Evening at Home 61

Evening at Home 61

SHOW AND USE; OR, THE TWO PRESENTS.

 

 

One morning, Lord Richmore, coming down to breakfast, was welcomed with

the tidings that his favourite mare, Miss Slim, had brought a foal, and

also, that a she-ass, kept for his lady’s use as a milker, had dropped a

young one. His lordship smiled at the inequality of the presents nature

had made him. “As for the foal,” said he to the groom, “that, you know,

has been long promised to my neighbour, Mr. Scamper. For young Balaam,

you may dispose of him as you please.” The groom thanked his lordship,

and said he would then give him to Isaac the woodman.

 

In due time, Miss Slim’s foal, which was the son of a noted racer, was

taken to Squire Scamper’s, who received him with great delight, and out

of compliment to the donor, named him _Young Peer_. He was brought up

with at least as much care and tenderness as the Squire’s own

children—kept in a warm stable, fed with the best of corn and hay, duly

dressed and regularly exercised. As he grew up, he gave tokens of great

beauty. His colour was bright bay, with a white star on his forehead;

his coat was fine, and shone like silk; and every point about him seemed

to promise perfection of shape and make. Everybody admired him as the

completest colt that could be seen.

 

So fine a creature could not be destined to any useful employment. After

he had passed his third year, he was sent to Newmarket to be trained for

the turf, and a groom was appointed to the care of him alone. His

master, who could not well afford the expense, saved part of it by

turning off a domestic tutor whom he kept for the education of his sons,

and was content with sending them to the curate of the parish.

 

At four years old, Young Peer started for a subscription purse, and came

in second out of a number of competitors. Soon after, he won a country

plate, and filled his master with joy and triumph. The Squire now turned

all his attention to the turf, made matches, betted high, and was at

first tolerably successful. At length, having ventured all the money he

could raise upon one grand match, Young Peer ran on the wrong side of

the post, was distanced, and the Squire ruined.

 

Meantime, young Balaam went into Isaac’s possession, where he had a very

different training. He was left to pick up his living as he could in the

lanes and commons; and on the coldest days in winter he had no other

shelter than the lee-side of the cottage, out of which he was often glad

to pluck the thatch for a subsistence. As soon as ever he was able to

bear a rider, Isaac’s children got upon him, sometimes two or three at

once; and if he did not go to their mind, a broomstick or bunch of furze

was freely applied to his hide. Nevertheless, he grew up, as the

children themselves did, strong and healthy; and though he was rather

bare on the ribs, his shape was good, and his limbs vigorous.

 

It was not long before his master thought of putting him to some use; so

taking him to the wood, he fastened a load of fagots on his back, and

sent him with his son Tom to the next town. Tom sold the fagots, and

mounting upon Balaam, rode him home. As Isaac could get plenty of fagots

and chips, he found it a profitable trade to send them for daily sale

upon Balaam’s back. Having a little garden, which, from the barrenness

of the soil, yielded him nothing of value, he bethought him of loading

Balaam back from town with dung for manure. Though all he could bring at

once was contained in two small panniers, yet this in time amounted to

enough to mend the soil of his whole garden, so that he grew very good

cabbages and potatoes, to the great relief of his family. Isaac being

now sensible of the value of his ass, began to treat him with more

attention. He got a small stack of rushy hay for his winter fodder, and

with his own hands built him a little shed of boughs and mud, in order

to shelter him from the bad weather. He would not suffer any of his

family to use Balaam ill, and after his daily journeys he was allowed to

ramble at pleasure. He was now and then cleaned and dressed, and upon

the whole made a reputable figure. Isaac took in more land from the

waste, so that by degrees he became a little farmer, and kept a horse

and cart, a cow, and two or three pigs. This made him quite a rich man,

but he had always the gratitude to impute his prosperity to the good

services of Balaam, the groom’s present; while the Squire cursed Young

Peer as the cause of his ruin, and many a time wished that his lordship

had kept his dainty gift to himself.

 

 

 

 

THE CRUCIFORM-FLOWERED PLANTS.

 

_Tutor_—_George_—_Harry._

 

 

_George._ How rich yon field looks with its yellow flowers! I wonder

what they can be?

 

_Tutor._ Suppose you go and see if you can find it out; and bring a

stalk of the flowers with you.

