Evening at Home 38

Evening at Home 38

The minutes of the court were then drawn up, and the President took them

to the judge’s chamber. After the judge had perused them, he ordered an

endictment to be drawn up against Peter Riot, “for that he meanly,

clandestinely, and with malice aforethought, had broken three panes in

the window of Widow Careful, with a certain instrument called a top,

whereby he had committed an atrocious injury on an innocent person, and

had brought a disgrace upon the society to which he belonged.” At the

same time, he sent an officer to inform Master Riot that his trial would

come on next morning.

 

Riot, who was with some of his gay companions, affected to treat the

matter with great indifference, and even to make a jest of it. However,

in the morning he thought it best to endeavour to make it up; and

accordingly, when the court was assembled, he sent one of his friends

with a shilling, saying that he would not trouble them with any further

inquiries, but would pay the sum that had been issued out of the public

stock. On the receipt of this message the Judge rose with much severity

in his countenance; and observing, that by such a contemptuous behaviour

towards the court the criminal had greatly added to his offence, he

ordered two officers with their staves immediately to go and bring in

Riot, and to use force if he should resist them. The culprit, thinking

it best to submit, was presently led in between the two officers; when,

being placed at the bar, the judge thus addressed him:—

 

“I am sorry, sir, that any member of this society can be so little

sensible of the nature of a crime, and so little acquainted with the

principles of a court of justice, as you have shown yourself to be, by

the proposal you took the improper liberty of sending to us. If you

meant it as a confession of your guilt, you certainly ought to have

waited to receive from us the penalty we thought proper to inflict, and

not to have imagined that an offer of the mere payment of damages would

satisfy the claims of justice against you. If you had only broken the

window by accident, and of your own accord offered restitution, nothing

less than the full damages could have been accepted. But you now stand

charged with having done this mischief, meanly, secretly, and

maliciously, and thereby have added a great deal of criminal intention

to the act. Can you then think that a court like this, designed to watch

over the morals, as well as protect the properties of our community, can

so slightly pass over such aggravated offences? You can claim no merit

from confessing the crime, now that you know so much evidence will

appear against you. And if you choose still to plead not guilty, you are

at liberty to do it, and we will proceed immediately to the trial,

without taking any advantage of the confession implied by your offer of

payment.”

 

Riot stood silent for some time, and then begged to be allowed to

consult with his friends what was best for him to do. This was agreed

to, and he was permitted to retire, though under guard of an officer.

After a short absence, he returned with more humility in his looks, and

said that he pleaded guilty, and threw himself on the mercy of the

court. The judge then made a speech of some length, for the purpose of

convincing the prisoner as well as the bystanders of the enormity of the

crime. He then pronounced the following sentence:—

 

“You, Peter Riot, are hereby sentenced to pay the sum of half a crown to

the public treasury, as a satisfaction for the mischief you have done,

and your attempt to conceal it. You are to repair to the house of Widow

Careful, accompanied by such witnesses as we shall appoint, and there

having first paid her the sum you owe her, you shall ask her pardon for

the insult you offered her. You shall likewise, to-morrow, after school,

stand up in your place, and before all the scholars ask pardon for the

disgrace you have been the means of bringing upon the society; and in

particular you shall apologise to Master Luckless, for the disagreeable

circumstance you were the means of bringing him into. Till all this is

complied with, you shall not presume to come into the play-ground, or

join in any of the diversions of the school; and all persons are hereby

admonished not to keep your company till this is done.”

 

Riot was then dismissed to his room; and in the afternoon he was taken

to the widow’s, who was pleased to receive his submission graciously,

and at the same time to apologise for her own improper treatment of

Master Luckless, to whom she sent a present of a nice ball by way of

amends.

 

Thus ended this important business.

 

[Illustration:

 

On Man, p. 184.

 

EVENING XV.

]

 

 

 

 

THE LEGUMINOUS PLANTS.

 

_Tutor_—_George_—_Harry._

 

 

_George._ What a delightful smell!

 

_Harry._ Charming! It is sweeter than Mr. Essence’s shop.

 

_Tutor._ Do you know whence it comes?

 

_Geo._ Oh—it is from the bean-field on the other side of the hedge, I

suppose.

 

_Tut._ It is. This is the month in which beans are in blossom. See the

stalks are full of their black and white flowers.

 

_Har._ I see peas in blossom, too, on the other side of the field.

 

_Geo._ You told us some time ago of grass and corn flowers, but they

make a poor figure compared to these.

 

_Tut._ They do. The glory of a cornfield is when it is ripe; but peas

and beans look very shabbily at that time. But suppose we take a closer

view of these blossoms. Go you, George, and bring me a bean-plant; and

you, Harry, a pea.

 

[_They go and bring them._

 

_Tut._ Now let us sit down and compare them. Do you think these flowers

much alike?

 

_Har._ Oh no—very little.

 

_Geo._ Yes—a good deal!

 

_Tut._ A little and a good deal! How can that be? Come let us see. In

the first place, they do not much resemble each other in size or colour.

 

_Geo._ No—but I think they do in shape.

 

_Tut._ True. They are both irregular flowers, and have the same

distribution of parts. They are of the kind called _papilionaceous_,

from _papilio_, the Latin word for a butterfly, which insect they are

thought to resemble.

 

_Geo._ The pea does a little, but not much.

 

_Tut._ Some do much more than these. Well—you see first a broad leaf

standing upright, but somewhat bent back; this is named the _standard_.

On each side are two narrower, called the _wings_. The under side of the

flower is formed of a hollow part resembling a boat: this is called a

_keel_.

 

_Geo._ It is very like a boat indeed!

 

_Tut._ In some kinds, however, it is divided in the middle, and so is

like a boat split in two. All these parts have claws which unite to form

a tube, set in a _calyx_, or flower-cup. This tube, you observe, is

longer in the bean than in the pea, and the proportions of the other

parts are somewhat different; but the parts themselves are found in

both.

 

_Har._ So they are. I think them alike now.

 

_Tut._ That is the consequence of examining closely. Now let us strip

off all the leaves of this bean-flower but the keel. What do you think

this boat contains?

 

_Geo._ It must be those little things you told us are in all flowers.

 

_Har._ The chives and pistil.

 

_Tut._ Right. I will draw down the keel gently, and you shall see them.

 

_Har._ How curious!

 

_Tut._ Here are a number of chives joining in their bodies, so as to

make a round tube, or cylinder, through which comes out a crooked

thread, which is the pistil. I will now with a pin slit this cylinder.

What do you see within it?

 

_Geo._ Somewhat like a little pod.

 

_Tut._ True—and to show you that it is a pod, I will open it, and you

shall see the seeds within it.

 

_Har._ What tiny things! Is this, then, what makes the bean-pod

afterward?

 

_Tut._ It is. When the blossom drops, this seed-vessel grows bigger and

bigger, and at length hardens as the seeds grow ripe, becomes black and

shrivelled, and would burst and shed the seeds, if they were not

gathered.

 

_Geo._ I have seen several burst pods of our sweet-peas under the wall,

with nothing left in them.

 

_Tut._ And it is common for the field peas and beans to lose a great

part of the seeds while they are getting in.

 

_Har._ At the bottom of this pea-stalk there are some pods set already.

 

_Tut._ Open one. You see that the pod is composed of two shells, and

that all the seeds are fastened to one side of the pod, but alternately

to each shell.