loveit's were the most
+agitated: Tarlton for himself, Loveit for his friend, for himself, for
+everybody. Every one of the party, and Tarlton at their head, surrounded
+him with reproaches; and considered him as the author of the evils which
+hung over them. 'How could you do so? and why did you say anything to
+Hardy about it? when you had promised, too! Oh! what shall we all do?
+what a scrape you have brought us into! Loveit, it's all your fault!'
+'_All my fault!_' repeated poor Loveit, with a sigh; 'well, that is
+hard.'
+
+'Goodness! there's the bell,' exclaimed a number of voices at once. 'Now
+for it!' They all stood in a half-circle for morning prayers. They
+listened--'Here he is coming! No--Yes--Here he is!' And Mr. William
+Power, with a gloomy brow, appeared and walked up to his place at the
+head of the room. They knelt down to prayers, and the moment they rose,
+Mr. William Power, laying his hand upon the table, cried, 'Stand still,
+gentlemen, if you please.' Everybody stood stock still; he walked out of
+the circle; they guessed that he was gone for Hardy, and the whole room
+was in commotion. Each with eagerness asked each what none could answer,
+'_Has he told?_' '_What_ has he told?' 'Who has he told of?' 'I hope he
+has not told of me,' cried they. 'I'll answer for it he has told of all
+of us,' said Tarlton. 'And I'll answer for it he has told of none of
+us,' answered Loveit, with a sigh. 'You don't think he's such a fool,
+when he can get himself off,' said Tarlton.
+
+At this instant the prisoner was led in, and as he passed through the
+circle, every eye was fixed upon him. His eye fell upon no one, not even
+upon Loveit, who pulled him by the coat as he passed--every one felt
+almost afraid to breathe. 'Well, sir,' said Mr. Power, sitting down in
+Mr. Trueman's elbow-chair, and placing the prisoner opposite to him;
+'well, sir, what have you to say to me this morning?' 'Nothing, sir,'
+answered Hardy, in a decided, yet modest manner; 'nothing but what I
+said last night.' 'Nothing more?' 'Nothing more, sir.' 'But I have
+something more to say to you, sir, then; and a great deal more, I
+promise you, before I have done with you;' and then, seizing him in a
+fury, he was just going to give him a severe flogging, when the
+schoolroom door opened, and Mr. Trueman appeared, followed by an old man
+whom Loveit immediately knew. He leaned upon his stick as he walked, and
+in his other hand carried a basket of apples. When they came within the
+circle, Mr. Trueman stopped short 'Hardy!' exclaimed he, with a voice of
+unfeigned surprise, whilst Mr. William Power stood with his hand
+suspended. 'Ay, Hardy, sir,' repeated he. 'I told him you'd not believe
+your own eyes.'
+
+Mr. Trueman advanced with a slow step. 'Now, sir, give me leave,' said
+the usher, eagerly drawing him aside and whispering.
+
+'So, sir,' said Mr. T. when the whisper was done, addressing himself to
+Hardy, with a voice and manner which, had he been guilty, must have
+pierced him to the heart, 'I find I have been deceived in you; it is but
+three hours ago that I told your uncle I never had a boy in my school in
+whom I placed so much confidence; but, after all this show of honour and
+integrity, the moment my back is turned, you are the first to set an
+example of disobedience of my orders. Why do I talk of disobeying my
+commands,--you are a thief!' 'I, sir?' exclaimed Hardy, no longer able
+to repress his feelings. 'You, sir,--you and some others,' said Mr.
+Trueman, looking round the room with a penetrating glance--'you and some
+others,' 'Ay, sir,' interrupted Mr. William Power, 'get that out of him
+if you can--ask him.' 'I will ask him nothing; I shall neither put his
+truth nor his honour to the trial; truth and honour are not to be
+expected amongst thieves.' 'I am not a thief! I have never had anything
+to do with thieves,' cried Hardy, indignantly. 'Have you not robbed this
+old man? Don't you know the taste of these apples?' said Mr. Trueman,
+taking one out of the basket. 'No, sir; I do not. I never touched one of
+that old man's apples.' 'Never touched one of them! I suppose this is
+some vile equivocation; you have done worse, you have had the barbarity,
+the baseness, to attempt to poison his dog; the poisoned meat was found
+in your pocket last night.' 'The poisoned meat was found in my pocket,
+sir; but I never intended to poison the dog--I saved his life.' 'Lord
+bless him!' said the old man. 'Nonsense--cunning!' said Mr. Power. 'I
+hope you won't let him impose upon you, sir.' 'No, he cannot impose upon
+me; I have a proof he is little prepared for,' said Mr. Trueman,
+producing the blue handkerchief in which the meat had been wrapped.
+
+Tarlton turned pale; Hardy's countenance never changed. 'Don't you know
+this handkerchief, sir?' 'I do, sir.' 'Is it not yours?' 'No, sir.'
