The Parent's Assistant; Or, Stories for Children

'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.'

'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

1

A hard-hearted man.

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.'

3

The author has seen a pair of shoes, such as here described, made in a few hours.

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.

7

This is a true anecdote.

8

Salt, the cant name given by the Eton lads to the money collected at Montem.

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.

10

From beginning to end.

11

This is the name of a country dance.

12

It is necessary to observe that this experiment has never been actually tried upon raspberry-plants.

13

Vide Priestley's History of Vision, chapter on coloured shadows.

14

Lobe.

15

This atrocious practice is now happily superseded by the use of sweeping machines.

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.

17

Lucifer matches were then unknown. – Ed.

18

Varieties of Literature, vol. i. p. 299.

19

Chi compra ha bisogna di cent' occhi; chi vende n' ha assai di uno.

20

E meglio esser fortunato che savio.

21

Butta una sardella per pigliar un luccio.

22

See antea.

23

Il cane scottato dell' acqua calda ha paura poi della fredda.

24

The Duc de Rochefoucault. – 'On peut être plus fin qu'un autre, mais pas plus fin que tous les autres.'

25

Chartres.

26

Poco e spesso empie il l' orsetto.

27

Chi te fa piu carezza che non vuole, O ingannato t' ha, o ingannar te vuole.

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.

29

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.

42 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.

30

Tutte le volpi si trovano in pellicera.

31

Assai ben balla a chi fortuna suona.

32

Odi, vedi, taci, se vuoi viver in pace.

33

La vita il fine, – e di loda la sera.

Compute the morn and evening of their day. – Pope

34

Vien presto consumato l' ingiustamente acquistato.

35

I fatti sono maschii, le parole femmine.

36

Phil. Trans. vol. ix.

37

These facts are mentioned in Sir William Hamilton's account of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. – See Phil. Trans. 1795, first part.

38

La mala compagnia è quella che mena uomini a la forca.

39

Pescar col hamo d' argento.

40

Their whole study was how to please and to help one another.

41

This was about the close of the last century.

42

Philosophical Transactions, vol. ix. p. 440.