Evening at Home 36

Evening at Home 36

“How many marbles can you buy for a penny?”

 

“Twelve new ones, sir.”

 

“And how many for two pence?”

 

“Twenty-four.”

 

“And how many for a half-penny?”

 

“Six.”

 

“If you were to have a penny a day, what would that make in a week?”

 

“Seven pence.”

 

“But if you paid two pence out of that, what would you have left?”

 

Samuel studied a while, and then said, “Five pence.”

 

“Right. Why, here you have been practising the four great rules of

arithmetic—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! Learning

accounts is no more than this. Well, Samuel, I shall see what you are

fit for. I shall set you about nothing but what you are able to do; but,

observe, you must do it. We have no _I can’t_ here. Now go among your

schoolfellows.”

 

Samuel went away, glad that his examination was over, and with more

confidence in his powers than he had felt before.

 

The next day he began business. A boy less than himself was called out

to set him a copy of letters, and another was appointed to hear him in

grammar. He read a few sentences in English that he could perfectly

understand to the master himself. Thus, by going on steadily and slowly,

he made a sensible progress. He had already joined his letters, got all

the declensions perfectly, and half the multiplication table, when Mr.

Wiseman thought it time to answer his father’s letter; which he did as

follows:—

 

“SIR, I now think it right to give you some information concerning

your son. You perhaps expected it sooner, but I always wish to

avoid hasty judgments. You mentioned in your letter that it had

not yet been discovered which way his genius pointed. If by

_genius_ you meant such a decided bent of mind to any one pursuit

as will lead to excel with little or no labour or instruction, I

must say that I have not met with such a quality in more than

three or four boys in my life, and your son is certainly not among

the number. But if you mean only the _ability_ to do some of those

things which the greater part of mankind can do when properly

taught, I can affirm that I find in him no peculiar deficiency.

And whether you choose to bring him up to trade, or to some

practical profession, I see no reason to doubt that he may in time

become sufficiently qualified for it. It is my favourite maxim,

sir, that everything most valuable in this life may generally be

acquired by taking pains for it. Your son has already lost much

time in the fruitless expectation of finding out what he would

take up of his own accord. Believe me, sir, few boys will take up

anything of their own accord but a top or a marble. I will take

care, while he is with me, that he loses no more time this way,

but is employed about things that are fit for him, not doubting

that we shall find him fit for them.

 

“I am, sir, yours, &c.

“SOLON WISEMAN.”

 

Though the doctrine of this letter did not perfectly agree with Mr.

Acres’s notions, yet being convinced that Mr. Wiseman was more likely to

make something of his son than any of his former preceptors, he

continued him at his school for some years, and had the satisfaction to

find him going on in a steady course of gradual improvement. In due time

a profession was chosen for him, which seemed to suit his temper and

talents, but for which he had no _particular turn_, having never thought

at all about it. He made a respectable figure in it, and went through

the world with credit and usefulness, though _without a genius_.

 

 

 

 

HALF A CROWN’S WORTH.

 

 

Valentine was in his thirteenth year, and a scholar in one of our great

schools. He was a well-disposed boy, but could not help envying a

little, some of his companions, who had a larger allowance of money than

himself. He ventured in a letter to sound his father on the subject, not

directly asking for a particular sum, but mentioning that many of the

boys in his class had half a crown a week for pocket-money.

 

His father, who did not choose to comply with his wishes for various

reasons, nor yet to refuse him in a mortifying manner, wrote an answer,

the chief purpose of which was to make him sensible what sort of a sum

half a crown a week was, and to how many more important uses it might be

put, than to provide a school-boy with things absolutely superfluous to

him.

 

“It is calculated,” said he, “that a grown man may be kept in health and

fit for labour upon a pound and a half of good bread a day. Suppose the

value of this to be two pence half-penny, and add a penny for a quart of

milk, which will greatly improve his diet, half a crown will keep him

eight or nine days in this manner.

 

“A common labourer’s wages in our country are seven shillings per week,

and if you add somewhat extraordinary for harvest work, this will not

make it amount to three half-crowns on an average the year round.

Suppose his wife and children to earn another half-crown. For this ten

shillings per week he will maintain himself, his wife, and half a dozen

children, in food, lodging, clothes, and fuel. A half-crown then may be

reckoned the full weekly maintenance of two human creatures in every

thing necessary.

 

“Where potatoes are much cultivated, two bushels, weighing eighty pounds

a piece, may be purchased for half a crown. Here are one hundred and

sixty pounds of solid food, of which allowing for the waste in dressing,

you may reckon two pounds and a half sufficient for the sole daily

nourishment of one person. At this rate, nine people might be fed a week

for half a crown; poorly, indeed, but so as many thousands are fed, with

the addition of a little salt or buttermilk.

 

“If the father of a numerous family were out of work, or the mother

lying-in, a parish would think half a crown a week a very ample

assistance to them.

 

“Many of the cottagers round us would receive with great thankfulness a

sixpenny loaf per week, and reckon it a very material addition to their

children’s bread. For half a crown, therefore, you might purchase—the

weekly blessings of five poor families.

 

“Porter is a sort of luxury to a poor man, but not a useless one, since

it will stand in the place of some solid food, and enable him to work

with better heart. You could treat a hard-working man with a pint a day

of this liquor for twelve days, with half a crown.

 

“Many a cottage in the country inhabited by a large family is let for

forty shillings a year. Half a crown a week would pay the full rent of

three such cottages, and allow somewhat over for repairs.

 

“The usual price for schooling at a dame-school in a village is two

pence a week. You might, therefore, get fifteen children instructed in

reading, and the girls in sewing, for half a crown weekly. But even in a

town you might get them taught reading, writing, and accounts, and so

fitted for any common trade, for five shillings a quarter; and therefore

half a crown a week would keep six children at such a school, and

provide them with books besides.

 

“All these are ways in which half a crown a week might be made to do a

great deal of good to _others_. I shall now just mention one or two ways

of laying it out with advantage to yourself.

 

“I know you are very fond of coloured plates of plants, and other

objects of natural history. There are now several works of this sort

publishing in monthly numbers, as the Botanical Magazine, the English

Botany, the Flora Rustica, and the Naturalist’s Magazine. Now half a

crown a week would reach the purchase of the best of these.

 

“The same sum laid out in the old book-shops in London would buy you

more classics, and pretty editions too, in one year, than you could read

in five.

 

“Now I do not grudge laying out half a crown a week upon you; but when

so many good things for yourself and others may be done with it, I am

unwilling you should squander it away like your schoolfellows, in tarts

and trinkets.”

 

 

 

 

TRIAL[2]

 

 

_Of a Complaint made against Sundry Persons for breaking the Windows of_

DOROTHY CAREFUL, _Widow and Dealer in Gingerbread._

 

The court being seated, there appeared in person the widow _Dorothy

Careful_, to make a complaint against _Henry Luckless_, and other person

or persons unknown, for breaking three panes of glass, value ninepence,

in the house of the said widow. Being directed to tell her case to the

court, she made a courtesy, and began as follows:—

 

“Please your lordship, I was sitting at work by my fireside, between the

hours of six and seven in the evening, just as it was growing dusk, and

little Jack was spinning beside me, when all at once crack went the

window, and down fell a little basket of cakes that was set up against

it. I started up, and cried to Jack, ‘Bless me, what’s the matter?’ So,

says Jack, ‘Somebody has thrown a stone and broke the window, and I dare

say it is some of the schoolboys.’ With that I ran out of the house, and

saw some boys making off as fast as they could go. So I ran after them

as quick as my old legs would carry me; but I should never have come

near them, if one had not happened to fall down. Him I caught and