+'Don't you know whose it is?' cried Mr. Power. Hardy was silent.
+
+'Now, gentlemen,' said Mr. Trueman, 'I am not fond of punishing you; but
+when I do it, you know, it is always in earnest. I will begin with the
+eldest of you; I will begin with Hardy, and flog you with my own hands
+till this handkerchief is owned.' 'I'm sure it's not mine,' and 'I'm
+sure it's none of mine,' burst from every mouth, whilst they looked at
+each other in dismay; for none but Hardy, Loveit, and Tarlton knew the
+secret. 'My cane,' said Mr. Trueman, and Mr. Power handed him the cane.
+Loveit groaned from the bottom of his heart. Tarlton leaned back against
+the wall with a black countenance. Hardy looked with a steady eye at the
+cane.
+
+'But first,' said Mr. Trueman, laying down the cane, 'let us see.
+Perhaps we may find out the owner of this handkerchief another way,'
+examining the corners. It was torn almost to pieces; but luckily the
+corner that was marked remained.
+
+'J. T.!' cried Mr. Trueman. Every eye turned upon the guilty Tarlton,
+who, now as pale as ashes and trembling in every limb, sank down upon
+his knees, and in a whining voice begged for mercy. 'Upon my word and
+honour, sir, I'll tell you all; I should never have thought of stealing
+the apples if Loveit had not first told me of them; and it was Tom who
+first put the poisoning the dog into my head. It was he that carried the
+meat; _wasn't it_?' said he, appealing to Hardy, whose word he knew must
+be believed. 'Oh, dear sir!' continued he as Mr. Trueman began to move
+towards him, 'do let me off; do pray let me off this time! I'm not the
+only one, indeed, sir! I hope you won't make me an example for the rest.
+It's very hard I'm to be flogged more than they!' 'I'm not going to flog
+you.' 'Thank you, sir,' said Tarlton, getting up and wiping his eyes.
+'You need not thank me,' said Mr. Trueman. 'Take your handkerchief--go
+out of this room--out of this house; let me never see you more.'
+
+[Illustration: _'May God bless you!'_]
+
+'If I had any hopes of him,' said Mr. Trueman, as he shut the door after
+him--'if I had any hopes of him, I would have punished him; but I have
+none. Punishment is meant only to make people better; and those who have
+any hopes of themselves will know how to submit to it.'
+
+At these words Loveit first, and immediately all the rest of the guilty
+party, stepped out of the ranks, confessed their fault and declared
+themselves ready to bear any punishment their master thought proper.
+
+'Oh, they have been punished enough,' said the old man; 'forgive them,
+sir.'
+
+Hardy looked as if he wished to speak. 'Not because you ask it,' said
+Mr. Trueman to the guilty penitents, 'though I should be glad to oblige
+you--it wouldn't be just; but there,' pointing to Hardy, 'there is one
+who has merited a reward; the highest I can give him is that of
+pardoning his companions.'
+
+Hardy bowed and his face glowed with pleasure, whilst everybody present
+sympathised in his feelings.
+
+'I am sure,' thought Loveit, 'this is a lesson I shall never forget.'
+
+'Gentlemen,' said the old man, with a faltering voice, 'it wasn't for
+the sake of my apples that I spoke; and you, sir,' said he to Hardy, 'I
+thank you for saving my dog. If you please, I'll plant on that mount,
+opposite the window, a young apple-tree, from my old one. I will water
+it, and take care of it with my own hands for your sake, as long as I am
+able. And may God bless you!' laying his trembling hand on Hardy's head;
+'may God bless you--I'm sure God _will_ bless all such boys as you
+are.'
+
+
+
+
+THE BASKET-WOMAN.
+
+  Toute leur etude etait de se complaire et de s'entr'aider.[40]
+                                                   PAUL ET VIRGINIE.
+
+
+At the foot of a steep, slippery, white hill, near Dunstable, in
+Bedfordshire, called Chalk Hill, there is a hut, or rather a hovel,
+which travellers could scarcely suppose could be inhabited, if they did
+not see the smoke rising from its peaked roof. An old woman lives in
+this hovel,[41] and with her a little boy and girl, the children of a
+beggar who died and left these orphans perishing with hunger. They
+thought themselves very happy when the good old woman first took them
+into her hut and bid them warm themselves at her small fire, and gave
+them a crust of mouldy bread to eat. She had not much to give, but what
+she had she gave with good-will. She was very kind to these poor
+children, and worked hard at her spinning-wheel and at her knitting, to
+support herself and them. She earned money also in another way. She used
+to follow all the carriages as they went up Chalk Hill, and when the
+horses stopped to take breath or to rest themselves, she put stones
+behind the carriage wheels to prevent them from rolling backwards down
+the steep, slippery hill.
