Evening at Home 57

Evening at Home 57

[_They enter the cottage_—Jacob, _the weaver, at his loom. His wife

spinning. Children of different ages._]

 

_Mr. Ev._ Good morning to you, friend! Don’t let us disturb you all,

pray. We have just stepped in to look at your work.

 

_Jacob._ I have very little to show you, gentlemen; but you are welcome

to look on. Perhaps the young gentleman never saw weaving before.

 

_Ch._ I never did, near.

 

_Jac._ Look here, then, master. These long threads are the warp. They

are divided, you see, into two sets, and I pass my shuttle between them,

which carries with it the cross threads, and that makes the weft.

(_Explains the whole to him._)

 

_Ch._ Dear! how curious! And is all cloth made this way, papa?

 

_Mr. Ev._ Yes; only there are somewhat different contrivances for

different kinds of work. Well, how soon do you think you could learn to

weave like this honest man?

 

_Ch._ O—not for a great while?

 

_Mr. Ev._ But I suppose you could easily turn the wheel, and draw out

threads like that good woman?

 

_Ch._ Not without some practice, I fancy. But what is that boy doing?

 

_Jac._ He is cutting pegs for the shoemakers, master.

 

_Ch._ How quick he does them!

 

_Jac._ It is but poor employment, but better than being idle. The first

lesson I teach my children is, that their hands were made to get their

bread with.

 

_Mr. Ev._ And a very good lesson, too.

 

_Ch._ What is this heap of twigs for?

 

_Jac._ Why, master, my biggest boy and girl have learned a little how to

make basket-work, so I have got them a few osiers to employ them at

leisure hours. That bird-cage is their making: and the back of that

chair in which their grandmother sits.

 

_Ch._ Is not that cleverly done, papa?

 

_Mr. Ev._ It is, indeed. Here are several arts, you see, in this house,

which both you and I should be much puzzled to set about. But there are

some books, too, I perceive.

 

_Ch._ Here is a bible, and a testament, and a prayer-book, and a

spelling book, and a volume of the Gardener’s Dictionary.

 

_Mr. Ev._ And how many of your family can read, my friend?

 

_Jac._ All the children but the two youngest can read a little, sir; but

Meg, there, is the best scholar among us. She reads us a chapter in the

Testament every morning, and very well, too, though I say it.

 

_Mr. Ev._ Do you hear that, Charles?

 

_Ch._ I do, sir. Here’s an almanac, too, against the wall; and here are

my favourite ballads of the Children in the Wood, and Chevy-chase.

 

_Jac._ I let the children paste them up, sir, and a few more that have

no harm in them. There’s Hearts of Oak, and Rule Britannia, and Robin

Gray.

 

_Mr. Ev._ A very good choice, indeed. I see you have a pretty garden

there behind the house.

 

_Jac._ It is only a little spot, sir; but it serves for some amusement,

and use too.

 

_Ch._ What beautiful stocks and wall-flowers! We have none so fine in

our garden.

 

_Jac._ Why, master, to say the truth, we are rather proud of them. I

have got a way of cultivating them, that I believe few besides myself

are acquainted with; and on Sundays I have plenty of visiters to come

and admire them.

 

_Ch._ Pray, what is this bush with narrow whitish leaves and blue

flowers?

 

_Jac._ Don’t you know? It is rosemary.

 

_Ch._ Is it good for anything?

 

_Jac._ We like the smell of it; and then the leaves, mixed with a little

balm, make pleasant tea, which we sometimes drink in the afternoon.

 

_Ch._ Here are several more plants that I never saw before.

 

_Jac._ Some of them are pot-herbs, that we put into our broth or

porridge; and others are physic herbs, for we cannot afford to go to a

doctor for every trifling ailment.

 

_Ch._ But how do you learn the use of these things?

 

_Jac._ Why, partly, master, from an old herbal that I have got; and

partly from my good mother and some old neighbours; for we poor people

are obliged to help one another as well as we can. If you were curious

about plants, I could go into the fields, and show you a great many that

we reckon very fine for several uses, though I suppose we don’t call

them by the proper names.

 

_Mr. Ev._ You keep your garden very neat, friend, and seem to make the

most of every inch of ground.

 

_Jac._ Why, sir, we have hands enough, and all of us like to be doing a

little in it when our in-doors work is over. I am in hopes soon to be

allowed a bit of land from the waste for a potato-ground, which will be

a great help to us. I shall then be able to keep a pig.

 

_Mr. Ev._ I suppose, notwithstanding your industry, you live rather

hardly sometimes?

 

_Jac._ To be sure, sir, we are somewhat pinched in dear times and hard

weather; but, thank God, I have constant work, and my children begin to

be some help to us, so that we fare better than some of our neighbours.

If I do but keep my health, I don’t fear but we shall make a shift to

live.

 

_Mr. Ev._ Keep such a contented mind, my friend, and you will have few

to envy. Good morning to you, and if any sickness or accident should

befall you, remember you have a friend in your neighbour at the hall.

 

_Jac._ I will, sir, and thank you.

 

_Ch._ Good morning to you.

 

_Jac._ The same to you, master.

 

[_They leave the cottage._

 

_Mr. Ev._ Well, Charles, what do you think of our visit?

 

_Ch._ I am highly pleased with it, sir. I shall have a better opinion of

a poor cottager as long as I live.

 

_Mr. Ev._ I am glad of it. You see when we compare ourselves with this

weaver, all the advantage is not on our side. He is possessed of an art,

the utility of which secures him a livelihood, whatever may be the

changes of the times. All his family are brought up to industry, and

show no small ingenuity in their several occupations. They are not

without instruction, and especially seem to be in no want of that best

of all, the knowledge of their duty. They understand something of the

cultivation and uses of plants, and are capable of receiving enjoyment

from the beauties of nature. They partake of the pleasures of home and

neighbourhood. Above all they seem content with their lot, and free from

anxious cares and repinings. I view them as truly respectable members of

society, acting well the part allotted to them, and that, a part most of

all necessary to the well-being of the whole. They may, from untoward

accidents, be rendered objects of our compassion, but they never can of

our contempt.

 

_Ch._ Indeed, sir, I am very far from despising them now. But would it

not be possible to make them more comfortable than they are at present?

 

_Mr. Ev._ I think it would; and when giving a little from the

superfluity of persons in our situation would add so much to the

happiness of persons in theirs, I am of opinion that it is unpardonable

not to do it. I intend to use my interest to get this poor man the piece

of waste land he wants, and he shall have some from my share rather than

go without.

 

_Ch._ And suppose, sir, we were to give him some good potatoes to plant

it?

 

_Mr. Ev._ We will. Then, you know, we have a fine sow, that never fails

to produce a numerous litter twice a year. Suppose we rear one of the

next brood to be ready for him as soon as he has got his potato-ground

into bearing?

 

_Ch._ O yes! that will be just the thing. But how is he to build a

pigsty?

 

_Mr. Ev._ You may leave that to his own ingenuity! I warrant he can

manage such a job as that with the help of a neighbour, at least. Well—I

hope both the weaver, and you, will be the better for the acquaintance

we have made to-day; and always remember, that _man, when fulfilling the

duties of his station, be that station what it may, is a worthy object

of respect to his fellow-men_.

 

[Illustration:

 

EVENING XXII.

]

 

 

 

 

THE BIRTHDAY GIFT.

 

 

The populous kingdom of Ava, in India beyond the Ganges, was once

inherited by a minor prince, who was brought up in the luxurious

indolence of an eastern palace. When he had reached the age of

seventeen, which by the laws of that country, was the period of majority

for the crown, all the great men of his court, and the governors of the