 

_Geo._ (_Returning_). I know now—they are turnips.

 

_Tut._ I thought you could make it out when you came near them. These

turnips are left to seed, which is the reason why you see them run to

flower. Commonly they are pulled up sooner.

 

_Harry._ I should not have thought a turnip had so sweet a flower.

 

_Geo._ I think I have smelt others like them. Pray, sir, what class of

plants do they belong to?

 

_Tut._ To a very numerous one, with which it is worth your while to get

acquainted. Let us sit down and examine them. The petal, you observe,

consists of four flat leaves set opposite to each other, or crosswise.

From this circumstance the flowers have been called _cruciform_. As most

plants with flowers of this kind bear their seeds in pods, they have

likewise been called the _siliquose_ plants, _siliqua_ being the Latin

for a pod.

 

_Geo._ But the papilionaceous flowers bear pods, too.

 

_Tut._ True; and therefore the name is not a good one. Now pull off the

petals one by one. You see they are fastened by long claws within the

flower cup. Now count the chives.

 

_Har._ There are six.

 

_Geo._ But they are not all of the same length—two are much shorter than

the rest.

 

_Tut._ Well observed. It is from this that Linnæus has formed a

particular class for the whole tribe, which he calls _tetradynamia_, a

word implying _four powers_, or the _power of four_, as if the four

longer chives were more perfect and efficacious than the two shorter;

which, however, we do not know to be the case. This superior length of

four chives is conspicuous in most plants of this tribe, but not in all.

They have, however, other resemblances which are sufficient to

constitute them a natural family; and accordingly all botanists have

made them such.

 

The flowers, as I have said, have in all of them four petals placed

crosswise. The calyx also consists of four oblong and hollow leaves.

There is a single pistil, standing upon a seed-bud, which, turns either

into a long pod, or a short round one called a pouch; and hence are

formed the two great branches of the family, the podded and the pouched.

The seed-vessel has two valves, or external openings, with a partition

between. The seeds are small and roundish, attached alternately to both

sutures or joinings of the valves. Do you observe all these

circumstances?

 

_Geo. and Har._ We do.

 

_Tut._ You shall examine them more minutely in a larger plant of the

kind. Further, almost all these plants have somewhat of a biting taste,

and also a disagreeable smell in their leaves, especially when decayed.

A turnip-field, you know, smells but indifferently; and cabbage, which

is one of this class, is apt to be remarkably offensive.

 

_Har._ Yes, there is nothing worse than rotten cabbage-leaves.

 

_Geo._ And the very water in which they are boiled is enough to scent a

whole house.

 

_Tut._ The flowers, however, of almost all the family are fragrant, and

some remarkably so. What do you think of wall-flowers, and stocks?

 

_Har._ What, are they of this kind?

 

_Tut._ Yes—and so is candy-tuft, and rocket.

 

_Har._ Then they are not to be despised.

 

_Tut._ No—and especially as not one of the whole class, I believe, is

poisonous; but, on the contrary, many of them afford good food for man

and beast. Shall I tell you about the principal of them?

 

_Geo._ Pray do, sir.

 

_Tut._ The pungency of taste which so many of them possess has caused

them to be used for salad herbs. Thus we have cress, water-cress, and

mustard; to which might be added many more which grow wild, as

lady-smock, wild-rocket, hedge-mustard, and jack-by-the-hedge, or

sauce-alone. Mustard, you know, is also greatly used for its seeds, the

powder or flower of which, made into a sort of paste with salt and

water, is eaten with many kinds of meat. Rape-seeds are very similar to

them, and from both an oil is pressed out, of the mild or tasteless

kind, as it is likewise from cole-seed, another product of this class.

Scurvy-grass, which is a pungent plant of this family, growing by the

seaside, has obtained its name from being a remedy for the scurvy. Then

there is horseradish, with the root of which I am sure you are well

acquainted, as a companion to roast beef. Common radish, too, is a plant

of this kind, which has a good deal of pungency. One sort of it has a

root like a turnip, which brings it near in quality to the turnip

itself. This last plant, though affording a sweet and mild nutriment,

has naturally a degree of pungency and rankness.

 

_Geo._ That, I suppose, is the reason why turnipy milk and butter have

such a strong taste?

 

_Tut._ It is.