+
+  [40] Their whole study was how to please and to help one another.
+
+  [41] This was about the close of the last century.
+
+The little boy and girl loved to stand beside the good-natured old
+woman's spinning-wheel when she was spinning, and to talk to her. At
+these times she taught them something which, she said, she hoped they
+would remember all their lives. She explained to them what is meant by
+telling the truth, and what it is to be honest. She taught them to
+dislike idleness, and to wish that they could be useful.
+
+One evening, as they were standing beside her, the little boy said to
+her, 'Grandmother,' for that was the name by which she liked that these
+children should call her--'grandmother, how often you are forced to get
+up from your spinning-wheel, and to follow the chaises and coaches up
+that steep hill, to put stones underneath the wheels, to hinder them
+from rolling back! The people who are in the carriages give you a
+halfpenny or a penny for doing this, don't they?' 'Yes, child.' 'But it
+is very hard work for you to go up and down that hill. You often say
+that you are tired, and then you know that you cannot spin all that
+time. Now if we might go up the hill, and put the stones behind the
+wheels, you could sit still at your work, and would not the people give
+us the halfpence? and could not we bring them all to you? Do, pray, dear
+grandmother, try us for one day--to-morrow, will you?'
+
+'Yes,' said the old woman; 'I will try what you can do; but I must go up
+the hill along with you for the first two or three times, for fear you
+should get yourselves hurt.'
+
+So, the next day, the little boy and girl went with their grandmother,
+as they used to call her, up the steep hill; and she showed the boy how
+to prevent the wheels from rolling back, by putting stones behind them;
+and she said, 'This is called scotching the wheels'; and she took off
+the boy's hat and gave it to the little girl, to hold up to the
+carriage-windows, ready for the halfpence.
+
+When she thought that the children knew how to manage by themselves, she
+left them, and returned to her spinning-wheel. A great many carriages
+happened to go by this day, and the little girl received a great many
+halfpence. She carried them all in her brother's hat to her grandmother
+in the evening; and the old woman smiled, and thanked the children. She
+said that they had been useful to her, and that her spinning had gone on
+finely, because she had been able to sit still at her wheel all day.
+'But, Paul, my boy,' said she, 'what is the matter with your hand?'
+
+'Only a pinch--only one pinch that I got, as I was putting a stone
+behind a wheel of a chaise. It does not hurt me much, grandmother; and
+I've thought of a good thing for to-morrow. I shall never be hurt again,
+if you will only be so good as to give me the old handle of the broken
+crutch, grandmother, and the block of wood that lies in the
+chimney-corner, and that is of no use. I'll make it of some use, if I
+may have it.'
+
+'Take it then, dear,' said the old woman; 'and you'll find the handle of
+the broken crutch under my bed.'
+
+Paul went to work immediately, and fastened one end of the pole into the
+block of wood, so as to make something like a dry-rubbing brush. 'Look,
+grandmamma, look at my _scotcher_. I call this thing my _scotcher_,'
+said Paul, 'because I shall always scotch the wheels with it. I shall
+never pinch my fingers again; my hands, you see, will be safe at the end
+of this long stick; and, sister Anne, you need not be at the trouble of
+carrying any more stones after me up the hill; we shall never want
+stones any more. My scotcher will do without anything else, I hope. I
+wish it was morning, and that a carriage would come, that I might run up
+the hill and try my scotcher.'
+
+'And I wish that as many chaises may go by to-morrow as there did
+to-day, and that we may bring you as many halfpence, too, grandmother,'
+said the little girl.
+
+'So do I, my dear Anne,' said the old woman; 'for I mean that you and
+your brother shall have all the money that you get to-morrow. You may
+buy some gingerbread for yourselves, or some of those ripe plums that
+you saw at the fruit-stall, the other day, which is just going into
+Dunstable. I told you then that I could not afford to buy such things
+for you; but now that you can earn halfpence for yourselves, children,
+it is fair you should taste a ripe plum and bit of gingerbread for once
+and a way in your lives.'
+
+'We'll bring some of the gingerbread home to her, shan't we, brother?'
+whispered little Anne. The morning came; but no carriages were heard,
+though Paul and his sister had risen at five o'clock, that they might be
+sure to be ready for early travellers. Paul kept his scotcher poised
+upon his shoulder, and watched eagerly at his station at the bottom of
+the hill. He did not wait long before a carriage came. He followed it up
+the hill; and the instant the postillion called to him, and bid him stop
+the wheels, he put his scotcher behind them, and found that it answered
+the purpose perfectly well.
+
+Many carriages went by this day, and Paul and Anne received a great many
+halfpence from the travellers.
+
+When it grew dusk in the evening, Anne said to her brother--'I don't
+think any more carriages will come by to-day. Let us count the
+halfpence, and carry them home now to grandmother.'
+
+'No, not yet,' answered Paul, 'let them alone--let them lie still in the
+hole where I have put them. I daresay more carriages will come by before
+it is quite dark, and then we shall have more halfpence.'
+
+Paul had taken the halfpence out of his hat, and he had put them into a
+hole in the high bank by the roadside; and Anne said she would not
+meddle with them, and that she would wait till her brother liked to
+count them; and Paul said--'If you will stay and watch here, I will go
+and gather some blackberries for you in the hedge in yonder field. Stand
+you hereabouts, half-way up the hill, and the moment you see any
+carriage coming along the road, run as fast as you can and call me.'
+
+Anne waited a long time, or what she thought a long time; and she saw no
+carriage, and she trailed her brother's scotcher up and down till she
+was tired. Then she stood still, and looked again, and she saw no
+carriage; so she went sorrowfully into the field, and to the hedge where
+her brother was gathering blackberries, and she said, 'Paul, I'm sadly
+tired, _sadly tired_!' said she, 'and my eyes are quite strained with
+looking for chaises; no more chaises will come to-night; and your
+scotcher is lying there, of no use, upon the ground. Have not I waited
+long enough for to-day, Paul?' 'Oh no,' said Paul; 'here are some
+blackberries for you; you had better wait a little bit longer. Perhaps a
+carriage might go by whilst you are standing here talking to me.'
+
+Anne, who was of a very obliging temper, and who liked to do what she
+was asked to do, went back to the place where the scotcher lay; and
+scarcely had she reached the spot, when she heard the noise of a
+carriage. She ran to call her brother, and, to their great joy, they now
+saw four chaises coming towards them. Paul, as soon as they went up the
+hill, followed with his scotcher; first he scotched the wheels of one
+carriage, then of another; and Anne was so much delighted with observing
+how well the scotcher stopped the wheels, and how much better it was
+than stones, that she forgot to go and hold her brother's hat to the
+travellers for halfpence, till she was roused by the voice of a little
+rosy girl, who was looking out of the window of one of the chaises.
+'Come close to the chaise-door,' said the little girl; 'here are some
+halfpence for you.'
+
+Anne held the hat; and she afterwards went on to the other carriages.
+Money was thrown to her from each of them; and when they had all gotten
+safely to the top of the hill, she and her brother sat down upon a large
+stone by the roadside, to count their treasure. First they began by
+counting what was in the hat--'One, two, three, four halfpence.'
+
+'But, oh, brother, look at this!' exclaimed Anne; 'this is not the same
+as the other halfpence.'
+
+'No, indeed, it is not,' cried Paul, 'it is no halfpenny; it is a
+guinea, a bright golden guinea!' 'Is it?' said Anne, who had never seen
+a guinea in her life before, and who did not know its value; 'and will
+it do as well as a halfpenny to buy gingerbread? I'll run to the
+fruit-stall and ask the woman; shall I?'
+
+'No, no,' said Paul, 'you need not ask any woman, or anybody but me; I
+can tell you all about it, as well as anybody in the whole world.'
+
+'The whole world! Oh, Paul, you forgot. Not so well as my grandmother.'
+
+'Why, not so well as my grandmother, perhaps; but, Anne, I can tell you
+that you must not talk yourself, Anne, but you must listen to me
+quietly, or else you won't understand what I am going to tell you, for I
+can assure you that I don't think I quite understood it myself, Anne,
+the first time my grandmother told it to me, though I stood stock still
+listening my best.'
+
+Prepared by this speech to hear something very difficult to be
+understood, Anne looked very grave, and her brother explained to her
+that, with a guinea, she might buy two hundred and fifty-two times as
+many plums as she could get for a penny.
+
+'Why, Paul, you know the fruit-woman said she would give us a dozen
+plums for a penny. Now, for this little guinea, would she give us two
+hundred and fifty-two dozen?'
+
+'If she has so many, and if we like to have so many, to be sure she
+will,' said Paul, 'but I think we should not like to have two hundred
+and fifty-two dozen of plums; we could not eat such a number.'
+
+'But we could give some of them to my grandmother,' said Anne. 'But
+still there would be too many for her, and for us too,' said Paul, 'and
+when we had eaten the plums, there would be an end to all the pleasure.
+But now I'll tell you what I am thinking of, Anne, that we might buy
+something for my grandmother that would be very useful to her indeed,
+with the guinea--something that would last a great while.'
+
+[Illustration: _'But, oh, brother, look at this! this is not the same as
+the other halfpence.'_]
+
+'What, brother? What sort of thing?' 'Something that she said she
+wanted very much last winter, when she was so ill with the
+rheumatism--something that she said yesterday, when you were making her
+bed, she wished she might be able to buy before next winter.'
+
+'I know, I know what you mean!' said Anne--'a blanket. Oh, yes, Paul,
+that will be much better than plums; do let us buy a blanket for her;
+how glad she will be to see it! I will make her bed with the new
+blanket, and then bring her to look at it. But, Paul, how shall we buy a
+blanket? Where are blankets to be got?'
+
+'Leave that to me, I'll manage that. I know where blankets can be got; I
+saw one hanging out of a shop the day I went last to Dunstable.'
+
+'You have seen a great many things at Dunstable, brother.'
+
+'Yes, a great many; but I never saw anything there or anywhere else that
+I wished for half so much as I did for the blanket for my grandmother.
+Do you remember how she used to shiver with the cold last winter? I'll
+buy the blanket to-morrow. I'm going to Dunstable with her spinning.'
+
+'And you'll bring the blanket to me, and I shall make the bed very
+neatly, that will be all right--all happy!' said Anne, clapping her
+hands.
+
+'But stay! Hush! don't clap your hands so, Anne; it will not be all
+happy, I'm afraid,' said Paul, and his countenance changed, and he
+looked very grave. 'It will not be all right, I'm afraid, for there is
+one thing we have neither of us thought of, but that we ought to think
+about. We cannot buy the blanket, I'm afraid.' 'Why, Paul, why?'
+'Because I don't think this guinea is honestly ours.'
+
+'Nay, brother, but I'm sure it is honestly ours. It was given to us, and
+grandmother said all that was given to us to-day was to be our own.'
+'But who gave it to you, Anne?' 'Some of the people in those chaises,
+Paul. I don't know which of them, but I daresay it was the little rosy
+girl.'
+
+'No,' said Paul, 'for when she called you to the chaise door, she said,
+"Here's some halfpence for you." Now, if she gave you the guinea, she
+must have given it to you by mistake.'
+
+'Well, but perhaps some of the people in the other chaises gave it to
+me, and did not give it to me by mistake, Paul. There was a gentleman
+reading in one of the chaises and a lady, who looked very good-naturedly
+at me, and then the gentleman put down his book and put his head out of
+the window, and looked at your scotcher, brother, and he asked me if
+that was your own making; and when I said yes, and that I was your
+sister, he smiled at me, and put his hand into his waistcoat pocket, and
+threw a handful of halfpence into the hat, and I daresay he gave us the
+guinea along with them because he liked your scotcher so much.' 'Why,'
+said Paul, 'that might be, to be sure, but I wish I was quite certain of
+it.' 'Then, as we are not quite certain, had not we best go and ask my
+grandmother what she thinks about it?'
+
+Paul thought this was excellent advice; and he was not a silly boy, who
+did not like to follow good advice. He went with his sister directly to
+his grandmother, showed her the guinea, and told her how they came by
+it.
+
+'My dear, honest children,' said she, 'I am very glad you told me all
+this. I am very glad that you did not buy either the plums or the
+blanket with this guinea. I'm sure it is not honestly ours. Those who
+threw it you gave it you by mistake, I warrant; and what I would have
+you do is, to go to Dunstable, and try if you can at either of the inns
+find out the person who gave it to you. It is now so late in the evening
+that perhaps the travellers will sleep at Dunstable, instead of going on
+the next stage; and it is likely that whosoever gave you a guinea
+instead of a halfpenny has found out their mistake by this time. All you
+can do is to go and inquire for the gentleman who was reading in the
+chaise.'
+
+'Oh!' interrupted Paul, 'I know a good way of finding him out. I
+remember it was a dark green chaise with red wheels: and I remember I
+read the innkeeper's name upon the chaise, "_John Nelson_." (I am much
+obliged to you for teaching me to read, grandmother.) You told me
+yesterday, grandmother, that the names written upon chaises are the
+innkeepers to whom they belong. I read the name of the innkeeper upon
+that chaise. It was John Nelson. So Anne and I will go to both the inns
+in Dunstable, and try to find out this chaise--John Nelson's. Come,
+Anne, let us set out before it gets quite dark.'
+
+Anne and her brother passed with great courage the tempting stall that
+was covered with gingerbread and ripe plums, and pursued their way
+steadily through the streets of Dunstable; but Paul, when he came to the
+shop where he had seen the blanket, stopped for a moment and said, 'It
+is a great pity, Anne, that the guinea is not ours. However, we are
+doing what is honest, and that is a comfort. Here, we must go through
+this gateway, into the inn-yard; we are come to the "Dun Cow."' 'Cow!'
+said Anne, 'I see no cow.' 'Look up, and you'll see the cow over your
+head,' said Paul--'the sign--the picture. Come, never mind looking at it
+now; I want to find out the green chaise that has John Nelson's name
+upon it.'
+
+Paul pushed forward, through a crowded passage, till he got into the
+inn-yard. There was a great noise and bustle. The hostlers were carrying
+in luggage. The postillions were rubbing down the horses, or rolling the
+chaises into the coachhouse.
+
+'What now? What business have you here, pray?' said a waiter, who almost
+ran over Paul, as he was crossing the yard in a great hurry to get some
+empty bottles from the bottle-rack. 'You've no business here, crowding
+up the yard. Walk off, young gentleman, if you please.'
+
+'Pray give me leave, sir,' said Paul, 'to stay a few minutes, to look
+amongst these chaises for one dark green chaise with red wheels, that
+has Mr. John Nelson's name written upon it.'
+
+'What's that he says about a dark green chaise?' said one of the
+postillions.
+
+'What should such a one as he is know about chaises?' interrupted the
+hasty waiter, and he was going to turn Paul out of the yard; but the
+hostler caught hold of his arm and said, 'Maybe the child _has_ some
+business here; let's know what he has to say for himself.'
+
+The waiter was at this instant luckily obliged to leave them to attend
+the bell; and Paul told his business to the hostler, who, as soon as he
+saw the guinea and heard the story, shook Paul by the hand, and said,
+'Stand steady, my honest lad; I'll find the chaise for you, if it is to
+be found here; but John Nelson's chaises almost always drive to the
+"Black Bull."'
+
+After some difficulty, the green chaise, with John Nelson's name upon
+it, and the postillion who drove that chaise, were found; and the
+postillion told Paul that he was just going into the parlour to the
+gentleman he had driven, to be paid, and that he would carry the guinea
+with him.
+
+'No,' said Paul, 'we should like to give it back ourselves.'
+
+'Yes,' said the hostler; 'that they have a right to do.'
+
+The postillion made no reply, but looked vexed, and went on towards the
+house, desiring the children would wait in the passage till his return.
+In the passage there was standing a decent, clean, good-natured-looking
+woman, with two huge straw baskets on each side of her. One of the
+baskets stood a little in the way of the entrance. A man who was pushing
+his way in, and carried in his hand a string of dead larks hung to a
+pole, impatient at being stopped, kicked down the straw basket, and all
+its contents were thrown out. Bright straw hats, and boxes, and slippers
+were all thrown in disorder upon the dirty ground.
+
+'Oh, they will be trampled upon! They will be all spoiled!' exclaimed
+the woman to whom they belonged.
+
+'We'll help you to pick them up, if you will let us,' cried Paul and
+Anne, and they immediately ran to her assistance.
+
+When the things were all safe in the basket again, the children
+expressed a desire to know how such beautiful things could be made of
+straw; but the woman had not time to answer before the postillion came
+out of the parlour, and with him a gentleman's servant, who came to
+Paul, and clapping him upon the back, said, 'So, my little chap, I gave
+you a guinea for a halfpenny, I hear; and I understand you've brought it
+back again; that's right, give me hold of it.' 'No, brother,' said Anne,
+'this is not the gentleman that was reading.' 'Pooh, child, I came in
+Mr. Nelson's green chaise. Here's the postillion can tell you so. I and
+my master came in that chaise. I and my master that was reading, as you
+say, and it was he that threw the money out to you. He is going to bed;
+he is tired and can't see you himself. He desires that you'll give me
+the guinea.'
+
+Paul was too honest himself to suspect that this man was telling him a
+falsehood; and he now readily produced his bright guinea, and delivered
+it into the servant's hands. 'Here's sixpence apiece for you, children,'
+said he, 'and goodnight to you.' He pushed them towards the door; but
+the basket-woman whispered to them as they went out, 'Wait in the street
+till I come to you.'
+
+'Pray, Mrs. Landlady,' cried this gentleman's servant, addressing
+himself to the landlady, who just then came out of a room where some
+company were at supper--'Pray, Mrs. Landlady, please to let me have
+roasted larks for my supper. You are famous for larks at Dunstable; and
+I make it a rule to taste the best of everything wherever I go; and,
+waiter, let me have a bottle of claret. Do you hear?'
+
+'Larks and claret for his supper,' said the basket-woman to herself, as
+she looked at him from head to foot. The postillion was still waiting,
+as if to speak to him; and she observed them afterwards whispering and
+laughing together. '_No bad hit,_' was a sentence which the servant
+pronounced several times.
+
+Now it occurred to the basket-woman that this man had cheated the
+children out of the guinea to pay for the larks and claret; and she
+thought that perhaps she could discover the truth. She waited quietly in
+the passage.
+
+'Waiter! Joe! Joe!' cried the landlady, 'why don't you carry in the
+sweetmeat-puffs and the tarts here to the company in the best parlour?'
+
+'Coming, ma'am,' answered the waiter; and with a large dish of tarts and
+puffs, the waiter came from the bar; the landlady threw open the door of
+the best parlour, to let him in; and the basket-woman had now a full
+view of a large cheerful company, and amongst them several children,
+sitting round a supper-table.
+
+'Ay,' whispered the landlady, as the door closed after the waiter and
+the tarts, 'there are customers enough, I warrant, for you in that room,
+if you had but the luck to be called in. Pray, what would you have the
+conscience, I wonder now, to charge me for these here half-dozen little
+mats to put under my dishes?'
+
+'A trifle, ma'am,' said the basket-woman. She let the landlady have the
+mats cheap, and the landlady then declared she would step in and see if
+the company in the best parlour had done supper. 'When they come to
+their wine,' added she, 'I'll speak a good word for you, and get you
+called in afore the children are sent to bed.'
+
+The landlady, after the usual speech of, '_I hope the supper and
+everything is to your liking, ladies and gentlemen,_' began with, 'If
+any of the young gentlemen or ladies would have a _cur'osity_ to see any
+of our famous Dunstable straw-work, there's a decent body without
+would, I daresay, be proud to show them her pincushion-boxes, and her
+baskets and slippers, and her other _cur'osities_.'
+
+The eyes of the children all turned towards their mother; their mother
+smiled, and immediately their father called in the basket-woman, and
+desired her to produce her _curiosities_. The children gathered round
+her large pannier as it opened, but they did not touch any of her
+things.
+
+'Ah, papa!' cried a little rosy girl, 'here are a pair of straw slippers
+that would just fit you, I think; but would not straw shoes wear out
+very soon? and would not they let in the wet?'
+
+'Yes, my dear,' said her father, 'but these slippers are meant----' 'For
+powdering-slippers, miss,' interrupted the basket-woman. 'To wear when
+people are powdering their hair,' continued the gentleman, 'that they
+may not spoil their other shoes.' 'And will you buy them, papa?' 'No, I
+cannot indulge myself,' said her father, 'in buying them now. I must
+make amends,' said he, laughing, 'for my carelessness; and as I threw
+away a guinea to-day, I must endeavour to save sixpence at least?'
+
+'Ah, the guinea that you threw by mistake into the little girl's hat as
+we were coming up Chalk Hill. Mamma, I wonder that the little girl did
+not take notice of its being a guinea, and that she did not run after
+the chaise to give it back again. I should think, if she had been an
+honest girl, she would have returned it.'
+
+'Miss!--ma'am!--sir!' said the basket-woman, 'if it would not be
+impertinent, may I speak a word? A little boy and girl have just been
+here inquiring for a gentleman who gave them a guinea instead of a
+halfpenny by mistake; and not five minutes ago I saw the boy give the
+guinea to a gentleman's servant, who is there without, and who said his
+master desired it should be returned to him.'
+
+'There must be some mistake, or some trick in this,' said the gentleman.
+'Are the children gone? I must see them--send after them.' 'I'll go for
+them myself,' said the good-natured basket-woman; 'I bid them wait in
+the street yonder, for my mind misgave me that the man who spoke so
+short to them was a cheat, with his larks and his claret.'
+
+Paul and Anne were speedily summoned, and brought back by their friend
+the basket-woman; and Anne, the moment she saw the gentleman, knew that
+he was the very person who smiled upon her, who admired her brother's
+scotcher, and who threw a handful of halfpence into the hat; but she
+could not be certain, she said, that she received the guinea from him;
+she only thought it most likely that she did.
+
+'But I can be certain whether the guinea you returned be mine or no,'
+said the gentleman. 'I marked the guinea; it was a light one; the only
+guinea I had, which I put into my waistcoat pocket this morning.' He
+rang the bell, and desired the waiter to let the gentleman who was in
+the room opposite to him know that he wished to see him. 'The gentleman
+in the white parlour, sir, do you mean?' 'I mean the master of the
+servant who received a guinea from this child.' 'He is a Mr. Pembroke,
+sir,' said the waiter.
+
+Mr. Pembroke came; and as soon as he heard what had happened, he desired
+the waiter to show him to the room where his servant was at supper. The
+dishonest servant, who was supping upon larks and claret, knew nothing
+of what was going on; but his knife and fork dropped from his hand, and
+he overturned a bumper of claret as he started up from the table, in
+great surprise and terror, when his master came in with a face of
+indignation, and demanded '_The guinea_--the _guinea, sir_! that you got
+from this child; that guinea which you said I ordered you to ask for
+from this child.'
+
+The servant, confounded and half-intoxicated, could only stammer out
+that he had more guineas than one about him, and that he really did not
+know which it was. He pulled his money out, and spread it upon the table
+with trembling hands. The marked guinea appeared. His master instantly
+turned him out of his service with strong expressions of contempt.
+
+'And now, my little honest girl,' said the gentleman who had admired her
+brother's scotcher, turning to Anne, 'and now tell me who you are, and
+what you and your brother want or wish for most in the world.'
+
+In the same moment Anne and Paul exclaimed, 'The thing we wish for the
+most in the world is a blanket for our grandmother.'
+
+'She is not our grandmother in reality, I believe, sir,' said Paul; 'but
+she is just as good to us, and taught me to read, and taught Anne to
+knit, and taught us both that we should be honest--so she has; and I
+wish she had a new blanket before next winter, to keep her from the cold
+and the rheumatism. She had the rheumatism sadly last winter, sir; and
+there is a blanket in this street that would be just the thing for her.'
+
+[Illustration: _His master came in with a face of indignation, and
+demanded_ 'The guinea--_the_ guinea, sir!']
+
+'She shall have it, then; and,' continued the gentleman, 'I will do
+something more for you. Do you like to be employed or to be idle best?'
+
+'We like to have something to do always, if we could, sir,' said Paul;
+'but we are forced to be idle sometimes, because grandmother has not
+always things for us to do that we _can_ do well.'
+
+'Should you like to learn how to make such baskets as these?' said the
+gentleman, pointing to one of the Dunstable straw-baskets. 'Oh, very
+much!' said Paul. 'Very much!' said Anne. 'Then I should like to teach
+you how to make them,' said the basket-woman; 'for I'm sure of one
+thing, that you'd behave honestly to me.'
+
+The gentleman put a guinea into the good-natured basket-woman's hand,
+and told her that he knew she could not afford to teach them her trade
+for nothing. 'I shall come through Dunstable again in a few months,'
+added he; 'and I hope to see that you and your scholars are going on
+well. If I find that they are, I will do something more for you.' 'But,'
+said Anne, 'we must tell all this to grandmother, and ask her about it;
+and I'm afraid--though I'm very happy--that it is getting very late, and
+that we should not stay here any longer.' 'It is a fine moonlight
+night,' said the basket-woman; 'and is not far. I'll walk with you, and
+see you safe home myself.'
+
+The gentleman detained them a few minutes longer, till a messenger whom
+he had dispatched to purchase the much-wished-for blanket returned.
+
+'Your grandmother will sleep well upon this good blanket, I hope,' said
+the gentleman, as he gave it into Paul's opened arms. 'It has been
+obtained for her by the honesty of her adopted children.'
+
+THE END
+
+
+_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Macmillan's Illustrated Pocket Classics.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+HUGH THOMSON, LINLEY SAMBOURNE, CHARLES E. BROCK, CHRIS HAMMOND, AND
+OTHERS.
+
+_Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net each. Leather Limp, 3s. net each._
+
+  =CRANFORD.= By Mrs. GASKELL. With Preface by ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE,
+  and 100 Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+  =OUR VILLAGE.= By MARY RUSSELL MITFORD. With Preface by ANNE THACKERAY
+  RITCHIE, and 100 Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+  =THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.= With Preface by AUSTIN DOBSON, and 182
+  Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+  =TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL-DAYS.= By THOMAS HUGHES. With Illustrations by
+  E. J. SULLIVAN.
+
+  =THE WATER BABIES: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby.= By CHARLES KINGSLEY.
+  With 100 Illustrations by LINLEY SAMBOURNE.
+
+  =COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS.= By W. OUTRAM TRISTRAM. With
+  Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON and HERBERT RAILTON.
+
+  =THE HUMOROUS POEMS OF THOMAS HOOD.= With Preface by Canon AINGER, and
+  130 Illustrations by CHARLES E. BROCK.
+
+  =OLD CHRISTMAS.= By WASHINGTON IRVING. With Illustrations by RANDOLPH
+  CALDECOTT.
+
+  =BRACEBRIDGE HALL.= By WASHINGTON IRVING. With Illustrations by
+  RANDOLPH CALDECOTT.
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+
+Macmillan's Illustrated Pocket Classics.
+
+_Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net. Leather Limp, 3s. net._
+
+
+THE WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN
+
+WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY AUSTIN DOBSON.
+
+  =PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.= With Illustrations by CHARLES E. BROCK.
+  =SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+  =EMMA.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+  =MANSFIELD PARK.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+  =NORTHANGER ABBEY.= With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON.
+
+
+THE WORKS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE.
+
+  =CASTLE RACKRENT AND THE ABSENTEE.= With Illustrations by CHRIS
+          HAMMOND.
+  =ORMOND.= With Illustrations by C. SCHLOESSER.
+  =POPULAR TALES.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+  =HELEN.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+  =BELINDA.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+  =THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT.= With Illustrations by CHRIS HAMMOND.
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+
+Minor punctuation errors corrected without note.
+
+Italic words and phrases are marked _like this_.
+
+Bold words and phrases are marked =LIKE THIS=.
+
+Small caps are converted to ALL CAPS.
+
+Words spelled multiple ways are left as in the original.
+
+Within the drama sections, the following convention is used:
+
+  All lines and line groups centered in the original are indented
+  four spaces. All other lines and line groups right-aligned in the
+  original (stage directions) are indented eight spaces.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth
+
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